April 26, 2008

THIS ISN'T PARTICULARLY REASSURING: An airbase inside a mountain is the latest sign that North Korea, whose links to Syria’s nuclear programme came to light last week, is cranking up its military machine.

YES, THIS IS REALLY A STORY FROM THE BBC: "Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life. . . . I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns. . . . It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream."

An armed society is a polite society.

LACK OF SEASONING SHOWS AGAIN: Obama Calls Bloggers Liars for Accurately Reporting His Words.

ALASDAIR PALMER: Destroy Iran's Nukes to Save Our Cities.

James Joyner doesn't see that happening.

GUY HERBERT:

The distinction between the legal order in Western democracies and the tyrannies of Stalinist Russia or modern China or the Arab gulf states, is often thought to be stark. In Britain in particular, we are complacent that 800 years of the common law will protect us against the overreaching power of state functionaries.

Today comes a case that shows this conceit to be ill-founded.

Read the whole thing.

I THINK THIS WOULD BE A BIGGER STORY if he were a Republican:

Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor asked pastors and citizens Friday to don burlap sacks and ashes Friday in an Old Testament-style sign of biblical repentance.

Mayor Larry Langford said his "sackcloth and ashes" rally at Boutwell Auditorium was inspired by the Book of Jonah, where residents of the ancient city of Ninevah wore rough fabric and ashes as a sign of turning away from sin.

A pastor who helped organize the rally said Langford purchased 2,000 burlap bags that will be handed out at the event. . . . Since he took office last year, Langford has held three prayer rallies as a way of addressing crime and violence. Bibles were handed out at one of the events.

"This city needs to humble itself," said Langford, a professing Christian.

Instead, his party isn't mentioned. You have to go to Wikipedia to find out that he's a Democrat.

At any rate, this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn't that Birmingham isn't humble enough. The problem is that it's got thugs on the streets that it's not controlling. That doesn't call for self-abasement by the community, though the Mayor and the Chief of Police might consider dropping to their knees and begging forgiveness -- from the community, not God -- for failing to do their jobs.

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Schultz emails:

I am a pretty conservative, evangelical Christian (and a pastor). Thanks for your words on the "sackcloth and ashes" stunt by Birmingham's mayor.

Repentance might be appropriate for a community-wide spiritual response to the community's injustice and oppression, but not for a crime wave. The people who repent are supposed to abase themselves. Are the burlap sacks for the thugs? And who in our culture even understands the imagery of sackcloth and ashes? And even if there was wholesale revival in Birmingham, why is it the Mayor and not the religious leaders calling for this?

As you rightly point out, "...this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn't that Birmingham isn't humble enough. The problem is that it's got thugs on the streets that it's not controlling."

As I said, I'm an evangelical Christian, and I find this embarrassing, stupid, and pointless.

No argument here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hmm. Seems like Langford has a lot more sin on his soul than just other people's crimes:

Two private charities controlled by Larry Langford collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen and companies he approved for government work as Fairfield mayor and Jefferson County Commission president, records show. . . . Langford's financial arrangements with bankers, lobbyists and others who received government business with his help have come under scrutiny from federal investigators. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers began digging in 2004 into bond deals, many championed by Langford, that since have led the county to the brink of bankruptcy.

SEC investigators asked Langford last year about charitable contributions he solicited from county vendors, including those involved in the bond deals.

It's like all this God stuff is just a smokescreen to cover up his own sins. Do you think it's possible?

CINDY SHEEHAN FILES to run against Nancy Pelosi. "I'll represent everyone in San Francisco, not just the corporate elite."

AL SHARPTON VOWS TO close New York City.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Friedman emails: "This cannot help Obama or Hillary. The more anti-police, anti-white rhetoric, the more the unwashed bitter people flock to McCain in November." That's probably right. As with Jeremiah Wright, it's almost as if Sharpton is trying to hurt Obama.

ANOTHER UPDATE: TigerHawk: "The elevation of Barack Obama to the presidency would vastly diminish the influence of leaders who have built up their power by stoking, rather than alleviating, the grievances of African-Americans. The era of the 'civil rights' leader would be over, perhaps sooner by decades than if Barack Obama loses. Even if Al Sharpton believes that would be a good thing -- and that is surely looking on the bright side of Sharpton -- it has to be unnerving for him. It is not a great stretch to suppose that Sharpton is rationalizing his way to public eruptions that frustrate Barack Obama's need to win votes from the vast American center."

MORE: A reader who (understandably) prefers anonymity emails: "I agree with Edward Friedman. Same with Bill Ayers, come to think of it. Don't these people have the sense to stop digging?" Apparently not. Or they've got an agenda that makes digging the sensible thing.

CAR LUST: Driving very fast in the Ariel Atom. "It is one of the very few cars that can make the Caterham Super Seven look like a safe, sedate, practical family car. . . . You can even carry a passenger--great for those first dates if your date is the type of person who prefers roller coasters to fine French dining." Video at the link.

