July 07, 2007

"WE MUST RIDE THE LIGHTNING:" Robert Heinlein on America and space. "Heinlein was certainly a prophet, but sometimes prophets are ignored and sometimes they are wrong."

TIGERHAWK looks at the Pew Global Attitudes survey and the way it's been spun.

SO WE'RE ON THE WAY HOME and we stopped for dinner at Truett's Grill in McDonough, Georgia. The Truett in question is Truett Cathy, the founder of Chik-fil-A, and this is a diner-like Chik-fil-A incarnation that we had never encountered. There was table service, and enough retro atmosphere to make James Lileks swoon. We liked it.

But there's a deep secret. Click "read more" to see it.

Read More ?

PHIL BOWERMASTER DISCOVERS THAT CLUELESSNESS ABOUT SCIENCE extends beyond America.

LIFESTYLES of the rich and environmentalist.

MORE ON THE DEBACLE IN U.S. / COLOMBIA RELATIONS.

"YES, A PRIUS GOES 100 MPH:" There's no reason why hybrids have to be slow, you know. I don't think I've ever taken my Highlander Hybrid over 100 -- it's a sport-ute, after all -- but it's quite zippy.

THE INTERNET: A threat to our precious bodily fluids.

LIBRARIANS, Hip, left-wing activists.

NASHVILLE IS STILL TALKING, but now it's on a strictly unpaid basis.

LOW-BUDGET RACING: Hitting the endurance track in a $500 Volkswagen.

THE ECONOMY IS BOOMING, so what might start the next recession? James Pethokoukis takes a look.

WHILE I VACATION VIA SURFACE TRAVEL IN A MISERLY HYBRID, Live Earth is killing the planet!

Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, has dubbed it 'private jets for climate change'.

A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total equal to the movement of an army.

The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.

The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations.

Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.

We're doomed.

UPDATE: Yep: "Tomorrow’s Live Earth concerts all over the world are part of Al Gore’s plan to save, well, the Earth. But they could end up generating more carbon dioxide than was produced by all of Afghanistan in 2006."

TAKING TOILETS high tech.

NATURE: 50 years of the Multiverse.

This essay is free to nonsubscribers.

SO I'M READING RICHARD MORGAN'S THIRTEEN, and so far I'm liking it a lot. I liked his Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies. On the other hand, his Market Forces left me utterly cold. So far, this book is more like the ones I liked.

AMERICA'S ROADSIDE BLOOMERY, a call to action for photographers. Cool.

NO FOURTH AMENDMENT PROTECTION FOR EMAIL ADDRESSES AND I.P. ADDRESSES, according to the Ninth Circuit.

A PACK, NOT A HERD:

Three men armed with guns robbed the store shortly after midnight and stole wallets and purses belonging to customers, said Lt. Dean Sullivan, a Fort Worth police spokesman.

The man, whom police didn't identify because he is a witness, saw two of the men walking around nervously before they entered the store. The witness said he called 911 when one of the men pulled out a gun and fired as he walked into the store.

About 20 seconds later, the witness's wife tried to call him from her cellphone inside the store. But he never got to talk to her.

"I just heard her saying, 'There is nothing in my purse,' " he recalled. "And there was a 'pow.' The phone went dead."

The man, who has a concealed handgun license, sprang into action. He walked into the store with his .45-caliber pistol under his shirt.

"I really thought I'd find her in the store shopping and get her out the back door," he said. "That was my intention. ... I had no intention of confronting these armed bandits."

But in the store, one of the robbers pointed the gun at the man. The man then fired twice. The robber ran away, and it's unknown whether he returned fire, Lt. Sullivan said. Outside the store, the retired man fired again.

Lt. Sullivan said Rayshaun Johnson was possibly hit during the robbery. Mr. Johnson, 17, was injured on his backside and foot. He was dropped off in the parking lot of Huguley Memorial Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Good for him.

July 06, 2007

THIS SOUNDS COOL:

Batteries have long been vital to laptops and cellphones. They are increasingly supplying electricity to an unlikely recipient: the power grid itself.

Until recently, large amounts of electricity could not be efficiently stored. Thus, when you turn on the living-room light, power is instantly drawn from a generator.

A new type of a room-size battery, however, may be poised to store energy for the nation's vast electric grid almost as easily as a reservoir stockpiles water, transforming the way power is delivered to homes and businesses. Compared with other utility-scale batteries plagued by limited life spans or unwieldy bulk, the sodium-sulfur battery is compact, long-lasting and efficient.

Using so-called NaS batteries, utilities could defer for years, and possibly even avoid, construction of new transmission lines, substations and power plants, says analyst Stow Walker of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. They make wind power — wildly popular but frustratingly intermittent — a more reliable resource. And they provide backup power in case of outages, such as the one that hit New York City last week.

Better batteries are very high on my list of important technologies for the 21st century.

UPDATE: A few readers send condescending emails explaining that batteries only store power, they don't produce it, and hence can't substitute for generating plants. Less condescension is in order. In fact, at the margin batteries can substitute for new generating plants, by providing a way to, yes, store power generated in periods of slack loads, and using that power, instead of power from generating plants, to cover peaks load periods -- just as pumped-storage plants do now. What's news is the idea of being able to do this, even in a small way, with batteries.

