Aprés Moi, Le Déluge

Bremer gets out of Dodge

Avast ye Luddites

Looks like the music industry is helping Orrin Hatch's reelection campaign.

Antipiracy bill targets technology

Arrrgh!

Equal time

Alright, just so that I can look fair and balanced. This is a profoundly stupid idea. How can Kerry talk about the lack of job creation in this economy and talk about raising the cost of labor at the same time?

George and Me

Quite an interesting article about the accuracy of Fahrenheit 9/11. Seems like the facts are correct, get ready for the smear campaign anyway.

And now for something completely different...

Terry Jones on parenting and prison abuse

The full cost of war

Before we invaded Iraq (and not long after I lived in the center of the DC sniper shootings,) I drew a little wrath from some friends when I said that one of the impacts of a new invasion was going to be a new crop of cold blooded killers returning home. Naturally, I don't mean everyone who serves, I don't even mean anything more than a few thousands of a percentage point. But, it seems like everytime I turn around there is another veteran/murderer. Upstanding soldiers like Timothy McVeigh, John Mohammad, and how about this current fugitive. I know I'm missing a few.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to malign veterans; I actually revere them. The thing is, someone ought to take things like this into the social equation when declaring war. A miniscule minority of folks learn to kill, and never turn back.

I'm changing my kids name to Ronald Reagan, both of them.

There doesn't seem to be anything that we shouldn't name after RR. Now to be fair, when Kennedy was killed my grandfather remarked that he thought he would have to rename his dog as John F. Kennedy because everything else was getting named that. But, I already live in a city with a Reagan Building and an airport named after him. Plus, we're keeping the world safe for americans with the USS Ronald Reagan.

I'm not understanding this: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is planning to introduce legislation to rename the Pentagon after Ronald Reagan. WTF? The republicans have spent the last 16 years running around naming everything they could after Reagan, and they don't think they are done? Nancy asked them not to name a ship after him and they did it anyways. What's next? Have him preserved with wax and enshrined in a tomb on the mall? This isn't about Reagan any more, it's about building a cult around his name. Even George Will was quoted as saying that plastering the name Reagan everywhere was starting to remind him of Saddam putting his image all over Iraq. Maybe we ought to change the name of the capital to Reagan. Was George Washington really that deserving?

Point/Counterpoint

Before everyone annoints GWB as the heir to the gipper, read this.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid...

Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides

Another Prohibition Success Story

Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism
A great opportunity for one Al (Capone) is a great opportunity for another Al (Queda).

A timely article

This article on Reagan's ending the cold war is pretty timely. I don't think it diminishes the brilliance of Reagan's strategy to say that the Soviet Union was on it's way out anyway. Reagan developed a strategy to exploit their weaknesses and bring about the end as quickly as possible. I say that as someone who never voted for him, didn't particularly like him, and detested his policies. Reagan's greatest legacy should probably be the restoration of respect for the military, and of knowing how and when to use it most effectively. Like Teddy Roosevelt, RR knew that the show of force was often greater than the use of force. Reagan achieved great success by having a powerful military, not by using it.

Compare and contrast that with the current administration which, ironically, is populated with many of the same people. Having presided over Reagan's defense buildup, they weren't content to merely appear powerful. They required a shoot first and ask questions later demonstration of our might. Equally ironic the demonstration seems to be leaving us much less powerful on all fronts.

Smug? Here comes the science...

As I said in my last post, I feel a little smug about predicting doom in Iraq. But, the evidence was all there for anyone to see. History of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

We all know how well it turned out for us when the Soviets left Afghanistan. I can only wonder what will happen in Iraq when the new government asks us to leave, but what's past is prologue...