Michael Yon - Gates of Fire

If you have not read Michael Yon's latest dispatch from Mosul, stop what you are doing and take the ten minutes needed.

Then take another moment to thank God that we have men such as LTC Erik Kurrilla in our Armed forces, and Michael Yon to tell us about them.

Because as sure as Hell is hot, the mainstream media would never tell this story.

No excuse

Robertson backs off Chavez assassination call:

"'There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted,' Robertson added. Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said on Monday of Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics: 'If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.'"

"I was misinterpreted" doesn't fly.

Jesus of the Bunnies

Remember that 70's eco-sci-fi Bruce Dern flick "Silent Running"? I always liked it. I mean, you had SFX by Doug trumbull, a score by Peter "PDQ Bach" Schickele, ATVs, and R2D2-precursor robots. So what if it was dripping in 70's sentiment? James Lileks takes it apart in typical Lileks style. "Near-fatal dose of Joan Baez ... Marty Feldman Ocular Protrusion Acting Method." He's dead on target, of course, which is what makes it so danged funny.

This hits close to home

Breakthrough Work Converts Stem Cells into Lung Tissue

I've got pretty severe asthma, and over the years it's resulted in significant, permanent tissue damage. I live on the equivalent of less than one lung.

So if someone offered me an injection that promised to repair my damaged lung tissue, would I take it?

Well, DUH. Here's my arm, d00d. Gimme teh goodz!!


But what if the label stated that it was derived from embryonic stem cells?

Well, DUH. No way, d00d.

I didn't really have to think about it, somewhat to my surprise. I'm not willing to sacrifice a child to save my own life.

And this is a *bad* thing?

The L.A. Times breathlessly reports that - GASP! - conservative, Christian organizations are training young men and women for public service.

al Qaeda's Mein Kampf

The Word Unheard: Zarqawi to Journalist: al Qaeda's Seven Steps to Caliphate Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in jail. The book outlined his plans for world domination. Once he was free, he began to carry out the plan. If the world had taken him seriously enough, early enough, WWII might have been averted. Now, it appears that Zabu al-Zarkawi, the al-Qaida mastermind in Iraq, has confided to a Jordanian journalist his seven-phase plan to bring the world under Islamist sharia law and usher in the new caliphate. We need to take him at his word. Scary stuff. Brings a new light to Revelation. ht: Donald Sensing

So that's what a corrie looks like

Down the corrie wall ... from Exiled from GROGGS

Can we major on the majors, please?

Crosswalk.com reports on a tiff between Christianity Today and Focus on the Family.

Come ON, people! While there still is vigorous disagreement over the extent to which human activity causes climate change, there is little doubt that climate change IS in fact occuring. How can looking into ways to mitigate human contributions to global warming be anything but A Good Thing?

I've been a fan of Dobson and his organization for a long time, but why Focus on the Family is wading into environmental policy I have NO idea.

Sometimes I just wanna smack people... In love, of course.

Fighting Sioux, indeed!

Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for posting a link ot this. Open letter to the NCAA from the President of the University of North Dakota. As brilliant a fisking as I have ever seen. Powererfully understated.

Is it the use of the names of tribes that you find hostile and abusive? Not long ago I took a trip to make a proposal to establish an epidemiological program to support American Indian health throughout the Upper Great Plains. On this trip I left a state called North Dakota. (Dakota is one of the names the indigenous people of this region actually call themselves.) I flew over South Dakota, crossing the Sioux River several times, and finally landed in Sioux City, Iowa, just south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The airplane in which I traveled that day was called a Cheyenne. I think you should find my confusion here understandable, since obviously if we were to call our teams “The Dakotans,” we would actually be in more direct violation of what apparently you are trying to establish as a rule, even though this is the name of our state. ... Is it only about applying names to sports teams? If so, would this be extended to the use of the names of all people, or is it just American Indians? Why would you exempt the “Fighting Irish” from your consideration, for example? Or “Vikings,” which are really fighting Scandinavians, or “Warriors,” which I suppose could be described as fighting anybodies? Wouldn’t it be “discrimination on account of race” to have a policy that applies to Indians but not to Scandinavians or the Irish, or anybody else for that matter? ... Help me understand why you think “hostile and abusive” applies to us. We have more than 25 separate programs in support of American Indian students here receiving high-end university educations. Included among these is an “Indians Into Medicine” program, now 30+ years running, that has generated 20 percent of all American Indian doctors in the United States. We have a similar program in Nursing, one in Clinical Psychology, and we are about to launch an “Indians into Aviation” program in conjunction with our world-class Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. I am very proud when I visit reservations in our state to see that a large number of the teachers, doctors, Tribal College presidents, and other leaders are graduates of the University of North Dakota. Do you really expect us to host a tournament in which these names and images are covered in some way that would imply that we are ashamed of them? ...

If President Kupchella ever tires of academic life, he should start a blog. Now then, I'm a fan of the Cleveland Indians. I like the "cheesy grin" of the Chief Wahoo logo. I can understand how some Natives, though, don't find him endearing. I grew up with stereotypical cartoon depictions of "Negros" with big noses and lips, family members who used the "n-word" simply as a descriptive term without malice, but I find those images and terms unsettling today. I used to live in a desperately poor neighborhood with a large Native population. Community activists were trying hard to build on "Native Pride". it was an uphill struggle, especially since their cousins on the reservation south of the city were growing rich from casino gambling. As a person of Acadian descent, I refuse to see any Adam Sandler vehicle because of his offensive "Cajun Man" routine on Saturday Night Live. I'm not closely connected to my Cajun heritage, but his depiction offended me deeply. Many people don't know that the Cajun people are survivors of one of the first attempts at ethnic cleansing in North America. Longfellow's epic poem "Evangeline" describes in romantic terms a fictional account of a real event - the forced eviction of the Acadian people from their land in 1755 by the British, aided by the Governor of the Colony of Massachusets. Families were separated. People were killed. The territory of Acadia was emptied of Acadians. Do I have a right to be offended? Sure. Do I have the right, because I - a descendant of survivors of ethnic cleansing - find him offensive, to ban Adam Sandler movies from the theaters or airwaves?

Begin with the end in mind

Harvard jumps into evolution debate - Boston.com

"'My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention,' said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard."

Well, if that's what they expect to find, I'm certain they will find it. Or more likely, they'll issue a report that says, "Well, we still don't know how life began, but we're completely confident that God didn't do it. Can we have some more money?"

For cryin out loud

CutUsABreak.org

Students at a Kutztown PA school figured out the admin password on the laptops they had been issued. (It was printed on the back of the computer.) They used the admin access to get around the laptop's lockdown and install P2P software, chat, etc.

They've been charged with a 3rd-degree felony for "Computer Vandalism."

If they'd driven over the laptops with their bikes, that would have only been a misdemeanor.

Sure, they violated the school AUP and deserve some sort of sanction - but a FELONY CHARGE?

Free curriculum - at what cost?

Jimbo (Wikipedia) Wales guest-posts at Lawrence Lessig's blog

He is going down a list of "Ten things that will be free." Not should be free, but will be free. #2 is Curriculum.

Commentor Frank has a very good point - there's a financial incentive to produce non-free curricula. What's the incentive to produce free curricula? A sense of public service? A tiny bit of ego perhaps (but let's call it Mazlowvian self-actualization)?

