Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Good News Out of Arizona

Judge sides with O admin. States cannot enforce federal law. Some people see this as a bad thing. Masses of illegals running wild, driving up public costs and crime rates, taking jobs, etc., and not only will the feds do nothing about it, they won’t let the states do anything about it. NYT. But maybe there’s a bright side. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:52 am Comments (3)

A Great Recession

The Clintons, like John Kerry, apparently are having one. Boston Herald‘s Lauren Beckham Falcone re Chelsea’s $3 million-and-counting nups: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:39 am Comments (1)

What Mitt Romney Does Better Than Chuck Norris

Polls vs. Obama. It’s a pretty astonishing Zogby poll result, because everyone knows there’s basically nothing Chuck Norris can’t do.* But beating Obama isn’t one of them. Boston Herald: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:53 am Comments (0)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Jonah Kerry?

The Bay State’s senior senator lowers his colors, agrees to pay all boat taxes, ”whether owed or not.” Avast, Long John, this is Massachusetts. Of course ye owe them! Boston Herald. (Fun poll at the link seeks your navigational observations on Kerry’s position.)  

More interesting is this suggestion by state and national Republicans, that the SS Kerry is a scurvy ship. OK, that’s not exactly how they put it. It’s more hurtfully mocking than that. Herald again:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:26 am Comments (1)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

To Begin The World Over Again

Spent yesterday on my back, thanks to a back treatment, nose in To Begin The World Over Again: Lawrence of Arabia from Damascus to Baghdad by John C. Hulsman, a T.E. Lawrence bio/contemporary nation-building guide. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:10 am Comments (2)

A Fine Whine

Thurston Howell III and Lovey made the best of it, living as luxurious a life as possible, they were stuck on that island. So many false hopes of rescue dashed, so many game, ingenious efforts at escape that came to naught. They couldn’t even buy their way off. But the Howells had their dignity.

All of which makes Sen. John Kerry’s plaintive cry that much more comi-tragic. “Can I get out of here, please?” Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:57 am Comments (0)

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lifestyles Of The Rich And Clueless

Oh, the hurtfulness. Boston Herald piles on, with New England boat builders wondering why, in times of hardship, Sen. Thurston Howell … I mean John Kerry, D-Mass., had to outsource his luxury, going halfway around the world to buy the $7 million yacht he was berthing across state lines in tax-free Rhode Island:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:10 am Comments (3)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

It’s Baaaaaack!

Please excuse the absence. Out with a recurrence of back issues. It’s my dodgy spine. Hope to be baaaaaack before too long. Meanwhile, here’s the latest re John Kerry. It’s a not particularly swift boat maneuver. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:59 am Comments (2)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Re-Tooling

Wall Street Journal does a little chicken-egg on what Petraeus has managed in the last few weeks and what was McChrystal’s work. Basically counterinsurgency vs. counterterrorism, though it appears to be a fine, and disputed line. The upshot is WSJ reports a re-tooling is underway with greater emphasis on counterinsurgency, while the White House still wants to hold to its … cough (political) hawk ptooie, excuse me … troop withdrawal deadline. WSJ figures Petraeus may manage to slow that a little, but not substantially delay halt or reverse. I thought this part was interesting:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:02 am Comments (3)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Arizona On The Charles

Massachusetts pols, acting like some kind of national windsock, push for immigration status declarations on applications for state bennies. Boston Herald: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:41 am Comments (0)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Read It And Weep

Repubs blast Dems for nearly half a million in signs touting the stimulus in Massachusetts — 10 percent of the nationwide total on election-year free advertising for President Obama. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:14 pm Comments (1)

Race-Baitism

The left gleefully jumps on a fringe New Hampshire state legislature candidate as proof of Tea Party/GOP racism. Think Progress. Gateway jumps on Think Progress … GOP has already disowned him and the Tea Party never owned him. Starts to sound like race-baitism. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:48 am Comments (1)

Nam-A-Thon

In the growing Vietnam list, reader Befort recommends “anything and everything by Keith William Nolan,” a military historian, detailed deconstructor of combat, who died of cancer at age 44 in 2009. Based on titles alone, it’s an impressive-looking body of work that goes deep, and a good place to pick up for the day:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:09 am Comments (6)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Hue Back Machine

The always erudite reader Kimes weighs in with a couple of quick Vietnam book reviews. Like the look of that Hue one. But first, blue skies: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:21 am Comments (3)

That’s Rich

Party of the Rich, that is. That’s what Obama, and his local doppelganger* are calling it. Local Tea Party and GOP types say try again. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:00 am Comments (1)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A People’s History Of American Moronitude

Boston’s Pioneer Institute bashes the ”Common Core” national educational guidelines as a gross dumbing-down effort. Boston Herald. Even the Boston Globe notes that current reading and math standards in Massachusetts are “highly regarded” and that there are concerns among “Republicans and other organizations that work on education issues … that the change would represent a major setback for the state.”

