The Guardian has an article on Blogger's founder. It comes out more like an article for Blogger Pro. (via JeffJarvis )

Steven Den Beste has a piece on the greatness of America and also refute's Pat Buchanan's immigrant argument. (He does not mention Buchanan but it could very well be a refutation of Buchanan's anti-imigrant theory.)

Virginia Postrel has a pretty good article in today's New York Times in support of globalization.

Steven Den Beste wrote a great article on conditions at Guantanamo Bay and how the Europeans are just using it as an excuse to bash America. Quote:

The stark contrast is not merely the conditions in two facilities, bu also the disporortionate attention paid to the two by human rights organizations and by European politicians and editorial writers. Ignoring the horrible inhumanity of conditions in Shibergan, they reserve their sharpest criticism for Guantanamo. (One has to wonder which they themselves would prefer if they had to choose one.)

Which leads to the overwhelming suspicion that the criticism actually never had anything to do with compassion for the prisoners. It was always about finding some reason to criticize the U.S. For America-haters in Europe, this war has been an unmitigated disaster. They can't seem to find anything to complain about!

In today's New York Times there is a very disturbing article in the Washington section of the National Briefing section. Quote:

FAULTING A SYSTEM OF RECALLING GOODS
Criticizing the Consumer Product Safety Commission she led until three months ago, Ann Brown said that a loophole in federal consumer protection was leading to deaths from products even after they are recalled. Because manufacturers do not have to keep records of who has bought their products, consumers cannot be notified directly about product recalls. Manufacturers instead must rely on advertising campaigns and the news media. As a result, dangerous products may remain in many homes. Ms. Brown said Congress should force the commission to address the problem. 

As a libertarian this article has some scary ideas in it. Ms. Brown wants to force someone to keep track of everything that is bought by each consumer. This sounds like scary big brother stuff to me.

More outrages are in today's National Briefing section of the New York Times. Quote:

FLORIDA: ADVOCATES FOR SHARKS SUE U.S.
Environmental groups have filed suit against the federal government to halt overfishing of sharks as demand grows worldwide for delicacies like shark fillet and shark-fin soup. In a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Tampa, the National Audubon Society, Earthjustice and the Ocean Conservancy said the National Marine Fisheries Service had failed to prevent overfishing and to rebuild coastal shark populations.

Maybe these environmentalist don't remember that this summer there were a number of shark attacks on American citizens. Now if a number of sharks have had to die in the war on terrorism that is too bad.

-Larry Elder is hosting "The Point" (without Greta Van Sustern). He interviewed Sharpton tonight and started out by saying "The others thank you for joining me." Larry Elder does not seem happy reading the CNN script.

- Camp X-Ray must not be that bad or else prisoners in Afghanistan would not be begging to be sent there.

- The New York Times has an article calling for busing based on race. The New York Times is still looking at things in an old paradigm. They do not suggest we do busing based on any sort of direct economic system. The suggestion is good old racial busing. Maybe I am not sophisticated enough to understand why we need this. I just grew up thinking we were supposed to look at what's on the inside of someone. I think it is pretty racist of the New York Times to think that all black people need to be "helped" by being sent to "white" schools.

Matt Welch quotes a great letter from a longtime Democrat on the protests in NYC.

So the anti-everything protesters are set to play in the Big Apple tomorrow as Bono and other world and business leaders meet at the Waldorf. I am sure you will end up blogging something about the events, especially if there is any sort of riot. So, since you cannot be here to enjoy all the fun, let me tell you the general opinion and feeling from most tired, stressed, battered, grieving New Yorkers I have spoken with: We don't want protesters. The bigwigs paying 25 grand a pop to gather here are more than welcome. We need their money. But the over-fed, white-boy, black-wearing trouble makers protesting instead of working, well, they can stay home. We have been through more than enough during the last four months. I have heard predictions that average New Yorkers will beat the shit out of the protesters if the boyz in black even get the slightest bit out of line. Never mind how the NYPD is feeling. Baton Rogue!

I have just added a permanent link to Jeff Jarvis' and Den Beste's sites they are worth checking out.

Jeff Jarvis reports that on his way to work in NYC he saw a cop at every Starbucks. That seems to be a smart thing because the anarchists are not even using rhetoric against violence.

Bin Laden is not just a terrorist, but he is also a racist!

Ignore the last post.

Sorry I have been messing up in my script today. The problem Bush had when he choked on the Pretzel is because he has a problem with fainting.

Aschroft wants the nude statues covered up. The only solution for the government to avoid getting in problems like this is simple: Don't build statues. If they just stick to national defense, these problems won't occur.

The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker. Are the environmentalists going to tell us to freak out about the coming ice age? I hope not, but it seems likely with evidence like this.

