The Colossus

I read Matt Yglesias's blog.

He is what I consider a responsible lefty, a well-educated, erudite liberal. He does not buy into the conspiracy-theories-du-jour among the more insane members of the left, and generally presents a nicely thought-out argument each time he makes his entry.

In that sense, I like him. But he has this habit of throwing in these little off-handed asides that still manage to infuriate me.

For example, regarding Social Security, where he consider's Kevin Drum's position:

"As Kevin says, you can make up the gap purely through tax increases of a scale that I'm firmly convinced would be non-destructive to the American economy. Then you could start talking about the bigger and harder problem of Medicare."

Nicely written. But -- to be blunt -- who the F*CK is Matt Yglesias to raise my taxes? He's firmly convinced it wouldn't hurt the economy? Well, gee, that's really reassuring to me, one of those cows who is just sitting out in the field, ready to be milked. When I consider the HALF of my GODDAMN INCOME that is going into the VAST, WASTEFUL MAW of the federal, state, and local governments, I guess I'll just sigh and say "Well, Matt thinks it's alright. It's non-destructive."

Consider: THe American colonies revolted over, among other things, a four-shilling per pound tax on tea. You know, a luxury tax on a high-end commodity. Probably a pittance to the average tea drinker of the day. But sometimes it's not about the amount of the tax. Sometimes it's not about the tea.

It's about how we are regarded by our government. Britain saw the colonies as a thing to be taxed, without offering any political rights, decision-making, or control whatsoever. Matt Yglesias sees taxpayers as cows to be milked without giving any thought as to whether we'd like to have any say on how our money is invested.

Well, frankly, I'm sick of it. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, a canard, a scam that if it were tried in the private sector, would be considered a criminal act. "We promise you a return on your money."

Horsesh*t. You promise me, aged 40, that in 2029 you might be able to extract, at gunpoint if necessary, money from a worker who might not even be born yet, enough to pay for me in my retirement. In other words, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Practical? Sound? Non-destructive?

Nonsense. It is corrupt, and it must be replaced.

You want more money from me?

Fine.

I demand control.

Posted by The Colossus at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Although he replaced his pet monkey some time ago, Jeff bangs the little tin cup just as effectively. His heart-rending pleas are here and here.

No one slanders celebrities quite like Jeff. The Martha Stewart Chronicles are among the funniest works of parody I've ever read.

Give him some money if you can. We need him to be blogging, not begging.

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Wizbang has a post on the theme of "pretend to be a good looking girl and you'll get plenty of traffic" in which a blogger claiming to be the "Libertarian Girl" is actually a photo taken from a Russian mail-order bride catalog.

Now this is something that's just not cricket. While we may stoop to serve our readers' interests by posting the occasional photo of a good looking woman, it is one thing to post a picture of Laurie Dhue, but it is another thing entirely to claim to be Laurie Dhue.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT ME

(Image courtesy of Fox News)

My dear readers, I'll never pretend to be something I'm not. In fact, here is my latest "beefcake" photo for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing. . .

Continue reading "A Ruse I'll Never Try" »

Posted by The Colossus at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are certain bloggers I try not to piss off. These are the guys in the bar that you try not to jostle or make eye contact with when you're going to get your pitcher refilled.

Like Jeff Goldstein. He's one of those bloggers. Get in his sights and he'll just beat you to death.

A pretty savage beating administered to Mr. Kryptonite here. Can't say that O-Dub didn't have it coming. Just glad it ain't me.

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Hey James, keep writing articles like this and you're likely to get Andrew Sullivan mad at you. Pointing out the gay subtext to everything is his racket.

What's next for Wolcott to blog about?

Digital cameras?

Matchbook covers?

Surely a famous literary critic can do better than this. Maybe give us a list of your ten favorite books?

Ideas, man, ideas.

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John Hawkins at Right Wing News makes the case that free elections really are important, and cites the experience of Algeria in fighting an insurgency as a good example of this.

While I'm always wary of historical comparisons, I think it has a lot of merit. Nothing delegitimizes terror like an election.

Hat tip: Powerline

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I will never read him again. Life is too short.

The reason? His description of a word that is also the name of a U.S. Senator. On his site if you can find it. I won't link.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Early on in the tsunami disaster, I wrote a post to the effect that I had nothing intelligent to say on the crisis. That still holds true. I have nothing intelligent to say, beyond "send money, if you can."

But what is interesting about the blogosphere is that there is usually someone who catches the story of a crisis intelligently. Usually it's a blog of which you've never heard before, which then goes into your list of favorites and gets read for a long time afterward.

For the tsunami, I know the "new to me" blog that has now become a must read is the Diplomad. Pay them a visit; well worth the read.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Matt Yglesias speculates on the future . . .

