Think Things Through

Silliness at LGF

2009-09-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Will the people who screamed for Van Jones’ resignation based on unsubstantiated accusations that he was a Truther now scream just as loud about Pat Buchanan?"

Absolutely I will. I call for the immediate resignation of Patrick J. Buchanan from his position as czar of what? Oh yeah, nothing. And how much federal money is he in charge of disbursing? Oh yeah, none. So yes, Patrick J. Buchanan, I call on you to step down, lest you tarnish the entire conservative movement that you're not really a part of anyway.

A side note, Pat Buchanan's ideas have very little to do with the principles of conservatism. Socially he might think so, I don't. And economically, if anything he's a populist, authoritarian lefty. He's a protectionist, he's xenophobic, he's a lot like Lou Dobbs. That is nothing remotely approaching a liberty-minded, optimistic conservative, but it's probably enough of a subject for a separate post. And that's all aside from the fact Mr. Buchanan is seemingly nuts (Holocaust denier, 9/11 truth promoter, etc.).

So if I see him anywhere near a position remotely close to the importance of where Van Jones was, I'll be calling for his resignation, along with the resignation of whoever put him there. I will also eat my hat if anyone's actually that dumb.

I really don't understand how exactly guilt by association works over at LGF, other than to note that it applies to most everyone but Obama. Which is sort of too bad, I think Mr. Johnson is probably incredibly intelligent, and obviously a talented researcher.

Unruly - I'll take it

2009-08-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

unruly
adj., -li·er, -li·est.
Difficult or impossible to discipline, control, or rule.

Yes, that sounds just about right, since we are not to be 'ruled' in the first place.

Obama, Student of History

2009-06-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

“IT WAS ISLAM… that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed.”

Well, it sounds pleasant enough. But even a cursory examination of the Wikipedia articles on algebra, the compass, pens, and the germ theory of disease reveals that not one of those four things is settled fully, and the compass is just incorrect.

Algebra goes back to non-Islamic Baylonians. The compass may likely have gone back to the Olmecs, and if not them then the Chinese. Again, not Islam. The pen was not a new idea, being thousands of years old when the ink reservoir was first added to the implement itself. The idea of germs spreading disease originated in the Hindu world.

But let's say he is 100% correct on the facts, he is a student of history, as he tells us in the speech. For one thing, those Wikipedia entries can be cleaned up now. After that, he'd still be wrong, from the first sentence. It was not Islam that did anything. It was an individual. It was a person, with a mind-- not a belief system.

Now I Get It.

2008-12-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

Finally I've put it together:

Sarah Palin: Republican + Motherhood = Unthinkable

Rahm Emanuel: Democrat + Fatherhood = Unquestionable

“You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel said. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Dont do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.

This is only the most recent example, Michelle wielded her kids like a club with the infamous, "You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids." And it won't be the last example either.

This will be a fun four years yet. These people are beyond shameless.

Will Anyone Remember Obama's Computer Gaffe?

2008-10-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

We've had literal years of ridicule for Bush misspeaking and saying 'the Internets' once. Is there an Internet2? Sure, but he had obviously slipped up on the common parlance. I doubt a day's gone by since then that Slashdot hasn't had a reference to it.

Same with Ted Stevens and the Internet as a series of 'tubes'. Again, while not technically that far off, and while a 'fat pipe' is often referred to for fast connections, this was grounds for endless scorn. Ted Stevens deserves scorn, but he deserves it for being a crook, not for a comment on 'tubes'.

So when Barack Obama, legendary Harvard intellect and orator without parallel says, "The same way the computer was originally invented by a bunch of government scientists who were trying to figure out, for defense purposes, how to communicate," will anyone even notice? Sure, maybe he slipped up. But this statement is far, far more egregious than either of the two above. Will it enter the mainstream? I doubt it.

Why not? Once again, it's never funny to criticize The One. In fact, the BBC is already painting it in the most favorable light possible. Again, the meaning is not what matters. I know what he probably thinks he meant. It's just no one notices that the guy can't speak without his prompter.

Was 'The Happening' Even Environmental?

2008-06-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

I saw it last night, and I just didn't get as upset as I normally would by the subject matter. It was definitely presented in a more Twilight Zone manner than preachy one, and I found the focus of the movie to be more on the creepiness of visuals of mass suicides and on the relationship between the main characters.

As for the environmental message, I don't know. The plants totally blew away some of the most reliably blue-state states on the map, and then headed for Paris of all places. Maybe Nature was tired of being disrespected by environmentalists as not being able to take care of itself and decided to shut some of them up.

Here's a map, the 'event' didn't even touch any red states, it was New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. I didn't see any loggers going down, and the protagonists escaped in the most gas-hogging vehicle in the movie, a roughly 10 mpg, early 80s Jeep Grand Wagoneer. The plant-whisperer guy got taken out as well.

All of that is in jest obviously, but if you think you'd be irritated by any message in the movie, I would say just watch it to watch it and enjoy the 'what if' aspect of it. It's not great, but it's got some memorable moments.

To Republicans Not Voting For McCain

2008-06-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted listening to 'pricinpled' conservatives, and the vast majority of talk radio, bad-mouthing the idea of voting for McCain. The reasons range from "he doesn't respect us" to "bring on the bad times, then blame the Dems." That charts out a territory roughly from 'hypersensitive' and 'immature' on up to 'idiot'.

The primaries are over. Were there perfect choices? Not really. Were there good ones? Yeah, in my opinion. Would I take all of the top ones over Obama or Hillary? Yes.

The thing about teaching the voters a lesson by electing Obama is, we've got to live through those 4-8 years. I'm not interested in paying higher taxes, in socializing medicine, in waiting out more liberal judges to retire. I'm not interested in the Obamas 'healing my soul'.

John McCain is reliably for lowering taxes and earmarks. For those that claim to care, he's pro-life and anti-gay-marriage. You want to throw those positives in the toilet? Have at it. But don't expect anyone to listen to your childish demands next time around, just go join Buchanan or the Constitution Party and take your tears and diapers with you. I'm interested in winning, in improving, and living.

Does it take a Carter to get a Reagan?

2008-06-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Short answer: No.

If you actually believe in limited government, in allowing people to reach their potential and keep their work's rewards, this argument is just ridiculous. In essence, you are saying that Reagan's (or general conservative/libertarian) ideas are only truly attractive when looked at from some of the worst years since World War II.

Needless to say, I don't think that's the case. Limiting government is attractive, both in a practical and idealistic sense, at any time, compared to any other form of government.

If you think Reagan's great only when compared to Carter, I don't think you really know the meaning of the word 'great'.

Ron Paul Blackout Continues

2007-11-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

So a record in Internet fundraising is set yesterday, around $4 million dollars for Ron Paul. But neither RedState.com, Hugh Hewitt, nor Little Green Footballs takes any notice? Maybe they aren't totally representative, but come on... Especially on Hugh Hewitt's side, I would hope maybe Patrick Ruffini might have at least some kind of take on it.

It is kind of hilarious though, to read back through how his support has been dismissed as a 'spam bot' campaign. I guess if you just don't acknowledge it it isn't real, but I thought that was how we got voted out in the first place.

Obama is Clueless

2007-11-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

“We’ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money,” Obama said. “If you had a whole pizza, and your friend had no pizza, would you give him a slice?”

And likely the kid would, voluntarily. But that's not at all what Barack Obama is referring to. If Obama was being honest, he would drop the 'friend', he would drop the 'give', well actually-- he'd drop the whole thing, as it's all a lie.

I don't know what kind of moron thinks taxed redistribution of income is anywhere near the same universe as voluntarily sharing food with a hungry friend. But whatever kind of moron it is, Obama is one.

Laissez Faire Books, RIP

2007-10-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

I have read the Laissez Faire Books is going to be shutting down. I work for a company that does business with them, so I have access to a list of books that they offer. I am not sure that it is complete, but just about everything on the list is worth reading.

The links lead to a price comparison for each book. I know it's ridiculously long, but it makes it fun to randomly click somewhere for a book to read. Enjoy, and thank you to LFB for such a great service.

Here goes:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Jerome Adler

Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Discovery of Freedom Man's Struggle Against Authority by R. Wilder Lane

Atheism The Case Against God by George H. Smith

Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

What Every Investor Should Know About Austrian Economics and the Hard Money Movement by Mark Skousen

Judgment Day My Years With Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand

Prosperity Versus Planning How Government Stifles Economic Growth by David Osterfeld

Mises An Annotated Bibliography A Comprehensive Listing of Books and Articles by and About Ludwig Von Mises by Bettina Bien Greaves

Freedom of Informed Choice: FDA Versus Nutrient Supplements by Pearson, Durk

The God of the Machine by I. Paterson

From Magna Carta to the Constitution Documents in the Struggle for Liberty by David L. Brooks

A Man of Principle Essays in Honor of Hans F. Sennholz by John W. Robbins

How the West Grew Rich The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World by Nathan Rosenberg

Market for Liberty by Morris Tannehill

Resampling: The New Statistics by Julian Lincoln Simon

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Liberty and the Great Libertarians by Charles T. Sprading

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden

None of the Above by Sy Leon

True Odds How Risk Affects Your Everyday Life by James Walsh

Community Technology by Karl Hess

Ending Affirmative Action The Case for Colorblind Justice by Terry Eastland

Free to Try by Hans F. Sennholz

Venetian song. by Kay Nolte Smith

Laissez-Faire Banking by Kevin Dowd

Explorations In Economic Liberalism by GEoffrey Wood

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

People's Pharmacy by Joe Graedon

Net Gain Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities by Arthur Armstrong

Human Action A Treatise on Economics by Ludwig Von Mises

Mortal Peril Our Inalienable Right to Health Care? by Richard A. Epstein

Breaking the Environmental Policy Gridlock by Terry L. Anderson

Insanity The Idea and Its Consequences by Thomas Szasz

The State by Franz Oppenheimer

The State by Franz Oppenheimer

No Law Against Mercy Jailed for Sheltering a Child from the State by Rachel B. Lapp

Taxing Choice The Predatory Politics of Fiscal Discrimination by William F. Shughart

Taking Responsibility Self-Reliance and the Accountable Life by Nathaniel Branden

Facts, Not Fear Teaching Children About the Environment by Michael Sanera

On Liberty Vindication of the Rights of Woman by John Stuart Mill

The Prince/Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by MacHiavelli

Communist Manifesto Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand by Douglas & Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl

The Other Americans How Immigrants Renew Our Country, Our Economy and Our Values by Joel Millman

Release 2.0 A Design for Living in the Digital Age by Esther Dyson

Those Dirty Rotten Taxes The Tax Revolts That Built America by Charles Adams

How to Get Happily Published by Judith Appelbaum

Less Than Zero The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy by George Selgin

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men A History of the American Civil War by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Ayn Rand A Sense of Life The Companion Book by Michael Paxton

Going Digital! A Guide to Policy in the Digital Age by William A. Niskanen

The Roosevelt Myth by John T. Flynn

Transformation The Promise and Politics of Empowerment by Clint Bolick

New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources by H. L. Mencken

Regulating Financial Markets A Critique and Some Proposals by George J. Benston

The Right to Home School A Guide to the Law on Parents Rights in Education by Christopher J. Klicka

The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang

The Twelve-Year Sentence: Radical Views on Compulsory Education by Boaz, David

The Twelve-Year Sentence by William F. Rickenbacker

Guilt, Blame, and Politics by Allan Levite

Letters of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand

The End of Money And the Struggle for Financial Privacy by Richard W. Rahn

Who Rules America The People Vs. the Political Class by Eric O'Keefe

Cyber Rights Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age by Mike Godwin

Real Federalism Why It Matters, How It Could Happen by Michael S. Greve

The Mocker by Steve Ditko

Speaking of George Gilder by Frank Gregorsky

Ayn Rand's Marginalia Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over 20 Authors by Ayn Rand

The Fuzzy Future From Society and Science to Heaven in a Chip by Bart Kosko

Crossing by Deirdre N. McCloskey

Addiction Is a Choice by Jeffrey Schaler Ph.D.

Building Regulation, Market Alternatives, and Allodial Policy by John Cobin

Freedom in Chains The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen by James Bovard

Actual Innocence Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted by Jim Dwyer

The Golden Globe by John Varley

Monopoly Politics by James C. Miller III

Thrust for Freedom An Introduction to Volitional Science by Andrew J. Galambos

Genesis by Poul Anderson

Days of Obligation An Argument With My Mexican Father by Richard Rodriguez

Home and Work Negotiating Boundaries Through Everyday Life by Christena E. Nippert-Eng

Minds, Machines & Evolution by James Hogan

What Art Is The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres

Gesundheit, Dummy The Best of Baloo by Rex F. May

Cutting Green Tape Toxic Pollutants, Environmental Regulation and the Law by Richard L. Stroup

Harnessing Complexity Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier by Michael D. Cohen

Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand by Mimi Reisel Gladstein

An Enemy of the State The Life of Murray N. Rothbard by Justin Raimondo

From the Fountainhead to the Future: And Other Essays on Art and Excellence by York, Alexandra

Antidote Essays against the Socialist Indian State by Sauvik Chakraverti

Harmonizing Sentiments The Declaration of Independence and the Jeffersonian Idea of Self-Government by Hans L. Eicholz

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell

Telecosm How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World by George Gilder

Roots of Freedom A Primer on Modern Liberty by John W. Danford

A Force More Powerful A Century of Nonviolent Conflict by Peter Ackerman

Regulation Without the State by Colin Robinson

Egalitarianism As A Revolt Against Nature And Other Essays by Murray N. Rothbard

Trust on Trial How the Microsoft Case Is Reframing the Rules of Competition by Richard B. McKenzie

Genome The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley

Faster The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick

The Teacher Unions How They Sabotage Educational Reform and Why by Myron Lieberman

Why Atheism? by George H. Smith

A Student's Guide to Economics by Paul Heyne

More Guns, Less Crime Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws by John R. Lott Jr.

