Interesting viewpoint

This post makes a great point.

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Oops

Great link.

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Amazon.com

Donations to tsunami relief via Amazon.com now approaches $3 million. This might be the future of fundraising. I've got payment information embedded at both Amazon and Paypal. Hell, I just donated $5 more quickly than it takes to look up a movie listing. We Americans are quite charitable, as long as it doesn't take too much time.

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Instapundit.com

Here's a great example of why Instapundit is the best blog clearinghouse out there. Glen Reynolds always offers a pithy statement -- "but face it, there's no pleasing people whose chief desire in life is to bitch" -- and then provides a link to the best blogs on the Web.

The RedState post is dead on. America's an incredibly generous country. By the way, a nation's charity shouldn't be judged by government donations alone. But, some people do like to bitch.

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Ukraine photos

Here's a neat photoblog from Ukraine. Note the giant American flag in the third pic down.

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Good joke

Pretty funny.

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Mudville Gazette

If you've got the time, read this whole post. Particularly the stuff about half way down where he talks about the latest question posed to Donald Rumsfeld. Really gets to the heart of the power of the blogosphere and the perspective of the media. Some military personnel in Iraq truly feel that the press isn't reporting what's really going on there. It's certainly an interesting perspective, and one we'd never get before the advent of blogs.

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Stumble Upon

So, my buddy over at 8zero8 pointed out a site that installs a little program into your browser that takes you to new and unusual sites. Seems harmless, eh?

DO NOT INSTALL THIS PROGRAM.

I've already wasted countless hours. By the way, this site is pretty funny. This would be funny if not so damning.

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In America

Got stuck in an airport on the way back from Vegas. Watched this movie on my portable DVD. I highly recommend it.

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Touring With the U.S.O.

Great story. Robin Williams is a patriot.

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The Associated Press

Check out this post.

This has always been a big pet peeve of mine when I worked on the newspaper copy desk. As the details of an old story get condensed, reporters often get them wrong. Subtle bias creeps in. This should have never made it through the editing stage. The AP will probably not issue a correction, but I bet the reporter refers to the incident more accurately in the future.

This is the beauty of the blogosphere.

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Vegas, baby. Vegas.

I won't be blogging again till Thursday. I'm going here. I'll be staying here. I'm planning on seeing this show. I'll be playing this mostly, but also this. I'll be trying to win this.

Will provide full acount upon my return.

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New world order

Incredibly insightful column.

This guy nails it: We are in the middle of a huge paradigm shift in media and power.

When the government wanted to shut down the Solidarity movement in Poland, they took away the printer's ink. In the Ukraine, the protesters used cell phones to alert their friends. Blogs instantly transmitted information and pictures around the world. Without crippling your economy, how do you take away cell phones and web logs?

Read the whole column.

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Piss, Punch & Puke

On a one-man crusade against anti-fun crusaders.

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Touting Thomas

A defense of Clarence Thomas from a Northwestern professor.

Notable:

Even though there may be no denying that Thomas wouldn't be where he was were he white, when you consider what he has done as a justice, a singular and worthy pattern of achievement appears. There can be no doubt that Thomas's approach to the Constitution is the clearest contemporary example of originalism, a belief that the Constitution and its amendments ought to be interpreted only in the manner in which they were understood by those who framed and ratified them. Anything else, for Thomas, is judicial usurpation of the legislative role.

Many may not agree with this approach to the Constitution, but that's no reason to call him an embarrassment to the court, as a senator from Nevada recently did.

Presser also laments the current lack of depth to Supreme Court reporting. Thomas apparently doesn't follow the doctrine that previous Supreme Court rulings should be reviewed to help decide present day cases. This knowledge, revealed in a book by Thomas, was called a "bombshell" by the Washington Post. Apparently, many jurists feel this way. Besides, there have been many cases in which the Supreme Court got the original ruling dead wrong. Previous rulings often need to be ignored.

