Quote of the Day

Sharon Owens, writing for the Belfast Telegraph (U.K.) about how bin Laden could imagine getting away with assaulting the U.S.:

I've no doubt whatsoever that, if Westerners thought there was even the remotest chance of a takeover by Islamic extremists, they wouldn't hesitate to dust off the old nukes once again.

That works for me.

May 21, 2011 Billboards

In my little town there are billboards which make the claim that the world ends on May 21, 2011. Maybe not "world ends" but more like judgment day or some such Chicken Little claim. Google it if you want details.

I look around at all the cars on the streets, bicycles too (it's a college town), and wonder how terribly futile the folks who put up the signs must feel. If any sizable number of us believed those signs, I suspect our behavior would have changed dramatically. It hasn't, not even a little.

If anything has affected our behavior it is higher gas prices, and that effect is minor. The spring term is ending, the weather is warm, and the crack of ball on bat is in the air.

It just doesn't feel like judgment day. We'll check it out on May 22.

U.K. R.I.P.?

If you can decipher this Telegraph article about U.K politics and Scotland's interest in independence, the bottom line is this. We may be able to stop calling our buddies over there "the United Kingdom" and resume calling them "England."

What I can't figure out is how the Scots think they can make a living while most of their populace is on welfare? I suppose they believe the proceeds of North Sea oil will do the job. They can't support the economy selling single malt whiskey.

If the Scots succeed in separating from the U.K., will the Welch be next? We could see a wave of these split-ups across Europe; the Catalonians and Basques leaving Spain, the Flemish and Walloons in Belgium, the northern Italians would like to separate from southern Italy, etc.

There is even talk the East Germans would like to become independent (and Communist) once more. Fascinating, Europe could become a whole flock of mini-states, think Luxembourg times forty.

W. Churchill on Islam

Mark Steyn cites the following passage from Winston Churchill's The River War (1899), a story of the Sudanese campaign:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. (snip) The influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

Winnie wasn't favorably impressed.

Conspiracy, Anyone?

We have been told that Osama Bin Laden was buried off the carrier USS Carl Vinson into the North Arabian Sea. I'm reasonably sure something, or someone, was buried at sea with the video cameras running. I'm less sure it was bin Laden.

Maybe it was one of his couriers or hangers-on who was also shot at the Abbottabad compound. I can see lots of public relations reasons why it's useful to appear to bury bin Laden while actually keeping his body frozen for later forensic examination.

The great part of this conspiracy is there is no way to prove it false. Do you suppose official chain of custody (CoC) rules were applied to putting him in the water? Highly unlikely.

Noonan on Osama and Obama

Peggy Noonan, writing for The Wall Street Journal about the aftermath of the bin Laden killing, and our President's maladroit handling of that aftermath:

He has spent almost every moment since his Sunday night speech displaying both a tin ear and a chronic tendency to misunderstand his own country.

Ms. Peggy has sure got that right. This is one of her good columns.

Put Up or Shut Up

More than a few bin Laden partisans claim he isn't dead, that the U.S. didn't kill their guru. If this is true, it would be a massive embarrassment for President Obama.

A massive embarrassment for President Obama is something al Qaeda would dearly love to cause. So holy warriors, al Jazeera is waiting. Send them a video of Osama in which he makes fun of Obama's claim and demonstrates beyond doubt that he's still alive.

It is time to put up or shut up. Failure to do so indicates bin Laden is either (a) a coward who wants the world to believe he's dead, or (b) in fact, truly dead, as claimed.

Quote of the Day

David Paul Kuhn, who writes for RealClearPolitics, about the political impact of the bin Laden death on Obama's poll numbers:

The death of bin Laden increased independents' and Democrats' support for this president but Republican views remained unchanged.

The only way Obama might gain the approval of Republicans is to announce he will not run for a second term, an unlikely event.

Which Gang?

The Gang That Can Shoot Straight cannot talk straight? This White House, including the President and his staff, are seriously incompetent. Did the world need to know that bin Laden was unarmed when shot? Does that sound like brave warfare or shooting hogs at a slaughterhouse?

I have no problem with shooting the SOB and dumping his body at sea. I have lots of problem with announcing he was unarmed when shot. The SEALs weren't going to talk about that, why did the WH feel compelled to do so? Jeeze, I'm embarrassed.

Quote of the Day

Richard Reeves, writing for Yahoo News, talking about the rocky relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan:

At the end of the day, in a very bad marriage of shifting convenience, we don't trust them and they don't trust us -- and we're both right.

It's a Type

Am I the only person who sees an odd similarity between Osama bin Laden and Rasputin, both in appearance and behaviorally? Both creep me out.

Conservative Canada

Does "conservative Canada" seem an oxymoron? Tonight it is less so than has been the case for many years. In today's national election, Canada's Conservative Party won a clear majority of 166 parliamentary seats, where 155 seats would have been a bare majority.

For five years the Conservatives have led the Canadian government as senior partners in a coalition government. Now with a majority, the Conservatives can enact their program without consulting coalition partners on the left.

The win reflects a strengthening of what began as a western movement, now making serious eastward inroads in southern Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick. The greatly weakened Liberal party, which dominated Canadian politics for many years, is considering merging with the growing New Democratic Party, to its left.

Canada is experiencing the same hollowing out of the political middle we have experienced in the U.S., as our Democrats and Republicans became more distinct.

See Reuters' story at the Yahoo News site for analysis. The CBC News site has who won where; Canada's multicolor version of the Red state/Blue state maps we use to chart elections.

Level of Certainty

People are asking how certain President Obama is that the tall old Arab shot last night in Abbottabad was in fact al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden? Answer: almost exactly as certain as President Bush was about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam's Iraq.

