1. Bicycle thief gets his.
2. As we keep giving more and more power to government … hmmmm.
3. A Liberal wakes up (HT: Mr Leiter)
4. That notion as a trend noted here.
5. Two voices now being heard.
6. Mr Bernanke’s influences.
7. Count me as interested.
8. More DS-9 discussion and alas it still hasn’t gotten to the dollar theatre so I haven’t seen it yet … but I will.
9. Old Testament ethics.
10. On healthcare, Ms McArdle notes, ” Health care reform has not survived the worst Republicans can throw at it.  It’s survived–barely–the opening volley.”
11. On that same topic, this will be discussed ad infinitum (or ad nasueam).
12. On Anathem a short discussion, which book launguishes on my floor waiting for me to get ’round toit.
13. Upping the ante.
14. A cup of cold water.
15. In the “ask not what” theme.
16. For myself, I don’t think he gets it. I suggest that Mr Obama being himself a radical progressive is just playing to type.
17. Smoke, mirrors, and the gospel.
18. Ms Parks and the Christian life, a hint.

1. Philosophy and (as a cure for?) politics. Judging from the nature of the philosophical disputes in the rule of Justinian, I’d offer that philosophy will not be the cure.
2. Truth in advertising … fail!
3. Carbon (fiber) and the auto.
4. Well that’s a theme I’ve offered on more than one occasion.
5. More DS-9 discussions.
6. On the President’s kiddie speech. Another view here.
7. Crazy (and highly skilled) climber.
8. Revolt!!!
9. Afghanistan and their cash crop.
10. Czars (and Czarinas … although I can’t spot any women’s names on that list) … odd that.
11. He says “cynical panderer” like that’s a bad thing. Hasn’t he noticed the national stage, that’s all we have in the beltway, no?
12. Christianity … making life meaningless.
13. Exactly right on healthcare … or in my words, you’re just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic if you don’t address the supply problem.
14. Nature and nurture.

1. On colonialism and Afghanistan.
2. So, my question. Are the comments here representative of the left?
3. Are the remarks here representative of the right?
4. Is this the next target for the climate change crowd, global economic development?
5. A picture for the ages.
6. The Shack, and a measured book review.
7. The red planet (HT: Mr Sandefur).
8. Ask Mr Super User.
9. So … it seems the left likes the 5 year plan variety of change these days? Top down is the way to go.
10. The NYTimes and global warming.
11. Puritans and sex, I thought the exclamation mark a little oddly placed.
12. Not in the news, Mr Obama’s backtracking on stem cells.
13. Three numbers.
14. Noticing Chavez.
15. An Obama czar unmasks? (Note, I haven’t had time yet myself to listen to the video myself and am relying on the description).
16. An accidental war.
17. What the heck is the Administration thinking about regarding Honduras. Are they completely nuts?

1. While some on the American left thought speaking out against Bush, part of a “truth to power” legacy … this is what it really looks like.
2. Your government at wurk.
3. Some more climate conversation.
4. Amazingly this isn’t a right wing parody.
5. The WH middle east plan, err, muddled mess.
6. Mr Sullivan and his remarks on Ms Palin put in context.
7. No matter how nutty some, however, are still fans regardless.
8. Ontology and 1+1=2.
9. Two on the gospel message, here and here.
10. Rationing, a term with common and technical uses.
11. A heroic act.
12. Looking at supplemental material suggested for Mr Obama’s kiddie address. One wonders how the left reconciles their anti-establishment roots with Questions emphasized the “importance” of the students listening and doing what the President “and other elected officials say” are “important”.
13. Corruption in plain sight.
14. When Scripture doesn’t match the message you’re peddling … change the Scripture … nobody will notice, but geesh pick a less well known story if you want that to work.

1. Watching the alternative health plans.
2. A weather vane for hate speech finds hatred closer to the center left than the center right.
3. Mr Kennedy and some cold war history.
4. Word, meaning and the burqa.
5. Satire and the President’s address to the children in school. Which brings a question to the left, if this was Bush what would y’all have to say about a TV address to the kids?
6. Sexual harassment and Morocco.
7. A Lockerbie release leak. A change to a more open and honest administration … and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.
8. How the East thinks the West looks upon the East. So … did he nail it or not?
9. Shades of V in state government.
10. You don’t have to believe God loves you.
11. A feminist philosophy reading list.
12. Racism in Atlanta.
13. So that’s the sooper-secret plan to curb malpractice costs. Nationalize medicine while putting in place laws immunizing government health care providers from suit.
14. Hayek and the law.
15. Throw the bums out. Make that a tea party platform, for the next N elections, voting for an incumbent is what not to do.

1. Independence day (really).
2. Mr Zhovitis.
3. A trial.
4. A corruption test for Kurds in Iraq.
5. On happiness.
6. Considering Afghanistan … which brings one to be more confused as to why the COIN manual is not more widely read (and therefore discussed) … of its advice and recommendations taken.
7. Torture works, see.
8. Kindertotenlieder, in prose (that’s Gerrman for “Songs for Dead Children”, which is a Mahler song cycle).
9. Heh.
10. Organ tourism.
11. Art and an ethical question.
12. Self-deception and the Christian life.
13. A historical tome on Lenin and the Church.
14. Well, I for one hope the TSA doesn’t get the dreaded memo.

