:: Netmarcos' Notes ::

:: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 ::

Chicago Tribune | Judging the case for war

Did President Bush intentionally mislead this nation and its allies into war? Or is it his critics who have misled Americans, recasting history to discredit him and his policies? If your responses are reflexive and self-assured, read on."

I am not entirely convinced of the accuracy of their conclusions an a few items, but it is by far one of the most rational and level-headed analysis of how we got here.

:: Mark 10:08 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Iraqi Voter: Anybody Who Doesn't Appreciate America Can Go To Hell The Political Teen has a link to the video.

:: Mark 5:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Mark 4:44 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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If you want a clear sense of the mood and conditions in downtown New OrleansThe Interdictor has it.

:: Mark 12:51 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I join with the rest of you in lamenting the terrible devistation and human tragedy left in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The best and worst of nature and humanity is now on display for the world to see. The scenes and tales of heroism and providence are as inspiring as the the destruction and depravity of the looters are disgusting.

Here in Ohio, the Butler County Sherrif's office has organized a donation center near my home. They had several large trucks available and were requesting donations from the community of emergeny supplies. They have had to discontinue the collection temporarily because they have run out of space on the trucks.

My wife and a few other volunteers were helping load the trucks and now are searching the surrounding areas for available transports. It would be nice to find a few more trucks. There is no shortage of donations and several church youth groups are on stand-by to load it all up once transportation has been acquired.

If anyone has information about avialable big box trucks or semis, please give them a call or post the info in the comments section.
(513) 785-1000 or Toll free at (800) 453-1497

:: Mark 2:50 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Scott Ott has "acquired" a draft of a letter from the White House to Cindy Sheehan.

:: Mark 1:44 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Also in The American Spectator, our old friend Ben Stein offers some heartfelt advice on dealing with loneliness.

Our lives are measured by what we do for others, not by how much money we make. Our lives are measured by what we do for others, not by how much money we make. Spending time with lonely people, military families, widows, widowers, this is a pretty easy way to make a huge difference in a suffering human life. So when you think of your uncle who just lost his aunt, when you think of the woman down the street whose husband was just called up by the Guard and sent to Iraq, don't just think about them: ask them out to dinner. Invite them to a barbecue. Just call them up to gossip.

Follow his advice..."Sharing company with a lonely man or woman or child is about as good an investment in your own net worth as a human being as you can make. Do it today."

:: Mark 1:55 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Just how has the GWOT affected public opinion in the predominately muslim communities around the world? John Tabin in The American Spectatoroffers some insight from a recent poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

:: Mark 1:49 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Wall street Journal on Karl Rove, Whistleblower

If there's any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste so much government time and media attention, not to mention inspire a 'special counsel' probe. The Bush administration is also guilty on this count, since it went along with the appointment of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in an election year in order to punt the issue down the road. But now Mr. Fitzgerald has become an unguided missile, holding reporters in contempt for not disclosing their sources even as it becomes clearer all the time that no underlying crime was at issue.

:: Mark 1:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A must see flash presentation on Al-Qaida activity since the 1998 declaration of war by Osama et al.

No Global War here folks. Nah. Just our xenophopic paranoia. Let the international police deal with it. It's just a few dissafected malcontents unhappy with US domination and subjugation of the little people. If we would just give more foriegn aid and get our military out of the way and leave them alone, then all of this will just go away.

FEH! Get a clue folks! This is war. The enemy's goal is the destruction of western civilization and the replacement of all forms of government with Sharia law. If that doesn't bother you, you are on the wrong side of this battle. There is no nuetral ground in this conflict.

:: Mark 9:56 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Mark Steyn thinks that this is the Time for stoic Brits to come out swinging:

This is the beginning of a long existential struggle. It's hard not to be moved by the sight of Londoners calmly going about their business as usual in the face of terrorism. But, if the political class goes about business as usual, that's not a stiff upper lip but a suicide cult. The question now is will the British return to the fantasy agenda of Bob Geldof or avenge their dead?

:: Mark 1:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Robert Bork invites you to Consider just a few of the court's accomplishments:

The justices have weakened the authority of other institutions, public and private, such as schools, businesses and churches; assisted in sapping the vitality of religion through a transparently false interpretation of the establishment clause; denigrated marriage and family; destroyed taboos about vile language in public; protected as free speech the basest pornography, including computer-simulated child pornography; weakened political parties and permitted prior restraints on political speech, violating the core of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech; created a right to abortion virtually on demand, invalidating the laws of all 50 states; whittled down capital punishment, on the path, apparently, to abolishing it entirely; mounted a campaign to normalize homosexuality, culminating soon, it seems obvious, in a right to homosexual marriage; permitted discrimination on the basis of race and sex at the expense of white males; and made the criminal justice system needlessly slow and complex, tipping the balance in favor of criminals.

