Good morning.

1. When you’ve lost the AP … hmm. (wokring AP link here)
2. Candles and the CO₂ crowd.
3. Eight points … likely the views on which separate left and right.
4. Libya and Iraq.
5. Some advice before the speech (on Libya involvement). I’d offer as well the general observation that limited military engagement for humantarian purposes isn’t humanitarian. By limiting the engagement you extend the conflict … increasing loss of life and suffering not deminishing it. 
6. The tsunami and its power.
7. Sunday of the Cross (last Sunday in the Orthodox Lenten cycle) viewed in a variety of ethnic churches.
8. Calling the would-be intellectual elite by their older name … Mandarin. That worked really really well in China didn’t it? Venality and corruption just vanished didn’t they? No? Oh, well.
9. Krugman pulls the victim card.
10. While the (left wing?) thugs win in Indiana.
11. A car you won’t find in the US, the Democrats, nominally green, are more in the pocket of protectionist auto unions than not.

Good morning.

1. The roiling Middle East and foreign policy.
2. The ever brilliant Mr Biden. More brilliant thoughts here, if by brilliiant we mean … aggressively ignorant.
3. Two public intellectuals on public sector unions, here and here.
4. Computer warrants.
5. Climate change and sea levels.
6. Two women in the news, or drawing moral lessons from contemporary events.
7. Mapping radiation.
8. Unimpressed by Mr Obama from across the pond.
9. A book examined.
10. What passes for progress.

The death panels have begun, deciding which newborn babies live or die. Don Surber says, "Under President Obama the purpose of the greatest medical system ever developed has been subverted from saving lives to saving money." To be fair, insurance companies could be accused of that as well. But they could compete on customer service. When the government tells them what they can and can’t do, and co-opts them into a national health system, the government then decides on what and will not be paid for. And there’s no competing with the government.

Eight years ago, the media was deeply concerned over whether Bush would go to war without Congressional approval. Today, when Obama actually does it, a collective yawn (with one small exception).

Running out of things to tax, politicians are now trying to push a toilet paper tax in Washington. No, really.

Hamas terrorists in Gaza broke a cease-fire to toss 50 rockets at Israel last Saturday, while the rest of the world’s gaze was diverted to Libya. Essay question: Did you hear about this in the media, and if not, why not?

And finally, speaking of the media covering for the President (click for a larger version):

Air Traffic Controller sleeps on duty at Reagan National Airport
Isn’t it ironic, considering that President Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers, that an air traffic controller falls asleep on the job at Reagan National Airport?

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Similar to the boy in the bubble among us? Or simply a nuisance to everyone else?
Where do we draw the lines to our accommodation of those with disabilities? At what point do we say, enough, you (the disabled person) need to limit your actions because of your predicament? Regardless, it’s another reason to homeschool.

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eBooks, weeding, and the demise of the public library?
No, the title is not an Elmer Fudd pun on the act of reading. An interesting op-ed argument regarding how the advent of ebook technology, along with the limits of ownership rights, may impact how libraries currently function.

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Imagine a truck, full of printer ink, spilling its load
Imagine no more (click the image for stunning detail)…

Image © Boston.com

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Video: Pelosi violates the “separation of church and state”
But it’s okay, because it suits her needs.

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Geek News of the Week:  Hi-res photo of Mars Rover Opportunity from orbit
7 years into a 3 month mission, Opportunity was photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click the image for a hi-res version.

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Well, it IS “Frie”-day
For all those IN-N-OUT aficionados out there (and for those who long for the experience).

Roger Kimball writing at Pajamas Media contrasts the big differences in the world’s response (and by "the world’s" he means "America’s") response to two earthquake/tsunami combinations; the 2004 Boxing Day one in Indonesia and the 2011 on in Japan. George Bush, who supposedly hated brown people, sprang into action, getting the US military (mostly the Navy, with its carriers that have huge desalination plants and bakeries, among other things) involved in the relief. Barack Obama sprang into action, on the golf course and at ESPN.  Kimball notes that, in this and other situations around the world, people everywhere are wondering, "Where are the Americans?"

Is this the kind of new diplomacy Obama said he would bring? Supposedly, we squandered all of the the goodwill we’d ever built up. And yet, now the world is wondering why were so aloof. To be sure, American relief organizations are helping out in full force, and that is one of the beauties of the American culture. We don’t expect the government to bear the full burden of charitable help, because frankly there are things the government just can’t do as efficiently.

