Total Cluster Theory

Attention Span to Nowhere

2008-11-07T10:52:00.003-05:00

Just launched a new blog. Blah.

Revisionism

2008-09-22T23:57:00.003-04:00

Give credit where it is due: Joe Biden takes a stand against the ghastly ads castigating McCain for putting duty ahead of touch-typing speed:

Asked why it was done, he said: "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we'd have never done it."

For what it's worth, I feel badly about my partisan slamming of Biden. He's not a bad guy.

Do Bears Eat Trolls?

2008-09-18T14:02:00.004-04:00

There are left-wing Alaskans everywhere you look, all 100% genuine, you bet. Doubt this? Just look at the comments section of an online New York Times editorial bashing Alaska. The fourth commenter claims to live in Alaska, the fifth to have “lived there for a long time,” while the thirteenth begins, “I’m sitting about a mile from where the Knik Arm Bridge was planned to go.”

Say What Girl

2008-09-16T23:12:00.003-04:00

Sour grapes, Carly style:

Fiorina was asked by a St. Louis radio station announcer if she thought Sarah Palin had the experience to run a company like Hewlett-Packard. Fiorina replied, “No, I don’t. But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.”

Another way to answer the question would have been, something like, perhaps: “Yes.”

Think. On. Your. Feet. Or. Not.

Identity Crisis

2008-09-16T22:27:00.002-04:00

Rich Miniter asks what happens if Obama, you know, uh, loses:

A rejection of Obama can only mean one of two things: a rejection of the 1960s formulation of liberalism (the current formulation, alas) or that America is deeply racist. Too many of them will go for the second hypotheses.

Too many think that elections turn on identities, not ideas.

In defeat, will Obama appeal for calm? Probably not..

Another New Low for the Washington Post?

2008-09-12T12:15:00.003-04:00

Sensing events moving against their candidate, the Washington Post emptied its political bilge tanks -- right across the front page of their Friday paper. And you thought Obama's lipstick smear was crude.

The first inky slick surfaced with a smear of Cindy McCain, “A Tangled Story of Addiction,” with the subhead, “Consequences of Cindy McCain’s Drug Abuse Were More Complex Than She Has Portrayed.”

The “more complex than portrayed” excuse for exhuming a circa-1991 story is pathetic. What’s next? Has she “neglected to mention” a 1993 parking violation? Has she "omitted the full truth" about an unreturned library book from 1965? Has MediaMatters taken over the Post newsroom?

In case you miss the piece’s malicious intent, it runs with a picture of Cindy McCain flashing a 500-watt grin – a jarring, sophomoric insult in the context of the “consequences of drug abuse.” Ever so subtle, guys. (The online edition omits this over-the-top propaganda trick.)

The second inky smear appears next to the first: “Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska.” Here, let's take a peek:

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

Great, the Post finds fault in a speech to an Iraq-bound brigade. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Barack Earl Carter

2008-09-11T16:00:00.002-04:00

Raise your lawn's IQ: Got your Barack Earl Carter yard signs, right here. They leave liberals so puzzled they forget to steal them.

Aw, shucks

2008-09-11T15:18:00.003-04:00

As I predicted last week, “In coming days and weeks, expect to see a quieter, more self-deprecating, and even thoughtful-appearing Biden.”

Today, we are given a startling admission, right from the show horse’s mouth: Hillary was the way to go:

'Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States,'' Biden said. ''She is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She is easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and quite frankly, might've been a better pick than me.''

“See, he’s humble! He’s really humble,” will come the talking points. “What a guy.” But, much as I hate to remind you, this is a politician we’re talking about, specifically a Senator. And more specifically, Biden. It doesn’t work.

The Scripted Candidate

2008-09-11T14:28:00.002-04:00

He can’t get out of his own way. His political instincts are misfiring. Questions are being asked. Is Obama off his game? People want to know.

From Bloomberg:

The campaign's ``novelty has worn off,'' said Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat. The Obama campaign ``seems to have lost its speed, its response time.''

Pascrell’s right about the novelty, of course, but the speed and response time? It was never there. When you’re the change candidate, parrying your opponent’s every utterance as “same old this” or “more of the same that,” you look like you’re going 80 mph standing still.

But when you lose change (and reform, to boot), suddenly the Left’s scriptural candidate is revealed to be the scripted candidate. You find yourself responding, explaining what you meant to Letterman, blaming the media, overshooting, and generally stepping in it.

Are the speechwriters supposed to scream like that? Is that smoke coming out of their ears? Now it’s events that look like they're going 80, and you’re standing still.

Never go full Lincoln

2008-09-11T13:23:00.002-04:00

If the return of Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers wasn’t enough, now Obama has Lincoln Chafee calling America’s favorite hockey mom a “cocky wacko.” -- try saying "cocky wacko" three times fast without sounding like a parrot. Can't you just picture some Obama staffer (after dialing directory assistance): “Um, thanks for that, Lincoln. Thanks, uh, for all you do. For all you do every day. Really. Now please, shut the heck up. Please.”

All Together Now

2008-09-10T16:24:00.003-04:00

Now that “community organizer” has become a joke, Obama’s less cerebral surrogates have resisted pleas to throw the term under the bus (talk about a bumpy ride) and are actually trying to rehabilitate the unfortunate phrase. They are even pushing the talking point that Jesus was a, um, community organizer. Are they suggesting Jesus got liberal funding to organize black churches for a corrupt political machine?

Wait – hang on – according to New York’s skirt-chasing governor, it seems “community organizer” is racial code for “black.” Who knew?

Remember, activists, if you keep "community organizer" in everyone's ear, it will regain its lost esteem. And while you're being useful, why not use "liberal" as much as possible? Those Republicans just like to ruin perfectly good words, don't they? Keep up the good work.

The Angry Party

2008-09-10T15:32:00.004-04:00

While Obama is calling the governor from Alaska a pig in his stuttering, stammering stand-up routine, “comedian” Bill Maher insists she is a “snarling bitch.”

"It was like, wow, I will send (Obama) whatever I have to keep this snarling bitch out of the White House."

September 11 is around the corner and Maher figures a new idiotic remark will weaken his association with an old idiotic remark.

Obama: Her Pig. Him Old Fish.

2008-09-10T15:21:00.004-04:00

Why are they attacking women and senior citizens?

The Obama campaign is clearly in disarray, and has resorted to heaping the crudest abuse on their growing list of enemies, which now apparently includes women and old people. Said Obama: "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years." Yikes.

Obama’s media friends are feverishly assembling montages of Republicans using the “lipstick on a pig” cliché over the years (Breaking news: Politicians Use Clichés). Unfortunately for Obama, the audio of the quote is unambiguous: With careful comedic timing, Obama meant the pig remark to be a slam. He meant to call a war hero an “old fish.” His audience roared its approval. What audacity! He fairly basked in their applause.

Only an idiot could miss Obama’s intent. Consequently, only idiots will buy his spin when he tries to convince the American people that this persistent Democrat talking point is an “innocent remark.”

Rethinking Biden

2008-09-05T17:40:00.003-04:00

Now that they've gotten a load of Palin, Team Obama is staring at the prospect of a nationwide Reagan Democrat eruption. More immediately, they must rethink Biden’s role for the rest of the campaign.

Biden’s plain folks routine is clearly over: Next to a real outsider, his Scranton shtick risks sounding contrived. And as for hopping an Amtrak out of Washington every night, forget it. Compared to Juneau, Delaware may as well be inside the Beltway.

Obama must also reevaluate deploying his veep as bad cop. Although Biden still matches seniority with McCain enough to continue jabbing at the respected warrior (something Obama is wise to avoid), it won't work against Palin.

In coming days and weeks, expect to see a quieter, more self-deprecating, and even thoughtful-appearing Biden. And he’ll have to stay in character – remember how Gore creeped people out by changing his personality from debate to debate.

And Biden’s handlers have to keep the “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do” Biden at bay (A fit of pique would be like throwing a Raggedy Andy made of lunch meat into the ring -- fifty on the bulldog, and pass the popcorn).

The likely fallback position for Biden is to emphasize his experience in general and foreign experience in particular. Prattling on about Nagorno-Karabakh and whatnot won’t move too many undecided voters, but it avoids the many disasters Biden could talk his way into.

A dark and stormy night over the edge of a cliff

2007-11-06T13:08:00.000-05:00

With Hollywood writers hitting the picket lines, forcing Leno and Letterman into reruns, it is time to put down the remote and ask: Is the strike wider than we understand?

Consider Will Bush Suck the GOP Down the Drain With Him? by Arianna Huffington:

I've written about how the lunatic fringe of the GOP has taken over the party. Well, the takeover is so complete that those looking to lead the party have come to the conclusion that the only way they can win is to compete for the 24 percent of the country that does not think we are headed over the edge of a cliff. They are all vying to be voted head wacko of the lunatic fringe. Running on a platform of heightened Bushism, they seem to think the reason three-quarters of the country has turned against the president is because he just wasn't extreme enough. So the problems of the GOP will only intensify when Bush packs his bags.

