Dean's World

Don't miss Michael Yon's latest.

(Thanks Jan.)

There is new video footage of the Loch Ness Monster, said to be among the finest footage caught to date. From CNN:

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- Like tartan, bagpipes, and shortbread Scotland's Loch Ness Monster is as much an emblem as a tourist draw.

And now Nessie's back.

An amateur scientist has captured what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the waters of Scotland's most mysterious lake.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45-feet (15 meters) long, moving fairly fast in the water," said Gordon Holmes, the 55-year-old a lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video this past Saturday.

He said it moved at about 6 mph (10 kph) and kept a fairly straight course.

"My initial thought is it could be a very big eel, they have serpent-like features and they may explain all the sightings in Loch Ness over the years."

Click though to take a look at the video. It's certainly interesting.

They're suing eHarmony in California to make it provide homosexual dating services.

That doesn't sound very free-enterprisey, does it?

A worthy cause.

What sickens so much is those who defend Chavez just because he's a Bush critic. Yeesh.

If this doesn't make your heart leap into your throat I don't know what will.

That's my new desktop picture.

It's time again for the vainest blog carnival of them all!

Tonight I couldn't sleep (insomnia is a common problem for me) and I happened to catch the end of a classic movie I've seen many times but hadn't thought about in years: The Right Stuff.

You know, I've seen a lot of great astronaut movies, but I really think it's hard to top that one. Although HBO's entire From the Earth to the Moon was pretty close.

Speaking of which, here's a bit of astronaut trivia I'll bet you didn't know: Communion on the moon.

It's surprising how many of the original astronauts were deeply religious. (On second thought, maybe it isn't...)

A very tiny handful of commenters have been banned from Dean's World. One of them--a generally smart and thoughtful guy, actually--recently had some questions for me, related to an earlier thread on Sudan (linked below). If you're interested in the politics of this, you can read this thread. If you're not interested, then don't.

I do say that while I admit to being a sinner--I occasionally have a bad temper and completely lose my cool and need to get better about that--I'm really sick of people whining that you can get banned from this place just for saying one wrong thing. I'm also sick of the notion that any time I get angry, it's me being irrational and whoever I got mad at being just a victim.

You know, this isn't a professional publication. It's a human publication. It's me and my friends, and none of us are getting rich on this thing despite the strange number of readers we have. We get out of it whatever we get out of it, and money is rarely that.

And by the way, I still want to send a few legions into Sudan, and I'm sickened by our fear of doing so.

An interesting interview.

The The War Was Illegal? document is shaping up nicely I notice.

Isn't it fun to notice with wikis how they just evolve? :-)

Have you got your account yet?

In another week or two we're probably going to try to get a general announcement out to the milbloggers and others.

Well that looks cool.

Microsoft obviously recognizes what more and more people are recognizing: the Personal Computer reached its apogee some time ago.

That's real innovation on their part. I'm impressed.

Ariel
Beverly
Carrol
Dana
Dakota
Evelyn
Jordan
Joyce
Leslie
Marion
Meredith
Morgan
Paris
Peyton
Stacey
Taylor
Tracy

Every one of those used to be common boy's names. Now, in the West, amongst English speakers, they're generally considered feminine.

As is "Ali" by the way.

And you know, it swings the other way. There are a ton of girls in America now running around with names like "Madison." And, it turns out, "Thomas" used to be a popular girl's name.

I don't think there's anything deep there, except that it's sort of funny.

I tell people that I like the writings of Evelyn Waugh and I like the musicals of Meredith Wilson, and they think I'm talking about women. Which, I wouldn't mind at all if they were women, but they weren't.

My aunt Beverly would undoubtedly find this amusing.

I think if I ever am lucky enough to father a daughter, I'll name her "Sam."

