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Confession Is Good for the Soul
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:42 pm MDT
The first of Alcoholics Anonymous' famous twelve steps is to admit that you have a problem. The BBC did that today, acknowledging that it historically had a "massive bias to the left":
The director general of the BBC admitted Thursday that his organisation had been guilty of a "massive bias to the left" but said "a completely different generation" of journalists now works at the broadcaster.
Mark Thompson told the right-of-centre Spectator magazine that there was an institutional bias when he joined the organisation, reinforcing the findings of a 2007 internal report which concluded that greater efforts were required to avoid liberal bias.
"In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left," Thompson said.
"The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher. "Now it is a completely different generation. There is much less overt tribalism among the young journalists who work for the BBC," he added.
I like that phrase, "overt tribalism." It's a nice way to refer to the Journolist mentality. It leaves open, of course, the question whether left-wing bias at the BBC has been eradicated or has merely gone underground. In any event, the BBC's confession can only be a good thing. It would be nice to see American news organizations follow suit. We can see it now: "My name is CBS, and I'm a liberal."
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"Dodge Charger owner upset vehicle crushed by suicidal fall."
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:40 pm MDT
Here's a classic 15-minutes-of-fame:
A New Jersey woman is devastated that her precious sports car -- just repaired and fully gassed up -- was wrecked by a suicidal man's 40-story attempted death leap on the Upper West Side.
It's not that she thinks he has an answer, like he picked her car, she just wants to say "Why? Why?" at him.
"I miss it. It's my baby," moaned Maria McCormack, who regrets lending her husband the 2008 Dodge Charger Tuesday for work. "I want to meet [Tom Magill] and say, 'Why? Why my car out of all the cars in the city?' "
"I wonder how he feels now that he made it. Does he feel like an idiot?" said Maria. "I hope he's OK. But I just want to know why."
Well, Magill is in the hospital after having rods inserted in his legs and some operation to "relieve the clotting" in his groin, so maybe you could go over there and interrogate him about whether he feels like an idiot.
If you think this sounds like an episode of "Seinfeld," it's "The Bris":
"Well, I just got the estimate. It's going to cost more to fix that roof than the car's worth... Someone's paying for that damage and it's not gonna be me.... swan dives from twenty floors, lands right on to it. What do I have a bulls eye on there? He couldn't move over two feet? Land on the sidewalk. That's city property. What are the chances, what are the odds? He couldn't do it again if his life depended on it..."
Maria, how does it feel to be George Costanza?
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Rosy Projections
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:33 pm MDT
Larry Sabato, described here as "typically cautious," is, I think, a Democrat, but his "shock projection" for November is that the Republicans will capture the House and may well take the Senate, too:
Typically cautious Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, is rocking the political world with a new "Crystal Ball" prediction: The GOP will win the House, making Ohio's John Boehner speaker, might get a 50-50 split in the Senate, and will pick up some eight new governors.
"2010 was always going to be a Republican year, in the midterm tradition," Sabato said in his latest prediction, issued Thursday. "But conditions have deteriorated badly for Democrats over the summer. The economy appears rotten, with little chance of a substantial comeback by November 2nd. Unemployment is very high, income growth sluggish, and public confidence quite low. The Democrats' self-proclaimed 'Recovery Summer' has become a term of derision, and to most voters--fair or not--it seems that President Obama has over-promised and under-delivered."
Sabato on House elections: "Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. ... If anything, we have been conservative in estimating the probable GOP House gains, if the election were being held today."
Sabato on the Senate: "In the Senate, we now believe the GOP will do a bit better than our long-time prediction of +7 seats. Republicans have an outside shot at winning full control (+10), but are more likely to end up with +8 (or maybe +9, at which point it will be interesting to see how senators such as Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and others react).
This, too, is an interesting point that I had forgotten: the House has changed hands six times since World War II, and every time the Senate has switched, too, whether that result was expected or not. That's hardly a rule of nature, but it is an interesting precedent as we look forward to November 2.
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AL SHARPTON channels Rod Blagojevich….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:27 pm MDT
AL SHARPTON channels Rod Blagojevich.
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Other side's assessment of things
→ Of Arms and the Law | 2 Sep 2010 | 5:23 pm MDT
The Legal Community Against VIolence [a handful of attorneys and a big Joyce Foundation grant] has posted its annual report in pdf.
It starts with, well, that little setback in McDonald v. Chicago and Heller v. DC. (p.8 8-9), predicting it will unleash a flood of litigation from the progun side.
Their explanation of legislation they'd like to see (their hopes, not their successes) occupies 3 1/2 pages, pp. 10-14.
Their explanation of where they were defeated recently (guns in parks, guns on Amtrack, Tiahrt Amendment, DC statehood defeated over an amendment cutting back DC gun laws, State legislation including Firearm Freedom Acts ("Regrettably, many state legislatures are running amok") and expanded "shall issue" CCW permits, runs seven pages.
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Using Google Books, HeinOnline, and Gale’s Making of Modern Law Database for Cite-Checking
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 5:12 pm MDT
(Eugene Volokh) I assume most law review staffers are already doing this, but in case you aren’t, let me suggest it: Many old legal books are available in full text on Google Books, and many more available in HeinOnline’s Legal Classics database and Gale’s Making of Modern Law database. (My sense is that most law [...]
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A page not quite turned
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 5:06 pm MDT
In the email reprinted below, Reader Daniel Mayes cuts to the heart of President Obama's refusal to credit President Bush for the Iraq surge. But it is the well-justified outrage Mr. Mayes expresses in the remainder of his email that really caught our attention:
President Obama is unwilling to grant any credit to President Bush because opposition to the war was the wave he rode to office, and, in fact, the wave the left rode to its current governing majorities. The financial collapse greased the skids, but President Bush's approval rating had collapsed long before, during times of low unemployment, solid growth, and low inflation. Support for Bush collapsed mainly because of the growing unhappiness about the war. Giving him credit now would put the lie to the whole left/liberal/democratic antiwar campaign.
As an aside, I will never forget or forgive the way the left behaved during this episode. For those who voted against the war (the majority of Democratic representatives and a minority of Democratic senators), I can at least credit them with consistency. But for those whose opposition came only after public opinion had shifted, I have nothing but contempt.
The antiwar wave did not arise spontaneously, but was the conscious effort of the left, including the Democrats, and for most, was opportunistic. They sacrificed the national interest in order to gain political advantage. Nothing is easier than building opposition to a war. Wars are appalling, whether necessary or morally justifiable. They create death and mayhem, last longer than most people anticipate, and are usually plagued by unanticipated difficulties and setbacks.The left/liberal/Democrats took full advantage of all of these inherent difficulties in prosecuting a war. They cynically, opportunistically, and dishonestly carried out a campaign to undermine support for the war, attacking President Bush's honesty and motives in pursuing the war, and vilifying anyone, in fact, who continued to support the war.
The full page ad taken out by MoveOn.org during General Petraeus' appearance before Congress captures the spirit of this campaign perfectly. It is a miracle that President Bush, General Petraeus, and the US military perservered in the face of this vicious campaign of vilification and brought us to the point at which we now find ourselves. How can the left behave this way? Well, it helps to remember that many Democrats are internationalists anyway, and don't really care much about US national interests. For a "citizen of the world", patriotism is an anachromism, something we need to overcome.
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AT AMAZON, markdowns on electronics….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 5:00 pm MDT
AT AMAZON, markdowns on electronics.