But what government can do, and has done in the past, it’s not really doing that as much as it used to. Hope and change.

In my recent New Covenant post Japan, and God, I made the point that within the worldview of atheism, along with a naturalistic mindset, one cannot escape the conclusion that objective morality is but a mere illusion – a category of behavior that must be reducible solely to physical properties. I referred to the resulting landscape of such a philosophy as a vacuous wasteland, and for good reason, namely – that of the resulting moral relativism.

A commenter engaged me in a discussion on the post, yet he completely ignored the point I was making, choosing to take issue with the rationality of belief in God. He also assumed, incorrectly, that I was claiming atheists are incapable of acting morally.

During our “discussion” a few issues seemed to arise regarding knowledge and morality. The commenter appeared to place a great deal of trust in the scientific method as a means of acquiring knowledge, especially with regards to how it can be used to substantiate (or negate) religious belief. Notice that the definition of knowledge, in the methodology of naturalism, can only refer to that which is natural, concrete, or material – that which can be measured and analyzed empirically. Yet, humans are well aware of the existence of the abstract, or the immaterial. Whether it be the thoughts you perceive in your mind (note, in your mind, not in your brain), or the love that you know you have for a “loved” one, you are aware of and confident in the existence of those abstract realities. Now, consider the fact that the scientific method is incapable of providing data on the abstract realities you know exist – for example, measuring the love you have for your children.

Given the mandate of naturalism, that all which exists is comprised within the natural realm, one must conclude that even the notion we describe as morality is simply an outgrowth of evolutionary processes and, as such, must be guided by natural laws. Indeed, that is what the commenter posited, that moral behavior is simply behavior, and that it was derived from evolutionary processes. While this may sound quite proper on paper, the real-world impact of such a propostion is staggering. If, in fact, what many of us consider to be abstract notions, such as morality, are nothing more than the physical interaction of genes, then objective right and wrong moral values cannot be determined.

Do you see where this leads? If a bear attacks a hiker on a trail, although we lament the tragedy of the event, we do not accuse the bear of moral indiscretion. No, we acknowledge that the bear just did what it does – because of the way its genes are sequenced. Regardless of whether or not the bear acts in manners that mimic human expressions of the abstract, naturalism mandates that such notions are the direct consequence of biology and, as a result, the bear has no objective moral code. Well guess what? If we want to be consistent with our application, then we need to do the same with the human genome. If we are nothing more than particles in motion, then the supposed moral notion “I ought” is reduced to a physical reaction and is no different than any other physical reaction, such as “I have indigestion” (HT: CS Lewis).

Thus, morality, in the world of naturalism, is no different than burping.

For further reference, check these articles by Greg Koukl, at Stand to Reason:
How to know immaterial things exist

What science can’t prove

Did morals evolve

Good morning.

1. Somebody apparently hasn’t noticed that the Democrats too haven’t offered any substantial cuts.
2. “Napalm in the morning” in the movie was a good thing. 
3. Vindication for Bush and Blair.
4. Well, quagmire seems to be the plan going in.
5. Biden on Libya.
6. Recovery and Japan.
7. The Democrats are allergic to that notion, you know being the party of the people and all … they want to make sure no sorts get in the halls of power. After all, it’s the basis for much of their Palin allergy.
8. Law and consequence.
9. For myself, I don’t get the anti-trust part of the complaint. There are many choices out there.
10. Dragons and markets.
11. A word for today.
12. For … openers.
13. A prediction for Libya.
14. An interesting folktale.

Good morning.

1. The irrationality of Peter Singer.
2. Earthquake “fallout”.
3. Libya half a century ago.
4. Medals of Freedom and two Presidents.
5. Heh.
6. A problem noted.
7. 4G warfare in a nutshell.
8. Considering the Theotokos.
9. Prejudices.
10. A question for the President’s backers. And a question about tactics.
11. A film.
12. Practical consequences of Christian eschatology.

Beauty Queen drops home invader with her pink .38 special
First lesson of the story, though, is to not answer the door at 3 a.m.

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If you’re a shop owner, armed with a gun, remember to train
First lesson of the story: don’t grab at a robber’s gun. Second lesson: don’t try to fire your gun without having chambered a cartridge. Third lesson: don’t fire indiscriminately, over aisle counters, with one of your employees potentially in the line of fire.