UPDATE: Reader James Fuerstenberg writes: "A friend gave me a ride in one at Blackhawk Farms race track...holy crap!...an amazing car. I own two race cars...neither is as fast as the Atom. The cornering and braking are more impressive than the acceleration. You need a neck brace due to the g forces."

RON ROSENBAUM on the Bell verdict and the tragic folly of vice squads.

TAXPROF: Tax Problems Threaten Al Franken's Senate Candidacy.

WASHINGTON POST: "The Democratic presidential candidates have some big plans -- with big price tags attached. By our calculations, using figures supplied by the campaigns, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has proposed new spending and tax breaks that would amount to almost $265 billion a year when fully implemented, while the initiatives proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) total nearly $333 billion."

How about a 10% across-the-board cut in discretionary spending and a freeze on entitlements, instead?

FIGHTING BLEEDING with nanoparticles.

PAYBACK TIME: Eleanor Clift observes: "I'm beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks—including a huge chunk of the media—will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in 'The Godfather,' where the watchword is, 'It's business, not personal.'"

MICHAEL WEISS ISN'T BUYING Obama's new strategy.

FOR THE GUY WHO HAS EVERYTHING: Tool-o-rama.

AMY ALKON ON "Deadbeat Dads" who are actually moms. But that doesn't alliterate!

THE NEW YORK TIMES says that the Jeremiah Wright ad in North Carolina is "race-baiting." But Ann Althouse disagrees:

But look at the ad! It's about left-wing politics and anti-Americanism. . . . Is it racism simply because Jeremiah Wright and Obama are black? It would make more sense to accuse the NYT of racism for thinking that that anything that black people say or do is about their race.

Watch it for yourself. Note that the impact of these denunciations is to discredit those who reflexively play the race card on Obama's behalf, and to ensure wide circulation of the ad beyond North Carolina.

RADLEY BALKO: Should prosecutors be immune from civil lawsuits?

I'll just note that such immunity is a judicial invention, as much the product of judicial activism as any other doctrine that gets more complaint. Judges have been similarly generous with absolute immunity for judges, something also not found in the Constitution. In my opinion, such immunities should exist by statute, if at all.

HUGO CHAVEZ: Hunger, misery, and violence have overtaken the United States.

No, actually that's just Chicago.

UPDATE: Stephen Green on dubious reports of famine.

ANDY MCCARTHY WONDERS what the State Department is thinking. People seem to wonder that a lot.

NEW IDEAS ON THE NEW ORIGINALISM: Some thoughts from Larry Solum.

MORE ON THE TEXAS POLYGAMY CASE: "Instead of being judged on an individual basis - each parent considered separately from the rest of his or her community - the state is treating the sect as a whole. Kids are being removed on the basis of their cultural background, not because they are in immediate danger. . . . I’m sympathetic to what a sudden influx of more than 400 kids must do to an overburdened system but I’m more sympathetic to the children especially given that the kids shouldn’t have been removed in the first place, not without proof of immediate harm."

As I noted before, this is looking more and more like a screw-up of the first order.

BEWARE THE Detroit zombies.

IN THE MAIL: Daniel Flynn's new book, A Conservative History of the American Left.

A FRIEND I MADE, while taking pictures down at Cherokee Park.

THOUGHTS ON the professionalization of blogging.

THE FORGOTTEN X-PRIZE: The one that can save your life.

ARTHUR CAPLAN ON LIFE EXTENSION: "Despite a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, it is not obvious that wanting to live a lot longer is evil or immoral. The case against trying is not convincing." Indeed.

CHRIS WILSON: It is time for Barack Obama to drop out.

HEH: "It seems to me that based on their low-class behavior, the protesting UGA faculty deserves to have Jerry Springer as their Commencement speaker."

MORE ON PROBLEMS IN AFGHANISTAN, at Abu Muquwama:

Doctrine, as Colin Gray once wrote, is the skeleton upon which the sinew and flesh of armies are built. Perhaps then, with no NATO doctrine for the conduct of a war among the people, it should be no surprise that the NATO-led ISAF in Afghanistan has often appeared spineless.

Read the whole thing.

WATERLESS URINALS, banned in Minnesota: "Plumbers have not been supportive of waterless urinals and have fought against them in other states arguing they will impact jobs." (Via Buzz.mn).

I'd say it's the reverse. The Men's Room in my local mall has 'em, and one or two are always covered with big plastic bags. The old, flush-type urinals seemed to have a lot less downtime.

A REPORT ON sports in outer space. No, really.

KILLING RESISTANT CANCER CELLS with nanotechnology.

April 25, 2008

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT BERNARDINE DOHRN.

TODAY IS ANZAC DAY!

JERRY POURNELLE:

Democrats seem to be drifting toward the concept of prosecution of former office holders by criminalizing policy differences. That's a certain formula for civil war; perhaps not immediate, but inevitable. The absolute minimum requirement for democratic government is that the loser be willing to lose the election: that losing an election is not the loss of everything that matters. As soon as that assurance is gone, playing by the rules makes no sense at all.

