Incentives work.

Australia's ethnic Australian population is in significant decline, like that of some other civilized nations. (Our decline is slower than that of others, but the bottom line still is: not enough babies born alive.) Consequently, the former Howard government started paying mothers a $5000 "baby bonus" (or more properly a First Child Tax Refund).

Parents are eligible for the payment on compassionate grounds if a baby is stillborn beyond 20 weeks' gestation. Late term abortion qualifies for "baby bonus" purposes. You can guess the rest.

The loophole can't be closed till 2009, because printing new forms is expensive. (link)

read the rest! »

Obama, Kaus, Starbucks

So fellow turncoat Democrat (hey, we just don't believe in deceptive memes, bubba) Kaus points me to author Ron Rosenbaum's piece over at Pajamas, where he actually gives some damn good advice to Obama (not as good as mine, I'll argue). But then Rosenbaum goes on to slag Starbucks in the post just below.

read the rest! »

5 Geek Social Fallacies

Any of these ring a bell?

UFOs over Britain: more ominous than you think

The Telegraph reports that reports of UFO sightings over Britain have risen greatly. The Ministry of Defence...

... has opened up its own "X-Files" for 2007, revealing 135 UFO sightings from across the UK. If aliens are choosing the UK as a holiday destination, it appears it is becoming more popular, as the number if sightings has shot up since 97 were reported in 2006.

Is something out there? Most of the story's commenters seem to think so. But things could be much more ominous than you think. Reader Geoffrey commented,

Hopefully, they have the "Do not interfere with the locals" edict, but clearly they are not that bothered about being observed. Letting us know of their existence gently? Perhaps. They have been around our planet for at least 50 years & maybe far longer and have not yet destroyed us, so why worry? One last thought: Could they take on human form? Rowan Williams for instance?

Ah, yes, Rowan Williams, who is for some incomprehensible reason the Archbishop of Canterbury and thus head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this guy. From outer space. That explains a lot.

And in other new of the weird, read why breast cancer patients who take up competitive boat rowing are better off than those who don't.

Vitriol, Veritas, and Valid Email Addresses

Good old George Lakoff says (approximately) we mostly think using hardware and circuits overloaded with structures--thinking patterns--that are metaphors that we already have wiring for. If the metaphor is battle, the battle circuits are running even if we're sitting at a keyboard. If the metaphor is exploration, those neurosomatic elements are what are active as we read and type. [Addendum: What he means is that to a great extent, figures of speech are actually embodied. A fascinating prospect when he first proposed it in his Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, since somewhat sidetracked by Lakoff's celebrity consultancies among other factors.]

Lately I've wondered again: Are comment threads here on Winds arguments, battles, or are they conversations, explorations? What should they be, in what proportion?

What kind of "bar" do we run here?

In the comments guidelines and associated thread, Joe Katzman mentions "backchannel discussion". But what if there's no backchannel available? I contend that it leads to more battle, less exploration. Let's talk about that.

read the rest! »

Where's Blutarski? A Modest Proposal

I'm told that Movable Type's "Allow comments" setting on WoC now works -- which is to say, Marshals ought to be able to lock threads, disallowing new posts temporarily or permanently. This is something I'd prefer would only be used to combat sp*m on sessile entries, not to restrict discussion. But having the option is important.

To celebrate, I think a spirited "food fight" is called for. Here. In this thread.

Here are the ground rules...

read the rest! »

On a Lighter Note ....

One of the things that fascinates me about the Internet age is the number of communities of interest that are out there, aided by email and web pages. There are railroad buffs, flower growers, wood workers, knitters, pumpkin chunkers -- you name it, there's probably an online group of devotees happily exchanging views and news for it.

Take, for instace, the little AIBO robot dogs that Sony used to make. Intended as a high-end entertainment item, the later models came with rather sophisticated software that learns and develops a personality through interaction with its owner. Sony discontinued these a year ago, but there's a brisk market in used equipment and, since the programming interface has been opened for them, lots of people writing software. Some in artificial intelligence labs, but a lot more by amateurs who just like the things and are fascinated by their behaviors.

Add in YouTube, digicams and a bright young studentcreative owner and you get this AIBO Xmas Dance. There's a rather well-down backstory on how the white became a stunt robot too, at One Way Ticket. Bet they'll have you smiling. ;-)

UPDATE: Ever wonder what the robots do when the researchers go home for the night?

Wine, Chocolate and Mom Was Right....

So, red wine contains anti-aging compounds that might inhibit cancer AND counteract some of the health effects of obesity, too.

And then there are the health benefits of dark chocolate ....

And now researchers have figured out that chocolate milk is good for athletes.

Enjoy!!

Flying down the neighborhood

I haven't dropped off the earth - we left August 16 to take our son, Thomas, to his freshman year at Wake Forest University, which he is attending with the help of a track and field scholarship. Thomas is a thrower, not a runner - he's too tall (6'3") and too big (200 very lean pounds) to run competitively at the Div. 1 college level. But he can heave a shotput and a discus: he won third in the former and second in the latter at the Tenn. state championship meet last May.

Having returned Saturday, it was back to work for me and then yesterday in late afternoon I rode for the first time on a hot-air balloon. The balloonist, commercial pilot Richard Arnold, owns Dream Flights Ballooning here in Franklin, Tenn.

