Archive for 2007
May 17, 2007
THE MAGIC JOHNSON PARADOX: “He is very much alive and healthy, even though he has lived for well into his second decade with HIV. But because he has devoted his life to AIDS prevention (especially among blacks) his health and longevity present a slight problem.”
I’m sure it’s a problem he’s happy to live with.
May 16, 2007
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Veterans need care, politicians want money — can’t somebody cut a deal?
The dedication of the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility in Clarksburg took place last November with Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Congressman Alan Mollohan and Gov. Joe Manchin in attendance, but the home has yet to house any patients.
Okay, it’s because the approval process isn’t done yet. But why is it taking so long? Basically “ordinary construction delays.” Um, okay.
Don Surber comments: “Notice the lack of any sense of urgency? . . . Meanwhile, 30 Clarksburg area vets are waiting for someone to get off his can, inspect the joint and open it up. But no one cares. The politicians got their photo op out of the deal.”
How about this rule: Politicians don’t get their photo-op until the thing’s actually operating. Just a thought.
PETER LATTMAN: Is it okay for lawyers to copy complaints?
WELL, THEY’RE SAYING IT NOW: “Gaza was on the brink of civil war last night as violent clashes between Palestinian factions spiralled out of control.”
Question: Do you need a civil society to have a civil war? However, this doesn’t sound bad:
Some Palestinian analysts predict that a collapse of the Palestinian Authority would pave the way for Jordanian custodial rule in the West Bank and a similar arrangement for Egypt in Gaza.
“The message is the Palestinians cannot rule themselves. This fighting will only end if a third party takes over,†said Ibrahim Abrash, a political analyst in Gaza.
Well, not bad except maybe for Jordan and Egypt. Why they would want custody of those areas, given the Palestinians’ behavior, is hard to fathom.
UPDATE: Rick Richman points out that Wretchard of The Belmont Club predicted this in 2005: “The Gaza withdrawal may turn out to be far more dangerous to the Palestinian Authority than to Israel because it unleashed powerful forces which Abbas has been unable to control. It now threatens to drag him like a man whose foot has been caught in the traces of runaway horses.”:
BOB LEVY WRITES IN THE HILL on the Second Amendment and Parker v. District of Columbia.
NAME HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN SONG: Skippy is running a contest.
UPDATE: More fun with candidate songs.
DARFUR UPDATE: FROM AUSTIN BAY, thoughts on ending Darfur’s genocide.
READER MARIO FANTE WRITES:
Given all your excellent posts on disaster preparedness and emergency kits, you might be interested to know that the only show on television that dealt realistically with the problems of Americans recovering from a massive disaster in the U.S. – Jericho – has been cancelled after only one very promising season.
Every episode was not only better than any given installment of 24 (from any season), but each week it showed what challenges Americans would have to overcome if the country fell apart overnight (with 24 major cities being nuked at once). No sensationalism, just clearly showing what stresses and problems they’d have to face (in addition to a compelling backstory and subplot mystery about who attacked us and why), and how this particular Kansas town tried to survive in the aftermath and rebuild.
I was hooked on this show from the start. It had some of the best writing on TV, great actors, and memorable, fully-developed characters, and a Firefly-like devoted following. I loved it, and am sad to see it go. All the episodes are still online last I checked, in case you’ve never seen it.
Maybe it’s not your thing, but there’s an online petition to save it that went up just a few hours ago, and already has north of 17,000 signatures. CBS’ website went down for a while, possibly under the burden of distraught fans, and they’ve been getting calls all day about it.
Thanks and best regards.
I’m afraid I never saw it, but that’s no evidence of its viability — I don’t watch much TV, really. At a guess, that’s the show’s weakness — the kind of people who might have been its biggest fans are all busy online. . . .
A REPORT ON THE FAIR TAX RALLY in South Carolina last night, with photos.
