Thursday, July 31, 2008

Headlines: July 31, 2008

John Jay and slavery

Putting the Squeeze on Iran

"Issues" or "Reparations"?

What If Iraq Works?

Decline Seen in Numbers of People Here Illegally

Al-Qaeda leaving Iraq for Afghanistan: report

Eight reasons even the innocent shouldn't talk to the police

Provoking War

Sinatra: His Second Act

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

We Must Strike First

"Ahmadinejad said: ‘They [ask]: ‘Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?’ But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.'" (October 28, 2005)

"U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S."

"Iran Heads Toward Nuclear `Breakthrough,' Israel Says (Update2)"

While Senator Obama is busy gratifying the desire of Native and African-American journalists to view themselves as victims and raising the possibility of awarding reparations for sins against their ancestors, we hear news of Iran performing tests of what can best be explained as a method of launching nuclear missiles from ships and exploding them over the United States.

Dr. William Graham was the White House science adviser under President Ronald Reagan and presently chairs the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, a panel established by Congress in 2001.

Dr. Graham had this to say in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee: “The only plausible explanation [for these tests] we can find is that the Iranians are figuring out how to launch a missile from a ship and get it up to altitude and then detonate it,” he said. “And that’s exactly what you would do if you had a nuclear weapon on a Scud or a Shahab-3 or other missile, and you wanted to explode it over the United States.”

Last April, the commission issued a report on the kind of devastation that such an attack would inflict on the United States: "If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that would cripple military and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure."

Let us connect a few dots together.

1. The President of Iran has publicly stated on more than one occasion that he thinks the world would be a better place if the United States ceased to exist (at least as a power that could oppose Iran and its aspirations for world domination.)

2. Iran has a nuclear program that it insists on pursuing in spite of any opposition and is probably not far from possessing a nuclear weapon.

3. Iran appears to be perfecting its ability to launch such a weapon from a ship and explode it above the United States.

If someone were to publicly state that the world would be a better place if I didn't exist and then proceeded to devise a means by which to make his wish come true, it would be foolish of me to sit around and wait until he carried out his plan.

It is extremely important that the United States determine for itself if these things are true and if they are, we need to make sure that Iran is not able to carry out its plans for our destruction. I am confident that a President Bush or President McCain will act in our best interest if this should become necessary. I am not as confident in a President Obama, who thinks that it is wise to negotiate with those who wish that we would no longer exist.

Headlines: July 30, 2008

Restaurant Chains Close as Diners Reduce Spending

Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart

Obama's Devastating 2006 Antiwar Performance-- Now on YouTube

Obama notes ‘tragic’ US past

House formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow

Audit says Dallas Housing Authority subsidized deceased clients

John Bolton: One world? Obama is on another planet

Einstein on bees

Zimbabwe devalues currency; 10B becomes 1 dollar

Bridge to nowhere video

Citizens against government waste pig book

U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.

Fort Worth 2-year-old critically injured after TV falls from dresser

An AIDS Victory Up Close

Fix this medical ethics glitch

“After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, ‘Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.’”

Booms, Busts, and "Krugpot" Economics

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

An Evil Bailout

"Housing Bill Hammers Taxpayers"

"About the Next Crisis"

Is it right for the federal government to make it easier for people of low income to buy their own homes?

If left to itself, no one in their right mind would loan someone with a low income enough money to buy a house, at least not at a low rate of interest. The reason for this is obvious: there is a strong likelihood that a person with a low income will not be able to repay the loan.

That, unfortunately, is where the federal government comes in. After deciding that it would be a good idea to help people with low incomes buy their own homes, the federal government made sure that loans would be available at low rates of interest to such people. I am not sure exactly how this works, but presumably it involves the federal government paying part of the interest for the buyer (as in the case of student loans) as well as promising to repay the creditor if the borrower should default.

Lately the federal government has promised to do the latter of these in the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in order to make sure that investors do not withdraw their capital from these corporations. This is the last step in a series of irresponsible actions.

In the first place, people bought houses they could not afford. Then, Fannie bought these risky mortgages and investors bought stock in this risky corporation. When the people defaulted on their mortgages and investors were in danger of losing the money the invested, the federal government stepped in (with our money) to pay for any unpaid loans.

This is the most obvious way in which the federal government is taking money from those of us who live responsibly and giving it to those who are living irresponsibly. I am convinced that a society that rewards those who are irresponsible and punishes those who live responsibly cannot long survive.

The very existence of this program, however, even without a bailout, is unjust. Whenever the federal government gives people money to buy things they could not otherwise afford, it drives up the price on those items for the rest of us. This is true in the case of secondary education and medical care and it is also presumably the case in the housing market as well.

