"Demography is Destiny"

Michael Barone's article in the WSJ Opinion Journal today is a must read:

Twenty years ago political analysts grasped the implications of the vast movement from Rust Belt to Sun Belt, a tilting of the table on balance toward Republicans; but with California leaning heavily to Democrats, that paradigm seems obsolete. What's now in store is a shifting of political weight from a small Rust Belt which leans Democratic and from the much larger Coastal Megalopolises, where both secular top earners and immigrant low earners vote heavily Democratic, toward the Interior Megalopolises, where most voters are private-sector religious Republicans but where significant immigrant populations lean to the Democrats. House seats and electoral votes will shift from New York, New Jersey and Illinois to Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada; within California, House seats will shift from the Democratic coast to the Republican Inland Empire and Central Valley.

Demography is destiny. When I was in kindergarten in 1950, Detroit was the nation's fifth largest metro area, with 3,170,000 people. Now it ranks 11th and is soon to be overtaken by Phoenix, which had 331,000 people in 1950.

Big hat tip to PowerLine.

Electricity kills animals

At least when done right, as Tim Blair explains:

The New York Times reports the latest evidence of green child abuse, following several recent cases:

The children are all too familiar with the apocalyptic warnings of climate change. “A lot of people are going to die” from global warming, a 9-year-old girl from Harlem announced at one point. And a 7-year-old boy from Park Slope said with a quiet lisp, “When you use too much electricity, it kills animals.”

Well, it does if you hook up the electrodes right.

Idiotarian alert: Paul Watson calls for a reduction in the earth;s population to 1 billion people

I'm with Glenn on this one, this dude scares me:

Watson’s May 4 editorial asked the question “The Beginning of the End for Life as We Know it on Planet Earth?” Then he left no doubt about the answer. “We are killing our host the planet Earth,” he claimed and called for a population drop to less than 1 billion.

The commentary reminded readers that Watson had called humans a disease before and he wasn’t sorry. “I was once severely criticized for describing human beings as being the ‘AIDS of the Earth.’ I make no apologies for that statement,” the column continued.

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“No human community should be larger than 20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas.” New York, London, Paris, Moscow are all too big. Then again, so are Moose Jaw, Timbuktu and even Annapolis, Md.

· “We need vast areas of the planet where humans do not live at all and where other species are free to evolve without human interference.”

· “We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion.”

Emphasis mine. That's the part that scares me: how do you radically and "intelligently" reduce the human population to less than 1 billion without resorting to draconian and totalitarian methods? Simple: you don't.

Blown F350 Ford engine: Because of Biofuel or Ford's own injector problem?

I am going to defer to my mechanically inclined engine guru writing partner, whose occupation involves all sorts of grease-monkeying, but this poor chap, who is a member of the San Francisco Biofuels group, blew up the engine in his brand new Ford F350 and was told he voided his warranty using biofuel. Later Ford changed their tune and he found out Ford had issued a major recall for injector problems - the symptoms of which he claims were exactly the same for his engine.

"To my understanding, biodiesel has a higher flash point and I can't understand how one blows up an engine on a vegetable-based fuel. Ford markets the ultra-low-sulfur engine as the cleanest in the industry. I ran B100 in my 2004 F25- for 2 years-a similar, high performance PowerStroke."
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Skip several interesting exchanges later, Ford scrambled and is now covering everything-and has even offered to take the truck back and sell me a new one (mine had only 200 miles on it). Next, I found out that Ford just offered a massive recall for injector problems that create a hydrolock that produces white smoke and can cause a massive bang-exactly what happened to me.... The whole things seems to have been a ploy to cover up something they eventually had to admit to on a massive scale. Go Ford."

Hat tip to PajamasMedia.

Capitalist America: We don't know how good we've got it

I've often commented to bewildered friends and acquaintances how rich Americans are and how all Americans should be thankful everyday that they live in this fantastic country, including those considered poor or living under the official poverty level. I tell them how the majority of the rest of the world would give their right arm if they could live as well as our so-called poor do. America's economy is so strong, so developed, that even our poor are rich by most other countries' standards.

With that in mind, Arnold Kling's recent TCS Daily article is a must read:

In the United States, the poverty threshold for a family of four is just under $20,000 a year in income. However, consider what would happen if you were to force every family of four all over the world the world to live on $20,000 a year. The majority of families would say, "Thank you." Outside the United States, there are more people living under our poverty threshold than over it. Perhaps as many as one billion people are living on less than one-tenth of our poverty threshold, or less than $2000 a year for a family of four.
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Overall, as David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper wrote three years go for TCS, virtually every American alive today is in the top one percent of income, if one takes a worldwide historical perspective. It would be better to live on $20,000 a year in America today than to be a relatively wealthy person living here one hundred years ago.

He also quotes Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation who points out that:

Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions; Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception; Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Rector would not deny that there is real poverty in the United States. The point is, however, that the standard definition of poverty includes many families who are far from destitute.

Hat tip to PajamasMedia.

"Keep your stinking nukes!"

Gateway Pundit has lots of notes and pictures on the latest protests in Iran and quips:

It's crunch time for the mullahs.
The masses are restive and the economic future does not look promising.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

"...conjure up the image of 40 or 50 thousand Muslim mothers smiling into the faces of healthy babies."

Fred Thompson notes some very good news on women's access to health care and infant mortality rates in Afghanistan, and points out that none of this would have been possible without the help of U.S. and Coalition soldiers.

A new study from Johns Hopkins University indicates that, since the Taliban was ousted five years ago, Afghan infant-mortality rates have improved dramatically. Every year, more than 40,000 babies live that would have died under Islamofascist tyranny — and the statistics are still improving. The main reason, according to the study, is improved women’s access to medical care.

Some people, including World Bank health specialists, say infant-mortality rates have improved far more than the Johns Hopkins study shows — because the data used is several years old. We know, for example, that the number of Afghan children who are getting vaccinations has doubled and redoubled in just the last few years. Similarly, the number of pregnant women receiving pre-natal care went up six-fold between 2003 and 2006.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Romney's government health care disaster

I haven't had time to digest all the feedback and commentary on yesterday's Republican candidates debate, but from many accounts it sounds like Mitt Romney did the best, or at least looked and sounded presidential. I think Romney is a polished politician and very professional and so far sounds like he is running a smart campaign. As an Independent I won't be participating in the primary, but if I was I would not be voting for him, nor will I vote for him for President. And one of those reasons is because I am very uncomfortable with his eager embrace of government controlled health care.

This morning Cato-at-Liberty reminds us of some of the elements of Romney's health care plan in Massachusetts:

Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties.

Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies for a family of four earning as much as $62,000 year, effectively extending welfare well into the middle class.

Creates a Hillary Clinton managed-competition-style regulatory authority called the Massachusetts Health Care Connector. This new regulatory body has already mandated that every health care policy sold in the state must cover prescription drugs and has outlawed policies with deductibles of more than $2,000.

Imposes a penalty on businesses that do not provide health insurance to their employees (although in fairness, this provision was enacted over Governor Romney’s veto.)

Greatly expands the state’s health care bureaucracy, creating at least 10 new boards, commissions, and other institutions to study and regulate health care.