This was echoed in a recent discussion on ITFORUM on the value that publishers add in the new world of online self-publishing. David Wiley made the point that the real value that publishers can bring is the process of editing and providing a structure for peer-review of content. (One might counter that that's the same argument made by the "MSM" against blogs, invoking the high and mighty system of "journalistic checks and balances.")

The main problem that I see is that without a well thought out compensation model, the quality of freely-produced content is going to be all over the map. As was pointed out in the comments, good writing and good illustrations matter a great deal and take time and effort. Where does this time and effort come from? Wikipedia is an interesting model of how people can and will contribute their spare time (and I've certainly done my bit), but the product that results is inconsistent.

How do you enforce a style sheet on unmanaged and unmanageable volunteers? Without a system of compensation, how do you make clear roles and expectations? If Expert A doesn't like the edits that Writer B makes to his ramblings, he can pack up his kit and go away, leaving an article - or a book - or an interactive multimedia program - high and dry. What then? Do we blithely assume that someone else with copious amounts of free time will just step in and pick up the pieces out of a sense of social contribution? That certainly seems to be the case.

Finally, I have to say that I find the political tone of some of the comments amusing, if not surprising. There seems to be an assumption that all forward-thinking educators drink from the same pool of social progressivism. Not so. Some of us are shockingly conservative in our worldview. :-)

Fundamentalists and heretics

Short Attention Span - Blog Archive - Fundamentalists and heretics

Kevin over at Short Attention Span hits the nail on the head regarding anti-ID fundamentalists.

Are you a good learning theory or a bad learning theory?

State of the Art Instructional Video Games Working my way through the current issue of Innovate Online, from Nova Southeastern. J.P. Gee opines that successful video games are based on "good theories of learning" while much traditional instruction is based on "bad theories." It will be interesting to see how he dichotomizes them. Gee says that distributed authentic professional expertise (DAPE - my acronym) is a "good learning theory. He doesn't say why, other than to note that the real world is typically characterized by this. While I agree with his premise that dropping an unguided learner into a rich environment is not a good idea, that doesn't automatically make DAPE "good learning theory." He says this: "Good video games, like Full Spectrum Warrior, distribute authentic professional expertise between the virtual character(s) and the real-world player." Maybe I'm reading in a syllogism that doesn't exist, but there are plenty of good games without DAPE. And I suspect there are DAPEful games that are lousy games. But maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there. Back to the article... Alright, finished. I'm disappointed. Gee didn't really explain why DAPE is superior. Indeed, his "state of the art" instructional model looks an awful like cogntive apprenticeship, a topic on which I presented way back in 1997. Well, on tot he next article.

True, and correct, and yet not far enough

Youssef M. Ibrahim is getting close

The world of Islam is on fire. Indeed, the Muslim mind is on fire. Above all, the West is now ready to take both of them on.

The latest reliable report confirms that on average 33 Iraqis die every day, executed by Iraqis and foreign jihadis and suicide bombers, not by US or British soldiers. In fact, fewer than ever US or British soldiers are dying since the invasion more than two years ago. ...

A couple of weeks ago London was on fire as Pakistani and other Muslims with British citizenship blew up tube stations in the name of Islam. ...

Madrid was on fire, too, last year...

...let us not forget that in September 2001, long before Iraq, Osama Bin Laden proudly announced that he ordered the killing of some 3,000 in the United States, in the name of avenging Islam. Let us not forget that the killing began a long time before the invasion of Iraq. ...

They killed innocent tourists and natives in Morocco and Egypt, in Africa, in Indonesia and in Yemen, all done in the name of Islam by Muslims who say that they are better than all other Muslims. They killed in India, in Thailand and are now talking of killing in Germany and Denmark and so on. There were attacks with bombs that killed scores inside Shia and Sunni mosques, inside churches and inside synagogues in Turkey and Tunisia, with Muslim preachers saying that it is okay to kill Jews and Christians - the so called infidels.

Above all, it is the Muslim mind that is on fire.

The Muslim fundamentalist who attacked the Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands, stabbed him more than 23 times then cut his throat. He recently proudly proclaimed at his trial: "I did it because my religion - Islam - dictated it and I would do it again if were free." Which preacher told this guy this is Islam? That preacher should be in jail with him.

Visas for Arab and Muslim young men will be impossible to get for the United States and Western Europe. Those working there will be expelled if they are illegal, and harassed even if their papers are in order. Airlines will have to right to refuse boarding to passengers if their names even resemble names on a prohibited list on all flights heading to Europe and the United States.

I fear those naïve Muslims who think that they are beating the West have now achieved their worst crime of all. The West is now going to war against not only Muslims, but also, sadly, Islam as a religion.

In this new cold and hot war, car bombs and suicide bombers here and there will be no match for the arsenal that those Westerners are putting together - an arsenal of laws, intelligence pooling, surveillance by satellites, armies of special forces and indeed, allies inside the Arab world who are tired of having their lives disrupted by demented so-called jihadis or those bearded preachers who, under the guise of preaching, do little to teach and much to ignite the fire, those who know little about Islam and nothing about humanity. ht: Hugh of course

Here's the problem as I see it: There's no call to action. It's hand-wringing worthy of the best of the American Left. "Oh, these terrible arhabi have brought the wrath of the Infidel West down on us, and we're scr3wed."

He stopped short.

He could - and IMO SHOULD - have said something like this: "The arhabi have perverted Islam and as a result, have incurred the wrath of not only the infidels, but that of other Peoples Of The Book, with which Islam teaches we should live peacefully. In the name of Allah the merciful, it is the holy duty of al Muslims to expose to the full justice of the law those who committ or who plan to commit such shameful acts that bring dishonor to Islam and the name of Allah."

Al-Qaida Says It Killed Algerian Diplomats

Al-Qaida Says It Killed Algerian Diplomats - Yahoo! News: "Wednesday's statement, which appeared on an Islamic Web site, claimed the envoys had been killed because of the Algerian government's repression of Muslims in the north African country."

I really want to see how the Left spins THIS as Bush's fault. Not that I don't expect them to try, of course.

It IS notable that the Algerians were kidnapped and killed in Iraq. Perhaps AQ has no operatives inside Algeria itself? No access to Algerians anywhere else in the world? Or perhaps this is part of AQ's strategy to keep Iraq from becoming a normal state, to keep it stirred up and disfunctional by constant attacks.

That strategy will fail in the long term. The vast majority of Muslims do not buy into arhabi ideology, and the atrocities they commit merely drive them further away. The Muslim world will not rise up against the West. Most of the arhabi are foreigners, and as Iraq gets control of its borders they will decrease in number. There's not an inexhaustible supply of suicide bombers. It may be a large supply, but it is finite. As we have seen in London and the Netherlands, some number of them are living in the West already. Some may be able to perform their missions, though we are drying up their money and cutting their communication lines. When we find them, we either kill them or lock them away.

HMMM

Aircraft Industry Shaking Up Unions - Yahoo! News

Too. Rich.

Military Jokes Military Humor:

"Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*"


RTWT

WAYYY too funny!!