I wish the federal government would just get out of the business of helping people buy their houses. Let them work, make sacrifices for their children, teach their children to live responsibly, and they or their children or their children's children will eventually own their own home. In this way they will have earned it and not received the rewards of virtue without the exercise of virtue--and without receiving by the hand of government what rightfully belongs to someone else.

(See Hans F. Sennholz’s “Why is Medical Care so Expensive?” for a discussion of how the federal government drives up the cost of medical care.)

Headlines: July 29, 2008

Bush to leave a record budget deficit of $482 billion

A Democratic Deficit

Dems Moving To Fund UN Agency That Aids China’s One-Child Policy

Registered Sex Ofenders Are Beneficiaries of Medicare Fraud

“Registered sex offenders and deceased doctors are among the beneficiaries of more than $60 billion in fraudulent Medicare claims paid by the U.S. government each year, according to experts.”

Billions in Payroll Tax Remain Unpaid to IRS

How much does Iraq war cost per month? $10.3 Billion

Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, injuring 265 students

Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession

About the Next Crisis

“At issue here are what HUD calls its "affordable housing goals and subgoals" for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

Texas likely to appeal bilingual education ruling

Reparations for Al Qaeda

Batman Bush true dark knight

Math Is Harder for Girls

Spengler: Why do nations exist?

Kansan sticks it to election system

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

Africans tell Bono: "Stop Sending Aid"

Can Foreign Aid Save Africa?, by US Rep. Ron Paul

Monday, July 28, 2008

Headlines: July 27, 2008

Gunman Kills 2, Injures 7 In Tennessee Church

Baghdad suicide bombers kill 28

Death toll in Istanbul bombings rises to 17

Terrorist Attacks Unsettling India

Police Investigate Sixth Random Shooting

3 Female Suicide Bombers Strike Iraqi Pilgrims

Fuel Subsidies Overseas Take a Toll on U.S.

Trey Garrison: Why I don't want diversity in my neighborhood

Six killed in strike in South Waziristan

Feds arrest 58 undocumented workers in raids on 8 eateries

Al-Qaeda weapons expert believed killed in Pakistan
U.S. spends $1 Million Researching Syrians ‘Hooked on Hookahs’

Funds for Highways Plummet As Drivers Cut Gasoline Use

29 dead, 100 wounded in India serial blasts

The Greatest Scandal: The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal

Global Warming: The Debate Continues

Serial Rape Suspect's Trail Of Clues Leads to Violent End.

Strategies For Sustained Growth And Inclusive Development

The Growth Report: China’s Development Roadmap

More ice than expected in parts of the Arctic

“New data from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute shows that there is more ice than normal in the Arctic waters north of the Svalbard archipelago.”

ANWR Drilling Would Provide Quick Relief

Sunday, July 27, 2008

AIDS Relief in Africa

"Senate agrees to triple anti-AIDS funding"

"The 80-16 vote committed the United States to spending up to $48 billion over the next five years for the most ambitious foreign public health program ever launched by the United States."

Is it right for the US to spend this much money to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa?

At the time of this writing, the US is $9,540,161,111,017.02 in debt. In addition, USA Today recently estimated that “taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs.” When state and local liabilities are added, the figure becomes $61.7 trillion.

There are many problems in this world that I and my family could address if we had sufficient means. As it is, we do what we can while staying within our means. We are certainly not morally obligated to help more than we are able and beyond a certain point we would become morally culpable for spending money that we do not have, even if we spent it on a worthy cause.

Considering the size of the debt of the US government and its already existing financial obligations, I do not think it is moral for the US to provide this assistance. We are simply spending money that we do not have and we will go deeper into debt if we do it.

Yes, there is a need in Africa and individual Americans would do well to give money to relieve the suffering of those who are in need. It is not, however, something that the US government is presently in a position to do.

Headlines: July 26, 2008

India on alert after two days of bombings kill 46

Congress Mulls Lifting HIV Ban

Senate agrees to triple anti-AIDS funding

Gross predicts $1 trillion of writedowns

Obama Delivers Berlin Address: "A World That Stands as One"

A Turkish theater for World War III*

Common Cents: High gas prices encourage a step back from enviro-lunacy.

Arab Aid to Palestinians Often Doesn't Fulfill Pledges

Pakistan Hopes Premier's U.S. Visit Will Yield Funds, Forbearance

ACLU Admits Clients Contributed to Terror Organizations Yet Still Represent Them

Big Media Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is

Chinese group vows Olympic Games attacks

Explosions in Istanbul kill at least 13

A Shiite Militia in Baghdad Sees Its Power Wane

Saturday, July 26, 2008

It’s not time to give felons back their right to vote

"It’s time to give felons back their right to vote"

It is a good question whether or not a person who is convicted of a felony should be able to regain the right to vote. My purpose here is not to answer that question.