The folks at Cato-at-Liberty have a lot more on Romney-care here, here, and here. There is a health care problem in this country, but universal, government sponsored or controlled health care is not the answer.

Bill Roggio's Daily Iraq Report 5-3-07

Bill Roggio reports some welcome news from Iraq as one of Al-Qaeda's staunchest supporters in Anbar has now turned against them and joined the Anbar Salvation Council:

Sam Dagher of the Christian Science Monitor reports on how the Anbar Salvation Council, led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Rishawi, turned the Albu Fahd tribe against al Qaeda. The Albu Fahd was one of the six original Anbari tribes to support al Qaeda and its Islamic State in Iraq. These six tribes are known in some military intelligence circles as the "Sinister Six". The Albu Fahd [described as the Bu-Fahed] has now joined the Anbar Salvation Council and pledged to throw its weight behind the fight against al Qaeda.

"Winning over the Bu-Fahed tribe was a coup," said Mr. Dagher, who covered the tribal meeting where the Albu Fahd moved into the camp of the Anbar Salvation Council. "It had been one of Al Qaeda's staunchest supporters, and traces its lineage to the birthplace of the puritan form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism in the Saudi Arabian province of Najd. It formally threw its lot behind Sheikh Abdel-Sattar Abu Risha." the pickup of the Albu Fahd comes as the Anbar Salvation Council has made gains outside of its home province and is expanding in Diyala, Salahadin and Baghdad.

British midterm elections

Today is the day of the mid term elections in Britain, and no one has dared to predict an outcome. Labor is expected to lose power dramatically, and rightly so in my opinion, they have by and large failed Britain. The big question in Scotland is: will Labor hang on? or will the SNP gain power? Labor hanging on will mean business as usual, as it will send the message to Labor that no matter how much they suck, they still have power and know that people will still vote them into power no matter how poorly they run the country. If the Scottish National Party gets in, there's no telling what will happen. I will give a run down in the next few days of the outcome, and what I think it means for Britain.

Peshmerga Colonel Salahdin

Michael Totten posts his transcript of his discussion with a Peshmerga Colonel. Key excerpt:

I ask [Americans] not to leave us. All the time we have been frustrated from the pledges and help from America as we saw in 1974, 1920, and…from 1920 until now we have been frustrated and disappointed from their pledges and promises. Eight times we have been disappointed. I ask the American people, not make it nine times.

Victor Davis Hanson: The Crazy Middle East

VDH's latest is chock full of good stuff. Some excerpts:

On Iraq:

The war will be won or lost, like it or not, fairly or unjustly, in the next six months in Baghdad. Either Gen. Petraeus quells the violence to a level that even the media cannot exaggerate, or the enterprise fails, and we withdraw. For all the acrimony and hysteria at home, that in the end is what we face—the verdict of all wars that ultimately are decided by the soldiers, and then either supported or opposed by the majority at home with no views or ideology other than its desire to conform to the narrative from the front: support our winners, oppose our losers.

On why a majority of Muslims are anti-American:

Their prejudice apparently is chalked up to our omnipresence—like saving Kuwait, feeding Somalia, stopping Muslims dying en masse in the Balkans, ridding Afghanistan of the Soviets, paying astronomical prices for their oil, and giving nearly $100 billion over the years to the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians. Our prejudice surely could not be due to 19 Muslims slaughtering— to the delight of millions—3,000 Americans, nor to the news almost every hour of Christian-Muslim violence, Hindu-Muslim violence, Buddhist-Muslim violence, or secular-Muslim violence.

Read the whole thing.

Yes, women do actually commit mass murder

Dr. Helen quickly dispels the notion that women never commit mass murder:

Perhaps Dr. Schlesinger has a poor memory, because if she thought about it, she would know that the famous song by the BoomTown Rats entitled, "I Don't Like Mondays" was written about "non-existent" (at least to some experts) Brenda Spencer. Spencer was a seventeen-year-old high school senior in San Diego who in January of 1979 opened fire into a crowded elementary school across the street from her home. She killed the principal and a janitor and injured a police officer and eight children. Her reason? "I don't like Mondays. Mondays always get me down."

In the Lillelid mass murder that I have mentioned here numerous times, three of the perpetrators were women, but I guess women just don't do serious crimes like mass murder. Maybe someone should tell that to the victims of Jennifer San Marco who last year killed her neighbor and then six people at a mail processing plant. Do women kill less often than men? Of course, but to say that you can't think of any women who commit mass murder means that you must not be looking too hard.

Sheer idiocy from the military

Glenn's post says it all: "Bullet, meet foot."

Frankly, the "official" communications efforts on this war have been largely lame and ineffective, and most of the good stuff has come from milbloggers. I understand the importance of security, but this is going to do much more harm than good. Lots of stuff at the link above, and also read this post from Blackfive.

UPDATE: Still more here. Really, this is a bad idea.

Powerline's candidates forum

This is pretty cool.

The candidates for the Republican presidential nomination engage with you in these special Power Line forums.

Interestingly, McCain has the largest number of topics, currently at 14.

French have been voting with their feet

Notes Cato-at-Liberty, in reference to an Anne Appelbaum column in the Washington Post:

Anne Applebaum’s Washington Post column discusses the upcoming French election. But most relevant for fans of tax competition, she notes that two million French have fled the high taxes and economic stagnation of their home country. Not surprisingly, a poll reveals that the overwhelming majority of French expats are happy in countries with more opportunity. Applebaum also explains that Europe’s less competitive nations have been trying to export their anti-growth policies in an effort to “make life equally difficult everywhere.”

Bush vetoes Iraq bill

Those who know me know I was against the Iraq War from the start, for reasons I don't have time to explain in this brief post. But once we got into Iraq, I have always believed that we have an obligation to finish the job. What matters is not whether we should have gone into or Iraq or not, whether the planning was flawed, the mistakes that were made or not made, nor whether "the polls" say the war is popular or not. What matters is : do we want to win or lose? And the Democrats plan gives the enemy a timetable for victory and a loss for the Iraqi people and our troops. Everything that our troops and the Iraqi government have worked and died for would be in vain.

So I was quite pleased to see President Bush do the right thing in vetoing the Iraq bill. Key Quotes from his veto speech:

...members of the House and the Senate passed a bill that substitutes the opinions of politicians for the judgment of our military commanders. So a few minutes ago, I vetoed the bill.

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It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq.

I believe setting a deadline for withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East, and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments.

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Third, the bill is loaded with billions of dollars in non- emergency spending that has nothing to do with fighting the war on terror. Congress should debate these spending measures on their own merits, and not as a part of an emergency funding bill for our troops.

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In January, General Petraeus was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate. In February, we began sending the first of the reinforcements he requested.

Not all these reinforcements have arrived in Baghdad. And as General Petraeus has said, it will be the end of the summer before we can assess the impact of this operation. (Which is when the Democratic plan would have troops begin leaving Iraq - ed.)

All emphasis mine. Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

New disease targeting adults in China accused of corruption

Simon from Simon World sheds light on a new and terrible disease that recently hit a judge in China accused of corruption: SADS - Sudden Adult Death Syndrome!