ANOTHER GRIM MILESTONE: "According to Gallup, just 14% of people express confidence in the current Congress. That's the lowest measure in the 34 years Gallup has been tracking government institutions."

It's a quagmire. They should pull out of Washington and redeploy to Okinawa.

JIHADISTS on the defensive.

UNHAPPY LAWYERS: The Manolo has a solution that at least some of them will like.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: USA Today reports:

The drive to get members of Congress to reveal their requests for federal funds has divided the body's 10 presidential candidates.

Four of them have released their request lists, putting pressure on others to do so. A fifth, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, does not seek any money. Five others have not released their lists. Four cited long-standing policy. Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment. . . .

The issue of publicizing requests for "earmarks" — money targeted for specific programs or projects, usually in members' home states or districts — is part of an effort by watchdog groups to shed light on what has traditionally been a largely secret process.

"We think the transparency will eventually lead to fewer earmarks," says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, which has asked all lawmakers twice for their funding requests. "It's difficult for the leadership to continue to say, 'We're the most open and ethical Congress ever, and yet we're not telling you what we're requesting for earmarks.' "

But not as difficult as it ought to be.

BRENDAN NYHAN ON LIBERALS AND THE LIBBY CASE: "Note how quickly the tables have turned here. People (like Marshall) who bemoaned the guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude of Republicans during the Clinton years have now decided -- based on no hard evidence -- (a) there was an underlying crime and (b) that President Bush "is a party to" it. To believe this to be true, you have to believe that Richard Armitage innocently leaked Valerie Plame's status to Robert Novak before other Bush officials could unleash a plot that demonstrably violated the relevant statute. In addition, you have to believe that Libby's testimony would reveal this plot. While it's possible that all of this happened, assuming that it did is completely unreasonable."

MEGAN MCARDLE ENCOUNTERS LOUSY CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM SONY: Since I own a Sony laptop too, I'm unhappy to hear about this. But not as unhappy as the Sony folks should be: "I've never before encountered customer service so actively, seemingly deliberately, aimed at alienating the consumer. It's almost as if they don't want me to use their stuff."

WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR HARRY POTTER, some other wizard reading.

Plus, more danger for boys.

SUCCESS IS NOT AN OPTION! It's like the media are run by Gene Kranz's evil twin.

No, really, it is like that . . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts here. And here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rand Simberg responds to a critic.

YOU DON'T TUG ON SUPERMAN'S CAPE: The Taliban take on the Jawa Report.

MARY KATHARINE HAM takes the John Edwards challenge.

MORE REPORTING from Baqubah.

UPDATE: Reader John Steele emails: "How did that story get by the NYT editors?"

Actually, the NYT manages some good reporting from Iraq, though apparently the editorial page folks, and the domestic reporting staff, haven't been paying much attention.

CELEBRATING THE FOURTH, in San Francisco.

A WIN FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION as wiretapping survives a court challenge:

A federal appeals court Friday ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic spying program, saying the plaintiffs had no standing to sue. . . .

U.S. Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, one of the two Republican appointees who ruled against the plaintiffs, said they failed to show they were subject to the surveillance and therefore do not have standing for their claims.

U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald Lee Gilman, a Democratic appointee, disagreed, saying he felt the plaintiffs were within their rights to sue and that it was clear to him that the surveillance program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

You know, reporting who appointed judges this way makes everything seem rather political. Orin Kerr has more, and observes that the opinions in the case "neatly match a political narrative."

Too much of that and people will start wondering why we don't just elect federal judges, if it's all political anyway.

AN ARMY OF DAVIDS, homebrew division.

A LOOK AT NASA's new Mars Rover.

UPDATE: Apparently it's a lander, not a rover, despite the headline.

IN THE MAIL: Harry Turtledove's The Gladiator, part of his Crosstime Traffic series of Heinleinesque junior novels. There are no gladiators in this story -- it's the name of a gaming shop that's part of an effort at subversion in a world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War. These books are pretty good -- the InstaDaughter read Curious Notions and liked it a lot, even though she's not much of a science fiction fan.

JAMES LILEKS:

I’m confounded by the fact that no one in America has invented Fried Chicken Pizza. It would seem to be a rather obvious twist on a classic.

Well, I’d better google that, just to be sure . . .

I stand corrected.

Heh.

LOCAL POLITICS SEEM TO ECHO NATIONAL POLITICS: "There was a time in our political discourse that the two parties kept each other honest. The Democrats would watch the Republicans, and the Republicans would watch the Democrats. We now seem to have a culture of incumbency protection."

WITH HIS 100th BIRTHDAY COMING TOMORROW, here's more on Robert Heinlein.

My favorite Heinlein book? Probably The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or possibly Stranger in a Strange Land. And as Michael Belfiore notes in his forthcoming Rocketeers, Heinlein's series of junior novels in the 1950s -- Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, etc. -- influenced most of the people behind the current private-space flowering.

