Recommended Equipment: Carcano M1891

David Horowitz:

In an apparent retaliation for criticism of its disclosure of classified intelligence to America's enemies, the New York Times June 30th edition has printed huge color photos of the vacation residences of Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, identifying the small Maryland town where they live, showing the front driveway and in Rumsfeld's case actually pointing out the hidden security camera in case any hostile intruders should get careless:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/travel/escapes...

Make no mistake about it, there is a war going on in this country....

If (Not Necessary) Necessary Not

Ever succinct, The Economist sums up the debate in two sentences:

Some judges, when elevated to the Supreme Court, have taken it as licence to act as philosopher-kings, laying down the kind of enlightened laws that the oafs in Congress ought to have passed but did not. Others have sought to undo the work of the philosopher-kings by overturning every ruling not solidly supported by the words of the constitution, as they were understood by the Founding Fathers.

And goes on to say:

Mr Roberts appears to believe that the first group, known as “activist judges”, are usurping powers that belong to elected legislators. He sympathises more with the second group, the “originalists”, but fears that too rigid an application of their principles would be hugely disruptive...

The new chief justice offers instead a cautious, incremental approach. Rather than issuing sweeping commandments from the bench, judges should decide cases on the narrowest possible grounds. “If it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case, in my view it is necessary not to decide more,” he told an audience of law students in May.

How Lucky You Are, Boys

Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the west behind
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout
They Georgia's always on my mi- mi- mi- mi- mi- mi- mi- mi- mind

More murderous Joe nostalgia here.

Tip of the hat to BureauCrash.

Who's Running This Show?

Justice Thomas dissents:

For the reasons set forth in Justice Scalia’s dissent, it is clear that this Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain petitioner’s claims. The Court having concluded otherwise, it is appropriate to respond to the Court’s resolution of the merits of petitioner’s claims because its opinion openly flouts our well-established duty to respect the Executive’s judgment in matters of military operations and foreign affairs. The Court’s evident belief that it is qualified to pass on the “military necessity” of the Commander in Chief’s decision to employ a particular form of force against our enemies is so antithetical to our constitutional structure that it simply cannot go unanswered.

More Like Ram-Boo

"Sometime between 10 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sunday, he broke through a 400 pound steel door, ripped apart bolted together electrical fencing, climbed a 12 foot high reinforced fence and ripped off the mesh fencing at the top," said Michael Dalzell, director of sales and marketing for the refuge.

Boo the Bear just wants to be free.

Bloody Red Baron

AVweb's Picture of the Week.

Click for wallpaper.

Diplomacy By Other Means

Yossi Klein Halevi:

The military invasion of Gaza that began last night, and whose purpose is to surround the area where Gilad is presumably being held, must only be the first step. A brief invasion, a "show of force," is hardly adequate. Instead, Israel needs to resume its policy of systematically targeting Hamas leaders, just as it did several years ago, culminating in the assassination of Sheik Yassin. That policy drove most of Hamas deep underground and led to the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Serious About Treason

Ms. Coulter:

Thanks to the New York Times, the easiest job in the world right now is: "Head of Counterintelligence -- al Qaeda." You just have to read the New York Times over morning coffee, and you're done by 10 a.m.

And don't miss a nice interview by George Gurley in the New York Observer.

Take It or Leave It

You own the property, but the government says you can't do anything with it. Does that constitute a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment? I thinks so. Reagan thought so too.

Portlander seeks to drill, mine, build at Newberry

A semi-retired Portland mechanical engineer has filed a $203 million Measure 37 claim against Deschutes County, seeking the right to drill for geothermal energy, mine for pumice and develop 100 vacation homes on his 154-acre parcel in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Miller bought the property on the shore of East Lake in 1969. Congress created the "monument" in 1990.

If Congress wants Miller's property they have an option. They can buy it from him. Under Measure 37 they have a cheaper option: just pay him for what they took.

Wimblebledon

Dave seems inexplicably fascinated by the lawn tennis championships taking place in Wim'don England and links today to some boring article about Martina Hingis and... uh...

