Wednesday, August 30, 2006
New Hampshire Insider (12:22 PM) - Ever since a buddy of mine ran for a spot in the state legislature two years ago (He lost, but then Hanover is a blue-blotted town.) I have been fascinated by New Hampshire politics. NH Insider.com is a new site…
“Witness for the Proscution” (12:13 PM) - Stuart Taylor on the irresponsible reporting of the Duke Lacrosse case….
An Iraq War Opponent Outed Valerie Plame (12:07 PM) - Well, I suppose there was no faster way to kill the story than by revealing that it was not a Bush acolyte who outed the gal. The news is out there, but look at the search at the New York…
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
“Christianity is the prevailing religion of the leading nations of the world.” (07:33 PM) - Depending on your constitutional disposition, you might be surprised to learn that that was once a standard-issue fact in public school textbooks. Not even Deep Blue could tabulate the number of feathers such a statement would ruffle today….
“Still Lagging” (07:31 PM) - To the consternation of Washington public colleges and universities, their owners, the citizens of Washington, banned racial preferences eight years ago. What this meant, practically, is that for schools whose policies are governed by the Constitution, the federal code, and…
Apologies for my Absence (06:57 PM) - There’s a girl and that new Porsche. Are we square?…
Monday, August 28, 2006
Nasrallah Was Just Playin’ (10:03 PM) - Here’s a new one:Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired yesterday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to war. Guerrillas from the Islamic…
Ima Goin Home (08:17 AM) - The long haul to New Jersey begins now, and ends with a marathon blogging session from the heart of the Garden State. Have a swell Monday, friends….
Dartmouth Emmy Winners (08:15 AM) - Congratulations are in order to Sam Means ‘03 and Mindy Kaling ‘01, both of whom won Emmys last evening. Sam won for The Daily Show and Mindy for The Office….
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Sunday Morning Sinatra - “I Won’t Dance” (06:28 AM) - From 1957 to 1958 there was a television program called “The Frank Sinatra” show. It starred Sinatra, of course, along with arranger and band maestro Nelson Riddle. One episode of the program begins with the closing few bars of “(Love…
Friday, August 25, 2006
Apple Recalling Millions of Laptop Batteries (06:53 AM) - Details are here. UPDATE: Heh. This post originally said that Apple is recalling millions of laptops. Of course, it is recalling only the batteries—those same Sony batteries which have so beleaguered Michael Dell & Co. Joe’s Dartblog regrets the error….
Thursday, August 24, 2006
My Anti-Communist Statistics Textbook (03:00 PM) - Not all is off in academe, friends. Here, the text which appears in a sidebar in my statistics textbook. It appears just below a crossed-out hammer and sickle:In 1950, the Russian mathematician B.V. Gnedenko (1912-1995) wrote The Theory of Probability,…
Record Lows in New Hampshire… Yet Again (11:03 AM) - Robert Hansen notices. And notices that some people don’t seem to be noticing….
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Survivor Embraces Affirmative Action (08:30 PM) - The reality show Survivor is going to split folks up by race now….
A Smart Thought on Immigration (03:48 PM) - Michael Belinsky ‘08 writes in the Providence Journal: “If the United States favored brains in the immigration process, we will increase aptitude here and encourage it abroad… I do not mean that all immigrants should meet such high expectations, but…
Bush the Flip-Flopper (10:21 AM) - David Adesnik notes that President Bush very recently said this: “There must be consequences if people thumb their nose at the United Nations Security Council, and we will work with people in the Security Council to achieve that objective.”…
…And Democrats Agree (10:20 AM) - Scott Ott reports:The latest poll of al Qaeda members worldwide shows that 91 percent see no link between the global fight against Islamic terrorists and the ongoing U.S. effort to establish a free and democratic Iraq. The results follow release…
May The Last Voice You Hear Be Mine (08:19 AM) - This morning I received an e-mail from a reader in New Zealand. She thanked me for the most recent Sunday Morning Sinatra, in which we saw Frank Sinatra, at 53 years old, perform “Ol’ Man River”. She thanked me because…
It Is Amazing What Man Can Do (08:06 AM) - Ordered a new laptop……
Overheard in Novack Cafe (08:00 AM) - Two Dartmouth students, a guy and a gal, working on a Shakespeare paper. The gal, reading a draft to its author, says,”Shakespeare authored? Ben, you don’t ‘author’ something!” He says: “OK, ‘penned’? She says: “OK. ‘Shakespeare penned…’” A moment. Fellow…
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
“That is definitely a safety issue.” (10:56 AM) - There was a time—specifically, it was the time before the Danish Cartoon War—when I supported laws banning the burning of the flag. I do not anymore. Here is Ann Althouse with some interesting commentary on a new flag-burning case….