"Ideally, it would be good if our hegemony could fade away over the next several decades into some kind of amicable, cooperative framework in which no one country will dominate. The alternative is going to be a fairly frightening revival of great power competition or some such thing. Or maybe not. Maybe China will collapse. Maybe India will return to its formerly dismal growth pattern. Maybe Europe and Japan will reverse course and stop their recent trends toward trying to play a bigger role in the world. Then we get to keep dominating, but the resulting situation would be worse in many, many ways than the alternative of widespread cooperation and prosperity."

Ideally? Ideally for whom?

I think that there are many imaginable futures, nearly all of which are far, far, worse than American military hegemony. I'm not in any hurry to see us give up our military superiority any time soon.

As for an "amicable, cooperative framework", well, yeah, that sounds just ducky. But what does it mean? The UN writ large? No thanks.

I would argue that if China and India adopt democracy, free trade, and the rule of law, there will be no need for any framework. What framework governs our relations with Great Britain? Friends don't need frameworks. If we agree on fundamental principles -- democracy, free trade, the rule of law -- then the military hegemony issue takes care of itself. I think India has been moving on something like the right path. They need to be encouraged. I see no evidence that China is becoming democratized.

Here are some good faith measures I think they could undertake before I'd be willing to consider demobilizing the Seventh Fleet.

1. Hold open, multiparty, free and fair elections. Guarantee this in law. Do this at least three times, with a peaceful transition of power between governments.

2. Dismantle the missiles opposite Taiwan.

3. Tell North Korea to abandon its development of nuclear weapons or else all scientific and food aid from China ceases.

These things are all within China's power to do. Why don't they simply do them?

Until they do so, I think our only guarantee of security in the next several decades is the United States military.

I have no problem living in a world in which China and India are military powers as strong as us, provided their laws look like ours and they act in good faith.

On this score, they both -- but especially China -- have a long way to go before I'd be willing to grant them any kind of military parity or equality.

Posted by The Colossus at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Good time to get caught up with the folks from American Digest. Some must reads:

Jeremiah Lewis reviews The Aviator.

Where -- and why -- to download the Firefox Browser. On a side note, fully 23% of my traffic is now using Firefox. (Granted, my audience mainly consists of geeks, stalkers, webcam hackers, frustrated imperialists, and other bloggers whom I've slandered. You know -- the Fox News demographic.)

The Whovel -- the first useful improvement to the snow shovel since the Middle Ages.

Gratuitous hit on Starbucks.

The corruption of the UN -- and, more fascinatingly, why the UN will never be made into condos.

A safety warning about an upcoming celebrity trial.

Information on why engineers should never lie, from Pat Cummings.

Fontapalooza -- a resource which might have saved Dan Rather had he downloaded it in time.

A rather bad hotel room design.

And the difference between being a combat soldier and a Golden Globes presenter.

Great stuff. And if I've linked to 10 posts of his, you know what this means, folks -- time to put him on your blogroll. Vanderleun and his compadres have been on mine for some time now.

Posted by The Colossus at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Depleted uranium isn't talked about much here in the U.S., but if you read European newspapers and blogs, it is a big deal.

To get you up to speed if you're not familiar with it: Depleted uranium is used to make tank ammunition. The reason? It is exceptionally heavy and dense, and therefore can punch through tank armor, which is also heavy and dense. When it does so, it can give off a small burst of radiation, but as James Dunnigan noted in one of his books, if the tank you're riding in has just been hit by a DU round, you've probably got bigger problems than a little bit of radiation. The kinetic energy of the projectile, transferred to your tank compartment, has hit you with the force equivalent of an eighteen wheeler hitting a Subaru at a high rate of speed.

Nevertheless, there is speculation that being around DU probably isn't good for you. It probably isn't.

But some people, especially in left-wing British periodicals, make assertions that the use of DU is tantamount to using nuclear weapons, and that these things are just chock-full of radiation.

But as Armed Liberal points out in this post, there is no peer reviewed study of the long term effects of depleted uranium that shows this. In fact, as he links in this post, the subject has been researched by a lot of reputable folks, none of whom are willing to say that depleted uranium causes cancer.

I have no doubt that the incidence of cancer in Iraq is higher than in westeren democracies. But why is that? It could be from any number of environmental causes.

Does anyone think that Saddam Hussein's regime -- or any developing world regime -- really cared about the environment? My bet is that they were dumping chemicals into rivers, and the smokestacks belched filth into the air around the clock. They're not going to impose environmental restrictions like those in the West, because they can't afford to.

The environmental movement is, to an extent, a luxury of the west. We can bear the cost of a few cents or a few dollars added to our products to help keep the environment clean. People in the developing world are too busy worrying about food, shelter, and not getting sent to a death camp to give it much thought.

UPDATE: The Dunnigan quote I was looking for, from "Dirty Little Secrets", 1990 edition (which means it is pretty dated) --

"Rumors persist that when they penetrate armor and come under enormous stress, they do produce brief but high bursts of radiation. This seems to be because a chunk of depleted uranium will absorb most of the radiation it produces through normal decay, which it cannot do once shattered. However, it is unlikely that the resulting "pulse" of radiation will cause injury or illness, particularly given the damage produced by the explosive effect and the shell fragments."