QUESTION OF THE DAY, at The Hotline Blog: “Why did John Edwards not disclose his Fortress salary until today? That’s three weeks of bad Iowa stories, a George S. grilling, and lots of other unnecessary guff? Just for $479K?” The Edwards campaign seems to have a lot of these kinds of problems, which is odd given that he didn’t seem to have nearly as many last time around.
FRED THOMPSON CRITIC A.C. KLEINHEIDER offers some reluctant praise. “Okay, maybe the guy is Reagan.” (Via FredBuzz).
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON looks at the benefits of $4 gasoline.
BUT DON’T CALL IT CIVIL WAR: “At least 19 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday — more than 40 have been killed over the past four days — in fighting between Fatah and Hamas as their unity government fractures and rage rises on both sides.”
MICKEY KAUS PREDICTS DISASTER on immigration.
UPDATE: Dan Riehl says it best: “Republicans were given a wake up call in 2006; they’ve opted to hit snooze.”
You snooze, you lose.
THE FOOTHILLS CITIES BLOG responds to Pomona’s City Attorney, with a letter from its own lawyer that will not make the city happy.
JUST FINISHED JOHN ROBB’S BRAVE NEW WAR, which I’ve mentioned before. I’m supposed to be reviewing it, so I won’t give too much away, but it’s a sort of dark-side of An Army of Davids — though when he gets past describing the open-source terrorism threats, and starts talking about solutions in terms of distributed capacity, resilience, horizontal knowledge, and small-scale approaches, it sounds a lot more like Army of Davids in general. He’s certainly right to note the disturbing vulnerability of all sorts of systems to sabotage designed to produce network disruption. He’s perhaps a bit unwilling to emphasize, though, how much of the success of terrorist operations depends on ideological/public opinion constraints on national responses, constraints that could evaporate overnight and that show some signs of weakening already. That said, I think the book’s very much worth your attention.
Some earlier thoughts of mine in a related vein can be found here, here, here, and here. And, on a more individual level, here.
Most current systems are designed to be cheap. We need to think harder about making them robust, even if that’s more expensive.
HOT AIR looks at a murder in Knoxville.
TOM MAGUIRE ON RON PAUL: “Ron Paul twice went to the moral equivalence argument with his ruminations about what the US might do if China were putting bases in the Gulf of Mexico. And what a great question! Does anyone else remember Jack Kennedy blowing up some buildings in Moscow as a response to the Cuban missile crisis? Maybe Ron Paul could expound on that.”
Well, there was Bill Clinton and that Chinese Embassy, but I don’t think that counts. Plus, the obligatory Jack Bauer reference! And I do mean obligatory.
MY EARLIER POST on criminal justice in Japan inspires some thoughts from Doug Weinstein.
TROUBLE in the House of Representatives. And rumors of a different kind of trouble in the Senate.
UPDATE: More here on what seems to be an interesting switcheroo.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt says that GOP Senators are about to cave on immigration.
I’ve written before about the Republicans’ apparent death wish. Seems as if it’s still there.
MORE: Rep. Eric Cantor talks about what’s going on in an NRO podcast.
PROTECTING COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SOUTH CAROLINA:
To prevent school shootings, some South Carolina legislators want more guns on campuses.
A House subcommittee approved a measure Wednesday that would allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry guns onto public school campuses, from elementary schools to universities. Supporters say having trained and armed gun owners in schools could prevent massacres like the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, where one armed student killed 32 people.
Only Utah currently has a law allowing concealed weapons on campuses.
“We’re not talking about kids. We’re talking about responsible adults,” said Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan, who sponsored the bill. . . . To obtain a concealed weapon permit in South Carolina, a resident must be at least 21, undergo at least eight hours of handgun training, and pass criminal and mental background checks.
Objectors say that right now, “we know the person with the weapon is the bad guy.” But isn’t that, you know, the problem?
UPDATE: Some related thoughts from David Hogberg.
DAVE HARDY will be on Glenn Beck’s CNN Headline News show tonight at 7 & 9 Eastern.
STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL, SEX OFFENDERS, MySpace, and the law.