What Memory Hole?

clipped from www.americanthinker.com When Churchill was dropped from the UK school curriculum last July, one had to wonder if patriotism itself was next.  Now it's official. The Institute of Education, a leading educational body, has warned teachers not to instill pride in students when speaking of great moments in British History: "To love what is corrupt is itself corrupting, not least because it inclines us to ignore, forget, forgive or excuse the corruption. And there's the rub for patriotism."

A comment from the author of the memory hole himself might be appropriate here: "The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security."

The Myth Of Rachel

clipped from israelmatzav.blogspot.com On March 16, 2003, ISM 'activist' Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli D9 bulldozer in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Rafah is in the Philadelphi Corridor in the map at left, along the border between Gaza and Egypt. You may recall that it's where the border between Gaza and Egypt was breached just a few weeks ago. At the time, the ISM claimed that Corrie was protecting a 'Palestinian' house In a series of three videos, each running approximately nine minutes, Becky Johnson and Lee Kaplan debunk the myth that Corrie was protecting a house. In fact, as Smooth Stone points out and as you will see in the video below, Corrie was standing in a trench where she could not be seen, protecting an entrance to a weapons tunnel.

Humanitarian "Lessons"

clipped from victorhanson.com So let the international community begin its humanitarian work! Greek Cypriots can advise Israel about concessions necessary to Muslims involving a divided Jerusalem. Russians and Syrians can advise the IDF on how to deal properly and humanely with Islamic terrorists. Poland, Russia, China, and Armenia might offer the proper blueprint for giving back land to the defeated that they once gained by force. A North Korea or Pakistan can offer Israel humanitarian lessons that might blunt criticisms that such a recently created country has no right to exist. Iraq and Egypt would lend insight about proper reparation and the rights of return, given its own successful solutions to the problems of their own fleeing Jewish communities.

RTWT!

No Wonder Vladimir Is Grumpy

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles — not orbiting satellites — launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. EST, according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite as the spacecraft traveled at more than 17,000 mph. Because the satellite was orbiting at a relatively low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said. "Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days," it said. The use of the Navy missile amounted to an unprecedented use of components of the Pentagon's missile defense system, designed to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles in flight — not kill satellites.

"IS" "PLEDGED" ... Every Vote Counts For Hillary

clipped from instapundit.com The Clinton camp is still crying "no surrender", but with legitimate avenues to the nomination closed, they are going to have to investigate some sketchier ones. my Atlantic colleague, Clive Crook, notes that the campaign is currently exploring the notion that "pledged" delegates are not "bound". The Politico reports: The notion that pledged delegates must vote for a certain candidate is, according to the Democratic National Committee, a “myth.” “Delegates are NOT bound to vote for the candidate they are pledged to at the convention or on the first ballot,” a recent DNC memo states. “A delegate goes to the convention with a signed pledge of support for a particular presidential candidate. At the convention, while it is assumed that the delegate will cast their vote for the candidate they are publicly pledged to, it is not required.”

No There There (Part 92356)

clipped from instapundit.com

The Jackboot's Handmaidens

clipped from instapundit.com RULES OF JOURNALISM: CNN tells its reporters how to write about Fidel Castro. “Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. [sic] in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.” Was he just criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech, or did he actually, you know, oppress human rights and freedom of speech? John Derbyshire is right: “Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.”

Frick

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Draw a picture offensive to Muslim extremists, and you might find yourself without a roof. Ask Kurt Westergaard, one of the twelve Danish cartoonists whose autumn 2005 Muhammad caricatures lead to violent protests throughout the Muslim world. He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being "too much of a security risk." And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live. Westergaard was forced to leave his actual residence in November after the Danish security and intelligence agency, PET, informed him of a "concrete" plan to murder him, according to the paper that originally published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten. Westergaard and his wife have been living under police protection since. DS reports that the Muslim community in Denmark has taken pains to keep their protests rational. Nevertheless, the hotelier evicted Westergaard anyway, and now he not only cannot return home, he has nowhere else to go.

Mere Coincidence

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Apparently, Benjamin Baines has a sense of historical irony. The man from Clearwater, Florida hollowed out a copy of the book Fear Itself, hid a boxcutter in it, and then attempted to get it onto a flight out of Tampa. He now faces ten years in prison: A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said. However, one has to wonder for what purpose Baines would bother to hide a boxcutter in a hollowed-out book, if not to sneak it onto the plane. Boxcutters, after all, are only illegal to have on airplanes Interestingly, Baines had a few other tomes in the backpack as well. Titles such as Muhammed in the Bible, The Prophet's Prayer, The Noble Qu'ran, and the Koran itself accompanied Baines on his flight. The juxtaposition of the boxcutter to these books seems a lot more than just mere coincidence.