And... uh... Justine Henin.

Dave, Dave, Dave.

Tell Me Honestly, Honey...

Does this holster make me look fat?

I probably wasted more time online picking out the holster than the revolver, but we really won't know if they look good together until the mail comes two-to-six weeks from now. Until then she goes around in the original box, wrapped in an oily rag.

For a graphic display of violence, Scott had me fill four gallon milk jugs with water and line them up in two rows, two deep.

"That's approximately the density of a... uh... a body," he said, "Now shoot the first pair with your .38."

Aim... squeeze... Pow! The jugs jumped up and then settled back to slowly drizzle to death--two small holes in each.

OK, now try this, he said, handing me a .357 cartridge. I braced myself for a little more kick. Aim... squeeze...

KA-POOM!

"Holy $#*@!" I said, or words to that effect. The bullet entered the first jug through the same small hole but exited the back like a shotgun blast, and shredded the second jug front to back. Both lay empty.

Adhering to our Enemies

Giving them Aid and Comfort... Congress shall have the Power to declare the Punishment of Treason...

Congress seems to think that, given enough rope, they will hang themselves.

I'm past hoping for that. It's time for a lynch mob.

Randall v. Sorrell

Justice Thomas concurs but says the court did not go far enough.

Buckley, as the plurality has applied it, gives us license to simply strike down any limits that just seem to be too stringent, and to uphold the rest. The First Amendment does not grant us this authority. Buckley provides no consistent protection to the core of the First Amendment, and must be overruled.

Stare decisis does not trump all.

NASCAR for Potheads

...I really like Deadheads and the whole Dead concert scene: the tailgating, the tie-dye uniforms, the camaraderie – it was like NASCAR for potheads. You always felt like you were with family at a Dead show – a rather odd, psychedelic family that sometimes lived in a VW bus and sold frightening looking “veggie burritos.” But whatever their myriad interests, clothing choices, and interest in illicit drugs, true Deadheads are what liberals claim to be but aren't: unique, free-thinking, open, kind, and interested in different ideas. Also, excellent dancers! Watching a Deadhead dance is truly something to behold.

http://www.jambands.com

Karmic Book

If you don't know these guys, this won't make any sense at all.

If you do know these guys, it still won't make any sense. But at least you'll have some background.

Dignity of a Soup Line

Lileks roasts the Democrat Manifesto. Here goes plank number five:

“Ensure Dignified Retirement.” Again, sounds great. Mandatory fedoras for men; a 50 percent reduction in Viagra commercials. But no: the Democrats wish to “prevent the privatization of Social Security,” because you cannot be trusted with your own money. It’s an interesting definition of dignity: waiting by the mailbox for your government check.

There's not much left when he's finished. But then, there wasn't much there when he started.

C-O-L-T

Actually it's a Taurus Gaucho, a single action .357, but I'll probably shoot mostly 38s. Less recoil. The picture hardly does it justice. You have to hold it to truly appreciate the beauty of the case hardened Sundance Blue finish.

My first firearm. (BB guns don't count.) Scott's agreed to give me a few pointers and a long safety lecture. And then target practice. I must remember to bring ear plugs, as if the rock and roll hasn't already done enough damage.

Rock Bottom Koi Ranch

Bonanza, Oregon:

Annie Sedlacek, co-owner of the Rock Bottom Ranch Koi and Nursery in Bonanza, picks a few fish pellets from an old Folger's coffee can and tosses them into a murky pool.

Flashes of gold, orange, silver, yellow and black break the surface as multiple varieties and sizes of koi come to the surface to gobble up the treats.

Sedlacek has been raising and selling koi from her home business for the last six years....

Instruction Online

More than just silly videos:

When Eric Nguyen, a 20-year-old student in College Station, Texas, needed some help with a Chopin etude he was learning, he didn't turn to his piano teacher. Instead, he went on YouTube.com, the amateur-video sharing site, and posted a video of himself playing.

