Isaac Schrödinger

The Coffee for Egalitarians

KipEsquire notes an interesting change with a clever title.

Flip-Flopping Sheehan

So very pathetic.

Can you feel the motherly love?

Freedom is My God

Milton Friedman once said, "My objective, my God, if you want, is freedom." Mart Laar had adopted this philosophy and Estonia is better off for it.

Imagine the creative energy and the economic growth that would be unleashed if the US were to implement a flat tax.

Dim Dim Dim Dim Dim

Deferred success meet your f**ked up sibling.

Home schooling looks more and more appealing with each passing day.

Katrina Relief

Glenn Reynolds and Charles Johnson (see the updates) have provided extensive posts where you can find means of helping the folks who got hit by Katrina.

Damian Penny provides links to sites where Canadians can make donations.

Borrowers Maybe?

The PC-ness of the MSM never ceases to amaze.

Quite right.

Roasting the PA

After the Gaza pullout, it's nice to read a story where terrorism doesn't pay.

The lizards are quite happy.

A Classic Non Sequitur

Read the reply of a hideous man.

The American Reality

Kim du Toit:

A few months ago, I was enraged by reading some British journo bemoaning the fact that as the Russian people were becoming more wealthy, Leningrad was starting to look like the “Dallas suburbs”, with new middle-class families’ homes springing up all over the place, and swamping all the older, more beautiful architecture.

I bet the article was written by a guy who lives in a dreary one-bedroom apartment in Whitechapel, because he clearly doesn’t know just what comes with “Dallas suburbs”.

Kim explains what that guy clearly missed.

Terrorist Connections

The Independent:

All the fanatic militant leaders of India and Bangladesh used to maintain close international links and had connections with Kuwait and they were provided with funds for carrying out terrorist activities by some billionaires of Kuwait, according to a competent source.

[Emphasis mine]

That is certainly shocking. I agree with Rezwan that India should send the connected terrorists to Bangladesh. More importantly, the US should figure out the identities of these billionaires. If these loaded lowlives sent money to terrorists in India and Bangladesh, then they're likely subsidizing terrorists elsewhere as well. The Middle Eastern grants for terrorists program has to be put to an end.

Stupid Muttawa

Alhamedi:

They [the Muttawa] are public servants, just trying to do a thankless task in the interests of our moral purity. Some people think that the Muttawa live on a constant diet of fast food and confiscated porn, so that any lady who extends her tongue beyond her lips, especially to lick something, is going to evoke guilty and lascivious thoughts, provoking a sexually-repressed and puritanical reaction. But nothing could be further from the truth. Quite simply, there is a wrong way to eat an ice cream, and there is a right way.

Go there to see the cover of the new Muttawa guide to eating ice cream.

See No Evil

Dennis Prager asks the opponents of the Iraq war a question. I bet a straightforward answer will not be forthcoming.

Letters to the Net Editor

I was reading through this page where, it seems, various Pakistanis have sent their letters to be published. Precious few of the letters read like this:

No one seems to learn a lesson from History, when from 4th century Europe was ruled by Christianity to the 1750 A. D there was nothing but turmoil, Protestants fighting Catholics and the crusaders fighting the Muslims for 300 years and no development in Europe.

It was 1757 when the Europeans separated Christianity from politics that the industrial revolution began in Europe and America after 1776 and the world began to prosper and enjoy new inventions and easy life for the whole universe. The Muslim Ummah haven’t contributed one cents worth to the world after 1300 A. D so why follow a failed path of religion in politics, which failed for 1300 years in Europe. Come on wake up Muslims.

Arif A Khan
California, USA

Whoa. The letter is titled, "Learning lesson from history."

Sadly, quite a lot of the letters conveyed paranoia and muddle-headed thinking. Letters with titles such as "We are faced with a crusader," "In defence of Mullahs," "Bush must be stopped," "What the Americans need to ask from their government?," "A blessing in disguise," "Democracy by imperialism," and "Osama helped Bush to become president" stand as the idiotic examples.

Excerpt of "On killing humanity":

They used biological and chemical gases fully ignoring those innocent civilians who could not have moved out of Fallujah due to ailment or age. They had no mercy for women and children. The story of Fallujah is much more violent than Heroshima [sic], but the world remained silent, as silent as the dead wind.

Yup, the Battle of Fallujah was much more violent that an atomic bomb.

Close to the end of the page, we have a letter from an American named George Horvat. Be sure to read "An American's view." An excerpt:

Historically USA does not keep countries conquered. We give them back to the people who live there if they promise to live in peace. Ask Japan, Germany, Panama, Granada, Afghanistan, Mexico, Cuba and Iraq. Need I go on? Stop your whining and help us, don't hinder us. We don't want your country but we do want you to live without fear in your own land. Just remember one thing whether you spit on us or not, we will still be there to help you in your time of greatest need. Because that is what a real American is really all about.

