EUGENE VOLOKH: “First, killing an enemy military leader — and apparently a highly competent one — in the middle of a war almost always is the humanitarian decision. It takes little consideration, it seems to me, for our military to properly come to this conclusion. That Yamamoto was ‘highly intelligent’ and that he had lived among us might have emotionally humanized him to people who are considering his fate. But it surely didn’t entitle him to any exemption from military attack. . . . There’s nothing humanitarian about preserving an enemy military leader — and instead focusing only on killing enemy line soldiers — when that means more likely deaths for our soldiers. . . . Indeed, if Yamamoto’s killing were analogous to the death penalty, then the death penalty should be acclaimed as a high moral imperative: Rather than wondering whether the death penalty saves innocent lives, we’d be nearly sure of it.” Read the whole thing.
Archive for 2007
October 30, 2007
ARMED AGENTS OF THE Social Security Administration?
ACORN UPDATE: Three plead guilty in fake voter scheme.
Our podcast on voter fraud is here.
YEAH, THIS’LL FLY: Feds want to charge for photographing in National Parks.
UPDATE: Dan Phoenix thinks there’s less to this story than news reports suggest.
HAVE GIRLS’ HALLOWEEN COSTUMES gotten too slutty? “A bigger question is, who’s designing these costumes in the first place? And why do they think parents will buy them?”
I’m okay on slutty, but not for 9-year-olds.
NAGGING WORRIES ABOUT CHINA. Me, I think that their long-term prospects are excellent if they can avoid civil war, but that they’re currently in the mother of all bubbles and that it is likely to pop with a serious bang.
GREYHAWK ASKS:
How many media reports on the failure of the media to report the horrors of Iraq will we need to see before realizing the magnitude of their failure?
Some of us already realize. Others never will — or, if they do, will never admit it.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: A report on Armadillo Aerospace’s close brush with success in pursuit of the Lunar Lander Prize.
Plus, an interview with Peter Diamandis on what’s next.
MORE ON POPPIES IN AFGHANISTAN, from John Wixted.
IDEOLOGICAL REEDUCATION at the University of Delaware.
They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, we’d see loyalty oaths and ideological crushing of dissent on America’s campuses. And they were right!
SENATOR JAMES INHOFE on the Law of the Sea Treaty.
RON SILVER HAS THOUGHTS on how to get the world to like us.
ADVERTISING AGE: “Of course, the news here is that The New Republic still had advertisers!”
IN THE MAIL: Judge Andrew Napolitano’s new book — out today — entitled A Nation of Sheep.
HANDWASHING: Better than antibacterial agents:
The general advice for avoiding infection is basic hygiene — washing hands or using alcohol-based sanitizers, keeping scrapes covered until healed and refraining from sharing personal items like towels and cosmetics.
But some recent laboratory studies suggest that antibacterial products containing triclosan may not be the best way to stay clean. Instead of wiping out bacteria randomly, the way regular soap or alcohol-based products do, triclosan may inhibit the growth of bacteria in a way that leaves a larger proportion of resistant bacteria behind, according to lab studies at Tufts and Colorado State Universities, among others.
The concerns are still theoretical at the moment, but of course by the time they’re not it’ll be a problem. On the other hand, it’s hard to argue with this:
Soap companies say the worry about triclosan takes the focus away from the real culprit: the abuse of antibiotics and the need for better hygiene in general.
Unlike illegal drugs, abuse of antibiotics raises the risk of harming many, many other people. And hand-washing is always good.
MORE HATE in tolerant, multi-culti Europe. “Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britain’s leading mosques, according to research seen by The Times.”
Europe mostly tolerates those whom it fears.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal looks at John Murtha, earmarks and an FBI investigation:
In the massive 2008 military-spending bill now before Congress — which could go to a House-Senate conference as soon as Thursday — Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member. The Democratic lawmaker is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which will oversee more than $459 billion in military spending this year.
Johnstown’s good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha’s Johnstown Minute Car Wash.
A review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha’s committee shows that many weren’t sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits. One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill.
I’d say that further — and broader — investigation is warranted. Read the whole thing, as it’s a free link.
LARRY SOLUM HAS A LENGTHY POST on originalism and the blogosphere. Some earlier thoughts of mine on originalism can be found here.
HOWARD KURTZ on sex and politics.
IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, Yale Law Professor Kate Stith corrects her colleague Jed Rubenfeld on Mukasey. (Via Scott Johnson).
MARK FRAUENFELDER bought the Twin Peaks 10-DVD set and likes it: “It’s a terrific package of stuff.” That was a show I never got into, but lots of people felt otherwise.
PUBLIUS: Khodorkovsky 2, Putin 0.
PLEASE START SMOKING: It’s for the children.
OPENING THE TAXI CAB MARKET in Minneapolis.
IN REASON: Is the war in Iraq moving from folly to victory? “All the stated goals of this war have been won.” And yet Brian Doherty isn’t dancing in the streets, exactly.
UPDATE: Some interesting thoughts, plus an amusing bit of “approving-link” snark.