A BLOGSWARM on Al Qaeda atrocities.

MICHAEL YON POSTS A NEW REPORT FROM BAQUBAH: There's lots of interesting news, and you should read the whole thing, but this paragraph struck me:

Media coverage went from a near monopoly (Michael Gordon from New York Times and me) to a nearly capsized boat as journalists flooded in from other parts of Iraq to see the fight. They managed to miss most of it. Today, I’m told, there are now only 3 journalists remaining, including one writer (me.)

As with the Battle for Mosul, which I held in near monopoly for about five months during 2005, the most interesting parts of the Battle for Baqubah are unfolding after the major fighting ends. But as the guns cool, the media stops raining and starts evaporating, or begins making only short visits of a week or so.

With short attention spans and limited coverage, it's hard for the press to give us an accurate picture of what's going on. Some related thoughts here.

UPDATE: Checked my other email account and found this email from Michael Yon:

Baqubah has so quieted down that it's nothing like I have ever seen it. Practically no fighting. . . . It's Friday so there will likely not be much happening downtown today, so I stayed on base to write about the goings-on. I wrote about the lethargy of the local Iraqi leadership a couple weeks ago, but the energetic leadership of U.S. Army seems to be catching. The Iraqis are much more into the fight than they were back on 19 June with Arrowhead Ripper kicked off. We are now D+17 (17 days since Arrowhead Ripper kicked off), and the changes in Baqubah are remarkable. I am cautiously optimistic. Very cautious, and very optimistic.

It's all about the momentum.

ONE IN FOUR LAWYERS want to quit. And the other three want a raise.

IN THE SMALL WARS JOURNAL, a connection between counterinsurgency and Neal Gershenfeld. More on Gershenfeld here.

A LOOK AT AMERICA'S MILITARIZED POLICE DEPARTMENTS, from Radley Balko.

RAND SIMBERG ON THE DOCTORS' PLOT: "By the way, it would also be nice if this latest development finally puts to bed the ongoing "progressive" myth that terrorism is caused by poverty and alienation, or by our foreign policy."

Plus, a different plot by Muslim doctors: "A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site."

As Rand puts it: "We continue to deny moral agency to Muslims, and act as though we really are responsible for all bad things in the world, and they have no responsibility for their own behavior. If we don't understand what we are at war with, and chase after solutions to problems that don't really exist, and continue to foolishly ask questions like 'why do they hate us?', we can never win."

July 05, 2007

MARCHING AGAINST TERRORISM in Colombia.

Somebody tell Carl Levin and Nancy Pelosi.

HUGH HEWITT: "What had been a very bad week for al Qaeda with the foiled attacks in England and the desperation in Zawahiri's recent video just got a great deal better with proof that their strategy of defeating the U.S. in the United States Senate is working." I'm not sure it's that bad, but the Senate is a soft target.

DE VILLEPIN LIKELY TO FACE CONSPIRACY CHARGES: Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

MORE ON THE PRESIDENT'S BIOETHICS COUNCIL, from Ron Bailey. I remain unimpressed. Some earlier thoughts of mine can be found here.

NOW IT'S A $1,250 HAIRCUT? "It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned for president, vice president and now president again, his hair seems to have attracted as much attention as, say, his position on health care." I don't think he'll be much of a cost-cutter. . . .

BRIAN DOHERTY: "The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein was born in Missouri, and his fiction was mostly set in the future and on distant planets. But there's no question that Heinlein—born 100 years ago this week—was one of Southern California's great prophets. . . . In a sense, the industrialists, pilots and dreamers who gathered at California's Mojave spaceport in October 2004 watching SpaceShipOne win the X Prize for sending a private craft to space and back were living out Heinlein's dream."

DANNY GLOVER EXPLAINS the John Edwards Blogger Rule.

SPEEDING URBAN EVACUATIONS WITH better software.

MISSING CANADIAN NUCLEAR DEVICES: Ed Morrissey is worried.

WHEN DOES A MASSACRE MATTER: A question for the Associated Press.

INDEED: "Nothing like a mid-week holiday to demolish your enthusiasm for Thursday, eh?" Fortunately, I'm on vacation and hence immune!

GOT ADVICE IF YOU WANT IT: The latest Ask Dr. Helen column is up.

IN THE MAIL: A Deeper Blue, by John Ringo. Ringo is a science fiction / fantasy writer, but this is more of a Tom Clancy-style techno-thriller.

5-YEAR-OLD BOY saves his friends.

JIHADI TRANSVESTITE BUSTED IN ISLAMABAD. "Just look at this guy, a typical blowhard inciting his followers to martyrdom, who cross dresses and tries to sneak out the alley, leaving his followers to their doom."

ONE OF THE RAPS ON THE UNITED STATES is that we're nicer to our enemies than to our allies. Sadly, there's a lot of truth to it, and it's one reason our foreign policy efforts aren't as successful as they should be.

