Don't worry about stem cell research

If we don't want to do it, somebody else will ...

Conjunction Junction, Learning Earning

How about somebody comes up with some new schoolhouse rock bits for teaching kids about money? 

Tips for managing female employees

Good stuff.

--
tom

Do we really need a full-time legislature?

When I read this kind of thing, it makes me think we no longer need Congress.
If they really think it's a worthwhile use of their time to comment on news stories then I think we can save the money and let them find a real job.
I thought it was silly when they 'condemned' the MoveOn Betray-us ad, and I think this newest one is worse.
What is this High School?
"You picked on our friend, now we're going to pick on yours."
Seriously, don't we have enough laws? Why don't we convene a congress every 5 years for 6 months and they can pass whatever laws they can in that period of time. If they can't come up with anything then I can live with that.
When you elect people to make laws they feel that's what they have to do. That's how government has become the behemoth that it is.
I think it's time for a do over.

Yeah, this is a bit much

More special exemptions for Muslims

live like you're dying

he is

Racism in the deep south

Reading Radley Balko's account of his visit to Louisiana reminded me of an experience my wife and I had on our honeymoon in 1991. We were driving from Knoxville to Destin Beach on the Florida panhandle. As we were driving south out of Birmingham I noticed that we were low on gas. I planned to stop at the next station, but the two-lane road we were on wasn't exactly bustling with activity and we were getting nervous when we finally stopped at a closed gas station where a couple of guys (good ol' boys) had their heads in the hood of a pickup.
I asked how far to the next gas station and he indicated it was a couple of miles up. Then he said something I never expected to hear:
"It's a colored place, but that'll be alright".
He was right on both counts, but I was stunned at both the statement and the fact of it.

global warming

a reasoned response ...

Never,

never forget.

Parental wisdom I can really get behind ...

I'm less concerned that my children self-actualize at an early age than that they learn a trade and get out of the house.

and

this notion that humans are inherently angelic, and that it is society that corrupts them, is at the heart of much bad parenting, as well as inept schooling. Rather than help our children develop internal constraints that channel their energy and passion into productive enterprises, we end up teaching them that limits and discipline are for chumps.

read it all here

via instapundit

Conservatives brain damaged

according to new study by real scientists.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.

That's why Kerry was perceived as a flip-flopper. In reality he's pre-programmed to change with the wind.

Lead author David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University, cautioned that the study looked at a narrow range of human behavior and that it would be a mistake to conclude that one political orientation was better. The tendency of conservatives to block distracting information could be a good thing depending on the situation, he said.

It "could be a good thing" in some situations, but he can't imagine any. According to the article they didn't look at the whole range of political beliefs - they took only the "very liberal" and "very conservative". If the design has any merit, then I'd be interested in how someone from the center (where I, believe it or not, place myself) would have performed. I also wonder if they controlled for IQ at all, since performance on the task they described seems likely to be affected by intelligence more so than political ideology.

I'm sure they thought of that, though. I don't think there could be any bias involved in a study by professors at New York University or UCLA.
(via /.)

Heart surgery circa 1891

From Wired:

It was touch-and-go for a while: Dalton's account says it appeared that Cornish came close to dying during the surgery, but hypodermic injections of whiskey and strychnia revived him. The surgical team used sterilized warm water to irrigate the wound area, then stitched him up. Once he turned the corner, Cornish made a full recovery.

Wow. Saved by an injection of whiskey. That's a new one.

Hmmm, yeah, I'd be getting that apology out pretty quick

... and not because of the threat of lawsuit.

Amen

Sixty children on the bus. Sixty children alive. There's chance, and there's miracles. Take your choice. - Lileks

Cohen on Thomson on gun control

Hard to follow the columnist's logic. (via Instapundit ) He seems to advocate gun ownership for liberal newspaper columnists, but not for college students. Or is his point that guns might be okay for some people to have in their homes, but not on their person. He fears young, drunk college students might recklessly discharge a weapon in a fit of hormones. And he's willing to sacrifice 30 innocent Hokies to prevent this theoretical possibility. That's 30 (plus) actual dead people versus some unknown number of potentially dead or injured others.

This is darn

funny.

Lileks on Scary McRaincoat

Now. You could say that there's nothing wrong with a fifty-something guy with a grey beard and a raincoat and no fixed address wandering around a playground looking at the kids in their bathing suits, and that it's unfair to deny a fellow the simple human pleasure of watching kids enjoy themselves just because he happens to be homeless.

I don't care.

First of all, there aren't any shelters in this area. Second, I don't care. Third, it's possible he's homeless because he spent a lot of time in prison for kiddie-diddling. Fourth, you don't get to look like the fellow who shows up to collect the Hellraiser cube and hang around the kiddie pool. Good bye.