Personally, I start getting suspicious whenever I see the word “Common” applied politically with the presumption that we should all be thinking or doing the same thing … even if I am sometimes guilty of it, common sense, common interest, that kind of thing. Attached to a national education initiative, it warrants a look. What do these people want? We go to their site, click on What We Do: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:41 am Comments (2)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Stolen Valor Comprehension Defied

I’d have thought you’d have to be a lower order primate not to get it, but a federal judge rules lying about valorous war service is (A) constitutionally protected free speech and (B) not that big a deal. Denver Post: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 3:44 pm Comments (1)

Obama B.S. Removal Kit

They should be shipping these things up here by the trainload. Unfortunately “B.S.” refers to bumper stickers. The other stuff doesn’t come off that easy. 

Via Newsbusters, where we now return to their main feature, “Margaret Thatcher’s Family Appalled by New Film, ‘Sounds like some Left-Wing Fantasy.’”

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:55 pm Comments (0)

Cordoba

Stephen Schwartz at the Weekly Standard does what Mayor Bloomberg and NY AG Cuomo don’t want to do, which is take a close look at the people involved in the Cordoba House project, a plan to build a massive mosque and Islamic community center a stone’s throw from Ground Zero. He concludes: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:34 am Comments (1)

Skillfully Positioned Celebrity Quasi-Candidate Mocked

Fun Greg Sargent Plum Line post cries out for a name switch. It’s a Palin bash, headlined “Only Republicans Like Sarah Palin.”  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:22 am Comments (1)

Degowned

Harvard tosses the Ivan. Russky spy Andrey Bezrukov, formerly d.b.a. Donald H. Heathfield, a Kennedy School grad no more. A Bezrukov classmate applauds the move. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:12 am Comments (0)

Technical Update

Web guy detected and zapped an extraneous bit of code left over from a recent sidebar rearrangement. Appears to have cleared up the page-freezing problem that I was experiencing and some readers were reporting. Let me know if you experience any ongoing problems loading the site. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for reading.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:10 am Comments (0)

Friday, July 16, 2010

OK, So I’m A Neanderthal

Like most Europeans and Asians, reportedly, 1-4 percent or so. And proud of it. Tell me something I don’t know. Now, the “Neanderthal Index” is commercially available, a test purporting to determine how much of a Neanderthal you are.

Hawks cocks a eye and looks down his hybrid Homo sapiens/neanderthalensis nose at it. The Genetic Genealogist notes it basically tells you whether you’re in one of the populations that is likely to have some Neanderthal, as a more specific test apparently isn’t a commercial go yet.

Yeah, well. Sounds like if you’re planning on shelling out to find out whether you’re a Neanderthal, you’re more sap than sapiens …

(Hawks remarks in an email it may not be too long before there is a practical way. Adds, more interesting than whether you are a Neanderthal or not, is which parts are and which parts aren’t. I say ”Ugh!” to that.)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:40 am Comments (1)

Slippery Slope

A terrorist-abetting lawyer slides down it, into a 10-year prison sentence. NY Post:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:32 am Comments (2)

Pol-Spawn Yuks

Boston Herald’s Inside Track takes a rare moralistic tone* after alleged comedian Kathy Griffin calls GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s daughters ”prostitutes.” Never mind the quality of humor. Track gals note that, from comic attacks to coverage by the media in general, GOP kids seem to come in for more grief than Dem ones do:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:25 am Comments (1)

More Likely To Die

It’s just one of the many dangers of sitting. I’ve been on jihad against it for a while. Now the science is catching up. AP: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:20 am Comments (1)

Technical Difficulties

A couple of readers report page freeze at the site, and I’ve experienced it myself. Web guy’s looking at it. Please let me know via contact or comments if this has been a problem, how long it’s been a problem, how it manifests, and among the techies out there, any thoughts on what’s going on. Helpful hint in the meantime. Entering via command line as opposed to via links seems to work better.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:15 am Comments (0)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

A Legacy Of Caring

Departed Nevada granny reaches back from the other side … to campaign against Harry Reid. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 am Comments (2)

Paperwork Issues

Did you know it’s easier to lose your legally acquired British citizenship than to be stripped of the Harvard degree you earned under false pretenses? I did not know that. Boston Herald:

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:42 am Comments (0)

Movement On Civil Rights

And not in a good direction. Michael Graham pretty much pegs it. At the NAACP, the racism is on stage, not on the fringes. via Boston Herald, where Graham’s got some advice for the group that was once all about civil rights, and now apparently is about squelching them:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:06 am Comments (1)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Back To Iraq

J.D. Johannes, who can never quite get out of the place, goes straight from Kabul to Basra. Judging by the picture, he kind looks happy to be there. This part was relevant to recent developments:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:53 am Comments (0)

Kaboom

Returned to it last night. As Matt Gallagher notes at his current blog, Kerplunk, I liked the cover a lot but felt the air rushing out when I cracked it.