The Psychology of Self-Esteem A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Understanding That Launched a New Era in Modern Psychology by Nathaniel Branden Branden

The Homeschooling Revolution by Isabel Lyman

The Future of Financial Privacy

Surthrival Guide for Under 18ers by Mark Feest

The Founders' Constitution by Philip Kurland

The Government Vs. Erotica The Siege of Adam & Eve by Philip D. Harvey

The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand Truth and Toleration in Objectivism by David Kelley

Rebel Code (The Inside Story of Linux and the Open Source Revolution) by Glyn Moody

Tethered Citizens Time to Repeal the Welfare State by Sheldon Richman

Miss Liberty's Guide to Film and Video Movies for the Libertarian Millennium by Jon Osborne

Think Free to Live Free A Political Burnout's Guide to Life, Activism and Everything by Claire Wolfe

The Changing Fortunes of Economic Liberalism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by David Henderson

Anti-Liberalism 2000 The Rise of New Millennium Collectivism by G.C. Harcourt

The End of Privacy by Charles Sykes

Fool's Errands America's Recent Encounters With Nation Building by Roger W. Fontaine

The Ceo of the Sofa by P. J. O'Rourke

Human Rights & the U.S. Drug War by Chris Conrad

Cosm by Gregory Benford

Armed New Perspectives on Gun Control by Gary Kleck

Njal's Saga by Robert Cook

Egil's Saga by Paul Edwards

The Essays A Selection by Michel E. De Montaigne

Origin Of Species by Charles Robert Darwin

Baghdad Without a Map And Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz

The Einstein Syndrome Bright Children Who Talk Late by Thomas Sowell

Germs Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller

Ayn Rand and Business by Theodore B. Kinni

Breaking The Pattern The 5 Principles You Need To Remodel Your Life by Charles S. Platkin

Secrets from an Inventor's Notebook by Maurice Kanbar

Invasion of Privacy How to Protect Yourself in the Digital Age by Michael Hyatt

The Ten Things You Can't Say in America by Larry Elder

Lectures on the Relation Between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century by Albert V. Dicey

School Reform The Critical Issues by Williamson M. Evers

Martha Washington Goes to War by Dave Gibbons

Liberation by Oppression A Comparative Study of Slavery and Psychiatry by Thomas Stephen Szasz

Gold Wars The Battle Against Sound Money As Seen from a Swiss Perspective by Ferdinand Lips

Power of Economic Thinking by Not Available

Showdown Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America by Larry Elder

Exiting the Balkan Thicket

Napoleon A Penguin Life by Paul Johnson

Personal Character and National Destiny by Harold B. Jones

Space The Free-Market Frontier by Edward L Hudgins

The Rule of Lawyers How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law by Walter K. Olson

Government America's No. 1 Growth Industry How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Impoverishing America by Stephen Moore

Diversity The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood

Collapse of a Dream Social Effects of Economics in India and the World by Rayasam Prasad

The Bias Against Guns Why Almost Everything You'Ve Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong by John R. Lott

The Commanding Heights The Battle for the World Economy by Daniel Yergin

Teach Your Own The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt

Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume20) by Richard Phillip Feynman

Dependent on D.C The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans by Charlotte Twight

Tethered Citizens Time to Repeal the Welfare State by Sheldon Richman

To Begin the World Anew The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders by Bernard Bailyn

Lafayette by Harlow Giles Unger

Government Creep What the Government Is Doing That You Don't Know About by Philip D. Harvey

The Illusion of Victory America in World War I by Thomas Fleming

What's Yours Is Mine Open Access and the Rise of Infrastructure Socialism by Adam Theirer

The Liberal Tide from Tyranny to Liberty by Jim Peron

Liberty, Security, and the War on Terrorism by Richard M. Ebeling

Terrorism And Tyranny Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil by James Bovard

Adventures in Legal Land by Marc Stevens

Economic Freedom of the World 2003 Annual Report by James D. Gwartney

Bioevolution How Biotechnology Is Changing Our World by Michael Fumento

Whatever Happened to Justice? by Richard J. Maybury

Art A New History by Paul Johnson

Origin of the American Revolution 1759-1766 by Bernhard Knollenberg

Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists Unleashing The Power Of Financial Markets To Create Wealth And Spread Opportunity by Raghuram Rajan

The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! by Otto L. Bettmann

The Seven Myths of Gun Control by Richard Poe

Breach Of Trust How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders by John Hart

Agricultural Policy and the Environment by Roger E. Meiners

The Grounds and Limits of Political Obligation by Emile Capriotti

Growth of the American Revolution, 1766-1775 by Bernhard Knollenberg

Words to the Wise A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary by Thomas Szasz

National Identification Systems Essays in Opposition by Wendy McElroy

Just Get Out of the Way How Government Can Help Business in Poor Countries by Robert E. Anderson

Weeping by Shelly Reuben

Mugged by the State Outrageous Government Assaults on Ordinary People and Their Property by Randall Fitzgerald

How to Be Invisible The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life by J. J. Luna

Financial Reckoning Day Surviving The Soft Depression Of The 21st Century by Bill Bonner

Ex America The 50th Anniversary of the People's Pottage by Garet Garrett

The Real Lincoln A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War by Thomas J. Dilorenzo

Commerce, Culture, and Liberty Readings on Capitalism Before Adam Smith by Henry C. Clark

Faith in Freedom Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices by Thomas Stephen Szasz

Operation Hollywood How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies by David L. Robb

Ottoman Centuries The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire by Kinross

The Skeptic The Life of H.L. Mencken by Terry Teachout

Bad Trip How the War Against Drugs Is Destroying America by Joel Miller

Economy and Virtue by Dennis O'Keefe

Abuse Of Power How The Government Misuses Eminent Domain by STEVEN GREENHUT

Economic Freedom of the World 2004 Annual Report by James D. Gwartney

The Limits of Civic Activism Cautionary Tales on the Use of Politics by Robert Weissberg

Shakedown How Corporations, Government, And Trial Lawyers Abuse The Judicial Process by Robert A. Levy

A Practical Guide to Winning the War on Terrorism by Adam M. Garfinkle

The Universal Hunger For Liberty Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable by Michael Novak

Gun Laws of America Every Federal Gun Law on the Books With Plain English Summaries by Alan Korwin

Hard America, Soft America Competition Vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future by Michael Barone

Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left A Thinking Christian's Guide to Politics And Public Policy by D. Eric Schansberg

Betrayal How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics by Linda Chavez

Africa Unchained The Blueprint for Africa's Future by George B.N. Ayittey

Sowing The Wind Essays And Articles On Popular Economic Policies That Make Matters Worse by Hans F. Sennholz

Enlightened Democracy The Case For The Electoral College by Tara Ross

Perilous Times Free Speech In Wartime From The Sedition Act Of 1798 To The War On Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone

State Of Fear by Michael Crichton

Creating Equal My Fight Against Race Preferences by Ward Connerly

Wilson's War How Woodrow Wilson's Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War ii by Jim Powell

Against All Enemies Inside America's War On Terror by Richard A. Clarke

Bubbles and How To Survive Them by John P. Calverley

Noble Vision by Lagreca

Public Schools, Public Menace How Public Schools Lie to Parents And Betray Our Children (volume1) by Joel Turtel

No Place To Hide by Robert O'Harrow

For Us, The Living A Comedy Of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein

Bound For Canaan The Underground Railroad And The War For The Soul Of America by Fergus M. Bordewich

Ayn Rand And Song Of Russia Communism And Anti-communism In 1940s Hollywood by Robert Mayhew

The Republican Revolution 10 Years Later Smaller Government Or Business As Usual? by Chris Edwards

Cato Handbook On Policy by David Boaz

Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State by Laurence M. Vance

Big Fat Liars How Politicians, Corporations, And The Media Use Science And Statistics To Manipulate The Public by Morris E. Chafetz

Varieties Of Conservatism In America by Peter Berkowitz

Vindication A Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft by Lyndall Gordon

Breaking Free Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice by Sol Stern

Hoodwinked How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture by Jack Cashill

Smut A Sex Industry Insider (And Concerned Father) Says Enough Is Enough by Gil Reavill

Thomas Jefferson Author of America by Christopher Hitchens

Hot Commodities How Anyone Can Invest Profitably In The World's Best Market by Jim Rogers

The Organization of Inquiry by Gordon Tullock

Citizen Of The Galaxy Library Edition by Robert A. Heinlein

The Tenth Man The Great Joke (Which Made Lazarus Laugh) by Wu Wei Wei

Vienna & Chicago, Friends or Foes? A Tale of Two Schools of Free-Market Economics by Mark Skousen

Sandstorm Policy Failure In The Middle East by Leon Hadar

The Narnian The Life And Imagination Of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs

Tax Revolt The Rebellion Against An Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, And Abusive Government by Phil Valentine

After Enron Lessons For Public Policy by William A. Niskanen

The Closing Of The Western Mind The Rise Of Faith And The Fall Of Reason by Charles Freeman

The Naked Crowd Reclaiming Security And Freedom In An Anxious Age by Jeffrey Rosen

How Capitalism Saved America The Untold History Of Our Country, From The Pilgrims To The Present by Thomas Dilorenzo

Underexposed What If Radiation Is Actually Good for You? by Ed Hiserodt

Spychips How Government And Major Corporations Are Tracking Your Every Move by Katherine Albrecht

Economic Freedom Of The World 2005 Annual Report by James D. Gwartney

Insatiable Government and Other Old-Right Commentaries, 1923-1950

Making Great Decisions in Business and Life by David R. Henderson Ph.D.

Meltdown The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, And the Media by Patrick J. Michaels

Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard

Downsizing the Federal Goverment by Chris Edwards

Something for Nothing The All-consuming Desire That Turns the American Dream into a Social Nightmare by Brian Tracy

Size Matters How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, And Freedom (And Limits the Pursuit of Happiness) by Joel Miller

America's Coming War with China A collision course over Taiwan by Ted Galen Carpenter

Basic Principles of Economic Value by Eugen Von Bohm Bawerk

No Place To Hide by Robert O'Harrow

Creators From Chaucer And Durer to Picasso And Disney by Paul Johnson

FDRs Folly How Roosevelt And His New Deal Prolonged The Great Depression by Jim Powell

Government without Taxes Operating For-Profit and Paying Dividends to Its Owners the Constitution for Capitalism by Donald Kirchinger

The Last Free Man in America Meets the Synthetic Subversion (volume2) by Gatewood Galbraith

Homeland Security Scams by James T. Bennett

Street Smart Competition, Entrepreneurship, And the Future of Roads by Mary E. (FWD) Peters

The Constitution in Exile How The Federal Government Has Seized Power By Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land by Andrew P. Napolitano

The Global War on Your Guns Inside the U.N. Plan to Destroy the Bill of Rights by Wayne Lapierre

The Early Ayn Rand A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction by Ayn Rand

The White Man's Burden Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good by William Easterly

Identity Crisis How Identification Is Overused And Misunderstood by Jim Harper

Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China's Peasants by Chen Guidi

Life, Liberty, And Happiness An Optimist Manifesto by Frank S. Robinson

One Nation Under Therapy How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-reliance by Sally L. Satel

What Would the Founders Do? Our Questions, Their Answers by Richard Brookhiser

The Bottomless Well The Twilgiht of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, And Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy by Peter Huber

Bully Boy The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy by Jim Powell

Unwarranted Intrusions The Case Against Government Intervention in the Marketplace by Martin S. Fridson

Flight from Inflation by E.C. Riegel

The New Approach to Freedom by E.C. Riegel

Flight from Inflation by E.C. Riegel

Reclaiming Our Children The Healing Solution for a Nation in Crisis by Peter Breggin

The Identity of Man by Jacob Bronowski

Nation Of Rebels Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath

White Guilt How Blacks And Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele

Depression, War, And Cold War Studies in Political Economy by Robert Higgs

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett And George Soros by George Soros

Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure by Roger Garrison

Freedom! by Martin Harry Greenberg

Buck Wild How Republicans Broke the Bank And Became the Party of Big Government by Stephen Slivinski

The Christian Theology of Public Policy Highlighting the American Experience (volume1) by John M. Cobin

Then Athena Said Unilateral Transfers And the Transformation of Objectivist Ethics by Kathleen Touchstone

Excellence Without a Soul How a Great University Forgot Education by Harry R. Lewis

The Big Ripoff How Big Business And Big Government Steal Your Money by Timothy P. Carney

War by Edward Cline

Ghost Plane The True Story of the CIA Torture Program by Stephen Grey

Liberty for All Reclaiming Individual Privacy in a New Era of Public Morality by Elizabeth Price Foley

The Star Sailors by Gary L. Bennett

Moral Minority Our Skeptical Founding Fathers by Brooke Allen

Cato Supreme Court Review 2005-2006 by Mark K. Moller

The Road More Traveled Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You Think, and What We Can Do About It by Sam Staley

Radicals for Capitalism A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

A Religious Orgy in Tennessee A Reporter's Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial by H. L. Mencken

Dictionary of Dangerous Words by Digby C. Anderson

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

The Stem Cell Controversy Debating the Issues by Ruse

Bastiat's 'the Law by Norman Barry

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland

Somebody's Gotta Say It by Neal Boortz

Liberal Reform in an Illiberal Regime The Creation of Private Property in Russia, 1906-1915 by Stephen F. Williams

In Defense of Advertising Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-faire Capitalism by Jerry Kirkpatrick

Eco-freaks Environmentalism Is Hazardous to Your Health! by John Berlau

Electric Choices Deregulation And the Future of Electric Power by Andrew N. Kleit

Leviathan on the Right How Big Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution by Michael D. Tanner

Milton Friedman A Biography by Lanny Ebenstein

Silence of the Rational Center Why American Foreign Policy Is Failing by Jonathan Clarke

Freedom and Capitalism by John Robbins

The Structure of Production by Mark Skousen

The Economic Naturalist In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas by Robert Frank

Samuel Adams Father of the American Revolution by Mark Puls

It's Getting Better All the Time 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years by Stephen Moore

Discover Your Inner Economist Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist by Tyler Cowen

Common Genius by Bill Greene

I'm Moving to Seattle

2007-06-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

Look like the nanny state is leaning my way for once, as Seattle considers banning city employees from making microwave popcorn.

It's just a first step, but it's a good one-- they've established that there is a 'public cost' to microwave popcorn, what with all the overcooking and smoke evacuations. From here there's nowhere to go but up.

To me, the smell is every bit as offensive as the cheapest Cambodian cigarette. And if only microwave popcorn can be banned for everyone instead of me just avoiding it, well, that's the wave of the future. I'm sure we can get a study on the carcinogenic effects of the superheated plastics and corn smoke, and if it's inaccurate, so much the better-- it'll make the case almost identical to that of tobacco.

Coming up next-- coffee. No more coffee in public buildings, buildings accessible to the public, or private attached buildings.

Then pets. Because I just can't keep to myself, everything that annoys me and a slight majority must be banned to everyone. You know, for the collective good.