Good point.

UPDATE: Mark Lardas emails:

The best example of what happens when you criminalize political opposition is the Roman Civil War.

Gauis Julius Caesar was a republican to the core. He believed in the Roman Republic, and its unwritten constitution. When his political opponents, the Optimates, made it clear that they were going to prosecute him and either exile or execute him, the moment Caesar set down his military command they made war inevitable. Especially since it was clear that they were not interested in following the law, except at their convenience.

Caesar was not given a choice between going to war and destroying the republic or preserving it by going quietly to his doom. He could see that the republic was doomed no matter what his choice was. He could either start a civil war or let Rome slide into a tyranny run by the Optimates. Given that choice, let the dice fly and hope you can put the pieces back together after you win. At least, you can die trying.

The Democrats remind me of the Optimates in many ways. William Clinton seems like a 21st century version of Pompey Magnus. That Bush has not played Caesar is a tribute to two things: George W.'s fundamental decency, and the fact that the United States is yet not in as bad a shape politically as the late Roman Republic.

The ability of Presidents to pardon themselves, and others in their administrations, before leaving office is more evidence of the Framers' wisdom. They were not unaware of classical politics.

AIRBRUSHING AT THE OBAMA WEBSITE.

UPDATE: Wrong crowd. "It is difficult to imagine any other candidate hanging out with such a diverse group of weirdoes and still be[ing] the front-runner for dogcatcher, let alone president."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Airbrushing is a habit.

TALKLEFT HAS MORE on Obama's "all-over-the-place" gun stance. Though there's one place he won't go, which is to offer an opinion on whether the DC gun ban is unconstitutional.

JOSH MARSHALL: What Did Hillary Know, And When Did She Know It?

UPDATE: What did Obama know about Jeremiah Wright and when did he know it?

CLINTON/OBAMA IN ONE SENTENCE: "It always amazes me how swiftly the narrative can change."

SO WHEN DOES THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT GET INVOLVED? We've already heard that pro-biofuels policies in Europe are a "crime against humanity" according to UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler.

Now Al Gore's acting nervous:

Mr. Senauer said climate change advocates, such as Vice President Gore, need to distance themselves from ethanol to avoid tarnishing the effort against global warming. “Crop-based biofuels are not part of the solution. They, in fact, add to the problem. Whether Al Gore has caught up with that, somebody ought to ask him,” the professor said. “There are lots of solutions, real solutions to climate change. We need to get to those.”

Mr. Gore was not available for an interview yesterday on the food crisis, according to his spokeswoman. A spokesman for Mr. Gore’s public campaign to address climate change, the Alliance for Climate Protection, declined to comment for this article.

First they came for John Yoo, but Al Gore said nothing because Al Gore was not a law professor. Then they came for Al Gore . . . .

Regardless, Al can't escape his past.

UPDATE: Calling for a posse!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Heightening the contradictions.

MORE: Reader Scott Cram sends this original limerick:

There once was a man named Gore,
who thought he had a climate change cure,
then things like grain and rice,
went far up in price,
now he's to blame for starving the poor!

Happily, this is one limerick in which the island of Nantucket does not appear.

STILL MORE: In response to an irate email from Clark Stooksbury, let me be clear (or maybe I should say clearer since I thought it was pretty obvious) that the above is tongue-in-cheek, a mockery of certain lefties' overuse of terms like "crimes against humanity" and their eagerness to resort to international law against people they dislike for political reasons.

It's also worth noting that Al Gore -- now that he's no longer running for anything -- has in fact distinguished between food-based ethanol and ethanol from more practical sources like waste biomass.

STILL MORE ON CONGRESSIONAL BLUENOSE STUPIDITY, from The Mudville Gazette. So Maxim is too dirty for our troops?

I'M WATCHING A KUDLOW DISCUSSION OF ETHANOL and I think that most of the panelists -- except for Frank Gaffney -- are bashing ethanol rather uncritically. The problem with ethanol is a government-subsidy problem, and a trade-barrier problem. It's not a problem with ethanol itself. Make it out of something other than food, and lower the barrier to Brazilian ethanol imports, and it would help our current situation a lot. We're not doing that because of farm-subsidy politics. The problem is, basically, the Iowa caucuses and the pandering that results. But simply bashing all biofuels uncritically is dumb.

UPDATE: On the other hand, the new farm bill demonstrates that Congress is dumber:

We have a program that makes us overpay for sugar, and now we're going to start a new program to subsidize the ethanol we create from it — because without the subsidy, the inflated sugar price we've created will make the ethanol unprofitable.

Upside: Everybody involved has an incentive to pay off some Senators.

ROGER SIMON: On the phone with John McCain. But as for Roger's suggestion -- perish the thought!

RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM -- better at rating professors than professors think? Well, possibly. Some say that professors' looks play a big role. But what happens when "Professor McDreamy" becomes Professor McMohawk?

MARKETS WORK. GO FIGURE: "Businessweek reports that Americans appear to be burning less gasoline as a result of driving less."

CRIMES AGAINST NATURE: A Unicycle-Motorbike-Segway Hybrid.

ADVICE TO HILLARY AND BARACK ON How to win Indiana.

RACHEL LUCAS WEIGHS IN on prissy bluenose Congressman Paul Broun. "Wanna know what I think, as a bona fide military girlfriend? I think they should have porn in the PX, especially if all we’re talking about is Playboy and Penthouse. Men need to see naked women, and these men happen to be spending months at a time in forced celibacy, and if they want to look at a pretty girl’s boobies and release some of that, uhhh, energy, more power to ‘em."

DON'T DAMAGE ITS fragile metal ego: "If you are a piece of steel, I implore you not to watch the YouTube clip. If you are in the room with a piece of steel, divert its attention, send it out of the room for ice cream, do what you can to insure it doesn't see this. The clip shows a steel bar being turned down like it was soft butter being cut by a hot knife. It is humilating if you're a piece of steel. It makes you look like a piece of free-machining aluminum."

MORE ON ASTROTURF GUN GROUPS and where the money comes from. Plus, an Obama flipflop on guns? Surely not!

KEITH OLBERMANN: The first thing we do, let's kill all the Hillarys. Er, or something like that.

FRED THOMPSON'S not interested in being Vice President. Hell, I don't think he was that interested in the number-one job.

A REPORT FROM THE LONDON TIMES: The men in black vanish and Basra comes to life.

Plus this: Iraqi forces see victory in Basra. And yet it was spun by the U.S. media as a huge defeat.

BLUENOSES IN CONGRESS are taken to task by Patrick Lasswell. But if the availability of Playboy and Penthouse on base is our biggest military worry, then Congress can just go home. Things are going well.

"MOCKING HILLARY IS NOT SEXIST." Sure it is. Just ask Media Matters. And mocking Obama is always racist, no matter how mockable he may be. Just ask his campaign.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Rick Moran.

JARED DIAMOND ON war and vengeance in the state of nature. (Via Megan McArdle).

THE FIRST LITHIUM CHEVY VOLT is now running.

DREW CAREY TAKES ON THE FOOD POLICE: The battle of the bacon dogs!

INTRODUCING A "PLUGLESS" PLUG-IN HYBRID. No, really.

"I WILL BE HAMAS' WORST NIGHTMARE:" Sean Hackbarth reports from the McCain blogger conference call.

"IT WAS AL GORE who made it a judicial question . . . What are we supposed to say — 'Not important enough?'"

STAFF SERGEANT DAVID BELLAVIA, author of the excellent House to House, is now running for Congress.

Here's his website.

UPDATE: Reader John MacDonald notes another veteran running, Lt. Col. Allen West.

BARNES & NOBLE RANKINGS don't get as much attention as the ones on Amazon, but it's good news that Michael Yon is up to #3 there.

KATHLEEN PARKER ON racism, sexism, and the Democratic primaries.

IN THE MAIL: Phillip London's Our Good Name: A Company's Fight to Defend Its Honor and Get the Truth Told About Abu Ghraib. Can't see the press being too receptive to this effort until at least November.

THE OTHER DAY, I PROMISED AN INTERIOR FROM KAY'S ICE CREAM. So here it is. Thanks to all the Knoxville expats who wrote with Kay's memories.

WANT TO HELP NEW ORLEANS? Support free trade!

Is there any city for which congressional Democrats claim more concern than New Orleans? So why are they denying the Katrina-ravaged city a major opportunity for recovery by shutting out Colombian free trade? . . . The mayor of the hurricane-hit city made an impassioned plea to Congress to pass the Colombia free trade agreement for New Orleans' sake. He knows how badly his city needs every break it can get, three years after the biggest disaster to ever hit a U.S. metropolitan area. . . .

"New Orleans is becoming an even greater international city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Nagin wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last November, "and we are making every effort to capitalize on trade liberalization that will flow from these FTAs (free trade agreements). Our port system is ideally situated to take advantage of the Latin American FTAs."

Congress is unmoved because free trade produces less graft than massive aid projects. But it's funny that this hasn't gotten much attention from the press.

COMMAND STRUCTURE CHANGES IN AFGHANISTAN? The Captain's Journal thinks it's good news.

HEH: "After 30 years of railing for separation of church and state, Bill Moyers comes to the aid of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright."

FABIUS MAXIMUS says we're seeing political peak oil. Regardless of what this means globally -- to the extent you can distinguish Saudi reserves from global reserves, I guess -- this offers some support to the notion that the Saudis have been overstating their reserves for a while. Or maybe they've caught on to the Malcom S. Forbes strategy. I guess it was a mistake for me to have mentioned it a couple of weeks ago . . . .