What bothers me about this op-ed piece is the author's identification of these disenfranchised convicted felons as victims. They are not victims; they are criminals who are suffering the consequences of their actions.

There is a tendency among liberals to want to spare people from experiencing the consequences of their wrong actions and this is an example of that. This author seems to think that society--with its system of laws and punishments--is the villain here and the criminal is the innocent one. He is morally confused in thinking this and it is important not to let him confuse the rest of us.

The idea that this law of Virginia is an expression of racial injustice is especially perverse. Certainly there is not one set of laws on the books for African-Americans and another for everyone else. If a disproportionate number of African-Americans cannot vote as a result of this law (and there is no indication in the piece that this is the case), it is not the fault of the law but of those who have broken it.

On second thought, I can see no reason why Virginia should repeal this law. Voting is the way that we influence what government does. If we want government to do what is right, then those who vote need to have a strong sense of right and wrong. Anyone who is convicted of a felony is by definition lacking in this, at least at the time of his or her offense.

Headlines: July 25, 2008

Darwin Payne: We can't roll over Ross Avenue's glorious past

It’s time to give felons back their right to vote

Evolving toward a compromise

Defining “Victory” in Iraq

One world? Obama's on a different planet

The Big White Lie

"There is, after all, something greater than courtesy. ‘Firmness in the right,’ Lincoln called it, ‘as God gives us to see the right.’ We find ourselves at a precarious moment in an endeavor of great importance: namely, the preservation of Western rationalism and liberty. It does mankind no good to allow so magnificent an enterprise to slip away merely for fear of saying the wrong thing.”

Friday, July 25, 2008

Headlines: July 24, 2008

Michelle Obama’s Thesis

Obama's Missing Thesis

U.S. Foreclosures Double as House Prices Decline (Update2)

Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1

Let’s fact check Obama

Religious Left Did Not Always Despise Israel

Kuntar: 'Allah Willing, I'll Get to Kill More Israelis'

Hate (Crime) Cannot Wish Thee Worse

CRIME IN THE HOOD

It's a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit

Abortion's Aftershocks

200,000 . . . or 20,000? Obama's Crowd in Berlin

The Inequality Taboo: It's time to start talking about differences between groups of people.

ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Personal Responsibility

Housing Bill Hammers Taxpayers

Stem Cells Breakthrough: Three separate teams overcome a biomedical hurdle—creating stem cells without the use of human embryos.

Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment

Destruction in black America is self-inflicted

Jena, O. J. and the Jailing of Black America

Victimhood: Rhetoric or Reality

Liberals, race, and history

U.S. Immigrants Bearing More of the TB Burden

Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

Plea for gang violence crackdown

Mangan’s Miscellany

Those who make more money work harder

The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800

The laws of war : constraints on warfare in the Western world

Russia 'may use Cuba to refuel nuclear bombers'

Headlines: July 24, 2008

The anguish of foreclosure

“As Congress rushed yesterday to help 400,000 strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure and prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing, the suicide underscored the potentially devastating toll of the housing crunch.”

Black and single: Is marriage really for white people?

Google launches Knol as rival to Wikipedia

Housing rescue bill passed in US

Inflation reaches critical levels in Zimbabwe

Hyperinflation occurs when "the monetary and fiscal authorities of a nation regularly issue large quantities of money to pay for a large stream of government expenditures. In effect, inflation is a form of taxation where the government gains at the expense of those who hold money whose value is declining."

Defendant walks out of Guantanamo war crimes trial: Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, seems discomfited by a video taken shortly after his 2001 capture. He later returns to court and apologizes to the judge.

Thousands Flock for a Chance at Loan Relief

MPs scrap France's 35-hour week

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A World Without Conequences

Rescue of mortgage giants could hit $25 billion

US general warns Russia on nuclear bombers in Cuba

Iran to get new Russian air defences by '09 -Israel

NBC 15 confronts Speaker Nancy Pelosi on FEMA spending

Police: Child Dead after Dog Maulling in Mississippi

Khadr's family made Canada a 'laughing stock'

Rosenberg testimony on verge of public release

The Sweet Illusion Of Socialism

Child molester hasn't served single day of 43-year prison term

Absolutely Fascinating: Robert F. Kennedy Reporting from Israel, 1948

“ParaScope presents this pictorial archive documenting the genocidal mass murder and acts of depravity carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II.”