The orange jump suits given to the prisoners in Camp X-Ray could be a PR move. Think about it, the average American sees them in orange jump suits and the idea of them being prisoners of war seems ridiculous because they appear like average Americans.

MP3s are stealing. You are right here and most people are wrong. I believe the reason people do it is because they think they can get away with it and do not directly see the person it is harming. The arguments that downloading illegal MP3s is ok because the record companies overcharge people on CDs is garbage because by stealing the MP3s they are raising the price for almost all consumers.

So let me get this straight: AOL bought Netscape in 1999. AOL is now suing Netscape for winning the browser market in 1995. If someone has a better product than yours, you do not buy the product. Plain and simple.

I noticed in today's New York Times, they spend about 1/4 of a page with an advertise for Valentine's Day personals for only $20 a line. It looks like the New York Times isn't doing so well financially.

It would have been nice if on Friday The New York Times had covered the Ruling Against V.M.I. prayer rather than having a big 1/2 page piece on a non existent control debate in Utah.

John Tierney has a good column on proposed WTC memorials. His response to the flag raising statue is the best part to me. QUOTE:

Whatever size the memorial turns out to be, it could do more than mourn the victims of Sept. 11. A depiction of firemen raising a flag over the rubble (which created a controversy over the race and ethnicity of the men) would be inadequate no matter what the men looked like, because it would be a copy of the Iwo Jima memorial without the power of the original. The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima was a celebration of heroism and victory by soldiers who had conquered that island. Why mimic that image for an act of mourning at a place of defeat?

There was heroism at the World Trade Center, but it was embodied most clearly by the firefighters who rushed up into the burning buildings on Sept. 11, not by the ones who stood afterward on top of the rubble. A memorial showing firefighters going into the towers, or helping people escape, would be a better tribute than a flag flying over their remains. Leave the funerary monuments to the Lycians.

Ignore the last post. Checkout My father Alec Ulmann's pseudo-libertarian blog BackOff. He has a good idea for the Enron situation: self-regulating markets.

My father has his own blog that is updated about once a month. He has an interesting idea in the Enron situation calling for self regulation. I suggest you check out

Alex Knapp points out that Salon.com is taking personals and asks: " who on Earth would want to date somebody who is a regular Salon reader? (and probably gullible enough to pay for the Premium service?

Googlewhacking should qualify as an Olympic sport. (via The Daily Dose

Ever want to compare drug prices among the major cities in the nation? It can be done here. While I am on the subject of illegal drugs, a list of street-terms can be found here.

Jeff Jarvis has a new WTC memorial blog. IMHO, No memorial is needed. If a memorial is going to exist, put it in a vacant lot somewhere. There is just not enough open space in New York City.

Joanne Jacobs has a great post on Johnny Walker. Quote:

I was thinking about John Walker Lindh's desire for four wives. The dumb cluck's probably a virgin, I thought, what with all that fanatacism about "purity." And then I thought about his likely fate in prison: He's more likely to be a wife than to have one.

I've been listening to WBAI New York over the Internet. (I was listening to the station for a hip hop show they have. Don't worry I'm not becoming some sort of socialist-liberal.) The leader of one of the groups was being interviewed. He was asked about the vandalism that sometimes occurs at these protests. He was able to rationalize the vandalism by saying it was not violent compared to what Nike or The Gap does by paying their workers a low wage. I don't seem to see the equivalence of the two things being compared.

So you think Guantanamo is tough? Well, try Idaho. This article brings up a good point: the main people who are complaining about the conditions of the Cuba prisoners are the British politicians and not the British voters.

UPDATE: Upon some contemplation, it occured to me this article is just an excuse for the British journalist to dump on the United States. I doubt the British prisons are really the 4 star hotels that they seem to be.

Richard Jenkyns of TNR Online thinks Lord of the Rings isn't all its cracked up to be. I never got it myself. I read a few pages of the book and became bored. I went to see the movie and like most other people who had read the book I didn't get it.

Kenneth Reynolds of the Bronx writes correctly in a letter to the New York Post:

There are many things our government needs to do in response to Sept. 11. But reinstating the draft is not one of them.

Some people are questioning why some of the Camp X-Ray prisoners are being released. Theese are good questios to ask, but what else are we supposed to do with them?

James Fulford is given Idiocy Watch award for saying:

Why Does Bush have an Arab bodygaurd anyway?

In a Post of National Review's The Corner Kathryn Jean Lopez says:

"Just getting a little too comfortable with the whole web-logging thing."

That sounds like an admittance of being a blog too me.

Thank Goodness for Powell suggesting that the prisoners in Camp X-Ray being given P.O.W. status. The Administration has just gotten itself into trouble by saying the prisoners are not P.O.W's so they are not subject to the Geneva Convention treatments. We are treating the prisoners well and if the administration admits this they will not be as subject to criticism.

