My adult son’s independent decision about what he wants to do with his life has no bearing on me or on what I write. My views and words about the issues that have concerned me for five years or more are not one gram more significant nor my arguments one iota stronger or weaker because of the decision which he independently made. Judge me as a parent if you will, but please do not judge my positions as a writer based on this act by someone else.
One of the main arguments supporting the claim that we should leave now is the obvious and real collapse of public support for the war – a collapse that is shocking, just shocking, given the years of media spin on the war – media spin that bloggers have been pointing out continually. There’s something to say about the media and antiwar left beating on public opinion for four years, and then using that collapse of public opinion as an argument for their position.
For those with nostalgic longings for Cynthia McKinney, meet Congressman Keith Ellison:
On comparing Sept. 11 to the burning of the Reichstag building in Nazi Germany: “It’s almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted. The fact is that I’m not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that because, you know, that’s how they put you in the nut-ball box — dismiss you.”
As Lileks notes, yup…could happen. In fact, I think he’s too late.
Virginia Postrel reiterates a point that I’ve made many times–that even if we accept a scientific consensus on climate change doesn’t mean that we should blindly follow their advice on what to do about it:
…even assuming that scientists agree on the facts, science can only tell us something about the state of the world. It cannot tell us what policy is the best to adopt. Scientists’ preferences are not “science.” You cannot go from an “is” (science) to an “ought” (policy).
If Israel sent the IDF three kilometers into Lebanon and started digging trenches and building bunkers it would make news all over the world. But Syria does it and everyone shrugs. Hardly anyone even knows it happened at all.
Syria can, apparently, get away with just about anything. I could hardly blame Assad at this point if he believes, after such an astonishing non-response, that he can reconquer Beirut. So far he can kill and terrorize and invade and destroy with impunity, at least up to a point. What is that point? Has anyone in the U.S., Israel, the Arab League, the European Union, or the United Nations even considered the question?
While reading Michael Belfiore’s new book this weekend, I was struck by Brian Binnie’s description of his X-Prize winning flight. Well, Jeff Foust has a report on a speech that Brian gave this past weekend, on what an amazing experience it will be. And if you can’t oversell it, it makes it a double shame that Rocketplane may not be able to sell it at all.
While reading Michael Belfiore’s new book this weekend, I was struck by Brian Binnie’s description of his X-Prize winning flight. Well, Jeff Foust has a report on a speech that Brian gave this past weekend, on what an amazing experience it will be. And if you can’t oversell it, it makes it a double shame that Rocketplane may not be able to sell it at all.
While reading Michael Belfiore’s new book this weekend, I was struck by Brian Binnie’s description of his X-Prize winning flight. Well, Jeff Foust has a report on a speech that Brian gave this past weekend, on what an amazing experience it will be. And if you can’t oversell it, it makes it a double shame that Rocketplane may not be able to sell it at all.
this weekend, I was struck by Brian Binnie’s description of his X-Prize winning flight. Well, Jeff Foust has a report on a