Are non-union-but-union-sympathizing writers writing poorly to show solidarity with the picketing writers? Is it even a conscious thing? Oh, how I want this strike to go away. Developing…

Union front group talking points

2007-10-31T16:57:00.000-04:00

A group from Wake Up Wal-Mart was working the parking lot in front of the Germantown, Maryland Wal-Mart when I emerged from shopping. One of them handed me a glossy 5 ½” by 8 ½” card that read, “Nothing’s scarier than Wal-Mart and China.” It featured a jack-o-lantern and a prominent web address for Wakeupwalmart.com. The flipside had some stale quotes and suggested “Get the facts at: www.wakeupwalmart.com/china.”

I found the brightest looking of the bunch and asked, “So, is your group trying to unionize Wal-Mart?” He shook his head. “No, no. That isn’t going to happen in my lifetime or your lifetime," he explained. "We’re just trying to get the facts out about Wal-Mart and China.” Um, okay.

Wake Up Wal-Mart is a group funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), a 1.3 million-member (and flling) union that has failed repeatedly to unionize Wal-Mart. The link between the groups is overt: Every page I looked at on the Wakeupwalmart.com website was copyrighted by the UFCW.

Thought for another day

2007-10-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

"You don’t need a weatherman,” sang Dylan, “to know which way the wind blows." The New Left terror group that lifted their Weatherman moniker from those lyrics watched a public fail adequately to comprehend their senseless violence-revolution-smelly hippie trip any better than I can understand every fifth word Dylan sings.

Today, for every Weatherman there are a million global warming ninnies with Weather Channel anxiety to advance the Left’s political agenda and mistake partisan talking points for science.

With occasional warm days in cold months, turning points in Iraq, and befuddled by the earliest-ever primaries in 2008, pundits are spinning noisily like so many rusty weathervanes, pointing this way and that. Meanwhile the dollar makes new lows daily against oil, gold, and any confetti currency you can name. Votes that matter are being cast.

You don't need to wait for an election to find out which way the wind blows.

Apple to sell unlocked iPhones? Keep waiting.

2007-10-28T00:15:00.000-04:00

Apple tries to limit iPhone sales to two per person, and the reason is simple enough.

Under Time Pressure

2007-10-27T23:38:00.000-04:00

Mark Steyn waxes nostalgic for laconic leadership:

So what I look for in a candidate is, first, an absence of phony energy and, second, signs of real energy. I can live with a Fred Thompson "senior moment" compared to most of the alternatives. In that same debate, the more damaging answer came from Mitt Romney in response to an arcane hypothetical about whether bombing Iran required congressional approval. "You sit down with your attorneys," began the former governor. "We're going to let the lawyers sort out what we needed to do and what we didn't need to do." There was no pause. Romney just rushed in to fill the dead air with all the frantic energy of an old-school disc jockey whose traffic jingle has jammed. And, as a consequence, a war-on-terror hawk came over like a Kerryesque legalistic ass-coverer. A "senior moment" to collect his thoughts might have helped.

Hillary would have created space. Sure, it might be creepy, but the frightening laugh ploy buys her ten seconds, while the trademark admonition about hypothetical question tacks on another five. After a quarter minute of cogitation and smoke out the ears, “You sit down with your attorneys” is the 15,000th best answer, not the best.

Suppress Dissent the Soviet Way

2007-10-25T18:11:00.000-04:00

There is positively no hackwork on the L.A. Times op-ed page, and by that I mean some gets by from time to time.

In Straitjacket Bush, columnist Rosa Brooks argues that the President and Vice President “should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.” This is edgy writing, see. She asks, “What's a constitutional democracy to do when the president and vice president lose their marbles?” Her solution is involuntary committal: “In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and . . . is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization." Yes, Comrade Stalin would get a hearty laugh out of that, would he not?

Shocked

2007-10-20T23:44:00.000-04:00

The video Hillary does not want you to see. Watch part two as well.

Like an IRF flag, except uglier.

2007-10-20T22:58:00.000-04:00

Life is cheap, but it's the accessories that kill you. Still, what's a souvenir without a great story?

Hat tip: Vodkapundit

Official Secrets Act Needed

2007-10-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Whether a leak or a dump, it does not matter: A Classified report is a classified report. Journalists are not able to understand what sources and methods they compromise when they publish one. A simple rule: If it is classified, do not publish it. Is this complicated?

WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco.

We get mad at the Mexican government for printing guides on how to hop our border, but it's somehow okay to tell terrorists which airports to use?!?! Am I missing something here?

Franken? Franken? Franken?

2007-10-18T21:26:00.000-04:00

The increasingly populist Ben Stein throws $2,000 to old friend Al Franken.

NewsMax reports:

Stein, a former speechwriter for President Nixon, has contributed thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and to GOP committees, such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee _ charged with helping Republicans take over the Senate. Doesn't the donation to Franken undercut those efforts?

"Well, it does to a very slight extent," Stein said. "There is some contradiction there. But not all senators are as good as Al Franken."

I weep for the future.

"Give me my book back!"

2007-10-18T21:15:00.000-04:00

In A 'Bergler' Steals Clinton's Credibility, Kathryn Jean Lopez is amazed at the hubristic Clinton Camp hiring document-grabber Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger:

When Bill and Hillary Clinton did their online "Sopranos" spoof after the HBO show's finale, they may have been trying to tell us something more than we realized. The Clintons, sans the New Jersey accent, subtly yet unmistakably were announcing: "We and our posse are back. Burglars and all."

Maybe they should do new spoof showcasing their document-grabber. How about, say, the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs -- the one where Messrs. Pink, Blue, Brown, Orange, Blond, White (as well as Nice Guy Eddie and his dad) gather for breakfast before the big heist. Berger, of course, would be Mr. White, who grabs Joe Cabot’s address book and refuses to give it back after Joe keeps reading from it.

Anyway, K-Lo thinks the hire it is a huge judgment issue:

That the Hillary Clinton campaign would even take Mr. Berger’s phone calls, never mind hold him close as an adviser, is an outrage. Moreover, it is a bright-red, screeching siren signaling a huge judgment problem on Mrs. Clinton’s part.

The Berger hire is indeed a wailing Klaxon, except in the way of an office fire alarm people ignore as they keep working. Until voters start paying attention, the Clinton campaign figures they can keep tapping that bad judgment switch like frenzied lab rats getting happy jolts.

With a perfect plan, what could possibly go wrong?

Top 10 Things going through a Liberal’s Mind When it Rains on his Washed Car

2007-10-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

In her latest piece at Human Events Online, the great Ann Coulter writes:

If it rains after a liberal washes his car, they say it's a right-wing dirty trick.

This is undeniably true, and it got me thinking.

Top 10 Things going through a Liberal’s Mind After it Rains on his Washed Car

1. What kind of hell is this without taxis?
2. If the squeegee men were not all in for-profit jails or drafted to fight endless wars for Cheney and Haliburton, my windows would be spotless by now.
3. I must keep those windows clean to observe jack-booted thugs planting nooses or shoving liberal talk show hosts to the curb to silence them.
4. What if the people cannot read my edgy Re-Defeat Bush bumper sticker?
5. The chief cause of this possibly-carcinogenic particulate matter on my Prius is the Republicans’ obstinate refusal to ratify Kyoto.
6. Said particulate matter doubtless belched from SUVs and coal-fired plants keeping all those plasma screens in flyover country aglow with Fox News.
7. Each acid rain droplet is another nail in the coffin of those global warming denialists. What more proof could those criminals require that Mother Earth is dying?
8. Is it warm out here for this time of year?
9. There should be more undocumented laborers to do this for me so I could rebut that Chomsky smear.
10. Hey...hey! Why didn't my domestic partner help me wash the car, anyway?

Belling the Cat: A Necklace of Earmarks

2007-10-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Kevin Hassett of AEI argues that the voter disgust over spending that swept Democrats to power in Congress could again prove decisive in 2008. Republican candidates, he points out, have been transparent, while the Democrats -- ex Obama -- have ducked and dodged the issue. Nobody, however, has more exposure here than Clinton, he says, noting she has stuffed $2.2 billion of pet projects into various spending bills 2002-06. “If Dennis Hastert was the king of earmarks,” he writes, “Hillary Clinton was his queen.”

Hassett is absolutely, convincingly right. Read the article here.

Home Builder, Nation Builder

2007-10-17T12:07:00.000-04:00

In Gore’s Nine Lives, Andrew Walden recognizes Jimmy Carter as “co-creator of the modern Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Long-lost relative line two, not collect

2007-10-17T11:51:00.000-04:00

Lynne Cheney’s research reveals that Obama and her husband are eighth cousins. Call it random, but half the countries we buy oil from can't claim anyone is more than a third cousin of anyone else.