“If I gave you a lid, you might take the coffee on board.” (10:46 AM) - I feel safer….
Montenegro Accedes to Geneva Conventions (10:42 AM) - Kevin Jon Heller: “This is a landmark month in the history of international law… the 1949 Geneva Conventions have become the first international treaty in modern history to achieve universal acceptance.” The next landmark month will be when everyone starts…
Diversity By the Books (10:31 AM) - Over the weekend I mentioned a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal about textbook publishers’ concerted efforts to inject diverse photography into elementary-age schoolbooks, often at the expense of instruction. The good folks at the Journal have now made…
Monday, August 21, 2006
Reuters: “Atlantic hurricanes could rev up any time” (02:14 PM) - Quite. And, boy, if they do, we’re sure going to know why….
MICKEY MOUSE IS DEAD (01:47 PM) - That’s the title of a new off-off-Broadway play that plans to stick it to the man like it has never been stuck before: It’s going to talk about Walt Disney’s anti-Semitism. And in the words of renegade auteur Justin Sherin,…
A Morning Thought on Dartmouth Politics (10:55 AM) - Gosh, I feel like a New York Times national desk reporter as I type this, but a source with intimate knowledge of alumni affairs writes:I haven’t spent a lot of time considering the ramifications of the constitution. If you and…
Man is a stream whose source is hidden. (10:35 AM) - The stream of posts here, however, comes from only me, and I regret to say that it will be but a trickle in days to come. This is, as I must note every three months, finals week. And so to…
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Sunday Morning Sinatra - “Ol’ Man River”, Revisited (06:30 AM) - Two weeks ago we saw Frank Sinatra sing the American classic “Ol’ Man River” from a 1946 Richard Whorf film called Till the Clouds Roll By, a tribute to the song’s composer, Jerome Kern. Here is Sinatra doing the very…
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The Ultimate Counterfactual (05:46 PM) - The exercise strikes me as without purpose, but New York Magazine has commissioned a dozen commentators to dwell on what things might be like if the September 11 attacks had never occured….
If You Are Not Criticized, You May Not Be Doing Much (11:32 AM) - I think it was Donald Rumsfeld who coined that glorious little truth. And here is a variation on the theme. The Wall Street Journal in weekend editions uncovers a widespread and growing practice in the textbook publishing industry of using…
A Brief History of Speech (10:35 AM) - Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Todd Zywicki takes readers on a tour of Dartmouth’s highs and lows on the issue of freedom of speech. A selection from the very eloquent post:Things have not always been thus at Dartmouth. Under the…
The Honor of Killing (09:38 AM) - In yesterday’s story, “Two charged with honour killing,” the Guardian shows what fundamentalist Islamism and its intolerance truly mean:Italian police were searching yesterday for a man suspected of involvement in the killing of a Pakistani woman after her father and…
Friday, August 18, 2006
NYT: “The World Commander Speaks, and Americans Must Obey” (11:42 PM) - Gosh, this is pretty much spot-on….
Where is the Arabian Gulf? (10:14 PM) - Meanwhile, this story—about the well-known intensive Arabic language program at Middlebury College—hit the old radar today, prompting me to check it against the experience of a friend of mine who just a few months ago attended the very program now…
In Response to Eugene Volokh (12:45 PM) - The UCLA law professor and ardent free speech advocate behind the Volokh Conspiracy writes on recent news of intimidation at Dartmouth. Professor Volokh writes with apropriate lawerly skepticism, and concedes a certain ignorance to the background of the story (“I’m…
A Commenting Experiment (12:39 PM) - Taking a cue from big bloggers like Glenn Reynolds or the Power Line fellas, I’ve enabled comments for a post on which I am getting an unusual amount of e-mail—that describing two incidents of intimidation of Dartmouth students who had…
Thursday, August 17, 2006
A Note from Andrew Eastman ‘07 (10:02 PM) - Andrew is one of the students quoted in this article in the student newspaper, The Dartmouth, as having had his politicking called into question by administrators. I sent a quick note to Andew asking if he felt in any way…
Informed Comment on Intimidation at Dartmouth (05:46 PM) - A person familiar with the workings of the Dartmouth administration e-mails: “This issue should be a proper challenge for Dan Nelson in his new role as Acting Dean of College. The brief of that position is, at the very least,…
Claims of Censorship and Intimidation at Dartmouth (01:01 PM) - This morning’s edition of The Dartmouth carries a worrisome story by reporter Rebekah Rombom. Here is a significant portion of it, but please click here to read the whole thing.As the Association of Alumni prepares to vote on a new…
The Joementum Continues (11:38 AM) - Connecticut voters at large continue to prefer the independent Joe Lieberman over “netroots” candidate Ned Lamont. And Lieberman’s margin of expected victory is growing….
