GLOBAL WARMING

Some minority scientists disagree with the majority view.

FRED THOMPSON CAMPAIGN AD

I have never seen an ad like this!

HILLARY'S PAST

Hillary's camp is supposedly throwing out some negative items about Barack Obama, but I am not sure this is a wise thing to do. It raises issues of her and Bill's own past ethical problems. See "Hillary's Glass House" for a succinct summary of Hillary's questionable activites. I believe Stuart Taylor is a Democrat as far as I can tell.

BILL VS. OPRAH

Kathleen Parker has an interesting column on who has stronger voter appeal, Bill Clinton or Oprah Winfrey. It looks like Bill adds value to Hillary's campaign whereas Oprah's added value may be minimal for Obama.

DECLINE OF THE WEST

This blogger captures a paradox in American presidential campaigns -- there is a general "dumbing" down on how issues are dealt with (and I blame the media for some of this) and also we have this celebrity focus (and Obama is not the only one to blame for this).

HUCKABEE

Posted on the Drudge Report under the title "Take This Nation Back for Christ." I think Huckabee handles himself very well in most debates I have seen, but I am wondering if he would be a strong candidate outside of the South or some of the Midwest states. Secularists might be more comfortable with Romney, a Mormon, than a fundamentalist.

DEMOCRATIC RESPONSES TO WAR ON TERROR

Many Democrats have changed their views. Dems knew about waterboarding in 2002.

MILITARY RETIREES SURVEY

This is an interesting survey of the opinions of retired military officers. A significant percentage feel waterboarding is torture.

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATES

I have not been impressed with US intelligence services for a number of years (probably decades). The 2007 national intelligence estimate has come out and the media is saying it corrects the misinformation in the 2005 estimate regarding Iran. It has been some time since I read the 2005 estimate and I have only had time to read the media reports on the 2007 estimates. Ambassador Bolton has come out with his criticism of the 2007 estimate. He obviously has a stake in this debate as do those critical of the 2005 report. I wonder, however, if either of the reports has got it right?

MAX BOOT ANALYSIS OF MIDDLE EAST

Author Max Boot comments on Saudis, the NIE estimates, and war in Iraq.

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

I haven't heard this kind of talk from a Muslim, especially on al-Jazeera.

SUBPRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS

Everything you need to know about the submprime crisis.

OBAMA'S CHRISTIAN FAITH

The November Atlantic Monthly has a succinct statement by Obama on his conversion to Christianity in which he sounds amazingly evangelical. I can't find it online, but I found this interview. And here is the same testimony I saw quoted in Atlantic Monthly. The media seem to be ignoring his religious beliefs.

PRESIDENT MONKEY

I guess she is trying to be funny.

CNN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE CONTROVERSY

I didn't realize CNN had stacked this week's Republican presidential debate to the extent it did.

HATE CRIMES STATISTICS

Hate crimes in the US against Catholics and Protestants have increased more than against Muslims.

ANTHRAX AND AL QAEDA

Saddam, anthrax, and terrorism linked? In my opinion still not the shooting gun, but the 2001 anthrax attack still has not been explained sufficiently in my opinion.

MARXISM IS ALIVE IN OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON

The Olympia Port Militarization Resistance Group. I don't see any LU alums in the group.

DEMOCRAT DEBATE

I finally listened to an entire (well almost) entire debate. I really liked Biden's remarks and intelligence, but obviously he is going nowhere. Don't have time to say more, but I enjoyed Vodkapundit's reactions to the debate.

UNIVERISTY OF DELAWARE DIVERSITY PROGRAM

I think John Leo raises some good questions.

INCOME INEQUALITY HOKUM

The WSJ publishes a study by the Treasury Department which states that "the rich are not getting richer."

If you've been listening to Mike Huckabee or John Edwards on the Presidential trail, you may have heard that the U.S. is becoming a nation of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. We'd refer those campaigns to a new study of income mobility by the Treasury Department that exposes those claims as so much populist hokum.

OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time.

"DETROIT, AN ISLAMIC CITY"

I haven't followed this controversy about the University of Michigan.

"TALK TO YOU LATER BUCKWHEAT"

A Louisiana Democrat! And I still having a hard time about how Louisiana Democrats used the race card on Bobby Jindhal.

THE ULTIMATE JUKEBOX

An extensive collection of oldies.

BACK TO THE SIXTIES

You gotta love the music!

ENVIRONMENT

We've outgrown the planet and need radical action to avert unspeakable consequences. This - by a huge margin - has become humanity's greatest challenge.

OKAY TO BE OVERWEIGHT

Go ahead and have another donut.

DEMOCRAT DEFENSE PORK

A very interesting map. It looks to me like most defense pork is going to Democrat areas. If the defense budget is ever cut back, would all of these Democrats choose cuts or jobs?

CURVEBALL

Update on 60 Minutes program about curveball from the National Security Archive.


THE RECORD ON CURVEBALL

Declassified Documents and Key Participants Show the Importance of Phony Intelligence in the Origins of the Iraq War

For more information contact: http://www.nsarchive.org
Washington D.C., November 5, 2007 - CBS News' 60 Minutes exposure last night of the Iraqi agent known as CURVEBALL has put a major aspect of the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq back under the spotlight.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan's charges that Iraq possessed stockpiles of biological weapons and the mobile plants to produce them formed a critical part of the U.S. justification for the invasion in Spring 2003. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's celebrated and globally televised briefing to the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003, relied on CURVEBALL as the main source of intelligence on the biological issue.

Today the National Security Archive posts the available public record on CURVEBALL's information derived from declassified sources and former officials' accounts.
While most of the documentary record on the issue remains classified, the materials published today underscore the precarious nature of the intelligence gathering and analytical process, and point to the existence of doubts about CURVEBALL's authenticity before his charges were featured in the Bush administration's public claims about Iraq.

KOREAN FREESTYLE SKATING

Pretty impressive!

HILLARY vs. RON PAUL

Hillary cannot get over 48% of the vote in a run against Ron Paul according to a poll! The focus was not so much on how strong a candidate Ron Paul is, but the fact that Hillary cannot get over the 48% hump. However, I am not sure this means that she cannot win. A candidate can get 48% of the vote and win by a substantial electoral margin. The Democrats will certainly carry some of the large electoral states like California and New York. If Hillary can take these states, the rust belt, and maybe Florida she can win.

CHURCH TIRED OF POLITICAL ACTIVISIM

A conservative Baptist preacher is released from his church for too much stress on social and political issues.

OBAMA, A NON-PATRIOT

I have been getting hit with a number of emails regarding Obama's treatment of the playing of the national anthem.

INSIDE THE DALLAS HOLY LAND FOUNDATION TRIAL

The jury was "hung," but it looks like there were problems in the jury. What the Dallas Morning News published is not describing the real views of at least one juror.

