I'll have to think about this article by Pete Hegseth, a former officer in the 101st Airborne on the need for more troops in Iraq.

According to OpinionJourmal.com, First Lt. Hegseth served as an infantry platoon leader and civil-military operations officer in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division.

There's an interesting article at Yahoo News entitled, "Did Democrats Page Mark Foley?"

Clarice Feldman writes at The American Thinker about the incredibly propitious timing of the Foley affair in "Investigate This". The incredible comparisons with the record of the Democrats that she includes, courtesy of Gateway Pundit, makes this a must read.

More sceptical attention to global warming, on the cost to cap emissions and whether or not emissions should be capped without further study.

Update: while considering the questions raised above, also consider the demographics of carbon emissions by the US population over the coming decades.

More: Greenland may be green, again.

And, Gore-d on his own petard.

Even more here on the scientific consensus on global warming.

Interesting take on the crazy Iranian president's visit to the UN and stay in NYC in Mahmoud and Me: Ahmadinejad’s Wild Week, by His Translator, Hooman Majd.

Alternatively, the article could have been entitled, "How Michael Moore somehow managed to miss a free meal and a chance to take a swipe at America and the President."

The subtitle for the article by Adam Lashinsky, Fortune senior writer, on money.cnn.com, Chaos by design, reads, "The inside story of disorder, disarray, and uncertainty at Google. And why it's all part of the plan. (They hope.)", says it all. I'm not sold on the long term positive prospects for any company run by Eric Schmidt of Novell and Sun fame, unless he's not really running it.

The greatest enemy of miners and mining? The answer, according to Phelim Mcaleer, is misguided left-wing Western environmentalists.

From his column:

"...I have come across a lot of tragedies and hard-luck stories as a journalist, but I had never covered a situation where the solution to poverty is being opposed by educated Westerners who think that people really are "poor but happy."

When a representative of Gabriel Resources asked me to write a brochure about the project I declined, but I did suggest that if they did not interfere editorially I would make a documentary.
I gathered up extra funding and the documentary Mine Your Own Business premieres Tuesday at the Denver Gold Forum at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Denver. The film will shock and upset those who, like myself, unquestioningly believed environmentalists were a force for good in the world.

For Mine your Own Business I started looking beyond Romania and found a similar pattern in very different villages in Africa and South America.

It is sad that my fellow left-wingers and environmentalists who often come from the most developed countries are now so opposed to development.

However, it is not sad but tragic that the real losers in this clash of cultures are some of the poorest people on the planet."

As they say, read the whole thing.

Phelim McAleer is an Irish-born journalist and documentary filmmaker. The trailer for his documentary can be seen at the preceeding link; it is not posted on YouTube as the article states as of this posting.

Nope, No Fitzmas this year. MSNBC: Fitzgerald given way out of Libby leak case. My favorite part: the NBC News reporter, Joel Seidman, manages to avoid listing all of the reasons why the prosecutor would want to drop the charges. Namely, that Libby didn't commit the crime he was originally investigated for, and the person who could be charged for committing the non-crime, isn't a current member of the Administration.

"WASHINGTON - The judge in the CIA leak case ruled Thursday that if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald feels that admitting certain classified documents at the upcoming trial of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby can jeopardize national security, Fitzgerald can then move to dismiss the perjury charges against Libby."

Judge Robert G. James of the United States District Court, Western Division of Louisiana is the Federal judge who declared boating illegal in all US navigable waters. A judge with no judgment, or sense, apparently.

The ReporterHerald reports that a Colorado State professor disputes global warming is human-caused

Go, Bill Gray! Go!

I was flipping channels tonight and happened to stop one tuner of my HD TiVo on Charlie Rose on PBS, and the other tuner on a speech by Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard. Charlie's guest was a New York Times reporter or columnist (is there a difference?) who was prattling on about the import of tomorrow's speech by President Bush at the UN. Bill was recounting his memories of 9/11, and of a conversation that he had that day with Bill Bennett. Bill Kristol remembers wondering whether 9/11 would be a seminal moment in American history or not; he remembers Bill Bennett saying that he believed that it would be.