1. Sugar and Ramadan, two things, which I wouldn’t have thought had anything to do with each other.\
2. Poverty and the Arab world.
3. Should one be wary of (faint?) praise of religion from the atheist crowd?
4. Climate humor, heh.
5. Cash for Clunkers … another whack at Detroit. So … did the Dems sell it that way?
6. Some of the political healthcare problems for the left.
7. Healthcare rationing.
8. A Georgian shine (that’s be the other Georgia for the US readers).
9. A Randian quote … and a not unrelated news item.
10. Terror, torture, and George Smiley.
11. If this comes to pass, who will ever vote for the left?
12. Look at their clever choice for financial services, based of course not on any sordid political deals.
13. Can we blame Kennedy?
14. Evil. Here at home.
15. Unfortunate side note for the hypothesis I tentatively rejected in my last night’s essay.
16. As the President and “his minions” decry deceitful arguments from the right … they practice the same.
17. Evangelicals dating.

A quick question. Pseudonymous commenter Boonton offers that the reason that the state should control retirement in a infelicitous manner, i.e., at high cost low return and with standardized returns, is because we only get “one shot” at retirement. The state doesn’t have to provide clothing, lodging, or jobs because if we get a bad job, some bad duds, or make a poor purchase of a car or house, well, it’s not final. We get a natural “retry” for these sorts of things. The choices we make here are non-final and non-fatal.

Yet we don’t get a retry on childhood. Why doesn’t the left push and is not outraged that kids are not being raised by professionals? Why doesn’t left believe the government should take an extremely invasive role in raising children? It’s not like such institutions are impossible. Ethnic Spartan males were removed from the home at 7 … to be raised by the State as soldiers, and not released until they reached the age of 50 or 60 for retirement from their military service. Now, it is certain that the progressive elite of the left don’t idealize Spartan education … but they also almost certainly have a dismal view of the child-raising practices of many parents. So why are we not seeing an institutional push to minimize parental influence? Where are the papers and essays pushing for institutions to remove parenthood from parents and having state supported organs raising them instead? After all kids only get one shot at childhood, “It’s for the children” is a slogan which has been used more than once.

One reason why state controlled/standarized retirement is not a good idea is that people’s family situations widely differ. Close knit large families often will not need nursing home and extended hospice care while others find themselves without family or community on which they can depend. Peoples expectations of a standard of living and how much extraordinary medical care they desire widely differs. Yet, does our SSI take that into account. No. Are the funds extracted in the form of SSI taxation available to bequest to one’s relations if not used? No.

Here is my take on why the left defends SSI so fiercely and why the resist any reasonable suggestions for reform and change of that institution. The progressive left in this country denies the necessity and the good of family and community. They don’t want to depend on their close loved ones and relations in their declining years. Alasdair MacIntyre wrote Dependent Rational Animals, and this title serves as an excellent description of the human condition. The left wishes to institutionalize dependence in a bid for independence. Why do they push for this independence? It is my view that they wish to destroy community and our interdependence and push to move what remains of dependence and need on larger non-local non-family institutional structures because they see that as a road to equality.

1. A book about strength and forgiveness in Rwanda noted.
2. Violence in Sri Lanka, warning video is unedited and violent.
3. Toward a better small engine.
4. OODA and the healthcare debate.
5. A SCOTUS decision to note for those who use computers.
6. Cool astrophysics.
7. Economics and healthcare … disincentives noted.
8. Earth and solar radiation and a transistor analogy.
9. Retirement and savings and Singapore.
10. Eugenics and the Administration.
11. Brandon has links … (I thought the one on genius very much worth your time … and that was just one of many).
12. Market and Russia.
13. A film reviewed, 12.
14. Another film, Surrogates.
15. Guantanamo and Estonia.

1. Stalin, a topic that generates heated discussions.
2. Abortion related to collectivization.
3. Giving up on the latest round of healthcare reform … for myself I have difficulty even with his first paragraph. How can anyone honestly regard HR3200 as moving toward a more “free market” approach to healthcare?
4. State aid is not stimulus.
5. Overstating the case? Perhaps but “greatest senator of the age” is a really really low bar in this particular age.
6. New “rather” damning information in the Rathergate story.
7. If you think liberalism is on the rise … you stand in a small crowd, according to one cricket race.
8. A liberal who is conveniently forgetting it was a liberal the last time that brought “guns to a town hall” … and the liberal violence in last election cycle.
9. That stinking feeling … one fix is to, well, ride. After all once your moving that stink is behind you. An yes, That Sinking Feeling was in my recollection a sublime (and hilarious) film.
10. The advantages of public run healthcare, giving birth in elevators.
11. Dress, casual or not.
12. Concern over Russia … my “canary test” hasn’t registered much change … but then I haven’t been doing that for very long yet.
13. One prediction of a second (bigger) crash.
14. A gulag to change its stripes.
15. An astonishing number, 5%. Related remarks here.
16. For myself, I have not seen any “fat” people running sub-3 marathons, fast iron-men or in the cycling grand tours .. have you?
17. Frogs.