UPDATE: Reader Andy Freeman writes:
"Your conclusion follows only if there's a finite amount of criticism to be made. There isn't - the folks who are criticizing the US over this would be criticizing the US over something else if the prisoners were called P.O.W.s."

My thinking was more along the fact that the conditions must be mad if they administration needs to skirt around the P.O.W. status. I agree with Andy Freeman that a lot of the criticism is from the typical Anti-American folks.
He ends his e-mail with an interesting take on it though:

"It occurs to me that a reasonable person might well prefer criticism on this issue over criticism on some other issue. That suggests the possibility that one reason for not calling them P.O.W.s is that the "not POW" status has been a useful way to get US critics to make themselves irrelevant."

Johnny Walker must have agreed to fight Bin Laden for the four wives.

TV is addictive, but so is everything else.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article supposedly claiming that the Australians are enraged that David Hicks, the Australian who became a member of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, is being held at Camp X-Ray. The article though only quotes Australia's opposition parties.

It's clear the Internet has made it when it has its own saint.

Despite what you may think, the war in Afghanistan is not over. In fact it is building up more than ever. The U.S. is now involved in large scale ground war.

Robert A. Levy of the Cato Institute has a good editorial on military tribunals. The one thing he forgets is that the Supreme Court is always willing to sell out the Constitution in time of war.

"If something seems to be to good to be true, it probably is."

I don't know who first said this but it is defenitely true. The Enron stock seems to be a perfect example of this.

I saw Al Sharpton on Comedy Central's Daily Show this week. John Stewart asked him what he wanted, practically, in the world. Sharpton responded by saying he wanted equality and justice for all. It seems like obfuscation to me.

QuasiPundit has gotten better! It seems Will Vehrs has added a new section of little posts called Two Minute Drill.

The Washington Times reports that Greenspan thinks the economy is on the rise. He better be right.

Campaign Finance Reform packages do not have any special magic bullet that will stop companiies like Enron.

Davey D has pretty good responses to those hip hop purists who have accused The Roots of selling out. QUOTE:


"This is in response to the fact that "hip hop purists" think The Roots sold out by backing Jay Z during his so-called Unplugged performance. Who cares? They're a band. They accepted a high profile gig. Everyone's like, "How the HELL did The Roots even hook up with Jay Z???" There seems to be a fairly simple logic behind how they got there- Beanie is from Philly, he's done work with The Roots before and Jay needed a band that could perform a whole show of "hip hopinstrumentation". Now, I don't know if that's the case, but something along those lines seems about right.
I wonder if these same people are pissed that thier belovedRoots and Kweli performed in front of a formal, "sittingroom only" crowd at Avery Fisher Hall this week."

The Corner on National Review Online is National Review's attempt at a blog. They don't want to call it a blog though. I guesss that would mean their opinions are no better than anybody elses opinions.

Bush is asking for $48 Billion in defense increases. Bush never would have been able to get away with such a large increase without a lot of criticism before September 11th.

The L.A. Times has an article on how Karl Rove has suggested using the war as a strategy for the midterm elections. (Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't this story in the other papers a few days ago?) I do not think it will work completely. The high approval rating Bush has is because of the war and the 9/11 attacks. Congress on the other hannd is not responsible for foreign affairs, in the minds of many and in practicality, so people will be looking at a domestic situation. I do not believe people will be highly likely to lean Republican if the economy does not improve. Hopefully, the economy will improve though.

- Was part of the attraction of the flag raising statue proposal have anything to do with the Iwo Jima flag raising statue and the current worshipping of World War II.
- Jeff Jarvis has some interesting fantasies I thought are worth mentioning.
QUOTE:

- I also fantasize about Walker becoming a character on Oz. Imagine if Vernehim as one of their own. He'd be shish kebab in no time.
- Fantasy update: When crazy Mike Tyson goes to jail for (a) biting hisopponent or (b) rape or (c) whatever he does next, maybe he shouldroom with Walker.

Mariah Carey does not have a record contract. That is what happens when an artist can't sell records

"Wherein does this president, invested with his powers and perogatives, essentially differ from the king of Great-Britain, (save as to name, the creation of nobility and some immaterial incidents)? - Cato

Why Libertarians Can't Pick Up Chicks
(via TheDailyDose)

The New York Times has an article on Major League Baseball not being to elimenate the Twins this year. The court ruled that the Twins had to fulfill the lease they have with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission who own Metrodome. Legally, this appears to be a wise decision. Contract enforcement is one of the oldest principles inherent in the Constitution. However, I see no reason why Major League Baseball can not just pay off the lease. I guess I forgot, the MLB only likes to take money from city governments not give it back.

