Wendell Berry

Unlike the "cult of gaia", this kind of environmentalism I can understand.

happy non-euclidean holidays!

Lileks' geometric analysis of Christmas music where:

"...the various members of the family gather to rock around the Christmas tree. How this rocking is done I am unsure, since the tree is usually in the corner; thus it would be difficult to rock around the Christmas tree. You would have to rock in a semi-circular pattern. The people on the end would either have to circle around the others, which would mean they were rocking around the persons rocking, or the entire line would have to shift back and forth, permitting the occupant of the center position no more than a few feet of rocking. It is also unclear what sort of rocking we are talking about here; most rocking doesn’t take you around anything. From the Bruce Springsteen grin-and-thrust-and-pump-hip dance to the Foghat-stoner stand-in-place-and-bob-head style, most rocking is done in place. So the whole song falls apart under analysis. Note: it is possible to rock around the clock, this being an expression of rocking performed in time, not space."

Rush & Max

I have two reasons to like this video of the song "YYZ" by Rush:

I was a long-time Rush fan, seeing them in concert five times (twice on the Presto tour), and I work with 3D Studio Max, the software used to make this video.

stifling of dissent, pt. 4

UPDATE: Professor Daly has resigned! One down, several thousand to go...

"Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom of Ideas" are unwelcome in Professor Daly's classroom in Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J.. Read the article, then read my parallel response:

Dear Professor Daly,

I am asking everyone to boycott your school. Your poorly-written message is fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive. Your assertion that "Capitalism killed over 100,000,000" is not only untrue, but ignores the fact that COMMUNISM has killed many more and the evidence for that can be seen in accurate history books, such as those in most libraries. (This may not apply to your local libraries, as you seem like the book-burning type.)

The ACLU can sue to silence anyone in America in 12 hours, yet they have not fought for real liberty for Americans in decades. Racism and profits are key to their priorities. Hollywood, by the way, made billions of dollars in profits this last quarter, thanks to the idiots who are brainwashed to whine and lie for MoveOn.org and other shady organizations who raise illegal contributions for their communist puppet candidates. If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the Kurds who have died in Iraq from Saddam's use of WMD, or the millions of African people who died from communist and Islamic regimes.

I will continue to expose your left-wing, anti-reality politics until tenured idiots like you won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when students in college classrooms across America turn their arguments on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs--such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again.

Hatless in Hattiesburg

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving thoughts from:
Mish Mash,
Molten Thought,
A Little Aardvark,
via Powerline via Claremont Institute, George Washington & Abraham Lincoln,
Dustbury,
GM's Corner,
Varifrank, and
Cheat Seeking Missiles.

---

And my favorite passage for this season, Psalm 107, this year from the NASB (via Bible Gateway):

1 O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
      For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
      Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
3 And gathered from the lands,
      From the east and from the west,
      From the north and from the south.

4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region;
      They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
      Their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them also by a straight way,
      To go to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty soul,
      And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.

10 There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
      Prisoners in misery and chains,
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God
      And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
      They stumbled and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
      And broke their bands apart.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
16 For He has shattered gates of bronze
      And cut bars of iron asunder.

17 Fools, because of their rebellious way,
      And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all kinds of food,
      And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
      He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
      And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
22 Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
      And tell of His works with joyful singing.

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
      Who do business on great waters;
24 They have seen the works of the LORD,
      And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
      Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
      Their soul melted away in their misery.
27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
      And were at their wits' end.
28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
      And He brought them out of their distresses.
29 He caused the storm to be still,
      So that the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad because they were quiet,
      So He guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
      And for His wonders to the sons of men!
32 Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people,
      And praise Him at the seat of the elders.


33 He changes rivers into a wilderness
      And springs of water into a thirsty ground;
34 A fruitful land into a salt waste,
      Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He changes a wilderness into a pool of water
      And a dry land into springs of water;
36 And there He makes the hungry to dwell,
      So that they may establish an inhabited city,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
      And gather a fruitful harvest.
38 Also He blesses them and they multiply greatly,
      And He does not let their cattle decrease.