Within 10 minutes, three people he'd never met had given him feedback. One told him he needed to use more wrist action to reduce false notes; another suggested a series of exercises.

Darwin's Tortoise Dead At 175

Australia:

Harriet the tortoise, one of the world's oldest living creatures with links to famed naturalist Charles Darwin, has died in Australia at age 175....

With her date of birth calculated to 1830, Harriet was born while Andrew Jackson was president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated when she was 35. She lived through several of the major wars in recorded history, including the Civil War and both World Wars. She was already 82 years old when the Titanic sank in 1912, and Pearl Harbor was attacked as Harriet reached 111.

Before the Dawn

Derbyshire reviews a new book by Nicholas Wade:

Before the Dawn is beautifully done, a grand genealogy of modern humanity, rooted in fact but spiced with an appropriate measure of speculation and hypothesis. Even for a reader to whom the material is already familiar — one who, for example, has been following Nicholas Wade’s reports in the New York Times — it is well worth the trouble of reading this book for its narrative value, for the elegant way Wade has put it all together as a single compelling story. This is a brilliant book, by one of our best science journalists.

Another Victory in the War on Terror

Transportation Secretary Mineta To Step Down

Lawyers Took Our Diving Board

Steve Moore in Opinion Journal:

But the diving-board dilemma is not just a legal matter; it's a cultural one. We Americans have become so risk averse when it comes to our children that we now see unacceptable dangers from even the most routine activities. We have created peanut-butter-free school zones, "soft" baseballs, army figures without guns, parks without seesaws, and full body armor for bike riding.

Poor kids. When I was fifteen we went cave-crawling above the North Umpqua, navigated class three rapids on inner tubes, and jumped out of trees twenty feet above the water. That's where I broke my foot.

Black Muslim Jihadis...

...in a Masonic Temple?

CBS4 has confirmed one of the suspects is 32 year old construction worker Nasir Baptiste of Carol City....

G.J.G Atheea, a Master at the Morrisigns Masonic Temple where Baptiste was an Elder, claims Baptiste was approved by men who offered to fund him for whatever he wanted to do, "as far as some subversive work. They would give him whatever he needed."

Atheea claimed Baptiste was not interested, and didn’t accept what the men had to offer. He denied Baptiste was a terrorist.

The Temple was also raided by agents Thursday.

Now that's really creepy.

Incendiary Blonde Commentatrix

Mark Steyn reviews Godless: The Church of Liberalism

"What crackpot argument can't be immunized by the Left's invocation of infallibility based on personal experience?" wonders Miss Coulter of Cleland, Sheehan, the Jersey Girls and Co. "If these Democrat human shields have a point worth making, how about allowing it to be made by someone we're allowed to respond to?"

Now that's a point worth making. As it is, thanks to Coulter cracks like "Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy," even chaps on the right are doing the more-in-sorrow shtick and saying that they've been making the same basic argument as Ann and it's such a shame she had to go too far with her cheap shots because that's discredited the entire argument, etc.

The trouble with this line is that hardly anyone was objecting to the professional widow routine pre-Coulter....

P.S. A note in regard to spelling: men may be blond, but women are blonde. If Steyn believes otherwise, he is mistaken.

$10,000 Reward

For the Lord God Bird.

Some good ol' boy with find him now.

Nix and Hydra

Pluto's got three moons.

Musty, Brittle Scraps Online

On the Wall Street Journals free pages:

Today, Ancestry.com, a subscription service owned by MyFamily.com Inc., will put a fully indexed version of the 1910 U.S. Census on the Web, culminating its six-year-long project of digitizing and indexing all publicly available U.S. Census records from 1790 to 1930....

In recent months, FamilySearch.org, a free site sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been expanding its collection of birth, marriage, death, census and other records. It has also begun a massive project to digitize billions of records previously available only on microfilm, particularly civil, church and local records....

No more cross-country trips and dusty caravanseries. This is the future of historical research.

Please Be Patient

Ms. Coulter's offending as fast as she can.