Hitting That High C

2007-10-12T19:07:00.000-04:00

Google has Luciano Pavarotti on their austere home page. The deceased tenor is the “l” in "Google" and he is singing. I’m quite sure that has nothing – nothing – to do with Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize. Gosh, look at the time.

UPDATE
Um, it is in fact his birthday. My bad.

Gore Predictions

2007-10-12T18:40:00.000-04:00

In the aftergow of Gore's Nobel Peace Prize (co-)victory, an excited James Carville lofted up a Hail Mary of predictions: A 25 percent chance the Man of Peace will enter the race, according to the Yeas and Nays blog. He adds, "I don't think it's too late." Please. Any suggestion Gore wants to dive into the thick of looming state registrations, no organization, and a cashed-up Clinton, is arrant blather. You can't blame the guy for willing a little suspense into a snoozer race, though.

I predict that in the next 48 hours there is a 39.5 percent chance Mr. Carbon Footprint will hear there is no earthly way to convert a Gulfstream V to run on vegetable oil. He will then decide to fly commercial-only to global warming cocktail parties (86 percent chance), where there is a 99 percent chance he will air kiss thousands of champagne socialists out of a few billion (over/under: 5) in the next year as he gets a free pass on science questions because he is “raising awareness.”

Oh, and speaking of the Peace Prize, I predict the indignant backlash against the politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize will shame those clowns to into actually sticking to donor intent for a year or two (Just kidding -- 10 percent chance of that). Hey, comrade, if we’re all toast, what's debasing a medal?

Prize for Vocal Critics of Republicans

2007-10-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

If the Nobel Committee keeps cheerleading for Vocal Critics of Republicans (VCRs), would it be a shocker if the folks who gave Mahatma Gandhi thumbs down fell over each other to redefine peace for a propaganda filmmaker?

One person who should be thrilled at the prospect of Al Gore accepting a Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Mother Earth is the 2002 winner, Jimmy Carter. On a desperate quest to be have someone – anyone – be remembered as the worst President ever, Carter would seem to benefit from another voice trashing the Bush presidency.

It is odd then that Carter launched an embarrassing (even for him) rant against a sitting President just as Gore ducks out of a fundraising commitment for some double-secret climate-saving meeting. By popping up to rant about Cheney, Obama, Bush, Hillary Clinton, and all the Republican candidates (apologies if I left anyone out), Carter reminds the Nobel folks the prize has enough political baggage already.

I think Carter is playing a long game and understands one thing the Nobel geniuses do not: One too many blood-caked terrorists or partisan hacks and the Nobel Peace Prize stops being the punch line to a joke, and becomes a joke itself. And when Vegas starts offering odds on future Nobel Peace Prize Nominees such as Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, and that guy with the cash in his freezer, how much will Carter’s prize count toward his legacy?

Blah blah blah

2007-09-24T22:15:00.000-04:00

Ahmadinejad gets a platform to work his “plain folks” propaganda shtick, but gets uptight after Columbia President Bollinger hits him with, “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator…” Fine, the counterpunching is peachy, but until free speech extends to military recruiters and Minutemen at Columbia, I’m not buying it.

Ill-Mannered Children

2007-09-21T23:43:00.000-04:00

The History News Network remembers the days when people used finger bowls and Columbia presidents hosted real Nazis:

Seventy years before this week’s invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia rolled out the red carpet for a senior official of Adolf Hitler’s regime. The invitation to Iran’s leader may seem less surprising, but no less disturbing, when one recalls that in 1933, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler invited Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. Luther represented "the government of a friendly people," Butler insisted. He was "entitled to be received ... with the greatest courtesy and respect." Ambassador Luther's speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler's peaceful intentions. Students who criticized the Luther invitation were derided as “ill-mannered children” by the director of Columbia’s Institute of Arts and Sciences.

In fairness to Butler, Luther’s “greatest courtesy and respect” trip to Columbia was 1933, but Ahmadinejad’s is every bit 1938.

Horrible Language

2007-09-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

Linus Torvalds:

C++ is a horrible language. It’s made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it’s much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it. Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C.

Tipping Point Dead Ahead

2007-09-13T23:22:00.000-04:00

Rejected by the networks, a pair of big-deal television producers have inked a deal with MySpace.com to host 36 episodes of their 8-minute show. Eisner had the first series last year, but this is the first with “television production values.” Hey, even if it proves unwatchable, this is where the networks are headed.

Pew

2007-09-13T22:25:00.000-04:00

George Will compares the launch of the Thompson brand to that of New Coke and wonders how the now-candidate can “fill some supposed piety void in the Republican field” if he is by his own admission AWOL on Sunday mornings:

Is there, however, a huge cash value in the role for which he is auditioning - darling of religious conservatives? Perhaps. But their aspiring darling recently said in South Carolina, "I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now. I don't attend regularly when I'm up there."

Yikes, guys. Yes, democrats can skate through with their show Bibles and pandering accents, but don't kid yourselves: Republicans must actually go to church.

Keep up the good work

2007-09-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

Dean Barnett got a letter from a MoveOn.org member who “contributed to that highly effective NYT ad.” Barnett observes, “Here we have fresh evidence that the people at Moveon.org have created the world’s most soundproof echo chamber.” Read the whole letter and marvel at how these people think.

Hillary’s Base

2007-09-11T16:18:00.000-04:00

A new Zogby International poll conducted for 911truth.org finds that 31 percent of Americans do not accept that "19 Arab fundamentalists executed a surprise attack which caught U.S. intelligence and military forces off guard" on September 11, 2001. It gets worse. Nearly 5 percent think U.S. officials "actively planned or assisted some aspects of the attack."

Another Bad Dye on the Job

2007-09-11T14:31:00.000-04:00

Sporting what appears to be shoe polish in his hair, Dennis Kucinich goes on Syrian television to praise Syria and “His Excellency” Bashar Assad. He trots out “Halliburton dishonest cheating” for the folks back home and suggests paying reparations to the people of Iraq.

Appeasy Way Out

2007-09-11T14:17:00.000-04:00

Mark Finkelstein: “If you're the Boston Globe, there's no day like 9-11 to suggest negotiating with terrorists.”

What The

2007-09-11T14:09:00.000-04:00

Click...click...another abandoned blog, and...whoa, hey, wait a minute. That’s not an abandoned blog. That’s my blog. Note to self: Update blog.

What Price Energy Security?

2007-04-25T16:09:00.000-04:00

The good people at NewsMax have seen fit to run my latest article, a piece on Iran and China. You can read it here.

Next Gas 500 Miles

2007-03-27T15:57:00.000-04:00

China, always looking for reliable energy suppliers, is investing billions in new Venezuelan oil deals. Reuters is covering this as Venezuela wants to “to lessen its dependence on its arch-foe the United States.” Well it might, but not as much as Chavez wants to shift oil away from the U.S. for ideological points. Even with the free tankers, shipping costs will net Venezuelans a dollar or two less per barrel than they could get from the U.S.

Forget claims about a million barrels a day to China by 2012. It will almost certainly be more than that as Venezuela swaps dependence on one power for even greater dependence on another. Diversification is just a temporary feature.

If you’re tempted to shrug and say “Big deal, we’ll get oil elsewhere,” you should focus less on our percentage of imported oil and more on MPB – miles per barrel, from field to Ford.

A Good Rule in Life

2007-03-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. - P.G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs

C ** All done

2007-03-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

The inventor of FORTRAN has died:

Mr. Backus and his youthful team, then all in their 20s and 30s, devised a programming language that resembled a combination of English shorthand and algebra. Fortran, short for Formula Translator, was very similar to the algebraic formulas that scientists and engineers used in their daily work. With some training, they were no longer dependent on a programming priesthood to translate their science and engineering problems into a language a computer would understand.

My computer is not taking the news well. It keeps flashing this old Data General FORTRAN error code: “Error 155 – You can’t do that.”

Human Shields for Trustafarians

2007-03-20T13:46:00.000-04:00

Jack Langer has a piece on Human Events describing his experience with anarchist protestors from an International A.N.S.W.E.R. rally. This is priceless:

The police announced through a bullhorn that they’d use teargas if the protestors didn’t return to the parking lot. In response, a female-looking anarchist in dreadlocks yelled out to me and some other reporters nearby, asking if we’d help get the word out that the police, without cause, had gassed peaceful protestors. “No!” I instinctively yelled back, eliciting some shocked stares from the anarchists. Another anarchist approached us and asked if we’d stand between them and the police to prevent the cops from “attacking” them. He pointed to one elderly female reporter: “You ma’am, if you get in the middle, there’s no way the police will knock you over.” The request caught me off guard -- I was unaware that old women are used as human shields anywhere outside of the Middle East.