It struck me that part of America's success is so obvious as to be easily overlooked. We have a society that has agreed to play by the rules. What does that mean? It means that we drive on the right side of the road, we pay taxes, we send our kids to school. Most of us do the normal everyday things that we all take for granted in life. That is the American dream writ large: if you go to school, get pretty good grades, go to college, get pretty good grades, get married after high school (better still, after college, but not too much after), get a job, stay married, stay out of trouble, stay in the job and do the work--you'll have a pretty good life. You may not have a life like a trust fund baby or a stock options millionaire, but you'll be able to afford a lifestyle that would amaze people of not so many decades ago. If you believe in God, do good works in his name, and pass that along to your children, you will be happier still, and will leave a legacy worth leaving.

This great "compact with Americans" works, will continue to work, and is worth defending. It is the legacy that we can leave our children. You can write the life plan expressed in the preceding paragraph down and give it to your children. If they follow it, they'll have a great life too.

We are facing groups of people who do not value normalcy, or reason, or who want to play by the rules as we know them. Their society, if it can be called that, takes offense at nonsense. The American observer sees that it has no humor, it appears to take little joy in life, it does not strive to make a better, safer world for families, children and society. It attacks unbelievers who are real, and who are imagined, to restore the world to a state of anarchy. Anarchy by any definition that an American observer would apply.

Arrayed against these forces of anarchy are a relatively small group of men and women from some of the "first world nations" who have suffered many losses in wars over the centuries. In this country, we have fought wars to free ourselves from colonial rule, to put down pirates, to end slavery, to end tyranny, and to free the oppressed. Most Americans hold certain truths to be self evident, and believe that those truths are worth protecting against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

I honor those who have taken on the burden of defending America. American society is the greatest promise that has ever been made, and kept, in the history of mankind. Most Americans are religious, not jihadists, but are peaceful in their worship. If an unbelieving, amnesiac American were to fall into the clutches of a group of Southern Baptists (or any traditional denomination in the country) tomorrow, he or she would probably only have to contend with the consequences of an overdose of fried chicken and of gatherings of concerned families and friends who offered help and prayers. No sabers would be brandished.

Christianity has had a reformation. Western civilization endured its dark ages. Parts of Islam wants to return mankind to a kind of dark age, and rejects reformation and reason at the point of a gun, if not a nuclear weapon or other WMD. Those who follow Islam must learn that the comments that the Pope made are words, not weapons. Those words he quoted from centuries past show how far parts of Islam need to come to join the 21st century. The moderate followers of Islam must speak up, and embrace debate and reform, or embrace anarchy. Those who have found a good and just society based on a simple set of rules and a wonderful promise of a vibrant future will not sit still and watch anarchy destroy their hard won society. They will defend it, hard as it will be, terrible as the price may be. America has always done so, and will do so now.

The President of Iran speaks at the UN tomorrow, in a body formed by Roosevelt, Churchill and other great men at the end of WWII in the hope that war could be averted by the concerted action of nations whose societies chose to "live by the rules". He will do well to pay more attention to the thriving metropolis that surrounds the UN, and the vibrant life and hope seen in the faces of its citizens, than the "light that surrounds him" as he speaks to the General Assembly. The people of Iran, and all people not mislead by leaders drunk with power, desire the promise fulfilled of the "compact with America", and wonder why their leaders don't strive to brink it to their lands, peacefully, to join with the rest of the world in the pursuit of happiness. President Bush understands the promise of freedom, of free markets, and how those simple elements not only created America, but restored prosperity to victor and vanquished alike after WWII. We can only hope that every leader will take the same message home after tomorrow's sessions at the General Assembly.

I am proud to be "Blogging for Bolton", and not at all for Lincoln Chaffee. I'm inclined to agree with Hugh on Chaffee.

The Plameout continues to be a source of good fun. In today's episode, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's prosecutorial conduct is examined by one of his peers who is in a very good position to know whereof she speaks.

What a Load of Armitage! What did Patrick Fitzgerald know, and when did he know it? By Victoria Toensing in Opinionjournal.com

Where is Margaret Thatcher when you need her? Iain Murray discusses White House wobbling on global warming in his post at National Review Online

Update: here's a link to a post by Rich Galen that Iain Murray refers to in The Corner at National Review Online.

Pajamas Media collects a series of posts to pay homage to a woman who stood strong in the face of tyranny throughout her life IN MEMORIAM: ORIANA FALLACI, 1930 - 2006

The Miami Herald reports, "Hulk Hogan's car catches fire on Bay Harbor Islands." Another comeback is sure to be in the works after this.