39 When they are diminished and bowed down
      Through oppression, misery and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt upon princes
      And makes them wander in a pathless waste.
41 But He sets the needy securely on high away from affliction,
      And makes his families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad;
      But all unrighteousness shuts its mouth.

43 Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things,
      And consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD.

---

And I wish everyone a Blessed, Safe, and Happy Thanksgiving.

The Democrats want America to lose

Molten Thought has several good quotes about the reprehensible gutless cowards who want to destroy America, and summarizes with another good quote:

The Democrats want America to lose the war in Iraq.

How do we know this?

It's quite simple. They call for an unconditional surrender to al Zarqawi and al Qaeda. What else does "immediate withdrawal" mean? There is no victory plan, no plan of any sort for how to open another front in the War on Terror. There is only surrender and disgrace.

This should sound very familiar.

It was the Democratic plan for ending the Vietnam War. We all know how that turned out---it took 16 years to wipe away the stain on our military prowess and our sacred honor, if such a stain can ever be wiped out.

In fact, the number one fear of our soldiers fighting in Iraq is not the IED. It is the stab-in-the-back, delivered by Democrats and weak-sister Republicans in Congress, who profess to "support the troops" while undermining their mission.

I'll consider a plan for withdrawal from the War on Terror when the Democrats propose a plan for withdrawal from the War on Poverty.

update 1: related story

update 2: Ann Coulter comes to the same conclusion.

problem thinking

i'm going to join a square-root-of-144 step program tomorrow.

new post

i guess i should post something today...

and now i have.

ongoing jihad

what was that saying?... err... "those who forget... uh, something... doomed to... uhh..."

UN-Controlled Internet

Bad Juju shows us a likely scenario. (via dustbury)

Texas Press

James Bernsen via Voice in the Wilderness notices the "great chasm between the people of Texas and the newspapers that report to them", and asks:

How often have the editorial pages (of Texas newspapers) called for political representation that “looks like Texas.” How often have they demanded that businesses hire more minorities? How often have they called for more diversity?

Perhaps they could illustrate this sacred principle by taking the lead themselves…

When was the last time a paper hired a white male from Abilene? A suburban woman from The Woodlands?”

"Clinton Lied!! People Died!!"

CrosSwords fetched something from the memory hole. You can read the edited version, but I'm copying the CNN source article unedited here, in case it gets disappeared (bold text is original, italics are mine):

Clinton: Iraq has abused its last chance

December 16, 1998
Web posted at: 8:51 p.m. EST (0151 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From the Oval Office, President Clinton told the nation Wednesday evening why he ordered new military strikes against Iraq.

The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world.

"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," Clinton said.

Operation Desert Fox, a strong, sustained series of attacks, will be carried out over several days by U.S. and British forces, Clinton said.

"Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces," Clinton said.

"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors," said Clinton.

Clinton also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors.

'Without delay, diplomacy or warning'

The Iraqi leader was given a final warning six weeks ago, Clinton said, when Baghdad promised to cooperate with U.N. inspectors at the last minute just as U.S. warplanes were headed its way.

"Along with Prime Minister (Tony) Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy or warning," Clinton said.

The president said the report handed in Tuesday by Richard Butler, head of the United Nations Special Commission in charge of finding and destroying Iraqi weapons, was stark and sobering.

Iraq failed to cooperate with the inspectors and placed new restrictions on them, Clinton said. He said Iraqi officials also destroyed records and moved everything, even the furniture, out of suspected sites before inspectors were allowed in.

"Instead of inspectors disarming Saddam, Saddam has disarmed the inspectors," Clinton said.

"In halting our airstrikes in November, I gave Saddam a chance -- not a license. If we turn our backs on his defiance, the credibility of U.S. power as a check against Saddam will be destroyed," the president explained.

