August 18, 2007

DEAN UPDATE: A HURRICANE WATCH in the Cayman Islands. But Dean is still heading straight for Jamaica.

UPDATE: More here: "According to the 8:00 PM EDT intermediate advisory, the aircraft reconaissance flight currently in Hurricane Dean just reported a minimum central pressure of 920 millibars — down 10 mb from the last reading. Dean is strengthening again."

ANOTHER UPDATE: The island of Little Cayman is being evacuated, with inhabitants sheltering on Cayman Brac. Caves in the bluff ("the brac") are the traditional place to ride out a hurricane.

MORE: A prayer for Jamaica.

MORE STILL: The Caymans have upgraded to a hurricane warning. Plus, extra flights leaving Grand Cayman. Also, where to secure your car. You can see why that matters here. And a roundup of Cayman press notices here.

And good news for us -- but not for Mexico -- Dean likely to miss United States.

(Bumped).

JOURNALISTS BEHAVING BADLY: And blaming blogs.

BRIDGES AND TAXES: A look at the politics of transportation spending.

SOME OF THE WORLD'S weirdest animals.

DID RUSSIAN HACKERS CRASH SKYPE? Skype denies it.

ARRH! Pirates for Freedom! "It strikes me that cowardly publishers ought to lose all moral rights to the copyrighted material they pull."

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO statutes of limitations?

OBAMA: Read my lips: No new debates.

UPDATE: More from Marc Ambinder.

SCIENCE BOOKS for kids.

THE SURGE COULD LAST ANOTHER YEAR, as it seems to be working. "Citing statistics on captured militants and insurgent attacks, Odierno said he was 'cautiously optimistic' that U.S. forces were improving security in Iraq. Roadside bomb attacks have declined for the last two months and attacks against civilians were at a six-month low, he said."

Meanwhile, people are starting to use the word "postsurge." But I wonder if "Operation Fig Leaf" will succeed? "Embrace victory, call it defeat!"

UPDATE: A cautionary note: "While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse — namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force." That's been a theme of many milbloggers. I hope it's wrong, since otherwise it means that we will lose the war as a result of enemy psychological warfare and "lawfare."

NOT STANDING UP FOR FREE SPEECH in academia.

PROFESSORS ON the battlefield.

THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TRUSTEESHIP WARS between the Administration and the alumni have heated up -- check out VoteDartmouth.org.

Some background can be found here.

IN THE MAIL: Joe Biden's new book, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics. Lots of glowing reader reviews from people who are "huge Joe Biden fans." Example: "I have to say that I was a huge Joe Biden fan prior to reading the book, so I may have a biased opinion. It is not possible to read this book and walk away willing to accept the fact that this incredible leader is not a first tier candidate for 2008."

Also: "Joe Biden is a man of the people. From his quiet middle class beginning in Scranton PA. to his Catholic upbringing and coming of age in Wilmington DE. to his election at the age of 29 to the US Senate- this is clearly a man to be admired." Reading these reviews, it is hard to understand why he's not leading the polls.

POPULAR SCIENCE: Two Defective iPhones in Less Than Two Months: What's Going on Here? "Considering all these frustrating weaknesses along with an incredibly high cost of ownership of some fairly buggy hardware, and I'm starting to wonder what kind of revolt lies in store for us when first-gen iPhone users' warranties start to expire come July '08."

MORE KNIFEBLOGGING: I said that I'd gotten a lot of email, and I was telling the truth: I didn't notice this email from Stephen Green endorsing the Global knives until I saw it on his site. It was a flood!

My question about ceramic knives brought some comments. Reader Tim Adamec wrote:

I've owned a couple of ceramic knives; they're very sharp and explode in interesting ways when dropped. I think Frank Herbert modelled Kris knives in Dune after them: "May thy knife chip and shatter."

Uh oh. But reader John Ramsey emails: "I have owned a Kyocera Chefs Knife for over 20 years, It's a very light weight (easy on the wrist) very sharp and very brittle knife. About 4 years ago I knocked the tip off trying to work a turkey leg loose. Not the right tool for the job... Otherwise it has been fantastic. I have never sharpened the blade as I wouldn't know how but it is as sharp as a razor after all these years. I bought my wife the paring knife for Christmas last year and she loves it."

Meanwhile, reader Matt Johnson wonders why I haven't mentioned Cutco knives:

I think I know now what it's like to be a Ron Paul supporter.

But seriously, you have NO IDEA how freaking awesome these knives are. I've never sold these things myself, I just use them. I admit, they will offend a knife traditionalist but they also happen to be a better knife. There are just not that many products out there that are designed with a purpose and designed to solve so many problems and does its job so darned well.

A lot of other readers praised Cutco too. My only exposure was when my friend Doug Weinstein sold Cutco stuff door-to-door in college, which didn't leave me with a favorable impression. That had more to do with their lame canned sales pitch (hand knife to prospect while intoning "Shake hands with a Cutco!" in a Ted Baxter voice) than with the product, though.

Final issue: I want stuff that's dishwasher safe. Yeah, I know you're supposed to wash good knives by hand, and I do, but in my house everything winds up in the dishwasher sooner or later, as others aren't so careful. So I need stuff that can tolerate occasional dishwasher exposure without stains, loss of temper, etc.