Senator Reid accused Thomas of poor writing. Presser speaks to that as well:

His opinions, compared to those of his colleagues, are more passionate, more free from jargon, more transparent, and more self-consciously linked, as Scott Gerber put it, with the first principles of our nation. In Foskett's nice summary, Thomas "wants decisions that even a gas-station attendant could read and comprehend."

Read the whole article. It's interesting.

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Lisa Marie sells Presley estate

Elvis has left the building.

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Southern Gentleman

I had a great professor in college named Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives. He taught me modern contemporary drama. It was a great class. We read a lot of Tennessee Williams and some William Inge. But, we also read some pretty obscure stuff as well, such as Hamletmachine and Temptation. I read the latter -- written by Vaclav Havel while Czechoslovakia was still under Communist rule -- in the late 1980s. Havel, of course, went on to become President of the Czech Republic after the Iron Curtain fell. I've always marveled at Dr. Rives' prophetic reading selection.

Apparently, someone else agrees. An anonymous donor recently gave my alma mater, East Carolina University, $152,000 to endow a Southern Literature chair in Dr. Rives' honor. He deserves the recognition.

Here's what the donor said about him:

Dr. Rives introduced me to a world I hardly knew existed. He opened up new vistas for me and, in so doing, changed my life significantly. A remarkably worldly man, he had his students thinking globally long before international studies became current, and he also inspired us to love literature and respect the English language.

But what moved me the most is that he was the quintessential Southern gentleman and an inspired role model -- learned, suave, witty, gracious, hospitable and debonair. He stands for all the best in the American South, and hence, our wish to endow the English Department's Chair of Southern Literature in his name.

Well said, and a fitting tribute.

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Christmas and Christ

Good overview of the debate.

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The Dream Episode

From time to time, this episode from M*A*S*H pops into my mind. The show took a look inside the dreams of all the characters.

I think the most powerful scene featured Charles Emerson Winchester. In his dream, he couldn't help a sick patient. He performs magic tricks -- producing flowers from a magic wand, pulling a long streamer from his mouth -- but nothing works. The patient dies and is taken away. The camera slowly pulls out on a shot of Winchester tap dancing while holding sparklers in his hand. Fade to black.

It still haunts me.

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The Volokh Conspiracy

Interesting response to the most-recent academia article I posted. Much ado about nothing, this conservative says.

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Democracy and Islam in Timbuktu

Here's a great story. (Thanks to 8zero8 for sending it over.) It's about life in Mali, where a tolerant brand of Islam is practiced. Notable:

"As far as Mali is concerned, Islam is a tolerant religion and the proof is here in Timbuktu," said the city's mayor, Aly Ould Sidi. "We have all religions. We have Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals. Between us, the Muslims, and other religions, there is no problem. Islam tells us to respect all monotheistic religions."

But there are warning signs in this new democracy:

Democracy also guarantees freedom of religion, though, and new types of Islam are challenging the traditional faith. In the past three years, ultraconservative Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia have opened 16 mosques in Timbuktu, a development termed disturbing by the city's mayor, Aly Ould Sidi.

"All these people who are Wahhabi are not citizens of Timbuktu. They come from outside," he said. "Their presence here has raised a kind of conflict with the people."

In the last 3 years. Very troubling. Saudia Arabia's export of Islamic hatred is a large part of the problem.

By the way, this is also an interesting quote:

Last year the GSPC [a Islamist group advocating overthrow of Algeria's secular government] kidnapped 32 European tourists, mostly Germans, in Algeria and brought some of them across the desert into Mali. Germany reportedly paid a $6 million ransom for their release, vastly enriching the group's budget for arms and munitions.

I guess that's how Germany deals with its problems.

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Social Security

This is pretty neat.

Michael Kinsley, the editorial page editor of the L.A. Times issued this call to the blogosphere to refute his assertion that there's no way to privatize social security that can work. He makes a good argument complete with plenty of supporting details. Now he's asked anyone out there to refute his logic.

Here's the first response.

