Getting Rid of a King

The half truths of Buchanan

Should we bring back one-room schoolhouses?

Deposing a king in Nepal

Is the voting rights act of 1965 constitutional?

Trying not to get raped in England

Evidence that we are winning in Iraq and against Al Qaeda

More on this here and here

Trying to be English in England

Light

How a knowledge of rules helped Obama win nomination

Don’t send your kid to Furman

Crichton on the MSM

What is the political philosophy (if there is one) of the New Testament?

Are we safer and, if so, why?

“One that beareth a torch standeth in shadow to give light to others”

There is Always Hope

No life on Mars even 4 billion years ago

What will happen to taxes if Obama becomes president?

$35 billion missing in Iran

Progress against Al Qaeda

Obama’s relationship with Pfleger

Yemen arrests members of Al Qaeda

Remembering Harvey Korman

The humble coelacanth

Pelosi thanks Iran for decrease in violence in Iraq

Iran’s coming economic disaster

Was the creation of Israel a disaster?

More on Obama’s relationship with Pfleger

What is an Establishment of Religion?

The death penalty for using profanity in Saudi Arabia

Assisted suicide in California

No freedom of worship in Iran

Iran and nuclear weapons

How Wal Mart keeps food prices low

The Last Barrier

Farmers Branch: does the Federal government have the power to pre-empt local laws?

George Soros owns the publishing company that published McClellan’s book

More on this here

Rapid response in the Bush White House

What is Stonehenge?

This day in history: the conquest of Constantinople

Another video from Obama’s church

Progress?

New York will recognize homosexual marriages

More on the deposition in Nepal

How Ronald Reagan proposed to solve an energy crisis

What is marriage?

Why is Scott McClellan saying such bad things about President Bush

Is Barack Obama a Marxist?

A discussion of political trials

Is environmentalism a form of human sacrifice or genocide?

Progress

Can the House Judiciary Committee compel someone to testify, under penalty of going to prison?

Is President Bush responsible for the progress we have made against terrorists?

Does ethanol ruin car engines?

Success in the Sunni Triangle

The history of Kennedy’s meeting with Khrushchev

We have made progress in Iraq and against terrorists in general

What is the Recipe for Liberty?

Nepal is a republic but is not free

Belgian government supports woman who pleads with men to join Al Qaeda

Should the US government tax oil companies when they make too much of a profit?

Trying to be a Jew in England

Williams on the role of futures

Why doesn’t the media report all of Obama’s mistakes?

Buchanan’s criticism of Churchill

Talking with Iran

Iran is stalling for time

Less violence in Iraq

Iraqis are unhappy with militias

Why is South Africa defending Mugabe?

What is the recipe for economic prosperity?

Who won the 2000 presidential election?

All in the Family

Why is the media so negative about the economy?

Why did Subway exclude homeschoolers from this essay contest?

Another defense of Hagee

Success in Basra

Obama making up a story about an uncle who liberated Auschwitz (?)

Norway celebrates freedom and arrests two evangelists

Churchill’s actions to defeat the Nazis—moral or immoral?

Are Muslim extremists rejecting terrorism?

Are Americans safer thanks to the war in Iraq?

Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan

What it looks like on Mars

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?

Baitullah Mehsud says that Osama is dead

Not to be confused with Abdullah Mehsud

A list of war movies

Unnatural Causes

Saudi forces Iraqi teenagers to act as suicide bombers

A defense of Hagee’s comments about Hitler

Outsourcing is an alternative to illegal immigration

Feith on Bush’s decision to stress democracy as the reason we went into Iraq

Health care in Czech Republic

2 million dead in Sudan

Broken dreams in South Africa

300,000 dead in Burundi

Death in Rome

Sowell on affirmative action

Hungry

The increasing power of the president

Eating beans in Egypt

A recipe for ful medames

Another one and another

Does solar activity cause global warming?

Soon to Be Ancient England

Trying not to get blown up in Great Britain

Trying not to get knifed to death in England

Trying not to commit national suicide in Great Britain

Trying to exercise free speech in England

What is an Alawite?