Here's the rest. Pretty much nails my feelings on the matter.

I realize the odds of something horrible happening to my kids is vanishingly small. The stakes, however, are so high that I feel like any risk is too much.

That said, I tend to regard with suspicion anyone who shows more than passing interest in my kids. The other side of that is I try to avoid paying too much attention to other people's kids.

I don't necessarily like this environment, but it is what it is.

When's the last time you thought about baton twirling?

I thought about it yesterday for the first time in - I'm sure - many years. I was listening to the radio and a singer was talking about being from a small town and how she had just been back to act as Grand Marshall for a parade she remembers marching in with her dance class as a small child.
This reminded me of parades I remember as a small child in Big Stone Gap, Va. I remember ranks of little girls twirling batons, dropping them, picking them up. It's a nice memory. And it led me to wonder what ever happened to baton twirling. I have four kids. Two of them are girls. I don't think they've ever owned a baton and I'm not sure they'd know what one is.
Today - literally and truly the next day - I see this on the front page of a section of the local paper:

Baton twirling: Glitz, no glory

That kind of think makes me a little nervous.

sorry

this is just crazy

New idea for UN

I kind of like the way China deals with corruption ...

What Heinlein believes

Well worth reading.

What he

said.

Cable Co Horror Story

Teh InstaMaster is running a poll looking for an alternative to his horrible Comcast service. This reminded me of my favorite all time cable company experience.
I don't remember where we lived at the time - Kingsport, Knoxville (Hi, Glenn), or Green Bay. I think it might have been Green Bay, but it doesn't really matter.
We had cancelled our service, or dropped part of our service, or something like that and there was a secret decoder ring or some such device that we had to - as Glenn mentions - drive all the way across town to give back to them.
We did that, but we lost the receipt.
They started sending us bills to the effect that we had not returned the item.
We insisted that we had and they continued to deny it.
I physically took my posterior back down to the dingy little office (yeah, pretty sure it was Green Bay. I'm picturing a location over on the West side. We, of course, lived on the East side.) and continued our discussion. The not so gracious lady checked a ledger and said our item was not listed, so we hadn't returned it.
I explained that we had, in fact, done so.
She said if we had returned it then there would be a slip of paper attached to this here clipboard and it would be in that there ledger.
Since she had already checked the ledger, I offered to check the clipboard.
She thought that would be an invasion of someone's privacy, but she consented to do it herself. She did it in front of me and initially she tried to hide the papers from me, but after flipping through a few she had the clipboard down where I could see it - albeit upside down.
Long story slightly shorter - as I watched, she flipped right past the long string of numbers and letters that represented the wayward device and I said - "Wait, that was it."
She flipped back to it and after several moments of silence she agreed that it was.
I'm pretty sure I didn't speak to her again (which was for the best) I just glared at her as she gave me another receipt.

Star Tribune going soft on Bush

This story was on the front page of the Star Tribune today. I read it expecting the usual jibes at President Bush, but he came off sounding nothing but sympathetic and genuinely kind to the family of a local soldier who died in Iraq. This quote appears in the first paragraph:

[The family decided they] should try to get in to see President Bush to tell him of their continuing support of him and the war.

I was shocked, shocked, I say. They move Lileks to the web (DUH!!) and then run a front page story that fails to disparage the president.

I'm not sure how to interpret this information.

Oh my.

This isn't good.

Gun-free Zone = Criminals Welcome

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.
-- Fred Thompson

Something funny from the New Yorker of all places.

I like the last one the best.

Just wrong, wrong, wrong

This strikes me as kind of pathetic. If there's nothing similar for Republicans I can only assume it's because they don't need to propogandize. (tongue applied firmly to cheek)

But seriously ... really?

clipped from brain-terminal.com A children’s book called Why Mommy is a Democrat, filled with cute illustrations of cuddly animals, will help prevent the harrowing possibility that your children will someday come to their own conclusions about political issues.

You can't handle the truth!

Colonel Jessup was a little over the top. But I think there was some truth in his monologue - truth that's relevant today in the midst of our current war.

clipped from www.whysanity.net

You
don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties,
you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a
life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline.

Hotspot finder

Hopefully this takes off and is kept up to date.

clipped from lifehacker.com

Find hotspots with Hotspotr

Find a Wi-Fi hotspot in your area with Hotspotr, a new Google Maps mashup that relies entirely on user input.

As with other Wi-Fi finders, you can search for hotspots by entering a city, ZIP code or place, then get maps, driving directions, phone numbers, etc. Hotspotr also lets you rate and review existing hotspots based on criteria like wireless quality, food/drink quality, availability of AC outlets and so on. It's fairly easy to add hotspots of your own, though you have to supply the location's address; there's no built-in address lookup.

continue reading »

11 comments,
latest by kim

Read more:

• Google Maps,


• Mashups,


• On the go,


• Search engines,


• Travel,


• WiFi

Response to Susan Estrich's FoxNews article of 2/18

In your editorial of 18 February on FoxNews.com you complain that the president isn't listening to those in Congress and the media who want our troops to leave Iraq. You further encourage the congressional leadership to do more to "stop this war".