A visit to Club Gitmo

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Gitmo Prisoners Are Right Where They Belong by Carlton Sherwood

Business casual

LILEKS (James) Screeeeeeedblog: Lileks riffs (and rips) on some yahoo who didn't like the way the Roberts family was dressed:

"I dress casually in the summer, because it’s hot. But for the last few years I’ve returned to good slacks and decent shoes and a crisp shirt and a tie. Grown-up clothes. Dad clothes. A man ought to be able to put on a shirt and tie without thinking he’s putting on a costume to deal with The Man; he should regard it as the Rainments of Masculinity, the costume we wear to project the impression of seriousness. If we’re not serious, it’ll be apparent quite soon. ... I just know that I feel different in a shirt and tie. I stand up straighter. I don’t feel as though I’m owed more respect; on the contrary, I feel obliged to be more respectful.
...
Not classic, but old-fashioned. Yes, that’s a distinction starkly apparent to the rest of the nation. A cut above the light-up-shoe hoi polloi, perhaps – but only because that particular demographic may have forgotten or rejected the very notion of dressing up, and sees nothing wrong in sending the kid to Sunday School wearing a Ninja Turtles t-shirt instead of a nice shirt with a clip-on tie and itchy church pants. [ummm.... sorry, James. I pick my battles. But I get your point.]

Why, it’s almost as if the Roberts thought they were better than the rest of us. I’ll tell you this: when it comes to dressing the kids, it’s quite possible they look at parents who get on airplanes in flip-flops with 12-year old daughters who have the word JUICY spelled out on their behinds, and they actually do think they’re better than those parents. Because they put some stock in appearance, in public decorum. When required. Like showing up at the White House. To be nominated for the Supreme Court. That's the sort of event that makes a man spend fifteen minutes choosing his socks, even though they'll never been seen, and even though they're black. "

Paging Ms. Morissette, paging Ms. Alannis Morissette

Kerry Seeks Release of Roberts' Documents

I don't recall from reading the bios whether or not Judge Roberts ever served in the military. Is Kerry calling on him to sign a SF-180?

Seriously. If the Left is THIS politically stupid, how can they be trusted to run a nation? When Tancredo jammed his foot down his throat, at center-right bloggers were first off the mark telling him to can it.

Did no one counsel John Kerry that talking about "releasing documents" is not particularly la good idea?

Scotland Yard says bombs were 'home-made'

Scotland Yard says bombs were 'home-made'

This tripped the absurdity alert system. OF COURSE the bombs were home-made. You can't just pop down to Bombs-R-Us and pick one off the shelf.

French fry logic

From HughHewitt.com: The opinion of Judge John Roberts in the "Case of the consumed french fry:

No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation. A twelve-year-old girl was arrested, searched, and handcuffed. Her shoelaces were removed, and she was transported in the windowless rear compartment of a police vehicle to a juvenile processing center, where she was booked, fingerprinted, and detained until released to her mother some three hours later - all for eating a single french fry in a Metrorail station. The child was frightened, embarrassed, and crying throughout the ordeal. The district court described the policies that led to her arrest as "foolish," and indeed the policies were changed after those responsible endured the sort of publicity reserved for adults who make young girls cry. The question before us, however, is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Like the district court, we conclude that they did not, and accordingly we affirm.

Emphasis added.

That is what an appeals-court judge is supposed to do.

The Long Ride Home

Firepower Forward - The Cutting Edge of Freedom: The Long Ride Home

READ THE WHOLE THING.

Payoff is at the end. Warning - eyes may sweat a bit.

Hitchens: WE CANNOT SURRENDER

Christopher Hitchens gets it.

I remember living in London through the Provisional IRA bombing in the 70s. ...

And, even as I detested the people who might have just as soon have blown me up as anyone else, I was aware there were ancient disputes involved, and that there was a potential political solution.

Nothing of the sort applies in this case. We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are.

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.

Shot in chest, soldier treats wounded sniper who tries to kill him.

Soldier survives attack; captures, medically treats sniper (Video)

*waits to see this story on CNN*

*stops waiting, why bother?*

Airshow weekend

Tired, sore, sunburned, blisters on the feet (at least until they popped)... I musta had a good time, eh?

Ohhhh....yeah.

Worked the flightline at a local airshow this weekend. Three days. Worked with aircraft ranging from a radio-controlled 1/3-scale Piper Cub to Cessna 152 (local guy) to a DeHavilland Chipmunk (x2) to a replica Junkers CL-1 to a YAK-52 and a CJ-3 to a 3/4-scale P-51 to General Patton's (no kidding!) L-bird to an AD-1 Skyraider to a B-17. Yes, I got to park a B-17.

Good times.

Problems

Once again, Lileks hits the nail on the head:

"I would be highly remiss to call any of the contrusions I'm facing as "problems." They are, at worst, situations, and at best opportunities. A "problem" is taking fire when you're in a helicopter heading off to rescue comrades. I was listening to Hewitt's show today about the SEALs shot down in Afghanistan, and felt abashed for having anything on my mind by a song and a smile. These are the men who make my fat happy life possible, who will jump on a plane and go to Venus on behalf of people whose idea of sacrifice is taking a few minutes to sort the plastic from the glass on recycling night. Puts things in perspective.

Anyway. The doorbell rang tonight, and my wife answered. She traded the check and the coupon for a nice hot pizza.

I never have to worry about who's at the door, or why they've come. My heart never leaps when the doorknocker falls; my stomach never flips when the phone rings.

I am a modern happy American. I have no idea."

Bias? What bias?

Bloggers Fighting Government Regulations - Yahoo! News

The AP's story on bloggers and the FEC quotes Kos and Atrios - and ONLY Kos and Atrios, despite the fact that the opposition to FEC regulation of political speech spans both sides of the blogosphere. Sure makes it look like the Big Mean Conservative Government is trying to beat up on "antiestablishment" little guys.

The REAL abuse at Gitmo

FrontPage magazine.com :: What I Saw at Gitmo by Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu

Hat tip - Captain's Quarters

WHY do you NEED to KNOW?

Intelligent Design the Future - Who Designed the Designer? (A Lengthier Response)
Jay Richards with a well-reasoned dissection of the flaws in the "Who designed the designer?" argument often put forward by opponents of Intelligent Design.

Sweet Irony

Sugar Not So Sweet

A new sugar-derived pesticide (an ester is added to the sucrose molecule) is being used to fight the mites that are killing honeybees.

Hey, Alannis - how about a new verse?

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers Bookmark it, furl it, etc.

Telic Thoughts - Meeting of Minds

Krauze over at Telic Thoughts is hosting another Meeting of Minds blog symposium on Intelligent Design. Need to put on the old thinking cap...

BLACKFIVE: The Third Rule of War

BLACKFIVE: The Third Rule of War

Read.

The.

Whole.

Thing.

Gulag, schmulag

Lileks' new 'Screedblog' details the injustices and inhumane treatment suffered by a Gitmo detainee.

I'd have traded him for Jr. High Gym class in a heartbeat.

For the record, many years ago I sent money - American Dollars, as my dad would say - to Amnesty International. I did so because they were on The Front Lines, Taking Direct Action, saving lives one at a time. (cue the kid-and-the-starfish story). They very nicely sent me a sticker, and for a couple of decades now it has adorned the case of my primary guitar.

Tonight I peeled it off and tossed it in the trash, where it now belongs. So now I've got a spot about 3" square available for a new sticker. Suggestions, anyone?

A cat would never do this

Dog attacks pit bull to save stranger. RTWT. ht: Mudville Gazette

Seriously misinformed

Safer skies? Not this way - Yahoo! News

Whoever wrote the article, "Safer Skies? Not This Way," seems to be seriously misinformed about general aviation.