McCain on personal responsibility

Religious freedom in Algeria

What was it like in France during the German occupation?

Government of India make sure the citizens pay a low price for gas

Esolen on western civilization and other conservative books

People of the Lie

How to fix a scratched cd

Iran paying insurgents to kill Coalition forces in Iraq

Police course on Islamic extremists

HBO documentary on 2000 election

Shall we drill for oil? Map here

Another reason not to send your kids to a public school

Thoughts on global warming

Around the World

Bracing for an ice age

What’s the IMF up to these days?

People can’t afford to buy food in Bangladesh

Judicial activism and the Episcopal church in Virginia

What in the world is going on in Sudan?

No more Indian soap operas in Afghanistan

Al Qaeda trains 6 year olds in Pakistan to be suicide bombers

More on climate change on Jupiter

Hezbollah is now in control of Lebanon

Ice in arctic is melting

What causes a bubble?

On Jupiter?

Global warming on…Jupiter?

New petition: scientists say that there is no evidence of human-caused global warming

A long list of statements from Democrats pre-Iraq war that Iraq had WMD and was a threat to the US

Alice Walker’s daughter on the joys of motherhood

Kennedy and Nixon on meeting with Kruschev

Gas costs more because the dollar is worth less

Or is it the commodities investors?

How the canon of western music came to be

A recipe for black bean salad

McCain on judges

Threats, Real or Imagined

John Hagee says the unforgiveable

Al Qaeda is planning a nuclear attack on the US and has permission to kill up to 4 million Americans

Or is that 10 million?

Why does the US provide financial aid to Saudi Arabia?

The death of Mike Spann

The meaning of Memorial Day

Ideas for Memorial Day

A discussion of the 2000 election

Honor killing in Germany

Oil executives defend profits

Why is the cost of gas so high?

Is it right to meet with Iran without pre-conditions?

Garbage piled up in Naples

Good Money After Bad

Is this farm bill good for the US?

Petraeus: force against Iran should be last resort

Is it right to keep on spending money to fix New Orleans?

Should Puerto Rico help to decide the Democratic nominee?

Oxytocin and maternal bonding

Should it be a crime to convert to Christianity?

Was welfare reform good for the US?

Should the city of Richardson ban smoking in businesses?

For what the city council decided see here

Should the US cut spending on medical care?

Should state government pay for students to go to private schools?

Fauxtography in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah

Is the number of terrorist attacks increasing or decreasing?

Should courts decide whether or not to have don’t ask don’t tell

Did Israeli soldiers deceive Palestinians?

Imagine

Oil executive defend the price of oil

Freedom of speech in the UK

Yoko Ono sues makers of Expelled

If you want a research grant, it helps if you are trying to connect your research to global warming

Who is Jeremiah Wright?

Who is Sheik Khalid Yasin?

Editorial on homosexual marriage

Obama open to military strikes on Iran—in 2004

Sen. Lieberman on the left wing of the Democratic party

Bad news for government pension funds in Texas

Democracy

What do China and Lousiana have in common?

Was there a civil war in Iraq, or was the media just trying to make people think there was?

What was responsible for the big crowd at the Obama rally?

Why did Secretary Rice arrange negotiations with Iran in 2006?

Should Israel continue to exist as a Jewish state?

Hamas music video

Picture of guy looking at a hanging chad

2000 election results by county

What were the results of the recount done after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict?

Stolen election is a myth

Virginia late-term abortion ban overturned

Progress in Sadr City

Blindness

Pursuing nuclear power in the Middle East

Military action against Iran?

Is President Bush a hero?

Does our money discriminate against blind people?

Is Obama willing to meet with Ahmadinejad

The value of talking with one’s enemies

Is Iran a threat or not?

Who is Pythagoras?

How did the US get all those states from Mexico?

Why are terrorists against peace between Pakistan and India?

Al Qaeda teaches children to kill

An American blogger fights for freedom in Yemen

Was Poland responsible for Hitler’s invasion of Poland?

Why did Palestinian Arabs flee during the 1948 war? (Because the Arab invaders asked them to)

What do scientists believe about global warming?

