"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
Sebastian The associated press quite a story on the Michigan/Florida delgates here. Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass. In a conference call Saturday, the longtime Democratic Party … Read more
"Female Suicide Bombers kill 72 people at Baghdad Markets" Remote-controlled explosives were strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome and detonated in coordinated attacks on two Friday morning markets in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 72 people and wounding nearly 150. … The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed … Read more
I’ve haven’t been a big fan of McCain since his atrocious anti-First Amendment campaign finance law. But the good news about his win in Florida, and the almost certainty of his nomination for Republican candidate, is that the Republican candidate is decidedly anti-torture. Yikes, I wish that had never even been a question. Otherwise, open … Read more
One of the strongest objections to the Clinton candidacy is that it represents an unhealthy continuation of politics as usual. Clinton’s supporters in Nevada exhibit this in their recently filed lawsuit in which they attempt to destroy a voting procedure they helped create once it becomes apparent that it won’t help Clinton. In a process … Read more
If you are still getting problems with the spam filter, let me know. I’ve been trying to work with Typepad about it, and they assure me that it is doing better. Otherwise, open Christmastime thread.
This is NOT my substantive response to Patterico’s continued discussion on the torture issue. This is my response only to some theoretical matters. I hope to have a more substantive response with concrete examples late in the day Friday. I need to consult with our resident expert so I don’t get my facts wrong. But … Read more
–Sebastian I’ve written on the topic before, but a recent post by Patterico convinced me to revisit it. He hasn’t finished all his thoughts on the issue, but I’ll jump ahead anyway. I find him reasonable on most topics, so I thought I would throw in my thoughts. The presentation of his hypothetical is as … Read more
–by Sebastian According to this Guardian story, the UN may finally be acting on the Darfur genocide: The UN vote will dispatch a hybrid force of 19,555 UN and African Union (AU) soldiers and more than 6,000 police from around the world. They are due to take over from a largely ineffectual 7,000-strong AU force … Read more
–Sebastian I’m a sucker for explanations that go against conventional wisdom. I know they aren’t all true, but I like the way they make you look at things you’ve never thought deeply about. Here is a fascinating one I just ran across: Speakeasies and gangster violence did become familiar during the 1920s. And Americans did … Read more
—Sebastian I’ve had my disagreements with D-squared (and that is the polite way of saying it), but he has it right on here. Iraqi interpreters used by the British Army and CPA South have already been hunted down by death squads. The British forces in and around Basra are no longer really sufficient to protect … Read more
Apparently there is a new delivery system for the recently introduced Alzheimer’s drug. For quite a while I was following Alzheimer’s developments as one grandparent on each side had it. But when they died, I apparently stopped paying attention because I wasn’t even aware that an Alzheimer’s drug had come out last year. The patch … Read more
I’ve just watched a couple of episodes of "American Inventor". It doesn’t seem calculated to get a really good invention, but rather to make fun of people who (for the most part erroneously) believe that they have invented something good. It seems to me that there is a trend of recent shows which claim to … Read more
Would it be bad for me to support Obama because he seems non-awful and having a Black President would be good for race relations (itself an important goal)? Or is my premise wrong, and having him wouldn’t be good for race relations? Or is it just wrong? You don’t have to answer. This is an … Read more
–by Sebastian I found an interesting dataset from the bipartisan Election Assistance Commision. So far as I can tell from the murky backstory, this report was not adopted by the Commission because neither side liked parts of its conclusions (there are hints of the Administration not being thrilled either). And I can see why, there … Read more
–Sebastian I received an interesting email today (one word edited for our at-work readers): Hey, you won a round. Now you get to threaten the lives of 124,000 women a year who need a certain medical procedure, and you get to root around until you find doctors to prosecute. F*** you, mysognistic killer. — Mithras … Read more
–Sebastian This is a limited thread–we have one for mourning and one for gun control, this is a more limited question. From various people I respect I’ve seen the opinion that after the first two murders, the college administrators should have locked the college down. The college has more than 20,000 people, so locking it … Read more
by Sebastian Earmarks Revisited and Changes to the Congressional Research Service For more than a decade, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has provided data to Congress, reporters and the general public on various public policy issues (it is the research division of the library of Congress). Two serious changes in policy seem to have taken … Read more