HUCKABEE

Social conservatism vs. economic liberalism????

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN ROME

Tacitus and political correctness.

LAURA BUSH VISITS SAUDI ARABIA

Amazing.

EVANGELICAL LEADER FOR ROMNEY

I thought Dr. Wayne Grudem presented a carefully thought-out rationale for why is supporting Romney, a Mormon, for president. It will be interesting to see how other leaders on the Christian Right react to his decision.

HILLARY FUNDRAISING

Very strange. . .and from the LA Times. Poor people giving thousands of dollars to her campaign. Looks like some campaign money laundering is going on. . .but I thought Hsu was in jail?

And this is from the Nation, hardly a right-wing screed.

SHORT PEOPLE

People who are short have poorer physical and mental health!

Short men and women apparently complain of poorer mental and physical health than those of an average height.

Researchers examined more than 14,000 responses to the 2003 Health Survey for England.

HITLER'S LEGACY

Very interesting (and controversial) lecture by a German scholar on Hitler's impact on contemporary Middle Eastern thinking with regard to Jews.

Today I will be laying special emphasis on the antisemitism of the ancestor of all forms of Islamism, the Muslim Brotherhood. Why? Because it seems to me that this organization has a particularly strong presence in Britain. Because – as far as I can tell - only in Britain has it succeeded in forging an alliance with certain sections of the left – the Socialist Workers Party and Ken Livingstone spring to mind here. This alliance might also partly explain why one hears proposals being voiced in Britain that leave us in Germany, mindful of what happened in 1933, simply stunned. I am referring here to proposals for a boycott of Israel and I appreciate the British government’s response to the “Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism” which states that “such selective boycotts … are anti-Jewish in practice” and are “an assult on academic freedom and intellectual exchange.”

Islamic antisemitism is a taboo subject even in some parts of academia: a story of intellectual betrayal and the corrupting influence of political commitment. Professor Pieter von der Horst from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands found this out when he proposed to give a lecture on the topic of the anti-Jewish blood libel. The head of the university asked him to excise the section of his lecture dealing with Islamic antisemitism. When he refused to do so, he was invited to appear before a panel of four professors who insisted he remove these passages. A lecture on Islamic antisemitism, so the argument went, might lead to violent reactions from well-organized Muslim student groups.

CHE!

The Economist had a good article on Che Guevara, who has become somewhat of an icon for the radical left.

The wider the cult spreads, the further it strays from the man. Rather than a Christian romantic, Guevara was a ruthless and dogmatic Marxist, who stood not for liberation but for a new tyranny. In the Sierra Maestra, he shot those suspected of treachery; in victory, Mr Castro placed him in charge of the firing squads that executed “counter-revolutionaries”; as minister of industries, Guevara advocated expropriation down to the last farm and shop. His exhortation to guerrilla warfare, irrespective of political circumstance, lured thousands of idealistic Latin Americans to their deaths, helped to create brutal dictatorships and delayed the achievement of democracy.

HILLARY ADVISER MARK PENN

Dick Morris analyzes Hillary's chief adviser's lobbying background.

“Running a presidential campaign is good for business.” Mark Penn, Hillary’s chief campaign strategist and CEO of mega public relations/lobbying firm Burson Marsteller, wrote those telling words in an internal corporate blog.

Penn has good reason to believe it. His business is booming from hefty fees it's collecting from a "Who's Who" of corporate, foreign governments and special interests — many of whom oppose Hillary Clinton and many Democrats on key policy issues.

Given the breadth of his company’s special interest clients, Penn appears to be collecting from parties that are lining up early to influence the next administration, betting, as they are, that Hillary Clinton will be our next president.

DEMOCRAT FATCATS

It is hard to believe the amount of money raised by Democrat candidates compared to the years before the 2004 election. Who is giving all this money??? It is also hard to believe the Democrats are representing the "little" people.

BUSH INTELLIGENCE FAILURE

A disturbing account of how someone prematurely leaked an al-Qaeda video and destroyed a valuable intelligence source. Also see this news item.

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

ANOTHER US INTELLIGENCE FAILURE?

Condi Rice supposedly delayed a recent Israeli attack on Syrian nuclear installations, because the Bush administration wanted more proof. The Israelis came back with more proof and Washington gave the go-ahead to attack. What caught my eye was the following comment:

The official defined the information as "jaw dropping," and said it raised serious questions as to why U.S. intelligence had not uncovered the facility.

If true, this is not encouraging news about US intelligence and reinforces the image, especially since 9/11 that the CIA has no idea what is happening in the Middle East.

GLOBAL WARMING: THE MIDDLE GROUND?

I sort of like this fellow. I am not sure he qualifies as an expert or not, but he seems to deal with global warming in a less hysterical way than Al Gore.

Curiously, something that's rarely mentioned is that temperatures in Greenland were higher in 1941 than they are today. Or that melt rates around Ilulissat were faster in the early part of the past century, according to a new study. And while the delegations first fly into Kangerlussuaq, about 100 miles to the south, they all change planes to go straight to Ilulissat -- perhaps because the Kangerlussuaq glacier is inconveniently growing.

I point this out not to challenge the reality of global warming or the fact that it's caused in large part by humans, but because the discussion about climate change has turned into a nasty dustup, with one side arguing that we're headed for catastrophe and the other maintaining that it's all a hoax. I say that neither is right. It's wrong to deny the obvious: The Earth is warming, and we're causing it. But that's not the whole story, and predictions of impending disaster just don't stack up.

CANDIDATE CALCULATOR

Answer a number of questions and see which presidential candidate or candidates you identify with -- I was surprised. I am not sure I even like him, but I guess I am a Romneyite. Bill Richardson was my top Democrat pick -- no surprise.

SPUTNIK IN SONG

I happened to hear part of an NPR report on "Sputnik in Space and Song." You have to listen to the "Sputnik Dance" by the Equadors! Or maybe "Beep, Beep" by Louis Prima!

REPUBLICANS IN DEEP TROUBLE

It should be no surprise, but the Republicans are going to face tough times in 2008. On top of this the Christian Right is considering a third party.

CRITICISM OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT

Not only the CIA, but the State Department needs to rethink what it is doing. I like this proposal that a new type of diplomat is needed. American diplomats need to get off cushy sofas in Washington and hit the streets in countries that are not seen as great posts. Also the time has come to rethink our national security and diplomatic paradigm. Whether Giuliani is the president to do this remains to be seen.

Even the State Department's chardonnay and brie brigade suspects we have entered a new era of grimy, street-level foreign policy. It's an era where effective diplomacy starts with long days in bad neighborhoods, as culturally-savvy diplomats identify the hopes, fears and trends that seed future crises, and -- preferably -- create American-influenced opportunities to positively shape events.