Bolton on appeasement

What does the word jihad mean? (“warfare to subjugate the world to Islam.”)

Moral Compass

Should we abolish public schools?

Do environmentalist want to kill poor people?

Is there a single person in the US who would not be able to vote because of a photo id requirement? So far the ACLU has been unable to fine one.

What do scientists say about global warming?

Should Congress give amnesty to illegal alien farm workers?

Violence in South Africa and more on this here

President Bush, the Bible, and Israel

What should we do with FISA?

The high price (for Texas) of polygamy

Late-term abortions in the UK

UK oks human-animal embryo research

Obama corrects himself on Iran

Jewish settlers in West Bank

Be Fruitful and Multiply

The cause of our economic woes: not enough babies

Obama on Iran

Mises on Benjamin Anderson

Weird Science

Weird science in Great Britain

Animal-human hybrids and savior siblings

Are girls getting more violent and, if so, why?

What is appeasement?

Are terrorists entitled to due process?

What are the causes of anti-semitism?

Suicide bombing in Pakistan

Economic consequences of the earthquake in China

Is quantum theory wrong?

Russia has sold Saudi Arabia $4 billion worth of weapons

Why are Republican leaders in Congress supporting the farm bill?

Nancy Pelosi admits that we are making progress in Iraq

Community Garden in Lake Highlands

Illegal Immigration

Are people who are in the country illegally law-abiding?

I often hear students say that people in the US illegally are otherwise law-abiding and hard-working. They may be hard-working, but it is not possible that they are otherwise law-abiding.

If an illegal immigrant is driving without insurance, that is illegal.

If an illegal immigant is using someone else's social security number, or a false one, in order to gain employment, that is illegal.

("According to an affidavit filed by an ICE agent in conjunction with this week's arrests, 76 percent of the 968 employees on the company's payroll over the last three months of 2007 used false or suspect Social Security numbers.")

If an illegal immigrant is being paid without the employer paying unemployment insurance, etc.--that is, is being paid "under the table"--that is illegal.

There are other less obvious examples. A few years ago a friend of mine was moving and so had a number of bicycles standing in his front yard. A car stopped suddenly in front of his house, on a busy street, and got out of the car to look at the bicycles, thinking that my friend was selling the bicycles. Two vehicles driving behind this car rear-ended the stopped car and the passengers got out of those cars, one of them obviously injured. The individuals in the first car, who caused the accident, apparently lacked insurance and may well have been in the country illegally. If that is the case, then you can add leaving the scene of an accident to the list of illegal actions that someone in the country is likely to commit. (Another thought: what is the financial cost to US citizens of people in the country illegally driving without insurance? I would guess that it is considerable.)

The fact is, once you enter a country illegally, it is probably next to impossible not to break the law in other ways in order to stay and work in the country illegally.

Addendum:

"The affidavit cited unnamed sources who alleged that some company supervisors employed 15-year-olds, helped cash checks for workers with fake documents, and pressured workers without documents to purchase vehicles and register them in other names."

Here are four additional examples of breaking the law from this article: people working who are less than the legal age; cashing checks using false identification; purchasing and then registering vehicles under false names.

"In addition, the affidavit alleged that company supervisors ignored a report of a methamphetamine drug lab operating in the plant. It also cited a case in which a supervisor blindfolded a Guatemalan worker and allegedly struck him with a meat hook, without serious injury."

Two more examples of breaking the law from this article: operating an illegal drug lab and striking a worker.

It should be noted that the lawlessness is not only on the part of those who work in the country illegally, but also on the part of those who hire them. A practice that produces this much lawlessness cannot be good.

Uphill Battle

Half the children in Pottsville’s public schools are in the country illegally

Not a good idea to marry your cousin

A history of the Associated Press

Using Facebook to end the tyranny in Egypt? Also not a good idea

Do we really need a US Department of Agriculture?

Or a Department of Housing and Urban Development?

Al Qaeda in Uzbekistan?

Sweden as socialism’s poster child? Let’s see how it ends

Ditto Denmark

Should we drill for oil in Colorado?