Thank you Mr. Horvat.

Update
Stop the ACLU is having a trackback party...so I decided to attend.

Sharia in Canada

Even the Frogs are shocked:

"A lot of French people cannot believe it, because for us Canada is a country with very good rights for women. It is unbelievable," said Michèle Vianès, president of Regards de femmes, a non-governmental organization in France. "Under sharia, women do not have the same rights as men. Sharia is a bad idea. How is it possible that Canada would back it?"

Here is what some Canadians might be thinking:

• I thought all cultures were the same.
• It would be sooo judgmental to say that Sharia is bad.
• Dude, Islam like totally respects women. My friend, Habib, said so.
• Well, you know, maybe the Muslim women want to be treated like that.

I've personally read / heard these 4 reasons for Sharia in Canada.

The Moderate Opinion

Daily Times from Pakistan:

President General Pervez Musharraf’s next month’s address to the Jewish Congress in New York does not mean recognition of Israel, Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Naeem Khan said on Monday.

Speaking at a weekly press briefing, the spokesman reiterated Pakistan’s stand that Israel could not be recognised till the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

That's nice to know. Though, I wonder, if there will be an Israel to recognize when the Islamists get their Palestine.

Law & Econ Prodigies

Incredible:

This unique collection of largely unpublished papers brings together the founding fathers of law and economics to provide their own views on the origins and intellectual history of the field. Law and economics emerged as a separate field of scholarship during the early 1960s, fueled by two seminal papers, one by Ronald Coase and one by Guido Calabresi. The ideas generated by scholars researching in the field have deeply influenced the major disciplines of economics and the law. These 16 essays (including three by Nobel Laureates in economic sciences) provide an impressive blend of differing experiences and varying perspectives...

[Emphasis mine]

The collection doesn't come cheap though. Perhaps in a few months I'll be able to get a deal on eBay.

Link via Tyler Cowen.

Blatant Cheating

Martin Kramer has been plagiarized.

For students: Since it's the beginning of an academic year, you might take a lesson from this episode, and spend an hour to learn what constitutes plagiarism. When I enrolled as a Princeton undergrad over thirty years ago, I received a copy of this booklet, which seems not to have changed since then. The definitions used at Princeton aren't some unobtainable gold standard. They're a minimal standard.

Good advice by the professor.

The Man with a...You Know

Cassandra is on a roll:

We see John Roberts' chauvinism and hostility to Womyn's rights clearly in another area. In 1983, he scathingly sneered at a proposal to give womyn lower tuition at state colleges and universities in recognition of their lower earning power, calling the policy "discriminatory" and "un-Constitutional". His arrogance is just astounding. Womyn have been intellectually and morally superior to men since the Dawn of Time. With our vastly larger cranial capacity and our ability to manage people, which exist despite the well-known fact that there are no emotional or physiological differences between men and women that would justify the centuries of unjust oppression and discrimination visited on the female gender by the white male hegemony, we should be earning MORE than men - not less! Everyone knows it is only the repressive atmosphere of sexual harassment that persists despite the Sexual Revolution and the advances in the legal climate that now allow Womyn to sue for gender and pay discrimination that account for disparities in pay between man and women!

Yay, support Roberts for the Supreme Court...oh wait, should that be oppose John Roberts? I'm so confused.

High-fidelity First Class

Eleanor Clift said something stupid and Russell Wardlow has got her number.

The Continuing Terror

Cox and Forkum:

Everybody Wants a Free Lunch

But of course.

Why is it that most people who report on economic matters don't even have an elementary understanding of it? When the government offers "free" education or health care or housing or what-have-you, the demand of that "free" good will rise.

I don't understand how people could still be mesmerized by this simple, rational and abundant occurrence.

Consistent Blair

An excellent excerpt of a piece by Hitchens:

The only speech by any statesman that can bear reprinting from that low, dishonest decade came from Tony Blair when he spoke in Chicago in 1999. Welcoming the defeat and overthrow of Milosevic after the Kosovo intervention, he warned against any self-satisfaction and drew attention to an inescapable confrontation that was coming with Saddam Hussein. So far from being an American "poodle," as his taunting and ignorant foes like to sneer, Blair had in fact leaned on Clinton over Kosovo and was insisting on the importance of Iraq while George Bush was still an isolationist governor of Texas.

The poodle turns out to be a bulldog. I've always told friends and acquaintances, who don't much care for the eeevil oil-slurping Bush, to pay close attention to what P.M. Blair says since he provides a more cogent and eloquent defense of the Iraq War.

Excerpt thanks to Andrew at Apostablog.