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Where are the “Wild West shootouts” with “blood running in the streets”?
Is “permitless carry” becoming a trend? From Massad Ayood,

Called “Constitutional carry” by some, such a law allows any law-abiding citizen with a clean criminal record to carry loaded and concealed in public. It will entail only a cost-free vote and a stroke of the Governor’s pen. That model has worked for Vermont for as long as any living citizen can remember, and every year Vermont is one of our lowest crime states per capita, some years THE lowest. It has worked for years in Alaska. It is working in Arizona, and will undoubtedly work in Wyoming, which just became the fourth state to pass permitless carry.

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The Haves (read: politicians), and the Have Nots (read: citizens)
In light of the horrible mass shooting in Tucson, in which Rep. Gabby Giffords was critically wounded, some intrepid lawmakers [sic] in California have come up with a supposed answer – at least – an answer for themselves. From the L.A. Times,

Under current law Californians who want to carry concealed firearms must apply to their county sheriff or police chief and show “good cause” for permission. That can include threats of violence or a dangerous job. Under the new bill, being an elected state official or a member of Congress would constitute good cause. The officials would, like others, be subject to a background check, and a sheriff or police chief could still turn down the application.

Has it not occurred to these lawmakers that their constituents face acts of violence every day? Are they so blind that they see themselves only as potential targets?

It should be noted that California’s process for issue concealed carry permits is based on the law stating that the sheriff “may issue” the permit (vs. “shall issue”) upon the applicant showing good cause and completing the proper training, background checks, etc. That little one word difference, may instead of shall, has resulted in the virtual lack of issuance of permits in the state. “Good cause” suddenly becomes a subjective term and, regardless of whether or not good cause is shown, the sheriff still has the ability to not issue a permit. Of course, the criminals don’t really care whether they have a “permit” to carry, do they?

Once again, the law-abiding citizen is the person being overly restricted.

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Florida Highway Patrol office accidentally shot during a weapons inspection
Two points to consider here.

1: Always, remember the Four Rules of Gun Safety – 1) treat all guns as if they are loaded, 2) always point a gun in a safe direction, 3) keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot, and 4) know your target and what is beyond.

2: Accidents among law enforcement officers are more common than you may realize.

Count former NPR employee Juan Williams as the latest among intellectually honest liberals (yes, there are a few of those still around) calling on Congress to defund NPR:

Even after they fired me, called me a bigot and publicly advised me to only share my thoughts with a psychiatrist, I did not call for defunding NPR. I am a journalist, and NPR is an important platform for journalism.

But last week my line of defense for NPR ran into harsh political realities. Rep. Steve Israel (D- N.Y.) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising letter with the following argument for maintaining public funding of NPR:

“They [Republicans] know NPR plays a vital role in providing quality news programming — from rural radio stations to in-depth coverage of foreign affairs. If the Republicans had their way, we’d only be left with the likes of Glenn Beck, Limbaugh and Sarah Palin to dominate the airwaves.”

With that statement, Congressman Israel made the case better than any Republican critic that NPR is radio by and for liberal Democrats. He is openly asking liberal Democrats to give money to liberal Democrats in Congress so they can funnel federal dollars into news radio programs designed to counter and defeat conservative Republican voices.

Well said.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Rep. Israel has unintentionally endorsed every conservative complaint about NPR as a liberal mouthpiece. And to me, as a journalist, it is also a statement of why NPR’s troubled management team has turned its fundraising efforts into a weapon to be used against its essential product — top quality, balanced reporting. No journalist should have to work with one finger in the political winds, anxiously waiting to see if Democrats continue to be pleased with what they hear on NPR as a counter to what they don’t like hearing from Rush Limbaugh.

In the wake of the Japan nuclear discussions some background information might be useful. Read the rest of this entry

American cruise missiles struck Libya over the weekend after French war planes flew in first as a show of force, shooting down a Libyan MiG. (That’s something I never thought I’d write; the French went in to harm’s way first, followed by America lobbing missiles.)  This was in preparation for enforcing a no-fly zone over the country. Y’know, George W. Bush had two fistfuls of UN resolutions and Congressional approval before he went into Iraq, and he was called a war criminal. Obama has 1 resolution and nothing from Congress to back him up. One wonders if the Left will get just as anxious this time. While there have been some rumblings so far, it’s nowhere near what Bush had to put up with.