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INSTAVISION: Administrative Bloat And The Higher Education Bubble. And how ASU went after the bear…
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 4:49 pm MDT
INSTAVISION: Administrative Bloat And The Higher Education Bubble. And how ASU went after the bearer of bad news. (Bumped).
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THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE A POLITICAL WAR AGAINST SCIENCE. And they were ri…
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 4:45 pm MDT
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE A POLITICAL WAR AGAINST SCIENCE. And they were right! Scientist’s Firing After 36 Years Fuels ‘PC’ Debate at UCLA.
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Hugh Hewitt: "The GOP's Need for Speed"
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 2 Sep 2010 | 4:23 pm MDT
My new Townhall column is up, and those who regret not being able to comment here, can do so there..
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TOP TWENTY worst Tramp Stamp tattoos….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 4:22 pm MDT
TOP TWENTY worst Tramp Stamp tattoos.
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BLOG HEADLINE OF THE DAY: The Worth Of Khan….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:56 pm MDT
BLOG HEADLINE OF THE DAY: The Worth Of Khan.
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Conservative Christian Religious Beliefs, Use of Moderate Corporal Punishment, High Sex Drive, and Interest in Wife’s Private Areas Do Not Show Family Violence
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:42 pm MDT
(Eugene Volokh) From In re Wean (Tex. Ct. App. Aug. 31), which reversed a trial court finding that a father engaged in family violence against his children, and a protective order based on that finding. The opinion discussed many matters, and I can’t do full justice to it here. But I thought I’d quote a [...]
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LIFE: Hot Water Around Giant Carbon Star Creates Interstellar Mystery. “Hot water discovered aroun…
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:30 pm MDT
LIFE: Hot Water Around Giant Carbon Star Creates Interstellar Mystery. “Hot water discovered around a giant carbon star requires a new theory for the chemistry around stars to be explained. The new theory could significantly alter our understanding of what materials exist in interstellar space, and where water and life could exist in [...]
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The Delaware Conundrum, Part Four
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:21 pm MDT
The Tea Party Express has announced the results of a poll it commissioned regarding the Republican Senate primary in Delaware. It shows that conservative challenger Christine O'Donnell is within six points of long-time at-large congressman Mike Castle. The poll has Castle at 43.7 percent and O'Donnell at 38.0 percent.
Like many others, I did not take the Tea Party Express' polling seriously enough when it showed Joe Miller catching up with Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. So I'm not going to dismiss this poll.
I will say the following, though: (1) Delaware Republicans aren't as conservative as Alaska Republicans, (2) O'Donnell seems like a less attractive candidate than Miller, and (3) unlike Miller, O'Donnell has little chance of winning in November, so Castle's defeat in the primary would likely mean that the Dems hold a seat they have been expecting to lose.
UPDATE: John McCormack at the Weeky Standard has a profile of O'Donnell. He reports that (not at all to my surprise) she won't rule out a third party candidacy if Castle is the Republican nominee. In a piece of monumentally willful blindness, she denies that there are any issues on which Castle -- who typically opposes Obamacare and supports extending the Bush tax cuts -- is better than a Democrat.
I hope that, in the event that Castle is the nominee, some of the more influential folks who are supporting O'Donnell will be adult enough to explain to her why she shouldn't run as a third party candidate, and that she will be adult enough to listen.
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Extreme Sports: The Birdmen
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 3:09 pm MDT
(Orin Kerr) Don’t try this at home, via 60 Minutes.
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"Vibrating strings... point particles, 2-dimensional membranes, 3-dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space."
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 2:50 pm MDT
Not God... vibrating strings... point particles, 2-dimensional membranes, 3 -dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space.
M-theory, Stephen Hawking says, explains how the universe came to exist.
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HOW FREE STREAMING VIDEO threatens the porn industry….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 2:21 pm MDT
HOW FREE STREAMING VIDEO threatens the porn industry.
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Tim Carney Denounces Corporate Welfare At Invitation of Charles Koch
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 2:06 pm MDT
(Todd Zywicki) According to Jane Mayer, this makes him a corporate tool: I was the main speaker of the night at a fancy dinner. The crowd included millionaire business owners and corporate executives. And the man who introduced me, and who had invited me to speak, was billionaire industrialist Charles Koch. My topic was what [...]
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The Israeli-Palestinian talks -- why the first hurdle ought to be insurmountable
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 1:03 pm MDT
As Middle East talks commence here in Washington, President Obama is no doubt pressing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to renew the West Bank building freeze that is set to expire on September 26. Indeed, Eli Lake of the Washington Times calls Netanyahu's agreement to this condition the key to the talks. And with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatening to leave the negotiations in the absence of a renewal of the construction moratorium, it's difficult to disagree with Lake.
So, once again, the "peace talks" amount, essentially, to extracting a concession from Israel.
As Lake points out, however, one problem with Netanyahu making this particular concession is that it might well bring down his government. That's because key elements of Netanyahu's coalition have insisted that the constructive freeze end. Nor is it an anomaly that Israeli politics are constraining Netanyahu. A poll taken in July showed that a majority of Israelis favored an end to the freeze. And in the aftermath of the recent slaughter of Israelis by Palestinians on the West Bank, a new poll shows that two-thirds of Israelis want the freeze lifted.
It is fair to ask, what would Netanyahu receive in exchange for flouting Israeli public opinion and risking the collapse of his government?
Netanyahu would, I assume, gain the willingness of Abbas to remain at the table. But Abbas staying at the table just means he will seek more concessions. If pushed hard enough by Obama, Abbas might make some nice sounding utterances. Conceivably, these utterances might eventually take the form of promises. But even on the off-chance that the promises are sincere, Abbas will not be able to make good on them because, to a considerable extent, Hamas is the ruler on the ground. This doesn't sound like much of a pay-off for Netanyahu.
At a more concrete level, the extension of the moratorium might prevent the outbreak of violence by Palestinians come the end of September. But, given Israel's position of strength, there is little point in negotiating with a party whose demands for concessions are backed up by the threat of violence whenever the concession in question is withheld.
Finally, acceding to this concession might win Netanyahu the gratitude of President Obama. If so, the benefits to the Prime Minister, whom Obama plainly holds in contempt, and to Israel will endure for perhaps a month, or until Obama makes his next set of demands. Whichever comes first.
In short, Netanyahu should just say no. However, I agree with Lake's suggestion that he instead might very well try to find some middle ground position -- such as extending the freeze informally -- that will keep his coalition together while pacifying Obama, or at least giving the U.S. president a fig leaf.
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LOTS OF INFORMATION at the Electronics Knowledge Center….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 1:00 pm MDT
LOTS OF INFORMATION at the Electronics Knowledge Center.
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ARCTIC OIL AND GAS DRILLING ready to take off….
→ Instapundit | 2 Sep 2010 | 12:33 pm MDT
ARCTIC OIL AND GAS DRILLING ready to take off.
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Good timing....
→ Of Arms and the Law | 2 Sep 2010 | 12:32 pm MDT
The Bateman case is a challenge to North Carolina's statute that makes it illegal to carry a firearm off your own land during a declared emergency; defendants have moved to dismiss, as I recall. So here comes Hurricane Earl, and the governor's declaration of a state of emergency, three days before dove season starts.