The Muslim Brotherhood hands out freshly baked bread

Is there any hope for Detroit?

A good reason not to talk with Ahmadinejad

Progress in Mosul

Hard times in Rhode Island

Nancy Pelosi is not very popular in Iraq

Frank Zappa and democracy in Lithuania

Sell everything, give to the poor, and follow Me?

What’s happening in Afghanistan?

On the value of reading unedited decisions in law school

Gone to Texas

Doctor-friendly laws in Texas

US food aid to North Korea

US cutting deals with Norh Korea and Japan is not happy about it

Has 14-1 been good for Dallas?

Northpark is dangerous

Focus in Iraq is now on Al Qaeda in Mosul

Some people never learn

Protesting Phyllis Schlafly

Is Al Qaeda defeated?

Are illegal immigrants law-abiding?

Steyn on appeasement

Looking for Intelligent Life

Are there any intelligent evangelical Christians in the US?

Margaret Sanger and concentration camps?

President Bush on the relationship between the US and Israel

Text of President Bush’s speech to the Knesset

Jail food in Alabama

Dissembling

Should the people of California be able to prevent homosexuals from getting married?

Does the California Constitution require that homosexuals be able to marry?

The nuclear family is the last barrier against totalitarianism

Should the President of the US be willing to meet with the President of Iran?

Did Al Qaeda attack the US on 9/11 because of our support of Israel?

Is the Chinese government responsible for the large number of deaths in the earthquake?

Is Obama telling the truth about what happened in Detroit?

Freedom of speech in Netherlands

Is there any hope for Great Britain?

Dress code in Iran

The Singing Revolution in Estonia

Opens in Dallas on June 13 at Angelika

Are there fewer supernovas in our galaxy than in other ones?

Hold on Tight

A good song by ELO

Is China selling weapons to terrorists?

A brief history of Israel

Punk Rock

California uber alles

Anarchy in the UK

Choosing Our Friends

Free speech in Finland?

If we are causing global warming, what is the most effective way to fix the problem?

Is it wrong for the US to support Israel?

President Bush: Israel is our strongest ally and friend in the Middle East

Republicans and health care

Leaking secrets to the enemy

Should the world permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons?

Was it wise for the US to wait so long to turn over the government of Iraq to Iraqis?

Disaster in Burma

Burmese government hindering relief efforts

The cost of Congress’s plan to fight global warming

Olasky moves to NYC

Credit Due

Origins of Arab-Israel conflict

US always first to help

Insurgents in Iraq recruited in France

Hume's History of England

They’re not going to miss it

Rockets fired from Gaza into Israel

Will drilling for oil in the US lead to less expensive crab meat?

Were the Lovings really an inter-racial couple?

Was Tel Aviv founded by Arabs?

Children safer with biological parents

Terrorists use 8 year old girl in Iraq as a suicide bomber (later corrected to 16 year old)

Picking Our Battles

Lots of foreclosures

Thanks to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977?

Khalid Yasin speaking at Sinclair Community College

A $750 fine for an FBI agent caught spying for Hezbollah?

Are most illegal immigrants from Mexico?

Go to school or die

Is al-Qahtani innocent?

Albert Einstein gets $15 million for stem cell research

Obama and Rashid Khalidi

Was it right to go to war in Iraq?

Battle in Sadr City

Is Iran overthrowing the democratic government of Lebanon?

Should the US government provide health insurance for all Americans?

A Little Light

Sunni-Shiite terrorist cooperation

Saudi Arabia criticizes Iran for supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon

Promoting diversity at University of Colorado by hiring a conservative

Lots of CO2 in the atmosphere—most ever

150 lashes in Saudi Arabia—for meeting without a chaperone

Saving Jewish children from concentration camps

Video Feith interview

Efraim Karsh on the birth of Israel

The Purpose of Law

Should the US government detain and deport people who are in the US illegally?

More on the Iowa raid here

Should Richardson ban smoking in most businesses?

Should Florida be able to put a man to death for murdering his girlfriend?

Is a woman guilty of homicide if her stillborn baby tests positive for cocaine?