A paler shade of black

Survey Warns about High Rates of HIV/AIDS among Hispanics

Reading of Rights Becomes Issue in Guantanamo Trial

Der Spiegel Rewrote the Whole Maliki Interview — Of Course!

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Should Be Cut Down and Cut Loose

Solving the Fannie and Freddie problem

Our Government Problem-Solvers

“Markets were also blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930s and New Deal politicians were credited with getting us out of it. But increasing numbers of economists and historians have concluded that it was government intervention which prolonged the Great Depression beyond that of other depressions where the government did nothing.The stock market crash of 1987 was at least as big as the stock market crash in 1929. But, instead of being followed by a Great Depression, the 1987 crash was followed by 20 years of economic growth, with low inflation and low unemployment. The Reagan administration did nothing in 1987, despite outrage in the media at the government’s failure to live up to its responsibility, as seen in liberal quarters. But nothing was apparently what needed to be done, so that markets could adjust.”

Headlines: July 23, 2008

Woes Afflicting Mortgage Giants Raise Loan Rates

Kay Bailey Hutchison: Ensuring security for Freddie and Fannie

Gay 'Marriage' and Soft Despotism

Sen. Obama, Meet Steve Schippert [Andy McCarthy]

Suspend the Writ: After Boumediene, Congress must restore order and has the power to do it.

“If war powers are delegated to politically insulated judges, then the American people are no longer in control of their most basic, natural right of self-defense….A political community forms a government, most elementally, for its own protection from external threats. That is why the first responsibility of government is the security of the governed, not due process for the enemies of the governed.”

The Fannie Mae Gang

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Headlines: July 22, 2008

Fannie and Freddie's Enablers

Bring back Dan Quayle

Does HIV cause AIDS?

IRAN: TORTURED CHRISTIAN FLEES

Illegal Rx? Barack Objects and Dick Answers

Monday, July 21, 2008

When Worlds Collide - WSJ.com

When Worlds Collide - WSJ.com

Headlines: July 21, 2008

US general: al-Qaida may be easing effort in Iraq

In Defense of Liberty: The Relationship Between Security and Freedom

“That 47 million statistic includes illegal immigrants - who virtually all lack insurance. In fact, about one in four of those lacking insurance is here illegally. And they are, by far, the group most in need of health insurance.”

UK Plan to Marginalize Islamic Militants Draws Cool Response

A final wish for dying teen

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Headlines: July 19, 2008

Victory in Iraq

Congress's Edifice Complex

Poor Ohio Family Forced to Scrimp On Food

“The chancellor of the exchequer also told The Times newspaper that taxpayers were at the limit of what they were willing to pay, a day after official data showed a record deficit in Britain's public finances, and reports that the government might bend its budget rules.”

Cuba to Allow Private Farming

Iran Refuses To Suspend Uranium Enrichment

Fremont takes on illegal immigration

Friday, July 18, 2008

More Headlines: July 18, 2008

HOUSING HUSTLERS: FANNIE & FREDDIE'S FRIENDS IN CONGRESS

Consensus collapses: APS re-opens debate on global warming; Update: APS “reaffirms” stance

Province handed to Iraqi control

Recession fears engulfing Europe

Obama on Boumediene & Nuremburg

“Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples’ money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.” —William F. Buckley Jr.

Snow still covers hiking trails in Cascades, Olympics

RESIDENTS OF DELAWARE AND TEXAS ENJOY HIGHEST LEVELS OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM

How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried

Hat tip: Instapundit, Free Republic

Headlines: July 18, 2008

“The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming.”

More From Daily Tech:

Europe's Warming Attributed to Cleaner Air, Not Climate Change

So Much For Flooded Cities: Greenland Ice Loss Not Increasing

Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling

Despite Reality, Belief in Peak Oil Persists

In Texas, the Right Boots Up to Gain Strength Online

The Next Right

What is Oil Change International?

Texas Will Spend Billions on Transmission of Wind Power

John Ashcroft disavows waterboarding memos

Chertoff: European terrorists trying to enter US

The "Unitary Executive" and the Scope of Executive Power

Hat Tip: Lucianne.com

Thursday, July 17, 2008

More Headlines: July 17, 2008

Iraq's security 'remarkably better'

Mississippi remains most obese state, CDC reports

Confessions of a subprime lender: 3 bad loans

Our creative mortgage crisis?

Has global warming now stopped?

“Each possible cause of global warming has a different pattern of where in the planet the warming occurs first and the most. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever.”