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On the Latest Eco-Terrorist
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 11:35 am MDT
(Jonathan H. Adler) “Grover Cleveland” at Pileus offers these thoughts on James Lee: James Lee (the Discovery building hostage taker and crazy environmentalist) no more represents left-wing environmentalists than do violent “right-wingers” (such as Timothy McVeigh) represent those people who are conservative, libertarian, or anti-government. I can see conservative demagogues using Lee to bash left-environmentalists, but I think this is quite unfair even [...]
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“Evidence-Based” Study Tips
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 11:29 am MDT
(Jonathan H. Adler) The Psychologist (published by the British Psychological Society) rounds up some of the academic research on effective study habits. (Hat tip: Tyler Cowen)
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Governor Jan Brewer in her prepared opening statement in the gubernatorial debate...
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 11:25 am MDT
... or... uh... unprepared statement...
Seriously, what is wrong with this woman? That is scary.
(Via Memeorandum.)
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"Megan McArdle Really Hates Sex at Dawn"...
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 11:16 am MDT
... is a funny title for an article, written by the author of "Sex at Dawn," which book title he declines to put in italics or quotes in his article title. I thought it would be interesting to discuss sex at dawn, in the literal sense, but I find myself confronted with an author who's miffed at a blogger who's dissing his book:
Her comments begin strangely, with the admission that she's "in the middle" of the book. Note the urgency to condemn it publicly, even before reading the damned thing!
Oh, blah! I hate this criticism. McArdle is blogging, not doing the official book review for the Atlantic. A rule against criticizing books you haven't finished would overprotect authors, since you shouldn't finish a bad book, and it would also underprotect authors, since the critics wouldn't disclose that they hadn't read the whole thing.
But bloggers... bloggers can open a book to a random page, read one sentence, cogitate furiously, then open up their laptops — maybe right there at Borders, where they picked up the book they didn't buy — and tap out a free-association blog post saying anything that occurs to them and publish — using the WiFi they didn't pay for either. It's not the slightest bit strange. And it's not unfair either. It is what it is, and we know what it is. It's blogging.
And boy, does she lash out:
• "It reads like horsefeathers . . . like an undergraduate thesis,"
• "breathless rather than scientific"
• "cherry-picked evidence stretched far out of shape to support their theory,"
• "they don't even attempt to paper over the enormous holes in their theory."Ouch! And that's just the first paragraph.
Eh! There are only 4 paragraphs. By the way, "their theory" — if I can trust McArdle — is that "people are naturally polyamorous." The dispute continues with McArdle and the author (Christopher Ryan) throwing shit at each other in a fight about whether people are like bonobos. I'm just saying "throwing shit at each other" because that's how bonobos fight, and people are like bonobos, right? Not right? Advantage McArdle!!!!!
Anyway, as you've probably figured out by now, the book is not about sex at dawn — the practice of having sex upon first awakening in the morning — but sex and evolution — "dawn" in the sense of "the dawn of man."
So where am I going with this? It's a blog post. I'm a blogger. I'll go where I want, which is where I always go when this subject comes up, and I don't feel safe in this conversation no more...
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Manufacturing Dissent
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 2 Sep 2010 | 10:28 am MDT
[Posted by Karl] I usually treat the establishment’s media bias like the weather in Forks, WA — sought by vampires, simply endured by normal people. Nevertheless, I was recently tickled by Ace’s twist on Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: Suppose there are five possible plausible public reactions to an event or initiative. A, B, C, D, and E, [...]
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Redundancy?
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 9:41 am MDT
(Kenneth Anderson) Okay, I am giving in to the Popular Will, against my better judgment. What do VAT tax, PIN number, ATM machine, all have in common? Feel free to list more in the comments, including your views on whether this is acceptable language usage or not. (Put them here, rather than the comments to the VAT [...]
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Christina Romer, mystified.
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 9:16 am MDT
Saying her good-byes.
When she and her colleagues [on the Council of Economic Advisers] began work, she acknowledged, they did not realize "how quickly and strongly the financial crisis would affect the economy." They "failed to anticipate just how violent the recession would be."
Yes, we've noticed that every damned thing that happens is declared "unexpected."
Even now, Romer said, mystery persists. "To this day, economists don't fully understand why firms cut production as much as they did or why they cut labor so much more than they normally would." Her defense was that "almost all analysts were surprised by the violent reaction."
That miscalculation, in turn...
What miscalculation?
... led to her miscalculation that the stimulus package would be enough to keep the unemployment rate from exceeding 8 percent. Without the policy, she had predicted, unemployment would soar to 9.5 percent. The plan passed, and unemployment went to 10 percent.
Unexpectedly and mystifyingly, it was quite a surprise.
No wonder most Americans think the effort failed. But Romer argued, a bit too defensively, against the majority perception. "As the Council of Economic Advisers has documented in a series of reports to Congress, there is widespread agreement that the act is broadly on track," she declared.
The act is broadly on track is a helpful thing to believe if you want to experience every bit of bad news as a surprise.
Further, she argued, "I will never regret trying to put analysis and quantitative estimates behind our policy recommendations."
What?! I guess Romer, writing her speech, didn't predict the embarrassing ways those words would could be read. Surprise! Among the negative interpretations available for those words are: 1. They started with the policy preferences, then rustled up the numbers to support it, and 2. They had to choose what to put first, policy choices or professional analysis, and they chose policy choices.
But the problem is not that Romer did a quantitative analysis; the problem is that the quantitative analysis was wrong.
Well, if you did the quantitative analysis in order to support the policy preference you put first, then it's not... surprising that that your quantitative analysis was second-rate.
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VAT Tax?
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 2 Sep 2010 | 9:08 am MDT
(Kenneth Anderson) Daniel J. Mitchell at the Cato blog has a new post up, continuing an argument against the imposition of a VAT tax in the United States. His argument in that piece is fundamentally that a VAT tax does not really solve the fiscal problem, but instead merely invites government to grow with the revenue stream, [...]
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"Red meat, white meat, blue meat, meat-o-f**king-rama. You will eat it. Because not eating meat is a decision."
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 8:58 am MDT
"Eating meat is an instinct! Yeah! And I know what it’s about. 'I don’t want to eat the meat because I love the animals. I love the animals.' Hey, I love the animals too. I love my doggy. He’s so cute. My fluffy little dog... He’s so cute — There’s the problem. We only want to save the cute animals, don’t we? Yeah. Why don’t we just have animal auditions. Line ‘em up one by one and interview them individually. 'What are you?' 'I’m an otter.' 'And what do you do?' 'I swim around on my back and do cute little human things with my hands.' 'You’re free to go.' 'And what are you?' 'I’m a cow.' 'Get in the f**king truck, ok pal!' 'But I’m an animal.' 'You’re a baseball glove! Get on that truck!'"
Denis Leary, quoted a propos of the James Lee, the now-dead manifesto guy.
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Resolved
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 2 Sep 2010 | 8:52 am MDT
The Internet is a terrible way to have a discussion. Discuss.
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"In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one."
→ Althouse | 2 Sep 2010 | 8:13 am MDT
"... Saturday's rally was quite largely confined to expressions of pathos and insecurity, voiced in a sickly and pious tone. The emotions that underlay it, however, may not be uttered that way indefinitely."
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Hugh Hewitt: Time Calls Obama "Mr. Unpopular." White House Re Obama Popularity: "It Was Sort of Fake."
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 2 Sep 2010 | 8:02 am MDT
From Mike Allen's Playbook this AM: TIME magazine dubs Obama "MR. UNPOPULAR"-Michael Scherer: "White House aides explain this change as a largely inevitable reflection of the cycles of ?history. Midterms are almost...