Good Times

2006-10-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

This is who I am

2006-09-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

You'd think I could pull it together enough to just be aware of my various bank balances, but no, not me. The worst part is, if someone had said that crappy Jack in the Box milkshake would cost me effectively $30, I'd have still taken it:

09/18/2006	MC-SUBWAY II SALEM	-$9.99	$0.96
09/19/2006	MC-MCDONALD'S F594 Q17 SALEM	-$4.55	($3.59)
09/20/2006	*OVERDRAFT CHARGE	-$27.00	($30.59)
09/20/2006	MC-JACK IN THE BO00071Q43 SALEM	-$2.49	($33.08)
09/21/2006	*OVERDRAFT CHARGE	-$27.00	($60.08)
09/21/2006	*CUSTOMER DEPOSIT	+$60.00	($0.08)

The best part is where I decided to go put $60 in just in case the balance was getting low. I'm sure the teller thought I was a genius in coming up $.08 short. I didn't even look at the receipt.

My Evening on the Mean Streets of Salem

2006-03-29T02:10:00.000-08:00

Earlier tonight was kind of a downer. Headed for Subway and parked a block away, and an older homeless guy hit me up for a dollar for food. I had no cash on me, so I had the genius idea of offering him a meal at Subway. Not only did he not really want food, he was kind of indignant, and said, "I can get my own food." Obviously wanted booze, not food.

So I was a little discouraged, figuring all homeless were basically the same as those freeway onramp career panhandlers or lying drunks.

Well, coming back from my midnight stroll through Bush Park, I ran into a guy in my back alley carrying a couple of blankets to wherever he planned to sleep. When I got to my driveway, his bike was parked there, my Diet Coke 2-liter bottles in a plastic bag, and it hit me that his blankets were the two I'd thrown in the trash earlier that night during Spring cleaning.

Obviously it was kind of a downer, but at the same time, the guy was making his way, whatever way that was, on his own. I talked to him when he came back for the bike, and he had a little route he runs every day. So we worked out what I can do with stuff he might use, he doesn't have to root through my trash, and I have my own personal Goodwill drop-off.

I'll probably get ripped off now somehow, but I'm Mother Teresa tonight. At the very least I got the bad taste of that old drunk guy out of my mouth.

My Message to Ron Wyden Today

2006-03-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

Mr. Wyden,

I look forward to seeing how you apply your Internet Non-Discrimination Act to the US package delivery service industry and other industries with different levels of service.

We are all tired of having to choose between Next Day Air, Second Day Air, and Ground transport for packages, and look forward to our egalitarian future where nothing can be delivered any faster than USPS Media Mail, regardless of what you are willing to pay.

From there, with your foresight and guidance, we can work on abolishing charter and private plane flights that move passengers back and forth in a discriminatory fashion, only based on how much they are willing and able to pay. Better yet, ground the planes and get everyone on Amtrak, for the ultimate in delivering poor service equally to all.

I'll leave it to your imagination where we can go from there, but suffice it to say we are all looking forward to a future with less confusing choices to make, or, God willing, no choices to make at all.

Thank you,
Morgan B MacArthur
Salem, OR

Go George - The UAE Ports Deal

2006-02-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

Lawmakers, he said, must 'step up and explain why a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard.'

Exactly. We have both enemies and allies in the Middle East, and I'm glad someone is keeping track of them by criteria beyond skin color and religion.

Besides the racial idiocy on this one, our ports system should not rely on the trustworthiness or security of a private business to safeguard our country. It shouldn't matter who is managing the ports, the policies are ours to set, not theirs.

My Hat's Off to Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google

2006-02-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone's outraged at our Internet companies doing business in China without somehow single-handedly overturning their Communist government. As though it is business's role to actually affect change in the form of government in their marketplace.

Microsoft was never a fan favorite, and Yahoo has been getting it pretty good lately. For my part, I don't really like Google. "Don't be evil" is a little self-righteous for my taste.

But let's be honest. Before these American companies were doing business in China, nobody knew or cared to know the extent of the censorship that goes on in China. We have learned more about the Chines government's repression in the last few months than we ever wanted to before.

When a company does business in a foreign country, they are generally required to follow local law, not write it. The people complaining should instead be applauding, because there is now a spotlight on the Chinese government's abuses.

So keep it up, American tech giants, you're doing the right thing-- business.

I Haven't Seen Outrage Like This Since...

2006-02-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen outrage in the Muslim community like that over this image--

--since the outrage in the Muslim community over this image:

Oh yeah, I forgot.

Happy Birthday Dr. King

2006-01-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

In comments commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, Mayor Ray Nagin seamlessly joined the insanity Pastor Pat Robertson --

"Surely God is mad at America... Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses."

-- with the racism of former Klansman Robert Byrd --

"It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans."

-- Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

Why Oh Why Do I Watch Lost? Part 1

2006-01-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

This weeks installment:

Monsters about? Murderers in the night? Have a new born baby? Don't move indoors with the showers and kitchen, just spread this crappy tarp on the sand next to the deadly jungle.

Learning to shoot? Short on food? Use a gallon of ranch as a target instead of a piece of wood. It'll give the show a good opportunity to showcase the mysterious Dharma logo and it looks dramatic blowing up.

Need parts? Engines? A radio? Something to make a boat out of? Nope. Burn the wrecked plane anyway, and don't worry about torching the jungle or attracting the "Others".

I'm sure I'll watch next week anyway.

Call Your Representatives - Support Shadegg

2006-01-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

We have a real opportunity to make meaningful change in the House. Call your representative and tell them to support John Shadegg for House Majority Leader. The reason I think he'd be great? The Enumerated Powers Act says it all. Anyone that would conceive it has my support.

I called my lonely Oregon Republican Greg Walden, and they said he's supporting Blunt. But the girl on the phone also wanted to know my opinion, which was nice, enough calls into the offices have got to at least make the members take notice.

Republican Representative Reference

2006-01-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

State		Name	Phone
AL	1	Josiah R Bonner Jr	202-225-4931
AL	2	R Terry Everett	202-225-2901
AL	3	Michael D Rogers	202-225-3261
AL	4	Robert B Aderholt	202-225-4876
AL	6	Spencer T Bachus III	202-225-4921
AK		Donald E Young	202-225-5765
AZ	1	Rick Renzi	202-225-2315
AZ	2	Trent Franks	202-225-4576
AZ	3	John Shadegg	202-225-3361
AZ	5	John D Hayworth Jr	202-225-2190
AZ	6	Jeff Flake	202-225-2635
AZ	8	James T Kolbe	202-225-2542
AR	3	John Boozman	202-225-4301
CA	2	Walter W Herger	202-225-3076
CA	3	Daniel E Lungren	202-225-5716
CA	4	John T Doolittle	202-225-2511
CA	11	Richard W Pombo	202-225-1947
CA	19	George P Radanovich	202-225-4540
CA	21	Devin Nunes	202-225-2523
CA	22	William M Thomas	202-225-2915
CA	24	Elton W Gallegly	202-225-5811
CA	25	Howard P McKeon	202-225-1956
CA	26	David T Dreier	202-225-2305
CA	40	Edward R Royce	202-225-4111
CA	41	C Jeremy Lewis	202-225-5861
CA	42	Gary G Miller	202-225-3201
CA	44	Ken Calvert	202-225-1986
CA	45	Mary W Bono	202-225-5330
CA	46	Dana Rohrabacher	202-225-2415
CA	48	John Campbell	202-225-5611
CA	49	Darrell E Issa	202-225-3906
CA	50	Randall Cunningham	202-225-5452
CA	52	Duncan L Hunter	202-225-5672
CO	4	Marilyn N Musgrave	202-225-4676
CO	5	Joel M Hefley	202-225-4422
CO	6	Thomas G Tancredo	202-225-7882
CO	7	Bob Beauprez	202-225-2645
CT	2	Robert R Simmons	202-225-2076
CT	4	Christopher H Shays	202-225-5541
CT	5	Nancy L Johnson	202-225-4476
DE		Michael N Castle	202-225-4165
FL	1	Jefferson B Miller	202-225-4136
FL	4	Ander Crenshaw	202-225-2501
FL	5	Virginia Brown-Waite	202-225-1002
FL	6	Clifford B Stearns	202-225-4501
FL	7	John L Mica	202-225-4035
FL	8	Richard Keller	202-225-2176
FL	9	Michael Bilirakis	202-225-5755
FL	10	C William Young	202-225-5961
FL	12	Adam H Putnam	202-225-1252
FL	13	Katherine Harris	202-225-5015
FL	14	Connie Mack IV	202-225-2536
FL	15	David J Weldon	202-225-3671
FL	16	Mark A Foley	202-225-5792
FL	18	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen	202-225-3931
FL	21	Lincoln Diaz-Balart	202-225-4211
FL	22	E Clay Shaw Jr	202-225-3026
FL	24	Thomas C Feeney III	202-225-2706
FL	25	Mario Diaz-Balart	202-225-2778
GA	1	John H Kingston	202-225-5831
GA	6	Tom Price	202-225-4501
GA	7	John E Linder	202-225-4272
GA	8	Lynn Westmoreland	202-225-5901
GA	9	Charles W Norwood Jr	202-225-4101
GA	10	J Nathan Deal	202-225-5211
GA	11	Phillip Gingrey	202-225-2931
ID	1	C L Otter	202-225-2911
ID	2	Michael K Simpson	202-225-5531
IL	6	Henry J Hyde	202-225-4561
IL	10	Mark S Kirk	202-225-4835
IL	11	Gerald C Weller	202-225-3635
IL	13	Judith B Biggert	202-225-3515
IL	14	J Dennis Hastert	202-225-2976
IL	15	Timothy V Johnson	202-225-2371
IL	16	Donald A Manzullo	202-225-5676
IL	18	Ray H LaHood	202-225-6201
IL	19	John M Shimkus	202-225-5271
IN	2	Chris Chocola	202-225-3915
IN	3	Mark E Souder	202-225-4436
IN	4	Stephen E Buyer	202-225-5037
IN	5	Danny L Burton	202-225-2276
IN	6	Mike Pence	202-225-3021
IN	8	John N Hostettler	202-225-4636
IN	9	Michael E Sodrel	202-225-5315
IA	1	James A Nussle	202-225-2911
IA	2	James A S Leach	202-225-6576
IA	4	Thomas Latham	202-225-5476
IA	5	Steve King	202-225-4426
KS	1	Jerry Moran	202-225-2715
KS	2	Jim R Ryun	202-225-6601
KS	4	Todd Tiahrt	202-225-6216
KY	1	W Edward Whitfield	202-225-3115
KY	2	Ron Lewis	202-225-3501
KY	3	Anne M Northup	202-225-5401
KY	4	Geoff Davis	202-225-3465
KY	5	Harold D Rogers	202-225-4601
LA	1	Bobby Jindal	202-225-3015
LA	4	Jim McCrery	202-225-2777
LA	5	Rodney Alexander	202-225-8490
LA	6	Richard Baker	202-225-3901
LA	7	Charles Boustany	202-225-2031
MD	1	Wayne Gilchrest	202-225-5311
MD	6	Roscoe Bartlett	202-225-2721
MI	2	Pete Hoekstra	202-225-4401
MI	3	Vern Ehlers	202-225-3831
MI	4	Dave Camp	202-225-3561
MI	6	Fred Upton	202-225-3761
MI	7	Joe Schwarz	202-225-6276
MI	8	Mike J Rogers	202-225-4872
MI	9	Joe Knollenberg	202-225-5802
MI	10	Candice Miller	202-225-2106
MI	11	Thad McCotter	202-225-8171
MN	1	Gil Gutknecht	202-225-2472
MN	2	John Kline	202-225-2271
MN	3	Jim Ramstad	202-225-2871
MN	6	Mark Kennedy	202-225-2331
MS	1	Roger F Wicker	202-225-4306
MS	3	Charles W Pickering Jr	202-225-5031
MO	2	Todd Akin	202-225-2561
MO	6	Sam Graves	202-225-7041
MO	7	Roy Blunt	202-225-6536
MO	8	Jo Ann Emerson	202-225-4404
MO	9	Kenny Hulshof	202-225-2956
MT		Dennis R Rehberg	202-225-3211
NE	1	Jeff Fortenberry	202-225-4806
NE	2	Lee R Terry	202-225-4155
NE	3	Thomas W Osborne	202-225-6435
NV	2	James A Gibbons	202-225-6155
NV	3	Jon C Porter	202-225-3252
NH	1	Jeb Bradley	202-225-5456
NH	2	Charles F Bass	202-225-5206
NJ	2	Frank LoBiondo	202-225-6572
NJ	3	Jim Saxton	202-225-4765
NJ	4	Chris Smith	202-225-3765
NJ	5	E Scott Garrett	202-225-4465
NJ	7	Mike Ferguson	202-225-5361
NJ	11	Rodney Frelinghuysen	202-225-5034
NM	1	Heather A Wilson	202-225-6316
NM	2	Steven E Pearce	202-225-2365
NY	3	Peter King	202-225-7896
NY	13	Vito Fossella	202-225-3371
NY	19	Sue Kelly	202-225-5441
NY	20	John E Sweeney	202-225-5614
NY	23	John McHugh	202-225-4611
NY	24	Sherwood Boehlert	202-225-3665
NY	25	Jim Walsh	202-225-3701
NY	26	Tom Reynolds	202-225-5265
NY	29	Randy Kuhl	202-225-3161
NC	3	Walter Jones Jr	202-225-3415
NC	5	Virginia Foxx	202-225-2071
NC	6	Howard Coble	202-225-3065
NC	8	Robin Hayes	202-225-3715
NC	9	Sue Myrick	202-225-1976
NC	10	Patrick McHenry	202-225-2576
NC	11	Charles Taylor	202-225-6401
OH	1	Steve Chabot	202-225-2216
OH	3	Michael R Turner	202-225-6465
OH	4	Michael G Oxley	202-225-2676
OH	5	Paul E Gillmor	202-225-6405
OH	7	David L Hobson	202-225-4324
OH	8	John A Boehner	202-225-6205
OH	12	Patrick J Tiberi	202-225-5355
OH	14	Steven C LaTourette	202-225-5731
OH	15	Deborah D Pryce	202-225-2015
OH	16	Ralph S Regula	202-225-3876
OH	18	Robert W Ney	202-225-6265
OK	1	John Sullivan	202-225-2211
OK	3	Frank D Lucas	202-225-4811
OK	4	Tom Cole	202-225-6416
OK	5	Ernest J Istook Jr	202-225-5711
OR	2	Greg Walden	202-225-6730
PA	3	Phil English	202-225-5406
PA	4	Melissa Hart	202-225-2565
PA	5	John Peterson	202-225-5121
PA	6	Jim Gerlach	202-225-4315
PA	7	Curt Weldon	202-225-2011
PA	8	Michael G Fitzpatrick	202-225-4276
PA	9	Bill Shuster	202-225-2431
PA	10	Don Sherwood	202-225-3731
PA	15	Charlie Dent	202-225-6411
PA	16	Joe Pitts	202-225-2411
PA	18	Timothy Murphy	202-225-2301
PA	19	Todd Platts	202-225-5836
SC	1	Henry E Brown, Jr	202-225-3176
SC	2	Joe Wilson	202-225-2452
SC	3	J Gresham Barrett	202-225-5301
SC	4	Bob Inglis	202-225-6030
TN	1	Bill Jenkins	202-225-6356
TN	2	Jimmy Duncan Jr	202-225-5435
TN	3	Zach Wamp	202-225-3271
TN	7	Marsha Blackburn	202-225-2811
TX	1	Louie Gohmert	202-225-3035
TX	2	Ted Poe	202-225-6565
TX	3	Sam Johnson	202-225-4201
TX	4	Ralph Hall	202-225-6673
TX	5	Jeb Hensarling	202-225-3484
TX	6	Joe Barton	202-225-2002
TX	7	John Culberson	202-225-2571
TX	8	Kevin Brady	202-225-4901
TX	10	Mike McCaul	202-225-2401
TX	11	Mike Conaway	202-225-3605
TX	12	Kay Granger	202-225-5071
TX	13	Mac Thornberry	202-225-3706
TX	14	Ron Paul	202-225-2831
TX	19	Randy Neugebauer	202-225-4005
TX	21	Lamar Smith	202-225-4236
TX	22	Tom DeLay	202-225-5951
TX	23	Henry Bonilla	202-225-4511
TX	24	Kenny Marchant	202-225-6605
TX	26	Michael Burgess	202-225-7772
TX	31	John Carter	202-225-3864
TX	32	Pete Sessions	202-225-2231
UT	1	Robert Bishop	202-225-0453
UT	3	Christopher B Cannon	202-225-7751
VA	1	Jo Ann S Davis	202-225-4261
VA	2	Thelma Drake	202-225-4215
VA	4	J Randy Forbes	202-225-6365
VA	5	Virgil H Goode Jr	202-225-4711
VA	6	Robert W Goodlatte	202-225-5431
VA	7	Eric I Cantor	202-225-2815
VA	10	Frank R Wolf	202-225-5136
VA	11	Thomas M Davis III	202-225-1492
WA	4	Doc Hastings	202-225-5816
WA	5	Cathy McMorris	202-225-2006
WA	8	Dave Reichert	202-225-7761
WV	2	Shelley M Capito	202-225-2711
WI	1	Paul Ryan	202-225-3031
WI	5	Jim Sensenbrenner	202-225-5101
WI	6	Tom Petri	202-225-2476
WI	8	Mark Green	202-225-5665
WY		Barbara L Cubin	202-225-2311