–by Sebastian Personal anecdote open thread. I went to Denver for Christmas to visit my family. As you may have heard, there was a bit of snow in Denver around that time. Fortunately I was traveling on Saturday–two days after the Denver airport reopened. There was a warming trend while I was there. It got … Read more
—by Sebastian Well now that we have heard the president’s speech on the troop surge, I can safely say what I strongly suspected: Bush’s strategy is unchanged from the stragedy he has played out since the beginning. He has no explanation for why we have done so poorly thus far, and thus can offer no … Read more
–By Sebastian As sometimes happens, a post on one thing changes into a discussion about very different things after a few dozen comments. In this case the discussion turned to what conservatives and liberals offer society and/or politics. Lily suggested that pretty much every good change could be traced to a liberal mindset and that … Read more
–by Sebastian I know I’ve written it somewhere before, but there are certain issues which are deeply important to a party’s leadership so long as they are out of power, but vanish with the wind when they win. The ones I’ve identified are gerrymandering, voter fraud, and the budget deficit. For a high level politico, … Read more
by Sebastian– Housekeeping moment. I haven’t been able to resume my daily posting schedule, and for some reason I allowed that to convince me not to post. My New Year’s resolution is commit to at least one post per week. Funny how just changing my expectations makes things easier. My thoughts on the proposal to … Read more
Ah, Syria and Hezbollah are up to their old tricks again. Wouldn’t want to leave things alone for more than two months at a time. Will this be enough to arouse the ire of the international community? I predict long investigations with no action at the end, but I can hope to be wrong. UPDATE: … Read more
Trent Lott elected to GOP Minority Whip Great move! I’m sure GOP Senate members were thinking to themselves: "Huh, the Democrats seem to be attracting a lot of attention with some corrupt members of the House. What can we do to compete with that? Hey, I know! We could re-elect Lott, the guy drummed out … Read more
–by Sebastian Emergency UN meeting over test expected Yes, I’m certain there will be a meeting of the same body that said a nuclear test "would represent a clear threat to international peace and security" while removing all language about what it might possibly do if North Korea conducted a test. Really the only important … Read more
The San Jose Mercury News reports: Lawyer says Foley was abused by clergyman as a boy. … The shocks kept coming from Foley Tuesday. He later announced through his lawyer that he had been molested by a clergyman from the ages of 13 to 15. He did not identify the clergyman. Lawyer David Roth then … Read more
–Sebastian I’m not going to try to do an independent analysis of the recent NSA ruling when it has been done so well elsewhere (see especially Volokh and Althouse). In the fray, I noticed a post by a prominent legal scholar (and blogger) Jack Balkin which exhibits many of the characteristic attitudes toward the judiciary … Read more
No time to really comment but this can be a thread to talk about the recent terrorist operation discovered in the UK. Apparently hair gel can’t be carried on airplanes anymore. I’m happy I’m balding.
Over at QandO (link below the fold may not be work friendly so you might want to go to the website directly and scroll down), I see that Dale and his wife were in Balboa Park at the time of the Gay Pride Festival. I didn’t know he lived in San Diego. As it is … Read more
By Sebastian Discussions about rules of warfare tend to mix and muddle the reasoning behind such rules. A classic example of this is can be found here at CrookedTimber. Of course the reason people don’t line up to be shot at, wearing proper uniforms, distinguishing themselves from the civilian population, and so on, is that … Read more
Sorry I haven’t finished my promised post, but sometimes the world sucks. I have recently found out that a close friend had someone break into her house and he threaten to kill her kids if she didn’t have sex with him. She put them in front of the TV and went upstairs with him. Her … Read more
by Sebastian– Hilzoy’s recent post on liberals and libertarianism (which attracted surprisingly few comments when compared to the other posts in the series) reminded me of something I wanted to talk about. Since she specifically didn’t want to deal with it in that post I thought I would bring it to another thread rather than … Read more
It is a pathetic attempt at judging when you can’t tell the difference between the art and the stand (Hat Tip Abiola at Foreign Dispatches): Britain’s Royal Academy of Art put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art. The … Read more
–by Sebastian Useful data on medical malpractice costs in the court system is notoriously difficult to come by. Much of the time the researchers totally ignore defense costs–which leaves an analysis of ‘payouts’ woefully inadequate because it assumes that a suit which doesn’t lead to a payout doesn’t have a cost to the doctor. Other … Read more