Stuttaford has it.
27 August, 2008
26 August, 2008
Guns in the Hands of Good People
I feel both sorrow and admiration for this man. He did the right thing.
June 28, 2008, was a defining moment in my life. It was the day I shot and killed a man in the defense of my life and the lives of others. We all have defining moments. They might not be as tragic as taking another man’s life, but they are events that change the way we look at things — or even, perhaps, how we live our lives.
Before that muggy Saturday evening in June, I would have said my defining moments were many: graduating from high school; enlisting in the Army; getting married; having children; getting run over by a tow truck; and especially, meeting my fiancée, Maria. All of these events, and more, have happened in my life and changed me.
The Most Vicious Anti-Obama Ad Ever
This isn’t parody, it’s completely below-the-belt contempt. I mean, showing celebrities praying to Barack just plays into the Republican attack machine’s painting of Obama as some sort of self-absorbed Messiah.
I’ll bet Karl Rove is behind this.
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
Michael Totten has the goods.
Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
Instapundit reports:
I got home from the gym the other day and there was a message on my answering machine — it was Michael Yon, calling from Afghanistan on satphone to make sure I’d seen Michael Totten’s latest report. That tells you how good he is, doesn’t it? . . . So read it, and learn that much of what was reported was wrong.
If you want to know what’s going on there, just go read.
Videos Across Obama’s Bow
Oh, sure, The One has the “O-Bah-Mah” chanting video, but now he’s getting answers from McCain, who is hitting him with Hillary, and Vets, who are just smacking him upside the head.
25 August, 2008
24 August, 2008
Just because you’re Islamophobic
doesn’t mean some Muslims don’t want to kill you.
And a couple of interesting bonuses from the same blog: Liberals are slightly more likely to believe astrology is scientific than conservatives, and 20% of American atheists are religious.
Funny old world.
A Teacher on the Front Lines of the False Dichotomy Wars
This is a terrific story about a terrific teacher in Florida who forcefully but very carefully is trying to pry the minds of his students away from the false dichotomy that there is a conflict between science and religion.
Bryce came to Ridgeview as a freshman from a Christian private school where he attended junior high.
At 16, Bryce, whose parents had made sure he read the Bible for an hour each Sunday as a child, no longer went to church. But he did make it to the predawn meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a national Christian sports organization whose mission statement defines the Bible as the “authoritative Word of God.” Life had been dark after his father died a year ago, he told the group, but things had been going better recently, and he attributed that to God’s help.
When the subject of evolution came up at a recent fellowship meeting, several of the students rolled their eyes.
“I think a big reason evolutionists believe what they believe is they don’t want to have to be ruled by God,” said Josh Rou, 17.
Pity these poor kids being taught this nonsense by their parents. And, to be clear, the nonsense to which I refer is that a) there is such a thing as an “evolutionist”, as if it were a creed and that b) understanding that evolution is a fact need in no way shatter their faith in God. Children being taught this way are crippled worse than someone confined to a wheel chair. It does mean that in order to join the real world or at least have a prayer of understanding how it works they have to let go of the young earth interpretation of Genesis. There are plenty of Christian sects which have made the simple leap to metaphor and are able to let go of all that “6,000 years ago” silliness.
We need a lot more Mr. Campbells who love and respect their students enough to know that the truth will set them free (or at least let them get a job in modern society). It could be said, with only a tiny dose of irony, that he’s doing God’s work. I wish him well. Besides: He’s an ex Navy flight instructor. Perhaps the only guys I respect more than those who land on aircraft carriers are those who teach them how.
You Want Convention Coverage?
You got convention coverage.
Trust me. Between Zombie/LGF plus Hot Air being on the case there’ll be no need for television. As if there ever were…
Waiting To Cross The Line
Are the Republican tanks just waiting for The One to be “safely nominated?”
Six more days and then the real fun will begin. McCain has blunted Obama’s momentum. Obama’s troops are now milling aimlessly at the front waiting for supplies and new orders.
Once the counter attack begins it will be a slaughter. First a slash through the front lines and then tanks rampaging in the rear through the administrative troops.
Could be fun to watch.
23 August, 2008
Jenny McCarthy Makes Me Sick
But only metaphorically. Not literally like about 68 measles victims.
If anybody tries to convince you not to vaccinate your children ignore them and get the hell away – they’re probably carriers of something nasty.
My Kind of Pizza Guy
A Pizza deliveryman in North Carolina was attacked by five punks who were enjoying the attack – until he pulled his gun and shot one of them. Note that he’s got a great boss:
The owner of the restaurant, whose employee allegedly shot the suspect, said Wednesday that his worker had his full support.
“I’m glad he did have a gun; he might have been killed if he didn’t,” said John Campbell of Chanellos Pizza.
