Tom Elia, writing at The New Editor, has a piece about gas prices

Tom Elia, at The New Editor blog, has a good piece about real gas prices, adjusted for inflation from 1919 on. Once you adjust for inflation, we are actually saw lower gas prices from 1985 until 2003 than we did prior to 1985:

Update: Speaking of people who need a good, swift kick in the ass, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) just asserted on Meet the Press that United Airlines went bankrupt because of oil prices, which is a total falsehood.

United went bankrupt because of its out-of-control cost structure, not because of high oil prices (amazingly enough, United doesn't even bother to hedge energy costs in the futures markets -- Southwest Airlines is the only airline company to do so).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dick Durbin is an embarrassment to the state of Illinois, a state which once was represented by serious men like Paul Douglas and Everett McKinley Dirsksen. What a fall off in quality....

More about cars in Dallas

The dominant truck and SUV brand in Dallas is Ford. There is a certain segment of the market that would rather "push a Ford than drive a Chevy". GM products, especially Chevrolet, are very much in evidence. New car sales have tended towards Toyota, with many Nissan, Acura, and Lexus cars, as well. Honda has been a player, but it is harder to tell how they are doing, right now. New American-built cars are Chrysler or GM products, with very few new Ford products on the road, although there are starting to be a few, after a total absence. Of course, this is all based on what is "seen on the road". There are still many Hummers on the road, even with $3 gasoline. The H3 seems to be an increasing presence. Even my wife is interested in them. Of the more exotic, prestige brands, Jaguar seems to be on the decline, although Volvo is still very evident. I have seen quite a few Saabs, although I had heard that they were not doing well. I saw several Range Rovers, this afternoon. Most of these seem to be older, not new sales.

Denial of Service Attacks from Saudia Arabia

Kim Priestap, blogging now at Wizbang, says that the problems that have been present when trying to access blogs on Hosting Matters are due to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks originating from Saudia Arabia. Kim is actually reporting on news from Charles Johnson (the Dark Lord) at Little Green Footballs.

Rasmussen polling indicates that supporting illegal immigrants is not a winning position

Politicians, especially Democrats, were excited by the huge crowds turned out in protest to support illegal immigrants. The usual ambulance chasers, including John S McCain, Jr., were rushing to put themselves at the head of such crowds. Rasmussen has done some "robo-polling" which indicates that there is a strong groundswell of opinion opposed to that position and in favor of enforcing immigration laws and border security. Republican prospects look pretty grim for 2008, but a third party candidate who wants to build a fence at the Mexican border and makes enforcing immigration laws a "strong priority" could approximately match the generic Democrat in support.

More "seen on the road" in Dallas

Based on what I see on the way to and from work, about 40 miles from home, the new GM models must be moving pretty well and Ford must be starting to get more Ford Five Hundreds and Fusions into consumer's hands. Chevrolet seems to be doing better than Ford, though. Even though the new Chevrolet offerings are largely formulaic (with several exceptions), they still seem to be moving better than Ford's new cars. I did see a Fusion and a Five Hundred on the way into work. The Chevrolet HHR seems to be doing the best in this market of any non-truck. This is a big PT Cruiser market, and the HHR is very similar in appearance. It is also unique and interesting. The Chevrolet cars, except for the Malibu, seem to be scaled off the same basic shape. People seem to be buying them, despite that. The Ford Five Hundred needs a facelift, as soon as possible. Ford did that with the Taurus, Lincoln LS, and Mercury Sable in 2000, and they need to do it again. The Fusion is OK as is.

Greg Costikyan has a good article about gaming at The Escapist

Greg Costikyan, who was in lower Manhatten on September 11th (not part of this story), has an article in The Escapist about gaming "The Revolution Began with Paper". Greg has made a career out of game design and has a new startup called Manifesto Games. He also has a blog. Greg writes:

But the truth is, the rise of digital games has been accompanied by a rise, not a decline, in non-digital games; in the early '70s, the hobby market grossed no more than $20 million annually, and today it grosses several hundred million (there are no reliable industry figures). In essence, videogames have helped hobby games to thrive, by making "gaming" an acceptable and broad practice across society, and inculcating a whole generation with a love of and desire to play games. Tabletop roleplaying games and Magic players play videogames, too - and many videogamers are wholly comfortable sitting down with a German boardgame, a TCG or a tabletop RPG. Games, of all sorts, are no longer the purview of a few proud geeks, but the common vernacular of anyone under 40.

He has a great deal more than this to say. I would recommend that you read the whole thing, as Greg knows what he is talking about.

Michael Heraghty has a new post, finally

Michael Heraghty has slowed his posting, considerably. He does have a new post, today, about browsers:

As an aside, Microsoft has recently been forced to change Internet Explorer due to a legal battle (it lost), affecting the way IE displays embedded objects (such as Flash-based interactions) on web pages.