Bring on Shadegg

2006-01-11T20:13:00.000-08:00

Between the Enumerated Powers Act and this:

“We need to ferret out anyone embroiled in this mess and any practices that contributed to it. We need to be taking the initiative to get back to our core principles. We need to shrink the size of government, not grow it. We need to reform government, not manage it.”

All I can say is-- SOLD.

Just because the Democrats are a little weak right now, it seems like our party has no incentive to do the right thing, and it's pathetic. We'll deserve what we get if we don't clean up quick.

Keeping People Safe With Gun Control

2006-01-04T23:03:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness the French can't carry concealed firearms, so they can't be victims of violent crime. Oh yeah, knives:

The gang of between 20 and 30 youths boarded the train, heading from Nice on the French Riviera to Lyon, in eastern France, early on Jan. 1, as it carried 600 passengers home from New Year’s Eve partying overnight.

Once inside, they went wild, forcing passengers to hand over mobile phones and wallets, and slashing seats and breaking windows. A 20-year-old woman cornered by several of the marauders was sexually molested.

Aside from how sick it is that French people aren't permitted to forcefully defend themselves, the police that people are forced to depend on were in turn forced wait an hour and a half to board while they waited for a formal complaint.

Dear Palestinians: You Are Our Enemy

2005-12-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

How many Palestinians polled give "Support to Al-Qaeda's actions like bombings in USA and Europe"? Interestingly enough for a place that receives hundreds of millions of dollars from us, 38% strongly support, and 27% support, Al-Qaeda actions like bombings in USA ans Europe.

That's 65% of the polled population. That is an enemy, not just the government, the entire country. A country that wouldn't exist if it weren't for us and Israel. Jordan certainly wasn't ever going to give them their homeland. The only place they ever had any rights to speak of was in Israel.

This is exactly the response to expect from 20+ years of negotiating with terrorists.

The poll results can be seen here.

Why I Love Public Transportation

2005-12-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

It's the same reason I love gun control. Reliance on police takes away your ability to protect yourself. Reliance on public transportation takes away your ability to transport yourself. So now these folks are your only way to get to work. Merry Christmas.

So New Yorkers, you better give those transit workers the the respect they demand and deserve (and $50K a year), because you've already given them a government-sanctioned monopoly, and you'll never get your transport independence back.

Candid News Photo of the Day

2005-12-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

This photographer has skillfully captured an honest, unrehearsed, moment of pure emotion.

"Iraq is worse than Vietnam."

Jimmy Breslin, Profiles in Moronacy

2005-12-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

I don't care for Hillary Clinton, but Jimmy Breslin uses one of the lamest, most shopworn, tired, and stale statements ever constructed to criticize her politics:

If Hillary Clinton wants this war to go on, then she should send her daughter to fight in Iraq.

Oh, very clever, and fresh too!

Our fighting men and women continue to be 100% adult, 100% volunteer, whatever the Sheehans, Moores, and Breslins of the world pretend to believe. But "she should persuade her daughter to volunteer to fight in Iraq" doesn't have the same punch.

Fortunately for everyone, they are fantastic, brave, adult volunteers, and history will erase the nonsense of the naysayers and doom-and-gloomers.

More on the Negroponte $100 Fiasco

2005-11-30T01:44:00.000-08:00

David Henderson makes some great points about the miguided $100 computer project, but I think he gives Negroponte far too much credit:

"Few people admire Mr. Negroponte more than I do, but his plan for how to distribute the computers is a tragedy in the making."

The results that Mr. Henderson points out were completely avoidable from the start, and they are inexcusable for someone with Mr' Negroponte's stated intentions.

For one, the entire project was inspired by the use of donated laptops by some Cambodian families. But when you read the story, you realize the laptops were being used as light bulbs. The target audience is far, far away from needing a laptop to put them over the top into the information age.

Further, the results of a public project like this are already being felt in places like Thailand, where schools that can barely stay open are being tasked with creating a network infrastructure to support these computers. Taking the decisions out of locals, the higher-ups in the government get to sign on to a sexy project like this one, and everyone crows about the vision, and avoids thinking about the results.

Last, November's over. The prototype didn't even get made. Trevor Bayliss came away less than impressed, saying the prototype "could have been made with Lego". This is the man tasked with creating the crank charging system.

Bottom line, read the David Henderson piece, it's more important to understand the economic mechanisms at work than to even worry if the product will ever exist.

Loser of the Day

2005-11-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

$2.4 million accepted in bribes, by California Republican Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, to steer defense contracts. There is not much lower you can go.

This is one reason that I don't really care about immoral CEOs. They don't actually have the power to steal your money directly, without some kind of government help.

It's also why lawmakers need less power and less money, not more. Of course bribes are going to be offered, when they have the power to spend so many billions, through contracts, subsidies, and anything else they please.

Thank You Ms. Goldberg

2005-11-27T22:37:00.000-08:00

From the comic genius who brought us this material (from 1993):

Comes a warning on racial insensitivity in this (from the 1940s):

About Looney Toons, Whoopi says, "These jokes were wrong then and they're wrong today." So they were wrong in 1993 as well, but it didn't stop her writing Danson's schtick.

Thanks, Whoopi, glad you're on the case.

Tough Luck Johnny

2005-11-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

It seems Johnny Depp just can't find a home he likes these days, and I for one couldn't feel less sorry for him.

I don't really like his acting to begin with, but I like him even less for badmouthing America from his adopted home of France. "I was very lucky that something steered me to France back in '98... Thank God we escaped." You know, from the greed, wars for oil, etc. "What's it really all about? It's about dough; it's about money. That's ugly." And France's involvement in Oil for Food, selling arms to Saddam, and opposing our intervention? No, that's pure principle, that's beautiful.

But apparently the honeymoon is over, as even his deep myopia was shattered with the recent riots. "It's insane, that setting cars on fire is the new strike. I went there (to France) to live because it seemed so simple. Now it's anything but. I don't know how they'll recover from this."

I don't wish him ill, but it is entertaining. He sat back in France and laughed at America, as though ignoring the problems in the world, and those in France, was all it takes to live a peaceful life. That confronting a problem was somehow the same as causing the problem in the first place.

I doubt he'll learn, though. Most likely he blames us for Paris, as well.

My New Favorite Organization - World Can't Wait

2005-11-14T01:30:00.000-08:00

This one's a new one to me, "The World Can't Wait." I thought about posting the list of members at the bottom but it's so long and unremarkable it'd be a waste. You should take a second and look at it just for fun.

It was slightly surprising to see Casey Kasem in the list, but other than that, it's the same tired retreads on every other Anti-Bush campaign out there.

And here are the reasons, all classic:

Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

One sentence, so many wrong answers. Read Bush's UN speech to hear the reasons. Then remember Clinton never even approached the UN before Bosnia, but who cared? There has never been a less murderous war, with more care taken for civilians.

Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

Our government openly tries torturers, and convicts them.

Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

Yes, please mirandize on the battlefield, and please don't deport overstaying terrorist suspects. And oh yeah, all this started with Bush.

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

No examples necessary from these folks, they put the key phrases in, it's self-evident.

Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

Failure to fund with confiscated taxes is not suppression, sorry. And exactly how much funding was there for stem cells, of any kind, before Bush? Yeah, suppression.

Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

Again, the fact that you can't force us all to pay for others' abortions is not a denial of any right.

Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

Bigotry and intolerance, yes, through affirmative action, racial classifications, multi-language education, and other programs that produce resentment and separation of cultures. Ignorance, yes, through a public school system that values job protection and choice restriction over parental rights and quality education. Greed, I wish. You sorry socialists could use a little yourself instead of trying yoke those that actually produce anything into towing you around. Again, what does this all have to do with Bush?

People look at all this and think of Hitler — and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.

It didn't take long to bring Hitler in, I expect to see a lot more genius from these folks in the future. Good luck, freakazoids.

How You Know a Diet is Overdue

2005-11-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

When, as you walk to the counter to pick up your pizza to-go, before you can say, "Pizza for Morgan," from behind the counter you hear, "Do I even have to ask?"

Support the Minutemen-- in Paris

2005-11-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?

I wait expectantly for Mr. Moore to lend his support the French Freedom Fighters, but as of yet I've seen nothing on his site. I haven't seen the groundswell of support for these heroes from DailyKos, DemocraticUnderground either, but I'm sure they'll be there soon.

As for me, I still don't say French (in protest) so I can only say I fully support the Freedom Freedom Fighters.

This Isn't News?

2005-11-06T01:42:00.000-08:00

From the Washington Post:

"In August, new business startups in Iraq exceeded 30,000. Individual Iraqis are better off financially than they have been for 20 years. According to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, per capita income has doubled since the United States toppled the Saddam regime. There are more than 3.5 million cellular phone subscribers in Iraq, up from zero when Saddam ruled. Internet cafes are thriving in even small towns."

Let's see that again, and please, let me know if you've already seen this on the nightly news or PBS and it's old news:

In August, new business startups in Iraq exceeded 30,000.
Individual Iraqis are better off financially than they have been for 20 years.
Per capita income has doubled since the United States toppled the Saddam regime.
There are more than 3.5 million cellular phone subscribers in Iraq.
Internet cafes are thriving in even small towns.

No? Well, neither was I, actually. Because it's not being reported on. It's in the Washington Post blog section, and that's it.

By the way, for those that claim to support the troops, it might be a day to say "nice job, keep up the good work."

Ding Dong HR1606 is Dead

2005-11-04T00:20:00.000-08:00

I couldn't be happier that HR1606 was defeated.

McCain-Feingold, a ridiculously bad law, will not last long, in my opinion. People will not shut up about the elections 60 days before the next one, and the FEC will have to enforce it, and it will be challenged, and I don't see how it can stand up in court.

Had H1606 (Hensarling-Reid) passed, it would have smoothed over the results of McCain-Feingold and made it more difficult to get rid of.

The defeat, largely on party lines, can also be used as a club against Democrats next election season. Although people don't seem to care much, and it would be a dishonest attack in a lot of ways.

UPDATE: For a much more insightful explanation, John Stossel to the rescue.

ConocoPhillips Unholy Profits?

2005-10-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing this story everywhere, including Drudge today, and it was mantioned on Rush this morning, and I get the impression that people are upset that an oil company's profits went up over the last quarter. Even worse, I have heard people refer to the story as ConocoPhillips making 89% profits.

That's just not the case, and I don't see that this is much of a story at all. They made $3.8 billion profit on revenue of $49.7 billion. Not even 8%. But the 89% number is what sticks out. All the 89% really means is that last quarter they made about half that percentage of profits, almost 8%.

As an example, if you were selling a chair you bought for $40, and you spent a couple dollars on transportation and your time, and you sold it for $50, you'd be in roughly the same boat, and I doubt you'd be excited about getting rich or you'd think you were "gouging" anyone. If you put $46 billion on the line, you better hope you're going to get a few back.

Just a quick look at another story from today, also reported by Reuters. Motorola made $1.75 billion profit on revenue of $9.42 billion, or almost 19%. I don't see any similar coverage or implications around this story, though, even with double the profits by percentage.

I applaud both efforts of course, but I wish people would take a second and realize exactly how much ConocoPhillips has at stake to make that much in profits. The best news of all is that when profits are increasing, there is more room for competition at the pump, and gas prices will likely continue to fall. Which, again, puts the lie to the gouging idea. Why would companies in collusion, on a product everyone claims is absolutely necessary regardless of price, reduce prices by more than 10% in a month?

Bad Movie? Blame the South

2005-10-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

"Audiences want their war films straight. From the day we opened, we did not do business in the South."

Yeah, that must be the reason. He's smart though, I'll give him that, because without the "controversy" there's no reason that movie stays in the news so long.

Why is it Offensive to Keep Private Life Private?

2005-10-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

ShowBizData has a story today about the Houston Voice claiming Shepard Smith and Anderson Cooper are gay. Apparently, to the Voice, they "choose to hide and deceive -- and to protect their incomes and images -- at the expense of contributing important weight and star power to the gay civil rights movement."

