Unqualified Offerings

PNH commends this Bruce Sterling blog entry to my attention. With quarter close (and audit!) coming, blogging pace here may start to suck. But it’s a fascinating story about the permeable membrane between government and gang, and I hope to say more about it.

Furthermore, Shamir’s idea that the U.S. government should ban Jewish organizations is grotesque, not only by libertarian standards but by any measure of human decency.
Who is “Shamir?” Who is the author? Discover.

If you worry that I haven’t been snarky enough tonight, I should remark that variations on the word “insurgent” appear six times in the text of the Presidential Address. That’s once for every 1,000 times someone in the jingosphere has inveighed against applying the term to our enemies in Iraq.
Say it with me, people!
Why does [...]

I’ve become convinced I undersold the news value of the President’s speech last night. In my defense, I think this is because the Prez deliberately underplayed it. We are seeing, on our side and theirs, some furious if furtive overtures. Nobody’s dancing yet, but people are making eyes across the room.
I already highlighted the brief [...]

Robert J. Waldmann is your source for genuinely educational blogging on the CIA kidnapping case specifically and the Italian legal system generally. Try
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The last entry listed, I should note, completely demolishes my hypothesis that the kidnapping prosecution was revenge for the unpleasantness surrounding the killing of Nicola Calipari. No biggie. I’ve always got more hypotheses!

Farel Dalrymple, whom I love, has new sketches. (Via Comics Reporter.)
Foods Touch! Comics publisher Gary Groth has a close encounter with airport security. (Via Fanboy Rampage.)
Jim Henley writes about pre-Crisis revamps at The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons.

Billmon on the record of fools rushing in. Includes some very important links.
Max on Kelo.
Speaking of Kelo, Mindles H. Dreck wonders about its implications for land trusts and “forever wild” programs common in – David Souter’s New England!
John Tierney learns a lesson from the Old West he has so far, on the evidence of other [...]

Freestar Media thinks it can make better – and more public! – use of David Souter’s place than he can. As the letter points out, now they just need three of five selectmen to agree with them.
Via everywhere.

I just read the transcript of Bush’s speech over at Balloon Juice. In general, it is as devoid of genuine news as cynics predicted – if you’ve ever read a comment thread at Winds of Change, you’ve read the speech. (We kid because we, um, are kidders.) Hell, much of it sounds like it was [...]

Tabarrok on China and China-fear is essential reading today.