Welcome to America, where our infractions are quiet and their report Brobdingnagian (12:42 AM) - You don’t know what Brobdingnagian means, do you? Admit it. OK, I’ll tell you. It comes from Gulliver’s Travels, is a real English word, and means huge. Let us try another one. “Welcome to America, macaca.” You don’t know what…
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Curious (09:15 PM) - Did you hear? The port of Seattle is a ghost town—save for men in bright yellow suits—because the security measures in place detected the possibility that one of the containers being offloaded, which may or may not touched the shores…
“If I make a remark about the New York Times not knowing foreign affairs, it’ll be just like old times and no one will notice I’ve been gone.” (07:36 PM) - Patrick Belton is back on the stool at OxBlog….
“He didn’t just stare. He leered. Hard.” (07:17 PM) - Jeff Harrell encounters one of the very best benefits of commuting: Witnessing train pick-up attempts….
CBS: Still Creating the News (07:04 PM) - The folks at CBS News are going to say goodbye to Dan Rather in an hour-long “prime-time salute” to air in September. Isn’t that strange? So much time before resignation and special….
Language Terrorism, Like Its Murderous Counterpart, Works (10:27 AM) - The Associated Press: “Bush drops reference to ‘Islamic fascists’”…
Ceasefires are for the Honorbound, Continued (10:20 AM) - The Washington Post reports this morning: “Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire.” Israel was…
Advertisements on Cell Phones? (10:13 AM) - The Journal this morning has a nice little provocation to consumer outrage?…
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Eminently-Quotable Scott Adams on the Israel/Hezbollah War (01:40 PM) - Heh. “You have to love a war where both sides win. The only part I didn’t understand was why they stopped fighting. It seemed to me that the longer they fought, the more winning both sides would enjoy.”…
Even More Dancing in the Streets (09:26 AM) - I mentioned earlier this morning that Hezbollah’s various cheerleaders seem just pleased as punch with the way things have fadged. Count the mad Iranians in with them, too. Gosh, what a swell victory: Both the Americans and the Iranians are…
Nancy Pelosi Misunderstands Verbified Popular Culture Reference (09:09 AM) - ‘To Swift Boat’, Nancy Pelosi mysteriously has forgotten, means to expose a hidden truth. Like sedition, for example, or a pathological tendency to accuse one’s countrymen of rape and mass murder in the well of Congress in order to earn…
The Ivy League: Now Leaking Like a Sieve (08:53 AM) - Some anonymous men and gals have launched IvyLeak.com, a rumor-mongering site for and about the traditionally straitlaced and decorous Ancient Eight student body. What dark underbelly will the site expose? I think we ought to stay tuned….
U.N. Mulls Cease Fire in War on Terror, Too (08:38 AM) - Just in from the Upper East Side:Now that President George Bush has declared Hezbollah defeated by its acceptance of the terms of a U.N. cease fire in Lebanon, the United States today will press the Security Council to grant it…
Two Headlines This Dim Morn (07:19 AM) - Fox News has the following: “Bush: Stopping Iran Support for Hezbollah Is Key to Mideast Cease-Fire” And the Associated Press has this: “Iran cleric warns Israel to fear missiles” They were posted just hours apart. The Islamist terrorist world certainly…
Ceasefire Agreements are for the Honorbound (07:05 AM) - Hezbollah is still launching missiles from its civilian armament camps, by the bye. I think it is unfortunate but true that the free world has once again failed to vanquish its able enemy, once again thanks to the speedy intercession…
Monday, August 14, 2006
From the cold files of Dartblog’s Extensive Spy Network (07:47 PM) - Date: 14 Aug 2006 19:30:30 -0400 From: Dutiful Student Subject: There was a middle aged man in a light blue hooded sweatshirt…. To: Joe Malchow …WATCHING PORN ON A PUBLIC COMPUTER IN NOVACK. [One of the coffee shops/study areas here….