Earlier knife posts, for those just coming into the discussion, are here and here.

A REPORT FROM BANGKOK on the Thai constitutional vote.

"SO LONG, SUCKERS!"

AND YOU THOUGHT RATHERGATE WAS BAD: A CBS Reality Show Draws a Claim of Possible Child Abuse.

UPDATE: A good question: "Who allows their children to participate in something like this?"

FRED THOMPSON ON GAY MARRIAGE:

For the record, the Thompson camp has officially noted that "Fred Thompson does not support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage." He supports the rights of States to choose their marriage law for themselves. . . .

Thompson believes that states should be able to adopt their own laws on marriage consistent with the views of their citizens.

Federalism.

ARRESTED FOR carding the cops.

AN AD FOR THE APPLE 1 COMPUTER:

A fast (1 kilobaud) cassette interface is available and includes a tape of Apple Basic. And ... Yes, Folks. Apple Basic is Free!

You don't want those slow cassette interfaces

August 17, 2007

DEAN IS NOW A CATEGORY 4, FLIRTING WITH CATEGORY 5, and aimed at Grand Cayman: "Cayman Islands Leader of Government Business Kurt D. Tibbetts has urged all residents of Grand Cayman to be prepared for a direct hit from a predicted strong Category 4 Hurricane Dean. The storm is forecast to have 130 mph winds when over Grand Cayman."

More here.

YEAH: "The Baker-Hamilton group and others have urged the administration to have direct talks with Iran; I believe such talks are going to take place with respect to Iraq. Isn't it a little hard, though, to find common ground with a country whose leaders think it's a compliment to be considered a terrorist?"

Well, here's a strategy we might consider.

JAMES HANSEN RESPONDS on the 1998/1934 climate data correction.

UPDATE: Dave Price thinks Hansen's response was rather intemperate.

MICKEY KAUS: "Am I crazy to think that the failure of comprehensive immigration reform--and with it, the prospect (despite sponsors' assurances) of millions more legal and illegal immigrants--has something to do with the trouble in the housing market?"

BERNANKE BLINKS, Wall Street rallies. Is that good? Beats me.

WHAT THE TROOPS THINK ABOUT the war debate:

For the troops on the front lines and the colonels in the rear—and just about everyone in between—the big news in Iraq every day is that they’re still alive and healthy. When it comes to Senate votes on the U.S. presence in Iraq, Sunday talk shows thrashing out length of deployment and stateside pundits talking to themselves, nearly every grunt, airman, sailor, soldier and Marine I speak with just doesn’t care. . . .

During last month’s heated, all-night debate on Capitol Hill about when and if the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, I asked several military officers of different ages and ranks about their thoughts on a potential pullout. Nearly every one stressed how important his or her work here has been—and will be. “If we leave within months, Iraq will be a province of Iran,” one colonel said. “Everyone with any education or skills who hasn’t already left will end up leaving.”

A mortarman with the 25th Infantry stationed in Tal Afar stressed that he thought the American media has not been reporting what really goes on during daily ops across the war zone. “It’s all about body counts,” he said. Marines out in the former Wild West of Anbar province said the same. They are proud of the job they’ve done in cleaning up what was once considered a lost, Al Qaeda-infested area. They wondered why America hasn’t heard MORE of that news.

A sergeant 1st class with the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry, whose unit is attached to the Marines near Habbaniyah, patrols daily around Al Anbar province. This is his third tour, and he’s confident that progress is being made, despite what he calls early missteps in policy. “I think [Americans] understand our sacrifice, but they don’t understand that we’re just not ready to leave.”

Read the whole thing.

DEBATING THE CASE FOR ANARCHY. "I know there is a tendency among many to respond to defenses of anarchism with snickering or derision. Given all the harm caused by government (mass murder, genocide, repression, war, and so on), this tendency should be resisted."

FREE SEX CHANGES in Brazil.

GOOSE CREEK UPDATE: "The FBI is urging people not to jump to conclusions in the case of two men accused of having pipe bombs in their car, saying the allegations may not be true. One former federal prosecutor said the agency's statement was 'highly unusual.'"

It is.

A CLASS ACTION against the RIAA.

NEW ORLEANS: In the crosshairs again? Depends on which model you like.

UPDATE: More here: "Does the GFDL computer model know something that all the others don’t?" Let's hope not.

ANOTHER UPDATE: "Real devastation" in Martinique.

PATTERICO OFFERS LEGAL ADVICE to Yale University Press.

AN AWKWARD SPOT FOR NANCY PELOSI:

Another Congressional Democrat has shifted his views on Iraq to support from opposition -- and this change has significance. Rep. Brian Baird, one of the Democrats who voted against the authorization to use military force in 2002, has now returned from Iraq convinced that we need to give General David Petraeus more time. . . . Baird made it plain that his change of heart is based on two very clear criteria. One, a pullback would devastate Iraq and be catastrophic to the region and our national interests. Primarily, though, Baird believes that Petraeus has made real progress. He does not want to pull out while success can still be achieved.

The trash-Petraeus campaign may have waited too long to get off the ground.

UPDATE: Jules Crittenden: "That non-veto-proof margin is shrinking. Anyone care to hazard a guess where it’ll be by mid-September?"

