Peleiadeo Akhileos

2003-06-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Wow. An Orthodox Jewish convert to Islam...

2003-06-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Bubble gum and Klan tattoos... together at last.

Chairman: "We need to come up with a good gimmick to help sell more of our bubble gum Anyone have a good ideas?"

Intern: "Hey, why don't we give kids a tattoo of a Klansman?"

Chairman: "Um, anyone else?" (long pause) Ok, Klansman it is."

[Excerpted from Jewsweek.]

2003-06-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

This is incredible - a recreation of a Lithuanian shtetl is being built in rishon l'tsiyon - a theme park, with restauarants and evertything!

2003-06-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

60% of Jews (at least in the U.S.) are lactose intolerant. So this explains all my friends...

2003-06-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

In Jewish Law, paying someone to study tora is not allowed, but what about paying them to pray? And for AOL stock?

2003-05-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Apparently there's a new term for the intended victims of a terror attack - "bystanders." The latest in doublespeak from the masters of perversion in the media: "In 93 suicide attacks since the current violence erupted in September 2000, 357 bystanders have been killed." (AP) The AP used the same term in speaking about Morocco and Saudi Arabia, and The ever-on-the-dark-side NY Times has taken up this usage as well.

2003-05-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Is Verhofstadt finally smelling his own stench?

2003-05-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Karzai as the Fonz... He knows how to get those hot Afghan women.

2003-05-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Aren't those baby nukes, the just the cutest little nukes you ever did see?

The American Senate voted to permit research on “mini-nukes”, but required it to get the approval of Congress before developing them. Such research had previously been banned but Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, argued that little nukes might now be useful here and there. - The Economist

And whatever happened to neutron bombs?

2003-05-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News - Typing Monkeys Don't Write Shakespeare But they did type a bunch of 's's.

2003-05-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Gweilo Diaries: How's that Again? A fine summary of freedom in VietNam: "The US State Department accused Vietnam of using its laws to suppress dissent on the internet. Vietnamese officials denied the charges, saying they were merely using the law to surpress dissent on the internet."

2003-05-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

Reuters: mysterious caped do-gooder fighting crime in English town

2003-05-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Reuters: mysterious caped do-gooder fighting crime in English town

2003-05-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today "London's Independent, meanwhile, reports from Gaza that "with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the flow of millions of dollars that the Iraqi leader sent to support the Palestinian intifada has abruptly ended." This gives the lie to the claim that Saddam's regime had nothing to do with terrorism--except to those who believe it isn't terrorism if the victims are only Jews."

2003-05-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Spy Agencies' Optimism On Al Qaeda Is Growing (washingtonpost.com) Good news, but I wonder if it is too optimistic an assessment.

2003-05-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

StrategyPage: Military news about Afghanistan "May 7, 2003: The Taliban "offensive" is underway, with several hundred armed Taliban making attacks on foreign troops and government officials. There are also efforts to intimidate civilians, and close schools for girls and shops that sell music and videos. The attacks do not add up to a lot of activity, but there is enough of it for the general population to know the Taliban are still around. Taliban camps exist openly across the border in Pakistan, and Taliban recruit Pakistani Pushtuns for combat operations in Afghanistan. Pakistan has promised to crack down on the Taliban along the border, but this is difficult to do with so many hostile, and heavily armed, tribesmen protecting the Taliban operations."

This seems important news to watch.

In all the recent flap about whether there were enough troops sent to the battle in Iraq (it appears that there were), a fact that was mostly ignored by the media pundits and others is that there simply aren't enough troops in the military over all. While Clinton and Bush I did not cripple the military hardware-wise they did allow the military to shink hugely in manpower and this is a serious problem, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Accoding to Frank Gaffney, we simply do not have enough men under arms to project force credibly in as many places as we need to. We can't fight and win two major regional conflicts at once anymore (Rumsfeld's recent claim was that we can fight and win one while swiftly defeating the enemy in another, which seems to mean that we would have to fight a holding action until the other was finished).

This deficiency, it seems, means that while we have a quarter of a million troops in Iraq, we can't be quite as effective in protecting the Karzai government in Afghanistan. We'll have to see how this works out.