Betsy's Page's post entitled Giving a "political" speech in wartime excerpts a column by Tony Blankley in the Washington Times that is well worth reading.

Betsy's introduction to the column:

"The Democrats have gotten all up on their high horses about Bush giving a speech on Monday, the anniversary of 9/11, in which he defended the war in Iraq and tried to rally support for that war. Horrors! Apparently, to the Democrats, talking about the war is a political speech. In their minds, it is Bush's war and thus it is a political war. And defending his efforts in the war on terrorism - that's political too. And shouldn't be said. Presidents shouldn't try to rally support when the country is at war if the other party opposes the war. The rules keep changing. Remember when they said that the President wasn't explaining to the American people why we were fighting?"

Google Video has a recording of the PBS debate between Loose Change Vs. Popular Mechanics. I'd say that it should be called on account of incredible ignorance, misreporting, omission of evidence and just silliness.

"As a model of directness, the idea of creating enough chaos to collapse the current world system has few peers."

A must read post at The Belmont Club introduces Lawrence Wright's article in the New Yorker.

From post at The Belmont Club, "The view looking out from within al-Qaeda is completely different from the standard narrative provided by the newspapers. We learn about a man who converted Bin Laden to Salafism and who later accused him of leading the Jihad to catastrophe -- a man who is in US custody. Wright describes the pivotal role of Afghanistan in creating a place for Jihad to train and formulate its plans, and why September 11 is regarded by some Islamic radicals as a complete mistake."

Ann Althouse proves that a picture is worth a thousand words.

What a whuppin' the socialists are taking today on the topic of state control of free markets in an excerpt from an upcoming article by Richard Epstein that will be published in the Hoover Digest. Please read The Corner on National Review Online: Free Markets Under Siege. Epstein and Hitchens in the same day!

The wonderful Christopher Hitchens ties a hapless Australian Broadcasting Corporation interviewer in the tatters of his formulaic arguments from the Michael Moore debating club in this post from The Belmont Club: How not to hunt a tiger

More bad news for those who suffer from BDS in Yahoo! News Katrina's Floodwaters Far Less Toxic Than Feared

Thoughts on the politicization of scientific research--that is, scientific research that is funded by the federal government.

Prometheus: The Promotion of Scientific Findings with Political Implications

The fifth anniversary of 9/11. I continue to feel emotions that change in a moment every year on this date after 2001: great sadness after watching amateur video that expresses the same raw emotion and confusion that we all felt at first. I felt anger after watching the second episode of "The Path to 9/11" on ABC. Anger at the terrorists. Frustration with a government that refused to take the terrorists seriously until they committed an act that could not be ignored. Pride in re-reading a story of the bravery and selfless devotion to duty, honor, and country exhibited daily by our mighty warriors in the Special Forces. And resolve after listening to our President address the nation tonight.






















Long may she wave. America will never submit to Islamofascism.

Incredible! Could the father of Islamism really be a sexually repressed, introverted, self-hating, bitter ignoramus? The Observer Review The age of horrorism (part one)

I love Australia. Even their scandals are fun. AP: Striptease Heats Up Global Warming Event.

We lost a very good man today. Steve Irwin, the famed Crocodile Hunter of TV and of at least one movie, died while filming a documentary.

Some of the reactions have criticized him for taking unnecessary risks, or for his perceived politics, or for an episode where he apparently put one of his children in dangerous proximity to a crocodile, or for other equally silly reasons.

I prefer to remember Steve as an incredibly enthusiastic person. I had the privilege to travel to Australia and New Zealand several times in the 1980s while I worked for a data communications start-up. Australia is full of enthusiastic people; people who love life and are eager to embrace those who are friendly and return their embrace.

Queensland has lost a great ambassador. The world has lost a great conservationist. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his friends, and all who loved him and whom he loved, no matter the species.

CNN.com: State funeral possible for Irwin

The SciGuy exclaims, "Wow ... IPCC report leaked ... most interesting."

For me, not so much. More like, "Grudging acknowledgment in leaked IPCC draft report that global warming disaster scenarios belong in movies, not in real life. For the rest of us, break out the tube tops and sun tan lotion, and get ready for longer growing seasons, better and cheaper food, and more beach music."