As to the President not listening - I don't believe it's his responsibility to listen to polls and whatever talking heads agree with the media outlets that give them air time.

He was elected to execute this war and I certainly hope he has better intelligence resources to base his decisions on than the evening news, or latest Gallup.

I voted for him - twice. The first time it was a close decision, but after 9/11 I was very glad I made the decision I did.
The second time it was a no-brainer. Kerry was a terrible candidate and I had no faith that he would continue the war that I believe is a necessary front in the war on terror.

I'm not enamored of President Bush. I'm not happy with his domestic performance, but I believe that we must win the war in Iraq to encourage change in the Middle East. If we fail in Iraq, it will only embolden the terrorists and the tyrants who support them. Failure is not an option. And I believe we are winning the war. Although if I only listened to the major media outlets it would be hard to hold that opinion. The troops also believe in their mission and believe they are winning. They don't want to come home until the job is done.

Any resolution by Congress that suggests to the terrorists that they are winning the war for the American heart is obviously not supportive of the troops. Terrorists don't expect to win their engagements in the traditional sense. Their battle is with the will to win of those they attack. Your article, the House resolution, and recent comments by Democratic leadership can not do other than to tell our enemies that they are succeeding in their objectives.

How that can be considered support for our troops is beyond my ability to perceive.

Tom Clements
Prior Lake, MN

---

Be a PS3 game guru.
Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.

happy valentine's day

The perfect Valentine's day anecdote:

The most romantic thing I've ever heard of was the broadway producer who, when he was poor and starting out, gave his future wife a bowl of peanuts, which was all he could afford.  "I wish they were emeralds," he told her.  Thirty years later, when they were rich, he gave her a bowl of emeralds.

"I wish they were peanuts," he said. 

Bird eating bats??

This is .. interesting, I guess. So bats eat songbirds. Well, bats obviously have sensitive ears what with the sonar and all. Maybe they just eat the songbirds that can't carry a tune. It's evolution at work.

Myths about Suburbia

Cars aren't as evil as we're told. Mass transit is not the magic bullet it's touted as. Global warming is coming, but it probably won't be as bad as the worst-case scenarios we hear about - and the best thing we can do for developing areas is to build infrastructure, not make them comply with global environmental standards like Kyoto that are too much of a compromise to actually have a meaningful effect anyway.
Huh. Who knew? (another hat tip to Instapundit)

The mythology of Iraq

Lookie Here

NGO

NGO - Non-Government Organization. It sounds good. It sounds neutral, unbiased, apolitical. Just some right-minded people making a difference in the world.

I'm not sure when I stopped thinking of them that way. This piece is what made me think about it now, but I've felt disillusioned about NGOs for a while now. A little rational consideration would suggest that a large organization that depends on contributions and grants for capital would have to be somewhat political - naive to think otherwise. 

But the failure of organizations like Amnesty International to condemn tyrants and dictators in favor of attacking anything associated with the US - and especially its President - has really sealed the deal for me. Their actions are so at odds with their stated goals and concerns as to be comical.

I don't think we're perfect, but I'm confident that President Bush does not deserve to be tarred with the same brush as such evil people as Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam.

Letter to my Senator

Senator Coleman,

I'm disappointed to hear you have expressed some measure of support for a resolution criticizing our efforts in Iraq. In this matter you do not represent me.

Anyone who expected a quick and painless solution in Iraq was not being realistic. By any reasonable measure, Iraq is a success story. The soldiers know this. The Iraqis know this. Surely with your access to information, you know this.

Any effort to allow Congress to interfere with the military's warfighting would be a mistake, as well. We don't need any additional politicization of our armed forces.

The most likely way - I think the only way - for us to lose the war on terror is for the US people to give up.

Please stand behind our soldiers and their mission instead of undermining it.

Sincerely,
tom clements

Are they just saying what so many really think?

Or are they really that stu-pid.

"The Web site, meanwhile, has been temporarily taken down."

No doubt.
(tip o the hat to instapundit)

Maybe Gore is a Rain God

a la Rob McKenna from So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
 (hat tip the blogfather)

Hot Air in Iraq

Michelle Malkin's latest report

"The troops we met ask only three things of their fellow Americans back home - time, patience, and understanding of the enormous complexities on the ground.
The Iraqis we met had similar requests. No one we talked to wanted American troops to withdraw - there was universal agreement that abandoning the mission would be a disastrous capitulation to two-bit thugs and rogue operators ."