“Fiasco” — Greg Pence (05:07 PM) - Reader Greg Pence is a Dartmouth ‘06 and a cartoonist for the New Hampshire Union Leader and other purveyors of fine commentary….
Measuring Hostile Intent (08:36 AM) - This [free] Wall Street Journal article is fascinating—one Tennessee airport is testing an Israeli air travel security system which uses personal interviews (with a machine) to detect hostile intent. The system has, of course, worked wonderfully for the state of…
What’s the Dumbest Bomb Ingredients You Can Think Of? (07:55 AM) - Via an e-mailer, this very funny edition of the cartoon Wondermark, which I fear I must now add to my daily reading list….
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Jill Carroll’s Hostage Story, Told (11:40 PM) - The Christian Science Monitor, Carroll’s paper, has constructed a multimedia report to allow the erstwhile abductee to tell her story….
Mahmoud’s Blog (08:48 PM) - On his new weblog, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posts a poll: “Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word war?” He means to say “world” war. So…
Joementum! (04:33 PM) - Connecticut likes Joe Lieberman better than Ned Lamont. O, happy day….
A Stark Proclamation (09:31 AM) - Until the Islamic Republic of Iran is a tolerant, peaceful, liberal, democracy which does not advocate and pursue the annihilation of a people, it should pretty much never “welcome” anything the United Nations does. If it does, the United Nations…
The McCain-Lieberman Party (07:51 AM) - Jeff Jarvis likes the idea—doesn’t offer any plausible evidence that it could be successful, but says prettily that he likes it—and quotes David Brooks saying this very keen thing:The McCain-Lieberman Party begins with a rejection of the Sunni-Shiite style of…
“A true story, yes, but a small one.” (07:37 AM) - TigerHawk (and his missus) review Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center film….
Sunday Morning Sinatra - “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (06:29 AM) - “Cole Porter’s shining hour” is how Frank Sinatra used to introduce this song, written by the famous composer (who was, by the bye, one of the original Whiffenpoofs) in 1936 for Born to Dance. Sinatra started performing it in the…
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Where do you find inspiration for how faith can inform public policy? (06:50 PM) - That’s a question posed to Michael Gerson, who until a few months ago was the chief of President Bush’s speech shop. His answer:Some of it is the heroes you choose. Mine are a pretty eclectic bunch. They include Martin Luther…
Criticism of Israel is ‘disproportionate’. (06:03 PM) - Jeremy Rabkin: “The larger point is that once you get into something called ‘war,’ you are trying to impose your will on the enemy and not simply engaging in tit for tat.”…
Friday, August 11, 2006
Short Note (05:56 PM) - Paul Mirengoff has posted his first reactions to news that the United States and France are back to collaboration, and have a war-ending Security Council resolution in hand. Vital Perspective lets you read the resolution itself. Paul is exactly right:…
The Beauty of the Day (12:12 PM) - Andrew Gimson writes in the Telegraph about Americans, and Americans’ love for freedom, and their willingness to die for it. It is in the opinion section, but that is just pro forma. Since September 11, American political leaders and whoever…
“Wait Akbar! They have a beverage cart! Abort! Abort!” (10:30 AM) - Scott Adams looks at new security policies on passenger jets. By the bye, apologies for the slow posting today. Much writing to do this weekend….
“Rudy Giuliani Now” (10:26 AM) - This post from Roger L. Simon pretty well encapsulates my view on 2008 Republican presidential strategy:As of now, Giuliani appears to be leading in the polls for the Republican nomination and for the presidency. But every time I post about…
Dartblog Exclusive: Dan Rather Update (07:40 AM) - Dad e-mails: “Just back from dinner at Four Seasons. Dan Rather at the next table. Looks fit as a fiddle. CBS sacking doesn’t seem to have got the better of him.”…
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Heidi Klum Was One Of the First New Girls When She Started. Also? Muffins. (07:29 PM) - I would like to print for you three quotes from the supermodel Heidi Klum, who received a fancy write up from the news department of the Columbia Broadcasting System today. Heidi Klum quote number one (this is the one they…
Michael Moore: Throw the [Democratic] Bums Out (04:36 PM) - Moore is on the Lamont gravy train, Drew Cline notices, and is saying that no Democrats who voted for the Iraq War deserve to remain in office….