We're in a golden age of communication, I tell you. These web logs, instant publishing houses, newspapers for the masses, are going to change mass media as we know it. And better the political discourse.

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On academia

Another great column of the lack of ideological diversity in academia. This sums it up:

I could no longer blame the students for shying away from hot-button issues like Iraq: For them, the academy does not foster thoughtful discussion of thorny issues, but harbors the potential at any time to unleash the visceral reactions of their superiors to what students think are their own reasoned political positions. For students, the risk of speaking up is much the same as it is for me: They risk losing the respect of professors and perhaps endangering their long-term aspirations.

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Those were the days

Remember the old days, when an adult could beat the tar out of a kid without the entire world watching?

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Global Warming

Here's a great column on global warming. This issue rarely gets raised in the mainstream media. We just get snippits about how Bush pulled us out of the Kyoto accords because he loves big business and hates the environment.

Many scientists don't believe the basic pretense that global warming is caused by man. MIT climatologist calls it a "religious belief" rather than sound science. Some would have you believe that the issue has been concluded and that the only holdouts are similar to members of the Flat-Eart Society.

I once pointed this out at a newspaper where I worked and was roundly derided as a fool.

I haven't heard much about Michael Crichton's new book, but it apparently takes on the myth. That's awesome, perhaps it will force this issue into the mainstream.

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Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood's new movie is getting phenomenal reviews. Read the first graph of Roger Ebert's review:

Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true. It tells the story of an aging fight trainer and a hillbilly girl who thinks she can be a boxer. It is narrated by a former boxer who is the trainer's best friend. But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer. What else it is, all it is, how deep it goes, what emotional power it contains, I cannot suggest in this review, because I will not spoil the experience of following this story into the deepest secrets of life and death. This is the best film of the year.

Eastwood will go down as one of the greatest filmmakers of our generation. His "Unforgiven" is one of those films that gets better with every viewing.

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Intrigue at the Herald

Interesting battle going on at the Boston Herald. The Washington Post weighed in today. A judge who gave a rapist a lenient sentence is upset with the Herald's reporting and the subsequent TV coverage.

The story from the Post obviously sides with the judge. Large chunks of information presenting his side of the case are presented as fact with no attribution. Take this sentence for example: "Murphy developed post-traumatic stress disorder and later collapsed with a large duodenal ulcer near an artery." I'm sure these are claims made in the judge's lawsuit, but the sentence reads as though this is incontrovertible fact.

Looks like the Herald reporter got a little sloppy too:

Wedge said he stands behind what he wrote but acknowledged the quote may not have been exact. "I know he said the judge said either "She's got to get over it" or "Tell her to get over it," he said in an interview. Murphy maintains the conversation never occurred.

Of course, he didn't know that the story was going to blow up and hinge around those words. But, he'd be in less hot water if he'd gotten the quotes right. That said, Dave Wedge is a good man and a good reporter. He'll pull through this.

The interesting result may be the end of reporters doing television interviews -- a welcome end to this media-crossing experiment. I never felt comfortable with newspaper reporters hawking their stories on TV. Newspaper reporters should have a healthy disdain for TV journalists.

In the end, this kind of stuff happens at the Herald about twice a year. If you're the smaller paper in a two-paper town, you've got to make waves. Just make sure they spell your name right.

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Charmin Update

Regarding my earlier complaint, I sent an email to the Charmin Corporation. Here's their response.

I'm sorry you didn't care for the Charmin Basic you purchased. We realize that our consumers have different preferences, and that's why we offer so many different kinds.

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Veritas meets Google

This is big.

The New York Times weighs in:

It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global
virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties. The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections.

Google - newly wealthy from its stock offering last summer - has agreed to underwrite the projects being announced today while also adding its own technical abilities to the task of scanning and digitizing tens of thousands of pages a day at each library.

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Blogs and politics

Interesting read.

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An apology

A few weeks ago I wrote this post. In it, I made some comments which upon reflection were unfair and stereotypical. Here's what I said:

The purpose of this war is to make the Arabs quit hating us. Some will say that our action in Iraq will only create more hatred; I say to them that they were already pretty angry.