I don't know what about them proclaiming their sexual preference would lend weight to the gay civil rights movement. And I don't know if they could lend star power to any movement. But it seems to me pretty sad and hypocritical when a gay group lashes out at someone for behavior that in almost every instance is best left in the bedroom.

I can't imagine what me knowing Anderson Cooper is gay would add to the news coverage he does. He's exactly right that he's not supposed to be the story himself, so why should he be telling anyone anything like that?

I am not a fan of either of them to begin with (see: Katrina Hysteria) but for crying out loud let their business be their business instead of scaring gay people out of public careers altogether.

Any Decent Blog Recommendations?

2005-10-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Holy moly, there's nothing but Miers coverage in the blogs I read, and it's sooo tired at this point. I don't really see the big deal, she's the one that, as far as I know, has been helping with great picks for other judges like Brown, Owen, and now Roberts. My bottom line is I trust her judgement, and I don't understand why the President should try to get a bead on some else's beliefs if he already knows her.

Either way, though, it's a boring, boring story. So why did I write about it? I'm not smart.

Washingotn Post Clarifies Plame Scandal

2005-10-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

This Washington Post editorial "Rush to Judgment" explains the basic stakes and known facts about the Plame affair better than just about anything else I've read, so if you're curious even after all the over-reporting or you've been ignoring it so far, it does in 4 paragraphs what took me probably 4 hours to clear up.

Maybe I'm just slow, though.

Bush Cranks Wilma To 5

2005-10-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

All the better to cover the imminent frog-marching of Rove and Cheney, of course. He's working on aiming it at a black population center, but it's still early.

China's Space Flight

2005-10-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Look at these pictures and tell me China was anywhere near the upper atmosphere.

My favorite is the last one:

I had no idea anyone had the technology to add such big thrusters and fuel to such small craft, look at the actual size of the module compared to a man.

I knew those space costumes weren't real.

Can Companies Facilitate Censorship?

2005-10-17T01:22:00.000-07:00

This NY Times article points out that some US companies are involved in helping some repressive governments filter access to the Internet in their countries.

It should come as no surprise that the Internet in Myanmar, the southeast Asian state once known as Burma and in the iron grip of a military cabal for decades, is heavily filtered and carefully monitored.

Of course it is no surprise, because they've been doing it for years. And as distasteful as it may sound, I don't think it's a problem at all that US companies are involved. In fact, I doubt most people had any idea of exactly how much filtering goes on in these countries before. If anything, I think our business involvement has brought more publicity to the problem than anything else in recent memory, and it makes it more and more obvious to the world just how repressive these places are.

Countries like China try to put on a good PR face to the world and show off modern cities like Shanghai, but it is a thin veneer over a terrible system of government. So I applaud the fact that this business takes the mask off of these states and shows them openly for what they are as they wouldn't be otherwise.

At this time, Google policy does not permit...

2005-10-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

"At this time, Google policy does not permit ad text that advocates against an individual, group, or organization."

Keep up the good work, Google. I wonder what their "Don't be evil" mantra even means, it obviously doesn't mean "Don't be a liar".

For the record, I am aware that it is not censorship for Google to pick and choose the viewpoints they allow to advertise. They have no real power over whether you can or cannot advocate a point of view, they have power over their own ad network.

And we are free to point out that Google's self-righteous little "Don't be evil" slogan means jack squat, and so apparently, do their stated ad acceptance policies.

A side note, it is not lost on me that I am using a free Google service to post this, and they are free to cancel my account anytime. It doesn't change the facts, it's just slightly ironic.

Reminder - Pakistanis Are People Too

2005-10-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

My apologies if you've already given, I'm just exhausted from Miers coverage when this is still in the critical stage where aid can really help.

Please give to the relief effort here: Salvation Army South Asia Zone Fund.

More Innaccuracies on Katrina - Toxic Flood

2005-10-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Good news for New Orleaneans, bad news (again) for the press coverage of Katrina. The report on the floodwaters in Katrina concludes - Floodwater Not as Toxic As Feared, Experts Say.

"What it most looks like is the storm water that is present in New Orleans every time it rains," said John H. Pardue, an environmental engineer at Louisiana State University, who headed the team whose research was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. "We still don't think the floodwaters were safe, but it could have been a lot worse. It was not the chemical catastrophe some had expected."

Other than the location, and the fact that it was all Adolf O'Bushiburton's fault, I wonder what the news got right on this story?

Oh yeah, oops. I must be wrong, Dan Rather thinks it was great: "It's been one of television news' finest moments," Rather said. "They were willing to speak truth to power."

Keep up the great work.

Kind of Sick - Earthquake Dropping Off the Radar

2005-10-13T00:27:00.000-07:00

The death count in Kashmir is well over 30,000, could possibly reach 40,000, and I am not seeing a whole lot about it around. For example, it's off Drudge, and I haven't seen anything on the bigger blogs I read since the 9th (Instapundit, Powerline, LGF, etc.). I know it's not something we can write a lot about, being on the other side of the world, but for crying out loud, how about a donation link at the top of the page? I actually sent those blogs the link below in hopes they would, but no such luck. Kind of disappointing, but it's their own business I guess.

Please give to the relief effort here: Salvation Army South Asia Zone Fund.

How Bad is North Korea?

2005-10-11T22:17:00.002-07:00

They are building their first bicycle plant? And they need help from China to do it? Holy moly.

These Guys Are Brave

2005-10-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

I mean come on, those are dollar store halloween costumes, not spacesuits. Somebody please tell them before it's too late!

Really though, I'd love to see a poll of whether Chinese support the expenditure, but you can't, because their government are dirty commies.

An Actual Disaster Now Seems Less

2005-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

I see this headline, "Quake Kills More Than 18,000 in South Asia", and I think, "Wow, another big disaster like New Orleans." The feeling lasts for a second, maybe, until I remember that our media blew the casualty predictions by an entire order of magnitude. This isn't Anderson Cooper or Shepard Smith reporting, this is Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, who isn't likely trying to get his 15 minutes by reporting exaggeration and rumor. The count actually started around 3000 instead of 200,000, can you imagine that?

This Kashmir earthquake is literally 20 times worse already than the real (as opposed to portrayed) Katrina but somehow I'm so numb from it already being the end of the world that I don't notice it quite as much. It makes me wonder if any of the countries that sent aid for us are irritated that we blew it so far out of proportion.

So when you choose to donate, keep in mind the real magnitude of this disaster. These figures are likely to rise as they find more people. As a first step, you can give to the relief effort here: Salvation Army South Asia Zone Fund. Let's get it going. You know, all three of you that see this.

Update: The figures keep climbing, at this point no one knows where it'll stop, but it's terrible. Donate if you can.

InTouch with Reality

2005-10-07T03:16:00.000-07:00

This is just a remarkable cover of a magazine. An absolute classic. Talk about answering your own question, just look at the photos in sequence.

For starters, we have possibly the most offensive question you can direct at a woman, "Are you pregnant?" It's just not something to guess on, period. Besides which, Angelina looks great in the picture. But she must be pregnant, see the telltale bump? Any girl with a belly like that's just got have a bun in the oven.

Britney's looking nice as well, for that matter, and I'm not exactly a fan. But apparently she's 70 pounds overweight, can't you tell by the photo? I must like girls 100 pounds overweight, because I've done double-takes and rubbernecks on chubbier girls than this, and I am not alone.

OK, I guess Oprah's never been attractive to me. But I am going to claim this is a good picture of her, and does not look like what I'd consider a woman with a weight problem.

Now here's a weight problem, in my opinion-- and although it's probably just a bad photo, Julia Roberts looks older than she should, and worse than she could. "Why so thin, Julia? Why so thin, Terri Hatcher, Nicole Richie, Mary-Kate Olson, Kate Hudson, Lindsay Lohan..?"

Angelina Jolie looks pregnant! Britney has 70 pounds to lose! Oprah is gaining again! But Julia, why so thin? Who is making these women feel fat and lose so much weight?

Thanks Iain - Mass Transit in Disasters

2005-10-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

Finally found somebody on my side, and even better, someone much more persuasive than me, on the subject of the worthlessness of public transit in an emergency.

Read Iain Murray's "Sic Transit Maria Landrieu" for more.

Today's thing I hope no one ever says to me again

2005-09-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

"For future reference, we also keep the King Size Baby Ruths up next to the register."

More Low Expectations from The Media

2005-09-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

This story makes it even plainer that the media has no concept of what black people are like. You could sense it when news reports kept referring to how black the city seemed, like it was some kind of shock to them to even see so many in one place.

Now the excuses for the horrifying coverage point out even more problems for the media and New Orleans officials.

Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss cited telephone breakdowns as a primary cause of reporting errors, but said the fact that most evacuees were poor African Americans also played a part.

"If the dome and Convention Center had harbored large numbers of middle class white people," Amoss said, "it would not have been a fertile ground for this kind of rumor-mongering."

Some of the hesitation that journalists might have had about using the more sordid reports from the evacuation centers probably fell away when New Orleans' top officials seemed to confirm the accounts.

Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass appeared on "Oprah" a few days after trouble at the Superdome had peaked.

Compass told of "the little babies getting raped" at the Superdome. And Nagin made his claim about hooligans raping and killing.

First, "telephone breakdowns"? How does that make reporting less accurate? "Hey, I couldn't get anybody on the phone, I'll just make something up. Pedophile rapes? Sounds true enough."

Second, I guess somehow the fact that the flood victims were black made it fertile ground for rumor-mongering? How could this be, amongst our enlightened media? Upper, middle, lower, black, white, any color, I don't normally expect people to rape, murder, or cannibalize others. Is Amoss saying it's generally assumed black peole are savages in the media?

Third, Nagin and Compass used Oprah to make unfounded statements and accusations about their people? That's sick, and I think they should have already both resigned for fanning the flames of hysteria, but it's even more so that these things were just parroted on every channel.

It seems like even in the midst of covering the bad coverage, there's a little thread of "well, it's understandable, you know, with all those black people around, that we'd have thought that."

This whole thing truly is turning into a global embarassment. Maybe our journalists and Compass and Nagin need to spend some more time around regular New Orleans folks before they report on them next time.

The Bigotry of the Lowest Expectations

2005-09-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

The hysterics over Katrina revealed plainly what I think is the true force of racism in the U.S. today. From affirmative action to government housing, the ideas of the left are driven by the fact that Democrats simply don't think black people are capable of taking care of themselves. And from the start of Katrina, the local officials, the media, and much of the left's leadership has believed the worst of the people of New Orleans.

Rapes of babies, rampant murder, and cannibalism, all reported, all repeated, all false. All easy to find the truth of. Why didn't anyone look into it any further? Because for them, it was too easy to believe that a relatively black city would descend into Thunderdome inside of a week. From the Times-Picayune:

In interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Compass reported rapes of "babies," and Mayor Ray Nagin spoke of "hundreds of armed gang members" killing and raping people inside the Dome. Unidentified evacuees told of children stepping over so many bodies, "we couldn't count."

The picture that emerged was one of the impoverished, masses of flood victims resorting to utter depravity, randomly attacking each other, as well as the police trying to protect them and the rescue workers trying to save them. Nagin told Winfrey the crowd has descended to an "almost animalistic state."

I'm so tired of being defensive on the right from accusations of racism. We've been right at every major junction, from the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Act, to Senator KKK Robert Byrd.

I've walked through the "wrong" parts of New Orleans at 3 in the morning (sober), and I don't remember ever feeling I was in danger. I wonder how it is that people were so ready to report, and so ready to believe, that a city of black people is just hours from anarchy at any given time. I think it's time the lefties started answering some questions.

What is Mayor Nagin's Punishment?

2005-09-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

As I watch the continued story of the nursing home owners indicted for negligent homicide in New Orleans, it leaves me wondering what Mayor Nagin's punishment will be for a similar level of negligence. My prediction? No punishment, but for kicks let's compare the two situations:

The Manganos

Executives of a Residence

Established Emergency Procedure

Failure to Implement Plan

34 Dead

34 Counts of Negligent Homicide

Mayor Ray Nagin

Executive of a City

Established Emergency Procedure

Failure to Implement Plan

Around 600 Dead

Airtime for Hysterics and Accusations

I don't really know if Nagin's on the hook for anything, or even has a chance of being removed from office at the next election. And many of those dead would have stayed behind even if the evacuation had been carried out according to plan. But it seems to me odd that we hold private business owners so much more responsible than government executives.

If that's the case, maybe the way to get government to keep their promises is to privatize it. It'd be great, each city has a list of services they require, companies bid to provide them, and when it hits the fan, they either do what they promised or they go to jail. I like it.

Cindy Sheehan Beats the Odds

2005-09-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Cindy Sheehan proved her critics wrong today when against all odds, she proved that she in fact can get arrested in Washington.

Back to Photo-Op Criticisms

2005-09-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention, and it was hilarious as usual, that the photo-op criticism is back for Rita, a return to Charley/Frances-style sniping. No end of coverage on how W was slow on the uptake for Katrina, and instant criticism if he learns a lesson from the media bloodbath.

Dan Rather Hasn't Lost a Step

2005-09-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Rather praised the coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the new generation of TV journalists and acknowledged that he would have liked to have reported from the Gulf Coast. “Covering hurricanes is something I know something about,” he said.

“It’s been one of television news’ finest moments,” Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. “They were willing to speak truth to power,” Rather said of the coverage.

Amazing, "truth to power" eh?

Here's just a few of the bits of truth the Katrina coverage:

1. 10,000 dead

2. New Orleans shut down for 6 months

3. Worst natural disaster in U.S. history

When you think about how much stupid Rather's statements are, you need to take into consideration that he said this last weekend, after it was obvious the coverage was ridiculously off the mark.

It's no surprise that he'd enjoy that sort of unsubstantiated, breathless coverage, but it's sort of sad that he's out there reminding everyone why he's no longer working.

Get a Grip

2005-09-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

How can the world's lone superpower be brought to it's knees in such an embarassing way as this? 10,000 dead in a major U.S. city! Why was the federal response so slow? This is the worst natural disaster in U.S. history! While everyone's trying to assign blame for everything, they are missing the fact that none of these things are true.

For one, our federal response to the disaster was not slow. Federal responders are not meant to be first responders, and can't actually just wait there during the hurricane. And they responded faster than they did in other recent hurricanes, such as Andrew.

There are not 10,000 dead, a pathetic estimate by fearmongering people and a panicking mayor with zero faith in individuals. Unfortunately for them, many people still can take some care of themselves and have survived. I don't know why they didn't just guess 50 or 100 thousand, for all the facts they had.

It was not the worst natural disaster in US history, and it won't even crack the top 5. And that's leaving out heat waves, which would knock it out of all contention.