2003-05-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

I, too, am Entish.

2003-05-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

I'm an ent:

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-04-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

ABCNEWS.com : Egyptian Sailor Dies in Brazil from Anthrax-Police "A crew member of an Egyptian merchant ship has died in northern Brazil, almost certainly from anthrax, after opening a suitcase suspected of containing the deadly bacteria, which he was taking to Canada.
....
Brazil's Castro said Ibrahim had been given the suitcase in Cairo by an unidentified person and was due to deliver it to somebody in Canada. But he doubted Ibrahim knew what the bag contained, otherwise he most likely would not have opened it."
via instapundnit, via den beste.

2003-04-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

A Legal Counterattack Two interesting stories on terrorism investigations and lawsuits. In the lawsuit filed by 9/11 families agianst the Saudi government, part of the defense seems to be that they funded terrorists as part of their official duties and so are immune from suit on that basis. They admit that they funded, via official channels, several of the vharities named by the US as supporter of international terrorism.

In a related story the US has been trying to esxtradite some British terror suspects for years and it has been coaught up in red-tep despite the fact that tehir appeals were rejected byt he House of Lords (Britain's highest court). Other intersting stuff about the British imam Abu Hamza and his conenctions to terrorists in the US and elsewhere.

2003-04-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

A spoof on a largely hypocritical movement that rarely asks What Would Jesus Do when encountering a Jew?

2003-04-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

A Connectitutian-cum-New Yorker with some really interesting videos to share:
"It took three weeks for the media to declare the Afghan war to a quagmire, but it took them only a week to make the same proclamation about the Iraq war. Although the media can't claim credit for accuracy, they at least deserve a pat on the back for increasing the speed at which they're wrong by a whopping 200%." - Evan Coyne Maloney.

2003-04-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

Muslims save Baghdad's Jewish community centre from looters - smh.com.au. (Via Command-post.org)

2003-04-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

The French: I’m Shocked, Shocked! The smoking gun. (link from Command-post.org)

2003-04-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

This statement from Scott Ritter in a Time interview amply illustrates the moral vaccuousness of pacifism:
Time: You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?

Ritter: The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

It is more important for him to prevent war than to expose the horrific practice of making political prisoners of children, so he refuses to discuss it. And people like him claim to have the moral highground.

(Link from Andrew Sullivan)

2003-03-27T10:12:00.000-08:00
George Will has a great eulogy of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

2003-03-23T18:54:00.000-08:00
A Father’s Words on Going to War:
Newsweek interview with Bush the Elder.
Newsweek: What do you think is going on with France?
Bush: [Pause] They're French.

2003-03-04T22:03:00.000-08:00
Theodore Dalrymple on crime and the rise of the therepeutic state. "One of the ways by which youth crime has been reduced, according to officialdom, is a curious quasi-treatment known as anger management. By this means youths are trained to contain their impulsive actions when they feel anger welling up within them and to count to ten instead of lashing out, as was their pre-treatment custom...."

2003-02-19T21:45:00.000-08:00
A pet cockatoo killed trying to protect its owner from an attacker produced evidence which helped to convict the murderer.

2003-02-17T23:08:00.000-08:00
Chirac finding pro-US stances hard to stomach. With even Kofi Annan taking a "hawkish" line, Chirac finds himself isolated from his neighbors, who refuse to be bullied into taking his anti-American line. They, both the UN and the rest of the EU, know that their interests lie with the US and not with the decadent, moribund Fifth Republic.

2003-02-17T23:04:00.000-08:00
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports: Iraqi defence minister 'under house arrest' and other measures have been taken to help Hussein keep his grip on power as well.

2003-01-27T23:06:00.000-08:00
Arab nations falling into line on Iraq / Many, like Jordan, no longer oppose war. This likely means that they are pretty darn sure that it is going to happen because they are not going to stick their necks out for the US unless they are positive it's going to go through with it.

