Making it in America

A college kid graduated, moved to South Carolina and set out to see if it was still possible to make it from having nothing to having a good life. He succeeded and then he wrote a book about it. Glenn and Helen interviewed him and a person who immigrated and also started with nothing wrote some interesting comments about their interview.

Gotta love Mark Steyn

quoting Boy George on the economic crisis. 

I'm conflicted on the bailout. I'm generally suspicious - like big red flags and fireworks going off suspicious - of big government intervention, but a lot of people I respect are saying it needs to happen. And selfishly I'd be happy with a little quicker recovery in the housing markets. I guess on the other hand my variable rate is pretty low right now. :-)

Obama up to his hold tricks

Don't bring a knife to gun fight in Chicago.

"... but not THIS day ..."

Via Instapundit , Bill Whittle's essay  on the war hero and the hockey mom in a Tolkien world.

Maureen Dowd braves 'Sarahville'; Finds regular folks amusing

Is anyone surprised at the disdain Ms. Dowd has for icky products available at Wasilla's Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart has all the doodads that Sarah must need in her career as a sportsman — Remingtons and "torture tested" riflescopes, game bags for caribou, machines that imitate rabbits and young deer and coyotes to draw your quarry in so you can shoot it, and machines to squish cows into beef jerky.

 

And the people were amusing, too:

I talked to a Wal-Mart mom, Betty Necas, 39, wearing sweatpants and tattoos on her wrists.

Sweatpants and tattoos. Wow. No top? You'd think Alaska would be the last place you'd find that sort of thing. 

I think the liberal elite should definitely keep making fun of people who hunt and shop at Wal-Mart. That's a great idea.

Medical Errors

Looking forward to those robot doctors and nurses.

edumacation

Like many college students, she wishes she'd been worked a little harder in high school. 

She's a victim. it's not her fault she got away with being lazy in high school. It's the system.

Actually, I do think education is in a bit of a downward spiral and there's plenty of blame to go around - parents, politicians, teachers, administrators, and students alike.

But, the fact that she seems to take no responsibility at all seems like a separate issue. 

Fun with Earmarking

This seems to indicate that Governor Palin may have requested some earmarks. She's also been accused of being for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. These are supposed to be marks against her and maybe they are, but I think there's another way to look at it.

As Governor it's her job to do what's best for her state. So if she can get somebody else to pay for projects that help the citizens of Alaska then that seems like a good thing from her perspective and that of her constituents. 

If the system allows earmarks, then it's hard to fault people who try to take advantage of that. It's not necessarily good - you might prefer someone who refuses to take advantage of a loophole for any reason - but that's not to say it's bad, and certainly it's not uncommon.

I think earmarks are a problem. But we can't rely on people not to take advantage of them, we need to fix the system so that they can't happen. 

Never forget

A couple of things to look at if you're in the mood to remember ...

• a piece by Lileks  from this date in 2003
• a memorial 

It's easy to not think about 9/11/2001. But I think it's good to remember. The war is not over.

Spore

I'm not a gamer. But I've actually been looking forward to Spore ever since I saw a demo video on the interweb a couple of years ago. I probably still won't bother to get it. 

I have kids. 

They play games. 

I drive them places. 

That's how we roll.

I did read this pretty thorough review here .

The Palinator

Maybe in retrospect it seems obvious that John McCain would select a woman running mate - hindsight and all that. But I don't remember seeing her name on any of the 'short lists' that were passed around the 'net and the airwaves. So I was surprised when Sarah Palin's name was announced and I quickly read all I could about her.
It makes me think, now, of the movie When Harry Met Sally. It's one of my wife's favorites, and I like it, too. Sprinkled throughout the movie are scenes of couples telling the story of how they came to be together. The scene I'm reminded of is of the Asian couple where the husband who talks about sneaking to the nearby village to see the girl who has been proposed as his bride. He says if he didn't like the way she looked then he would not agree. "But she look very good to me," he decides.
That's what I thought about Gov. Palin - "She looks very good to me" - and I'm not talking about her appearance. I'm talking about her character and who she is. She beat an incumbent Republican who was ethically challenged. Her approval rating among those she governs is stratospheric. She has five kids. Neither she nor her husband attended Yale or Harvard. She's never lived in Washington or New York or LA or Chicago. Those are all plusses to me.
She's pro-life. That, to me, is the only negative, but it's not the main issue to me in the election. I believe abortion needs to be legal, but I'd be fine if nobody had one.
She talks about lowering taxes and cutting expenses - and she did it as governor. She supports the second amendment. And she understands how people like me in the flyover states live their daily lives. She understands that we love the United States. It's not perfect, but it's the best country there is - the most generous country on the planet; the land of opportunity where the American dream is still possible. Certainly we have our problems but we're always trying to do better.
I would have voted for McCain-Whoever because I think a vote for Obama is a vote for higher taxes, higher gas prices, and a weaker approach to the war on terror. I would have voted for McCain, but I wouldn't have been especially excited about it.
I'm excited about McCain-Palin.
I know the vice-president doesn't do much, but that's not the point. The point is that possibl.y the GOP is thinking about getting back to its conservative roots. Smaller government; lower taxes; protecting individual liberty.
When McCain won the nomination, I was concerned that the party was moving even more to the center than we've seen the last few years. If my governor - Tim Pawlenty - had been selected for VP, that would have confirmed my fears. But the selection of Sarah Palin gives me a little hope for the future of the party.
We'll see how that turns out.