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Hugh Hewitt: Obi Wan Returns, and The October Surprise Contest
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 2 Sep 2010 | 7:51 am MDT
Geraghty the Indispensable has long had the assistance of political oracle "Obi-Wan." Obi-Wan returns in a post at today's Campaign Spot, which should be read very closely indeed by all candidates and activists.Among...
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Obama the two-faced
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 7:41 am MDT
Some folks are defending President Obama's decision not to say anything positive about the substance of the Iraq war in his Tuesday speech on the grounds that Obama simply doesn't believe any good came out of the project. And, although I certainly haven't defended this aspect of the speech, I did write, "let's give Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume [he was uable to speak of the meaning of the war] because he thinks the struggle had no meaning, except as it related to domestic politics in the U.S."
But Doug Feith points out that, when speaking to soldiers at Fort Bliss on the day of the speech, Obama did find a positive and constructive meaning to the war. Obama told the troops that "because of the extraordinary service that all of you have done, and so many people here at Fort Bliss have done, Iraq has an opportunity to create a better future for itself, and America is more secure."
Thus, Obama was unwilling to share with the nation what he told the troops. Was he deceiving the troops or not being forthcoming with the nation?
Here is Feith's answer:
Evidently the president is not comfortable admitting that the war has made America more secure. Presumably this is because he repeatedly declared before he became president that the war had made the United States less secure. The president does not quite know what to do with the rather inconvenient truth that the 2007-08 surge strategy worked. In January 2007 he had proposed legislation ("The Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007") that would have ended the U.S. war effort in March 2008, before the strategy could produce its success. But now military, political, and economic progress in Iraq has reached a point where President Obama does not believe he can ignore it, is not willing to throw it away, and therefore feels compelled to remain engaged in Iraq as a "strong partner" for the foreseeable future. At the same time, it sticks in his craw to praise -- or even just admit -- what the war has done to serve U.S. national security interests.
Feith adds:
It would have been useful for the president to have used his Ft. Bliss formulation when he gave his oval office speech. If statesmanship trumped politics, he would have observed last evening that the war not only freed the Iraqis from a sadistic tyranny, but it made America more secure in various ways. It removed a regime that threatened aggression throughout its region. It punished a regime that was hostile to the United States and contemptuous of the U.N. Security Council's formal decisions on disarmament and peace. It demonstrated that a large price is sometimes imposed on regimes that support terrorism and pursue weapons of mass destruction. And it gave the Iraqis an opportunity to create democratic political institutions in their country, an enterprise that might help someday bring about a benign political transformation of the Arab world and the broader Muslim world
Making even a fraction of these concessions might not have helped Obama the politician, but it would have served his purposes as president. For, as Feith explains, Obama "needs popular support for his Iraq policy, but he's is not going to be able to sustain it for long if he can't bring himself to speak about U.S. interests there truthfully, specifically, and lucidly."
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Hugh Hewitt: Miller Time
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 2 Sep 2010 | 7:16 am MDT
Alaska GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller joined me on yesterday's program. You can contribute to his campaign via this link. The transcript of our conversation shows that Miller will bring an originalist's view to the...
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It's Miller time
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:57 am MDT
The emergence of Joe Miller as the Republican senatorial candidate in Alaska is one of the most surprising results so far in an already surprising year. Miller's defeat of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary must be attributable in substantial part to the support of Sarah Palin, and it replayed Palin's own surprising defeat of former Governor Frank Murkowski in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary. Before Lisa Murkowski's concession this week, the Weekly Standard's John McCormack answered the question "Who is Joe Miller?" "Based on merit alone," McCormack writes, "Miller was easily the superior candidate to Murkowski..." He should be a strong candidate in a must-win race.
PAUL adds: I don't know enough about Miller, even after reading McCormack's article, to say whether he was the superior candidate in his race with Lisa Murkowski. I can say that he was the more conservative candidate, which counts for a lot, and that he certainly deserves to be elected in November.
I want to add, however, that Murkowski is an underrated Senator, in my view. As ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, she performed excellent service in opposing the Democrats' agenda, including efforts effectively to restrict the ability to drill off-shore to foreign companies (this earned her Keith Olbermans's "worst person" award). She has also led the charge to overturn EPA's "endangerment" finding for greenhouse gases, a determination that paves the way for agency climate rules. In my view, Murkowski might well be the Republican party's most valuable member on environmental issues recently.
As for the claim that Murkowski is a "Republican in name only," this is baseless. Murkowski (whose lifetime ACU record is around 70 percent) voted with the Republicans on the big issues in this Congress, including the stimulus, Obamacare, and financial reform.
Moreover, Sarah Palin initially contributed money to Murkowski's re-election campaign. Later, when Miller entered the race, she concluded that Miller is the better candidate, which is fine and possibly true. But if Murkowski were truly a Republican in name only, Palin would not have contributed to her campaign in the first place.
It is one thing (though not a good thing) to demonize political opponents through exaggerated statements during a campaign. Now that the campaign is over, a bit more perspective is in order.
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Give hudna a chance
→ Power Line | 2 Sep 2010 | 6:34 am MDT
The Wall Street Journal editorial staff dug up some New York Times letters to the editor by the imam behind the Ground Zero Mosque. The Journal editorial reports:
In a letter published on November 27, 1977, Mr. Rauf commented on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic trip to Israel and encouraged his fellow Muslims to "give peace a chance." That John Lennon lyric sounds good. But he added: "For my fellow Arabs I have the following special message: Learn from the example of the Prophet Mohammed, your greatest historical personality. After a state of war with the Meccan unbelievers that lasted for many years, he acceded, in the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, to demands that his closest companions considered utterly humiliating. Yet peace turned out to be a most effective weapon against the unbelievers."
The Journal also quotes Rauf supporting the Iranian revolution of 1979: "The revolution in Iran was inspired by the very principles of individual rights and freedom that Americans ardently believe in."
The editorial explains the historical reference to the Treaty of Hudabyiha and elicits this characteristically forthright comment from the imam on the status of his current views:
"It is amusing that journalists are combing through letters-to-the-editor that I wrote more than 30 years ago, when I was a young man, for clues to my evolution. As I re-read those letters now, I see that they express the same concerns--a desire for peaceful solutions in Israel, and for a humane understanding of Iran--that I have maintained, and worked hard on, in the years since those letters were published."
Thanks, as always, for clearing that up.
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S.F. Chronicle visits Imperial County – what could go wrong? [Guest Post by aunursa]
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 10:24 pm MDT
[The following post was written by Patterico reader aunursa and published at The Jury Talks Back. It has been promoted to the main page due to its exceptional original content. -- P] Tiny Imperial County could play a decisive role in the battle over same-sex marriage in California. In the 2008 election, citizens of [...]
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Buy Baldilocks’s Book
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 10:04 pm MDT
Go here for details. The Kindle edition is only $5.00.
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Fiorina/Boxer Debate
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:45 pm MDT
I missed it. The family was watching a Star Trek re-run. Anyone know a place where there is a video clip available? If you saw it, let me know how you thought Fiorina did. Here is the San Francisco Chronicle: Fiorina said she and her husband have lived the American dream — she working [...]
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"All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions."
→ Althouse | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:24 pm MDT
"In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it."
The hostage-takers manifesto.