Michelle's co-embed, Bryan Preston, concludes his latest report "Having said all of this, Iraq is still very winnable." (link to Instapundit's blurb)

Failure in Iraq would be disastrous for Iraq and for the US.

Haven't seen this in the news

In July, a poll by the nonprofit International Republican Institute found that 94% of Iraqis said they support a "unity" government. Nearly 80% opposed Iraq being segregated by religion or ethnicity, and even in Baghdad where sectarian violence is heightened, 76% opposed ethnic separation.

-- from a British soldier

Jamil and the AP

So Jamil Hussein was a pseudonym, but the AP didn't say so in any of the many articles where they quoted him.

What would they have said if someone had targeted one of the real live people with the same name as their anonymously pseudonymous source for something they wrote?  Bad enough for people to be killed for what they actually say, but worse I think when they didn't really say it. (Hat tip, Glenn)

Compact Fluorescents

Prof. Reynolds has been discussing compact fluorescent bulbs.

I've been using them for years. I put them everywhere I can. I have them in lamps, in the overhead fixtures that pepper my kitchen, living room, and hallway ceilings. Apparently I'm not that picky about the quality of my light. I buy them on sale, in the cheapest per-fixture package I can find. I'm not that green-minded, I just want to pay less for electricity.

My experience has been that they don't seem to last as long as their claims. I'm not anal enough to have actually tracked the time of individual bulbs, but I know I've changed them more often than expected.

I think LED lights will be a better option as that technology matures. I just bought a package of three LED night lights to put in my garage so that - hopefully - my family will quit leaving on the six large overhead fluorescent fixtures for which there is one switch by the door into the house. Not sure why the builder wouldn't have put a switch on the other side of the garage by the door that goes outside. Anyway, the LEDs do a nice job - plenty of light to pick your way around vehicles, lumber, toys, and whatever else might appear in the path between doors.

--
tom

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." - Stephen King (1947-)

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

I had wondered about, but not bothered to look for these stats. (The headline doesn't reflect my opinion on these particular numbers. I just like that quote - even if it's provenance is in question.)

Bottom line - on average, Saddam Hussein killed 20,000 civilians every year. Last year the war killed 14,298 civilians.

I'm sure we'll see that tidbit in the Star Tribune any day now.

Where's the outrage

Where's the outrage from the left about the president's rampant fundamentalism? Oh yeah, wrong president. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Can't we turn the refugee weapon around?

This bit on Instapundit caught my attention. The international community - which of course means the United States - should go to China and offer to help them manage the refugee crisis - route them to South Korea, or Siberia or somewhere. I expect they'll be happy to go anywhere there's food and no sociopathic tyrant in charge.

North Korea is a humanitarian nightmare. We can do the right thing by helping these poor people and defuse Kim Jong Il's refugee bomb at the same time.

9/11 1565

France had signed a treaty with Turkey some years before, and although much of the Order was of French descent, that country was neither able nor inclined to ride to its rescue.

<snicker> Of course they signed a treaty. I hadn't realized how long the French have been committed to appeasement.

Good news from Africa about AIDS?

This seems like a good thing.

Kidman, et al.

Yeah, it's nice that a bunch of Hollywood types have condemned terrorism - how hard is that, anyway? But it's still a little annoying to have entertainers offering opinions on non-entertainment topics and having people pay attention to them as if they were experts, or somehow involved in that arena.

I mean, I'm glad to see them showing (IMHO) some ability to recognize that we are in fact at war, but how can I reasonably credit them any more than their cohorts who speak out so vehemently against Bush and our Iraq policy?.

Nicole's pretty cute, though. She was pretty hot in Eyes Wide Shut. Bet she's glad she dropped that alien-worshipping freak Cruise.

coffee

Top source for antioxidants

Money quotes:

Larger quantities of coffee seem to be especially helpful in diabetes prevention. In a report that combined statistical data from many studies, researchers found that people who drank four to six cups of coffee a day had a 28 percent reduced risk compared with people who drank two or fewer. Those who drank more than six had a 35 percent risk reduction.

"We were surprised to learn that coffee quantitatively is the major contributor of antioxidants in the diet both in Norway and in the U.S.A.," said Rune Blomhoff, the senior author of both studies and a professor of nutrition at the University of Oslo.

These same anti-inflammatory properties may explain why coffee appears to decrease the risk of alcohol-related cirrhosis and liver cancer.

EXCELLENT!

The system's all broked up

Medical bills not the patient's concern.

although you may not be interested in terrorism, terrorism is still interested in you.

Well put, Glenn.

Army of Terrorist Davids the future?

Bruce Sterling offers up a vision from a British military thinker that suggests national borders will be less defined, the world population will be more mobile, and the third world will invade the first on 737s with laptops and blackberries.