Posted by The Colossus at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A study of four countries finds Britain to have the biggest crime problem; mainly because the British government and police are not facing up to it.

Hat tip: Samizdata.

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The folks at Powerline are discussing Jeremy Rifkin's new book, which is entitled "I For One, Welcome Our New European Overlords". The premise of Rifkin's book is that Europeans have a higher quality of life because they do not have as many material possessions as we do, and many of them are unemployed. Yay! Cheese and wine for everyone.

I for one, think Europe has more problems than answers. Consider:

1. A graying population. In many European countries, the native population is actually falling, as the death rates are exceeding birth rates. In addition, many countries where the poulation is growing, such as France, the population growth is due to a large immigrant population who are maintaining high birth rates. I'm not a nativist, by any stretch of the imagination, and I think the acceptance of immigrants is a real measure of American strength. Assuming, of course, that the immigrants are assimiliated. Does anmyone think that the large Muslim populations currently migrating and being born in Western Europe are assimilating at a rate faster than they are becoming radicalized? Europe faces some problems down the road if they cannot get their Muslim populations to embrace tolerance and democracy. Theo Van Gogh's murder may not be an aberration -- it may be the look of the future.

2. High structural unemployment. Consider this detailed regional chart of German unemployment. Lots of pretty dots that are hovering around 10.25%. Consider for a moment what that means. The Democratic party in the United States pilloried George W. Bush as presiding over the worst jobs economy since Herbert Hoover. Our unemployment rate during the campaign was 5.4%. Take that figure and double it. Now, you're Europe. Can you imagine what would happen in America if unemployment were that high? There would be blood in the streets.

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating. The U.S. last had unemployment that high in November of 1982, and there wasn't any bloodshed. But part of that was because the economy was beginning to show some signs of life from Reagan's tax cuts; and there was some optimism in the air. Are any German politicans talking about tax cuts?

3. No military power, to speak of. Yes, European countries have armies. But they are not structured to project force; they are largely static armies that sit at home. Heavy lifting, such as removing the government of Serbia or putting peacekeepers in Kosovo, still has to be done by the U.S. They have nothing like the naval or airlift power of the United States to deploy forces to trouble spots in the world. When the U.S. threatens a country like Iraq or Iran, the threat is very real. The European conutries could not even contemplate war with a regional power like Iran.

I don't think we'll see a burgeoning European superstate any time soon. I think it's more like a few of our geriatric aunts have moved in together to cut down on expenses.

Posted by The Colossus at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

His site is still that awful pink.

Posted by The Colossus at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A great post by Joe Katzman at Winds of Change on the U.N. in Afhanistan.

In my view, the U.N. needs to be either reformed or abolished. If we go with the reform option, here are my suggestions.

1. Independent outside auditors. Those three words alone would cause a massive, cascading wave of change to pour through the institution. If the money is accounted for, then it is harder to steal.

2. Human rights commission. Current membership is here. First of all, it has 53 members, which is something like a third of all the U.N. members. I think this is inherently unproductive -- the more members you add to a committee, the more costs skyrocket and the less chance there is of any sort of positive good coming out of it. The following members should be dropped immediately:

A. Cuba. Reason? Librarians in dungeons.
B. Egypt. Reason? Refresh my memory on the last free election there?
C. Nigeria. Reason? They have, in their northern provinces, Islamic courts which practice stoning, if I remember correctly.
D. Saudi Arabia. Reason? Treatment of women.
E. Sudan. Reason? State sponsored genocide in Darfur a good enough reason?
F. Zimbabwe. Reason? Two words: Robert Mugabe.

There are probably some others who could go, as well: Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Mauritania, Qatar, Swaziland, Togo. I'll let folks smarter than me vet these countries for membership. If you got rid of all of them, you'd still have 36 members. I'd further reduce the membership by two thirds, to twelve. I would also set a cap of twelve on any other UN committee, as well.

3. Replace Mohammed El Baradei as head of the IAEA. Get someone in there who is willing to open their eyes and report Iran and North Korea, for their flagrant abuses, to the Security Council.

4. 33% reduction in staff.

5. Treaty governing the conduct of UN members while in New York, outlining, with great specificity, which actions are permitted under the concepts of diplomatic inviolabilty and immunity. Can the NY police interrogate diplomats freely? No. Can diplomats park illegally anywhere they want in New York City? No. There needs to be a treaty which reigns in some of their abuses.

I think this would be a good start, if the UN went the route of reform. Personally, though, I think it ought to be abolished. I don't think that will happen, either. I think the UN will be seen as an increasingly irrelevant organization.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to Powerline, seems like the crowd with all the moral authority ain't doing much heavy lifting in the tsunami relief.