The sky was overcast with a small threat of rain (which didn't develop), so we flew low since visibility aloft was limited. The flight lasted about an hour, although getting the balloon out of the cow pasture we landed in proved to be more of a challenge than it first appeared. A local man very kindly lent a hand.

We took off from an elementary schoolyard and passed over a subdivision before heading over the industrial part of Franklin, thence to the countryside. I took my digital-video camera and my digital still camera and made a DVD therefrom.

As you can see from the video grabs below, we didn't merely pass over a neighborhood, we also passed through one. At the lowest point, the bottom of the basket was 4-6 feet above the pavement. To see a WMV movie of this part of the flight, visit this post at donaldsensing.com and click on the first image there.

More grabs below.

read the rest! »

Night Draws Near Giveaway

Anthony Shadid's history of the Iraqi people in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war, Night Draws Near, is due out in paperback shortly. The book's publisher, Holtzbrinck Publishers, is offering 20 copies of the book to readers of Winds of Change. Because we at Winds of Change are in favor of free stuff that doesn't come out of our pockets, we're all for it. So, if you are a reader of Winds of Change (and if you're not, how are you reading this?) and would like a copy, send an email to Matt[dot]Godzieba[at]hbpub[dot]com with your name and address and he will arrange for a copy to be sent to you at no expense to you. Make sure you put 'Winds of Change Promotion' in the message subject so he knows what each email is about. For those who are interested, my review of the book is here.

Update: All books have been claimed. Thanks to everyone for the great response.

New Light

Most of the pro-choice arguments resonate with me, as far as they go: appealing to a woman's right to control her body, to the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, to the need to prevent narrow and sectarian moral strictures from driving national laws. Legal and safe abortion is a necessary evil -- very necessary and very evil. If we disagree, it is over the matters like notification, waiting periods, trimesters.

But every now and then, amid the repetition of these points, something slips in that makes me catch my breath.

read the rest! »

Carnival of Insults

Ann Coulter is in hot water -- again -- for calling Arabs "ragheads," among other things.

Instapundit notes:

The lefties seem mostly upset about her use of the term "raghead," which is racist and offensive, but more or less akin to the term "cracker," which doesn't seem to bother a lot of lefties. So pardon me if I'm largely unmoved by their mock outrage on this account.

Let's dredge up all the racial insults! Let's insult everybody. If I inadvertently leave you out, then please let me know and I'll be sure to insult you as soon as I can.

read the rest! »

Hijacked Again

Good evening, Democrats. It's now 48 hours since George W. Bush's latest State of the Union address.

read the rest! »

First there were no Terrorists

Actually, first there were no "rioters" in Los Angeles (post-Rodney King).

But now there are no "looters" in New Orleans. Some of the AP photos moving on the wire tonight do use the word. But as the night goes on there are fewer and fewer of that sort. And more and more like this:

"People remove items from a Winn-Dixie store in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005."

"A man pulls two carts filled with various items in parking lot at a Super Wal-Mart in the Garden district in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Hurricane Katrina hit the city Monday causing massive flooding and power outages."

[Visible in the car are a whole lot of power tools, motor oil, and a big cooler]

"People remove items from a closed Foot Action store at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets after floodwaters rose in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Tuesday, Aug., 30, 2005, in New Orleans."

"Persons remove goods from a closed Super Wal-Mart in the Garden District of New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 30,2005."

[bicycles, clothing ....]

"People remove items from a Winn-Dixie store in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005."

Among the odd coincidences, as of right now I'm not finding any of these online.

Carnival of the Etymologies

The space shuttle soars again. But the anxieties of the Columbia tragedy won't rest until Discovery comes down safely. Watching this astonishing machinery -- and the even more amazing men and women who pilot her -- reminds me of the audacity of human spaceflight, the sturdy frailty of it all, and of the lost Columbia.

She was a double-wide trailer fitted with angel wings. She could heft 4 million pounds into space and fly 17,000 mph and pass unscathed through a blast furnace that would pulverize a solid block of concrete and melt battlefield armor.

She cradled delicate scientific experiments, finicky computers and the most precious cargo imaginable, human lives.

Between the journeys through Hell, she would sit on the runways, sleek, strong, and proud. Sometimes, it seems, she knew what she meant to us as we watched her soar.

read the rest! »

Away from Blogs for a Short While

It's been a difficult week for us and for friends and family. {details deleted}

I'll be away from blogging for another week or so. - Robin

This Looks Promising

This blog's premise is to strengthen connections between people by stimulating respectful conversations about ethical behavior and religion, politics, American culture, etc. We may believe differently. We may agree to disagree. That's fine, because what's most important is not what we believe or who we are or who our parents were, but how we choose to act.

I plan to check in with this new blog from time to time to see how the conversation is going.

Operation Support the Troops: The Baghdad Hobby Club

Looking for a unique way to support our troops this holiday season? Well check out The Baghdad Hobby Club, which is a group formed by US soldiers dedicated to role-playing games, board games, scale modeling and other hobbies. Karey Koehn, from Hobby Town, explains in her own words (via email) more about the club and how you can assist.

read the rest! »

On TV soon ....

I got a phone call yesterday from the West Point public affairs office letting me know that a TV team would be filming in my classroom this morning. They were following cadet Will Sullivan, a first classman (senior) who is on the football team.