The Chinese judge accused of corruption died of SADS, not cuts to his face, gashes across his lip, mistreatment by China's police, torture or stubbing his toes. "There were no reports that torture was used to extract a confession, or bodily harm caused by guards, or an assault by cellmates."

Of course not.

I expect this terribly contagious and alarming disease to spread rapidly amongst other freedom-loving, democratic societies such as those found in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Russia, and Zimbabwe.

Fred Thompson on criticism of the U.S. from abroad

Via NRO. Key line:

So I wouldn’t worry too much about the criticisms we receive. We make mistakes and at times the “carping” may even be on target, but it seems to me that we ought to look at a lot of the complaints as a badge of honor.

Ouch:

We’re also hopeful that, eventually, our ostrich-headed allies will realize there’s a world war going on out there and they need to pick a side — the choice being between the forces of civilization and the forces of anarchy. Considering the fact that the latter team is growing stronger and bolder daily, while most of our European Union friends continue to dismantle their defenses, that day may not be too long in coming.

In the meantime, let’s be realistic about the world we live in. Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about U.S. immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own. The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.

Outstanding photo-journal from Michael Yon

Part II of Michael Yon's photo journal can be found here. Part I is here.

Frank Miller: The Next Big Thing in Hollywood

Thanks to the box office success and acclaim of 300 and Sin City, Frank Miller is now the next big thing in Hollywood, having been now asked to write and direct his own film based on Will Eisner's "The Spirit".

Now there's a sweet satisfaction in the fact that the new Hollywood approach is to hire fan-boy directors and show fawning respect for the source material. "Sin City's" Robert Rodriguez even insisted on sharing director credits with Miller on those films (a maverick stand that cost Rodriguez his membership in the Directors Guild), and that led directly to a somewhat shocking development: Miller has now been tapped to write and direct his own film based on Will Eisner's classic noir hero "The Spirit."

One of the producers, Michael Uslan, also the producer of "Constantine" and executive producer of "Batman Begins," said the filming will start this year and that there already is intense interest from distributors given the splashy success of "300," which grossed $70 million in just its first weekend. Uslan was an executive producer on more than half a dozen superhero movies, including the Tim Burton "Batman" films, and he said Miller's relative newcomer role to Hollywood is not a problem.

"Honestly, to me, there's nobody else that could do this film. I saw him at Will Eisner's memorial service last year and I told him that I'd been turning comic books into movies for years, but that with 'Sin City' he's doing something better: He was making movies into comic books. I told him he had to make 'The Spirit.' He said there was no way he could do it. Then after three minutes he said, 'There's no way I can let anybody else do it.' "

Asked about the change of heart in town, Miller smiled like the Catwoman who ate the canary. "It's gone from being an abusive relationship to a torrid affair. And it is very satisfying. I think I have everybody fooled now."

I've been a Frank Miller fan for as long as I can remember. I first fell in love with Frank Miller's art in the outstanding Wolverine short-series penned by Chris Claremont, where Frank Miller also helped come up with the base storyline. Soon after I got ahold of the equally outstanding Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, to this day the best Batman story ever told, in my opinion. Then along came 1992 and the issue of Dark Horse Presents that presented the first dark vision of Frank Miller's Sin City creation. I was instantly hooked and couldn't wait for the next issue of Dark Horse Presents to come out so I could devour the next short installment of Sin City and Marv. Sin City was such a success that Frank Miller and Dark Horse Comics began publishing more Sin City stories, only this time under their own dedicated title. While the original Sin City story has a special place in my heart, the other stories are just as good. Soon I had bought and digested Ronin, an early Frank Miller masterpiece that I had somehow missed in my youth, and was introduced to Frank Miller's Daredevil years through his work on Elektra. He is one of the most gifted and talented writers in the comics industry and his work as an artist is equally impressive. From this same LA Times article:

He got to New York by 21, and within three years he was a fan favorite with a style that was jolting. It was dark and gritty, with bold brushwork and empty spaces that defied the marketplace conventions of the time, in which the bright, clean intricacies of John Byrne and George Pérez were the perceived ideal. That era too belonged to superhero teams with cosmic adventures and bulging, spandex-clad anatomies that defied physics, but Miller was writing and drawing violent operettas for the mean streets with mere mortals such as Daredevil and Batman, who have no powers. The inner spirit was more Bernard Goetz than George Lucas.

"The main reason was I didn't draw good spaceships," he said with a shrug. "I drew tough guys in trench coats, and I liked using black and shadows." The mid-1980s brought the shift of comics toward more mature ambitions and Miller (along too with Alan Moore, writer of "The Watchman") was at the center of the renaissance. His defining characters — Daredevil, Elektra, the aging Batman of "Dark Knight," the disgraced samurai of "Ronin" — were solitary, haunted, honor-bound and extremely efficient at hurting other people. Reading Miller, Mickey Spillane and Clint Eastwood sprang to mind, especially when one Daredevil cover was an overt homage to "Dirty Harry."

Frank Miller was a welcome change to the spandex-clad, muscle-bound, reality-free superhero universe of the modern age. He brought grit and dark realism to the table and gave us flawed heroes who still managed to uphold justice and punish those that would do evil, as well as the brutal anti-heroes from his Sin City line. It's only fitting that such a talent has finally found his way to the big screen, doing things his way, and I can only hope for more from the gifted author and artist. What has endeared him even more to me, in this world of political correctness and hyper-sensitivity, is his no-nonsense assessment of islamo-fascism post-9/11:

MUCH has been made of Miller's politics in the wake of "300." The deliriously violent and stylized sword film is based on a Spartan battle in 480 B.C., and although Miller wrote and drew the story for Dark Horse comics a decade ago, in film form it was received by many as a grotesque parody of the ancient Persians and a fetish piece for a war on Islam. Miller scoffs at those notions. "I think it's ridiculous that we set aside certain groups and say that we can't risk offending their ancestors. Please. I'd like to say, as an American, I was deeply offended by 'The Last of the Mohicans.' "

Still, Miller gets stirred up about any criticism of the war in Iraq or the hunt for terrorists, which he views as the front in a war between the civilized Western world and bloodthirsty Islamic fundamentalists.

"What people are not dealing with is the fact that we're going up against a culture that finds it acceptable to do things that the rest of the world left behind with the barbarians in the 6th century," Miller said. "I'm a little tired of people worrying about being polite. We are fighting in the face of fascists."

The director of "300," Zack Snyder, chuckled about the portrayal of Miller as a conservative on the attack or a "proto-fascist" as one pundit called him. "I don't think he really has politics, he just sees the world in moral terms. He's a guy who says what he thinks and has a sense of right and wrong. He talks tough and, after Sept. 11, I think he's mad." Snyder said Miller is a throwback and that he approaches his art with a bar-fight temperament, like a Sam Peckinpah. "His political view is: Don't mess with me."

Thank you, Frank Miller.

April Federal Receipts: Will it smash records?

