First off, let me just apologize for disappearing without warning and failing to get last week's Best Of posted. I was in Utah skiing and I didn't plan ahead quite enough (I'll have some pics up at MuD&PHuD later on). So, here are the Best Of posts for the last two weeks. Enjoy.
MusingSod off, SwampyOil futures traders just went WAY UP on my list of people worth paying attention to. It is good - truly heartening - to see that these destructive, annoying, chronically invasive morons are finally starting to reap the fruits of their petulant outbursts. This article proves that regular people are growing sick and tired of the radical environmentalist's never ending string of self-righteous campaigns to stifle their means of living their lives and paying their bills. Perhaps the next time the protesters get it in their head to infringe on peopleÿs property rights, theyÿll think about how those people might respond.
Dr. SanityHow Do You Solve A Problem Like Lynne Stewart?Lynne Stewart reminds me of a song from The Sound of Music-"How do you solve a problem like Maria? A fliberty gibbet a will-o-the wisp...." Andrew McCarthy asks himself this question, too and he grapples with Lynne Stewart, the PERSON, versus Lynne Stewart, the Lefty Kook, recently convicted of aiding and abetting terrorism. He knew her, worked with her and had a very real sense of her decency. Yet, he was able to say:
Three Men and a Blog Preserving The Benefits Of Student Athleticism Keep athletics and PE. Get involved in what is going on in relation to this issue in your community. Support student athletes and their coaches and find our what your community coaches philosophies are about. Ask how you can help ALL extra curricular activities in you schools. Give tax credit donations to your program. Call you school board and see what they are doing to preserve extracurricular activities. Assist your local school by volunteering at athletic or other extracurricular activities. Being around kids, particularly these kids, is rewarding. They are doing something very difficult that a majority of their peers are not.
The Southern ConservativeGrammys, SchmammysIn the words of my friend Saul,
"The best way to win a Grammy is to a) have someone in the band named "Bono" or b) die." As a music lover, I usually either watch the Grammys and shake my head in disgust... or skip the Grammys and read the results in the newspaper the next day and
then shake my head in disgust. See my blog entry for "post-game" coverage and a review of pictures from this year's ceremony.
Shining Light In Dark Corners China Dances with North Korea While Rattling Sabers At Taiwan and Japan As I've said twice before, I think North Korea provides a stage to act out two plays that are in the interests of China. China plays an important role in the talks with North Korea. It plays the part of a regional power brokering for peace. This serves China by building a reputation as a partner and new market for the world's goods. Secondly, North Korea threatens the US and Japan, distracting both countries from Chinese moves to emerge as a world power and covering its intentions to further its own interests, such as oil and Taiwan. North Korea serves as a wildcard for China. I don't expect to see North Korea disarming anytime soon. It's value as an ally in any open conflict in the Asia Pacific is too important to China's imperialist intentions.
Right AnalysisVictor Davis Hanson has it all right in his analysis on the War on Terror in general and Iraq in particular. He provides the historical context and background that is so lacking in much that passes for informed writing.
BlatheringsFighting for FreedomCherish the memory of the Marines who fought the Battle of Iwo Jima, sixty years ago today. The battle lasted thirty-six days. In the first eighteen hours of battle, there were 2,300 casualties. To gain the Japanese island, the Americans lost 6,821 noble young men. The Marines suffered 23,573 casualties of a total of 70,000 in battle. The military planners of the invasion had underestimated the Japanese strength. The battle did not mark the end of World War II; fighting continued for another year. Of the platoon which raised the American ensign on Mount Suribachi, only ten percent of its members survived uninjured. The famous picture of the battle symbolizes not victory, but symbolizes the fight to be free.
A Physicist's PerspectiveChristianity, historical truth, and relevance/usefulnessSome have suggested that it doesn't matter whether religions are true or false -- what matters is how they affect people's lives, whether they're relevant, and whether they make people feel warm and fuzzy. Here, I give a couple examples of this view, and point out why this is false. Particularly, the Bible claims that Christianity is
true: Jesus was a real historical person, fully God and fully man, who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. Furthermore, it makes certain claims about how people can receive eternal life based on the work Jesus accomplished. These are historical and factual claims: They're either true or false, and issues of relevance, influence on people's lives, and emotions have little to do with it. Either Jesus was who he claimed to be and did what the Bible says he did, or he didn't. I discuss how and why these historical facts are essential to Christianity.
Weapon of Mass DistractionRewriting PrehistoryMajor pieces of evidence to support the existence of Neanderthals in northern Europe 40,000 have been outed as fakes. One of the skulls belonged to a man who died in 1750.
Do you think the courts will allow the schools in Cobb County, Georgia to put those "evolution-is-a-theory" stickers back in their science books now?
MusingMissile DefenceNo doubt Homespun readers have heard that Canada has bowed out of the missile defence system. In doing so, Canada has abdicated its role in maintaining its own sovereignty. In the Canadian mind, this is acceptable, so long as we get the headline in the Toronto Sun that says we stared down the Americans. We would much rather stand firm on the Canadian tradition of making big showy, symbolic and ultimately meaningless political statements. As Paul Cellucci noted, the program is going forward and the US will do what is necessary to protect itself. If Canadians are too foolish to play a role in their own protection and hope that holding onto happy thoughts, big smiles, stuffed moose and Mountie dolls, and an emasculated military as proof that we mean no harm to anyone are sufficient to stop evil around the world then so be it.
Americans have many issues to deal with; clearly a willful, blindered, naivete is not one issue that Americans share with their northern neighbors.
Bird's Eye ViewToo Many Good Books To ReadMy bedside table is buried under a stack of books I want to read; I'm just so backed up on my reading. I have managed to get well into two of them. The first, /God's Politics/ by Jim Wallis I'm reading as a part of a Lenten Book Study group at church. The other book is a nice companion to Wallis's. In /Reimagining Christianity,/ Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, describes a Christian faith that doesn't get much "press" these days.
Redhunter Was a Japanese Invasion Possible?One of the central theses of In Defense of Internment: The case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror by Michelle Malkin was that after Pearl Harbor policy makers had reasonable cause to fear a Japanese invasion of the West Coast.
The purpose of this post is solely to consider whether an invasion or attack by the Japanese of the West Coast was possible and whether U.S. policy-makers had cause to believe it was possible.
Three Men and a BlogCan Liberalism Survive? Not Like This.The liberals could easily bring their party back to America. They must first get away from their rhetoric of hate. They must find their compassionate roots again. This will entail a firm moral stance on issues while allowing religion to help guide their compassion. Finally, they must find a way in which to disagree with middle America by appealing to their goodness, not by insulting their intelligence. Will this happen? Unlikely. Why?
Weapon of Mass DistractionThe Smartest Man in the UniverseBill Maher subscribes to what I call "The Stupid Evil Genius Theory of History." Somehow, those fiendishly clever early Christians invented a religion capable of deceiving millions of people for two thousand years--including hundreds of thousands with scholarly credentials almost as imposing as Maher's ego--yet at the same time so pitifully moronic that truly "enlightened" people such as Maher can see through it without breaking a sweat.