Counterterrorism Blog: The "Azzam" Threat: A prelude to Future Jihad in America

If wanna-be Jihadist Adam Gahdan thinks that he'll convert Americans to Islam by threatening beloved figures like Billy Graham (in one of the groups Gahdan singles out for destruction), he's got another thing coming. Try playing that tune down South, beard-boy. Counterterrorism Blog: The "Azzam" Threat: A prelude to Future Jihad in America

Kenneth Anderson writes in the New York Times Magazine, "It's Congress's War, Too".

We deserve a Congress that would seriously take up the issues that Kenneth raises without demagoging them.

Can I get 400 PPM? Anyone? Science tempers fears on climate change News The Australian

Poor Crazy Al. Now he's accused of helping to make the MTV Music Awards more boring and pointless than ever. I didn't see them, and won't, despite the incessant repeats, but I understand he said, "here's a photo of a glacier melting".

To this I say: Al, don't blink.

Tom Evslin posts "Weakness Invites Attack" on his excellent blog, Fractals of Change

I couldn't agree more. I believe a corollary to his post is that wars are won and real change occurs when the enemy is utterly and undeniably defeated. Our ability to fight precision warfare without exposing the enemies' inability to protect any of its population is, ironically, a sign of weakness. We cannot afford to show many more such signs to such dementent leaders as Kim Jong-Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Byron York's post at The Corner on National Review Online quotes an amazing letter by Joe "Plameout" Wilson asking the left wing nut job blogs to "keep hope alive". Instapundit has a round up of posts that make the rubble of the Plameout "...bounce. Bounce, rubble, bounce!"

Captain's Quarters' post Revisiting Katrina, Revisiting Truth credits Kevin Aylward of Wizbang blog with breaking an important story in the Examiner about the state of the New Orleans levee system pre-Katrina.

Vincent Carroll reviews Popular Mechanics latest book, "Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts" in his column On Point: 9/11 theories burst at the Rocky Mountain News

Hat tip: Instapundit

Orson Scott Card reveals the commandments that those who "worship" global warming follow World Trade Center,Step Up, Doyle, and Sheldon - Uncle Orson Reviews Everything

Chicago Boyz posts a very interesting commentary on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict by Steven den Beste entitled "Disproportionate Response". Well worth reading; Steven has given up his political/military/science blogging on his own site but still occasionally posts very insightful comments around the blogosphere.

U. S. into Iraq! Huh? Soldiers die at a lower rate than U. S. civilians? The Washington Post examines death rate demographics in Service in Iraq: Just How Risky? Hat tip: Instapundit.

JustOneMinute has been telling us about Richard Armitage's possible role as the original source in the Plame case. Now documents appear--State Dept. calendars obtained under the FOIA--that appear to support that assertion: Richard Armitage - Still The One

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine has awakened a sleeping Mark Cuban who posts at
Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _: "I know you are, but what am I Jeff ? Is this Journalism ?"

I admire both men for different reasons. This'll be interesting to follow.

The Corner on National Review Online

Kate O'Beirne's post on "The beneficial effects of GOP welfare reform have been widely noted on its 10th anniversary" is spot on, and worth reading in The Corner on National Review Online

Her book, "Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports" takes more such misinformed and misinforming idiots to task.

Crazy Al (Gore), call your office: Weather Street: 2006 Atlantic Tropical Storm Season Below Normal

Ron Fairly, call your office. Seattle Times: Sports: Seattle shows interest in [Harold]Reynolds

What? More snow and ice in South Africa?

Rush Limbaugh points his listeners to this interesting article on the non-disappearing icepack.

The first paragraph is devastating: "An improved method of measuring Antarctic snowfall has revealed that previous records showing an increase in precipitation are not accurate, even over a half-century. In the August 10 edition of Science magazine, researchers explain that their analysis of ice cores and snow pits revealed that precipitation levels in the Antarctic have in fact remained steady. The upshot of the study is that models assessing climate-change may need to be revised, as they can no longer be deemed accurate."

My only issue with Donald J. Boudreaux's article, "The case for neglecting global warming - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review," is that neglecting a non-issue isn't neglect--it's prudent.

A very interesting commentary on the politics, bias, adherence to rigorous scientific method (or not) all present in the climate debate in WonderQuest: Global Warming

What? No, it can't be true! Nonetheless, Peter Schweizer writes in The USA Today, "Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe." Oh, the humanity!