Why bring up heat waves? Well, it wasn't so long ago that Parisians truly were dying by the thousands in just such a natural event. It was actually just 2 years ago, August 2003. Estimates range between 11,435 and 14,802 dead, 80% of them elderly and ostensibly being cared for by the government in France's socialist worker's paradise. Now that's what I call a pathetic government response.

What I'm left wondering is who will take responsibility for blowing the storm out of all proportion? Who will apologize when, as likely happened this time, people ignore evacuation warnings because it's never as bad as they say? Does the media ever apologize, or get called out on things like that? Do they get fired? Do they even care if what comes out of their mouths is accurate?

Los Angeles

2005-09-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

It is reported that black outage victims in Los Angeles have begun fashioning candles from corpses to survive the night.

Four hours after the "accident", hundreds of thousands of blacks in Los Angeles are dying in the dark like dogs. No-one has come to help them.

I am a sixty-four year old African-American. Los Angeles marks the end of the America I strove for.

I am hopeless. I am sad. I am angry against my country for doing nothing when it mattered.

This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America's racial history. For all the world to witness. For those who've been caused to listen for a lifetime to America's ceaseless hollow bleats about democracy. For Christians, Jews and Muslims at home and abroad. For rich and poor. For African-American soldiers fighting in Iraq. For African-Americans inside the halls of officialdom and out.

My hand shakes with anger as I write. I, the formerly un-jaundiced human rights advocate, have finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud.

But what can I do but write about how I feel. How millions, black like me, must feel at this, the lowest moment in my country's story.

Not Everyone is Glenn Reynolds

2005-09-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

Just because half of Instapundit post remarks end with "I don't know if I'd go that far..." doesn't mean that some baseless conciliatory gesture in your own writing makes you Mr. Reasonable or something. And as much as you want it to, it doesn't make you as smart as Glenn Reynolds.

Here's the standard line start from conservative and libertarian leaning blogs right now:

"While there were plenty of problems at the federal level... " and then blah blah blah, ranging from Nagin stinks to Blanco stinks to whatever.

The problem is, prepending that statement onto things doesn't make you somehow more reasonable or reasoned at all. It doesn't present any proof, and thus it's worthless and misinformed.

In other words, when you throw out a blanket accusation at the federal response, it would be nice if you had at least one fact to start with. Something empirical would be especially nice, like "Compared to previous federal responses, the Katrina response time, from the moment of the request, was 2 days slower."

The reason you don't see those statements is because it's not true. It's just convenient, and it sounds nice to people that like to think they sound reasonable by being "moderate".

And by the way, people, if you're so anxious to agree with everyone, what are you writing for at all?

Emergency Preparedness Tasks in New Orleans

2005-09-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Below is the City of New Orleans emergency preparedness task list. The thing that strikes me when I read this isn't just how poorly executed it was, but how little it mentions George W. Bush as being responsible for everything on it.

I'm also left wondering if "first responders" complaining about the federal response are as prepared to abdicate all authority to the federal government as they are to pass the blame. If Bush is responsible for all local emergency preparedness, maybe we should just fire the police and fire departments, and immediately declare martial law and move the military in every time something goes bad.

Also note the specific reference to using buses to evacuate people when you look at the sea of unused school buses dumping oil and gas into the flood.

A. Mayor

* Initiate the evacuation.

* Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.

* Authorize return to evacuated areas.

B. Office of Emergency Preparedness

* Activate EOC and notify all support agencies to this plan.

* Coordinate with State OEP on elements of evacuation.

* Assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas.

* Assist ESF-8, Health and Medical, in the evacuation of persons with special needs, nursing home, and hospital patients in accordance with established procedures.

* Coordinate the release of all public information through ESF-14, Public Information.

* Use EAS, television, cable and other public broadcast means as needed and in accordance with established procedure.

* Request additional law enforcement/traffic control (State Police, La. National Guard) from State OEP.

C. New Orleans Police Department

* Ensure orderly traffic flow.

* Assist in removing disabled vehicles from roadways as needed.

* Direct the management of transportation of seriously injured persons to hospitals as needed.

* Direct evacuees to proper shelters and/or staging areas once they have departed the threatened area.

* Release all public information through the ESF-14, Public Information.

D. Regional Transit Authority

* Supply transportation as needed in accordance with the current Standard Operating Procedures.

* Place special vehicles on alert to be utilized if needed.

* Position supervisors and dispatch evacuation buses.

* If warranted by scope of evacuation, implement additional service.

E. Louisiana National Guard

* Provide assistance as needed in accordance with current State guidelines.

F. Animal Care and Control

* Coordinate animal rescue operations with the New Orleans SPCA.

G. Public Works

* Make emergency road repairs as needed.

H. Office of Communications

* Release all public information relating to the evacuation.

Oh, If Only We'd Had Buses...

2005-09-03T04:13:00.000-07:00

"Don't give me your money. Don't send me $10 million today. Give me buses and gas. Buses and gas. Buses and gas. If you have to commandeer Greyhound, commandeer Greyhound. ... If you don't get a bus, if we don't get them out of there, they will die."
- State Rep. Karen Carter, New Orleans

By all means, someone should get Greyhound doing something productive, I would have thought The Hague would have shut them down by now for the appalling conditions on their buses.

But in the meantime-- Hey Ray! Nice evacuation planning and timing (Sunday!?), way to utilize resources and way to lead. There's a reason Rudy Giuliani is a giant. He handled the critical early situation in his city and he lead, until reinforcements could get in to help clean up and rebuild. He was inspiring, confident, and hopeful.

By the way, when do you think the National Guard should have been there standing by, during the hurricane?

Take Solace, Lefties and Euthanasists

2005-09-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

At least if people are somehow starving in 4 days, you guys can rest assured it's a peaceful, dignified death:

"What happens is she loses fluid from her body, she enters a peaceful coma and she gradually passes away, very gently and very peacefully."

I should be so lucky as to starve... I don't remember my last peaceful coma.

Were They Unaware of Any of This?

2005-09-03T02:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sincerely shocked that only a year ago New Orleans was able to evacuate 600,000 people, and somehow this time it went so poorly. It's not a new situation, in fact maybe it's almost a boy who cried wolf type of a situation:

An estimated 600,000 people evacuated from the New Orleans area in what some state officials called one of the largest evacuations ever in state history.

Evacuees were upset at the long delays, and officials feared that the mass evacuation could backfire because people may be less willing to get out of the path of a hurricane in the future.

It was also the second time in six years that the city emptied out to only find the threatening hurricane veer off and miss New Orleans. In 1998, people fled the approach of Hurricane Georges.

Estimates show that about 11,000 vehicles an hour were on roads out of the New Orleans area last week. Faced with Hurricane Georges in 1998, about 4,000 vehicles an hour left the area.

I don't know what to make of all that, except that it's creepy to read now. It just seems like the local plan fell completely apart somewhere.

On a side note, for some reason no one needed President Bush actually standing on I-10 directing traffic last year to get the evacuation done. Amazing.

Make Up Your Minds

2005-09-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently George Bush was asleep at the wheel during Katrina, if only he'd got on his waders and gone directly to New Orleans to stop the flooding and looting, things would be fixed already.

Paradoxically, that same response was somehow a problem during Florida's Hurricane Charley and Francis devastation:

I find it deeply disturbing that President Bush may use his trip to survey the damage of Hurricane Frances as a photo opportunity.
-Rep. Robert Wexler from West Palm Beach

George Bush only went to Florida to show off. There is not a sincere bone in his body. He is the world's greatest con-man and four-flusher. The people in Florida are no better off because of him, and neither are the people of Iraq, or America, for that matter.
- Mildred Perry Miller - Chattanooga, Tenn.

We all know this is a photo op for Bush. I actually don't need him to come here, he has already designated funds.
- Scarlet on News Hounds

Of course Bush will use the storm as a photo op. His gordo little brother already has. The goofy bastard uses 9/11 and active duty soldiers as his backdrop, of course he will try to mine this tragedy. That's what he does. That's ALL HE DOES!
- Gabby Hayes of News Hounds

So what is it exactly that you think should be done? Do you know, or do you just default to the opposite of whatever Bushitler does? I would agree more with the above sentiments than with current criticisms. It doesn't really help anything for Bush to walk around New Orleans, especially at present. Symbolically? Yes, maybe later, but it's just not important.

People forget, but we have phones, we have planes, and we have people working with the President. People get put in charge of things. Things get done. The President doesn't necessarily actually drain New Orleans himself.

For me, it is becoming more and more reassuring that Bush is not directly affected by polls and public opinion. I don't need him calling a press conference to sign some paper to show he's sending help.

In the meantime, Lefties, make up your mind and try to stick with it. If you find it's difficult, well, it might be because you are a kneejerk Reactionary.

Does Price Gouging Exist?

2005-09-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

Prices are spiking on gasoline, and the complaints of price gouging are flooding into the FTC. My question is, is there such a thing as price gouging? In a voluntary transaction between two entities, how can there be?

In this particular situation, the probability exists of some level of shortages in supply around New Orleans especially. Should those gas stations be compelled to sell at the price they sold the day before, even though they will surely sell out and essentially be out of business until supply come back?

Their gas is worth exactly what customers are willing to pay to get it. If they charge too much, people will look elsewhere. If they charge too little, they will sell out and have to shut down until who knows when.

In Bend here in Oregon, there was a biodiesel station selling it for around $3.10 a gallon. If regular diesel blows past that, say to $3.20 or so, is it price gouging if the biodiesel station raises their prices to $3.40? There was no change in their supply or costs, how can they justify 20 cents for nothing?

They are justified, of course, because demand changed. Their supplies are always limited, but people will preferentially buy biodiesel as it nears diesel prices. If diesel passes it, well, they will not be able to supply all of their customers. The choices are: the price goes up to adjust to demand, or the owner is compelled to sell at some other price someone else "feels" is appropriate.

Our system naturally adjusts to these situations, and it is best left alone. It is the only rational way to allow resources to be allocated correctly. Prices through the roof? Probably people will adjust their driving, share rides, walk or ride to work, etc. People in life or death situations or businesses will likely pay it, because it's worth it to them.

That is exactly as it should be, unless you want politicians setting prices, causing outages and rationing as in the 70s. As kind as it sounds on the surface, it is cruel, irrational, and damaging to artificially "correct" our system, it just happens that if it hurts a few business owners over a crowd of workers, people think it's OK. It is not.

If businesses should be compelled to sell at a "reasonable" price, set by some official as opposed to supply and demand, I wonder if people would agree to be compelled to buy gasoline at that same price when a cheaper, better, alternative comes along, as it will eventually. What will happen when prices go through the floor and nobody really wants it? Who is looking out for the jobs and millions of dollars invested in gasoline production and sales?

No one is. Or rather, no person is. But Capitalism is. It is looking out for the people of New Orleans as it looks out for all people and businesses, by allocating scarce resources in the most rational manner possible.

BTW, Thanks for the "Mass" Transit

2005-09-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

Just a note, thanks so much for the mass transit in New Orleans. Those quaint street cars did a lot for evacuation efforts. The news reports of the hundreds of thousands without individual transportation to escape the city are just propaganda anyway, the forward-thinking rail transports got everyone out in plenty of time.

Oh, if we can only get more people out of their cars, stranded and dependent on governments for getting around, it'll be so much easy to control the simple rabble.

After that, if we can just get the guns and keep people from protecting themselves. From there, we need to control the dinner table, people just don't know what to eat to stay healthy.

Somebody's just got to compel these unsophisticated hicks and rednecks to live the civilized way.

Can We Drill Now? Please?

2005-09-01T02:45:00.000-07:00

Just asking, Democrats, but is ot OK if we drill for oil on 3.13 square miles of an area the size of South Carolina? Can we grow up and get serious?

The bottom line is your Priuses are still running on the same gas we already use, and it's going to be a while before we're off the teat here. So you can't keep crying about Big Bad Oil and our foreign dependence while simulataneously standing in the way of new refineries and new oil exploration.

Or rather, you can, and you do, because your "Reality-Based Community" has nothing to do with its name.

Send in the Cowards?

2005-09-01T02:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently W sending National Guard folks to Iraq has ruined any chance of a rescue operation in New Orleans, and it probably caused the hurricane as well, what with all that pollution from deploying playing havoc with Mother Nature.

What I want to know is, who wants the Nasty Guard's help? As we all learned from the Democrats in the 2004 election, they're nothing but draft-dodgers and cowards anyway. Who needs them in an emergency? Has the world gone nuts?

In Good Company

2005-09-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Here's some real classic quotes:

"The President is nothing more than a well-meaning baboon... I went to the White House directly after tea where I found "the original Gorilla" about as intelligent as ever."

"Filthy Story-Teller, Despot, Liar, Thief, Braggart, Buffoon, Usurper, Monster... Old Scoundrel, Perjurer, Robber, Swindler, Tyrant, Field-Butcher, Land-Pirate."

And now... the rest of the story, as if you didn't see it coming or know already. These quotes are not about our current President George W. Bush, they are about another Republican Liar-in-Chief, Abraham Lincoln. First from General McClellan, the second Harper's Weekly.

I sometimes get discouraged when G.W. doesn't get out and defend more directly the positions we support him for. But when I think about it historically, I really start to love that he doesn't get all amped up about every sorry moron that calls him Hitler. Those people matter nothing in the grand scheme of things, and you can't change their minds anyway, they are determined to see every glass as half-empty.

The really nice realization is that negative do-nothing reactionaries like our current Democrats will always be around, they will always be negative, and they will always mean nothing.

Jon Stewart Arguing the NULL Position

2005-09-01T01:50:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens was on Jon Stewart to talk about his book, but apparently Jon geared up for a big confrontation to see if he could get an answer for why we're in Iraq from Hitchens.

The interesting thing, and the thing that stands out to me about people opposed to Bush in general, is that Jon Stewart is not arguing for anything. He has no position, only an attempt to negate another position. And nothing is easier to defend than nothing.

Throw out a few cute lines, make faces, point out stutters, but do not by any means actually put an idea foward, or you might have to defend it. If you're just attacking what others do, and doing nothing yourself, it's easy. You've got hindsight and humor on your side, how can you be wrong?

He asks why not Iran? Why not Saudi Arabia? But does he say he supports action against them? No, because he doesn't really support anything, because he doesn't have any ideas except "Bush = Wrong". Wow, how clever he is, I love his smirking asides to the audience and how they bolster his non-position.

He's by no means the only one, but it was just another in a long line of lefties with nothing but negativity going for them. Keep it up smarties.

Bolton Too Mean, Roberts Too Nice...

