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January 23, 2004 Blog Rolling Around the blogosphere..... * Instapundit, in a conversation about Africa and race, quotes a reader letter... "...to most Africans, we are less about race than we are about being American. Several of the black volunteers had a tough adjustment. They thought they'd be welcomed as a long lost brother, so to speak. But Americans LOOK American, WALK like Americans, etc. in spite of skin color. They were seen first and last as Americans."To add a bit: a black friend of mine told me he rejects the term "African-American", in no small part because actual Africans have told him they find it a bit offensive - to them, it appears an attempt to claim an association the people don't deserve...they are, after all, not African. For that reason, he simply refers to himself as "black". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Tom Maguire....... According to press reports, both Sen. Kerry and Gen. Clark take a moment during their speeches to invite veterans to stand and be recognized for their service. However, we are still smiling over the General's attempt to pull rank on the Senator, so we can only wonder how it goes at his meetings - "Are there any veterans here? Why don't you just stand up for a moment. Now salute, dammit, there is a General in the room!"Ouch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * More funny pictures. * International trade policy is hard....but, math is easy. Vive' la free trade. * Robert Prather blogged the Dem-debate. His description of Kucinich is quite nice.... Kucinich, (D-Space)Say, maybe he should have gotten questions about the Mars mission. It's in his district. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Lexington Green has a good discussion on the value of allowing "smaller and poorer countries" to help out in Iraq. * Bill Quick: Do you know how you can tell when some internet phenomenon is dead, dead, dead?Oh dear. Have they done an article on blogging, and we didn't notice our demise? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * The United Nations tells Iran they "will have serious implications if they do not continue to co-operate fully". Marc notes "Ooh, the UN warning of serious implications for failure to act!" The UN: "An organization, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." * KMan, at Free Speech, writes... Although the military, under Clinton, researched ABM technology, they didn't throw needless dollars into activating a pie-in-the-sky missile defense system that doesn't work, as the Bush administration seems destined to do.I am uncertain about the programs long term relevance, but this sort of criticism is wrong. The point is not that it may not work today...or tomorrow...or in the next decade. But, eventually, as we refine it, it will work.....whereas, if we don't work on it, it will never work. Projects like these are long term, and the way technology advances, one suspects that our current bugs will not be with us forever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * PowerlineBlog argues that a Dean Presidency would be preferable to a Kerry Presidency. Hm. Food for thought. * The Emperor posts interesting data.... Korea: 303,000 US - 39,474 Foreign - 339,474 Total - 88% USPresident Truman - Unilateralist! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Captain Ed gets the Jenlars interview treatment. * Ouch. Make sure you click on "read more". * John Rogers comments on the problem of Iraqi elections. One of my biggest worries about Iraq was summed by Thomas Friedman before the war: was Saddam the way he was (ruthless and cruel) because Iraq is the way it is (terribly divided against itself)? In effect, did Saddam HAVE to be cruel to keep his fragmented nation whole?You know, we can point to the Post-WW2 situation, Switzerland, or any number of similar events...but this will be unique anyway. As has been said, history doesn't really repeat itself...but sometimes it rhymes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Rocket Jones writes..... Jon of QandO, who has not only moved, but added a second blogger, one McQ. I assume that this is not a Beeblebroxian development.Could be, baby, could be. We're so cool you could store a side of meat in us for a month. We're so hip, we have trouble seeing over our pelvises. |