WHAT WARGAMES ARE TEACHING AMERICANS ABOUT WAR: Some valuable stuff, according to an article in Salon by Wagner James Au:

And what’s impressed him, playing America’s Army, is how many competitors he’s fought who come to the game without his experience base, but learn usable tactics on the fly: “You could tell in some cases you have significantly younger people, probably junior high or so … they’d be saying things back and forth that indicated to me that this was sort of an extension of guys who grew up on Rainbow Six and other first-person shooters … the techniques they would use just by figuring it out would end up being very similar to what we would do in real life.” He found himself up against kids staggering their formations, using smoke to cover their approach, closing on the enemy with fire and maneuver, individual movement techniques (IMT) — in short, acquiring through gameplay knowledge that was once available only through military training.

If this interests you, you might also like this piece that Dave Kopel and I wrote just over a year ago on the impact of wargaming on the citizenry.

TODAY IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF SPUTNIK. Rand Simberg has some observations.

JACOB SULLUM POINTS OUT how U.S. and European trade barriers are hurting poor nations, and how not enough people seem to care.

STILL ON BLOGSPOT? Consider moving here instead. I can’t vouch for this particular service because I don’t use it. But it’s provided by the folks at HostingMatters, and I’ve been very happy with them.

And since, just now, when I tried to visit Geitner Simmons’ blog all I saw was the “Blogspot Plus” ad — but no blog, which kind of undercuts its selling power — I decided to encourage people once again to leave Blogspot behind.

ANDREA SEE has something to, er, celebrate.

THE UNITED NATIONS IS ON THE JOB AGAIN, taking care of what’s really important in the world:

Britain should repeal a 142-year-old law giving parents the right to spank their children because it violates an international treaty, a United Nations committee said Friday.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees a 1989 accord protecting youngsters, said it welcomed British legislation abolishing corporal punishment in schools.

But it also called for the repeal of an 1860 law that allows parents to use “reasonable chastisement” to punish their children.

Take it away, Stacy Tabb. . . .

UPDATE: Oops. Stacy’s busy tracking down a renegade Marine who’s threatened her on her comments board. I have great respect for the Marines but (1) I’ll bet Stacy is more than a match for this guy; and (2) this is the second Marine / blogger incident and while the first one didn’t bother me since it was aimed at me, I don’t think that Marines are supposed to threaten ladies.

CHEESY PUBLICITY CASH-IN ALERT — from the Family Research Council:

The killers left no trace–and even fewer clues–about their motives or whereabouts. Police say that they aren’t ruling out terrorism or an ethnic clash. One thing is certain. These acts of violence are a reflection of a lack of respect for human life. The victims were loved ones caught in the cross fire of a frontal assault on human dignity. In a fit of rage or malice, they were murdered, not for something they did–but simply because they existed. One could argue that our society is guilty of similar disregard for the sanctity of human life when it condones the killing of unborn babies and assists in the suicide of elderly patients. FRC mourns with the families of the victims who are desperately trying to make sense of their untimely loss. We will continue to work toward and pray for a culture that not only sees, but also respects and protects, the value of every person–big and small, young and old.

Meanwhile, not to be bested in this race to cash in before the bodies are cold, the Violence Policy Center is touting a 1999 study on the growth of the “sniper subculture.”

Have these people no shame? Why am I bothering to ask? We know the answer.

BELLICOSE WOMEN UPDATE: I think that Rachel Z. Jurado counts as such, as this article in The American Enterprise should demonstrate.

EUGENE VOLOKH WRITES ON CANADIAN CENSORSHIP and includes this chilling warning:

Note to Canadian readers: Be careful about clicking on that link; while I’m not acquainted with the details of the Canadian law, and whether it applies to downloading, I would assume that if the government concludes that the newsletter is illegal to import, it may prosecute you for downloading it, too.

That he needs to give this warning makes his final comment even more significant:

Remember this when people condemn American “absolutism” about free speech, and urge the supposedly more “nuanced” and “balanced” European and Canadian approach.