Best fans in the NFL

Favre looked fairly sharp in front of a sold-out Lambeau Field crowd during the Green Bay Packers' "Family Night" scrimmage on Saturday.

Brilliant!

Synchronized treadmilling.

Lileks high school reunion

I think Lileks is a wonderful writer. Really excellent. I don't own any of his books (yet) but I read the Bleat most every day and usually really enjoy it. This week he's been writing about his trip home for his (30th?) high school class reunion. After reading today's installment I think this is one of the things he's best at. I'm not sure what to call it - the retrospective, the look-back-and-forth. It's not earth-shaking, but he captures an essence that seems not often to be distilled.

Babies and Their Fathers

Oh my, this is funny. ROTFLMAO.

NY Times

I agree with this thread on Instapundit.

I think there should be consequences for someone who releases secret information.

Instapundit buys deck chair from FRANCE!!

Is the boycott over?

The Professor has been tempted by the charms of a high-priced French deck chair.

What could he have been thinking?

:-)

WMD

Holy cow, they found WMD in Iraq.

I agree with Prof. Reynolds that WMD was never high on my list of reasons for freeing Iraq. At the same time I never doubted that they existed. I always thought everyone jumped too quickly to the conclusion that since we didn't find them in the middle of the road into Baghdad they weren't there. Iraq is a big country. Why anyone thought it could have been thoroughly searched in the midst of war just wasn't thinking clearly or honestly.

I'm glad they found them so maybe people will shut up about them now. I always thought there were more important reasons for the invasion -

• Saddam was evil
• He was violating UN sanctions
• He was a supporter of terrorists
• He wanted to kill all the Kurds (and yes I think we should be doing something more in Darfur, too)
  

Mainly, though, I think it's vital to the war on terror that we work to change the culture in which islamic terrorism flourishes. A free, democratic Iraq will flourish and serve as a constant reminder to the rest of the Middle East that such a system can work. The people of Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Iran will find it hard to blame anyone but their own governments and religious leaders for the state of their countries and their lives.

It won't be easy, but it needs to be done. Chasing down individual terrorists and blowing them up may be fun and rewarding, but ultimately this is a cultural war. For the moment I'm taking the word of everyone who says it's not a religious war, who says Islam is a religion of peace and the jihadists are extremists not unlike some white supremecist groups in the US. For the moment.

To truly win this war we have to change the cultures that are attacking us.

Yahoo mail

The last few times I've sent group emails, Yahoo has made me verify by typing in a verification string. If that keeps up I'll probably switch completely to Gmail.

The UN hates homeschooling

This (HT instapundit) piece on the trials of a couple of home-schoolers in Belgium is chilling.

Fear the nanny state - it wants only to rub down the rough edges that make life interesting.

Euro-hooligans

If you've watched the world cup at all you've probably noticed that the players benches are protected by clear enclosures. This strikes me as a capitulation to the hooliganism that's given soccer fans - particularly in Europe I think - a bad reputation. I don't really think emotions run any less high in American football stadiums, but I haven't noticed any sort of shield protecting the players. Any fan who threw something at a player would be thrown out of the game and - I expect - charged with a crime. Apparently that's not the case in Germany.

An unfortunate turn of phrase ...

See if you can spot it ...

When Moscow's mayor can abuse fundamental freedoms with impunity, it is doubtful that Russia is fit to hold the presidency of the Council of Europe - or even be a member.

President Putin's silence is damning. He has said nothing in defence of the right to protest or of the human rights of Russia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Nevertheless, Moscow Pride was a huge success, despite all the homophobia it revealed and the savage repression it unleashed. It is a major milestone in Russian queer history. A handful of courageous gay Russians got up off their knees and stood tall, proud and defiant. They dared to take on the authoritarian regime of Mayor Luzhkov.

By insisting on the right to protest, they were defending more than gay rights: they were defending the democratic freedoms of all Russians, gay and straight.

Spotted here on Instapundit.

I admire their resolve and courage, but I did laugh out loud as I read one bit.

Smaller government now!

From Wired:

A 2004 study by the agency found that 2 percent of fireworks-related injuries that year were caused by homemade or altered fireworks; the majority involved the mishandling of commercial firecrackers, bottle rockets, and sparklers. Nonetheless, Wolfson says, "we've fostered a very close relationship with the Justice Department and we're out there on the Internet looking to see who is promoting these core chemicals. Fireworks is one area where we're putting people in prison."

The story is about a mail-order chemical company that got busted because they sell ingredients - among many, many other things - that CAN be used to make fireworks.

Isn't blowing yourself up making fireworks kind of a self-limiting sort of activity. Is it REALLY worth spending tax-payer money to crack down on this epidemic that involved 2 whole percent of injuries last year.