NBC IS GOING GREEN FOR G.E.: "Amid its calls for individual sacrifices in the name of the environment and paeans to 'green' legislation, the network once again failed to disclose prominently that its parent company stands to get rich off of 'environmentalist' laws."

PHOTOBLOGGING THE INDIANA BRANCH OF THE GLOBAL RICE PANIC. The horror!

FLYING IN THE FACE OF THE CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVE: Esteem for US rises in Asia, thanks to Iraq war:

THE US war in Iraq has strengthened its strategic position, especially in terms of key alliances, and the only way this could be reversed would be if it lost the will to continue the struggle and abandoned Iraq in defeat and disarray.

Read the whole thing. (Via Don Surber). Plus this: "More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections."

GRILL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM READERS: They're coming. I was overwhelmed with the response volume and just haven't had time to go through it all. I should have known . . . .

DON'T COUNT YOUR BARRELS BEFORE THEY'RE PUMPED, but here's promising oil news from Brazil.

TAKE YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO WORK? How about putting them to work instead?

BICYCLING 758 MILES for equal parenting.

MICKEY KAUS: "What exactly is so terrible about that North Carolina GOP ad?" Seems like a pretty typical political ad to me, too. Watch it yourself and see what you think.

UPDATE: David Fleeger emails: "It seem that this is just a continuation of the Democrats' hysterical "Don't question our patriotism" nonsense of the past few years. Don't question their patriotism, don't question their economic policies, don't question their tax policies, don't question their record in office, don't question their character, don't question their shady business and political deaings, don't question, period. Will the GOP be chicken enough to obey? Probably." Luckily for McCain, McCain-Feingold allows this stuff . . . .

HEH: "In point of fact, we have not had unrestrained capitalism in the United States for at least a century - as Reich, as a chief constrainer, should damned well know."

IN TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL, a call to arm Zimbabwe's opposition.

BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH: "Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday."

HMM: "I think it is obvious that the superdelegates will pick Obama. They have their own self-interest to consider, not to mention the long-term interest of the party. The choice for Obama is clear — and it would be clear even if they knew Clinton would win and Obama will lose."

HEH:

Colombia Tariff Ticker

April 24, 2008

WESLEY SNIPES and a look at the government's real priorities.

ROBERT COX: The First Amendment and Blogs.

Related thoughts from James Joyner.

DEMOCRATS' "Nightmare scenario."

JERRY POURNELLE: "Apparently Newt has stopped reading me. I'll have to see if I can fix that."

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO EARLIER TONIGHT, you can listen to PJM Political online.

DO YOU NEED A NIKON D300? No. I love the camera, as I said. But, as I also said, the other digital SLRs are great cameras, too. To prove it, here's a picture from reader Patrick Wilson, taken with a Nikon D70 and the same 18-200 VR lens that I use a lot. (Click the image for a bigger version).

NEWS OUTLETS CONFRONT "The awful truth of victory."

SWEET CAMPAIGN CASH: "So the $10M figure, according to the Clinton campaign, is not a goal. It is, indeed, cash in the bank."

RUSSIA: More babies, less oil. This is actually good news.

ORIN KERR HAS an interesting post on Virginia v. Moore, and I'm also pleased to note that my colleague Tom Davies' work on the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment was repeatedly mentioned by the Court.

ARTHUR ST. ANTOINE: It's the end of the car as we know it. And I feel fine.

ESPIONAGE OR PETTY THEFT? Which is more embarrassing for Mexico? "Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans."

TALKLEFT: "I also understand why Obama is dissing the Netroots now. They will never criticize him anyway. Why should he pander to them then?"

AFFLUENT AMERICANS: Overrepresented at InstaPundit? Advertisers, take note!

RESVERATROL UPDATE: Glaxo has bought Sirtris, the company with an arsenal of SIRT-1 drugs that do what resveratrol does only more so.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Derek Lowe on what it means. "It’s still a long shot, but it’s one of the most intriguing ones in the history of medicine. Actually, from one perspective, you wonder how long a shot it is: a biochemical pathway that seems to extend healthy life in yeast, roundworms, flies, and mice would seem to have some odds of doing the same thing in man. A lot of drug programs have been started with a lot less backing them up, albeit for rather less earth-shattering indications. . . . a drug for aging is a perfect example of something the FDA has absolutely no idea of how to approach. Well, it’s not just the FDA, come to think of it: how on earth would you design a Phase II trial for life extension? How long would it take?"

Plus, Leon Kass will be unhappy.

UPDATE: Reader John Coleman emails:

The founders of Sirtris spoke to my class at Harvard Business School last week. They were extremely impressive, and, from a business standpoint, I would say this series of drugs is not as long a shot as
some people think. I'm not a scientist, so I don't know the extent to which the drugs effects will transfer from mice to humans; but the firm is well run and the people in it have a great deal of faith in the power of resveratrol across a number of condititions.

