…of our ancestors. What she doesn’t note are the modern diseases that aren’t microbial based, but a result of an agricultural diet.
The Constellation Empire
..strikes back. My thoughts on the implications of last week’s announcement by ATK over at Open Market.
The Elephant Whisperer Is Mourned
…by the elephants. I think that there remain, at least for now, some things beyond the realm of science.
Another Spy Outed By Democrats
First Valerie Plame, and now this:
Not only is the supposed CIA asset not a CIA asset at all, but the entire operation was exposed prematurely and the double-agent’s life was immediately threatened by an intelligence leak that very well may have come out of the White House for political gain.
As the story broke, the establishment media was more than happy to attribute the intelligence coup to the CIA and the Obama administration, describing the mole as a “CIA informant.”
It turns out that wasn’t true. The double-agent hadn’t been recruited and placed by the CIA, but by British intelligence, who also managed the operation. In fact, the Americans had only recently been made aware of the joint British-Saudi effort.
The leaks about the operation from the American side have infuriated British intelligence officials, who had hoped to continue the operation. The leaks not only scuttled the mission but put the life of the asset in jeopardy. Even CIA officials, joining their MI5 and MI6 counterparts, were describing the leaks as “despicable,” attributing them to the Obama administration.
Of course, this one was much worse than the Plame slip. I’ll bet there are a lot of people in the British government who can’t wait for November, either.
The American Currency Union
Can it survive? I don’t think the Stoner would do well.
Geert Wilders
Some meditations on him, and the troubled Netherlands, from Mark Steyn:
…in the end the quiet life isn’t an option. It’s not necessary to agree with everything Mr. Wilders says in this book — or, in fact, anything he says — to recognize that, when the leader of the third-biggest party in one of the oldest democratic legislatures on earth has to live under constant threat of murder and be forced to live in “safe houses” for almost a decade, something is badly wrong in “the most tolerant country in Europe” — and that we have a responsibility to address it honestly, before it gets worse.
A decade ago, in the run-up to the toppling of Saddam, many media pundits had a standard line on Iraq: It’s an artificial entity cobbled together from parties who don’t belong in the same state. And I used to joke that anyone who thinks Iraq’s various components are incompatible ought to take a look at the Netherlands. If Sunni and Shia, Kurds and Arabs can’t be expected to have enough in common to make a functioning state, what do you call a jurisdiction split between post-Christian bi-swinging stoners and anti-whoring anti-sodomite anti-everything-you-dig Muslims? If Kurdistan’s an awkward fit in Iraq, how well does Pornostan fit in the Islamic Republic of the Netherlands?
It’s long, but read the whole thing.
The First Gay President
A brief history of the rise, and decline of news weeklies. Really, they’ve become parodies of themselves.
The New Phrenology
Some thoughts on the supposedly broken brains of conservatives, from Andy Ferguson. While what Jon Haidt has been doing is interesting, most of this stuff is junk science.
Plus, related thoughts from Jonah Goldberg.
Return Mount Rushmore!
It’s amateur hour at the UN.
Actually, as he notes, this is really a consequence of the ongoing amateur hour at the White House.