NRO's Summer Reading List

I think it was these guys who persuaded me to read The Count of Monte Cristo and Moby-Dick. This year Kathryn recommends The Brothers Karamozov. It's on my shelf--no excuses.

Spotted first, oddly enough, by Glenn Reynolds.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Solstice at Stonehenge

It's all downhill from here.

Think, think, think.

Greg sent a link to an article by Nathan Smith: Don't Restrict Immigration, Tax It, noting that Smith seems to be calling for a form of indentured servitude, which I'm all for. Servitude is what gets you tips. What's a guy gotta do to get a little servitude around here?

Anyway, I skimmed the article, mustered the bare minimum number of brain cells, and fired off a reply.

Wonks. Nothing's too complicated to work in their world. In the real world, unfortunately, you have transaction costs and administrative overhead.

I don't have the energy to think very hard about immigration, but if I did, I think I'd start with Derb's observation that they're cheap because they're illegal. Step one: make them legal, withhold taxes, social security, provide health insurance, workman's comp, and unemployment benefits, the whole HR package. Step two: they're no longer cheap, so there's no obvious benefit to hiring them. Step three: they wander off looking for work in a less civilized country, like maybe Canada.

I don't have the energy to think this through, though. That's why I delegated the job to Bush.

Think, George. Think, think, think.

Crash At Half Moon Bar

Medford Mail Tribune:

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene Monday of a plane crash in a rugged, remote region of Southern Oregon that killed four people over the weekend.

Curry County Marine Deputy Ted Heath said evidence of the Saturday crash, near Half Moon Bar Lodge on the wild and scenic section of the Rogue River, suggests that the 1965 Cessna’s right wing clipped the top of a tree and came apart.

It's a tough strip no matter how you fly it.

Update: picture and more details here.

John Rapanos Wins

With property rights I count anytime you don't actually lose as a victory.

In the last three decades, the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have interpreted their jurisdiction over "the waters of the United States" to cover 270-to-300 million acres of swampy lands in the United States—including half of Alaska and an area the size of California in the lower 48 States. And that was just the beginning....

Because the Sixth Circuit applied the wrong standard to determine if these wetlands are covered “waters of the United States,” and because of the paucity of the record in both of these cases, the lower courts should determine, in the first instance, whether the ditches or drains near each wetland are “waters” in the ordinary sense of containing a relatively permanent flow; and (if they are) whether the wetlands in question are “adjacent” to these “waters”...

We vacate the judgments of the Sixth Circuit... and remand both cases for further proceedings.

More later maybe. I haven't time to read the whole opinion now.

Mt. Ashland Meadows

Charlie, Leslie, Marielle, and the Woof resting on the granite boulders near Grouse Gap Shelter at about 6500 feet. To our left, through the trees, Mt. Shasta.

Loving the Machine

Timothy Hornyak has written a book on Japanese robots.

Japan stands out for its long love affair with humanoid robots, a phenomenon that is creating what will likely be the world's first mass robot culture. While U.S. companies have produced robot vacuum cleaners and war machines, Japan has created humanoids and pet robots as entertaining friends. While the U.S. makes movies like Robocop and The Terminator, Japan is responsible for the friendly Mighty Atom, Aibo and Asimo....

Thanks to Improbable Research.

Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline

The local fishwrap managed to find someone whose future home site lies on the route of the proposed pipeline from Coos Bay to Malin. Not too hard considering a route of 225 miles. But these guys go out of their way to find the path of least resistance, using eminent domain only as a last resort.

Details of the construction process here.

Off to Mexico

Lizzy left this morning on a mission to build houses for the paisanos.

Itinerary here.

Saturn and Mars

One half degree apart. Tonight at sunset.

See APOD for details.

View From Nugget Butte

Gold Hill in the front, then Lower Table Rock, and Mt. McLoughlin in the distance.

This shot taken from about 2280 feet, a half mile and 200 vertical feet from the summit of Nugget Butte. Starting from my front porch it takes me about 1:10 to make the 1400 foot ascent. Not bad but not good enough.