As it happened, what I had scheduled for the day was impromptu "stand up" briefings on the project work the cadet teams had done this term. (The course is SE450 Project Management and System Design, an integrative project course for non-Systems Engineering majors. The cadets use a structured project approach based mainly on multiple objective decision analysis and some basic computer simulation techniques.) Will briefed the implementation plan his team devised for their recommended sensor package to put on High Altitude Airships for battlefield reconnaisance. Three other cadets presented the implementation plans for their projects, as well.

I think the resulting spot will run on CNN sometime in the day or so before the Army-Navy football game this weekend. As soon as I hear details, I'll post them here. There's a good chance no footage from my own classroom will be aired -- they followed several cadets for 2 days -- but it should be an interesting window into life at the Point in any case.

Good News Sunday

Well, I pretty much missed Good News Saturday yesterday. I was caught up in the Mary Cheney story as my outrage over many aspects of this election season bubbled up and over.

So I thought I'd take a break from current events for the rest of the evening (and ignore the papers waiting on my desk to be graded). Instead, for a moment I'd like to savor some things that happened to me today. Y'all are most welcome to add your own good news stories in the comments. What great things that have nothing to do with the election season have happened recently?

Today was a Dog Day for me.

read the rest! »

And now for some good news

for Army fans.

USMA's football team beat South Florida yesterday, 42 - 35 on the throwing arm of quarterback Zak Dahman and running back Carlton Jones' 5 touchdowns, 225 yards rushing and a 2 point conversion. That's two in a row for Army and coach Ross. Other key plays included wide receiver Jeremy Trimbles' incredible catch over the head of a USF defender and defensive lineman Will Sullivan's recovery of a fumble by USF wide receiver Jackie Chambers.

Last week it was Tielor Robinson with 5 TDs for the win that broke a record-long loss streak. Neither Robinson nor Jones is a senior this year, so things are looking up for Army's football program not only this season but going forward as well.

As I've mentioned, a number of the team are or were my students. A big HOOAH to the Black Knights and all their supporters at West Point!!

(Dirty uniforms on the football field are much more fun to contemplate than mudslinging and dirty tricks in the election campaigns.)

A Well-Rounded Roundup

Joe has kept encouraging me to link to many more of the posts I do on my own blog, but also has asked me to move to a format of short links, rather than the brief excerpts I've done before. I've been hesitant to do too much self-linking up to now, as it might seem a bit too, well, I'll leave possible metaphors to you. However, with a bit of hesitancy, and not wanting to otherwise make too many posts per day here, and following Joe's kind encouragement, herewith a round-up of some recent posts with links I found amusing or informative; no politics included.

The most important:

• Alan Cullison was one of the first reporters in Afghanistan in October, 2001; there he found, and later analyzed, the computer hard drives most used by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden, and many other top al Qaeda leaders. It's a must-read, 5 out of 5 story.

See also:

• Science & Technology Stories
• The Odd and Amusing

read the rest! »

Miss USA, 2004

WSJ's Best of the Web informs us that there's a new Miss USA in town, Shandi Finnessy (profile, pictures & video). Congratulations, Shandi!

"Finnessey, a statuesque 5-foot-11 blonde from St. Louis, wrote a book called "The Furrtails," as part of her aim to integrate mentally retarded children into regular classrooms. She has a master's degree in counseling and also plays piano and violin."

Which is great - but that's not the good news.

"A Republican, she told Reuters she would use her position to help explain America's involvement in Iraq. "What needed to be done had to be done," she said."

Nice, but unless we can convince her to do a Guest Column here on Winds of Change.NET, that isn't the good news either.

"At a party following the event, Fennessey described her social life as "totally single and looking."

Now THAT is some good news for y'all. Winds of Change.NET readers, start your engines!

UPDATE: ...or, as I note in the comments, nominate a comparable example.

Idiotarian Watch: On Hold

A couple of days ago, I wrote about Andy's comments in one of our threads, where he shared his view that it's perfectly legitimate to blow up grandmothers in the streets - and what's more, that they deserve it. Yesterday, I got an email from Andy: he's headed out of town, and asked if I would hold that post until he was back to face that article and any comments directly.

The irony of giving this level of fair treatment to a man like Andy is not lost on me.

Nevertheless, I'm going to hold the post. Why? Because I'm not going to do this behind his back. No, I'm going to take his own words, and highlight them, and thrust them right between his eyes next Tuesday. From the front, where he can see me.

A Couple Of Things (read all the way to the end)...

First, apologies, as there is lots of bloggable stuff and little time on my part in which to blog it. Deadlines approach, and they are my mistress for now.

The big thing is obviously the widely publicized Army War College article (pdf) by Jeffrey Record, blasting Bush's conduct of the "Global War on Terrorism". I've glanced at it, and while I'm inclined to grant the author significant knowledge and expertise that I lack, there is a disconnect between the world he describes and what I see. I'm going to chew on that and will have something to say apace. Who knows, I could change my mind...

Jim Hake is still working hard to come up with swag the 1st Marine Division can give away to civilians in Iraq - reminding them that we want badly to be their friends - you can click here to help, or here to donate cash (as of last week, he'd raised over $30,000 and sourced 2,000 frisbees with 'friendship' on them in English and Arabic). Or, if you live in Orange County or San Diego, email me and we'll be helping him packing and loading early next week.

read the rest! »

Sensing's Best of the Web

Donald Sensing has a roundup of links from all over that's very much worth your time. Lots of good stuff.

