Albert Jay Nock

This is the first time I've ever heard of Nock. Seems worthwhile to look up some of his writing.

Cultural Illiteracy

An excerpt from the preface of the new paperback edition of Mark Bauerlein's "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future."

Are they nuts?

Is the NRSC Going to Abandon Toomey?
(Hat tip: Instapundit)

A Chilling Effect on U.S. Counterterrorism

Instapundit links to a Stratfor post concerning the recent release of memos detailing CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques".

Over at Knight's Castle Glenn Knight has been posting on the 'torture debate' and I left a comment concerning a Slate article Glenn linked to.

My position: I have no trouble with the techniques the U.S. used to get information from these prisoners and the release of these memos was a terrible and stupid idea. It's in keeping with the current administration's policy of trying to separate itself from just about all of previous American history and it will do us harm in both the short and long term.

Gurkhas have right to live in Britain

At the Telegraph: MPs vote to give Gurkhas right to live in Britian in defeat for Gordon Brown

Mr Cameron said: "Today is a historic day where Parliament took the right decision. The basic presumption that people who fight for our country should have a right to live in our country has been set out very clearly.

Gurkhas have served the British crown since 1815 and have amassed battle honours including 26 Victoria Crosses.

The guess I don't understand why Gordon Brown would oppose it?

So Spector switches parties...

How could they tell?
Specter's defection to Democrats roils Republicans

Stuck on writing...

I just read a post by John J. Miller at NRO's Corner where he mentions attending a talk given by Irving Kristol. Kristol gave some advice to young writers. I'm not young but I guess I still want to be a writer (or at least be able to write well). The advice was simple:

Write every day (practice, practice, practice) and read good writing.

I suppose I should get started. I haven't done either of those things for a while now.

How Rome Fell and the Moral for the USA

Instapundit links to this Professor Bainbridge post on the fall of Rome.

Reminds me I dropped off at Chapter 17 when I was reading Gibbon and should pick it back up.

French court orders ban on Chinese body parts show

About time. I suppose this ruling will be overturned pretty quickly but I was wondering if I was the only one to think these displays are depraved.

Barack Obama’s India-Pakistan Mess

"(W)hether he realizes it or not, President Obama just sided with Pakistan and against India, and put America’s foreign policy position on the side of a country that is sheltering al Qaeda. The Obama Administration has sided with the tyrant to the North and the terrorists to the West. The Indians have noticed."

(Hat tip: Instapundit)

Pirates!

This is just depressing.

UPDATE: U.S. crew retakes ship hijacked by Somali pirates
Much less depressing now.
ANOTHER UPDATE: US crewman: Somali pirates hold captain hostage
Jeesh.

EXCELLENT UPDATE: American Ship Captain Richard Phillips Rescued Safely From Somali Pirates

Three Somali pirates dead (75%): those Navy SEALs are not people to have a gunfight with.

Same Sex Marriage a constitutional right in Iowa

When democracy doesn't get you what you want. Ruling is here. (HT: NRO's Corner)

I haven't read it through yet.

UPDATE: Link has been fixed.

Not only does the Taliban ignore the Geneva Conventions...

...they don't seem to think much of work place safety either.

Gotta love it.

Cap & Trade: Taxing the Air

We all actually exhale CO2, right? It's part of breathing. This "pollutant", besides being a by-product of virtually all animal life on the planet, is the critical gas required for teh existence of all plant life on Earth.

So if I understand Cap & Trade (a state mandated "market" for CO2 emissions) the government has finally figured out how to tax breathing. They've just done it on the back end.

Finacial Meltdown Primer

As a layman I've had the toughest time figuring out what exactly is going on in the credit crisis. Here's a Policy Analysis by Jagadeesh Gokhale at CATO. Being CATO it leans heavily to the free market (as do I). Agree or disagree it gives some basic definitions and explanations that I have had a hard time understanding from other accounts.

(HT: John Hood at NRO's The Corner)

Steyn vs The Gubernator

Mark Steyn shares some thoughts on the concept of fiscal conservative/social liberal.

But the reality is that almost every “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” politician turns out to be fiscally liberal — in the same way that, if you mix half a pint of vanilla ice cream with half a pint of horse manure, it’s not hard to figure which taste will predominate.

US Treasury secretary attacks oil, gas tax breaks

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday.

Can this get any more perfect? A Treasury Secretary that doesn't pay his own taxes, and has been a public no-show in a global financial crises that his boss says is the worst since the Great Depression, decides to come out swinging against a mythical "pollutant" that causes unprovable temperature changes.

The lunatics are now officially and gleefully running the asylum.

Modern Diplomatic Folly

In today's Telegraph we find Darfur: ICC issues arrest warrant for Sudan president

Assuming the president of Sudan did everything the International Criminal Court prosecutor alleges, I think it is still a horrible idea to take this sort of action.
For one thing, I'm not sure - and I don't know that many people are - who the ICC answers to. Who are these guys and who the hell are they to issue arrest warrants for people acting (however badly) as officials of sovereign nations within the borders of those nations? Do they really think they have the "authority" to arrest George Bush if they decide the war in Iraq was "illegal" by some not-as-yet defined standard? Can they arrest Barack Obama for not closing Guantanamo fast enough to meet the wishes of various unknown "international" bureaucrats?

For another thing, since this "warrant" will never be acted on, doesn't it make the international community look ridiculous and effete to issue it? Who is going to serve it? The French Foreign Legion? We know full well no one is going to serve it and this warrant will be nothing but a reminder to the oppressed and helpless masses under power of ugly dictators across the world that the "International Community" is nothing but a joke, and their rulers will do with them what they please. It will simply reinforce the hopelessness of their positions.

However I suppose it does make the poseurs of international global organizations feel better, which is

Why didn't I think of this?

Working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch

Does the woman in your life really need a job?

(Hat tip: Instapundit)

The Bible on the "Stimulus" Package

In the Book of Numbers (14:18) the scripture reads: "(H)e punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Someone also once said: "People get the government they deserve."

Our government's current spending binge leads me to think these two proverbs can be combined: Sometimes people leave their grandchildren the government they themselves deserved.