2005-08-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

This week President Bush used the recess appointment to install John Bolton at the U.N., over complaints that he is intimidating, rude, confrontational, etc. Never mind that in a dysfunctional organization buried in rape and financial scandal might need a firm hand on our end, his alleged poor treatment of subordinates makes him a bad choice.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it is important that Bolton, who earned a reputation for a confrontational and intimidating style, work with his diplomatic counterparts in "a spirit of give and take."

One assumes Kofi does not mean "give" as the U.N. staff gave in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Congo, or "take" as U.N. staff took money in the Oil for Food scandal.

Now John Roberts is under the scope, and apparently he's so nice it's creepy somehow or it's a reason to distrust him.

I would humbly submit that we should take a closer look at his preternatural niceness. It seems a little too nice to be nice. His behavior raises serious questions about whether he is a sly conservative.

I'm left wondering what the "correct" level of niceness would be, but I also know that it makes no difference. The discussion has nothing to do with intellectual honesty, it is simply a weak attempt to come up with something, anything, to paint these people as weird, or as disguising their true selves. It's about as relevant and honest as Jonathan Chait's criticism of Bush's physical fitness.

More Bad News from Reuters - No Canada Rush

2005-08-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the predicted post-election reverse brain-drain to Canada apparently didn't come to fruition after all. According to Reuters,

Canadians can put away those extra welcome mats -- it seems Americans unhappy about the result of last November's presidential election have decided to stay at home after all.

Well, once again, so much for the big pre-election talk from Democrats. Just like the celebrities they love, they backed off their promises once the election went Bush's way.

Data from the main Canadian processing center in Buffalo, NY shows that in the six months up to the U.S. election there were 16,266 applications from people seeking to live in Canada, a figure that fell to 14,666 for the half year after the vote.

Maybe they never really meant what they were saying, or maybe they've changed their minds about Bush now. Whatever the reason, it might help more in the elections if they promised to stay if a Republican is elected. Get Johnny Depp out there saying he'll move back if a Republican is elected, and the threats might actually net Democrat candidates some votes.

It just takes a little understanding of incentives on behavior.

"Staff Puke" Madness Over Rush Call

2005-08-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

This was an entertaining little excursion into Google today. Apparently (I didn't hear it), Rush referred to Ohio's Paul Hackett as a "staff puke" in response to a caller describing Hackett's position.

So obviously, every lefty site out there is outraged today, as this Google search shows. Roughly 400 results overall, most of the first results from places like Daily Kos, and a bunch of places linking to that post.

By searching for "staff puke" without a reference to Rush, you see a couple of interesting things about the term. First, a lot of people refer to themselves as staff pukes, and if anything it's used in about as derogatory a fashion as "college boy" is on a construction site, for example.

More interesting is how often the sites referring to the comment say Rush called hime "just a staff puke." Well, no he didn't and calling anyone "just" an anything is more derogatory than anything Rush said. There's nothing wrong with Hackett's position in the military, but clueless lefties obviously think there is. Ironically, one site points out all the "staff pukes" that have been killed. That changes nothing about the Rush non-story, because he isn't disrespectful to those people. The only disrespect is thinking that being called that is some kind of put-down.

An argument might be made that Rush, not being in the military, can't use the term. That may be true, but it's not a big deal. He was talk to a military officer, and was using it for clarification, not denegration.

Conservatives Should Protect Roe at This Point

2005-07-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

The entire discussion of overturning Roe v. Wade is becoming less and less important, and will continue in that direction. I am not a fan of the decision, and I think we'd already have a decent rule in place if the rule had been legislated rather than decided by an untouchable judge.

That being said, I think it's always been a waste of time fighting to overturn the decision to stop abortions. Roe essentially allows the right to an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus. This has been defined as being "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid."

Obviously, the date of viability will continue to move earlier and earlier, rendering the decision useless, and further exposing the pro-abortion crowd as the barbarians and/or cowards that they are. They will be forced to defend the position of wanting the right to kill a person that could survive and have a long life outside of the womb.

This position is already completely irrational, as is easy to determine. Just ask a pro-abortion advocate when the limit should be. Should it be 9 months from fertilization? Or should it be when the entire body is outside the womb? If you think it's extreme to look at it this way, listen to the rhetoric on the partial-birth abortion ban. This is not just a few people.

So what about late births? Should a baby be protected just because a calendar says it should have already been born, and by all scientific measures it is the same as a birthed baby? The mother is still providing all the oxygen and food necessary for the baby to live, so shouldn't she be able to cut its head off as long as it's inside her?

What about premature babies? Shouldn't a woman still have the right to kill a preemie after it's born? After all, she didn't have the same time to make her decision, or to raise money, or to figure out that she was pregnant, that other women might have had. So how do you tell her she can't kill her preemie? Who are you to control her body? Why can't she have its brains drained out with a turkey baster just because it popped out early?

This approach could already have been so much more effectively used by now if Christian groups had concentrated on furthering the science of fetal care instead of working on the judicial battle. At this point, I want to see these people defend the logical conclusion of their position. They want to kill inconvenient, or unsuitable, or defective babies. Or they are men that are so intellectually milquetoast that they just can't bring themselves to possibly take a position, or to be thought to have taken an unpopular position, which of course is a position itself.

There is no reason to wait decades for the potential of Supreme Court changes, when there is a clear and much more illustrative path available. I fear it won't really pique the interest of most anti-abortion folks, who are usually all or nothing. I don't see why we couldn't get just as excited about truly reducing real numbers of abortions as we do about the slim possibility of outlawing the practice someday.

The bottom line is, earlier viability provides the ability to restrict the right to abort a fetus earlier, and it is both a practical and particularly entertaining direction of approach.

Shouldn't We Have Learned This Stuff Somewhere?

2005-07-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

You know, if there was a way to get every voter to read the very basics on statistics and economics, I think there'd be a lot fewer ridiculous news stories, claims, and crises to deal with. Or at the very least, the completely worthless studies and stories would get less traction.

To that end-- read these, I am. I feel bad not choosing Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, but these are both paperback:

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt - Roughly $9 new.

Practical Statistics Simply Explained by Langley Russell - Roughly $12 new.

Just imagine all the garbage and noise that could be discounted if this could be considered common sense again.

When I hear about George Washington feeling self-conscious about not having really learned his Latin and Greek in his few years of formal schooling, well, I puke just a little bit when I think about my 12 years of public schooling.

Little Wonder Geldof's Frustrated

2005-06-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

I don't even know if I know any Geldof tunes, but in general it's getting tougher to listen to music as more musicians get their genius quotes in print. Radiohead and their "Fair" trade, Chris Martin's evils of shareholders, the list goes on.

If Bob Geldof thinks he's the man to cure any of the poor's ills, he might get a handle on market economics first. Here's his latest distilled brilliance, when he found out (surprise) that Live8 tickets were for sale on eBay:

"It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on Web sites are miserable wretches who are capitalizing on people's misery."

Is it? Are the poor getting less money because of the auction of tickets? Well, indirectly, yes, because Mr. Geldof sold the tickets for less than they're worth in the first place. So the responsibility for the short-changing of the poor rests squarely on his shoulders. He got a whopping $5.4 million for 150,000 tickets, roughly $35 per ticket. For a concert of this profile, and additionally for charity, that is simply pathetic.

I can understand his frustration, because based on the sale prices of the some of the tickets (almost $1000), it is obvious that his lottery sales method is leaving a ton of money on the table that his beneficiaries will never see. And whether it happens on eBay or not, those tickets are going to be sold to people that want them. Maybe next time he'll take a page from reality and set aside some tickets for auction instead of crying about capitalism.

Which brings up another problem-- how does someone so clueless about market economics hope to help the poor in any significant way? He obviously can't be hoping to convert them into "miserable wretches" like we all apparently are-- you know, we people who buy and sell things for (gasp) money.

Beyond that, another annoying moment in the item is where he blames eBay for ever allowing the tickets to go on sale, as though eBay has a responsibility to proactively monitor every individual auction and judge whether Mr. Geldof is offended by it. It is in no way illegal to sell the tickets, keep in mind, but Mr. Geldof expects some other kind of standard. He calls it "a sort of example of corporate arrogance that it thought it could operate outside the morality of its audience."

I absolutely agree with him on one thing. The problem is arrogance.

Eugene Robinson's Thoughts on White "Damsels"

2005-06-11T00:51:00.000-07:00

After seeing too much white "damsel" coverage for his taste, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post thinks that:

"...the pattern of choosing only young, white, middle-class women for the full damsel treatment says a lot about a nation that likes to believe it has consigned race and class to irrelevance."

Which I think is completely untrue. It may say something about a nation's demographics and human nature, but it's not some kind of indictment of American race relations. People tend to viscerally relate to people that look like they could be in their family. America is mostly white. News stories live on ratings. News subjects tend to play toward the largest audience. Wow.

I don't think it's a problem that he notice this trend, I just think it's stupid to try to chalk it up to some kind of latent racism, and claim that "those stubborn issues are still very much alive" in America today.

Obviously, Mr. Robinson is somewhat less affected by these stories of white women, as I would expect to some degree, but that doesn't make him a racist. I would expect him to more naturally relate to stories that he could see himself, a father of sons, in. For example, a story about a boy roughly his son's age that looks something like his son.

We all do it, all the time, and it's not a problem. Unless people try to make it one by creating mistrust and resentment that don't even exist.

I don't have a daughter or a sister, and I don't relate to these stories either. I do have a girlfriend in Thailand though, and I did relate to a lot of the suffering that went on after the tsunami there. But I did not, and do not, feel that America was somehow anti-Asian when most of the stories were about the few missing Europeans, Australians, or Americans.

It's harmless, it's not malicious, and it's just the way we are. Don't try to make it something it's not.

Please Explain the Benefits of the Minimum Wage

2005-06-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering if I can get somebody to explain, in the comments or via email, what benefit the minimum wage gives, and to whom. Flipping through radio stations I heard Bill O'Reilly say he supported a $7 an hour minimum wage, but he gave no reason at all.

To me, it seems like most people support it because they don't really want to think about it. But why $7, or why any amount? Why not $100 and hour? If the market can't determine wages, should we trust it to determine prices?

The common thought, I imagine, is that getting rid of the minimum wage would hurt our lowest wage earners. I believe exactly the opposite, and this article describes better than I can why.

That doesn't mean I won't try, but I thought I'd see if I can get someone to defend it or at least give a rational reason for the minimum wage to exist.

Freakonomics Background on TCS

2005-06-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't even read Freakonomics, but this article on TechCentralStation brought to mind exactly what I think is completely missing in today's education system: economics, statistics, and logic. I think it's a lot of the reason things like Super Size Me get going. It's too easy to play with statistics and make it look like there's some kind of causal link somewhere there isn't.

In any case, read the article, it's a top-ten list of counterintuitive realities out there, and it's very interesting. I think the main reason it's counterintuitive is that education is lacking in this area.

Changing Gears a Little

2005-06-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to see if I can make a few more, shorter posts to keep things a little more regular around here. I know it's a common problem, maybe I'll be able to find a nice combination of sentence-long posts and multiple paragraph pieces.

It's not that I don't care about anything right now, but I'd like to work toward getting more comments so maybe I'll try to start discussions on things I haven't decided 100% about. We'll see.

Erring on the Side of Life

2005-03-21T16:53:00.000-08:00

My opinion on capital punishment has changed in the last few years based on the idea that one mistake is too many for it to be worthwhile. To be executed innocent, knowing that you will always be remembered as guilty for something you didn't do, is as bad a fate as I can imagine. The financial cost of lifetime imprisonment seems a bargain compared to doing this to someone else.

I would not have to look far to find Democrats that agree with me on this view, and I know some that feel this way for the same reason. Why is it then, that they are so opposed to playing it safe with situations like Terri Schiavo or abortion?

I could sooner find a Democrat ready to march for lobster's rights than I could to entertain the notion that late-term abortion could be wrong. They either tuck their tail and chalk it up to a woman's decision, about as cowardly and intellectually dishonest as you can get, or they refuse to believe an 8 month old fetus can be called alive. A lobster? Yes, of course, it feels pain, something must be done to stop their cruel boiling deaths. A fetus? Well, brainwaves schmainwaves, it's not a person until the feet are out. Up until then, suck it, slice it, chemically dissolve it, anything goes.

And Terri Schiavo? I can't count the number of jokers calling in to radio saying, "I'd never want to live like that, I'd want to die." So is that the standard now? Ooh, how unseemly, I'd sooner die than live like that, so anyone else should die too. No, don't try and rehabilitation, if she can't feed herself she's toast. Parents willing to help? How hideous, can somebody just get her dead already? And please, no details on her horrific dehydrating death.

The only difference I can see between a mistaken death penalty victim, and late-term abortion victims or disabled victims is the death penalty victim actually has a chance to defend themselves. The second two are defenseless, and I would think those would be even more important to defend.

I really don't understand it, and I wish I did, because maybe there's a great reason to cut off half of an otherwise viable fetus's head to keep it off of welfare.

Also, interestingly enough, much like in the Iraq War, we find the Democrats hoping for the worst to avoid having their ideas crushed. If Terri Schiavo is rehabilitated, or fetuses become viable earlier because of better medicine, what happens to abortion rights and assisted suicide? Better to starve the lady and not find out of course.

In my opinion it's a losing battle for them, but I hope these same Democrats will hold strong to their barbaric beliefs even when medicine can safely take care of younger fetuses. At least then the argument will be more honest, they want to actively kill inconvenient or undesirable babies and disabled people.

Is This Paragraph Actually Journalism?

2005-03-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

In "Wolfowitz tapped for World Bank" by Elizabeth Becker and David E. Sanger of The New York Times, they discuss the planned nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to the World Bank. I don't think it's supposed to be an opinion piece, but I also don't know what you'd call this paragraph:

The announcement... was greeted with quiet anguish in many foreign capitals where the Iraq conflict and its aftermath remain deeply unpopular and Wolfowitz's drive to spread democracy around the world has been viewed with some suspicion.

The depth of my journalism knowledge extends to the old "Who, What, When, Where, Why, And How?" Maybe that's obsolete, but I would think that the paragraph is supposed to pass on some data to the reader.

So let's take it from the top-- "The announcement... was greeted with quiet anguish". Maybe Elizabeth and David are just highly empathetic, but exactly what does that mean? Did anyone say anything, like "I'm in anguish over this Liz" or is that the extent that journalism goes to? "Trust me, even though it was quiet, it was anguish. Take it from me, the New York Times."