The group sat down in front of the police to decide what to do. Some people passed out food, at which point most of the anarchists removed their masks and bandanas to eat, then put them back on when they had finished. My respect for this bunch was rapidly declining.

I just wonder if they left their juice boxes behind when nap time rolled around.

Like Victory

2006-10-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

The Poughkeepsie Journal has found an underutilized asset for the Democrats (But just try to get someone to drive that bus to the polls):

The new statewide database of registered voters contains as many as 77,000 dead people on its rolls, and as many as 2,600 of them have cast votes from the grave, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal computer-assisted analysis.

You would think they’d get at least 10,000-15,000 votes out of that many living-impaired.

Motorway Copropraxia

2006-10-31T13:02:00.000-05:00

An important style-setter has been nabbed:

A Swede who delights in giving speeding cameras the finger while driving past at high velocity in a car without license plates has been caught.

The man, who has been recorded three times while giving the camera the finger at a speed high enough to qualify for automatic loss of license was taken by police on the E6 highway near Sarpsborg on Sunday night.

If he does any time for this, the terrorists have won.

Scary Stuff

2006-10-31T12:44:00.000-05:00

In A Look at What Happens if Democrats Win Congress Deroy Murdock warns, "Hypothetically, if Democrats win Congress, don't expect a mild left turn. Watch the U.S. Capitol building spin nearly 180 degrees."

He’s not kidding. An excerpt:

Foreign Affairs Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, with an 88 ACU rating, could yield to Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, with an eight.

On Intelligence, Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, who earned zeros from the ADA and AFL-CIO, might swap with West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, who received 100 and 79 from those groups.

Today's GOP House speaker, majority leader, and the chairmen of Ways and Means, Budget, Appropriations, Judiciary, International Relations and Intelligence average a 91 ACU rating. Their Democratic counterparts score seven. Conversely, compare the GOP's average ADA rating of four with a 95 for these Democrats.

Read the whole thing. And vote.

Values Make Conservatives More Generous

2006-10-31T12:30:00.000-05:00

Anyone surprised by this should get out more:

Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right wing in America — and it’s making him nervous.

The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.

In the book, to be released next month, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives — from church attendance to two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services — make conservatives more generous than liberals.

Liberals who only give when hassled by that annoying race-for-a-cause guy at work will reflexively denounce the extensive data analysis. Still, those with any generosity of spirit you have to feel for Brooks. He will be altogether banished from his friends’ wine and brie parties and may even be asked to turn in his Barbra Streisand tickets.

Does Diebold Make Radios?

2006-10-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

Today’s bankruptcy filing by Air America Radio comes in the same week that Google’s announced acquisition of YouTube has pundits waking up to the left’s Web 2.0 strategy. The temptation to play this as the passing of the torch from old medium to new, however, misses the bigger picture.

Make no mistake: The left’s radio strategy failed long ago. The demand for humorless, defeatist propaganda never materialized, and today’s bankruptcy filing is simply an echo of its earlier implosion in the marketplace.

Obituaries may be premature, however. Like Fidel Castro or some horror film zombie, we may not have seen or heard the last of this coffin-dodging network. Watch for it to stagger on another day.

[Read the rest at The Right Angle at Human Events Online]

Real enough

2006-10-11T15:45:00.000-04:00

I keep hearing pundits dismiss radical Islam by arguing that, well, it is nothing compared to the threat of global nuclear war. The latest pundit, however, is none other than Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, who transmits the meme thusly: “I don't mean to understate the threat, which is real enough. But it's not on the order of the Cold War, you know, and we won that one.”

Stephen Green disagrees: “It’s not often I disagree with Glenn Reynolds on an issue of substance, but in this case, the Instapundit couldn’t be more wrong.” You can read his argument here.

I’d like to disagree with Reynolds on a different point, without getting into the relative costs to society (however expressed) of high-probability, low-consequence events versus low-probability, high-consequence events (e.g., smallpox attacks, sea level rise).

Simply put, as long as terrorists keep feeling for the threshold at which one or a series of low-consequence level events can go all-consequential for a civilization with a high division of labor (long supply chains, everything JIT, critical interdependencies all over), we have no more business dismissing “low-consequence” threats from radical Islam than a man six stories up a ladder has laughing at a one-legged terrorist on the ground trying to kick the ladder out from under him.

Inherently evident

2006-09-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

With Cindy Sheehan working three shifts as an activist, there probably isn't enough time in the day to, you know, write stuff. Consider Cindy Sheehan: Commas for Profit, a recent guest contribution at Buzzflash.com.

Halfway through the piece, the Anti-war Mom is in character: Simple words, short sentences, and feel-good sentiments:

Casey was three dimensional and had hopes and dreams. He wanted to finish college and teach elementary school. He wanted to marry and have babies. I wanted him to marry and have babies. I wanted to hold his children and spoil them and love them like a grandmother should.

All believably Sheehan, but only four graphs later, she has stopped moving her lips as she types and gone to graduate school. Is this "Cindy" the same person? You decide (emphasis mine):

I am sorry that the leader of our once great nation is so callous towards the people whose lives he has destroyed. If one agrees with President Chavez of Venezuela, or not, it is inherently evident in our country and the world that we should agree with him when he says democracy is not imposed by "bombs and Marines." Democracy rises from the people. Great Britain did not go to war with our forebears to impose democracy, but to stop it.

One writer per piece, luv, and go easy on the drag-and-drop. I'm just here to help.

Another banner day for Egyptian tourism

2006-09-26T11:54:00.000-04:00

The same media hypocrites who pillory Pat Robertson for his every fifth utterance won’t report on stuff like this. Ever.

An excerpt from MEMRITV: Egyptian Cleric Explains Fatwa Sanctioning Killing of Israelis Visiting Egypt:

Mona Shazli, Presenter: Sheikh Safwat Higazi is one of the most well-known people to appear on TV who talks about religious matters and fatwas. He is one of the most well-known preachers, and he has a show on Al-Nas TV.

[...]

He said, among other things, that if he saw an Israeli on the street, in Egypt, he would kill him. This may give the impression of being a fatwa to kill any Israeli Jew walking down the street.

[...]

Safwat Higazi: I did not call upon people to kill Israelis in the streets. I never said such a thing.

[...]

When I said what I said, I was dreaming a beautiful dream, which I hope will come true, and that we all agree upon it. I dreamt that we are the Arab Islamic States, not just Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine. I was truly dreaming that we are the Arab Islamic States. Get a map of the Arab homeland, and erase the borders... Or maybe these can be borders between counties or states, like the USA, in which 49 [sic] states were united into one country. I had a dream that we were one country, called the Arab Islamic States. The capital of this country is Egypt, and the president of Egypt and its government head this country. This is the dream I dreamed.

Predictably, the backtracking goes on like this for a while. Read the whole thing.

Wine in a Can

2006-09-26T11:18:00.000-04:00

Let’s face it: White wine in a can isn’t a good idea. But is having a recent DUI arrestee promoting it any better?

From ANSA:

Producers and fans of Italian Prosecco are up in arms over plans by an Austrian company to market the sparkling white wine in a can.

The wine in a can is called Rich Prosecco and American heiress and jetsetter Paris Hilton has been hired to be the product's pitch girl.

Makers of quality Prosecco, which is produced in the northeast zones of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, are very worried that the reputation of their wine will suffer from the marketing of an inferior product.

This should set back efforts to take Valdobbiadene upmarket by, oh, a century. Red Bull should also be worried.

And in the red trunks, weighing in at 106 pounds…

2006-09-26T10:52:00.000-04:00

The fight is on for the ACLU – or at least the name and donor lists. A dissident group of “longtime ACLU loyalists– members, donors, supporters and activists, including former staff and members of the national or affiliate boards” has launched savetheaclu.org.

From the group’s mission statement:

We applaud the ACLU’s recent fundraising successes, but they cannot compensate for or justify persistent breaches of principle or the abandonment of honesty when those breaches are revealed. The ACLU now stands exposed, and widely ridiculed, for repeatedly acting in contempt of its own core principles, and for chilling and even attempting to prohibit dissent within its own ranks.

Over the past three years, these breaches of principle include the ACLU’s approval of grant agreements that restrict speech and associational rights; efforts by management to impose gag rules on staff and to subject staff to email surveillance; a proposal to bar ACLU board members from publicly criticizing the ACLU; and informal campaigns to purge the ACLU of its internal critics.

All of these breaches, as well as others, violate the ACLU’s historic commitment to free speech. We take little comfort from the fact that some were reversed after bad publicity and donor complaints.

We’ll find out whether these guys can feed the leadership’s bunker mentality and prompt even greater backlashes. Pass the popcorn.