Sick Sheehan

Dave Kopel:

Cindy Sheehan claims the media are "a propaganda tool for the government." A New York Post editorial (Aug. 16) argued that Sheehan's statement was self-evidently false, given the overwhelming and almost exclusively positive media attention paid to her in the last several weeks.

Cindy is not alone in her crazy world.

But in a broader sense, Sheehan has a point: Almost all the news stories and columns in Denver dailies, like the vast majority of the rest of the mainstream media, have failed to inform their readers about what Sheehan really thinks.

Hmm, any examples?

... on Aug. 16, Sheehan held a media conference call during which she declared "The person who killed my son, I have no animosity for that person at all."

Of course not! The Islamist killers in Iraq are freedom fighters. It was her son who was on the wrong side. /LLL

At the Veterans for Peace rally, Sheehan called George Bush a "lying bastard" and a "maniac." She showed her path to peace: "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." (The Crawford "Peace" House, which Sheehan has used to coordinate her protest, has a photo on its Web site depicting "Palestine" as including the entire state of Israel...

Another reason for Lefties to slobber all over Mother Sheehan.

What a sorry old demented woman.

Link via Cliff May at the Corner.

Bin Laden's Nemesis

Westerners might be decadent but make no mistake, Bin Laden will meet his end at the hands of one ... the Pampered One.

Lord have Mercy

Katrina is pissed.

Link via an innovatively-named lizard.

Ashes in the Balance

Tim Blair:

Excuse me while I undergo cardiac arrest. (Thumps chest.)

England need 10 runs, with 3 wickets in hand, to win the Test.

Cricinfo commentator:

Every game in this Ashes series has been better than the previous one. What an unbelievable series it has been so far.

Indeed.

Update
England need 8 runs to win. Their score 121/7.

Update II
Lee is sending down thunderbolts. Hoggard is being sensibly cautious. The 4th ball is hit for a 4. Whoa! 2 off the last ball. 2 more runs needed. It's all over. Unless Warne produces the greatest over of his life.

Update III
The Great Blondie is bowling his heart out. He has sent down 4 dot balls. Oooh, the fifth ball is hit for the win! England leads 2-1 in the Ashes series.

Everything will be on the line for Australia in the final Test match.

Brothers in Arms

Here is something you don't see often. A veteran calmly fisks a puerile anti-war troll. He is too nice, in my opinion.

The US is the Enemy

Toronto Star:

At their election-preparation session at caucus this week, campaign chief David Herle told Liberal MPs that hopes of a majority rested partly on drawing away 5 to 6 per cent of the NDP vote. New Democrat voters, notoriously anti-American and currently highly opposed to George Bush's administration, may need a little reassurance from these Liberals that they share those views to a degree.

So what that means is that no one should be surprised to see Martin's Liberal party flexing a little anti-American muscle in the weeks and months ahead. They've done it on health care, they'll do it on guns and gay rights and trade — anything to tap into the vein of Canadianism that identifies this country by how not-American it is.

Sigh. A war is raging, in which Canada is on the hit list, and the Liberals decide that bashing the US is a productive strategy.

Can't they spare some venom for the Islamists?

Link via Damian.

Hawkins Answers

John Hawkins is asked: (H)ow do you explain the fact that right-wingers consistently side with Israel and left-wingers with the Palestinians?

His answer is so politically incorrect. And true.

Reforming Mordor

I consider it unlikely for Abdullah to dilute political power by liberalizing Saudi Arabia. His own family will vehemently oppose him if he embarks on that plan.

Remember that the entire country is "governed" by numerous members of the ruling family. Each province and function of the country is given to a different brother or a relative. For example, the military and the media are controlled by two different men of the Saud family. It's set up in such a way to avoid inter-family bloodshed since practically everyone has got perks and some kind of domain. So, we not only need a liberal Abdullah but also a sizable portion of the Saud family who support him.

Abdullah might well succeed with a little economic liberalization but politically his family will not give up their power. They'll, of course, hold sham elections to satisfy dim Westerners but that's about it. The only solution that I see is to uproot the entire Saud family and the Mutaween organization (the Religious Police).

Pensive Sadness

My translation of the caption: According to the report of the World Bank, 33% of the population of Pakistan is living below the poverty line. In the photo, on a footpath in Lahore, a homeless poverty-striken family presents a wistful picture; they long for their daily lives to turn around.

The photo of the four sad faces was taken from here.

Skinny to the Rescue

Jim Pfeiffer, a firefighter, saved the life of a toddler.

2 out of 3 or 2 out of 4 or...

Is it just me or do you also get a headache reading this post?

George W. Bush won in 2000 and in 2004. Get over it, already.

History is Written

Cricinfo:

Australia were made to follow on for the first time in 17 years...

The Australian supremacy in Test cricket was shattered today.