Holy cop cameras, Batman

The only way I'd consider it is if they reduced my property taxes. But that would never happen ....

health care

Reading through this story (via Instapundit) I remembered a short story I read a while back about a person who invented a robotic doctor. The AMA insisted that they could only be used under a Doctor's supervision and the protagonist refused, but his partner somehow did an end-run and worked out a deal with the AMA. Fast-forward a few years and the disillusioned inventor visits a Doctor's office where the MD is basically an alcoholic figurehead while the robot flawlessly manages all the medicine. Seeing the Minute-Clinics and Wal-Mart's clinics reminds me a little bit of that story.

You're kidding ...

So you can't make smog disappear in two months by ruthlessly oppressing your people and promising like Capt. Picard to "make it so"? I'm shocked. Shocked!

Higher intelligence wetware

This is an interesting read. Of course my favorite part fits with what I've been saying for years:

Studies show that practice and perseverance contribute more to accomplishment than being smart does. 

 (another tip of the hat to Instapundit)

This is a bad idea

An international law banning 'defamation of (Islam) religion'. How about an international law protecting free speech, instead.

Advanced searching on Craigslist

UPDATE: Looks like Craigslist has documented this info here.  The info below is no longer accurate.

There are several tricks for creating more powerful, focused searches on Craigslist.

• The NOT search - placing a dash "-" in front of a search term will exclude items that include that word. So if you're shopping for a car and you want to look at Hondas but you don't like Civics you can search for "honda -civic".
• The OR search - placing a single quote in front of multiple terms will search for items that include any of the terms. Craigslist searches are by default AND searches - that is an ad has to include all of the entered terms to turn up in a search. So if you want to search for Civics or Accords you can search "'civic 'accord".
  
• Combined AND/OR searching. Parentheses can be used to combine two OR searches. So if you want either a Honda or a Toyota, but you only want to see newer models you can search "('honda 'toyota) ('2005 '2006)"

Thanks to the crew at Lifehacker for the first two tips.

Don't quit drinking ...

I don't want to say that people who quit drinking get stupider, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Speak it, brother!

America doesn't have a system for air security, it has a system for bothering people.

Amen.

Really?

If this is true:

there "is no official policy" at NASA regarding sex on space missions. "There really has been no research conducted on the area to know whether it [sex in space] would be a good thing or a bad thing," he said, "but it probably is inevitable."

then that seems like a foolish and obvious oversight.

I think they're lying. At least I certainly HOPE they are.

depressing but not surprising

Cop arrests a designated driver for DWI, writes in report that her breath smelled strongly of alcohol, then drops charges when her blood test comes back 0.0 for alcohol content. Luckily the police department stands behind the officer.

Hmm. Orwell might have a thought about

this.

No death penalty for child rapists.

I'm disappointed. Can we brand their crime on their foreheads, then? And castrate them?

Is this a Juno Effect?

Mayor denies pregers pact. Principal 'foggy in his memory'. Doesn't really seem to matter if there was an actual 'pact' - however that might be defined - but it definitely sounds like at least some of the girls were trying to get pregnant. I hope this isn't in some way related to Juno, which I thought was a fabulous movie. I watched it with my kids, and was a little uncomfortable with my girls watching it. I don't think it really glamorized teen pregnancy, but Juno is such a compelling character that she might make it seem a bit more attractive.