Let's assume they measured the anguish and it's sound amplitude and they're right. It was greeted with quiet anguish where? Well, "in many foreign capitals where the Iraq conflict and its aftermath remain deeply unpopular and Wolfowitz's drive to spread democracy around the world has been viewed with some suspicion." OK, let me get my almanac and see which capitals those are. I would assume that maybe they spoke to some people in these capitals, wouldn't it be easier to just list them so I don't have to figure it out myself? Or is it easiest to just type sentences that mean nothing, that say nothing, and send it up through whatever editorial process they have?

They've succeeded in claiming there's quiet anguish over the possible nomination, that the war remains deeply unpopular in many capitals, and that Paul Wolfowitz's democratic drive is viewed with suspicion in those capitals, without having to say who, or where, or what they said that conveyed those feelings.

Two journalists worked on the story, and I assume at least one person read it before approving it. So out it goes, a paragraph of nothing really, from authors who assume they have their finger on the pulse of those nameless capitals and anguished, suspicious people. Impressive work indeed. Story templates, preconceived ideas, and assumptions must save a lot of money on phone bills and travel expenses.

Note: There is more in the story, and some quotes from actual people as well, but to me that only makes the inclusion of this paragraph more curious, why not just say what they heard and leave it at that?

Conservatives and Homosexuality

2005-02-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

Between Jeff Gannon/Guckert and Dick Cheney's daughter, it seems pretty obvious that the left in America has a problem with homosexuals that oppose them. Or at least they think we're supposed to have a problem with them when they're "discovered" on our side.

For the record, I'll state my position on homosexuals, homosexuality, and gay marriage:

I doubt you could find an issue that is less threatening to me than homosexuality. By its very nature it has nothing to do with me, I'm heterosexual. If anything, I should be happy with the reduced competition for females out there. I do find acts of homosexuality unsavory, but again, I'm a heterosexual, that seems to make sense. It just doesn't turn my world on end.

In terms of homosexuals, the actual people, I have to admit that at times I have a hard time relating. However, those are times when someone is extremely open and talkative about it, and I just find myself unsure if I'm acting normal. I bet 99% of the time I don't even know if someone is gay at all, which again makes sense, because it has nothing to do with me.

Gay marriage is a little more complex and conflicting for me, but I personally feel like the state shouldn't be involved in religious institutions, and there should only be universal civil unions. Marriages should be kept within church, and I think it's sad how much energy is being wasted "protecting" a governement institution, when it's the religious portion that should be important.

So that's that, I don't even know if those views are offensive to anyone, but I hope it's clear that I'm relatively nice to people.

What really puzzles me is the left's reaction to gay people on the right. They really seem to relish the discovery of a homosexual in our midst, and I know a lot of it is, "Ooh, the party of the religious right, what hypocrisy!" And I'm sure for some few on our side it is somehow distasteful. But not for the vast bulk of the party, and I personally think it'll be good for us moving forward to have more varied input, so we might actually get less government involvement in everybody's lives.

It's fairly entertaining to watch, because the "tolerant" left sounds pretty intolerant when they bring the issues up. "Can you believe Cheney has a GAY daughter? A GAY guy got a day pass at the White House? Unbelievable." The emphasis on their homosexuality is nothing but gay-baiting, an attempt to increase tensions with homosexuals on our side, and while I think it's disgusting, it's not surprising when you remember Clarence Thomas and other conservatives being called Uncle Toms.

We're not exactly perfect in our interactions with homosexuals, but I hope in time that as a group they will move more towards our maybe slowish, but honest, acceptance, and away from the claimed tolerance, but ultimate hostitlity toward any differences on the left.

Walmart, Linux, and Slashdot

2005-02-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Apparently, sometimes the evil corporations running roughshod over our lives are so evil the do exactly what you've been wanting. And no combination of circumstances could be worse for the sad sacks at Slashdot.

Have a look at the comments on this story and you'd think it was Hitler selling yarmulkes or something. A cheap laptop running Linux, something many have clamored for from there, is apparently a real conundrum when it comes from Walmart. Caught between the "virtue" of Linux and the "evil" of Walmart, what does a properly groupthinking Slashhead do?

There's not a lot to say on this except to say that the blind Walmart bashing that goes on is the absolute epitome of lazy thinking. Everybody laps it up, so it must be right, everybody knows Walmart is bad somehow.

It is always a concern when a group as large as the community at Slashdot is so narrow in its opinions, especially in a field where I'd think generally smarter people are. But I console myself thinking that maybe most people posting are those that have nothing else to do.

Which reminds me, I've got something else to do.

I've Had Enough of Hybrids

2005-02-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

The feeling I get from listening to people talk about driving a hybrid reminds me a lot of the Simpsons where Ed Begley, Jr. buzzes of on a go-cart fueled by his own sense of self-satisfaction. I don't begrudge anyone wanting to cut back on the amount of fuel they use, and in fact I'm delighted it's still a choice left to individuals. But hybrids are nowhere near the improvement they are generally made out to be, especially when taken against existing, reliable diesel technology.

The details of the comparison of modern hybrids against modern details can be seen in an excellent article at Consumer Guide, but it boils down to this: a new VW Jetta TDI is very close to the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrids in terms of gas mileage and emissions, and at the same time it has many inherent advantages.

1. Proven Diesel Technology
Diesels last significantly longer that standard engines, tend to be more reliable because they are simpler in design, and are the choice in many commercial vehicles because of that. There is no reason to be concerned about the choice you've made when there's as much experience in engine design as there is with diesels. Hybrids, on the other hand have a limited history of use.

2. No Battery Pack, No Extra Motor
The batteries are expensive to replace, they need to be recycled carefully, and they are attached to an electric motor and control computer that are unproven in the long-term. For as much extra technology is packed into these cars, the relative gains are very small. Safety becomes an unkown in collisions with these electrical systems as well, and emergency crews have special procedures for dealing with them.

3. Ready to Burn Domestic Biodiesel
Biodiesel is getting easier to get commercially, in my area there are 3 Pacific Pride cardlock stations that carry it. California has decent coverage as well. Regardless of your location though, today's hybrids will never have this option, and do little to reduce our use of foreign oil in a significant way.

4. Passing Power
The Prius has a ridiculously low 82 lb-ft of torque, and the Civic Hybrid is not much better at 116. The Jetta TDI has 177 lb-ft, more than 50% higher than the Civic and more than double the Prius. Diesel engines are inherently good in this area, and if you think you might need to pass someone someday, you might think again before you choose a hybrid.

5. Repair Costs
As of now, this is still a known vs. unknown argument, but with all of the extra equipment on a hybrid, and having some existing track record for diesels, it is not much of a stretch to say hybrids will tend to be more expensive and difficult to repair.

For now at least, I see no reason to own a hybrid automobile, and it's disappointing to see how few diesel models we actually get in our market. But if perceptions change and dealers sense some demand, we could actually get more efficient diesel cars without giving up everything you lose with a hybrid.

Should We Root Against The Dems?

2005-02-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today is one of those days I wish I had someone else's traffic, because I'd really like to have an answer to this question. Between John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, just about any journalist, I think the Democrats have lost some credibility. And now with Dean's likely path to the DNC chairmanship, I've felt very good about the position the Republicans are in. I'd guess most Republicans feel similarly.

But lately I've been wondering if what appears like a bit of a losing streak on the Democrat side isn't bad to some degree for everyone. Is it good for us as Republicans when one of our two major parties becomes a joke? If you think of politics as a marketplace of ideas, I wouldn't think it is. The bulk of the ideas coming from the Democrats boil down to, "We're not Bush." I don't think it can stay that way, but I do wonder whether bad news for the Democrats is always good news for Republicans.

What I think it comes down to is whether it's better for Republicans in general to be in power and stay there, or for the Republicans to be met with the competition of a lively Democrat party. I definitely want to continue to win, I just wonder if it matters what we're winning against.

Which is exactly why I wish I had a pile of readers, because I'm certain many would have better insight on this.

My instinct is to think that more vigorous competition and close elections would be good for everyone, as it would normally be in a market situation for consumers. Dominance of one side would not normaly be good for consumers. But in the majority of races on the national level, in the House and in the Senate, when a seat is uncertain, it seems like the safest path to reelection is bringing home federal funds and working toward power in Washington instead of working on new or innovative ideas.

With safer seats and power in general, would the Republicans act more like Republicans are supposed to? Because so far I haven't been totally impressed with the size of government. I'm really hoping that further gains for the Republicans will lead to faster change and not complacency.

I suppose until I know, I'll follow my heart and keep rooting for more failures and jokes from the Democrats.

No Wonder They Say 'Fisked'

2005-01-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

"What a bloody charade." I'd never read anything of his, but it showed up on Google News tonight and it's beyond belief, at least for my uninitiated eyes. Robert Fisk brings us another treasure I guess.

I'll leave it to others to be thorough, but just a few gems that popped out at me if you haven't seen it:

1. 'Many Iraqis do not know the names of the candidates, let alone their policies.'
Wow, what a powerful indictment of representative government. Watch out! He's a genius! This story hit the Internet about the same time voter turnout hit 70% and climbing. I don't know when the last time we hit that in America, and I can only imagine the percentage of people who don't know the name, much less the policies of our sitting President. Contrary to international opinion, we're doing just fine that way, but thanks Robbie. I'll trust under-informed voters over a dictator most days. I guess we'll agree to disagree.

2. 'The majority Shi'as, oppressed under Hussein, are expected to take a majority in the polling at the expense of the formerly dominant Sunnis.'
Actually that'd be what happens in a pure democracy, but fortunately Iraqis have a constitution. That's why there are constitutions in the first place. Obviously the majority is expected to take the majority in polling, but that's not at the expense of anyone necessarily. Where does this guy live?

3. 'The reality is that much of Iraq has become a free-fire zone (for reference, see under "Vietnam")'
Reality is the last thing Robert Fisk is qualified to report on. This is simply not the case. He might as well be claiming dragons are flying over the southern marshes. I can't prove that they're not, but the claim is in no way related to "reality" or any word root or derivation thereof.

4. 'And then the manipulation will begin and the claims of fraud and the admissions that the elections might be "flawed" in some areas.'
Again, welcome to Elections 101. People don't like losing elections (for reference, see under "America"). It doesn't make the system anything close to a "charade", it makes it very normal. So the Sunnis don't want to take part as much as the rest of the country. Big deal. They will.

So when Mr. Fisk gets all this completely wrong, does he ever go back and say "Oops"? No, of course not. Like anyone else who sits and whines and does nothing, he looks forward and sees doom, he looks backward and calls out mistakes of others, and his column necessarily retains no memory whatsoever of his numberless errors.

What a bloody moron.

Why They Love the GPL

2005-01-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

Slashdot is obviously hugely popular as a site, but as a community it's just completely weak. Heavily anti-bush, heavily jobs-protectionist, this "News for Nerds" is about as rearward looking as a community could get. I don't know why I keep looking, maybe it's in hope that people in technology will start being a little more self-reliant, but my mistake:

There are a lot of good reasons to like the GPL: the GNU Public License. For one thing, it's a David and Goliath kind of thing. It's the little guy standing up to the corporate behemoths that run rough-shod over our daily lives by virtue of their influence, legal and otherwise, on government. For another, it's virtuous.

I've got nothing against open source software in general. I'm also not completely overwhelmed by it. But the attitude presented above is pretty sad. "Corporate behemoths running rough-shod over our daily lives"? Who? What corporation has any control over how I run my life? And "Virtuous"? It's not wrong, but virtuous?

In the vast majority of cases, people work in open source for personal gain or for personal satisfaction. The whole idea that all these people are just so selfless is completely deluded. Note how many open source luminaries leverage their experience into good jobs. They're smart, not heroes, any more than an intern in an office building is.

Also, without the corporate behemoths running (roughshod or otherwise) open source people would have nothing to do. What would they copy if there weren't UNIX, or Office, or Explorer, or Photoshop, etc? Obviously there are interesting new things, but the big things I am exposed to (Linux, Open Office, Firefox, GIMP, etc.) are attempts to replicate functionality brought to life or brought to popularity by evil behemoths like Bell Labs, Microsoft and Adobe.

An interesting thing happened with Firefox, I should add, in that the open source copy (in my opinion) overtook the corporate Explorer. Ever since Microsoft was nearly shut down for using the money they spent on Explorer development to their competitive advantage (the horror!), the advances stalled. Yes, finally, after all these years, open source brought us something better than Explorer 4 era browsing.

I do wonder what we lost, what we might have today, had Microsoft been allowed to have an incentive to continue improving Explorer. I also wonder where we'd be without these evil corporate behemoths, where open source (David) would be without them (Goliath). I can guess, but I'd rather not imagine it. I doubt the open source hero worshippers at Slashdot would agree, though.

Why Iraq is Like Vietnam

2005-01-26T23:12:00.000-08:00

It's a common meme, you've seen the stickers, the t-shirts, the comics, and so on. "Is it Vietnam Yet?" There has been an effort to paint our efforts in Iraq as being an irreedemable mess, that we need to unilaterally pull out to minimize the problems we've caused.

Obviously, I don't think that's the case at all. I'll be happy when history proves our actions right. I think that for the first time, our foreign policy is going after the real roots of a problem, instead of pacifying outwardly-friendly dictators in the interests of regional stability.

So why is Iraq like Vietnam? Because the left are exactly as wrong today as they were on Vietnam. The hundreds of thousands of murdered South Vietnamese we left to their fates can attest to that. The constant drumbeat from the left caused us to lose our nerve, to not finish what we needed to. Regardless of how we got in, it was the wrong way to get out. The same would have happened in Iraq if we didn't have people in office with the spine to see this through. We saw a small taste of it after the first Gulf War, but somehow it couldn't happen this time?

The nice thing about being a naysayer is that you don't care if it works out OK. You could've protested WWII, demonstrated at the Capitol when we were obviously losing at the Battle of the Bulge, demanded someone take responsibility, and on and on. But at the end, when people that actually do what they say they'll do finish what they're doing, you can just go home and wait for the next reason to complain. I've never seen someone who says, "this won't work, it's destined for failure" have to answer for being wrong about it. One reason is that successful people don't care about inconsequential naysayers and just move on. But success doesn't always come instantly, so these people get a long time to spout their useless drivel.

Unfortunately, the media in general tends to lap it all up. The time to do something about the war is before it occurs, or at an election. We just had one, and they lost. But the insane rhetoric of our left is truly unpatriotic and damaging. They love to say dissent it patriotic, but it's the complete opposite during a war. It weakens our negotiating positions and reputations in the world, it demoralizes our troops, it demoralizes our country. And were they successful, and if it ended like Vietnam, they would never be called to account for the damage they did. Just as John Kerry was never hammered for contributing to the deaths of so many thousands of South Vietnamese.

Hopefully we've learned our lessons from Vietnam, and we can ignore the naysayers until we succeed and they disappear again.