Whenever a page has a Flash movie, or Java applet, IE now gives you a thoroughly annoying message, declaring click to activate and use this control. Worse, you see an ugly grey border around the image, and you have to click it before it will act as anything other than a simple image or animation.

Talk about killing usability. What really pisses me off is that Microsoft updated (i.e. crippled) my browser “automatically”, while my computer was idle.

Dick Meyer, of CBS, has a good piece on liberty

Dick Meyer writes, at the CBS site, about liberty and "We Know What's Best For You". He has really good things to say. He concludes:

As the quotes from Thomas Frank and E.J. Dionne show, a defining impulse or attitude of many Democrats and liberals today is that Americans, because of evil manipulations by Republicans, do not know what is best for them and the party's job is to show them the light.

That is a temperament, and one which is not easily discernible in policy papers and campaign platforms. But voters can smell it a mile away. And lately, they think it stinks.

Marc Cooper sort of likes Tony Snow

Marc Cooper, despite being a columnist with The Nation (the "enemy publication"), likes Tony Snow pretty well:

OK, go ahead and accuse me of being a little soft on Snow. But I have to disclose that a couple of years ago when I was doing the publicity rounds for my book on Las Vegas and American culture, Snow offered me one of the most thoughtful and intelligent interviews (now ducking for cover). He knew very well that I wrote for the enemy publication, The Nation (we joked about it before we went on the air) but it didn't in any way color his interview with me.

Put your rotten tomatoes away... I'm not saying that Snow is fair and balanced. But he knows the professional ropes of journalism and he can't be worse than McClellan. Can he?

P.S. Come on, you have to admit that some of this stuff is sort of endearing.

Sun is roadkill, and it makes no difference if Scott McNealy is there or not

With the decline of "client server", no floor, no ceiling, with big boxes to run it on, Sun has a big problem. They started off in the 1980's building Unix workstations for doing scientific applications. When relational databases, C++, and Unix took off in the market, they ran with it as hard as they could, building hot iron to try and make the concept work. In 1997, FedEx was going to eliminate mainframes by 2000 (hah!). After Anderson Consulting's big client-server project in Orlando for FedEx cratered, the landscape changed. The CIO (Dennis Jones) behind the move eventually left, and they eased back into mainframe computing, as did Wells Fargo, among others. Client server, as a design concept, is alive and well, but the "no floor, no ceiling" hype of the mid-1990's is gone. Sun is a pending casualty of the evolving market. They are trying to "out-Microsoft, Microsoft" with Java, but all it has done is to generate ill-will among people that Sun would do well not to antagonize. It says something to me about Sun's situation that when I arrived back at Qwest, in Minneapolis, in May of 2003, there were some big, Enterprise Sun boxes sitting in the hall, unplugged.

A bird's nest on the ground

An odd feature of the Dallas landscape features a stretch of Mockingbird Lane from "Central Expressway" (US 75) to the Dallas North Tollway. The major portion seems to be in the Highland Park enclave, although some must be in University Park. The "Park Cities" are enclaves of wealth stuck into the northern part of Dallas, but south of Northwest Highway, the next most northern east-west transportation corridor. The Dallas Country Club lies just east of Preston Road. Back in 1987, there were huge speed bumps on this stretch of Mockingbird Lane, intended to keep traffic away. At some point, those speed bumps were removed. That had not prevented people from buying and renovating old homes along Mockingbird, as this is was considered to be prime real estate. It is conveniently located near main transporation arteries, but traffic was restricted. This traffic restriction is mostly physical, as this stretch is down to 2 lanes, with no left turn lanes. Mockingbird is such a natural east-west corridor, that the two lanes has not been sufficient to hold back traffic. Lately, the city of Highland Park has wanted to add left turn lanes, to ease congestion, but understandably, residents have opposed such a move. They oppose repeal of the Wright Amendment (an anti-competitive law backed by American Airlines and DFW Airport), because residents believe that it would likely put more traffic pressure on Mockingbird. They oppose widening the street and even putting in the left turn lanes. The problem is that there are forces at work that will eventually blow away their interests, as the need for east-west transportation corridors in Dallas is so great, that will overcome the desires of a small group of affluent residents.

A song that I learned from my father, when I was small

My father had served in WWII as a signalman in the Navy. He spent 1942 to 1944 on PC-470, running between Key West, Panama, Cuba, and South America. He spent the latter part of 1944 and 1945 on a YF. He saw the USS Franklin leave Pearl Harbour, looking brand new, and he saw the wreck towed back, after she was almost lost. He finished the war in Leyte Gulf, where they fired off every piece of pyrotechnic they had.

One of the things he brought home from the war was this song: "A Capital Ship for an Ocean Trip...". I was exploring, with Google, links to the lyrics and the story.

Why are our leftist buddies so rabid and out of control?