Speechless and sad

This kind of think really tears me up. I have two daughters and they're all I can think about when I read about this horrible act. I want to send them to self-defense classes and then lock them in their rooms.
I think we've become over-protective of our children in recent years. I have to consciously try to make myself let them do things that we never thought twice about when I was a kid - like walk to a friend's house a block away. I want them to develop a sense of independence and self-reliance, but stories like this - few as they are - make it harder for me to not smother them with "no, you can't do that".
Happiness will be a long time away from those families.

Forget Carbon Dioxide

we need to figure out how to turn down the sun.

anti-anti-bacterial soap

interesting

and a little scary.

Blind Hammer

bowls a perfect game to win league.

And he's 78. Apparently there's still time for me to improve my game.

Eco-adventurers should have brought a mechanic along

I thought this was just funny 'til I read that they actually killed a guy ....

So far the crew has enjoyed far better luck than it experienced during its first attempt, which ended when when Earthrace collided with a fishing vessel off the coast of Guatamala. One fisherman was injured and another lost at sea. Earlier voyages have ended with propeller failures and when the Colombian navy fired upon the boat.

They should probably find a new hobby.

I think

this is dead on:

As a product of the Korean GI Bill I can hardly denounce the concept. The problems really came when the intellectuals convinced people that "investment" in trade schools and such like wasn't as desirable as "investment" in higher education meaning universities. At the same time, the State Colleges became "State universities" and in the "upgrade" put more into graduate schools to the detriment of undergraduate education. We then poured more money into the "university" system which is quite unsuitable for education of more than about 25% of the population (I'd put that at a lower figure, but we can stay with that).

Now a lot of students who would do well at "college" level education can't get that; they have to go to "universities" and learn French Narrative Theory in Freshman Comp.

If investment is needed in "education" -- and it is -- it's in training in technical skills. Most of that could be done in high school. Of course the high school teachers don't want to work that hard and will stand in union solidarity with the college professors who want the large number of students willing to borrow money to go listen to foreign graduate students teach introductory math courses in incomprehensible dialects, but it's "world class" isn't it? Doesn't everyone deserve a "world class university education"?

So we continue to neglect the great majority of our citizens to benefit a handful of intellectuals. And they never catch wise.

                                        -- Jerry Pournelle

via the usual suspect
I don't pretend to know the history of it, but I completely agree that most of what I learned in college (the first time - for the BA) was useless. I had a lot of fun in college. But I didn't learn much that I've ever used again - except as answers to trivia questions.

crime and guns and stuff

The writer of this article from the BBC (via instapundit) seems to find it paradoxical that that the US - with it's legal guns and high rate of homicide - feels safer than the UK where guns are banned. Statistics showing the burglary rate for various countries might be relevant. The US sits at No. 17 on the list with a rate of 7 per 1000 people - well below the UK at No. 7 (13/1000) or No. 1 Australia with a staggering  21 burglaries per 1000. (Let me add now that I haven't vetted the site providing the stats, so consider the source)

It's true that our murder rate is higher than the UK's - 4 per 100,000 people (3.6 using guns) vs. the UK's 1 per 100,000. Hey that's 4 times the UK rate, it's 400% higher. That's what you'd see in the headlines, but look at the numbers 1/100,000 vs. 4/100,000. That's not much real difference, certainly not compared to the burglary rates.

Guns are dangerous - no question about it. And tragic accidents happen with guns all too often. And they always make the headlines.

Unfortunately, it's also true that there are bad people in the world. Guns provide a way for 'regular' people to defend themselves and their loved ones regardless of age or physical condition. They are equalizers. Criminals in the US have to consider the real possibility that anyone they might decide to rob may have a gun.

food into fuel

Does anyone take ethanol seriously as a fuel? As a replacement for petroleum? It just seems so obviously a political move to give money to farmers for pure political gain. It seems like such an obviously bad idea that it's hard to imagine how anyone could take it seriously.

And I know Prof. Reynolds is keen on using non-food biofuels like switch grass - whatever that is - which at least has the advantage of not taking grain out of our food supply. But I just don't see ethanol as a viable replacement. I think going electric makes more sense. I thought his advocacy to build more nucular plants for plug in cars was a better idea. If the French can manage to not screw up nuclear then we ought to have a fighting chance.

You mean natural processes also increase carbon ...

how can this be?

That was quick

Global Warming is over. Here comes the ice. And there's more to fear from global cooling than from global warming.

Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.

Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases.

 And more chilling, still: (punny, huh?)

The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.