CRITICISM OF THE CIA

A number of good points are made about the failure of the CIA from this blogger. The bold face is my note.

Last night, Hugh had longtime CIA employee and George Tenet advisor Mark Lowenthal on as a guest. At the end of the interview, Lowenthal provided an unintentionally hilarious (albeit chilling) summation of the CIA’s pathos. While discussing Iran’s path to nuclear weapons, Lowenthal posited that the Mullahs remain seven years from “mission accomplished”. Hugh asked if we could afford to take the chance that the CIA’s “guess” on this matter was correct. Lowenthal bristled, reminding Hugh that at “the CIA we don’t guess. We estimate.”

I feel so much better! Because there’s such an enormous difference between guessing and estimating. And, let’s face it, the CIA’s track record on recent estimations is rock solid. Oh sure, they severely underestimated Saddam’s proximity to nuclear weaponry in the early 1990’s. And the Agency over-estimated Iraq’s WMD capabilities in the run-up to the Iraq War. And regarding Al Qaeda’s plans and abilities, the Agency was effectively clueless. But I’m sure the Agency has made some estimates in the past few decades that haven’t completely stunk.

THE SAUDIS

They may not be the allies we think they are in the war on terror.

There's new evidence the Saudis aren't cooperating in our battle to eradicate terrorists or those who bankroll them. Their negligence is shocking even to cynics.

According to the Treasury Department's top anti-terror official, the kingdom has not prosecuted a single person named by the U.S. or the United Nations as a terror financier. Asked by ABC News how many Saudis have been charged with funding terror since 9/11, Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said, "There have not been any." Not one? "No," he asserted.

KATIE COURIC

I am really beginning to feel sorry for Katie Couric--both the right and the left ridicule her.

BUSH, ANOTHER SADDAM

HILLARY HUMOR

Hillary Clinton said that her childhood dream was to
be an Olympic athlete. But she was not athletic
enough. She said she wanted to be an astronaut, but at
the time they didn't take women. She said she wanted
to go into medicine, but hospitals made her woozy.
Should she be telling people this story? I mean she's
basically saying she wants to be president because she
can't do anything else."
--Jay Leno


"Well, the big story -- Hillary Clinton will be
running for president in 2008. You know why I think
she's running? I think she finally wants to see what
it's like to sleep in the president's bed."
--Jay Leno


"Top Democrats have mixed feelings about Sen.Hillary
Clinton running for president. Apparently, some
Democrats don't like the idea, while others hate it."
--Conan O'Brien


"In a fiery speech this weekend, Hillary Clinton
wondered why President Bush can't find the tallest man
in Afghanistan. Probably for the same reason she couldn't
find the fattest intern under the desk."
--Jay Leno


"Former President Bill Clinton said that if his wife,
Hillary, is elected president, he will do whatever she
wants. You know Bill Clinton -- when he makes a vow
to Hillary, you can take that to the bank."
--Jay Leno


A student from the University of Washington has sold
his soul on eBay for $400. He's a law student, so he
probably doesn't need it, but still, that's not very
much. Today, Hillary Clinton said, 'Hey, at least I
got some furniture and a Senate seat for mine."
-Jay Leno


"Hillary Clinton said today that she wants legislation
to allow all ex-felons to vote. See, this way all the
Clinton's former business partners can vote for her
in 2008."
--Jay Leno


Hillary Clinton's 506-page memoirs have come out.
So much of her personality shines through, that in
the end, you, too, will want to sleep with an intern."
-- Craig Kilborn


In Hillary Clinton's new book 'Living History,'
Hillary details what it was like meeting Bill Clinton,
falling in love with him, getting married, and living
a passionate, wonderful life as husband and wife.
Then on page two, the trouble starts."
-- Jay Leno


"In the book, she says when Bill told her he was
having an affair, she said "I could hardly breathe,
I was gulping for air.
No, I'm sorry, that's what Monica said."
-- David Letterman


"Hillary Clinton, our junior senator from New York,
announced that she has no intentions of ever, ever running
for office of the President of the United States. Her
husband, Bill Clinton, is bitterly disappointed. He is crushed.
There go his dreams of becoming a two-impeachment family."
-- David Letterman


"Last night, Senator Hillary Clinton hosted her first
party in her new home in Washington. People said it
was a lot like the parties she used to host at the
White House. In fact, even the furniture was the
same."
-- Jay Leno


"Senator Hillary Clinton is attacking President Bush
for breaking his campaign promise to cut carbon
dioxide emissions, saying a promise made, a promise
broken. And then out of habit, she demanded that
Bush spend the night on the couch."
-- Craig Kilborn


"CNN found that Hillary Clinton is the most admired
woman in America. Women admire her because she's
strong and successful. Men admire her because she
allows her husband to cheat and get away with it."
-- Jay Leno


"Hillary Clinton is the junior senator from the great
state of New York. When they swore her in, she used
the Clinton family Bible....the one with only seven
commandments."
- -David Letterman

FANTASY ELECTION 2008

Anybody want to play?

AHMADINEJAD AT COLUMBIA

I am bothered that free speech advocates at Columbia seem to have certain biases in favor of only certain free speech. I guess even Columbia has standards.

As most readers know, those worldly "progressives" [sic] at Columbia University are hosting a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian president addresses the thugocrats and parking violators in the General Assembly. Freedom of speech, doncha know? At Columbia it evidently extends to Holocaust deniers and adherents of the belief that global chaos will bring on the Mahdi (Shiite messiah).

I have a question for the Columbia crowd, since Holocaust deniers are welcome, would you allow a speaker in favor of a return to black slavery? I hope not. Well, that's how I feel about Holocaust deniers.

What are the speaker rules at Columbia? Does anybody know? How far can you go? Please leave the info here, if you have it.

CANADIAN vs. US DOLLAR

I am beginning to think we are in more economic trouble than anyone realizes. The Canadian dollar is now equal to the US dollar for the first time since 1976. The Euro is at $1.41--it was $1.20 or so in the spring of 2006. And Dubai investors are buying a chunk of the NASDAQ.

SCHEUER ON IRAQ

Michael Scheuer is a voice that needs to be heard on Iraq. He is the only analyst I have seen that sees a threat in the last video tape of bin Laden.

"STUDENTS DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY. . ."

It seems like every year another one of these reports comes out.

Students don't know much about history, and colleges aren't adding enough to their civic literacy, says a report out today.

The study from the non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute shows that less than half of college seniors knew that Yorktown was the battle that ended the American Revolution or that NATO was formed to resist Soviet expansion. Overall, freshmen averaged 50.4% on a wide-ranging civic literacy test; seniors averaged 54.2%, both failing scores if translated to grades.

"One of the things our research demonstrates conclusively is that an increase in what we call civic knowledge almost invariably leads to a use of that knowledge in a beneficial way," says Josiah Bunting, chairman of ISI's National Civic Literacy Board. "This is useful knowledge we are talking about."