Money quote: I provided this to some USAID colleagues working in Indonesia and their heads nearly exploded. The first paragraph is quite simply a lie. The UN is taking credit for things that hard-working, street savvy USAID folks have done.

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I'm not a regular reader of Matt Yglesias's site, but I was there the other day and read a statement which has been rattling around in my head for some time, and which I feel I better exorcise so I can go about my business.

The statement was a brief one, perhaps just a throwaway line in his post, and not a well defined idea or belief of his, so I'm not going to jump on him with both feet and begin kicking him around, but I've been thinking about it.

Matt's statement:

The death toll keeps rising in South Asia as The New York Times covers the threats of secondary deaths from disease and unsanitary conditions. This, of course, is the immediate need for relief aid and my understanding is that individual charitable donations are particularly crucial right now, because state-to-state aid money tends to take longer to flow since governments are slow-moving beasts (hence, again, to my mind, the desirability of a well-funded Global Emergency Management Agency of some sort that could act immediately, rather than having all the countries start ponying up money after disaster strikes). On the intergovernmental level, which is typically most important for longer-term recovery rather than immediate relief, the US looks set to become more generous so bully for Bush on that front.

A Global Emergency Management Agency? I recognize that in a perfect world -- perfect in a human sense, obviously, since in a truly perfect world there would be no disasters -- where there was some sort of benevolent world government, this might be a good idea, and no one would object to such a thing.

And let me also state, for the record, that I don't fear the creation of such an agency from a conspiracy-theorist-black-helicopter point of view.

But given what we know about world governmental agencies, specifically the the U.N., which is that it is a sinkhole of corruption of the first order, doesn't it seem like the creation of a "GEMA" would be a remarkably bad idea?

Consider the U.N. peacekeeping scandal currently raging in Africa. It appears that the heroic, noble, "blue helmet" crowd had other things on their mind than helping folks in the Congo. Cost in dollars: $746.1 million. But the cost to their reputation was far greater.

Or consider the ongoing Oil For Food scandal, which Glenn Reynolds has been covering in a more or less wall-to-wall way. Money held in trust for the Iraqi people was funneled to folks associated with the UN to deliver goods and services that were either shoddy or nonexistent, along with healthy kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.

While disaster relief is an important thing, I myself am not ready to part with a plug nickel to support an agency under anything but American (or British, or Australian) control to help in disaster relief.

And if we gave the money to the UN to create such a thing, it seems to me that they'd just use it to fund their next managerial disaster.

Posted by The Colossus at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

But as Captain Ed points out, the similarities to Ronald Reagan pretty much end there.

Money quote: Perhaps Abbas intended to evoke Ronald Reagan standing outside the Berlin Wall, perhaps not -- but Abbas misses the point if he did. The East Germans and Russians built the Berlin Wall to keep its subjugated population from fleeing into the West and freedom. Israel built its wall to keep the barbarians from slaughtering the already-free citizens of Southwest Asia's only other functioning democracy. A call from the barbarians to tear down the Israeli's only effective defensive structure as a trade for "peace" should result in gales of laughter on the other side, and a continuation of its construction.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I feel bad for not having written anything about the disastrous tsunami is Southeast Asia that has killed, by some estimates, more that 24,000 people. I have simply not had anything of value to say.

But here are some people doing some intelligent blogging on the subject:

Wretchard the Cat from the Philippines: here and here.

Tim Blair from Australia: here.

Michele Catalano from the U.S. has relief information: here.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Winds of War update is up over at Winds of Change. Good reading on many different national security related topics.

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Atrios discusses the upcoming Iraqi elections. There is talk about guaranteeing the Sunnis some seats, even if they lose, in order to prevent alienation from the government.

I myself think this would be, at best, a bad compromise. Many fledgling democracies, even our own, have started out with bad compromises in order to get the country started. In our own history, we enacted the loathsome 3/5ths clause to the constitution to guarantee that Southern states would have greater representation in the House. Let's not forget that it took some ninety years and a few hundred thousand dead Americans to amend that compromise.

So to the Iraqis, a word of warning -- any compromise you make may have bad consequences down the road.

In a sense, the 3/5ths clause could be construed as a positive, because it enabled our country to move forward and ratify the constitution. But the price for it -- dehumanizing some of our fellow human beings -- was far too high.

I myself think that guaranteeing representation could be done in a different way -- by embracing Federalism. Let the Sunnis, Kurds, and Shias have a measure of autonomy, like our State governments, and then let the federal legislature be the place where they hash out their differences.

I also reject Atrios's notion that we ought to have some experiments in proportional racial representation here. Bad idea.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Captain Ed has some tempered joy over Yushchenko's apparent victory in the Ukraine. My view is similar to his -- weakening Russia's hold over the Ukraine is a victory for the west, but we do have to worry about weakening Russia to the point where the Islamic former Soviet republics start getting bold, or cooperating with terrorists. The Ukraine election is a blessing, but it may be a mixed one.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the ever-resourceful Pixy Misa comes a link to this story.