2003-01-26T10:57:00.000-08:00
StrategyPage.com: DARPA continues to work on micro-air vehicles, tiny recon drones. Their Wasp design is only 13 inches across, and recently completed a record-setting flight of 107 minutes. The design of the vehicle is innovative, as the lithium battery actually forms the structure of the wing.

2003-01-25T21:59:00.000-08:00
ABCNEWS.com : Doctors Reattach Teen's Head After Car Wreck

2003-01-25T21:42:00.000-08:00
Jerusalem Post: "After months of tough negotiations, Israel and the US have agreed on a framework for Israeli involvement in development of the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter, the most lucrative military aircraft program ever. "

2003-01-22T18:22:00.000-08:00
I haven't decided what exactly I think about the more narrow issue decided by the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the Sonny Bono Act's extension of existing copyrights. I don't like it and it seems to go against the purpose of cipyright because it does not encourage any new work and benefits current copyright holders at the expense of the public; on the other hand every previous copyright has done so and I am reluctant to say that each one has been unconsitituional especailly since no one seems to have thought so until now.

But the dissent by Justice Breyer, in which he argued that the entire act was unconstitutional, does bother me.

He argues that since there is no way that the extensions (from an average of 75 to an average of 95 years) could really incentivize new creation of copyrights the act does not further the Copyright Clause's stated goals of encouraging the spread of the knowledge. This, he persuasively argues, is shown by some not too complicated econimic analysis. Only a miniscule amount of copyrighted works created today would still generate royalties 95 years from now; according one estimate it was I think about 2%. And the value today of money 95 years from now is discounted by whatever the interest rates would be between now and then. The increase in incentives is therefore obviously miniscule: it gives new authors a 2% chance to give their heirs 20 extra years of royalty collection. This may be worth at most a few pennies to each author, and it is hard to believe that it would actually encourage the creation of any new new work. Therefore since there is no ratioanl explanation of why this would further the Copyright Clause's goals, Congress had no right to pass this law.

(Additionally he points out that the value of a 95 year copyright is virtually inditinguishable from a perpetual copyright which is expressly forbidden by the Consititution: a 95 year copyright is worth 99.996% of a perpetual one according an amicus brief filed by a group of economists. Therefore it might be considered virtually perpetual. Justice GInsburg pointed out that the same could be said for the 1831 time peiod which would be worth something like 96%, and that clearly the Founders were more concerned about time when they said that "exclusive rights could be secured for limited times" than the possible value of the copyright.)

The problem with the main argument is this: could a court use this same logic for other enumerated powers? Could a court look at, say, an appropriation for the Army and argue that because there is no rational argument to support a certain new weapons system except to help weapons contractors and local defense workers in the Speaker of the House's district and the Majority Leader's state, goes beyond the clear intent of the Army clause which is to protect the country. It can be shown empiricallly, let us grant, that there is no possible way this weapons system will improve security. Following Breyer's logic couldn't a court strike down such an act?
And if so shouldn't that bother us?

One response to this may be that the Copyright Clause has an explicit built-in limit because it states that the purpose is is encourage authors and inventors while others do not have this built-in limit. But while that is a legitimate point I think the reductio above still stands because in something like the Army clause the purpose is totally obvious, while copyright is not. In fact, the purpose of copyright was widely debated in the 18th C., and the Constitution was coming down on one side of the debate, the pragmatic side rather than a natural right theory which would imply perpetual copyrights.

2003-01-16T20:22:00.000-08:00
A fair assessment of Tom Friedman: "I am not talking about what is right, or what is fair, or even what is rational," Friedman wrote of Arab hatred. But, he concluded, "if we ignore it, if we dismiss it all as a fraud, we will never fully harvest the positive changes that could come from regime change in Iraq."

Put another way, if the US doesn't put pressure on Israel in a way that will convince the irrational, hate filled anti-American and anti-Semitic Egyptian "street" that the Bush administration isn't simply a tool of "the Jewish lobby," then the Arabs will continue to hate the US and blow up more of its skyscrapers.