US drops charges against Guantanamo detainee

First migrants to the Americas

Why is there so much poverty in Haiti?

Should parents be able to homeschool their children?

The Right to Vote

Why are Iran and Syria supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon?

Ice melting in Arctic

Should states require proof of citizenship when people register to vote?

Should people have to show photo id in order to vote?

Should the US government be able to listen to phone calls and review financial and phone records in order to prevent terrorist attacks—even without prior court approval?

Would to save us money to spend $12 billion more on food stamps?

Do most Muslims dislike Jews and, if so, why?

Should public schools have anti-bullying programs?

Should it be legal to clone human embryos for research?

Which is more valuable, a chicken or a human fetus?

The Weaker Sex

Is violence against women acceptable in Turkey?

…and in Basra?

…and in Jordan?

Is Obama willing to meet with Ahmadinejad?

What’s happening in Lebanon?

We Hold These Truths...

BBC documentary on birth of Israel

Is Iran behind the violence in Lebanon?

McCarthy: Removing barriers to imposing Sharia

The fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq

What will Hillary do once she exits the race?

A blogger in Cuba

Obama’s life at risk?

Aristotle’s Physics II.4

A discussion of waterboarding

New Life

Imperial Jordan

April is the coolest month

Economics blog

Professors who blog

Democrats and Hugo Chavez

Are there terrorist-supporters in Rochester, NY?

Another little Duggar

Show Me the Numbers

Hezbollah controls Beirut and more on this here and here

Reefer madness

Paying millionaires to be farmers

Measles in Toronto

Did the US have a plan for post-invasion Iraq?

Can the US government’s economic numbers be trusted?

Saddam offered asylum to bin Laden in 1999

Why is the media so eager to say we’re in a recession?

No warming since 1998

The Humble Platypus

Does the platypus provide evidence for the theory of evolution?

“Now, more than 200 years later, a team of scientists has determined the platypus's entire genetic code. And right down to its DNA, it turns out, the animal continues to strain credulity, bearing genetic modules that are in turn mammalian, reptilian and avian.

There are genes for egg laying -- evidence of its reptilian roots. Genes for making milk, which the platypus does in mammalian style despite not having nipples. Genes for making snake venom, which the animal stores in its legs.”

I suppose it is a great feat of science to determine an animal’s entire genetic code, but I note that in this case at least, this feat does not tell us a whole lot more about the platypus than we already could know by simply looking at it: it has features that we normally associate with mammals, reptiles, and birds.

The idea that this accomplishment provides evidence for the theory of evolution, however, is simply not true. It is not only bad science, it is bad philosophy. To see this, consider the reasoning that you would have to use to reach this conclusion.

1. A platypus shares a trait with reptiles, insofar as it lays eggs.
2. Animals that share traits with other lower forms of animals are probably descended from them.
3. Therefore, a platypus is probably descended from reptiles.

This reasoning contains what is called in philosophy the fallacy of begging the question—that is, assuming the conclusion in the reasoning that you use to reach the conclusion.

It does this by assuming that common traits are probably an indication of evolution, which is the very thing that we are trying to prove. You cannot simply assume this and reason to the fact of evolution, you need to prove it.

In fact, from the point of view of reason, the sharing of common traits could just as easily be used as a proof that the platypus and mammals are both created by God:

1. A platypus shares a trait with reptiles, insofar as it lays eggs.
2. Animals that share traits with other kinds of animals probably share a common creator.
3. Therefore, the same Being—God—probably created both the platypus and mammals.

This reasoning also begs the question, but no more so than the reasoning that leads to the conclusion of evolution. From the point of view of reason, there is no reason to accept either conclusion and doing so would just be a matter of preference.

A further observation: even disregarding this fallacy, this kind of reasoning can only lead to probabilities and not the kind of certainties that one normally associates with science.

Medieval Times

A liberal reads the classics

Before the pilgrims

Guillaume de Machaut

Al Masri arrested (later discredited)

More trouble in Zimbabwe

Michael Barone on War and Decision

Persian Horse

Photographs of early days of Israel

Sharp decline in jobless claims

Should the US Supreme Court be able to rewrite the US Constitution?
Whitewater documents released

Another coyote attack on a small child

Does the UN actively support terrorism?