Warms the heart. Money quote:

He led me to the back, where he had assembled -- and I am not making this up -- gun racks to hold all the toy armaments. If Santa ever needed to assemble a commando strike force, this could be his armory.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Powerline analyzes the battle between Wretchard and the AP.

If I were the Iraqi interim government, I would consider kicking the AP out of the country.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First she wants to homeschool her kids. Next, she'll probably object when a burglar breaks in and she fails to provide him the requisite tea and biscuits as mandated by the Home Office. Where does it end?

My guess is here.

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Pixy Misa points out that The Mirthful Ones are now blogging at Fistful of Fortnights.

I stopped over and visited. Way too much Tarantino.

Consider this.

So -- is Harry Potter James Bond, or is Quentin Tarantino? To me, they both seem -- well, like punks.

But that's just me. I'm a square, daddio.

Posted by The Colossus at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata compares Harry Potter to James Bond . . .

Both use magical toys. Both battle against evil, set in architecturally impressive surroundings. Both were made into mega-successful movies. But, what do I know? Or care? I leave all that sort of chatter to those who have read it and seen it.

I think he has a good point. Of course, a lot of people don't realize than Ian Fleming also authored children's books, one of which was made into a quite successful movie.

Posted by The Colossus at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Michelle Malkin has been all over the issue of dress codes for Air Marshals.

I have to say I have mixed opinions on this.

I agree that Air Marshals should not be obvious to spot on a plane. It is a tactical advantage for them to be unknown if a terrorist is on board. But I'm not sure exactly how far to go with this.

I mean if I'm on a flight and a bearded dude who looks like Serpico, dressed in sweats, wearing bling bling and a backwards baseball cap on his head gets out of his seat, and starts waving a pistol around, shouting "I'm an Air Marshal! Stay in your seats!", am I going to believe him, or am I going to err on the side of skepticism and tackle him? This is not an unreasonable question. I myself don't mind an undercover policeman looking -- well, looking like an undercover policeman.

My understanding of the Air Marshal program is that it has gone through a lot of growing pains. They've hired hundreds of agents, and what used to be a very elite program has, in my understanding, suffered from "quality of personnel" issues. It may well be that the director of the program feels he needs to issue some guidance on dress codes because otherwise you might have some of these guys going to the other extreme. "Hey, I'm going to dress up as a homeless guy this flight", or "Gee, a circus clown outfit. That's the ticket!"

I don't have a problem with a guy running a program -- particularly one that has been rapidly expanded and may, inadvertantly, be taking in people who aren't all we might ask -- instituting a professional dress code. That's all I'm saying.

And frankly, it is a lot easier to conceal a pistol in a shoulder holster under a jacket than not. The jacket requirement may stem partly from this.

I like Michelle's writing and opinions a lot, but I'm reluctant to pile on the TSA on this one.

UPDATE: Reader Ian Wolfe offers some more thoughts in our comments section. Good, well argued debate inside.

Posted by The Colossus at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

On so many levels . . . the true story of Osama as told on VH1.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Iowahawk has more on the ACLU and Christmas . . .

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Probably in more than one sense. I don't imagine Ariel Sharon is shrugging as nonchalantly as we are over this.

Hat tip to Joe Katzman at Winds of Change.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Great quotes from November, 2004.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Via Cranky Neocon:

Sean Gleeson says that the ACLU has decided on a more direct approach in the debate over religion.

Heh. Indeed.

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Deacon over at Powerline weighs in on the Jarvis-Hewitt debate over religion. Deacon is on the Hewitt side of the divide. I am, too. I was against Hugh on the Specter debate and was officially agnostic on the Target-Salvation Army brouhaha (or was it an imbroglio?), but I think Hugh is right on this one. Religion is a) important, and b) under attack.

Posted by The Colossus at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Atrios has this observation:

Well funded primary challengers to right wing Democrats will beat them, even if they don't eventually win elected office. There are some issues about which I understand how geography dictates certain positions. Social Security is not one of them. And, frankly, who gives a sh*t if we lose a couple more seats.

Right wing Democrats. Heh.

Sure, go ahead. Run the most left leaning candidates you can find. Let me know how it works for you.

UPDATE: The Democrats have apparently learned nothing from Bill Clinton. Clinton was the beneficiary of a race in 1992 where the Republican vote was split between George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot. He got into power and attempted to move the country leftward (Hillarycare, large tax increase). The country responded in 1994 by giving the Congress to the Republicans. Then Bill Clinton got smart. He found a dozen or so minor wedge issues where he could place himself in the middle. Not on the insane left, but in the middle. V chips, school uniforms, welfare reform. The country responded and re-elected him. As an insurance policy it kept the Congress Republican. Gore moved an inch leftward of Clinton while George W. Bush positioned himself in the center ("compassionate conservative"). Bush won, by the barest of electoral margins. The Democrats continued to inch to the left. Bush gained seats in the Congress in 2002. Bush had a so-so economy and an unpopular war. But Dean tugged the Democrats a little further left. Kerry followed him left to stay alive, and while it won him the nomination, it lost him the general election. The Democrats also lost two more states from 2000 -- New Mexico and Iowa. They lost ground in the Congress again, too. And still, they want to keep moving left.

