HOW’S THE ARMY DOING? A summary of the Austin Bay / Phil Carter debate.
I’ll just add that notwithstanding the reassurances we got from (then) Army Secretary Francis Harvey, I remain concerned that we’re not investing enough in recruiting, maintenance, etc. for the long term, despite a long term conflict.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, on a sort-of-related topic, here’s the latest on the Army / Milblogs issue.
RUNNING A STEALTH CAMPAIGN via the blogosphere.
A LOOK AT MERCURY AND COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS, from Snopes.
BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “As Time’s 2006 Person of the Year, I have to say I’m deeply disappointed that Time has sunk to such sensational and politicized levels. Would someone please tell me who I should contact at Time to give back my award?”
Heh.
IT’S ANOTHER EPISODE OF THE CORN & MINITER SHOW, with Richard Miniter back from Iraq reporting on the Iraqi military, and complaining about “the sheer amount of inertia and bureaucratic red tape inside the Green Zone,” and a special surprise guest.
ANOTHER SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT STEP FORWARD FOR CIVIL RIGHTS:
Law-abiding citizens will be able to use deadly force in self-defense in more places under legislation that unanimously passed the state Senate Thursday and is on its way to becoming law.
Currently, Tennesseans can use deadly force when faced with a threat of death or serious injury in their own homes. The bill approved by the Senate Thursday and by the House last week extends those areas to include all homes and vehicles, regardless of who owns them.
Another bill involving the use of weapons also got the nod this week. That bill would prevent the governor or any local official from confiscating weapons or restricting their sale or transportation during a state of emergency or disaster.
Police confiscated guns in New Orleans during the violent aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sparking concern among gun-rights advocates who said it left citizens helpless against marauding thugs.
This seems to be a trend across quite a few states. That’s good. And if I’m not mistaken, what’s being expanded isn’t the right to self-defense, but the “no retreat” rule. I believe that this establishes a presumption that people have a reasonable belief that they’re threatened whenever an intruder is present in their home or vehicle. I haven’t seen the actual bill, though.
UPDATE: Here’s a summary of the legislation. (Via A.C. Kleinheider).
BILL ROGGIO NOTES more positive developments in Anbar. May the good news continue.
SUING A STATE FOR “NEGLIGENT FAILURE TO LEGISLATE?” I’ve got a few suits I could file under this theory . . . .
IN THE MAIL: The latest installment of the Eric Flint alt-history series that began with 1632. Flint, interestingly, is a Trotskyite former labor organizer (or maybe he’s a former Trotskyite labor organizer, I’m not sure) but his writing is more authentically pro-American than most of what you’ll find.
UPDATE: A reminder that 1632, and its sequel, 1633, are available — along with numerous other books from Eric Flint’s backlist — in the Baen Free Library. More on that, and how giving books away on the Web has made money for Baen Books, here.
A THREAT TO TENURE AT LAW SCHOOLS? “The American Bar Association — at the urging of some law deans and to the dismay of many law professors — is considering an end to having tenure systems be one requirement for law school accreditation.”
Conservatives may be tempted to applaud this, but given the ideological complexion of the academy an end to tenure would harm non-lefty professors disproportionately.
TIME.COM WON’T LIKE DON SURBER’S TAKE: “The 1,363rd most visited Web site in the world tried to diss the president of the United States as not being among the world’s 100 most influential people.”
Ouch.
JOEY PIGZA, ADHD poster child.
HE’S A HERETIC! BURN HIM! Oh, wait, that would result in excess greenhouse emissions. Never mind!
UPDATE: More charges of heresy, here! Rooting this stuff out is a full time job. Luckily, surprise is our chief weapon. Well, amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and . . . . oh, well, you know the rest.
ANN ALTHOUSE ON POST-DEBATE SPIN: “What’s really going on here? Looks like people really want to destroy Giuliani.”
A lot of social-cons are piling on Rudy, seeing this as a chance to take him out. That seems unwise for the GOP generally, given that in the latest Quinnipiac poll Giuliani beats Clinton and Obama handily. In fact, he does much better than Fred Thompson or John McCain. And winning elections does matter, as Republicans should realize by this point.
DEMOCRATIC NEOCONS? Some praise for Barack Obama:
Obama’s Monday night foreign policy speech is more than just clever language. He displays a commitment to moral principles and a serious foreign policy usually found in the halls of the American Enterprise Institute, or the pages of the Weekly Standard: promoting the American interest through a strong offensive military that, in conjunction with diplomatic, political and economic means, is used to remake foreign nations in a liberal democratic image.
Read the whole thing.
A POST-DEBATE POLL:
HOWARD KURTZ ON THE DEBATES: “The front-runners all started strong. Then they got to abortion.”
INSPIRED BY BRINK LINDSEY’S NEW BOOK, Virginia Postrel has thoughts on abundance and what it means.
INTERNET I; Designed to survive a nuclear war; survived 9/11, Katrina, numerous other diasasters.
Internet II: Taken out by a homeless man with a cigarette.
UPDATE: Here’s a report that it wasn’t as bad as the above report suggests.
BILL FRIST ENDORSES the we win, they lose approach to the war.
IF FELONS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE, WHO WILL THEY VOTE FOR? The Wall Street Journal’s Carl Bialik looks at the numbers. (Free link).
THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM AND OPPRESSION, from Fred Thompson.
MICKEY KAUS EXPLAINS LIFE to the younger folks.
MORE PROTESTS AGAINST THE MULLAHS in Iran.
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