The last word on 9/11 conspiracies

Heh. This comment in response to a 9/11 conspiracist at Digg.com is pretty amusing:

Do you really be live (sic) the same people who didn't bother to plant WMD in Iraq conspired to commit 9/11 and got away with it? Is this what you are saying?

Conspiracy theorists amuse me. Here we have a government that spews secrets out to the press on an ongoing basis, and yet somehow it was supposedly capable of pulling of the assassination of JFK and 9/11, both plots that hundreds would have been in on, without a single person blowing the whistle. Oh if they could just put that child-like faith to better use. They always remind me of the classic SNL skit in which President Reagan acts like a bumbling idiot in front of the public and then turns into a brilliant but evil genius behind closed doors with his cabinet, with the point being neither portrayal is accurate or possible.

Ad subsidized college textbooks

When I was in college, there were two things that were guarenteed to send steam pouring out of my ears. The first was professors who required subscriptions to the New York Times but then never used them in class. The second was buying textbooks that the professor then used once or never at all. Those books were a waste of funds, because if you had buy it new, you were only going to get pennies on the dollar back for it, even if the cover had never been cracked. That could be a thing of the past for future college students, though:

Textbook prices are soaring into the hundreds of dollars, but in some courses this fall, students won't pay a dime. The catch: Their textbooks will have ads for companies including FedEx Kinko's and Pura Vida coffee.
[...]
Now, a small Minnesota startup is trying to shake up the status quo in the $6 billion college textbook industry. Freeload Press will offer more than 100 titles this fall - mostly for business courses - completely free. Students, or anyone else who fills out a five-minute survey, can download a PDF file of the book, which they can store on their hard drive and print.

If I know college students as well as I think I do, then I can tell you who is really behind this idea: Big Beer.

Pssst. Copperfield is nuts.

Okay, so that may not exactly be news. This odd story just reaffirms it, though.

Master illusionist David Copperfield says he has found the "Fountain of Youth" in the southern Bahamas, amid a cluster of four tiny islands he recently bought for $50 million.
[...]
"I've discovered a true phenomenon," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "You can take dead leaves, they come in contact with the water, they become full of life again. ... Bugs or insects that are near death, come in contact with the water, they'll fly away. It's an amazing thing, very, very exciting."

Yeah, Claudia Schiffer got out of that engagement while the getting was good.

Iran unhappy with Israel-Hezbollah cease fire?

From Debka, so take it for what it is worth:

After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon,– one from Iran's foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States and Israel.

While the foreign ministry report highlighted the negative aspects of the UN resolution, the council's document complained that Hizballah squandered thousands of rockets,– either by firing them into Israel or having them destroyed by the Israeli air force.

This story indicates that Hezbollah blew through a lot of rockets-and Iranian money-with very little return. It also pays to keep this in the back of one's mind as the days and weeks go by:

After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon, one from Iran'’s foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States and Israel.

While the foreign ministry report highlighted the negative aspects of the UN resolution, the council'’s document complained that Hizballah squandered thousands of rockets, either by firing them into Israel or having them destroyed by the Israeli air force.

The article has a ton of information and I recommend reading it, if only to be used as background information as time passes. It also claims that there is an American-Israeli plan to strike Iran's reactors and that Iran regards Israel's efforts against Hezbollah, decried as a failure by some, as having seriously degraded Hezbollah's capabilities.

Did you know?

The man who played Sgt. Schultz on Hogan's Heroes was Jewish and spent some time in a concentration camp?

Yay! Blogger upgrades coming!

I'm very, very excited. For the first time in the two plus years I've been on Blogger, some significant upgrades are on the horizon. To see screen shots of what is going on, head over to Google Operating System. The bad news? The Beta is going to be strictly invite only.

McCain-Lieberman. Why?

Okay, the theory du jour in the blogosphere right now is a Republican McCain ticket in '08 that includes liberal/Democrat/Independent Joe Lieberman. Can somebody help me with this one? McCain is no friend of free speech, and he only flashes his conservative credentials when he needs something from conservatives. Lieberman is a supporter of President Bush's war plans. So what? There are a lot of conservative Republicans that support the President, too. I ask this of those who are enamored of this idea: Do you really want a liberal Democrat as the Vice President to a Republican President who would be quite old when he took office? Here's another question: Perhaps they could be electable, but is that what we want to be? Hand wringers over "electibility" like the Democrats have been? Look where it has gotten them. That's right, nowhere. Yet another question. Do you really think McCain-Lieberman ticket would accomplish any kind of consensus in Washington? It ain't going to happen. As long as the Democrats are in the minority, they would try to filet anyone in power who had an (R) next to his/her name, even if a Dem that only half of them like was on the ticket. I hate to say it, but everyone who is enamored of this ticket is dillusional.

Must read of the day, 8/14/06

If you didn't read this article by Michael Gerson when Instapundit linked to it, then go read it now. Gerson, President Bush's former speech writer, writes an important article on where we've been, where we are, and where we need to go in the War on Terror.

Whitewater immigration protest

Yesterday afternoon, a group Latinos gathered across an the intersection from the Whitewater police department to protest a recent illegal immigration raid staged at a local business. I showed up shortly after three o'clock, the scheduled start time of the protest. I took about a dozen pictures, but this one tells the story all by itself. I'm told the crowd grew to about 50 people after I left.

Silent protest of immigration enforcement

Over at the BBA, we've been discussing an illegal immigration enforcement action that took place in Whitewater, WI. The story is here, and you can follow the discussion here, here, and here (and Dad29's coverage here). It sounds like this afternoon there will be some sort of "silent protest" of the raid that rounded up 25 illegal aliens at a local business. I am going to try to swing by and get a picture or two. I have an event this evening in the Wisconsin Dells, so if I do get any pictures I'll have them here and at the BBA on Sunday sometime.

Nuclear powered dream

I have to stop blogging before bed.

I'm not much of a dreamer when I sleep, and it is very infrequent that I can remember any dreams that I've had the next morning. Even less frequently than that do I have bad dreams. Last night was the exception to all of that. In my dream, it was about four in the morning, and something was happening, although I wasn't able to really grasp the specifics. I do know that we were awake and in our living room, watching live, breaking news and gathering up supplies. Then, coming from the front of our house (the east), came a flash, followed by a brightening horizon and a slowly rising mushroom cloud. Now there were more people in the house, and I quickly ushered they and my wife into the basement. I came back up to monitor the situation and take some pictures. As I got back to the living room a strong wind blew through town and caused some minor damage. I then went out front to photograph the still rising mushroom cloud when the sun began to rise in the northeastern sky, out of place and ahead of schedule. Bizarre stuff.

Cease fire a feel good mirage

I told you so.

I just thought I'd get that out of the way now, because not too far down the road this cease fire will disappear like a mirage in the desert. Hezbollah & company will take the time to recoup and resupply. When the time is right, they will begin to terrorize Israel again. Only this time Israel will have to sit and take it as there will be an armed international force acting as a buffer to protect Hezbollah. Israel thinks it is getting a buffer from Hezbollah, but it will end up being nothing of the sort.

So my message to the international community is this: Feel good today, but remember that I told you so.

Brian Williams responds

NBC Nightly News said something silly on Hardball on Thursday night and he got ripped pretty good by the blogosphere for it. If you haven't heard or read Williams' comments, head on back over to Radio Blogger. The comments are below the previously mentioned Mike Wallace comments.

Friday night, Williams responded. I'm actually buying what he is selling in his post, although it doesn't change the fact that his comments on Hardball were incredibly ineloquent and easily misinterpreted.

HT NewsBusters

Peak weekend for the Perseid meteor showers

This weekend will be the peak of the annual Perseid meteor showers. The show will not be quite as good as past years because of the bright lunar conditions, but if you can get away from the city lights you should still be able to see the show.

Mike Wallace on Ahmadinejad

Sean Hannity had the opportunity to interview Mike Wallace on his interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad. Radio Blogger has the transcript here. Wallace was clearly charmed, impressed, flattered, although not quite droolingly so. Close, though. A few of his thoughts in the interview with Hannity deserve a little more attention, so I am going to pull those thoughts out of the interview and comment on them.