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:03 am Comments (2)

Obama’s Katrina

This CBS poll suggests that the Obama administration, in order to be better liked, basically needs to pack it in. It’s the economy, and he’s acted stupidly. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:00 am Comments (2)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Advanced Bag Holding

The Arizona boycott reportedly wasn’t Boston City Councilor and co-sponsor Felix Arroyo’s idea in the first place, but he’s standing up on principle while everyone else runs for cover. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:11 pm Comments (0)

A Poli-Tragic Figure

Confidence in President Obama hits a new low. Washington Post-ABC News poll:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:52 am Comments (0)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Capitulation

What’s that Genghis Khan quote about besting one’s adversaries?

“The greatest joy in life for a man is to drive his enemies before him, to leave their cities in smoking ruins, to hear the wailing and cries of their wives and children, to ride their horses, and snore loudly upon the bosoms of their concubines.”

Something like that. A tad sexist, unabashedly imperialist, maybe, but still has resonance 800-odd years later in this more enlightened age. Wails and cries via Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:48 am Comments (1)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Through The Ham Sandwich Looking Glass

Pushing his case for civilian trials for illegal enemy combatants, AG Holder claims execution on a military tribunal’s conviction might be legally dodgy. via Boston Herald.

No kidding it’s dodgy, when you consider the massive legal resources that have been devoted to easing the discomfort of terrorists and granting them civil constitutional rights, while painting the United States military and the Bush administration as war criminals. It’s a ham sandwich indictment that met with considerable success. Rise your hand if you think Eric Holder is actually interested in executing a mass killer.

But here’s the best part:

“As soon as we can” resolve those issues, “we will make a decision as to where that trial will occur,” Holder said.

He said “the politicization of this issue, when we’re dealing with ultimate national security issues, is something that disturbs me a great deal.”

He’s right. The politicization of national security is disturbing and it has been a problem for some time. Where was this guy when the Bush administration needed him?

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:27 am Comments (3)

Boston Vs. Brewer

Brewer wins. Much-touted anti-Arizona protests flop as only a few hundred of the usual suspects with “RACIST” signs show up. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:08 am Comments (6)

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

Reader purchases via the Amazon links wax end-timey:

When Technology Fails (Revised & Expanded): A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency by Matthew I. Stein, is proving popular. It isn’t anything I said, I hope. I remain ever confident we will live through all this.

Also, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times by James Wesley Rawles. Like the title.

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis Peggy Dianne Layton.

Quick thoughts. As mentioned previously, I take a minimalist approach to survivalism. If you own a shotgun and a chainsaw, know how to live rough and make things, have some reasonable amount of non-perishable food and water stocks in the basement, are relatively fit, you’re probably as good as you’re going to get. All that probably has more to do with how you’ve lived your life to date than any book, though reference guides are always useful to have around … especially if the outbreak of social chaos is accompanied by a loss of Internet.

That said, in the emergency food storage department, I’ve taken up pickling lately. Not exactly for survivalist purposes. Because I like pickles. Throw some hot peppers in your average dill pickle recipe and what is already good goes off the charts.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:50 am Comments (0)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Brewer To Boston: MYOB

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, in town for the National Governors Association bash, blasts the Boston City Council etal for being big buttinskis and adds, never mind what the local libs and the Obama admin think, America has her back. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:00 pm Comments (5)

Helpful Hints For Destroying America

It’s Iowahawk, your go-to place for undermining everything that is good and decent in this world. It’s a long list, worked up by Iowahawk and his new Twitter pals, and it looks like an awful lot of work, but I like this one:

Work tirelessly to lower awareness.

Unlike raising $50 million from Hollywood studio for a war movie, and during handshake secretly switching scripts with one that makes USA the good guys, lowering awareness is one thing each of us can easily do at home and at work to make this less fair, less earnest, less concerned and generally crappier, more hurtful place.

I’d add that with this one post, Iowahawk has demonstrated that Twitter is actually good for something other than mildly annoying Iranian mullahs and Chinese autocrats.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:34 am Comments (1)

Ivy Cred

OK, so the FBI has said they were Russian spies, the Russian government has said they were Russian spies, and the Russian spies have said they were Russian spies, and Vladimir Putin has cracked jokes about it.

