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Sunday rapid fire
- A nice summary of the demographic predicament of the Democratic Party. The Roe Effect is curiously unmentioned.
- 39 Mega pixel digicam! Via Digg.
- A very good article on NRO about the current state of 527 organizations.
…led by the so-called 527 groups, was a broad-based, grassroots effort, it was, in fact dependent in substantial part on just five donors: financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, Hollywood mogul Stephen Bing, and the California investors Herbert and Marion Sandler. Together, they spent about $78 million in the effort to defeat the president  more than the $75 million in federal funds that each presidential candidate received to conduct his entire general election campaign. (It was also more than twice what the late-starting top five Republican 527 donors spent on their side.)
The low number of people funding really does explain a lot about the Kerry campaign.
- The Iranians seem to refine technique.
- A good look at what could the scenario with the FISA/NSA case. One thing I would still like clarified: Is it wiretapping when it is recorded, or when someone listens to it? It still seems like a massive amount of datamining to me.
- Blues guitarist Rory Block has an unappealing FrontPage website, but a very interesting life story.
- I intent do explore AJAX more thoroughly when I have more time, but here is a tutorial, and a good open source download site. Here is an AJAX library it seems.
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The new faucet
Last week I decided to finally get a new faucet. Much to my surprise, the previous owner had installed the last one horribly. All of the nuts where misthreaded and stripped and it worked out to be a 6 hour pain. I wound up having to take the entire counter apart to get good leverage on loosening and remove everything.
An astonishing amount of gook can accumulate on the underside of the faucet over the years.
The counter with the back panel removed.
Dirt!
The underside of the old faucet.
Here is the finished product
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Everything you can say about America is true
Vampire Candidate ‘Won’t Hide Evil Side’
Thursday, January 12, 2006MINNEAPOLIS One gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota is giving a whole new meaning to the “dark side” of politics. A man who calls himself a satanic priest plans to run for governor on a 13-point platform that includes the public impaling of terrorists at the state Capitol building.
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Including the impaling of terrorists, rapists, drug dealers and other criminals, Sharkey’s platform includes emphasis on education, tax breaks for farmers and better benefits for veterans.I think govenors have been hiding their evil sides for far too long, and I welcome his candor. Throw in his impalement policy and I think we have a winner. Sure, it didn’t work for Dole in 96, but America has changed since then.
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This is interesting
DNA Tests Confirm Executed Va. Man Guilty. And it would seem that Schwarzenegger is not going to pardon the elderly mass murderer in California either. An eventful week for capitol punishment. Kudos to the govenor for ordering the test.
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The Steyn Article
I’ve been meaning to comment on the Mark Steyn Op-Ed “It’s the demography, stupid” is for a long time (the page has been open in Firefox for a week now.) but it looks like i won’t get around to it, so I guess I’ll just post the link. James Lileks comments on it are here.
While I think Steyn overstates his case by a lot, mostly in not counting the positive value of immigration (buying, rather than building Westerners) and longer lives for a lot of people (who will be disproportionately our best and brightest).
Now that I think about it, he also overestimates (IMHO) the importance of population. There is really no reason to think that the asymmetries currently in existence will disappear. Still a society that can’t sustain itself (not true of America but true in Europe and Japan) is not healthy. Curiously unmentioned are payroll taxes.
Another random thought: the similarities to our current problems and late 19th century Bolshevism are eerie.
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Free people are clean people
Triple the heads, triple the power! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Triple Shower Head. No longer live according to the artificially low federal limit! I like the captains’s quarters the best.And of course, the government might take it away.
HT: The Agitator
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Joke of the moment
From a Reason article on the future of Russia.
Answering a question about the future of democracy in Russia, Shevtsova said: “To add some optimism to my conclusions, I’ve got my favorite joke that, it seems to me, reflects the ambiguity of our democratic movement.
A sick man is picked up by an ambulance. He asks the doctor, ‘Doctor, where are you taking me?’ The doctor replies, ‘To the morgue.’ The man says, ‘But I’m not dead yet!’ The doctor says, ‘But we’re not there yet.’”
If this is Russian-style optimism, I’d hate to see what the pessimism looks like.
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The pro-war libertarian quiz
The ever interesting reason magazine posted
How far are you willing to go to win the War on Terror?These days I’m more for finishing Iraq favorably than pro-war, but I am strongly against just “declaring victory” or “strategic redeployment” without really changing anything.
Recently, here are my answers
- Should the National Security Agency or CIA have the ability to monitor domestic phone calls or e-mails without obtaining judicial approval?
Nope. I think this is an impeachable offense too. The current case (supposedly) only monitored calls that crossed borders, which is legally a different matter, if I’m understanding things correctly.
- Should the government have the ability to hold an American citizen without charge, indefinitely, without access to a lawyer, if he is believed to be part of a terrorist cell?
No. If caught on the battlefield I support stripping them of citizenship (by virtue of them being a foreign army and then treating them as one would a foreigner).
- Can you imagine a situation in which the government would be justified in waterboarding an American citizen?
Yes. This question doesn’t belong here at all. This should be subject to warrants as well, but there are several situations where this could be the right thing to do.
- Are there American journalists who should be investigated for possible treason? Should Sedition laws be re-introduced?
If they committed treason (using the standard definition that is unrelated to journalism) ,then yes. If not, then no. No to sedition laws. FYI – I consider freedom of the press to mean publishing, not protecting confidentiality of sources. They should be able to publish whatever they want, its the cover-ups and withholding information that I don’t consider protected.
- Should the CIA be able to legally assassinate people in countries with which the U.S. is not at war?
Yes
- Should anti-terrorism cops be given every single law-enforcement tool available in non-terrorist cases?
No. I guess this is really asking is if we should have super-cops or not.
- Should law enforcement be able to seize the property of a suspected (though not charged) American terrorist, and then sell it?
No. Absolutely not. Due process of law in all things.
- Should the U.S. military be tasked with enforcing domestic crime?
No. With a possible exception of keeping order in case of natural disasters.
- Should there be a national I.D. card, and should it be made available to law enforcement on demand?
No.
- Should a higher percentage of national security-related activities and documents be made classified, and kept from the eyes of the Congress, the courts, and the public?
No. Anything classified should have an automatic sunset date commensurate to it’s secrecy, but nothing should be indefinite.
8 out of 10.
- Should the National Security Agency or CIA have the ability to monitor domestic phone calls or e-mails without obtaining judicial approval?
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Digital irritants
I finally get around to installing the DV cable to the new LCD, and I find out there are several kinds of DV cables, and I ordered the wrong one. How irritating.
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A good design
Once you get past the Flash, is Gorilla Nation Media.