Three homes--one 10,000 square feet, another 4,000 square feet? One on property that Gore licenses in part for zinc mining? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in Occidental Petroleum stock? Inconvenient truths, indeed!!

Meryl Yourish shows us in the clearest possible way the depths to which the enemy will stoop in his post, "The enemy is winning the propaganda war"

The Drudge Report points us to this story: Rare snowfall across South Africa - Yahoo! News

Al Gore, call your office.

This is very unfortunate for a variety of reasons The Seattle Times: Sports: Analyst Reynolds out at ESPN

Harold Reynolds is a great baseball analyst. I enjoyed his work at the Little League World Series, the College World Series, and the celebrity softball event that takes place during the run up to MLB's All-Star Game in addition to his work on ESPN's Baseball Tonight.

Other ESPN analysts have been allowed to return after affronts including peeing from a hotel balcony. Michael Irvin was charged with a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Despite Irvin's past problems, he was only suspended for a weekend and that was mostly because he did not immediately report the incident to ESPN executives.

Earlier this baseball season, Rick Sutcliffe conducted a rambling on-air interview while intoxicated. Sutcliffe was only suspended for one game.

There must be more to this event. Perhaps it was the last straw in a pattern of harassment reports. It is sad to see Reynolds leave ESPN. Hopefully he will find another opportunity to display his talents as a baseball analyst again soon.

As a fan of the cigar lounge at El Gaucho, I hope that the American Legion post in Bremerton succeeds in its lawsuit. The Daily Weekly: Lawsuit Against Smoking Ban

The Daily Weekly: carelessness (Seattle Weekly)#more

In The Daily Weekly: carelessness, Seattle Weekly blogger Philip Dawdy writes, "So I decided to rely on a mix of Metro buses and cabs and walking. I wanted to see how my work and social life would hold up. Besides, the Seattle liberal paradigm is that we should all be like Bus Chick--a really cute former Microsoftie who takes Metro everywhere and saves the Earth and honors the Kyoto Accords and tells President Bush and Chevron to stuff it.

I am here to tell you at the liberal paradigm is, in this respect, an abysmal failure. Or at least it was for me."

As the Marines say, Oooh-ra!

The American Thinker features an intriguing article entitled, "The African Connection: Rep. Jefferson and Joe Wilson". Worth reading, and remembering, if the Wilson-Plame civil suit ever goes to trial. The discovery phase of such a trial could contain more embarrassing revelations for the Wilson-Plame axis of weasels.

In Hot Points: A blog by Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons, Bob shares his life story and his sixteen useful and interesting rules to try to live by. Worth reading.

The money quote from Deroy Murdock on Iraq & WMDs on National Review Online: "So, Americans in Iraq have found 500 sarin- and mustard-gas-filled artillery shells, live botulinum toxin, cyanide salt, and nearly two tons of uranium. Yet, no, Virginia, there were no WMDs in Iraq."

BREITBART.COM - Plame Says Government Betrayed Her Trust

I think that there was a betrayal, but not of Plame by the government BREITBART.COM: Plame Says Government Betrayed Her Trust

The M-1 Abrams tank is now arguably the world's largest shotgun when equipped with these SoldierTech: the 120mm Canister Round

The AP reports that Valerie Plame and her nutball husband, Joe Wilson, are jumping the shark Former CIA Officer Sues Cheney Over Leak

We can only hope that this goes to trial and we get to see the discovery evidence that the defendant's request.

Full Disclosure - Bring on the press revelations. By Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens writes well as usual in his column for Slate Full Disclosure - Bring on the press revelations. While Hitchens defends the freedom of the press, he objects to comparisons between disclosure of Valerie Plame's supposed covert identity and genuine secrets during wartime.

Garry Kasparov reminds us that the Russian dalliance with freedom is nearing an end What's Bad for Putin Is Best for Russians - New York Times

I especially enjoyed his inclusion of a quotation by Winston Churchill in the opening paragraph, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

OpinionJournal.com hits the nail on the head with Kimberley Strassel's article, Get Your Priorities Right. The bottom line: solve the most urgent problems, like HIV/AIDS, first. Solve the least urgent problems, like global warming, last.

