I am catching up on some stuff. Can you tell?
- Mark Steyn has a good commentary on what John Bolton is all about.
- Chrenkoff gives three cheers for one of our best allies in Europe: Albania.
- Winds of Change has a good article on the new international order after the Iraq war, which basically consists of "oppose the US at your own peril." (via Chrenkoff)
- CQ examines a Washington Post interview with SecState Rice where she says the status quo in the Middle East is doomed.
- Chrenkoff has an overview of Pope John Paul II, which has a very personal sound, as he is from Poland.
- Interesting. I did not know there have been three black popes before (via Belmont Club's look at the Papacy).
- If Islamofascism is on the wane in Pakistan, as CQ contends, then will we see Musharraf having room to be more accomodating towards the US?
- LGF takes a look at a New York Times look at Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Muslim lady who has received death threats and fatwas against her.
- Al Qaeda has a plan to destroy the US by blowing up the Canary Islands, thus creating a tsunami. Idiots. (via lgf).
- LGF reports on depressed French winemakers bombing government offices while CQ looks at a Christian Science Monitor article about how France may kill off the EU, or at least the proposed EU constitution, because:
"Once, Europe was France writ large in the French imagination, and it was a comfortable idea," he adds. "Now the French don't think Europe looks like France at all."
- Martin Peretz at the lefty New Republic writes prose heretical on the Left (via cq):
If George W. Bush were to discover a cure for cancer, his critics would denounce him for having done it unilaterally, without adequate consultation, with a crude disregard for the sensibilities of others. He pursued his goal obstinately, they would say, without filtering his thoughts through the medical research establishment. And he didn't share his research with competing labs and thus caused resentment among other scientists who didn't have the resources or the bold--perhaps even somewhat reckless--instincts to pursue the task as he did. And he completely ignored the World Health Organization, showing his contempt for international institutions. Anyway, a cure for cancer is all fine and nice, but what about AIDS? ... Most American liberals, alas, enjoy no similar gladness. They are not exactly pleased by the positive results of Bush's campaign in the Middle East. They deny and resent and begrudge and snipe. They are trapped in the politics of churlishness.
- By it's own admission, a graphical representation of the dream of modern muslims. Check out the inset in the lower right.
- The LA Times gets taken in by a North Korean agent (hat tip: lgf).
- New Sisyphus has a good article noting the arguments pro and con for American exceptionalism in law, which is a hot topic because of the Roper v. Simmons decision by the Supreme Court.
- Althouse reports that a lot of Wisconsin kids are opting for a virtual high school. Heck of an argument for school choice.
- Cool Site: Watching America, which collects news about America from foreign news services.
- Some idiots want to "de-gender rest rooms. Great idea, having men expose themselves around women, all the time.
- Cinemocracy explains why the guy who won Best Original Song at the Oscars sung his song when he accepted the award: Oscars offend the entire nation of Uruguay.
You can tell I am catching up on an Althouse backlog. - A guy looks for Bigfoot in Dinwiddie County, VA. Those of us who know Dinwiddie know that the population there looks like it has a lot of paternity from Big... ok, must stop hyperventilating ... they aren't all half-Sasquatch there, it was just a speeding ticket ... must let go ... er, anyway.
- A holy wishing-tree in China is either really tired or is indicating China is going to have a baaaad year.
- When Gorillas can talk, can they also get sued for sexual harassment? (source: Althouse)
- Althouse has a good article on the value of languages dying out. Fascinating.
- New Sisyphus has a good round up of the President's speech in Brussels here. It's a long read, but worth it for those interested in a broad overview of international affairs as they are right now.
All the things I didn't get to in January...
In politics and world newsIn random stuff
Random bits of the bizarre:Current Affairs:
- Tomorrow is the worst day of the year, mathematically proven by a Welshman.
- Costco is selling Picassos now.
- Remember that comic book guide to immigrants? The Mexican government is reprinting it, despite complaints from the US. Further commentary here.
- "Conservatives in the Mist" - a WaPo adventure on Mars, that part of the US that voted for Bush. (hat tip: RedState, and Jonah Goldberg for the phrase)
- People are talking about this guy as a conservative answer to Michael Moore. Michael Moore had just the right reaction to the guy, which I have to respect. I hate what he has done to political discourse, but he didn't create the soul of the Democratic Party, just gave it voice. Quoth Mr. Moore:
He calmly told Mr. Maloney that documentary filmmaking "should be open to all people of all political persuasions." "It should not just be people who are liberal, or left-of-center, or whatever," the Oscar-winner said. "Make your movies, and then the people will respond or not respond to them."
- No, the Volkswagen suicide boomber ad is not real. (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin)
- I wonder, given how widespread use of this hand-sign is in heavy metal, why Norway is being singled out as having misinterpreted the President's U of Texas hand-sign?
On the technology front:
Phrase of the day:
It's not a small world, it's a small bourgeois clique.
-- Deborah Chinn
Still catching up... - Commonwealth Conservative reviews an article in the Washington Post arguing that Virginia has taxed it's residents too much. Coming from the source, it's nothing short of amazing.
- France is humiliated on the TV channel France-2 by the inadequacy of their response to the Boxing Day Tsunami compared to the USA.
- Carnival of the Commies is up, sampling the liberal side of the blogosphere so conservatives don't have to.
- The contradictions of criticism on the Iraq war and reconstruction are considered.
- Michelle Malkin reviews a talk by Harvard Dean Larry Summers, where he talk about how innate differences between men and women play into how many women are in academics.
- A pointer to an essay and a follow-up by Norman Podhoretz that I hope to have time to read sometime soon.
On the technology front...
I've been catching up on my Bloglines after a long week.
Here is a series of interesting links: |