Why the Democrats Will Lose in 2008
Ok, it's not a 100% done deal, but I think Larry Kudlow has the situation pegged.
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Entries from May 2007
May 31, 2007
May 30, 2007
Stumped!
SoccerDad has listed lyrics to popular songs of the past, I don't know, 20-30 years maybe, and thrown down the gauntlet for readers to come up with the titles. So far, we are all stumped on several.
Help us out. NO GOOGLING ALLOWED!
The Case for Bombing Iran
Norman Podhoretz lays out the points, and they are chillingly convincing.
May 29, 2007
You hire Presidents, at a minimum, to run the country well enough that you don’t have to think about it, and, at a maximum, to draw the country together to meet great challenges you can’t avoid thinking about.” - Newt Gingrich, criticizing President Bush
Unbelievable Gall
Hamas attacks Fatah and then blames it on Israel:
In the early morning of May 15, Hamas used mortars, missiles and machine guns to attack a Presidential Guard contingent belonging to Fatah that was stationed near the Karni border crossing with Israel. Hamas then hit a jeep carrying Fatah reinforcements, and ensured their targets were dead by shooting them in the head at close range.
When the shooting was over, 10 Fatah members were dead, with a similar number wounded.
Suddenly aware that their unprovoked massacre may have gone too far, Hamas claimed it was Israel who had actually killed the Fatah people and threatened any journalist who dared report otherwise.
Then, in a truly perverse twist, Hamas launched more than 20 rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot "to take revenge" for the massacre they themselves had committed.
Given the overwhelming evidence and eyewitness accounts of those who were there, it was clear to most Palestinians that Hamas had committed the massacre. Still, when trying to explain the cause of the current infighting, several Palestinians, including Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, insisted that Israel was somehow to blame.
This is the real Palestinian Naqba, the disaster at the root of Palestinian suffering since even before 1948.
Instead of taking responsibility for their role in shaping their destiny, on virtually every occasion, the Palestinians have twisted their worldview to put the blame solely on Israel.
There is no self-awareness, not to mention self-criticism. No sense of accountability.
No honor, morals, or values either.
Jews Hiding in Fear
The years pass, father time marches on, but one thing always remains the same: Jews in hiding from murderous scumbags.
The Sheriff of Sderot - Rebecca Anna Stoil
Uri Bar-Lev, the commander of the Israel Police's Southern District, has temporarily relocated the district headquarters to Sderot and is cruising around town when the emergency siren sounds. He notices a young woman who has stopped her car and is paralyzed with fear, unable to turn off the engine or leave the vehicle. As the first rocket falls in the distance, Bar-Lev coaxes the woman, a Sderot resident who has witnessed one too many barrages in recent days, to leave the vehicle and take cover. A second later, a rocket shrieks overhead, plunging into a nearby house. Arriving first on the scene where the Palestinian rocket has barreled through the house's wall, Bar-Lev crouches down next to the house's owner, who is holding his ears and rocking back and forth in shock.
Bar-Lev muses: "Against terror, the deciding factor is not the army....The deciding factor is the fortitude of the people. Not just to stay because of economic motives, but also on an ideological level. The most important answer to terror is that statement: 'Nobody is going to force me out of here. Another 1,000 rockets might fall, but I will stay here because it is my home.'" (Jerusalem Post)
I can't stand to read about it anymore. It really bothers me. When does it end? When does the Jewish world get to live in peace? When do Jews get to catch their breath and be a calm and safe religious community, free from controversy, free from violence, free from being the target of hatred?
Israel was born into such idealism. After the Holocaust it was such a beautiful thing to behold. It is so very painful to watch what is being done to it.
A War Everyone Can Support, Regardless of Their Politics
Blogger GM Roper is searching for recruits for a very special army and I am proud to volunteer my services to the cause. He writes:
Help Fight Cancer, Join the Army of Bloggers
Cancer is no respecter of race, religion, social status, income or profession. It is an insidious disease that robs people of a quality of life and too often, of life itself. This blog has one purpose, and one purpose only, to enroll as many bloggers in An Army Of Bloggers as possible and to encourage them to make an annual contribution to fighting cancer. The Rules for membership are simple, put the logo and blogroll on your blog, send a donation to a cancer program of any kind and post about it. It would be helpful if you write in the "memo field" of your check the following "Donated By The Army Of Bloggers." Help spread the word, help beat this s.o.b. into the ground. If you are a blogger, join the blogroll and make a donation. Leave a comment too if you would be so kind as to whom you donated to. Please leave the address and name of the charity in your comment (you don't need to name the amount). Please, if everyone helps this disease can eventually be whipped.