So if you’re hungry for pizza and close to a Chanellos, give them the business. Just, whatever you do, don’t tive any business to Pizza Hut.
Naive, Misinformed, Communist, or Dumb?
Or all of the above?
As to his V.P. pick, I think that argues for just plain dumb. Now the Democrat ticket is The Attack of the Gasbags.
People are wondering if McCain could put this away by just his V.P. choice. Perhaps. I mean, who could lose a debate with Biden as long as Biden doesn’t control the clock?
22 August, 2008
China’s Porcelain Facade
Read Mark Alexander’s account of his visit to the Olympics.
In Beijing, amid the very real modern architecture, there is a modern marvel of an office building which occupies an entire city block. Upon closer inspection, however, it is actually nothing more than a very large frame covered by enormous sheets of vinyl on which had been printed features that might be on a modern building. From major thoroughfares, that building blocks a sea of dilapidated Soviet-era apartment buildings. The vinyl screen even featured two businessmen looking out a window, perhaps speculating on whether the wind would blow them away.
21 August, 2008
Hitting Barack
with his own past.
And note something unusual for a political ad: It’s all factual.
This ad is pretty good, but I would have left the question hanging at the end. Putting the “No” button on it is weak writing.
20 August, 2008
McCain Hits Hard
Of course, having an opponent with known associations with unrepentant terrorists is what you might call a godsend.
Oh, and in case you missed it, it’s all about the Annenberg Challenge. Stanley Kurtz seems to have struck a vein and a nerve.
Update:
The McCain ad is going to make it harder for the MSM to do what they do best, namely ignore the story.
Yet Another Reason
to disband the TSA.
“The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers,” one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. “They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder,” the pilot wrote.
This unionized, jackbooted goon of a moron has a job working around aircraft and he doesn’t know which parts are safe to step on? The TSA isn’t happy enough wasting our time with that useless kabuki theatre they laughingly call “airport security” and now they have to go around damaging aircraft?
It’s bad enough that the TSA has done absolutely nothing since the day it was created to make flying safer. Now they’re taking active steps to make it more dangerous. So when do we pull the plug on these idiots? Hmmm?
How much you want to bet that this waste of carbon doesn’t even get fired?
19 August, 2008
Everything you know about Terri Schiavo is wrong
At least, if you thought you knew what I thought I knew. I was deeply moved by the case at the time, and emotions still run high on both sides of the issue. (It’s not helped by the apparent fact that her husband was rather a jerk, but that should not really have any bearing.)
The estimable Dr. Steven Novella has posted three blog entries which are a must-read for anybody interested in the case. He completely side-steps the controversy and gets right into the medicine of the case. And it turns out that, medically, there simply was no controversy.
Read part one, part two and part three. The CT scan in the last part is most convincing.
I, for one, am very grateful to Dr. Novella for this. I now realize that I was terribly misinformed. (Gee, how could that have happened with our wonderful press to spread the news?)
Make your own judgement as to whether Congress and/or Governor Bush acted correctly. I think their information was as bad as mine.
Obama’s Campaign in Severe Distress
Won’t somebody send help?
I’ll bet nobody at the DNCC has ever read this.
Update:
Speaking of distress at Obama Central – just where is FactCheck.org?
18 August, 2008
Nooooooooooo!
When Time Westergren spoke to us here at work a while back he said that the new royalty license law was going to be trouble. Now it looks like it’s going to kill Pandora.
This is a great loss. I’m completely hooked on it, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to music broadcasting.
Your tax dollars at work, stifling innovation yet again.
A note to your congresscritter couldn’t hurt.
Update:
A coworker emailed a friend at Pandora. Here’s the word:
There’s no new news – the same battle that we’ve been in for over a year. Not sure why the wash post chose now to cover it, but that’s what got gizmodo all up in it too.
So, negotiations continue, and the central place for info/rallying is www.savenetradio.org.
The Well-Informed British
Glen Reynolds on the dangers of having the BBC as your news source.
And I’m with him: Let’s go on the offensive.
17 August, 2008
What if we knew then what we know now?
As opposed to what we thought we knew “now” when now was between then and now?
Red Light
The Ladies Home Journal ran a puff piece about red light cameras, encouraging readers to lobby congress to, you know. do something, and just sorta forgot to mention that their partners in the campaign stand to make a lot of money from red light cameras.
The old 55 mph national speed limit, which not only cost us billions but made the highways more dangerous, was enough to make me cynical about traffic laws. Red light cameras, which make intersections more dangerous, seal the deal. And the greedy government which wants me to run red lights so I cay pay them fines is also forcing me to use a front license plate – the only reason for which is to get caught in red light cameras.
Very few traffic laws have anything at all to do with safety. Most exist for the sole purpose of generating revenue.
Update:
A strong case can be made that fewer signs, and fewer traffic lights, result in fewer accidents.