The Associated Press’ Big Anti-Terrorism Piece (11:32 AM) - There is always the wringing of the hands: What if invading foreign lands and killing terrorists just creates more terrorists? No one ever proposes the complement: What if terrorism creates more anti-terrorists? I’m willing to bet it does, and even…
Islamist Plotters Arrested in Marietta, Ohio, Also (11:30 AM) - News here and here….
C.A.I.R. Press Conference at Noon (10:40 AM) - Do you know what the people at the Council on American-Islamic Relations will do when they step before cameras at noon today? They’ll talk about backlash. Do you know what they should do? They should tell law-abiding American Muslim men…
They’re Talking to the Community (10:23 AM) - There is news rolling in about the massive London Islamist terror plot by the second. Go elsewhere for that, because I will have precious little time to write entries today. But here is one item I found interesting: The official…
Major Terrorist Plot Foiled in Britain (09:07 AM) - AP reports the news of the day—a prevented plot to bomb several flights leaving Britain and coming into the United States:LONDON (AP) - British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading…
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
W. Va University Eliminates Blacks-Only Classes (07:51 PM) - Marshall University, a public institution in West Virginia, permitted until this very day professors to limit enrollment in their classes to students of certain races. After pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, though, the school was compelled…
The Joementum Continues (11:38 AM) - Dick Morris, writing at the Drudge Report, says that Joe Lieberman still has a chance to win this thing. I usually disagree with Dick Morris’ strategic analyses, but I agree strongly with this one.While Ned Lamont will clearly have a…
Has the Senate Punched a Hole in Our Sovereign Firewall? (10:56 AM) - Julian Ku has an interesting post on the international CyberCrime Treaty, just ratified by the United States Senate. He addresses critiques, which seem legitimate to me, that “any person in this country who uses a computer in a manner that…
You Just Have To Look Closely (10:49 AM) - For the entire duration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there has been the problem of faked Sad Scenes on the part of the Palestinians. That isn’t to say the problem doesn’t exist on the Israeli side, but it is less widespread,…
Perhaps a Bottle of Rosé Instead (10:37 AM) - One of the very, very few things I know about wine is that what’s called rosé is Not Good. Now the New York Times’ Style section says I’m wrong: Rosé is now hip. I don’t know what to believe….
Sacre Bleu (10:35 AM) - The House of Representatives cafe has reverted to the name ‘French fries’. No more freedom….
Intolerance at the ACLU (10:29 AM) - Sean at the Columbia Critic: “The ACLU continues to offend me in its actions.”…
WSJ: College Newspapers Are Thriving (10:27 AM) - In the big-time newspaper industry, ad sales and circulation are down. The tune is happier at campus newspapers, according to the Wall Street Journal….
Checking in with the Daily Kos (08:24 AM) - The Daily Kos folks, who have operated that website through several election cycles, have not ever endorsed a candidate who ended up winning his race. And they have endorsed many candidates. But they did get someone nominated last night. I…
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Connecticut Update (11:45 PM) - Well, old Joe lost his primary, and has vowed to petition for a spot on the ballot as an independent….
Q: What happens when you ask a political science guy who has forgotten long division to construct a scientific paper on bolide impacts in eastern Virginia and their effects on the salinity of groundwater supply? (07:11 PM) - A: He stops blogging and devotes all his faculties toward achieving mediocrity….
The Connecticut Vote (10:20 AM) - Connecticut Democrats will vote today to radicalize their party, and you can track the results in near real-time at this fresh application from the Secretary of the State’s Office. My bet? It crashes within a matter of hours….
Scott Adams’ Child (09:42 AM) - “Why can’t we buy two [video games]? You’re rich,” he says….
A New Busch Made in Hanover (09:29 AM) - This past weekend in Hanover, there was a Budweiser wedding. Carolyn Kylstra reports for The Dartmouth:Eight Budweiser Clydesdales from St. Louis stood on a corner of the Green with an ornate carriage in tow and a “Just Married” sign affixed…
Monday, August 07, 2006
Yes, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco (10:28 PM) - Here is a selection pulled from a commercial that the good folks at the Lucky Strike cigarette company put on the air in the year 1950. Why? Don’t matter why. You’ll hear Georgia Carroll, and then Julie Conway and Sully…
Pardon? (03:14 PM) - One of the first big pieces I wrote on Dartblog was “Zut Alors!” in which I recounted a friendly sparring match with Thierry Vankerk-Hoven, the French consul to New England. I had been invited to have a fireside chat with…
“Everyone knows that Ruth’s Chris, while open for dinner, is not open for lunch.” (12:39 PM) - Judge Pendleton Gaines, in the Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County, rules on motion to compel acceptance of lunch invitation. It is hilarious. Via Eugene Volokh….