I should not have said that all Arabs hate us. Or that that all Arabs were pretty angry with Americans. Obviously, only a small minority of Arabs believe in the militant practices of Al-Qaeda.

An anonymous poster pointed this out at the time, and upon reflection, he was right. I apologize.

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Hilarious

Great video of a robbery gone bad.

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Charmin Basic

I made the mistake of buying some Charmin Basic. It cost a little less but still displayed the Charmin name. I assumed Charmin would assure a quality toilet tissue no matter the cost.

I just threw away the remaining 14 rolls.

The experience reminds of a great story from a friend of mine. His family shared my family's love for quality toilet tissue. On vacation as a child, his family stayed with a friend of his mothers.

After a couple of days at the friend's house he reported to his mother that his "butt hurt." His mother immediately inquired to the brand of toilet tissue used in the house. Upon learning of its inferior quality she told her friend:

If you can't afford good toilet paper, you can't afford to shit.

I thought those words should be immortalized on the Web.

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Academic plagiarism

As a new graduate student, I got an earful on the dire conquequences of plagiarism earlier this fall. It's a shame that professors don't hold each other more accountable for the act. Plagiarism is apparantly running virtually unchecked "in the academy."

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Unity in the Virgin

I knew next to nothing about the Virgin of Guadeloupe, until I read this column. After a hefty explainer, the author tells us that the she will likely become more and more American:

Read the whole thing, but the last four graphs make a compelling argument:

In the United States, Santa Claus has long since forgotten his Turkish/Dutch roots, while St. Patrick is still clearly Irish. A few decades from now, the Virgin of Guadeloupe in the U.S. will probably still be associated with Americans whose ancestors came from Mexico. The Columbus quincentenary in 1992 was somewhat overlooked, because the multiculturalists had unfairly demonized him. The Virgin’s quincentenary in 2031 is unlikely to suffer the same fate, and even Chronicles magazine (which definitely does not celebrate non-European immigration) acknowledges that 2031 is going to be a very big deal in the U.S.

But I don’t think that the Virgin of Guadeloupe is going to help the multiculturalists. They abhor the melting pot, and work assiduously to divide Americans into mutually exclusive tribes, with each tribe clinging to its old culture. The centripetal forces of America, however, are too strong for the divisive multi-cultural scheme to succeed. On college campuses, engineering students whose parents came from Taiwan date communications majors whose parents came from Nigeria.

And the Virgin herself is a uniter, not a divider. In the entire history of the world, the Virgin of Guadeloupe has been one of the greatest symbols (and causes) of the mixture of white and non-white, of indigenous and immigrant, of east and west, of old and new.

By 2031, the United States may have a thriving community of Mexican immigrants who are contributing to the American dream, adding to American culture in constructive ways—as did the Germans, Irish, Italians, and other groups, after their own massive waves of immigration. Or the U.S. in 2031 could have an angry and unassimilated lower-class population which despises the nation which welcomed them—like the Arab Muslims in the suburban ghettoes around Paris. The enduring power of the Virgin of Guadeloupe gives us good cause to hope for the best.

Well said.

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Ten Best Movies of 2004

I've not seen one of these movies. But I've seen Scooby-Doo 2, Brother Bear, The Incredibles and Polar Express.

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Polar Express

Just saw Polar Express with my 4-year-old son. We both loved it. An inspiring feast for the eyes with a great Christmas message.

I was surprised because the film has gotten lukewarm reviews and has been trammeled at the box office by The Incredibles, which I also enjoyed thoroughly. Checked Roger Ebert to see what he said, since I almost always agree with him. We're on the same page.

This film will have much more staying power than the The Incredibles. If I had to see one of them again before Christmas, I'd pick the Polar Express easily. It'll probably become a perennial fixture.

Go see it.

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The White House is hip?