MAGICAL THINKING IN AMERICA'S POLITICAL CLASS: "Cincinnati - Mayor Mark Mallory refuses to fire a starter pistol to kick off an upcoming road race, saying he doesn't like the gun's symbolism in a city that set a record for homicides last year."

"POLL: AMERICANS WANT TO WIN:" And a growing, though still inadequate, number seem to think that we just might: "47 percent of Americans now think we’re making progress in Iraq, despite the best effort by our major news media organizations to ignore this, to bury it, to cast it in the worst possible light."

Imagine how things might be if the press were, you know, honest.

A LOOK AT eco-affluence in the 21st Century. I found the discussion of how much environmental damage is being done by government subsidies enlightening.

IT'S LIKE "ANIMAL FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS." Well, sort of: "For New Yorkers without the time, space, or willingness to commit to owning a dog, a new share program launching in Manhattan next month offers pets for rent." Okay, not much, really.

MICHELLE MALKIN INTERVIEWS Mitt Romney on immigration.

MORE EXCITEMENT IN TEN MINUTES than the PBS Newshour packs into sixty! The latest Corn & Miniter Show is up! This time with special guest Michelle Cottle.

UPDATE: Michelle Cottle on Fred Thompson: "To run for President, you have to be a little crazy." Is Fred too sane?

NEEDED: Nine million new smokers. It's for the children!

IT'S PRETTY SIMPLE: "A shovel, a house fan, and other objects: as a parent, I think that about sums up the emotion you’d feel. You find someone assaulting a nine-year-old girl, you subdue the attacker with whatever you can get your hands on."

REJECTING A $10 MILLION EARMARK.

BURYING THE LEDE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES: "Do people even click to see what's on page 2?"

Plus, Al Qaeda watercooler chatter: "Heard the latest? They say Human Resources just decided that virgins 47-72 are redundant. And did you ever notice how they always seem to send us off on these suicide missions just as our stock options are about to vest?"

RICH LOWRY: REVENGE OF THE TRIBES.

BRENDAN LOY: No, really, get out of Jamaica: "When Hurricane Gilbert slammed Jamaica in 1988, it killed 45 people and caused $4 billion of damage. It destroyed houses, roads and small aircraft. It 'severely damaged all but two medical facilities and 50% of the water supply.' So even if you survive the hurricane, the aftermath will be ugly, if it hits as badly as it could. Seriously — there’s no reason to risk it. Get the hell out."

UPDATE: A Cayman Islands hurricane alert.

HOW TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT: Prices!

AARON HANSCOM LOOKS AT 21ST CENTURY HYPER-PARENTING: I had some related thoughts on the topic here.

IN THE MAIL: IF YOU LIKED THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS, then there's always How to Be the Best At Everything. And there's also a girls' version. The books include such highlights as how to fight off a crocodile, how to rip a phonebook in half, how to escape quicksand, how to act like a celebrity, how to read body language, and how to grow a crystal.

They look pretty cool, though the "how to fly a helicopter" treatment in the boys' book is a bit, um, brief.

THOUGHTS ON GIULIANI AND EDWARDS' foreign policy writings.

SOME INTERESTING STUFF ABOUT THE NATION and war veterans.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: Popular Mechanics' big disaster-survival feature is now up on the Web.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? "For years, members of the military brass have been warning that soldiers' blogs could pose a security threat by leaking sensitive wartime information. But a series of online audits, conducted by the Army, suggests that official Defense Department websites post far more potentially-harmful than blogs do."

A BLOG GROWS in Brooklyn.

TRYING TO SINK the Delta Queen. Because her crew isn't unionized.

A SPACE HOTEL: By 2009?

MORE PHOTO QUESTIONS FOR AFP: Maybe I should start my own news service. Apparently the demands are lighter than I had thought.

UPDATE: Tigerhawk notes that the press is much less charitable where misconduct by other big corporations is concerned.

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS stands up to libel thuggery on behalf of an "Islamic charity" that came off rather badly in Matthew Levitt's Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. Now maybe somebody should take a closer look at "KinderUSA," which brought the suit.

UPDATE: Bravo for the American Library Association. Nice to see some backbone, though the Middle Eastern Studies Association isn't looking so good.

MORE: In the comments section on the Levitt book, above, we're starting to see 911-denialist posts like "Twin Towers not knocked down by aircraft." Sigh.

ACADEMIC HIRING IS STARTING TO GET more outside scrutiny. That seems entirely reasonable to me.

IF YOU'RE IN JAMAICA OR YUCATAN, Brendan Loy suggests you get the hell out.

August 16, 2007

AN INTERVIEW WITH the rapping Marine.

PORK NEVER DIES: "So far this year, three members of Congress have died. But they did not take their earmarks with them. The earmarks keep going and going."

UPDATE: Reader Chris Foster emails:

Three members of Congress this year? Do you realize how high that mortality rate is?

It's just too dangerous. Get them out now.

"Congress Out Of Washington Now!"

It's a quagmire, and their presence is only making things worse.

MORE ON ONGOING GROUND COMBAT IN AFGHANISTAN: What? Not just air raids on civilians?

HURRICANE DEAN becomes a "major Caribbean storm threat."

They're paying close attention in the Cayman Islands.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IS UPSET about a Taser marketed to women. My question for Amnesty -- what is it about women, in particular, that makes this especially inappropriate?