2003-01-09T22:09:00.000-08:00
Michael Ledeen on War on National Review Online: "The current debacle resembles the final phase of the Gulf War in more ways than the presence of the same failed personalities. In 1991 the Middle East seemed on the verge of an American-led democratic revolution that would have been catalyzed by the liberation of Iraq from Saddam. When Bush the Elder, Scowcroft, and Powell walked away and left Saddam in his many palaces, those who opposed democratic change took heart, concluded the United States really was a paper tiger, and constructed a new terror network to replace the one that had previously depended upon the Soviet Union for support."

Interesting.

2003-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00
An Op-Ed on Indiana's admissions processfrom an insider: "Roughly speaking, to meet our de facto quotas, we must leapfrog less qualified minority applicants over approximately 330 more qualified non-minority applicants each year, many of whom, of course, will be Indiana residents."

2003-01-06T23:05:00.000-08:00
Instapundit.com has some interesting news from Paris and an interesting observation on how Sharon dealt with the Brits' refusal to see Netanyahu

2003-01-06T22:53:00.000-08:00
This is great: a prank call from a talk show to Hugo Chavez the president of Venezuela, pretending to be Castro.

2003-01-03T13:38:00.000-08:00
Reason: When Ludwig Met Chelsea: Austrian economics hits Manhattan’s art scene. An artist whose work is inspired by the Austrian school of economists. It sounds, though, that the art itself isn't really any good. Good economics does not necessarily produce good art.

2003-01-01T21:20:00.000-08:00
Times Online: Euro notes are genetically modified despite the EU's otherwise strict (and non-sensical) regulation of genetically modified products. Ha.

2002-12-31T23:40:00.000-08:00
It's not just white farmers that Mugabe is conspiring to massacre and starve. Apparently he is preventing food from going to the Matabele speakers in southern Zimbabwe; a member of his government recently said: " We would be better off with only six million people ... who support the liberation struggle. ... We don't want all these extra people." The population is currently 12 million.

2002-12-25T15:53:00.000-08:00
Cool: World Trade Center scrap to be used in USS New York

2002-12-20T11:57:00.000-08:00
Reason examines the first Dixiecrat presiden, Woodrow Wilson:
" It was Inauguration Day, and in the judgment of one later historian, "the atmosphere in the nation's capital bore ominous signs for Negroes." Washington rang with happy Rebel Yells, while bands all over town played 'Dixie.' Indeed, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who swore in the newly elected Southern president, was himself a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, "an unidentified associate of the new Chief Executive warned that since the South ran the nation, Negroes should expect to be treated as a servile race." Somebody had even sent the new president a possum, an act supposedly "consonant with Southern tradition." "

2002-12-06T11:29:00.000-08:00
J. Podhoretz's take on the jogger/"wilding case." Seems to be right.

2002-12-03T19:50:00.000-08:00
Unleashing the Predator (washingtonpost.com) The bureaucratic wrangling around the Predator unmanned planes between CIA and DOD.

2002-12-02T22:49:00.000-08:00
MATT DRUDGE has John D'Iulio's on the record letter to an Esquire reporter about domestic policy in the White House (or lack thereof).
Seems mostly on the money.

2002-12-01T14:51:00.000-08:00
George Will has collected many of teh quotes demonstrating the real reason teh ploticians passed "campaign finance reform." There's too much free speech critical of politicians, especially by "special interests" like the 4.8 million NRA members and other large membership groups like the Sierra Club. Their ads criticizing the polticians "demeaned and degraded all of us, " says McCain.

This is, as Will points out, the rebirth of the Sedition Acts which crimilized "calumnies" against congress and the president (and for which truth was no defense).

2002-12-01T13:42:00.000-08:00
Warms the cockles of the heart. What a good idea, using our nation's mentally disabled to fight our wars... Much better than euthanasia.

2002-11-28T11:31:00.000-08:00
Yeshiva’s Recent Middle States Accreditation Praises, but Exposes Heavy Criticism "Other complaints, geared specifically toward the Vice President for Business Affairs, included the team?s emphasis that ?there seems to be plenty of funding available both for facilities and for the staffing needed to maintain them. The salaries and workloads of the undergraduate faculty are incommensurate with those of their peers at liberal arts colleges and reflect a penurious approach to the funding of the University's undergraduate programs that is at odds with stated priorities. The man to blame for the aforementioned deficiencies, in the team's opinion, is the Vice President for Business Affairs, who appears to be the "sole decision maker" in most support activities."

