Americans, Romans, and the War on Terror

You know, it’s refreshing to read an article on the war that doesn’t invoke WWII. Dr. Michael Vlahos on the Roman terrorist problems.

The difference, however, is that the marauding bands we are fighting are supported by nation-states, not simply by plunder. Those nations can have their leadership changed for them, or worse. Eventually we will decide to drive a stake through the heart of the monster in the Middle East, rather than just throwing garlic at it.

And while you’re over at TCS Daily, this is worth a read: Josh Manchester of Adventures of Chester on the Unfrozen Caveman Voter.

And, back to the topic of Rome: much more information here on the fall of that empire, in the form of a book review. Worth a read. And I’ve got the book on the ol’ Amazon wishlist.

Economics link

Dr. Meir Kohn, professor at Dartmouth, has put one of his texts online here as a work in progress.

If you have the time, give it a look-see.

Why did some nations in Europe prosper while others did not? Dr. Kohn has done the research and it’s an answer we’ll all recognize. But I won’t steal his thunder.

Israel and Lebannon again

Captain Ed gives the cease-fire 24 to 48 hours more.

We shall see. There’s grumbling a plenty out there that Israel accepted the deal and plenty that the US helped broker it. The cease-fire did manage to drop the price of gas about five cents, so that was nice. But it may cost Olmert his job. And in the end, may wind up costing a lot of civilians their homes and lives. Israel re-invading will be even worse for the Lebanese civilians who cannot evacuate.

In fact, if UNFIL and the Lebanese Army even arrive in the area at all – they’re still working out the logistics – their first objective ought to be the evacuation of anyone who’s not with Hizbollah. If there is anyone in south Lebanon who’s not with Hizbollah.

And, yes, I think the bill for all the damage should go to Iran and Syria for supporting a terrorist group that started this. But they won’t get the bill. We’ll step up and pay out to rebuild Lebannon.

Condoleeza Rice has an op-ed.  It’s a nice plan and all. If we were dealing with rational people, it would be a fantastic plan.

But, as Bob Heinlein once put it: “Man is not an rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.” Excuses for abominable behavior will be made. Hizbollah will continue to attack Israel, Israel will retaliate, Amercian liberals will apologize for the terrorists (not the “I’m sorry” kind of apology), the American government will urge restraint, news agencies will accept Hizbollah’s manipulation of facts as part of the cost of business, and gas will go back up a nickel. Maybe a dime. The UN will blame Israel. And everyone involved will pretty much accept that war in this part of the world is inevitable.

Daniel Gordis on this war and the first war.

CSI meets Kung Fu

This is totally cool. Fight Science.

Punches that equal sledgehammer force. Kicks that damage like a car wreck. And someone’s there to measure and quantify.

Feed the World

Or not? There are now more (1 billion) obese people in the world than undernourished (800 million). World hunger, except in places where governments restrict access to food and markets either directly (Somalia) or indirectly by not building roads and infrastructure (sub-saharan Africa), is mostly beaten. In fact it’s almost a catastrophic success, with 1 out of 6 people on the planet now storing too much food on their persons, rather than wondering where their next meal will come from. Interesting.

And I guess we could blame this guy. If we were being negative about it.

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, whose research has won him a Nobel Prize and has been proving Malthus wrong for a quarter century. He’s one of Penn Gillette’s heroes, and rightly so. Podcast with Penn and Borlaug here.

More on Hizbollah and Iran

Rightwingers are disagreeing about the cease-fire. Apparently it’s either a tremendous defeat or victory.

Bill Quick at DailyPundit says it’s the former.

DafyD at Big Lizards says otherwise.

I’ve got to say I’m leaning towards the Big Lizards point of view. Remember, it was the Right that began calling this The Long War. Let’s keep that in mind. And this cease-fire is just a time-out in the first half. It’s a bit soon to be declaring a winner.

We have more tools in our chest than the hammer. No, I’m not talking about diplomacy.

