The New Republic

rips into Newsweek. Ouch, especially coming from a magazine that brought us Stephen Glass.

Garden State Republicans

There's been one debate between the GOP primary candidates for governor here, but I didn't watch it. I will probably vote for Schundler, because he seems less "establishment" than Forrester, but I really need to sit down and evaluate each candidate seriously before deciding for sure. Right now, Forrester holds a narrow lead over Schundler. We'll see what happens, but I really don't think anybody's going to beat Corzine in this worthless state.

Anti-Military Libs

Hugh Hewitt references a good post on BOTW regarding the anti-military bias on the left. I was so sick of hearing "I support the troops, just not the war" BS that many liberals were spouting, that at least it's refreshing that they are being honest with their anti-military bias now.

Rants of a Sore Loser

Some days, it's just to easy. Sometimes when I read something I have to look it over twice simply to verify that my eyes don't deceive me. For instance, take this quote from senate minority "leader" Harry Reid defending judicial filibusters;

Right now, the only check on President Bush is the Democrats' ability to voice their concern in the Senate, If Republicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no check on their power. The radical, right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they want.

From this statement I get 3 things:

1. All Republicans are radical right wingers
2. Despite our elections, apparently we live in a dictatorship
3. democrat filibusters are brave, the stuff of hero's even

While I'm sure that this type of dribble is popular at Cannes or at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in reality it's just silly. Perhaps I'm wrong (I'm not) but I thought that the purpose of an election was to create a government representative of the people, for the people and by the people (that election part). And once those elections are over with then those elected enact their agenda because they won, you know like the President and congress. Then, if the people don't like what's happening they elect people with different agendas next time. Now, I know this is hard to follow for the democrats whom maniacally seek scandals to conceal the fact that they are losers but a freaking reality check is in order. There is nothing worse than a self righteous blowhard who claims to be the voice of the people, of reason when describing actions that actually circumvent that voice. My only hope is that the Republicans won't fold and go through with what must be done.

There's hope

for fighting back the appalling lack of intellectual diversity on our university's faculties, as long as there are professors like this one. Much respect for a professor who's willing to acknowledge this problem.

Too bad he's a professor of CS, it seems only those based in the hard sciences and mathematics have any hope of reversing this trend. It seems engineers and scientists are the only intellectuals who are are capable of the logic that is anathema to liberal orthodoxy.

Yay work

My new boss (for the summer) has this list posted at the entrance to his cubicle. I won't copy the whole list here, but some examples:
I believe the government that governs least governs best, which is the foundation of conservative adherents.
I believe the words in the constitution mean what they say. I can read.
I believe individual liberty must be respected in order for this experiment in self-government to continue.
I believe the toll of freedom is responsibility. Those who fail to act responsibly are not deserving of freedom.

He also has John 3:16 taped to his monitor. These things are very cool. I have a cubicle, this is not so cool. I think the thing I miss most about having an office is the window, I had a nice view of the mountain.

Star Wars

I heard mention that some people think the new Star Wars is anti-Bush. I went looking for some moonbat madness and found someone starting to make my point for me, "And Bush and his crew fit the prottypical image of evil perfectly, so yes and no."
If you think Bush is an evil wantabe dictator then sure you can convince yourself that Star Wars is anti Bush (especially if it makes you feel closer to Hollywood stars, oooh, ahhhh, I bask in my sameness of thought...). By the same ticket, Braveheart is anti Bush because of those evil empire building oppressors of the Scottish. The point is that Star Wars probably isn't anti Bush, Christensen et. al. are.

We're not alone

The rest of Europe hates the French, too.

I wasn't really interested in this article

but I love the headline Matt Drudge gave it: Would you pay $49.95 to read Frank Rich? Uhhhh...I don't even care to read him now, and it's free.