Bubble Boy

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com And to Barack Obama's credit he has carried a near-empty hand to triumph. That alone is testament to his political skill. But he has done it at the cost of not talking about the platform of his own party, which truth to tell, consists of a collection of rotting planks left over from the 1960s and which no one is safe treading upon. Instead of embarssing himself by talking about higher taxes, more appeasement and more special interest politics, Barack Obama has done the smart thing. He's talked about himself; about "us"; about the future, about Hope and most of all, about Change. The subliminal message is that we want to Move On. And part of what the electorate wants to Move On from is all the fermenting baggage that Hillary Clinton keeps hauling along. It's as neat a piece of conjury as has been seen for the last fifty years. Thus the Obama "bubble" isn't his personal problem, it's his party's problem.

Did I Forget To Mention That Operation?

clipped from www.macleans.ca The other night at dinner, I found myself sitting next to a Middle Eastern Muslim lady of a certain age. And the conversation went as it often does when you're with Muslim women who were at college in the sixties, seventies or eighties. In this case, my dining companion had just been at a conference on "women's issues," of which there are many in the Muslim world, and she was struck by the phrase used by the "moderate Muslim" chair of the meeting: "authentic women" — by which she meant women wearing hijabs. And my friend pointed out that when she and her unveiled pals had been in their 20s they were the "authentic women" If you had said to her in 1968 that Westernized Muslim women working in British hospitals in the early 21st century would reject modern hygiene because it required them to bare their arms, she would have scoffed with the certainty of one who assumes that history moves in only one direction.

Baa-ah-ah-aaaah

clipped from thelineishere.org I’d like to say something pithy and cutting regarding this newest asininity spewing forth from the bloated arse of the European Union, but that horse is seriously dead, no sense continuing to beat it. Ted and I spent much of this last weekend discussing various things that are wrong, and how to fix them, and it really comes down to the fact that everything leading to the rise of the nanny-state cannot be fixed. There are too many corrupt bastards too happily taking advantage of too many acquiescent sheep. The number of sheep isn’t going to decrease, therefore there will always be corrupt bastards. And until we can start lining them up against the wall wholesale, nothing about that dynamic is ever going to change.

Tricked?

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Obama may well capture the nomination, but there is an outside chance that he will lose to Hillary all the key states so important in the general elections—California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Not a good sign for the November elections. Much of the rhetoric of the Obama campaign concerns mortgage and student loans, with the clear implication that the borrower has been victimized, and is need of federal redress. Two observations: prior to the mortgage meltdown, the rhetoric had been “home ownership” or the notion that the “non-traditional” borrower had to be accommodated to get him into a first home. Now such marginal borrowers apparently were “tricked”, or coerced into buying more home than they could afford. The same logic will apply to student loans, It all sounds like 1929, not the entitlement colossus of 2008.

Of Nazis And Nihilism

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The video was recovered late last year during a raid on a compound near Samarra that was being used for killing and torture, a coalition official said. A number of documents -- some found in the same raid -- bolster the coalition notion that al Qaeda in Iraq is waging a violent campaign against its former allies, intelligence analysts said. AQI seems to have the same curious impulse to document everything that the Nazis had during their reign of terror. Whenever coalition forces overrun an AQI position, they routinely find videos and handwritten records that document their atrocities. The information usually just reinforces the decision by Iraqis to oppose the jihadists. Rather than compromise on moderating their approach, AQI seems determined to kill even Islamist extremists that don't acquiesce to their particular view of jihad. Their nihilism guarantees their eventual extinction in Iraq.

Of Alinsky And Alienation

clipped from nalert.blogspot.com To avoid being mistaken for a sellout,I chose my friends carefully.The more politically active black students.The foreign students.The Chicanos.The Marxist Professors and the structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets.At night,in the dorms,we discussed neocolonialism,Franz Fanon,Eurocentrism,and patriarchy.When we ground out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake,we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints.We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure.We were alienated.

Like I said. A lightweight.

One Renege Coming Up

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The promises by Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, are an effort to resuscitate part of the ailing public financing system for presidential campaigns. ... Mr. Burton added that if nominated Mr. Obama would “aggressively pursue an agreement” with whoever was his opponent. "Aggressively pursue" an agreement to use public financing -- that's what Obama's campaign promised in March 2007. They also demanded that all of the presidential campaigns make the same pledge. McCain took him up on it; will Obama renege on his pledge now?

