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.