There is a brand new Harvard Business School case available on Sirtris (we read it last week), but its not up on the HBS Press website yet. When it's made available, I'd recommend you read it -- it's probably
the best layman's guide to the company and the science around.

I look forward to its publication.

ANN ALTHOUSE: How can the state of Texas possibly take proper care of the 437 children it has removed from the polygamist sect?

I don't know. But if it doesn't, it won't be charged with child abuse.

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS IS A GOOD 1 cent cell phone.

Well, possibly.

DEMOCRATS BACKING OFF HEALTHCARE REFORM? "The trouble of course is that lots of people are satisfied with their healthcare."

VICTIMS OF ALLITERATION. A new Fox show going after "deadbeat dads."

"And what about deadbeat moms? Is anyone going after them?" They're too close to the audience demographic, I'd guess.

ROBERT MAYER OFFERS TIPS ON SURVIVING HIGH FOOD PRICES.

THOUGHTS ON PHIL BREDESEN as a potential Obama running mate. This relates to some earlier thoughts of mine, though I don't think Bredesen's last couple of years have been as good as the ones that preceded them.

WATCHING THE DEMOCRATS' preliminary walkback from the antiwar movement.

Plus, the demise of the chickenhawk argument.

ED DRISCOLL: I hate Illinois Nazis. Yeah, me too, when I'm not too busy laughing at them. It's a fine line . . .

UPDATE: Reader Fred Bartlett says I'm unfair:

Tony Zirkle does not exchange ideas with the National Socialists on a regular basis. Besides, he wasn't at the meetings where the inflammatory and appalling remarks were made.

You are promulgating a distraction from the real issues. You should be ashamed of yourself!

I stand corrected.

ROGER COHEN offers a nuanced view of biofuels, something that's been in short supply lately: "I’ll grant that the fashion for biofuels led to excess, and that some farm-to-fuel-plant conversion, particularly in subsidized U.S. and European markets, makes no economic or environmental sense. But biofuels remain very much part of the solution. It just depends which biofuels."

And this is clearly right: "Right now, the biofuel market is being grossly distorted by subsidies and trade barriers in the United States and the European Union. . . . What sense does it make to have a surplus of environmentally friendly Brazilian sugar-based ethanol with a yield eight times higher than U.S. corn ethanol and zero impact on food prices being kept from an American market by a tariff of 54 cents on a gallon while Iowan corn ethanol gets a subsidy?"

Drop the tariff, drop the subsidies, let the market do it. (Via The Drawn Cutlass).

MORE ON BILL AYERS.

JOHN PODHORETZ: "James Glanz, you got some ’splainin’ to do…"

HE'S BAAACK! Wright offering fresh fodder to Obama critics. If I didn't know better, I'd think Rev. Wright was trying to sabotage the Obama campaign.

UPDATE: Reader Kyle Bennett emails: "Why do you think you know better? What do you think would happen to Wright's raison d'etre should this country actually elect a black man as President?"

That comment, I'm sorry to say, reveals a shocking depth of cynicism. Which is not to say he's wrong . . . .

LAST WEEK, I MENTIONED DOUG FEITH'S NEW BOOK, War and Decision. I haven't had time to read it yet, but here's a very positive review from National Review, noting the important role that public documents play in Feith's memoir. Here's another review from the Wall Street Journal, and here's a story on the book from NPR's Morning Edition.

Feith has also put copies of the documents online at his website. This is a degree of disclosure that I don't think other recent memoirs have matched.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt interviewed Feith last night. Here's the transcript.

ANOTHER UPDATE: At ClioPolitical: "Now, I know that--especially among academics--Feith is considered one of the neocon Sith Lords, but I think he's done something with his book that is, well, pretty neat. He's created a companion website to the book on which he provides links to the 600 documents he's cited in his work. How cool is that? Could this be a way for academics to publish serious and scholarly history and save money by putting their citations on the web?"

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: "Women have surpassed men in most areas of education, but men continue to be more numerous in fields like math, physics and engineering. For more than a decade, feminist groups have been lobbying Congress to address the problem of gender “injustice” in the laboratory. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit. Federal agencies are now poised to begin aggressive gender-equity reviews of math, science, and engineering programs. Groups like the National Organization for Women must be celebrating — but American scientists should brace themselves for the destructive tsunami headed their way."

I want to see aggressive investigation into the shortage of male elementary school teachers. The absence of male role models damages children, especially those from impoverished female-headed homes. The usual excuses: "Men aren't interested," "People don't feel comfortable having their kids around men," etc., are just prejudice. We need to break down those walls of exclusion.

LOTS OF TRICKS FOR saving electricity at home.

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK is showing as back in stock at Amazon, in case you were waiting.

JUSTICE IN the European Union.

FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, TO THE MIDDLE EAST OF EUROPE! Michael Totten is heading to Kosovo. If you like his work, consider hitting his tipjar.

Yeah, I know, I'm saying that about a lot of folks lately. But that's because there are a lot of folks doing good independent journalism now. That's what you want, right?