And McCain will get to write another letter.

They're Bonkers Allright...

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com I'm sure you've noticed stories like this one, in which some areas in New York City appear to have grossly undercounted votes for Barack Obama on Super Tuesday primary night.  The New York Times reported finding 80 election districts in the city, some in Harlem, in which "Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district."  Recounts revealed that Obama had, in fact, received lots of votes. This is a party that went bonkers over the supposed – never proven or even convincingly alleged – disenfranchisement of a relatively tiny number of voters in Florida in 2000.

Not to mention the very definition of hypocritical...

Welcome To "Progress"

clipped from www.michaeltotten.com “On the bus to the jail I didn’t have handcuffs,” he said. “I asked why. The guard said Look behind you. The first guy behind me got a 600 year sentence. The next guy got six hanging sentences. “The guards who ran Abu Ghraib sold hallucinogenic drugs to prisoners for money,” he told me. “They forced me to take them. You need protection in there. You find someone and give him drugs and cigarettes. You pay off the guards to just punch you in the face or move you to a different cell instead of kill you. I was freed 26 days after I arrived, on Saddam’s birthday before I finished the three months. I can’t live with this nightmare anymore.” He does not live with this nightmare anymore. Different nightmares now haunt decent and innocent people in his country. It seems somehow inadequate, tone-deaf, and perhaps even wrong to say Fallujah’s disgraceful warehouse for humans is progress. But it is.

Today's Donkorruption Update

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Why did Pelosi tube the bill that would have easily passed and therefore extended the protections passed by a Democratic Congress last year? Lots of reasons, and they're all green: The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party's most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the phone companies for giving individuals' personal information to intelligence agencies without a warrant. Mike McConnell, the nonpartisan director of national intelligence, says delay in congressional action deters cooperation in detecting terrorism. Of the 29 Democratic senators who voted against the FISA bill last Tuesday, 24 took money from the trial lawyers (as did two absent senators, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama).

RTWT.

Smoking Something

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Only Eliot Spitzer has seriously proposed that the state of New York could help make up its budget deficit through tax stamps on nickel bags. If he thinks that creating a new tax regime and enforcement mechanism on illegal drugs will bring in more money than it costs, then Spitzer must really be smoking something tax free at the moment.

For Your Signature

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The foreign press certainly recognizes Obama as a Leftist. It's not outrageous that the Republicans see him the same way. Take a look at Barack Obama's economic plan, for instance. It provides some specifics for Obama's stratospheric rhetoric, but really just gives us a series of proposals to further entrench the federal government as the nanny of the American family. For instance, Obama proposes to create a government-run savings program that provides matching funds on savings. In other words, Obama wants to collect tax money to redistribute it to savers, in a plan that works much the same as employer 401k plans. Why should the government pay people to save their money, especially outside the 401ks that work better and have much higher caps? Do you like the IRS? Want to trust them to do your tax returns? Rather than simplify taxes, Obama instead wants to have the IRS prepare your returns for you and send them out for your signature.

Countering Hunting Preserve "Logic"

clipped from wizbangblog.com Now for my second thought. If these places aren't going to get rid of their "gun-free zone" status, despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that they simply get more people killed, then how can they improve their security where it actually make the people inside safer? I have a few ideas. And for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to apply them to a college. First up, they need to absolutely control access to campus. This sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Luckily, we don't have to start from scratch -- a lot of the preparatory R&D has already been done for us. All we need to do is take the existing plans for maximum security prisons and convert them to college campuses. That, it seems to me, is what it would take to set up a truly safe "gun-free zone." Anything less just makes these places little more than hunting preserves for psychos. As was shown at Virginia Tech. And the Omaha mall. And Northern Illinois University. And who knows where next?

The Truth Is More Alarming

clipped from www.windsofchange.net There is much talk and concern nowadays about the radicalization of Western Muslims which it is argued at least in part is caused by Islamist propaganda but there is not much empirical data in support (or otherwise) of this thesis. What O'Shaughnessy et al's exploratory research suggests is that the linkage between cause (Islamist propaganda) and effect (radicalized Western Muslims) is weaker than is often thought. The truth is rather more alarming, in my view: some Western Muslims are self-radicalizing through a process of small-group socialization fed by images from the Western media which Islamist propaganda confirms and reinforces rather than initiates; meanwhile, a large number evince understanding and even sympathy for terrorist protagonists as victims, resorting to desperate measures out of frustration; and there is a growing belief in the fundamental Islamist proposition that there is a real war against Islam.