SH: So you don't think he's an anti-Semite?

MW: He himself, an anti-Semite, an anti-Jew...anti-Jew?

SH: Yes.

MW: No, I don't.

I cannot quite fathom how Wallace can think Ahmadinejad isn't an anti-Semite. By just casually following the news, one would know that Ahmadinejad's own words have displayed his anti-Semitism. It is tough to call for the anhiliation of the entire nation of Israel and not be an anti-Semite. Perhaps senility is setting in for Wallace.

I mean, we were having a discussion. And he was infinitely more rational than I had expected him to be.

Wallace is making a mistake in judgement here. Crazed individuals are not incapable of rationality, especially those who ascend to the leadership of nations. In fact, many of them appear to be incredibly rational. The problem is that they are masterful at bending rationality to meet their needs. In other words, Ahmadinejad may be able able to make rational arguments or statements, but his ultimate goal, the elimination of Israel, is the pinnacle of irrationality.

(MW on Ahmadinejad's belief that Israel should be in Germany) Where did the Holocaust take place? Did it take place in an Arab neighborhood? Did it take place in Jerusalem? No. It took place in Germany. Then it seems to me, under those circumstances, take Israel, the Zionist entity, he called it, move it to Germany. Move it to Europe. That's where it happened.

SH: Do you agree with him?

MW: Move it to the United States.

Well, at least we know where Wallace is coming from now. He clearly views Israel as illegitimate.

MW: Khamenei, who is the supreme leader, really, in Iran, if there's one man to whom this man, Ahma...you pronounce his name better than I do...that the president of Iran defers to...

The important part of this is that Wallace cannot even pronounce Ahmadinejad's name. Now granted, it isn't an easy name, but if you are a serious TV or radio journalist, then you are paid to pronounce. If Wallace couldn't even take the time to learn how to pronounce Ahmadinejad's name, how am I, as a listener to this interview, supposed to take Wallace's perceptions seriously. How am I, as a likely viewer of the Ahmadinejad interview, supposed to even take Wallace's piece seriously?

27 years ago, I went to the holy city of Qum to talk to Khomenei, which is one of the reasons, I'm sure, that they decided that they were going to let me talk, or he was going to let me talk. I know that I am making him sound more human, more surely than I expected, and by all means, more human than you feel that he is.

Or perhaps they let Wallace talk because they knew he could be a useful idiot for them.

Britney unplugged

I've always thought that Britney Spears would have been perfectly happy, maybe happier, if fame had never come her way. I envision a not-famous Britney marrying some high school sweetheart at age 18. I see her husband becoming a trucker, buying Britney her first of many homes in trailer parks, and the two of them raising somewhere in the vicinity of 8 to 12 kids. I don't say this judgementally, either. I just see that scenario as having suited a non-famous Britney Spears. This video only reinforces that in my mind.

Guess the beer at a geographic location

Okay, I have to jump on the bandwagon. Boots & Sabers pioneered "Guess that Geographical Location." It is such a cool game that Blogger Beer is picking up on it. Not wanting to be left out of all the blogger games, I've decided to start the game here, as well. Here's the twist: You can tell me the geographic location if you want, except I don't really care; but if you tell me which beer is at the mystery location, then you're a champ. Here's game #1:














Solution
Okay, this game might be a little too tough. The correct answer is a Miller High Life in my backyard shortly after noon on a Friday.

Effective issue propoganda

This is one way to change some guys' minds about women in combat-appeal to one of their more base instincts. What better way to do that than a safe for work pictorial of the hot women of the IDF (HT: Right Wing News). The only problem with it is that some men's heads may spontaneously combust from the burning confusion caused by the conflict created between the instincts of protecting women and sex.

Thoughts on the Wisconsin AG debate

Okay, I've listened to the debate. It is every bit the embarrassment that the stories made it out to be, particularly segment one and just into segment two. This was a very unprofessional debate on the part of the candidates. They not only gave their Democratic opponent to be ammunition, but they probably blew their chance to reach the ears of many voters that they'll need after the primary. The first segment was particularly damaging in that I could almost hear radio stations being changed all over Wisconsin as listeners grew quickly tired of the bickering that overwhelmed any issues.

My impression is that Bucher has some fine talking points that could be effective against Van Hollen. Unfortunately for Bucher, his abrasive personality in this debate overwhelmed those talking points and may have even created empathy in some listeners for Van Hollen. Van Hollen's reasonably calm, confident style may appeal to voters, but if he allows Bucher to get under his skin, that is going to go away quickly. Either way, if this type of interaction between Bucher and Van Hollen continues over the next month, their intraparty warfare is only going to make the Democrats' candidate stronger and more difficult to defeat, regardless of which one of these two win.

Sucking it up in the Wisconsin AG race

I was unable to listen to the J.B. Van Hollen v. Paul Bucher grudge match on Charlie Sykes' show today, but I've certainly read a lot about it. Since I couldn't catch the debate, I am going to refrain from analysis of it until I've had a chance to download the podcasts of it at Sykes Writes. Except for one point. But first, let's take a peek at an excerpt of the AP's report on the debate.

That great sucking sound you hear ... just might be coming from the race for Wisconsin attorney general.

A radio debate Tuesday between two Republicans running for the office plunged into personal attacks, with J.B. Van Hollen, a former federal prosecutor, telling his opponent during a break that "you suck ... because you only listen to people who agree with you."

Paul Bucher, a Waukesha County district attorney, shot back on the air: "I don't suck!"

Congratulations, boys. You've managed to embarrass yourselves and the state at the national level. If the two of them keep this up, neither one is going to be able to win in November. If Van Hollen wants to claim the high road, he'd better reign it in and actually take it. As for Bucher, aggressiveness is a fine trait for an AG and a politician. But if that aggressiveness looks like aggression to the average voter, then it becomes a liability, and he is certainly flirting with that liability.

Are they Islamic fascists or not?

This blogger says "not."

The reason it’s inappropriate to describe Islamists as fascists is simple: They’re not statists. To Muslims, including that subset of Muslims I call Islamists (see below), a state is at best a temporary thing, performing certain administrative, organizational, or ideological tasks. It has no independent significance, as it does in, say, the Christian tradition. (“Render unto Caesar” and all that.) Islamists aren’t trying to create a state in which all the parts work as one; their ultimate goal is a stateless world in which everyone worships Allah. Read up on Islam if this seems strange to you.

I tend to disagree. That may be the face they are presenting to the rest of the world, this stateless Islamic world, but have you seen one radically Islamic nation do away with the state yet? No, and you never will. The real face of radical Islam is one of a fascist Islamic state with religous leaders at the head, but really more similar to fascist governments than his portrayal lets on. Power is power, irregardless of religion.

Israel as Czechoslovakia

I've been seeing the similarities between the 1930's and the present day, but this is one that hadn't even dawned on me, oddly enough. From the Spectator, via Power Line.

For Netanyahu, Israel is a latter-day Czechoslovakia, which deluded and desperately anti-war European powers, led by Neville Chamberlain, sacrificed to the Nazis in 1938 because of the German-speaking minority in Sudetenland, whom he compares with today’s Palestinians. ‘And, yes, there was apologetics and, yes, there was appeasement and, yes, there was pressure on a small resistant democracy in the face of this German onslaught. It was called Czechoslovakia at the time. And, yes, there were articles in the British press condemning Czechoslovakia for inciting a German response because of the denial of the rights of the Sudeten Germans. Do you want to go on with this?’

Benjamin Netanyahu makes another excellent point in the excerpted piece at Power Line. A lot of people are viewing Iran through the lense of the old Soviet days. That is a mistake because the Soviets always put their survival and well being first. In Iran, that may not be the case if the Islamic government actually believes it can bring back the hidden Imam.

Airline bomb plot thwarted

Thank goodness.

British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the U.S. using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. Heathrow was closed to most flights from Europe, and British Airways canceled all its flights Thursday between the airport and points in Britain, Europe and Libya.

