Far South of I-10

I'm reading Victor Davis Hanson's latest book when I have time to sit and read something, at the rate I'm reading I can make this book last all year. He's got a really great article posted on his blog as he sings the chorus to the end of the west. If we had fought and lost that might have been honorable, but it looks suspiciously like the men of realpolit are coming back to abandon the kurds. But why would either Damascus or Teheran wish to talk? The answer is plain. The former wants to profess to cool it a bit in destabilizing Iraq in exchange for us turning a blind eye in Lebanon; the latter wants to act like stopping the sending of agents of our destruction into Iraq in exchange for cooling our rhetoric about their bomb. What we would be doing in essence by “dialoguing” is saying to both the democracies in Lebanon and Israel, “Sorry, but we have to find a way out of Iraq, and these fascists will promise to turn away from us if they can turn on you.” All this is ...

Our apartment is on one side of a major street and my office is on the other side. Since it's only a few blocks I tend to hoof it over there, which has the downside of jaywalking through heavy traffic with my heavy-assed dell m70 laptop. I try to make it across as fast as I can, but I usually end up stuck on one of 3 medians. The locals make it across effortlessly, they walk without fear and without seeming to look. I bet colombians would rock at the game frogger. I'll probably get squished to the theme song...wawawawawup!

I finally got to finish Mark Steyn's America Alone last night. I put it down in fear and disgust last week, and finally picked it up to finish it last night. It's a great book but not a happy read, seeing how it looks like the world will really go to shit in 30 years just in time for me to be too old to do anything about it. I'll be 70 years old and the jihadists won't have to bother beheading me, they can just yank the feeding tube out or whatever. It looks bleak and the muslims may out procreate us and out convert us but the clearest answer to me is to say screw you to all political correctness. We may not be the best culture in the world, but I choose nascar-watching, barbaque-eating, jambalaya-cooking, rock&roll-listening good ol' redneck USA over most of the rest of the world. We're not all equally good, there are right answers to the test and if someone's only answer is to beat their women and threaten to cut off the pope's head then yes, I...

Dan Simmons is a speculative fiction writer who wrote a scary short story last april and now writes even more indepth explanation and background in another article that I must have missed a few months ago, but it got linked from Cold fury today, where their mellow is definitely harshed today There's too much information in Mr. simmons' article to try and excerpt much, but one quote does seem to point out what is happening in the world today: Forgetfulness overcomes every successful civilization," writes Lee Harris. That forgetfulness is this: in each era, just when trade and peace and reason and moderation seem most likely to prevail, the opportunity for the zealots to succeed through ruthlessness is at its greatest. "The result is an unsettling paradox: the more the spirit of commerce triumphs, the closer mankind comes to dispensing ...

I took today off work since my wife is running around choosing wooden flooring to install I took the chance to sit around reading science fiction and watching TV. My order from Amazon that I ordered last weekend got here, the most expensive books ever, since I paid for expedited int'l shipping. I didn' t think about import duties though...so my $138 dollars in books turned into $200 with shipping, plus $70 in duties and sales taxes here. I won't be doing that again. ouch. I did get the 2nd half of the Barron's spanish course on CD . I highly recommend the 1st half if you're trying to learn spanish. I've tried various books and courses but that was the one that really helped my accent and fluency. To get to where I can use more than 3 verb tenses I'm doing the 2nd part. I bought another copy of the 1st half for one of my non-spanish speaking coworkers, since I managed to let my copy get packed up by the movers with my other spanish training material. (do...

James Webb won and the Republicans lost the senate too. This looks bad to the people that hate us, they don't know how the US electoral system works, so they're probably waiting for the president to declare new elections or something. They think we lost, but it's probably not that bleak. I'm not that worried about James Webb, I like his writing and most of views, and trust him to make a good decision when the time comes. Pelosi and the other leaders are more worrisome, who knows what pain their stupid statements and actions will cause 5 years from now.

Bill Whittle is amazing, just when it seems he's abandoned us to our fate without comment, he pops back up with an essay that expresses a lot of things that I wish I could say but don't have the words for. He mentions the story of the cardboard submarine that you could buy from the back of a comic book, this made me chortle because if I made a list of all the things that I've wanted in my life, from my first PC to a desire for a Jaguar XJS, probably 20% would be things that I dreamed of buying from the back of a comic book. X-ray glasses, or the 400 piece set of army men for only $2.99! But as Mr Whittle so ably points out, just wishing for plastic crap from the back of a comic does not a nuclear sub make. Just visualizing whirled peas does not make for a safer world when there are people with long knives who wish to see the infidel dead and their women in burkas. Go read the essay , he blasts holes in so many stupid ideas that it's too hard to figure out which one...

Dr. Sanity has a great post today using death by chocalate cake as a metaphor for Saddam's wmd's: There has always been somthing wrong with the MSM's train of reasoning. First the press persisted in encouraging the delusion that no WMD's or their antecedents were ever found in Iraq and that "Bush lied". Now they want you to believe that Saddam indeed had a detailed and documented program developing WMD's; but that the real problem is that Bush Administration's reckless publishing of the details of that program has facilitated Iran becoming a nuclear power. I couldn't excerpt the cake recipe part, because when I read it it gave me such an overwhelming desire for hot cake and icecream that I almost burst out of the apartment on my way to the store. If I were to post it, it's too easy here to call for cake "a domicilio" (you can even call for beer to be delivered here), so go read it yourself, it's too much temptation That post di...

I wish I had bought Mark Steyn's book "America Alone" before I moved down here. The number of books in english is pretty limited, and it certainly doesn't contain any books that I agree with politically. Mr Steyn has a great column that describes an interview with George W. Bush I n 2020, no one's going to be worrying about which Congressional page Mark Foley is coming on to. Except Mark Foley, who'll be getting a bit long in the tooth by then. But if it really is, as Democrats say, ''all about the future of our children,'' then our children will want to know why our generation saw what was happening and didn't do anything about it. They will despise us as we despise the political class of the 1930s. And the fact that we passed a great prescription drug plan will be poor consolation when the entire planet is one almighty headache. Go read the column and then vote against your local liberal.

I'm tired of watching various groups demanding Donald Rumsfield quit. Apparently now the Army times is going to add it's voice to the noise, adding to the constant stream of retired generals saying the plan was flawed, there weren't enough troops, or boots on the ground, etc. The time for those dickheads to speak out was when Rumsfield and Bush went around the room asking for their opinions. The responsibility of the generals in charge was, if they didn't agree with the plan, the # of troops, or the mission, was to resign in protest then speak out. But do it before the event, not after. Waiting 3 years until their pension is safe, (what's the pension for an O-8?), retiring, then saying the plan was flawed does not do us any fucking good, and if they couldn't speak out for fear of losing $80k per year against saving thousands of lives, then they should keep their trap shut now.