I was reading about Michelle Malkin's situation and the LA Times columnist (Michael Hiltzik) who has been savaging everyone to his right, politically. Mention of Michelle Malkin's forced move to escape possible physical harm from leftist loonies seems to have pretty much vanished, except for the story at The Radio Equalizer. She only obliquely mentions the incident. She is high up on the leftist hit list, not a nice place to be, as they play very nasty, indeed.

John Kerry likes the fact that Mary McCarthy leaked classified information

I am not exactly a John Kerry fan, so this does not surprise me. Kim Priestrap, writing at Wizbang, has a piece about John Kerry's reaction to Mary McCarthy's leak of classified information and her firing: "John Kerry Glad McCarthy Leaked". Kim writes:

Once again, John Kerry shows the nation why he has no business being anywhere near the White House. Drudge is reporting that Kerry is glad McCarthy leaked classified information.

Former presidential candidate John Kerry has come to the defense of a fired CIA officer accused of disclosing classified information to the press.

"I'm glad she told the truth but she's going to obviously -- if she did it, if she did it, suffer the consequences of breaking the law,' Kerry explained to ABC THIS WEEK.

Charlie Sheen really screwed up

The Smoking Gun covers the story of Charlie Sheen's divorce proceedings. He has been married to the glamorous Denise Richards. She says that he has been visiting prostitutes, using illegal drugs, gambling, and had gay child porn on his computer. The last revelation could really cause him trouble, as child porn of any type is "prohibited material" (in the Soviet style). Not only does he have screwed up, leftist political views, but he apparently is looking for exotic thrills, as those that are available to him have ceased to be interesting to him. This seems to be an example of where wrong thinking on politics (such as being a 9/11 Bush conspiracy theorist) is reflected in other parts of the person's life. The gay child porn could get him put away for a long time, unless the justice system in California cuts rich celebrities a lot of slack (which is likely).

Hugh Hewitt continues to talk with interesting people, and Duane Patterson has the transcripts

Hugh Hewitt continues his tradition of talking with mostly interesting people. So far this week, he had the following interviews (with transcripts and audio files on Duane Patterson's Radio Blogger blog):

Monday, April 17

AEI's Michael Ledeen with some wise advice on Iran

Larry Kudlow on the great American boom on which no one's reporting Real Clear Politics' John McIntyre doing a little pulse taking of GOP presidential and senatorial politics

Jed Babbin on what was talked about in the big Pentagon pow-wow earlier today

Tuesday, April 18

Congressman Mark Kennedy on his way to being Minnesota's next Senator

Christopher Hitchens weeps for Sean Wilentz and his Worst President in History piece in next week's Rolling Stone

The top three reasons why you need to read this interview with Time Magazine's Joe Klein

National Review's media blogger, Steve Spruiell, on L.A. Times blogger Michael Hiltzik's friend Harvey

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney explains the revolutionary health care plan that passed in the Bay State

Thursday, April 20

Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt, in honor of Michael Hiltzik, making it up as they go along on Pulitzer journalism, the levels of depravity in Iran, and the unnerving blandness of Chinese dictators

Jack Kelly has a piece on "Global Warming"

Jack Kelly, writing at Irish Pennants, has a long quote about "Global Warming":

on global warming:

How sensitive is Earth's climate? Sufficient to warm by at least several degrees in response to greenhouse gas pollution but perhaps not as sensitive as some scientists have feared, according to a new study.

And here's something you wouldn't expect to see from the BBC:

How much has the planet warmed up over the past century? Most people reckon between two and three degrees. They are not even close. The real figure, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is 0.6C.

He also has this:

And then there is this:

Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society's continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Only lefties think that we have a big problem

Greg Mitchell has a horrible piece at Editor & Publisher: "A Crisis Almost Without Equal Republicans and Democrats alike are starting to face the prospect of what it means to have George W. Bush as their commander in chief for another 33 months -- in a time of war, terrorism, and nuclear intrigue. How can the press contribute to confronting the crisis? First: recognize it exists." He writes:

I don’t have a solution myself now, although all pleas for serious probes, journalistic or official, of the many alleged White House misdeeds should be heeded. But my point here is simply to start the discussion, and urge that the media, first, recognize that the crisis—or, if you want to say, impending crisis -- exists, and begin to explore the ways to confront it.

He seems to be saying, if you dig into his article (a difficult thing for rational minds) that someone needs to assasinate President Bush. That or someone needs to stage a coup. There are so many unhinged people "out there" that somone is liable to try and act on Greg Mitchell's harangue. The Confederate Yankee responds to this, also.

Kevin Drum has a piece called "The Great Conservative Crackup?"