Moles, holes, and other earmarks

About this. I wonder if the reason the porkers are acting so seeming stupid is that they've already written off their chances in November and are in a feeding frenzy to get all they can of the other white meat before the barbecue ends.
(Can I flog this metaphor any further?)

Schools

I was just looking back at this bit from blackprof.com and had some further thoughts.

Mr. Jeffries argues, as have many others, that school choice is the answer for fixing our deteriorating school system. I mentioned in the comments that I'd read some research years ago that suggested most students in a pioneering school choice program in Milwaukee who actually took advantage of the program did so either for social or athletics reasons. That is they either wanted to go to school with a friend/boyfriend/girlfriend or they wanted to play for a particular school's athletic team.

Another commenter suggested I was wrong.

I don't pretend to be an expert on school choice, education in general, or inner-city education in particular. I'm not completely inexperienced - I actually have a (never-used) masters in education and my student teaching took place in the closest thing Knoxville, Tennessee has to an inner-city. But - to reiterate - I know I'm no expert in this area and the little knowledge I have is many-years old.

That said. While school choice may be laudable it can't - by itself - fix the nation's education problems. And it especially can't fix our inner-city education problems because those problems are ultimately the problems of the inner-city itself.

Schools don't operate in a vacuum. They are products of their communities.

Katrina analysis

Jonah Goldberg does a little urban myth busting on the subject of Katrina and who screwed up what. (HT Instapundit) My favorite bit - paraphrased - if the President screwed up so badly in New Orleans, how did he manage to do okay in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida - the other states hammered by Katrina and her siblings? What should be obvious is that in a crisis, it's the people who are there that ultimately need to deal with it.
And they just re-elected Ray Nagin.
Wow.

Where have all the heroes gone?

Here they are.

Indeed.

Carter administration offers assistance with Iran

This struck me as kinda funny. I mean I know Jimmy had some ... experience ... with Iran, but I'm not sure that's what we're looking for.

Skool Choys

This was always my argument against school choice and vouchers:

"Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What's left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer.  There's been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn't stopping now."

School choice is great for involved parents and motivated students - also for students who want to play sports on a different team or go to school with a boy/girlfriend - but they don't do anything for the VAST majority of poor, inner city students.

Christianity in the US

Map of dominant churches by county in the US.

Links to maps for each major religion - with Christianity broken down by denomination.

Interesting to me, at least. I grew up a Catholic (nominally, at least) in Tennessee. Recently we've started attending a Lutheran (ELCA) church in Minnesota. There's also a map of Religious Adherents which suggests how the coastal power brokers might have a little trouble understanding and relating to those of us in the fly-over states.

traffic light cameras

profits up along with accidents

Very cool medical stuff

It's not sci-fi anymore - they're actually cloning organs and re-implanting them. Excellent.

What a classy response in the most horrible of situations

"I don't have anything to say. I appreciate your interest. I just have nothing to say right now." -- from the father of the Tennessee woman who has confessed to shooting her pastor husband.

Can't imagine many more horrible situations for a parent to find himself in.

war casualties

from Glenn

I've had the feeling that by and large our casualties have been relatively light in the WOT (war on terror), and I suspected they weren't too much higher than the numbers in peace time.

That's not to discount any of them. Every single death is a tragedy for a lot of people, and I regret every one. Nevertheless, the aggregate numbers are interesting and really impressive considering the type of war we're fighting.

Being a soldier (airman, marine, etc) is a dangerous profession even in times of peace, and naturally more so when actively engaging an enemy. If anything it's a credit to the training and leadership of our forces that we haven't lost more people.

Steer clear of Mississippi

The Cory Maye incident appears not to have been too unusual. Sounds like the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force possibly should be on the other side of the bars.

kids

My youngest child is six. It seems that she grows older by the moment. I find myself holding her on my lap, my head to her head, eyes closed as I try to fix that moment, to burn it into my memory forever. There are only a limited number of those moments available to us and they are the most precious commodity in the world.

G and I were talking about one of my old girlfriends who has no children, and I remarked that she was never terribly maternal. "I can't imagine," was G's comment. And I had to agree. I can't imagine my life without my kids. I guess that's not strictly true. There's nothing wrong with my imagination. What I really mean is that when I imagine my life without my kids it seems so empty, so desperately empty.

What would I do? I'd obviously have more time for myself. I could go to movies, plays, and concerts. I could go out to eat. I could travel more and it would be more relaxing. And I'd be able to afford to do those things since I wouldn't have kids hoovering up every scant penny that I hadn't yet earned.

I wonder if I would be more liberal. Would I hate George W. Bush? Would I think Islamic terrorists were moral equals of US troops fighting to create a democratic Iraq? I know that opinion doesn't break that cleanly on the demographic fault line between those with kids and those without. But ... still. It makes me wonder if there's more than a casual correlation between the declining birth rates in Europe and their rabid hatred for our President and anything he does.