NOT SURE WHO THIS HELPS in the Presidential Race, but it looks like California will have an anti-gay-marriage amendment on the ballot in November.

DELTA ROLLS OUT fancy seats for economy class.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse says they're not luxury seats, they're anti-fat-people seats.

ROGER KIMBALL: "What is it about Dartmouth College that arouses the acquisitive instinct of bureaucrats?"

ERIC SCHEIE: "Does it matter that the old smoke-filled rooms brought us some of the greatest presidents the country has ever had?"

ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH: "We appreciate the exposure, but can not take credit for it. So, thanks to the Obama campaign for this great product placement. We wish we had thought of it."

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!

PHOTO CONTEST: WHO'S LONELIER? Nonsmoking bingo players, or New York Times subscription salesmen?

AIRLINES VS. DHS on border security.

IN THE MAIL: Sheldon S. Wolin's Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.

Wouldn't "inverted totalitarianism" be sort of like the "dictatorship of the proletariat?" Apparently not.

'TIS THE SEASON FOR SPREADING POLLEN:

Shot in my front yard, using the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 18-200 DX VR lens. I think the D300 is as far beyond my old D70 as the D70 was beyond what I had before. Which isn't to dis the D70: I made a 20x30 print of this picture, taken with the D70, and it looks great.

UPDATE: Various readers object that this is a wasp, and wasps don't pollinate. Yes, it is a wasp, but in fact it was pollinating up a storm, going from flower to flower. Not surprising, as wasps are actually very important pollinators.

MICKEY KAUS: "Hispanic Caucus members denounce Dem Congressional leaders as 'spineless' for failing to move on 'comprehensive immigration reform.' Spineless? Why would they need spine? I thought we'd been told that illegal-immigrant-legalization was a surefire political winner for the Dems. ..."

GOOD THING IT WAS BOMBED, THEN: North Koreans taped at Syrian reactor.

BOGUS BIBLICAL ECO-QUOTES. They were probably written by Chief Seattle.

OBAMA AND MCCAIN SPLIT over the idea of a gas-tax holiday. I regard it as a campaign gimmick, pretty much, which puts me in line with Obama's current position.

FRANK CAGLE: Beware of journalists asking the government for special privileges.

THE NEW YORK SUN: "A funny thing happened on the way to Senator Clinton’s primary win Tuesday night in Pennsylvania: her party started moving back toward reality on the war."

More on that here.

ASK NOT WHAT YOUR CHARITY CAN DO FOR YOU: A look at the lawsuit between the Robertson family and Princeton University, which the Robertsons charge broken promises about how it would spend their large donation. "Now valued at almost $800 million, the gift represents 6% of Princeton's endowment. The Robertsons' gift was made in response to President Kennedy's challenge to Ask not what your country �. . . The Robertsons claim that, consistent with the patriotic impulse that motivated the grant, funds were to be used to establish a graduate program to educate students for careers in the U.S. government." It didn't work out that way. Background here, though in a somewhat Princeton-sympathetic form.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF ON COLOMBIA AND FREE TRADE: "For seven years, Democrats have rightfully complained that President Bush has gratuitously antagonized the world, exasperating our allies and eroding America’s standing and influence. But now the Democrats are doing the same thing on trade. In Latin America, it is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are seen as the go-it-alone cowboys, by opposing the United States’ free-trade agreement with Colombia."

WELL, THAT'S GOOD: We still have Eliot Spitzer to kick around.

10 COOL ROBOTS hand-built by high-schoolers.

I'M GUESSING IT'S NOT A RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY: "What do Libya, Iran, Cuba, Russia and Pakistan All Have in Common?"

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES: Nothing improves morale like victory.

FRANK J.: People Expect Too Much Out of White Men.

STEVE CHAPMAN: Murder and reactions in Chicago:

When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before. But those options don't appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes instead is a crackdown on assault weapons.

I'm tempted to say this is the moral equivalent of a placebo—a sugar pill that is irrelevant to the malady at hand. But that would be unfair. Placebos, after all, sometimes have a positive effect. Assault weapons bans, not so much.

Indeed. Gun control proposals are, however, a useful marker for politicians who aren't serious about crime. Chapman asks: 'Gun control hasn't worked as a remedy for crime. So what makes anyone think the answer is more gun control?"

I don't think they do think that. I think they just want to disarm people, and hope you'll buy the excuse that it's for crime fighting.

UPDATE: Or there's always sackcloth and ashes. I double-checked the date on this story to make sure it wasn't an April Fool. Alas, no.

A REPORT ON THE EMPTY-HOLSTER PROTESTS at the University of North Carolina.

LATE FROST DAMAGES CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS: As reader Jim May notes, this is "the sort of short-term weather news that would be front-page news if global *cooling* were the Left's cause-du-jour." Yes, they never seem to let natural variability get in the way of a good things-are-really-hot story.

Meanwhile, there's pushback on the whole Ice-Age-Is-Coming story.

