Archive for 2007

FRED THOMPSON IN NASHVILLE: Video from A.C. Kleinheider.

TUNGUSKA IMPACT CRATER found?

OUTSOURCING YOUR OWN JOB and pocketing the difference. Heh.

RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION: John Leo takes a look.

HERE’S THE TEXT of the 373-page so-called “clay pigeon” immigration bill amendment.

AN ALL-DAY LOOK AT ROBERT BORK’S SCHOLARSHIP: I confess that I’m no great fan of Bork’s work, for reasons explained at some length in this paper.

REPLACING YOUR HIP FRIEND: Beats replacing your hip.

WHERE ARE ALL THE HURRICANES? Staying away until after my vacation, I hope. “Checking the latest map of global sea temperature anomaly, I find the Atlantic Basin looking a little more normal, but coolish conditions continue in the regions of hurricane formation.” Fine with me if that lasts a while longer.

RAMMING THE IMMIGRATION BILL THROUGH FASTER THAN ADVERTISED? “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may be using an ‘unprecedented combination of legislative procedures’ to push through the controversial Kennedy Immigration Bill – today!”

He couldn’t do that if the Republican leadership was determined to stop him. But it’s not.

AN ASSASSINATION IN IRAN: “The killing of a senior figure in Iran’s regime, the third in two months, is again downplayed by the country’s authorities.”

WHAT SHOULD REPUBLICANS DO as the GOP seems to be committing suicide? I dunno — saving the GOP isn’t my job, and if the Democrats weren’t worse on national security I wouldn’t mind much. (And the GOP advantage there seems to be shrinking anyway).

But you’ve got three basic choices: Exit, voice, and loyalty. That is, quit, bitch like hell, or hold your nose and vote.

Problem is, people have been exercising “voice” a lot and it’s clear that President Bush, Trent Lott, et al., don’t care and aren’t listening. So if you don’t want to hold your nose, you’ve got to exit, either to a third party, to a GOP candidate you like, or to another engagement on Election Day — go fishing, perhaps? I think the GOP’s vulnerability to a third party challenge has just gone way up.

UPDATE: Yeah, that’s a book, and the subtitle seems especially appropriate: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. The G.O.P. certainly seems to be declining at the moment.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Ben White emails:

You forgot the only option that actually helps:

Run against them in the primary elections. Or find someone to run and support them.

Jon Bruning is running against Hagel. I sent him a contribution even though I’m not from Nebraska. I will send a contribution to a Trent Lott primary opponent. The same goes for John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and any of the rest of these guys.

Well, that’s “voice,” isn’t it?

DICK CHENEY, BABE MAGNET?

I’m not so sure, but hey, some women like the bad boys. . . .

R.I.P. G.O.P.: Out in the car I heard a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh talking about the immigration bill moving forward. I think the Republicans’ situation is looking pretty grim, and I wonder, what impels them to make such a self-destructive
move? Limbaugh was wondering too.

More here.

SOME PERSPECTIVE: I was reading some stuff on the plans for invading Japan at the end of World War II when I ran across this:

Nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the casualties resulting from the invasion of Japan. To the present date, all the American military casualties of the sixty years following the end of World War II — including the Korean and Vietnam Wars — have not exceeded that number. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. There are so many in surplus that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan are able to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to wounded soldiers on the field.

And at current rates we’ll still be using them for decades. My grandfather fought all across Europe, then got shipped to the Pacific in preparation for invading Japan. He was extremely happy that the war ended without that being necessary.

AN ARMORED SUPER-HUMVEE: Armor’s nice, but there’s a big sacrifice in cost and mobility to up-armoring everything.

A HUGE IMMIGRATION-BILL ROUNDUP.

Updated almost minute by minute.

UPDATE: Oops: “Bush Calls Immigration Bill ‘Amnesty.'”

PARASITES AND PREDATORS: “Predators want to kill you and eat you right there on the veldt. Parasites, by contrast, want to keep you alive, the better to serve as a parasite paradise, a cozy haven where they can grow at their own pace, suckle on your moist, nourishing tissues, multiply their numbers and finally, one way or another, pass those numbers along.” Kinda like the difference between, say, terrorists and lobbyists.

ASK DR. HELEN: The Insta-Wife is soliciting your questions for a new advice column.