That leaves … Harvard. The nation’s premier Ivy League U.S. president mass-production facility has yet to yank the degree it bestowed on Russky spy Andrey Bezrukov, who was presenting as “Donald H. Heathfield,” a dead Canadian, when handed his sheepskin in 2000. Boston Herald: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:52 am Comments (0)

Ideology By Poll

Sounds like America is sending a message to the party that likes to govern by poll. 55 percent of likely voters think “socialist” describes President Obama “well” or “very well.” NRO.  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:47 am Comments (1)

Pillar Of Shame

A German activist is building a memorial in the hills over Srebrenica. 16,000 worn shoes encased in wire mesh to form pillars that will spell out “UN” when viewed from the victims’ graves below. In the run-up to building his memorial, Phillip Ruch also plans on dumping the 8,000-odd shoes he’s collected so far in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

It’s a little different for a Euro. More like this, please. Usually Europeans devote their protesting energies to attacking the “US” … the Brandenburg Gate has seen a lot of US-bashing demonstrations but never for the right reasons,* such as the shameful decision four decades ago to abandon Southeast Asia, or subsequent efforts to abandon Iraq and Afghanistan … as Euros more commonly focus their rage on our efforts to curtail the excesses of murderous regimes.

News report on the Srebrenica shoe project, via Boston Herald, notes that on the 15th anniversary of the July 11, 1995 massacre, the presidents of Serba and Croatia will pay their respects alongside Bosnian Muslims. The UN, whose peacekeepers stood by, is not invited.** Maybe because, while there have been some efforts by the belligerents to make good, the global peacekeeper has yet to mend its ways. Most recently notable for hosting Hamas mortar crews, drawing Israeli fire on women and children, and then squawking indignantly about it.

* Please correct me if I’m wrong  and that man has in fact bit that dog, which is to say, if concerned Europeans have marched to denounce US abandonment of entire nations to genocide. Or, for that matter, if they’ve marched in support of a civilized, terror-free Iraq and Afghanistan any time recently.

** On second thought, given that the article states “The U.N. will not be represented,” it’s unclear whether the UN was invited or not. It may be that the UN has the good taste … even a sufficient sense of shame, or just good sense … not to show up. Though I supposed if Ban Ki Moon were to appear in sackcloth and ashes, his presence might be welcomed tolerated.

Haven’t noticed any mention of Dutch military or government involvement. But here’s a Radio Netherlands report of a Dutch Srebrenica vet who doesn’t see what the big deal was, doesn’t feel any guilt, but wants to go back and lend a hand, though he’s been warned the Bosniacs aren’t feeling as warm and fuzzy toward the Dutch as he feels toward them.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:08 am Comments (0)

Low Level Hell

As long as we’re doing Vietnam book lists, a friend who is an Iraq vet recommends the one that made him want to be a cavalry scout helicopter pilot. Low Level Hell by Hugh L. Mills.  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:51 am Comments (1)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Bury Us Upside Down

You’ll find below some more obscure Vietnam and related book titles and some familiar ones, recommended by Joe Galloway and/or referenced in a Robert Kaplan war memoir review he forwarded. But first the recommended review. That would be a recommendation from one of the premier war correspondents of our time to read one of the premier war correspondents of our time, so I’m there. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:02 pm Comments (2)

Free The Moscow 11!

OK, so the Cold War throwback Russky spy ring all got swapped for American imperialist moles. Condition of trade, they must never ever set foot in the United States and must never profit from theeir stories. Unclear whether their cover stories, I mean kids, will be allowed to stay here. Boston Herald: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:43 am Comments (4)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Down By Law

Reynolds is looking for a few good law flick suggestions. I suggest checking out some down-by-law flicks, starting with Down by Law, a black-and-white noir romp in the Louisiana swamps and New Orleans by director Jim Jarmusch, with great performances by Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi and Ellen Barkin.   (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:41 am Comments (0)

Border Fight Boston

Confrontation shaping up as Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer heads into the Heart of Blueness. Boston Herald: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:40 am Comments (1)

When Social Chaos Breaks Out

What to do? I’ve always taken minimalist approach to the subject. Own a shotgun and a chainsaw, plus assorted other tools, and know how to use them. Be fit, and see to it that life has left you prepared to be resourceful and live rough. Because that kind of life is fun and worth living, in addition to being educational for post-apocalyptic purposes. Maybe keep some non-perishables, a couple of water jugs in the basement and an extra can of gas in the shed, but if you’ve got a shotgun … 

After that, c’est la survivie. If you want to make a project out of it, reader picks via the site’s Amazon links includes this:

When Technology Fails (Revised & Expanded): A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency Matthew I. Stein

Moving on, I have no idea what this next book is like, but it’s in contention for Title of the Year: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:20 am Comments (3)