Filibuster history

The AP gives a little filibuster history. They conveniently ignore the 14 hour filibuster of "Sheets" for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I guess they just don't want to embarrass the Senate's "elder statesman". Somehow, though, I find it hard to believe they'd neglect to mention this filibuster if "Sheets" were a Republican at the time or eventually became one.

Newsweek lied, people died

That's the phrase that's tearing up the right wing blogosphere now. This episode confirms that the liberal elites despise our military - they're willing to print anything that makes the military look bad. I get that attitude from many left-leaners in this place too - they act as if people who join the military have a screw loose.

We'll see if the story is really true. For now, Newsweek has joined CBS and the NYT in the ranks of discredited MSM outlets, only read by those who will believe all the self-serving propaganda that's fit to print. Thank God for the internet.

Update: I removed the part where I said "And it's true." Because, well, it isn't necessarily true - Newsweek probably did not intentionally lie to defame our military, rather, it seems they rushed to print something they couldn't verify because it fit squarely with their prejudice. This means they did the same thing as CBS with the Bush Guard docs. So, not outright malice, but evidence of an underlying prejudice. Hopefully everybody realizes that.

If you want a good laugh

listen to this hilarious speech on the Senate floor by Robert Byrd (D-WV) aka "Sheets" or Robert "KKK" Byrd. Found via Hugh Hewitt. Choice quotes:

"We were both put under the water.......we went under the water....."

"HEAR ME all you evangelicals out there! HEAR ME!"

"Estherrrrrr....was a Jeewwwwwwwwwwwwww........."

Hey Sheets, was she also a "white nigger"?

Random Useless Fact

My textbook on heat, mass, and momentum transfer, Transport Phenomena by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot, contains 25 statistically improbable phrases - like "inertial sublayer" and "molecular momentum flux tensor". Whoever dreamed up this function at Amazon.com just wasted a couple hours of my life.

Read This

it's good. Although, if you want a better explanation of the delineations between conservatives and liberals, read A Conflict of Visions or The Vision of the Anointed.

Arizona Republic needs a geography lesson

Hey Vetes, what's up with the Arizona Republic? Seems they're pointing out that Tbilisi, the capital of former Soviet republic Georgia, is somewhere in the American southeast. Which begs the question: if Jimmah Carter is such a staunch supporter of democracy, why is Bush upstaging him in his own backyard?

Great moments in public education

This chick can't graduate because PE is more important than AP biology, at least to the public school bureaucrats. What kind of a class would BEST be, anyway (Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow)? If it's some sort of PE class, what essential skills are they learning, how to climb a rope?

Blair Wins

The third leg of the Anglospheric triumvirate that toppled Saddam has been re-elected - thus proving that the Anglosphere is made of tougher stuff. I've grown a new appreciation for the common heritage we share, one that began and flourished in the British Isles.

Powerline has an analysis that I agree with. This election was really a win-win for us, since the Tories are also pro-U.S. I'm actually happy Blair won over the Tories, because I was sick of hearing Michael Howard engaging in some last second "Blair lied" rhetoric. Eventually, I hope the Tories regain power, but not until they have a leader that is worthy of the party's storied heritage (someone Thatcheresque).

I'm also somewhat heartened by the last part of the analysis. It stands to reason that if the Brits were flogging Blair over the Iraq war, then the Liberal Democrats (the only consistently anti-war party) would have won more than a measly two seats. Instead, the Tories were the big gainers.

Evangelical Reporter

A former NY Times reporter tells his former colleagues to quit freaking out. It's a good piece, but I doubt it will be read by any leftists I know (they get their news from The Daily Show). And not that it will generate any responses, being on page A19 of the Post.