Most women would at least be smart enough not to taser a man holding a baby. . . .

Earlier post on this topic here.

WHAT IF ELVIS HAD NEVER BEEN BORN? But everyone -- well, almost everyone - has missed Elvis's greatest achievement.

Well, one of them: I remember some years ago having drinks with then-Tennessee Attorney General Bill Leech. He said that in the early '50s he was working in Memphis and used to take his girlfriends to hear some guy sing; he didn't like the singer that much, but he seemed to get the women pretty heated up. It was pre-fame Elvis.

DAVE HARDY: "At least in Dodge City, you could shoot back."

MORE ON KNIVES: Okay, I was at the mall buying my mom's birthday present and I looked at the Ken Onion chef's knife at Williams-Sonoma. It looked so cool that I almost bought it on the spot, but fortunately I am a man of no small self-control. They had a full set of Ken Onion kitchen knives, too, for (slightly) less than a thousand bucks. Maybe a bit pricey for an impecunious law professor such as myself. . . .

I said I'd get to more mail, so here goes -- though in truth it's like bailing an ocean with a teacup. But here are some highlights. Reader John Morgan offers an economical solution:

For those with less financial resources or for the truly frugal I recommend finding a knife-sharpening store. In the two cities I have recently lived in (Kansas City and Chicago) there are stores (Ambrosi Brothers and Northwest Cutlery, respectively) that supply sharp knives to restaurants. Essentially they go once a week to the restaurants and replace the knives in use at the restaurants with newly sharpened knives. Over time, the knives are sharpened down to a much smaller size and are no longer usable by the restaurants. These stores then put the knives in a bin and sell them for a dollar or two. Aesthetically, they are not the beautiful knives of our dreams, but practically, they are very good and very sharp knives. These stores also will sharpen your knives to an impressive, almost scary, sharpness for a few bucks per knife.

Another reader echoes what a lot of people have written: "Forschner is the best. Go to any reputable butcher shop or meat cutting operation….for example, Butler and Bailey in Knoxville. Ask what knife they use and they’ll show you a Forschner." That's fairly economical, too, especially compared to the Ken Onion.

Reader Christian Gils emails:

I can wholly recommend a Dexter-Russell 8" Chinese chef knife. It's a mix of carbon and stainless steel, not entirely stainless, so you should wipe it dry after cleaning it, but it can hold a great edge. It's cheap, too, and great for just about anything except paring and maybe filleting. A Chinese chef knife takes a bit of getting used to but I find myself leaving my other knives alone and just using this one most often.

If you've got a Chinatown near you you can pick them up quite cheaply, otherwise Amazon carries it via a vendor.

Reader John Richardson emails:

Here is a knife brand that won't be on the radar screen for most of the gourmets - Cold Steel.

When I went back to grad school in the mid-90s, I worked as the bookkeeper part-time for a knife wholesaler. As such, I got to play with a lot of knives of all sorts from custom Bowies to collector pocketknives to switchblades (pardon me, automatics). I picked up one of the 7-inch Cold Steel K-7 kitchen knives. It does the job right and it doesn't slip when your hand is wet. It does a very good job of
thin slicing.

The other thing I might suggest is to get in the car and go down to Sevierville and visit Smoky Mtn Knife Works. They have a lot of kitchen knives. It would give you a chance to try out a lot of different knives and see what fits your needs.

I didn't realize Cold Steel made kitchen knives. I used to own one of their Tanto utility knives and it was good. And the Smoky Mountain Knife Works suggestion is a good one, except for the ungodly Sevierville traffic. Maybe post-Labor Day. . . .

Reader Chad Wayne emails: "Anolon has ventured into knives. They're less expensive than the
designer brands and just as good. I bought the 5" and 7" Santoku knives from Amazon and it is all we use now. No other knives we own can compare."

Reader Jim Evangeliou emails: "Get a magnetic knife bar. Do you know how to clean out a knife block? Neither do I." Several readers noted that knife blocks get dirty with age.

And several readers asked what I know about ceramic knives. Not much. Anybody out there got advice?

UPDATE: Several readers recommend the Kapoosh universal knife block. It's washable, and takes anything.

AN AMATEUR JOURNALIST offers the pros some help.

UPDATE: Perhaps professional journalists should look in the mirror.

"I FEEL VERY GOOD ABOUT WHERE I AM."

THE SUPREME COURT SEEMS TO BE VERY MUCH IN STEP WITH PUBLIC OPINION on questions of race.

TOM SMITH DEMONSTRATES WHY HE'S A LAW PROFESSOR, instead of a headline writer for the NYT or WaPo.

MORE ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGN DONATIONS FROM ACADEMICS, at John Wixted's place. "Nowadays, almost no one seriously disputes the idea that academia and the media both lean far to the left. Even so, the evidence concerning how far left they lean never ceases to surprise me."

HMM:

After being virtually tied with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for several months, Republican contender Rudy Giuliani now leads Clinton up 47% to 40% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

In the match-up of the frontrunners, this result marks a significant shift. For the last three months the two frontrunners have never been further apart than three percentage points. Last month, Giuliani and Clinton were separated by just a single point.

These polls don't mean much at this point, but this can't make the Clinton camp happy. My guess is that she's dropped because of attacks from Barack Obama and John Edwards. But if those rather mild attacks make this much of a difference, how will she do in a real campaign?