UNCLE JAY ON CONGRESS

Uncle Jay explains the news.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN DALLAS

The Dallas Morning News has a well-researched story on the trial of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas. It has printed the documents showing how the Muslim Brotherhood was attempting to replace the constitution with sharia law. I am not sure they would have been successful in accomplishing their goals.

The documents – introduced in recent weeks as part of the prosecution's case in the trial of the now defunct Holy Land Foundation and five of its organizers – lay out the Brotherhood's plans in chillingly stark terms.

A 1991 strategy paper for the Brotherhood, often referred to as the Ikhwan in Arabic, found in the Virginia home of an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, describes the group's U.S. goals, referred to as a "civilization-jihadist process."

"The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," it states. This process requires a "mastery of the art of 'coalitions,' the art of 'absorption' and the principles of 'cooperation.' "

Success in the U.S. "in establishing an observant Islamic base with power and effectiveness will be the best support and aid to the global movement," it states.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM

I thought this was an interesting interview with Raymond Ibrahim on C-Span. He has written a number of books, including the Al Qaeda Reader. The interview is a bit long, but I thought he was more insightful regarding theological issues than most people talking about this subject.

PETRAEUS AND HIS ADVISORS

Newsweek had a very interesting article on General Petraeus and his advisors. They are an impressive group of men from an educational standpoint. Almost all of them have Ph.D.'s--several in history, but economics, cultural anthropology, etc. are represented. Petraus has his doctorate from Princeton. I know a Ph.D. is not a guarantee of correct policy decisions, but I sense they are dealing with the social, economic, religious, and cultural aspects of the war in Iraq. These are not just generals who have only studied military strategy. I wish Congress and the White House had as equally impressive people dealing with the Middle East.

EURO vs. DOLLAR

Allan Greenspan is predicting that the Euro will replace the dollar as a reserve currency. I saw this coming after spending 4 months in Vienna over a year ago. Americans seem to be living in the past with regard to the U.S.'s economic strength and vitality. The dollar is no longer the currency it was. Once oil countries and China figure this out, the US economy will be in for a serious challenge. I don't see Democrats or Republicans facing this issue.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF IRAQ

This is an unusually good discussion of Iraq by the media--MSNBC. It takes into account historical background.

2nd ANNUAL DAY PARADE

I missed this one--I didn't realize there was a Muslim Day.

THINKING ABOUT GRADUATE SCHOOL

Some very good insight into applying to graduate school. However, I would argue that a Master's degree is a good middle ground that can help one ask the right questions before pursuing a Ph.D. and all of its pressures and commitments.

NUCLEAR DEFORMITY IN KAZAKHSTAN

I was surprised to CNN covering the problems left by Soviet nuclear testing in Kazakhstan (they could also cover some other areas as well). Soviet era failures do not seem to get much analysis or coverage. The birth defect problem is tragic.

HEAVY METAL IN IRAN

Very interesting.

LAZY AMERICANS

CNN asks, "Are Americans too Lazy?" The surprising report of our relative sloth arrives in new research from the UN's International Labor Organization, which looks at working hours around the world. When it comes to what we might call hard work, meaning the proportion of workers who put in more than 48 hours a week, America is near the bottom of the heap. About 18% of our employed people work that much.

I thought I read that Americans take fewer vacation hours than any other nation. But maybe we don't work as hard when we are at work giving up our vacations????

FINIS: SUMMER READING

1. Everyone needs to read at least one Boris Akunin murder mystery. I finished "The Death of Achilles" and am almost done with the "Turkish Gambit." Akunin brings a Georgian-Russian brilliance, complexity, and descriptiveness of late 19th century Russian culture to all that he writes. I don't know why anyone would want to read Agatha Christie after reading an Akunin mystery.

2. Andrew Sullivan, "The Conservative Soul." A freebie sent by the publisher to get me to assign for a class. If you don't know, Sullivan is a noted (notorious?) homosexual, conservative, blogger, and initial supporter of the Iraq war. I think he sounds more like a 19th century liberal than a conservative, but what interested me most was his description of Christian fundamentalists. Obviously he does not treat them gently, but I thought there was some truth in how he caricatured Christian fundamentalists. Christian fundamentalists may need to objectively evaluate the kind of image they are presenting, not just to those who are opposed to their moral teaching, but to the wider world they are trying to "save."

3. "Advice and Consent" (another freebie) by Lee Epstein and Jeffrey A. Segal, both noted law professors. The value of this book is that it puts in historical context the current confrontations regarding Supreme Court and other federal judicial appointments. Beginning with Washington, Adams, and Jefferson judicial appointments have always been used to promote political agendas, serve as ideological reinforcers, or as a reward for political allies. I think conservative Republicans saw this back in the Reagan years after finally breaking the Democrat dominance which allowed that party to alter the judicial landscape following FDR.

4. "Why the West Has Won" by Victor Davis Hanson. He examines nine major battles from ancient Greek times to the Tet offensive in 1968 in Vietnam. While I found the book needlessly repetitive and less well-written than I expected, it raises some provocative arguments for why the West has been so successful on the battlefield. The armies of "free" or "freer" peoples have advantages on the battlefield that top down managment models do not have.

5. Most sobering was "Becoming Evil" by James Waller. He looks at modern examples of genocide beginning with the Holocaust and as a social psychologist tries to analyze what makes people do terribly evil things. What does it take for a person or leader(s) to annihilate a group of people? While he does not have a particularly biblical or even religious answer, I think it is significant that he really tries to struggle with the issue of evil. I just haven't seen a lot of honest confrontation of this issue in the secular world.

6. Probably the above book meant more to me because I finished reading two books on the Holocaust which raised troubling questions. "Ordinary Men" written by Christopher R. Browning studies the men in Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg who were sent in to Poland to kill and arrest Jews for shipment to extermination camps. It examines ordinary men and why only a few men out of several hundred refused to kill Jews or sought other assignments. Also Sybille Steinbacher has a short book on the history of Auschwitz and how Germans operated the camp.

PROLIFER FOR HILLARY

I think this is an interesting and thought-provoking statement by author Anne Rice who calls herself a Christian and is prolife. She explains why she is supporting Hillary for president.

Though I deeply respect those who disagree with me, I believe, for a variety of reasons, that the Democratic Party best reflects the values I hold based on the Gospels. Those values are most intensely expressed for me in the Gospel of Matthew, but they are expressed in all the gospels. Those values involve feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and above all, loving one’s neighbors and loving one’s enemies. A great deal more could be said on this subject, but I feel that this is enough.

I want to add here that I am Pro-Life. I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn. Deeply respecting those who disagree with me, I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party.