You'd be surprised (well, maybe not) at the folks who actually believe that once W gives the signal, his storm troops will pour into the streets, thumping Bibles across the heads of all who are not sanctified. Right now, the Left is motivated by a fear of a nebulously defined group that lives out somewhere in middle America called the "Religious Right". The Left will then periodically set up events in which they can unleash their hatred (remember the 2 minutes hate from 1984?) - if you watch the aforementioned Daily Show, Jon Stewart gets a dig that is the equivalent of this at least once a show. Really, take any left-leaning columnist's article on the "Religious Right", replace "Religious Right" with "Jews", and you have an anti-Semitic piece. Rush mentioned on his show yesterday that now all the conspiracy kooks are on the left now, and I agree.

Good thing he doesn't live in Florida

This dude spoke after a decade of no communication!

Refusing to bow to the god of "diversity"

I was rejected for the NSF fellowship for postgraduate studies, and the rating sheets telling me why are made available to me now. They rate you based on "Intellectual Merit" (it seems to be based on test scores and other "hard" measures of intellect) and "Broader Impacts" (which seems to be ranked on "soft" things such as "vision" and whatnot). I was rated "very good" (one below "excellent") for intellectual merit in both reviewers minds, but one reviewer ranked me as in between "very good" and "good" for "Broader Impacts" - the other reviewer gave me "very good". The comments from this reviewer were that I "deliberately downplayed diversity, in the sense that NSF means diversity, perhaps to the applicant's disadvantage."
Here my actual paragraph on diversity from my application:

Another issue that deserves addressing is the issue of diversity, or lack thereof, in the sciences and engineering. I refer not to the lack of diversity in the superficial sense that is being constantly being broadcast nowadays, but a more insidious lack of intellectual diversity that seems to be creeping into the academic world. Basic intellectual exercises such as questioning and testing assumptions are sometimes being cast aside in favor of an intellectual homogeneity that I believe is terrible for academia. This sort of problem is most noticeable in the social sciences and liberal arts, but this mindset is creeping into science and engineering as well. Having witnessed many bad situations prolonged by groupthink during my years at Intel, this same groupthink is toxic in academia as well. During my career I hope to teach students that the best way to avoid this mindset is to work and think independently to ensure the most diversity in the points-of-view in the analysis of a problem. The greatest advancements tend to be made by the most nonlinear thinkers.

You be the judge (echoes of Larry Summers, no?). Evidently, NSF (at least this particular reviewer) values diversity based on outward appearance rather than diversity of intellect. How does this make sense? Einstein was a genius because of his inventive thinking, not because of some pseudo-concept of "accumulation of life experiences" or whatever they use to justify their idiotic notion of diversity.

I don't know if I will be able to stand academia post grad school, much less while I'm here.

Update: I just realized reading this post that I made it sound like I was rejected because of this. This is not the case. Only 2 Princeton ChE's got the fellowship, and they were both second time applicants. I don't even know what the criteria was for honorable mention (which I didn't get, but 3 of my classmates did - probably you have to be rated "excellent" in at least one category, or your actual research proposal needs to be good, which mine wasn't). I just wanted to point out that my refusal to adhere to this unstated leftist code of conduct docked me some points.

Hometown makes national news

My humble hometown of Clovis, NM made the national news for a "burrito lockdown". Matt Drudge linked to it, so it must be special. Hometown news here and here.

My Kind Of Senator

Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is riling up big spenders - Republicans and Democrats alike. Good for him.

Yo soy muy angry

I don't know if this will enrage you, but it should.

Update: Now the LA Times has picked up on it.

Update: Now KFI has fired back.

Sweet

Tech ranked second best value in the nation by The Princeton Review (see here also). It's nice to see the alma mater getting some recognition.

Hang 'im High

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's mentor and mentor's son started a company with $1 million from Saddam Hussein. Company listed amoung assets of Prime Minister Martin. Via instapundit.

Hotel Rwanda

Last night, I went to see Paul Rusesabagina, the hero of the movie "Hotel Rwanda", and after seeing him in person my admiration for him is even greater. When he entered the room, I was struck by his humility and diminutive appearance. His story, told in a thick Belgian/African accent, was told directly and without flourish, and yet this made it all the more compelling. What struck me most about his story was that it was an example of an ordinary human being placed in an extraordinary circumstance, with nothing but conscience guiding his actions. When asked "why did you do it?" he stated humbly, "because I could not live with myself if I had done otherwise".