This Blog and accompanying Blogroll is dedicated Pamela Roper Clark, my beloved sister who passed away in 1990 from ovarian cancer. By putting the power of the blogosphere to work, we hope to make a citizens push to conquer this dread disease.
George has more to say about his own personal fight with cancer and the thoughts that inspired this terrific idea here.
If you scroll down the sidebar to your right, you will see a growing list of bloggers who are joining in this effort. I strongly encourage you to as well. And by the way, you don't have to be a blogger to head over there, voice your support and make a donation to a cancer organization of your choice. Better diagnostic techniques and better treatments are being developed all the time - - your donation to research can really make a difference. Join up and help fight the war against cancer now.
May 27, 2007
Gene Simmons
I don't know what his music sounds like, but his views on the Middle East rock.
May 26, 2007
Netanyahu on Middle East Peace
In an interview with one of my favorite journalists, James Taranto, Benjamin Netanyahu talks about Iran, terrorism, and more. Perhaps one of the most interesting thoughts he touched upon is his view of the importance of free markets in attaining peace in the Middle East:
...he is careful to distinguish between "militant Islam" and the broader Muslim population. "Militant Islam condemns and intimidates and kills Muslims before anyone else. That's what they're about. The infidels are defined first as the renegades of Islam--that is, Muslims who do not practice some . . . pre-medieval religious creed that is hopelessly antiquated for most Muslims and most Arabs."
Because of the militants' power to intimidate and the weak civic institutions in Arab societies, Mr. Netanyahu is wary of pushing those societies too quickly toward electoral democracy. He thinks it was a mistake to allow Hamas to compete in last year's Palestinian voting. "But I think that one element that should be expedited as rapidly as possible is the democratization of markets. I think that expanding economic freedom is just as important--in some cases more important--in moderating societies than accelerated moves to political freedoms without the proper democratic institutions."
I ask if he can point to any positive examples in the Arab world. "How about Dubai? How about the Gulf states? What you see there is quite remarkable. It also tells you that Arabs and Muslims are not inherently or genetically programmed to oppose free markets. That's just nonsense. With the right system of incentives and economic freedoms, you see this explosive growth that I, frankly, admire. . . . We always said that if we have peace, then we'll have prosperity. It may be the other way around."
May 25, 2007
Tips on Fighting an Unfunded War
Scrappleface writes:
(2007-05-25) — Following their votes yesterday against funding U.S. troops fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, Senators Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Barack Obama, D-IL, today sought to demonstrate that they truly support the troops by releasing a list of “tips for fighting unfunded wars.”
The senate passed the measure, with the two leading Democrat presidential candidates in the 80-14 minority. However, according to their joint statement, if the vote had gone the other way the troops would have been “just fine and able to make do with what they have.”
May 23, 2007
Our Fantastic Troops
Journalists who are embedded with American troops come to Iraq against the war and leave with their minds changed after witnessing their bravery and whole hearted belief in what they are doing:
The most spectacular recent case of a journalist with an antiwar mindset being completely overwhelmed into a change of heart by American soldiers, according to the public affairs officer, was a Greek public television reporter who had been embedded with an infantry unit that became entrenched in a 45-minute firefight with insurgents. Yanked out of the line of fire by a soldier who put the journalist's life above his own, he waited under cover and in fear of his life for the almost hourlong duration of the battle, with the best view possible of American soldiers in action against an armed and murderous enemy. He credits his having lived to tell the tale directly to those young troops.
"He had tears in his eyes as he talked about it," said the public affairs officer. "He just kept saying, 'They saved my life, they saved my life. . . . These are great men; they are heroes.' Even after telling it several times, he couldn't get through the story without choking up--and this was a man who had arrived here with all of the disdain for the Iraq mission and for the American soldiers who he [like seemingly most Europeans] had seen as the bad guys in this fight."
Al Gore and the Internet
Taking a trip in the wayback machine to 1999, we can see that it wasn't only conservative politicians who were up in arms over Gore's claims with regard to the creation of the internet, but techies as well, who were not pleased to see the credit for their creation going to any politicians at all. From Wired, March 11, 1999:
It's a time-honored tradition for presidential hopefuls to claim credit for other people's successes.
