Signs of Hope

Novato, where I grew up, is at the “other end” of Marin from the one you probably know about, the end that produced Taliban Johnny. I was in the first class of 7th graders ever at then Sinaloa Jr. High, which is now Sinaloa Middle School. Seems there’s a Boy Scount troop there which arranged a nice homecoming for a couple of our soldiers, showing just how far Novato can get from Mill Valley on a good day.

Dear Senator Reid

Here’s a nice letter.

I hope he does it.

Michelle Malkin has a few more letters for the Dishonorable Senator from Nevada.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan

Need more to worry about? Watch this video on LGF.

The X-Ray Project

An unusual and somber photography exhibit which uses X-ray images to document the effect of terrorism on a civilian population.

Steyn: Get Real

Steyn correctly identifies the disconnect from reality that “gun-free” zones represent. The bottom line:

The “gun-free zone” fraud isn’t just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia’s distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality. Michelle Malkin wrote a column a few days ago connecting the prohibition against physical self-defense with “the erosion of intellectual self-defense,” and the retreat of college campuses into a smothering security blanket of speech codes and “safe spaces” that’s the very opposite of the principles of honest enquiry and vigorous debate on which university life was founded. And so we “fear guns,” and “verbal violence,” and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ”The Three Musketeers.” What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

Another Disgrace

For both the New York Times and the Pulitzer. Shoddy work like this merits an apology, not a prize.

A Lesson in Hate

A fascinating portrait of Qutb who, if you haven’t heard of him, we have to thank for much of modern jihad. He came to America as a student and learned to hate us. Why? The answers may surprise you.

Jefferson and the Pirates

You really need to read this handy history. Hitchens at his best.

Here’s hoping we’re at least as successful against the Barbary as were our forefathers.

Predicting the Future

Trying to see a century ahead is usually considered a loser’s game. I must admit, though, I’m impressed by how well the Ladies Home Journal did – in 1900.

I’m glad that most of the really wrong guesses never came to pass, though.

Going Out on a Limb

Buttle’s World regretfully predicts that Yale will be the site of another massacre. The school is volunteering for it. Why else would they be laying the groundwork?

And here you thought college folk was smart.

Barbarians With Medical Degrees

How else can one describe “doctors” who perform partial birth abortions, especially after reading Andy McCarthy’s gut-wrenching post?

I wonder. Are there any people out there in favor of partial birth abortion and also supportive of the CIA’s terrorist interrogation techniques? I rather doubt it. It seems there’s a huge amount of cognitive dissonance among the left’s non-thinkers.

Fred Thompson Watch

I don’t know much about Fred Thompson, but this blog post darn near wins me over in one fell swoop.

Whenever I’ve seen one of those “Gun-free Zone” signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I’ve always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don’t mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

GM Calls Environuts’ Bluff

I may not like many of GM’s cars, but I rather like their president. He told the loons at the so-called “Union of Concerned Scientists” (Just savor for a moment how “concern” and “science” can possibly fit together) to put up or shut up.

“This is a challenge I want to put out to people who think they have a solution, and are so much smarter than we are,” Lutz told the Wall Street Journal. “Let them come and see us. If the technology were readily and easily available, what on earth would our motive be for withholding it?”

Dying England Watch

Maybe they’re getting comfy with Shari’a, and their Navy may be full of wimps, but they sure as hell aren’t going to put up with littering.

Buttle’s World Endorses John McCain

No, not for President. That would be silly.

But as an Anti-BS Crusader, he gets the nod.

CAIR At Work

LGF keeping an eye on the grievance theatre.

Not SJS, but why the silence on Ismael Ax?

Over at TCS Daily they ask the musical question, Didn’t any of you guys go to Sunday School?

The part I didn’t know is that Ismail is the “preferred” spelling of Ishmael in the Muslim world. Oh – and that Mohammed did a little rewrite on the Abraham story.

Steyn Gets It Right

I said that most of the victims in Virginia died like sheep. Steyn says it better. The real danger is passivity.

Point one: They’re not “children.” The students at Virginia Tech were grown women and — if you’ll forgive the expression — men. They would be regarded as adults by any other society in the history of our planet. Granted, we live in a selectively infantilized culture where twentysomethings are “children” if they’re serving in the Third Infantry Division in Ramadi but grown-ups making rational choices if they drop to the broadloom in President Clinton’s Oval Office. Nonetheless, it’s deeply damaging to portray fit fully formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself — and, in a “horrible” world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself or others. It is a poor reflection on us that, in those first critical seconds where one has to make a decision, only an elderly Holocaust survivor, Professor Librescu, understood instinctively the obligation to act.

