Carter and Clinton don’t like Bush’s Iraq plan.
The Final Solution
From L’oignon comes a suggestion for vast improvements in airline security. I expect Mineta to implement it any day.
No One Here But Us Foreigners
Pointing out the absurdity of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Redhat is supplying a security patch, but only explaining it to non Americans.
Breakdown In Public Ethics
Porphyrogenitus notes that while people get upset about corporate accounting scandals, they remain calm, and even apathetic toward even more massive government accounting scandals. He’s not the first to note this, of course, but I’ve never really given much thought as to why (other than the obvious reason–that most of those whining hate business, and love government).
But that doesn’t explain it totally. Social Security is, after all, a Ponzi scheme, and likely to impact everyone down the road in the same way that the Enron implosion pounded its employees, yet relatively few people seem concerned about it.
I’m thinking that it’s because when a business keeps dodgy books, the consequences are real and immediate, with little recourse. But when a government does it, they can always just increase taxes. Governments don’t go out of business, so people who are concerned about bad bookkeeping for materialistic reasons (they might get ripped off in a painful way), rather than on principle, don’t mind when the government does it.
It’s much the same attitude that people had toward Mr. Clinton’s corruption. As long as their portfolio kept going up, and he wasn’t sending thugs after them, let it ride…
This is a general problem with human nature, but our educational system doesn’t help. The concept of a code of ethical conduct, and doing things just because they’re right, seems more and more alien to more and more of the population. It’s not emphasized in public schools, and fewer and fewer are going to religious schools, or Sunday School, in which such ethics would be expected to be taught. Hence, in the voting booth, it’s every man and woman for themselves, and the results often show it.
Any Sacrifice For The Cause
Here’s an interesting essay on the economics of sex, and how celibacy spreads venereal disease. So for the sake of society’s sexual health, get out there and get it on.
Muammar Qadahfi (Duck), Human Rights Champion
That will be the headline if this article is correct.
It’s A Nailbiter
Free Republic has a thread going in real time to discuss the results, as they come in, of the Iraqi election.
It’s hilarious.
It’s A Nailbiter
Free Republic has a thread going in real time to discuss the results, as they come in, of the Iraqi election.
It’s hilarious.
It’s A Nailbiter
Free Republic has a thread going in real time to discuss the results, as they come in, of the Iraqi election.
It’s hilarious.
Terrorists In Washington?
Apparently, over at MSNBC, they’re now saying that the shooter’s weapon may actually be a Kalashnikov AK-74, a Soviet assault rifle. If so, all of this talk about .223 rounds has been mistaken. It fires a slightly smaller caliber bullet. It’s 5.45 mm, which would be .215. It would be easy to mistake the size if one weren’t careful with the calipers, and were looking for a .22.
It would also be a much less ubiquitous weapon. There’s only one problem with this theory. It’s not possible for anyone to be shooting people with such a gun in this country, because it’s a fully-automatic weapon, and thus is illegal here.
Just kidding…
Seriously, it sounds like a good weapon of choice for a criminal, or more specifically, a Middle Eastern terrorist. After all, they’re new to this country, and can’t be expected to know the law…
Actually, now that I think about it, I’m curious to go back and look at some of Osama’s home movies to see what kind of gun he was using as his theatrical prop.
And as always, perhaps out of continuing misplaced political correctness, the investigators are still unwilling to even discuss the possibility of terrorists.
[More thoughts, a few minutes later]
Supposedly they were clued in by a witness, but it seems unlikely to me that a witness would be able to tell the difference between an AK-74 and and AK-47 from a distance, even if he was familiar with both weapons.
But if he reported an AK-47 (a very common street weapon in the district), then they might have gone back and remeasured the rounds, and verified that it was in fact a 5.45 mm, rather than the assumed .223. Bingo.
[Update on Thursday morning]
Jim Henley says that the police are now saying that the witness “deliberately misled” them.