Margaret Thatcher
There is a rumor this evening that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away earlier today.
Sat, 17 May 2008 01:06:51 +0000
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Judicial Endruns Inflame Political Differences
In 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney applied his judicial powers to conclude once and for all the vexatious arguments about the extension of Slavery to the the Western territories which had persisted since 1820. In Dred Scott v. Sandiford , he ruled that persons of African descent could never be US citizens, slaves could [...]
Fri, 16 May 2008 18:53:26 +0000
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Chris Matthews Humiliates Sap, Then Performs Own Pratfall
Josh Marshall and Think Progress were pretty amused at how Chris Matthews humiliated Kevin James, a quite obscure conservative talk radio personality and no Rush Limbaugh, who, alas! did not know what Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement actually involved, and was not very good at getting himself out of trouble.
But, then, at 4:53 minutes, Mark Finkelstein notes, [...]
Fri, 16 May 2008 12:53:40 +0000
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Nike Introduces Riding Boot
For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nike, Portland, Oregon manufacturer better known for more demotic athletic footwear, has introduced the Nike Ippeas, an up-dated take on the traditional riding boot.
Press release quoted by Sneaker Freaker:
Nike Ippeas (Greek for “Rider”) should be: “Hippeas” -DZ
Sport: Equestrian
Equestrian footwear has not changed much in the last century. The sport is [...]
Fri, 16 May 2008 12:22:36 +0000
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Give Them an Inch, and They'll Take an Ell
Eugene Volokh explains how legislation banning sexual orientation discrimination in Masasachusetts, Vermont, and California was then taken by their highest courts to constitute a new basis for interpreting their state constitutions. The California decision notes:
This state’s current policies and conduct regarding homosexuality recognize that gay individuals are entitled to the same legal rights and [...]
Fri, 16 May 2008 11:55:57 +0000
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Bust of Caesar Made in His Lifetime Found in Rhone
BBC:
Divers in France have found the oldest known bust of Roman dictator Julius Caesar at the bottom of the River Rhone, officials have said.
The marble bust was found near Arles, which was founded by Caesar.
France’s culture ministry said the bust was from 46BC, the date of the southern town’s foundation.
The ministry described the bust – [...]
Fri, 16 May 2008 11:28:59 +0000
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Do It Yourself
A good story from Tom Wolfe:
My brother-in-law happened to be present in 1943 in a general store, and here were three good old boys who were too old to go into the armed forces, talking about the war.
And one of them says, “You know, this whole war—the whole problem here is this man called Hitler. [...]
Thu, 15 May 2008 18:43:42 +0000
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"Baby-Losers"
The Guardian describes how Europe’s intensely regulated employment policies are resulting in a generation of losers.
With inflation soaring, property prices sky high, wages relatively static, labour markets gridlocked and sluggish or slowing economies, ..tens of millions of Europeans raised to expect that their degrees and diplomas will assure them a relatively high quality of life.. [...]
Thu, 15 May 2008 12:29:50 +0000
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Rove: GOP Needs to Stand For Something
Karl Rove looks at recent GOP special election losses, and talks about the Party’s future prospects.
The GOP can’t take “safe” seats for granted when Democrats run conservatives who distance themselves from their national party leaders. The string of defeats should cure Republicans of the habit of simply shouting “liberal! liberal! liberal!” in hopes of winning [...]
Thu, 15 May 2008 12:07:39 +0000
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Bush Interior Department Places Facts on Endangered List
Gateway Pundit notes that Polar bear numbers are up in 11 of 13 regions of Canada recently.
And successful conservation practices have dramatically restored bear numbers over the past half century.
While Arctic ice levels are at their highest point in 15 years.
But none of these considerations prevented the Bush Administration’s Department of the Interior from swallowing [...]
Thu, 15 May 2008 11:41:05 +0000
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Palestinians Campaign for Obama from Gaza
Al Jazeera 2:38 video
Jim Geraghty transcribed a portion of the report:
REPORTER: It may be hard to believe, but working in this tiny Internet cafe in Gaza City may just be one of Barack Obama’s biggest fans.
Before every U.S. primary, 23-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayyab gathers 17 of his friends to try and rally support for Obama’s [...]
Wed, 14 May 2008 12:21:45 +0000
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What Else Can They Tax?
How about the endowments of major universities? Massachusetts is thinking about doing just that.