Sure, guys, why not? But when Wisconsin and Pennsylvania go for the Republicans next time, don't say we didn't try to tell you.

Posted by The Colossus at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is cool, a must see. Via Jonah in The Corner.

The Colossus grew up in Western Massachusetts.

The Colossus says "soda".

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Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters has it right; the rule of the filibuster must be changed when it comes to judicial appointments.

My feeling is that the filibuster is far less important than the Senate's constitutional obligation to act on the President's nominees. The latter is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. The former is not, but is instead a tradition of the rules of the Senate.

Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that the Democrats can, with 40 votes, keep the judiciary empty of conservatives. Allowing them to do so is both bad politics and institutional dereliction of duty.

Posted by The Colossus at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

He is a sick, twisted man, that Jim Treacher.

Enjoy his work, people, but try not to burn him out. We lost Allah to the internet's endless petty carping.

It's an interesting concept -- photoshopping new dialogue into a comic. Hmm . . . I have a copy of the Sandman around somewhere . . .

UPDATE: Treach has more . . .

Posted by The Colossus at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pixy Misa, the godfather of MuNuvia, writes on why he supported both John Howard and George Bush, even though he is not a conservative.

I suspect there are a lot of Pixy Misas out there; they may well have been the margin of victory. Well worth reading.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Carnivorous Conservative has some thoughts on blogs, and he divides the blogosphere into two basic taxonomic kingdoms -- I-Blogs or independents, and Clogs, or C-Blogs, for conglomerates.

I think this makes a good deal of sense; I myself look at the blogosphere much the same way -- there are, in my schema, Group blogs and Personal Blogs. The Corner at NRO, Powerline, Winds of Change, Frater Libertas -- these are all Group Blogs. Lileks, Protein Wisdom, Belmont Club, Ace, Chrenkoff, Treacher, the Colossus (though I chuckle at including myself in such company) -- are individual blogs. I'd like to suggest a sub-group of this for Dual Blogs such as my friends the Llamas -- two headed blogs. The Two-headed blog is to me a subset of the individual blog; it is largely personal, but it has a flexibility that the individual blog lacks. Individual bloggers like Allahpundit face a pressure which Allah identified, though I think Allah got it a little bit wrong. If the individual tries to do what the group blog does, the individual faces burnout and stress; he can never match the output of a group. If the individual retreats into craftsmanship, he can avoid burnout. Lileks, I think, has mastered this -- the Bleat is one post a day, which for a busy writer like James enforces a discipline that "keeps him honest" -- not less than once, and not more than once. Jim Treacher resists all entreaties to blog more, and is one of the most vocal proponents of the low-volume, high-quality school of blogging. Jeff Goldstein is similar -- two or three gems a day.

A few convert their blogs -- Gerard Vanderleun's American Digest is in the middle of a migration from Individual Blog (I-Blog) to C-Blog (conglomerates).

I agree with Carnivorous Conservative that the C-Blog has its advantages. It can guarantee its survival even if a member quits. But I think there will always be a need for I-Blogs, as well. The I-Blogger just has to ensure that he paces himself and doesn't burn out.

UPDATE: Stunning, photographic evidence has emerged. The Llamas actually are a two-headed blog!

Posted by The Colossus at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I suppose I could wait to read it in Chrenkoff, but the Commissar has the scoop now -- the Afghan militias are disarming.

I wonder if we'll see R.W. Apple write an article in the NYT telling us that our long national quagmire is over.

Posted by The Colossus at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Glenn Reynolds picked up on this post by Jon Henke at Q and O. Basically, the argument is that Bin Laden's videotapes and audiotapes have shown a progressive narrowing of scope and goals. In the past, he was all about bringing the war to the West. Now, he sees enemies everywhere in the Arab world, and is instead trying to topple the House of Saud.

While the argument is persuasive, I think there are two things to keep in mind.

1) This may still be misdirection on Bin Laden's part. He gets far more respect in the Arab world when he strikes us rather than, say, Arab consulate workers in Jeddah. He knows this. If he can strike us, he still will.

2) Toppling the House of Saud may be a better proposition for Bin Laden than toppling America. We've given him a very hard response, killing and scattering his network whenever they appear. If Bin Laden really is focusing now on the Saudis, that may work to our disadvantage, because they are, in fact, an easier target for him.

Either way, I'm not getting too excited. I'll be happier when I hear Al Zawahiri or Al Zarqawi on tape telling the world that Bin Laden is dead.