I have heard many anti-abortion statements made by people who are not Democrats, but many of these statements do not strike me as constructive or convincing. I feel we can stop the horror of abortion. But I do not feel it can be done by rolling back Roe vs. Wade, or packing the Supreme Court with judges committed to doing this. As a student of history, I do not think that Americans will give up the legal right to abortion. Should Roe vs Wade be rolled back, Americans will pass other laws to support abortion, or they will find ways to have abortions using new legal and medical terms.

And much as I am horrified by abortion, I am not sure -- as a student of history – that Americans should give up the right to abortion.

She also goes on to criticize the prolife political movement's sincerity and tactics.

2001 UN WORLD CONFERENCE ON RACISM

A Hitler handout.

SPARTANS AND HOMOSEXUALITY

An analysis by Victor Davis Hanson.

CHINA BECOMING CHRISTIAN

From the Asia Times. Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter's veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history.

AMERICAN MERCENARIES

I understand the concept of a volunteer army, but with $45,000 bonuses to attract soldiers are we just getting men and women who fight for money and not for liberty, freedom, etc.

Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks.

Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a “buffet” of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans.

$45,000 for an individual! $1,000,000,000 for recruiting bonus costs!

HAMAS FORCES CHRISTIANS TO CONVERT

Hamas is forcing Christians to accept Islam. The Fatah representatives said single Christian women have come under the greatest pressure to convert to Islam. They said a Christian professor, Sana Al Sayegh, was abducted by Hamas and forced to convert to Islam.

BAN THE KORAN IN THE NETHERLANDS

A Dutch politician wants to ban the Koran. Geert Wilders wants to ban the Koran. The leader of the Party for Liberty wrote this today in De Volkskrant. The politician compared the Islamic holy scripture with Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. That book has been censored in The Netherlands since the end of World War Two; it cannot be sold in the country. Wilders, about the Koran: “Ban that cursed book, just as Mein Kampf is banned!”

GINGRICH FOR PRESIDENT

Newt has been a politician I have disliked for a number of reasons. Tonight I heard much of his address to the National Press Club. His remarks are some of the most incisive I have heard. It wasn't the drivel you hear so often in the debates. He not only critiqued a number of issues facing America, but he gave suggestions about how to deal with them. Some of his solutions I am not so sure about, but at least he was trying to deal with difficult issues. It was also surprising how much applause he received from "liberal" news people.

Points to think about:

• America is threatening to become a plutocracy where only the very wealthy can win (Note: Corzine of New Jersey, but I would also throw in a number of other fat cats).
• He recognizes that Hillary has extensive experience even if she is not liked by many conservatives.
• Politicians need to realize that the country comes first, not their careers.
• The debates are a joke. We need to go to the French model (which I have argued) where you get candidates to sit down and have a "dialogue."
• America has not really grasped the significance of radical Islam. One reason is that secularists don't understand religious motivations.

JIHAD THE MUSICAL

From the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, "I Wanna Be Like Osama."

PUTIN RESURRECTS STALIN

Russian textbooks are now saying Stalin was “the most successful Soviet leader ever” and dismisses the prison labour camps and mass purges as a necessary part of his drive to make the country great. Russia is becoming a more frightening place.

A LIBERAL DEFENDING GONZALES

Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post.

PREDICTION

After a recent discussion with an anti-war leftist who despises Bush concerning the Democrat field, I made a prediction. If Hillary wins the nomination, I believe she will choose Bill Richardson as her running mate and not Obama. Obama's public persona would dwarf hers and he could remain an "uncontrollable" force, which a controlling Hillary could not tolerate. Richardson and the Clintons go back in time and I think she would have a comfortable relationship with him. Also why does she need an African-American on the ticket? African-Americans will vote Democrat no matter what. However, if she chooses Richardson she has the chance to gain a larger percentage of the Hispanic vote, a bloc that is not as monolithically Democrat.

IOWA EVANGELICALS

Evidently they are not impressed with the Republican options for President.

DEMOCRATS FAVOR WEALTHY FARMERS

The latest farm aid bill from the Democrat congress gives the biggest subsidies to the wealthy farmers and not to the small farmers who might need it. Business as ususal.

DEMOCRATS SHORTSIGHTED ON JUDGES

See comments at Volokh blog.

WHAT MAKES A PERSON SUPPORT A CANDIDATE?

An interesting chart in the New York Times. A candidate is more likely to be supported if he or she has been in the military, had a business career, is a long-time Washington politician, and is a Christian. It sounds a lot like ????.

WHY DO THEY HATE US?

The title of an interesting column in the Washington Post by a Pakistani American. Most Americans fail to consider the impact of even the "little" foreign policy decisions and how it effects people in other countries.

But that was about to change. Soviet troops had recently rolled into Afghanistan, and the U.S. government, concerned about Afghanistan's proximity to the oil-rich Persian Gulf and eager to avenge the humiliating debacle of the Vietnam War, decided to respond. Building on President Jimmy Carter's tough line, President Ronald Reagan offered billions of dollars in economic aid and sophisticated weapons to Pakistan's dictator, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. In exchange, Zia supported the mujaheddin, the Afghan guerrillas waging a modern-day holy war against the Soviet occupation. With the help of the CIA, jihadist training camps sprung up in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Soon Kalashnikov assault rifles from those camps began to flood the streets of Lahore, setting in motion a crime wave that put an end to my days of pedaling unsupervised through the streets.

Meanwhile, Zia began an ongoing attempt to Islamize Pakistan and thus make it a more fertile breeding ground for the anti-Soviet jihad. Public female dance performances were banned, female newscasters were told to cover their heads and laws undermining women's rights were passed. Secular politicians, academics and journalists were intimidated, imprisoned and worse.

CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING

A million dollar earmark and Congress doesn't even know if the organization exists!

FINALLY, PROOF!

I knew that some day "research" would support my view that British chocolate is far superior to American chocolate. About the only thing affordable that is better than British chocolate is good German Ritter dark chocolate with almonds.

Cadbury Dairy Milk is the iconic British candy bar, the one most likely to be tucked into the suitcase of a Yankee tourist looking for an inexpensive souvenir. Versions are filled with caramel, whipped fondant, whole nuts or pellets of shortbread cookie.

It’s a different bar from the Cadbury bar available in the United States. According to the label, a British Cadbury Dairy Milk bar contains milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat and emulsifiers. The version made by the Hershey Company, which holds the license from Cadbury-Schweppes to produce the candy in the United States under the British company’s direction, starts its ingredient list with sugar. It lists lactose and the emulsifier soy lecithin, which keeps the cocoa butter from separating from the cocoa. The American product also lists “natural and artificial flavorings."

“Hershey’s tastes like ear wax,” said Kevin Ellis, an Alaskan-born designer with Adobe Systems in San Francisco.

THE NEW MORAL MAJORITY

According to Time, the Democrats are the new Moral Majority! The Democrats are so fired up, you could call them the new Moral Majority.