Deism and the Founding Fathers

UPDATE ON THE IRAQI OIL LAW

Some US soldiers in Iraq yearn to be in Afghan war

Great Video of Sen. Bunning Questioning Paulson

Headlines: July 17, 2008

The Sojourners' Moral Confusion

Top Qaeda operative held in Multan

Voters given chance to ban same-sex 'marriage'

Offend a homosexual ... Go to prison for 5 years

Republicans not sold on this mortgage rescue plan

Senate Agrees to $50 Billion AIDS Plan

Trumbo: Whitewashing the Life of a Blacklisted Writer

U.S. Abandons Site of Afghan Attack

US plans to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979

Iraq's al-Qaida fighters now `furtive terrorists'

US poised to bomb Pakistan: Reports

Unconstitutional Bailout

The Housing Bailout

Hat tips: Lucianne.com, The Corner, Free Republic

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Headlines: July 16, 2008

Opponents Of Gay Marriage Rally For Prop. 8

The brilliance of the Electoral College

La Raza To The Bottom

"Let the Market Solve the Energy Crisis"

Israel, Hezbollah Begin Dramatic Prisoner Exchange

Israel's 'peace partner' celebrates Kuntar's release

The world should know what Abu Abbas and Samir Kuntar did to my family

No Blank Check for Fannie and Freddie

Egypt Faces Rising Risk of Lebanon-Like Muslim-Christian Strife

Raymond Ibrahim: Land Dispute or Jihad? The Coptic Monastery Raid Revisited

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

More Headlines: July 15, 2008

Wholesale prices soar in June; Sales are sluggish

Stemming the oil crisis: No quick fix

One Down, One To Go

Obama: 'I Had No Doubt... We Would See a Reduction in Violence' With Surge

Obama's Dishonest Op-Ed

EMPATHY FAILURE

HAH!!... OBAMA SCRUBS "CIVIL WAR" FROM IRAQ WEBPAGE!!

Public Radio, Obama And The Surge

A sense of normalcy in Iraq

76 Trumbos video

Paulson's Fannie Test

Fannie Mayhem: A History

Headlines: July 15, 2008

Bolton: “All we do know is that, after five years of failed diplomacy by the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany), Iran is simply five years closer to nuclear weapons.”

Moral Hazard of Fannie, Freddie

DUMMIES' GUIDE TO MAE AND MAC

Treasury, Fed Seek To Brace Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Video of interrogation of Gitmo prisoner released

Scramble Led to Rescue Plan on Mortgages

Bush Acts on Drilling, Challenging Democrats

Monday, July 14, 2008

More Headlines: July 14, 2008

A new American reality: The government as provider

Bush to lift executive ban on offshore drilling

Analysts say more U.S. banks will fail

Oil is NOT a fossil fuel and AGW is non-science

Hot and bothered over climate

Providing Insight Into Climate Change

Friends of Science - Video

Slavery’s Last Chapter

This is al-Qa'eda Rule 18: 'You must claim you were tortured'

PA wants 'festive' funeral for coastal road killer

A Sabbath of Terror

Hat Tips: Lucianne.com, Drudge Report, Best of the Web

Headlines: July 14, 2008

FAA KIDS ARE IN 'CONTROL' DESPERATE FEDS WOOING HIGH-SCHOOLERS

America sizzles under heat wave - 72 years ago today!

God Bless Al-Jazeera

5 in U.K. Plead Guilty in Airline Plot

Sudan Seeks Support From Allies Over Darfur Indictment

Charles Krauthammer: Why it takes 'Hard power' to get the job done

Obama camp fuming over Obama-as-terrorist cartoon

McCain takes a Social Security risk

Phillips: "So, Russia and China have vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose international sanctions on key members of Zimbabwe’s government…. It has long been clear that the UN is the very last place to look for action against despotism, terror or tyranny."

Foreign Courts Take Aim at Our Free Speech

Obama's post-9/11 comments

Freddie, Fannie, and Curses on FDR

China Executes Two Uyghurs

OBAMA AIPAC BOMBSHELL-- Admits Misleading Jewish Voters

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Headlines: July 13, 2008

Escondido tries to rid itself of undocumented immigrants

Beaufort County begins crackdown on illegal immigrants

Democracy is losing ground in Africa

The $5.7 Trillion Myth

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Headlines: July 12, 2008

US judge blocks gas drilling in Michigan forest

In Alaska, The Bid To Drill Oil Means Beating Off Myths, Too

Missouri Governor Signs Law Targeting Illegal Aliens

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Rebirth of New York City

A not very PC video about gas prices

How much would it cost the US if Obama becomes president?