A shell-shocked Australia negotiated the 20 minutes of play before lunch intact - physically, if not necessarily mentally. But after a morning of ooh-and-aah-inducing magic, England hold all the aces.

Indeed.

Update
This has been a wretched summer for Australian cricket.

• The men's team lost to Bangladesh (the greatest upset in history).
• The English women's team regains the Ashes after 42 years!
• The men's team follows on after 17 years.
• The men's team loses the Ashes?

The ChiCom Menace

Symposium: China Rising at FrontPage. It is interesting to read the various theories and foreign policy prescriptions offered by the panel.

The last word went to Frederick W. Stakelbeck, Jr. and I was quite shocked to read what he had to say. I am sure China wouldn't mind taking hold of that region but the sheer logistics of it makes it nearly impossible. Not to mention, China won't have any element of surprise if she did go ahead with the assault.

Oozing with Peace

On more than one occasion I've come across odious leftists who've defended Palestinian suicide bombings on the grounds that the Palestinians are poor. Thus, suicide bombings is a legitimate means of fighting the heartless occupying Israelis.

Yeah, the Palestinians are so poor.

Bond. Shane Bond.

India was crushed by Shane today. The scores for the first 8 Indian batsmen follow: 5 15 0 5 1 9 2 2. Shane Bond took 5 out of those 8 wickets. He, then, broke the 8th wicket partnership of 118 runs to end with 6 wickets for 19 runs.

Two years ago, India faced Australia in the World Cup final. Today, India is not even in the top half of the rankings.

Flintoff Mauling Australia

Flintoff is savagely taking apart the Australian bowlers. He just smashed 14 runs off Kasprowicz's 27th over. He has top-scored for England with 94 runs off only 109 balls. So far, this has been a horrible Test for Australia.

Update
After exactly 100 overs of the Test, Flintoff hits the next ball for his richly deserved century. We have a prime candidate for the MoM award.

Oh, Flintoff is out for a 132-ball 102. Tait takes the prized wicket.

31 Souls Extinguished

Fidel Castro has a very special place reserved in Hell.

Abhorrent, Sickening, Vile.

Can animal rights activists get any more despicable?

Farmers breeding guinea pigs have said they will abandon the work in the hope that the remains of their relative dug up from a grave in Staffordshire will be returned.

...

A spokesman for Stop the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, who gave his name as Johnny and would not reveal his surname, said:

"This is the most fantastic day of my life.["]

"It's a victory for the animals and it's a fundamental victory for the animal rights movement. I feel so unbelievably proud to be part of the movement."

Link via Samizdata; Perry de Havilland:

A truly dreadful affair and a reminder of the contempt with which these 'activists' should be treated.

Markets in Everything

Sunblades!?

Oooh, stylish wireless laser keyboard and mouse.

No amount of space is enough: 1000GB DVR.

Update
Fake wedding guests!? Hunh. Also, read the interesting comments.

Anna, at Sepia Mutiny, is quite shocked.

Hooray for Evian

I am linking to this post because it showcases the truly great advancement of science. Honest.

Erudite Hawk vs. Whiney Ostrich

In other words Victor Davis Hanson vs. Arianna Huffington.

God doth have a sense of humor.

The Harsh Spanking Continues

This has been a super bad month for Juan Cole. I excerpt just one point:

8. You assert that Mr. Vincent "was egregiously breaking the rules of gender segregation and female honor. He should have had a male interpreter." That is, he should have refused to offer a woman a job she was professionally qualified to do, because local men might disapprove? No doubt the women of Iraq, and of the rest of the Arab world, will be delighted to learn that the head of the Middle East Studies Association is so devoted to keeping them in their place.

Ouch. Indeed.

The Wrath of Allah

The poor ferry:

More photos here.

Speaking of Pakistan...

A super sonic jet. Well, it's not that super. Alright, I'll admit, it's not even a jet. But, you can't disagree with the sonic part!

A 'Pakka' Pakistani Relative

Murli Zee from Pakistan:

A few nights ago, I sat bored hearing a relative/acquaintance rant about how he found his better half. It was an arranged affair and the selection had been made through photographs. How can someone find a wife by looking at photographs of women? Isn't that like finding love online? And how do these photographs make the rounds? I suspect someone makes the rounds carrying an album in their bags. My circumspection amazes my relatives. They think I've turned too Canadian and this is the effect of the last few years abroad seeping in into my attitude.

[Emphasis mine]

I've been at the receiving end of similar comments.

"A Silly Old Soul"

Juan Cole is at it again. Andrew has got his number.

Anti-US Spin Unravelled

Reuters: U.S. workers still lag Europe in vacation stakes.

Response: Smackdown by Jayson. Also, read the first comment.

Knuts who say Nay!

I found this hilarious post thanks to the Carnival of the Vanities #153.