Hat tip: Stoptheaclu.com

Hugo, Put Down the Crack Pipe

2006-09-21T21:07:00.000-04:00

When Charlie Rangel took exception at Hugo Chavez talking smack in his district, pundits were shocked. Aren’t Democrats supposed to titter at the lame sulfur jokes? Be frozen by the prospect of chiding their enemy’s enemy? Well, I’m shocked that they’re shocked.

It was the smart move for Rangel all along. He noticed the growing silence and figured the man-bites-dog aspect of the story would net a Democrat airtime aplenty.

With a safe seat and the possibility of being the next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, where’s the downside for a man who just last year called Bill Clinton a redneck?

He can take any intra-party heat. Most of his spineless wonder colleagues should be ashamed.

Wikipedia as Linguistics Resource

2006-09-06T17:13:00.000-04:00

Companies performing automatic text analysis can gain insights from blogs and message boards, but can't understand neologisms that don’t appear in semantic lexicons.

According to NewScientistTech, a program called Zeitgeist could help when the going gets colloquial. To understand a new word like, say, "megamercial" or "hypertasker," it searches Wikipedia and can make guesses about intention when a good enough definition cannot be determined.

It's no cordless extension cord, but pretty cool all the same.

Faithful Democrats

2006-09-06T15:20:00.000-04:00

In a 1993 rant to the Christian Coalition, DNC Chairman (and Clinton’s 1992 campaign manager) David Wilhelm claimed that “God is an Independent” and rebuked the group for, among other sins, not backing socialized medicine:

When you call yourselves the “Christian Coalition” and savagely attack members of Congress for their point of view, implicit in that attack is the message that those who disagree have taken an un-Christian position.

Thirteen year later, with elections looming and a Pew survey showing that only 26 percent of Americans see the Democrats as friendly to religion, Wilhelm’s combative message is repackaged in FaithfulDemocrats.com ("An online Christian community").

To make sure the public buys it this time, the site enlists Tennessee Senator Roy Herron, whose folksy letter on the site’s home page churns out “religious” sound bites at a sixth-grade cognitive level:

In recent election seasons, many preachers have proclaimed not the Good News, but the Bad. They have told faithful members of their congregations that they cannot be Christians.

"Christians," they declare from the pulpit and beyond, "cannot be Democrats!"

If there’s any evidence to back up that assertion, I’d love to see it. Herron teaches divinity and law at Vanderbilt, so I’m sure he didn’t simply make it up for rhetorical effect.

Not many Christians will be influenced by the FaithfulDemocrats.com one way or the other, but at the end of the day, it is more a tool to provide sound bites to complement Democrats’ show Bibles. Here’s some more Herron:

We also prayed together before meals. I don't recall us ever eating at home without saying what Dad called "Grace" or Mother called "The Blessing." Mother and Dad, having been through the Depression, always were thankful. And they knew Whom to thank. My parents knew that they and our family and many neighbors had survived the Depression through the grace of God. And, quite frankly, through the policies of the Democratic Party.

I don’t know how that guy can sleep at night – or for that matter why Republicans should lose any sleep over FaithfulDemocrats.com.

Such a Deal

2006-09-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Hezbollah was hoping for Louis “Red” Klotz or maybe the guy who traded Christie Mathewson for Amos Rusie, but they’ll find they can probably work with this German:

A SENIOR German intelligence official has arrived in Beirut in an attempt to mediate a prisoner exchange between Israel and Lebanon, an issue that threatens to rekindle hostilities unless speedily resolved.

Ernst Uhrlau, head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, BND, was involved in the last such swap two years ago, when Israel released 429 Arab prisoners for an Israeli businessman captured by Hezbollah and the bodies of three soldiers.

At long last, maybe Israel has the final solution to their history of lopsided prisoner exchanges.

Disappointing Hybrids

2006-09-01T16:18:00.000-04:00

If lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math, what are Toyota’s profits from Prius sales? The thought was in the back of my mind when I came across the 2006 Alternative Powertrain Study by J.D. Power and Associates.

The study finds that consumers considering hybrid vehicles expect an average fuel economy bump of – hold onto your hats – 28 mpg over a comparable gas-only vehicle (actual improvement: 9 mpg). These expectations aren’t just weird, but 200-mpg carburetor weird.

Though the typical Prius owner may be annoyed to learn he can’t drive from Berkeley to Takoma Park on a gallon of Venezuelan, the shock of realization is less acute than that of the affluent burgher who finds he sometimes needs two credit cards to fill up his H2.

The average hybrid owner is 55 years old with a household income of $113,400 according to the study. That pesky $3,000-$10,000 premium over a comparable gas-only vehicle doesn’t loom large for this buyer, and he probably sees the rolling appliance as a platform for that leftover Re-Defeat Bush bumper sticker, not as a way to save $1.59 per on his next twenty trips to Wal-Mart. This segment is small, with hybrids accounting for just 1.2 percent of light vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2005.

The expectation disconnect is unsustainable and the cost of wringing it out will be borne by the auto industry as it seeks to expand the vehicles’ appeal to younger, less-affluent consumers. With credit cards scorched by a summer of $80 fill-ups, the car-shopping public may be astonished to discover that hybrid fuel economy hasn’t reached a permanently high plateau.

The technology will get there. Though the actual R&D is slow and costly, I am confident that any technical hurdle can be overcome by sufficient application of wishful thinking, as is my understanding from watching politicians who play energy experts on television.

Is That a Fact?

2006-08-17T20:41:00.000-04:00

A thought for today, from David Bohm:

When we say 'this is a fact' we then imply a certain ability of the fact to 'stand up to' a wide range of different kinds of testing. Thus, the fact is established, i.e. it is shown to be stable, in the sense that it is not liable to collapse, or to be nullified at any moment, in a subsequent observation of the general sort that has already been carried out. Of course this stability is only relative, because the fact is always being tested again and again, both in ways that are familiar and in new ways that are continually being explored. So it may be refined, modified, and even radically changed, through further observation, experiment, and experience. But in order to be a 'real fact', it evidently has, in this way, to remain constantly valid, at least in certain contexts or over a certain period of time.

One-Newspaper Nation

2006-08-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

In Panic on 43rd Street, Michael Wolff argues that the Gray Lady is losing its core market and becoming an Everyman suburban daily:

Unlike The Washington Post, which has put much of its editorial and business energies into dominating its local market, the Times's strategy—a doomsday scenario, foreseeing a one-newspaper nation, a last-man-standing paper—has been to make the paper national. Hence, The New York Times is no longer principally a metropolitan paper. With a daily circulation of 260,000 in the five boroughs, it's no longer even creditably a New York paper. (Its two tabloid competitors, the Daily News and the New York Post, have far more readers in New York City.) It's an Everyman suburban daily.

You can see this strategy in liberal Montgomery Country, where blue newspaper bags (New York Times) outnumber the orange (Washington Times) handily in many neighborhoods. The New York Post would make a better Everyman national newspaper, though.

One PowerPoint Over the Line

2006-08-16T14:37:00.000-04:00

In Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn’t Know Who to Ask, Guy Kawasaki weighs in on the pros and cons of the four-page CV:

As a rule of thumb, if you can’t pitch your company in ten slides or pitch yourself in one page, your idea is stupid and you suck, respectively.

Any questions?

Another Gift to Japanese Hardliners

2006-08-16T14:09:00.000-04:00

The Russian Border Guards Service has killed an unarmed Japanese crab fisherman in the Kurils. He was minding his own business and maybe fishing illegally when they shot him in the head with what they described as a “warning shot.” They later explained that his trawler -- no doubt menacingly fast and maneuverable -- had tried to ram their patrol boat.

It’s in the Way that You Use It

2006-08-16T12:29:00.000-04:00

Many in the media claim the Katyusha has no military value because, well, it is inaccurate. That would have been news to the Soviet army, which demonstrated as far back as 1941 that truck-mounted Katyushas could saturate a target area with salvo fire and then quickly drive off. Used correctly, this multiple-launch weapon (referred to by the Germans as Stalin’s organ for its rumbling booms) caused extensive casualties and shock.

Today, however, the various small, unguided rockets the media calls Katyushas have been adapted by guerilla groups for single-launch use, in Hezbollah's case to avoid rapid and punishing Israeli counter-battery fire. This has stripped the rocket of its military value, leading some to call it a “terror weapon,” as though it were a sort of poor man’s V-2. Yet even with Hezbollah’s profligate use (4,000 and counting) a single Katyusha incoming is more annoying than terrifying, especially for civilians who have moved beyond its short range. What, then, is it good for?

Andrew McGregor, writing in Jamestown’s Terrorism Monitor, argues that Hezbollah’s use of the rocket “signals its mastery of media warfare.” I think he’s exactly right. For low self-esteem television audiences in the Muslim world accustomed to folding Arab armies, watching a ghost town like Kiryat Shemona (population: three jumpy alley cats) get pounded must seem like cause to throw candy. And given its recruitment and propaganda function, Hezbollah terrorists probably don’t lose too much sleep over the Katyusha’s inaccuracy.