Trent's Road Trip

My day job is as a Quality Specialist for the Department of Defense in Sealy, Texas at a truck plant that makes 2 & 1/2 and 5-ton trucks. For the next week I will be in in Ft. Bragg N.C. doing a "customer out reach survey" with the troops there about the trucks we build just as the U.N. vote comes in.

I don't expect to have Internet access there. I will write the trip up for Winds when I get back. It will be interesting to see who is left for our team to talk too, besides the 82nd Airborne's ready brigade and it's attached 18th Corps support units, that is.

I expect I will soon see whether rumors are indeed faster than the Internet.

Have a nice week.

In Praise of Group Blogging

In 2003, Winds of Change.NET ceased to be my private domain and became a team blog. I'm more than satisfied with the results. What was I thinking when I made the switch? Eugene Volokh must have ESP, because he nails it perfectly.

Winds of Change.NET Survey and Contest!

Hi, all! As you can see, we've done some sprucing-up over here at Casa del Winds of Change.NET. You'll find few new features on the right, plus a few font tweaks all around to heighten contrast and make reading easier. All that, and a search engine that works really, really well. We're still moving in, so there's more to come.

If there's a particular feature you'd really like to see us install for this blog, please click the Comments link below and tell us.

One of the new additions is something this blog has never had before: a tagline.

"Liberty, Discovery. Humanity. Victory."

Now, here's your challenge: try and come up with a better one, and post your thoughts in the comments section. Or, if you think the one we have is the right one, tell us that with a simple "yours - ditto" comment.

We've covered many topics here at Winds of Change.NET over the last 9 months. Remembering 9/11, and the heroes of Flight 93. Military matters, from future US Air Force priorities to how special forces really operate and concepts like 4th Generation Warfare. Global politics, be it our policy toward Europe, Armed Liberal's Alternative State of the Union speech, Trent's work on North Korea, Commander Lawrence T. Peter's first-hand reports from Sudan, or the probable results of a limited Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange. Recommendations and action, from a 10-point platform for bioterror readiness to the invention of the "Blogburst" in response to the SFSU incident. Technology that could change our world, from Bionic eyes that work to force fields, globally ubiquitous computing, and the choke points of a networked society. We also cover the things that make us human: World Series memories, 9/11 hero Abe Zelmanowitz, some Sufi wisdom, Islam's other voices and more.

[cue "Iron Chef" theme...]

Can you capture that breadth, and the spirit of those who post here, in one meaningful and memorable tag-line? The winner will receive fame and acknowledgement here on the blog, as well as one free guest blogger post about anything they like.

Who will take it? Whose tag line will reign supreme? This much I do know: there are more smart people reading this blog than there are writing it. We look forward to your ideas.

January 25: Shabbat Shalom!

Tick, tock goes the clock. 3 DUPBBSNIT (Days Until President Bush's Big Speech, Not Including Today; acronym appropriately pronounced: "dub-snit").

Most Saturdays here on Winds of Change.NET are "good news" days, where we put aside our normal conversations and focus on Sufi wisdom, heroism, and promising new discoveries. Today's thoughts are a bit more somber. All of us can see what's coming, and understand its necessity. Doesn't mean we have to like it, though. And there's other news we'd rather not have heard.

Folks who prefer our regular rotation may find value in some of yesterday's exchanges, from Celeste's post about responsibility in the face of a sometimes-hostile world to Armed Liberal's meditations on taxes to Trent Telenko and I having a bit of a back and forth over France.

Today's Blogs:
  * Winning the War With Arms Isn't Enough
  * Taxes and Liberalism
  * Sufi Wisdom of the Week: Hodja on the Battlefield
  * "That's the kind of world...": Condolences to the Sensings
  * "That's the kind of world...": U.N. = Unimaginable Negligence

Parapundit's 2003 PredictionsOn my

Parapundit's 2003 Predictions

On my roster of underrated bloggers, one name stands out above the rest. Randall Parker was one of those "uber-commenters" par excellence. He now writes four (yes, 4!) blogs, solo, and somehow manages to fill them with relentlessly intelligent and thought provoking content.

No, I don't know how he does it either.

Today I'll just offer a hat tip, and direct you to the "ParaPundit Predictions for 2003." To go out and be that specific definitely takes los grandes huevos, but I know Randall and so I know that he's thought hard about every single one. Bet he makes you think, too.

Soundtracks of My Dreams

(For an explanation of this blog's temporary change in focus, see my Oct. 3 "October Magic" post)

Watched parts of the Diamondbacks vs. Cardinals game, and also the Braves vs. the Giants. Work has left me a bit short in the sleep department, so most of it dropped straight through my consciousness and into my dreams. Interspersed with occasional waking snatches, usually at convenient times.

That happens a lot. As long as the audio is on nearby, it tends to get incorporated into my dreams. I've fallen asleep on the couch (clicker in hand, of course), and awakened in the middle of an infomercial dream. To find the infomercial itself playing on the TV. I know my mind is in good working order, too, because even with my conscious defenses off they still couldn't make me decide to buy.

August 30: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

This daily item has been lost amidst recent events, and all kinds of great stuff by fellow bloggers went unacknowledged. Time to remedy that

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution (Faster, please). The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People was just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be our Blogosphere Ambassador to Iran with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• As the old Persian proverb says: "The sun will not hide behind the clouds forever." That said, Khatami is trying his hardest to prove it wrong.
  

