With Fred Thompson in the race, it looks like there are a decent amount of "twos" in this campaign..what does that mean? Read my post at Permanent Waves!

Labels: 2008 Watch, Fred Thompson, Satire

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:40 PM | Permalink | |

Apparently the Germans think we can just adjust the Earth's temperature exactly how we want:

Germany, which holds the European Union and Group of Eight presidencies, is proposing a so-called "2-degree" target, whereby global temperatures would be allowed to increase no more than 2 degrees Celsius - the equivalent of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit - before being brought back down.

I think that's highly presumptuous of us. The Earth's climate is an incredibly complex system, and it doesn't seem to me that we have enough data to suggest that humans have an immediate impact on the overall climate and also that we can do anything about it.

Secondly, even without Kyoto, we reduced carbon emissions last year, which is a good thing --climate change aside-- and the reason? "The 1.3 percent decline from 2005, the first drop in 11 years, was due to a mild winter followed by a cool summer."

I'll side with NASA Administrator Mike Griffin on this one:

"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:33 AM | Permalink | |

NYT:

President Bush today accused opponents of his proposed immigration measure of fear-mongering to defeat it in Congress, and took on his own conservative political base as he did so.

“If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”

The president used some of his toughest language yet as he began an effort to build support for the bill in the Senate. The measure hews closely to his long-sought goal of a new immigration system with three components: tighter seals on the nation’s borders, a guest-worker system for noncitizens who want to work here, and a path to citizenship for some 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.

Considering how low his support is right now with the public at large, I'm not sure he has the capital to go up against the base, who like myself, are wholeheartedly opposed to this bill.

Where is his support for this going to come from?

Probably from Agribusiness and others who want cheap labor any way they can get it.

Labels: Bush, Illegal Immigration

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:10 PM | Permalink | |

Fred Thompson is running for President. After several months of rumors, he is going to announce over the Fourth of July holiday. Some are calling him a 'late entry' into the race, but we're still a almost two full baseball seasons away from the general election.

Fred didn't even make my post on everyone who was even rumored to run as of January, but I think he may be the fourth member of the so-called 'top-tier' Republicans.

He's been polling well as of late, and I welcome him into the race as I think the more choices the better. Heck, I'm even glad Ron Paul is in the race, even though I know he doesn't have a prayer of winning.

I have a generally favorable impression of Fred, but I have some issues with supporting him outright, at least just yet.

Details on why I can't support Fred (as of yet) found on Permanent Waves.

Labels: 2008 Watch, Fred Thompson

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:44 AM | Permalink | |

I am working this summer at Townhall.com, and have started a blog hosted over there. It is called Permanent Waves, and I haven't decided if there will be any content division between here and PW, though I will strive to keep cross-posting to a minimum (an explanation for the title of the blog is the subject of the first post).

A link to PM is on the sidebar to the right, under the 'Home' link.

Any thoughts on that?

Labels: Work

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:17 PM | Permalink | |

I commend the financial commitment to peacekeeping and humanitarianism in Darfur (the US being the largest single contributer with $1.7 billion), but I'm not sure these steps will really further the cause. Too many genocides have already occurred on the UN's watch for them to be afforded the credibility that Bush wants to give them. I pray for an end to the crisis in Darfur, and I'm glad Bush is at least vocally committed to the cause:

The people of Darfur are crying out for help, and they deserve it. I urge the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and all members of the international community to reject any efforts to obstruct implementation of the agreements that would bring peace to Darfur and Sudan.

I call on President Bashir to stop his obstruction, and to allow the peacekeepers in, and to end the campaign of violence that continues to target innocent men, women and children. And I promise this to the people of Darfur: The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.

Labels: Darfur

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:49 AM | Permalink | |

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:44 AM | Permalink | |

This week's hero/hack features two people on different ends of the same argument. My hero this week is Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the former Survivor star, wife to the NFL quarterback, and apparently a staunch conservative. Hasselbeck is a regular on The View, and in the clip below, from Wednesday's show, does a great job defending her beliefs.