April 23, 2008

TIPPING OFF A TERROR SUSPECT -- and checking license plates for him?

A Fairfax County police sergeant was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Alexandria to two years' probation for his admission that he checked police databases for someone who was the target of a federal terrorism case.

Sgt. Weiss Rasool, 31, initially faced up to six months in jail, but federal prosecutors urged U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz to consider as much as a year of jail time after Rasool took a lie-detector test last week and "was not fully compliant" with the test procedures. Prosecutors also said in a motion filed with the court that FBI agents "do not believe that he has been truthful." . . . In June 2005, when federal agents had a Fairfax man under surveillance, the man apparently asked Rasool to check the license plates of three vehicles he thought were following him. Rasool's lawyer described the man as a member of Rasool's mosque.

Seems to me that Sgt. Rasool got off light.

RAGE BOY: "While I personally have nothing against torching buildings and brawling under appropriate circumstances, I can't understand why Paul Auster simply can't say, 'I ripped out the fence because I wanted to. I rioted because I decided to.' The idea that a 61 year old man might act irrationally because the mere thought of US policy in Iraq deprives him of reason is a pretty disturbing. It suggests there's a whole population of people of seemingly normal people out there just waiting to go berserk at the mere mention of politics they disapprove of."

THE G.O.P. AD THAT John McCain doesn't want you to see.

GOVERNMENT WORK! "Drought strikes. People, exhorted by the politicians and functionaries of municipal utilities exert themselves and conserve water. Then comes the reward for all their scrimping on water: Massive fee increases because the water authorities didn't make enough money what with people saving water and all."

VICTORY IS THE BEST MORALE BOOSTER: Clinton's donations surge after Pennsylvania victory.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: There's no such thing as a free carbon cap.

BILL ROGGIO REPORTS: "The senior-most Iraqi general in charge of the security operation in Basrah has issued an ultimatum for wanted Mahdi Army leaders and fighters to surrender in the next 24 hours as the Iraqi and US military ignore Muqtada al Sadr's threat to conduct a third uprising. US troops killed 15 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad yesterday and have killed 56 fighters since Sadr issued his threat last weekend."

MOST PEOPLE WOULD PREFER CHOCOLATE: VD Valentines.

TEACHING KIDS ABOUT the age of exploration.

MESSAGE TO GEORGE SOROS: InstaPundit would have been a better investment. Well, traffic-wise, anyhow.

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HANDLING OF THE Texas polygamy case. This thing seems to be turning into a major disaster for the authorities.

ROBERT ZUBRIN EMAILS this audio link and writes:

I recently debated Robert Bryce, the author of "Gusher of Lies," a book that says we don't need an energy security policy because the Saudis are our friends, on the Mike Medved show. It was broadcast nationwide April 21.

I think people might find it very interesting.

They just might. Zubrin's own book is Energy Victory. Our interview with Zubrin is here.

When we spoke, he was pretty clear on the difference between today's porky food-based biofuels and the kind of thing Zubrin is planning. My own sense is that "energy independence" is nice, but simply ensuring that we don't have the current degree of energy dependence would be a good thing.

BUSTING BOGUS GUN REPORTING from Brian Ross and ABC News.

ACCURACY IS QUESTIONED, BUT IT'S EASY! A look at electronic voting in Pennsylvania.

SAYUNCLE: No more Pizza Hut for me.

OBAMA-INSPIRED street art.

A LOOK AT WHAT'S amazingly cheap.

ARNOLD KLING on separating tribe and state.

WHEN MEDIA MATTERS ATTACKS: They should be glad that somebody noticed. And the most damning bit: "Since this smear piece was posted at Media Matters, we’ve gotten all of 14 ... yes, 14 ... hits from their page."

UPDATE: More Boehlert-busting.

AT POWERLINE, still more on the weathermen issue.

UPDATE: Related roundup here.

DAVID ADESNIK IS BACK AT OXBLOG, and he's got some interesting things to report: "I've mentioned in passing that I've been travelling abroad for the past few months. Well, that was a euphemism. I was in Iraq, working as an analyst for the Coalition's counter-IED task force."

VIDEO: The Living Sea, free from Amazon this week. "It's like the video equivalent of blood pressure medication -- very, very mellow. And gorgeous."

GERARD VAN DER LEUN ON FOOD-SHORTAGE TALK: "There will never be a shortage of bullshit."

UPDATE: Jim Herd: Stop hoarding giant bags of rice!

MICHAEL YON WILL BE ON MARK LEVIN'S SHOW at 7:30 Eastern tonight, talking about his book and the situation in Iraq. You can go here and click "station finder" if you want to listen, or listen live through the site.

ETHANOL AND ETHICS: Professor Bainbridge has thoughts on growing food-shortage reports.

GOOD NEWS: "Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) will have an opponent this year after all. " And one who already has some significant support. Where do I donate?

UPDATE: And the answer is . . . right here! Thanks to reader Diane Martin.