"We limit our sexual freedom in order to form stable families that teach children to internalize civilization's self-restraint and make it part of their character, a process that turns the raw material of nature into human beings. 'I thought everybody was born human,' Sammler's pretty niece tells him. He replies, with this civilizing process in mind: 'It is not a natural gift at all. Only the capacity is natural.'"

Mises on moral relativism

Headlines: July 11, 2008

U.S. officials rush to reassure markets about loan agencies

Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping

“Between 2000 and 2006, U.S. net greenhouse gas emissions fell 3%. Of the 17 largest world-wide emitters, only France reduced by more.”

President George Bush: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'

Women having more children than at any point since 1970s

“Among the missiles Iran said it tested this week was a new version of the Shahab-3, one with a range of 1,250 miles and armed with a one-ton conventional warhead. Mohammed ElBaradei, the Inspector Clouseau of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recently said Iran could have a nuclear warhead for the Shahab within six months.”

Saving Iraq’s Christians

Scientist to Congress: U.S. risks 'catastrophe' in nuke EMP attack

Man who killed parents at Valley Ranch home in 1998 is executed

$36.3 Trillion Shortfall Can Be Fixed, Experts Say

The New FISA Law -- and the Misleading Media Coverage Of It

Hat tips: Drudge Report, Lucianne.com, Free Republic

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Alfalfa Restaurant Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake Recipe

Alfalfa Restaurant Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake Recipe

Fame

Image of Iran’s missiles is a fake

A discussion of Matt Drudge

Nowpublic.com

Stephen King on authors and publishers

Is Antartica breaking up?

Lord Acton Essays

San Francisco Cable Cars - 1958 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

San Francisco Cable Cars - 1958 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Headlines: July 10, 2008

US warns Iran on missile threat

Senate easily passes wiretap bill

Iran test-fires more missiles in Persian Gulf

Five Rwandans among killed Darfur peacekeepers: report

A discussion of so-called honor killings

Mothers in Pakistan dedicate their children for jihad

Swedish snoop law targets Russia

Hezbollah supporter in Dearborn, MI enters plea bargain for death threat

Al Qaeda in Turkey?

McCarthy: Discussion of revised FISA bill

The Self-Destruction of the Al Durah Faithful

Hat tips: Google news, Jawa Report, Jihad Watch, Interested-Participant

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

More Cold War?

Cows emit lots of methane

“Economist Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University has shown that in 1970, when the highest tax rate was 70%, the top 1% shouldered 16.7% of the income tax burden. Today the top tax rate is 35% and the same class of taxpayers pays a whopping 39% of the burden. The worst way to "soak the rich," Mr. Hubbard finds, is to raise tax rates.”

What is La Raza?

China goes capitalist and more on this here

High corporate tax rates hurt the economy

Is that 550 tons of yellowcake safer in Canada?

Iran points missiles at Israel

“Strategic bombers off the American coast, battleships in the Mediterranean -- the Russian military is displaying its might once again with Moscow pumping billions into new weapons. But where does the Kremlin see its enemies today, and why is it risking another nuclear arms race with Washington?”

Life in Putin's Russia

“The US insists that the shield, which includes plans to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, is aimed at rogue states such as Iran and does not threaten Russia. Moscow is adamant, however, that the project undermines its security.”

Iran has resumed A-bomb project, says West

Classic film scores on CD

An editorial on yellowcake

More thoughts on taxes

Hat tips: Mises blog, Lucianne.com, The New Media Journal, Patriot Post

Headlines: July 9, 2008

US Marines: 400 Afghan insurgents killed

Afghanistan: Foreigners blamed in blast

Coalition to lobby for U.S. health-care reform

Fed ready to aid investment banks

Fed to curb shady home-lending practices

Russia warns of retaliation after Prague signs US 'star wars' pact

G-8 Failure on Emissions Plan Threatens Climate Fight

China, India Lead Objections to G-8 Emissions Targets

Iran test fires missiles in riposte to U.S., Israel

3 Police and 3 Gunmen Die in Attack on U.S. Post in Turkey

Guardian Weekly: Special focus on Israeli 'security wall'

Hillary Bercovici rescued at sea (not a headline)

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Obsession

Everyone gets a cost of living increase except those who are productive

US has the best cancer survival rates

Lee Marvin on Liberty Valance

Spengler on the US

LGF obsessed with evolution

Claim: “No amount of validation changes a theory into a law, which is a descriptive generalization about nature.”