Light aircraft and private pilots are simply not a threat to national security. The aircraft that triggered the Washington, D.C. alert recently was a Cessna 152. A fully loaded Cessna 152 weighs less than an empty Cooper Mini- seven hundred pounds less, in fact. A fully-loaded Beech Baron, a six-seat twin-engine aircraft flown by many small business owners, weighs 300 pounds less than a Lincoln Navigator. Small aircraft simply cannot carry enough payload to do significant damage to a building.

The article describes private pilots as "well-connected." While some private pilots are indeed well-connected (John Kerry, John Travolta, and Harrison Ford come to mind), the vast majority of private pilots and aircraft owners are of far more modest means. Many own small businesses and use general aviation to serve their customers more efficiently. A great many are middle-class aviation enthusiasts such as myself who make financial sacrifices in order to afford their increasingly-expensive passion for flight.

Finally, the article makes no mention of the significant contributions to airport safety made by the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association in coordination with the FAA, Department of Homeland Security, and Transportation Safety Agency. AOPA has been working with these agencies since 9/11 to work out reasonable and effective security measures. For example, the highly-successful "Airport Watch" program was developed in coordination with the FAA, TSA, and DHS, and encourages pilots to report suspicious activity at their home fields.

A visit to Iraq's "Devil Worshippers"

Michael Yon : Online Magazine: Lost in Translation

The Yezidi of Kurdish Iraq have a peculiar set of beliefs. While ti incorporates elements of Islam, Hinduism, perhaps Zoroastrianism, and honors Jesus and Mohammed as wise men, their ancient cosmology includes a fallen angel who is the ruler of this world. As noted below, they want to preserve their cultural identity and have the freedom to practice their religion.

Michael Yon's moving account of a visit with a village elder shows that people are people no matter what they believe.

His grandchildren gathered around him, peeking at me from behind his weathered arms. He seemed unaware of the slight smile that eased across his face whenever he looked at the children. They constantly sought his approval for each small gesture of interaction with this stranger in their grandfather's home, which he granted with slight nods.

Although I had only known him for a few short hours, it was clear that Mr. Qatou liked to talk about the future.

"My life is nearly finished," he said, almost wistfully. "But will be good for my children and my children's children." Mr. Qatou smiled and disappeared into his memories briefly, then he spoke: "My life was mostly soldier and prisoner. My children are free."

Michael Yon : Online Magazine

Michael Yon : Online Magazine Just discovered this freelance jounralist in Iraq. Good stuff! ht- Blackfive

A Meeting of the Minds on Intelligent Design

One of my old posts has been accepted as an entry in the blog symposium A Meeting of the Minds, hosted at Telic Thoughts. Thanks, Krause, for the link. To first-time visitors, welcome to this shaggy corner of my mind. And thanks to Joe at EO for posting the note from Krause about the symposium.

A fitting tribute to the fallen

BLACKFIVE: Opening the Gates of Heaven

I've lost three good friends during the War on Terror. And I write about the others to ensure that we don't forget their sacrifices - I do that for me as much as for anybody.
...
It's important to remember them, and it's just as important to enjoy yourself this weekend. To spend time with your family and friends.
...
What better assurance to them they did not die in vain?

Enjoying your freedom and understanding it's value is the best way to honor the sacrifices of my friends.

That's the way they'd want you to spend Memorial Day.

Remembering them, and being a good dad and husband and an American is the best way that I can honor their memory.

Concrete work

Backfence: Summers of our discontent

The payoff is near the bottom. RTWT.

Iraq's 'devil-worshippers' seek constitutional rights

Iraqi Kurds who worship Lucifer (I kid you not!) want their religious freedom protected in the new Iraqi constitution.

At the same time, an American judge is depriving American nature-worshippers of their constitutional rights to practice their religion. (ht: Captain's Quarters)

Something is very, very wrong with this picture.

A curious state of affairs, indeed.

Fallaci charged in Italy with defaming Islam

ROME (Reuters) - A judge has ordered best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in a recent book.

Hm... According to Italian Judge Armando Grasso, you can't criticize homosexuals, and you can't criticism Islam .... a religion which condones the beheading of homosexuals.

Hat tip: CDR Salamander

An interesting double standard

Anti-American Rallies Staged in Mideast - Yahoo! News When shock-rocker Marilyn Manson or other "artists" blatantly, gleefully, repeatedly desecrate the Bible and crucifixes, the handful of Christian protestors who make the news are generally depicted as fundamentalist crackpots. But let there be a handful of inadvertent "mishandlings" of the Koran, and tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrate, and they are covered as justifiably enraged.

I'm losing my patience with these people.

How ti use a Dial Telephone - 1927

From the Internet Archives: How to Use a Dial Telephone Of course, many adults today have never seen a dial telephone. Our grandkids may wonder, "What was Microsoft Windows?"

We can only hope.

Orson Scott Card on Star Wars and Revenge of the Sith Jedi religion faith force -- Beliefnet.com

Orson Scott Card on Star Wars and Revenge of the Sith Jedi religion faith force -- Beliefnet.com Orson Scott Card is a science fiction writer of some note. He fisks Jediism in this column for Beliefnet.

Major K.: "This We'll Defend"

Major K.: "This We'll Defend" Must-read. ht: Hugh, meta-ht: TigerHawk

I'm a Marauding Marsupial!

According to N.Z. Bear's Blogosphere Ecosystem, I'm #2001.

Surplus Embryo?

Welcome To JJ and Tracy's Place Look at that face. And to think some people say it's OK to harvest stem cells from so-called "surplus embyos." ht: The Corner

Episode III - on second viewing

After some deliberation (and no small amount of effort on his part) I took my son to Revenge of the Sith this weekend. He was of course vibrating with excitement. It was a lot of fun to watch him watch the opening.

It's a better movie the second time around. Much better, actually. Most of the emotional "stuff" mostly works, now that I look at it again. And knowing that it's coming, I can play the lines that annoyed me last time in context (they're STILL contradictory).

The only really flat spot was the too-sudden turn of Anakin to the Dark Side. I just don't buy the transition from, "What have I done?!?" to, "I dedicate myself to your teaching." We also don't see Anakin "growing in power," as he tells Padme' he is.

Oh, I noticed that Jar-Jar appears twice, not just once. Dang.

And I missed the Millenium Falcon's cameo. Guess I'll have to go see it again. (I am SUCH a sucker!)

The oops list

The oops list

Star Wars redux

Ok, Ok, already. It's only a movie, and only a Star Wars movie at that. It's not in the same league as Oliver Stone rewriting history with "JFK." Fluff and popcorn.

George Lucas has earned millions by providing terrific entertainment, and if he wants to take a cheap shot or two, well, it's a free country. I can ignore the cheap shots, or just engage my suspension of disbelief and interpret them in the context of the story (ignoring / accepting the pretzel logic of, "Only Sith deal in absolutes," just as I ignore / accept the wooden acting).

Besides, George W has actually changed the world, and for the better IMO. And regardless of what any moviemaker says about the nature of absolutes, I know the Real Story.

Ya know, it's Star Wars. My inner ten-year-old really just wants to see spaceships and robots and swordfights.

May the Force be with you.

Lucas, you S.O.B!

Just got back from the midnight show of Revenge of the Sith....

George, you sonufabitch, why did you do it?

28 years I've been a Star Wars fan. I saw the original on opening day way back in '77 when both of us had dark hair. I stood in line to see the sequels. I built the AMT (or was it Ertl?) T.I.E. fighter kit. Like every other male my age, I salivated over Carrie Fisher in a bronze bikini. Like the rest of the fans, I was horrified to discover that the ugly rumors about Darth Vader being the father of Luke were true.

