Posted 9/7/2002 06:00:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT CUP OF TEA: Lionel Mandrake has the recipe, which I can vouch for (he's made tea for my wife and I, not to mention kept my wife supplied with proper British tea bags). For a more potent, but verrrry, verrrrry, British drink, try one of these. But I'm curious as to what the good Group Captain's beef with ice tea is. I like it, and I'd like to think I'm not a total barbarian, (although I admit it's a verrry, verrrry different beast than its heated up cousin), but it just gives the good Group Captain the willies.

Posted 9/6/2002 01:06:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
IN THE HOUSES OF THE HOLY: My review of Susan Fast's In the Houses Of the Holy is now up on Blogcritics.

Posted 9/6/2002 09:25:29 AM by Edward Driscoll
BERKELEY FLAG FLAP UPDATE: Score another one for the blogosphere: Berkeley will have red, white and blue ribbons available to mark the anniversary of 9/11. The Angry Clam, which broke the story, has the details.

Posted 9/6/2002 08:57:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
VODKAMETAPUNDIT IS METABEGGING: Stop by his metasite and see what the meta fuss is all ametabout.

Posted 9/6/2002 08:55:51 AM by Edward Driscoll
FORTUNATELY, NO ARMED PILOTS WERE NEEDED: I'm in New York for a few days. Blogging will be sporadic. But if I can I figure out how to get in there from here, I hope to have a new book review posted on BlogCritics soon.

Posted 9/5/2002 01:09:04 AM by Edward Driscoll
ARMING PILOTS: USA Today says the Bush administration plans to adopt a small-scale test program of arming pilots. Good--it's about time.

Posted 9/4/2002 11:56:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
HEY, WE'RE ON DAVE KOPEL'S LINKS LIST! Thank you, sir!

Posted 9/4/2002 11:53:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOUTHERN HYPER-LIBERALS: Virginia Postrel says she knows what makes them tick.

Posted 9/4/2002 10:39:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
BLOGGING THE NEWS AND FLOGGING MY AXE: Eric Olsen has an excellent post on Blogcritics, the home-away-from-home for all the cool kids in the Blogosphere, titled "Music-Creation and Blogging". He sees a number of similarities between blogging and creating your own music via the PC. And as someone who also does both (I use the PC to "play" all the instruments on a recording except for my guitars), I'm inclined to agree, as I said in my comments under his post. If you're a blogger who also enjoys creating your own music, stop and check it out.

Posted 9/4/2002 09:56:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
HEY, FOOTBALL STARTS TOMORROW! And Commissioner Paul Tagliabue says that the NFL could make a Thursday night opener a regular fixture.

Posted 9/4/2002 09:49:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
LATERAL MOVE: Bruce Bartlett thinks that Alan Greenspan should be appointed secretary of the Treasury. Sounds good to me--I'd like to see somebody manning the Fed who's less blinkered by inflation, a bogeyman essentially licked by Paul Volcker, Greenspan's predecessor at the Fed. And after his years as a member of Ayn Rand's "Collective", Bono should be a piece of cake for Greenspan.

Posted 9/4/2002 09:40:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEVER FORGET: James Lileks watched the DVD of CBS's 9/11 coverage last night, and writes:

In the middle of an interview with a woman who saw the first plane hit, she gasps Oh My God, another one - and it reminds you again of that moment, the point when you grasped exactly what was happening, and the ground swayed. I’d say it brought it all back but it never went away. There hasn’t been a day I haven’t thought about it. That bothers some people. There’s an attitude in some quarters that there’s something unhealthy about thinking about 9/11, certainly in dwelling on the details. They’ll allow a certain amount of regret and dismay. They’ll permit you a brief spasm of anger, but it had best be followed with a nuanced assessment of American foreign policy. Remark that you had a nightmare about your daughter getting smallpox or a nuke in New York, and they’ll roll their eyes; tut tut the lad’s gone mad. These people are no doubt bracing themselves for the first anniversary, but for different reasons than you might have. They can’t stand people who won’t let go of 9/11. Once they washed the ash off their car it was over for them; why can’t it be over for everyone? Do you really think your inability to move along makes you a better person? Stop waving the bloody shirt. Send it to the cleaners already, and leave Iraq alone.

Actually, sometimes anger is the healthiest emotion. And payback extremely cathartic.

Posted 9/4/2002 09:00:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
BERKELEY VS. THE USA: They apparently don't want red, white and blue ribbons at their September 11 memorials, because it's "offensive," according to The Angry Clam. I like the Heinlein solution that the Clam proposes. UPDATE: Sounds like DiFi would fit in perfectly at Berkeley.

Posted 9/4/2002 06:22:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
GREAT TITLES WE'D LIKE TO SEE: As found on Sgt. Stryker's Weblog.

Posted 9/4/2002 04:47:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
SUE SADDAM? Sure, let's throw the book at him. But as James Lileks wrote a few months ago, "Agreed. Tape it to the nose of a thermobaric explosive."

Posted 9/4/2002 04:36:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
SIDING WITH THE US: James Glassman, in an essay on Tech Central Station titled An Energetic Victory, says that a number of developing nations sided with the US--and not European Luddites--when it comes which technologies to provide energy.

