February 26, 2005
The Pit (in my stomach) and the Pendulum
Paul at Wizbang introduced me to a great Op-Ed piece by Cinnamon Stillwell out of San Francisco on her conversion from, well, liberal to conservative. I interject the "well" because I am convert as well, but not to conservative but to libertarian.
Color Pix - From World War I??
Vodkapundit - Photoblogging - Since 1914
February 25, 2005
I Made The Top Ten!
Museum of bad album covers: the worst album covers ever!
February 24, 2005
Ex-ILSer's - Take Note
Kim du Toit - Daily Rant. Excerpt:
The four of us sat down at a small table in a local pub, whereupon the IT guy (an Australian) looked at me closely, and asked,"What do you drink?”
“Errrrr Castle Lager?” I said nervously, naming the most popular brand of beer.
“Good choice,” he said, then turned to the waiter. “Bring us sixteen Castles.”
F-150 Crewcab?
iowahawk: Aid Pours in for Victims of Mommy Madness
"While area truckers are expanding her crusade globally, Tammi Jo Pearsall continues to take a more local approach to Mommy Madness activism. Along with her children - Cheyenne, 11, Dakota, 7, F-150 Crewcab, 6, and Brandon, 4 -- Pearsall regularly visits Winn-Dixies and dirt tracks throughout North Florida to raise awareness. It is a labor of love, and Pearsall says she will not quit until the children of graduate-degreed mothers in Manhattan and the Back Bay have adequate access to competitive preschools."
Mission: Impossible
iowahawk: The Truth is Out There
Best line: "Those CBS conveniently forged, yet entirely accurate documents? Obviously the handiwork of Karl's West Wing elves. But if you think "Gannon" was the conduit to Mapes you are barking up the wrong homo, my friend."
It's Fun To Be Educated ...
... and live in a drinking town. An email from my friends C and J:
[begin email]
Hey Ken,
Thanks again for showing us a great time, NO was a blast. We look forward to returning the favor the next time you make it to the east coast. Best regards to the crazy girls, and the rest of your gang down there.
C
Works referenced in this trip:
Laurence of Arabia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/
A British officer goes native and organizes the Bedouins against the Turks, ostensibly for England, but more for his own megalomania.
The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956
by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060007761/qid=1109172226/sr=8-6/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl14/103-0267745-4561411?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Amazon has the first eight pages online; I guarantee you'll be hooked after the first one. A history of the soviet penal system.
Angel Heart
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092563/
I'm not claiming that this is a classic or anything... but it's really fun to watch late at night. Hardboiled detective vs Louisiana voodoo.
Finally, this wasn't referenced, but it's been my favorite read lately:
Politics and the English Language
by George Orwell
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html#part42
Very short, very pointed. Nobody can use english like the english.
[end email]
More Social Insecurity
Mark Alexander: What Social Security crisis?:
"The PRA plan would "cost" about $664 billion in "lost" SSI revenue over the next ten years. Of course, this lost SSI revenue is merely revenue that's been moved to PRAs, and thus isn't available to "borrow" from the SSI trust fund for other entitlement programs -- and that's why the Demos are hopping mad."
In response to Honest Partisan, who said the following in a comment left below (what's up Jack!):
"Walter Williams is right that Congress can constitutionally cut benefits or raise taxes, because Social Security is statutory. That will remain the case whether we keep the current system or whether Bush's privatization plan passes. There's a policy that Congress today is not allowed to tie Congress' hands in the future."
Jack, I don't believe this to be the case. Read the quote above. PRAs mean that excess revenue will no longer be transferred from the SSA to the Treasury. The PRAs will function largely like IRAs, the deposits being controlled (and owned!) by the individual citizen and not the government. You also should know that Congressmen (and all federal employees) already have what's known as Thrift Savings Plans, which function more or less identically as the proposed PRAs would.