When I got in my car this morning, the radio was my first source of news. At the time I turned on my car, they were talking about grounding flights. It was a somewhat rude and chilling way to start the day.

Additional
So this is what a red terror alert looks like.

The power of Rove

This paranoid thought at the HuffPo got me thinking:

Everybody's talking about the report that Karl Rove's offered to help the Lieberman campaign. An offer like this, leaked by one of Joe's top aides, it raises the question: Has Rove been guiding the Lieberman campaign from the very beginning? That alleged "website hacking" could well be Rove's handiwork - and more clues abound.

Okay, here's what it has me thinking. Karl Rove clearly has a lot of talent for politics. Still, he and the Bush team have had more than their fair share of political missteps. What has made Rove lethal as a political advisor is the boogie man image that has been built up for him by paranoid leftists like this. He is literally an all knowing, all powerful evil deity to some of these people. Rove would be an asset to any campaign, but lefties have built him up to such mythic proportions that he becomes indispensable if only for the psychological affect he has on opponents.

Additional
Another HuffPo example of this. Is it possible to have thoughts like this and still maintain one's sanity?

Wider war always just a cat's whisker away

I fully support the military actions that Israel is taking against Hezbollah. It is not only necessary for Israel's long term survival, their success weakens Iran via their proxies. It should be noted that all hell could break lose in the Middle East at the drop of a hat, though. Nobody wants or is ready for a full scale regional war in the Middle East, but I think this illustrates how close that reality is at any given time.

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

This will probably not trigger regional war. However, as Iran and Syria, particularly Iran, delve deeper into the business of other nations around the Middle East, it will spin us closer and closer to that one moment where the spark hits the powder keg.

Do you remember?

You should, but 3 in 10 have already forgotten:

Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.

Ugh (uff da for my Norwegian compadres out there)

Take your customer "goodwill" and shove it, J.C. Penny

Tonight the lovely Mrs. Jib and I had a little shopping we had to get done. While we were at the mall, she decided to stop in at J.C. Penny to use a gift coupon she had received from the company. This coupon claimed to be a way for Penny's to thank customers, offering $10 off of merchandise for any transaction exceeding $10. On the front of the coupon it said some exceptions apply.

I will be the first to admit that neither of us took the time to read the exceptions. Shame on us. My wife wandered around the store and picked out something that she wanted. When it came time to ring it up, we found out that it was on the "exception" list. She looked pretty disappointed, so I offered to just buy the product for her, but at that point it had become less about the product and more about the principle of the whole thing to her. And so began our death by fine print.

After that first rejection, buying something she wanted became secondary to her. Getting $10 of flesh out of J.C. Penney while spending as little as possible became the goal. So we went and picked out a secondary product that she was interested in, a coin purse/wallet. It cost $9.99. She picked out a pair of socks to bump the total over $10, and we were off to a register. We get up there and the price of the socks come off the total, but nothing from wallet. The cashier takes us over to the rack in small print, the sign says "value item" or some such nonsense. Turns out, these volume items are exceptions. So we go back to the drawing board, and she tries to pick out a piece of apparel that she likes. The cashier says, "umm, no, that won't work either. Anything that is '2 for' or '3 for' is excluded." So we walked around a little more only to find that almost all of Penny's clothing was either regularly priced as an "x for" or marked down on sale as such.

At that point I asked for this coupon that represented J.C. Penney's generous customer goodwill. As I read it, I discovered that damn near half the store was off limits to this coupon. "Some Exceptions" actually meant "many, many exceptions." At that point I started getting really, really pissed with this little horseshit ruse Penney's was playing on us. As best I could tell, about all you could buy with it were two styles of socks, a couple of different items of costume jewelry, and their ample supply of ugly assed clearance clothing.

We spent an hour in that damn store. What at first was a feel good activity, something that could build the bond between us and the store, became a quest to get from J.C. Penny without giving them very much in return. I frankly resent their little attempt at expressing goodwill by putting half the store off limits. I worked retail for 4 years and I know a lot of the tricks stores play. This was easily the most bush league ploy I've ever seen. Every year at Christmas I spend money at J.C. Penney. This year, Penney's is going to have to do without my pennies. I refuse to spend a dime or a moment in their stores. And the best part is that I know that there are others out there just like me, because our cashier told us how common this problem was. So take my advice...spend your money at another department store.

More angry, ominous Condi

I recently commented on the media trend of using dark, scary Condi photos. Here's another example, and the article even seems sympathetic towards her.

As an aside to that point, I also read the article and came away with this impression. As Secretary of State, Rice is taking a very 'micro' view of the Israel-Hezbollah fight in Lebanon. In that micro view, tunnel vision is leading her to the position that ending the conflict at all costs is the goal. My sense from the article is that Bush is taking the 'macro' view that he and his administration are grasping the bigger power play going on in the Middle East right. The article neither says nor implies it, but I will come straight out and say it. Iran is making its play for power over the Middle East. The fight Israel is in right now is with a proxy of Iran, and it is critically important that Israel crush that proxy. Unfortunately, Israel is taking its sweet assed time in doing so.

The heavy hand of Iran in Iraq

This is the most depressing thought I've read in a while.

Why I don't watch Scarborough Country

I have some respect for Joe Scarborough. Some. Unfortunately, while Joe can be a rock ribbed conservative at times, his powers of analysis can be questionable. Over at the HuffPo, Scartissue (as former Jiblog contributor Col. Ollie calls him) had this to say:

The conventional wisdom for tonight's Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994. <>

That was the election year when the most conservative wing of the GOP took over the party and swept into power in the US Congress.
[...]
My advice to Democratic voters this year is "Go left, young man!"

There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.

There is only one problem with Scarborough's logic. While there are damn few Scoop Jackson Democrat congressmen right now, there are still Scoop Jackson Democrats in this country. Veering hard left means Dems will need to veer hard left on the War on Terror, and in doing so they will sheer off part of their base, a part they are neglecting in order to grease the squeaky wheel. In 1994, that wasn't a problem because the platform of conservatives was acceptable to popular across the Republican base and into the "Reagan Democrat" portion of the left.

Joementum turns...

...and unfortunately for Lieberman, it started to turn the moment he agreed to be Al Gore's running mate in 2000.

Republicans should actually be elated. Lieberman should win the general election in November while Lamont's victory drags the rest of the Democratic party even further left towards the abyss that is the Kossacks.

It'll be interesting to watch Lieberman's campaign for the next several months. Does he continue to campaign to Democrats? Does he target the crossover Republicans he needs? If so, how does he do so without further eroding his Democrat base?

Reminder: 911 is for emergencies only

Just a reminder...911 is an emergency line, not an all purpose police line.

Only a third of 911 calls for help are actual emergencies, according to dispatchers who say some of the calls are simply wacky.

"People have called because they went through the drive-thru and their order was wrong," said California Highway Patrol dispatcher Dennis Kirchner. "People call because they're lost."

People have also been known to call 911 to see why their power is out (call the power company), to get parade times (get a paper), to check on parking regulations (call the regular police line), to see if there are storm warnings (listen to a radio), and for other wacky and mundane reasons. That's not what it is for.

Bump key makes traditional locks obsolete

The locks on your house could soon become obsolete with the advent of the "bump key."

A large majority of locks that open with a key, called pin tumbler locks, have structural weaknesses built into them that can be exploited with picks and practice. But a relatively new lockpicking technique known as "bumping" takes advantage of that weakness and requires no real understanding of how locks work. "You don't need expensive tools or anything," says encryption expert Barry Wels. "Any 15-year-old who's motivated can learn how to do it in 15 minutes on the Internet."

Once a person learns how to make the "bump key," they can easily open any lock that key fits into. All they have to do is bump the key with a screw driver or a small hammer. Don't believe it? Then watch this video.

Killing Jews ain't so bad as long as you're charitable

I'm incredulous. If the New York Times gets its nose any farther up Hezbollah's collective behind, the paper will risk dying of e.coli.

Hezbollah paid for his wife’s Caesarean section. It brought olive oil, sugar and nuts when he lost his job and even covered the cost of an operation on his broken nose.