Jeff Jarvis over at Buzz Machine reports that two famous (by blog standards) Iraqi bloggers named Omar and Mohammed just met with President Bush.

This is interesting:

Mohammed said the President understood what blogs are and their importance and they found the staff in the White House views reading blogs as part of their jobs now.

I'm impressed that the White House "gets" blogs this well.

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Crime and Punishment

This story details the sentencing of a U.S. soldier for shooting an unarmed Iraqi teenager.

In our culture, people sometimes do horrific things. We punish them for it. Just like the soldiers in the Abu Ghraib scandal are being punished.

Some cultures not only don't punish those who carry out horrific acts, but they celebrate them. This is important to note for those relativists out there who blur the differences between our culture and others.

Ted Kennedy said this after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke:

Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management -- U.S. management.

For Americans, atrocities like Abu Ghraib and cilivilian deaths are the exception, not the rule. We should be proud of that instead of pretending that we're no better than monsters like Saddam Hussein.

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Afghan miracle

Great column on Afghanistan's democracy. Despite our differences, all Americans should be proud of what we've accomplished there. It's truly amazing.

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Atheist becomes theist

Incredible conversion. British philosopher and longtime atheist Dr. Antony Flew has just announced he now believes in God. Apparently, the 81-year-old has been the poster-boy for atheism for decades. He's even debated C.S. Lewis on the subject. Here's a six-page interview detailing his conversion.

He cites new scientific evidence as one of his reasons for the switch:

I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries. I’ve never been much impressed by the kalam cosmological argument, and I don’t think it has gotten any stronger recently. However, I think the argument to Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it....

... Darwin himself, in the fourteenth chapter of The Origin of Species, pointed out that his whole argument began with a being which already possessed reproductive powers. This is the creature the evolution of which a truly comprehensive theory of evolution must give some account. Darwin himself was well aware that he had not produced such an account. It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.

Interesting stuff because the conventional wisdom provides that anyone who doesn't believe in evolution is a complete moron. This issue, of course, is causing quite a kerfluffle in my home county. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole Intelligent Design debate. I guess I've already taken a side, because I'm willing to listen to the arguments.

Flew also noted that he is actually a Deist in the Jeffersonian sense. He believes in God, but not one who gets involved in the affairs of the world on a daily basis:

What Deists, such as the Mr. Jefferson who drafted the American Declaration of Independence, believed was that, while reason, mainly in the form of arguments to design, assures us that there is a God, there is no room either for any supernatural revelation of that God or for any transactions between that God and individual human beings.

As someone who recently converted from Agnosticism to Theism, I welcome the company.

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Space tourism

This story hasn't gotten much play. But this sure is cool stuff.

From now till 2012, anyone can build a spaceship and fly people into space. No one can sue you if it blows up. The feds will get involved after that. The ultimate caveat emptor.

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Praise Yale

Those Ivy Leaguers are crazy. Sorry Harvard alums, this is a pretty impressive prank.

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An ode

Yoohoo is one of the most underestimated drinks on the planet. In fact, I realize today -- as I drink my 15 oz. Yoohoo while eating some fudge grahams -- that I don't enjoy this beverage enough.

The chocolate liquid makes for strange refreshment. It's chocolate drink, after all, not chocolate milk. I once ran out of milk and attempted to mix Nestle Quik with water. Friends, that chocolate drink fell far short of its professional relative.

I have no idea how the technicians at the Yoohoo Chocolate Beverage Corp. in White Plains, New York, make their sweet nectar. But I know that I appreciate it. More and more every day.

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It's a postmodern world

Genital mutilation is on the rise in Europe. It seems some immigrants are bringing this hideous practice with them. This is an interesting junction between reality and postmodernism. The latter has taught us that we should have a myopic respect for other cultures. That we shouldn't judge others who don't agree with us lest our jingoistic tendencies blind us. A lofty goal, and certainly one that should be practiced with some moderation. Obviously, some cultures are just different and should be accepted as they are. White Euroupeans don't have a proud history of the acceptance of people who don't look like them.