ADDED: The guy seems pretty clearly crazy, and I hope no one dies and he gets the help he needs, because this manifesto — PDF — is hilarious, but if anyone dies, it might be wrong to laugh.
Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.
Of course, the Squirrels. That's such a childish list of animals, and not just because of "Froggies." These are the animals in a children's picture book or Noah's Ark toy.
The humans? The planet does not need humans. You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world....
I disagree. Around my city, geese are crapping everything up. I notice that no birds got on Lee's list of favored creatures.
These are the demands and sayings of Lee.
How religion-y, and yet he hates religion:
Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down!
He hates everything that human beings have produced. It's all filth. Even the ideas. He gets his ideas from a gorilla:
The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas.
Here's the book. A gorilla tells us what to do. Example from the pages cited:
We could pension off our teachers, close schools, and open up the city to our children. Let them learn anything they want. We could take that risk....
Quinn has been hyped by Oprah Winfrey: Here's an Oprah interview with Quinn:
WINFREY: You say that y--hundreds of years from now, children will look back on our society and call us monsters. Why?
ADDED: The man was killed. The hostages all survived.
Mr. QUINN: I think so. Yeah, because we're g--we're--we continue to take and take and take and consume and consume and consume everything in sight. And in 100 years, if--if there are still people around to think about it, we're going to look back and say, `My God, these were terribly greedy people. What kind of people were they? They were hard to understand, who had no thought for us, for the future of--of the human race.'
WINFREY: How are we monsters? In what ways are we devouring the world?...
[T]he suspect had "metalic canisters" strapped to his chest and back. When Lee was struck by police bullets, one of the canisters "popped." Police have not confirmed if the canisters were a bomb, but Manger said the "device may have gone off" when he was shot.
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At the Robin Tavern...
→ Althouse | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:11 pm MDT
... you can try to blend in.
ADDED: The long view:
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Michael Bloomberg: Unamerican to Investigate Funding of Ground Zero Mosque
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:09 pm MDT
When the amazing is predictable: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it would be un-American to investigate a mosque that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood. I’m listening hard for his condemnation of Nancy Pelosi’s call to investigate the mosque’s opponents, but I can’t hear it over all these damned crickets. Thanks [...]
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Pond shadows.
→ Althouse | 1 Sep 2010 | 7:08 pm MDT
Late summer. Early evening.
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Obama is too a Christian
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 1 Sep 2010 | 6:49 pm MDT
(David Kopel) Ann Coulter’s column today argues that Obama is not a Muslim; rather, he “is obviously an atheist.” The gist of the argument is “The only evidence for Obama’s Christianity is that he faithfully attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years....Attending Wright’s church is the conscious, calculated decision to immerse yourself [...]
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Hate speech -- does it lead to violence?
→ Of Arms and the Law | 1 Sep 2010 | 6:32 pm MDT
Somehow I don't think we'll see that debate in the the case of the gunman who took hostages at Discovery Channel headquarters.
"Lee is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery building several weeks ago that called on the network to "broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet."
"All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions," the list of demands read.
. . . . . . .He said he was inspired by "Ishmael," a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth.""
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Our shrinking president
→ Power Line | 1 Sep 2010 | 4:43 pm MDT
I didn't watch any of the TV commentary on President Obama's speech last night. But J.E. Dyer at Contentions informs us that the "TV commentariat rose up to advance the narrative that Obama had no obligation to acknowledge Bush's surge decision, because there was never a valid justification for regime-changing Iraq to begin with."
This is the kind of non sequitur that, I suppose, keeps me away from post-speech TV commentary. Let's note first that premise here -- that there was no valid justification for our action in Iraq -- is controversial and, in my view, false. A better premise (more apt and less controversial) would have been that Bush doesn't deserve credit for the surge decision because he should have formulated the correct strategy for preventing, or dealing with, the insurgency in the first place.
In any event, the "commentariat's" conclusion doesn't follow from its premise, or even from the better one I just described. Unless President Obama believes that the war in Iraq is so unjust and dishonorable that it would be better to lose the war than win it, he must acknowledge that decisions that help us avoid defeat in that war are good and worthwhile decisions. Similarly, unless he believes that an Iraq that features the large-scale massacre of civilians is better than one in which there is far less violence, he must acknowledge that decisions that help significantly reduce violence are also good and worthwhile.
Because President Bush's decisions in connection with the surge helped avoid a U.S. defeat and save Iraqi lives, they are praiseworthy, and Obama should give Bush credit for the surge whatever he thinks of the original mission. And he certainly should so in a speech that (a) lauds the current situation in Iraq and (b) purports to turn the page on Iraq and put domestic acrimony behind us.
Fallability on big questions (assuming now that Bush erred in invading Iraq) should not forever preclude one from being praised. Obama himself was wrong about the surge. If his prescription had been followed in 2007, Iraq would probably have suffered a monumental bloodbath, and al Qaeda might well control Anbar province. But that shouldn't bar Obama from receiving praise if he helps navigate Iraq through its current (much less severe) difficulties. The same idea applies if, after a year-and-a-half of stumbling, Obama finally finds the correct recipe for helping get our economy back on course.
Obama has developed a specialty of telling us, in balanced-sounding terms, what major players have done right and what they done wrong. The players he has pontificated about in these terms include the Arabs, the Israelis, the Africans, and the United States itself. I would argue that, assuming this is worth doing, it is possibly the only thing Obama does well as president.
But when the best Obama can say of George W. Bush, in a speech delivering the "summation" on Iraq, is that he is patriotic and supports the troops, Obama isn't even performing his "philosopher king" role well.
I'm no longer bothered by this sort of thing, having resigned myself long ago to the fact that Obama lacks the grace we all should hope for in any U.S. president. At this point, he is only hurting himself, as he looks smaller and smaller with each appearance.
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Will Mitch Daniels Run?
→ The Volokh Conspiracy | 1 Sep 2010 | 4:11 pm MDT
(Orin Kerr) Here’s the latest speculation about whether Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels might run for the Presidency in 2012. I hope he does: From what I know at this point, he’s my favorite potential GOP candidate.
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Predicting the future is difficult; telling the truth about the past should not be
→ Power Line | 1 Sep 2010 | 3:10 pm MDT
I expect November 2, 2010 to be a very good night for Republicans. But for me, it won't be a fully satisfactory night unless Sen. Barbara Boxer goes down to defeat.
To understand why, consider Sen. Boxer's exchange with then-Secretary of State Rice regarding the troop surge in Iraq, which had just been announced. Boxer made it clear that she didn't expect the surge to work. She was confident that more troops would not help because the Iraqis already relied on us too much.
Boxer was also incensed (not too strong a word, if you watch the video) that Rice had not anticipated the large uptick in violence that occurred in 2006. She even had someone hold up a poster with a statement Rice made in 2005 that was overly optimistic. Boxer later misrepresented what was on her own poster.
But Boxer's main point was to inform Rice that the cost of the Iraq war was being paid by American military families, not by members of Boxer's or Rice's immediate family (Rice is unmarried and has never had children). As you can see below, Boxer was at her arrogant and obnoxious best throughout her harangue.
Recently, Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle asked Boxer about the exchange. A much more subdued Boxer responded by claiming that, far from attacking Rice, she was trying to "bring us together" by pointing out that neither she nor the Secretary had immediate family members in harm's way.
Boxer conceded, however, that she did criticize Rice because she "did not know how many people died in Iraq."