Personally, I trust that technology will in due course solve both our energy and global warming problems if allowed to do so by government.

Thanks to Doc Searls, I now know where the Floyds were in 1881 http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Map.aspx?name=FLOYD&year=1881&altyear=1998&country=GB&type=name

Here's the link to conduct your own search.

Egad! Will wonders never cease! The Washington Post prints an editorial that--gasp--correctly states that "The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless." Global Warming's Real Inconvenient Truth

Gaia lovers will find it inconvenient indeed to continue to deny that the world's population is going to increase regardless of the increasingly shrill, dire warnings they issue. Politics have no place in this discussion. Instead, sober planning to provide for quality of life for that future population as well as responsible husbandry of resources are the paths to accommodate the inevitable without devolving to war over resources.

After seeing Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and countless unmanned launches since I was a young lad awakened by my parents to watch them, I've never forgotten the sense of awe I first felt when watching Alan Sheppard's first flight. Godspeed to the crew of Shuttle Discovery: Florida Today: Space


Nice job on the photo, Reuters.

Blogging while recovering from back surgery hasn't dulled Captain's Quarters ability to connect the dots.

This photo looks more and more like the real thing every day.













Thanks to Jacques Itch for maintaining the photo on his site.

The anti-American New York Times takes somewhat less jaundiced look at the ethanol fever, and raises some interesting questions. For Good or Ill, Boom in Ethanol Reshapes Economy of Heartland

One key issue not discussed in the article in the Times is Ethanol's demand for water: "Resources becoming a concern, with new facilities requiring millions of gallons".

I know we're supposed to have World Cup fever despite the rioting fans. For those fans of rugby who feel left out, here's a post at Little Green Footballs that will make you laugh--and cry: The Scrum of the Incredibly Strange Fully Garbed Iranian Female Rugby Trainees

The revelations in the "drive by media" that we are using the law to connect to dots on terrorist activities--that would be called treason if we had the guts to use the term properly today--are instructive to the terrorists on our capabilities if not entirely revealing about the scope of our methods and means. Michelle Malkin posts a nice set of "blabbermouth posters" modernized to illustrate the costs of aiding the enemy. How about a nice big glass of.

Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit has an excellent post with even more interesting commentary on the release of the National Academy of Science's report,"Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years": NAS Panel Report
The comments in the post go on for days--more than 500 entries! After reading them, go to the home page for more recent entries on this very worthwhile site.

Steve is dead-bang right. So is the ordinary citizen who recalls that Greenland once produced abundant grapes and wine in the middle of the last millenium. So is the common man who asks, after reading the headlines that scream "Study says Earth's temp at 400-year high" thinks, "Wow, so before the industrial age really kicked in, the world was warmer than it is now. I wonder what caused that? And, what else aren't they telling us?"

One of the commenters linked to another useful site on the CO2 debate.

The NAS panel report can be found here.

Tom Evslin, my old friend from the late 80s when I was at Apple and he was CEO of Solutions, Inc., is right as usual when he takes on the question of Korea's nuclear capable long range missle capability: Fractals of Change: What To Do About North Korea

Connie Chung makes absolutely, positively her last gig...notable, if not memorable YouTube - memories

I would love to have been a fly on the wall to hear the discussion among the group that pulls together names for seasonal hurricanes--still no "black" hurricane names, by the way--when they picked "Alberto". Were they admiring "Crazy Al", or more likely, poking fun at him?

Carbon emissions are still measured in parts per million, and not very many at that. Instead of spending incredible amounts of money to reduce already diminishing carbon emissions (except in the developing world, including perpetual coal mine fires in China), if we're really at a tipping point, among the prudent, good government acts we could take including having the government buy back land from all coastal property owners up to a certain point above sea level and prohibiting development in at risk areas so that we can adapt to the crisis until it can be studied and solved without bankrupting the industrial or the developing world. Repeating "Crazy Al's" mantra, "See, see, another hurricane--I told you!" solves nothing except dramatizing the inability of government to address the undesired outcome of global warming.

Of course, the Hollywood elite supports "Crazy Al" --that is, unless their expensive beachfront property was condemned. They would probably support a "cut and run" strategy that still offered them dibs on the "new" beachfront property--wherever that may be.