The person she's defending herself from? No other than Rosie O'Donnell, this week's hack. Rosie used to be a harmless Koosh ball thrower, but now is a raging moonbat spewing that same lie that she 'supports the troops but not what they do.' She's also just loud and obnoxious. Anyway, I give Elisabeth a lot of credit for going into work everyday to deal with this stuff.

Clip:

Labels: Hero/Hack, Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:09 AM | Permalink | |

Mia Lazarus put her chips and juice down on the counter and prepared to pay. But in the midst of the lunchtime rush, the cashier's eyes wandered to Lazarus's T-shirt, which expressed a political message that proved to be overwhelming for the clerk.

One glance at the words "Baltimore Zionist District" on Lazarus's "I Stand for Israel" T-shirt, and the cashier at the Maryland Food Collective, a crunchy grocery and sandwich shop in the student union on the University of Maryland's College Park campus, blurted: "Your shirt offends me. I won't ring you up." The cashier told Lazarus she could go to the back of the store to find another clerk....

If Mia was wearing a t-shirt that said 'Viva Mexico,' this would be all over the news.

WaPo, via Volokh.

Labels: Israel, Racism

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:16 PM | Permalink | |

• I do not regret my vote for George W. Bush in 2004.
• I do not regret my support for the War in Iraq.
• I do not think Bush is doing a great job as President.
• I do not think that the occupation and democratization of Iraq has been without error.

Some in the DE blog world might have you believe that these statements are somehow contradictory or invalid. Here's the thing, you should not rejudge the merits of past decisions based on knowledge you have after the decision was made. It is really just futile.

Sure, I may wish for the power to see the future, but until that happens, I am stuck making fallible decisions. Crucify me for being a human being if you want, but I have been watching the war as carefully as possible and trying to judge the current merits.

My 2004 vote for Bush was cast thinking that while Bush wasn't perfect, he was better than the other option of John Kerry. Sure, Bush has disappointed me, but I stand by my vote given the choice at the time. A general election isn't about picking the best person for the job, it is about picking the best person on the ballot.

In talking about Iraq, I would love nothing more for peace to come to the Iraqi people and for my friends and neighbors in our military to come home tomorrow, but the facts seem to indicate that there is a job we started over there that we should finish. There have been reports as of late that the surge is working, and this change of tactic is working in Baghdad, and Anbar province is stabilizing.

No one said in 2003 that there were no WMD's in Iraq. No one. Not one domestic or foreign entity. President Clinton had mentioned it several times. Obviously a lot of people were wrong, but that does not make this war somehow for oil or illegitimate.

One thing I have taken from supporting the Iraq War so feverishly is a sense of reservation in dealing with foreign conflict. In 2003, I was a junior in high school, and I have done a lot of maturing since then. That doesn't mean that I don't think I may have erred in my support for the war itself, but I can say I supported it based on what was available to me at the time and my personal experience, and I stand by that support.

I don't regret my decisions on these matters, and I don't think I should have to.

Labels: Blame it on Bush, Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 6:36 PM | Permalink | |

Because I am otherwise occupied with finals, I've decided to let you, the readers, pick who you think was a hero or hack! Just reply in the comments for this post. And don't worry about whether I would agree or not, it's your opinion. I'll recognize the best picks below.


Miss Anonymous Opinion shares a plenitude of heroes and hacks here. (And I have trouble coming up with one of each some weeks!

Labels: Hero/Hack

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:08 PM | Permalink | |

I just finished editing my philosophy paper, so that means I have 4 finals to take before I end my junior year of college. This is probably the year of school I've taken most seriously from a scholarship point of view, and I think that may be because the classes are difficult, but I enjoy them (except statistics...ewwww) so they become challenging rather than frustrating.

All in all, posting may be light and/or sporadic until next Wednesday.

And I wanted to share this cartoon.

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:39 PM | Permalink | |

For months, I have documented the eerie code of silence that characterizes most Democratic pronouncements on Iraq. Ordinarily, the Democrats strangely make no reference at all to Qaeda (that's the eerie code of silence), but occasionally they explicitly deny that al Qaeda is involved in Iraq. Democrats who do that have graduated to the next stage of development, which I call the eerie code of denial.