I forgave you for the Ewoks, because their technology was so darn cool and because C3PO got some good lines off them.

Years later, I watched the videos with my kids. I bought them lightsabers, action figures, LEGOs, and Darth Vader Halloween costumes.

When the prequels came out, the visuals were so cool that I forgave you the idiotic plotline about mitichloridians, and even overlooked the foolishness of the "virgin birth" of Anakin.

I even didn't totally hate Jar-Jar.

We bought the DVDs and watched them over and over, soaking up the grand story and the incredible visuals.

For the past year, we've subscribed to the Hyperspace section of your website, eagerly awaiting each installment of the behind-the-scenes action. We avoided the unauthorized spoiler sites out of loyalty to the story. May 19th has been on the calendar since, well, forever.

And you had to go and ruin it all.

Three lines, George, three lines, each unneccesary.

#1: "He's got the Congress and the courts." - spoken by a Jedi explaining why the evil Chancellor cannot be removed legally. Clearly a cheap dig at President Bush and the Republican majority in the Congress. Of course, you could not have predicted that the film would be released on the eve of a showdown over judicial nominees. And it wasn't as cheap and obvious as "The Day After Tomorrow," but you certainly could have done it differently.

#2: Anakin (now Darth Vader): "Either you're with me, or you're my enemy." HELLOOOO? Don't tell me that's not a direct restatement of the Bush Doctrine.

#3: Obi-Wan (in response to #2): "Only the Sith deal in absolutes." And he draws his lightsaber to fight his former apprentice.

Ahem.

So what you're trying to say, it seems, George, is that those of us who DO believe in absolutes such as Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, are... SITH? The very EMBODIMENT of evil?

That's what you said, George. Yes, it's contradictory (more on that, perhaps much more, later), but it ...

it hurts, George.

You see, George, all those years while I was buying my kids Star Wars stuff, explaining to them how the grand saga was a tale writ large of falling and redemption, all those years, George...

I was attending church, George. (The past 15 years or so, at least.) Not namby-pamby spiritual-smorgasbord-ifitfeelsgooddoit "churches", George, but REAL churches. Places where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed without shame or fear. Places where clear distinctions are drawn between Truth and Lie, between Good and Evil.

I believe in those things, George.

And until a couple of hours ago, I believed in Star Wars, too. I believed that Star Wars taught that Good ultimately triumphs over Evil.

But right now, George, I'm feeling more than a little sick, and a helluvalot disappointed. Because you could have given us those stunning digital FX, that classic-Star-Wars wooden acting, tied up all the loose ends, just as well without those three lines.

But you bastard, you had to go and do it. You just HAD to get your last digs in, and EFFIN' RUIN IT.



That in itself, a lesson is.

Irritating the right people

Purported al-Qaida Statement Blasts Rice - Yahoo! News

So according to a website, al-Zarqawi is hacked at Condi Rice:

"Our belief entails that the sword and bullets are our way of holding dialogue with you."

Presumably the "you" refers specifically to Rice, though perhaps it refers generally to the Shi'a majority. (I wonder how they would have "held dialogue" with whoever Kerry would have tapped for Secretary of State?) If that's the case, then this non-Iraqi is clearly trying to foment an Iraqi civil war.

Yup, they realize the import of a stable and democratic Iraq.

Handbasket? What handbasket?

Faithful Are Carving Niche in the Workplace - Yahoo! News Replace "Christian" in this story with "homosexual" or "African-American" and see how it sounds. The fact that IT MAKES THE NEWS that people of faith are being PERMITTED to express it at work says a great deal about this society, little of it good.

Jet collision under federal review

Jet collision under federal review Another good article from the Strib. It gives not only the facts of the matter, but important background info about NWA's issues regarding maintenance. That might or might not have played a role in the accident, but it's certainly germane. Looking at the photo, I have to play airchair quaterback and wonder why the DC-9 pilot didn't apply reverse thrust when he realized he was too clse to the A-319. Probably too busy trying to troubleshoot the brakes (assuming that's what caused the accident).

Kids' book on evolution stirs censorship debate in Monticello

Kids' book on evolution stirs censorship debate in Monticello A fair and balanced article. It avoids painting advocates of Intelligent Design or critics of Darwinian macro-evolution as anti-science flat-earthers. The cries of "censorship!" come across as shrill and hysterical (which they are), and the school administrators come across as spineless (which they are). Yes, it's appropriate for a school set policies to teach certain topics at certain grade levels, but come on! My kids were exposed to the "origins story" in Montessori preschool. Elementary kids are into dinosaurs. The topic comes up. Instead of "caving in" to "religious extremists" - those horrible bogeymen - the school has caved to the Darwinian Dogmatists. Micro-evolution is observable. Macro-evolution is not. It's an assumption. Common Descent has not been proved. There is evidence that supports it, but the same evidence can be interpreted in support of Intelligent Design. The problem that the Materialists have is that Intelligent Design requires an Intelligent Designer, and despite IDer's assurances that it doesn't matter whether the Designer turns out to be Christ, "I AM WHO AM," Zeus, Odin, Vishnu, or Barney, if a student is allowed to think about Design, he or she might utter the Forbidden Word - you know, the one that begins with a "g" - in a public school, which would directly contravene many postmodern jurist's reinterpretation of the Founding Father's Original Intent, resulting in the collapse of Western Civilization. Or at the very least Barry Lynne (the founder of People United to Censor Public Expressions of Faith) would be offended, which could be worse. After all, he gives press conferences and files lawsuits.

Am I stupid, brainwashed, or... a careful reader?

Iraqi Insurgents Go on Rampage, Kill 69

OK, read the headline, read the story, look at the (truncated) picture caption, then the extended caption.

A casual reading is, "oh, snap, not only is the insurgency growing, but they are getting more effective, and the US is STILL screwing up!"

Look just a *tad* bit deeper and it's clear that the insurents are getting less effective, more desparate, and that Us troops - as almost always - act with professionalism and restraint.

Please, God, make it didn't happen ...?

Prosecutors: Father Stabbed Girls ... Oh, sweet Jesus. Maranatha! Lord, come soon.

Minor yet major

In the grand scheme of things, the decision by the Director of the USAF Museum to move an old airplane that few people under the age of 50 even know about from Texas to Arizona matters not at all. And yet... The B-36 Peacemaker, in its day, stopped Stalin in his tracks. The men and women that built, maintained, and flew it sacrificed as much as those of any warriors of any period. (If you doubt that, imagine doing maintenance on a running engine sitting a couple of feet away from a nineteen-foot propeller trying to to suck you in. Oh, did I mention that it's either sixty below (before you factor in wind chill) or a hundred-and-two-in-the-shade?)

What an age of wonders we live in ... ?!

Gadget promises to translate baby babbling Hey - I've got a radical idea. Maybe I'm crazy, but bear with me here. Suppose, just suppose, parents actually.... PARENT?

Democrats, differences, and definitions

Reid Offers Olive Branch on Bush Nominee - Yahoo! News:

"'We know the difference between opposing nominees and blocking nominees. We will oppose bad nominees, but we will only block unacceptable nominees,' Reid said."

And what, Senator Reid, is the difference between a "bad" nominee and an "unacceptable" nominee? And what qualities in a "bad" nominee make him or her "acceptable"?

Back in the day Bill Cosby had a routine about kids and how irrational they were. He had a simple, two word explanation for their logic-defying behavior: "BRAIN DAMAGE!"