Kevin Drum, writing at The Washington Monthly blog, has a piece called "The Great Conservative Crackup?". The man he writes about, Jacob Heilbrunn, is obviously an old-time conservative: the kind that could never win an election, because they were both boring and took wrong positions, in large part. The "old-time conservatives" don't like the Southern, largely Christian Conservatives. They look on them as having hijacked the movement. Oddly enough, the "old-time conservatives" are pretty socially liberal. They tend to be small-government, fiscally conservative, and often, isolationist. They abhor someone like President George W. Bush, who is socially conservative, conservative Christian, internationalist activist, and fiscally liberal. The "old-time conservatives" kept the conservative movement in the fringes for half a century, so I am reluctant to let them influence policy, especially because of their isolationist tendencies.

Tom Maguire has the lastest scoop on the Libby affair

Tom Maguire has the scoop on the attempts by the MSM personalities to quash the Libby defense team subpoenas. He writes:

Motions To Quash

Jeralyn Merritt notes the motions to quash filed by news organizations resisting the subpoenas of the Libby defense team; Reuters, the AP, the NY Times, and the WaPo have coverage.

From the TIME and Judith Miller subpoenas themselves, we find this to be of interest - the defense wants information on contacts between reporters and "Ari Fleischer, Marc Grossman, Eric Edelman, Cathy Martin, Joseph Wilson, George Tenet, and Bill Harlow".

Most of those names are well known (Cathy Martin was Cheney's press spokesperson). Eric Edelman has been linked to this case but has not featured prominently, and Bob Grenier's name is almost new to this [NO! Clarice Feldman notes that he appears in para. 7 of the Libby indictment].

Here is Eric Edelman's bio; he was Libby's Principal Deputy prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Turkey in July 2003. He was also the chap on the other end of the phone in points 12 and 13 of the Libby indictment, made notable by Libby's comment that "he could not discuss the matter on a non-secure telephone line".

White lacrosse players from Duke are presumed guilty until proven innocent, if then

The black community in North Carolina quite naturally wants to believe the woman who says that she was raped by three white guys from the Duke lacrosse team. The local Democrat prosecutor, who is running in an election in May, is ready to accommodate. He indicted two of the lacrosse players. Tom Maguire, of the JustOneMinute blog, is still hedging his bets on the guilt or innocence of these two men, but as I wrote previously, he is hearing that there is nothing to this. I take it that the prosecutor is playing the race card, hoping to be re-elected. I recognize that we may not know the whole story, but if what we have been hearing is true, then there is no legitimate reason to even charge these guys.

Tom Maguire, a non-fan of lacrosse, says that he hears that there is nothing to the case

Tom Maguire, writing at JustOneMinute, is not a fan of lacrosse. He says, though, that his sources "in New Jersey" say that there is nothing to the case about the Duke lacrosse players. Tom writes:

For what it's worth - One of the two men, Reade Seligman, was a high school team mate of Ryan McFadyen, who, also per the Times,

had sent a crude, threatening e-mail message hours after the alleged attack. McFadyen was given an interim suspension when the email became public on April 5, the same day Duke President Richard H. Brodhead canceled the lacrosse season, accepted the resignation of the coach and announced a series of campus investigations.

Their Delbarton team was a powerhouse, apparently.

As to the case itself - my guess is that once the District Attorney gets past his election situation in early May, the wheels will fall off. My sources in New Jersey assure me that there is nothing to this, but who knows?

Texas Wildflowers

One of the pleasures of Spring in Texas are the wildflowers. This year, the Bluebonnets were not so prominent, as there was inadequate rain, earlier in the Spring. Now, however, we are into the time for the small, white or pink flowers (perhaps somre sort of primrose). I wanted to link to a picture, but I could not find one that looked like what we are currently seeing alongside the side of the road in large patches.

The Confederate Yankee, on Sheep, Sheep Dogs, and Wolves

The Confederate Yankee blogger has a piece called "The Sheepdog's War". This is "good stuff". My background in the service comes forward in my consciousness, due to what he has to say. For example, I was in Norfolk when they loaded the minesweeping helicopters onto the C5A's at the naval air station. They were used in the abortive attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran. I was a Lieutenant, USN, on active duty at the time, working at the Atlantic Command. One morning, when I took my son to swim team practice, the retired Navy captain who cleaned the pool for the team told me that they had made the rescue attempt and failed. I must admit that I wept at the news. It was in the spring of 1988 when I met an ex-Marine who had been in Recon. He had been part of the team that went into the Iranian desert to reconnoiter the landing zone. He had bad words to describe how things were (dis)organized. They were only fixed once President Reagan took over command. This Marine had also been an on a recon mission in Lebanon, before anyone knew that we had Marines there. My last ship, the USS Nashville (LPD-13) was involved in the whole Lebanon mess, after I left active duty and had gone into the reserves. The Carter presidency, an unmitigated disaster, moved me to the right. Had grown up as Center-Left, and by the early 1980's, I had moved further to the right, in response to the excesses of those on the Left.

The Confederate Yankee writes:

Conflict with Iran should be avoided if possible, but not at all costs, and it appears the point of no return is approaching with breathtaking speed.

