Normally I wouldn’t comment on a news item like the Natalee Holloway disappearance, nor would I follow it closely. However, it seems that none of the legal experts or other talking heads has given much attention to the fact that in Aruba, citizens who run afoul of the law have few procedural rights.
Several features [...]
On Power Line, I came across this essay by Paul Johnson entitled The Anti-Semitic Disease. Johnson observes that anti-Semitism is historically exceptional – though it would seem to be a form of racism it has a number of unique characteristics that render it essentially a distinct class unto itself. According to Johnson:
By contrast, [...]
Recent hiatus in postings was due to my purchase of new computer and subsequent hassles - some problems with Dell’s software bundle and one problem of my own creation. Now system is up and running so I’m back to blogging.
Political poison, that is - and the folks downing it are the extreme left-wing Democrats.
A number of Congressional Democrats took up the matter of the Downing Street Memo today and used it to accuse the Bush administration (and implicitly the Blair Government) of doctoring the facts about Iraqi WMD in order to justify going to [...]
Nearly every morning on the way to work I stop off at an independent grocery store called “Lakeside” to get a soft drink and maybe a pastry - it’s my breakfast. There’s normally a group of good ol’ boys who hang out in the front of the store and talk to the owner. [...]
Via Jerry Pournelle’s website, there is an interesting series of posts about research done by Greg Cochrane et al. concerning Darwinian processes that may account for the higher-than-average intelligence seen in Ashkenazi Jews. (See High intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews may be result of their persecuted past and a link to a NYT article, Researchers [...]
From Jane’s (paid subscription required).
On 31 May Iran announced that it had tested a an enhanced version of its solid-fueled Shahab 3 medium range ballistic missile (MRBM). According to Uzi Rubin, an Israeli ballistic missile defense expert, the new missile - probably an early version of the Shahab 4 - carries around 15% more [...]
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) has filed suit in federal court to end sectarian prayer in the Indiana General Assembly (see Speaker of House defends prayers). In other words, the ICLU is suing on the grounds that explicit prayers to Jesus promote Christianity (probably the Protestant variant) above all other religions. Not [...]
In recent weeks, several people in Monroe County – including inside the city limits of Bloomington – have reported seeing a cougar. A number of these reports were covered in the Herald-Times. I was initially skeptical: eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable and it’s easy for people to transform the mundane into the extraordinary. [...]
The Washington Post has just confirmed the identity of “Deep Throat” revealed in this Vanity Fair article as W. Mark Felt, former number two at the F.B.I. The article treats Felt as an American hero and, prior to reading it, I might have been inclined to the same view. Now, however, I see [...]