No doubt the Western powers failed Rwanda, but what should be done now (or even done then) is a far stickier situation. The utter powerlessness of the UN was particularly appalling (though not surprising to most of us conservatives). I do believe that the West should do something now, however, and not just in Rwanda but in Africa and the Middle East in particular. From his comments, Africa's biggest problem (and I agree) is a lack of a rule of law - it seems even the concept that there are universal laws (in the Declaration, these are bestowed by the Creator) is foreign to these people. The solution is some sort of imposition of these concepts on these people - and quite possibly the only way is through empire, as suggested several years ago by Jonah Goldberg here and here. The neoconservative vision of a different kind of empire, an American empire that promotes truth and justice is the only real solution. We are already doing it in Iraq, primarily because of the confluence of this ideal with the interests of our self defense. As soon as we can spare the resources, however, we must turn our attention to this bleeding continent. The heartbreaking stories from Rwanda in the 90s and Darfur now demand it.

Can Higher Education Get Any Lower?

asks Michelle Malkin, linking to an article in the Daily Princetonian. I must say, I'm really not surprised. Princeton certainly has lost a lot of its luster since I've been here - an institution in which uniform thought leading to moral relativism is encouraged. The students here aren't any smarter than the students I associated with at Tech, also. It certainly fits the conservative vision of the disperse nature of knowledge among the masses.

There's still hope though...this is (supposedly) the most widely read campus publication, although I think the Princetonian is a bit more visible.

Thomas Sowell

I was watching C-SPAN (yes, I'm a dork) last Sunday and on the series Q & A, Thomas Sowell was being interviewed by Brian Lamb. Since Thomas Sowell is probably the greatest contemporary conservative intellectual (in my opinion), I encourage you to watch the program or at least read the transcript. Sowell makes very few media appearances (the only other time I've heard him was on the radio with Walter Williams filling in for Rush) so I savor these appearances when they occur.

The essence of conservatism

can be summed up in the final quote of this Jonah Goldberg column:

Civilization is a balancing act. When you lose your balance on the tightrope, you must make great swings in your stance just to get centered again. And even then, the odds are you fall off. The real trick is avoid making sudden moves in either direction.

Good words from Jonah - and words I try valiantly to convince my liberal friends of. Conservatives are not opposed to change, but change must be effected in a manner such that civilization is not endangered. The best way for Americans is through the slow and tortuous process that our Constitution outlines.

And so it begins...

Unfortunately predictably, as soon as Pope Benedict (Latin for blessing) XVI was introduced, the usual suspects came to mark their disapproval...

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the church's leading hard-liner (AP)

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets — including “the enforcer”, “the panzer cardinal” and “God’s rottweiler” (London Times)

New pope a conservative who divided Germans (AP)

And so the Catholic church accelerates its turn toward authoritarianism, hostility to modernity, assertion of papal supremacy and quashing of internal debate and dissent (Andrew Sullivan)

In the Vatican, he has been the driving force behind crackdowns on liberation theology (CNN)

Those being amongst many others. As a Catholic I find the selection of Benedict XVI to be inspired and a smart choice, he is intelligent and thoughtful. I find it disturbing to read the self-righteous rants of those who wish the church to fit their own beliefs so quick to disparrage a kind and devoted man of faith who believes in and is a true man of the church.

Popage

Pope Benedict XVI: Cardinal Ratzinger elected pope. He's a smarmin Jarmin. Seriously, though, he seems a good candidate. All my classmates said "oh, he's the evil conservative one who doesn't want women to be priests. I guess the church won't modernize", which means he's a good candidate. We'll just have to wait and see how things turn out - what he focuses on, how he does it, etc.

Now he needs to meet with GWB so we can say: Fofe n' Frez, together again.