Fact: “The modern world began on 29 May 1919 when photographs of a solar eclipse, taken on the island of Principe off West Africa and at Sobral in Brazil, confirmed the truth of a new theory of the universe ” (Paul Johnson, Modern Times, 1)

For Einstein’s law of relativity, see here

Claim: “The fossil record and abundant other evidence testify that organisms have evolved through time. Although no one observed those transformations, the indirect evidence is clear, unambiguous and compelling.”

Question: What is the evidence?

Chavez supports Hezbollah

“Alas! The devil labours night and day to cause warfare, where good men wish for peace and harmony, and he well knows how to accomplish this end.” (John Froissart, The Chronicles of England, France, and Spain, 163)

Student and advisor to be flogged in Saudi Arabia

McCarthy and Wittes on Boumediene, etc.

Stressed Plants

Melanie Phillips: “The Islamists launched their jihad against the West because they perceived it was so weak and confused it would not possess the wherewithal to defend itself. When it comes to Britain, they never spoke a truer word.”

“Insects…attack plants that are in stress….In doing so, they help to eliminate unfit plants” (Howard Garrett, Texas Gardening The Natural Way, 295)

“Israeli Arab terror group threatens jihad

Americans who study at Madrassas

Wikipedia on global warming: no dissent allowed

Louisiana law permits discussion of problems with Darwinism

“The men who ordered the destruction of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie and the bombings of the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia are pursuing the nuclear program in Iran and with one goal in mind: to obtain The Bomb. And they want to destroy you.”

Cause of the food crisis? Government policies

Hat tips: Jihad Watch, Free Republic

Monday, July 7, 2008

Sacred Honor

Figures on national debt

Income, Poverty, Health Insurance in US: 2007

Many detained terrorist have arrest records in US

Who is stealing Nigeria’s oil?

NY Times publishes name of KSM interrogator

Iraq’s yellowcake

North Korean Refugees

Hungry in North Korea

Political prisoner at birth in North Korea

“American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.”

Iran has resumed work on nukes

Jihadists in NYC

Kasich as McCain’s VP?

Rapes in Zimbabwe

Slavery in Saudi Arabia

Honor killing in Georgia and Jordan

Realistic photographs of Lincoln

Kabul suicide attack

Hamas front group threatens to sue blog

Calvin Coolidge’s speech on Declaration

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Eureka

Can Seymour Hersh be trusted?

Final push against al-Qaeda in Iraq

Maliki: We have defeated terrorism

Students in Pakistan vow to commit jihad against the US

Texaco cars of the decades

What WMDs? “The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached this Canadian port Saturday, completing a secret U.S. operation that included an airlift from Baghdad and a voyage across two oceans.”

Who is Ahmed Batebi?

Nobama video

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Sedition

Al Qaeda now recruits 12 year old boys

“Let the Muslim youth not await anyone’s permission, for jihad against the Americans, Jews, and their alliance of hypocrites and apostates is an individual obligation, as we have demonstrated” (Ayman Zawahiri)

Do public schools have a financial incentive put children in special education?

Finding images on Flickr

Francis Bacon on Sedition

Photographs by Bruno Barbier

Is the criminal justice system racist?

Friday, July 4, 2008

News of the Free and Hungry

If we get socialized medicine like Canada: overflowing emergency rooms

The collapse of Tower 7 explained

Saddam’s destruction of Marsh Arabs (video)

Video of rescue of FARC captives

Recipes from Israel

Breakfast in the Middle East

Depression

Greenland’s ice is melting more slowly (That Mother Nature is an amazing woman)

Are we in a recession? (No)

Coal mining fatalities go down under Bush, but that doesn’t stop the New York Times from demonizing him

No freedom of worship in Algeria

Obama’s reversals

Does the use of marijuana lead to depression? (The right to pursue happiness includes those pursuits that lead to happiness, not those that lead to misery.)

No more ex-pats in Paris

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A Long Cold Summer

Out of control federal spending

Coldest ever in Charlotte

Lots of snow in Montana and Wyoming

Things are going well in Iraq

Death penalty in Iran for bloggers?

Leading producer of CO2? China

Video on Dohrn and Ayres

Happiness in Israel

College professors: very liberal

Rescue in Colombia: when deceit is justified

Other conservative book recommendations

Will someone please explain to college students who Che Guevara was?

A book about Dien Bien Phu

A Discussion of the 1948 Arab-Israel War

Martin Gilbert’s history of modern Israel

Brendel playing Schubert Piano Sonata in D (video)

A Radical Idea

Why do people refuse to admit that AIDS is primarily spread through male homosexual sex?

Some books recommended by conservatives

Does neutrality toward intelligent design endorse religion?

Should the FBI be able to engage in racial profiling?