"The overall feeling," said the source, "was that renewables might be fine for Europeans, but Africans and Asians need to boost their economies by using energy that is inexpensive and abundant." The source was clearly referring to oil and coal, which will provide the vast majority of energy for China and India over the next decade.

Glassman calls it "a stunning victory on the contentious issue of energy" for the U.S. Take that, Mayor Moonbeam!

Posted 9/4/2002 02:35:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
MY WIFE FORWARDED THIS TO ME:

WITH SEPT. 11 APPROACHING, THIS IS WORTH READING AND PASSING ON.... "DO NOT FORGET" I sat in a movie theater watching "Schindler's List," asked myself, "Why didn't the Jews fight back?" Now I know why. I sat in a movie theater, watching "Pearl Harbor" and asked myself, "Why weren't we prepared?" Now I know why. Civilized people cannot fathom, much less predict, the actions of evil people. On September 11, dozens of capable airplane passengers allowed themselves to be overpowered by a handful of poorly armed terrorists because they did not comprehend the depth of hatred that motivated their captors. On September 11, thousands of innocent people were murdered because too many Americans naively reject the reality that some nations are dedicated to the dominance of others. Many political pundits, pacifists and media personnel want us to forget the carnage. They say we must focus on the bravery of the rescuers and ignore the cowardice of the killers. They implore us to understand the motivation of the perpetrators. Major television stations have announced they will assist the healing process by not replaying devastating footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. I will not be manipulated. I will not pretend to understand. I will not forget. I will not forget the liberal media who abused freedom of the press to kick our country when it was vulnerable and hurting. I will not forget that CBS anchor Dan Rather preceded President Bush's address to the nation with the snide remark, "No matter how you feel about him, he is still our president." I will not forget that ABC TV anchor Peter Jennings questioned President Bush's motives for not returning immediately to Washington, DC and commented, "We're all pretty skeptical and cynical about Washington." And I will not forget that ABC's Mark Hampering warned if reporters weren't informed of every little detail of this war, they aren't "likely -- nor should they be expected -- to show deference." I will not isolate myself from my fellow Americans by pretending an attack on the USS Cole in Yemen was not an attack on the United States of America. I will not forget the Clinton administration equipped Islamic terrorists and their supporters with the world's most sophisticated telecommunications equipment and encryption technology, thereby compromising America's ability to trace terrorist radio, cell phone, land lines, faxes and modem communications. I will not be appeased with pointless, quick retaliatory strikes like those perfected by the previous administration. I will not be comforted by "feel-good, do nothing" regulations like the silly "Have your bags been under your control?" question at the airport. I will not be influenced by so called," antiwar demonstrators" who exploit the right of expression to chant anti-American obscenities. I will not forget the moral victory handed the North Vietnamese by American war protesters who reviled and spat upon the returning soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines. I will not be softened by the wishful thinking of pacifists who chose reassurance over reality. I will embrace the wise words of Prime Minister Tony Blair who told Labor Party conference, "They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000, does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it? There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must!" I will force myself to: -hear the weeping -feel the helplessness -imagine the terror -sense the panic -smell the burning flesh - experience the loss - remember the hatred. I sat in a movie theater, watching "Private Ryan" and asked myself, "Where did they find the courage?" Now I know. We have no choice. Living without liberty is not living. -- Ed Evans, MGySgt., USMC (Ret.) Not as lean, Not as mean, But still a Marine. Keep this going until every living American has read it and memorized it so we don't make the same mistake again.

Fair enough, Sergeant.

Posted 9/4/2002 02:28:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
WAR--UNH!--WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? Quite a lot, actually, says Jonah Goldberg in an excellent essay. There's too many good paragraphs for me to pick one to quote, so just click here, and read the whole thing.

Posted 9/4/2002 01:48:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
VIRGINIA POSTREL IS BACK ON THE SCENE, with a post on the number of black men in college versus in prison, and why bad statistics make for lousy arguments. Incidentally, Postrel says her new book, The Age of Look and Feel, was "electronically flown" earlier this week to her editor in New York. Here's my review of her previous work, The Future and its Enemies.

Posted 9/4/2002 12:03:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHO'S TO BLAME? Jane Galt, who's Live from the WTC, runs the numbers. And quite brilliantly, I might add.

Posted 9/4/2002 10:23:09 AM by Edward Driscoll
TOOK 'EM LONG ENOUGH InstaPundit says that the FBI has finally decided that the LAX shooting (two months ago) was an act of terrorism after all. Gosh, there's a shocker!

Posted 9/4/2002 10:19:57 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHERE THE SON DOESN'T FOLLOW: Rod Dreher on Andrew Cuomo, who bowed out of the New York governor’s race yesterday. UPDATE: VodkaPundit also has some thoughts on Cuomo the younger.

Posted 9/4/2002 01:30:50 AM by Edward Driscoll
GIMME AN F: That's the grade that CBS News gave airport security. Remind me to have an extra Martini or two, next time I fly. UPDATE: Scott Ott has more details, not to mention even more satire, on this topic.