Now it seems that we're doing it again, with Colombia and free trade. It's almost as if we'd rather have them selling cocaine and supporting terrorists than functioning as a democracy. More on the subject here and here. The incompetence and venality of America's political class surprises even those of us who are paying attention.,

UPDATE: Various readers think I'm lax in not stressing that the Democrats are behind this. Okay. But Bush is letting them get away with it: "The Beltway's favorite theme these days is the decline of the Bush Administration, but the trade story is about Democratic protectionism and a political double-cross. The President and business community should stop taking punches and start warning about the damage that the Levin-Pelosi Democrats are doing to the economy and to America's image in the world."

DON'T TELL THE BRITISH ABOUT THE E.U. TREATY: It'll be harder to get support if they know what they're supporting!

HELP FOR ABUSED MEN.

MICKEY KAUS: "When Villaraigosa announced his marital trouble last month, the hapless LAT, in its traditional life-draining thumbsucker, listed Gary Hart as one of the politicians who emerged from personal scandal "with their careers largely intact, or enhanced." I'm sure ex-Sen. Hart, now a prestigious HuffPo blogger, will be happy to learn this. ..."

Personally, I'd rather be a prestigious blogger than President! Hart may or may not agree, though.

BRENDAN LOY LOOKS AT office politics at the National Hurricane Center.

July 04, 2007

SEVERE WEATHER CAUSES EVACUATION ON THE MALL:

Fourth of July crowds have been evacuated from the National Mall until severe storms pass through the area, according to Rob Lachance, of the U.S. Park Police.

The West Front of the U.S. Capitol also was evacuated due to inclement weather. . . .

Crowds were moved to nearby museums, which will provide shelter. Smithsonian buildings and the Commerce Department are opening up for people to use as shelter.

Reader Scott Barber sends a firsthand report and this photo:

This picture shows the crowd in DC waiting for the Patriotic 4th concert in DC in the parking garage of the Rayburn Building.

I and my family had been waiting next to the security entrance for the West Lawn since about 1 pm. At about 5, when we were supposed to be able to enter, the police made us move away from the entrance because of the inclement weather. They eventually hearded most of us to the parking garage of the Rayburn building, where the picture was taken.

The Capital Police have done a great job moving the crowd and in keeping us informed - very friendly and professional. The crowd is in a good mood - applauding the latest announcement from the police about the weather moving through quickly.

Now, some might think waiting for several hours and then for another hour or so in the garage of an office building for a Tony Danza payoff might be a little much - but my fellow Americans seemed to be determined to stick it out in surprisingly good spirits. That strikes me as being pretty neat.

Indeed.

HEADLINE OF THE YEAR: "I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON."

Maybe the decade.

A LESSON ON AMERICA FOR OLIVER STONE: But if Stone takes it to heart, his career as he has known it is over.

CAT STEVENS MAKES A COMEBACK, with help from Al Gore.

Plus, Tony Danza and Michael Jackson.

UPDATE: Roger Simon thinks Gore has his priorities wrong.

HANNIBAL CHOATE: Hero of the Fourth! Well, a quick thinker, anyway.

CHARGES OF hypocrisy on the Libby decision. There's plenty of that to go around.

JOYCE LEE MALCOLM remembers the Framers: "It's easy now, in a nation awash with complaints about what our Founders did not do, what imperfect humans they seem to 21st century eyes, to overlook how startlingly bold their views and actions were in their own day and are, in fact, even today. Who else in 1776 declared, let alone thought it a self-evident truth, that all men were created equal, entitled to inalienable rights, or to any rights at all? How few declare these views today or, glibly declaring them, really intend to treat their countrymen or others as equal, entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"

VIDEO: Christopher Hitchens on American independence.

WIRED: Did the National Press Club cave to Hugo Chavez? "If you set aside the horrible precedent of canceling the event on short notice after being contacted by a representative of a foreign government, the club's explanation almost makes sense. . . . But not really."

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS on Bin Laden's vision of globalization vs. the West's:

Don't forget that the 9/11 attacks were, to a great extent, the start of a war on globalization, as symbolized by the World Trade Center. "The towers are economic power," Osama bin Laden said in an October 2001 interview. It's globalization—the worldwide spread of people, capital, products, brands, and ideas—that's the real threat to the terrorists. . . .

So, who's winning the race, us or them? One way to answer that is to examine how the global economy is doing in the post-9/11 era? The answer: It's booming. World economic growth has averaged right around 5 percent since 2002, and it looks to be right on track again this year. In a way, this is the strongest global economy in history.

So far, so good.

UPDATE: Cal Thomas and CAIR.

ARNOLD KLING HAS thoughts on trust. "My idea of a high-trust society differs from that of many elites. Elitist journalists think that a high-trust society is one where we trust the mainstream media. Elitist politicians and activists think that a high-trust society is one where we trust legislators, regulators, and experts to exercise broad authority. In contrast, I believe that a high-trust society is one in which processes ensure that elites are subject to checks and accountability. It is particularly important for legislators, regulators, and experts to have their authority limited and their accountability assured."

IN THE MAIL: James Michael Hiatt's The Earth Mosaic.

ON INDEPENDENCE DAY, here's a collection of ways to help American troops overseas.

A FUEL-CELL-POWERED AIRPLANE on a five-hour flight.