Here is what Senator Christopher Dodd said about this last Sunday:

Again, this is a civil war going on in Iraq. This is not the United States versus Al Qaida. It's Shia versus Sunnis tearing each other apart. It's gone on for centuries, but particularly here right now.


Dodd is clearly not being truthful about what he knows. He says "This is not the United States versus Al Qaida," but he surely knows all about this:

Al-Qaida group claims killing of 9 GIs in Iraq

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4:54 p.m. PT April 24, 2007

BAGHDAD - An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web statement Tuesday claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed nine U.S. paratroopers and wounded 20 in the worst attack on American ground forces in Iraq in more than a year.


That looks like the United States versus Al Qaeda to me. What does it look like to you?

So says a 'registered Democrat.' Seems like he's right to me, and there's a lot more to that post. Read the whole thing.

Labels: Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:10 PM | Permalink | |

JD Johannes reports from Iraq:

I've been out living among the Iraqi Police. Some people would say I was living among the Jaysh al Mahdi but I don't think the police are 100% JAM, maybe 10% JAM and 90% display the usual arab work ethic which is, uh, somewhere below the French work ethic.

After spending 2 weeks looking for the civil war raging in Baghdad I've decided that Arabs must do civil wars the way they do everything else--lackadaisically.

In most neighborhoods I saw Sunni living next to Shia living next to Catholic. Yes, Sunnis, living next door to Shias who live next door to Catholics.

And they weren't shooting at each other all day and only the Catholic had any religious/sectarian symbols visible--statue of the Virgin in the dining room.

The Baghdad Security Plan is working and can achieve an endstate. It took the Brits 12 years in Maylaya. We are following their plan.

The biggest enemy we have is an over active media and spineless Host Nation government which is intimidated by the JAM and has the JAM as key constituent group.

Labels: Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:06 PM | Permalink | |

The always excellent Mark Steyn writes:

Most terrorists seem like bumbling losers if they're caught before the act: That's certainly true of the Fort Dix jihadists who took their terrorist training DVD to the local audio store to be copied. It was also true of the Islamists arrested in Toronto last year for plotting to behead the prime minister, one of whose cell members had a bride who wanted him to sign a prenup committing him to jihad. The Heathrow plotters arrested while planning to blow up U.S.-bound airliners included a Muslim convert who'd started out as the son of a British Conservative Party official with a P. G. Wodehouse double-barreled name and a sister who was a Victoria's Secret model and ex-wife of tennis champ Yanick Noah.

But then Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 gang would have seemed pretty funny if you'd run into them in that lap-dance club they went to before the big day where the girls remembered them only as very small tippers. Most terrorists are jokes until the bomb goes off.

You really should read the whole thing.

Labels: Mark Steyn, Terrorism

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:49 PM | Permalink | |

The Economist:

In 2009 the betting is that America will see the son of a former president replaced by the wife of another former president. If Hillary Clinton is then re-elected in 2012, the world's greatest democracy will have been ruled by either a Bush or a Clinton for 28 years straight. And why should things end there? Michael Barone, author and pundit, points out that George P. Bush, the current president's nephew, will be eligible to run for the presidency in 2012, Chelsea Clinton will be eligible in 2016 and Jeb Bush will remain a viable candidate until 2024.

Let's just make Dubya consul-for-life and be done with it. Onward to history!

Labels: Satire

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:27 PM | Permalink | |

To the University of Delaware Community:

Over the past week, there has been much discussion of a May 5 party attended by several UD students that featured racial stereotypes of Latinos. Showing disrespect for another culture or group is not behavior we want to see at our University, and it is counter to the safe and supportive community we seek to be.

A good outcome of this unfortunate event is that the maturity and responsibility of the students leading the Campus Alliance de La Raza and the UD chapter of Phi Sigma Pi became apparent.

Opportunities for true leadership often arise at unexpected times, and this week our students have met that challenge. Students from both groups worked collaboratively to determine a response to the original provocation. The town hall meeting they arranged on May 9 provided a forum for discussion of the deeper issues raised by the party and helped begin the healing process.

Some of the partygoers were members of the Phi Sigma Pi and wrote letters of apology to the members of La Raza. Particularly impressive was that one of those students attended the meeting and apologized in person to those individuals her behavior had affected.