Jerry Falwell didn't know what he had started thirty years ago in creating such a powerful rhetorical phrase. Obviously the Democrats have a slightly different vision of morality if you read the article.

POOR CINDY SHEEHAN

I can't believe it! The ultra-liberal Daily Kos has banned Cindy Sheehan from posting. Now that she is challenging Nancy Pelosi's seat in Congress she has suddenly become anathema to some on the left. Surely the ultra-left is big enough to allow her the freedom to express her voice.

ARAFAT DIED OF AIDS

I have been following this issue for many years aftering reading a book by the director of Romanian intelligence under Ceausescu. The proof seems to be building that Arafat was a homosexual. Also see the WorldNetDaily article on this. The issue that still lingers is how foreign intelligence agencies used this information.

REID RESPONDS TO IRAQ QUESTION

Reid seems to have troubling responding to the question posed by an ABC news reporter: "Will Iraqis be safer if the US leaves?"

WOMEN AS LEADERS

A discussion of women as leaders.

BUSH DESERTED BY HIS SUPPORTERS

The Washington Post has an article on a disillusioned Bush supporter, Vic Gold.

"For all the Rove-built facade of his being a 'strong' chief executive, George W. Bush has been, by comparison to even hapless Jimmy Carter, the weakest, most out of touch president in modern times," Gold writes. "Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots."

Gold is even more withering in his observations of Cheney. "A vice president in control is bad enough. Worse yet is a vice president out of control."

For Gold, Cheney brings to mind the adage of Swiss writer Madame de Stael, who wrote, "Men do not change, they unmask themselves." Cheney has a deep streak of paranoia and megalomania, Gold suggests -- but he says he did not see it at first.

"He was hiding who he really was," Gold says. "He was waiting for an opportunity."
In many ways, Gold's tale of disillusionment is a familiar one.

There are plenty of veterans of Reagan and Bush 41 around town who believe Bush and Cheney trashed the institutions and party they helped build from the wreckage of the Goldwater campaign.

However, I really liked the Madame de Stael quote--I had not heard it before: "Men do not change, they unmask themselves."

HILLARY

I have been thinking of doing an analysis of all of the presidential candidates for 2008, but summer reading keeps getting in the way. However, I did come across a very interesting web site about Hillary Clinton. I haven't looked at in depth, but it has so much information if you need a daily Hillary fix.

WEDDINGS

June is over. It has been that time of year again. Weddings. I hesitate to comment—everyone has their own tastes, but I have seen some firsts (at least for me). I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw the mother of one bride carrying a box of facial tissues down the aisle with her—surely a flower would have been better. If you need facial tissue, why do you need a whole box? Or why can’t you tuck some away in a more inconspicuous place? Is it a sign of happiness? Or a sign of despair? I was inclined toward the latter as I watched the ceremony. But maybe a ceremony doesn’t really make a marriage.

Maybe it is just East Texas, but the wedding dress code for men has disappeared. I saw polo shirts, jeans, athletic shoes, sandals, etc. It was just like going to a picnic. Dress cowboy clothes are fine—I can accept other cultures, but “gym wear?” The number of ties and sport coats was negligible. But the odd thing was that the women and girls were all dressed very fashionably. For me it was strange to see a young lady attired in a beautiful dress with high heels and coiffed hair standing next to a “slob” in athletic shoes. Shouldn’t you dress up for a wedding?

Also what makes a Christian wedding ceremony? I sense a loss of the sacred in supposedly “Christian” ceremonies. There is a superficial veneer of spirituality with some “God” words thrown in by ministers who seem to use the same story of the “ring as a circle and how this represents marriage. . .” And this is sandwiched between “popular” secular love songs. Do some ministers really know the couple they are marrying? Does the couple really care?

FATWAS

There is a problem in Islam with fatwas. First came the breast-feeding fatwa. It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times, to establish family ties. Then came the urine fatwa. It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.

Technically, the fatwa is nonbinding and recipients are free to look elsewhere for a better ruling. In a faith with no central doctrinal authority, there has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, from Web sites that respond to written queries, to satellite television shows that take phone calls, to radical and terrorist organizations that set up their own fatwa committees.

Evidently some Muslims (as well as Muslim governments) are upset at some of the fatwas that have been issued and since there is no Pope to control what is issued, there is no centralized control.

However, while I thought that some of these things seem extremely unusual, what would someone in another culture think as they watched or listened to some of the preachers on American religious media?

CHINA'S GROWTH HARMS HISTORICAL HERITAGE

The New York Times reports that urbanization is destroying China's architectural heritage. Everything is being replaced by look-alike monstrosities of western architecture. One Chinese official says this is as devasting to China's past as Mao's Cultural Revolution!

“It is like 1,000 cities having the same appearance.”

CHAVEZ DESTROYS FREEDOM IN VENEZUELA

Chavez appears to be doing to Venezuela what Castro did to Cuba. Here is the latest report I received on conditions in Venezuela.

Many of you have been following the events taking place in Venezuela these past weeks in regard to the shutting down of Radio Caracas and the threats against the last remaining anti-Chavez TV station Globovisión. The people are very angry about the loss of free speech which is taking place here.

Tension between the Opposition and the Chavistas is rising rapidly. The people have become more hateful and aggressive. They feel sickened and hopeless about the state of their country and abandoned by the international community. The Chavistas have become more aggressive and Chavez is telling them not to let anyone stop his socialist agenda. They have taken to the streets to fight the protesters; they get braver and stronger every day.

Many people are trying to sell their investment property, such as vacation homes or apartments, because Chavez announced that if you have more than one house “we will take one and give it to a poor family without a home.” Rental property for the foreign workers is very hard to find since everyone is selling to avoid loosing property to the government. The people are buying cars to invest in instead since they appreciate in value here and no mention of confiscating cars has been made. One Chevrolet dealer in Maracaibo says he is selling 3,000 vehicles a month and still has waiting lists. There are so many cars on the road now the streets are congested with angry, aggressive drivers and traffic is very chaotic and dangerous.

There are price controls on about 35% of the food supply so those items have almost totally disappeared from the shelves and are now being sold on the black market for 2 or 3 times the price, usually by government officials who have confiscated the goods on the grounds that they are damaged. Beef, Chicken, eggs, sugar, milk, cooking oil, etc are very hard to find and go fast when they do appear. Chavez has created a crisis with the food supply and has warned that he will take over the grocery stores because of the crisis. He is also threatening to take over the banks. He has control of the phone system now since he took over CANTV and in Caracas he took the electric company. He has taken over several private hospitals and clinics and run the doctors out. He is advocating that any workers, who think the company they work for is not being run correctly, demand to see the financial records of the company; and, if they see fit, to physically take over the company and throw out the owners/managers. He has created a class of people who think the rest of the country has been stealing from them, and thugs who just want to steal instead of work for a living, that are terrorizing the country. Those are his followers. Hundreds of them are buying property in Miami with the money Chavez gives them. Look out Miami!