Iran is dominated by a radical sect of Shi'a Islam that seeks to bring about the end of this world as an immediate shortcut to their eternal salvation. Mutually-Assured Destruction that has been so repellant to secular nations for the past 60 years does not apply to Iran. This is not the desire of the bulk of Iran's people. The Mullahs believe that a blinding flash and momentary pain is all that separates them from an eternity in Paradise.

Iran is building up both their technology and their rhetoric at a time that their current President thinks he speaks directly with their Messiah. There need be no clearer message, one simply has to listen, and the sheep will adamantly refuse.

It is a suicidal path the Sheep have taken, but to acknowledge any other possibility is to acknowledge the failure of their own ideology, an ideology they adhere to with no less fervor than that of Mullahs that would set alight the world.

Sheep and Wolf, predator and prey, they are both blinded to facts by their fanaticism. As Whittle defined the Pinks before:

...nothing is forbidden, convention is fossilized insanity and everybody gets to do their own thing without regard to consequences, reality, or natural law.

The consequences of the Mullah's eschatology and the denial of the Sheep are a recipe for the End of Days, an orgasm of Pink philosophies conspiring to obliterate millions in a blinding flash. Only the Sheepdogs stand in the way.

This is the Sheepdog's war to fight, and fight they must. That is the reality that has presented itself to us. As Sheepdogs and as Greys this is not a war we would choose, but one that has been thrust upon us by the overly tolerant of the West and overly intolerant of the Middle East. Iran's Mullah's would have nuclear weapons, and they have promised over and over again to use them, potentially triggering the deaths of millions.

This must not stand. Iran must not have nuclear weapons, nor nuclear facilities that can enrich nuclear materials to create these weapons. Any and all reasonable options should be on the table to prevent this eventuality, conventional and unconventional alike.

Let the Sheep bleat if the bombs must fall. At the very least, their noise shows that their throats have not been ripped out by the Wolves.

Hugh Hewitt has a piece about pending indictments of Duke lacrosse players

The local DA in Durham seems determined to prosecute one or more Duke lacrosse players for allegedly raping a black woman. Hugh Hewitt has a piece that talks about the current situation. If it really is true that no Duke lacrosse player's DNA was found in the woman, then the indictment seems politically motivate to please the local black population. Hugh writes:

Police detectives did an impromptu interrogation of Duke lacrosse players in their dorms late last week:

In what the defense team believes was another effort to get ready for the grand jury, police detectives went to a Duke dorm Thursday night to question lacrosse players. According to the defense lawyers, the officers wanted to know who was and wasn't at the North Buchanan Boulevard party the night of March 13-14.

The effort to question the players, the lawyers say, proved authorities lack confidence in the dancer's visual identification of her alleged attackers, which reportedly was made from photographs.

This is the question I had about this investigation from the beginning. How was the D.A. so sure the entire time that it absolutely HAD to lacrosse players who assaulted the dancer?

At a college party, presumably "soaked" with alcohol, how can anyone know that the only guys in attendance were lacrosse players? How can anyone know that all of the lacrosse players were there? In my experience, no one at a college party knows exactly who's there at eny given time, so how could the D.A. know for sure a couple days after the party.

Also, in my experience, sports teams don't usually throw parties to which only their teammates are invited. That's not a party. That's practice.

My guess is the D.A. is unsure about the attendance at the party, and always was. Folks in town (I was in Durham this weekend) are saying Nifong decided who to indict last week and needed to double-check that they were actually at the party that night before embarrassing himself publicly. We'll see what comes down.

In find myself in a peculiar position

There are a number of Conservative bloggers who are so unhappy with the sort of Republicans who get elected, that they are ready to hand the November 2006 election to the Democrats. A prime example is Ed Morrissey. I am pretty socially conservative, although not uniformly. I am strong on national defense and fighting terrorism of any sort. I am laxer on immigration, although I feel somewhat guilty about that position. I wrinkle my nose at the power-and-money hungry Republicans in the House and Senate, but I dislike our Democrat and leftist buddies so much that I am not ready to give up on the Republican Party. I wish that the Republicans would not spend so freely. Do you really think that Democrats will be fiscally responsible? We are stuck with the men and women who are elected from the districts and states. The people there got what they wanted and deserved. We don't have to like them, and I certainly am not a fan of Lindsey Graham, John S. McCain, Jr., Chuck Hegel, Senator Grassley.

Friday night, Mark Levin read from a Victor David Hanson article

I occasionally listen to the beginning of Mark Levin's show on WBAP in Fort Worth. On Friday night, he read from a piece by Victor David Hanson that was an answer to the lefty critics of President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Andrew Sullivan used to say, the "money quote" is

"Troop transformation" has become equally calcified. We know the script. Pensioned Army and Marine generals appear ever more ubiquitously to assure the public that we have near criminally shorted ground troops. They alone are now speaking for the silenced brave majors and dutiful colonels stuck on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq with too few soldiers — as their four-star Pentagon brass sold out to Mr. Rumsfeld's pie-in-the-skies theorists in Washington.