Like many poor Shiites across southern Lebanon, Ahmed Awali, 41, a security guard at an apartment building in this southern city, has received charity from Hezbollah for years. He says he is not a member. He does not even know the names of those who helped him.

So let me get this straight. If your avowed goal is to kill Jews and eliminate Israel, the New York Times will run a big old sloppy wet kiss of a story on you? And some wonder why respect for the media is so low. They insult our intelligence on a daily basis.

Peace in the Middle East?

Supposedly.

HOPES rose for a peace deal in Lebanon yesterday after the American and French governments reached agreement on a United Nations Security Council resolution.

The draft called for a “full cessation of hostilities” between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas, but fell short of French demands that there be an immediate unconditional halt to the military action that has plagued the region for four weeks. The resolution will allow Israel to retaliate if Hezbollah launches attacks against it.

However, in a concession to the French, there will be a second UN resolution, yet to be negotiated but possibly within the next two weeks, that will deal with the longer-term issue of peace between Israel and Hezbollah and the creation of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

I wouldn't get my hopes up too far. Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran want war. The U.S. and France hammering out an agreement will not change that.

James Cameron, Hollywood director, explains the Exodus

This is pretty cool. A Hollywood director is trying to explain the events of the Exodus instead of flat out dismissing it.

THE greatest story ever told has acquired a Hollywood twist. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, is the executive producer of a new documentary that claims to have uncovered fresh evidence confirming one of the most dramatic episodes in the Old Testament — the parting of the Red Sea and the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

You don't see that every day.

History will view us dimly on Africa

There is no doubt in my mind that history will have a dim view of the present day global powers when it comes to Africa. For a taste of what I'm talking about, read this post by Michael Ledeen at The Corner.

The flaw of history is that while it can look back with the accumulated wisdom of passed time, it is much more difficult to comprehend the concerns and focuses of the day. One thing history may overlook as it glances back and passes judgement on us over Africa is the fact that Africa's inability to project its threats abroad is what is keeping the West detached. That is a relief to us because with radical Islam and nuclear profligation, the West has its hands plenty full right now without worrying about threats from Africa. That is very bad for Africa, and I suspect we will be judged harshly for it.

Ya down with OCD?

Wow. The anonymous commenter in this post by Ingrid at "No On The Ammendment" really can't handle the fact that Jenna is moderating the Marriage Amendment debate between Ingrid and Owen. And he/she just won't let up on it throughout. I think the "No" side has a pretty good shot of winning at the polls in November, but if the closed minded (yes, closed minded) among them like that anonymous commenter take the lead, that could change. They could easily turn off the slightly libertarian conservatives who normally would not vote yes for this ammendment.

Oil Shale

Oil shale is an interesting thing. Like the oil sands which are being converted to crude in Canada, oil shale also requires high prices to be profitable. At the current prices, it would be plenty profitable. In fact, the United States has the highest known oil shale reserves in the world, an estimated 1 to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil. That's more than the Middle East has in crude reserves. So what is the hold up? From Wikipedia's article on oil shale:

During the oil crisis of the 1970s, people thought that oil supplies were peaking, expected oil prices to be around seventy dollars a barrel for some time to come, and invested huge amounts of money in refining oil shale — money that they lost. Because of the astronomical sums that were lost last time around there is considerable reluctance to invest in oil shale this time around. Investors are waiting to see if oil prices really will remain this high (in April 2006: US$75). Prices are rising because of increased demand in rapidly developing countries, particularly China. Will high prices stimulate the discovery of more oil, as happened in the seventies, or will alternatives to drilling for oil have to be developed? Investors, burnt badly in the 1980s for their enthusiasm of the seventies, are in no hurry to develop oil shale. Those who lost money then are inclined to believe that more oil will be found in the near future, although the increasing resource nationalism in producer countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia mean resources in those countries will be off-limits to Western oil and gas companies.

You know what? Investors got burned by ethanol in the 1970's, too, and that hasn't stopped them from pouring their money back into that even shakier energy source. There is either a component to the recovery of crude from oil shale that isn't being acknowledged (environmentalism, anyone?), or those in the know that the current high oil prices are only temporary, or we're just plain stupid for not tapping this resource.

Racism, sexism, or blinding hate of Republicans?

I ask because it seems that whenever a lefty brings up Condoleeza Rice, they also toss in a picture of her looking as mean, scary, and nasty as possible. I find it repugnant, but oddly no one will call them on it.

A waste of breath

Or, the right words for the wrong place at the wrong time. From Reuters:

The United States urged Cubans on Friday to seize the opportunity to rid themselves of Communist rule as ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his designated successor and brother Raul remained out of public view, fueling anxiety over what could happen in the next days or weeks.
[...]
In a message beamed to Cuba on Friday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Cubans now was the time to push for a new, democratic leadership. <>

"We will stand with you to secure your rights -- to speak as you choose, to think as you please, to worship as you wish, and to choose your leaders, freely and fairly, in democratic elections," she said in a broadcast on the U.S.-funded Radio Marti network.

<>
I doubt that a democratic "counter revolution" is in the making for Cuba. Yes, there is a small dissident population, but Castro has deftly used the United States as his safety valve for years. We've taken in his opponents if they could make it to our shores. Those Castro couldn't get rid of, he imprisoned. Rice's words may have been reassuring to some on the island, but they are misplaced. Instead, they should have been broadcast into Iran. Money should be piped to Iran's dissidents. Iran is a nation with built up dissenting pressures. Iran is perhaps the biggest threat to peace the world faces right now. Iran is the right place for those words, and now is the right time. Within five years or so, the Castro cult of personality will have crumbled and we will be looking at new relations with them. The same cannot be easily said about Iran unless we start stoking the fires under its building internal dissent.

Levi's Wyler "Walk the Line" commercial

Commenter Alkalinearmy has posted the Levi's "Walk the Line Commercial" at YouTube. You can either view it below or go to YouTube.



Previous
Note to the record industry: Sign Megan Wyler
Damn you Levi Strauss!

Hanson: It's the 1930's again

Victor Davis Hanson has been picking up on the same feeling that I've been having, namely that we are in a period similar to the pre World War II period.

When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.
[...]
Not any longer.

Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.

This does not mean that a new World War is definitely on the horizon; after all, while history tends to repeat itself, it never does so exactly. What it does mean is that if we aren't going to apply the lessons learned prior to World War II, we will end up with our hands full of world turmoil, turmoil that will lead to a lot of deaths.

Civilians and war

The New York Times has a long piece titled, "Civilians Lose as Fighters Slip Into Fog of War." It focuses on the Lebanese civilian deaths during Israel's military actions. I'm going to clue the New York Times in on something. Civilians die during wars. Nations fighting ethically avoid causing needless civilian deaths, attempting to limit damage to non-militarial locations and infrastructure as much as possible given the situation. Nations fighting unethically make no distinction between the civilian and military death, or worse yet intentionally target and kill civilians. Israel is the former. Hezbollah is the latter. There is no equivalance.

The odd thing about Lebanon

I just can't get this thought out of my head. There is one unusual aspect to the military actions in Lebanon right now. The national army of Israel is waging war inside their neighbor's borders, only to have Lebanon's government and military essentially sit on their hands and watch the fight. That says a lot about the deep divisions inside of Lebanon.

Is Kim Jong Il tutoring Ahmadinejad?

In grossly over wrought statements, that is:

I warn them: Know that the fire of the wrath of the peoples is about to erupt and overflow. If you do not put an end to your crimes, know that the ocean of the peoples will soon rage. When the peoples begin to move, they will drag everybody to the defendant's bench, and will remove them from the throne of power."

In all seriousness, read the excerpts of Ahmadinejad's latest speech. It makes me uneasy when I think of how similar the nature of the speech is to that of certain fascists in the 1930's.

"Breast-feeding reduces anxiety into childhood"

So says the latest study.

I post this mostly because I find the headline very amusing. There are just so many funny things that could be said based off of it. I mean, who's to say it is the feeding...maybe it is just the breast? It would go a long way to explaining us men.

Throw open the door to Cuba or slowly nurse it

Peggy Noonan is of the opinion that we should "blow open the doors" to Cuba.