But Boxer never asked Rice how many people had died in Iraq. Instead, she asked Rice how many Americans would die in the future as a result of the surge.
The question is an absurd one, of course, and I haven't heard Boxer ask the corresponding one to anyone in the Obama administration with respect to the surge in Afghanistan. As Rice pointed out, with far less derision than would have been appropriate, no one can say how many people will die under a military strategy that has not yet been implemented.
Clearly, then, Boxer is being dishonest about her exchange with Rice. But the exchange itself reveals Boxer's unfitness for serious office. Boxer expects Rice to know how many people will die in an extended military campaign that has not commenced. And she castigates Rice for not anticipating in 2005 the large increase in violence that occurred in 2006 after the bombing of the Golden Mosque.
Meanwhile, Boxer dismisses the idea that the surge will succeed. She therefore fails to meet the standard of prophecy to which she holds the Bush administration.
Either her attack was a disgrace or her failure to predict the outcome of the surge was.
You can help bring an end to Boxer's Senate career by contributing to Carly Fiorina's campaign here.
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An Inconvenient Hostage-Taker
→ JustOneMinute | 1 Sep 2010 | 2:16 pm MDT
Police: Man holds hostages in Discovery building Another angry Tea Partier run amuck? Not exactly: SILVER SPRING, Md. – A man upset with the Discovery Channel's environmental programming took several people hostage at the company's headquarters Wednesday, officials said. Police...
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Right Wing Extremist Holding Hostages at Gunpoint at Discovery Channel Building
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 1:52 pm MDT
What’s that, you say? He is an environmental nut, and therefore unlikely to be a right-winger? Don’t worry. They’ll find a way to label him a right-winger — or at least a Tea Partier. Somehow. You’ll see. Anything but a lefty. P.S. Allahpundit says it well: I’m not going to blame the actions of a nut on [...]
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The Restoring Honor Rally: A First Hand Account
→ Blog O'Stuff | 1 Sep 2010 | 12:08 pm MDT
Over at Noisyroom.net.
I've known the author, Ken O'Donnell, online for a few years, as well as met him in person a couple of times. He's good people.
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Tax Cuts Coming?
→ JustOneMinute | 1 Sep 2010 | 10:05 am MDT
The WSJ reports that the Administration is considering some tax cuts as part of a "Don't Just Stand There, DO Something" domestic surge. Times business columnist David Leonhardt uses his space to plug tax cuts that are more likely to...
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Good news from California
→ Of Arms and the Law | 1 Sep 2010 | 10:03 am MDT
Last night the legislature voted down registration of long arms, a prohibition on open carry, and a proposal for ammunition registration -- that is, not just requiring recordkeeping, but filing of those records with the government.
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Interesting story
→ Of Arms and the Law | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:55 am MDT
In Alabama, a 69 year old grandmother shoots a burglar, and gets a nice writeup, complete with a picture of her holding the gun. What's astonishing is, the story is carried by the New York Daily News.
Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah...
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Combat Operations Are Over In Iraq; Combat Pay Is Not
→ JustOneMinute | 1 Sep 2010 | 9:31 am MDT
The Times has an interesting detail from Sec Def Gates' visit to Iraq: One soldier did ask if the end of combat operations meant the end of extra combat pay. Mr. Gates said that as far as he was concerned,...
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L.A. Times: Sarah Palin Expected to Seek 2012 Presidential Nomination
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 8:13 am MDT
They drop this comment casually, in a story about Murkowski’s defeat: Miller, a Fairbanks attorney and decorated Gulf War veteran making his first try for statewide office, had trailed Murkowski in fundraising and in opinion polls throughout the campaign. But he had Palin, who bucked state party leaders to endorse him; and the Tea Party Express, the [...]
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Ace: Chris Matthews Is a Racist
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 1 Sep 2010 | 8:11 am MDT
Whenever someone asks me why I read Ace of Spades,* I point to a post like this one — a rant about Chris Matthews’s racial condescension towards Obama: Chris Matthews: Boy Howdy, I Can’t Tell You How Wonderful It Is to See A Black Man With a Wife and a Steady Paycheck! More racial nuance from Chris [...]
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Hugh Hewitt: Alaska's Next Senator
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 1 Sep 2010 | 7:43 am MDT
Joe Miller joins me on today's program. His website his here, and you can contribute to his campaign here.I will also be joined by Georgia's next governor, Nathan Deal, Arkansas' next senator John Boozman, and...
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Hugh Hewitt: "Dear Patients: Vote to Repeal ObamaCare"
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 1 Sep 2010 | 7:39 am MDT
Docs4PatientCare.org organized thousands of doctors to try and stop Obamacare. Now the organization is taking the lead in working for its repeal, starting with the firing of the Democrats in House and Senate who voted...
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Huh?
→ Patterico's Pontifications | 31 Aug 2010 | 10:05 pm MDT
Not only did the same person write the two bolded statements below, but she separated them by only one sentence, with no indication of shame whatsover: A good chunk of money from the 2009 stimulus package went to clean-energy programs, infrastructure and research and development, with infrastructure investment alone making up more than $105 billion of [...]
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Hugh Hewitt: A Conversation with the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof on the GZM
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 31 Aug 2010 | 8:33 pm MDT
Nicholas Kristof's column on the proposed mosque near Ground Zero caused more than a little controversy when it was published last week.On Monday I interviewed him about it. Here's the transcript: HH: Pleased to...
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Hugh Hewitt: A Conversation with John Boehner on the Need for Speed
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 31 Aug 2010 | 8:32 pm MDT
Here is the transcript of my conversation Monday with John Boehner on the need for speed should the GOP reclaim the House majority in 2011..
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Obama's Big Speech
→ JustOneMinute | 31 Aug 2010 | 5:58 pm MDT
Just don't expect "Mission Accomplished".
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This is so great...
→ Of Arms and the Law | 31 Aug 2010 | 2:52 pm MDT
SAF and CalGuns Foundation are sponsoring the annual Firearm Rights Policy Conference, in San Francisco, on Sept.24-26. (Talk about marching into the teeth of the enemy!). They know that the San Fran public transit authorities have a rule against allowing advertising on bus shelters or buses that shows an image of a firearm. So they created one, and dared them to ban it ... thereby setting up a First Amendment challenge. Apparently the powers that be backed down, because here's a pic of the advertisement.
Thanks to reader jdberger ...
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Surprise: Chicago rarely enforced it gun law
→ Of Arms and the Law | 31 Aug 2010 | 10:17 am MDT
Story here, thanks to reader Joe Olson.
An interesting note toward the end of the article: Joyce Foundation gave the city $20,000 for its legal defense.
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Hugh Hewitt: Obamacare and November
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 31 Aug 2010 | 8:14 am MDT
Democrats are eager to blame all their woes on the economy, which in turn allows them --in their own minds-- to blame Bush.RealClearPolitics' Jay Cost returns their (and our) attention to Obamacare.Read the whole thing....
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Hugh Hewitt: Team Rubicon to Pakistan: Your Donations Needed
→ Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog | 31 Aug 2010 | 8:03 am MDT
Team Rubicon has deployed to parts of Pakistan ravaged by floods.Team Rubicon, composed primarily of former U.S. military and emergency response veterans have teamed with Doctors Outreach Clinics to bring Drip Drop, an...
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Now Poll On "Is Obama A Liar?"