• Iranian Ur-Blogger "Hoder" has a link re: recent developments at the Bushehr nuclear reactor. Apparently, construction activity has stepped up. If the revolution doesn't follow the Iraqi war pretty soon, an Israeli strike is surely in the offing there. Additional facilities in Esfahan and Neka are beyond easy IAF reach, however.
  

• The Guardian Observer reports: "Iran's new revolution is not one that is spilling on to the streets - or at least not yet. Although there are increasing numbers of demonstrations by students and angry, unpaid workers, this is not where the real force for change lies."
  

• Another interesting tidbit from "Hoder": According to a nation-wide research poll, 68% people disagree with this statement: "Men should work outside to make money and women should be houswives". Only 26% agree with that. He asks: "Doesn't it show that Iranian people are a lot different with all muslim countries? What has happened to Iranian people during the past 20 years that has made them so different?" Respectively, the answers are "yes, and they always were"; and "they got to live Islamic theocracy and find out if the experience matched the promise." All the women, who're independent, throw your hands up at me!
  

• Can people trying to create deep purple petunias stumble on something that may help treat cancer and AIDS? It seems so. Jay Manifold reports.
  

• Jay Manifold also has some good news re: smallpox, whose use in warfare has been covered previously in these pages.
  

• Back on August 8th, Winds of Change.NET provided a heads up on a possible Saudi Arabian nuclear program. Yesterday, the Middle East Newsline reported that U.S. officials and a report published in an internal U.S. State Department journal both acknowledge Saudi Arabia's interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
  

• Maureen Dowd, who is usually a well-deserved object of derision over here, has a solution: "Let's do regime change in a kingdom that gives medieval a bad name". Maureen's columns usually give "trivial ad hominem snobbery" a bad name, but this one had a point for a change. All in good time, Maureen. Nice to see the Left beginning to grasp reality at last. (NY Times, free registration required)
  

• Dowd's column has been noted aroumd the blogosphere... but to get maximum benefit, go to the NY Times comments forum. See especially this classic appeasement-isolationist post, and this succinct and devastating reply. Alan Willingham, we salute you. Worth the registration hassle!
  

• Is the House of Saud really here to stay? What is their future? Some very good discussion going on at Travelling Shoes, where a reader writes to offer a different analysis. I look forward to H.D. Miller's response.
  

• Meanwhile, progress marches on in the West. Sandia Labs has made real headway on a working magnetic gun. While it has weapon applications, it's also very useful for testing proposed space structures and may also make it easier to maintain atomic weapons without requiring explosive tests. Or even become the basis of future propulsion systems. Ah, the paradoxes of new technologies.

Stay tuned...

August 19: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

News and views from around the web.

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• Glenn Frazier has more news from Iran...
  

• "Religion of Peace" Watch (Indonesia): Even more disturbing news is coming out of this area, which Winds of Change has covered before. Mona Saroinsong from the Sulawesi Church Crisis Centre pleads, "PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO SAVE those who are innocent before it's too late!!" The serious threat to the Christians of the region, the village of Tentena, with a population of around 60,000 (many of them refugees from other regions), is now again very real. Seems local Islamists of the Laskar Jihad are up to their old tricks of mass killings and forced conversions, with the willing connivance of the Indonesian military. (Thanks to Randall Parker for the heads-up)
  

• Charles Krauthammer thinks the Hamdi case, in which a captured Taliban fighter was found to have been born to Saudi parents in the USA before moving back home, is significant. How significant? Enough that people may invoke "Hamdi Rights" the same way they now invoke "Miranda Rights" upon arrest. That's a pretty tall order, Charles. After all, people arrested in foreign countries routinely demand those rights, and are often outraged when they find out that there is no local counterpart for what they've heard on U.S. cop shows!
  

• Travelling Shoes Says the House of Saud is Here to Stay. Like it or not. "Here's a quick question: Name the last successful popular revolution in the Arab world. (Iran doesn't count because it's not Arab.) Give up? Here's a quick hint: There aren't any. There never have been any." (Thanks to Instapundit for the link)
  

• George Will says the ticking sound you hear is Arabia, and pretty soon thar she blows! We get to watch closely, and see who is right. Pass the popcorn....
  

• Meanwhile, that trillion-dollar lawsuit is pretty funny. It names the Saudis, and also names 4 Canadian charities who richly deserve it. This is going to be a great publicity tool for exposing the jihadi networks, if nothing else. Plus, we can always send the U.S. Army in afterward as the Repo Man...
  

• We have seen the enemy, and it is... "transnational progressivism"? Lots of folks have linked to and discussed this lately, including USS Clueless (in a looong duel with Max Sawicky - see here, and here, and here), and Edge of England's Sword. My only comment, other than a recommendation to read the article: there is no such thing as "post-democratic." You are, or you aren't. They aren't.
  

• Welcome back, Camille Paglia! In a typical scorcher of a column, she says "The Left Has Lost Its Way And Lost Its Voice." Before my fellow conservatives rejoice, read the article. The Left's current state benefits no one - not even its enemies.
  