The key point to understand IMO is that Social Security as currently structured is broken as designed. That we are talking about 2018 and 2042 and tweaking certain payout and taxation metrics is simply a conversational diversion to the fact that SS is the legal confiscation of wealth. Should people plan for retirement? Of course! Should the federal government enforce such a mechanism? Insofar as government should be involved at all, it should not be the escrow agent of citizen's money. Congress has clearly demonstrated that it is not up to the challenge (ie, the cookie jar full of IOUs). Changing SS to mean essentially forced savings is a far more palatable option.
Better Let That Lob Shot Go
FOXSports.com - TENNIS- PHOTOS: Dubai Tennis Championships - Number 1
Hat tip Boortz
February 23, 2005
The Charming French
Telegraph | Expat | Fear and loathing in rural France
Hat tip Kim du Toit
Walter Williams on Social Security
Walter E. Williams: Social Security deceit
Food For Thought
The New York Times > New York Region > More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery
February 21, 2005
Hunter S. Thompson, RIP
ABC News: Writer Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself
February 20, 2005
Adam Is Dead
Deuce Four Recon Photos :: Snipers :: plumkid
Update: In my quite shaken state, I did not link to the source of this news. Please go there now and find out more about this very special person.
Final Update: His (and his comrades) memorial service.
February 18, 2005
February 16, 2005
The Delta
For those of you who got through high school math and chemistry, you will probably be familiar with a concept know as delta. It is represented as a triangle (Δ), and is always associated with a variable, typically x. The two symbols are conjoined (Δx) and are pronounced "delta x".
Δx stands for the change in x over a specific time period or event. The change might be in temperature (during an exothermic chemical reaction), or in Cartesian space (Δx is one of the bedrock concepts used in differential and integral calculus).
So if x stands for what a fair person could conclude as a factual accounting of an event, and Δx stands for the (less than factual) position espoused or reported on regarding x (usually by the legacy media, but it could be academia, government, political parties, celebrities, etc), the "job" of the blogosphere is to expose and correct the Δ. The greater the Δ, the greater the blogosphere rush to expose it.
Hugh Hewitt in Blog writes of the four big Δ's that the nascent blogosphere cut its teeth on, and the "blog swarm" each created (Hugh does not use the term delta): the Trent Lott racist remarks affair; the Jayson Blair/Howell Raines/New York Times affair; the John Kerry/Swiftvets/Christmas Where Again? affair; and the Dan Rather/Fake But Accurate Memos/Bush Drinks TANG For Breakfast affair. In each case there was either an omission of reporting (largely the first two), or a distortion of reporting (largely the second two). NB: no links for the above topics; go to google yourself and find the umpteen gazillion links each topic has generated.
Other Δ's:
Batesline.com threatened with lawsuit for copyright infringement. The Δ? Big Media Company has its head up its ass and doesn't understand fair use excerpting and linking (or does, but does not know how many fingers I'm holding up on Thursday due to imminent blogosphere pummeling)
Eason Jordan. Basically top CNN guy says coalition forces in Iraq are intentionally offing journalists. When challenged, he backs down, and expects the seditious slur to quietly be forgotten. The Δ? The statement is a grotesque lie. Before the blogosphere, omission of reporting would have "solved" this kerfuffle. Jeff Jarvis here and here; Michelle Malkin; Captain Ed; and many, many more.
Here's a fun one: Nick Coleman and Powerline. Look here and here. The Δ? Looney Tune mistakes his reflection for respected trio of bloggers. Throw in penis envy for added comic relief.
AP reports Bush rally booing former President Clinton on hearing about his bypass surgery. The Δ? There was no booing. In fact, when President Bush mentioned Clinton's condition, the crowd cheered enthusiastically when Bush asked them to keep Clinton in their thoughts and prayers.