All The Rest Is Commentary

clipped from www.rogerlsimon.com While watching the endless pundit blather on TV tonight after the Republican Michigan Primary and Democratic Nevada Debate and reading the various opinion meisters commentaries online, I had one of those rare zen moments of simplicity. It all comes down to a simple question: Who would you like to be in the White House if Pakistan fell to al Qaeda and the Islamists gained control of its nuclear arsenal? Answer that question and you will know your candidate. All the rest, as they say, is commentary. The Enlightenment versus Sharia law is an historic battle.

The Plaintiff's Bar's Lap Donkeys

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com In my view, the President's inherent constitutional powers allow him to direct intelligence agencies to intercept international terrorist communications, with or without FISA. The real problem, I suspect--and the sticking point between the House and the Senate--is that the Senate bill provided immunity for telecom companies that cooperate with intelligence agencies. The agencies need this cooperation to intercept terrorist communications, and, while the Constitution empowers the President to direct the intelligence agencies, it doesn't give him the authority to commandeer the resources of telecom companies. If this seems nuts, it is; but it is the world we live in, and the world that Nancy Pelosi is determined to preserve for her contributors in the plaintiffs' bar.

The "Good Idea"

clipped from www.transterrestrial.com I frankly don't get all the Obamamania. His speeches remind me of Gertrude Stein's comment about Oakland--there's no there there. So, his only executive experience is running a law school magazine, and not with any apparently distinguishment. Here's something else disturbing. He hasn't performed that well in debates. His primary accomplishment, and talent, seems to be to make vaporous but inspiring (to some) speeches, Shorn of his Teleprompter, we saw a different Obama. His delivery was halting and unsure. If this is the case, then we are on the brink of taking a cipher, with no notable accomplishments in running anything, who is persuasive and compelling as a speaker only when reading others' words, and putting him in charge of the armed forces and other government institutions of the most powerful nation in the history of mankind. Is this really a good idea?

Saudi Shocka

clipped from instapundit.com MAYBE BLAIR SHOULD'VE HAD 'EM KILLED OR SOMETHING: "Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday." Or at least gone public with the story and frozen all Saudi assets in Britain. Then again, that's kind of what's happening anyway, albeit in slow motion.

The Red Line

clipped from www.americanthinker.com From Hezb'allah's view point, a "red" line has been crossed and the organization will look for vengeance. The most reliable barometer of Hezb'allah's reaction to this will depend if Israel is somehow held accountable for this action. When Israel killed Hezb'allah Secretary General Abbas Musawi in February 1992, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina was destroyed a few weeks later. This 1992 attack was claimed by Hezb'allah's terrorist wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization, in retaliation for Musawi's death. If Mughniyah is indeed dead and Israel is held responsible, the clock is ticking. Hezb'allah will retaliate for this. Bank on it. If history provides any benchmark, look for a spectacular event in the very near future. As stated in my previous pieces, Hezb'allah has extensive contingency plans for this sort of occurrence and can put "steel on target" in short order.

Proud To Be A Scandinavian Today...

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com This is a very good sign, and something I hope will spread to the mainstream newspapers and television channels of the rest of the world—because a unified front that refuses to back down is the only way to guarantee freedom of speech for all media outlets, in the face of worldwide Islamist intimidation and violence: Danish Papers Reprint Muhammad Cartoon, To ‘Unambiguously Back’ Freedom. (AP) Denmark’s leading newspapers on Wednesday reprinted a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked deadly rioting in Muslim countries two years ago. The papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday’s arrest in western Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon, which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

KISS

clipped from timblair.net

Good On Them

clipped from instapundit.com Ross' bill, the "American-Made Energy Act of 2008," also would create tax credits to build new nuclear power plants throughout the United States, with an aim of having 40 percent of the nation's power come from nuclear sources. Ross, a leader of a group of fiscally conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition, is a co-sponsor on the bill with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Ross told reporters on a conference call Thursday that technology would allow companies to drill for oil without endangering the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska. Good for them.

One Worth Pursuing

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Now, here is an investigation that would actually be worth pursuing: why did Nancy Pelosi and her House leadership refuse to take up the FISA reform bill? Did they deliberately sacrifice the security of Americans to placate their far-left base? Or was there a corrupt bargain with major Democratic Party contributors, who hope to make millions by suing telecoms? Did Nancy Pelosi politicize our national security by subordinating the security interests of all Americans to the financial interests of the Democratic Party's biggest contributors? Circumstantially, the answer to the last question would appear to be "Yes." Perhaps that explains why Pelosi and her confederates are so eager to focus newspaper headlines on ridiculous "investigations" of the Bush administration.