• Marc Herold is a great example of what Paglia is talking about. Marc has also been the subject of a few beatings in this space (incl. most recently on Aug. 12). Deservedly so - the man's a bald-faced liar. The Weekly Standard chimes in with this telling fact: "Notwithstanding reports from Afghan journalists after the Taliban's ouster that under its rule they were forced to doctor reports of civilian casualties ("We could not tell the truth," one told AP), Herold's "dossier" contains a graph whose civilian casualty count, for every week of the war, exceeds Taliban claims." As long as Herold keeps telling whoppers, I'll keep calling him on it.
  

• Mark Steyn writes! This time, it's... Elvis?!? Thank yuh verruh much!
  

• Arab governments keep making noises about "information campaigns" to present Arab views to the West. Saudi Arabia has even thrown about 50 million dollars into this effort. But some liberal Arab intellectuals are ferociously mocking the very concept. MEMRI has a translation of a devastating article by renowned Egyptian playwright 'Ali Salem. As readers of my Saturday "Sufi Wisdom of the Week" feature are well aware, there is such a thing as Islamic humour. The frequency and sharpness of public articles like this are an excellent barometer of how we're doing in the War Against Islamists. (Thanks to Charles Johnson's LGF for the tip)
  

• Rumsfeld Rules! Still. We are possessed of great good fortune to have this man as Secretary of Defense at this critical juncture, still teaching the young dogs new tricks aplenty. (Thanks to Randall Parker for pointing out that the STRATFOR piece is public access.)
  

• (10:00am) Charles Johnson has an excellent pair of posts on the Palestinian conflict. "about 1,000 Palestinians suspected of being collaborators were murdered by other Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. That is nearly as many as the 1,000-plus Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. Bassem Eid estimates that fewer than half of the accused collaborators actually worked with Israel in any way." Charles asks, reasonably: "How can those who define themselves as 'liberals' support monsters who do things like this?"
  

• In "Defining Terrorism Down," Charles takes a hard look at a Washington Post magazine article: "In fact, this piece is anything but neutral; the WaPo has actually expressed the Palestinian view that suicide bombers are heroes, and that they have no other choice but to attack innocent civilians."
  

• Fred at Rantburg also has an interesting update, explaining how Arafat channelled millions of dollars each month into accounts. Did his donors at the EU know? Oh, yes. They were told about the corruption - by his treasurer. "I constantly and vainly called for reforms and transparency and when I finally quit in 1996, I warned donor countries of the situation, because I could not simply carry on being held responsible for these disappearances of money," he said.

More tomorrow!

August 12: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

News and views from around the web.

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  
  
• Rantburg notes that the Arab mercenaries and bully-boys brought in to do the Iranian regime's dirty work are getting a bit of a reputation. Even the Army is annoyed, and there's a lot of muttering about tall trees and swinging ropes after the revolution. Funny, that was the Afghanis' reaction too. Boys, this is no way to found a worldwide Islamic Khilafa. We'd send in the regional cultural sensitivity trainers, but they were executed yesterday. :-(
  
  
• Faithful Winds of Change reader Randall Parker points to a NY Sun report that the Iranians tried to assassinate a French dissident recently. In Paris. They've certainly done this often enough, to utter and predictable silence from our Euro-Guardians of All Morality. Expect more of this as the regime totters. And speaking of France...
  

• Gay Paris? Not Quite. At least, not if you're gay and Arab. Ouch. Toronto's NOW Magazine has the story.
  

• Some interesting details of the 9/11 planning process are turning up via Spain, which was apparently a major meeting place for mid to high level Al-Qaeda operatives. Investigators believe al-Qaeda conducted more than a dozen mid-to-high-level meetings in Spain in the 5 years before the attack.
  

• Afghan war casualty-inflator Marc Herold is back. Blogger COINTELPRO Tool is not happy about this. Nor should he be. It's abundantly clear from the interview cited and Rupert's dissection of it that Herold is more than just mistaken or naive - he's a politically motivated liar in the Chomskyite vein.
  
  
• Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has said that 100 Pakistanis detained in the United States after Sept 11 will soon be brought back to the country. Most were picked up for expired visas. They're Pakistan's issue now.
  

• Which bring me to our problem in Pakistan. No, not with Pakistan. In it. Bernard Lewis was spot-on in his description of Saudi Arabia as the Ku Klux Klan with oil, but it's also true that some of the most fanatical and anti-Western seminaries in Pakistan are supported via funds from the West. As the Times notes, until the West stops the flow of funds to these distant centres of terrorist indoctrination, we increase the risk that a nuclear-armed Islamic state will go over to the enemy.
  

• Speaking of the enemy, we have met him... and he lives here. Read MEMRI's translations of interviews with 2 British Muslim "leaders" as they explain their support for terrorism and their intent to turn Britain into a Muslim state. (Thanks again to Terror Watch for this one)
  

• There's been a lot of talk about "Al Qaeda's fantasy ideology" lately (excellent article!). Occasm's Toothbrush was asked: "aren't all religions fantasy ideologies?" He replies, noting that while all religions are matters of faith and belief, the distinguishing point of a fantasy ideology is that others are reduced to mere props for that belief, with no moral or human standing of their own.
  

• Judith Weiss has only been a contributing editor on Kesher Talk for a couple of days, and already she's up until 2am with the posts. Take it from me, that's a bad sign. Her post on Arab comedians, however, is pretty good.
  