How about this: Treat it as an opportunity. Use the change of facts to announce a change of course. Declare the old way over. Declare a new U.S.-Cuban relationship, blow open the doors of commerce and human interaction, allow American investment and tourism, mix it up, reach out one by one and person by person to the people of Cuba. "Flood the zone." Flood it with incipient prosperity and the insinuation of democratic values. Let Castroism drown in it.

It is not often that I disagree with Noonan, but in this case I do. Cuba is a sick nation. It has a boatload of problems that are not going to be fixed over night. Throwing open the doors is going to be a huge shock to Cuba, and that shock is going to create as many problems as it will fix. Additionally, pre-Castro Cuba already had a long love-hate relationship with the United States, and the suddenness of going from an isolated 3rd world nation to being swamped with Americanism is only going to help nurture the "hate" part amongst Cubans who will find the transition difficult. I think the United States and a post-Castro Cuba can build a strong nation to nation relationship, but only if we open just one door at a time. If we overwhelm the island, it is going to make the transition longer and more difficult for everyone involved. In a post-Castro Cuba, we will have the luxury helping the island out of the haze of Communism gradually and at a pace the nation can more easily absorb. We should utilize that time.

Pieces of 9/11 audio history

Wow. Head on over to Vanity Fair to listen to some of the audio history of 9/11, including the first call to NEADS requesting F-16's. That first call is extremely calm and matter of fact. The audio is just an amazing peak into the lives of normal people who manned our air defenses during that horrible morning. After listening, it is much easier to understand the confusion that occurs during a surprise attack.

Bad news for Castro: He says he's stable

Castro's communism is different from the old Soviet brand, but when I read this I began to think back to the old Soviet days.

Fidel Castro told his people he was in good spirits and stable after surgery that has raised speculation his illness might be the beginning of the end of his 47-year rule.

Days short of his 80th birthday, Castro issued a statement on Tuesday playing down talk he might be at death's door after an operation to halt stomach bleeding that forced him to temporarily relinquish power to his 75-year-old brother, Raul.

Back in the USSR, when a statement was issued about an ill leader's good health, he was usually already dead and the wrangling over succession was already taking place. Again, Castro's communism is very different from the USSR, so he may very well be doing quite well. But then again, don't be surprised if he dies soon.

"Poop to pump"

This is the kind of thinking that I like when it comes to creating alternative fuels without using an equivilant amount of fossil fuels.

One company's drive to locate domestic sources of energy is taking a turn into the barnyard.

Panda Ethanol has secured nearly $160-million in financing to build an ethanol plant that will be fired by mountains of manure in Hereford, a cattle town in the Texas panhandle.

This doesn't mean that I'm on the ethanol bandwagon. It is one small step in the right direction, though. I can see potentially huge NIMBY problems popping up with poo, though.

A new 9/11 source for historians

I'm pleased to see this:

Photographs of the carnage of Sept. 11 and tape-recorded final phone calls from victims in the World Trade Center were posted Monday by a federal court, a total of 1,202 exhibits from the Zacarias Moussaoui trial.

The videos, photographs and taped phone calls on the court's website were graphic in some cases, leading the court to mark 18 of the exhibits "discretion advised."

The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., said it is the first criminal case for which a federal court has provided access to all exhibits online.

All of the materials historians would have been able to get their hands on, anyway. What pleases me is that all of this material is being collected in one place on the web where high schoolers or collegians studying history can easily access it. Also, as a History major who spent a lot of time submitting requests for materials at the Wisconsin State Historical Society, the convenience factor is huge. You can view the exhibits here.

BBA State Fair takeover

Just a reminder to all of my Wisconsin readers-

The Badger Blog Alliance will be holding its now annual Wisconsin State Fair meet & greet at the Microbrew tent this Saturday on August 5. All are welcome, whether you are a blogger, a blog reader, or just someone curious to see what a real life blogger looks like and what kind of beer they drink (unfortunately, you have to leave the microbrew tent to get a Leinies). I will probably not be there this year, so if you'd like to join in the ongoing plans to overthrow me as BBA administrator in a bloody coup, this would be the event to attend.

On Mel Gibson, Judaism, Hollywood

I like Mel Gibson as an actor and director. He entertains me. It is impossible to defend his inexcusable actions and words, though, and it is clear that he has a lot of personal demons that he needs to exercise. That said, I am bemused to watch people line up to rhetorically stone him for his anti-Semitic rant. A number of the people lining up with their stone are also outspoken in their loathing of Israel. It would seem that it is perfectly okay to treat Israel in the same manner Gibson treated all Jews as long as you carefully couch what you say in more acceptable words. If you generalize to the point Gibson did and tar perfectly good liberal Jews along with those undesirable conservative and Israeli Jews, then it is a step too far.

Fidel Watch 2006

One of the biggest news items on Monday was Fidel Castro's poor health. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Fidel has had a nice, long life lived on the back of Cubans that he has brainwashed through Cuba's literacy and school programs. My only question is who becomes the media's fav dictator once Fidel is gone? Chavez? Raul Castro, that lovable drunk revolutionary? It'll be interesting to see.

Bumper sticker fun

Jay Nordlinger at NRO has been having fun with political bumper stickers in his Impromptus column. This one from last Friday caught my eye:

Dear Jay:

While driving home from work through Deerfield, Ill. (Chicago suburb), I saw this bumper sticker on the car of a teenage male: The Road to Hell Is Paved with Republicans. Rather harsh, wouldn'’t you say?

Quite amusing, actually. After all, the immobile pavement on the road never quite makes it to hell itself. But those driving down that road, in this case a Democrat, make it their final destination. I guess the joke is ultimately on the Dems.

Good news for nuke power

If this works and it is efficient, it would only advance efforts to increase our use of nuclear power.

As the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) prepares to issue advice to government on nuclear waste, a group of physicists claims to have discovered a technique that could make nuclear waste much easier to deal with. The new technique, reported in the August edition of Physics World, would render nuclear waste harmless on timescales of just a few tens of years, instead of thousands.
[...]
The technique involves embedding the nuclear waste in a metal and cooling it to ultra-low temperatures. This speeds up the rate of decay of the radioactive materials potentially cutting their half lives by a factor of 100 or more.

Of course, something like this can be physically possible but not practical due to cost or inefficiency. Here's to hoping that it works and is practical.

A rare win, and ugly play

Monday was a rare night for the old softball team. We looked like we had our s*** together. Oh, I tried to single handedly destroy that in the first. I booted a ball off the heel of my glove at short. That runner scored. Then I had a second ball hit to me. I fielded it cleanly, but I had the jitters from the first E, so I double clutched which meant I had to get the ball off in a hurry. At first I though our first baseman was going to be able to stretch and catch my throw, which was down the line. He missed it by that much. It did not miss the rib cage of the runner, though. I throw pretty hard, and the thud was disgusting to most who witnessed it. I've hit runners with throws before, so I felt bad for the guy but I wasn't totally distressed about it. Despite the fact that I think his teammates thought I killed him for a minute, he came out of it sore but okay. I was relieved that he didn't have to leave the game; when I was in high school I was trying to throw a runner out at third from center and he was right in line with my third baseman. My throw hit him in the back of the helmet. That made a sickening cracking sound and I knocked him out briefly. That was probably the most unnerving thing I've done on a ball diamond, and I've had may fair share of injuries and inflicted my fair share as well.

Article of the day

This says it all:

Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about civilian casualties, since all they have done this entire war is target civilians. Every single one of the more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel is launched into populated towns filled with women and children. Just today, another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus.

So, don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals and private homes. Cry to those launching deadly rockets from the backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the heartless men who love death, and who, however many of their troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and children.
[...]
That terrorists have been unsuccessful in killing more of our women and children is due to our army, God and our prayers, not to any lack of motivation or intention on their part. If you hide behind your baby to shoot at my baby, you are responsible for getting children killed. You, and you alone.

Read the whole thing.

Don't try this at home

It's dumb to carry liquid nitrogen like this. Still, pretty cool.