Cycle 24?

clipped from www.independent.co.uk Something is happening to our Sun. It has to do with sunspots, or rather the activity cycle their coming and going signifies. After a period of exceptionally high activity in the 20th century, our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet. Months have passed with no spots visible on its disc. We are at the end of one cycle of activity and astronomers are waiting for the sunspots to return and mark the start of the next, the so-called cycle 24. They have been waiting for a while now with no sign it's on its way any time soon. The first indications that the Sun is emerging from its current sunspot minimum will be the appearance of small spots at high latitude. They usually occur some 12-20 months before the start of a new cycle. These spots haven't appeared yet so cycle 24 will probably not begin to take place until 2009 at the earliest.

Yes We Can

clipped from www.stephenbainbridge.com

Obama can speak like Reagan. But he will attempt to reverse pretty much everything that Reagan did.

That's unequivocally NOT what we need.

(Britney Nation Part 23565)

Britney's Nation Hearts Obama

clipped from www.americanthinker.com A few days ago at the urging of Sean Hannity, Frank Luntz asked a polling group at a Democratic debate to name one of Senator Obama's accomplishments. A whole section was polled and no one could name a single feat. It didn't matter to them, they liked him. Obama profits hugely from his plainness. His oratory may stir liberals, but much of that perception comes from the juxtaposition against the blandness from which that it emanates. Another Hannity moment illustrates Obama's success well. Awhile back, maybe a year or more, he was talking to some random teens on his radio show asking questions to demonstrate how poorly our young people are educated in government and politics. One young woman responded that she wanted Obama in the White House because she was "tired of all the drama" since 9/11.

The Militant Line

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Something occured to me reading Spengler's recent article on William's idiocy. Spengler talks about the European politicians who require bodyguards because they've received death threats from speaking out against Sharia, and no-go zones, and the like. It reminded me of Imperial Japan. In the 20's and 30's, Japan essentially went politically insane because junior Army officers would assasinate any politician that didn't toe the militant line. Eventually, all that was left were the rabid and those they had cowed. Europe has one chance - now - to stop the madness. If the death threats and intimidation go on much longer, there will be no turning back, and Europe will commit suicide just as Imperial Japan did, dragged along by nutcases with warped upbringings.

The Schoolboy

clipped from instapundit.com "Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh," says an Israeli who knows Mughniyeh . "The guy is a genius, someone who refined the art of terrorism to its utmost level. We studied him and reached the conclusion that he is a clinical psychopath motivated by uncontrollable psychological reasons, which we have given up trying to understand. The killing of his two brothers by the Americans only inflamed his strong motivation." Well, being blown up should dampen that motivation quite a bit.

Teaching Math

clipped from www.thedonovan.com 1. Teaching Math In 1950s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? 4. Teaching Math In 1980s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20. 5. Teaching Math In 1990s A logger cuts down a beautiful old-growth hardwood forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? Remember, there are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's okay. 6. Teaching Math In 2007 Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

What The Smartest Man In The World Is Reviewing Today

clipped from liberalfascism.nationalreview.com Well, even though I'm sick as a dog in a hotel in Peoria — where it's 5 degrees — this made my day. The paperback blurb: Those who put a high value on words may recoil at the title of Jonah Goldberg’s new book, Liberal Fascism. As a result, they may refuse to read it, which will be their loss — and a major loss. Those who value substance over words, however, will find in this book a wealth of challenging insights, backed up by thorough research and brilliant analysis. This is the sort of book that challenges the fundamental assumptions of its time — and which, for that reason, is likely to be shunned rather than criticized.  .... ....Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is too rich a book to be summarized in a newspaper column. Get a copy and start rethinking the received notions about who is on “the Left” and who is on “the Right.” It is a book for people who want to think, rather than repeat rhetoric.

And what I'm starting to read a second time... Go buy one for yourself.

In fact, I'll buy a copy for you if you're one of the first ten folks to email me asking for a copy.

Take that Gramsci!

No There There

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Sen. Obama voted against it.  Mind you, the bill — which is chockablock with too many terrorist protections and thus far from perfect — passed by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, 68-29.  As the Wall Street Journal's editors put it this morning:  It says something about his national security world view, or his callowness, that Mr. Obama would vote to punish private companies that even the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee said had "acted in good faith." Had Senator Obama prevailed, a President Obama might well have been told "no way" when he asked private Americans to help his Administration fight terrorists. Mr. Obama also voted against the overall bill, putting him in MoveOn.org territory. Hillary Clinton was even worse.  She didn't show up to vote.  This was the most important national security vote in her Senate career.