Posted by The Colossus at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Colt has all the latest over at Winds of Change.

Posted by The Colossus at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Eszter over at Crooked Timber reports that she is teaching a class called The Internet and Society where she will require each student to maintain a blog.

I think this is a neat idea. I'm all for it. I think she should also award points on the following:

1. Make them use MT -- from download to installation to use to customization. Guarantee half the class drops in the first week.

2. Demand that they have -- a blogroll, ads, a sitemeter, and a unique logo for their site.

3. To pass, a student must crack the top 5000 of the TTLB ecosystem.

4. Grades are on a curve, using both traffic and links. Obviously, an Instalanche or two should help. Mastery of the trackback will clearly be essential, also.

5. Revenue. Students will have to set up a Cafepress account to sell merchandise. Prize for most revenue.

6. Strict enforcement of Godwin's law. Anyone comparing anyone to Hitler fails immediately.

I think they would learn a hell of a lot this way. Granted, my suggestions are a little bit tongue in cheek, but all of these things are worthwhile goals for any aspiring blogger.

Posted by The Colossus at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A missile defense test failed. Kevin Drum finds it funny.

Personally, I don't. In the age of a nuclear armed North Korea and a likely to be nuclear armed Iran, I think that missile defense is the only sane alternative to preemptive war. We need to make it work.

Posted by The Colossus at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Put him in at free safety on the practice squad for now. He's mean, and he can hit.

Hat tip to the Llamas for finding this one.

Posted by The Colossus at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Commissar found the UGO superhero creator and is having some fun with it.

Here's mine:

Posted by The Colossus at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Goldstein! No Links for you! Thirty days!

You know why. The "Bill Maher and flan" post.

I mean, some of us were eating our breakfast when we read that.

Posted by The Colossus at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Commissar mourns the Humvees; takes a free shot at Ted Koppel.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tim Blair has moved into his new digs here. Goodbye to Spleenville, I guess.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Intreresting story from The Daily Telegraph, as noted in Powerline.

Tim Blair has the Australian perspective on this.

I guess the skilled among the Dutch are coming to the conclusion that their government will not take any serious action in the wake of the Van Gogh murder to rein in Islamic extremists.

This quote is telling:

Frans Buysse, the head of Buysse Immigration Consultancy, said he received more than 13,000 hits on his emigration website in November, four times the usual level. His office in Culemburg is flooded with fresh applications.

"Van Gogh was a very public victim, but there are unknown victims on streets all the time. It's the living climate that is deteriorating. There are too many people on this one small spot of land,'' said Mr Buysse.

The refuges are Australia and America, of course, separated by oceans, which, though not the barriers they once were, are still formidable. And there is still plenty of land in both places. And both have governments that are prepared to see their soldiers die before their civilians.

Posted by The Colossus at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a "must view" video, care of the BBC. It came to me via The Commissar and King of Fools.

More remarkable pictures and words than you'll see in a year of watching network news.

Posted by The Colossus at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Claiming massive and systematic fraud in the 2004 Weblog Awards,
Jesse Jackson is stumping for Iowahawk.

I speak today for those afflicted with mental illness or addiction, millions of whom are today wandering aimlessly through the streets of their cities, climbing through random windows, looking in vain for the "cyberspace" where they can vote for Reverend Iowahawk - only to face the brutal batons of police and a cold jail cell.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Commissar is preparing a care package for the troops in Iraq.

In a related post, Andrew Sullivan is denouncing Secretary Rumsfeld for the lack of armored granola bars in Iraq. Oh, and Abu Ghraib. You know. In case you forgot about it or something.

Posted by The Colossus at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

K-Lo writes about the laser threat. The non-mounted-on-a-shark's-head variety.

The terrorists read Tom Clancy, in other words. Maybe the FBI and CIA should, too?

Posted by The Colossus at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I periodically check The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem rankings to see, well, where I stand. Right now, I have improved in this new blog to #12456 (Lowly Insect), thanks to links from the Homespun Bloggers and the Fatwa issued against me by Rusty. Thanks, Rusty. I think.

My current neighbors are Madame Tinkertoy's House of Blue Lights and Options Tradings Profits.

Uneasy Rider at Madame Tinkertoy's House of Blue Lights has this fairly amusing story to tell. Good for a laugh.

Options Trading Profits seems a little -- what's the word I'm looking for . . . serious? Consider this post. Good enough info, I suppose, if you're a fish to be gutted neophyte getting into options trading. Personally, I prefer my investment advisors to provide me with free Jack Daniels, but that's just me.

Anyway, them's the neighbors for now. One trying to make his fortune, the other simply searching for a comfortable bathroom stall. I wish them both luck.