BizzyBlog says he is "...not absolutely, positively, totally, 100% sure (but awfully close)..." that Federal Receipts in April will smash records:

So, unless I’m not correct to be absolutely, positively, totally, 100% sure (but awfully close), our unfortunate liberal economist friends will have to answer some very uncomfortable questions after it all becomes official at 2:00 PM on May 10. Some of them will include:

• How can tax collections be going up so much when GDP growth during the past year hasn’t been anything special?
• Why haven’t the Bush tax cuts, especially the investment-related ones of 2003, led to the decreases in collections we predicted back then?
• Since Income and Employment Taxes Not Withheld have increased so dramatically, and because we know that this collections in this category primarily come from “the rich,” how are we going to break it to our friends in Congress and the Formerly Mainstream Media that we don’t have to “soak the rich,” because they are allowing themselves to get soaked already?
• What are we going to tell those soon-to-be-former friends in Congress and Old Media when they come to us and ask for projections of how much additional money can be collected if tax rates are increased, when we now know that what will increase revenues even more is another tax-rate CUT (see Ireland, Iceland, Hong Kong, and Estonia [third item at link])?

• 
  

Greatest movie car chase of all time?

Via Michael Silence of KnoxNews No Silence Here. The nominees are Bullitt, The French Connection, The Seven-Ups, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, The Blues Brothers, The Road Warrior, To Live and Die in LA, Ronin, and The Bourne Identity.

I voted for Ronin, one of my favorite movies, although it wasn't an easy decision - Bullitt and The Road Warrior were my other considerations, I could have gone with any of them but settled with Ronin for sheer, gutsy driving and superb editing. I liked The Bourne Identity but was surprised to see it as a nominee in this list, that was a nice car chase scene but I've seen better. And not a single nomination from any of the Bond movies? Sure, most of them are pretty unrealistic, but what about the famous chase scene from From Your Eyes Only where Bond and Melina escape the bad guys in a beat up Citroen after Bond's Lotus is blown up. Or the car chase through the streets of Bangkok in The Man With the Golden Gun? One of the most memorable chase scenes in Bond films is the boats through the waterways of Louisiana in Live and Let Die, but then again those are boats and not cars.

Anyways, just surprised to not see a single Bond movie mention in this poll.

Currently Bullitt is the clear favorite at 36% of the vote. The Blues Brothers is in at number 2 and Ronin at number 3.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

One for the record books

Larry Kudlow brings to our attention a broken record that perhaps some government economists and the pro-tax crowd don't want people to know about:

Get this: US tax nonwithheld receipts from individuals hit a record one day $48.7 billion increase on April 24th. The prior record was a year ago at $36.4 billion. This reflects, almost always, capital gains tax receipts from the bullish market at the record low 15 percent marginal tax rate on investment. Did someone say Laffer curve?
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Since the Bush tax cuts of mid-'03, the fiscal years '04, '05, '06 and we're almost halfway through '07, nonwithheld tax receipts up $144 billion, or 59 percent.

More from Kudlow on how taxes have affected the economy here:

Question: What do Neil Cavuto and most of the folks over at Fox News; Steve Forbes, Rich Karlgaard, and much of the intellectual inventory over at Forbes magazine; Larry Kudlow, Art Laffer, Don Luskin, Brian Wesbury, and most of the other money types who pop up around 5 p.m. EST each weekday on CNBC; the crowd over at the Wall Street Journal editorial page; and the full complement of writers right here on NRO Financial have in common?

Answer: They stuck to their models when the financial world was awash in pessimistic hysterics, and reminded all who would listen that the underlying economy was strong, that the 2003 tax cuts would do their magic, and that smart investors and entrepreneurs would act accordingly and put their money to work. They were ridiculed. They were shouted down. They were attacked. And they were ignored by the vast hoard of pundits and talking heads. But in the end they were right.

Dow 13,000.

Yet another argument for a fair and simple tax

Via BizzyBlog:

The Institute for Policy Innovation talks about a number that comes from The Tax Foundation (link to USA Today article added by me):

$300 billion. (Note: The Tax Foundation link actually says “$275 billion and rising” — Ed.)

That’s how much the Tax Foundation estimates Americans—individuals and businesses—will spend this year on tax preparation.

That’s about 20 percent of the $1.5 trillion we’ll pay in income taxes.

Tivo-blogging the Democratic debate

Ann Althouse Tivo-blogs the Democratic candidates debate so you don't have to. Part I is here. Part II is here. Here are some key excerpts I found interesting:

Clinton on the Iraq war vote:

We go back to Clinton, because she was attacked (though Edwards tried to act like it wasn't an attack). She says she takes "responsibility" for her vote and that she would not have voted as she did if she knew what she knows now. The real question, she says -- correctly! -- is "what do we do now?" But then she runs Bush down for "stubbornly" refusing to accede to the "will of the American people," which makes me wish I could ask her whether she thinks the role of the President is to adopt the military strategy that the polls show the people preferring (which would be completely incompetent).

Richardson on troop funding:

Richardson is asked if he would fund the troops if he were in Congress. He says "no." The war is a "disaster." He would "withdraw all of our troops" by the end of the year. But he'd apply "intensive diplomacy" that would have the three religious factions working out their problems. He'd have a "security conference" that would include Iran and Syria. And he'd have other countries take over the reconstruction and security. Okaaaay. He's for magic. Great.

Clinton, when asked about Giuliani's statement that "America will be safer with a Republican president", gives an answer that blames the current President for not doing enough. Althouse responds with:

There is absolutely nothing there about why she would do a better job as the next President, and we were just reminded of Giuliani. Who do you want to trust, Clinton or Giuliani? That's the question. She gives not one shred of a reason here to go with her. Is there some way she would secure our borders and ports better than he would? Picture her standing at a debate next to Giuliani a year and a half from now. That's what you ought to do if you're trying to pick the best Democratic candidate. Is she the one you Democrats want standing there?

Althouse points out what I would consider the most important part of the debate:

Let's read something important. Obama is asked "how would you change the U.S. military stance overseas" if there were another attack on two American cities and we knew "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that al Qaida did it...

Go to Althouse to read the full responses, too much to excerpt over here, but I liked Ann's comments on their replies:

Obama:

The first thing he thinks of is Katrina. Bush failed there, don't you know. Think fast, Senator. It's another 9/11! What is the military response? Show us you can think like a Commander in Chief...

Edwards:

So, be strong. But mainly just try very hard to figure out how they did it and how we can defend against the next attack. His idea seems to be about winning the hearts of the next generation. How do you fight the terrorists? Why not make them love us so they won't want to be terrorists anymore? Surely, if they see the Democrats have brought their new tools into the White House, they'll feel the love.

Clinton:

Attack! Destroy! Thank God, one of them is willing to say it. Hillary wins.

Richardson:

That beats Hillary. Richardson is my favorite of the Democrats. And Obama and Edwards are unacceptable.

All emphasis mine.

Read the whole thing over at Althouse.

Carbon Credits... um... not have much credit?

Found an interesting article regarding Carbon credit offsets, and some quick digging led to some very unsurprising though bad news. Seems that carbon credits aren't all they're cracked up to be, do little to actually help the so called carbon dioxide crisis, and that companies who invest in carbon credits are doing so in a high risk, unregulated market. Sounds like some shady business practices afoot. You can guarantee that if this was another business the government would be all over this to nail down those who do it.

read more, here.