UPDATE: Related story here.

MICKEY KAUS: "Looks like eccentric lone blogger Luke Ford was more trustworthy than L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa."

20 WAYS TO DO THE FOURTH OF JULY RIGHT: Plus, a look at the science of fireworks.

BILL GATES SLIPS: "Microsoft founder Bill Gates looks to have lost his title as the world's richest man, toppled from top spot by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim."

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

MYSTERY PORK at the University of Tennessee? I have no idea what this is about, though there's no particular reason why I would.

July 03, 2007

"DOMESTIC TERRORISTS" TARGET UCLA PROFESSOR: Another in a line of despicable attacks on science that don't get enough attention.

BRING IT ON: "North Carolina State University physicists have recently deduced a way to improve high-energy-density capacitors so that they can store up to seven times as much energy per unit volume than the common capacitor. High performance capacitors would enable hybrid and electric cars with much greater acceleration, better and faster steering of rockets and spacecraft, better regeneration of electricity when using brakes in electric cars, and improved lasers, among many other electrical applications." Still a long way from production, alas. But it's good that this subject is getting more attention, as it seems to be.

I WOULD HAVE LIKED Summer Explosives Camp. Not sure it's the Insta-Daughter's cup of tea, though.

Plus, explosives video from James Lileks.

WHY DON'T AL QAEDA ATROCITIES GET MEDIA ATTENTION?

Because that might help Bush.

UPDATE: A journalist whose name you'd recognize emails:

Yon's story doesn't get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., - can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

So we pretend Yon’s massacre – and the North Korean killing fields, the Arab treatment of women, the Arab hatred of Israel, etc. - doesn’t exist, and instead focus our emotions and attention on the somewhat-bad domestic things that we can ‘fix’ with our DC-based allies. Things such as Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc. When we ‘fix’ them, then we get status, applause, power, new jobs, ego, etc.

Please don’t be surprised. We media are an interest group not much different from the automakers, the unions, and the farmers.

Sadly, this makes sense. And this fits the pattern.

VIDEO: James Lileks goes fireworks shopping.

DEAN BARNETT JOINS THE LONG LIST OF THOSE unhappy with Delta Air Lines.

Much like my own experience with Delta, what's really striking is how no one from Delta seemed to care whether their customers were happy. In fact, they almost seem to prefer making their customers unhappy. Contrast that to my experience with American Airlines.

DON SURBER ON politics and healthy diets.

JONAH GOLDBERG on American-ness.

THE LONDON CAR BOMBS: Meant to kill women?

THE NYT LOSES A CASE: "I might be a little more sympathetic towards the Times if it had not abandoned the First Amendment in case after case."

WELL, RACISM DOES LEAD TO GENOCIDE:

The former French president François Mitterrand supported the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide despite clear warnings that mass killings of the Tutsi population were being orchestrated, according to declassified French documents.

The publication of the documents in today's Le Monde for the first time confirms long-held suspicions against France. The previously secret diplomatic telegrams and government memos also suggest the late French president was obsessed with the danger of "Anglo-Saxon" influence gripping Rwanda.

Even when it's racism against les Anglo-Saxons.

DOCTORS AS TERRORISTS: Dr. Sanity takes a look.

JULIAN TEPPER: "Congress is supposed to make laws, not break them. But that’s not what’s going on right now."

IN THE MAIL: Glenn Kaplan's Evil, Inc., which is not to be confused with the Hardy Boys novel of the same title. . . .

A CAPSULE HOTEL: I've certainly stayed in worse. And paid more to do it.

SELF-MADE MUMMIES.

HEALTH CARE: WE'D ALL LOVE TO SEE THE PLAN.

THE AWESOME POWER OF THE SUN -- and of modern technology: We're on vacation, and yesterday we went sea kayaking. (Thanks to "scheduled posting" the blog perked on!) The sun here in South Florida is pretty strong, and I slathered up with 30-power sunscreen. I wasn't the least bit burned even after a full day, except for one small spot on my foot, which somehow got missed when I slathered the sunscreen on. Downside -- it's nasty. Upside -- boy, it sure proves how well the sunscreen works. Sunscreen makes such a difference with what you can do outdoors in the summer; it's one of those humdrum inventions that has a lot more impact than you tend to think. Er, when you actually get it onto your skin. . . .

A MATTER OF TRUST: Bob Owens on A.P., Reuters, and "Decapi-Gate."

A GLOBAL WARMING POLL:

The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested.

The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June - found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change.

There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.

Ridiculous. Next they'll be doubting Al Gore's sincerity.

UPDATE: Yep.

DEAN BARNETT: "As far as the blogosphere is concerned, both the left and right blogopsheres have readerships that are puny parts of the electorate. Rush’s and Sean’s audiences are each nearly 50 times the size of the most-read center right blog. But the blogs provide an even earlier alarm system. If we’re going berserk in the blogosphere, the smart politician should take note. . . . The political class would be well advised to remember that the message that so distresses them comes from the people." READ THE WHOLE THING.

July 02, 2007

ALIENS AT ROSWELL: A deathbed confession.