The new warfare

By and large, I can agree with this New York Times piece on the changing nature of warfare. We are in a transitional stage of history right now, one that is in some ways similar to the 1900-1930's period. State militaries will eventually adapt to the new threat from network style militias. In many ways the networked militias are a bigger threat to freedoms and liberties than fascism and communism, though, and it could be difficult to balance fighting these networked threats without giving up freedom and liberty too easily. That, along with traditional state based threats, could be the challenge of the next 20 years.

Speaking of unhealthy foods

Burger Boat sounds more like a place I'd willing go to cut years off my life through unhealthy food than a ship builder deep in the hip pocket of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. Mmmmm, burgers.

Ban TV shows on food

They are an obvious culprit in our burgeoning obesity. Here I am on a hot Sunday, having an ice cold beverage and watching an half hour show on pizzas. I'm not particularly hungry, but the show is leading me to want a huge, unhealthy, Chicago-style deep dish pizza. If not for this show, I'd probably be watching a movie and not desire food at all...except popcorn. Say, maybe we should ban movies, too.

(For the clueless, also known as the Chicago city council, I'm pointing out the absurdity of blaming companies and culture for our fat and not ourselves.)

Defend this

If you want to rake Israel over the coals for proportionality, if you wish to skewer Israel with civilian deaths in Lebanon, if you desire to paint Israel as the bully in this fight, then defend Hezbollah against this: Photos that Damn Hezbollah.

Note to the record industry: Sign Megan Wyler

The other day I wrote a short little post on my frustration over not being able to buy the Megan Wyler cover of Johnny Cash's Walk the Line that Levi's uses in their commercials. I am getting surprisingly strong Google search hits for "Walk the Line Megan Wyler" and its many variations. So, as much as I am loathe to do so, here is my FREE word of advice to the record industry. Sign her and get that single out in a hurry.

(See commercial here.)

Pothead math calculations

Really, if we are looking for the next generation of math whizzes, maybe we should look to pot smokers. I've never seen so much math buzzing around a comments section in my life.

On second thought, the Cheeto stains on the final calculations would probably ensure disaster on any project.

Syria and Iraq's WMD

I just thought I'd link to this Iraqi memo and post the text here for posterity's sake. If it irritates those of you who get upset that I still think about Iraq's pre-war weapon supplies, so be it.

Subject: we have information about the location of Mass Destruction Weapons

On Moharram 10th (Arabic calendar), prior to US/allied invasion to Iraq, fifty (50) Iraqi trucks entered Syria as convoys (or groups), I met some the drivers of those trucks, they got no idea about the content of their trucks.

The loads basically came from some where in Baghdad, Iraqi intelligence were escorting the loads. During their tripe, those truck drivers were stopped and asked frequently by the intelligence officers about whether or not they got any idea about the content of their loads, the divers replied “we have no idea," then the officers would say “thank you."

Upon their arrival to Deayr Ezoor city/ Syria, the drivers were ordered to get down, elements from Syrian intelligence got into the trucks, they took the trucks to big barracks for downloading.

After that; Iraqi drivers got their trucks back, they got $200 as a reward. The drivers told me that it was their second time to bring such secret shipment; the first shipment was Moharram 1st.

I have a friend in Syria working in Syrian company, the man has ½ of the company, and the other ½ belongs to a Syrian businessman.

This Iraqi person, a former counselor at Iraqi embassies, has strong connections with Iraqi embassy in Syria, he knows all Iraqi intelligence men there, and he has no idea that I am working with the Iraqi opposition in Syria.

I used to visit him daily during that period to listen to the important news. When the trucks arrived to Syria, I visited him, told him “Iraqi weapons got inside Syria," he replied “who told you." I said “I have my own resources," he replied “don’t tell any one about that because actually it is inside."

A passing thought

If I started an annual conference called BlogHim, do you think I could do it without Martha Burke hectoring me?

"Pander and Run"

This criticism of Democrats had to come from the left, and I'm glad that it did. Peter Beinart takes Democrats to task for their stunt with Nouri al-Maliki in the Washington Post and in doing displays why The New Republic is one of the few liberal magazines I still read. While I view TNR as wrong more often than they are right, their approach to issues of the day is still one I can respect...most of the time. Unfortunately for Beinart and TNR, this is only going to put the magazine further into the cross hairs of the rabid left, even though his article appears in the Post.

Brewers trade Carlos Lee

It's official. The Brewer's have traded Carlos Lee. My thoughts on this trade are up at the Wisconsin Sports Bar. I will add one Jiblog exclusive thought. I hope that included in this deal is a psychiatrist to be named later for Francisco Cordero. The guy self destructed in April worse than Derrick Turnbow has of late.

The Chicago big box minimum wage

Here we go with another unintended consequence. Chicago is targeting big box retailers with a minimum wage increase. Unlike some of my cohorts on the right, I do not believe the big boxes will start a mass exodus to the suburbs. There is just too much demand in the city of Chicago to leave the city limits. Here's what will happen, though. The cost of living will increase in the city of Chicago as the big box stores raise their prices to compensate for the higher wages. That pay increase that their employees get will be partially washed out by those higher prices, making the increase in their buying power negligible at best.

Robert Charles Brown, mass serial killer

If his admission is true, then Robert Charles Brown is a man whose name we are all going to know very soon. He's confessed to 48 murders.

Robert Charles Browne, 53, told authorities the slayings occurred from 1970 until his arrest in 1995. He was in court Thursday to plead guilty to one of those killings — the death of another girl in Colorado in 1987.

Authorities so far have been able to corroborate his detailed claims in six slayings — three in Louisiana, two in Texas and one in Arkansas, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said.

Browne started the dialog on the murders with a creepy letter that sounds like it was written for a movie.

"Seven sacred virgins, entombed side by side, those less worthy, are scattered wide," the letter says. "The score is you 1, the other team 48. If you were to drive to the end zone in a white Trans Am, the score could be 9 to 48. That would complete your home court sphere."

This is the type of guy that it is difficult to not justify the death penalty for.

The memorial board

Lileks has a post up on his high school reunion. I skipped number 5 and number 10; I suspect that I'll skip some more before I finally go to one. One day I will, though, and I already dread looking at the memorial board honoring the classmates that have passed away. Lileks tells his story of the memorial for the dead at his reunion, and I found this part of the story very familiar:

Then you see the face that makes your knees go fluid.

Her?

It wasn’t that you knew her well, even though you’d been in school together since tot-hood. Perhaps you had a sneaky crush on her, like the rest of the nerds. She was smart, killer smart; she was pretty, achingly pretty, but she carried herself in a way that deflected your attention. She hunched, as though she was trying to draw in her beauty and keep it from spilling out, making a mess. Everything about her seemed an improvised defense. Her smile could melt coal. She died.

When I finally go to a reunion, that is the face that I really don't want to see in the memorial, and I know it is going to be there. When you graduate, you know that for some people, the best years of their entire life have just come to a conclusion. For others, you know that the best days of their lives are still on the horizon. She was one of those people. She wasn't part of any of the popular cliques, but she had tons of friends, was sharp as a tack, pretty, and was just generally great to be around. My mother only met her in passing and I believe that mom secretly wanted me to date her from that day forward (we were never that close of friends for it to be a possibility). Then on a Sunday morning one month after graduation, she died in a terrible country car accident. Even though we ran in different circles, the news was like a punch in the heart. People like her deserved a good, long life, and she wasn't going to have hers. Her legacy would live on when her parents donated her organs, saving the lives of countless others through the loss of her own. I still have a sadness for her, her friends, her family, and the family she would never have.

World War IV or Spanish Civil War?

Are we really in the midst of World War IV? I think it depends largely on one's perspective. The case for our current situation being World War III or World War IV has been well documented over the past week. Given that no major power is fully mobilized for war, even the U.S., I'm leaning towards not placing the World War title on current events quite yet. Instead, I'm viewing things as a regionalized version of the Spanish Civil War. With the U.S. excepted, the world powers are up to their elbows trying to maneuver current events and bend situations in their favor without actually getting militarily involved. That smacks of the hand that some of the then major powers played in the Spanish Civil War. My fear is that the current Middle East unrest is just the precursor to a much uglier conflagration that we could face down the road a little ways.