Interesting to note several things: They indeed found the most serious problem at YU, a lack of commitment to keeping good teachers. Prof. Zucker was a great teacher who was driven out, Prof. Johnson is a profound philosopher whose worldview fits perfectly with Yeshiva's mission was almost allowed to get away and still has not been granted tenure, and now the brilliant and popular Prof. Brill has also been driven out because some of the grad. school profs don't like him. I understand that they let another Physics prof go recently without any good reason.

In a related matter look at how the profs' workload at Yeshiva compares to other schools; at most schools where profs are expected to publish and research they teach up to two classes a semester. YU, which also expects its profs to publish requires them to teach four classes.

There is no tenured philosophy professor, only a couple History profs, and other dept.s are equally understaffed.

Lets hope the new president, whoever it is, will take on Sokol and improve this situation. What is needed is a bold president with the will to take on the entrenched interests in the university. ( to engage in a cliche)

2002-11-28T11:01:00.000-08:00
Bjorn Lomborg & Olivier Rubin on Limits to Growth: "Instead of focusing on limits to growth, humanity would be better served by focusing on the real threats to growth and prosperity: not population growth or mineral exhaustion but corruption, barriers to trade, and war. Unfortunately, history has shown that these sources of human misery have always been in ample supply."

2002-11-28T10:24:00.000-08:00
'Rhyming' Judge Out of Synch With Peers (washingtonpost.com)

2002-11-27T22:44:00.000-08:00
Those Germans really know how to warn people about using heavy equipment.

2002-11-27T22:02:00.000-08:00
Of all the talk recently about Daschle's attacks on Limbaugh and talk radio, one thing really struck me that hasn't been mentioned. What most offended him it seems is that Limbaugh and others are having fun when they talk about politics. He's "concerned" about mixing up politics and entertainment. It seems that his idea of politics, that its a "serious business" to be "gravely concerned about," (which is true to an extent) leads to take himself so seriously that he can't believe that people can joke about him and his business. It's really a puritan fear that "someone somewhere might be having fun."

He is so dull and humorless that he is offended byt he very idea looking at politics with a sense of humor, and that's what offends him most about Rush.

2002-11-27T21:55:00.000-08:00
Homosexuality is quite a bit lower than ten percent. Ten percent is the number the activists use, however more realistic estimates are in the 4-6% range.

The far more interesting evidence against evolution is the human drive to pick scabs. It can't be the survival instinct that drives me to prevent my wounds from healing.

2002-11-26T17:54:00.000-08:00
A good German-Australian friend of mine with a Welsh name inadvertently brought up what I think may be very considerable evidence against human evolution. How can it be that we have developed the instincts for reproduction, and this is what governs us, when we are attracted to women who do not have "child-bearing hips" and who are slender enough that it hurts their chances of progenation? I understand that this goes through cycles and that plumper women used to be en vogue (which I attribute largely to the fact that it showed status, just as being fit and tan shows status now, being plump and pale used to show status in the days of outdoor manual labor before office buildings); but doesn't it seem that the majority should be attracted to plump, hearty, wide-hipped women, and that the rate of homosexuality should be well under 10% (just threw that in)? Perhaps there are other factors at work here...

2002-11-25T22:27:00.000-08:00
How Appealing reports that the Second Circuit has affirmed a preliminary injunction that was granted in a copyright dispute between two Lubavitch publishers. It seems that there are two factions each with its own publisher and one has come out with a new edition of SIddur Tehillat Hashem. It may be interesting to see how this case comes out.

2002-11-25T22:06:00.000-08:00
The Administration has some bold new plans on tarriffs. It doesn't say that Bush will repeal his steel tarriffs though.

2002-11-25T19:58:00.000-08:00
Michael Ledeen on Iran on National Review Online: "Last Friday something like half a million Iranian citizens took to the streets to demonstrate their disgust with the regime of the Islamic Republic."