PIRATES!

RESEARCHING GLOBAL WARMING at the edge of outer space.

TIM BLAIR IS UNIMPRESSED WITH "LIVE EARTH:"

Consider the vast carbon footprint of Live Earth, during which the world’s most indulgent people - rock stars - will demand that their followers pledge to “take personal action to help solve the climate crises by reducing my own C02 pollution as much as I can.”

Has Live Earth performer Keith Urban sold his Bentleys yet? (Actually, merely selling those 12-cylinder babies won’t reduce C02 emissions; he must destroy them.) I’ve been trying to come up with a violently destructive Gaia-raping stunt for us to participate in on Live Earth day, but it is literally impossible for even several thousand non-millionaires to match Live Earth’s own level of eco-vandalism while remaining within their means and the law.

We’ve been out-carboned by Big Environmentalism.

And you can tell that Tim is unhappy about that.

THERE'S A FREE KEITH HENSON PETITION.

STEVE CHAPMAN: "Did the Supreme Court 'Roll Back' Brown v. Board of Education?"

FITZMAS: NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER. Bush spares Libby from Prison.

My prediction: Bush will rise in the polls as estranged conservatives warm to him in light of lefty indignation.

UPDATE: Big roundup at Hot Air.

And Orin Kerr comments: "I find Bush's action very troubling because of the obvious special treatment Libby received. President Bush has set a remarkable record in the last 6+ years for essentially never exercising his powers to commute sentences or pardon those in jail. His handful of pardons have been almost all symbolic gestures involving cases decades old, sometimes for people who are long dead. Come to think of it, I don't know if Bush has ever actually used his powers to get one single person out of jail even one day early. If there are such cases, they are certainly few and far between. So Libby's treatment was very special indeed."

Kinda like the veto -- when you use it so rarely, every application seems iffy.

FOR EVERY PUBLIC OPINION POLL, a new social program!

A ROUNDUP OF London bombing news.

JOHN FUND:

Last week a federal district judge found direct evidence that the political machine in Noxubee County, Miss., had discriminated against voters with the intent to infringe their rights and that "these abuses have been racially motivated."

Among the abuses catalogued by Judge Tom Lee were the paying of notaries public to visit voters and illegally mark their absentee ballots, manipulation of the registration rolls, importation of illegal candidates to run for county office, and publication of a list of voters, classified by race, who might have their ballots challenged. The judge criticized state political officials for being "remiss" in addressing the abuses. The U.S. Justice Department, which sued Noxubee officials under the Voting Rights Act, has called conditions there "the most extreme case of racial exclusion seen by the [department's] Voting Section in decades."

Read the whole thing. We keep hearing that this sort of thing doesn't happen nowadays, but John Fund has done an excellent job of demonstrating that it still does. You can listen to our podcast interview with Fund on the topic right here.

MICHAEL YON EMAILS: "Baqubah has gone quiet. Very little fighting. There might be more to come, but overall the people have turned against al Qaeda and are pointing them out day by day. The people are pointing out the bombs. Baqubah received its first food shipment in 10 months just a few days ago, even while light fighting was still on. I was there for the food distribution and am writing a dispatch on it. The primary object now is to start to restore a sense of normalcy in the city. Remember Ramadi? That crazy city of death and fighting? Writers hardly want to go there any more because it's quiet. I am very curious if Baqubah will go that way. So far so good. There are serious sectarian issues here in Diyala Province, but with al Qaeda on defense instead of offense, the people in Baqubah have a chance to do what those in Ramadi and other cities are doing: reclaim their lives."

Sounds good. Let's hope things continue in that vein.

AT KAUSFILES, paranoia is in full flower. But not without reason!

IN THE MAIL: Robert Novak's The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Hector Qirko on Music and Life

He's played with everybody from Lonnie Brooks and Albert King to Terry Hill and Balboa. We talk to legendary guitarist Hector Qirko about music and life -- and his work remastering some of the late Terry Hill's lost tapes. We also listen to some tunes by Hector, Terry, and R.B. Morris.

Links mentioned in the show include Hector's own site, the site of R.B. Morris, and the Terry Hill memorial page. Plus, the Lonesome Coyotes and, of course, Balboa.

You can listen to the show directly -- no downloads needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. Or you can download the entire file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. You can get a lo-fi version for dialup by going here and selecting "lo fi" and -- of course -- you can subscribe via iTunes by clicking right here. Visit our show archives for new and old episodes at GlennandHelenShow.com. As always, my lovely and talented cohost is taking comments and suggestions for future shows.

This podcast was brought to you by Volvo USA -- buy a Volvo and tell 'em we sent you!

GOING 100 TIMES FASTER with laser hard drives? Soon, but not yet.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Examiner editorializes:

Look closely at Capitol Hill today, and you will see a crumbling fortress manned by a motley collection of old bulls and eager young back benchers, most of whom seem blindly determined to fight to the last earmarked tax dollar against the citizens steadily surrounding them.

As the encirclement tightens amid increasingly fervent demands that the defenders give up and let the sun shine in, its list of grievances about earmarks keeps growing longer: . . .