Maybe — but then again, maybe not. The counterarguments are never offered. If hundreds of billions of dollars were invested in sophisticated smart shells and bombs, drones, and computers, to ensure far greater lethality per combatant, then must traditional troop levels always stay the same? How many artillery pieces is a bomber worth, with ordinance that for the first time in military history doesn't often miss? Has the world become more receptive to large American foreign bases? Or depots to housing tens of thousands of conventional troops and supplies? And did lessons of the Balkans and Afghanistan prove the need for far more ground troops and traditional armor and artillery units?

The point is simple: Somewhere between the impractical ideas that the U.S. military was to become mostly Special Forces on donkeys guiding bombs with laptops, or, instead, a collection of huge divisions with tanks and Crusader artillery platforms, there is a balance that the recent experience of war, from Panama to the Sunni Triangle, alone distills. And it isn't easy finding that center when we had enemies as diverse as Slobodan Milosevic, Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein.

Eleanor Clift likes Ted Kennedy's desire to legislate

Eleanor Clift, in a Newsweek article, writes about Ted Kennedy in glowing terms, and praises his focus on passing legislation. She takes a dim view of Charles Schumer, and his crowd, who decided to block the compromise bill that Kennedy helped craft with Chuck Hagel and Mel Martinez. Chuck Schumer figured that there was political advantage for the Democrats, if the immigration bill was blocked, so he blocked it. Chuck Schumer didn't want the Republicans to get a bill, even though Kennedy and Harry Reid were behind it.

I seem to have been onto something with the Ford Five Hundred

On Market Place, early tonight, I heard that Ford was disappointed with sales of the Ford Five Hundred and the redesigned Explorer. Except for one day several days ago, when I saw 4 or 5, I never see a Five Hundred. Given the widespread presence of the 2000 Taurus body style, I figured that there must not be many Five Hundreds in the Dallas area. When I saw the multiple Five Hundreds, some from the ends, I was impressed with how balloon-like they looked. The looked unpleasantly fat, actually. They bubble out, rather than looking sleek. This picture is from familycar.com:

The article on this page describes the results of their road test of the Five Hundred. They describe the car as "just another conservatively styled family sedan". They do say that the technical characteristics are better than the car looks. Perhaps Ford could do a sheet metal facelift, they way that they did for the Taurus, starting with the 2000 model year.

A Third Front in the War against Islamic Extremism

Wretchard, writing at The Belmont Club, has a piece about the US opening a third front in the war with Islamic extremists: Europe. He writes:

The rise of radical Islam in Europe described by Bruce Bawer which was the subject of the previous post, is amplified in a Wall Street Journal article by Frederick Kempe. Entitled the U.S. Sees Europe as New Front Against Islamist Extremism, the article says that:

The Bush administration has quietly opened what senior officials consider a third front in a global campaign against Islamist extremism, this one aimed at the rising threat from Europe. ... The administration's evolving thinking came into sharper focus last week during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing at which Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Daniel Fried said: "While Islamist extremism is a global phenomenon, we find the nature of the problem in Western Europe to be distinct -- both in its character and its potential to threaten the United States."

He says that the real problem is that the Europeans are not even ready to concede that there is a problem with Islamic extremism.

Blonde girl Melanesian girl

Razib, writing at Gene Expression has this picture of a naturally blonde Melanesian girl, who exhibits no other European characteristics. He has a substantial post on the genetics involved.

This looks interesting

There is a cartoon website/blog about getting a PhD, called phdcomics.com, and a comic titled "Piled High and Deeper". You can buy "Piled High and Deeper" merchandise. What was interesting to me is that they use Cafe Press. I have wanted to have "gear" and books for my various blogs and websites for some time. I have had a few products, but they are only available through ABE Books. I would like to have full-color posters and have a second edition of my Brederode booklet.

It is amazing how fast people drive

On the Dallas North Tollway, in the morning between 7:30am and 8:15am, I am amazed at how fast many people drive. I would like to be driving the speedlimit, so that the guys out there, selectively enforcing the speedlimits wouldn't have a shot at me. However, I also do not want to get run over. South of Plano, the posted speed limit is 55mph, and further north, it is 60mph. You would think that the speed limit in the south is 60mph, at least. There are people who drive 65 to 75mph to the north. You don't have that problem heading south, as the road is so jammed, traffic just inches along. I have seen some interesting cars racing north. For a few days, I saw a red Ford GT with white stripes. The car is amazingly wide and low. That car was driven like it was in a race, which it sort of was: the race to get north fast.

