A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY TO OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY, courtesy of ChicagoBoyz.

OUCH: Academic bitchslaps delivered by Ann Althouse and Orin Kerr.

WIRED has an article on Iranian blogmeister Hossein Derakshan.

STRANGE EVENTS IN VENEZUELA, with rumors flying that Hugo Chavez is dead. There’s more on this subject here. All I can say is that if it’s true, he won’t be missed.

MILITARY BLOGGERS ON MSNBC: Ian Schwartz has the video.

MEMORIAL DAY PHOTOBLOGGING, here and here. Also here.

IN THE MAIL: Thomas Sowell’s Black Rednecks and White Liberals, which purports to explain black failure as a consequence of absorbing poor cultural values from “white trash,” in the form of Scots-Irish rednecks. As Sowell writes in this distillation of the book’s thesis:

The culture of the people who were called “rednecks” and “crackers” before they ever got on the boats to cross the Atlantic was a culture that produced far lower levels of intellectual and economic achievement, as well as far higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity. That culture had its own way of talking, not only in the pronunciation of particular words but also in a loud, dramatic style of oratory with vivid imagery, repetitive phrases and repetitive cadences.

Actually, as someone who keeps noticing interesting overlaps between the culture of my Nigerian relatives and my white southern ancestors, I think the cross-fertilization went both ways. And I’d be interested to hear what James Webb thinks about Sowell’s thesis.

UPDATE: Reader John Richardson emails:

I read Webb’s Born Fightin, as I am from East Tennessee Scots Irish stock (Bulls Gap). Isn’t is more than a little bigoted to call the Scots Irish ‘White Trash’? Such epithets are forbidden about other ethnic groups. And while I will admit Scots Irish setelers may have had their prejudices, few were slave holders. I read Sowells summary of the book at opinionjournal, but did not see his point. Today’s Scots Irish descendents do not have the overwhelming social problems Sowell so eloquently writes about in his columns.

I believe that Scots-Irish weren’t very well-represented among slaveholders, either, who were mostly wealthier. On the other hand, reader Russ McSwain emails:

As I read Dr. Sowell’s book my reaction was the same as your initial observation. There’s no doubt that Sowell’s right, but the cultural cross-fertilization cuts both ways. I can’t find again it but somewhere in his writings VS Naipaul, when asked about his impressions of the American South, responded with: “It has the same smells as a typical West African village.” Can you say Barbeque?

Mmm. Barbeque.

INTERESTING POLL RESULTS:

A recent “Opinion Survey of the Arab Street 2005” by Al Arabiya news network provides some interesting answers. The survey sought to see what Arabs thought about the relative lack of economic progress in the Arab world. In answer to the question, “What is stalling development in the Arab world?,” 81 percent chose “Governments are unwilling to implement change and reform”, 8 percent citing “The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict,” 7 percent “Civil society is failing to convince governments”, and 4 percent chose “Terrorism”.

Another question, “What is the fastest way to achieve development in the Arab world?”, had 67 percent choosing “Ensuring the rule of law through justice and law enforcement”, 23 percent chose “Enhancing freedom of speech”, and 10 percent chose “Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict”.

Islamic terrorists represent a small minority of Arab thinking, and interests. But most Arab media and governments, for obvious reasons, avoid the “bad government” issues and instead concentrate on the Arab-Israeli conflict as the cause of all that is bad in the Arab world. While few Arab governments support all Islamic terrorists, many support some (like the Palestinian terrorists, or Hizbollah in Lebanon).

Read the whole thing.

DON’T MISS THE MEMORIAL DAY ROUNDUP at Winds of Change, featuring links to other Memorial Day posts, ways to help the troops, etc.

MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ on the French vote. Though Matt Welch offers his own explanation, involving a midget with pasties, for the outcome.

UPDATE: Read this column from David Ignatius, too, who stresses the fear of change I noted earlier. The overlong and overcomplicatd EU Constitution, of course, encouraged a “no” vote from skeptical voters.

MORE: Steven Den Beste comments on the fallout:

What I like is the way the pro-EU advocates are starting to show their true anti-democratic colors during this process. It’s making blatantly obvious what I concluded long ago: the constitution of the EU is intended to set up a benevolent dictatorship by the progressive (read “socialist”) elite of Europe.

It is, I think, an effort to restore the sort of transnational aristocracy that ran Europe before World War I, though with a somewhat different flavor.

UPDATE: Reader Kjell Hagen emails:

I have a great deal of respect for Steven den Beste´s analyses. However, I think this is over the top. The EU will be ruled by some mix of elected national governments compromising (as now), or by an elected, European assembly, with still a great deal of power in the hands of the national governments. Not totally unlike the US, actually, only with more power to the national governments than currently with the US states. I don´t really see how this is going to be a dictatorship. And as for the socialists, they are the minority
in the EU parliament.

(Also in the US, there are tendencies of centralization of power, as you have pointed out, and under a Republican president, no less.)

I agree that the constitution is bureaucratic, unnecessary and mostly a product of French elitist ambitions. However, even if they succeeded in making the EU into a superstate, it would be a similar structure as the US, hardly a dictatorship.

Another matter is that they won´t succeed. Even their own nation rejects this. Even most socialists reject this. The possible strategy of having referendums again and again until people vote for the constitution, won´t work. People vote independently, as we have seen now. It is much more likely to backfire on the political leaders trying it. And when it does, they will stop trying, in the interest
of not losing personal power.

Well, that certainly trumps. I think, however, that Hagen means something different than Den Beste when he talks about socialists. By American standards, pretty much all European politicians are socialists.

MORE: More on the French election map here, from Patrick Ruffini, and here, from Michael Barone.

ARLEN SPECTER AND SAM BROWNBACK on Stem Cell research — Crooks&Liars has video from This Week.

Meanwhile, Trey Jackson has video of Jim Pinkerton talking about Linda Foley as part of a media vs. the military segment on Fox News Watch.

UPDATE: Joe Gandelman watched the Brownback/Specter video and wonders if the stem cell issue isn’t the point of no return for the GOP. “What strikes us is how Brownback tries to change the subject away from the living, away from stem cell research’s potential to save lives. And all of this being done a[long]side a ghostly Arlen Specter — failing before our very eyes.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Justin Katz disagrees.

LEBANON UPDATE:

Lebanon’s anti-Syrian alliance has swept the board in the first round of general elections, officials say. Amidst a low turnout, the coalition headed by the son of murdered former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri took all 19 seats in the capital Beirut.

Pro-Syrian Shia groups are tipped to fare better in next Sunday’s second round of voting in the south. But the country-wide result is expected to see a big parliamentary majority for Syria’s opponents.

(Via Newsbeat 1).

UPDATE: Here’s video of Saab Harriri talking about the election results.

TODAY IS A HOLIDAY, but that hasn’t stopped the Carnival of the Capitalists.

RED-STATE/BLUE-STATE FRANCE: An interesting map.