What is especially distressing is that these are only a handful of the more than 32,000 earmarks House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., says his panel has received in recent months from members of the House from both parties.

Obviously, Congress didn’t get the message last November, so the encirclement will only get tighter.

Let's hope. Read the whole thing for further examples.

DESMOND LACHMAN:

As sub-prime lending problems at Bear Sterns, the venerable Wall Street investment bank, now come to light, one has to be struck by the positive spin that market analysts continue to put on the looming problems in the US sub-prime mortgage market. More disturbing still is the seemingly sanguine attitude and policy passivity of the Federal Reserve in the face of the mortgage market's present unraveling.

For despite the Feds's recent sad experience in 2001with the bursting of the equity price bubble, the Federal Reserve now remains more concerned with inflation moving out of its 1-2 percent comfort zone than with the real possibility of a sub-prime induced financial market meltdown. If it indeed turns out that the Fed was yet again late to begin easing monetary policy in the wake of the bursting of another asset price bubble, history will hardly judge the Fed kindly.

I have no idea whether we should be more worried about inflation or deflation. But we've had an unusually long run of prosperity, which probably means that we're overdue for a decline.

MASS BUDGET TROUBLE for Orion?

July 01, 2007

TEA AND CRUMPETS with Osama. Some thoughts from Amy Alkon.

ANOTHER REVOLT ON THE RIGHT, this time over No Child Left Behind? Well, possibly. But regardless, this is good advice for Bush: " Extending his hand to critics now would present an opportunity to patch up the wounds inflicted during the immigration debate. It might also lead to a better bill."

PRINCE HARRY gives a shout out to his squadron.

DAN COLLINS TIES TOGETHER a number of themes in today's war on terror news.

UPDATE: More from Tim Blair. And related thoughts from Mark Steyn. And "poor and disenfranchised?" Not so much: "Two doctors held over bomb attacks."

And it's not just Tim Blair, but Tony Blair on the attack.

SORRY, BUT THIS IS A DUMB IDEA:

Lieberman said that the United States should emulate what the Brits have done in London, look into putting cameras all over our major cities to monitor what people are doing. He said that privacy was not a concern, as this would be for our national security. He said that this was "common sense."

Lots of garbage data, threat to civil liberties, but not much of an anti-terrorism record. The efficacy of cameras in preventing or remedying terror has been highly ineffective.

UPDATE: Brendan Loy emails that the quote is inaccurate:

When I read the quote from RedState about Lieberman's comments regarding cameras in major cities, I knew the statement "he said that privacy was not a concern, as this would be for our national security" had to be wrong. That doesn't make any sense, and it isn't something the eminently sensible Sen. Lieberman would say. Certainly, there are some instances where national-security measures can have too great a negative impact on privacy. Everyone knows this, and the Joe Lieberman I know wouldn't deny it. And sure enough, he didn't. He didn't say that privacy is "not a concern" because "this would be for our national security." The two statements were separate. Here's the video clip: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=3335589&page=1

Here's the actual quote: "I think it's just common sense to do that here much more widely. And of course we can do it without compromising anybody's real privacy. This is about the security of our country and our people with an enemy that is prepared to attack us again and again here at home."

When he says "of course we can do it without compromising anybody's real privacy," it's clear he is saying he believes such a system can be implemented with adequate safeguards for people's privacy. He doesn't detail what those safeguards would be, probably because he was on a sound-byte show and was already on a tangent, but it's certainly not an implausible position, even if one disagrees with it. Anyway, after saying he believes people's privacy can be protected, he then explains again his rationale for why the cameras are necessary in the first place, namely national security. But they're clearly separate sentences and separate logical trains of thought, whereas RedState's summary of his remarks mistakenly posits national security as the reason Lieberman believes privacy would not be impacted -- which makes his position sound cartoonish. Frankly, it sounds like the sort of summary of a Lieberman appearance that I'd expect to find on Daily Kos, not RedState.

I still think the cameras are a dumb idea, but this does change things somewhat.

MARK STEYN: No legislation without explanation. Good battle-cry!

Excerpt:

Time and again, the remote insulated emirs were offered the opportunity to rise above their condescension and declined to do so. Sen. John McCain, R- Maverickistan, confidently asserted that he'd worked hard on this bill and knew it better than all these no-account nonentities riled up about it and then had to have it explained to him – by bloggers on a conference call – that he'd misunderstood a key provision of his own legislation: There was no requirement for illegal immigrants to pay back taxes. Their amnesty would come tax-free. Blustering senators who claimed to have drafted this thing had to be told what was in it by critics who'd actually taken the trouble to look at it. . . .

If the senators have any sense of why they lost, they'll learn their lesson. But initial indications are not encouraging. Predicting victory, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., declared gravely and portentously that "the will of the Senate" would prevail. And that's what matters, isn't it? As the rebel colonists cried all those years ago, "No legislation without self-congratulation!"

Happy Independence Day!

Read the whole thing -- Trent Lott comes off especially badly, which is to say accurately. And my suggestions on how to do better next time can be found here.