The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027.

I don't really like the sound of any of that. We need to boost our carbon dioxide output immediately.

I don't like the sound of

this. China selling counterfeit Cisco equipment to government agencies. Somebody call Tom Clancy.

hawking

Stephen Hawking is an interesting person, and I admire him. This quote, however, disturbs me a bit:

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
  - Stephen Hawking

I guess I still have a little more faith in Man and I don't think he's evil. I'm a little sad that Hawking apparently does.

Wikipedia not to be trusted on global warming

This article chronicles one writers experience trying to edit an article on Wikipedia that suggests that some scientists might not agree that global warming is proven from a scientific standpoint.

Sounds good to me ...

real lifestyles of the interesting and brilliant.

Really, it does sound good, I just don't think my boss will go for it. It's fine for world leaders and self-employed composers. Who's going to tell them they're 'wasting time' or 'not getting enough done'? Seriously.

Spitzer spitted

Gotta fiture Eliot's gonna be seeing this quote a lot:

""This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure," Mr. Spitzer said at the time. "It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."

considering this. (Hat tip, Instapundit)

Hmmm

No cancer sounds okay. I wonder about the social affects of this sort of expiration. We deal with sudden death, of course, so I guess it wouldn't be much different in that regard. Interesting at least.

I guess it really is the new religion

USA Today: Saudi Arabia, U.S. named the worst 'climate sinners'

the magic bullet

Thank goodness! USA Today announces plan to save planet and stamp out obesity all at once. All we have to do is:

"Get out of your car and walk or bike half an hour a day instead of driving."

Oh, okay. Sure, that makes sense. Instead of driving all the way to work, I'll just park a couple of miles away and walk the rest of the way. Nothing to it.

Never mind the random cars pulled up on sidewalks or just sitting in the middle of the road a mile from someone's destination. 

Hey, it could work.

Our United Nations

Does the UN only hire sexual deviants and criminals? Cause I'd really like to get in on this.

I'm not saying we should quit funding the UN. What if we just charge all member nations the same flat per citizen fee? Let China and India pay for most of it.

Media favor Dems

Nothing really shocking about this. Investor's Business Daily reports on a Harvard study (okay, that's a little shocking) that media coverage - bias and volume - favors Democratic candidates over Republicans.

sign me up

I'm up for living for 1000 years ...
Love this bit at the end:

On Oct. 9, 1903, the New York Times wrote:

"The flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years."

On the same day, on Kill Devil Hill, N.C., in his diary, a bicycle mechanic named Orville Wright wrote:

"We unpacked rest of goods for new machine."

Am I cynical

to notice how quick the newspapers have been to label the Craigslist Murder? Who benefits if people come to fear Craigslist? Hmmm

This is pretty cool ... er, hot

The stuff that makes chili peppers smokin' hot is being used to numb surgical wounds to numb them for "weeks". Downside - reduces the need for narcotics.

Speak it brother

For two decades talk in the American workplace has centered on "balance." Institutes and think tanks study it. Forward-thinking bosses are supposed to encourage it. Policies like telecommuting and flextime and sabbaticals are designed to foster it.

I agree with this. It's ugly truth about the corporate, cube-farm world.

Drug Resistant Staph

on the rise. This doesn't sound good.

Yep, that'll do it ...

outlawing baggy pants ... brilliant!
Make them pull up their pants and their grades will improve? Senior citizens are afraid of them? Either they have reason to fear them or they don't. If there's a reason then making them pull up their pants only makes it harder for people to identify the threat - if any - that they represent. If there's no reason to fear them then it seems like a non-issue.

Faint praise

indeed

Yeesh

Kids docs wrong more than right ...

Global warming killing more Europeans then car accidents

What a crock of tripe. Global warming is now responsible for air pollution and a shortage of safe drinking water. And there's a plea to 'think of the children'.
Meanwhile a European court identifies ... mmm ... let's call them inaccuracies - in AlGore's Nobel-Peace-Prize nominated cinematic masterpiece.

Everything old is new

again
(Hat tip, as almost always, to Instapundit)

Ha!

I knew it:

the low-fat recommendations, besides being unjustified, may well have harmed Americans by encouraging them to switch to carbohydrates, which he believes cause obesity and disease. He acknowledges that that hypothesis is unproved, and that the low-carb diet fad could turn out to be another mistaken cascade.

 

Hitchens

on an American hero

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.

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11 comments,
latest by kim

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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.
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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.