A fictional Jib

I received an unusual email today from a writer of fictional short stories. He is writing a story about a character named Jib in a setting similar to my real life setting. I guess he stumbled across Jiblog while researching it and he asked me a few questions. First, the coincidence is unbelievable. Second, it is a little creepy to think a fiction writer came up with something that is at least similar to my real life without knowing the first thing about me. I mean, Jib is not exactly a common nickname. Third, if this character wears the same size and brand of underwear as I do, I'm so getting a restraining order.

I kid. Hopefully this guy's story works out. I'd be interested in reading it.

Shame on me

I emailed in a couple of posts today. They never posted. If history is any indicator, they will show up on this blog in about 6 months or so.

Who's your celebrity doppelganger?

As I was scanning headlines on Wednesday, I saw a story about a website that will tell you what celebrity you look like. I tucked the link away for another day when I actually had time to mess around with it. Tonight I checked it out, and you can, too, at MyHeritage.com. You'll need to register, but it is free.

All in all, I was disappointed. I uploaded my picture and was told that I looked most like Colin Firth. I don't look like Colin Firth at all. When I was younger and thinner, I was compared to a few celebrities, and I could kind of see where the comparisons were coming from. Not this one. Of course, it only got worse. The number two match was Bernardo Bertolucci. Number 3? Nancy Sinatra. I am cool with the number 4 match, though: Bruce Willis. Yippee kayay, mother...

Postscript
I ran a picture of the lovely Mrs. Jib, and she should be pleased. Her match percentage with Maria Sharapova (66%) was higher than my top match of Firth. Oh, and I ran a younger, more svelt picture of myself...and I got Colin Firth again. Dammit.

Post-postscript
Okay, this is actually really fun when you run pictures of people other than yourself. I ran a photo of my brother-in-law, father-in-law, and my dad sitting together. They came back as Alan Alda, Pierce Brosnan, Yehudi Menuhin, respectively. Completely inaccurate, but funny.

Damn you Levi Strauss!

Levi's has a new commercial out. I rarely pay attention to commercials, but this one has a female singing Walk the Line, and the song brings my attention to the commercial and then sticks in my mellon. So tonight I went on a quest for the song. What did I find? A whole lot of nothing. After much searching, I finally discovered that it was sung by Megan Wyler, and it is not commercially available. That agitates me. I'm so disinterested in most new music that I've only purchased on CD in the past 3 years. A song comes along that I'm actually interested in buying and it isn't even available.

(View commercial here.)

Landis fails drug test?

I don't know what exactly this means for Tour de France champ Floyd Landis, but it certainly isn't good.

Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site.

The statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.

A necessary warning from Victor Davis Hanson

I always find cautionary tales like this one from good classicists/historians troubling but necessary.

Think back to the Roman era of the "Five Good Emperors" - between A.D. 96-180 under the reigns of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonious Pius and Marcus Aurelius - when all problems of the turbulent past at last seemed to have been solved. There was a general peace, ever more prosperity from Mediterranean-wide trade, and a certain boredom and occasional cynicism among the Roman elite. Few then had any idea that three centuries of war, revolution, poverty and scary emperors like Commodus and Caracalla awaited their descendants - all a prelude to a later general collapse of Roman society itself.

In our own new age of war, terrorism, huge debt, high-priced gas and frightful weapons and viruses that we try to ignore, we should remember that civilization's progress is not always linear. The human condition does not inevitably evolve from good to better to best, but always remains precarious, its advances cyclical.

Too many of us take civilization, the comforts of modernity, and prosperity for granted, and with each year we become less vigilant about protecting them.

Kudos to you, parents

I'm in the midst of a busy time of the year right now, and I am whipped. And I am by no means trying to put out a 'feel sorry for Jib' story here. I realize that what is busy for me is down right relaxing for many other people, most notably parents. Parents, my hat is off to you. Someday we will join your ranks, and when that day comes, I'm sure that I will discover that what I view as tired today is really boundless energy and alertness.

The Dukakis immigration plan

In today's New York Times, Michael Dukakis and Daniel Mitchell criticize the House and Senate immigration plans. They then propose their own plan, one based on raising the minimum wage and which could be the most short sighted of the three.

There is a simpler alternative. If we are really serious about turning back the tide of illegal immigration, we should start by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to something closer to $8. The Massachusetts legislature recently voted to raise the state minimum to $8 and California may soon set its minimum even higher. Once the minimum wage has been significantly increased, we can begin vigorously enforcing the wage law and other basic labor standards.
[...]
Americans will work at jobs that are risky, dirty or unpleasant so long as they provide decent wages and working conditions, especially if employers also provide health insurance. Plenty of Americans now work in such jobs, from mining coal to picking up garbage. The difference is they are paid a decent wage and provided benefits for their labor.

I don't think that Dukakis and Mitchell honestly believe this will work. Instead, I think they are trying to tie the minimum wage to a current hot topic, illegal immigration, because some Democrats are trying to make the minimum wage an issue to run on in 2006. I say this because they cannot seriously believe that this will work. It won't, and for two simple reasons. First, a higher minimum wage will increase the motivation for Mexicans to come here illegally, steal an identity, and work under the guise of legality. Second, the higher minimum wage will encourage more employers to dip into the pool of illegals in the undocumented work force who will work for less than the minimum wage. These employers of illegals will not be greedy, evil, capitalist pigs. They will be small business owners who operate on very tight budgets and who will face the choice of closing shop or breaking the law to save their businesses-you know, the mom & pop business that Democrats like to decry the loss of.

Dukakis and Mitchell are clearly trying to pull a bait and switch here, and I anticipate that we'll see more of this from Democrats in the coming months.

WFB questions Bush's conservatism

William F. Buckley has been questioning George W. Bush's conservatism for much of this year, if not longer. While I think WFB has plenty of room to question Bush's conservatism, I think the one area that he is focusing on, Iraq, shows that in the past year, conservatism may have passed Buckley by.

Conservatives, while stuanch in their opposition to Communism, have abhored foreign intaglements. I see no problem with that, and it is something Buckley has stayed consitently true to. The problem is that nothing in the Middle East can be considered just a foreign intanglement. The entire Middle East, whether Buckley or Europe care to admit it, has become a theater of war. If you just look at a map, it is very easy to decipher the importance Iraq plays in the geography of that war. Is it a tough slog? No doubt it is. But if one is to view Iran as the biggest threat to the Middle East and the West, then Iraq becomes the most important cog in dialing up the pressure on and isolating Iran. Buckley's current position would be akin to thinking that Italy or North Africa was a waste during World War II. I respect the man beyond belief, but I don't think WFB is correctly identifying Iraq's geopolitical position in the mess that is the Middle East. Without Iraq, making any inroads in the politics of the Middle East is futile. The Buckley of 1960 would have appreciated this fact much more than the Buckley of 2006.

If not for Willian F. Buckley and National Review, I wouldn't be a conservative today. Just the same, I think Buckley is wrong on this issue. I suspect that I can kiss any pipe dream I had of ever writing for National Review goodbye after this post, but I won't moderate my position on it.

What is good economic development in Milwaukee?

Before I even start this post, I will start by saying that I am not qualified for this discussion. I don't know the area I'm going to discuss well enough, so if you dismiss me completely out of hand, you may be doing so with good reason.

Good. Now that I have that out of the way, go read Casper's post.

Based on what I've read, I'm leaning strongly towards Capser's position. That puts me in opposition to both X-Off and Sykes, an odd position for me. My concern revolves completely around the housing issue. While it is possible that Ruvin plan could create a trendy new housing area in Milwaukee, it is still not a possibility that I have an strong belief in. Milwaukee's condo boom defies demographics. Yes, a good portion of it is second homes for some wealthy individuals. Milwaukee only has so much ability to absorb that extra demand, though. The city's population is in decline while wealthier suburbs grow. I'm not sure that there is demand enough to meet the potential Park East growth in condos. Yes, that bigger Ruvin investment is attractive, but what does it do to the larger Milwaukee real estate market? I could care less about the gas station. In fact, I think the Rana Enterprises proposal shoots too low for the area. The Ruvin condos makes me nervous, though.