“Hey, free Saab” (11:38 AM) - Near as I can tell, every Dartmouth girl is required to own an iPod, a laptop, and a black jacket from the North Face company. I know this because every day—or at least every post-party day, meaning Thursday, Friday, Saturday,…
Muslim Fun Day Flops (10:33 AM) - This is a throwaway, but it seems certain that someone out there would like to know about it: A Muslims-only day at Britain’s biggest theme park has been axed after a huge bookings flop. Organisers Islamic Leisure had hoped to…
Takings Referenda on State Ballots (08:19 AM) - This free Wall Street Journal article, by Christopher Cooper, is a good one. (For one, it refers in the headline to the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo as an “edict”. And it does seem to be that, more than a…
Reuters Pushes Yet Another Doctored Photograph (07:46 AM) - Jeff Harrell, the man you wish would just stop working and write on his blog all day long, writes on his blog: “I think this is the second example yet found of a photo taken by Adnan Hajj that was…
Duke Lacrosse: Prosecutor Wildly Exaggerated Evidence (07:41 AM) - The local paper, the News & Observer, reviews all the discovery and makes a not-very-stunning announcement: Mike Nifong doesn’t have much of a case, and he exaggerated the evidence to begin with….
Sunday, August 06, 2006
The Middle East Needs Pizza (07:16 PM) - Per a post of this morning, Iran has banned the use of the word “pizza,” as an unacceptable American influence. Well, the Middle East needs pizza. At PizzaIDF.org, you can purchase a pizza pie for Israeli soldiers or their families….
Is This a Wedge Which I See Before Me? (06:17 PM) - Paul Mirengoff doesn’t find E.J. Dionne’s annual pronouncement of the death of the Republican Party to be any more convincing than usual….
Frenchman Proposes Downsizing English; Re-Naming “Globish” (10:17 AM) - Since the worldly use of this fine English language is on an unceasing rise—one billion speakers and counting—there seem to be two (well, three) camps. The first is unassertive and allows each person to use his tongue of choice. Call…
Reuters’ Questionable Editing Practices (09:47 AM) - One thing accomplished by the rise of Internet-based political commentary is the dramatic and sudden increase in feet/fire proximity for wire services: Those happy few companies which fetch the news, and bottle it at the source. Where some journos are…
Sunday Morning Sinatra - “Ol’ Man River” (06:29 AM) - In 1946 Richard Whorf directed a film called Till the Clouds Roll By, a musical biopic of the great American popular composer Jerome Kern, who was among the founders of the Broadway musical idiom, and who added more than seven…
Saturday, August 05, 2006
How Peace Movements Move (09:10 AM) - John Hinderaker, in his style, finds (and often generates) the most incisive top-down analysis of the current state of global politics. This morn he points to a column by Thomas Sowell who generously offers an appraisal of the historical effectiveness…
Friday, August 04, 2006
Looking Forward to Windows Vista (05:38 PM) - UPDATE: It is hardly necessary to mention that errors like that happen in even the most advanced voice recognition software, and that they have absolutely nothing to do with Windows. But, gosh, that’s a funny error. Hasn’t swung me…
O.K., Maybe She Isn’t Running in 2008 (04:25 PM) - AP: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is sending a message to the Cuban people imploring them not to flee the island for Florida because of political uncertainty.”…
The Ladies of the IDF (03:46 PM) - People tiptoe around the phrase ‘Clash of Civilizations,’ but if the conflict in the Middle East ever comes to general ground hostilities, it is going to look an awfully lot like one….
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Congratulations to Todd Zywicki and the Conspiracy (02:16 PM) - Dartmouth Trustee and George Mason Law professor Todd Zywicki has, along with Volokh Conspiracy co-blogger Ilya Somin, been selected to assume the editorship of the Supreme Court Economic Review out of the University of Chicago….