I don't know if this made it to the front page:

Of course, you can't watch this one too often :)

I had an IM conversation with my sister today that reminded me how different fear is for different people. My sister wants to become an epidemiologist; a disease-tracker who goes into remote areas to identify and help contain outbreaks. To do this you have to study a unique mish-mosh of medicine, biology and cultural and physical anthropology. It's an interesting field, but one I would never go into...

ME: I can't imagine slogging through the Congo tracking drug-resistant tuberculosis. I really can't.

SIS: Seriously? But dude [we're from Colorado] you've mouthed off to the ****ing Komiteh [Iranian religious police].

ME:That doesn't scare me nearly as much as tiny little germs that want to kill me.

SIS: But the little germs don't really want to kill you. It's messier for them. They'd much rather keep you alive and feed off you.

ME: See, the same could really be said of the Komiteh.

SIS: This conversation is all of a sudden profound.

ME: Germs. Religious police. Mom and Dad are right at this moment wishing we'd gone to finishing school and become beauticians.

SIS: True dat.

This sounds intriguing -- a report from Michael Yon in Iraq that you just have to read for yourself.

Rudy Giuliani, whose positions on abortion and homosexuality mark him as the most socially liberal Republican presidential candidate in more than a generation, is so far winning the contest for the support of social conservatives, according to a new analysis of recent polls.
...
Giuliani is winning 30 percent of the social conservative bloc, compared to 22 percent for McCain. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney captured just 8 percent — a figure that puts Romney in fourth place, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is currently not a declared candidate.

Don't miss these updates either. Especially J.D. Johannes.

Well, it looks like the Bush Administration is at least doing something.

My personal preference would be to send a few tanks to roll over Bashir's face. But you know me, I'm a hopeless romantic...

We still need folks to feed us links, fix grammar, add useful info, help us keep an eye out for trolls, etc. Have you signed up yet?

It's coming along great by the way. We've got a new front page editor and I know he's going to be just fabulous. :-)

Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the best posts of the week from Iraqi and Afghan bloggers. This week we've got new Afghan bloggers, oil workers, al-Qaeda's victory, and, of all things, breast-feeding.

I'm pleased to report that I've discovered two more Afghan blogs: Coming Back to Kabul and Sanjar.

Afghan Lord posts on war crimes by Afghan warlords and the execution of Saddam Hussein.

Al-Ghad considers the influence of the Iraqi oil workers union on the ongoing crisis there.

Omar Iraq the Model isn't happy about the Iranians in the recent meeting between Iranian and U. S. diplomats.

Marshmallow26 posts on woman power.

neurotic iraqi wife re-surfaces.

The Shaqawa says that al-Qaeda has already won in Iraq. He has a point.

Since two of my favorite Iraqi blogs posted on this subject I guess I'll link to Anarki-13's take on breast-feeding as the solution to the problems of the modern workplace in Iraq. You read right. The other blog's post was just too scatological to link.

Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, The Glittering Eye. The Carnival was originally conceived by Ryan Boots.

Fighting has virtually ceased in Anbar. Don't miss this report.

The latest Carnival of the Caregivers is up at From Medskool.

"I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved." -- Warren Gamaliel Harding

The latest Carnival of the Recipes is up at The Expatraiate's Kitchen.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

The history of Memorial Day.

Classic.

some thoughts about Israel, at Eteraz.org.

Five Years ago, I wrote a short essay on the Korean War Memorial. Last Saturday I revisited it. I was able to take a very few photos. Enjoy them...

In a few short moments I am leaving for Arlington National Cemetery. I'll post some pictures tomorrow...

This article on the Weapons of Mass Destruction canard is coming along pretty good, no?

We already knew Joe Wilson was a liar. Now it looks like Valerie Plame is a perjurer.

The most ridiculous witch hunt of the decade just gets more laughable as time goes on.

Pathetic.

(Via The Queen.)

For real.

A classic.

I mostly ignore hate mail, but once in a while it's fun to play with the trolls. Case in point, the brilliant Jacob Karsemeyer:

This is pure genius, no? How can you top this Karsemeyer guy? I savor every moment of this exchange.