Democracy is dying a painful death here and it is sad to witness. Someone predicted that within 18 months the whole country will either be in riots and street violence or the people will have given up and Communism will rule.

Some South Americans, Brazilians and Argentineans that work for Petroleum Service companies are expatriates here. They have children born in Venezuela and are having problems getting passports to get out of the country because all children born in Venezuela now belong to the state. All parents must get permission from the state to take their children out of the country.

Chevron and Shell have relocated the majority of their employees out of the Country and are keeping the least amount of people they can to oversee operations here. This is a good time to be getting out.

SANDY BERGER

I have been suspicious, and will continue to be suspicious, of what Sandy Berger's intentions were when he "stole" secret documents regarding the Clinton administration's handling of al Qaeda as he was preparing to testify before the 9/11 Commission. I saw where some conspiracists are confronting Giuliani and accusing him of knowing about the 9/11 plot--I wish people had the same passion to find out what exactly is missing from the archival record. Berger (and maybe Clinton) know far more about pre-9/11 than Giuliani ever did.

PRO-ISRAEL PALESTINIAN

This is a very unusual interview. I don't know anything about this ex-PLO terrorist, but apparently is a Muslim who is critical of Islamism in American universities, in particular. According to him Muslims are trying to recruit youth just like the Nazis did in Germany before World War II. They don't allow criticism of Islam, but it is okay to criticize or attack Christianity or other religions in academia.

LACK OF WOMEN

Der Spiegel has an interesting article on the lack of women in East Germany and how it is contributing to neo-nazism. Men seem to need women around to remain civilized. I remember in the old Kenneth Clark "Civilization" series a quote something to the effect that "civilization does not occur without women ore the femine present." Ladies, thank you for civilizing us.

It makes me wonder about LU????

THE BEST TOURISTS

I saaw a rating of the best and worst tourists--Americans are the second best! But oh, oh. . .those French have a problem.

TERRORIST DRY RUN?

This does not give me a lot of confidence in Homeland Security and air marshals.

MISSISSIPPI SQUIRREL REVIVAL

Turn up the volume, especially if you are from Mississippi.

OBAMA ON SOCIAL SECURITY

I love this Obama-Stephanopoulos exchange!

AMERICAN SECULAR FEMINISTS

It has always bothered me that the American secular feminist movement seems to ignore the plight of women living in some Islamic countries. Honor killings and stonings are reprehensible. Christian Hoff Sommers discusses this issue.

THE REAL BUSH STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

Found this -- it makes fun of Bush (you might want to turn the volume up).

OBAMA TIRED ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Ann Althouse has an interesting post on Obama saying he made a misstatement (10,000 people dead in the Kansas tornado) because he was tired. Obviously the comparison goes back to the Bush campaign and his schedule. The comments that follow her post reflect the divisions between left and right -- is Obama being criticized for a non-issue on the part of the right or is he being given slack that Bush is not being given?????

HOOKED ON TRIVIA

In trying to catch up with what blogs are saying I was going through Victor David Hanson's blog -- he had a post I can thoroughly identify with. The fixation of the media on Anna Nicole, Alec Baldwin, etc. There are so many more important issues to deal with. I am not sure I can blame the media or even the politicians for this--Americans do seem to be hooked on the trivial and ignoring the significant. We are reaching the 11th hour in Iraq, and so few seem to be dealing with the reality of what may lie ahead. Also note his comments on Russia and oil.

ISLAMIC APOLOGISTS

Victor David Hanson challenges the idea that terrorism is non-Islamic and that any violence is just the result of a minority of fanatics.

While Ramadan and other apologists can pontificate all they want about “true” Islam, the fact remains: There are countless and nameless others who are so convinced that Islam extols not just terrorism (see Koran 8:12 or 8:57 for an idea of where they get this notion), but suicide-attacks — that is, “martyrdom-operations,” which radicals believe lead directly to paradise — that without a second thought they happily sacrifice their own lives. Surely if they believed that their actions were, as Ramadan vociferously maintains, “anti-Islamic” sins that lead directly to hell, they would not be committing them in the first place — and all while screaming “Allah is great.”

Moreover, if terrorism and suicide bombings have no connection to Islam per se and are instead byproducts of frustration and political oppression, or, as Ramadan asserts, “European colonialism,” why are we not seeing suicide bombers in other dictatorial, oppressive, and impoverished regions of the world, many of which were also colonized by Europe? Despite the fact that the Islamic world has the lion’s share of dramatic news headlines here in the West, it is not the only region in the world suffering, both from internal and external causes.

For instance, even though practically all of sub-Saharan Africa had been colonized by Europe and is currently riddled with political corruption and oppression, when it comes to political violence and terrorism, no other sub-Saharan nation can come anywhere near to Somalia — which also happens to be the only sub-Saharan country that a) is entirely Muslim and b) has experienced a suicide attack, which, admittedly, is a new style of terror for Somalia that was ushered in only with the rise of the Islamist Sharia regime.

MORE ON WOLFOWITZ

The World Bank's role and policies are questioned here. I still have a hard time not seeing the World Bank as a place where six figure salaries are given out while the poor of the underdeveloped world need so much. It is a place for failed western bureaucrats to make big money.

PBS CENSORSHIP

I guess I just don't like PBS telling me I can't see a controversial documentary film on Islam.

LACK OF FREE SPEECH

I am seeing more infringements on free speech by the left in higher education. I wonder what would have happened if the math professor had sent one of Buchanan's anti-war essays?

TENET AS DIRECTOR OF THE CIA

Susan Katz Keating has a brief, but solid critique of Tenet's managment of the CIA during the Clinton administration. Human intelligence (Humint) was ignored (or at the very least not developed) and as a result America moved into the 21st century heavily dependent on satellites and other technical means for US intelligence information.

We had insufficient intelligence. True, we had electronic surveillance; but we lacked the all-important human intelligence-gathering — the Humint — networks. How did Tenet know this? Because the former spy chief-turned-author — who held powerful intelligence posts for 21 years — helped oversee the gutting of programs that would have put spies on the ground in Iraq.

I think the verdict on the CIA, Tenet, and the Clinton White House has yet to be written on this issue. But I believe additional facts will begin to trickle out in the next few years.

WOLFOWITZ

I don't like Wolfowitz as leader of the World Bank, but the alternatives are almost as bad.

MILITARY LEADERSHIP PROFILE

Take this test to see which military leader you are most like. This is terrible--I wanted to be a Patton or Caesar and instead I am most like Wesley Clark--is he still running for President?

"DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY"

Michael Barone has written a very interesting article on "The Realignment of America." Native-born Americans are moving out of major cities on the coasts or Detroit. Interior cities like Dallas are growth cities.

It has become a commonplace to say that population has been flowing from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt, from an industrially ailing East and Midwest to an economically vibrant West and South. But the actual picture of recent growth, as measured by the 2000 Census and the census estimates for 2006, is more complicated. Recently I looked at the census estimates for 50 metropolitan areas with more than one million people in 2006, where 54% of Americans live. (I cheated a bit on definitions, adding Durham to Raleigh and combining San Francisco and San Jose.) What I found is that you can separate them into four different categories, with different degrees and different sources of population growth or decline. And I found some interesting surprises.

Start with the Coastal Megalopolises: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago (on the coast of Lake Michigan), Miami, Washington and Boston. Here is a pattern you don't find in other big cities: Americans moving out and immigrants moving in, in very large numbers, with low overall population growth. Los Angeles, defined by the Census Bureau as Los Angeles and Orange Counties, had a domestic outflow of 6% of 2000 population in six years--balanced by an immigrant inflow of 6%. The numbers are the same for these eight metro areas as a whole.

The economic divide in New York and Los Angeles is starting to look like the economic divide in Mexico City and São Paulo.

PIG EPIDEMIC IN CHINA

Something is killing pigs in China. Since pigs can transport human viruses, this is potentially serious. The problem in the past is that Chinese government officials are not forthcoming on what is happening. With the recent dog food contamination in mind, it appears that China is sacrificing human or animal safety for profit.

But officials in Hong Kong as well as at the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, both agencies of the United Nations, said today that they been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths, and been given limited details about wheat gluten contamination.

UNPOPULARITY OF BUSH

I know it is fashionable to be critical of Bush, but I think a lot of his opponents are increasingly irrational in their criticism of him. 35% of Democrats believe Bush knew in advance that 9/11 would take place according to a Rasmussen poll. Another 26% are not sure!

SARKOZY'S WIN

The victory of theRight in France has been an interesting development, especially the size of Sarkozy's win with 53% of the vote. The response of the left has been rioting. Gateway Pundit links the rioting to Sarkozy's statements on France supporting the rights of women, especially in Muslim countries.

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

A soccer game bringing Muslim imams and Christian priests "shoulder to shoulder" on a field in Norway was cancelled Saturday because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part. Powerline

SECURITY CONFERENCE

A worthwhile conference at the US Army War College, but haven't watched it all yet. (I need to get a video IPod to keep up with all of the information coming online)

SAUDI TERRORST ARRESTS

The Saudis have arrested over 170 terrorist suspects who have been trained as pilots to fly into Saudi oil facilities.

The militants plotted to carry out suicide attacks against "public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones." The statement said some of the military targets were outside the kingdom, but it did not elaborate.

CRITICISM OF SENATOR HARRY REID

I view columnist David Broder's criticism of the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, as significant. Broder is not a right-wing Republican--while I don't agree with all his columns, I think he carefully analyzes each issue he discusses. On a separate issue, I don't understand why the press didn't hold Reid's Nevada land deals up to higher scrutiny--the Democrat refrain in the last election was to end the "culture of corruption."

I just saw an even more critical post about Reid and McCain's criticism of him at Gateway Pundit.

"What I think Senator Reid has lost sight of...Presidents don't lose wars. Political parties don't lose wars. Nations lose wars. And, when nations lose wars, nations suffer."

AL QAEDA & AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE

An excellent interview (audio) with Lawrence Wright, the author of the Looming Tower, on Hugh Hewitt. Looming Tower is a must read for every intelligent American. The interview reinforces my feeling that the American intelligence community is close to being inept. One can expect politicians to have a certain ignorance of the Islamic world, but if the US intelligence community has no better understanding of the Islamic world, another 9/11 is going to happen.

IMMIGRATION

Lou Dobbs on how the American media is hiding the real facts behind current illegal immigration into the US.

REMEMBER GLOBAL COOLING?

All the evidence appears to point to a warming trend on our planet, but I have to admit the cynic in me still is somewhat suspicious of all this hype because I have been through the global cooling crisis. I have watched Gore's environmental epic and two counter arguments--this is beginning to look more and more political. Are both politicians and scientists engaged in some kind of group think? I guess I still haven't forgiven the scientific community for voting (!) to disestablish Pluto as a planet.

IRANIAN STUDENT PROTESTS

Even female students are protesting.

WMD

Did the Bush administration bungle the evidence for WMD in Iraq?????

IRAQ WAR SUPPORT

Younger people (18-29) are more likely to support the war in Iraq than people over 65.

BBC

BBC bias against America. An advertisement criticizing the BBC.

MUSLIMS WILL RULE AMERICA AND BRITAIN

A Palestinian imam speaks.

GORE'S ENVIRONMENTAL FILM CHALLENGED

A documentary film to counter Gore's recent environmental epic.

IRAQ/AL QAEDA CONTACTS

Very interesting.

WORLD BANK

The conduct of the World Bank, in general, has troubled me--I see a group of bureaucrats with high salaries who are not doing enough to help the poorer nations of the world. The Wall Street Journal seems to indicate the problems are broader than the recent Wolfowitz Affair.

DEMOCRAT JUNKETING

A new "culture of corruption."

US SATELLLITES VULNERABLE

By 2010 China will be able to take out lower orbiting US satellites. Obviously this is a threat to all satellite communications whether civilian or military.

SHARIA LAW IN MINNESOTA

From Powerline.

Minneapolis Community and Technical College is poised to become the state's first public school to install a foot-washing basin to help the school's 500 Muslim students perform pre-prayer rituals. "We want to be welcoming," MCTC President Phil Davis said, noting a student was hurt trying to wash in a regular sink.

THE NOSENKO CASE

Off and on I have been following the Nosenko case and now a new book once again raises the distinct likelihood that the CIA was once again outfoxed by the KGB. I with Angleton on this one. Maybe this is why I liked the recent movie, The Good Shepherd, so much.

Roll back the tape to January 1964: America is still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and investigators don't know what to make of the fact that the apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, lived for three years in the Soviet Union. Did the Russians have any role in JFK's death?

At that very moment, a KGB defector named Yuri Nosenko surfaces in Geneva and tells his CIA handlers that he knows the Soviets had nothing to do with Oswald. How is Nosenko so sure? Because he personally handled Oswald's KGB file, and he knows the spy service had never considered dealing with him.

For many spy buffs, the Nosenko story has always seemed too good to be true. How convenient that he defected at the very moment that the KGB's chiefs were eager to reassure the Warren Commission about Oswald's sojourn in Russia. What's more, Nosenko brought other goodies that on close examination were also suspicious -- information that seemed intended to divert the CIA's attention from the possibility that its codes had been broken and its inner sanctum had been penetrated.