In other words, both believed they were right when they made the claims. Both had great reason to want the intel to be correct.

In hindsight, Bush was proved to be wrong. For the nation's sake, let's hope Obama doesn't have the same bad luck.

Further bin Laden Details

I've been watching some cable TV news channels doing wall-to-wall coverage on the Osama bin Laden killing. We know more about the raid, done by a Navy SEAL team, flying four helicopters, one of which landed hard (i.e., crashed gently) and was destroyed as they left. No prisoners were taken, no SEALs were injured or killed.

The compound in which bin Laden was living was in Abbottabad, 30 miles northeast of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. The compound was built in 2005 and is valued at roughly $1 million. It was far from covert, being the largest house in the neighborhood.

Nota bene: Much is being made of the size and security features of the compound, as though that would have been highly unusual and should have attracted attention. Actually, in poor countries like Pakistan the police aren't reliable; many wealthy families will have a compound like this one, with walls and guards.

There are thousands of wealthy families in Pakistan. Compounds like this aren't terribly uncommon; every city has at least two or three, maybe several. Nobody would pay attention to one more.

bin Laden Thought Dead

News outlets are reporting the death of Osama bin Laden, founder and head of the al Qaida terrorist network. Supposedly he was killed by bombing a week ago in Pakistan. They did a DNA analysis to be sure of the body's identity, hence the delay in announcing the death.

President Obama made an announcement this evening, you can watch it here courtesy of Breitbart. If all this proves to be true, it is indeed good news - a milestone in the Long War. Not a major milestone, but a milestone nevertheless.

Later: Various news sources say the death was as a result of ground operations by Special Forces, instead of by a bomb as noted above. He was found in a compound outside Islamabad. Presumably this means he was not hiding in the "tribal" areas along the border, as had been thought.

Latest reports indicate bin Laden was shot in the head. That is a tidy result; taking him prisoner would have been far less satisfactory.

Quote of the Day

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, writing here for The Washington Examiner, has a different "take" on the commonplace comparisons of Presidents Obama and Carter:

Up to now, comparisons with Carter were a tool of Obama's critics. From now on, they're likely to be a tool of his defenders. Because as bad as Carter was, Obama is shaping up to be worse. Much worse.

Reynolds, also known as Instapundit, is not happy with our president. The quote above is just his conclusion, the reasoning by which he reaches that conclusion is truly depressing.

The Cost of Being Green

Let's substitute home-grown ethanol for gasoline we must import. Sounds like a win-win proposition, doesn't it? Like most policies, there is a contrarian point of view.

This weekend's Wall Street Journal interview is with C. Larry Pope, chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods, Inc., the world's largest pork producer. He is a fascinating amalgam of good ole boy and cost accountant. The "good ole boy" part makes him a fine storyteller and the "cost accountant" part makes his stories highly relevant. All in all, he's a good interview subject.

He says much of the price rise we're seeing at the grocery store can be attributed to the diversion of corn to ethanol-for-fuel production. Corn is the basic livestock food that supports the production of eggs, milk, and meat.

Push up the price of corn - Pope claims it has tripled recently - and producers substitute other grains. At the same time, farmers switch to producing corn. That pushes up the price of bread. Together eggs, milk, meat, and bread make up a serious part of the typical household's food budget.

So...we burn corn-based ethanol in our cars and push up the price of food. But we won't import ethanol so our domestic producers corner the market. That tells you what the ethanol-as-fuel requirement really is - a farm subsidy thinly disguised as environmental protection.

For this farm subsidy we consumers pay twice: we pay taxes to subsidize ethanol production, and we pay again at the supermarket check stand. This feels like a vegan plot.

The History of Pretty Much Everything

Would you like to have a look into the current state of knowledge about the evolution of the universe? Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel of Lewis & Clark University has posted on his blog Starts With a Bang a history of the universe as astrophysics currently believes it to be. It also projects what is believed will happen into the far future.

Quick summary: the Earth began to exist about 9.5 billion years after the big bang. Life began on Earth about 0.4 billion years later. Another 0.8 billion years later Mars dies.

Life really explodes some 12.5 billion years after the beginning. Humans set foot on the moon 13.7 billion years after the big bang. Another 1.3 billion years and the Earth becomes too hot to inhabit. Siegel believes the universe will burn itself out in 10 to the 15th power years.

Bottom line: Don't hold your breath.

Top Ten BHO Gaffes

The editors of Human Events have come up with a Letterman-style top ten list of Obama's most egregious screw-ups. Each of the ten has an explanation you'll want to read.

Their Top 10 Barack Obama Blunderings are: 1. Tone-deaf priorities. 2. Doesn't know when to shut up. 3. Slow to react. 4. Partisan rants. 5. Leisure-time overkill. 6. Campaign missteps. 7. Can't communicate. 8. Out of touch. 9. Protocol gaffes. 10. Insensitive to middle America.

I don't find much in that list with which to argue. I might have substituted something about misdirected foreign policy.

Shribman on 2012

David Shribman is the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and his column is here reproduced by Yahoo News. He writes about the political fortunes of presidential candidates who were "nobodies" before winning the nomination.

Shribman includes in this category the last two presidents, as well as JFK and Jimmy Carter. I believe Bill Clinton also belongs in this group, but apparently Shribman does not agree. In all these cases a relative nobody became a somebody as a result of winning the nomination, and went on to win the presidency.

He has done an interesting piece of analysis. The point of the analysis is that the relative obscurity of the potential Republican candidates is not a crippling defect, he concludes:

The person who knows that better than anyone on Earth is ... Barack Obama.