WSJ:
Massachusetts legislators, demonstrating a growing resentment against the wealth of elite universities in tight economic times, are studying a plan to levy a 2.5% annual tax on the portion of college endowments that exceed $1 billion.
After all, as Jim Manzi notes:
Viewed [...]
Wed, 14 May 2008 11:52:53 +0000
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Georgie Patton Would Have Loved This
George C. Scott plays General Patton Slapping a Malingering Soldier in 1943
The Wall Street Journal explains liberalism’s latest atrocity: first, cowardice is promoted to a medical condition; then it becomes possible to argue that cowards should receive medals for their war-time sufferings.
With an increasing number of troops being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (Completely undocumented [...]
Wed, 14 May 2008 11:40:05 +0000
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Obama Calls Israel "This Constant Wound," "This Constant Sore"
In order to assist in some necessary cozying back up to liberal Jewish voters after his recent endorsement by Hamas, Jeffrey Goldberg did a softball interview with his Obamatude in the Atlantic.
Obama assures Goldberg that some of his best intellectual influences are Jewish and that he thinks Zionism is peachy keen, then he puts his [...]
Tue, 13 May 2008 13:50:30 +0000
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Bad News For Liberals
AP:
The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month and could eventually be more than a year ahead of schedule in its plan to grow the force to 202,000 members.
All military services met or exceeded their monthly recruiting goals in April, with the Marine Corps signing 142 percent of the number it was looking [...]
Tue, 13 May 2008 12:30:43 +0000
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Coyote Attacks Studied
AP reports that the recent wave of coyote attacks on small children in the Greater Los Angeles is part of a larger pattern, and is now the subject of academic study.
The coyote was limping as it approached a girl in a sand box at a public park — but it was still dangerous. It snapped [...]
Tue, 13 May 2008 12:26:49 +0000
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Pirates Did Not Have Superdelegates
Members of today’s rising generation (for some mysterious reason) love pirates. They turn pirate movies into hits, frequent pirate bars, throw pirate parties, and as the Boston Globe explains, they even look to pirates as a political model.
Marcus Rediker, the author of the pirate histories “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and [...]
Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:02 +0000
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The Hillary Metaphors
August J. Pollak has a very good cartoon commenting on the noticeable partisanship of the MSM’s commentary.
via HuffPo.
Mon, 12 May 2008 15:16:27 +0000
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Poison Ivy
Yale’s Harkness Tower
Bert Prelutsky, at PJM, has a few choice remarks on presidential politics and the Ivies.
Ivy certainly looks nice, but you wouldn’t want to stroll through it. Here in Southern California, it’s common knowledge that most of our rodents hang out in the stuff. If bubonic plague ever breaks out in L.A., the source [...]
Mon, 12 May 2008 12:49:24 +0000
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Ominous Parallels
Susan Estrich reads some of the handwriting on the democrat party’s wall, then tries to be optimistic anyway.
It is a thought that sends shivers down the backs of Democrats, a name that brings to mind memories of an election lost that might have been won, against a war hero once referred to in headlines as [...]
Mon, 12 May 2008 12:12:47 +0000
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Code Pink in Berkeley Resorts to Witchcraft
Fox News:
Members of the anti-war group Code Pink gathered Friday with a cauldron of flowers outside a controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, Calif., to use witchcraft to rally against the Iraq war.
Code Pink members unfurled a pink banner reading “Troops Home Now” and waved signs as they began the protest, which they promised [...]
Mon, 12 May 2008 11:57:12 +0000
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New Swiss Animal Rights Law
The London Times reports, 4/26, on another ethical breakthrough in the home of the cuckoo clock.
Under a new Swiss law enshrining rights for animals, dog owners will require a qualification, anglers will take lessons in compassion and horses will go only in twos.
From guinea-pigs to budgerigars, any animal classified as a “social species” will be [...]
Mon, 12 May 2008 11:35:47 +0000
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Votes For Kids
Democrats want felons to vote and don’t want anyone asking for IDs. The latter objectionable practice would prevent fictitious persons and the deceased from exercising their franchise.
Now, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry identifies one more constituency ideal for democrats: kids!
I do understand that some children are too young to read the ballot or to perform the actual physical [...]
Sun, 11 May 2008 12:38:35 +0000
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Every Nerd Needs
video ad for Wireless DVD Projector ($2900, ouch!) & Wireless Webcam with light saber IP phone (only $400) in the form of (miniature) R2-D2 droids.
Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.