I saw only my second Ford Five Hundred on the way home, tonight

The first Ford Five Hundred that I had seen was a regular at church, at the 11am service. That was a black Five Hundred. The second one I have seen in the Dallas area, period, was a silver Five Hundred parked at a gas pump at Albertson's. I would think that if they were selling in any sort of numbers, at all, in the Dallas area, I would be seeing more of them. Instead, in the whole time since they went into production, I have only seen two.

The Radio Equalizer writing about Democrat attempt to muzzle talk radio

The Democrats continue to be unhappy with the hits that they take from Conservative talk radio. Brian Maloney, writing at the Radio Equalizer, writes about a Democrat attempt to muzzle non-leftist talk radio:

After a fill-in host pushed the envelope during an illegal immigration discussion, some Arizona officials are now working to eliminate conservative talk radio in Phoenix.

Under public pressure, could this seemingly heavy-handed and partisan action against Clear Channel's KFYI-AM backfire?

By demanding severe sanctions against the broadcast outlet, it appears to be a full-scale station shutdown attempt. What is more un-American than that?

Taking a highly unusual action, Democrat Arizona State Attorney General Terry Goddard joined with US Attorney Paul Charleton to demand a federal investigation into March 8 comments made by substitute host Brian James.

To get the point across, their official and very public campaign has been aimed directly at Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin.

"Build people and the people will build the business"

From a context with which I have had a long association, there is a phrase that is often stated: "Build people and the people will build the business". This is in constrast to pushing people to build their business and then seeing them fail, because they lack the skills and attitude to be succussful. Perhaps you recognize this phrase. I believe that it is a concept with general applicability, in the sense that if you are reading positive, personal growth-oriented books, have a positive attitude, and think in healthy ways, then you create an environment where others around you will be interested in doing those things, as well. You make the environment in which you work and live a better place, and you make your life easier.

Google Book Search

I would like to see a subscription version of Google Book Search, where I could pay to access books still under copyright. I would also see books in other languages (how about Dutch?). I already use the The First Dutch War, volumes I to III and have used Granville Penn's book about William Penn. (Hey, Google?)

Drudge pointed out a BBC piece about the sun

Drudge had a link to this 1998 piece from the BBC about the sun being the cause of global warming. We are currently in a period that began in the early 18th Century, when the energy output of the sun increased. There had been a "mini-ice age" up until then, that started before the 16th Century. The mini-ice age had been the cause of very severe, late season, high-latitude hurricane-like storms. One example is the storm which sank about half of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

I saw a Ford Fusion on the road, this morning, and was favorably impressed

I don't know anything about the characteristics of the Ford Fusion, but when I saw one on the road, this morning, I liked what I saw. The Fusion looks very "2006", and well-done, unlike the Ford Five Hundred, with which I am unimpressed. The only part that I thought was questionable was the radiator grill. Of course, this is the first Fusion that I have seen on the road, since the car first appeared on the market, so that is something of a concern. I suspect, that like me, very few people have seen one, or even know that it exists. Ford seems to be doing a very poor job, in the Dallas market, of publicizing anything but pickups. People have bought many Ford cars, here. The Taurus and Focus are "all over" (I own an upscale 2000 Taurus). Ford trucks probably dominate the market, and Ford SUV's are ubiquitous. I see more Crown Victorias than I do Ford Five Hundreds, however, which "says something".

Wretchard on Casualites in Iraq

Wretchard, writing at the Belmont Club has some surprising figures (if you have been following the MSM CW on Iraq. He writes:

Here are two serious links and one very serious piece of news. The first serious link is an analysis of Iraq casualty numbers by Myelectionanalysis (hat tip: Mudville Gazette)

81, 76, 50, 49, 43, 25

What are these numbers? This week’s Powerball winners? ... No, they’re the number of troops that have died in hostile actions in Iraq for each of the past six months. That last number represents the lowest level of troop deaths in a year, and second-lowest in two years.

"No Negative"

I have learned that protecting my attitude is critical. Because of that necessity, I try not to listen to negative information about the company with which I currently have a contract. That is similar to not wanting to negative information about my wife, since I don't want that to influence how I treat her, in our interactions. I suspect that most people, who have not been trained "in business" by the people who taught use, are very negative and look for things about which they could feel exploited and abused. Just like much of the left (and that is where I most recently saw this sort of thinking was in a lefty) is focused on victimhood, and it is very destructive.

Paul Graham on Software Patents

Paul Graham has an essay about software patents. He basically is in favor of them. The patent office just needs to get its act together and stop giving out inappropriate patents. That is really at the root of complaints. Paul writes:

In the software business I know from experience whether patents encourage or discourage innovation, and the answer is the type that people who like to argue about public policy least like to hear: they don't affect innovation much, one way or the other. Most innovation in the software business happens in startups, and startups should simply ignore other companies' patents. At least, that's what we advise, and we bet money on that advice.

The only real role of patents, for most startups, is as an element of the mating dance with acquirers. There patents do help a little. And so they do encourage innovation indirectly, in that they give more power to startups, which is where, pound for pound, the most innovation happens. But even in the mating dance, patents are of secondary importance. It matters more to make something great and get a lot of users.