The actions of the students attending the party are not criminal, and we will respect their First Amendment rights. Accordingly, these students will not face disciplinary action through the University's student judicial system. However, the UD chapter of Phi Sigma Pi has decided to suspend certain of its members for one year, and other campus groups of which partygoers are members are now deciding on their courses of action.

Candid and respectful conversations have helped resolve this situation and have led to a better understanding of the perspectives of others. The decision by our students in the Campus Alliance de la Raza and Phi Sigma Pi to engage in such discourse is a wonderful testament to maturity, responsibility and leadership.

Sincerely,

David P. Roselle
President

I think he made the right move.

Labels: Racism, University of Delaware

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:51 PM | Permalink | |

My hero this week is the yet-to-be-named Circuit City employee who helped thwart the Fort Dix terror plot earlier this week:

A male employee who works at Circuit City behind the Moorestown Mall is the unsung hero that first enabled authorities to foil the Fort Dix terror plot.

Circuit City corporate spokesman Jim Babb confirmed this morning that a current employee was asked by one of the alleged terrorists to dub a Jihadist training VHS cassette into a DVD.

The clerk alerted Mount Laurel police about the video in January 2006, who then contacted the FBI, which launched the investigation.

Glad some people are still paying attention to this kind of thing.

My hack this week is the Movie Picture Association of America (MPAA) board for ratings:

The MPAA said Thursday that its rating board will consider film depictions of smoking among the criteria for assigning movie ratings...when a film's rating is affected by the depiction of smoking, the rating will include such phrases as "glamorized smoking" or "pervasive smoking."

I don't smoke, but this just seems really stupid.

Labels: Hero/Hack, Movies, Terrorism

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:24 AM | Permalink | |

Apparently, over the weekend it was Cinco de Mayo (I was at Relay for most of it). Some students, who happen to be members of the Phi Sigma Pi honors fraternity, decided to hold a party with a "South of the Border" theme. Nothing wrong with that, right? Plenty of people have Cinco de Mayo parties.

There was nothing wrong with it until the Campus Alliance de la Raza got hold of the pictures of Facebook and decided to post them on their website (at the bottom). The ethics of that action can be disputed, but I'm going to leave it alone for now. La Raza is calling for the expulsion of

Here's what bothers me:
1. This party was off campus.
2. This party was not an official fraternity function.
3. Whenever 3 or more members of Greek Life are present, it's a Greek function (according to UD policy

Therefore shouldn't really be anyone's business. Now I'm not a member of Greek Life at UD, so I don't have any sympathy towards the program itself, I'm just calling it as I see it.

It never fails that humor is the first victim in a censorship-laden society. This was free expression, and whether you agree with it or not, protected under the First Amendment.

But here's my favorite part of the story. The group condemning this is the Campus Alliance de la Raza. You may or may not know enough Spanish to know that de la Raza means "of the race." That's right! Campus Alliance de la Raza is a racist organization. They exist to serve the members of one race over that of other races.

The News-Journal:

Jissell Martinez, president of UD's La Raza, said that considering the controversial debate over immigration, she wasn't too surprised that such a party occurred.

"But to find out members of a coed honor fraternity were involved with it, it's disgusting," she said.

She likened the costumes to people who have painted their faces black and dressed as gangsters for other parties she has heard about.

"They're trying to impersonate what they think Latinos are," she said. "It's wrong. You don't see people within the Latino community or the black community throwing white-people parties."

I'll remember that next time I get called 'cracker,' 'whitey' and other variants I'd rather not say here. And even if there were "white people parties" being thrown, would you hear about it? Probably not, because minorities on this campus shut themselves out from the larger community.

Related Links:
Ryan Mc at LiberalDelight has similar thoughts
Meaningless Roselle Statement

Labels: Racism, University of Delaware

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:43 AM | Permalink | |

Find out tomorrow! ISI is sponsoring a debate here at the University of Delaware. Details:

7:00 p.m., at the Trabant Theater William Galson (Emeritus, University of Maryland) and Alan Charles Kors (University of Pennsylvania) will debate.