Hat tip: Instapundit
Hat tip: Newsbusters

Bill Roggio's Daily Iraq Report 4-26-07

Today Bill Roggio reports on General Petraeus' testimony to Congress and his subsequent press briefing and Pentagon briefing:

In this morning's Pentagon briefing, Gen. Petraeus highlighted Iran's involvement in Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraq's dominance of the Sunni insurgency, and the importance of disrupting the Shia militias. He also stressed that the Baghdad Security plan is still in its early stages, and a full evaluation of the operation cannot be made until September at its earliest. He noted that sectarian violence has decrease by about two-thirds since the inception of the Baghdad Security Plan, and ongoing operations against al Qaeda cells are yielding good intelligence on al Qaeda's network.

After yesterday's testimony to Congress, Gen. Petraeus highlighted the very real progress in Anbar, which used to lead all Iraqi provinces in attacks per capita. An American intelligence official informs us that attacks in Ramadi, which used to be the most violence city in Iraq, have dropped from a peak of 50 a day last September to 2 - 4 a day currently.

But don't expect the Democrats to listen to a General they approved to handle things in Iraq.

Bias? What media bias?

CBS News' Brian Montopoli makes his known:

So what Montopoli appears to say is that since media thinks there’s a problem of gun availability in this country, it’s up to media to fan the flames of the people to demand more gun control laws. Notice that he doesn’t want to use a story of how some citizen prevented a killing or ended a tragedy as the “hook” for the “discussion” but rather the horrific and rare shooting at Virginia Tech as such.

Tax deadbeats

It's not who you think:

"Over 450,000 Federal Workers Are Tax Deadbeats"

The worst offenders? Try the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Government Printing Office. Just out of the top 10? The Tax Court.

As usual, big hat tip to Instapundit.

Hugh Hewitt interviews Fred Kagan

Fred Kagan visited Iraq and says that the debate in Washington is "...lagging behind reality in Iraq.":

HH: You come back from Iraq, you see these changes, you talk with it, and then you hear Harry Reid declare the war is lost. What was your reaction upon hearing that, Frederick Kagan?

FK: It’s very disappointing. I think a lot of people, there is a lot of hyperbole, there’s a lot of exaggeration, and we really need to look this squarely in the eye, and recognize that most wars, you don’t know who’s going to win until the end. And there’s been, there were rosy optimistic scenarios from the Bush administration early on, and declarations of victory that were mistaken, and now you’ve got Democratic opponents of the war rushing to say that the war’s lost, and that it’s hopeless. And the facts on the ground just don’t support that. The war isn’t lost. We certainly can still win, and it’s really very disappointing to hear the Senator majority leader just throw up his hands like that.

Update: David Broder in the Washington Post says that Harry Reid is the Democrats' Gonzales:

On "Fox News Sunday," Schumer offered this clarification of Reid's off-the-cuff comment. "What Harry Reid is saying is that this war is lost -- in other words, a war where we mainly spend our time policing a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. We are not going to solve that problem. . . . The war is not lost. And Harry Reid believes this -- we Democrats believe it. . . . So the bottom line is if the war continues on this path, if we continue to try to police and settle a civil war that's been going on for hundreds of years in Iraq, we can't win. But on the other hand, if we change the mission and have that mission focus on the more narrow goal of counterterrorism, we sure can win."

Everyone got that? This war is lost. But the war can be won. Not since Bill Clinton famously pondered the meaning of the word "is" has a Democratic leader confused things as much as Harry Reid did with his inept discussion of the alternatives in Iraq.

Nor is this the first time Senate Democrats, who chose Reid as their leader over Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have had to ponder the political fallout from one of Reid's tussles with the language.

Hailed by his staff as "a strong leader who speaks his mind in direct fashion," Reid is assuredly not a man who misses many opportunities to put his foot in his mouth. In 2005, he attacked Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, as "one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington."

He called President Bush " a loser," then apologized. He said that Bill Frist, then Senate majority leader, had "no institutional integrity" because Frist planned to leave the Senate to fulfill a term-limits pledge. Then he apologized to Frist.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Update 2: Joe Lieberman is sticking to his guns:

Rather than condemning the attacks and the terrorists who committed them, critics trumpeted them as proof that Gen. David Petraeus's security strategy has failed and that the war is "lost."

And today, perversely, the Senate is likely to vote on a binding timeline of withdrawal from Iraq.

This reaction is dangerously wrong. It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both the reality in Iraq and the nature of the enemy we are fighting there.

What is needed in Iraq policy is not overheated rhetoric but a sober assessment of the progress we have made and the challenges we still face.

In the two months since Petraeus took command, the United States and its Iraqi allies have made encouraging progress on two problems that once seemed intractable: tamping down the Shiite-led sectarian violence that paralyzed Baghdad until recently and consolidating support from Iraqi Sunnis -- particularly in Anbar, a province dismissed just a few months ago as hopelessly mired in insurgency.

Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Pajamas Media.

I can't remember why I voted for him.....

Well, well and truly into Arnie's 2nd term and I really have to say I've lost any and all respect for his work as the governator after he's declared that the state will sue the EPA for not acting on the request to allow California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. While I'm no fan of the EPA of federalism, this practice of suing it so that California gets to regulate an unproven theory the earth going through a warming trend is foolish, and a very bad use of state funds. He's pulled quite a few environmental headline grabbers lately, and I'm wondering if he's always been this way and hidden it, or he's flipped on the environmental agenda. His agenda was to clean up the fiscal mess of California, and bring it back to a well run state. Last I heard it was still in a big mess.

Bill Roggio's Daily Iraq Report 4-24-07

Read it here. Excerpt:

In Iraq's Anbar province, the Anbar Salvation Council continues to gain steam in its fight against al Qaeda. Seven new tribes have just joined the Anbar Salvation Council's political movement, the Anbar Awakening. Last week, the Anbar Salvation Council announced it was forming the Iraq Awakening, a national political party which would "oppose insurgents such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and reengage with Iraq's political process." The Iraq Awakening is scheduled to meet in May, and will be the first Sunni political party to openly oppose al Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to maintain pressure on al Qaeda's network nationwide. Yesterday, Coalition forces netted 19 al Qaeda facilitators and foot soldiers during raids in Karma, Taji and Anbar. Today, 10 al Qaeda were captured in raids in Fallujah and Baghdad.

SNP Debate

It seems that next week the Scottish National Party will be set to take over Holyrood. Via the Globe and Mail, they cite the flagging confidence that people have in Labour, and are going to a new party. While many predictions about the possible mess that the SNP will put Scotland into abound, I really am not sure how much of a shift will take place. Having spoken to an SNP MSP who belongs to my church, my view is still unclear. As a result, I will be blogging a little about what an SNP takeover may mean. Stay tuned.