The Ford Five Hundred must not be doing well in Dallas

This is just based on what I see (or don't see) on the road and in parking lots, the Ford Five Hundred seems to be very rare in Dallas. Perhaps that is true only on the roads that I travel and the places that I visit, but I rarely see one. The Taurus, especially since 2000, must have been widely bought (I even have one). They seem to be ubiquitous. The Ford Five Hundred seems to be more of an endangered species. My take on it is that the styling is not as good as it should have been.

Scott Johnson on Emmy Lou Harris

Scott Johnson, of the Power Line blog, writes about Emmy Lou Harris, and her connection to Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. I have not been particularly connected to the Byrds music, but like Emmy Lou Harris. We saw her at Caravan of Dreams, in Fort Worth, prior to the economic downturn, when Caravan of Dreams was still having concerts. Caravan of Dreams was a venue where you sat on chairs, at small tables, packed into the place. One benefit was that you were never very far from the stage, unless you were way over in a corner. Scott writes:

Today is the birthday of Emmylou Harris. I'm a latecomer to Emmylou's artistry, having come to her indirectly through my love for the music of the 1960's group the Byrds. The Byrds brought brilliant Beatles-inspired vocal harmonies and jangly 12-string electric guitar to the music of Bob Dylan and their own superb compositions.

In one version of the group, country-rock flameout Gram Parsons briefly took center stage and hijacked their groundbreaking 1968 album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." Following that album Parsons and original Byrd Chris Hillman left the Byrds to found the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Around the time Hillman and Parsons departed the Flying Burrito Brothers to pursue other interests, Hillman found Emmylou performing in a Washington, D.C. area folk club and talked her up to Parsons. On the night Parsons saw her perform, he was one of four audience members. Parsons sought her out after her set:

"I was knocked out by her singing. I wanted to see just how good she was, how well she picked up country phrasing and feeling, so after her set...I introduced myself, and we sang one of the hardest country duets I know -- 'That's All It Took.' Emmy sang it like she was falling off a log."

Parsons recruited her to sing harmonies on his post-Burrito solo albums and died of a drug overdose at age 27 following the second of his two solo ablums.

We pigged out listening to music, tonight

My son brought over a birthday supper for me, and we listened to music all evening. I picked out Shaina Noll (Bread for the Journey), Mary Black (Circus and No Frontiers), Michael Card (his site) (The Early Years), and King Crimson (In the Court of the Crimson King).

I listened to Shaina Noll constantly when I worked in Memphis 1996 to 1998, and my cat at the time, a Memphis girl, liked it quite well.

We had started listening to Mary Black about 1994, when my son first gave me a CD. I gradually collected more over time, and he gave me more, as well. When I worked in Lakewood, Colorado, there was an Irishman there, and he told me about the Black family, and their music.

We had first heard Michael Card around Christmas of 1987, when a friend gave us a tape she had made with several Michael Card songs. When I worked in Lakewood, Colorado, in 1995, a co-worker lent me about a dozen Michael Card CD's and I got hooked.

I had become aware of King Crimson when I had arrived in the Annapolis area in late 1971, and had been recording from the radio. Baltimore had a great AM station at the time that played progressive rock and folk music. We had fun listening to music that we hadn't heard in a while. My son and I saw the 1983 edition of King Crimson in Columbia, Maryland, where we lived at the time. Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford both had close-cut hair, which seemed pretty avant garde a the time.

Marc Cooper prints an email from one of his readers

Marc Cooper, my favorite leftist intellectual (I am center-right, myself), has a long post with the text of an email, about illegal immigration, from one of his readers. She is Black, and talks about the non-uniformity of opinion among Hispanics:

One email I received out of the blue on Thursday was superlative. Below I post the entire message from "CG." I don't agree with everything that our correspondent argues -- not by a long shot -- but so what?

Our correspondent does, however, get to the very roots of the illegal immigration issue by correctly noting that which is rarely said in our official debate i.e. that the ultimate solution is investment in the "sender" communities and countries, affording families a sustainable existence where they actually live.

From

somewhere in the Big Nowhere of L.A. our unsolicted correspondent writes:

Dear Marc,

I read your article with much curiosity. I was working downtown on Saturday when the big protest was held. I was struck by several things the volume, the peacefulness and the fact that everyone there seemed to be from Central America. I thought it was exciting to see working people mobilizing for political action. However, what struck me the most was how clueless all of my friends (none of whom are Central American) to what had happened downtown. Speaking to them later after the news coverage of the event I was shocked by their responses. None of them supported the protest and the sight of the Mexican, El Salvadorian and Hondourian flags solidified their feelings that this was not about fairness for all but economic leverage for a few and hardened their positions towards reform.

There is much more, and it is worth reading.