Posted by The Colossus at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Garfield Ridge is another funny site that has been promoted off of the practice squad and onto the third string, where he backs up the perennially "injured" Jim Treacher. He's a bit rude, but he does have a way with the Anglo-Saxon side of the language.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Elder over at Frat Lib runs a pretty amusing poem by Russ Vaughn.

But the real gem of the piece is the part below the poem. It is a magical bit of advice that I have used on more than one occasion.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I mean, this is a beating. You know, the kind of beating where you've clubbed him with the butt of the pistol, kicked him in the abdomen seven or eight times with your hobnailed boots, and yet you find you're still so pissed off that you need something else to -- there! -- a length of lead pipe -- BEAT his *SS with six or seven or eight or . . .

"Stop! You're killing him!"

Posted by The Colossus at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pretty interesting experiment. And he's funny, too.

Posted by The Colossus at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Timely as ever.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gerard Vanderleun is an everyday, must read. Here's his story on the day John Lennon died. Really an interesting tale. When you're done reading him, bookmark the site. Put him somewhere in the top 5 you read each day (you know, Lileks country), and you won't be disappointed.

My John Lennon story is far less interesting and cool. I was a teenager. I remember buying the "Double Fantasy" album -- and I mean album, crappy vinyl with the Geffen "G" on the middle label -- right around the same time he got shot. A few days before, if I'm not mistaken. My best friend at the time was an insane Beatles and John Lennon fan, so I am certain we both bought it the second it was released. It had been five years in the waiting, for him, since Lennon's last album release.

I remember being pissed off because the album skipped, right out of the sleeve. And I don't mean one or two minor skips on unimportant Yoko "B" side tracks. I mean, four seconds into "Just Like Starting Over" the sonofabitch started hopping around like a coked-up kangaroo. I returned it the next day, and got another -- same damn thing. The guy at the record store was very pissy about me returning it, too, saying it was my turntable, etc., but I assured him that it had played Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" over twenty thousand times without incident. I remember vowing to never buy another piece of vinyl with the Geffen Records "G" on it. A vow I kept, incidentally. I made a bootleg cassette of the album.

Continue reading "Vanderleun's John Lennon Story . . And Mine" »

Posted by The Colossus at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Great article from the Economist, which I came to through reading Joe Katzman at Winds of Change.

Joe has more here.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Who says there is no wholesome entertainment in America anymore.

Link

For those of you who don't follow these things, SarahK is the official IMAO T-Shirt babe and gun moll to Frank J.

Risawn is an Army reservist, soon to be deployed to Bosnia, who posted the famous "not sorry" photo of herself with an M203 grenade launcher after the election, in parody of the "Sorry Everybody" moonbats.

Posted by The Colossus at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Was over reading a pretty impressive essay at Vanderleun's American Digest, and in the comments there is one from Allah, using Allahpundit's email address. According to the comment, Allah (if he is indeed the Allahpundit) has quit. I quote from "Allah's" comments, below.

Interesting post, Gerard. The reason I quit blogging was because it was no longer fun enough to be a hobby and never had been lucrative enough to be a job. Your post, I think, presages that same Catch-22 on a vast scale: As the medium becomes more "active" and competitive, people who come to it wanting nothing more than a place to spout off in their spare time will face an expectation that they should be out on the street digging up stories. Some of them will ignore that expectation, content to spout off into the void while the medium leaves them behind. Some of them will adapt and discover that they have a knack for newshounding. I expect the average joe, though, will toil away at it for awhile with mounting frustration until one day it occurs to him that if he had wanted to be a f**king journalist, he would have been a journalist. That's when he'll shut down his computer and go get himself a hobby that actually reduces his stress. Imagine this happening en masse and "The Great Consolidation" starts to look more like "The Great Weeding Out."

I'm not sure I agree with Allah's point here. I don't blog because I want to be a journalist. I blog because it amuses me. Believe me, if I thought someday I was going to wake up and realize "I don't want to be a journalist" I wouldn't blog at all. Who the hell ever wanted to be a journalist in the first place?

I guess that means I fall into Allah's category of "those that the medium leaves behind."

Yeah? Says who? If Allah, or Glenn Reynolds (for sake of argument) decides that blogging is journalism, does that make it so? Who defines the medium that's "leaving me behind?" I mean, if I want to post Friday night pictures of my cat, is a big blogger going to tell me that I'm not blogging?

I think that the blogosphere is an exercise in vanity, and not much more. Always has been. Always will. The fact that it is destructive of journalism just shows you that journalism, as practiced today, is something worse than vanity.

Mere journalism ain't something we should aspire to.

I do not think the blogosphere will replace the news media. I do think it will, by pointing out their excesses and incompetencies, make the news media get better.

But who cares about them, anyway? It isn't about journalism. It never was. It's about posting pictures of your cat on Friday night, among other things.

UPDATE: Arthur Chrenkoff has linked to this post. Welcome, Chrenkoff fans. I have additional comments (or as they say on C-Span, I have revised and extended my remarks) here.

Posted by The Colossus at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)