The Dutch built dikes to hold back the sea instead of living with flooding. They did not tell farmers and villagers to stop farming and trading. There are endless examples of man's ability to adapt to nature. Unless we start to hear policy proposals that deal with adaptation to global warming, all we're hearing is more hot air.

FOXNews.com - Terror Links to Saddam's Inner Circle - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

The poorly exploited captured trove of documents from Saddam's regime slowly gives up its secrets. FOXNews.com: Terror Links to Saddam's Inner Circle

So, UBL and friends were meeting with Saddam's inner circle in 1999? Interesting if you put aside your "Bush lied!" sign and read the article carefully.

James Lileks uses his Newhouse column to take us through the fevered logic that infuses the far left's reaction to the aborted attack by home grown Islamic terrorists on...Canada.

David Harsany at the DenverPost.com calls for us to "Chill out over global warming"--quite rightly, according to Colorado State University's Bill Gray and Roger Pielke Sr. at the University of Colorado.

From Mr. Harsany's column, "Gray is perhaps the world's foremost hurricane expert. His Tropical Storm Forecast sets the standard. Yet, his criticism of the global warming 'hoax' makes him an outcast."

Why is the politicization of science so unashamedly tolerated by the left of its enviro-wackos? Is the temptation to embrace self-hate so appealing that it extends to the success of the industrial world and the educational establishment that it seems bent on radicalizing if not destroying? The global warming debate is far from over, and it is far too soon to prescribe solutions to a problem that is simply not well understood.

The Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com section runs an editorial by "Krazy Kofi" Annan who claims that illegal immigration is a form of "migration". That's it--we're not being invaded by people who have no legal right to be here; we're just hosting innocuous migrants, like a flock of birds.

Every nation-state since the Treaty of Westphalia has retained the right to defend its borders and set rules on citizenship for those who would wish to settle permanently. No thinking person can possibly confuse the waves of uneducated, unskilled immigrants--and who knows how many "OTMs"--with a harmless flock of birds. Americans are awakening to the real invasion, not a migration, that is underway in America. Mr. Annan is right to say that America has always been a refuge for those fleeing oppression or who wish to bring their skills and abilities to an entrepreneurial society that doesn't prohibit advancement like some in Europe, Asia and Africa. We're tired of being taken for a free ride, though, by those who would enter without permission.

Think of the current wave of "America for Americans" as the second coming of "welfare reform" and you'll be closer to understanding the roots of the movement.

The Seattle Public School District unintentionally makes the best argument ever put forward in favor of school choice Planning ahead is considered racist?

The first few sentences of the column, by Andrew J. Coulson, are astonishing:

"Are you salting away a little money for your retirement? Trying to plan for your kids' education? If so, Seattle Public Schools seems to think you're a racist."

"According to the district's official Web site, 'having a future time orientation' (academese for having long-term goals) is among the 'aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype and label people of color.'"

Unbelievable. Read the whole thing, then start saving your money to send your children to private school or to home school them.

The Christian Science Monitor publishes an intriguinging proposal by Philip Gold calling for an independent agency to be created that would decide on the sites that could be explored for oil in the domestic U.S. and then, as in the case of the process outlined in the Base Closure and Realignment Act, allow Congress to approve all selected sites or disapprove all sites, without amendment. Consider responsible drilling on US soil

NW News publishes an editorial by Toby Nixon Brightwater stinks, and it's not the sewage you're smelling

I met Toby when I was the AppleTalk Evangelist at Apple from '87 to '90. I was pleased to find that he had preceeded me to the Northwest when I arrived at Microsoft in '94. He's still there, splitting time on his work on networking and communications with his responsibilities as the Republican representative for the 45th Legislative District, which includes my new home town. I look forward to voting for him again.

If only there were video and audio of this indecipherable blabber Nancy Pelosi Speaks - The New Editor

"The microphone is on the table" might become as famous for its strange context as "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"

Pete du Pont offers a well reasoned argument against global warming histeria in his monthly column for the WSJ OpinionJournal - Outside the Box

I haven't heard any discussion of a point that ocurred to me after reading this article. If man is such an important cause of global warming, and if industrial activity must be curtailed in order to bring the threat down, then what has happened during periods of lower industrial activity--major recessions, war, etc.?