BOOING BUSH in the MSNBC newsroom.

UNIDIRECTIONAL multiculturalism.

COOL IF TRUE: "A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time."

I'd await confirmation, though. And does quantum tunneling really violate special relativity? It's been a while since I studied such things, but I didn't think so.

JOSE PADILLA: Guilty on all counts.

SCOTT BEAUCHAMP: Tip of the Iceberg. "These offenses have been going on for years, long before the internet. But there does seems to be a rise in the number of reported offenses in recent years. Did the number of offenses go up, or did the fraction of discovered offenses go up?"

LARRY KUDLOW: "The power outage in banking and credit markets continues to deepen as the sub-prime mortgage infection spreads throughout the U.S. and the global financial system."

I told somebody the other day that if Kudlow ever started sounding gloomy I was going to liquidate my portfolio and turn it into canned goods and shotgun shells. He's not sounding gloomy yet -- but he is sounding kind of worried.

UPDATE: John Coumarianos emails: "All Wall Streeters are screaming bloody murder to induce Bernanke to drop rates. That's the kind of relationship they had with Greenspan, and they're testing Bernanke now to see what they can get from him."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader George Zachar emails:

I'm the Park Ave/Hedge fund guy who's corresponded with you in the past.

It's true that some Street crybabies are testing Bernanke to see if he'll blink and elevate the level of moral hazard in the financial markets. But it's not true that "all Wall Streeters" are doing so. Some of us, amazingly, want a robust self-regulating system that can operate with minimal government intervention. But there are no headlines in silence and maturity.

I've noticed that myself.

A LOOK AT WHO'S KILLING MUSLIMS in carload lots. Shockingly, it's not the United States or Israel.

WOW: I just noticed that yesterday's traffic broke 275,000 pageviews. Not a record or anything, but a lot for a slow news day in the summer. Must be the cookware blogging!

AND THAT'S NOT COUNTING how Wile E. Coyote can walk on air until he happens to look down:

Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, contributing to students’ ignorance about science.

Some people really do believe a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed. And, if that were realistic, a ramp would be needed to adjust the direction of motion to even try to make the leap, said UCF professor Costas J. Efthimiou, who co-authored the article.

“Students come here, and they don’t have any basic understanding of science,” he said. “Sure, people say everyone knows the movies are not real, but my experience is many of the students believe what they see on the screen.”

Well, they're better and better at making it look plausible.

EARTHQUAKE IN PERU: Gateway Pundit has a roundup of the latest reports.

IN THE MAIL: Mike O' Connor's Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run.

AN UPTICK IN ARMY SUICIDES: James Joyner thinks it's random variation, and notes the small numbers involved: "We had a spike of more than 11 percent from 2005 to 2006. That’s huge. But it represents 11 individual soldiers. The preliminary numbers indicate that the rate will likely decline for 2007. That’s despite a surge in the number of soldiers deployed to Iraq and an increase in the combat tempo. If that holds, it almost surely means that the 2006 spike is largely random variation in a complex phenomenon." Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Tam notes something rather crucial:

In 2006, the overall suicide rate for the United States was 13.4 per 100,000 people. It was 21.1 per 100,000 people for all men aged 17 to 45, compared to a rate of 17.8 for men in the Army.

This leads her to comment: "Y'know, I don't mind being jerked around a little bit, Mr. Reporter, but if you want your propaganda headline to work better, you really shouldn't include the raw numbers. It makes me feel like you think I'm dumb."

A LOOK AT the new John Edwards.

WELL, YEAH: Law schools recruiting bloggers to boost rankings?

MEDIA HUBRIS: Victor Davis Hanson says enough with anonymity.

IT'S NOT "FOUL-MOUTHED" when we're using those words!

AMIT VARMA LOOKS AT THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT, and thinks he's living inside a Nigerian scam email.

IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO GO: More Ted Stevens troubles: "The FBI is investigating the National Science Foundation's award of $170 million in contracts to the oil field services company that oversaw renovations on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' home, McClatchy Newspapers has learned. . . . The disclosure provides further evidence of the degree to which the investigation of public corruption in the Alaska legislature has widened to include at least two of the state's three members of Congress. Alaska's sole congressman, U.S. Rep. Don Young, is also under investigation for his ties to Veco."

I don't know how much there is to this story, but Stevens' questionable dealings continue to mount, and Young isn't looking much better. If the GOP is smart, they'll be encouraged to retire in time to run somebody obviously non-criminal in the next election.

RALPH PETERS ON CONGRESS AND PETRAEUS:

Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.

Al Qaeda has been badly battered. It's lost top leaders and thousands of cadres. Even more painful for the Islamists, they've lost ground among the people of Iraq, including former allies. Iraqis got a good taste of al Qaeda. Now they're spitting it out.

The foreign terrorists slaughtering the innocent recognize that their only remaining hope of pulling off a come-from-way-behind win is to convince your senator and your congressman or -woman that it's politically expedient to hand a default victory to a defeated al Qaeda.

Read the whole thing. And check out this call to action from Blackfive, too.

RADLEY BALKO ON "The government's morally dubious use of drug informants:"

Late last month, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on the death of the Kathryn Johnston, the 92-year-old Atlanta woman killed by police during a November 2006 drug raid on her home.