The New York Times reports that the CBO is predicting smaller federal surpluses for the next 10 years. I don't really trust the CBO to be able to predict surpluses for 10 years.

Eve Kayden has an interesting blog.

According to the BBC each Al- Qaeda prisoner has ben given:
1 army standard sleeping mat
1 blanket
2 buckets
1 one quart canteen
2 orange prison style jump suits
2 bath towels 1 for washing/ 1 for use as a prayer mat
1 copy of the Koran

The typical food for the prisoners of the Camp X-Ray:
- Breakfast usually bagel, cream cheese, an orange, a pastry, a roll, a bottle of water.
- Lunch- a box of cereal, 2 cereal bars, packet of peanuts, 1 packet crisps, 1 packet rasins, 1 bottle of water
- Dinner usually white rice, red beans, a banana, bread, bottle of water

Doesn't seem inhumane to me.

The Gaurdian has an article criticizing the hip-hop community for being patriotic and in favor of the war on Bin Laden.

The article starts off with a quote from the rapper Canibus from a new song of his called "Draft Me"
QUOTE:
"Draft me! I wanna fight for my country/ Jump in a humvee and murder those monkeys!/ Draft me! I'm too dedicated to fail/ Justice must prevail, justice must prevail!"
-The Gaurdian acts like Canibus has committed some crime by having patriotic feelings. Last time I checked any of the founders visions of hip-hop it did not mean America was automatically wrong.

In the next paragraph the editorial mentions the fact that the Wu Tang Clan added lyrics against a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers. They also mention Mystikal's hit song "Bouncin Back(Bumpin' Me Against The Wall)" which is another anti-Osama song.

The rest of this editorial is just crying about how hip-hop artists are not following the far left's anti-America line. The patriotism that has come from the hip-hop community is to much for The Gaurdian to take.

I actually like this article though. It points out the sense of the wide range of people that apreciate America and how patriotic the United States is being. Personally I'll take the Wu Tang Clan and Dr. Dre over the Beastie Boys and those commies in The Coup anyday.

The Washington Times reports that the British are backing us on the fact that the detainees in Camp X-Ray are being treated humanely. It seems to be a crazy move for the administration to be saying they are not prisoners of war. The fact is the prisoners have gone from the freezing weather in Afghanistan to the nice tropical weather of Cuba.

Rick Perlstein writes in the New York Times that there are no publishers for the intellectuals. InstaPundit is right on this, blogland is a clear publishing oppurtunity.

Thanks to Kathy Kinsley for adding a permanent link to my site.

Thanks to Rand Simberg for adding a permanent link to my site.

Are you, like me, obsessed with The Federalist Papters? Well, if you are they are available here on the web.
(Via InstaPundit

The New York Post sound like the war on terrorism going to Iraq is a done deal. Plans for the details are in the works.

Again, I ask why? I understand that Iraq would like to have nukes, but that does not seem so bad. Since more than one country has had nukes, they have not been used. They serve almost as a deterent from war getting too complicated. It seems strange to me to hear people in favor of gun rights saying Iraq has no right to nuclear weapons.

Toppling Saddam could be a good idea though.

The New York Times has an article on how credit cards companies have stopped their cards from being accepted on Internet casinos. This is a good example of how the market self regulates itself. There was no need for federal involvement when the credit card companies saw they were losing money so they stopped paying for internet gambling. The free-market sure is great.

I downloaded the portion of Cornel West's rap CD from the web. I was surprised to find out that Cornel West barely appears on the album. Cornel West has someone that can actually rap on the album doing most of the rapping. The lyrics seem to not be written that well and don't seem to have that much meaning. I was just listening to KRS-ONE's Sneak Attack CD which made West's album seem even more pathetic.

The New York Times reports that part of the reason that Enron seemed to be so big was because they lied about their accounting problems.

The New York Times has an article on the Roots' concert at Lincoln Center. I wish I could have seen Rahzel doing an imitation of Badu's part in "You Got Me." I think the real future of hip hop is in live groups like the Roots or Infectious Organisms.

reports that the PC statue of the firefighters has been scrapped. Here is an idea for what to do: Nothing. No statue is needed. Will a statue really do anyone any good?

Andrew Sullivan's site is mention on the DrudgeReport. This seems to be the first blog Matt Drudge has linked for the stories. Andrew Sullivan has also updated his site's format.

Great lines from tonight's Simpsons:
Woman: "Mr. Simpson, There are tons of people like you with no talent."
Homer: "Yeah, They're called Congress..." (Homer erupts in chuckles.

Will Vehrs of QuasiPundit is right on the money on Enron.
QUOTE:

"Enron has shown that money might buy access, but it doesn't buy policy."

The New York Times has an article on how the Steel industry wants a bailout. Bailouts in general are a bad idea. When failing conditions exist, let them fail. The same is true with th