2002-11-25T17:29:00.000-08:00
Unbelievably enough Pravda still exists!! Good Communist Party organs never die...

2002-11-24T22:32:00.000-08:00
Making Justice Work . A WaPo editorial endorsing tort reform (and implicitly happy at a GOP sweep). It seems that as the NYT slides down further into leftist propaganda, the WaPo has been getting more sensible. (They've also been consistently hawkish on Iraq since at least 1998).

2002-11-24T12:09:00.000-08:00
The Corner has an interesting anecdote about Bosnian muslims, Amercans and MiddleEasterners

2002-11-24T11:54:00.000-08:00
John Bloom on Copyrights on National Review Online

2002-11-24T10:43:00.000-08:00
Ryadh est delenda.

2002-11-24T10:41:00.000-08:00
This blog post, pointed out by Instapundit, offers a round-up of anti-islamist Muslim writing on the internet.

2002-11-23T23:23:00.000-08:00
Wired 10.12: The New Convergence An interesting article on the relationship between recent scientific developments and religion. (Warning it's kinda long, three screens)

2002-11-23T23:09:00.000-08:00
Possidippus, a minor 3 C. BCE poet has a new book out. It was found as part of a mummy's mask. (No word yet on possible curses)

2002-11-23T23:00:00.000-08:00
Richard Pipes on Solzhenitsyn's version of Russian Jewish history. Solzhenitsyn has, in the past, been accused of antisemitism and this book, says Pipes, mostly albsolves of of the charge. It seems like an interesting book. (Pipes is a leading historian of Russia and communism, and is Mideast guru Daniel Pipes's father)

2002-11-21T21:43:00.000-08:00
I haven't decided yet whether I'm disturbed by the Total Information Awareness Systems program that Safire and others seem so upset about. Thats mostly becuase the site is completely written in Management-speak. a language I'm not very familiar with. If anybody can figure out what exactly it is they plan on doing I'd love to know.

The graphic shows all kinds of information being collected and sent to a database which then gets fed into the decision making process, but there's a dotten line across the arrow called "Privacy and Security." There is no explanation of how exactly this information is being collected (is it all public domain info being trolled from the Net or something? is it all info that they can legall get their hands on without a warrant?), nor do they say how this "Privacy and Security" filter works and what it filters out.

By I still think that it may be too early to get hysterical about it (despite the creepy logo of the office that runs it.

2002-11-21T21:22:00.000-08:00
You can look at a summary of the recent "USA PATRIOT act" here. Scroll down to find the summary. After all the alarmism about this law its hard to find any provision that is very frightening.

Here's a couple that are a litte disturbing, though:

(Sec. 312) Mandates establishment of due diligence mechanisms to detect and report money laundering transactions through private banking accounts and correspondent accounts.

(this is I think what they tried to push through a while ago: "know your customer" requirements)

The next one is related:

(Sec. 314) Instructs the Secretary to adopt regulations to encourage further cooperation among financial institutions, their regulatory authorities, and law enforcement authorities, with the specific purpose of encouraging regulatory authorities and law enforcement authorities to share with financial institutions information regarding individuals, entities, and organizations engaged in or reasonably suspected (based on credible evidence) of engaging in terrorist acts or money laundering activities. Authorizes such regulations to create procedures for cooperation and information sharing on matters specifically related to the finances of terrorist groups as well as their relationships with international narcotics traffickers.

2002-11-20T22:13:00.000-08:00
Space elevators.

2002-11-18T23:36:00.000-08:00
Well hold on to your hats folks, the world as we have known it so far is about to change forever. The Segway scooter will soon be sold over Amazon.com. The revolution will not be televised; it will be sold over the internet.

2002-11-17T15:41:00.000-08:00
What time is it? Thanks to Dave.

2002-11-17T15:35:00.000-08:00
The good-government types are back out complaining about campaign advertising again. They're yelling that $1 billion was spent this election cycle on campaign advertising, double that spent in the last election cycle. But how do we know how much is the "correct" amount for our society to spend on direct campaign advocacy? Despite all the kvetching this is one-third the total advertising budget of Proctor and Gamble, a huge company, yes, but it's still only one company.
Don't you think it makes sense to spend a lot of money on convincing our fellow voters to vote our way? Is it that outrageous to spend one-third the amount that one fortune 500 country on it?

