…has converted to Islam.
Of course he has.
And no, I don’t really know what kind of conclusions to draw from this, about either him or Islam.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
The Socialist Paradise
…of Venezuela:
Apologists for Chavez mentor Fidel Castro blame Cuba’s sixty years of economic problems on the US embargo. If it weren’t for Uncle Sam, they say, Castro would have built a socialist paradise by now.
Venezuela is the test for this talking point. Not only is there no US embargo in Venezuela, but the country also has huge oil reserves. And what does it have? Food and medicine and foreign currency shortages.
There are very real theoretical reasons, based on fundamental human nature, why socialism doesn’t work, and empirically fails everywhere it’s tried. But it’s also human nature to wish it would work, so those ignorant or in denial of those reasons continue to try it. Or to try to defeat human nature by creating the New Soviet Man, at the point of a gun.
The Logical Response To A Financial Crisis
Why it almost never happens.
It’s really a non-iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, which rarely ends well for either prisoner.
Slaying The Dragons Of Mars
Stewart Money has an interesting essay on progress in understanding the risks of a Mars flight:
This most recent experience brings to mind another observation Zubrin made in The Case for Mars, once it was foreseen that the oceans could be crossed, people of the era did not wait for the advent of iron plated steamships, they raised sail and headed out into the unknown with what they had available ”iron men in wooden ships.”
Why should we do any less?
Why indeed?
[Cross-posted at Safe Is Not An Option]
Substituting Beer For Water
Can you do it and survive? Asking the important questions.
If You Don’t Support The “Assault Weapons” Ban
…you hate children and want them to die.
Plus, Ted Cruz gets a scolding, not an answer:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California wants us to know that she is “not a sixth-grader.”
Anyone who saw the recent exchange before the Senate Judiciary Committee between Feinstein and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas over guns and the Constitution might speculate that the reason she said this is because she couldn’t pass the entrance exam.
As for Cruz, a friend of mine for a decade, it turns out that the most important of the “Senate rules” is unwritten: Thou shalt not embarrass a fellow senator – even one in the opposing party – by making him or her look unprepared, uneducated or uninformed.
That’s not always an easy thing to avoid. The rulebook doesn’t say what to do when a Senate colleague who wants to ban certain guns dodges a tough question and then goes on the attack – thus embarrassing herself.
Nevertheless, Cruz, 42, is headed to the principal’s office. His infraction was asking the right question. What Cruz wanted to know was this: Why do liberals cherish the First and Fourth Amendments, but trash the one in between – the Second Amendment?
That’s a brainteaser. Why does the left play favorites with different parts of the Bill of Rights?
Experience teaches that the better the question, the less likely you are to get a straight answer.
That’s what happened here. Feinstein went on the offense. Abandoning reason for emotion, she scolded Cruz for daring to “lecture” her. After all, she said, she had seen the bodies of people killed by gunfire.
The illogic of these people defies description. They run on pure, grade-A unadulterated emotion.
The Paranoid Russians
…think we’re wrecking the world on purpose.
Someone needs to tell them about J. Porter Clarke’s Law.
The New Oz Movie
Lileks is disappointed.
Our Idiot Electorate
A majority favor Republican policies, until they are told they’re Republican policies.
International Gun Control
The administration is about to shoot itself in the foot, full auto:
The Obama administration should realize that without at least grudging Jacksonian support, this treaty — or any international treaty for that matter — is DOA in the Senate. So what is an administration to do? Negotiate with the Jacksonians first to get them on board. Then have a couple of people they trust closely involved in the negotiations and pay close attention to their views as negotiations with foreigners proceed.
Count on them to not do that. They don’t want or expect a treaty — they just want the appearance of wanting one to pander to their mushy-minded base. And to many other people, that appearance may be devastating in a year and a half at the polls.