A gift of prophecy concerning the media and the war in Iraq

Iran’s gift to Lebanon

Can Lebanon defend itself against Hezbollah?

Evidence

Freedom of worship in Malaysia

Should the US governmen bail out homeowners?

Does the Right believe in facts and evidence?

Was it right for the US to recognize Israel?

Does a platypus provide evidence for evolution?

Do charter schools work?

Is Columbia University too soft on tyrants?

Should New York recognize out of state marriages between homosexuals?

In defense of a hoax

I'll Follow the Sun

“The Sun's reduced activity may cause a global temperature drop of 1.5C by 2020”

The idea of democracy in Rio Bravo

In Praise of Folly

A plea for free trade

Who are the Lackawana 6?

It’s good to be Texas

Are conservatives anti-science?

The folly of ethanol

Mexico: The folly of nationalized oil companies

McCain’s remarks on judicial philosophy

The Price of Ignorance

No freedom of press in Malaysia or China

Why is the price of oil so high?

How many scientists believe in global warming?

Should it be legal for homosexuals to get married?

What kind of judges would McCain nominate?

Booms and Busts

Housing Crisis: Low interest rates lead to higher prices which leads to people not being able to afford those prices anymore—in other words, to a bust.

Abortion crisis in Great Britain?

Cooler in California

What should the US do about training camps in Iran?

Do plants have rights?

Spengler on faith and reason

Socialized medicine in Canada: they send their difficult pregnancies to the US

UN employee made bombs for terrorist group

Is it a capital crime in Saudia Arabia to say that other religions are worthy of respect?

Two Salaries, No Children

Somalia demonstrates what Article III of the Geneva Conventions is actually for

Many dead and missing in Myanmar

Should voters have to show id?

Why does Congress subsidize ethanol producers?

Who is Riad Hamad and how did he die?

Adoption and mental disorders

Breast-feeding and high IQ

Training Shia militias in Iran

Japan is dying

Should the US pay for school lunches in other countries?

Is John Hagee worse than Jeremiah Wright?

Is it empowering to think of yourself as a victim?

Does going into debt bring about prosperity?

Masking Symptoms

Cost of a public school education

10,000 dead in Myanmar?

What happens to professors who don’t give good grades?

To which party do most professors in Texas contribute money?

Does global cooling mask global warming?

Or are they militants?

Troubles

Trouble in Afghanistan?

Trouble at the UN?

Second Iran-Iraq war

Hitler and Darwin: in their own words

In defense of Expelled

Battle over judges

Lots of spending

What happened to the USS Cole bombers?

Another Crusade?

What's in a Name?

Let’s call it Mabel

Let’s not

Definitions

What is a terrorist?

Rebels blow up mosque in Yemen

Or are they terrorists?

But there just has to be a recession

Waiting...

Or is that 23 years?

Too bad, no recession and more here

Too bad, no global warming either

What really happened at Tuskegee?

Where’s Gitmo when you need it?

Is John McCain eligible to be president?

Where did the men go?

New Counter-Culture

Bill Cosby at NAACP Convention 2004

Star Parker and poverty

Ten years of cooling, but don’t get the wrong idea

People Before Profits?

US food aid to needy countries

Raise gas tax?

Oil company profits

Stock market rallying

Should Congress tax oil profits?

More on this here

Measles outbreak

Airstrike in Somalia

Farm policy in Japan

Israel and retaliation

Raw sewage in Gaza

Preventing home foreclosures

Subsidies for farmers

What caused the credit crisis?

Right of Revolution

Oil profits

Who is Eusebio Penalver?

Czar’s dead children identified

More dead children: did Israel kill them?

Let it snow

The US Contitution and change

Follow the Money

Sending money back home

Or not

Young latinos

Tyranny in Belarus

Who is helping Hamas?

Is Richard J. Peltz a racist?

Should the Federal government loan people money?

Is Jeremiah Wright representative of African-American churches in US?

Oil profits and terrorism

Elegant French tableware