John McCain officially announces he is running for President

I'm not a big John McCain fan, but this part of his speech I like:

We all know the war in Iraq has not gone well. We have made mistakes and we have paid grievously for them. We have changed the strategy that failed us, and we have begun to make a little progress. But in the many mistakes we have made in this war, a few lessons have become clear. America should never undertake a war unless we are prepared to do everything necessary to succeed, unless we have a realistic and comprehensive plan for success, and unless all relevant agencies of government are committed to that success. We did not meet this responsibility initially. And we must never repeat that mistake again.

Emphasis mine.

Patrick Lasswell and Michael Totten in Kirkuk, Part II

Patrick Lasswell at Moderate Risk and Michael Totten continue their story of Kirkuk, where a young man caught shooting off his gun while riding a motorcycle is brought to the home of General Rostam. Patrick's account can be found here:

Even before one of the most distinguished of all people in Iraq confronted the drive by accomplice, the young man was having just about the worst day of his life. The story coming out is that he gave a friend a ride on his motorcycle and the friend got stupid and started shooting. This is not an auspicious beginning to one's day, and then he got caught. Hauled away to what is obviously a big shot's house, he is getting smacked around by a police chief who is both extremely competent and seriously pissed off. Two Americans are going nuts getting him on film, one of them is even taking stills with one hand and shooting video with the other. Then in walks somebody who could give Dirty Harry lessons in being a badass and he's not taking any excuses. The smack Mam Rostam gave that kid made a sound like his brains had popped out of his head and dented the truck.

Michael Totten's account is here and continues his interview with General Rostam:

“If America pulls out of Iraq, they will fail in Afghanistan,” Mam Rostam said.

Hardly anyone in Congress seems to consider that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan might become much more severe if similar tactics are proven effective in Iraq.

“And they will fail with Iran,” he continued. “They will fail everywhere with all Eastern countries. The war between America and the terrorists will move from Iraq and Afghanistan to America itself. Do you think America will do that? The terrorists gather their agents in Afghanistan and Iraq and fight the Americans here. If you pull back, the terrorists will follow you there. They will try, at least. Then Iran will be the power in the Middle East. Iran is the biggest supporter of terrorism. They support Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Ansar Al Islam. You know what Iran will do with those elements if America goes away.”

Emphasis mine.

Austin Bay on Harry Reid

His latest column is up at StrategyPage:

I distinguish Harry Reid Democrats from Harry Truman Democrats. Between these two Harrys spreads a vast moral chasm that 60 years of history do not fully explain.

"Give 'em Hell" Truman possessed a large quotient of common sense, as well as the courage of his convictions.

Assess Reid for yourself. Last week, the Senate majority leader said, "Now I believe myself ... that this war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday."

But within minutes after declaring Iraq lost, Reid returned to the mikes to backtrack. "The (Iraq) war can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically, and the president needs to come to that realization," Reid said,

It's lost, but can only be won, if if what? If "Give 'em Hooey" Harry Reid is in charge?

How refreshing if Reid had the courage of his defeatist convictions, except his convictions aren't convictions, they are postures. Reid tosses a line to Democrat defeatists, then when he discovers his mistake, edges toward reality with an oily pirouette.

Common Sense Savings: Switch to Netflix

I love movies, always have. I've spent countless hours watching and discussing movies with my friends, whether it was what was the best sci-fi movie of all time or reciting lines from Snatch or The Godfather, it's always been a favorite past time of mine. Somehow I have always managed to find time to watch movies, particularly since I am not a big fan of TV. In fact, before I got married I never had cable, relying simply on an indoor antenna and the major networks that I received - my TV and receiver was more or less a device for watching DVDs.

There was a time in my younger years when I was going to the movie theater with friends and family almost once per week, in addition to renting from the local video store. But as ticket prices went up, crowds became more unmanageable, and, in my opinion, the overall theater experience became less savory AND less safe (I distinctly remember one alarming incident where off-duty policemen had to threaten to draw guns before escorting 2 violently feuding couples from a movie we were watching) I found myself renting DVDs more often as opposed to heading to the theater. For a while this sufficed, but soon I grew frustrated with the local video store's lack of selection and concentration only on new releases.

Salvation came when my wife and I took the plunge and decided on a trial offer from Netflix. That was more than 2 years ago and we have never looked back. For those of you who just discovering this wonderful thing called the internet or who somehow managed to avoid the plethora of Netflix ads populating the internet at large, Netflix is an online DVD rental service where you order DVD rentals online and, depending on the package you order, can rent as many movies as you'd like for as long as you'd like for one flat fee. There are a variety of packages you can order, but the 2 packages my family have used are the 2-at-a-time (unlimited rentals per month, maximum 2 movies out at a time) and the 3-at-a-time (unlimited rentals per month, maximum 3 movies out at a time). Basically, you can watch a lot of movies per month, it all depends on how quickly you watch and return them, the faster you return a movie the quicker you'll get a new one.

Netflix is a good deal not only because they have a vast, diverse collection that far exceeds anything you can find at your local Blockbuster (or even Blockbuster online) but also because it will save you a ton of money over the traditional methods of watching movies.

For example, let's say you sign up for the 3-at-a-time package, which means you can have up to 3 movies at home at a time and can watch as many movies as you want provided you return them fast enough. The price per month is $17.99, let's say $18 bucks to make it simple.

Let's say you watch 3 movies a week under this plan. That's 156 movies per year at a yearly cost of $216 - which comes out to a whopping $1.38 per movie.

Let's say instead of Netflix you and your wife have a typical cable package that includes HBO and a couple of movie channels like Starz, etc. that can run you roughly $80-90 a month. On top of that, you and your wife like to go to the movie theater about once a month: 2 tickets, small popcorn, and sharing one drink will cost you roughly $25 on the low end. That's over $1,200 a year to spend on movies. If you watched 12 movies in the theater per year + another 100 or so on cable movie channels (which assumes you can actually locate 100 unique movies on cable movie packages, good luck!) - that comes out to more than $10 per movie. And let's not forget that your expensive cable package most likely includes only recent releases and repeats them over and over again, whereas with a service like Netflix you can choose from tens of thousands of movies from all over the world in virtually any genre.

It took us awhile but my wife and I gradually made the permanent move to home movie watching. We rarely go to the theater anymore and then only when we have gift certificates or the occasional invite from a group of friends or family. We quickly got rid of our expensive digital cable package and moved to basic cable + ESPN (I need my baseball). Being avid movie watchers, my wife and I calculated that we average 3.5 movies per week via Netflix, which means we devour 182 movies per year minimum:

Before Netflix:
Cable - $90/month
Local DVD Rental - $8/month (about 2 rentals per month)
Going to the movies - $25 every 2 months

Total yearly cost spent on movies = $1326.00
Total monthly cost spent on movies = $110.50

Number of movies seen per year = roughly 90

Cost per movie = a whopping $14.73

After Netflix:
Cable - $37/month
Netflix DVD Rental - $18/month
Going to the movies - $50 per year

Total yearly cost spent on movies = $710.00
Total monthly cost spent on movies = $59.17

Number of movies seen per year = 185

Cost per movie = only $3.84 per movie

Total Savings:
Per Year - $616.00 (54% reduction)
Per Month - $51.33 (47% reduction)
Per Movie - $10.89 (74% reduction)

Any questions? And with today's technology and the proliferation of home theater equipment, it's fairly inexpensive and easy to set up a very cool looking and sounding 5.1 surround home theater system. No waiting in line, no expensive food concessions, no worries about crowded theaters or unruly patrons; you can pause the movie at any time to answer the phone, go to the bathroom, or rewind to re-watch a scene again or figure out who done what to whom.