2002-11-16T22:42:00.000-08:00
Pooh-poohing postmodernism

2002-11-16T21:33:00.000-08:00
DOJ is investigating the LA Weekly-New Times deal in which the Village Voice company and the New TImes company agreed not compete with each other in LA and Cleveland. As I said at the time it seems that there must be some Antitrust violation in there. (Whether there should be antitrust laws at all is another question. I tend to think that thre should be some very limited antitrust laws -- but I'm not entirely sure about it.)

2002-11-14T23:03:00.000-08:00
Tyrrell column on Justice Thomas, Jesse Jackson and Sherriff Rainey.

2002-11-14T22:50:00.000-08:00
Tony Blair's government (link from Howard Bashman) is proposing to do away with double jeopardy protections, loosen hearsay rules, not allow jury trials in cases of "serious fraud" and gang cases, and allow evidence of previous unrelated criminal activity into trials (to try to prove guilt of the crime actually in question). In other words he is unravelling the ancient rights of Englishmen. (can you imagine the outrage if Ashcroft suggested anything like this?)

The impetus for all this is of course the rising crime rates in England, which can no longer blamed on guns: there are almost no guns in private hands anymore. Even the olympic shooting team had to practice outside of the country recently.

Part of this increase in crime may very well be attributed to the lack of guns in the hands of the populace, and so the severe gun control might be partially resposible for the rising crime rate. This then leads to the afformentioned eviseration of the rights of the accused. Gun control is leading to the further destruction of rights before our very eyes.

2002-11-14T09:54:00.000-08:00
Is it true that police came across the sniper suspects 11 times and let them go each time?! What is wrong with our society?

2002-11-14T08:50:00.000-08:00
joe, would you mind changing my address on your template from what it is to the following: ThisIsAFakeEmailAddress@StopSendingMeSpam.com or some other gibberish?

2002-11-13T18:51:00.000-08:00
SANHEDRIN: I don't know what he's talking about. It may be that he, or his source, has a confused idea about the Corsican's Sanhedrin. It is true that the ultimate purpose of the attempt to revive semiha in Eretz Yisrael in the 16th Century was aimed at ultimately creating a sanhedrin, but that never got very far.

2002-11-13T16:51:00.000-08:00
I would like to formally welcome Mr Avi Zarmi as a contributor to this blog - may our humble blog continue to be a wellspring of thought and intellect.

2002-11-13T16:45:00.000-08:00
This gentleman, in referring to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (get your very own copy of this best-selling work), speaks of a Grand Sanhedrin (during the 15th-17th century) - any idea what this tortured mind could be speaking of, if anything? Napolean's Sanhedrin, was of course much later...

2002-11-13T16:08:00.000-08:00
13 November 2002:
If Esav was, in fact, a vampire, it would explain a couple of things:
1) Why his spiritual descendants, the Europeans, have always been so obsessed with Jews' allegedly using their blood for Pesach (in the spirit kol ha-posel eth chaveiro b'mumo poslo)
2) Why they historically have sucked our blood, literally and figuratively.
An interesting notion.

2002-11-13T12:06:00.000-08:00
Was Esau a vampire? While claiming that a red lentil soup refers to blood, is ridiculous, there are still some interesting points to ponder. What was Esau doing trying to bite Jacob's neck, anyway?

2002-11-12T21:38:00.000-08:00
This a great story on communism on campus from

2002-11-12T19:46:00.000-08:00
Here's the original text - much better, I think:

