tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2973854072548626542009-11-19T13:58:04.136-05:00madras and politicsPeter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-58295548105657314162007-08-09T08:16:00.000-04:002007-08-09T08:36:47.438-04:00

I didn't like The Bourne Ultimatum, other than a fight scene between the Matt Damon character and some assassin who just isn't quite good enough at his job to stay alive. Stephen Hunter, my favorite film critic, didn't like it either. He explains the plot like this:Jason Bourne, who two movies ago awoke with no memory while floating face-down in the sea but with a great number of alarming,

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-34707184544904387142007-08-09T08:08:00.000-04:002007-08-09T08:09:30.394-04:00

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-80295444591126042242007-08-07T08:22:00.000-04:002007-08-07T08:25:11.920-04:00

John Derbyshire posts an email about the Dream of Ron Paul. The more I learn about the other Republican candidates, the more I find myself coming around to Paul's side.

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-60108948242040847942007-08-06T00:10:00.000-04:002007-08-06T00:12:48.174-04:00

If Stalin had designed an automobile, it would be the Nissan Fuga sedan.

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-27840634890309897012007-08-03T07:28:00.000-04:002007-08-03T04:38:55.769-04:00

... until he was president before he started alienating other countries. From the Times of India:Pakistan accused Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama of "sheer ignorance" on Thursday for threatening to launch US military strikes against Al-Qaida on Pakistani soil.Obama warned on Wednesday that if he is elected president, he would order US forces to hit extremist targets on Pakistan's

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-16863935262274672762007-07-31T07:44:00.001-04:002007-07-31T08:53:35.770-04:00

Just for the hell of it, compare the websites for the Central Intelligence Agency, the British Secret Intelligence Service, and the French Directorate of External Security. Notice that they all have diagonal corners all over the place; what's up with that? Also, the differences in general appearance - the abundance or scarcity of graphics, for example - of each website suggests to me something

kpnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-26651128062590306322007-07-27T14:41:00.000-04:002007-07-27T14:52:10.393-04:00

The circa 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. 189 countries have signed it, including 5 nuclear powers - the US, UK, France, China, and Russia. All the signatories agree to not spread nuclear technology to non-nuclear states and states that haven't signed the NPT. So, hypothetically, a nuclear state such as the US can't provide nuclear

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-15168292354927851832007-07-27T05:53:00.000-04:002007-07-27T04:09:15.467-04:00

Although I pretend otherwise, I'm a naturally suspicious person, casually questioning people's motives, assuming the very worst. In my real life I actively try giving people the benefit of the doubt precisely because I don't want that suspicion to turn into outright paranoia. I also try not to buy into wacky conspiracy theories: the grassy knoll, 9/11-related, et al. Sometimes bad things just

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-52840600713286305912007-07-26T19:31:00.001-04:002007-07-26T19:34:53.943-04:00

This is all so silly. If terrorists want to bring a WMD into the US, why not just sail it in themselves, on a small civilian boat, into a tiny unpatrolled harbor?

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-5676399283942922112007-07-26T19:27:00.001-04:002007-07-26T19:28:40.197-04:00

More evidence that the mediocre succeed in life - or at least in government.

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-39777753612618301052007-07-26T19:19:00.000-04:002007-07-26T19:24:29.944-04:00

Which stage of Communism is accompanied by Louis Vuitton? Or is this proof that the West won?

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-14159325725697186832007-07-25T00:57:00.000-04:002007-07-25T02:01:45.896-04:00

I wish my computer setup looked like this. I guess giant computer monitors don't emit carbons into the atmosphere.link via Steve Sailer

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-24442595379165468582007-07-19T15:12:00.000-04:002007-07-19T15:15:53.067-04:00

This is why we need controls for who comes into our country. One of the real concerns is not that a terrorist might bring a weapon with him into the US, it's that he will simply come here and then use the nuclear or other wmd-type material that's already here against us.Our border security is atrocious, but so is our security at lots of other places vulnerable to attack.