Not a very pretty picture is it?

:: Mark 9:14 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Democracy guy says: "democracy guy: Idiocy, Thy Name Is George Galloway"

...and he's right, by the way.

:: Mark 10:51 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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This has to be one of the funniest "Write Your Own Caption" photos ever., but not for the resons that it was posted.

:: Mark 8:36 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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NARA | The National Archives Experience

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

:: Mark 12:43 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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TaxProf Blog: Law School Lets Conservative Prof Teach Con Law After Outside Panel Attests to His Competence

:: Mark 9:13 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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PUBLIUS HAS SOME GREAT STUFF ON the demonstrations in Venezuela.

:: Mark 5:20 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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No links between Saddam and Al-Quiada? Melanie Phillips's debunks The big lie.

*Item: The Sunday Telegraph's Con Coughlin, Saddam's biographer, got hold of a top secret memo made available by Iraq's interim government which explicitly linked Saddam's regime to Mohammed Atta, the terrorist mastermind behind 9/11, and the Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal. Written to Saddam by the former head of Iraq's intelligence service, it contained the following incendiary passage:
'Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer (an Arabic nom-de-guerre - his real identity is unknown) and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision. We arranged a work programme for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him . . . He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy'.
Note the date: July 1 2001. Note the phrases 'the targets that we have agreed to destroy' and 'under our direct supervision'. Note also the following:

'The second item contains a report of how Iraqi intelligence, helped by "a small team from the al-Qaeda organisation", arranged for an (unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya and Syria'. (See post Dec 15 2003)

:: Mark 9:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Some brilliant by some of the scrapplers today. They're getting almost as clever as Scott!
ScrappleFace: Bush: U.S.-Mexico 'Border' Renamed 'Junction'

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that the US government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington & they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around the country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.

:: Mark 2:53 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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It’s All About 9/11

:: Mark 4:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A good post over at JustOneMinute entitled Reality Comes To The Times with a great response in the comment section from Will Allen:

The sanctions regime was going to collapse, because too many actors, some on the U.N. Security Council, wanted the sanctions regime to collapse. Hussein was not going to be contained well into the future. It really came down to whether one wanted the Tikrit Mafia to run Iraq for the next several decades, with all that meant to the rest of the region, which means likely locking in place the system of despotism which has held sway for 70 years. It was that system of despotism which led to 9/11.
This was always a risky venture, in the superficial sense. In the deeper sense, given the rotten nature of the status quo, it wans't all that risky. I would most fault the Bush Administration for failing to explain this well in public, and I think this error stems from a fear of seeming to cold-blooded in explaining the strategic situation.
The most important mineral resource in the world is located in the Persian Gulf, vital to the well-being of nearly every human on earth. Thus, the U.S., as the world's most powerful nation, is inevitably forced to be involved with the extraction of that resource, and as much as other nations may decry U.S. power, they desperately want the U.S. to be involved in that extraction. If the U.S. Navy didn't exist, Japan, Europe, India, China, and other nations would have to invent it.
The model for extraction which has been employed for the past 70 years or so, slavery by proxy, in which we pay tribute to, and protect, despots in return for access to oil, while they tyrannnize the populations which sit atop of the oil, is what led to 9/11. The model, if left intact, will eventually lead to an older model of resource extraction, after the Jihadis become more tactically and technologically proficient, and are thus able to replicate 9/11 on a on a larger scale.

That older model, which goes back to pre-historic man, is simple mass annhilation of groups which impede extraction of the desired resource. The rest of the world desperately desires the oil in the Persian Gulf every bit as much as Americans do, and, when push comes to shove, they aren't going to be willing to let it stay in the ground, nor are they goung to be willing to have jihadis engage in mass attacks around the globe. The oil is coming out, and the only open question is how many people get slaughtered in the process. If the populations of the Persian Gulf do not achieve self-government, including governing their mineral wealth, and then trade peacably and profitably with the rest of the world, a conflict every bit as bloody, if not bloodier, than WWII looms, except this conflict will be decidedly one sided.

If we leave Iraq without it's population having achieved self-government (and it was always an iffy thing), we'll be back in the region in force within 20 years, perhaps on the sooner end of that scale. When that happens, however, nation-building is not even going to be on the to-do list, at least not until after the region has been turned into a gigantic abattior.

Exactly!

:: Mark 1:20 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Buttered Cat Array a solution to energy woes.

:: Mark 5:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Maybe this article in the Harvard Gazette can explain the Red/Blue divide in american politics.

Half of us suffer from mental illness, survey finds

The real question is which half...