Deep Thought of the Day

2006-08-08T18:31:00.000-04:00

If you’re delivering a speech to a conservative gathering, and you’re just dying up there, say something about Reagan and then sit down before the audience does.

Blah. More News You Probably Missed

2006-08-08T18:09:00.000-04:00

Achy thumbs down: The BlackBerry is now a HackBerry
North Korea’s very weird Dear Leader has not been seen since July 4th
Meanwhile, mistrust between Japan and South Korea is at its deepest since a poll began in 1995
Yarr: Lloyd’s, noting less piracy, has dropped its war risk designation for the Malacca Strait
A new tool to fight drug counterfeiting: IBM has launched an RFID system for pharmaceutical tracking across the supply chain...
...but an RFID survey shows shockingly slow adoption by retailers
A dim view of Tom Hayden and the far left’s “bid to Vietnamize the Iraq liberation effort”
The ACLU of Louisiana hassles St. Bernard Parish over a Katrina memorial

Global News & Opinion You May Have Missed

2006-08-07T17:59:00.000-04:00

More light summer reading: Mein Kampf hits number three on Ankara bestseller list
Ouch: Dr. Gono moves to stem 1,200% inflation in Zimbabwe
Chad and China reestablish diplomatic ties
A fatwa banning Muslims from helping Hezbollah gets argued...
...while another in Pakistan bans women from working for NGOs.
Bradley Burson argues that Israel is losing World War III
"Our worst fears have materialized": Cadeverous Rolling Stones trash German soccer pitch
Libya releases five Bulgarian nurses on bail, having held them seven years on absurd trumped-up charges
Christians still missing in China’s Zhejiang province after mega-church destruction
X-ray equipment tuned to the iron in ancient ink reveals hidden text in The Archimedes Palimpsest

Will DVD Album Kill the CD?

2006-08-06T14:04:00.000-04:00

Warner Music Group is launching DVD album in a bold attempt to end the CD’s 24-year reign as physical format of choice for music. The new discs will play on today’s DVD players, but are not backward compatible with CD players, disintermediating an installed base of approximately 96 quintillion CD players.

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece on the new format:

Warner, the world's fourth-largest music company, is in the final stages of securing technical licenses that will enable it to sell a bundle of music and extra features on a single DVD, according to people familiar with the matter. The DVD would include a music album that plays in both stereo and surround-sound on a standard DVD player -- plus video footage that plays on a DVD player or a computer. There will also be song remixes, ring tones, photos and other digital extras that can be accessed on a computer.

The company plans to make the new format available to its subsidiary record labels for product-planning purposes as early as next week and to introduce the discs to consumers with a handful of titles in October. A full-blown launch is planned for early next year. The hope is to fuel increased sales of both new product and catalog titles, in the process lifting the industry just as the 1982 introduction of the CD boosted sales as consumers replaced cassettes and vinyl albums.

Referring to the new format as “DVD album” is clueless, even for the record industry. Album means “two good tracks and ten tracks of filler.” Yes, I understand it’s not the final name, but you didn’t catch Microsoft referring to Longhorn as Microsoft Heifer before it became Vista.

Then there’s the matter of a price point higher than already-overpriced CDs. Filling the disc with shovelware might answer the question “what do we do with the extra capacity?” or “how do we clog up the hard drives of pirates?” but ring tones (??), remixes, and interviews are worth zero to most buyers, plus or minus a few cents. Besides, consumers have more pressing questions these days, such as “does this refrigerator come with an iPod dock?”

As for offering better sound, consumers wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. It’s just that they have [expletive deleted - Ed] in their ears and don’t care about anything better than, oh, 128 kbps.

Unlike previous failed formats, DVD album could kill off the CD if the entire industry got behind it. However, it is still a physical format, which puts it on the wrong side of history. Bricks and mortar record stores may long for a new format -- especially one that arrives before that last going out of business sale -- but it’s easy to resist the idea of buying your record collection all over again.

Meathead’s Candidate

2006-08-03T18:42:00.000-04:00

A financial report shows that Hillary continued to work her contributor network at a Ron Burkle event this spring, adding to her $43 million campaign war chest with $4,000 from Billy Crystal, $2,100 from Robert Iger, and $3,200 in smart money from Rob Reiner.

By locking in high-dollar donors early, Hillary pushes likely Democratic candidates toward MoveOn.org-style Internet strategies aimed at smaller donors. And because such grassroots efforts require attention-grabbing positions, those elbows on each side of the fundraising pie may also shift the pack leftward earlier.

It's true -- ask Meathead.

A Glow of Health

2006-08-03T17:18:00.000-04:00

There hasn’t been a nuclear power plant built in the United States since the 1970s, but that may be about to change.

Amarillo Power is proposing the plant that, pending regulatory approval, could be completed and online within a decade, according to a copyrighted story in Tuesday's Amarillo-Globe News.

The proposal calls for a two-unit, 2,700-megawatt advanced boiled water reactor designed by General Electric, documents obtained by the newspaper through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other sources show.

A megawatt is enough power to serve between 700 and 1,000 homes.

This approximately $5 billion project is the second sign of a nuclear revival following a June filing by NRG Energy to add 2,700 MW of nuclear generation capacity (not to mention a thousand jobs) at its existing South Texas Project.

Given that every anti-nuclear and nanny state group will gear up to stop them, I would think utilities interested in diverse energy supplies and a sustained nuclear revival could help by expediting any letters of intent they may be thinking about.

Concentrator Photovoltaics

2006-08-03T11:59:00.000-04:00

With oil over $70 a barrel, demand for solar power is surging. However, silicon production hasn’t scaled up and may be a long-term bottleneck. Enter (again) concentrator photovoltaics, which use less of the stuff by having an array of mirrors concentrate sunlight onto tiny (one millimeter square) high-efficiency compound photovoltaic targets. Technology Review has a quick and accessible read on the technology.

Inspired Yet?

2006-08-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

Adding to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s problems, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are working the black church circuit in Connecticut, getting out the vote for Ned Lamont. Why them, you ask, and why now?

Well, the standard excuse would of course be, "it’s a tight race, and every vote counts." The problem, though, is that there's nary a racial angle for this demagogic duo to exploit now that Lieberman has a cloak of protection from a recent visit by the First Black President. This means the race cards will remain in sleeves, hats, and loafers.

This also leaves Sharpton and Jackson out of character, flipping through the antiwar play book for inspiration. They have found none, as The New York Post reports:

"I was disappointed that every time we came out of the huddle, it seemed like my friend Joe had the other team's uniform," Sharpton said, calling Lamont "a man I don't know as well, but he's on the same team."

Oh, yeah, that’s motivating. Are you feeling 30 percent turnout? No?

Anyway, a poll out today shows the one-dimensional Lamont a surprising 13 points ahead among likely Democratic voters, so maybe every vote won’t count after all. Still, I don’t think it’s the anti-war rhetoric from these two that’s doing it.

Where Terrorists are “Activists”

2006-08-01T16:48:00.000-04:00

It’s time for another trip into the reverse universe of The Washington Post, so cue the heroic music:

In the alleys, people carried the weak and the old on their shoulders or cradled them like children. Hezbollah activists helped evacuate 80-year-old Mariam Saghir, her foot crippled, on a ladder turned into a stretcher. One of the activists carried a walkie-talkie, another a pistol. Someone then brought an orange stretcher, propping her head on two bags stuffed with her clothes.

"How much farther?" she pleaded. She rolled to the side, flies gathering on her face. "I want to stay here."

"We're almost there," one of the men reassured her.

At least it’s internally consistent: 1.) Good is evil; 2.) Up is down; and 3.) Terrorists who invite shelling on their human shields by firing rockets from residential areas are “activists” because they help people around the body parts and teddy bears.

Hastening Down the Wind

2006-07-28T10:19:00.000-04:00

Conventional wisdom holds that even if Ahmadinejad is crazy, this is not a problem because the mullahs hold the real power, and they're hopefully rational. Amil Imani argues in The American Thinker that the mullahs subscribe to a different reality entirely. Their watches, he says, are running fast:

The cabal of fanatical mullahs ruling Iran has lost its patience, not only with the unbelievers, but also with the Mahdi as well. They aim to force his arrival. The mullahs believe they have the means to make it impossible for the Mahdi to tarry any longer by causing unprecedented death and destruction—conditions deemed essential for his coming. The world must hit the very bottom, before the Savior of the world comes to the rescue, so they firmly believe.

Read the whole piece.

Keep Honking. I’m Reloading.

2006-07-28T08:55:00.000-04:00

Between France refusing overflight rights and China pressuring the Crapistan nations to pull our bases, aerial rearmament of aircraft is one idea you wish could be fully realized before it becomes obsolete.