It's hard to be completely selfish when you are a parent - and I'd say impossible when you are a good parent.* You have to be concerned with something other than yourself. You have to make sacrifices of time and money and attention. And you become concerned with the future in a more concrete way than previously. I think you begin to be less concerned with small endangered animals and more concerned with small human animals and the kind of world they will live in.

Life is more complicated than I'm drawing it here. But I think it's an interesting thought experiment.

Oh, one interesting tidbit - the old GF has lived in Europe since she graduated from college.

* Yes, obviously, I consider myself a good parent. I guess we'll see how good in 20 years or so.

math

This was interesting. I've been regretting for a while that I didn't suck it up and learn more math in college (the first time). Hindsight being what it is, though, it's hard for me to be too upset about it. If I had been a more dedicated student - and less a dedicated hedonist - I'd have gotten that Math\Comp Sci degree instead of the English degree. I would likely have gotten a job in Atlanta instead of moving back to Tennessee and meeting my wife-to-be working in a restaurant.
So, being thoroughly happy with my life, it's hard for me to have much regret for anything I didn't do that might have put me on a different path to today.
Still, I've always had it in the back of my mind that if I found myself financially secure I'd go back to school and learn all the math I skipped back in the day.

Extremely cool game

I don't know who Will Wright is, but here's an hour long presentation by him of the new game he's working on. The presentation is very entertaining and the game looks VERY cool. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, fast forward to the bits where he shows the game.


update:
I guess that video is almost a year old. Game's not out yet and apparently has not firm release date, but I saw one projection on Gamespot that it would be coming out Q3 of 2006.

I'm not a gamer - at all. But this looks really, really cool. I'm a little afraid of it.

Exercise yer mind

Exercising your body and mind along with eating well can improve brain function

Lileks on the UAE and our ports

The recoil should not be your first clue you grabbed the wrong gun.

More demographic analysis from Mark Steyn

Scary stuff

Careful, it's kind of like crack

blueprint

Interesting thinking about thinking

Dammit, Fenster, close those blinds -- I'm trying to make a decision in here: Today brings fresh evidence that it's not wise to trust too much to your conscious mind (see " You think you know what you think? Think again"). A Dutch study on the decision-making process found that while the conscious mind, with its limited bandwidth, is find for making little choices like which cereal to buy, it tends to fumble anything much bigger. Much better choices in complex matters, the researchers found, come by "deliberating without attention," or in technical terms, "sleeping on it," letting the unconscious, with its non-linear processing system, do the heavy crunching.

D'oh! or is it Duh!

From Instapundit:

GUN REGISTRATION: Such a bad idea that even the Canadians are scrapping it. "One former Mountie called the registry 'totally useless' because criminals don't register their guns." Too bad they didn't figure that out a few billion dollars ago, but at least it's an object lesson for the United States.

Who'd 'a' thought?

Soccer highlights

Some incredible soccer highlights in this google video.

If you're into soccer at all you'll probably enjoy this.

Katrina report

I look forward to seeing a summary of this

"Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare," the report said. "At every level -- individual, corporate, philanthropic and governmental -- we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw."

It sounds a little bombastic. I still think that first response has to be the job of the people on the ground and that most of the failure in Katrina rests with the Mayor and Governor. Yeah, the FEMA director probably was "clueless", and cetainly that reflects somewhat on his boss, but I can't see it as really being the President's responsibility except in a buck-stops-here sort of way.
I wonder if the report has anything to say about the media's horrible job of reporting on conditions in the Superdome?

Blizzard of '93

Glenn's mention of the Blizzard of '93 brought back some memories.

We lived in Knoxville - it was the spring before we moved to the great white north. I was waiting tables at Calhoun's on the River. She was a nurse at St. Mary's and pregnant with our second child. When the city shut down after we got - I think it was - 18 inches of snow, our son was at his babysitter's house, and we decided we had to go get him. Somehow we got the Civic out of the driveway and eventually got to within a couple of blocks of the sitter's house before the driver (the one who grew up in Wisconsin) went in the ditch.

We didn't want to be stuck at the sitter's house, so we walked and hitchhiked back home. There was no getting the Integra out of the driveway - well I did actually get it just out of the driveway,but then it was stuck and it was all I could do to get out of the road.

We ended up begging our neighbor - a teenager with a 4WD toyota pickup - to take us to pick up the kid. So we got into his truck which reeked of smoke (not tobacco smoke either) and took off. As we got into the sitter's neighborhood, the drifts got a good bit higher and our driver chickened out. He was afraid of getting stuck or running out of gas - 'cause most of the gas stations were closed. So he ended up dropping us off on the wrong side of our stuck car and we walked in to get the boy.
Our sitter was not too sure about the whole situation. Our boy was three at the time and our plan - such as it was - was to walk out to the main road (Chapman Highway) and get a ride towards home.