Sun, 11 May 2008 12:26:08 +0000
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Constitution Irrelevant in New York City Firearms Suit
Mayor Bloomberg’s attorneys argue in their brief, and the Second Amendment may wind up excluded, being traded for a similar gag order on references to the National Rifle Association, the New York Sun reports.
Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a [...]
Sun, 11 May 2008 12:10:50 +0000
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Obama Has Campaigned in 57 States
He tells an audience in Oregon.
0:24 video
Sat, 10 May 2008 11:34:57 +0000
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Green Porno
I was always fascinated by the infinite, strange and ‘scandalous’ ways that insects copulate.”
[...]
Sat, 10 May 2008 11:22:16 +0000
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Unpaid Guard at Louisiana's Angola Prison
AP:
The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.
“I love that bear being right where it is,” Warden Burl Cain said Monday. “I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to [...]
Sat, 10 May 2008 10:54:47 +0000
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Three Coyote Attacks on Toddlers in Greater LA This Week
Fox News reports two more attacks on toddlers by opportunistic coyotes in the Los Angeles area in the same week as the prior Chino Hills park attack.
A coyote grabbed a 2-year-old girl by the head and tried to drag her from the front yard of her mountain home in the third incident of a coyote [...]
Fri, 09 May 2008 15:27:30 +0000
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Texas Delinquents Used Skull Stolen from 1921 Grave as a Bong
Very bad teenage boys.
Fri, 09 May 2008 15:04:59 +0000
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Rush Limbaugh Leaks Possible Future "Operation Chaos" Moves
Having used his bully pulpit on AM Radio to persuade Republicans to cross over and vote for Hillary in several of the democrat primaries, a strategic political move which he has dubbed “Operation Chaos,” Rush Limbaugh, during his radio program yesterday, paused from mocking the Mainstream media, to hint that he may continue his Operation [...]
Fri, 09 May 2008 12:37:22 +0000
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Toni Morrison Takes it Back: Bill Clinton Wasn't the "First Black President"
Darryl Fears, in a Washington Post blog, quotes Toni Morrison, in a recent Time magazine interview, distancing herself from the Clintons by asserting that people who read her New Yorker description of Bill Clinton as “the first black president” misunderstood her.
People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being [...]
Fri, 09 May 2008 12:26:46 +0000
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Anti-Obama Video
This 13:01 video could be less stridently partisan in tone, but it does clearly identify Obama’s ties to Black Liberation Theology, a pseudo-Christian ideology founded upon racism, Marxism, and Antisemitism.
If he becomes the democrat party nominee, you can expect to see more artful and subtle presentations making exactly the same points.
Hat tip to the News [...]
Thu, 08 May 2008 13:24:48 +0000
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"It's Over" Propagandafest Continues
Everybody knew that Hillary would win in Pennsylvania, and when she did, the media yawned and declared the result was long predicted. Obama winning in North Carolina, a major African American population state, with 91% of blacks voting his way, was also absolutely predictable, but Barack Obama’s success in North Carolina has been hailed [...]
Thu, 08 May 2008 12:22:58 +0000
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Democrat Double Standard
Democrats have a record of insisting upon maximum electoral inclusivity. They want felons to vote. They don’t even want anyone to be inconvenienced or discountenanced by being required to produce valid identification.
If you happen to spoil your ballot, or accidentally vote for the wrong candidate, a national election should go on and on, they argued [...]
Thu, 08 May 2008 03:28:57 +0000
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Last Picture Ever Taken
From the duck, forwarded by Karen L. Myers.
Wed, 07 May 2008 14:43:45 +0000
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Hillary's Nuclear Option
Harold Ickes explains to the Politico that the Clinton camp knows where it can get some reinforcements.
The campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has begun urging party officials and news organizations to include the disputed Florida and Michigan delegations when figuring the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.
That unorthodox approach could put her [...]
Wed, 07 May 2008 13:13:43 +0000
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MSM Left Wants Hillary Out
Howie Carr identifies the message of the hour you’ll soon be reading in the MSM.
These next few days are going to be a terrible time for Hillary Clinton. The title of our next episode is, “Get Out Already, Hillary!” It becomes ever clearer just how much the mainstream media is in the satchel for Barack [...]
Wed, 07 May 2008 12:20:07 +0000
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Why Hillary's Going to Win
Ben Smith reports, but fails to recognize or understand, that Hillary Clinton has managed to identify the United States’ key foreign policy aim: the destruction of the OPEC oil cartel, which represents a monstrous and increasingly burdensome tax upon the economies of the West levied by a collection of backward dictatorships and parasitical Third World [...]