President Obama explained why he was attacking Libya:

"We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy," the president said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We must be clear: actions have consequences."

Saddam Hussein did that for years, and the Left would not let the US, nor any other nation, lift a finger to help.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, there have been photos released that make Abu Ghraib look tame.

Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.

Senior officials at Nato‘s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.

They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year.

As much as Bush was blamed for Abu Ghraib, I wonder how much Obama will be blamed for this happening on his watch.

The Left is really going to have its consistency challenged in the coming weeks. As I said, some bloggers and some members of Congress have spoken out against Obama going into Libya, but if all he gets is token resistance, their moral authority will be severely questioned. The biggest question will be, is it moral authority they’re exercising or merely political authority?

Good morning.

1. Remarks on things claimed by Mr Krugman.
2. Truth remains stranger than fiction.
3. Libya and lessons learned thus far.
4. Gay marriage?
5. War powers.
6. Well, it had to happen. Some nut thought the earthquake was caused by global warming.
7. A monastic library goes online. Probably more fun if you can read classical Greek.
8. A film noted.
9. IPCC authorship. What the … ?
10. A strategic analysis of Libya and NATO.
11. Our liberal friends will have to tell us why such things are a good idea.
12. Lawyers and the sort of “depends on what ‘is’ is responses.”
13. Freedom of expression and schools.
14. Mr Obama’s employment record.
15. Categorizing atheists (and a reminder that Mr Meyer is a dull sort of wit).

Civility Watch (combined with "Oh, that liberal media): If you missed the fact that Wisconsin Republicans were the target of death threats, you need to get your news from somewhere else.

Not taking this seriously were ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, and NPR. LexisNexis and closed-caption dump searches of "Wisconsin and ‘death threat’" produced zero results for these so-called news outlets throughout the month of March.

Zero.

When you compare this to the hysterical coverage of last year’s Tea Party rallies and town hall protests, where conservatives were regularly depicted as either hostile or fomenting violence, one has to wonder how actual death threats against sitting politicians would not be considered newsworthy.

This seems particularly curious after all the talk about hostile rhetoric immediately following the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in January.

And more civility in DC:

Paul Craney, executive director of the D.C. Republican Committee, says that a shooter took out the windows at the GOP’s storefront office, near 13th and K streets NW, with a small-caliber projectile, possibly from an air gun.

Craney said he got a call from an alarm company early Wednesday morning but didn’t pick up the call. And when he showed up to work this morning the alarm was on. But he didn’t notice the fenestration damage until later in the day. “I was getting lunch, and noticed: Oh my god, our windows are all shot up.”

While on the phone with a reporter, Craney discovered an approximately BB-sized piece of shot on the ground outside the window.

Following 4 closed-door meetings, the President was to get an award for being so open to the press. Sensing the irony, that award got postponed.

And finally, to make up for the dearth of links this week, two political cartoons. (Can you tell I really like Chuck Asay?)

Good morning. Moving towards Spring, eh?

1. International disaster relief and two Presidencies.
2. As the West struggled with the Reformation, the East received the theology of Palamas.
3. A mostly (likely) dismal list of films.
4. Stupid liberal rhetorical responses, use literalism to avoid confronting the real point, oh and don’t forget the most common (seen from my perch) liberal conversational tactic … the personal insult. The substantial point for the discussion in any rational environment would be the over-arching growth and intrusive reach of government regulation. Alas, it goes unnoticed.
5. In which the unfortunate Mr Carville is noted. Mr Carville, from my point of view, suffers from my minds insistence on every appearance of his to recall a remark during the Lewisnsky kerfuffle he made on a news program in which he noted something to the effect of, “Well, you see what you by trawling through a trailer park with $20 bills.” My immediate thought was to wonder why a Democratic supporter would be defending Mr Clinton trawling through trailer parks for sexual favors using cash as a lure … but apparently he intended it as a slur against the character (and discovery) of Ms Jones. It didn’t (for me) come off that way at all alas. 
6. For the “Stop Eating Cake” crowd.
7. Someone is forgetting that the size, prominence and military standing of the actor trumps this discussion. Russia, China, (and yes) the US, and other big powers can do whatever they damn well please and no intervention will occur.
8. Heh.
9. Political contributions and Libya.
10. Privatizing garbage collection.