Month: November 2009

While a story about an abused child might not be as interesting to the readers, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a long article about a severely abused dog named Oreo. Described as a “pit bull mix,” she had been severely beaten (badly enough that a fellow project resident called the cops) and finally thrown from the…

The Charlotte Observer has a story about a new way to herd junkies. Interesting in and of itself. But this bit really caught my eye: When officers knocked on Ross’ door Thursday afternoon, dogs started barking before the door opened. “Are you a heroin user, sir?” an officer asked. “I used to be,” said Ross.…

Jews get accused a LOT of dual-loyalties. America AND Israel. Eric of Classical Values sent me a link to this url which shows it is Worse Than We Thought for some Christians. Are you a Christian first and an American second? Or an American first and a Christian second? Do you take your marching orders…

A number of people on the right side of the political spectrum (including those who blog here) have been asking how it came to be that Major Hasan escaped scrutiny and managed to remain an Army officer despite his bizarre views and terrorist sympathies. But on the left, many — including Senator Frank Lautenberg, whose…

A why is treatment denied? Because it is unavailable. So reports the Army Times. Treatment, not incarceration, should be the first option for veterans who commit nonviolent drug-related offenses, a group advocating alternatives to the nation’s “war on drugs” said Wednesday in a new report. The Drug Policy Alliance report [pdf] also called on government…

Without fully explaining in detail, Glenn Reynolds opined that Sarah Palin is more atttractive than Mike Huckabee. WELL, SHE CERTAINLY IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THAT COUNT: Huckabee: Palin’s getting more media buzz than me because she’s attractive. More important, from my perspective, is the fact that — although people have tried to paint her…

Apropos, I think: We have to foster reform in the Arab/Muslim world because it’s the only real way in the long run to make them stop trying to kill us. — Steven Den Beste, July 2003 And this seems almost prophetic: But does America have the stamina to finish the job? Yes. Just barely, and…

It’s now taken longer for Barack Obama to evaluate General McChrystal’s plan than it took George W. Bush to overthrow the Taliban after the September 11 attacks. From The Decider to The Ditherer: President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead…

Are there too many people in the world? Some say there are, and some say there aren’t. The topic does not seem to lend itself to easy answers. The last time I touched on the subject, it involved considering whether there is such a thing as conservative eugenics, and I was no more comfortable with…

The Health Care Bill is no longer about the socialization of medicine. It has now come down to the socialization of abortion. And it seems like a number of women don’t like the restrictions added to the bill. And to use a typically misogynist phrase: they are not going to take it lying down. House…

Wretchard at Belmont Club is having a discussion of the nature of faith prompted by an Obama speech Honoring the Fort Hood dead. Faith is an interesting thing. An engineer labors on because he has faith that questions will turn into answers. And not just any answers. Answers good enough to earn a profit. That…

Today is Veterans Day, so if you know any veterans, go out and thank one. If you don’t know any veterans to thank, you could always start with this blog’s resident veteran M. Simon, who also has his own blog. My father served in World War II and my grandfather served in World War I,…

Camille Paglia praises Nancy Pelosi for displaying what a lot of people would call balls if they had any. Pelosi, argues Paglia, is “sets a new standard for U.S. women politicians and is certainly well beyond anything the posturing but ineffectual Hillary Clinton has ever achieved.” And this: a basic feminist shibboleth like abortion rights…

I got a press release by e-mail this morning that is most interesting. It says marijuana is a drug. For real. The American Medical Association (AMA) voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be retained as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The AMA adopted a report drafted by the AMA…

Speaking of police accountability, check this out (from the Wiki entry for Jeffrey Dahmer): In the early morning hours of May 30, 1991, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone (by chance, the younger brother of the boy whom Dahmer had molested) was discovered on the street, wandering naked, heavily under the influence of drugs and bleeding from his…

This is anecdotal evidence. We don’t know if Actual Government Run American Healthcare will work better or WORSE than these anecdotes. I haven’t read the book. So far all four reviews are five star. It could be the author’s brother in law and his married cousin though. But this excerpt I got by e-mail was…

MoveOn.org (and no, I’m not going to link) says: Victory! The House just passed historic health care reform, moving us a big step closer to covering millions and ending Big Insurance’s stranglehold on health care. Good idea. Giving Big Government a stranglehold has got to be an improvement. Nationalized Health Care. National Socialism. What could…

I’m getting questions from here and there. It is my premise that the vote to strip abortion out of the Health Destruction bill allowed the bill to pass the House. Well a lot of Right thinking people have questioned that premise. They ask me, “how can you know for sure?” Well I can’t. But the…

Willis Eschenbach nails it: Here’s the point: prior to this study, the IPCC was 99% certain that the radiative forcing from methane was between about 0.4 and 0.6. But this new study is now 99% certain that it is between 0.7 and 1.3 … which means that the uncertainty ranges of the earlier studies, or…

Videos of police incidents are helpful to the police, right? They can help solve crime because they preserve an accurate record of who did what to whom, they can help in determining whether and when a crime occurred, and they can obviously be of great assistance in identifying criminals. So it seems to be almost…