Good morning.

1. Pastoring is personal.
2. You didn’t build that, err, those … meets the homily.
3. For the Ms Palin fans.
4. I’m mystified by what is meant by the last sentence of this post.
5. A bumper sticker appreciated.
6. I guess the Midwest is not the only place with drought.
7. Of Mr Muller and BEST … a response from someone whose looked at the numbers.
8. Regarding the second link …. uhm, hello? Men’s and women’s gymnastics have two shared and 6 non-shared events. Duh. If women gymnasts were doing pommel horse and rings … the top gymnasts would look a lot more like the men.
9. A libertarian surprised by Mr Romney?
10. More on Mr Romney here.
11. Of outsourcing and wages and the end result … (pretty!).
12. There are patents as protection and the abuse of IP (witness Apple/Samsung/Motorola/Oracle et al). But hey, you can pretend black and white never mix.
13. A coda for my little post on Mr Obama’s post Aurora gun vs reform choice of words.
14. What reform needs to address, that is the causes of these: here and here.
15. It’s just one war.
16. To keep in remind when discussing the Chick-fil-A kerfuffle.
17. Cthulhu goes to Damascus.
18. Faint praise for the President.
19. Politics, Marxism and the Olympics opening ceremonies.
20. Back history and a Wisconsin Congressmen often in the news.

Good morning.

1. An interesting variant on “you didn’t build that” (or those?).
2. That diversity trump card.
3. Syria.
4. The evil ellipsis.
5. Hmmm.
6. Give an inch, a mile taken.
7. A truly amazing bird-whacker.
8. High security … or not.
9. Distaff and tandoori.
10. About those assault rifles, whatever they are. Does “assault” as an adjective mean gas powered semi-auto?
11. OK, so it’s been 10 years. So kill it already.
12. Wonder if there’s a market for that over here?
13. Johnny, err, Mr Krugman can’t read.
14. Smacking the most hated tech firm.
15. A much needed rant.
16. Apparently the person commenting on “bad tactics/strategy” missed the whole “you’re suicidal” scenes.
17. Mr Romney’s humor.
18. Kafka-esque, what government aspires to be.
19. Secret and safe.

Good morning.

1. Apparently the model driven economists like Mr Krugman hasn’t figured out how to factor in psychology and regulatory uncertainty … therefore it doesn’t exist.
2. Training the spine via repetition.
3. Watching time pass.
4. Christian and gay, but not gay Christian.
5. Information and Colorado.
6. That’s because Mr Obama, being such an avid student of history, realizes how good “bread and circuses” was for Rome. Or perhaps it was essential for Rome in its transition from Republic to Imperial.
7. More grist for that mill.
8. Banking, interest, and time.
9. Economics and unintended consequences of laws.
10. Heh. Grad students have an unreasonable reaction to free cookies, it’s true.
11. Chicago and Chick-Fil-A … and the only reasonable response.
12. Null and theory.
13. Maxfield Parrish without the semi-clothed nymphs.
14. Measured gun laws.
15. Expunging history … is this the lesson from how the Holocaust is remembered (and Holodomor/Katyn is forgotten)?
16. To keep an eye on.

So, did Mr Obama use the Colorado shooting to set the stage for policy changes:

Every day, in fact, every day and a half, the number of young people we lose to violence is about the same as the number of people we lost in that movie theater. For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago and Atlanta, here in New Orleans. For every Tucson or Aurora, there’s daily heartbreak over young Americans shot in Milwaukee or Cleveland.

Hmm. Which policy? Restrict guns or reinforce traditional marriage? Which is more likely a root cause, restrictions on guns or broken families and single/absent parents? The latter is more likely the cause, the former the more likely policy in mind.

Good morning.

1. Wow, so many stupid thing said in one post, the mind boggles. How about, “and Democrats do not believe all firearms should be confiscated. It should be obvious that this is paranoid delusion.” …  Hello? Chicago? New York? Duh. And secondly, do people stockpile emergency food/water? Do those new people do that? Is there financial instability? Is that noticed by our blogger, … nope.
2. Gangs woke up and realized that urban landscapes do not fill the universe (and see the above).
3. More on complexity and Rome’s fall.
4. A list.
5. OK OK, I agree it’s dumb but, really, who doesn’t bring their own reading material when traveling?
6. The first part of the advice is good for helping anyone anywhere for any reason.
7. Was it a generation ago that the KKK marched in Chicago … d’ya think they’d be allowed today? (and no, I don’t think the two are equivalent).
8. A word for the day.
9. Contrastives and fried chicken. Let me ask you, “do you support traditional marriage?” (and remind you if you don’t you support the fall of your civilization)
10. Weed me.
11. Boards, trucks, and cement.

Good morning.

