Sunday, August 13, 2006
Mike Totten in Israel
Some of you may have heard of Michael Totten. He's back in the mideast now, "on assignment" for those of us who contribute. Here's an excellent example of what I chip in to pay him for. You don't find this kind of detail on CNN.
By the way, Michael Oren (the IDF spokesman he quotes in the article) is also a well-known historian who wrote the authoritative history of the six-day war.
By the way, Michael Oren (the IDF spokesman he quotes in the article) is also a well-known historian who wrote the authoritative history of the six-day war.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
McCain-Lieberman '08???
Michael Barone imagines a (Republican) McCain-Leiberman presidential run in 2008 (link via Instapundit)
Instant gratification: I would vote for these guys in a heartbeat as by far the best-available candidates in an era that distinctly lacks great statesmen (or women) here or elsewhere in the world.
Blah-blah: Who else is the GOP going to nominate, Dick Cheney? Don Rumsfeld? Cheney is a great VP and a solid backstop for W, but can you imagine him campaigning against, say, blow-dried and Botoxed John Edwards? I used to think Rumsfeld was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but after the last couple years I've come to see him as a modern version of Bob McNamara--a sharp manager but suffering from the tunnel vision that afflicts a lot of sharp managers. He can't see that his plan only took him so far, and a president has to be able to step outside himself and adjust to changing situations.
But either of those guys would be way better than anyone in the Democratic camp. Both Edwards and Barack Obama are media darlings without much in the way of political accomplishments, Al Gore has spent the last five years whoring himself out to the tinfoil-hat left, and Ned Lamont is a richboi protest candidate whose neo-Stalinist backers will guarantee him political death in Connecticut, let alone the rest of the country. None of those people have a thought in their head besides that they should be in charge because they think they're smarter than everyone else. The one and only Dem that I might actually vote for (and I did, for governor of VA) is Mark Warner. Unfortunately he's also exactly the kind of practical centrist that the Micheal Moore pitchfork brigade is promising to run out of the party. Yes, there's another year for the world to turn, but the Dems' world has been turning backwards for the last 6 years in a row now. I'm not holding my breath.
So... McCain-Lieberman '08!!!
Instant gratification: I would vote for these guys in a heartbeat as by far the best-available candidates in an era that distinctly lacks great statesmen (or women) here or elsewhere in the world.
Blah-blah: Who else is the GOP going to nominate, Dick Cheney? Don Rumsfeld? Cheney is a great VP and a solid backstop for W, but can you imagine him campaigning against, say, blow-dried and Botoxed John Edwards? I used to think Rumsfeld was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but after the last couple years I've come to see him as a modern version of Bob McNamara--a sharp manager but suffering from the tunnel vision that afflicts a lot of sharp managers. He can't see that his plan only took him so far, and a president has to be able to step outside himself and adjust to changing situations.
But either of those guys would be way better than anyone in the Democratic camp. Both Edwards and Barack Obama are media darlings without much in the way of political accomplishments, Al Gore has spent the last five years whoring himself out to the tinfoil-hat left, and Ned Lamont is a richboi protest candidate whose neo-Stalinist backers will guarantee him political death in Connecticut, let alone the rest of the country. None of those people have a thought in their head besides that they should be in charge because they think they're smarter than everyone else. The one and only Dem that I might actually vote for (and I did, for governor of VA) is Mark Warner. Unfortunately he's also exactly the kind of practical centrist that the Micheal Moore pitchfork brigade is promising to run out of the party. Yes, there's another year for the world to turn, but the Dems' world has been turning backwards for the last 6 years in a row now. I'm not holding my breath.
So... McCain-Lieberman '08!!!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Some more personal stuff
Yes, Mel, this has something to do with our conversation about blogs and which ones are boring ;-)
So here I sit, blogging from the bathroom. I'm doing it strictly to multitask while I try to get out the door on my way to Assateague, but it reminded me of a thread I read somewhere a couple years ago (before wi-fi was popular) where a guy was asking for advice on running cat-5 cable into his bathroom. Predictably, most of the replies were along the lines of "if you can't tear yourself away from the internet to poop, you have bigger problems than how to run cable". Then later it turned out he needed his privacy to surf pr0n or whatever, because his girlfriend looked over his shoulder constantly otherwise. Having dated someone who was big into chatting online, and caught her at least once netsexing some guy _while I was in the room_, I can semi-understand that. However, "solving" that problem by locking yourself in the bathroom ...?
Anyway, off to Assateage for a long weekend ofsweating my ass off fun on the beach! Hope everyone else has a good one too.
So here I sit, blogging from the bathroom. I'm doing it strictly to multitask while I try to get out the door on my way to Assateague, but it reminded me of a thread I read somewhere a couple years ago (before wi-fi was popular) where a guy was asking for advice on running cat-5 cable into his bathroom. Predictably, most of the replies were along the lines of "if you can't tear yourself away from the internet to poop, you have bigger problems than how to run cable". Then later it turned out he needed his privacy to surf pr0n or whatever, because his girlfriend looked over his shoulder constantly otherwise. Having dated someone who was big into chatting online, and caught her at least once netsexing some guy _while I was in the room_, I can semi-understand that. However, "solving" that problem by locking yourself in the bathroom ...?
Anyway, off to Assateage for a long weekend of