But to practice this form of postmodernism to the extreme ignores reality. We shouldn't be tolerant of intolerance. No culture should get a free pass just because its different.

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On the bright side

Another great column by Andrew Sullivan. He points out that when you combine the news coming out of Iraq (debt relief, relative quiet regarding Fallujah, etc.), it's beginning to look like things might turn out all right. Keep in mind that this guy endorsed John Kerry and has been highly critical of the U.S. occupation.

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You've got to read it...

to believe it.

Got that from this health care blog roundup. For my friends in that field, you might want to bookmark it. It updates on Tuesday.

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Activists Dominate Content Complaints

This puts the hub-bub over decency into perspective. Don't get me wrong. I still don't want my kids to see simulated sex and Janet Jackson's teet during the Superbowl, but any organization this zealous scares the hell of out me.

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Trouble Brewin' at the UN

For those of you who take American opinions with a grain of salt, here's a Canadian newspaper calling for Kofi Annan's ouster.

Quotable:

Mr. Annan has also watched as the UN Human Rights Commission has degenerated into a laughingstock run by some of the worst human-rights abusers in the world. He has refused to stop the UN agency responsible for delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees from assisting terrorists. And from Rwanda to Srebrenica, East Timor to Sudan, he has time and again permitted himself to be conned by tyrants and butchers while they have murdered hundreds of thousands of innocents.

I'd say that sums it up nicely.

By the way, I have an acquaintence who works for the U.N., and I heard about this sexual harrassment case months ago. Apparently, most U.N. staffers are aghast that Annan didn't fire this guy. The Secretary-General did no such thing and instead gave him a vote of confidence. The move caused such an outroar that the U.N. reversed itself and reopened the case.

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Wow

Incredibly astute column from Andrew Sullivan. Best quote: "We are all subcultures now." If you don't already, you should read his blog daily.

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You say you want a revolution

Make no mistake about it. Everybody wants freedom. Note that Khatami "accused hit critics of intolerance." That takes balls.

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Economist.com

Great column on the allergy to ideological diversity on campus. Unfortunately, few academics would be caught dead reading this publication.

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Insightful quote

Tavis Smiley has an interesting quote in his interview with Time Magazine this week. He noted that Bush's cabinet is more diverse the National Public Radio:

It is ironic that a Republican President has an Administration that is more inclusive and more diverse than a so-called liberal-media-elite network.

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Kofi's defenders

The NY Times wrote a defense of Kofi Annan's leadership of the United Nations today. Here's a graph-by-graph critique of the Times' convulated logic.

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Behind it all

Utlimately, I think the reason so much of the Muslim world hates the United States can be attributed to things like this.

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Who knew?

Shakespeare noted wisely:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

This organization proves it. I can read the words, but I cannot comprehend them.

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The Bourne Suck-emacy

I wasn't blogging earlier this year when the Bourne Supremacy was released. So let me take its imminent debut on DVD to talk about this smelly turd.

I haven't been more disappointed in a sequel since Meatballs II. The first film was enjoyable and intriguing -- not an Oscar winner but certainly an entertaining film. This sequal was unbearably boring and impossible to follow. The action scenes were shot with a jerky camera and so close to the action that you couldn't tell what was going on. Motion sickness kept forcing me to look away from the screen. Maybe it'll play better on TV, but I'll never find out.

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Genocide, schmenocide

This story of a U.N. worker accused of genocide in Rwanda would be major news if only the United States were somehow involved. But, because it's the U.N. -- an organization that means well -- it will be forgiven.

Here's the same principle, applied to the French.

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Power Line: Suspicion

I'm not so sure this conspiracy theory doesn't make a little bit of sense. The price of oil has certainly behaved oddly. Is it so far-fetched to believe that it was manipulated?

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What We Won in Fallouja

Great column on the Battle of Fallujah.

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Sixth Street Adventures

Here's an hilarious post from a site dedicated to the lost art of overindulgent drinking. Try to read it without laughing.

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