So Timdido...

Did you and the misses go?

The expert

Of course it's always the FAKE Republican that is hailed as the expert the second they go against the party.

A key Republican ... suggested Sunday that he might oppose John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador ... Sen. Chuck Hagel said he remained concerned

As a member of the party I most certainly understand that there are differences of opinion and the usage of the term above to describe Hagel can be construed as harsh but a glance at his public statements is enough to me for justification. The extra point I bring up is the tendency of the Republican hating media to hype the Hagels of the world, never understanding that Hagel, John McCain, Lincoln Chaffee, etc. ARE NOT the most credible of Republican sources. So far as I'm concerned any Republican considered credible by the mainstream media is fake.

Towards more sanitary public restrooms

First came the autoflushing urinal, now comes the next logical step:

Ouch

NASCAR is atempting to clean up it's image by discouraging what it considers poor behaviour. Driver "(Shane) Hmiel was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points yesterday for flipping the bird to opposing driver Dale Jarrett".

You know, I don't know if I agree with the following statement: "(The fine was) levied because Hmiel's actions constituted "actions detrimental to stock-car racing"". Really? $10k for flipping off another driver? And that's detrimental to stock car racing?

Gay Soldier

Of course, this story is only getting publicity because the dude's gay. Kudos to the dude for serving honorably - but I'm still unconvinced that having openly gay soldiers will be a good thing. Somehow stories that demonstrate why it is not good to have gay soldiers in the army wouldn't get the airplay this one's going to get.

What I found most disturbing about this story, however, was that UCSB has a Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. That's almost as ridiculous as China having a Minister for Extreme Sports. I'm sure the taxpayers of California are happy that their money is being used for useful research.

It's ok, I'm a dem

Yesterday I got a call from a friend who had decided to leave the Republican party. For some reason they thought that I would try to convince them otherwise. Of course, to me one's political desires are their own and I explained that I respected their decision. The reason why this friend was leaving was because they felt that former president Jimmy Carter was being slighted in regards to the accommodations for the Pope's funeral. Now, I was not aware of this story so I simply listened and reiterated my position in regards to leaving, staying and whatever.

Today, I found an interesting story. Apparently my friend's story of malfeasance originated from Timdido's part of the country, the always annoying John Corzine;

New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine's office put out a statement today saying the Senator was "livid" that President Bush "refused to allow" Jimmy Carter to join the official U.S. delegation to the Vatican.

Well, I thought to myself, there's the story and if it's true it does seem unfortunate. I've lived long enough though to learn that to trust a democrat politician on their word is something to laugh at, so I read further and learned that:

Corzine now admits to FOX News that he hasn't spoken with President Carter on the issue and has no evidence to suggest that Carter was snubbed by the White House.

And, furthermore;

Carter says he was invited to join the delegation and declined, saying that because of the limited number of invitations, he would defer to others who wanted to attend.

Hmmm, all of a sudden it's clear isn't it? Carter wanted to defer, he's a nice guy and a bit up in age, completely understandable. Will Corzine get pummeled in the press for the fact that he LIED? Doubtful, because as the maha Rushie says (loosely) "In the democrat party, the more you screw up, the more prominent you are", meaning that this episode will likely help Corzine in his purported bid to be governor of Jersey. Typical.

The end of the world?

Try not to think maybe, reading this headline:

Boy Band Singer Runs for Cincinnati Mayor

Really...

The indicated crime of "removing sensitive, classified documents from the National Archives" is a misdemeanor? Ugh. The author of this column describes the result of this kind of silliness quite aptly; "(that) national security document classification and other security laws are much ado about nothing and that if you're important enough, you can violate national security laws with virtual impunity".

Something to fear...

What does Michael Crichton have to fear? His latest book, "State of Fear" takes on the quasi religion of global warming. What a country, where someone can be attacked by those who claim to be "understanding" and "diverse" for different views.