Tue, 06 May 2008 13:39:50 +0000
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Polish News Magazine Reports: Gorbachev Signed Pope John Paul II's Death Warrant
Polskie Radio:
The weekly Wprost, out tomorrow, shows a politburo document, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, which appears to warrant a KGB contract killing on John Paul II.
So claims Polish journalist John O. Kohler in a book, also released tomorrow, Chodzi o papieza. Szpiedzy w watykanie – (About the Pope: Spies in the Vatican). The politburo document [...]
Tue, 06 May 2008 13:11:22 +0000
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Vietnam Veteran in Wheelchair Puts Mugger in the Hospital
KRQE:
In one corner an aggressive panhandler. In the other a disabled, wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran who turned out not to be the underdog.
When the two met up five days ago in northeast Albuquerque the attacker became the attacked.
Gary Gould said the attempted mugging had him fighting for his life reminding him of what it was [...]
Tue, 06 May 2008 13:02:51 +0000
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Postmodern Comedy at Dartmouth
Priya Venkatesan, Dartmouth ‘90
Joseph Rago, at the Wall Street Journal, is running a bit late in covering a recent political correctness flap at Dartmouth, but I’m even later since I only learned of this news story from him.
Often it seems as though American higher education exists only to provide gag material for the outside world. [...]
Tue, 06 May 2008 12:41:40 +0000
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Pool Fence Both Forbidden and Required
The Barrister lost a fence in a recent hurricane, and being foolish enough to ask permission to rebuild it, finds himself confronted with a Catch-22.
I go to down to our little Town Hall, just to stay on the right side of the law, to make a cautious inquiry. Town Hall sits in a [...]
Mon, 05 May 2008 12:26:29 +0000
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Coyote Tries For Toddler
San Jose Mercury News:
A nanny pulled a 2-year-old girl from the jaws of a coyote Friday when the animal attacked the toddler and tried to carry her away in its mouth, officials said.
The girl was playing in a sandbox at Alterra Park in Chino Hills in San Bernardino County. Around 10:30 a.m., the caretaker heard [...]
Mon, 05 May 2008 11:53:26 +0000
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Clinton Library Will Not Release Papers Berger Stole
CNS:
The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library will not make available to the public the documents that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger illegally took from the National Archives in 2003.
A letter from the library said the total 502 pages from the Millennium Alert After Action Review (MAAR) are “restricted in their entirety,” under federal law [...]
Mon, 05 May 2008 11:45:43 +0000
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Global Warming = More Shark Attacks
The Guardian contributes a further citation to the Warmlist, which already has sharks booming and sharks moving north.
Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida’s Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes.
In [...]
Sun, 04 May 2008 11:42:41 +0000
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Plant Rights
Happy new rights-holder in the Helvetic Republic
Wesley J. Smith, in the Weekly Standard, reports on Europe’s latest ethical breakthrough which extends liberal egalitarianism not merely beyond our own species, but beyond our own Kingdom.
You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the “dignity” [...]
Sun, 04 May 2008 11:19:33 +0000
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"Strange New Respect"
Noemie Emery, in the Weekly Standard, relishes the ironies of this year’s democrat party nomination battle.
‘Strange new respect’ is the term coined by Tom Bethell, an unhappy conservative, to describe the press adulation given those who drift leftward, those who grow “mature,” “wise,” and “thoughtful” as they cause apoplexy in right-wingers, and leave their old [...]
Sat, 03 May 2008 17:55:35 +0000
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Released Guanatano Detainee Identified as Suicide Bomber in Mosul
Another satisfied customer of Shearman & Sterling LLP
International Herald-Tribune:
Al-Arabiya television reports that a former Guantanamo detainee carried out a recent suicide bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
A cousin says Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti released from Guantanamo in 2005, was reported missing two weeks ago and his family learned of his death Thursday [...]
Sat, 03 May 2008 12:30:08 +0000
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MSM Builds Itself a Shrine
As the Journalism industry opens a Washington museum dedicated to its own glory, Andrew Ferguson notes the symbolic role played by Walter Cronkite, whose misreporting of the 1968 Tet Offensive did more for the cause of Communism in Southeast Asia than General Giap.
If Walter Cronkite’s mom was going to put together a scrapbook of her [...]
Fri, 02 May 2008 12:04:42 +0000
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