Barry Fox reports:

The US Air Force's research lab in New York is developing a system will allow fighter planes to be rearmed, as well as refuelled, in mid-flight.

A supply plane, such as a C-141 or C-17 would incorporate a telescopic boom that extends from its rear. This boom would boast its own miniature wings, to give it stability and lift while deployed. And mounted on top would be a looped conveyor belt to move bombs and missiles from the supply plane to the boom's end.

Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Get Small

2006-07-13T17:09:00.000-04:00

If you are feeling unusually self-important today, or if someone just stopped payment on your reality check, maybe it’s time for a little perspective. Remember: On the long scrolling screen of life, you are the pixel.

Farming Village, Sichuan Province

2006-07-03T15:15:00.000-04:00

Sansheng Village

2006-07-03T15:08:00.000-04:00

Chengdu Giant Panda Research Base

2006-07-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

And This is Your Economy on 10% Growth

2006-07-03T14:56:00.000-04:00

Ever wondered how many cranes you can see at one time from a highway? Probably not.

Beijing After Sunset

2006-07-03T14:30:00.000-04:00

Nitrogen dioxide pollution and construction dust may not smell great, but it can give Beijing an appealing Hound of the Baskervilles look.

A Suspect Commitment to Recycling

2006-05-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

Under a proposed Pentagon program, Trident II missiles armed with conventional warheads would be available to accurately hit a terrorist target anywhere on the globe, in about an hour.

However, the idea of using a three-stage SLBM for anything but scrap metal is too much for some to process:

But the program has run into resistance from lawmakers concerned it could increase the risk of an accidental nuclear war. Under the Pentagon plan, both non-nuclear and nuclear-tipped variants of the Trident-2 missile would be loaded on the same submarines.

"There is great concern this could be destabilizing in terms of deterrence and nuclear policy," the newspaper quoted Senate Armed Services Committee member Jack Reed as saying.

"It would be hard to determine if a missile coming out a Trident submarine is conventional or nuclear," the Rhode Island Democrat said.

It wouldn’t be “hard to determine,” as Reed (2005 ADA rating: 100) knows, but impossible. Fortunately, the success of the program wouldn’t hinge on the rapid discrimination of Reed's impossible test, but on: 1.) quick notification of other nuclear powers (implementing telephone hotlines with all ICBM-armed countries would be desirable); and, 2.)whether other countries' command, control and communications could reliably get the message out in a compressed time frame.

Thought for the Week

2006-05-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
- John 14: 5-7

Hugo Channels Algore

2006-05-15T16:58:00.000-04:00

Hugo Chavez is in London to embarrass Tony Blair, have a photo-op with Red Ken, and (huge surprise) promise cheap heating oil to oppressed workers. He even finds time to channel Algore:

Senor Chavez said that Western countries needed to have a good look at their energy consumption, as there was not enough oil to supply the world’s population if global economic development followed the US model.

"The planet can’t take a car for everybody," he said. "This model, the so-called American way of life, will end the planet if we carry on this way. It is a crazy waste of energy."

Yes, Hugo, a car for everybody. Walk all you like, but everyone rides in a Cadillac once.

Bible Banned in Australian Hospitals

2006-05-15T16:39:00.000-04:00

The Australian reports that Victoria hospitals have banned Bibles for the usual multi-culti reasons (e.g., not wanting to offend ROP):

BIBLES have been banned in Victorian hospitals and some schools out of concern of offending non-Christians.

Almost all Melbourne's main hospitals have withdrawn Bibles and several schools no longer hand out free Bibles.

Royal Melbourne spokesman Rod Jackson-Smith said the Bible was not banned, but said: "We don't (have Bibles in each room) any more."

"Because we have so many people from different religious backgrounds it is considered inappropriate. It is also an infection control measure."

Infection control measure?!? What in the -- I think Hillary has found her White House Press Secretary.

Hat tip: Michael Savage

Any Colour You Like

2006-05-12T00:06:00.000-04:00

In another move to cope with open source competition, Microsoft has raised the bar with a partly open high-powered RTOS for the small but fast-growing mobile and embedded market.

At their annual Mobile and Embedded DevCon in Sin City, the company gave attendees a beta version of Windows CE 6, which again gives access to miles of source code. This will allow developers to customize user interfaces while retaining IP rights over their innovations.

A lot of tech gadgets you probably use daily, from PDAs to GPS devices, use the current Windows CE 5.0. With a September release date likely, CE 6 will power the next generation of devices starting in 2007.

Eurabia, Outskirts of

2006-05-10T14:33:00.000-04:00

Vladimir Putin references Russia’s Topol-M and Bulava missiles in his state of the nation address, but avoiding payload destruction with hypersonic maneuver is arguably a less pressing matter for Russia than avoiding the demographic destruction he alludes to in the same address:

Expressing concern over what he said was an annual decline of nearly 700,000 people a year, Putin said that childcare benefits should be increased and other incentives created to raise the birthrate.

``We must at least stimulate the birth of a second child,'' said Putin, lamenting that concerns about housing, health care and education and income prompt many families to stop at one.

The excuses he wheels out are a red herring, as these factors are often worse in other countries. Russia’s 2-to-1 ratio of abortions to live births (still the world’s worst) needs the trajectory change.

Ahmadinejad Harmless?

2006-05-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

Juan Cole argues unconvincingly that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a harmless fellow:

It is often said that Ahmadinejad is more dangerous because he is a millenarian, i.e. he believes in the near advent of the messianic Twelfth Imam, the promised one of the Shiites. But in fact, most millenarians are fatalists, and are willing to wait passively for God's will to intervene in history. So, his belief in the near advent of the last days may actually make him less dangerous than a practical, hardnosed secularist might be. Besides, he cannot be dangerous if he is not a commander of the armed forces, which the president in Iran is not.

Putting aside the notion that someone who might one day supply nuclear material to terrorists can't be dangerous because he is not a "commander of the armed forces," I'll grant Cole that many millenarians are indeed passive fatalists. However, Ahmadinejad’s history of incendiary rhetoric immediately excludes him from their number. Even on his best behavior (and meds?), the guy is more Shoko Asahara than Joachim of Fiore.

I think Charles Krauthammer, not Cole, understands Ahmadinejad's incentives:

So a Holocaust-denying, virulently anti-Semitic, aspiring genocidist, on the verge of acquiring weapons of the apocalypse, believes that the end is not only near but nearer than the next American presidential election. (Pity the Democrats. They cannot catch a break.) This kind of man would have, to put it gently, less inhibition about starting Armageddon than a normal person. Indeed, with millennial bliss pending, he would have positive incentive to, as they say in Jewish eschatology, hasten the end.

Advertisers Hanged Last?

2006-05-09T14:57:00.000-04:00

In “Money is a Curse,” Air America co-founder Sheldon Drobny really brings the scare with that time-tested way of achieving socialism: The threat of mob violence.

A few years ago I visited my daughter in Spain while she was an exchange student. One of our tour guides was politically savvy and asked me why the rich and powerful in America are insensitive to the needs of the masses. He explained to me that after the death of Franco in 1975, the emerging socialist movement gave the wealthy classes two possible choices. Plan A was an insurrection in which they would lose all their property. Plan B was that they pay higher taxes to create the safety net needed by the masses and more fairly redistribute the wealth. Given that choice, the wealthy in Spain chose plan B.

I am afraid that in our country, it may come to the fear of losing everything through an insurrection that will finally convince the wealthy class that it is time to make a change. But, it will take a massive grass roots effort to make that happen. Hopefully the very wealthy will recognize this before they self-destruct.

It’s not the scariest threat, is it? I mean, even if it weren’t so vague, the idea of our socialist knuckleheads organizing a “massive grass roots effort” to scare “the wealthy class” just makes you giggle.

How to Handle Belarus

2006-04-13T16:13:00.000-04:00

Russian natural gas colossus Gazprom plans to charge its ally Belarus market rates for natural gas when new contracts are negotiated in 2007. At current prices, such a move would more than triple the $47 per thousand cubic meters the former Soviet republic pays, effectively swinging a wrecking ball into the Belarusian economy.

Just don't expect Russia to follow through on Gazprom's threat. Putin wants to gain operating control of gas pipelines in Belarus, as he has gotten in neighboring countries. But yanking subsidies completely would trigger economic collapse in Belarus and breathe life into a democracy movement that had been badly defeated in the country's rigged March 19 presidential elections.

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, known as "Europe's last dictator," has bet the farm politically on his belief that Belarusians prefer sclerotic stability to the roller coaster capitalism in neighboring countries. In his 12 years of rule, the former collective farm director has implemented "market socialism," a fancy name for dodging badly needed structural reform at every turn.

This policy has spared his subjects the painful transition to democracy but left the economy mostly government-owned, uncompetitive, and money-losing. A quarter of the population is mired in poverty, an economic voucher system has failed, and inflation is brewing. Meanwhile, trade deficits and a lack of foreign investment foretell a grim future.

