Archive for July, 2006

Campaiging against proliferation of non-lethal weapons? And finding death rays in Iraq?

Campaiging against proliferation of non-lethal weapons? And finding death rays in Iraq?

| July 21, 2006 | Reply

The California Center for Strategic Studies is a non-profit organization “dedicated to securing world peace, fostering human rights, and promoting sustainable prosperity.” OK, nothing there that I have a problem with. CCSS claims on its home page to have “spearhead[ed] a major nuclear arms reduction agreement between the U.S. and Russia.” OK, that’s news to […]

Read More

Link o’ the day

Link o’ the day

| July 21, 2006 | Reply

Here are inspirational posters for role-playing gamers. It’s been 25 years since I’ve done any RPGing myself, but most of them still make sense to me. How scary is that? ..bruce..

Read More

The Big Crumble (part III)

The Big Crumble (part III)

| July 20, 2006 | Reply

UPDATED (07/21/06): The Washington Post has coverage of Romney’s response to the Big Crumble (hat tip to Tom Bevan at the RCP Blog), while the Boston Globe does the same (hat tip to Kathryn Lopez at NRO). ..bfw.. UPDATED (still 07/20/06): Gov. Romney has ordered the eastbound lanes of the Ted Williams Tunnel shut down, […]

Read More

Song of the Desert

Song of the Desert

| July 20, 2006 | Reply

Stories of sand dunes that emit sounds and even pure tones date back to at least Marco Polo. A research group has actually located such dunes and recorded the sounds (note: the top two pictures on the page don’t have working links; try the rest). Their explanation: self-synchronizing particles of sand within the dunes. Hat […]

Read More

OK – I take back every joke I’ve ever made about Wayne Newton

OK – I take back every joke I’ve ever made about Wayne Newton

| July 20, 2006 | Reply

With my own son in Marine boot camp, I found that this story had quite an emotional impact. Hat tip to Milblogs. ..bruce..

Read More

Attention, Parents of College Students!

Attention, Parents of College Students!

| July 19, 2006 | Reply

This is the payoff of all the tuition, room and board expenses that you’ve put out. Updated 07/21/06: But at least it’s better than this. Hat tip for both to Dave Barry’s Blog. ..bruce..

Read More

Link o’ the day

Link o’ the day

| July 18, 2006 | Reply

OK, this is even better that the last Star Wars video: the Vader Sessions. It’s scenes from the original Star Wars, but with Darth Vader’s dialog replaced by James Earl Jones’s dialog from other films. Hat tip to Ace of Spades. ..bruce..

Read More

Unexpected-political-observation-by-an-ex-world-leader o’ the day

Unexpected-political-observation-by-an-ex-world-leader o’ the day

| July 18, 2006 | Reply

Saddam Hussein cautions Syria against getting into bed with Iran (too late!): Amman – Toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has issued a warning to the Syrian leadership ‘not to go too far in its alliance with Iran,’ blaming Tehran for the current flare-up of violence in the Middle East, the head of Saddam’s defence team […]

Read More

Gas Prices: Up or Down?

Gas Prices: Up or Down?

| July 18, 2006 | Reply

As I’ve noted before, Robert Samuelson is one of my favorite commentators. He is fair, intellectually honest, tends to focus on what is rather than what should be, and has no particular agenda that I can discern — other than that others take the same approach. Over at Real Clear Politics he talks about the […]

Read More

Democratic Election Strategy (cont.)

Democratic Election Strategy (cont.)

| July 18, 2006 | Reply

Via the immensely valuable Real Clear Politics comes a link to this USN&WR article about how Howard Dean’s “50-state strategy” is actually playing out. Sample: If that doesn’t sound revolutionary, consider this: Mississippi’s Democratic Party hasn’t trained precinct captains for more than a decade. Until recently, the state party consisted of a single full-time staffer. […]

Read More