I am a Neo-Con.

Speaking as one, I'm pretty sick of being portrayed as the world's bogey-man.

I'm particularly disgusted with you folks on the left, who talk a good game on human rights and democracy, but when the rubber hits the road and someone (especially America) acts, you turn into nothing but carping, whining critics with nothing constructive to say.

No wonder I'm not a leftist anymore. You guys are such fricking hypocrites. Say whatever you want about the pompous, obnoxious Right: at least they're actually consistent, and have the courage of their convictions.

Your only apparent conviction is that no matter what America does, it's the source of most evil in the world. You have no idea how tireseome that is to the rest of us, do you?

What does this cliched phrase actually mean?

It comes from a pretty good brainteaser, actually. It goes like this:

* * *
* * *
* * *

Draw exactly four straight lines without lifting your pencil that will hit every one of those dots.

Can you do it?

The answer is right here by the way.

It turns out the cliched phrase is not without value after all actually.

The greatest ever Memorial Day words were uttered not on the eve of summer, but in November:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I remember a book I read when I was a kid. I can't remember the title or author. But the story was about how a kid in Little League, maybe 10 or 11 (which is roughly the age I was when reading it, if I recall correctly), suddenly gets a ferociously strong arm due to a science experiment gone wrong. It's only his right arm but it's so strong he can now routinely throw baseballs so fast that even all-star major league baseball pitchers were envious. He soon gets a position on a major league baseball team, which I am almost certain was the Chicago Cubs but I may be misremembering that. Anyway, his adventures as a child playing major league baseball ensue. Then, toward the end of this book, the science wears off and in the middle of a game, while he's on the mound, and he is reduced to pitching like a regular little leaguer again.

This book I recall was already well-worn and pretty old when I picked it up out of the school library. I'm guessing it was printed some time between the 1940s and 1960s just because it looked and felt old and I would have been reading it in the mid-70s.

Now here's the thing: today I'm sitting around relaxing and playing on the interwebs, and in the background my son is watching TV. He mentions that he really loves this movie. So I ask what it is (I've never seen it) and he says "Rookie of the Year." And his mom says she really likes it too. So, okay, that's fun, so I kind of watch it in the background, and it does seem like a very fun family movie.

But... it's the story of an 11 year old kid who breaks his right arm, and his arm heals funny, and now all of a sudden this little leaguer can routinely throw 100+ mile per hour fastballs. And he gets a position playing for the Chicago Cubs. And the story of his adventures goes from there. At the end, while he's on the pitcher's mound, suddenly he loses his titanic strength and has to start pitching like a Little Leaguer again.

Uhm.... did I just hallucinate a childhood memory, or does anyone else remember this old book I'm describing? There's nothing about it on the movie's entries in Wikipedia or IMDB that I can see, which really has me wondering.

Bloggers seem to have once again caught a blatant forgery being passed around in the press. Ace has the funniest roundup on developments so far.

Of course the wiki has only barely begun, and will develop further over time, but one of our better articles has already surfaced: Most Americans believed Saddam was behind 9/11.

It's not done (are wiki articles really ever done?) but it's a great start.

List of cryptids.

One of my favorites is the Jackalope. But it's also cool that at least a small percentage of these may be real or may have been at one time. The vast majority, obviously not, but that's half the fun.

Save Bigfoot!

Saturday Night Open thread: Go!

(6:42 pm Eastern)

Still reading Thomas Aquinas via the writings of GK Chesterton--it's slow going basically because I've been being put through the wringer on the day job and my ability to concentrate is frazzled--but I was impressed pretty deeply by one argument: that with what we conceive in the world, between matter and form, matter is the far more liquid and mysterious, and form (i.e. shape, construction, design, structure, whatever you want to call it) the far more concrete and meaningful and predictable.

That one argument made me rethink a lot of things, and set me aback quite a ways. Because he's got a point: no matter how much we learn about the nature of matter, no matter how much we learn about atoms, particles, etc. it just gets weirder and weirder. As we go down to the molecular level it's weird, when we get down to the atomic level it's even weirder, if we get down to subatomic particles, then down to quarks and gluons, it all just gets weirder and weirder and weirder. And no matter how much we learn about it we always seem to find out more--and what if that's because there literally is no limit, no ultimate smallness, but it's infinite?

That right there made me understand Aristotle better than I ever thought I would. And it made me appreciate Aquinas a great deal. Indeed, that you could make such observations in Aristotle's time, Aquinas' time, Chesterton's time, and today, and still have a good argument, is deeply impressive: matter is ultimately mysterious and nebulous, and form is ultimately more concrete and important. That's quite an argument.

TEHRAN: Iran's moderate press and economists Thursday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as "incomprehensible" and risking "economic suicide." The rate cut, which economists said could overheat an already inflationary economy, appeared to have been taken without the knowledge of Iran's economy minister, who had said exactly the opposite just hours earlier.

"Economic suicide for banks," the Mardomsalari (Democracy) newspaper said of Tuesday's move.

Neo notes the sad reality of political theater.

Don't miss Michael Totten's roundup.

Who will have the link of the night?

Open thread go: 5:45pm Eastern.

You buyin'?

Have you noticed how much amazing free stuff is available at Wikisource? Religion, literature, history--amazing.

We're watching the internet turn into everything it was dreamed to be.

*Bumped*

It's now online and ready to go.

To help out with this Wiki, we'll need folks to register accounts (which requires a working email address) and otherwise just jump in and start editing. We need people who can write new material, correct links, proofread, etc.

If you've never wiki'd before you'll probably find it confusing at first but once you get the hang of it (and the ego-lessness of it) you will probably start to really dig it.

We do need help. If we're going to make the pro-war case, and not have to keep making it over and over again, we need a source like this. So please, jump in and help out if you can.

Feel free to drop me any questions here in the comments--although eventually we might develop a community forum on the wiki itself, I don't actually know how to do that.

*Update*: Read the comments. You have to sign yourself up. Do that right here. You can contribute any way you want--throwing in facts, prettying up someone else's formatting, fixing grammar, it doesn't matter. That's what wikis are for.

So I'm doing my usual browsing of the internets, and the Dean's World commenters are doing their usual business of challenging my perspective (God bless them for that). Suddenly I encounter this phrase I've never heard before: "the magic negro."

That made me laugh. I got it immediately: "the benevolent black person who has all the answers." That's a pretty good observation. Hollywood loves to portray a saintly black person. They've been doing it for decades, ever since Sidney Poitier.

Then I read this essay in the Los Angeles Times about Barak Obama. And pretty much every paragraph in it contains something that I find painful and wrong.

Seriously: I read that essay and every paragraph of it offends me. I work every day with black people. I've trusted black people with my life. If my son were to come home with a black girl and tell me he was going to marry her, my only thoughts would be "Is she funny? Is she smart? Is she responsible?" Which is exactly what I'd ask about any girl he wanted to marry.

I'm so frickin' sick of the subject of my supposed unconscious racism. How hard do you have to beat me over the head with it before I cry "mercy?!?"

I've had just about enough of it, dammit. I'm down with humorous jokes, but god damn it I'm tired of the endless psychoanalysis to tell me of how I'm unconsciously racist. It makes me crazy.

Our friends at Pundit Review say that Obama is just another beltway politician. They're pretty hard on him.

Well yes he is just another politician. But they all are, you know. And by "all" I don't mean his party.

If you're the praying type, Jaquandor could probably stand one or two of them...

My latest is up at Huffington Post. US Muslims and Suicide Bombings:

25% of US Muslims under 30 support suicide bombings in some capacity. As a 26 year old American-Muslim, I am concerned about these findings.

The Pew Center for Research recently released the findings of a comprehensive survey about US Muslims, entitled "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream." The study confirms the already obvious — that US Muslims are mostly well integrated and quite well off.

There is no reason to celebrate this "discovery" because US Muslims have known this for quite some time.The focus must be on the problems discovered. 13% of US Muslims of all ages feel that there are scenarios in which suicide bombings are justified. Only 40% of all US Muslims believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks. US Muslims, in comparison with all Americans, favor governmental intrusion in morality almost 2 to 1. Numbers show that the Black american Muslim population does not share the financial success or the social optimism of immigrant Muslims. Homosexuals are reviled. A large number of youth, almost three times as many as in Pakistan, believe that there is an inherent conflict between faith and modern life.

Over my next couple of posts I will be evaluating just a few of the troubling and startling discoveries in the survey, starting with the one that has been bothering me the most: 25% of US Muslims under 30 support suicide bombings in some capacity.

Well, it looks like the Steady State Theorists will one day be vindicated.

They laughed at them at the academy, laughed I say...

My friend Kevin, who's become charmed by a radical offshoot group known as "Messianic Judaism," has posted some questions based on that faith.

I answer him with a lot of Bible verses in a series of comments starting here. Some of you may find that worth reading, if you're interested in Christian spiritual thinking anyway. If you're not, that's cool too.

The folks at Hot Air have a fine interview with retired Naval officer & Muslim Zuhdi Jasser. Lots of people should see it.

(Thanks Bill.)

Dale Franks of QandO asks Oliver Willis what should be done now about Iraq.

Oliver Willis answers.

My comments about the dialogue here.

Luckily some enterprising reporter managed to smuggle this video out from Iraq. Hasn't been verified but seems pretty incriminating to me. This stuff dates back to the 1980s!!

The Mad TV cast just works this skit so well.

Don't you ever compare me to Wayne Brady... EVER!!

Classic!

Tony Woodlief is awesome as usual.

Man, that was fun wasn't it?

Well this is it, Jordin or Blake. My favorite Melinda is gone but that's okay, she's going to go on to great things anyway--simply no doubt. These last two are very good, and very different. I dig them both.

Hey, is that a Confederate General's jacket Randy's wearing? If so I think that's very cool. I like it when people look at the past and send a message that they're not mad about it anymore.

By the way, I'm not gonna make fun of the judges tonight because it's not cool to make fun of Paula because she's hurt. 10 point penalty for snarkiness!

Anyway, this looks to be a fun night. I'm watching it on DVR delay so I'll update it as I go, just as the last one of the season:

Blake starts: I love his version of "Shot to the Heart." Good way to start off on a strong foot, Blake. That's the song that really established you as different. I wonder if the guys in Bon Jovi have decided they might actually like it too....

More updates as they come in...

*Update*: Jordin chooses an astonishing number--a rock number! And a really ballsy one too. I don't even know the song but she's hitting it out of the park.

*Update*: Blake chooses another song I don't like and again takes a chance (both artists are taking chances tonight obviously) and chooses something soft and tender with some nice falsetto. Cool.

*Update*: Jordin does a country number. Holy cow this girl really wants to win. "With A Broken Wing." Very nicely delivered.

*Update*: Blake picks another torch song I don't know. He does a good job. Doesn't blow me away.

*Update*: Jordin is beautiful, fragile, and strong. I think she just won.

*Final Update*: I think my brother Michael doesn't get it as usual, and like most people who constantly and endlessly crap all over this show, he misses the point. Maybe it's the word "Idol" that makes him sarcastic, I don't know. This is nothing but a singing competition, and part of the value of a competition is that you watch the whole competition and get to know the competitors and watch what happens. Judging this show or any like it by tuning in to the final is exactly like deciding what you think of football by tuning in to the Superbowl and deciding you know all you need to know about the game based on whatever Superbowl game you happen to see.

Jordin obviously won. Those were great performances tonight from competitors who've fought their way every step to get where they are. If you can't appreciate it, stop bothering my brother. If you aren't into watching people grow and develop and fail and succeed and overcome their difficulties or go through "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," you're missing 90% of the entertainment value of the whole enterprise. You just are.

Don't miss Michael Yon's latest.

It's shameful that news like this from Iraq gets ignored. Just shameful.

[Snort] What would we ever do without the Reverend Phelps?

Oh, they were kind enough to attend Jerry Falwell's funeral I see. How utterly appropriate.

As I sit here once again in a public park, I find myself wondering how long before people just always assume free or dirt cheap internet is available wherever they go?

Five years ago I would have thought this would never happen, but now I'm thinking it's no more odd to hear about local governments setting up wi-fi throughout their cities than it is to see local governments running water or sewage--as something they just do. Unless you're out in the boonies, in which case you get used to spending a little but not much for these things.

Neat: curing genetic blindness in mice with gene therapy.

There's a new Pew Report out on Muslims in America. The report finds that roughly .6% of Americans are Muslims (they admit to the possibility of under-counting), that American Muslims are, generally, wealthier and more moderate than their counterparts in Europe, and that they're mostly positive about American society.

I think that the report is mostly good news but there are some in the blogosphere who, presumably on a half empty/half full basis see it as bad news, noting that roughly 5% of American Muslims believe that terrorism is justified under some circumstances. While I find it appalling that anyone can think terrorism is justified under any circumstances, having read the report I don't find much cause for concern—you can't draw the conclusions that some people are drawing on the basis of this report. The sad fact is that in a large enough group you can find 5% who believe in any fool thing.

The full report is here (PDF).

Stephen Schwartz has a terrific column up:

Muslims are not silent in the face of radicalism, extremism, and other ideologies that support terrorism from within the ranks of the Islamic global community, or umma. But Western mainstream media - the MSM - have proven unwilling or incapable of reporting to Western audiences on the personalities embodying the Islamic "counter-jihad," the principles that impel them, or the daily facts of their struggle. When the battle for the mosque is invoked, it is too often done so by commentators who have no idea how this battle shapes up, where its fronts are located, or who represents each trend.

The problem is more that of "MSM silence" than of "Muslim silence." Furthermore, MSM silence about moderate and pluralistic Muslims then filters, or better, refracts through the prejudice of bigots in the media audience, who seek to turn the war against terror into a war against all of Islam. Almost two years ago, on TCSDaily.com, I outlined the basic failure of comprehension in the MSM when faced with the challenge of radical Islam. Ignoring moderate Islam is merely a variation of obliviousness and laziness about radical Islam. In its worst effects, MSM silence about moderate Islam discourages the recruitment of moderates to anti-terrorist activism, but also deters the solidarity of non-Muslims who could otherwise assist moderate Muslims.

But you should read the whole thing.

(Via Instapundit.)

Everyone has an opinion about it at Dean's World — but only one kind of religion.

There's another kind, too, after all.

Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the best posts of the week from Iraqi and Afghan bloggers. Slim pickings this week.

Aunt Najma mourns the death of her grandfather, who died after a long illness. Please accept our condolences, Najma.

Great Baghdad is critical of the decision on the part of the Iraqi Army to convert from the AK-47 to the M-16.

Compare and contrast. Iraq the Model on the security situation in Baghdad. Baghdad Connect on the same subject.

Marshmallow26 comments on renewing her ID card.

Nabil posts on intra-sectarian fighting.

Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, The Glittering Eye. The Carnival was originally conceived by Ryan Boots.

All is vanity!

Dancing With The Stars is all kinds of fun television, isn't it?

As much as I love Leila Ali, I think it's Apolo for the win.

Joey's the bomb though.

The latest Grand Rounds is up at Impacted Nurse.