Posted 9/4/2002 01:10:39 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE QUARTERBACK QUANDARY: Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated asks "What is it about the quarterback position that seems to fog the finest minds in football? Why are the most dramatic mistakes made in the area of evaluating QBs? I mean, why can't they tell?"

Posted 9/4/2002 12:06:29 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE VICE FUND: Now this is a great idea for a mutual fund!

Posted 9/3/2002 09:33:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE HATE BOAT: Little Green Footballs links to this article in The Jerusalem Report, about Israel Navy operations chief Eli Marum, the man who captured the Karine A, a ship purchased by Yasser Arafat and loaded with weaponry bound for the PA:

[Marum] notes that the ship itself was purchased from a Lebanese seller for $400,000 last October -- after Arafat had made his post-September 11 pledge to fight terror -- by Adel Mughrabi, a senior PA figure close to Arafat. Another Arafat confidant, Fouad Shubaki, chief procurement and finance officer of the PA, handled payment for the weapons. Marum says it is "outrageous" that Shubaki is being held in a PA facility in Jericho. "He ought to be tried in a proper court of law." The shipment filled 80 custom-made submersible containers, which were to be tossed overboard off the Gaza coast and washed ashore or picked up by fishing boats and other small vessels. The haul included 700,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition; 735 hand grenades, 311 anti-personnel mines and 211 anti-tank mines; 345 long- and short-range Katyusha rockets and 10 launchers; 29 mortar tubes and 1,545 shells; six Sagger wire-guided anti-tank missile launchers and 10 missiles; 51 RPG-7 anti-tank missiles and 328 rockets; 30 high-powered Dragonov telescopic rifles; 212 Kalashnikov assault rifles, over 2,000 kilograms of explosives, and two speedboats with powerful Yamaha engines and a range of diving equipment. Much of this weaponry is prohibited from the PA under the Oslo Accords.

Posted 9/3/2002 03:28:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
WAS THE WORLD SUMMIT A SUCCESS, asks Den Beste in another post on his USS Clueless site, as I get caught up from a weekend without broadband:

So was this summit a success? Depends on what you thought it would accomplish. If your goal was to attend and to eat a lot of lobster and caviar and drink a lot of champagne, then it was unequivocally a success. If you wanted to be able to come home and say that there was an agreement, then it's still a success. They'll have an agreement, all right. If you actually wanted the agreement to make any difference, I'd say it wasn't. Expect a rising tide of criticism from the activist groups after the summit is over, as they realize that their grand dreams of actually diverting the world to a new course evaporated like so many lumps of dry ice in the African sunshine. At least they were successful in preventing the Arabs from hijacking the conference and turning it into yet another Israeli slam-fest.

Posted 9/3/2002 03:24:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
DO WE NEED UN APPROVAL? Steven Den Beste says the folks who say we do before attacking Iraq all have one thing in common.

Posted 9/3/2002 03:00:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
"WOW, NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL SUSTAINABLE GROWTH!" Mark Steyn, in between delicious plates of black rhino confit on a bed of Amazonian mahogany leaves, puts the Johannesburg Earth Summit in its place, in a hilarious article. Say, is Steyn with Lyndon LaRouche? (Found via Little Green Footballs.)

Posted 9/3/2002 02:50:18 PM by Edward Driscoll
HISTORY OWES NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN AN APOLOGY, according to John O'Sullivan in National Review Online, at least when he's compared to today's current appeasers of Iraq.

Posted 9/3/2002 02:08:46 PM by Edward Driscoll
MAYOR MOONBEAM VISITS JOHANNESBURG is the subject of this CNSNews.com article, which features this quote, putting Jerry Brown (the mayor of Oakland, California) in perfect context:

A British author critical of the Green movement, Professor Philip Stott, said Brown's anti-development views, as relayed to him, can be likened to Marie Antoinette's reported response when she was told the French peasants had no bread to eat: "Let them eat cake."

Because the reporter dared question Brown's rococco environmentalism, he quotes Brown as actually asking him, "Are you with [Lyndon] LaRouche?"

Chris Horner of the free market advocacy group, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was not surprised that Brown would assume that any reporter who challenged modern environmental thinking must be "cult-related." "It shows how little if any critical media presence exists. When non-softball questions are posed, the reporter is immediately presumed to be a conspiracist or cult-related," Horner said.

I wonder if Brown was ever asked about the amount of resources wasted by the summit itself?

Posted 9/3/2002 11:35:59 AM by Edward Driscoll
YOU MIGHT BE AN IDIOTARIAN IF...Nice checklist, from Little Green Footballs. (While I've been accused of being an idiot in other areas, fortunately, I sailed through this one with flying colors.)

Posted 9/3/2002 11:06:47 AM by Edward Driscoll
TWILIGHT OF THE MONKEY GOD: This is a classic, found on the Brothers Judd Blog.

Posted 9/3/2002 10:51:42 AM by Edward Driscoll
WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS (To the blog that never ends?): I'm back from a weekend in Sonoma (where I played the role of usher at a wedding, amongst other enjoyable activities). Blogging will resume shortly.