Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
I notice that a Hit and Run thread has gotten sidetracked onto the “republic, not a democracy!” tangent.  I find this tangent particularly annoying but sadly common, so I will repost my response here, and then bookmark it for the next time it comes up.
I’ve seen multiple definitions for “republic” and “democracy.” If […]

By Thoreau
We have left DC.  The movers were incredibly efficient on Wednesday, and we were able to leave in the evening.  We are taking it easy on this trip, and are spending the evening just outside St. Louis, MO.  Tomorrow I’ll be visiting a colleague in Columbia, and then on Saturday we’ll drive to Boulder, […]

As a follow-up to tonight’s bloggy radio discussion, a compendium from the National Security Network highlighting just how unreliable are claims that violence is dropping in Iraq.

By Mona

You know how when you’re sitting on the pot in a public restroom, and your feet are just a slippin’ and slidin’, swingin’ this way and that and making all comfy with the footsies to the left of you and on the right? And you know how you really aren’t paying […]

Me on OTB Radio right now talking Larry Craig, animal rights and the GAO report.

By Mona
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Via James Randi, we learn that China’s notions of government power and purview are truly extraordinary:

In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, […]

By Mona
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Since childhood, man’s inhumanity to man — of the most heinous and depraved sort — has simultaneously repelled and fascinated me, and been the object of far too much depressed rumination. Filed away in my mind are myriad instances of hideous atrocities I’ve encountered in books and film […]

At HenleyWatch they’re laughing about last night’s post about the pending war with Iran. Hey, bonus points for the attempted jiu-jitsu on the “bedwetter” meme!
The thing is, I’ve seen this movie before. TFG grumbles that I only included two links. Well, there’s a lot more than two stories out on the net about preparations for […]

Alan Bock has fantasies about Larry Craig. I think he underestimates the extent to which evangelicalism has become American conservatism. There just isn’t a “constitutionalist” tendency worthy of the name within the GOP any more. Some of what used to pass for “limited government conservatism” was a cynical ploy to oppose specifically cosmopolitan social reforms […]

Bo Diddley has suffered a heart attack. This seems pointless given that Bo Diddley will never die. There’s a great moment early in the PBS history of rock&roll series that starts with an aged Diddley playing the violin in church. During the course of the interview, he gropes for ways to describe the “Bo Diddley […]

Newsweek’s interview with National Counter-Terrorism Center head John Scott Redd is . . . refreshing. Redd comes off as straightforward and relatively spin-free. There’s not a lot of rah-rah or alarmism, nor any effort to score cheap political or bureaucratic points. And for just a second, I caught myself thinking, “Imagine if the government as […]

From the Financial Times:
At the weekend Frederick Kagan, an adviser to President George W. Bush and the architect of the US surge strategy in Iraq, said the special relationship between London and Washington was under threat because UK defence cuts had left Britain’s military unable to sustain simultaneous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Britain has a […]

After all that Mike Vick chin-pulling, it’s a relief to be able to take the straight, er, doctrinaire libertarian position on the Larry Craig case.
Look, I figure I’ve been using public restrooms for close to 47 years. In all that time I’ve been aware of one sorta proposition. Ironically, it happened on my honeymoon, in […]

By Thoreau
I’m procrastinating from preparing for the movers.  Yesterday I talked about putting Cheney’s Ring on the Metro tracks under the Pentagon.  Just having a bit of fun.  But since some of the bedwetters have been remarkably earnest about comparison our current situation to Tolkien’s stories, I thought that perhaps we should explore that issue […]

They’re really going to bomb Iran. The magnitude of the idiocy and unjustness boggles. After the last five years it’s stupefying. It will be, for all practical purposes, a bipartisan act. It will constitute a massive war crime. Chances are the war is already essentially underway. It’s deeply depressing to watch the whole thing happening […]

Wired shows off “The 10 Fastest Green Cars on the Planet.” About three of them are biofuel-driven and another couple use similarly suspect power sources, but there are also some cool designs.
Via Brett.