Point two: The cost of a “protected” society of eternal “children” is too high. Every December 6th, my own unmanned Dominion lowers its flags to half-mast and tries to saddle Canadian manhood in general with the blame for the “Montreal massacre,” the 14 female students of the Ecole Polytechnique murdered by Marc Lepine (born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, though you’d never know that from the press coverage).

I Have A Little List

Tammy Bruce exposes how the Lefties destroy dissenters.

Pay particular attention to how she used to move “news” stories when she ran NOW in LA.

A Public Service Announcement

Perhaps you’d like to opt out of getting mortgage offers in the mail.

It appears to be legit. At least if you believe the FTC.

Sharing the blame

Of course the (as yet unnamed) shooter is directly responsible for the tragic deaths in Virginia today. But all of the numbskulls who voted against this bill last year are accessories to the crime. I hope they all have their noses rubbed in it. Kudos to Drudge for finding that article and making the connection.

Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, now has a sad, bloody “I told you so”.

Leaping Shampoo

And now a moment of strange beauty.

Aretha Was Right

You better think!

I’m becoming more convinced every day that the most important thing kids could learn in school is critical thinking. But it’s the one thing they’re pretty much guaranteed not to learn there. The day you can think, really think, under your own steam, is the day you free yourself from the man behind the curtain. If you can think, you’ll realize that most of what you learn in school is a house of cards, and that most of the teachers don’t know how to think.

With a boatload of evidence of the perils of diseased thinking, enter the blog with the great name, Eject! Eject! Eject!. Read part two of Seeing the Unseen. There’s a link to part one there, which is also worth a look. But at least read all of part two.

I’m looking forward to part three.

Dream on, Victor

When VDH dreams, he dreams big.

Flying Imam Watch

Via Powerline, a link to a new blog dedicated to keeping an eye on them and CAIRs doings.

Such Bravery

I guess she showed him. Nothing like a firm retort to put a murderous thug in his place!

You can just see this one coming

but it’s worth it anyway. Hat tip: Mom.

One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. Afterwards, he asked about his bill and the barber replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I’m doing community service this week”. The florist is pleased and leaves the shop. The next morning, there are a dozen roses waiting for the barber at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill, the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I’m doing community service this week.” The cop is happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Later, a bartender comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill, the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I’m doing community service this week.” The bartender is happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a thank you card, a 12 Pak of Bud and a bottle of Jagermeister.

Later a Republican comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot take money from you; I’m doing community service this week.” The Republican is very happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open, there is a thank you card and a dozen books such as “How to Improve Your Business” and “Becoming More Successful.”

Then a Democrat comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I’m doing community service this week.” The Democrat is very happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open up…

…there are a dozen Democrats lined up waiting for a free haircut!

Pearls

What would happen if Joshua Bell set up to play his Strad in a Washington, D.C. metro station?

I like to think that I would have stopped to listen. But I was fortunate to grow up near San Francisco in the 70’s when some street musicians were actually members of the symphony on a lark. SF had some very good street music in its day.

Nothing about government bureaucrats walking blindly, deafly by is surprising. But reading how a government “computer expert” was buying lotto tickets makes paying taxes even more painful than it is now.

It’s a sad commentary on the rampant innumeracy and lack of critical thinking skills in our nation that lotteries, astrologers, chiropractors, accupuncturists, and a laundry list of pseudo-sciences thrive – let alone exist.

We need to teach skepticism to our kids. The schools won’t do it.

And we also need to make sure that, even if they don’t know who Josuah Bell is, they recognize unusual beauty when it hits them.

Compare and Contrast

You can be a pasty-faced wimp from an impotent European power who gets a vacation in Iran followed by book contracts, or you can be a Marine.

Pretty much parallels the choice presented by our culture right now.

Always have your music with you.

It could save your life.

Update:

Well, it may save your life or it may not. As for what’s in the above link, it was pretty clear that the body armor is what really saved his life. The truth about the ill-fated iPod is almost as funny, though. Gives you an idea how intense a fire fight must be. Body armor or no, I can’t imagine being shot and not noticing.

I still think it was wonderful of the Apple employees who got together to get him a replacement unit, especially since it was an HP branded iPod.