PLEASE INVADE US:

ZIMBABWE’S leading cleric has called on Britain to invade the country and topple President Robert Mugabe. Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, warned that millions were facing death from famine, unable to survive amid inflation believed to have soared to 15,000%.

Mugabe, 83, had proved intransigent despite the “massive risk to life”, said Ncube, the head of Zimbabwe’s 1m Catholics. “I think it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe,” he said. “We should do it ourselves but there’s too much fear. I’m ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready.”

Some parts of Zimbabwe have seen 95% of crops fail, leaving families with only two or three weeks’ food supply to last a year. Prices in the shops are more than doubling every week and Christopher Dell, the American ambassador, predicts that by the end of the year inflation could hit 1.5m%.

Ncube said that far from helping those struggling on less than £1 a week, Mugabe had just spent £1m on surveillance equipment to monitor phone calls and e-mails. “How can you expect people to rise up when even our church services are attended by state intelligence people?

Can't somebody just bump him off?

MICHAEL TOTTEN: From the Anbar Awakening to the Surge.

STRATEGYPAGE: "Al Qaeda operations continue to decline, as the number of al Qaeda members, and leaders killed or captured, goes up. . . . Al Qaeda is having some success in the Western media, and among Moslems living in Europe. But those expatriate Moslems are handicapped by many of their brethren who are not enthusiastic about Islamic terrorism. The police get tips, make arrests, and al Qaeda loses a few more true believers. Al Qaeda is desperate for another highly visible attack in the West. Many such operations are apparently being planned, but by amateurs who can get no help from al Qaeda experts. Most of al Qaeda's traveling experts are dead or in prison."

It does seem as if the "B" team is in action in Britain. But maybe this is all just a big distraction, though I'd prefer to believe the analysis above.

TOP THREE ACCESSORIES THAT won't work with your iPhone.

THIS IS WELCOME NEWS:

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped significantly in June, a possible indication that recent American military operations around the country and raids on car-bomb shops in the "belts" ringing the capital are starting to pay off.

But June also marked the end of the bloodiest quarter for U.S. troops since the war began in March 2003.

Unofficial figures compiled by McClatchy Newspapers' show 189 Iraqis, including police and government security forces, were killed in the capital through Friday, a drop of almost two thirds since this year's high in February, when 520 were killed. The average monthly death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad was 410 from December through May.

The downturn in civilian deaths in Baghdad, should the figures hold, could arm Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, with the kind of results he needs to forestall pressure to set timetables on troop withdrawals. He is scheduled to deliver a progress report on the war to Congress in September.

Of course, it's a long-term project, not something to be acomplished in a month. Still, it will be interesting to see if this good news gets as much attention as the bad news does. (Via Dan Riehl).

A LEATHER-SWADDLED ThinkPad? Why not?

IN THE MAIL: 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask.

UPDATE: No, I haven't been a fan of Woods' work in the past. However, after I posted this link he emailed to say that earlier claims that he's a neo-confederate are false. So there's that in his favor.

S.W.A.T.-MANIA: Teaching kids how to break down doors?

REMEMBERING Robert Heinlein.

MICHAEL YON POSTS ANOTHER REPORT FROM IRAQ: Warning: The photos, of what Al Qaeda did to a village and its inhabitants, are pretty graphic. It's interesting to contrast his first-hand reporting, with names and photos, with what we're getting from the A.P.

UPDATE: Al Qaeda's My Lai? Only in the factual sense, not the media sense.

MORE ON "DECAPIGATE:" Greyhawk is in Iraq, and emails that he can't reach his site. So he sends these thoughts, which I assume will appear on The Mudville Gazette at some later point:

-----

I'm shocked - shocked I tell you, to read this. I haven't heard of such a thing since the last time the news reported a bogus headless bodies story.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Separate groups of gunmen entered two primary schools in Baghdad on Wednesday and beheaded two teachers in front of their students...

*****

"We sent a crew and they spoke with witnesses in front of the school, and they say nothing happened. We spoke to the guard at the school who says 'I was here from early morning until they (the kids) left, and nothing happened," said a representative of one of the agencies.

"We went to both schools and no one confirmed it. We even went to the local police station and they denied it happen. This thing you can't hide. The kids saw nothing,"

Or the time before that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 26 (NY Times) — The bodies of 30 beheaded men were found on a main highway near Baquba this evening, providing more evidence that the death squads in Iraq are becoming out of control.

*****

Q: About, on the news that we heard this week of a number of headless bodies being found along a road in Baghdad. I was wondering what more you could tell us about that, what you know about the victims, and who the perpetrators were?

GEN. THURMAN: Okay. I did understand that question, and what I would tell you -- we have not confirmed that report. We went to multiple sites to look for the 32 headless bodies that was reported to our headquarters, and we did not find anything; nor did any of the local citizens that were in these areas could verify that anybody had ever been in there. So I look at that report as completely false right now.

Thanks, Greyhawk.

HAPPY CANADA DAY! (Via Newsbeat 1).

BIG BROTHER IS CARDING YOU: Scanning your driver's license number when you buy beer.