Now feel free to eviscerate me in the comments. I'll be the first to admit that I understand the dynamics of Madison much better than those of Milwaukee. If you try, though, you had better be able to convince me otherwise.

Buzz is buzzin'

What an odd story.

THE first men to walk on the Moon reported seeing a UFO, a new TV documentary reveals.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon's surface after Neil Armstrong, says space agency bosses covered up their sighting.

I'm not much of a UFO guy myself. I find it difficult to believe that mass casual observance would not have detected it by now. This story leaves me wondering what Buzz was smoking.

Where in the world is Jib?

Busy. And it is just the standard summer stuff that comes up for anyone. I try to maintain a regularity in my postings, but there are just times when life has precedent over blogging. I'm incredibly jealous of bloggers who can crank 10 to 20 posts a day irregardless of the events of life. I'll always try to update as frequently as I can on a daily basis, but unless blogging suddenly becomes a gold mine, I don't think I can post at that level every single day. I guess that is part of what separates the 'A' list from guys (and gals) like me.

Another loss

Wow. Talk about poor morale. My team looks defeated before they even take the field now. One could easily mistake us for the French army right now. We put up a good fight against the top team in our league, but we still fell short. I'm not sure what to do at this point. As team captain, I'm beginning to feel like Rene Lachman or Davy Lopes. Maybe next week I'll throw a base to get them fired up.

I hit like crap tonight, but hustle helped. I went 2-3 with two infield singles and a walk and 3 runs scored. Also, we got our first half stats tonight. Apparently the league scores even more generously than I do, as they had me hitting .733 through last week.

Ireland and the Middle East not an apples to oranges comparison

Howard Dean makes yet another specious statement:

"If you think what's going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn't, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn't get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians." ---DNC Chairman Howard Dean

If Clinton had accomplished anything of substance with the Israelis and Palestenians, the situation on the ground would look quite different right now. He did not. Also, his comparison of Ireland to the Middle East is faulty. The situation in Ireland had a certain political stability to it that the situation currently in the Middle East does not.

War torn Beirut

“…looks like war torn Beirut.” The preceding is a common figure of speech used by me and others in my circle. It refers to a place that looks like it has been through hell. For those of us of a certain age, the phrase holds significance because we used to hear it almost every night on the news. That, along with the video clips we would see, gave the term a lot of imagery. Thankfully, for many who are younger than us, the phrase did not hold as much meaning, and it was gratifying to see Beirut slowly become a worldly city again. The events of the past week have been unfortunate but have been made necessary by Hezbollah. Hopefully this is just a hiccup for Beirut, and the next generation that comes along looks at me and my friends with bemusement when we use what will hopefully be an antiquated and inaccurate phrase.

Keith Olberman a dunce

Keith Olberman was a hell of an anchorman on ESPN's Sport Center once upon a time. He really should have stuck with that gig, because he is out of his element in other areas of mass media. To wit, we have Olberman catering to the leftists who actually enjoy his gig. If the ratings are any indicator, there aren't even many of them.

Jib's eye view

This is a how a Wisconsin summer family gathering looks from a participant's viewpoint. Not pictured: The Lenie's Honey Weiss in the left hand.

Day pass for r&r

Today is Mrs. Jib's family's famous 'Cousins Weekend' in wild and crazy Lomira, WI. As such, there won't be much going on here today. There might be an update late tonight, otherwise I'll be back tomorrow.

Random thought

Sometimes particular wars are inevitable because your enemies want them. You have the choice of initiating and dictating the terms, or waiting and having the terms dictated to you. Most of the West has developed the habit of waiting and having the terms dictated to them. Israel can't afford that luxory.

An ugly admission

As little as I think of The Dixie Chicks, Taveling Soldier is still one of my favorite songs. Don't tell anyone.

Clarifying my position on bees

Tee Bee defends the bee in the comments to an earlier post of mine. In response, I'd like to clarify my position. I view any flying insect with the capability to sting as a bee. In my opinion, all of these creatures are to me as the Luftwaffe was to the Brits during the Battle of Britain. The difference is that I have no aerial defenses. Therefore, all of these insects are my mortal enemies. When I can, I will destroy them. When I cannot destroy, I will live to fight another day. Towards the end of my "stiff upper lip" years towards bees, a disturbing thing happened. I was stung on the hand and for the first time, I experienced localized swelling from a bee sting. I have not been stung since, in part because I now view my battle with flying, stinging insects as a battle of life or death. I respect Tee Bee's admiration for common, non-aggressive bees. As for me, the only bee that does not feel my ire is the bumble bee. It has never stung me, and it has never shown any interest in sticking around me long enough to do so. To me, the bumble bee is as harmless as the Canadian Air Force.

Duh, Volume 1,987,385,034,842

This is news?

Anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont has surged to a razor-thin 51 - 47 percent lead over incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 55 - 40 percent lead for Sen. Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters in a June 8 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

The moment Lieberman decided that he would run as an independent if he lost the Democratic primary, this poll became a foregone conclusion. Can you imagine how Republicans would have jumped ship on Arlen Spector if he did the same thing in 2004 against Pat Toomey? That's what is happening here. As much as we Republicans cheer on Lieberman's decision, party faithful see actions like his as horribly disloyal. These poll numbers are no surprise.

Which way does the left want it?

I don't want to make Joseph Nye the spokesman for the far left, but I'm starting to hear this more and more, so I'll use him as the example:

What a mess! Once again the extremists have prevailed, and capitalized on inept American policies. Bush's pressure for elections helped produce Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah in the Lebanese government, and his efforts to force regime change pressed Syria closer to Iran. (Italics mine).

I'll ignore the fact that the Palestinian elections were actually called by Abbas in an attempt to strengthen his political position. The point is this. For years, the left berated Reagan and Bush 41 for cozying up to dictators because they were "our assholes." Back then, the idea was that we were holding down the peoples of many nations and turning our backs on our own values by ignoring self determination with our support of dictators. Today, in some situations, we've swung much more towards the position the left used as a rhetorical club not that long ago, and they're bitching because we've done so. And some still complain because we aren't doing enough to open up Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Sleeping through the storm

Almost everyone that I talked to today slept through this morning's severe weather. I woke up when my weather radio went off, announcing the storm warning. It was 3 a.m., though, so I risked it and went back to sleep. It must have been a good storm. I woke up to find a 15 foot long, 5 inch diameter branch down in my yard. Thankfully it missed the roof and any windows. Trees on your property are great, except possibly during storms. During storms they are damage waiting to happen.

How to turn Jib and his wife into winos

Here's how: Sell off quality wine at $1.99 a bottle in order to clear the glut of supply.

Australian wine is being sold off cheaper than water, as a glut of grapes pushes the cost of a bottle to below two dollars.

Bumper harvests for three straight years have led to a massive oversupply, with up to a billion litres of unsold wine in storage tanks across the country.
[...]
But for the consumer, it means quality wines are available at a fraction of the normal price as producers move their excess stock in unlabelled bottles known as cleanskins.

The lovely Mrs. Jib dreams of the day where we can have a wine cellar and casually have a glass of wine with dinner whenever we want (I have the more practical dream of a beer swimming pool). At a buck ninety-nine a bottle, we would never make it back to work.

Severe weather and a full stadium

I'm surprised that things like this don't happen more often.

A storm with 84 mph winds forced a two-hour, 12-minute rain delay before Wednesday night's contest between the Braves and the Cardinals.

Only a few minutes before the scheduled 7:10 p.m. CT start time, the skies darkened and heavy winds started at the new ballpark. The grounds crew immediately brought out the tarp and heavy rains started to fall a few minutes later.

"It was terrible," fan Jen Klimer said.

According to The Associated Press, 30 people were injured as high wind blew out press box windows, overturned portable concession stands and ripped the tarp at new Busch Stadium.

The baseball season is also storm season. We're lucky that storms walloping full ballparks is an uncommon event.