Dr. Galson was formerly one of President Clinton's top advisors, and is currently a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute. Dr. Kors founded The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and is a champion of first ammendment rights on college campuses.

Open to the public.

Should be an exciting debate, so feel free to come join us!

Posted by Ryan S. at 6:23 PM | Permalink | |

I've been following the offshore wind farm story for a while now, and wanted to make sure I had enough information, but I'm in full support of the wind farm. Now coal isn't as bad as most of the enviros say it is, but I still think wind wins out.

I also fail to see why global warming is a "factor" in this decision. Can't we just do things good for the environment without the threat of destruction looming over us like Al Gore over a hamburger?

WaPo picked up the story today:

The plan, which could create the first wind "farm" in waters along the East Coast, envisions a thicket of turbines offshore of either Rehoboth Beach or Bethany Beach, Del. As the blades are spun by ocean winds, designers say, the wind farm could provide enough power every year for 130,000 homes.

Wind farms generate electricity by using the wind to turn giant blades that rotate turbines to make power. Though wind farms produce electricity while protecting the environment, not everyone is welcoming their arrival.

The wind farm is one competitor in an unusual kind of power-plant bake-off: Delaware officials are also considering plants that would burn coal or natural gas as they seek ways to generate more electricity. A preliminary decision could be made tomorrow.

Advocates of the other two plans cite that wind isn't constant, even over the ocean. I'm not sure how accurate of a concern that is, but if it poses a serious obstacle, then maybe a combination of wind and coal with scrubbers is the way to go.

Labels: Energy

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:52 AM | Permalink | |

So it seems like Sarkozy, the center-right candidate, has won the French elections.

BBC:

Mr Sarkozy said the US could count on France's friendship, but called on Washington to take a lead in the fight against climate change.

He also said he believed deeply in European integration, but appealed to France's European partners to understand the importance of social protection.

Some on the right will certainly count this as some sort of victory for America. I'm going to remain skeptical. There's no reason, even when Sarkozy calls us a 'friend,' to assume that means anything is going to have substantive impact.

Labels: France

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:48 PM | Permalink | |

Note: I've tried to keep as many spoilers as possible out of this review. Anything in the trailers or previous two films is fair game, natch.

I really like comic books, and comic book movies, when they're done right. I usually call Superman II my favorite (even more so after seeing the Richard Donner Cut), though the previous Spider-Man movie, Batman Begins, X-Men 2, and The Incredibles round out the top 5.

That being said, Spider-Man 3 isn't the worst superhero movie I've ever sat through (that title goes to the God-awful Punisher movie from the '80s). It is however, the least heroic. Peter Parker does not act like a hero anywhere in the movie. Sure he saves some people, maybe thwarts some criminals, but it doesn't ever seem like he's acting from the motivation that makes a hero.

In this movie, Spider-Man is an egotistical jerk. And that's before he gets the angry suit. When it's all said and done, I don't want him to get the girl, he's the anti-hero that cries.

The main problem, however is that there is simply too much plot and too many characters. It gets very convoluted, and we don't spend as much time with each character as we should. They should have dropped a villain entirely and picked one story line to follow.

Topher Grace did a decent turn as Eddie Brock, and Thomas Hayden Church was good as Sandman, though one of those characters felt ancillary to the plot as a whole. From this Wikipedia section, you can see how the development, adding so many components to the movie, really hindered its ability to tell a good story.

The action sequences are spectacular, and there's a decent amount of good stuff in the movie to make it a decently enjoyable experience, but the plain fact is that it could have been so much better.

Recommendation: If you're like me and need to see it for yourself, see it. If you think you can, wait for the DVD.

Labels: Comic Books, Movies

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:59 AM | Permalink | |

Last night I attended the Intercollegiate Studies Institutes's "Dinner for Western Civilization." I had a great time at the Hotel du Pont, but I want to focus on this year's speaker, Bernard Lewis, the eminent scholar of Middle East Studies.

One of the key parts of Dr. Lewis' lecture was the differences between Christianity and Islam today, including that religious issues for Christians are mostly settled, or at least have reached a stable status quo, but those issues are alive for Islam. In the Islamic world, Lewis argued, religion, not geography, is the fundamental identifier for people.