By Thoreau
Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has pleaded guilty to trying to pick up a guy in an airport bathroom stall.  Apparently he was sitting in a stall next to an undercover cop when he reached into the next stall with his foot and then his hand.
I don’t care if Republican members of Congress are attracted […]

By Thoreau
Julian Sanchez is taking a break from blogging.  Apparently all these animal rights discussions are wearing him out.  And one of the main instigators was Jim!  How could you, Jim?
I should send Julian a sympathy gift.  Maybe foie gras, or a gift card for this restaurant I know that has excellent veal parmesan.

By Thoreau
Blogging will be sporadic for the next week or two. I leave for the West either Thursday morning or Wednesday evening, depending on how things go. But before I leave, I offer this thought:
What would happen if diminuitive Dennis Kucinich found himself in possession of some of Dick Cheney’s jewelry? And […]

From the department of manual trackbacks, incompatible thoughts on those wacky libertarians from mtraven and those confused liberals from John Markley.
UPDATE: mtraven himself asks, “Why incompatible? It’s quite possible that libertarians are wacky and liberals are confused.”

If not for it, Sullivan wouldn’t have Jamie Kirchik guestblogging at the Daily Dish and I would be reading less drivel.
Nevertheless, warmest congratulations and fondest wishes for Andrew and Aaron. And for god’s sake hurry back!

Max Sawicky, pending former blogger. Max is, needless to say, well to the left of me on economics. But we had substantial areas of agreement on foreign policy and, as he himself said today,
But politics should not be practiced on religious principles or as blood feud. Politics is about getting stuff done. No self-respecting liberal […]

Surely this is a case of Hayek repeating as farce, but by gum, that famous essay was the first thing that came to mind when I read Stephen M. Bainbridge’s contribution to the metastasizing, slow-motion animal-cruelty blogburst kicked off by Michael Vick lo these weeks ago. Excerpt from Bainbridge:
This is not to say that neither […]

By Thoreau
Why do they call it a “major” revision when they just want a few statements changed, and they want me to switch the order of some mathematical steps? (First derive the equations, THEN non-dimensionalize them.)
And why do editors request these revisions when I’m 24 hours away from changing jobs?
Fortunately I have 3 months […]

By Mona
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The NYT:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned.
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[…]
The official who disclosed the resignation today said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales’s and that the president accepted it grudgingly. At the same time, […]

Still thinking about the animal rights/property rights/animal cruelty/powers of the state issues. I should stress that this is a topic where I really don’t know what I think right now, and may be in the process of changing same. So for the foreseeable future, you can assume an invisible “It seems to me so far” […]

By Thoreau
I’m eating breakfast and watching CNN, and they’re reporting that Alberto Gonzales is stepping down.
That’s what I call a good first step.
UPDATE:  Somehow tar and feathers just don’t feel sufficient.  I want to call for something more…substantial…um, I mean “enhanced.”  (Gotta stay on top of today’s DOJ terminology.)  But calling for an “enhanced” approach […]

Swimmer’s ear! I’m a real swimmer now! So, in place of the usual drill, 1) a recent beefcake picture of me; 2) some loyal readers had races of various sorts coming up. Brag on yourself in comments.

If not for the minimum age problem, I believe Unity ‘08 would have its dream candidate. Via, dammit, Unfogged.

By Thoreau
George Washington wants America to fail in Iraq:
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us […]

By Mona
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Drug warriors: Keeping us safe from great-grandmothers who won’t testify against their progeny, and 93-year-old men. Prison is too good for these geriatric menaces!

I should probably spend time convincing you that the United States should not go to war with Iran. A good place to start would be something Yglesias wrote yesterday:
It really is striking how un-optimistic the more optimistic views of Iraq are when you get down to it. Michael O’Hanlon thinks our strategy “probably can’t succeed” […]

Steve Clemons, guesting at the Dish, finds a milblog the Pentagon missed: Army of Dude. The entry on the Revolution of 1920s Brigades will feed some suspicions you probably already had. But I’m most struck by excerpts from another entry:
This occupation, this money pit, this smorgasbord of superfluous aggression is getting more hopeless and dismal […]