You should. For the next 60 days, you aren’t allowed to get your political message out in the media, thanks to McCain-Feingold. Even if your message is about pending legislation. As long as the incumbent is simply mentioned, it’s banned political speech. (Fortunately, blogs are exempt.)

And it could have been tempered recently. Republicans voted to temper it, but the Democrats would not hear of it.

Technorati Tags: McCain-Feingold, free speech, Democrats

The Electric Light Orchestra was, and still is, my favorite band.  Love the full sound, the great harmonies, and all with lyrics that were G or PG rated, even during the 70s and 80s.  This is my favorite song of their’s; Sweet Talkin’ Woman.

[youtube]sG0ZmhIRDXE[/youtube]

Thank you, Jeff Lynne and company.

Technorati Tags: Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne, music

Michelle Malkin has the (illustrated) transcript of President Bush’s speech about the status of CIA-held terrorists. Turns out they’re going to get Geneva Convention treatment. The reason I find this wrong on its face can be found in the President’s speech.

The terrorists who declared war on America belong to no nation, wear no uniform. They operate in the shadows of society.

But that’s precisely who the Geneva Convention is not written to protect! It’s designed to foster the rules of warfare, in that the armies are of a particular, signatory nation, wear an identifiable uniform, and don’t hide among civilians. This is precisely why they shouldn’t get the Geneva treatment. Doing so thusly confers no benefit on those who bother to fight by the agreement. If there’s no personal benefit to fighting in a way that, for example, minimized civilian casualties (e.g. the wearing of identifiable uniforms, not hiding among the populace), there are plenty of terrorists and rogue nations out there that simply won’t do it. For them, there’s no downside. By supposedly being magnanimous now, we’re sacrificing civilians down the road.

Read the rest of this entry

Brian Maloney, who keeps up with the radio talk show biz, is rather upset that Rush Limbaugh is going to do a 90-second opinion piece on Katie Couric’s new CBS Evening News.

Sounding a bit defensive, Limbaugh explained his rationale, took two calls on the subject and then quickly moved on to another topic. In a lighthearted way, he lashed out a bit at friends and supporters for not giving him more credit after all these years in the public realm.

Well, I read the transcript and honestly I don’t hear it the way Brian does. I don’t hear “defensive”, and I certainly don’t hear “lashing out”. Some dittoheads do indeed worry too much when Rush gives any time at all to anyone who leans left. And I don’t see the big deal, especially since, as Rush points out, his viewpoint is hardly ever covered on the Big 3 newscasts, so this is an historic opportunity for folks to get an unfiltered look at Limbaugh and his ideas. Yeah it’s only 90 seconds, but that’s about 80 seconds more than usual on a typical CBS news night.

There will probably still be the same issues with CBS News later as there are now; most stories ignoring or minimizing the center-right views, assuming the center-left arguments are always mainstream, going to center-left experts and organizations for reaction, etc. etc. Depending on how they handle this, CBS may actually get a bit more balanced, which can only be a good thing.

Technorati Tags: politics, radio, Rush Limbaugh, CBS, Katie Couric, Brian Maloney

…it must be true.

The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which left almost 3,000 people dead was an “inside job”, according to a group of leading academics.

Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.

And of course, they blame the dreaded Neo-Cons(tm)!

They believe a group of US neo-conservatives called the Project for a New American Century, set on US world dominance, orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to hit Iraq, Afghanistan and later Iran.

The group says scientific evidence over the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is conclusive proof.

And Popular Mechanics has already disproven these “proofs”. These are scientists and academics, the very folks who are supposed to be more dispassionate than the rest of us in their review and debate of the facts. But as it turns out, they differ little from any of us who have our core beliefs tested.

But University of Wisconsin assistant professor, Kevin Barrett, said experts are unwilling to believe theories which don’t fit into their belief systems.

This could just as easily apply to the man-made global warming debate as to nutty 9/11 conspiracy theories. Politics is trumping science and learning.

Technorati Tags: science, conspiracy, neo-con

Don Sensing continues to list the foolishness (to be overly nice about it) perpetrated by the United Nations, including

• Allowing Syria to have a significant role in the setting of the Israel/Hezbollah terms.

• Allowing those doing the killing in Darfur to decide if they want UN oversight.
• Allowing North Korea to starve more of its people while Annan fiddled.

And yet, there are those who still believe that the UN is simply in need of fixing, rather than scaling it way back or doing away with the idea. How, exactly, has the UN helped those in Rwanda, Darfur, N. Korea or the many other places where the are or aren’t?

Has the UN done good? Yes, you can name places and even programs where they’ve made things better. But more often than not, their monumental failures overshadow those successes. Typically, they prevent action and allow murderers to buy time to ply their craft while this august body deliberates, studies and flies diplomats around the world, culminating in a harshly worded piece of paper.

And Chavez quakes in his boots. Or not.

The main problem I see with the UN is that it has the liberal tendency to avoid passing value judgements, and instead assigns moral equivalence in even the least gray areas. Thus, it lacks clarity, instead painting everything with an overly broad brush, and allowing those who do understand the nature of evil–because they’re practicing it–to continue on, playing the UN for patsies.

Technorati Tags: United Nations, Darfur, Rwanda, North Korea

Ever since the whole Valerie Plame kerfuffle imploded, the bad news keeps dribbling out. Ace at PoliPundit adds a few more notes to the supposed politically-motivated “smear campaign”. The Left just knew they were right. They invested so much in Joe Wilson’s charges only to have the bubble burst from beneath them. And it wasn’t like Wilson was some sort of ironclad source. The thing that got this started was his misrepresentation to the public of his own report. It just went downhill from there.

Technorati Tags: Valerie Plame, politics, Joe Wilson

This is truly cool.

SOLDIERS are to begin trialling a futuristic “liquid armour” that is worn like ordinary clothing but turns into a rigid shield as soon as it is hit by bullets or shrapnel.

The armour consists of material impregnated with liquid silica that has been modified using nanotechnology. It is designed as a flexible alternative to the current military armour, which consists of Kevlar material reinforced by heavyweight ceramic plates.

The American army hopes to use the liquid armour — which has been likened to the skin of cyborgs in films such as Terminator and RoboCop — in a new combat outfit that will enter service in 2010. British troops are also examining the concepts behind the armour, the technical name of which is shear thickening fluid (STF), for the Ministry of Defence’s Future Infantry Soldier Technology project.

Science fiction just keeps becoming science fact.

Technorati Tags: science, liquid armor, science fiction

With the return of Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, there was a tale of a forced “conversion” to Islam. There are those, as the Captain notes, who condemn these men for doing so. I agree with Captain Ed, that we’re really in no position to pass judgement on them. Never mind that we don’t know what, if any, religion they do adhere to, I have to ask myself how I would react in the same situation. I would sincerely hope that I would have the guts and the faith to refuse, knowing that perhaps it may lead to a rather gruesome and painful death. Would my faith be enough to overcome the very present fear? I hope it would. I hope, but I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation remotely similar to the one those two men were in. I can say what a Christian should do, but I won’t speak ill of someone who has the same human frailties and weaknesses I do.

Read the rest of this entry

protozoa on rocks +Ethnic Slur [#2 on Google]