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.

This is so awesome

Got this from BOTW.

"What are we protecting you from a wrong cheeseburger?"

Hilarious.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Time for the annual seal hunt! Get your clubs, get set, go! All us evil conservatives have been just itchin to go club some seal pups.

Yawn

Same old song and dance. Leftist chicken littles implore us to notice the sky is falling. Is the great 'die off' going to begin soon?

Missing WMD

Powerline links to what seems to be a plausible explanation for the missing WMD. I hope it's true (not just of the anthrax, but all their WMD), because I sure don't want the WMD smuggled into a place like Syria or Iran.

Terri Schiavo

Thomas Sowell cuts to the chase, in language far clearer than I could ever muster (also read here). I was angered that Congress seemed to overstep its bounds in passing a law to interfere with a family matter - but I am angered more by the fact that they had to (and they acted Constitutionally!), because another government entity (which I have far less sympathy for) had made a poor call that violated the Constitutional right to life of a woman. As far as I'm concerned from my reading on the case, there is significant doubt as to whether or not Terri is in a vegetative state, and that alone should force us to "err on the side of life", as the President has stated. Finally, the husband's behavior can't be viewed without suspicion - although to be fair, it's a tough situation and I can't honestly say what I'd do were I in his shoes (assuming he's telling the truth). This case is certainly a gray area, and the usual suspects will fall on the same sides - those who err on the side of life, and those who are the purveyors of the culture of death.

To the conservatives who are willing to "live and let live" - I felt the same way until I was drawn into the case and understood more of the facts. I just wanted to let her die and not think about it, since this is a matter between the husband and the family, right? Well, turning your face from an ugly reality won't make it go away, and this is truly an ugly reality. Think about it: the willful starvation of a woman, and her only crime is that she has become an inconvenience to one person - we treat animals and criminals more humanely. I still have sympathy for the "live and let live" conservatives (I'm thinking more libertarian folks like Glenn Reynolds, Neal Boortz, and Charles Johnson) especially since many of this stripe have personal experiences that mirror this case. However, viewing this as an objective outsider (objective in the sense of Constitutional vs. moral implications, with no previous experience to color my viewpoint) I feel I've come down on the right side of things now.

I view the behavior of the MSM as the most disgusting thing in this whole episode, for they have been the ones who have shaped the public debate on this by manipulating and omitting the facts. I never heard of the nurse (who in a sworn affidavit, gave a statement contradicting Mr. Schiavo and casting him into suspicion) until I listened to Sean Hannity. Or of the doctors and neurosurgeons who have stated that Terri is not only not vegetative, but can possibly be rehabilitated by new treatments. What is clear to me now is the MSM is bent on seeing a "conservative crack-up" by painting this as a Constitutional overreach by the Republicans to split those crazy Evangelicals from the Constitutional law-and-order conservatives. That the MSM will distort a story to allow a woman to starve to death in order to score political points against President Bush shows you what's most important to these people. It's power. To them, power is life, and not vice versa.

Good news for stem cells

found via The Corner: Aussie scientist finds potential way to skirt ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cells. More good news is that these cells seem to be safer than the embryonic ones as well. This is good news, but we'll see if it catches on.

Great Idea

This would actually make me sad that I turned down CU-Boulder for grad school. Well, that and the good snowboarding being just an hour away.

This just seems backwards

How does this make sense? My favorite quote, seen on Good Morning America, was when one of the non-husband family members said, "[Hopefully the courts will now go along with the will of Congress]." Heck, lets just get rid of due process all together. Or more in the spirit of things, lets make all due process so long that no one will ever get to the end of it. What's the functional difference between a path that you can never get to the end of and a path that doesn't exist?
This just feels like a clumsy political stunt such as a clueless libral might use in order to try to convince everyone how he "gets" the sanctity of life thing while simultaneously trampling all over the sanctity of marriage and individual choice (i.e. free will). Someone please tell me why I'm wrong or at least over-reacting... Husband and wife leave their parents and cleave to each other. Hence they each bear the ultimate worldy responsibility for each other. Assuming that Terri indeed does not want to live as a vegetable, what about her wishes? The courts already determined that she is in fact in a vegatative state. I would of course snap my fingers and fix her, but I can't.

Does George W. Bush Read?

Why am I posting this? Because I got into an argument with a Mass. liberal (one of my classmates) on the way to Maine. We were passing by New Haven and he commented on its most famous alum, and how they should be ashamed that they produced such a stupid man. "He's obviously dyslexic, and that has to impact his reading ability. He's clearly not that intelligent. I bet he 'reads' books on tape!" Those were his arguments - he was seconds away from a declaration of "mildly retarded". Anyway, according to this article (and to anyone with common sense) the answer is yes, the President reads, and he reads books of much import. Another interesting part I found out in this article is that Woodrow Wilson (famous Democrat Pres., PhD, and Princeton alum) was dyslexic as well. Sorta skewers the whole 'dyslexic=stupid' theory.

Drivel

How does this crap get published in the #1 paper in the US?

Global Dimming

Hilarious post on the religious left: Filthy Old Cars Will Save Us All. Which is it, eh? Global warming or global dimming? I dunno, but the sky is falling! The sky is falling! And it's all capitalism's fault!

Insane

Danny Way is going to jump the Great Wall of China. I also found it interesting that China has a Minister for Extreme Sports. Nothin' like the efficiency of Communism.

I agree

with this. Honestly, would we even know about the Oil-for-Food scam were it not for her?

You can stop worrying

50 cent is safe y'all.

Why?

Why in the world must something like this occur? Obviously a remake but utterly pointless as the original is freaking ONGOING, AMAZING and in freaking ENGLISH and this fraud is doomed for FAILURE. When will these people learn? What is so hard about coming up with something original? This port of "The Office" is something that I dread watching. I wonder why? Isn't it cheaper to just buy the damn shows and replay them here? You know, as if it wasn't already on BBC America?

About Time

Have you ever been reading something and noticed something that actually made sense? In some ways what I'm about to share kind of seems mean but really the thing is that sometimes things need to be done.

A new county law aims to keep readers from reeking. Libraries in San Luis Obispo County have had their own rules banning offensive body odor since 1994, but the policy became law after the Board of Supervisors last month adopted an ordinance that lets authorities kick out malodorous guests.

BillnHill

Our (well, my former) portly governor seems to be casting his hat into the ring for '08...I'd much rather have him as the candidate than Hillary, although she will probably be the candidate with him as running mate. Let's hope he's the candidate and can rescue the party from the leftward spiral it's in.

Under the umbrella...

...of that end all liberal buzzword, 'disenfranchisement', "Hillary Clinton and John Kerry want to let criminals vote". The question in this article is why, besides the obvious that felons happen to vote overwhelmingly democrat. An interesting piece with some good background information.

Gizoogle

Translate any web page to Ghetto-speak.

Pow

Looks like I'll be riding pow on Tuesday. Better get my homework done now....

Calvin and Hobbes

I found all the Calvin and Hobbes strips archived! And just when you thought you were going to be productive......