But Al Gore as the father of the Internet?
That's what the campaigner in chief told CNN's Wolf Blitzer during an interview Tuesday evening. Blitzer asked Gore how he was different than other presumptive Democratic challengers, such as Bill Bradley. "What do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?"
Replied Gore: "I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins, and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it'll be compelling enough to draw people toward it.... I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years."
Then came the kicker: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Huh?
Preliminary discussions of how the ARPANET would be designed began in 1967, and a request for proposals went out the following year. In 1969, the Defense Department commissioned the ARPANET.
Gore was 21-years-old at the time. He wasn't even done with law school at Vanderbilt University. It would be eight more years before Gore would be elected to the US House of Representatives as a freshman Democrat with scant experience in passing legislation, let alone ambitious proposals.
By that time, file copying -- via the UUCP protocol -- was beginning. Email was flourishing. The culture of the Internet was starting to develop through the Jargon File and the SF-Lovers mailing list.
Of course, politicians weren't completely unaware of the Internet.
According to one account, when Senator Ted Kennedy learned in 1968 that Massachusetts-based BBN had won the ARPA contract for an "interface message processor," he sent a congratulatory telegram. It thanked the upstanding folks at BBN for their ecumenical spirit in devising an "interfaith message processor."
Blitzer, unfortunately, didn't appear to know any of that. After Gore took credit for the Internet, Blitzer simply moved on talk about polls showing Texas governor George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole ahead of the vice president.
Gore has taken credit for popularizing the term "information superhighway" and around 1991 penned related articles for publications such as Byte magazine. But the term "data highway" has been used as far back as 1975, before Gore entered Congress.In 1990, Gore introduced a bill that would allow the federal government to enter the business of crafting software for teachers to use. Another Gore plan would create a new federal research center for educational computing to support an "information systems highway."
But the system he envisioned bears little resemblance to the PC-dominated Internet.
"Supercomputers are the steam locomotives of the information age," then-Senator Gore was quoted as saying in one article published in 1990. "In the Industrial Age, steam locomotives didn't do much good until the railroad tracks were laid down across the nation. Similarly, we now have supercomputers going into the seventh generation of supercomputers, but we don't have the interstate highways that we need to connect them.
"Within four years, the top-of-the-line US$20 million supercomputers will cost less than $400,000. A few years after that, they will be in the $10,000 to $20,000 range."
But the development of the Net has resembled less a government-managed industrial project -- such as the orderly interstate-highway systems Gore hoped for -- and more an anarchic sprawl.
"Gore played no positive role in the decisions that led to the creation of the Internet as it now exists -- that is, in the opening of the Internet to commercial traffic," said Steve Allen, vice president for communications at the conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation.
Since 1993, Gore has become one of the most prominent people in the Clinton administration on issues related to high technology. He hosts visiting businessmen and takes pride in personally announcing new technology initiatives such as Internet II funding.
He also took the lead in supporting the Clipper Chip and continued restrictions on the overseas shipments of encryption products.
High-visibility events can be prone to embarrassing slip-ups. At one recent White House event, Gore introduced Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, who he had met with privately earlier that day.
Gore told the audience how much he valued Chambers and one of the products Cisco produced. But he mispronounced "routers" as root-ers.
26% of Under Age 30 Muslim AMERICANS Support Suicide Bombing
The first nationwide survey of Muslim Americans revealed that more than a quarter of those younger than 30 say suicide bombings to defend Islam are justified, a fact that drowned out the poll's kinder, gentler findings suggesting that the community is mainstream and middle class.
"There are trouble spots," noted Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey of 1,050 adult Muslim Americans -- two-thirds of whom were foreign-born -- January to April. The results were released yesterday.
"We should be disturbed that 26 percent of these young people support an ideology in which the ends justify the means," said Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of the Arizona-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
"But the survey also found that only 40 percent of the overall American Muslim population would even admit that Arabs were behind 9/11. They're in denial, refusing to take moral responsibility, and the radicals will feed on this," Dr. Jasser said.
I was at the Tysons Corner Center Mall in Virginia a few days ago, and as I browsed in Barnes and Noble, I noticed something curious. There were 6 paperback books placed backwards, so that the spine faced the shelf and the names of the books could not be seen. I thought it was strange because they were up a higher shelf where little kids couldn't reach. Who would be placing books backwards and why?
I turned the books around and discovered that they were all the same book, "The Trouble With Islam Today," written by author Irshad Manji.
That's not all though. Not only had the books been turned backwards, but they had been moved to the wrong section - specifically, the Jewish book section.
It creeped me out to think that this animosity was so close by and that it visited the same places I do.
May 22, 2007
"We Will Do and We Will Listen"
The holiday of Shavuot starts at sundown:
Shavuot, which begins Tuesday evening, means "weeks" and represents the seven weeks (7X7=49 days) between the exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah.
Following the second day of Passover, we count the 49 days of the Omer. Shavuot is day 50. Thousands of years ago, those 50 days signified the merging of our spiritual selves with the spirit of the Divine.
Three million witnesses, who could only imagine the Almighty in their hearts, heard the voice of G-d as He gave forth the laws of ethical and moral conduct, thereby changing human behavior and civilization forever.
Today, Shavuot marks when we fortify our souls, as if we too, were hearing the Torah anew. It is a time of reaffirming our historical declaration to G-d, answering His call, "We will do and we will listen."
As over 3 million people congregated at the foot of Mt. Sinai, as they were trudging through the desert, the defining moment in Jewish history occurred. Through dust and clouds, G-d’s voice emanated across the masses and transmitted the complete Torah. Each person heard and understood the commandments. This single event was a great mass revelation. Beginning Tuesday evening, we celebrate this monumental experience.
King Solomon described the gift of Torah as "sweet as honey and milk under the tongue." With these words as inspiration, many traditional customs have been attributed to the joyous festival of Shavuot.
Tuesday and Wednesday evening the candles are lit with the recitation of the blessing of Yom Tov followed by the Shehecheyonu prayer - thanking the Almighty, who has kept us alive and sustained us and enabled us to reach this occasion.
Some people follow the tradition of Tikkun Lail Shavuot, studying Torah on Tuesday night until sunrise. On Wednesday, Jews around the world assemble, just as over 3,000 years ago, to hear the recitation of the Ten Commandments.
Also, it is customary to eat a dairy meal. The prayer of remembrance, Yizkor is recited on Thursday morning. Yizkor candles are lit prior to lighting the Yom Tov candles. During Thursday morning services, the Book of Ruth is read. The similarity is drawn between the acceptance of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and Ruth’s acceptance of the Torah, demonstrating her true yearning to convert to Judaism.
Reports of Iran Meddling in Gaza and Iraq
From two different sources:
Teheran Behind Escalation of Violence from Gaza; Officials Fear Longer Range Rocket Fire - Yaakov Katz, Khaled Abu Toameh, and Rebecca Anna Stoil
Iran's fingerprints were all over the recent escalation in Gaza and the Palestinian rocket attacks, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Monday. Teheran ordered the terrorist groups to escalate the conflict in an effort to distract the world's attention from its nuclear program, he said. "Everything is being organized by Iran," Sneh said. "All of the terrorist groups are supported directly by Iran, which pays for all of the military training and the weapons."
Government officials expressed concern that Palestinian rockets could reach southern Ashdod and the western reaches of Beersheba. "We are getting ready for the possibly that the range will increase," Sneh said. "They can increase the range and we need to be ready." A Hamas official in the Gaza said on Monday: "We call on our fighters to launch rockets attacks on the settlement of Ashkelon....We will force the settlers to run away from Ashkelon as they have already done in the settlement of Sderot. We will continue to fight until the Jews leave all of Palestine."
The IDF Home Front Command began distributing pamphlets to residents of Netivot and other southern towns on Monday, explaining what to do if the rockets come. Sneh said that fear of longer-range rockets was behind the decision to distribute the pamphlets throughout southern Israel. (Jerusalem Post)***************************
Iran's Secret Plan for Summer Offensive to Force U.S. Out of Iraq - Simon Tisdall (Guardian-UK)
Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaeda elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces, U.S. officials say.
"They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine U.S. will and British will....The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]," a senior U.S. official in Baghdad warned.
How long before the sparks turn into a roaring inferno? Shouldn't we deal with it before it gets worse?
Nah. That would be too pre-emptive. Much better to enter a world war off-balance, potentially wounded, out of options, with no choice, and facing the enemy at a time and place of his choosing.
A Democrat Who Makes Sense?
Bob Kerrey has gone and proven it's possible. May it feed upon itself, replicate and multiply.
Parenting Teens
My daughter will be coming home from residential treatment soon. We are all doing a lot of advance work to anticipate potential problems and try to address them before she comes home.
What follows is a very useful checklist that daughter, husband and I each filled out separately, after which we got together to compare notes. It turned up some very interesting things - we agreed more than we disagreed thankfully, but more than that, it was an excellent starting point for some good conversation on issues that parents and teens need to discuss.
In the event someone else out there might find it useful, here it is:
Parent-Teenager Decision-Making Worksheet
Key:
1= Completely the teenager’s decision
2= Teenager decision with parent input
3= Parent decision with teenager input
4= Completely the parent’s decision
Fill out the following form as honestly as you can. Do not answer as you figure the other individuals in your family would like you to answer, just put your honest feelings.
1 2 3 4
1) What clothes I wear __ __ __ __
2) How I wear my hair __ __ __ __
3) When I take a shower/brush teeth __ __ __ __
4) When I go to bed __ __ __ __
5) What food I eat __ __ __ __
6) What hobbies and interests I have __ __ __ __
7) What friends I see __ __ __ __
8) When I see my friends __ __ __ __
9) When I see my girlfriend/boyfriend __ __ __ __
10) Whether I have a steady girl-boyfriend __ __ __ __
11) My curfew time __ __ __ __
12) When I get my driver’s license __ __ __ __
13) Whether I get my own car __ __ __ __
14) Who pays for my car and insurance __ __ __ __
15) When do I get to drive my car __ __ __ __
16) Who puts gas in my car __ __ __ __
17) When do I get to drive the family car __ __ __ __
18) Do I get a part or full time job __ __ __ __
19) What job do I take __ __ __ __
20) What hours do I work __ __ __ __
21) How much personal money I spend __ __ __ __
22) Spending money on small purchases __ __ __ __
23) Spending money on large purchases __ __ __ __
24) Whether I go on family outings __ __ __ __
25) How do I spend time on family outings __ __ __ __
26) How I spend my free time __ __ __ __
27) When I visit with relatives __ __ __ __
28) Active social time with relatives __ __ __ __
29) What forms of discipline are used __ __ __ __
30) When discipline is used __ __ __ __
31) Whether I go to school __ __ __ __
32) Whether I get to be late for school __ __ __ __
33) What school subjects I take __ __ __ __
34) What classes I take or drop __ __ __ __
35) What grades I make __ __ __ __
36) When I study and do homework __ __ __ __
37) What school I attend __ __ __ __
38) Cleanliness of my room __ __ __ __
39) Whether I have household chores __ __ __ __
40) What my chores are __ __ __ __
41) When are my chores completed __ __ __ __
42) Whether I follow basic household rules __ __ __ __
43) How do I spend my summers __ __ __ __
44) Is there a weekly allowance __ __ __ __
45) How do I earn my allowance __ __ __ __
46) Whether I obey the law __ __ __ __
47) Whether I attend therapy sessions __ __ __ __
48) Whether I graduate or get a GED __ __ __ __
49) Whether I attend church __ __ __ __
50) When I move away from home __ __ __ __
51) How much time I spend watching t.v. __ __ __ __
52) Weather I get body piercings __ __ __ __
53) Whether I smoke or use alcohol at all __ __ __ __
54) Whether I go to 12-step meetings __ __ __ __
55) Whether I have a sponsor __ __ __ __
56) Whether I have tutoring for school __ __ __ __
57) What types of movies I watch __ __ __ __
58) What music I listen to __ __ __ __
59) Who chooses music while in the car __ __ __ __
60) Whether I get a tattoo __ __ __ __
61) How much time I spend on the computer __ __ __ __
62) What Internet sites I view __ __ __ __
Graphical Representation of the Battles of the Civil War
I've heard them mentioned many times over - Fort Sumpter, Philippi, Antietam, Vicksburg, Sherman's "March to the Sea." But I never had the patience to read any detail or to try to gain any understanding of the battles of the Civil War. Here's a fantastic 4-minute film that shows the battles sequentially and teaches more about the Civil War in 4 minutes than I learned in any history class I ever took.
More info here.
Just Imagine
What if you were the target?
Palestinian Rocket Kills Israeli Woman - Scott Wilson
Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza killed a 32-year-old Israeli woman Monday night and seriously wounded another civilian in the city of Sderot. Shirel Friedman was the 9th Israeli to be killed by Palestinian rockets. "No nation would tolerate such terror," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman. "Israel certainly won't. We will put an end to these rocket attacks, and we will do so with determination." Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired more than 160 rockets from Gaza into Israel over the past week, Israeli military officials said, including 13 on Monday. (Washington Post)
May 21, 2007
Great Falls, Virginia
Sunday school ended for the year this past Sunday at noon. Husband was working straight through the weekend, so was oldest son. Middle son was feeling lazy and just wanted to vegetate. I had time on my own and it was a beautiful day. I finally decided to do something I'd been thinking about for a while and drove up to Great Falls Park to take some pictures. Great Falls is an amazing piece of nature to view and capture.
From the Great Falls Park website:
The falls consist of cascading rapids and several 20 foot waterfalls, with a total 76 foot drop in elevation over a distance of less than a mile. The Potomac River narrows from nearly 1000 feet, just above the falls, to between 60 and 100 feet wide as it rushes through Mather Gorge, a short distance below the falls. The Great Falls of the Potomac display the steepest and most spectacular fall line rapids of any eastern river.
The early American history of the Falls is pretty interesting. Involving both Maryland and Virginia, their free trade deal helped pave the way for further interstate cooperation culminating in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 :
Few ventures were dearer to George Washington than his plan to make the Potomac River navigable as far as the Ohio River Valley. In the uncertain period after the Revolutionary War, Washington believed that better transportation and trade would draw lands west of the Allegheny Mountains into the United States and "...bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken."
"The way," Washington wrote, "is easy and dictated by our clearest interest. It is to open a wide door, and make a smooth way for the produce of that Country to pass to our Markets ...."
As a waterway west the Potomac River could be that "door." It was the shortest route between tidewater, with access to East Coast and trans-Atlantic trade, and the headwaters of the Ohio River, with access to the western frontier. But both political and physical obstacles had to be overcome.
Opening the Potomac required cooperation of Virginia and Maryland, which bordered the river. In 1784, Washington convinced the states' assemblies to establish a company to improve the Potomac between its headwaters near Cumberland, Md., and tidewater at Georgetown. The Patowmack Company, organized May 17, 1785, drew directors and subscribers from both states. The office of president, Washington wrote in his diary, "fell upon me." He presided over the project until he became the nation's chief executive.
Delegates from Virginia and Maryland, meeting at Washington's home in 1785, drew up the Mount Vernon Compact, providing for free trade on the river. Virginia and Maryland legislators ratified the compact and then invited all 13 states to send delegates to a convention in Annapolis in 1786 "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest." The Annapolis Convention led to a general meeting in Philadelphia the following May. Thus, George Washington's lobbying for interstate cooperation on the Potomac helped prepare the way for the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
The small red thing in the lower part of the picture below is a person, just to give some idea of size and scale. Also in the one below, I played with the color saturation which you can see makes it look a bit different from the picture above:
I saw a couple of guys climbing around the rocks. They were carrying kayaks. While I waited for them to get in the water and head down the rapids, I took the opportunity to play with the camera's zoom. These were taken from fairly far away from the subjects. In the second shot, I knew about the wasp because I'd seen it buzzing around and was actually aiming for it, but I was very surprised to find the ladybug when I blew the picture up to full size - it was undetectable from that distance:
There were several people watching the guys in the kayaks along with me, and we were all freaked out when the one in the blue boat completely wiped out. I didn't catch that on camera - it happened too fast. He just righted himself and continued on his merry way. The water must have been icy cold though - we're having what seems to be a cold spring this year, at least as far as my perception goes.
Look closely and you'll see a bird that blends in very well with the rocks:
May 20, 2007
Carnival!
It's Carnival Sunday and Haveil Havalim is up. Jack of Random Thoughts is presenting a wide variety of posts from the Jewish blogosphere.
Also, the Kosher Cooking Carnival is up at the Me-Ander blog.
Don't miss them.
May 19, 2007
Chinese Foot Binding
How could anyone prefer this to a normal foot?
The irritating thing about AlGore: A Rant
It's his sanctimoniousness - his absolute belief that HE KNOWS - that he is in the right because he is working for a HIGHER CAUSE - the cause of goodness (as angels sing in the background and he receives his crown in heaven) and anyone who dares question him and what he is saying just has to be evil and out for themselves. (those nasty conservatives)
Gore basks in praise and he soaks in his "goodness." Ok - maybe we all do to some extent - but those who worry that liberal over-the-top obsession about global warming is going to have a negative impact on economic growth - - to paint all of those who do so as evil and greedy is wrong.
People who are concerned about the US economy aren't always solely thinking about the bucks in their own personal pockets. Some actually think the health of the economy is important to the country as a whole and they are concerned about impact on the middle class and the poor and each and every one of us - not to mention the rest of the world. Everyone depends upon a strong American economy. Technological growth (the internet that Al Gore so famously invented), medical research, agricultural research, ecological research(!) - all of it requires that corporate America remains strong. Let's not strangle it with unproven half-assed ecology-based regulations and worker entitlements and in so doing, kill the goose that lays the golden egg for us year in and year out.
Emotion based demands can have very negative effects
Feed the poor! Make evil corporations pay! Give us health benefits! Higher pay! F*** the rich! Spread the wealth! Everyone who is rich must have stolen or cheated someone somewhere - take it away and give it to x,y and z.
But look at history - look at the reasoning behind communism and think about the effects it had. The major scientific advances of the 20th century all came out of capitalist countries - not socialist. Why?
What we must insure is equality of opportunity - not outcome. As nice and lovely as it sounds, we can't have equality of outcome because Peter is going to be smarter than Paul and Mary is going to work harder than Sally and if you want to be able to harness Peter's brain and Mary's ambition and make it work for all of us in creating products and jobs and technology and a strong economy, you can't take away the carrot that makes them run. You can't take their profits and give them away - they won't work for us under that scenario.
The upshot will be that we will end up relying upon dull Paul and lazy Sally and all of our clothing will be colored gray and will fall apart at the seams like a Soviet era worker's jacket. But we'll all be equal! We'll all have the same! Don't agree? There's a gulag you can live in and lots of large heavy stones that require carrying. Maybe after you are reprogrammed, you will see the light.
Global warming is being used as a lever to loosen the conservative grip on the power that liberals so desperately want. They take it and use it as further proof (in their eyes) that corporate America (Evil Capitalism!) just doesn't care about all of us little people or our pristine Earth. But the thing is, corporate America is not supposed to care! Its only job is to create products and generate profits. It's up to individuals to care. Corporations don't have emotions. They are constructions - like a building. A building doesn't give a hoot about its occupants. We take care of the building and keep it in good repair so we can live in it, but if we want something from it (an additional bedroom, for example) we don't get mad if it can't/won't give it to us, and we don't start tearing down walls and stealing other people's apartments to get what we want. We're careful with it because it houses A LOT of other people - people who depend upon it.
If we stop using toilet paper, as Sheryl Crow advocates, what's going to happen to Charmin? What's going to happen to the company that supplies the plastic used to make the wrapper? The loggers who harvest the trees, the factories who grind it down to pulp? What's going to happen to the truckers that carry the supplies to the Charmin company and the ones who bring the rolls to the stores? What's going to happen to the advertisers who depend on the revenue from Charmin's ads? I could go on and on in infinite detail, but hopefully you get the gist.
Liberals like Gore are so fricking angry! And they are so convinced that everyone is evil but them. They are wrong. There's a whole other framework of thought out there based upon things their senses do not perceive because their minds can't conceive of anything outside of their own train of thought - the same train that's been chugging along since 1969. Why? They are not stupid people - truly. But they are fogged with emotion and much too busy trying to convince everyone that conservatives (They support evil corporations and globalization and pollution of our planet! They hate the poor and minorities!) are evil so that they can get back in power. And in their minds once they do, we will all join hands and sing Kumbaya and won't it be lovely.
Fantasyland. Completely out there with the elves and unicorns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Most of the conservatives whose opinions I read ARE concerned with global warming - they are just not in favor of running off half-cocked and falling down in a dead faint over it. The thing that is really and truly maddening is to see global warming being used by liberals as a political club to whack their opponents and tout their anti-Capitalist, anti-American agenda.
May 18, 2007
Why Isn't John Bolton Running For President?