1. So, the Obama campaign thinks Bain Capital is horrible, right?
2. Meditiations on the fall of (western) Rome.
3. The 2nd Amendment is not about hunting and sportsmanship. It really is about having guns to resist the government when they go off the rails. If you want to back of on citizens owning “assault” rifles, then you should amend the Constitution, because having real weapons meant for war is what the Constitution protected.
4. This opinion apparently taxonomically classifies me as a porcupine.
5. Some gun laws to catch the incredibly stupid criminal, which means the not-criminal (that being crimes of passion).
6. The usual effect of the restrict guns rhetoric.
7. Some data for the discussion.
8. For the Microsoft non-lovers.
9. Faint praise for Obama’s attack ads. I finally saw the ad over vacation. My children confirmed, and I attempted not to lead them, that this ad led them to support Romney more than Obama. The ad was sleazy, felt sleazy, and the “approved by Obama” at the front labeled who to blame.
10. Culture, biology and violence.
11. A love like no other.
12. South Africa.
13. Bikes and remembrance.
14. Walruses are cool.
15. Women and combat. Testostrone is a very powerful performance enhancing drug. Really.

OK. I’m back (and as usual, relatively horrible).

1. Need rest?
2. The Norwegian shooter got 20 some years … in the US you (can) get life for somewhat less.
3. Talking about TDKR (I saw it Monday prior to our flight with my daughters). And no, the science doesn’t check out, reactors don’t suddenly become bombs and no realistic battery works 4 months and predictably dies on schedule. More on similar discussions here.
4. ABC defends Mr Obama remarks. Either Mr Obama can’t count (“that” is singular, the two possible antecedents “your business” and “roads and bridges” … only one is singular which gives us “your business” as the only grammatically correct antecedent.).
5. Fact checking religion reporting for ya.
6. A charity question.
7. Flags and national photoshop.
8. How about “because ‘pragmatism’ is more akin to a tactic than an actual strategy”.
9. So, is the hostility expressed by academia toward the business world found here?
10. Here you find religion and academia examined.
11. Speaking of academia … Seems to me, our education system is part of this problem.
12. Flat tire?
13. The thought that came to me seeing this was “cat’s pajamas”.
14. Yes, we “know” there’s no voter fraud, just like we know the sports drug problem is in Pro cycling not in US sports. Odd that the problems are found where there testing is tight and not where it isn’t. As long as we don’t look and have no tools to look, clearly there’s no fraud. And this “no problems” claim comes for a guy who got a degree in the city where the dead voted (and probably still do).
15. Toughest decision? In hindsight maybe. Back then, not so much. Look at the context of Okinawa, Tokyo fire-bombing, and the rest of the garden variety horrors of WWII.
16. 3-d printers step aside. Think small.
17. How to look really really stupid in a discussion. Query for the anti-gun lobby … cite me one instance were anyone was in a discussion with gun supporters and were threatened with a firearm of any sort.
18. Apparently, “likable” is an adjective describing screen presence, for by all accounts both Mr Obama and Mr Romney are very likable face-to-face. In fact, almost all politicians are, it’s a job requirement. However, that’s not really what likable means, but we all knew that, right?
19. Syria.
20. And we’ll finish with a great discussion topic.

Well, the plan was to snorkel all day, but the weather forecast was for all day T-storms, which since the morning when we aborted have been suspiciously absent. So, the alternative is museums after lunch.

1. Censorship.
2. Why expect the lull to be temporary? High tech suits are banned for example, banning tech advances may be the norm, in which case the lull would not be temporary.
3. Queue evil laughter, or something like that.
4. Man’s best friend.
5. My guess is that the difference is not about (c) or not (c) … but the extend of those services which should rightly be provided.
6. Our finest.
7. Obama’s kicking taxes down the road, the economy’s current downturn, and misunderestimations.
8. Numismatech?
9. Remember how Mr Obama kept saying he thinks/thought about jobs every day … it’s a lie, you see.
10. A manual to set alongside the oft noted but rarely actually read COIN manual.
11. To big to fail?
12. “If you build it they will come” … the antecedent for “it” shouldn’t be WMD, but seems to be.
13. Dictatorship HOWTO for the modern era.
14. A suggestion for kickbacks.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today, link-wise.

Good morning,? err, day.

1. Profiling.
2. Just like AGW believers driving 10+ over the speed limit instead of 5 under … Gen-X has been brainwashed about green and energy from K-12 and beyond, but it doesn’t apply normative actions.
3. On vacation, yesterday we visited this, today pictures of construction and assembly. US WWII manufacturing for the war was mind boggling.
4. Out of the Black, a sci-fic book puts forth that “potty mouth” word usage is a sign of poor education and vocabulary. Do y’all concur?
5. So women, stop on-line hacking … date nerds. Come on. Do your part.
6. Hmm. Meta-links and I thought the problem with macro-economics is that in chem/physics equations measure relationships between independently measureable quantities, whereas in macro they are used to define new the variables.
7. A whole lot of links and some remarks in response to Mr Obama’s anti-entrepreneurial remarks.
8. So am I.
9. My wife’s chrismation saint, icon and some background.
10. We have a para-Olympics, how about hypodermic Olympics.
11. How about a modest proposal, a fourth branch along with the courts to balance our out-of-control Executive and Legislative? An actuarial/financial branch with veto powers over unsupportable spending.
12. “Admits” … that he does what every other player does and has done since, well, the beginning of the sport.
13. Philippine nationals and Syria.