Bigotry on display

Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the hypocritical bigotry of the "tolerant" Left. I'm a conservative Christian. I'm unashamed of that fact. There are a lot of people like me, and the numbers are growing. We vote our values. But to people like Hitchens, this is dangerous. We are dangerous. I am dangerous. What's next - forcing me to sew a yellow cross on my shirt?

Wonkette - First Wife Swapper: Laura Bush Steals the Show at WH Correspondents Dinner

Wonkette - First Wife Swapper: Laura Bush Steals the Show at WH Correspondents Dinner Wonkette goes a bit overboard with the "wife swapping" charge, but the pull quotes from Laura Bush's zingers show a woman with a real sense of humor.

"George always says that he's delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney. He's usually in bed by now. I'm not kidding. I said to him the other day, George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later." "The amazing thing is that George and I were just meant to be. I was a librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library, yet somehow I met George." "People often wonder what my mother-in-law is really like. People think she's a sweet, grandmotherly Aunt Bee type. She's actually more like Don Corleone." "I'm proud of George. He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse." "George's answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chainsaw. Which I think is why he and Cheney and Rumsfeld get along so well."

Time certainly seems to have MovedOn

It's been a long time since I read a newsmagazine. I get headlines from Yahoo and a slew of RSS feeds aggregated at bloglines, and analysis from a handful of blogs I read semi-regularly. But the current issue of Time had Darth Vader's visage staring out at it, so I forked over the four bucks. I figured it'd be a nice thing for my Star Wars-besotted preteen son. Hoo boy, was I in for a rude awakening. There is a decent article on the final episode of the Star Wars saga. A bit thin for psuedofanboys like yours truly who have devoured the behind-the-scenes goodies at Hyperspace (the members-only section of starwars.com), but not bad. Not much in the way of spoilers, and a decent if lightweight exploration of hte dramtic sweep of the saga. The interview with Lucas provides interesting insight into the man who never really wanted to be defined by the space epic, and who offhandedly describes himself as a San Francisco liberal. But... Next comes, "How Star Wars Saved My Life," by a guy who as a seven-year-old dealt with his "confusing" crushes for the other boys in the neighborhood by becoming a Star Wars geek. They couldn't find a straight person whose life was changed by Star Wars? And just what the heck difference did the kid's nascent sexual persuasion make w/r/t his becoming a geek, or vice versa? Exactly nothing - it's totally and utterly gratuitous. Elsewhere, an article on the Christian college students on secular campuses (a growing demographic, according to the author's statistics) begins with two women kissing at a drunken frat party. (At least the article treats the Christian students it describes with respect.) There's a snarky item about a "creationist" museum of earth history founded by a "right-wing zealot and notorious anti-Semite." Later in the magazine is a full-page ad for P-FLAG, and the final commentary is by an author who flaunts her "Volvo-driving, pro-abortion rights, pro-gay-marriage, liberal credentials" as a prelude to ripping on a new Florida gun law. I knew things had gotten bad at the venerable newsweekly, but this was a real shocker.

Training wheels

New Design Could Transform 1st Bike Ride Mechanical/engineering-wise...cool. Parenting-wise....Meh. I've taught three of my four kids to ride so far. Falls happen - they're a good incentive to stay balanced. I've seen two/three year olds riding w/o training wheels. When I asked their parents how'd they do it, they replied simply, "We put the kid on the bike and let go." That said, this could be a Godsend for kids with balance or other disorders.

Media bias? nawwww

Note the headline: AP: Bush's Social Security Plan Cuts Benefits Not, "Bush SS plan would pay low-income retirees more," or even, "Bush proposes income-adjusted SS benefits." No, no, fluffy. Must. Bash. Bush. AT. All. Costs.

Of course it will be difficult

HT: The Corner The Guardian | Trust sued over twin born after abortion:

Stacy Dow had a termination at six weeks at Perth Royal infirmary after she found out she was pregnant with twins when she was 16. But 27 weeks later she discovered she was still carrying one of the twins.

"'I still don't know if, or what, I am going to tell Jayde when the time comes,' she added. 'Maybe when she is nine or 10 I will sit her down and explain it to her. I just hope that she understands what happened and why I did it. Of course it will be much harder to explain to her that she had a twin.' "

Yes, I would imagine that it would be difficult to explain. "You see, dear, I didn't want to have a baby, much less two. So I paid to have you and your sister killed. Unfortunately, you survived. You DO understand, dear?"

When God said that the sins of the parents are passed down to the seventh generation, He wasn't being vindictive or cruel.

He was just explaining how sin works.

Short Attention Span: A politically incorrect rant

Short Attention Span: A politically incorrect rant As usual, Kevin drives the nail home.

To everything there is a purpose

From Mark at Stones Cry Out:

Jessica is the daughter of our friends. Every day, the school bus comes for Jessica, who happens to be the last child on the route. On this particular bus, the kids have assigned seating, and Jessica sits next to the same young boy--day after day. And, day after day, this young, frightened boy cried the whole trip. He was crying when the bus came to Jessica's house, and he cried the rest of the way to school. One day, Jessica decided to help the boy. She reached out her small hand, and gently laid it on his arm. The boy stopped crying. The mere touch of another, gentle soul was enough to comfort him. The next day came, the boy was crying. Jessica sat down, reached out, touched his arm, and he stopped crying. This pattern repeated the next few days. She did not have to say anything, her touch was all he needed. And then, a few days later, something interesting happened. On this day, the boy stopped crying a few blocks before the bus reached Jessica's house. He knew she would be getting on the bus soon and that was enough to comfort him. She still put her hand gently on his arm, of course. This pattern repeats to this day. The boy stops crying a few blocks before Jessica's house. I suppose he can sense where the bus is because of the curves in the road near her house. You see, the boy is blind. He can neither see Jessica, nor her house. He just senses when the bus is almost there. Jessica's actions on the bus do not surprise her parents. She has four siblings at home, including a newborn sister. Whenever one of her sisters, or her brother, is hurt, Jessica is there to comfort the child. Offering her gentle shoulder and heart for another's comfort. That's who Jessica is--comforter of the hurting. She is also one of the happiest children I have ever seen. There's always a smile on her face. Jessica turned five this past February. That, in itself, is a miracle. Jessica was born with hydrocephalus. While in her mother, the fluid built up in her tiny brain and damaged it. Jessica also has Down Syndrome. There are many things that Jessica will not be able to do in her life. To some, Jessica should never have been born. Some, having received the news of her condition, as her parents did, by amniocentesis, would have chosen to end the pregnancy, and her life. The reason, I suppose, is that she won't have much quality of life. She'll never be a productive member of society. She may not be able to take care of herself. Not much of a life in our modern society. However, I know one little boy on a bus who knows that Jessica is nothing short of a gift from God.

Fairy tales versus real life?

Yahoo! News - Fairy tales linked to violent relationships Haven't blogged much lately - been too busy with real life, including a nasty bout with poison ivy. But this little gem caught my eye. According to this British researcher, if we read "Beauty and the Beast" or "Cinderella"to our daughters, they'll grow up to marry monsters thinking they can change them into handsome princes. God forbid, then, we read "King Arthur" to our sons. They might grow up thinking that they have an obligation to defend the women in their life.

My meeting with the President

Thanks to an interesting turn of events, I came face-to-face with President Bush during a private event last week.

