BILL WHITTLE ON THE RODNEY KING AND KEN GLADNEY BEATINGS, and MSNBC’s preferred narrative.
Archive for 2009
August 24, 2009
LEARNING TO LIVE WITH RADICAL ISLAM: “I would imagine Sebastian Faulks was asked a straightforward question and gave an honest answer. Lux et veritas, as they used to say at Yale. But I would bet that, in the long run, the Zakaria approach will prevail.”
ROGER KIMBALL: “Why has the issue of health care summoned people from the La-Z-boy to townhall meetings all over the country? . . . The arrogance of politicians may have something to do with it. . . . As the reality of President Obama replaces the promise of candidate Obama, the public has recoiled.”
EARLIER, I MENTIONED THE Tennessee Tax Revolt of 1999. Here are some pictures.
CARNIVOROUS JUNGLE PLANT eats rats whole.
PREDICTING A STOCK MARKET COLLAPSE: A “partial victory.”
MARKDOWNS ON PhotoShop Elements and Premiere Elements.
I’M SORRY, BUT AS “TOPLESS PROTESTS” GO, this one was pretty disappointing. (Link should be SFW, but video contains a few boobies — though not nearly enough for a “topless protest.” And no, the man-boobs don’t count.)
VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY and atherosclerosis.
MEGAN MCARDLE: Thinking Thin. “People will only give up one pleasure in exchange for a more intense pleasure.”
WHY WERE YOU SO SURPRISED THAT YOU NEVER SAW THE STRANGER, DID YOU EVER LET YOUR LOVER see The Stranger in yourself? I mean, just asking.
RESEARCH ON TREATING PARKINSON’S with healthy-cell implantation.
MICHAEL YON EMAILS: “The British Ministry of Defence canceled my embed after today’s dispatch. Please read Bad Medicine.”
TAXPROF: Former California Tax Official Indicted for Improperly Accessing IRS Information on 21 Taxpayers. I’ll bet this sort of “access” goes on a lot more than is prosecuted.
I’VE LINKED THIS BEFORE, BUT IT’S WORTH REPEATING: A downloadable flyer on photographers’ rights.
UPDATE: Another reason why Panetta may be unhappy. And I’m curious about the reference in the ABC story to ongoing CIA operations that he’s uncomfortable with. Those would have to be operations authorized by the President, wouldn’t they? I wonder what operations the White House would authorize that Panetta would be uncomfortable with?
IN THE MAIL: From Joe Calloway, Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison.
STEPHEN GREEN: This Week In Blogs.
BAD MEDICINE: Michael Yon posts another dispatch from Afghanistan. Remember, he’s supported by reader donations, so if you like his work, consider hitting the tipjar.
Here’s an excerpt: “Sitting there in the darkness, Axle works the radio while watching the downlink screen. As the A-10s approach at about 0314, the aircraft are still about 40 miles out, and a pilot starts listing off all the various sorts of weapons they are carrying. They had more spells than Harry Potter. As the A-10s close in on our postion, Axle picks up a downlink and suddenly he can see through the A-10 crosshairs. Whatever the pilot is looking at comes on Axle’s screen. Axle gives the pilot some reference points and each time the crosshairs instantly go to that point, and within maybe thirty seconds, the crosshairs slewed precisely to the spot where we were sitting. Axle told him that’s us, which probably sounded to the A-10 pilot something like, ‘Ah roga, dat’s us,’ and then Axle starts walking the pilot through to all the friendly locations so he can know where our guys are.”
UPDATE: Bruce Rolston on why it’s taking so long to train the Afghan Army.
BILL MCNUTT is looking for camera advice. I often take this Kodak in the boat. It’s cheap and does a good job.
MICKEY KAUS: “The idea of postponing health care reform–until, say, the economy improves– doesn’t seem appealing to many Democrats now. But it might soon. The problem, as Michael Goodwin’s recent column points out, is that the issues waiting in the wings–should health care leave the stage–are even worse, from the Democrats’ political perspective. Cap and trade, immigration legalization, ‘card check’–these are not what you’d call confidence building appetizers leading up to the main course of Obama’s presidency. Plus the Afghan War!”
WHAT HAPPENED TO CANDIDATE OBAMA? “As for the idealism, no president has sunk so far so fast. Candidate Obama chastised Washington as a place where good ideas died. He summoned young voters with high-minded slogans and Kennedy-esque rhetoric. Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush were mere politicians; he was the leader of a whole new era in politics. Now? Opponents of health care are stooges, evil-mongers, and villains. Citizen activists are to be reported to the authorities for spreading misinformation or ridiculed. The candidate with the superior temperament has devolved into a peevish president exasperated that mere citizens would question his wisdom or stand in his way.”
TALKING ABOUT RACE, in “post-racial” America.
SWINE FLU UPDATE: Flu Strategists See Schools on Front Line. “One of the main battlegrounds in the fight against an expected resurgence of swine flu this fall will be the schoolyard, a place where the disease could, well, go viral.” Yeah, they’re the main source of infection for that — and everything else, it seems . . . .