Let’s chew on this for a moment. I could be wrong – I’ll admit that up front. I’m biased and I’ll tell you my bias straight out: I want to believe. That’s right, I’m stricken with Mulder’s Poster Syndrome. I WANT to believe, specifically that the president and the very bright people he’s hired have more and better information that we netizens do, that they have a plan and are continually adapting it to win this Long War as circumstances change on the ground. I want to believe that things are happening in the background that you and I may not know about for 20 years from now, but things that matter. I don’t agree with everything Bush has done or pushed for. But I want to believe he’s playing this one thing right. So that’s my bias. Keep that in mind as I chew on this some more.

Hotties on the Hill

Lot of ugliness going on in the word, and a lot of it to go around in DC. So this is a refreshing change.

The 50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill. There’s R’s and D’s in there and no Hillary busts.

Dave in Texas on War and Peace

Nicely put, Dave.

Oh, his post is about actual War and Peace, and American attitudes towards them, not about the book.

Grim at Blackfive writes about the folly of trying to spare the innocent. It’s a tough read.

In a glass house and throwing stones

I’ll admit it, Al Gore loathes people like me, I’m conservative and I’m not green at all. The most I did for the planet was take old newspapers to the recycle bin. But I wasn’t throwing stones at people who didn’t. 

One funny sister

Here’s a site to tickle your Roman Catholic funny bone and learn a little about the faith.

Granted this story is a week old already, but here’s her take on Mel Gibson:

Matt Drudge not withstanding, it is not for us to judge Mr. Gibson’s sins, what he has done and his remorse or lack thereof. That is between him and his Maker.

But just for the sake of argument…..what ARE Mel Gibson’s sins, anyhow? If he toppled off a cliff in Malibu right after his anti-semitic tirade, in what layer of hell would he have landed?

Then after Maddening it down:

So Braveheart’s score would look something like this:

Mortal sins:
Drunk driving
Being filled with hate

Venial Sins:
Getting drunk
Being Angry
Swearing
Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain
Resisting arrest
Saying filthy things

Take a gander if you’ve got sometime.

1,512 disappointed virgins so far…

Breaking news out of England….

They’ve seemed to have stopped 8/06.

Go Brits Go.

I’m glad, it’s mom’s birthday.

On Hizbollah and Israel

Victor Davis Hanson on Lebanon and the western press.

What he said.

Actually, no. I have to add something to this.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., for example, recently said, “I don’t take sides for or against Hezbollah or for or against Israel.”

OK, if you can’t figure out the difference between a racist terror organization that prior to September 11, 2001 held the title for killing Americans in acts of terror and a multicultural, multi-ethnic democratic nation, then you are so colossally and monumentally fucked up that I’m surprised you can form words.

Seriously, this is a no-brainer. Hizbollah is a religiously based fascist group that wants to drive a nation into the sea because of their race. What part of that, Representative, do you not fucking get? They’re the bad guys. And Israel? You know, I’d bet dollars to donuts that Israel would absolutely love to take some time off from this war. I bet they wish they could just switch off the TV and internet tubes and make the whole thing go away. You and I have that luxury because we’re so far away. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to distract yourself from a war when the rockets keep landing in your cities.

How much of that would we take? Well, if we were led by more Rep. Dingells, we’d take quite a bit. We’d bury our children killed in the bomb blasts and blame ourselves for “our foreign policies” that make the world cross with us.

Personally, I think Israel is on the right track on this, the military defeat of Hizbollah being their goal. They decided today to go forward with the plan to clear out everything up to the river that could be a threat. Other reports tell us that they are staging 40K soldiers for this operation. They’re clearing a buffer zone so that it’s harder to launch rockets into populated Israeli areas. Perhaps Iran and Syria will simply supply Hizbollah with better rockets though.

Back to the topic, if you don’t know what side you’re on, you’re simply not paying attention.

More Back to School Blogging

Jane Galt on School Choice.

I like the idea of school choice in principle. In practice, I think it would get sticky and we wouldn’t be able to go a day without some lawsuit all over the news.

9-11 myths exposed

Video here plus more links. Thanks to Allah.

Penn and Teller did a segment on this type of conspiracy theory a couple seasons ago and as you might imagine, they were a bit more forceful in their comments. I might try and find the YouTube of it later. Still, looks like this guy’s book might be a must-read, what with so many people buying into the BS theories.

Nothing to fear but Fear itself?

Greg Gutfield kicks the hornets’ nest over at Huffpo.