Johnston died when she mistook a team of narcotics officers for criminal intruders. When the police broke down her door, she met them with an old pistol. They opened fire, and killed her.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the entire chain of events up to and shortly after Johnston's death were beset with lies, planted evidence, and cover-up on the part of the narcotics cops. They fabricated an imaginary informant to get the search warrant for Ms. Johnston's home. They planted evidence on a convicted felon, arrested him, then let him off in exchange for his tip—which he made up from whole cloth—that they'd find drugs in Ms. Johnston's house.

When they realized their mistake, they then tried to portray an innocent old woman as a drug dealer. They planted marijuana in Ms. Johnston's basement while she lay handcuffed and bleeding on the floor.

More investigation revealed that this kind of behavior wasn't aberrant, but common among narcotics officers in the Atlanta Police Department. Police Chief Richard Pennington eventually dismissed or reassigned the entire narcotics division of the APD.

What came out at the hearings investigating Kathryn Johnston's death was even more disturbing.

Read the whole thing. And there's a followup post here.

YOUR HOMELAND SECURITY TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: "A criminal investigations report says several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees are accused of aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain."

THIS RESEARCH WON'T SURPRISE MANY BLOG-READERS:

The average newspaper should expand by a factor of 50 the amount of space given to corrections if Scott R. Maier's research is any guide.

Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, describes in a forthcoming research paper his findings that fewer than 2 percent of factually flawed articles are corrected at dailies.

Read the whole thing.

MYSTERY RESEARCH: Michelle Malkin asks Ellen Goodman a question, but doesn't get a much of an answer.

DANIEL HENNINGER on the death of "diversity" as an ideology.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE REELECTED, people who disagreed with the dominant religion would risk criminal charges. And they were right.

A PEDAL-POWERED AIR CANNON: Doesn't everybody need one?

PATRICK HYNES criticizes "identity group conservatism."

August 15, 2007

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Some pork pushback for the piggish Alaska delegation:

For the last 15 summers, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has hosted his state’s political heavyweights at a down-home pig roast fundraiser. But this August, pigs of a different kind snorted back at him.

About 75 protesters, crying “Oink! Oink!” and “FBI! FBI!” gave Young, Alaska’s two senators and their supporters a shockingly poor reception at last week’s fundraiser. When Young held a public picnic on Monday, the protesters were back, wearing swine masks and waving angry signs.

More than 3,600 miles from the Capitol, one thing is clear: Young and Sen. Ted Stevens (R) are in political as well as legal jeopardy. . . . Polls released this week suggested that Democrats may have a leg up. The Hays Research Group in Anchorage found Stevens with a 44 percent positive rating in the state and showed Republican Gov. Sarah Palin trouncing Stevens by 23 percentage points in a hypothetical Senate primary next year.

To coin a phrase, it is time for him to go.

A LOOK AT India as a great nuclear power.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATH OF BOOKS: Glenn Derene looks at the future of e-publishing.

DOWN MEMORY LANE with Bill Keller and the liberal hawks.

A LOOK AT the battle over the war narrative.

NOT AGAIN: "He's in Georgia. He's in Georgia, insulting Wisconsin? Well, now, it's a war between the states!"

Plus, provoking "conversations among nebbish males." I don't think that's how the Civil War got started, unless somehow Dolley Madison's rack started the process of estrangement . . . .

EDITOR & PUBLISHER: General Petraeus is polling well.

7.5 EARTHQUAKE IN PERU.

UPDATE: A tsunami warning for Hawaii.

I SAY CALL HIM "HERMAN," OR I'LL START BLOWING SHIT UP: "A Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has proposed people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate on religious tolerance in a country with one million Muslims."

UPDATE: Mess with lunch, and risk beheading.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Less sarcasm, but no more enthusiasm, from Professor Bainbridge.

WELL, THEY CAN'T ALL BE AS HAPPY AS ME -- but why are middle-aged men depressed?

BILL QUICK IS NOT IMPRESSED with Wikipedia: "Can’t you people get anything right?"

BUSH ON the Zombie threat.

It's always about the zombies.

STOP THE PRESSES: A Baghdad Diarist who isn't a miserable phony.

THOSE GLOBAL WARMING DENIALISTS at Newsweek.

A LOOK AT BARACK OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY: I think we should try to do more with the porn.

NEWS FLASH: THINGS DON'T SUCK: "A surprising 94 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with their lives - although far fewer in New York and other Eastern states think they're better off than they were five years ago, according to a new survey."

It seems regional, though: "But only 42 percent of people in the Eastern U.S. said things had improved since 2002. By contrast, 60 percent of Southerners and 62 percent of Westerners said their lives had improved."

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE turns into local politics in northern Virginia.

MORE PROBLEMS FOR CHINA'S BRAND: "Certain vinyl baby bibs sold at Toys “R” Us stores appear to be contaminated with lead, laboratory tests have shown, making the inexpensive bibs another example of a made-in-China product that may be a health hazard to children."

NOT JUST A MISLABELED PHOTO, but a deliberate deception? We've never seen that before . . . . "The picture seems to show common commercial 55-grain civilian ball ammunition patterned after the Vietnam-era M193. With this in mind, I'd state that this ammunition wasn't even dropped by American forces, as they don't carry such ammunition. This isn't just a a photo that just shows ignorance. It appears to show a willful deception using civilian ammunition." Regardless, it's one that would never have gotten by had AFP's photo editors possessed even a smidgen of knowledge or critical faculty, and cared about accuracy.