:: Mark 9:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I am just speachless...Traverse City psychologist sued; Woman alleges she was billed for sex sessions

TRAVERSE CITY - A local woman is suing a Traverse City psychologist for negligence after he allegedly had sex with her as a part of a 'love therapy,' and billed her for it.
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For over 10 years, the woman said Halsted - a state-licensed psychologist - recommended regular therapy sessions, which included traveling together to "secluded places," where they allegedly engaged in intimate contact and sexual intercourse.
The suit alleges Halsted told the woman sex sessions were "an integral part of his therapy" practices and he billed her for them.

Update: I got my voice back. Just how STUPID can this woman be?! Either she is one of the most gullible fools ever to seek "professional" help, or she thinks the the rest of us are as dumb as she appears to be. And just why is she suing for only half the amount billed over the course of 10 years of groping and poking therapy? Was the sex only half bad?

Sheesh!

:: Mark 10:22 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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That Lileks does have a way with words.: "I know a little bit about modern journalism, and we tend to emphasis the splintery plunger up the butt over the mocking puppet show. In any case, this detail makes you almost want to weep in frustration; domestic politicians are posturing for the camera, huffing about then horrors of Gitmo, insisting that the rest of the world won?t forgive us until we close the joint down and pave it. Over what? A Punch and Judy show? If we gang-mimed the guy and had 17 men in striped shirts with white makeup pantomime falling out of a burning skyscraper, would the critics demand we not only let the guy go but pay him a per diem for his troubles? I?ve read the story twice, and I keep wondering if I missed the part where the suspected 20th hijacker spits teeth into a chamberpot rimming with own bloody urine while massaging the welts the jumper cables left on his groinal division. I mean, I take all that for granted, because our soldiers are all killbot brutes - except for the lower-class ones who got drafted against their will and can only hope Bruce Springsteen sings a monotonal account of their disaffection. "

:: Mark 11:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Woohoo.Kerry allows Navy release of military, medical records - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Washington - News: "Kerry allows Navy release of military, medical records"

:: Mark 1:39 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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We must never take lightly and never forget the Death of a Marine.:

The gunfire was deafening. To the sound of the terrorists' AK-47s was added the din of the Marines' M16 rifles and Squad Automatic Weapon, a machine gun. The battle was raging, with Peralta down and bleeding heavily and the other Marines firing into the back room at the enemy, when, in Kaemmerer's words, ''a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close to Peralta's nearly lifeless body."

As the other Marines tried to flee, Peralta reached for the grenade and tucked it into his gut. Seconds later, it exploded with such force that when his remains were returned to his family for burial, they were able to identify him only by the tattoo on his shoulder. But his five comrades-in-arms, shielded from the worst of the blast by Peralta's last act as a Marine, survived.

Please read the entire article and search out more like it...and then share them with your family.

:: Mark 11:50 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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You go read it. I am confident that it is within California's new guidlines for length.: "The California Assembly is betting that kids learn more with small books.
Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.
The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.
Critics lambasted Assembly Bill 756 as silly."

Silly doesn't even come close.

:: Mark 4:19 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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It's about time. Webshots AP News Headlines: "WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Priscilla Owen as a federal appellate judge, ending the four-year ordeal of the Texas jurist who was thrust into the center of the partisan battle over President Bush's judicial nominations.

The 56-43 vote to appoint Owen to the New Orlean-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a consequence of an agreement reached earlier this week that averted, for the time being, a bitter dispute over Democratic use of the filibuster to block Bush's judicial choices. "

:: Mark 2:22 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Hooooraah for the Rednecks.
OpinionJournal - Cross Country

The best part of this story is that while the elite media's agenda on the Minutemen played well on the coasts, Arizonans weren't buying it. A poll found that 57% of the state's residents supported the border-watch project, which sent the editorial page of Tucson's Arizona Daily Star into a stammering fit, calling the number alarming. Of course, this is a paper so politically correct it can't even bring itself to call illegals illegals. Its writers refer to them as migrants or, my favorite, border crossers. But as the Minutemen plan to expand operations to five more states--and a new citizen group, the Yuma Patriots, begins patrolling--that 57% heartens me. It looks to me like the rednecks won.

:: Mark 11:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Just in case you were not aware, this is why "the Left in this country is so opposed to the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown.

It is my thesis today that the sheer tenacity of the collectivist impulse — whether you call it socialism or communism or altruism — has changed not only the meaning of our words, but the meaning of the Constitution, and the character of our people.

Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.

:: Mark 6:22 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Alan Reynolds answers the question,"How is the American Dream getting along these days?"

Recent "news" reports implying it has become more difficult for young Americans to live better than their parents fail to identify any genuine problem. And they suffer from one added handicap: They are demonstrably untrue.

Excelent analysis of recent claims by various sources that the American Dream is failing. You should read the whole thing.