Well it was a long walk out to Chapman, but we were young and it was an adventure so I guess that made it okay. Matt was fine with it, I think. He walked most of the way. Eventually we got out to Chapman and it didn't take too long for someone in an RV to stop. They were hippies hot on the trail of 'white gas' (propane) and did we know of anywhere that was open and selling it. We didn't but they offered us a ride in the back of their vehicle with their dog. The dog, naturally, turned out to be a pit bull who - at least to my parental eyes - seemed to be sizing up the boy as a possible snack. I spent the entire trip keeping myself between the dog and the child.

They dropped us off and we walked the rest of the way home - me, my 6 month pregnant wife, and our three-year-old son. We were very happy to get home to our cold, dark home.

The hospital ended up sending a van to pick Gerri up since there was no way our cars were going anywhere. They were also opening the hospital to employee's families, but I said we'd be fine in the house without heat or lights or pretty much anything but a lot of snow outside. We did have a gas grill to cook on, and at night I used it to heat water that I poured in gallon milk jugs and took to bed with us. It was cold and I remember I didn't sleep well, because I kept waking up to check on Matt.

The Great Zucch

Lileks recommended this piece about a children's entertainer in the Washington DC area. I second his praise. The writing is wonderful and the story as well. I was struck by the way the Great Zucchini's dysfunctions seemed wrapped up so intimately with his genius. He's a gambling addict and a kid's magician. Gambling is like another magic trick - predicting the winner of a game, throwing a particular combination of dice. At the craps table he's as popular with adults (while he's winning) as he is with the kids at one of his gigs.
Now if he'd just bump his rates by $100 and hire an assistant to manage his life he'd be golden.

Frey tempest

I'm not a big fan of Oprah, anyway, and I didn't see the show where she lambasted James Frey.

I did read the book - A Million Little Pieces - though. I thought it was excellent - powerful, raw, compelling. It matters less than a whit to me if some of the details were not strictly factual. I don't see how it compromises the message of the book in any way. If it were entirely fictional it would be no less powerful.

I think it's a shame that Oprah couldn't say the same.

Yeah, that sounds good ...

Say Anything's SOTU

Google's evil

Google's crossroads deal with China has a lot of people upset, and certainly it's a slippery slope they tread. But I'm not convinced that they've truly - at least with this deal - turned their back on their famous motto.

I think they sat down and they made a real world decision recognizing how bad it would look, but that the potential for good outweighed the blow to their cred.

Google of all organizations has to understand how hard it is to effectively censor the internet. Information flows too quickly and in too many directions to be easily confined. I suspect that China's thought police do not yet grok this in fullness.

Google, however, certainly does. At the same time, they can't come right out and say so.

I think Google.cn will be good for the Chinese people, though now it appears to support a totalitarian regime.

I guess we'll see.

Car Quiz

If you're an RX-8 (like a certain prominent blogger) then your WhichSportsCar Quiz must look a lot like this:

Are you an Italian exotic or an American muscle car? A classic roadster or a high-tech racer?

This test will show you your true inner vehicle...

Are you passionate?
Yes

Do you change direction quickly?
No

Are you powerful?
No

Are you loud?
No

Are you high-maintenance?
No

Do you easily spin out of control?
No

Do you like to go topless in the summer?
No

Are you competitive?
Yes

Are you practical?
Yes

Do you have expensive tastes?
No

Are you happy in the rain?
Yes

Which tool would you be more comfortable wielding?
Sledgehammer

I don't know, Glenn, I think you're somewhat powerful ...

Hmmm. Can't complain ...

I'm a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Lileks

At the checkout Gnat saw a Seasonal My Little Pony named Wish I Might – it had red wings and a red box of chocolates on its haunch. Special to Target. She was enthralled. When she wasn't looking I tossed it in the basket, and took it out when we were in the car.

She was ecstatic. Daddy, why did you get this for me?

Because it's special for Valentine's day. Because I knew it would surprise you, and you didn't beg, and because I thought it would make this day even better. Because I like to make you happy.

I can never say the other reason: because some day you won't want a My Little Pony.

This is not good

40% of children fall asleep without a resident father regularly within reach

travesty

If you haven't heard the story of Cory Maye, take a look at this.

Lileks and Atkins

I wrote everything at home – a rare five-column day, alas – and ventured out only to go the grocery store, where I confronted the fact that I am fargin' sick of Atkins, and want a stack of pancakes about seventeen miles high. Also caramel rolls and cinnamon buns and burritos with warm soft tortillas and all the other things I forbid myself in order to maintain a trim physique in case I should be required, by some sort of public referendum, to walk around naked all the time. When it's two.