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.

So, Three-Mile Island was the worst nuclear accident on US soil. How many deaths are epidemologically attributed to the accident. Well, one study I was quoted in passing by a co-worker was that 50-100 deaths resulted from the accident. All these deaths alas, were due to the increased coal mining and pollutants from the increase in coal fired electrical production. 

Who wants to guess that the aftermath of the recent earthquake and reactor incedents have similar “fallout?”

Good morning.

1. Housing and price, or at least supply.
2. NPR and boobs.
3. Computers meet the grenade. 
4. Speaking of weapon-tech.
5. No. It wasn’t because she was dressed in any way shape or form, it was because the guys were not fit company for dogs.
6. Talking Lent.
7. And exactly what is not needed for the Lenten fast.
8. Constitution and sex offender treatment, for non-sex offenders.
9. This is not a defense of Catholic priests and sex offenses but a question about hypocrisy in those who point at only that. There’s an order of magnitude problem lurking in there to grapple with.
10. How to max out the use of faint praise.
11. Economically rational but morally reprehensible normally means don’t do it … unless your a beltway Congress-critter of course.
12. Dude! I, too, like the look.
13. Not why he forded that Rubicon I suspect.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?
“One conclusion seems clear: what we’ve witnessed in Wisconsin during the opening months of 2011 did not originate in this state, even though we’ve been at the center of the political storm in terms of how it’s being implemented. This is a well-planned and well-coordinated national campaign, and it would be helpful to know a lot more about it.”

Also from the link,

I don’t want this to become an endless professorial lecture on the general outlines of American conservatism today, so let me turn to the question at hand: who’s really behind recent Republican legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere?…

…

The most important group, I’m pretty sure, is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and (surprise, surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft “model bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. (Among them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)

Aside from the fact that there was no “anti-immigrant” law in Arizona, I was left just a bit curious about ALEC. From Wikipedia,

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association of state legislators and private sector policy advocates. Among other activities, the group assists its members in developing model laws for state legislatures and serves as an easy-networking tool for fellow legislators to research how certain policy projects and problems have been handled in other states. ALEC has approximately 2,000 legislative members representing all 50 states, as well as more than 85 members of Congress and 14 sitting or former Governors who are considered “ALEC alumni”. While the alumni elected to the United States Congress and as Governors are often Republican, around one third of ALEC’s legislative members are members of the Democratic Party.

Hmmm. Sounds like a policy group claiming to be non-partisan but which, in all liklihood, leans one way or the other, as long as it’s right.

Do liberals truly believe that politics in America was designed to be exercised in a non-partisan manner?

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Wisconsin public teachers demonstrating to us why limiting power is important
From Ann Althouse, yet another reason to homeschool. Public teachers leading their students in protest chants inside the state capitol. Remember, they have control over your children.

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NPR donates more to left leaning causes
Sorry, I hate stating the obvious.

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Speaking of NPR or – rather – former NPR execs
VIdeo comparing 2 speeches by 2 execs. It’s smackdown time: Schiller vs. Schiller!

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168 out of 1,960,000 = 0.0086%
The number of concealed carry permit revocations compared to permits issued, in Florida.

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A Hellish interview
Yes, the MSNBC interview/skewering of Rob Bell has been covered all over the web, but for good reason. A good object lesson in how one squirms in one’s own loops. The interviewer does a good job of taking the roof off (despite an opening false dichotomy shot).

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What? God’s will for my life might not involve blessing?
Someone asked me for my “life verse” and I couldn’t remember Jeremiah 29:11 so I gave them 29:17. Big mistake! So I made a quick switch to 29:10. Sigh. Now I have to wait 70 years.

It’s not often I agree with Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, but I certainly do this time. Regarding the issues with the nuclear power plants in Japan that are near meltdown, he advises caution on making pronouncements on the use of nuclear power in general, given that just about any energy source has its drawbacks. There is a bigger picture.

If we imagine a hundred years into the future of fossil fuels and a hundred of nuclear power, at the end of a century, how much damage do we imagine each will have caused? I suspect that if it’s really an either/or, the nuclear route is likely much safer.

Again, I’m not wanting to say anything definitive. But even at these moments when we see the most frightening side of nuclear power, I think we should still draw back and look at the global — meant both literally and figuratively — costs of different fuels and consider the possibility that nuclear power is actually safer for our own health and that of the planet.

It took the 5th strongest earthquake since 1900 and the resulting tsunami to do this. Very little can withstand that.

Good morning.

1. So. If we knew how it would turn out, would we do it anyhow?
2. Facts about the earthquake. 
3. Some meta-links, or a set of interesting links posted here.
4. Is Outrage!
5. Incentives. And … where do their incentives lie?
6. Our spending woes or … the satirical version.
7. Motor Oil (googling around, I found Exxon/Mobil also has developed for testing a similar oil).
8. Not getting the whole broken windows thing. Yes. The window (appliance) dealer might do well, and yes people might dip into the college fund to rebuild … but that just means they can’t spend or invest that money elsewhere.
9. Obama. Man of action … or not. Consistent, yes.
10. Money and value?
11. The snake did it.
12. An interesting question on the Obama mandate-as-tax. What sort of tax, eh?

Meryl Yourish has a run-down on how the Associated Press dials things back when Palestinian terrorists from Fatah murder a Jewish family. They say, "Well, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is mostly defunct", while family is completely dead. That’s not even worth mentioning.