Strikes necessary to stunt weapons programs

Clinton said he made the decision to strike Wednesday with the unanimous agreement of his security advisors.

Timing was important, said the president, because without a strong inspection system in place, Iraq could rebuild its chemical, biological and nuclear programs in a matter of months, not years.

"If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections system and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will," said Clinton. "He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction."

Clinton also called Hussein a threat to his people and to the security of the world.

"The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government -- a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people," Clinton said.

Such a change in Baghdad would take time and effort, Clinton said, adding that his administration would work with Iraqi opposition forces.

Clinton also addressed the ongoing impeachment crisis in the White House.

"Saddam Hussein and the other enemies of peace may have thought that the serious debate currently before the House of Representatives would distract Americans or weaken our resolve to face him down," he said.

"But once more, the United States has proven that although we are never eager to use force, when we must act in America's vital interests, we will do so."

Feel free to print out this article and shove it in any moonbat's face when they say "Bush Lied, People Died".

update: similar forgotten fragments

Islam

Somehow I keep forgetting how Islam is "the religion of peace".

• More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.
• Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years.
• More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.
• 19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals put to death in the last 65 years.

Hmmm, the phrase "peace of the grave" seems to help me remember...

read the screed

Lileks on the French riots:

"(Europe's) vision – a post-national multiethnic welfare state linked by nothing but the language in which people curse one another – is fatally flawed. The rioters can’t be dispelled with Brussels-based regulations specifying the number of cars one can burn per night."

1.7 tons is nothing...

...when reporting on WMD in Iraq.

white-collar crime

Sony is aspiring to be as reviled as Microsoft.

laun------dry

Though they're not adjacent, at least my washer & dryer are in the same room.

disaster averted!

As much as I generally dislike Micro$oft (and Bill GatesOfSheol), tonight I have learned to greatly appreciate their "System Restore" utility.

I have also learned to distrust "Spybot Search And Destroy", because it flagged my ENTIRE MUSIC SOFTWARE FOLDER for deletion.

on revisionism

Cox & Forkum quotes Podhoretz:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike.

what's the deal?

Power Line wants to know what's wrong with the Republican side of the aisle.:

Almost exactly one year ago, President Bush was re-elected with more votes than had ever been cast for a Presidential candidate, breaking Ronald Reagan's 1984 record. Not only did Bush sweep to victory by a three million vote margin, the Republicans increased their majorities in both the House and the Senate, the first time this trifecta had been accomplished since 1964.

Since that triumphant moment, what has sent the party into a tailspin? Has the economy collapsed? Not at all; it is humming along as strongly as ever, steadily putting more distance between America's prosperity and that of Europe and Japan. Have the terrorists attacked successfully, exposing a weakness in our domestic security? No. Astonishingly, we have now gone more than four years without a successful attack on American soil, even though newspaper headlines reveal, on an almost daily basis, how bloodthirsty our enemies are. This is an extraordinary record, of which all Republicans should be proud. Have there been setbacks in foreign policy that could explain how a party that was triumphant just twelve months ago should now be in full retreat? Not at all. We continue to make excellent progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan. On a number of fronts, liberty has made progress in the vital Middle East. And no foreign power even imagines that it could rival the United States in influence.

So what has happened in the past twelve months to terrify so many of our Republican office-holders? Two hurricanes struck, and some observers accused a federal agency of responding too slowly to one of them. Tom DeLay was indicted, in what was basically a bad joke, by an absurdly partisan and utterly discredited Texas Democrat DA. An aide to the Vice President has been accused of lying to a grand jury about telling the truth to the press about a mountebank Democrat's lies about the administration. And the President's poll ratings--more or less irrelevant, given that he can't run for office again--have dropped into a range occupied, at one time or another, by every President from Lyndon Johnson to the present.