INSIDE THE NAZIS' WELFARE STATE: Michael Moynihan reviews Gotz Aly's new book, Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State.

THE MAIL CONTINUES TO POUR IN on last night's post on kitchen knives. Apparently, InstaPundit readers do a lot of cooking.

HEY, WAIT: I thought all we did in Afghanistan was stage air raids and bomb civilians. And yet: " Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against al Qaida and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan . . . . The offensive involving ground troops and airstrikes in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar province is targeting 'hundreds of foreign fighters' who are using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Capt Vanessa Bowman." Ground troops? And we're bombing "foreign fighters"? What, there were no civilians to target?

GLOBAL WARMING: It started longer ago than I realized!

OBAMA'S SPEECH PROBLEMS: The campaign has been aware of them for a while.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, thinly fictionalized.

NIFONG: "The dog ate my law license." No, really.

"CLUSTERS" OF HOMEGROWN TERRORISTS? "The report, in its conclusions, asserts that the most significant threat to the homeland is not al Qaeda but the spread of the ideology promulgated by violent extremist Muslims, such as those belonging to al Qaeda, into the United States where it helps to radicalize residents."

FROM ANATHEMA to hero.

IT'S ALL THE RAGE: Bombings and beheadings -- in Russia.

IN THE MAIL: Eric Berlin's The Puzzling World of Winston Breen.

BOY, YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING: "I want to examine as objectively as possible what I consider to be some very suspicious behavior by Glenn Reynolds."

It's a fair cop.

CHINA VS. THE TALIBAN: "China and Pakistan have signed a formal agreement covering security arrangements for the 4,000 Chinese citizens working in Pakistan. What this has done is make China a major player in the war against al Qaeda inside Pakistan. . . . All this Chinese counter-terror work is done very quietly, and covertly. That may keep it out of the Western press, but the Chinese are increasingly tagged as major bad guys by the Islamic media, especially the outlets that are pro-radical."

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD IRAQ NEWS: "The top U.S. general there is expected by Bush administration officials to recommend removing American troops soon from several areas where commanders believe security has improved, possibly including Al Anbar province."

Hmm. Maybe T.M. Lutas was right when he predicted this last April.

Capt. Ed has more thoughts: "Will Congress buy it? Many are heavily invested in withdrawal, and they will likely argue that pullbacks should result in reductions, not redeployments. It's hard to argue with success, however, and that will be the effect of Petraeus' report." And Jules Crittenden has a prediction of his own: "Watch for withdrawal enthusiasts to denounce any partial drawdown on grounds that Iraqi forces aren’t ready, and then go on to proclaim the cause hopeless, and demand total abandonment." Plus, a recommendation for Congress!

UPDATE: Harry Reid acknowledges the success of the surge. Much more information at the link.

Plus there'sthis: Al Qaeda in Iraq Has Lost 75% of Civilian Leadership. Good riddance.

MORE: Lindsey Graham, armed and dangerous.

STILL MORE: Jay Reding: "Petraeus is looking at the long game now, concerning himself with how we beat al-Qaeda and secure Iraq in the next few months. The big variable is the quality of the Iraqi troops — if they can fight off al-Qaeda, that means that we’re close to the point where we can make a responsible exit from Iraq. If they can’t, we’ll need to continue the surge throughout 2008 and start planning for how best to reduce the strain on our armed forces."

MICHAEL TOTTEN POSTS another report from Baghdad. And via email, he recommends this piece on Beirut by Lisa Goldman.

TAKING VW'S TOUAREG 2 OFF-ROAD: It's "hyper-capable," but how many will ever be driven that way? If you like it, though, I'd hold out for the turbo-diesel powered 2009 model, which promises less-ghastly fuel mileage.

PUTTING COLBERT AND STEWART on the witness stand.

EURO FALLS against the dollar.

TIGERHAWK looks at campaign contributions, special interests, and federal appropriations.

HEH: The AFP photo editor must have been fresh back from happy hour . . . .

INDIA PLANS FIRST REUSABLE SPACECRAFT BY 2010. I wish them success.

FACT-CHECKING THE A.P.'S NEDRA PICKLER.

NO, I HAVEN'T BEEN BLOGGING ABOUT the Space Shuttle's problems. Sorry -- I wish 'em well, but I just don't have much to say.

SHE'S STILL FAMOUS FOR HER CUPCAKES: "Dolley Madison had a decent rack."

BAD SUICIDE BOMBING IN IRAQ, targeting the Yazidis. That last is kind of interesting, as it doesn't fit into the general political picture. Alas, this kind of thing will continue for a while no matter what -- it's just too easy to make bombs, and too hard to root out the people who do it, and once started it tends to feed on itself.

UPDATE: Michael Yon, who's currently vacationing in Bali, posts some thoughts. And he emails: "The people here in Bali, Indonesia are very warm and friendly. The island is stunningly beautiful. Bali even gives Hawaii a run for its money on beauty, and that is saying a lot. Americans are very welcome here, but the terrorists are not. I ate in a restaurant last night because I saw a waiter wearing a shirt that said Fxxx Terrorists. Not a class act, but still I voted with my feet and had dinner there."