Obviously cutting out movie theaters cold turkey isn't for everyone, and even with my family it took some time, but when we sat down and crunched the numbers, not to mention the convenience of the movies coming direct to our home through the mail, it was a no-brainer.

Our British Brothers In Arms

For a while now since I have lived in Britain, I have gained great respect for our fellow brothers in arms, the British. Since living here, I have found that most Americans view the UK forces as slightly subordinate to the US forces, and also that the US forces are superior. Nothing could be further from the truth. The British forces that work with us are just as equipped, smart, and capable as our own American soldiers. I respect our British allies, and thank them for the hard work they give to their country, their friends, and humanity.

Excerpt from Michael Yon:

The plan for Operation Arezzo was cleverly contrived. While Americans count on helicopter support for deliberate high-intensity combat here, the Brits were going into extremely hostile terrain, outnumbered, without helicopter support, relying instead upon timing, terrain, maneuverability, firepower, and sheer audacity.

In an operation that lasted over four hours, British forces killed 26-27 enemy and sustained no casualties. 5 Platoon fired more than 4,000 bullets before their guns began to cool, and about 15 of the enemy kills were accredited to 5 Platoon.

The British are planning future operations. These soldiers are so good that I have requested from British commanders to be allowed to stay longer.

Read the whole Yon post here.

Wii Rock

Came across this article, which discusses who's on top and what's happening with the big 3 consoles. No surprise, the Wii has been dominating, even though it's plagued with serious supply issues. I waited for 3 months for mine that my lovely wife got me for Christmas before cancelling my order because I got fed up. Interesting that all the articles I have read have trashed the PS3. They blame the high price, and foolish marketing decisions for the dead last Sony console's issues.

Excerpt:

"The downside of such a strong opening position is that there's little room for improvement and plenty of distance to fall, and Sony had nowhere to go but down. Meantime, as the PS3, and its diminutive (but equally black and shiny) brother the PSP continue to come up short in the software department, Nintendo and Microsoft are both quite happy to take chunks out of Sony's hindquarters. It's not hard for shoppers to come up with convincing justifications for buying a Wii or a 360, but until some better games come along, the PS3's key advantages are narrowed down to the Blu-Ray drive's movie-playing ability, and the considerable future potential of the powerful hardware. Sony's games division is not in a happy place at the moment."

read the whole thing here.

Fred Thompson: tough words on gun control

From The Fred Thompson Report:

So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university's "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.

The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.

Despite such attitudes, average Americans have always made up the front line against crime. Through programs like Neighborhood Watch and Amber Alert, we are stopping and catching criminals daily. Normal people tackled "shoe bomber" Richard Reid as he was trying to blow up an airliner. It was a truck driver who found the D.C. snipers. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that civilians use firearms to prevent at least a half million crimes annually.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses -- and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

He also has this valid point:

The statistics are clear. Communities that recognize and grant Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not. More to the point, incarcerated criminals tell criminologists that they consider local gun laws when they decide what sort of crime they will commit, and where they will do so.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Guns in the hands of Thai citizens have also served to curb terrorist attacks in a plan that has the backing of the Queen:

Soon after the beheading, the residents of Lampaya, about 800 kilometers, or 500 miles, south of Bangkok, banded together, bought 150 rifles, received weapons training from a program initiated by Thailand's Queen Sirikit, and began a 24-hour patrol system.

As a result, while surrounding villages have had about 20 killings by insurgents since the beginning of the year, the residents of Lampaya proudly report that they have had none.

Global Warming... eh, Climate Change hype

In looking for research regarding how the world has been variable and climate has changed for millennia of years, I found this article that talks about how many important data are ignored when it comes to the IPCC's little black book. In short it discusses the possibility that there might be a bigger play in the universe that causes global warming. The Sun. Really, that big mass of constant nuclear fusion creating incomprehensible heat might have more of an effect on global warming than a small insignificant amount of a gas that's a natural byproduct of life on a planet.

Excerpt:

"So one awkward question you can ask, when you’re forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is “Why is east Antarctica getting colder?” It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming. While you’re at it, you might inquire whether Gordon Brown will give you a refund if it’s confirmed that global warming has stopped. The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago."

Read the whole thing, here.

Girls Against Boys

No, we're not going to have a post my wife would love to have a say in. This one's more on a lighter note. Seeing as all the posts have been heavy going lately, I stumbled across this site that has one of Swizstick's and my own favorite band play live. see them, here. And hey, if you like them, buy their music, here.

I especially recommend Basstation.

Kirkuk report from Michael Totten and Patrick Lasswell

Michael Totten's report, with plenty of pics and video, can be found here:

Kirkuk’s terrorists are, my Kurdish hosts explained, mostly Baathists, not Islamists. Their racist ideology casts Kurds and Turkmens as the enemy. They’re boxed in on all sides, though, and in their impotent rage murder fellow Arabs by the dozens and hundreds. They have, in effect, strapped suicide belts around their entire community while their more peaceful Kurdish and Turkmen neighbors shudder and fight to keep the Baath in its box.

American readers may be uncomfortable by the explicitly racial nature of this description, but that’s just how it is in Kirkuk and I cannot apologize for it. Iraqis kill each other over race and religion and power. If you go there yourself you had better pay attention to who lives in which neighborhood and what they think of others. Otherwise you will not survive. I'm a bit awkwardly self-conscious about it, but race blindness is punished in Iraq with the death penalty.

Patrick Lasswell's report is here:

This is the part my wife is going to hate. Kirkuk isn't just nasty, it really is dangerous. In the month we were in Iraq, there were dozens of attacks there including one memorable day when four idiots detonated themselves inside of eight hours. The potential wealth of the area draws terror financing and organization. For perspective, imagine a VA Tech psycho attack once a week in a metro area the size of the Omaha, Nebraska. One difference is that the police and the citizens are prepared and willing to confront murderous idiots with appropriate force.

Mark Steyn: A Culture of Passivity

Over at NRO:

We do our children a disservice to raise them to entrust all to officialdom’s security blanket. Geraldo-like “protection” is a delusion: when something goes awry — whether on a September morning flight out of Logan or on a peaceful college campus — the state won’t be there to protect you.

Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Instapundit.

Where do the locals eat?

My hotel was of the 5-star variety and was ideally located and beautifully decorated. An internet acquaintance of mine had commented that he felt it was one of the best, if not THE best, hotels in all of Asia. I found it hard to argue with him as the service was impeccable and the rooms were roomy and well decorated with many amenities. The windows had beautiful wooden shutters on the inside that opened up to a beautiful view of the skyline and local neighborhood. I would stand at the window and watch the morning chaos of scooters and bicycles emerge as the day began. As with all such accommodations, I was grateful my company paid the bill – which they should, after all I was here on their business – because if I had traveled to Vietnam on my own I would most certainly be staying in a cheap hotel of questionable quality.