And the false equivalence of "violence begets violence" papers over the fact that in response, Israelis block roads and threw stones. And when Israel defends itself, that gets a UN resolution of condemnation.

More at the link.

Good morning.

1. And meaningless jobs … don’t create happiness.
2. Where it’s all about the team … you’ll not find citations of liberals making errors in speeches there.
3. Weather and some predictions. Let’s see, you can’t make accurate very short term (seconds/minutes), short term (week) weather predictions, mid-term (three month) predictions. Yet the claim is that long term (decade) predictions are easy. Well, if “easy” means unverifiable you’re right. Otherwise, not so much.
4. Yah. And he stood there in picture pose for 5 hours while it filled.
5. Coming to a laptop/cell phone near you … in 5-10 years?
6. Prudence.
7. Cinema.
8. Public unions and teaching.
9. Speaking of unions.
10. Words for Japan from India.
11. Kill the fallacy.
12. Trust.
13. What does due processes mean, from an Constitutional perspective?
14. A plug for courting.

Good morning.

1. A film noted.
2. Better than CNN for news on Japan.
3. Lenten links. 
4. The Lenten prototype. Jesus, it might be noted, remarks on “when you fast” … not “if you fast” implying that the whether question regarding the fast is assumed.
5. Byzantine revival.
6. What happens when you can’t do High School Physics.
7. Fears for Nuclear Energies future? I’ve seen nuclear energy proponents talking about this as a big blow, however I’ve not seen any triumphial remarks from nuclear energy detractors pointing to this as a proof positive that nuclear energy is too dangerous to consider.
8. Gender pay gap and abortion.
9. Quake and the bike.
10. Quake and seapower.
11. Quake and the voice of God.
12. Ramblings on the US and our worldview.
13. Mr Bush’s new book a capsule summary/review.
14. Raising kids and atheism, a question asked.

The Salvation Army is in Japan (and has been since 1895) and helping with disaster relief. The best way to help from here is with cash; it’s much easier to transmit there, doesn’t spoil, doesn’t require expensive and slow shipping, and can be put to just the right use. There are 4 ways to contribute money to the Army’s relief efforts in Japan.

• Text the words “Japan” or “Quake” to 80888 to make a $10 donation.
• By phone: 1-800-SAL-ARMY
• On-line at: www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.
• By mail: Send your check, marked “Japan earthquake relief” to: The Salvation Army World Service Office International Relief Fund PO Box630728 Baltimore, MD 21263-072800

Hunter Baker, writing at "First Things", responds to Jim Wallis’ question "What Would Jesus Cut", referring to government spending. (Which begs the question, would Jesus borrow us into prosperity?)

Obama’s HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, admits to double counting some savings that ObamaCare™ would bring. Not really news, except for those who haven’t been paying attention.

Media Matters, an allegedly non-partisan press watchdog group, has a Transparency project that lists major donors to conservative and libertarian organizations. "The Agitator" notes that, while a number of those conservative organizations themselves already provide this transparency, Media Matters itself does not.

Who’s going to clean up this mess in Wisconsin?

It could cost as much as $7.5 million to repair damage protesters have done to the Capitol Building marble say officials in Madison. Fixing posters to the marble with tape and glue appears to have done the bulk of the damage.

During testimony Thursday, a representative from the Attorney General’s office said a contractor estimated it would cost $500,000 to remove all of the posters and garbage. He says it would cost $6 million to restore the marble inside of the Capitol building and another $1 million to touch up the marble outside of the building.

Guess who came to the rescue? The Tea Party. Liberals trashed it, conservatives will care for it.

Mark Steyn notes a very odd way to say, "Thank you.". A young Kosovar is who killed 2 US servicemen in a Frankfurt airport. I mean, we didn’t even wait for UN resolutions before helping Kosovo get its independence. That’s gratitude?

Remember how upset the Left was about indefinite detentions and military tribunals at Guantanamo, and how much the press covered it? Yeah, well, all that is back on again and now they’re rather quiet about it. Wonder what changed.

Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow say, no, we’re not broke as a nation. Reality begs to differ.

Bummer. A set-back for reprogrammed adult stem cells. Undisturbed adult stem cells continue to be extremely useful, but trying to reprogram them into what are essentially embryonic stem cells is having problems.

Look, if you’re going to be biased in what you say, I have no problem with that. Just be honest about it. NPR isn’t. James O’Keefe strikes again at the heart of liberal bias at the network. NPR tries some damage control, but Patterico calls their ombudsman on it. Predictably, liberals now deplore gotcha’ journalism. (Though calling up a governor and misrepresenting who you are is just fine. Wonder what changed.) And apparently O’Keefe isn’t done with the revelations.

The UK’s CEO of the national power grid is predicting that blackouts will be just a part of the new normal once wind turbines become more prominent and supplant other means of electricity generation. How long before paying to not get blacked out becomes popular, and the politization of energy begins?

Civility Watch: Credible death threats against the Palins.

And finally, the Society of Centurions is named after the Centurion who was at the cross when Jesus died, and ultimately admitted, "Surely he was the Son of God". It is an organization for former abortion providers. Changing one’s view on abortion is one thing. Considering it wrong after you’ve provided them is another thing entirely. Priests for Life admonishes, "Let’s pray for the Centurions, and may their numbers increase!" Amen.