→ JustOneMinute | 30 Aug 2010 | 12:17 pm MDT
Gary Langer of ABC News explains the "Obama is a Muslim"poll results, giving the same explanation as the AllahPundit. From Langer: ...People in fact may voice an attitude not as an affirmed belief – a statement of perceived factual reality...
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As If
→ JustOneMinute | 30 Aug 2010 | 11:56 am MDT
William Kristol has utterly improbable advice of Obama's speechwriters as they gear up for the big "Don't Say Mission Accomplished" address tomorrow night - don't dwell on campaign promises, don't second guess Bush, do praise the troops, gen. Odierno, and...
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Insiders' views of turmoil in BATFE
→ Of Arms and the Law | 29 Aug 2010 | 10:50 am MDT
Over at Cleanup ATF. All sorts of things that outsiders would never think of. Treasury and Justice agencies have different outlooks, merging their functions results in friction. Having an acting director for years means nobody at the top who can make major organizational decisions (and everyone knows he'll be gone, soon, in agency terms). Further, in a turf war with other agencies looking to move into your turf, an acting head can't stand up to their moves. Rumors of moving alcohol and tobacco functions to FDA. Supervisors getting away with expense fraud (and with sexual ... well, to call it misconduct is like terming an axe murderer a misuser of a garden tool).
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The Dash To Dumb, Middle School Affirmative Action Subdivision
→ JustOneMinute | 29 Aug 2010 | 8:57 am MDT
Robert Goldman of ABC News wins the prestigious Sprint to Stupid, getting dumber faster than anyone on the topic of affirmative action in a Mississippi Middle School: After 30 years of barring black students from running for class president, a...
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How We Spent Our Summer of Recovery
→ JustOneMinute | 28 Aug 2010 | 7:45 pm MDT
The Times reports on the Summer of Recovery:Vacation Travel Recovers, but Frugality Is Focus By CHRISTINE HAUSER Vacations have become a luxury for many Americans trying to make ends meet in this economic downturn, but there are signs that people...
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Garmin nuvi GPS Recall
→ Blog O'Stuff | 28 Aug 2010 | 6:22 pm MDT
From Garmin:Garmin is voluntarily recalling certain nüvi devices that contain a specific battery that was manufactured by the battery supplier within a limited date code range. Garmin has identified potential overheating issues when certain batteries manufactured by the third-party battery supplier within a limited date code range are used in certain Garmin nüvi models with a specific printed circuit board (PCB) design. It appears that the interaction of these factors can, in rare circumstances, increase the possibility of overheating, which may lead to a fire hazard. Although there have been no injuries or significant property damage caused by this issue, Garmin is taking this action out of an abundance of caution.
The recalled devices include a small subset of the following nüvi model numbers:- nüvi 200W, 250W, & 260W
- nüvi 7xx (where xx is a two-digit number)
Go to Garmin's site and enter in your device's serial number. It'll tell you if your unit needs to be sent in for service.
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Big Day For Beck
→ JustOneMinute | 28 Aug 2010 | 6:18 pm MDT
A big day for Beck and a not-so-big day for Sharpton. Here is some headline fun from the WaPo: Beck, Palin tell thousands to 'restore America' and Sharpton's 'Reclaim the Dream' event brings thousands to honor MLK Apparently, those are...
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Sysadmin Tip: Walk Away
→ Blog O'Stuff | 28 Aug 2010 | 3:31 pm MDT
This morning I went down to my gun club to install a Linux box to serve as our new and improved email and web server. Although I had performed several setup tasks after I built the box here at home, I left many of them until I had it onsite with the correct IP, hostname and domain configuration.
As I was working on it I did something which totally FUBARed Apache to the point where it wouldn't even start. After pounding on it for about a half hour I got so fed up that it was pointless to continue, as I wasn't making any progress.
So, I walked away. (Actually, I drove down to the 25 yard range and put some lead downrange.)
Once I got home I logged back into the server and within about ten minutes had Apache up and running.
Sometimes you need to just walk away for awhile.
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Thank you
→ Blog O'Stuff | 28 Aug 2010 | 3:04 pm MDT
Thank you to those readers who have purchased stuff after clicking on a link to Amazon.comfrom this site. Every so often I get a gift certificate from them which helps on my own Amazon orders.
By no means am I making any significant amount of money from my Amazon affiliate links, but their gift certificates are a nice surprise when I do get them.
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Meanwhile, Deep Underground...
→ JustOneMinute | 28 Aug 2010 | 10:20 am MDT
I am fascinated by the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued but won't actually be resurfacing before Christmas. My first thought - the Chileans ought to contact NASA and the US navy submariners. My daughter's first thought...
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Turf War!
→ Of Arms and the Law | 27 Aug 2010 | 10:02 am MDT
These things can get nasty! ATF vs. FBI, fighting over explosives investigations. The division had been that FBI gets it if it involves terrorism; ATF gets it if it doesn't. But drawing that line in the real world is difficult. So with any high profile case, the investigation has to be preceded by the inter-agency battle.
"Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, reported last year that battles were flaring at crime scenes from Baltimore to Houston, delaying witness interviews and impairing the government's ability to spot trends in bombings."
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Swords crossed in the challenge to NY's "may issue" permit system
→ Of Arms and the Law | 26 Aug 2010 | 10:19 am MDT
Only Guns and Money has the update. It's the usual beginning to a test case: defendant files an "everything but the kitchen sink" motion to dismiss.
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Standalone vs. Cell Phone Based GPS
→ Blog O'Stuff | 23 Aug 2010 | 6:20 am MDT
A family trip this weekend reiterated for me why I do not think that cell phone based GPSes are viable 100% replacements for dedicated GPSes in your car. At least, not yet.
We went up to Sullivan County, NY visit with some of my family. The route we take to get there passes through NE PA, including the Delaware Water Gap. My cousin, who's house we went to, lives in a rural area in which cell phone signal is spotty and often depends on how you orient your phone.
For navigation we had directions but also brought my Garmin Nuvi 200W, and both my wife and I have Android-based smartphones (a Droid and a Droid 2) with GPS integrated with Google Maps. The Droids use the Verizon 3G data link to download maps on the fly. In contrast, the Garmin stores maps locally.
We had no or poor cell phone signal, or no 3G for a good part of the drive. Notably, the times when we had no signal were the times when the GPS was most needed. I.e., rural back roads with poor signage and no street lighting. If we had needed to depend on a phone-based GPS we'd have been out of luck.
There are a few applications designed to allow you to download and store maps offline in case you lose your cell phone signal, e.g., Maps (-). However, this may not help you if you need to significantly deviate from your route, or if you need the GPS in an emergency and the cell network is down.
If your cell phone GPS usage is limited to areas with good cell coverage and don't consider your GPS unit as part of your emergency preps, then you don't need a standalone unit. As for me, I'll be updating the maps in my Garmin soon.
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New SAS Smock Review
→ Blog O'Stuff | 14 Aug 2010 | 9:41 am MDT
Over on Survival & Emergency Preparedness.
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Tyrannosaurus Debt
→ Blog O'Stuff | 25 Jul 2010 | 6:44 am MDT
This morning I put in the Schoolhouse Rock DVD for the girls and they said that they wanted to watch the "Money Rock" category. I was stunned when this one came up:
Hopefully more kids get to see this. I'd say that every member of our politcal class should watch it but they don't give a crap.
I think the Money Rock videos were made in the '90s. They certainly weren't around in the '70s.