Through a connection with the local Republican party I was able to volunteer at the restaurant where he held a discussion on Social Security and a photo op with local small business owners. My job was to check the IDs of the invited guests. The President was scheduled to arrive at noon; I had to be there at 9. Although I was on time, I still had to talk my way through two roadblocks enroute to the event.

Watching all the security preparations was fascinating. Very serious business. The Secret Service checked *everything*, including the fire trucks and ambulances. I watched as an agent and his dog inspected the restaurant's sign out by the street. Another checked out the storm drains in the parking lot. Thank God the weather was good (beautiful, actually) because the invited guests stood outside for an hour waiting to be cleared in past the final checkpoint.

By 11:30 we were all inside the restaurant waiting for the motorcade. Everyone had one last chance to go to the bathroom.

Then the motorcade arrived. Several functionaries came and went through the side door that was to be used as the President's entrance, and then a medium-sized fellow wearing a suit with a blue tie poked his head in and looked around. It took a moment for everyone there to realize that it was the President. The room broke into applause as President Bush made his way around the room, shaking hands and kidding with folks. He gestured to to the other end of the restaurant (where I was seated) with a good-natured, "I'll get there in a minute!" For a moment I had a clear view of him down the length of the wait corridor. The room was silent, and I had the urge to shout out, "Howdy, George!" Didn't, though.

He sat down at the tabe with the folks who were scheduled to meet with him,, the press corps rushed in, and the place was dead silent for about ten minutes. All we could hear (with a phalanx of reporters between us and the President) was the occasional group chuckle. Then there was politeapplause, the press left, and the President made his way around the room shaking hands and chatting briefly with folks.

Watching him meet and greet, I was struck by how natural and genuine he appeared. He comes across as a down-to-earth guy who is very comfortable inside his own skin, confident in his competence. He reads as a senior executive (which of course he is) rather than a politician or a power hound. He refers to the Presidency in the third person, as though it is a suit of clothes, a job, a role he is currently playing. It doesn't define the man. I'd like to sit down with him over a cup of coffee and swap flying stories.

I was at the tail end of line with the other event volunteers. He stopped and thanked me for helping out. I told him, "We're praying for you, Mr. President." He looked me in the eye and said, "Please keep it up, because it's working like a charm." I had come prepared with a big Sharpie marker for him to sign my volunteer's pass, but he had one himself. "I see you have one, " I said. "A president without a Sharpie is like a president without..." -- he rolled his eyes -- "an entourage," he grinned. Then he looked at the oversized Sharpie in my hand. "That's the biggest Sharpie I've ever seen!" he said. I wish I'd had the wit to make a crack about being from Texas.

Seeing that he wasn't immediately moving on I whipped out my pilot's hat and asked him to sign it. As he did so he asked me, "You get to fly much?" "Not enough," I replied. "What do you fly?," he asked. I answered, "A Cessna, but I'm building a Fly Baby." Seemingly by reflex, he responded to the word "baby" with a practiced, "Well, congratulations" as he was moved along by the Secret Service. But you could see the wheels turn and click into place as he suddenly realized I'd said "building a Fly Baby," not "having a baby." He stopped, turned back, looked me in the eye, and said, "You be careful!"

What could I reply but, "Yes, sir"?

Judeo-Christian morality in an ethically pluralistic society

Kevin Hedges at Short Attention Span has some good thoughts on why we can't - and shouldn't attempt to "legislate morality". He misses one point, suprisingly. By legislating morality you institute theocracy - and theocracies run by humans are bound to be fallible. The goal of theocracy is laudable - God's Kingdom on Earth. The problem is that until Christ returns, it will be people running the show, even if they claim to speak for God. I'm deeply dismayed by a lot of what I see in popular culture. But I'm willing to tolerate it (in the original sense of the term) for the sake of avoiding tyrrany.

On stem cells and the worth of life

The Anchoress nails it.

A boy is a rat is a dog...

Yahoo! News - Researchers to Study Apes, Forgiveness So let me get this straight. Scientists take it as an article faith that there is nothing particularly special about humans - since we are evolved beings and share common ancestry with apes, the ancestral roots of behavior we call "human" must be observable in non-humans. So researchers plan to spend $125,000 (fortunately not taxpayer's money) to observe captive apes and look for signs of behavior they can label as "forgiveness," thereby proving the point that non-humans exhibit "human" behavior. Seems just a tad bit ... circular. I wonder if anyone is interested in studying whether "non-humans" deprived of food and water by their care-givers exhibit forgiveness.

I think I'll stick to smoke signals

Web-ready cellphones, PDAs are next frontier for hackers, virus writers Someimes, it's good to not be on the bleeding edge...

The Anchoress

When I get around to putting a blogroll on this site, The Anchoress will be on it.

Arhabi

From Major K.

It is pronounced: ahr-HAH-bee. It is the Iraqi arabic word for terrorist. 2LT C. does not like it because "it just doesn't sing. I learned this word from our interpreters and use it often. I never use mujahedin or jihadi, because they imply a measure of respect due an actual warrior. After all, both of those terms mean "holy warrior." This distinction is also very important to the Iraqis. They have told me repeatedly that these guys are cowards who will not even stand and fight. They kill innocent people, and bomb indiscriminately.

English is a malleable language, designed to fold in terms from other languages. May I suggest a new addition?

Deeply Wierd

NRO: Eric Pfeiffer on George Felos George Felos is the smooth-talking attorney for Michael Schiavo, the one who calls those who want Terri to live "fanatics." It seems he has superpowers:

In his 2002 book Litigation as Spiritual Practice, Felos expresses his belief in the "cosmic law of cause and effect," in which the human mind is not limited by the constraints of reality. More specifically, if one wants a new car, one could make this dream car manifest "out of the ether." Felos claims to have used his mental powers to cause a plane he was passenger on to nearly crash. By simply asking himself, "I wonder what it would be like to die right now?" the plane's autopilot program mysteriously ceased to function and the plane descended into free fall. Felos then observed, "At that instant a clear, distinctly independent and slightly stern voice said to me, 'Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize.' In quick succession I was startled, humbled and blessed by God's admonishment."

'Call to arms' on evolution?

USATODAY.com - 'Call to arms' on evolution This is eerily reminiscent of the Papal Bulls that launched the Crusades - "Take back the Holy Land from the infidels!" - and the Inqusition - "Root out the heretics!" There is no hard evidence for phylum differentiation through natural selection - it's merely assumed. There are seventeen different definitions for speciation, some of them mutually exclusive. The Cambrian Explosion is unexplained. And so on, and so on. A journal editor lost his career for publishing an article on design. Why is it doubleplusungood thoughtcrime to suggest that there is more than one way to interpret the evidence?

Bigotry against the disabled

The Harvard Crimson Online :: Bigotry and the Murder of Terri Schiavo Joe Ford is a Harvard student with severe cerebral palsy with something to say to the folks who think Terri and other severely-disabled persons would be better off dead: "You're Nazi bigots." He's got a point. ht - Powerline

Final straw

Death Penalty Tossed Over Bible Verses

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses such as "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" during deliberations.

Judicial activism gone just one step too far. On top of everything else that has happened recently, this just cracks the camel's back. I am no theocrat - I've long argued that no theocracy led by men (or women) can succeed, because we mortal humans are very fallible - and I have grave misgivings of how the death penalty is applied in this country. But for a judge to vacate a jury's decision because a juror referred to the Bible during deliberations ... it seems to me that the Founding Fathers' vision of a tripartite government of, by, and for the people* has been somehow perverted. *and yes, I know that phrase is Lincoln, not Jefferson/Adams.