My hosts were not free for dinner that first night so I was on my own. I simply dropped my luggage in the closet and headed out for a bite to eat. Sure, I could have played it safe and expensed a fat dinner at one of the hotel’s prestigious restaurants, but what’s the fun in that? Here I was in a new city I had never been to before and would have no idea when I might be back. Working all day long meant few chances to see anything, so I decided to take advantage of the hotel’s ideal downtown location and find a local place to eat that wasn’t inhabited by tourists and businessmen.

Easier said then done. In the U.S. we have our Chinatowns, Little Kabul, Little Saigon, Little Italy, etc. In some places, like Oakland or San Francisco, the Chinatowns’ are large enough and offer a diversity of businesses (along with huge Chinese/Asian populations) that an immigrant from China could completely live and survive within their own culture, never having to fully learn the language or fully involve themselves in mainstream American business and culture. The same thing is true of what we call the expat culture overseas; westerners tend to congregate in mostly foreign occupied housing, go to English speaking international schools, shop at English speaking western-style supermarkets, etc. I saw the same thing when I lived in Hong Kong, where entire luxury apartment buildings, clubs, restaurants, supermarkets, and even office buildings catered almost exclusively to expats and foreigners. I knew of one guy who had lived in Hong Kong for over 10 years and couldn’t speak more than a few words of Cantonese and couldn’t remember the last time he had ever ventured off of Hong Kong island, not to mention his own general neighborhood. He worked in an international company with other foreigners and English speaking local staff, ate with colleagues and friends in western-style restaurants, bought his food on the weekend from the local international supermarket located within walking distance from his home, cooked and ate the same food he ate in his home country and mostly hung out with his foreign neighbors and friends. He basically lived life no differently then when he was at home. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, he was a great guy who just didn’t fancy the Chinese culture or cuisine and felt more comfortable living in his “own environment”.

Downtown Ho Chi Minh City is no expat village, but since it’s mostly a collection of international hotels, multinational office buildings, and tourist attractions it certainly tends to attract a mostly expat clientele. While there were plenty of locals bustling about, there was also an equal amount of, if not more, foreigners milling about, particularly at dinner time as employees were leaving the offices after a day’s work and heading home. In this environment, finding a nice “local” restaurant turned out to be impossible. I first wandered around the streets just to get a feel for the neighborhood, and I am a fast walker and enjoy exploring, so I covered a lot of ground. There were plenty of restaurants, but they catered entirely to expats and foreigners – Italian restaurants, German restaurants, Japanese restaurants, French restaurants. There were some restaurants that claimed to actually serve local Vietnamese cuisine, and perhaps they did, but when I looked through the windows all I saw where western faces looking back at me – which I took as a bad sign, considering I was in Vietnam!

Perhaps some travelers like the “comforts of home” so to speak but when I travel to a new destination I want to try something new, experience at least a taste of local life, and what better way to do it then to try some local cuisine, preferably in a local setting and not chock full of tourists.

Another thing I noticed was the prices. This was Vietnam, after all, a still developing country where the GDP per capita was only $3,100 and food supplies were therefore relatively cheap, comparably speaking. Yet the prices I was seeing on menus were more than I would pay back home in the U.S. It didn’t affect me directly since I could expense it with my company, but normally when I travel to Asia I tend to spend less eating out then back at home.

I finally gave up trying to find out where the locals ate and settled on a Thai restaurant, of all things (having just traveled from Thailand). There were ZERO locals in the restaurant, the only Vietnamese people in there were those that worked there and they all spoke English. Various couples and people from a multitude of origins populated the restaurant. There were some Indian people there, plenty of Caucasians, and a handful of Asians who appeared to be from either Singapore or Hong Kong. I ordered an herb tea, an appetizer, and one small noodle dish: total bill, including tip? USD 20.00. The food was certainly good, but the same meal in Thailand would have cost less than half as much.

Walking back to the hotel I kept getting bothered by bicycle tour guides, where you sit in a little cab pulled by a bicyclist. Other vendors also bothered me with wares or service, and like Bali they were very insistent. I was polite at first, but unlike Bali they didn’t leave me alone. So I finally ignored them and just kept walking faster. At one point I had like 3-4 guys hurriedly following me, all shouting at once for my business – I think I would have been treated differently had I not been alone – perhaps families or groups were bothered less, but it’s a little unsettling to be in a foreign city in the dark at night, walking alone, and having people accost you aggressively for business.

To be continued….

Which is why I plan to build my next computer.......

Walt Mossberg comments over at Personal Technology:

I'm distinguishing these programs, sometimes called "craplets," from the full-featured, built-in Sony software meant to enhance the computer, or from entire, useful programs Microsoft builds into Windows, such as music and photo organizers.

On my new Sony, there were two dozen trial programs and free offers. The desktop alone contained four icons representing come-ons for various America Online services, and two for Microsoft. The start menu and program menu had more items that I neither chose nor wanted. Napster, a music service I don't use, was lodged at the lower right of the screen.

The worst was a desktop icon called "Watch Hit Movies Now!" This turned out to be four full-length films from Sony's movie studios, which the company had preloaded onto my computer at the cost of more than four gigabytes of precious hard-disk space. But they aren't a gift. If you want to play them, you have to pay Sony.

Then there was the security-software mess. I signed up for a 60-day free trial of Symantec software that Sony offered. This required multiple rounds of scary warnings, scans and updates -- on the first day of using a new machine. Plus, when I tried to use a feature that stopped some unwanted programs from loading, I was forced to launch a second, somewhat redundant, security program from Microsoft.

On top of this, Sony informed me it had 21 different software updates available for my brand new laptop.

Hat tip to BizzyBlog.

Estonia flat tax = booming economy

Yet another story about a developing country's success with a flat tax system - the Cato blog links to a story by John Stossel over at TownHall:

Estonians need an average 10 to 15 minutes to file their income taxes. Most do it without leaving their desk: 84 percent file online. … Unsurprisingly, Estonia is booming. The former Soviet republic used to be poor, with an average income 65 percent below its European neighbors. Today, Estonians are almost as rich as their neighbors, and their economy is growing more than 11 percent a year. Corporations like a tax system that is low and simple, too, and that leads them to do more business in flat-tax countries. American companies such as Microsoft, Colgate, 3M, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson opened businesses in Estonia after the flat tax was adopted. Twelve years ago, foreign investment in Estonia made up only 5 percent of GDP, but today, it’s up to 20 percent.

Tax payer funded luxury vacations

From Reason.com:

Thompson’s office said he toured the Caribbean because he now chairs the Homeland Security Committee and wanted to see vacation hot spots to “examine border security and port security.” Three other members of the delegation also brought along their spouses.

[...]

At the Caneel Bay resort, where room rates reach $1,100 per night, the spokeswoman said Thompson and his wife paid the “government rate.” But, according to the reservations department, Caneel Bay doesn’t “offer any government rates.”

[...]

The Caribbean trip led by Engel, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, explored the “best practices for emergency disaster relief” and energy policy, according to his office.

Hat tip to Instapundit.