1. A new release of a Psalter to look for.
2. Manufacture, a behind the scenes look at making USB flash drives.
3. Two posts on housing prices here and here.
4. On returning to “9/10” mentality … bit by bit.
5. Unimpressed by a bike plug. The maxim quoted, “Strong, light, cheap … pick two” is just a variant of the engineering maxim, “Good, Fast, Cheap pick two” (fast as in quick design/delivery).
6. Healtcare is, yes, not a right.
7. A putative book list. What would you suggest?
8. Quoting Carville from the right. Every time Carville’s name comes up, fair or not, I recall him in a defense of Mr Clinton on PBS in reference to Ms Jones remarked, “See what you get when you trawl through a trailer park dangling a $20 bill.” Which, of course, begs the question why the President was using 20s to trawl in trailer parks (and yes, I know that wasn’t his intended meaning … just the one that I caught first and which stuck).
9. Vanting to suck your blooood.
10. Wondering whence the critics of Mr Bush’s religious ties from the left have gone.
11. On the wicked servant, from a man with a way with words.
12. Blending spirit with therapy.
13. The contemporary Ernie Pyle, released from UK embedding, why?
14. Pointing out Mr Krugman’s deception.
15. And disparities in drug use … not mentioned so much.
16. That union label and payback.
17. A plug for early (not teenage) marriage.

1. Church, State, Gender separation, and the Uzbek and … a story reported the same way in three languages (plus an the comment thread features an evangelical atheist troll).
2. Life imitiates art, err, sluggy, inflatable rockets.
3. More life/art a Flintstones car, i.e., rocks as transmission.
4. Again life/art debt as the road to power … a strategy being tried by our administration.
5. Budget excess, news to whom?
6. Bank bailout aftermath examined.
7. Teacher training or the lack thereof.
8. Political links from the right.
9. Whether or not saving is good, keep doing it … it’s good for you and your family.
10. Some questions about a bike.
11. Virtual and reality … and a new insurance market.
12. I was wondering why the left was encouraging the birthers, after all I never ever have seen birther data/discussions or posts … just the left talking about them.
13. Monogamy … the next waffle word?
14. Visiting the holy lands (places) of the north central states (holy? you ask. Aha. Life. Art, i.e., American Gods: A Novel).
15. Obamacare rhetoric satirized.
16. Our excellent government healthcare and its expansion.

1. Of Flight 103.
2. Stealth training.
3. In group bias and the administration..
4. Ms McArdle considers the (unlikely?) 2nd gunman hypothesis.
5. I think John Climacus ~30 step program more likely to have a salutary effect.
6. Finishing he bill … and finding a para-military healthcore at the end.
7. US special ops elsewhere, i.e. not Iraq or Afghanistan and the GWOT, which has some sort of new name but I don’t know what that is this week.
8. An opinion that life imitates art regarding Obamacare.
9. Noting Iran.
10. A List: 10 Myths believed the first time heard.
11. Fact checking the so-called abortion myth and the healthcare bill.
12. Some comic relief.
13. Gay in Armenia.
14. Well, I certainly learned about it early on … but then again a lot of WWII history I learned from Avalon Hill doing strategic war gaming as a kid (Third Reich and ASL come to mind).

1. Russia and the Ukraine moved in different directions post-communism. Why? Here’s one (Ukrainian) response.
2. Terrorists in Russia.
3. A clock (full disclosure: I have a non-Arduino based BCD clock on my desk at work).
4. The left admits to dishonesty in the healthcare discussion. But, I can’t guess, which three?
5. Consistency and the healthcare debate. Noting the above, I’m guessing the private option in the healthcare discussion is not what they really want.
6. Grow your own.
7. Continuing to read the bill.
8. Working for the enemy in WWII.
9. Obama’s inconsistent rhetoric on healthcare noted.
10. Kennedy wants a “speedy replacement”. What? This cancer thing is new news to him?
11. The TBS/BFoC-RUADH. Shooting books?
12. 20% of birthers are Democrats, apparently.
13. Mr Axelrod.
14. Camera tech … or the HD of 50 years hence.
15. Yet another broken promise. Silence from the left.

1. Yum.
2. Noting Chesterton on the natural.
3. Some suggestions on healthcare.
4. Hands and the unpaved road one hath trod.
5. This cricket race will be discussed in the next few days.
6. While the end-of-life notions in the current healthcare bill have been misrepresented by left and right … the two points made here are important to remember.
7. Copts in the beltway.
8. Continuing to slog through the bill … and some further suggestions for the WH here.
9. Examining words Mr Obama offered in Moscow … and some of his actions.
10. Liberal and conservative … and conversion of the former to the latter.
11. Pre-historic/pre-human flight controls?
12. And where does one place confession?
13. Band of brothers … and the Pacific war.
14. Children on the street in the Ukraine.
15. How will (did?) they finagle keeping Congressional names out of that list.
16. A young doctor and single payer.
17. Awaiting a defense of government overreach from the left.