We're Winning

Ralph Peters in the New York Post:

Iraq's government just released the first insider documents captured from terrorists in the raids surrounding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death. The contents will horrify America haters in our media but won't surprise Post readers:

We're winning.

Yeah, the good guys. Our troops. And the Iraqi army. We're winning. We were winning big even before we nailed Zarqawi. The terrorists themselves said so. In their state-of-the-troubled-union message to themselves.

Mr. Reynolds blogged it first.

You Dirty Rat

AP:

Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.

Mount Merapi Deaths

Two found dead on Mount Merapi

Two men who had been trapped in a bunker on Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano have been found dead.

The bunker where the two men had taken shelter was inadequate, vulcanologist Triyani said.

"The first person was in a singed condition because of hot steam," regency disaster management chief Widisutikno said. The second body was intact when recovered from the bunker.

More pictures here.

Figure The Odds

The National Weather Service can't agree on the chances of getting killed by lightning.

On a Web site promoting the awareness week, a fact sheet filled with exclamatory lightning stats says, "Lightning Kills About 100 People In The U.S. Each Year!" But another page states, "In the United States, an average of 66 people are killed each year by lightning." And the National Weather Service's own stats show that, over the past 10 years, the average number of lightning fatalities has been 45. Deaths haven't topped 53 in a single year since 1996.

Lots of interesting tidbits, including this.

Over the years, the number of recorded deaths has declined sharply: There were 432 in 1943, 124 in 1973 and 43 in 2005. The decline reflects cultural and technological changes, including a plummet in the number of hours Americans work outdoors, improved building construction and electrical wiring, and a decline in the use of corded phones. (Telephone-related deaths accounted for 2.4% of lightning fatalities from 1959 to 1994, according to a study co-authored by Mr. Holle. The government recommends avoiding contact with corded phone lines during thunderstorms.)

In the Wall Street Journal (free).

Pearls Before Swine

These bloggers are an angry bunch.

New Species of Domestic Pet

Or food. Cute little Laotian rock rats.

Once thought to have been extinct for 11 million years.

Droid Wars Have Begun

Via AVweb:

Air Force UAVs Cleared for Domestic Duty

Wait! What about 18 U.S.C. § 1385?

From Under The Desk Of

Lileks has the captured documents:

"In the name of Allah the merciful and peaceful, I bring you news of pitiless vengeance. Victory is near! Thanks to the bombs of the Crusaders — Satan curse their on-board guidance systems — al-Zarqawi has been delivered to heaven, after a brief detour through a window frame...."

Cancer Schmancer

Garrison Keillor:

I imagine going to the doctor one day, and he comes in with the X-rays, a shadow across his handsome features, and he says, "It's disseminated fibrillation of the fantoids. You have six months, maybe eight. There's nothing we can do except make you comfortable."

"Not a problem," I say. "I can make myself comfortable." I head for the nearest grocery and ask for a carton of Luckies....

I think Dave spotted this first.

Suburban Prospector

Montclair, California:

A homeowner digging for gold in his front yard said he got "carried away" and ended up with a 60-foot-deep hole, authorities said.

Henry Mora, 63, began digging 10 days ago after his gold detector reported a positive hit near his front patio. He told authorities he only intended to go down three or four feet....

"We told him, 'You're done,'" said Montclair fire Capt. Rich Baldwin. "It's amazing no one got killed."

Pictures here.

At Your Post Office Today

Following the increase in postal rates for first class letters to 39 cents, the United States Postal Service has agreed to re-issue the Ronald Reagan Commemorative Stamp at the higher postage stamp price. Although not unprecedented for a commemorative stamp, this is the first time a Presidential Stamp will be re-issued.

Galaxy Crash: Human Error

Delaware:

A series of pilot and crew mistakes – including an engine mix-up – led to the crash of a newly modernized C-5 cargo jet just short of a runway near Dover on April 3, Air Force investigators said Tuesday.