These are pathetic reasons for our representatives in Congress to be in a Chicken Little mode. The Republicans are rapidly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and it's hard to say who is more to blame--the Congressional Republicans, some of whom are afraid of their own shadows, or the White House, which, in studiously refraining from responding to the most outrageously unfair and blatantly partisan attacks launched against an American administration in 145 years, seems intent on a weird kind of martyrdom.

It's no wonder that Republicans across the country increasingly regard their elected representatives as gutless wonders. There is no objective reason why 2006 should be a disaster for the party, but it will be if our representative don't stick together and show the voters that the Republican party still stands for security, common sense and limited government. That's still a winning combination, but only if our representatives vote for it.

France Riot Update 3

24 hours, 2 weeks, what's the difference?

Does anyone remember the outcry that occurred when George Bush didn't get on TV in the 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina and make a personal expression of sorrow? That outcry resulted from a natural disaster, not a threat to the authority of the government. Chirac has yet to make any significant speech to his country as head of state in the face of a direct challenge to French sovereignty. It's as if the entire French command structure has forgotten why it exists. Instead of standing for French law and order and defense of French interests -- the natural role of the executive in any form of government -- Chirac has gone into hiding and his staff has prepared a slate of bribes.

Profits of Doom

This place will also need a video section, including "Red Dawn", "Chicken Little", and "Day After Tomorrow"

secret weapon!

They could actually be serious about "The Military Applications of Silly String".

p.s. you (especially ryan/mish mash) can also see some other projects this guy made.

France Riot Update 2

with picture and commentary.

Introverts

This info could come in handy for people around me.

War on Terror

Go read this piece at Vodkapundit about the War on Terror. One key quote:

"The MSM needs to relearn constructive criticism, and they need to remember which country defends their rights, and which group of people would gleefully slit their throats."

France Riot Update

According to Yahoo News:

Asked on TF1 television whether the army should be brought in, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said, "We are not at that point."

For once, de Villepin is right. This is no time to surrender....

The Lit-Up City

NOFP has a must-read report on the Paris riots.

spam poetry 5

Alexander's interesting information
was comb, as talent
downstate. Attache
with see to name negotiation.

Is type it mercy
I overheard that
on? Eat the tomato,
or learn my villainies
in Forget or Southwest
Siberia. Lace,
achromatism, affluently, adevism
valium, pilgrim,
see? Impersonate a cerulean
kaiser!
Look sharp at all times
by reply at mystique.

So finish by appliance
which ask on Afrikaans'
Ambien shakedown.
Benevolent footprint
of spend a stood ideology.

marriage amendment

What these tactics prove is that the liberal left cannot win based on truth.

"Stability" in Middle East

Dustbury argues that "the only thing wrong with the war in Iraq was that we didn’t do it sooner."

Discerning Texan has three related posts.

plame again

i didn't want to post any more on the whole plame game, but this is just too good...

"Give peace a chance, or we'll kill you!"

Looks like the phrase "peace protest" has a whole new meaning.

Halloween Continues...

the horror! the horror! at chartwells.

Cyprus

Lileks linked to a site that has stories and pictures of a modern ghost town and a divided capitol on Cyprus.

with science like that, who needs mythology?

According to this Yahoo Science News story,

"The most explosive star in our corner of the solar system has a companion."

Wow! I didn't know our solar system had another star?!?

:P

lileks is linking

Techno pioneer Kraftwerk is still around.

Watch Yoda Rap.

two stories in one

Here's a sad story about a pastor who was electrocuted during a baptism service. The story covers the details, but goes on to give a less-than-flattering editorial description of Waco, the town where it occurred.

But you must understand, the story is on a London website. With a population of 7,619,000, that town has also made more headlines than would be expected for a town of its size.

In the late 19th century it became infamous for several murders committed there by Jack the Ripper. During a earlier period, many people were imprisoned and beheaded in the Tower of London (an actual stone tower, not a record store). London is also noted for being the home of the bubonic plague and the Spice Girls.

(...and the reporter is from Los Angeles, the shake-and-bake with all the flakes.)