It’s All Relative, Anyway (09:58 AM) - Scott Ott strays too close to reality:United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, who recently suggested that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization, today proposed that the Lebanon-based group be granted an honorary seat on the U.N. Security Council as…
How Juan Cole Met the Shaft (09:02 AM) - David White gives the inside story on Yale’s non-hiring of radical Mid-East expert Juan Cole….
The Game Theory of the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict (08:06 AM) - Robert Hansen writes:So for the Israeli situation, application of the model is quite straightforward. Certainly when we are dealing with the Middle East, we have to be willing to accept the possibility of truly irrational players (I use irrational pretty…
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The Frank Truth (10:42 PM) - Finally: a blog all about the Chairman of the Board….
Does China Have Second-Strike Capability? (02:17 PM) - Soviet and American second-strike nuclear capabilities were crucial to the fact that humanity lasted through the Cold War. Second-strike is what underwrites MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction. It is a subset of command and control, missiles, launchers, and nuclear warheads designed specifically…
A Chinstrap Penguin Emerging From His Snow-Wrought Antarctic Home (01:50 PM) - And what a respite in New Hampshire today—the heat index is only 102°, compared to 104° yesterday….
9/11: The NORAD Tapes (11:47 AM) - Vanity Fair has posted audio clips of communication at North American Aerospace Defense in Cheyenne Mountain from the morning of September 11. Excerpt from the article:When I asked Nasypany about the conspiracy theories—the people who believe that he, or someone…
That’s My Senator (08:19 AM) - “There are times when I press the senators-only button and there are people waiting for the elevators, and I do feel a little guilty.” Mr. Lautenberg admitted. The New York Times reports on the senators-only elevator, and the non-senator incursion…
Recipe for Low Turnout (07:53 AM) - Just heard on the radio: “Because of the heat, the City has announced that today is an optional school day in New York public schools, for those students in summer school.”…
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
In Which I Offend An Entire Class (08:12 PM) - A member of the Dartmouth class of 1986 read this post—where I had the poor form to refer to “the game of 86’ing words”—and alighted on my inbox:Gee Joe, I’m surprised you’d dare use such a construction. As a member…
A Photo of a Frigid Steel Train Skating Across Siberia (07:39 PM) -
Smooth Transition (02:31 PM) - Scott Ott: “Carter Downplays Castro Succession Rumors”…
Who’s Smarter: Limbaugh Listeners or NPR Listeners? (02:03 PM) - The answer is Rush Limbaugh listeners, by, according to the Pew Research Center, nine percentage points. That, and many more interesting media statistics, at the just-released Pew news survey. The link goes directly to the audience segments page….
Wayward Offense, Continued (11:59 AM) - Extending this post, in which I link to some wonderful analyses of purportedly offensive words, a reader writes:I am sure it has not escaped your notice that Dartmouth’s “Dean of First-Year Students” and “Dean of Upperclass Students” could not possibly…
The Security Council Decides to remain seized of the matter (10:28 AM) - This seems to be underreported: Just yesterday, the Security Council stuck Iran with the threat of economic sanctions if it does not halt its factories, which even now are turning natural-found (or bought) uranium into its hellacious, overpure, fissible cousin….
The Note and Its Low Standards (10:12 AM) - Did you hear? Democratic leaders got together and wrote a letter to President Bush. Lots of warm press coverage. They suggested a New Way Forward in the War for Iraq. This New Way is marked primarily by its lack of…
The Suicidally Open-Minded (08:20 AM) - “The purpose of an open mind is to close it, on particular subjects. If you never do — you’ve simply abdicated the responsibility to think,” William F. Buckley wrote somewhere. Representative John Dingell (D-MI) was never apprised of such a…
“Israel Is Losing This War” (08:11 AM) - Bret Stephens is displeased with Israel’s progress in eradicating (No, now “degrading”.) the terrorist outfit Hezbollah….
Slow News Day (06:59 AM) - CNN is shouting: “Key Republican breaks with Bush on Mideast”. It’s Hegel. Chuck Hegel disagrees with the Bush White House on the Middle East. Pardon, but does that really fit the key-blah-breaks-with-blah-on-blah-issue mold? UPDATE: Here is another slow-news-day item, this…
Tales of daring-do, bad and good luck tales (06:41 AM) - For folks of a certain generation, this is one heck of a piece of nostalgia. UPDATE: Andrew Seal, via e-mail, advises that the proper spelling is “derring-do,” and not “daring-do”. The Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged agree with him….