How the MSM handle good news in Iraq: (silence)

The CA Supreme Court changed the meaning of the CA Constitution in order to legalize homosexual marriage, but Obama thinks it’s discriminatory for the people of CA to amend the CA Constitution.

Welcome to the oligarchy: now judges decide whether or not we can build power plants

The Arctic doesn’t look like it will be melting any time soon

What is revolutionary republicanism?

Is al Sadr losing his power?

Timetable of how Palestinian Arabs sabotaged the effort to give them their own state

What is the Islamic Maghreb?

Jihadism in Algeria (and exported to Iraq)

Jihadism in Chad (to be exported everywhere)

Are there terrorists among us? Yup and more on this story here

When it comes to wiretapping, we are ruled by judges not the Constitution

But when judges are ignorant of the state of the law, it’s the fault of the Justice Department

There may be hope: liberal professors are retiring (but nearly all of the young professors I know are even more so). Also, are these older liberal professors really retiring in large numbers?

Iraqis defending themselves against terrorists

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Desire for Acceptance

US has the best cancer survival rates

(If the US goes to socialized health care, more people will die of cancer)

Guess which other Senator got a discount on his home loan? That would be Senator Obama

Supreme Court fails to notice that child rape is punishable by death in the US Military Code

Should the US try to be liked?

Some statistics on the result of the surge in Iraq

Christopher Hitchens decides, after experiencing it, that waterboarding is torture

What does Sharia look like?

Williams: Does overpopulation cause poverty?

Iraqis in Cairo: "We have nothing to give the Americans; we are the ones who should be thankful!"

Colleges that will not corrupt your children

Does Obama have links to the Communist Party USA?

Al Qaeda has been driven to Pakistan, Somalia, and Algeria

What is the Muslim Brotherhood “Project”?

NY Times Magazine piece on Rush Limbaugh

“I felt everyone who criticized me was right and I was wrong,” he confided. But, he says, he left his insecurities behind in Arizona. “It’s not possible to offend me now,” he said. “I won’t give people the power to do it anymore. My problem was born of immaturity and my childhood desire for acceptance. I learned in drug rehab that this was stunting and unrealistic. I was seeking acceptance from the wrong people.”

Biltmore Estate in North Carolina

What’s happened to our money?

Can Western Civilization Be Saved?

A discussion of the Bush presidency

Iraq has reached 15 of 18 benchmarks, with only 2 unsatisfactory

A small liberty-movement in Europe

Palestinian Arab murders Israelis with a bulldozer

Is there a connction between going to church together and having a successful marriage?

The consequences of Israel’s failure to win the war with Hezbollah

Diana West on how to save western civilization

Mark Bittman’s 101 20-minute picnic ideas

McCarthy: Are Democrates making it impossible for the US to defend itself?

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Springs of Moral Conduct

Good eats

Books on the Civil War

Something to keep in mind concerning gun deaths: half are from suicide

An example of a misleading use of gun death statistics

Obama and infanticide

Denmark is the world’s happiest country

Another terrorist from Saudi Arabia

George Washington as a leader

How to fight terrorists within the limits of the law and the Constitution

A book on the Mufti of Jerusalem

The conquest of India

A history of Jihad

A history of dhimmitude

A brief history of jihad and dhimmitude

Review of A History of Palestine and other discussion of this book

Books and articles or lectures by Bat Ye’or

Robert Spencer’s book on Islam

Pryce-Jones: Why are there no Arab liberal democracies?

From the beginning Bryant had believed that "the emotions raised by poetry," as Mr. Muller puts it, "could guide readers to the springs of moral conduct." In his editorials at the Evening Post he believed he was simply using a different medium to do the same job for the country's democracy.

A bizarre case of judicial restraint

Are speculators responsible for high prices? No, but in some cases politicians are

US produces a little more than half the oil it produced in 1971

Listening to Naxos and here for Beethoven Sonatas

The Most Ancient Right

Why are judges so intent on getting us killed?

“There is much emotional talk about defending Britain’s ancient rights and liberties, whose erosion in the ostensible cause of fighting terror would, it is said, hand victory to al Qaeda.”

People who speak this either do not know English history or are trying to deceive us. What would Edward III have done to members of al Qaeda?

“Preventing violence against women” is now a euphemism for “making abortion legal

South Dakota can require doctors to say that a fetus is a human being

Bush administration has spent $45 billion to fight climate change

Detainees sue contractors for abuse at Abu Ghraib

Unemployment benefits extended to 39 weeks

al Qaeda terrorists released from Guantanamo who go on to kill in Iraq

How reliable is Seymour Hersh?

Are terrorists out to get us? They are in Spain

Teenagers who want to have babies