:: Mark 9:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Go read all of this one...and no, it is not a story about some communist government atrocity.
ABC News: State Secret: Thousands Secretly Sterilized

From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.

:: Mark 3:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A recent Newsweek articel inspires "W" to start his own blog!

Bush sat at his desk, tapping his fingers on the surface. "Bored. Bored. Bored," he muttered. "Hey, Rover," he finally called out, "Anything I should be doing?"

:: Mark 2:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Now THIS entry by Glenn Reynolds in a debate on constitutional interpretation is fabulous!

Obviously, the part about a " well regulated Intelligentsia" only refers to state-paid academics such as myself, and it would be absurd to read this provision as extending the right to own and read books to the Great Unwashed. That way lies madness.

Go read it all.

:: Mark 5:58 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Please read Robert L. Pollock's review of David L Phillips' new book "Losing Iraq"The Armchair Analyst

...Mr. Phillips comes to his subject with more venom than fair-mindedness: In all seriousness he compares the Bush administration's "jihadist vocabulary" to Osama bin Laden's. Still, just a little contact with actual Iraqis might have prevented such silly lines as: "The first days of liberation were an unmitigated disaster."

Really? As in, not mitigated by the fact that the worst mass murderer in Arab history had been deposed? The Iraqis I spoke to at a mass grave south of the capital during the first of my two trips to Iraq (May 2003 and June 2004) certainly didn't think so. I heard some of them surreally but sincerely express their desire for Iraq to become America's 51st state, even as they sorted through bits of bone and clothing for evidence of their loved ones.

:: Mark 5:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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An alert to all readers! Oregon mulls a new tax that environmentalists and privacy advocates will hate
Named a Vehicle Milage tax, the proposal would tax all drivers based on miles driven, rather than on fuel consumed.

Under a VMT a motorist would pay a tax for each mile driven, probably around 1.25 cents. To administer this tax, a global positioning system would be mounted in each car. As a driver fuels up, the device would relay mileage information to the gas pump, which would calculate the VMT. A simple electronic odometer-reading device would do the trick, but Oregon is looking at GPS devices because they would also allow for charging higher VMT rates for miles driven in 'congested' areas during rush hour or to exempt miles driven out of state.

Holy smokes.

:: Mark 4:59 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Here is an article on racism by Richard D. Lamm that the University of Denver refused to publish due to its controversial content.

I suggest that those groups whose culture and values stress delayed gratification, education, hard work, success and ambition are those groups that succeed in America regardless of discrimination. I further suggest that, even if discrimination was removed, other groups would still have massive problems until they develop the traits that lead to success.

A shocking notion. Holding a culture or even more disturbing, an individual human being, responsible for their own behavior...

We must not let our sensitive college students read such heresy!

:: Mark 9:58 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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A little editorial reality check from Michael Ramirez over at the LA Times. Good luck Kofi & friends.

:: Mark 3:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A little exposé on "Libertarian paternalism" from Pejman Yousefzadeh that is a must read:TCS: Tech Central Station - Choice and Its Enemies

:: Mark 10:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Democracy best not left to the people.

Alicia Romac of the pro-cap group Citizens for a Greater Bennington said she wished the decision had been left up to elected officials. "It's special interests interfering with what's best for the community process, and I don't think that's really the best way to run a government," she said.

:: Mark 5:00 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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One of the best theories postulated on the web in recent days....or anywhere...or ever.It's bad karma to ignore serendipity.


Hat tip:Carnival of the Vanities

:: Mark 5:46 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I have read reports like this in several places over the past few years. These stories do lend some support to calls for more personnel and armament at the border.

A team of rogue Mexican commandos blamed for dozens of killings along the U.S.-Mexico border has carried out at least three drug-related slayings in Dallas, a sign that the group is extending its deadly operations into U.S. cities, two U.S. law enforcement officials say.

The men are known as the Zetas, former members of the Mexican army who defected to Mexico's so-called Gulf drug cartel in the late 1990s.

:: Mark 1:29 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Time to jump into another First Ammendment fight.

:: Mark 1:54 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Another beauty from Chris Muir over at Day by Day

:: Mark 1:55 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Who do you want to believe on climate change?
These guys?

The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years, or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global warming may have been reached.

Or these?

The findings from a team of American climate experts suggest that were it not for greenhouse gases produced by humans, the world would be well on the way to a frozen Armageddon.

:: Mark 2:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This story struck a familiar chord. Just this morning, my wife and I were discussing the complaints of a friend's daughter. Her grade-school class in Mason, OH was watching the inaguration coverage yesterday, but when the prayer was given, the teacher muted the volume. No sense risking harm to the sensibilities of the non-praying members of the class, you know.
When the young girl asked why she couldn't be allowed to hear the prayer, she was told that it was illegal to pray in school.

Good grief.

:: Mark 12:59 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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