In the latest of a series of OPCS seminars on finding jobs in the current market, Arthur Bieber arranged for Judah Kaplan, Vice President of Sales and Trading at J.P. Morgan-Chase, to come and speak. “He’s been coming here for about 6 or 7 years,” Bieber said. As an SSSB alum, Kaplan has an inside knowledge of the SSSB student’s skills and needs, and as a high-ranking employee at a large financial firm, he knows what companies are looking for.
Titled, “How to Find a Job,” Kaplan launched his interactive lecture with a bit of humor aimed at disarming the audience. This worked very effectively, creating an informal atmosphere to mach that of the audience, in dress ranging from suits to polo shirts and sweaters. Using the analogy of a wedding buffet, he described the game plan at a buffet based on comments from the audience – planning what food you’re going to eat and arriving early. Contrasting that with how little time students put into career planning, Kaplan spoke of the need to start early, “…even as a freshmen or sophomores.” He was encouraged to see at least a few juniors in the audience, but stressed that even lower-classmen should be involved in career planning.
The most important factor in making a choice of career, Kaplan stressed, is to go into something you like. You shouldn’t choose a career based on what looks hot at the moment.
While most of the audience consisted of Finance majors, there were many others, including Economics, Accounting, and MIS. The turnout of SCW students was very small. In one exchange between Kaplan and an SCW student, when he remarked that if he didn’t know better, it would seem from the turnout that Stern students aren’t interested in finding jobs. She replied, “But that’s just it; they aren’t!”
Most of the audience blamed the current market for the difficulties OPCS has had in finding positions for Yeshiva students, even after Kaplan had Bieber leave the room, leaving OPCS open for harsher criticism. It was in this light that Kaplan laid out what he saw as a game plan for finding a job.
Kaplan began by focusing on social networking: “There isn’t an alumnus or alumna [YC/SSSB/SCW] I know who won’t accept a phone call from a student asking for some of their time to discuss the field they’re interested in.” He urged students to use the Jewish community and their synagogues to their advantage, even asking rabbis for help.
He moved on to discuss résumés, explaining that they should be viewed as marketing documents, which should be marketed toward each potential employer. “Everything on the résumé should add value,” he emphasized. If possible, show results of previous jobs in dollars and percentages – show what you can add to the company’s bottom line. “I love seeing dollars on a résumé.” He also encouraged putting down a hobby or interest that you are proficient in and being prepared to discuss it. He clearly showed proficiency in his own personal résumé hobby – “single-malt scotch enthusiast.”
One difference Kaplan saw between Yeshiva students in contrast to other college seniors was that they don’t generally live the life of a person in their field of interest. One student was unable to answer educated questions in his purported field of interest – equity research in the gold market. Living the life of a person in your field of interest is especially important in the current market. Moving back to his buffet analogy, Kaplan observed, “We’re looking at a smorgasbord with some vegetables, stale sponge cake, and gefilte fish balls with the slime still on them.”

2002-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00
One of our own bloggers published in the Commie!

2002-11-11T14:13:00.000-08:00
This may be even more ridiculous than the coverage of that "election" a couple months ago.

2002-11-10T18:02:00.000-08:00
Bjorn Staerk points out an interesting speech by former Czech prime minister Václav Klaus on European-ism and related -isms and the former Communist bloc.

2002-11-09T18:29:00.000-08:00
The U.S. citizen killed by a missile launched from a pilotless drone aircraft over Yemen was the ringleader of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., administration officials said yesterday.

2002-11-07T21:21:00.000-08:00
Interesting facts about touching the third rail in the recent election.

2002-11-06T23:16:00.000-08:00
LA EXAMINER yesterday linked to a story about Davis recruiting busloads of bums to fill out his rallies.

2002-11-06T22:47:00.000-08:00
DEBKAfile - Arafat-Saddam-Bin Laden Links Surface

2002-11-06T21:49:00.000-08:00
Gephardt to Quit as Minority Leader; Democratic Presidential Aspirants Scramble: A good post-mortem on the election from WaPo.

2002-11-06T18:25:00.000-08:00
Text of U.S. resolution on Iraq.
Seems strong enough to provide casus belli. Hopefully this farce will be done with on the next few months. I am not quite sure that it will be, though.

2002-11-05T16:24:00.000-08:00
Army Shoots Down Artillery Shell with Laser

2002-11-05T09:41:00.000-08:00
"After years of studies linking increasing carbon dioxide levels to global warming and rising sea levels, scientists have abruptly changed course and now claim 'The Greenhouse Effect' does not, in fact, exist.