• Vegard Valberg explains how more and cheaper food can lead to people getting less to eat, at least in subsistence economies. Sounds persuasive to me. "Jane," Arnold, care to challenge?
  

• Enjoy haiku's flow/ From blog-poet Will Warren/ To him you must go.
  

• Transterrestrial Musings notes that NSYNC member Lance Bass' adventure into space station is on again, despite the impossibility of his receiving the required training - or even half of it. (...and there was much rejoicing!)
  

• Off-Wing Opinion has a few choice thoughts about Major League Baseball's reported $400 million+ operating loss for 2002. Starting with the fact that their auditor is ex-Andersen, and got help from his old firm.
  

• As an adopted child, I agree with Andrea of Spleenville. Adoption already has too many barriers in its way, and she describes quite a few. The Right has to take some responsibility here, too. Like that law in Florida that to give a baby up for adoption, a pregnant woman who isn't sure who the father is must take out an ad in the paper with her sexual history. In case the "father" should show up and object, y'know. Someone needs to grow up here... and it isn't the teenaged mothers this law was targeted at.
  
  
• Can a Wal-Mart be beautiful? Happy Fun Pundit says yes - and for once, he isn't joking.

Stay tuned...

August 8: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

Quite a few emails came in, which is a good thing. Here's the roundup

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• Glenn is trying to get more information on the demonstrations etc. in Iran over the last couple of days. What he does have can be found in this post.
  

• Or perhaps you'd rather read about an Iranian rock n' roll band. Why is that important? Here's why...
  

• Winds of Change reader Randall Parker chimes in with a great page for aerial photographs of the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, and how its constuction has evolved. This is the air base that is likely to replace the Saudi Bases (esp. Prince Bandar) as the air command center for a U.S. invasion of Iraq.
  

• Kenneth Hunt notes that Saddam uses look-alikes to make planning coups, air strikes, etc. more difficult. Not an uncommon tactic, but it isn't really all that effective against an overwhelming opponent. Who can just keep trying until they find the one that's real.
  

• Lots of snide comments regarding the Anglican Church's declaration that war against Iraq is immoral. "The Archdruid of Canterbury" comes in for some shots, and so does a document that quotes the U.N. many times and the Bible not at all. An anonymous Rantburg poster sums it up nicely when he notes this passage: "(declaration) An attack on Iraq would be both immoral and illegal. Eradicating the dangers posed by malevolent dictators and terrorists can be achieved only by tackling the root causes of the disputes themselves." To which (s)he responds: "I've got news for these folk: the root cause of malevolent dictators is that they are *malevolent dictators*!" Appointing this loon to head the Church of England may prove to be Tony Blair's sharpest political move yet.
  

• MuslimPundit is back, and talking about Pakistan. Especially Pakistani treatment of women.
  

• Fred at Rantburg is following the trail of dead Saudi princes, including recent reports (unconfirmed) of an assassination attempt on King Fahd. It is at least possible that we are looking at a serious conflict within the House of Saud. If so, we need to stir it up as much as possible. One of today's feature posts explains...
  

• Jacob Proffitt reacts to "Stop the Spamsanity" and points out an interesting anti-spam site that and contains details (under the "Our long-term plan") on how to sue and win against spammers in Washington State. The real trouble comes when it is time to collect. He's going to see what he can find in Utah - initial thoughts are that it is much easier to win in Utah because the law is very specific. So proving violation is simpler, but it is also a lot lower automatic judgement amount ($10 vs. $500) so it might be easier to win, but less worthwhile to collect (because of the small amounts).

Stay tuned...

August 6: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

News and views from around the web.

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• Riots across Iran yesterday. Fred has the goods on that, and on some other things besides.
  

• Glenn notes that "Winds of Change" is also a book by Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran's son. The New Republic did an excelent article about him, explaianing how he lost his taste for monarchy and became a committed democrat who works to see that system realized in his homeland. I'd be very proud to share a name with his work, and hope we can celebrate together when the winds of change finally sweep away the evil clerics and their henchmen who currently run the place.
  

• Top-ranked chess player Gary Kasparov has some thoughts on how America should deploy its strategic pieces.
  

• Back in the Cold War days, there was a 'Team B' who bucked the official line of accomodation with the Soviet Union, and pushed instead for a vigorous challenge at a time when the CIA saw the Soviet economy getting stronger. Of course, 'Team B' was right, Reagan more or less followed their thrust, and todays it's "Soviet whoion?" Looks like a similar process is in motion re: Saudi Arabia, which is finally being identified as the main enemy in Washington circles. Tonecluster reports.
  

• Gideon's Blog is in very fine form as he contemplates the future of NATO, and discussed what he sees as its current purpose: to keep Europe from becoming a significant military power.
  

• Technologists working on the future of artificial intelligence are turning to the ancient Asian game of Go for inspiration. (NY Times, registration req'd)
  

• Barry Farber has a plane conversation while flying between New York and Toronto. In "Those who Hate Us," he writes: "I liked political and religious insanity better when I had to cross an ocean or two and an Iron Curtain to get it from the expectably indoctrinated." (Thanks to LGF for the pointer)
  

• (10:00am) A Vietnamese immigrant to the USA becomes a scientist, and she works hard to bring a "ray of sunlight" to Osama and the boys.
  

• (11:00) Jacob Profitt points to a web page describing pretty much the coolest tree house ever. These kids have one amazing dad!
  