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-55841971741055496402007-07-18T08:46:00.001-04:002007-07-18T09:11:24.848-04:00

An equally good question might be, "Senator Edwards, why do you think it is proper for you to cite your own sectarian religious background when discussing a national public policy matter?"[Link]

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-29800446581359432732007-07-18T08:25:00.000-04:002007-07-18T10:30:49.132-04:00

Al Gore is just one, aristocrat-like man and therefore can do whatever he wants, such as fly around in private jets and eat endangered species. These activities are obviously only a problem if everyone else does them too. He knows this, in his brilliance, and that's why he lectures us about things like the threat of global warming, sometimes via massive, energy-consuming concerts.

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-69069968301022261672007-07-18T08:18:00.000-04:002007-07-18T08:21:53.589-04:00

A 20,000 percent increase in the federal tax on cigars is all the more reason for me to continue smoking illegal cigars that aren't taxed anyway.

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-64134413865193831912007-07-17T23:37:00.001-04:002007-07-17T23:38:02.504-04:00

Here's funny commentary about a lame-o unclassified national intelligence estimate.

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-69588220825202575212007-07-16T14:34:00.000-04:002007-07-18T09:02:40.112-04:00

North Korea is allowing IAEA inspectors into their country to verify Yongbyon's shutdown, in return for whatever we are this time offering NK in return for their this time shutting down their nuclear program. And then next time we will offer something else in return for the next time NK starts up and then stops its nuclear program. It's a long-term cyclical approach to the US appeasing North

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-26411562120195316412007-07-13T12:58:00.000-04:002007-07-13T13:16:40.472-04:00

Winston Churchill: who's that?[via The Corner]

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-18341826216923068552007-07-13T12:21:00.000-04:002007-07-13T13:21:06.316-04:00

There's a story in today's Le Figaro about Belgian comics character Tintin being censored in England. Here's my translation of part of the story from French into English:From now on, in order to read "Tintin in the Congo" on the other side of the Channel [that's in England], a person must be at least 18 years old.... The reason: it's a decision of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) ... [

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-28009090750581820072007-07-13T00:45:00.000-04:002007-07-13T12:56:13.994-04:00

Sadly, I'm not surprised by this video clip.I know many people who were once against nation-building, once against Bush's immigration policies, and so on, and now that they have started working in the Bush White House, they have radically changed their minds. It's not merely the case that they have decided to publicly support the President because they feel it their duty. In fact, it's as though

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-82635326442533549372007-07-12T06:36:00.000-04:002007-07-12T06:59:45.194-04:00

Martin Kramer has been named Middle East advisor to Rudy Giuliani. Kramer's got some MAs and a PhD in ME Studies and is affiliated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which is populated with both George HW Bush guys and some neocon sorts like Richard Perle (and a bunch of liberals, too). Here's what Kramer had to say on his weblog in Oct 2002 about the prospect for democracy in

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-84876253505314034132007-07-12T05:31:00.000-04:002007-07-12T05:26:30.465-04:00

That's what Walid Phares over at Counterterrorism Blog is calling the new flurry of public and media interest in terrorist attacks against America. He writes,I am not being sarcastic here but there is something strange about how we proceed in analyzing the Jihadi war against democracies and America, and how we break news to the public. On the one hand, the overwhelming majority of the academic

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-23077641623899085182007-07-11T07:02:00.000-04:002007-07-11T07:31:52.691-04:00

What is this gut-feeling business?U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Chicago on Tuesday that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer.... he indicated his remarks were based on "a gut feeling" formed by past seasonal patterns of terrorist attacks, recent al-Qaida statements, and intelligence he did not disclose.Uh huh. Seasonal. Heightened in the summer

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-297385407254862654.post-65305733640554854112007-07-11T06:50:00.000-04:002007-07-11T07:29:07.320-04:00

Don Surber writes,The Hill will report on Tuesday that the Senate will allow the Pentagon to give security clearances to felons, drug addicts and the mentally incompetent.What's happening here is the DoD is calling Congress's bluff. As far as I'm aware, every member of Congress has a compartmented security clearance, and we know that place is itself filled with felons, drug addicts and the

Peter Charles L'Enfantnoreply@blogger.com0