August 14, 2007

REMEMBER ME?

SUITCASES OF VENEZUELAN CASH: Just keep scrolling.

READER ROBERT RUDDIGER EMAILS: "I'm curious what others had to say in response to your knife query."

In fact, the response was so large I was swamped -- I still haven't read all the emails. Forget politics and Iraq -- when you post about kitchenware, the mail pours in. But here are some high points:

Reader Scott Canty emails: "Forget the Wusthof or Henckels. The best you can get are Global. A nice three piece set is really all you need. 8” Chefs, 5.5” veggie, and 3” paring. Make sure to get the ceramic water sharpener."

Cookware expert Brian Erst emails:

Some years back I was your "cookware guy" when the discussion turned to pans (Emerilware vs. All-Clad), so, being the kitchen geek that I am, I thought I'd weigh in on the subject.

I have the Wusthof Classics, and they are very good knives. They hold an edge reasonably well and fit my hands nicely (I'm 6'0", but have small-for-my-height hands). Balance is perfect, and the heft is good - the chef's knife will go thru a butternut squash pretty easily without a hint of bending. You have to like what I call the "mold your hand to the handle, not the other way around" handles (they are flat and hardish) - they look very nice, but some people prefer a more contoured handle. Wusthof makes a line of knives with a cushier/more ergonomic handle (the Grand Prix/Grand Prix 2) that are otherwise identical to the Classics.

The Gourmets are a bit of a different beast. They straddle the line between a stamped and a forged knife - instead of hand cut and forged, they are laser cut and machine-forged/sharpened. Generally, stamped or laser-cut knives are made with thinner metal (as are the Gourmet's). This can be a good thing in some cases (they bend more, which is preferable in a filetting knife, not so much in a chef's knife). As the Classics are on the thick end (some people think they're too thick), this may not be an issue.

I have also used a couple of other brands. The Shun knives are very nice (I have a Shun Santoku that I love). They have a unique handle which you either love or hate - it's VERY nice looking and quite comfortable for me. Instead of being flat or perfectly round, it is a sort of flattened D shape (slightly bulgy on one side, flatter on the other). I find it keeps the knife from slipping. The Shun Classics (and especially the Pros) are beautiful - if aesthetics as well as performance is you thing, you won't find a prettier knife. The Shun "Ken Onion" knives are so pretty they make you want to cry (especially once you see the price). Ken Onion is a famous knife maker (as famous as a knife maker can be) and designed special, super-ergonomic handles for one of their lines.

Shun's are actually another stamped-like knife, but they use a special annealing process to fabricate a knife that looks and feels exactly like a forged knife. Part of the reason it's stamped is that they use a Damascus-style steel that really can't be forged without screwing up the aesthetics of the knife blade. It has these opalescent waves on the side that are very cool - and REALLY hard...

Finally, if you're just looking for high-function knives at a low price, skip all of the above and head out to by some Forschner Fibrox or Forscher Victorinox knives. They are stamped, but they are laser sharp, super tough and dirt cheap. The folks at Cook's Illustrated repeatedly choose them over the others (Wusthof and Shun generally come in second and third). You can get pretty much every knife Forschner makes for the cost of a single Wusthof Chef's knife. Non-slip plastic handles too. Aesthetics... ah, not so much, but if they're sitting in a drawer...

Even if you pick up the Wusthofs or Shuns, you might want to pick up a Forschner filetting knife (if you ever filet things). It's about the perfect filetting knife - strong, supple and bendy in all the right ways.

Thanks, Brian. Quite a few other readers recommend the Forschner knives: Reader Kristian Holvoet emails: "They are nice, good steel, fit my hand well, easy to clean and are cheap. (They are common commercial knives for that reason). They are stamped, not forged, but really, if you aren't a master of the knife, the extra money may not be worth it.

Reader Karl Davis writes: "I highly recommend Shun knives, especially the "Alton's Angle" series. I thought the angle was a gimmick, but they are far more comfortable to use over extended periods. The construction is second to none in all of the Shun knives I have, and the handles are amazingly comfortable and never slip (combination of D-shape and pakkawood material). This is my favorite knife."

Jason Swartz emails: "I love my Henckels Twin Cuisine set: The grip feels fantastic, and the knife is one piece of steel from end to end, through the handle." They look cool, too.

Literally hundreds of other emails -- I'll try to post more when I get a chance. I didn't expect such a flood!

LOOK WHO'S EDITING WIKIPEDIA! Various people, from Ace, to Charles Johnson, to Dan Riehl, are having fun tracking what's going on. Turning Bill Frist into an African-American? Nice to see the New York Times' fierce commitment to truth.

UPDATE: More fun here.

MORE: A "farcical moment."

OBAMA BOMBS OUT: A.P. to the rescue.

UPDATE: Ouch: “AP joins Obama in slander of US troops.”

MARK STEYN: "Being gay isn't exactly one of those jobs Canadians won't do."

MORE EVIDENCE FOR PANSPERMIA.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: "A spokesperson for the Food Collective says, 'no one should have to have contact with people whose views they find hurtful.'"

YAHOO! BEATS GOOGLE, in customer satisfaction.

FRED THOMPSON: Real Earmark Reform Needed.