Canada should be ashamed of this.

UNVERIFIED: Here’s a report of another shooting, this time in Fredericksburg. No confirmation yet.

UPDATE: It’s confirmed now:

Authorities have confirmed a shooting at Michael’s Craft Store in Spotsylvania County. They have no additional information at this time, as they have recently arrived on the scene. . . .

Police have NOT yet connected this shooting with the shootings in Maryland. We will keep you posted as the investigation unfolds.

More as it’s available.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s the latest.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s the Post’s sum-up as of 5:00 ET.

ZELL MILLER SAYS it’s 1972 all over again for the Democrats.

This is unfair. In 1972, there was a Democratic position on the Vietnam war. Right now, there’s no Democratic position on Iraq. But Miller’s conclusion makes it sound like he’s giving the Democratic Party one last chance:

I believe this tale demonstrates that no matter how it is articulated, no matter how laudable or well intended, the antiwar, peace-at-almost-any price position is a loser for Democrats.

Oh, it will stimulate the extreme left, no doubt about that. And they are the key to the primaries. They will put their money, their emotions, their make-believe president Martin Sheen and even Ms. Streisand’s vocal cords behind it.

But before we suffer, as Yogi Berra said, déjà vu all over again, let’s rewrite the ending of this movie. Let’s send the message that our party realizes the country faces a threat far different and far more deadly than it did in 1972. Today’s war is on our own soil with terrorist cells lurking perhaps even in our own states and neighborhoods. Let’s respond with strength and boldness, not with the same old failed script that doomed us 30 years ago.

I’ve pooh-poohed talk of him switching over to the Republican side — but if the Democratic Party lurches in a McGovernite direction, it might happen.

Matthew Yglesias points out this article on Saudi Arabia that makes clear that, well, Saudi Arabia still stinks, despite getting less attention in recent weeks. Excerpt:

But there will be no committee of inquiry into the rips in the social fabric that shaped 15 of Saudi Arabia’s young men as terrorists and which make Abdullah Al Gathani and many of his campus colleagues respond to the attacks as they do. And there will be no royal commission into the making of Osama bin Laden and the thousands who fell in behind him for jihad in Afghanistan.

Instead, Saudis seek refuge in a parallel universe, a place where answers to questions about what is rotten in Saudi Arabia dwell on the faults of the US and Israel; a place where inquiries about the shortcomings of its schools and universities provoke mockery of the American education system; a place where criticism of the security authorities meets mirth over US intelligence failures; a place where the democratic void is championed as protection for the rights of individuals.

As the House of Saud is pulled this way and that between its military alliance with the US and its religious partnership with the keepers of Saudi Arabia’s strict Wahabi Islamic creed, economists are rating it as a brittle Third World economy – despite its massive oil wealth.

Arguably, problems with Iraq are more pressing — but Saudi Arabia is at the root of Islamofascism everywhere, and the Saudi regime in Arabia, along with its collection of hate-spewing preachers, will have to be removed root and branch before it’s all over.

AMIRI BARAKA UPDATE: A.C. Douglas has some comments on New Jersey Governor James McGreevey’s apparent inability to fire Baraka.

READER ROBERT MOUNCE forwards a political ad that gun-controllers won’t like.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: A group of law professors who took out an ad denouncing the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore are now circulating a letter in opposition to war in Iraq.

MICKEY KAUS IS ENDORSING SCRAPPLEFACE — Oh, and he has some stuff to say about Paul Krugman, too.

JUSTIN KATZ has links and a response to the Democratic web ad showing Bush pushing an old lady in a wheechair off a cliff.

THE INDEPUNDIT HAS CONTINUING UPDATES on developments in the DC/Maryland shootings. There’s been another one, though it’s not clear whether it’s connected. From the description, there’s reason to think it might be.

SCIENCE BY ANECDOTE: Eric Lindholm, better known as the guy behind SmarterHarpersIndex, has a piece in TCS Europe.