Among other things

The pilots and flight engineers continued to use the shut-down No. 2 engine’s throttle while leaving the fully-operational No. 3 engine in idle.

Previous woofs here and here.

Summon the Dark Forces

Jeez.

I went to school with these guys?

One Of Those Stans

Mark Steyn reviews Londonistan by Melanie Phillips.

Myself, I prefer Hindustan.

Random Thoughts

Thomas Sowell asks:

Do you ever feel like you must be invisible when you are in one of those restaurants where waiters and waitresses walk past you repeatedly without taking your order?

It might be because you're Canadian.

Seek Out New Worlds

Hong Kong (AP):

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.

"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived to a rock star's welcome Monday.

Update: The AP caption indentifies the person behind Hawking as "his nurse" but I wonder if it's not his daughter instead?

Battle of Lake Creek

Just in time for the annual reenactment of the Battle of Lake Creek, John Burgess of Eagle Point has purchased the historic Lake Creek Store and restaurant from Carol Hale.

Pour Me Another Cup

Coffee may help protect the liver:

The research team found that people who drank one cup of coffee a day were, on average, 20% less likely to have alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two to three cups of coffee, the reduction was 40%, while for those drinking four or more cups, the reduction in risk was 80%.

"Even allowing for statistical variation, this shows there is a clear association between coffee consumption and protection against alcoholic cirrhosis", said Dr Klatsky.

And put a little rum in it.

Oh, Mister Zarqawi...

...your 72 virgins await you.

Enjoy!

Teacher's Deaf

Some students are downloading a ring tone off the Internet that is too high-pitched to be heard by most adults. With it, high schoolers can receive text message alerts on their cell phones without the teacher knowing....

The ring tone is a spin-off of technology that was originally meant to repel teenagers -- not help them. A Welsh security company developed the tone to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected.

Actually, classical music repels loiterers just fine.

Sunday Steyn

If you think the idea of some kook beheading prime ministers on video is nutty, maybe you're looking at things back to front. What's nutty is that, half a decade on from Sept. 11, the Saudis are still allowed to bankroll schools and mosques and think tanks and fast-track imam chaplaincy programs in prisons and armed forces around the world. Oil isn't the principal Saudi export, ideology is; petroleum merely bankrolls it.

I know it's not fun, but it's your civic duty to read it.

A Quiet Day on the Sun

Today's APOD.

Pacific Aviation Expands To MFR

Pacific Aviation of Grants Pass has bought Dan Jordan's Crater Aviation of Medford, expanding their fleet of aircraft and adding at least one more flight instructor. Jordan has moved to Texas. Their new office is upstairs in Jet Center North.

Jack the Cat Trees a Bear

AP photo, CBC story:

West Milford residents Suzanne and Jack Giovanetti first noticed a bear huddled in a tree in their backyard on Sunday afternoon.

Sitting beneath the tree: A seven-kilogram, orange-and-white, declawed neighbourhood cat named Jack.

The CBC has more pictures of Jack.

Mike's Gulch

John West of Silver Creek Timber bought a mess of dead trees.

He estimated it will take two to three months to harvest the timber, with the potential for completing the job this year. The timber will be logged by helicopter, and no new roads will be built.

"Most of the wood is in pretty good shape — that surprised me," West said, noting he expects to harvest close to the estimated volume in the appraisal.

Still, the amount of wood decay is a concern, he said, estimating that at least 30 percent of the value has been lost since the fire. The wood in trees less than 14 or 16 inches in diameter is no longer viable to log, he observed.

"The profit margin is a lot less now," West said. "We just have to be sharper with our business."

Meanwhile Governor K has petitioned a judge in San Francisco for a restraining order to stop even that.

United States District Court,

Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division:

...said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties... Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of "rock, paper, scissors." The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location of the 30(b)(6) deposition...

The news article includes a helpful graphic in case you don't know how the game is played:


Thanks to CATO for spotting this one.

Sagebrush Rebel

Wayne Hage, the original sagebrush rebel, died Monday.

BureauCrash linked to this interview done in 1998: