Archive for November 2004
How Irrational Hatred Clouds Judgment
Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak opines: There’s another possibility; one that seems crazy on the surface, but does provide an explanation for the silence, and is also in keeping with the political climate in Hollywood. Is it just possible that there are those who are reluctant to criticize an act of terror because that might somehow align them with President Bush, who stubbornly clings to the notion that these are evil people who need to…Read More
Still, most don’t see
I've heard a lot about how great laser eye surgery is, lately. I'm still seeing clearly at 43, but a younger brother who has sported glasses and contacts since a young age just had the procedure and couldn't be happier. Two sisters-in-law reported similar satisfaction this last week during the family Thanksgiving get-together. Of course, John Venlet's comments in the matter were still fresh in my mind. Greg Swann also drew a stark comparison.Read More
Happy Holidays
Well, this is the best Thanksgiving greeting I've received so far, and I doubt I'll get a better one, so here it is:Read More
Leaving DC
I’ve been in DC for the last 3 days or so: traveling here last Wednesday to attend a USOBA conference Thursday and Friday and spending today, Saturday, doing some sightseeing. They’ve put up the WWII and FDR memorials since last I walked the mall. Right this moment, I’m on UAL 237 from Dulles to San Jose direct, on a flight that can’t have more than 20 passengers on this Airbus (A)319. Last time that happened…Read More
Yea, So Smart
I happened on to this by friend Greg Swann this morning, here, amongst the comments to a silly post. In the end the begrudgingly-occidental, oriental-by-preference drag-alongs don't matter. The West, and the world, if the world is to amount to anything, belongs to those who are willing to make critical distinctions. The rest are just there, that's all. Then, I happened upon this article via The Independent Institute. Go take a look at it. It…Read More
No Comment
Here's the latest "I, Anonymous" column in the Seattle rag The Stranger, Vol 14 No. 9, Nov 11 - Nov 17, 2004. DEAR OSAMA BIN LADEN I'm sorry. You were right. We deserve to be blown up. After last Tuesday, well... what can I say? You had us pegged dead-on the first time--although I was in denial and refused to believe it up until now. We as a nation obviously ARE a bunch of mindless…Read More
A Complete Circus
Whirlpool, which is trying to save its ban on firearms on company property, believes workplace safety should override the rights of gun owners. You know, I read crap like the above and can't help but wonder if the hope of a rational society has already and irretrievably slipped well beyond our grasp. Now, even great companies like Whirpool can't even seem to manage a simple moral argument in support of their own property rights, but…Read More
False Distinctions
Promoting and exploiting false distinctions can be very, very profitable for politicians, interest groups, and business quislings who'd rather partner up with agents of coercion than engage in the dog-eat-dog, rough-&-tumble free market. Such false distinctions exist everywhere (roadways, police, fire, water, courts, military, etc.), the human appetite for them is insatiable, and they are thus exploited by "the authorities" to great profit and advantage. Here's another example of one.Read More
The Real Human Evolution
Authority can be a function of raw power, but among free people it is sustained by esteem and trust. Should esteem and trust falter, the public will start to contest an institution's authority. It happens all the time to political figures. It happened here to the American Catholic Church and to the legal profession, thanks to plaintiff-bar abuse. And now the public is beginning to contest the decades-old authority of the mainstream media. This article…Read More
Housekeeping
Reports from Paris indicate that there has been a marked improvement in the condition of Yasser Arafat. He's dead. (courtesy of Samizdata) ...and: In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world,…Read More
The Entitlement Mindset
Radley Balko lays out comprehensively why I decided from day one not to enable comments on this blog. In addition, I almost never read the comments to posts on the blogs I visit regularly. I figure that if someone has anything to say about a post that's really worth my time reading, they'll generally post it to their own blog and perhaps ping a trackback. There are exceptions, of course. I'm also sure that readers…Read More
Bush: Promoter of Secularism
Billy Beck alerts me to a new column by that liberal Hitchens. An excerpt: So here is what I want to say on the absolutely crucial matter of secularism. Only one faction in American politics has found itself able to make excuses for the kind of religious fanaticism that immediately menaces us in the here and now. And that faction, I am sorry and furious to say, is the left. From the first day of…Read More
Observations and Suggestions
Bruce McQuain points to this criminal outrage. Be sure to note the caption under the photo real, real good. Let the full potential present and future ramifications of this sort of evil sear into your mind. ...Oh, before I forget... Those with particularly short memories might not recall that "no-threat-whatsoever" Saddam Hussein was sending the families of these "saints" $25,000 each. In a related story, John Venlet has a suggestion for resolving the dispute over…Read More
I wish I could write like that
Colby Cosh pens an interesting comparison between Clinton and Bush.Read More
For What It’s Worth
I hear lots of talk about how “values issues” trumped nearly everything else in this election, including Islamic craziness and Iraq. Perhaps so, at least for enough people to make the difference. If you’re mystified as to how the sight of same-sex couples parading through San Francisco City Hall to memorialize and celebrate their mutual union can motivate people in flyover country to get to the polls, whereas the sight of murderous crazies crashing B-757s…Read More
A is A: The law of identity illustrated in election politics (of all things)
"It was on Air Force One on election day that strategist Karl Rove started calling around to get the results of early exit polls. But the line kept breaking down. The only information that came through as the plane descended was a BlackBerry message from an aide that simply read: "Not good." Not long afterward, Rove got a more detailed picture and told the President and senior aides the bad news. Florida Governor Jeb Bush…Read More
The Emperor, y’know, has no clothes
Individualists who’ve been at the internet debate thing for a while will tell you: in taking on their ideological enemies (i.e., collectivists) in wars of words, the hardest thing to get is an unabashed, brutally honest statement of their position. Last Friday evening John Stossel did a “Give Me A Break” segment that questioned the use of government to fund stem-cell research, i.e., compelling you to pay taxes and then using that money to fund…Read More
The Left Speaks Out
Michael Totten provides a one-stop shop for a range of reactions from the left to the loss at the polls. The one by Marc Cooper is probably the most incisive and hard hitting.Read More
Post-Mortem
Dale Franks has up the most comprehensive, well-written, interesting take on the whole election that I've read all morning--by far. Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.Read More
International Reaction
My friend Bruce McQuain has up an excellent overview and summary of international reaction to the election results.Read More