Despite this, a vote for Lukashenko has been a vote for subsidized decrepitude, whereas a vote for reform has carried the threat of freezing in the dark. It's a ratchet effect: the weaker the economy, the greater the threat. Yet Putin knows that threat goes away if Belarusians actually are freezing in the dark.

If Russia keeps gas subsidies in some reduced form in exchange for control of the gas pipeline network in Belarus, Lukashenko will retain power but come under increased economic pressure. This will not be good for the democracy movement in Belarus or for democracy movements around the world.

Belarus has a Soviet-era arms industry that earns hard currency selling to shady regimes that don’t want to pay a lot to fix their civilian or rebel problems. They also sell more advanced weaponry to rogue states that Putin would just as soon not be linked to. With increased economic pressure, Lukashenko would certainly test the industry’s surge capacity, raising the ability of rogue regimes to crush budding democracy movements around the world.

The United States, E.U., and many of Belarus's neighbors have reacted angrily to blatantly rigged March elections in which Lukashenko awarded himself nearly 83 percent of the vote (while leaving his nearest opposition candidate in single digits). Yet with Belarus isolated -- and insulated -- from the West, Lukashenko's future lies squarely in the geo-strategic calculations in the Kremlin, not in any privileges or memberships the West can remove.

The free world can best help the democracy movement in Belarus -- as well as others around the world -- by going beyond mere visa bans and asset freezes. The focus should be on imposing costs on the rogue regimes that source weaponry from the increasingly proliferation-minded Lukashenko.

*****

Note: Also posted earlier today at Human Events Online.

Now Make Him Wave

2006-03-15T12:49:00.000-05:00

When Russell Feingold committed political suicide on the floor of the Senate, liberals' first impulse was to avert your eyes: "Move along, nothing to see here." The Washington Post respectfully buried the sad event on A8 (or was it A9? I can't remember). But when the feet sticking out from under the tarp didn’t go unnoticed, they quickly picked him up, applied some makeup, and -- hey presto! -- today he's a "maverick," right smack on the front page.

[Read the rest of the post at The Right Angle at Human Events Online]

Another One Jumps the Couch

2006-03-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

George Clooney's a liberal, he'll have you know. A huge one.

In an obscenity-laden post at HuffPo (remember: profanity = passion), the activist-actor admits, "I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it."

Well, I'm not so much proud of him as in awe of the career risk he's invited. After this, he won't so much as see a script in Aramaic. And imagine all the hurtful emails he'll get from the left-wing websites. They've been weaning people off of "liberal" for the relatively pristine "progressive," and with one post Clooney sets their exodus back a year.

A word of caution, though, George: They love you now, but they'll turn on you after they've used you up. They'll throw you away just like, um, just like…what's her name, um…Cindy Sheehan.

[Note: Originally posted at The Right Angle, a Human Events blog]

Quote of the Day (and perhaps month)

2006-03-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

I think my paranoid schizophrenia has improved my ability to be a good ruler of my fellow Aztec citizens. - Anonymous

Still Stuck on Angry

2006-03-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

I started reading The Democrats’ Real Problem by Bush critic E.J. Dionne with a sense of anticipation. Maybe, thought I, he could solve the paradox of the angry left. Alas, the piece doesn't deliver on its title, and just deposits the reader back at square one.

The Democrats' real problem is that they have failed to show that their critique of the Republican status quo is the essential first step toward an alternative program.

Okay, in other words, they need to get off of angry. But anger is not only the central concept of modern anti-Bush lefties -- it has become an essential attribute that cannot be removed without destroying its host.

This failure has made it easier for Republicans to cast anti-Bush feeling (aka, ``Bush hatred'') as a psychological disorder. The GOP shrewdly makes the president's critics look crazed and suggests that opposition to Bush is of no more significance than, say, the loathing that many watchers of ``American Idol'' love to express toward Simon Cowell, the meanest of the show's judges.

With Gore yelling, Dean screaming, Kennedy blathering, and Hillary shrieking, who needs the GOP to make the president’s critics look crazed? The American People can diagnose each disorder by symptoms presented. But I guess if you’re crazed, marveling at The Scream amounts to dirty trickery on a par with forcing Dukakis into that tank with the big helmet on. Or making Kerry crawl around in that powder blue bunny suit. That Rove! He's behind it all.

The president's critics need to identify precisely why they oppose him, not only so they can make clear that they are not psycho basket cases, but also to convey that they know what needs to be put right.

But that gets right back to not having any ideas, doesn’t it? Dionne's conclusion that fighting bad policies can be constructive is fine, but in practice the Democrats' oppositionism is perceived as both reflexive and transparently calculated for political effect.

Thoreau’s Law in Action

2006-03-07T14:09:00.000-05:00

Wes Pruden has a tragicomic piece you should check out. It appears the mayor of Ocean Springs, a town devastated by Katrina, approached FEMA to fund locally popular permanent housing for $60,000 (which incidentally is what it costs the agency to “ship and set up” a trailer).

FEMA said no. The law allows FEMA to provide housing only "on a temporary basis," and the Gulf Coast residents who qualify for one of the 10,000 trailers currently parked and going to rust and ruin on an abandoned muddy airstrip in Arkansas can have one for 18 months. So Ocean Springs will soon have a trailer park, with 600 trailers to replace the 700 houses destroyed by the storm. "FEMA," the mayor says, "is creating trailer trash."

Your community can’t have permanent housing it likes, but it can have rusting blight -- for 18 months. Rules are rules.

Read the whole thing.

Differently Abled Encryption?

2006-03-07T12:56:00.000-05:00

Granted, it's a mere bump in the road to consumer acceptance of fingerprint-based authentication, but this is hardly Microsoft's finest moment.

From Engadget:

If you've got a Microsoft Fingerprint Reader hooked up to your PC and thought you had the latest and greatest in biometric security, you're out of luck. A Finnish researcher has discovered that the reader -- which Microsoft has said shouldn't be used to protect sensitive data (meaning, we assume, you should just use it to check out those wild whorls) -- sends fingerprint info to the PC unencrypted, which could enable anyone with the right tools to snag your fingerprint image, and use it to log into your PC. Strangely, Microsoft licenses the technology from another company, Digital Persona, which does encrypt fingerprint data. For some reason, however, Microsoft chose to disable encryption in its product, making it less secure than the passwords it purports to replace.

This is less secure than the passwords for another reason, as well: If consumers trust that an authentication product is secure, they may tend to relax about other security measures.

At the other end of the security spectrum, here's a laptop for somebody "who lives in a really bad neighborhood":

NEC introduced its Generation laptop for the education market, but it looks like it’s aimed at somebody who lives in a really bad neighborhood. It’s loaded with security measures that are so extensive they border on paranoia. First, the notebook is password-protected and login is done with via a hardware fingerprint security chip, great for schoolkids because they won’t have to remember a password. There’s an NEC security control panel, which allows administrators to disable USB or optical drives, keeping that unauthorized software out of the picture. Is also has a Kensington lock slot, a Stoptrack anti-theft label and Webtrack geographical tracking software. Of course, the thing is loaded with antivirus protection and to top it all off, it’s covered by three years of antitheft insurance. Just reading this feature list make you wonder exactly what awful thing happened to this notebook’s designer. Pricing starts at $1138.

Maybe the State Department should price a few, too.

Solar Maxed Out

2006-03-07T10:48:00.001-05:00

The sun is currently in a quiet part of the solar storm cycle, but that will change beginning sometime around 2007.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has developed the Predictive Flux-transport Dynamo Model to analyze past solar cycles. Based on its 98 percent accuracy in back-testing, scientists predict the coming sunspot cycle, number 24, could be 30-50% stronger than the last one.

This article touches on some of the mayhem that could be in store:

An 11-year epoch of increasingly severe solar storms that could fry power grids, disrupt cell-phone calls, knock satellites back to Earth, endanger astronauts in space, and force commercial airliners to change their routes to protect their radio communications and to avoid deadly solar radiation could begin as soon as this fall, scientists announced Monday.

When the solar cycle reaches its peak in 2012, it will hurl at Earth mammoth solar storms with intense radiation and clouds of high-speed subatomic particles millions of miles across, the scientists said.

A storm of that magnitude could short-circuit a world increasingly dependent on giant utilities and satellite communications networks. Such a storm in 1989 caused power grids to collapse, causing a five-hour blackout in Quebec.

Power grid disruptions such as the Quebec example above are caused when these storms introduce DC into AC power lines, tripping circuit breakers and/or causing transformers to overheat and fail.

In addition, these stronger geomagnetic storms, which have caused havoc in the past, will batter ever-finer electronic circuitry, which is correspondingly more sensitive to disruption.

Science trivia? Absolutely, but don't forget it.