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Dropbox
→ Blog O'Stuff | 24 Jul 2010 | 6:18 am MDT
Dropbox is a cloud-based file backup, storage, and sharing site which uses Amazon's S3 service as the backend. I've recently started using it as a way to keep certain files and folders automatically synced between my MacBook Pro and Hobbit, my MSI netbook.
You can access a Dropbox account via a web browser or applications which install on Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux. So far, I'm using the OS X and Ubuntu versions and they work very smoothly. On a Mac you can access your Dropbox folder just like any other folder in the Finder. On Ubuntu, I'm using the Nautilus file manager plugin.
If you allow the Dropbox app to run automatically when you login, it will automatically sync the local folder with the one in the cloud. If you have Dropbox installed on more than one computer it will automatically sync the folder across all of them.
The free, basic Dropbox account gives you 2 GB of storage. Additional storage is available for a monthly fee. {shameless plug}Also, if you sign up by clicking the links in this post or in my sidebar to the right, I'll get an additional 250 MB of space (up to 8 GB), and you'll get additional space, too.{/shameless plug}
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Patriot Xporter XT 16 GB USB Flash Drive
→ Blog O'Stuff | 23 Jul 2010 | 2:19 pm MDT
For the past couple of years I've had a Microcenter house brand 8 GB USB flash drive on my keychain. It's handy for keeping a backup of my most critical data with me at all times, as well as keeping installers for various Windows programs easily available.
I noticed over the weekend that the drive was starting to act a little flaky. A couple of times when I had it connected to my MacBook Pro when it dismounted itself. This might be a sign that it's dying.
I've wanted a USB drive with a bit more capacity and with faster read and write speeds, so this gave me an excuse to get something new. So, I ordered a Patriot Xporter XT Boost 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PEF16GUSB. It's $42.99 with free shipping from Amazon, and there's a $15 mail-in rebate if you order by 7/31/10. The final price will be about the same as what I paid for the 8 gig Microcenter drive a couple of years ago.
The drive is encased in a soft rubber outer shell with the cap made of the same material. The packaging claims that it's water resistant. We'll see how durable it is. I expect it to show some wear after awhile since I carry it around in my pocket.
Without taking any scientific measurements, it's obvious that the Patriot's read/write speeds are faster than my old 8 GB Microcenter drive or a Kingston 8 GB drive I have at work. After getting the Patriot I booted my MSI Wind into Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix and used it to turn the Patriot into a bootable UNR install drive. I then booted the netbook off the Patriot and performance was a bit snappier than when I'd done so using the Kingston drive.
I didn't really want to keep the Patriot as an Ubuntu disk, so I rebooted the Wind into Windows 7 Home Ultimate and did a quick format. (I did this in Win7 because I wanted to ensure that the drive would remain readable in Windows. Since reformatting the aforementioned Kingston as FAT32 in OS X and Linux, I've had problems reading it in a couple Windows boxes.)
With the Patriot once again blank, I stuck it in my MacBook Pro and copied over the same stuff I keep on the Microcenter drive, plus the 4 GB TrueCrypt volume in which I keep my private data. The data transfer went smoothly, much faster than with the Microcenter drive.
My initial impression of the Patriot Xporter 16 GB USB drive is quite favorable. My one area of concern is the keyring loop molded into the rubber casing. I carry my USB stick on an A&P Mechanic's keyring from Countycomm, and I can see this wearing through the loop. To minimize wear, rather than attaching the Patriot directly to the keyring, I attached it with a cable tie.
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I Like It
→ Blog O'Stuff | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:36 pm MDT
{H/T GWA.45}
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Excommunicate Kristol
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:41 pm MST
William Kristol is one of the people who got the conservative party into its current mess. He was wrong about the Iraq war and, as his latest column proves. he’s wrong about domestic issues too: … conservatives should think twice before charging into battle against Obama under the banner of âsmall-government conservatism.â ... It turns out, in the real world of Republican...
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Apple War versus Orange War
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:29 pm MST
Jeralyn: So you think the new President will end our involvement in foreign wars? I never did, I just thought he’d trade one war for another, Iraq for Afghanistan. ... No change here, other than one of geography. Whatever happened to “Bring the Troops Home?” Guess that went out of fashion after Vietnam. Huh? Iraq and Afghanistan are apples and oranges. The war against Iraq...
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Why the emerging auto bailout sucks
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 8 Dec 2008 | 12:03 pm MST
AP report: A bailout plan for the failing U.S. auto industry could include a Cabinet-level oversight board and a provision to withdraw the money if the overseers decide the companies are failing to take steps to overhaul themselves. The plan would draw the emergency aid from an existing loan program meant to help the automakers build fuel-efficient vehicles. The size of the package...
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US Attorney Hiring and Firing
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 5 Dec 2008 | 11:14 am MST
A lot of people got very worked up when George Bush fired some US Attorneys for political reasons. Now some of those same people are exercised over the refusal of a Bush-appointed US Attorney to resign so that Obama can replace her. I don’t think you can have it both ways. Either the US Attorney job is a political one or not. The tradition of having US Attorneys resign when a new...
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Who decides how much your life is worth?
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 4 Dec 2008 | 5:28 pm MST
Ezra Klein focuses on the question of how much we should spend to keep people alive: What is six months of your life worth? And don’t say priceless. It’s not priceless. Not if you’re not paying. So let’s sharpen the question: What should six months of your life be worth to your insurer, be that insurer the government or Aetna? Which is another way of saying, what should...
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Is the Constitution a “frivolous technicality”?
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 4 Dec 2008 | 2:21 pm MST
From The Week: Thereâs an obstacle between Hillary Clinton and her secretary of state job: the U.S. Constitution, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. As âa few legal eaglesâ have noted, the Constitutionâs âEmoluments Clauseâ prevents senators from taking federal jobs whose salaries have been raised during their current term. In January, President Bush bumped the secretary...
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The Indecent Intervals at Slate
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 3 Dec 2008 | 5:07 pm MST
There was a time when people in public life who disgraced themselves, their office, and their families did the honorable thing. Or, at least, they did so in fiction. In Dorothy Sayers’ novel, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, all Lord Peter Wimsey and Colonel Marchbanks need do is to inform Dr Penberthy that Marchbanks has left a loaded gun in the club library, being correctly...
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Senator Jeb
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 3 Dec 2008 | 1:03 pm MST
Jeb Bush is thinking about running for the Senate. In an interview with Politico immediately after Novemberâs election, the former governor said the Republican Party should take four primary steps to regain favor with voters: Show no tolerance for corruption, practice what it preaches about limiting the scope of government (âThere should not be such a thing as a Big Government...
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The Justiciability of Hillary’s Ineligibility
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 3 Dec 2008 | 12:13 pm MST
The fallout from the 2008 election is raising some very interesting justiciability questions. Yesterday, we mentioned the question of whether the Supreme Court could review Senate decisions pursuant to Article I, Section 5, when the senate is acting as a judge of the elections of its members (an issue that may come up in the Coleman-Franken fight). Today’s justiciability question is raised...
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The Financial Crisis: What Really Happened?
→ StephenBainbridge.com | 3 Dec 2008 | 11:51 am MST
In a Cato Unbound essay, Lawrence H. White, the F.A. Hayek Professor of Economic History at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, argues that the housing boom and bust, and the resulting meltdown of financial markets, cannot have been the result of a laissez-faire monetary and financial system, since we never had one. Nor can deregulation have been the cause, since the most recent relevant...
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