Fight like a girl

BLACKFIVE: After Action Report - Raven 42 Ambushed! An amazing account of our female soldiers under fire in Iraq. 7 US MPs and medics on convoy duty take on - and take out - two dozen heavily armed insurgents. The bad guys had videotaped their preparations for the ambush, and had handcuffs with them, presumably to use to take captives for ransom or worse, more internet snuff flicks. Fight like a girl, indeed.

The price of freedom - one woman's cruel death

Ed Morrisey at Captain's Quarters has a very good post, with good follow-on commentary, on the Terri Schiavo case. I haven't written much here about it for a lot of reasons, most related to the fact that nobody reads this blog and I wanted to be part of the conversation. But here's my take, for the record. Michael Schiavo should have divorced Terri, annulled the marriage, and gone on with his life when it became apparent to him that she would never recover. The fact that he didn't makes the issue smell real fishy. There have been a lot of ugly allegations about his possible motives. Judge Greer should have permitted more evidence, and required Terri to be independently evaluated. He should resign from hte bench so he can be free to explain himself. Supposedly he's a conservative Christian. I cannot fathom why he has made the decisions he has made. It may be that there are some legal means for Governor Bush to take Terri into custody. I doubt it. I am persuaded that if there were, he would have used them by now. Congress in its extraordinary Palm Sunday session should have passed a law REQUIRING the tube be replaced. They left Whitemore and Greer an out. It's no surprise that they took it. She's not brain dead, and she wasn't on life support. She was severely disabled and needed to be fed through a tube. Killing her by dehydration and starvation is beyond cruel and unusual punishment. Sometimes the cost of freedom - of being a nation ruled by laws - is very high. Very high indeed.

TenNapel.com - Home of Doug TenNapel

TenNapel.com - Home of Doug TenNapel Great, terrific posts.

Last night I wept

My daughter, a toddler, asked me for a drink of water.

Gatekeepers, ghettoes, design, and self-organizing systems

Kevin over at Short Attention Span is wrestling with the idea that Christian bloggers exist in a kind of "Christian blogger ghetto" created by a dearth of links from A-list bloggers.

What makes me believe that La Shawn is right that the A-list is functioning as a gatekeeper --deliberately or not-- is that there seems to be a discernable gatekeeper effect. An effect has a cause.

Most of the time, that's correct. Most effects have causes. But not all. Some things "just happen that way." Systems do self-organize, and can exhibit seemingly intentional behavior that actually derives from unintentional effects of simple initial conditions.

At the risk of a heresey charge, this is a weak area in the argument for Intelligent Design. I really like Stephen Barr's "Modern Physics and Ancient Faith", but he builds a case for the sphere being an elegant, symmetrical object without discussing a very basic fact: Of any three-dimensional shape, the sphere has the smallest surface area for the enclosed volume. That's not a design feature, it's just the way the math works out.

A drop of water, a bubble, a planet, a star - they're all spheres because that shape is mathematically the smallest package.

Now, then. We certainly could have a discussion as to why it should be that the smallest, most efficient shape for a given amount of matter should just happen to have all these kinds of symmetries. That might closely related to a discussion of why i has a value of nearly 1, when its factors are on the order of plus and minus 10^6. (According to Barr, i controls the relationship fo the strong and weak nuclear forces. If i were much different than 1, the universe would either be all hydrogen or all helium - other elements could not exist.)

"Why should things be the way they are instead of some other way" is a question for deep thinkers and insomniac sophomores, but it's a different question than "Why are things the way they are?"

As parents know very well, sometimes the answer to that question is, "Because that's just the way it is."

Don't Kick It

Peggy Noonan warns the Republican leadership of the consequences of failing to act in the Terri Schiavo case. She may well be right. And that frightens me deeply.

Echo chambers

Short Attention Span: Ghettoes and gatekeepers Kevin is wrestling with an interesting issue. LaShawn and Joe Carter are kicking it around as well. Not quite sure what to make of it yet.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Star Wars Fan Film Awards -- Only on AtomFilms

Too Easy

Yesterday I chanched to be listening to Michael Medved's radio show. His guest, an atheist, made a couple of rather absurd claims. In trying to draw a distinction between "rational" science and "irrational" religious belief he claimed that falsifiability was the major test of whether a claim was rational or not. Scientific claims are falsifiable, he said. Religious claims are not.

Sorry, Charlie, but that's simply not so. "Dark matter exists" is a scientific claim that is not falsifiable. You can't prove that invisible matter doesn't exist. (Isn't that what skeptics claim about God?)

Christianity, however, IS easily falsifiable. Habeus corpus Christi. Produce the body of Christ, and the game is over. Find an authentic first-century ossuary, containing the bones of a Semitic man in his mid-30s who had been crucified, preferably with scratches on the left side of the ribcage that correspond to a Roman spear and scratches on the back side that correspond to a flagellum, but intact leg bones. The ossuary should be inscribed "Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary."

It would also be useful to produce solid evidence that the Resurrection accounts are fiction - say, the deathbed confession of the conspirators - just to put the final nail in the coffin.

So I guess that makes Christianity more rational than science, eh?

Michael's guest also said that at the summer camp he runs for atheist kids, they have a pair of invisible unicorns. He has a standing offer of $100 in play money to anyone who can prove that the unicorns do not exist. That's almost too easy. Round up everyone at the camp, and threaten to kill them unless the adults admit that the unicorns are not real. No rational person dies for a lie they know is a lie.

Like something out of a novel

Yahoo! News - Japanese tugboat attacked, crew kidnapped in Malacca Strait Confession - I read brain-candy technothrillers. You know, Tom Clancy (when he was good), Dean Coonts, Clive Cussler ... brain candy. Heavily-armed pirates taking over a natural gas tanker in the Malacca Straight sounds like a Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler plot device. But then, so was the idea of flying a jetliner into a government building. Apparently this attack failed. This attack.

Iranians stage sit-in to force EU action

EUobserver.com: Sit-in ends peacefully:

Meanwhile, a 13-hour sit-in on board a Lufthansa plane at the Brussels airport by a group of 56 unarmed European citizens of Iranian origin ended peacefully on Friday morning (11 March). Armin Atshgar, one of the protesters, said according to wire reports, that the group wanted Islamic leaders removed from power in Iran. He asked to speak to members of the European Parliament before leaving the plane. Mr Atshgar is a member of Anjomane Padeshahi, a group that wants to restore Iran's royal family removed during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

I'm really surprised that this story has not been mentioned by Hewitt, Morrissey, or the Powerline gents. I'd've expected them to at least mention it!

Subscribe to a Google News Feed

http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php

I have readers?

Technorati lists 100-odd links back to my little site. I'm honored. And maybe a little scared....

Censorship?

Captain's Quarters is all over a recent interview with an official of the Federal Elections Commission that suugests that the FEC could stifle political blogging by calling it "in-kind" contributions. The Powerline guys aren't so sure. Me, I fall back on a statement many years ago, made by a wise old friend, Ben (no, not that Ben). Ben said, "The Internet was designed to enable communications during and after a nuclear war. It treats censorship as battle damage - and routes around it."

Summa Aesthetica: Breaking the Silence

Summa Aesthetica: Breaking the Silence Hmm...

Normal Rockstar

Normal Rockstar add this to Bloglines feed.... ht - Der Commisar