Lewis also argued that Islam and Christianity are the two most powerful "triumphalist" religions in the world. Triumphalist in that only they are the receivers of the full truth of God and that it is their duty to spread their religion unto the ends of the earth. Basically, as Lewis succinctly put it "I'm right, you're wrong, go to Hell." We also happen to be next door neighbors. This presents a problem.

Lewis stated that there were three waves of Islamic aggressiveness towards Christendom. The first wave was almost immediately after the death of the Prophet, and included the conquest of the Christian East, Spain, and Italy. It was ended by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.

The second wave came from the East, and was propagated mainly by Islamic Mongols and Turks (not Arabs) and included the conquest of Constantinople in 1443, seizure of the Balkans and Hungary, and the sieges of Vienna. This also includes the US dealings with the Barbary Pirates.

The third wave really began after the fall of the Soviet Union, which according to Lewis, Usama bin Laden believes it was the Taliban in Afghanistan that caused the USSR to collapse. He is now fixated on the last superpower, us.

Lewis said that bin Laden & co. were not expecting the reaction they got to 9-11 because of their experiences in Beirut, Khobar Towers, Eastern African embassies, the USS Cole, etc. This was because where they come from, said Lewis "elections don't change governments, governments change elections."

The remainder of the lecture Lewis talked about why Islam today looks so radical. Point one was the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which put apocalyptic Shias in power. Lewis remarked that this revolution was similar to that of the Russian revolution, and seems to be in the "Stalinist phase."

Point two was the rise and spread of Wahabbi Islam. Wahabbism began as a marginal sect of fanatics in the Arabian desert, and would have remained that way except that in the 1920s, the House of Saud conquered Mecca and Medina, forming the Wahabbist country Saudi Arabia. Powerful already because they controlled the hajj, oil only made things worse for everybody else.

Wahabbi Islam is also disproportionately represented among Muslims living outside of the Middle East, because of all the petrodollars spent building and sustaining Wahabbi schools. Lewis compared this to "if the KKK controlled Texan oil and used the money to establish a network of schools and universities spreading their own twisted version of Christianity."

Labels: History, Islam, lecture

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:22 PM | Permalink | |

My hacks this week are all ten Republican debaters from last night. I was at an ISI function all day, but listed to the debate over at MSNBC when I got back. From my listening, I could barely tell the difference with most of the field. Romney seemed slick, McCain seemed old, and Giuliani seemed to not be in focus. The rest of the field is a blur, and I've been following this thing since January of 2005! OK, Ron Paul distinguished himself. As a loon.

The picture to the left is making me laugh now. From right, Romney-bot, Brownback looks like he's sneezing, and Ron Paul looks like a gnome of some sort.

No one did poorly, they all did mediocre. It seemed like most of the second-tier candidates got lost in the shuffle. Quite a shame, and I think it may be a fault in the format rather than in the candidates themselves. As for who won?

Well that brings me to this week's hero, Fred Thompson.
By 'not-running' for President, he's able to keep distinguishing himself, and the informal 'Draft Thompson' movement seems to be picking up steam. Go Fred, go!

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan has great points on Reagan fixation:

This is a piece about Thursday night's Republican presidential debates, but first I would like to note that the media's fixation with which Republican is the most like Reagan, and who is the next Reagan, and who parts his hair like Reagan, is absurd, and subtly undermining of Republicans, which is why they do it. Reagan was Reagan, a particular man at a particular point in history. What is to be desired now is a new greatness. Another way of saying this is that in 1960, John F. Kennedy wasn't trying to be the next FDR, and didn't feel forced to be. FDR was the great, looming president of Democratic Party history, and there hadn't been anyone as big or successful since 1945, but JFK thought it was good enough to be the best JFK. And the press wasn't always sitting around saying he was no FDR. Oddly enough, they didn't consider that an interesting theme.

They should stop it already, and Republicans should stop playing along. They should try instead a pleasant. "You know I don't think I'm Reagan, but I do think John Edwards may be Jimmy Carter, and I'm fairly certain Hillary is Walter Mondale."