The Wall Street Journal prints a piece today by Peter Wehner, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives. It's a must read for anyone who is repeatedly drawn back into debate over the rationale for the Iraq war. OpinionJournal - Featured Article

All sorts of grandiose tributes expressed in architecture to a truly failed system. Unrealised Moscow

H/T Digg

Damninteresing.com covers exciting developments that portend advances in stem cell research without the ethical dilemmas involved in the use of embryos: extraction of stem cells from menstrual blood and human spermatogonial cells (from testicular tissue) in the post, New Sources for Stem Cells

Speaking for myself, I favor the former.

Ann Althouse points to a fun story about the power that unionized California janitors have to prevent graduates from being further indoctrinated by Democratic party apparachniks My Way News - Dean Cancels Berkeley Graduation Speech

If this doesn't make one skeptical of government-run "free" health care, nothing will. In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves - New York Times

The reviews for "United 93" keep coming in. Instapundit.com - excerpts a few reviewers whose impressions I share. I wholeheartedly recommend the film to every adult American of any political stripe. I was profoundly affected by the experience of watching the movie, and reminded of my feelings on that day of infamy.

The Angry Left attacks one of the blogosphere's best, causing many, many supporters to rally to her side.

Click the picture of this intelligent, articulate woman to read more about it.

My old friend Tom Evslin has a great blog. His post on global warming is just like him: thoughtful, practical and based on facts, not fancy. Fractals of Change: Global Warming ? Too Important for Junk Science

Another story not covered by the main stream media Kyoto: An Open Letter to the European Governments and the European Commission The Brussels Journal

A great quote from the article, “If, back in the mid-1990s, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist, because we would have concluded it was not necessary.”

The Captain's Quarters blog calls it "case closed" on the question of Saddam's links to terrorism and attacks against the US prior to 9/11.

ABC News: Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?

Despite ABC's disclaimers, these documents certainly make the President's case for war far stronger. ABC News: Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?

John D Barrow, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, writes in the UK's telegraph:

"In all the science we pursue we are used to seeing progress. Our first attempts to grasp the laws of nature are often incomplete. So, in our religious conceptions of the Universe, we also use approximations and analogies to have some grasp of ultimate things. They are not the whole truth but this does not stop them being a part of the truth: a shadow that is cast in a limiting situation of some simplicity."

"Our scientific picture of the Universe has revealed how blinkered and conservative our outlook has often been, how self-serving our interim picture, how mundane our expectations, and how parochial our attempts to find or deny the links between scientific and religious approaches to the nature of the Universe."

As the man says, read the whole thing. Telegraph Opinion Astronomy illuminates the glory of God

Many say that this is the greatest blog post ever: Tom McMahon: What I Have Learned In 15 Years

I think that it is one of the greatest pieces of real advice ever published. Anywhere.

The Media Mob: Oprah on Frey: "I Was Wrong" - NYO

"I apologize, I was wrong," Ms. Winfrey said, about her support of author James Frey. She also said, "I regret my phone call to Larry King," referring to her live phone call to the talk show host, in which she blamed the publishing industry for not disclaiming the memoir. "The truth matters," Ms. Winfrey said, and: "My judgement was clouded."

The Media Mob: Oprah on Frey: "I Was Wrong" - NYO

Wow--what a turnabout. The order of the universe has been thrown into chaos. Next we'll read widespread reports that cats are going for walks on leash--even in the rain--and dogs are ignoring thrown balls and their food.

Eastern Europe freezes in killer cold - Yahoo! News UK

The Left continues to pose like a Turkey in the rain, part 1,138:

Eastern Europe freezes in killer cold - Yahoo! News UK: "'You'd have to go back at least 10 years, sometimes 20 years, to find such sharp colds,' said Patrick Galois, a meteorologist with Meteo-France."

Al Gored's new book on Global Warming, accompanied by a documentary that will be screened at Sundance, comes out soon. He gave a speech on global warming during a severe cold snap in NY last year. To quote Bugs, "What a bunch of Maroons."

Evidently, I'm an Audi TT! Not what I'd hoped for, but it'll do while I'm saving for that M6...

You're not the fastest, nor the most nimble, but you're cute and you have style. You're not intensely competitive, but when you pass by, everyone turns to look.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Returning Abramoff cash 'taints' tribes, Murray says

Instapundit said it best, "You can't make this stuff up." Returning Abramoff cash 'taints' tribes, Murray says