UNSCAM. The UN Oil-for-Food program to help Iraqis ends up helping everyone but (are these oil vouchers still good?). This is one story the legacy media wants so badly to go away. The Δ? The UN is an utterly corrupt snakepit, yet it's reported on as the world's last, best, hope. Blecch. Bloggers are certainly keeping it alive, and good Congressmen like Norm Coleman and Henry Hyde continue the investigation. One journalist who deserves a Pulitzer prize for here investigative reporting is Claudia Rosett. Not one pajama-clad salivating moron has put forth better reporting than her. One of the most entertaining bloggers who, alas, has hung up his PJ's is the Diplomad, who not only did some fine reporting on the Oil-for-Palaces scandal, but also ripped the UN a new one for their UNrelief efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami.
Ward Churchill, Mr. American Indian Pretend! The Δ? He looks in the mirror and sees Nick Coleman.
This list of course can go on quite a bit longer. My point is simple: the blogosphere seeks the Δ for one reason: to expose it and correct it. No Δ, no blogosphere impact. Or perhaps more accurately: no Δ, no "blog swarm" and "opinion storm". Blogs are great for online diaries, recipes, economic forecasts, of course. Blogs can report on world changing events. But that doesn't make them remarkable. The neural net, semi-conscious, self-aware aggregate is the truly remarkable thing. Seeking the Δ for the blogosphere is now an autonomic function.
February 12, 2005
A Fine Essay
FREE MARKET FAIRY TALES: Pregnant women, sailing women & Mr B
Hat Tip Kim du Toit
February 11, 2005
Tim Penny on Social Security
Here's a former Democratic Congressman on the need for Social Security reform: 'Straw men' delay debate - The Washington Times: Commentary - February 10, 2005
Campaign Finance Deform
This is very worrisome: more regulations proposed on free speech
Hat tip Instapundit
February 10, 2005
Earth to Partisan Democrats
The message is clear: The Democratic Party puts politics ahead of unity, victory, and the safety of our troops. And that makes a Democrat like me furious with my own party's childish, selfish, dangerous behavior. It's time for Democrats who are sick of such shenanigans to speak up and repudiate these clowns.
That's the teaser. Please, please read the whole thing.
Hat tip Little Green Footballs.
American Indian Pretend
There is a band out of New Orleans called World Leader Pretend, who in fact appear to have named themselves after an REM song of the same name:
This is my world,
And I am the World Leader Pretend.
This is my life, and this is my time,
I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit.
It’s high time I razed the walls that I’ve constructed.
Let me present to you, Ward Churchill: American Indian Pretend!
Bitter Bitter Irony
Journalists are being targeted in Iraq; it's just that it's not the coalition forces doing the targeting.
Hat tip Roger Simon.
Eason Jordan
Update (later the same day): Roger Simon posts on his and Charles Johnson's French Channel 2 interview tomorrow. The topic is the Mohammed al-Dura case from several years ago (read Roger's post to get up to speed). Why is this a relevant update here? Again, we have a story "pushed" by a compelling picture in a direction that appears to be less than truthful. Imagine the reaction to date had a videoblogger captured Eason Jordan "red-tongued"?
This post by Glenn Reynolds on Bret Stephens' take on the whole Easongate affair is really nothing new: yet another Davos eyewitness corroborating that Eason Jordan did in fact accuse the coalition forces of intentionally targeting journalists.
Anyone who has been following this story I would suspect believes the allegations to be essentially correct. Yet why has it not spilled into mainstream consciousness? One could lay the reason at the feet of mainstream media refusing to "turn on" one of their own. In my opinion, that is part of the story, but not all.
To me the issue is the withholding of the video. No video, no critical mass, no MSM sex appeal. Had Sisyphean Musings been able to procure the video as intended, Jordan would have already been well on the way towards early retirement, despite any MSM machinations, even though the video would do nothing more than corroborate the very credible witnesses.
A similar (in an opposite way :-) is the "John Adam/Cody the GI JOE" incident. Really the only reason it gained purchase in the MSM is that there was a picture of a helpless American soldier. No picture, no critical mass.
Will Eason Jordan eventually be confronted and have to answer for his remarks? Eventually.
February 01, 2005