Labels: 2008 Watch, Fred Thompson, Giuliani, McCain, Romney

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:55 AM | Permalink | |

I was terribly excited for this release, it being the first album of new Rush material since I became a fan (which was several months after Vapor Trails). I wasn't disappointed, and I will say this was worth the wait. I'd say Snakes & Arrows is their best effort since 1984's Grace Under Pressure. It rekindles some of the earlier sound, while at the same time goes off in a new direction. No more of that kinda nu-metal or synth sound they seemed to be fond of, but a purer rock sound.

Neal Peart's lyrics, combined with the sound direction, give the album a very spiritual feel overall. That isn't to say Rush has found religion (I think the tracks 'They Way the Wind Blows' and 'Faithless' disprove that).

It is a very solid album, with Geddy, Alex, and Neal all in top form. They let Alex cut loose a little bit, and his guitar piece 'Hope' is breathtaking. It joins 'The Main Monkey Business' and 'Malignant Narcissism' comprising a total of 3 instrumentals on this 13 track album, a first for Rush.

A note about the mix: It's good! I still wonder what Vapor Trails would sound like really, as the mix on that disc is inexcusably awful. Everything is fine for this one!

Overall, Rush has matured nicely over the past 30 years, and I hope they continue in this direction. This is a fantastic album, and any Rush fan should pick it up and give it a couple spins.

Hot tracks: 'Far Cry,' 'The Main Monkey Business,' 'Armor and Sword,' 'Workin' Them Angels'

See also: Review of single 'Far Cry' from this album.

Labels: Music, Rush

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:19 AM | Permalink | |

Alright, so apparently there's been a lot of speculation on what 'the list,' as first appearing in this post, was about. I titled the post 'Bad Things' and simply said it was a list of random bad things. Really whatever was floating through my brain at 11 o'clock that Sunday night. Some of the things on the list take more time to explain than others. First the things so obviously bad no one questioned them:

• blackface
• Starship Troopers (film)
• Mark Maguire/Barry Bonds baseball records
• New Coke
• Sequels to: The Matrix, Ace Ventura, Bad News Bears, and Jaws
• Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire
• The Dukes of Hazard (film)

I assume that no one questioned Frederick for lack of who he was and his significance.

Anyway, the Enlightenment. First I'd like to distinguish the Enlightenment from the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution was great! Science is a wonderful thing, especially when people really hadn't been doing it for so long. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, all fine by me. Nothing major anyway.

The Enlightenment, on the other hand, put forth ideas that were a clean break from the intellectual tradition of what had come before. The defining event in this movement was the French Revolution, which also made an appearance on the list in question. Now the French monarchy was pretty awful, but what came after was worse. In the French Revolution, it was philosophes like Jean-Jacques Rousseau who argued that freedom was in itself the highest good. This contradicted the previous thousand years of tradition, making a clean break.

The French Revolution, as Edmund Burke argued and history validates, led not to real democracy (or liberté, égalité, fraternité, even) but to an absolutist government disconnected from human nature. It overturned the prior social order and instead allowed for things like the Reign of Terror and the French Republican Calendar.

The American System boils down to financing internal improvements with high tariffs on foreign goods (like 25%.). Now infrastructure is a good thing, but comes with a very high price if government financed. Railroads and canals built by private companies with government money usually ended up to cost more and take longer to build because of the lack of a cost-cutting incentive. In this same way, high tariffs shielded American businesses from foreign competition, allowing them to produce lower quality goods at higher cost than their British counterparts.

Thousand Island Dressing? That was just satire.

Labels: Bad Things

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:43 PM | Permalink | |

The Guardian (UK):

Al-Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. The US government in 2005 set a $50,000 reward for al-Masri's capture, later raising it to $5m.

Security experts say he became a terrorist in 1982 when he joined Ayman al-Zawahiri's Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He probably entered Iraq in 2002, before al-Zarqawi, and may have helped establish the first al-Qaida cell in the Baghdad area.

He had manufactured explosives in Iraq, particularly car and truck bombs, helped foreign fighters move from Syria to Baghdad, and overseen al-Qaida's activities in southern Iraq. (Emphasis mine)

Huh. Interesting.

Labels: Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:28 AM | Permalink | |