• As opposed to the latest Arab News feature from Saudi Arabia, which is definitely not cool. I don't care now nice their eyelashes are - leave them camels alone!

Stay tuned...

August 1: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

News and views from around the web.

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• Sounds like a few colleges could use a page of their own. Accuracy in Academia's Politically Correct Top 10, 2001-2002 includes everything from professors applauding the 9/11 atacks to administrators who banned the American flag. My favourite is the gay student who sent death threats... to himself.
  

• Wylie in Norman rips the African AIDS bandwagon a new... uh, let's just say he ain't happy. The aid brigade know exactly what it takes to stop the spread of the disease, but won't do it. Quoth Wylie: "...to me, controlling the AIDS epidemic by preaching 'Safe Sex' is about as likely to succeed as controlling TB by reminding people to 'cover your mouth when you cough..."
  

• Let's see... Palestinians cheering American deaths again; wife of a Hamnas leader who refused to let her son become a suicide bomber; Nigerian scam emails come to Arabia - with a twist; Scotsmen handing out leaflets in Edinburgh urging people to kill Americans... what to pick from WSJ today? Oh, heck, just read it all.
  

• Jessie Rosenberg says reproducing scientific results is hard, and explains why this is good news on the terrorism front.
  

• Government troops were able to find only eight of the 700 inhabitants of the town of Puerto Alvira in southern Colombia following reports it had been cleared out by FARC narco-terrorists. This town has been in the crossfire before, most notably in May 1998. A number of high-ranking officers were charged in 2000 for failing to prevent that previous massacre by paramilitary groups.
  

• A report by the British National Audit Office found major concerns with a wide range of UK military equipment following a major desert warfare exercise, from Challenger 2 tanks choked with sand to boots that fell apart and melted in the heat. C'mon, lads, get it together.
  

• Get it together soon! This early report from the Seante committee hearings of Iraq discusses the magnitude of the threat... and reveals stunning clulessness from Sens. Biden (D-Del) and Kerry (D-Mass), who more or less said straight up that won't believe there's a threat that justifies invasion until Saddam uses weapons of mass destruction against the USA, Israel, or his neighbours. Dolts.
  

• Even British "neo-pacifist" Samuel Brittain gets it, saying Bush is "more nearly right" in his latest Financial Times column. It sounds equivocal, but this article is very much worth reading. Samuel still has a strong pacifist streak - and he explains why that isn't incompatible with what we're about to do.

Stay tuned...

August 1: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

News and views from around the web.

• Captive Nations Week is over, but Glenn Frazier and I are continuing our efforts surrounding Iran until... well, until the revolution, basically. The Winds of Change Open Letter to the Iranian People is just the beginning of ongoing coverage here at Winds of Change, therefore, and Glenn Frazier continues to be a clearing house for news and views with the "Iranian Liberty Index" page.
  

• Yesterday, I ran a feature on "porno patriots" who hack Al-Qaeda web sites and deliver the information to the government. John Hawkins at Right Wing News scooped us all, and interviewed Jon David himself.
  

• Gideon's Blog does a fantastic job of reviewing the proposed designs for rebuilding the WTC, and setting out criteria for the buildings that will eventually go there. Hope this gets some attention, because I'm not impressed by these designs either.
  

• One 9/11 monument that seems to be having rather more success would be Bruce Springsteen's latest album "The Rising." Even so, it still takes second place to his eternally-revered status as the guy who drove the stake through the heart of disco music. Broooooce!!!
  
  
• Scientists believe they have found the secret of cuddles. The breakthrough came when they found that a woman with no sense of touch still had physical reactions to being stroked. If you have a girlfriend, or even if you'd like to, read this.
  

• Iran is reconsidering those "decency houses" (legalized prostitution). The real story is that so many teenagers have turned to prostitution to secure the basic necessities of life, that they felt forced to contemplate the idea in the first place.
  

• Tom Friedman takes on the economic consequences of war against Iraq. It could send oil prices soaring. Then again, it could also drop them through the floor. In "$6 or $60" he looks at both scenarios, and notes that worries of a fall in oil prices may be why the Saudis would prefer to prop up Saddam. Friedman adds: "...give me sustained $10-a-barrel oil and I'll give you revolutions from Iran to Saudi Arabia, and throw in Venezuela." Sounds like a concept to me. Let's roll...
  

• William F. Buckley wonders if Saudi or Egyptian words have consequences.
  

• Some Egyptian words do. Egypt convicted Egyptian-American academic and pro-democracy intellectual Saad Eddin Ibrahim and several associates. Sentenced this week to seven years' imprisonment after a highly dubious legal process, Ibrahim is Egypt's leading promoter of free elections and appears to have been singled out after he noted that Mubarak was grooming his son to succeed him a la Syria, Iraq, etc. Now, Ibrahim, 63 and in poor health, faces the prospect of rapid decline in an Egyptian jail. Next time, Mr. Ibrahim, it'll go easier if you just praise Hitler instead.
  

• Armed Liberal wonders if Ann Coulter's words have consequences.
  

• Michael Kelly says America sits squarely on a giant hinge of both risk and opportunity. Hmm, I have a poster on my wall with both of those symbols... and together, they make up the Chinese word for "crisis".
  
  
• All that talk recently about reconciliation and a peace agreement in Sudan? The government launched a massive attack yesterday on r