...asks Daniel Johnson:
Why isn’t John Bolton running for President? In contrast to a line-up of Republican candidates that seems, at least from a transatlantic perspective, somewhat lackluster, the former ambassador to the U.N. looks and sounds like a real leader. As he is not yet running for office, why doesn’t one of the candidates—Rudy Giuliani, for instance—consider him seriously as a running mate? Bolton looks like Teddy Roosevelt and talks like Ronald Reagan. What more do you want?
On Wednesday, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bolton gave us a series of robust reminders of why his tenure at the U.N. was so controversial. He has no difficulty comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler in public, as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney reportedly do in private, and he thinks the present situation with Iran is analogous to that of 1936, when the appeasers in Europe and isolationists in America carried the day: “I think you’re at a Hitler marching into the Rhineland point. If you don’t stop it then, the future is in his hands, not in your hands, just as the future decisions on their nuclear program would be in Iran’s hands, not ours.”
Bolton warns that Iran “is not going to be talked out of its nuclear program. So to stop them from doing it, we have to massively increase the pressure.” It is too late to halt the uranium enrichment program, so the priority now is to prevent industrial-scale production. He favors economic sanctions “with pain” as the next step, followed by a serious attempt to bring about regime change from within. “And if all else fails, if the choice is between a nuclear-capable Iran and the use of force, then I think we need to look at the use of force.”
Wouldn't it be fantastic to have a president who is unafraid to speak his mind? And when he does speak his mind, says exactly what needs to be said - the honest truth.
Torah Portions and Nostalgia
The B'nai Mitzvah (Mitzvot?) of all three of my kids took place in May. For a three week stetch, the Torah portions have been the ones they did - Emor was my oldest son's portion, my daughter did the combination Behar/Bechukotai, and my middle son did Bamidbar (this week's portion).
I receive reminders of the weekly Torah portions in email, and every time I see the ones above, it makes me get all nostalgic and filled with fond memories. And then I remember what it was like to plan these celebrations and I am glad that I am done until my daughter's wedding.
Shabbat Shalom to all who celebrate it. And while I am on the subject, there's a very interesting recipe for Shabbat soup over at Esser Agaroth. Even more interesting than the soup is what he does with the chicken used to make it. When I make chicken soup, I am never quite sure what to do with the leftover chicken that has all the flavor cooked out of it. Now I know.
How Jews Saved the World From Tyranny
A well-written must read from Planck's Constant:
Why the Nazis did not take over the world is quite simple to answer: Jews.
(I'm thinking maybe the Brits, Americans and Russians had just a little to do with it as well...)
Media Farce
Palestinian Rockets Ignored Abroad - Yitzhak Benhorin (Ynet News)
Palestinian rocket attacks on Sderot have received very little coverage in world media, despite the heavy barrages that have been going on for the past three days.
Only when Israel began to respond to the attacks by aerial bombings, cannons and tanks did this part of the world receive attention from the American media.
An American television producer explained that, as sad as it may sound, Sderot is a story that has been going on for years, and is no longer news.
The producer added that there are very few injuries in Sderot, and images of shock victims do not sell.
The moment that the IDF began to retaliate, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict went back to making headlines.
The 6-Day War
The world will soon be awash with 40th-anniversary retrospectives on the war — and on the peace of the ages that awaits if Israel would only return to June 4, 1967. But Israelis are cautious. They remember the terror of that unbearable May when, with Israel possessing no occupied territories whatsoever, the entire Arab world was furiously preparing Israel’s imminent extinction. And the world did nothing.
- Charles Krauthammer
- Charles Krauthammer
The Wolfowitz Resignation
From today's WSJ:
So after weeks of nasty leaks and media smears, the World Bank's board of executive directors yesterday cleared President Paul Wolfowitz of ethical misconduct for following the board's own advice on how to handle a conflict of interest involving his girlfriend. And Mr. Wolfowitz in turn will resign from the bank at the end of June. Run that by us again?
We've said from the beginning that the charges against Mr. Wolfowitz were bogus, and that the effort to unseat him amounted to a political grudge by those who opposed his role in the Bush Administration and a bureaucratic vendetta by those who opposed his anti-corruption agenda at the bank. That view was vindicated by yesterday's statement, which showed how little the merits of the case against Mr. Wolfowitz had to do with the final result.
Mr. Wolfowitz "assured us t