Good morning.

1. Do you concur, well, not perhaps with the whole premise, but that changes to the Hobbit of that nature was unnecessary?
2. Honey … I’m home! The rest of us have to get a dog, so someone at least will notice when we come home.
3. A fight on the offing.
4. On Mr Obama’s remarks regarding credit and personal accomlishments, here and here. Take an abstracted example, … school grades. How then do we distinguish the student who gets and A (to which we credit parents, books, schools, and teachers) and the student who gets a C (who also benefited from the same factors). Do the thought experiment suggested at the first link, where does 100% acceptance of the presumptions required as listed get you?
5. What is a hero? (answer: a sandwich from one who has some insight).
6. Healing?
7. How about meta-wonder?
8. And that wonder might be applied to our rational universe?
9. Does this connect to the Penn State debacle.
10. Markets for guar. And now you know what guar might be.

Mornings are slower in vacation, eh?

1. Altering content to make a point, robs one of credibility. A theme disputed earlier in comment threads in other contexts. It remains true.
2. I think I remember it mostly for music complementing images of running.
3. Amidst complaints of Ms Clinton’s pallid accomplishments in her current role, do you agree with her call or Ang Sang Suu Kyi’s?
4. Oooh, sleazy campaigning and it’s only July.
5. Don’t worry, you’re probably a nice enough person and therefore safe.
6. Mixing popular with academic.
7. I’m not sure I need to hear the expression “grown into his ears” ever again.
8. Lamy? I’ve stuck with Pelikan.
9. In which liberal means “not that, but I’m not bothered to find an alternative”.
10. An occasion and location.
11. Socialist paradise … or not.
12. Education loans and a recent court ruling.
13. A scary girl for Iran?
14. The Russian Patriarch at Katyn.

Good morning.

1. Progressive anthropology/reporter investigates conservative evangelicals.
2. Of risk and market distortions.
3. Speaking of risk.
4. On beauty.
5. And Syria.
6. It’s not about infrastructure silly, it’s about kickbacks for donations. Remember, the “Chicago way” … it’s all about corruption.
7. Our governmental system, defined.
8. And battleships doing their thing with the help of CGI. If you think that interesting, I’d recommend this book too.
9. Have you ever heard of “red sprites” … I hadn’t. Interesting.
10. Upcoming must-watch TV.
11. More feminism/guns overlap.

Well we’re all here. Sunny, salty, and slightly warm.

1. Why move them now?
2. Not … the great escape.
3. Romney talks at the NCAAP, one take.
4. But … gay marriage … that’s all that liberal/progressives want to talk about.
5. Watching the meltdown.
6. Zooooom.
7. Guns and girls in Texas.
8. Ooblick being studied (aka non-Newtonian fluids)
9. Just in time.
10. That’s not post-modern that’s pre-modern.
11. Obama as socialist.
12. A book suggested, Mr Lewis on some somewhat familiar liturgical poems.
13. Spinning your way out of jail.
14. Moving some goalposts.
15. Blood and coming of age and two films.
16. A modest proposal.
17. Will he follow Gov. Walker’s lead?
18. Pro-choice, choosing violence.

In the little book Star Wars on Trial, in the chapter “Charge #2″ (to whit: While Claiming Mythic Significance, Star Wars Portrays No Admirable Religious or Ethical Beliefs”. The witness for the prosecution (John C. Wright) attacks this in part by pointing out that Star Wars borrows more from boy-fiction Flash Gordon &etc than anything pretending to be religion. Mr Wright suggests:

A real religion addresses metaphysics, spiritual powers, martyrdom, ethics, salvation, miracles, and life after death.

And no, all world religions necessarily evidence all of these. What he argues, point by point, is that Star Wars “Force” as religion is a calisthenic, it is

an atmosphere, a spooky hint of mystic powers and hidden forces meant to lend an air of exotic super-naturalism to the proceedings. The Force is there for the sword fights. The Force is meant to explain why a kendo fencer can perform amazing leaps, parry laser bolts or make a single one-in-a-million bull’s-eye shot into a ray-shielded thermal exhaust port with a proton torpedo and blow up a space station the size of a small moon.

The Force isn’t learned by credoa nd ethics, it’s something you learn by practice, “by doing one handed handstands while levitating crates on Swamp Planet.”

What, for example, are the doctrinal differences between Obi-Wan and Mr Vader?

Good morning.

1. I’d never heard of that film. How about you?
2. The International courts and Syria.
3. What to cut?
4. Guns and grain. This is very much related.
5. Supply and demand.
6. Is this a one-off or a harbinger?
7. Sight and aim.
8. Amazing. Simply amazing.
9. Contra simple materialism.
10. Outsourcing.
11. Why the current attempts to slice the pie in medical reforms such as Obamacare are well described as arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
12. Helping a drunk.
13. Clones and Olympic competition.