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Nuking Mecca would be counterproductive and silly
I listened to the Republican Debate from Sunday and heard Tom Tancredo repeat his strategy of nuking Mecca if terrorists launch another attack on the United States. It’s just silly. Everyone is sold on the notion that religions are “of” something, like peace or justice.
Nuking Mecca is a way of fighting on technicalities and hoping that the other side believes in them as much as we would like them to. It’s like trying to fight LSD use by threatening to build a Starbucks on Jim Morrison’s gravesite.
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Monday rapid fire
- Al Gore goes Geothermal
- Dallas Swat (it’s a reality TV show apparantly) officer arrested for having sex with prostitute.
- Firefox Tune Up program
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Double weirdness
- The quest for alternative energy seems to have caused an earthquake. In Switzerland no less. Overall it’s cool though.
- The dirty car art gallery – a guy actually does fine artwork on dirty cars. See to believe.
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The United States of Baseball and Florida
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Addendum to the Grateful Dead post
I came across this interview with Ann Coulter on JamBands.com, evidently she’s quite the fan. Favorite Quote:
Moreover, I really like Deadheads and the whole Dead concert scene: the tailgating, the tie-dye uniforms, the camaraderie – it was like NASCAR for potheads
Most interesting fact
My collection of Dead tapes, by the way, was the reason I heard one of the Linda Tripp tapes before Ken Starr did. Tripp’s lawyer obviously needed to hear the tape before turning it over to the prosecutor, but he only had an old 1950’s tape player and couldn’t get it to work and Ken Starr wanted the tape the next morning. He was terrified he’d hit the wrong button and erase the evidence. In the wee hours of the morning, it occurred him, a Deadhead himself, that he knew one person in D.C. who definitely had a tape machine. So, at around 2 AM, he called me and asked to come over to use my tape deck.
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Friday in appreciation, volume III
I was in Chicago last week so I didn’t get a chance to do the in appreciation post, but here is this week’s.
This week’s in appreciation is the Grateful Dead. While I’m not a huge fan of the music (I love Old and in the Way, and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band is quite good) they stand out as true American icons, especially for artists. Not only did they commit to a style of music and a style of life, they created it first. And seemingly with the attitude that it’s better to have a small achievement than a great excuse (to paraphrase Hoffer). They spend 30 years doing what they wanted to do without asking favors or permission. Contrast that to the Live 8 and the Live Earth crowd and they become a marvel.
So, Grateful Dead, you get this week’s In Appreciation.
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Quick links while uploading
An assortment of things I’ve read while I’ve been uploading things today
- The golden age of Chicago prostitution – The Everleigh sisters are respoinsible for the term “get laid”. An interesting read – the more things change…
- Rifle Robots!
- John Allen Paulos has a new book out soon, I think it’s going to a more civil (and knowing Paulos well written and interesting) version of the recent Richard Dawkins screed. My favorite blurb from the Amazon page “A Lifelong Unbeliever Finds No Reason to Change His Mind”
- How to build your business without quitting your day job
- Firefox tune-ups
- Conan O’Brian hates my homeland – favorites
Brazil
Home to more than 800 species of unregulated breast implants.Burkina Faso
In the traditional tribal language, that’s Burkina for “land of” and Faso for “people who want to get the hell out of Burkina Faso.”Colombia
You’ll come for the enticing beauty of the Caribbean Sea. You’ll stay because you’ve been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a Dodge Dart.East Timor
It takes a lot to admit you live on the bad side of Timor.
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Sorry for the light blogging
Work has been insane lately. I should have the Chicago photos posted soon.
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Violent youth bulges
From this article in the Financial Times
when 15 to 29-year-olds make up more than 30 per cent of the population, violence tends to happen; when large percentages are under 15, violence is often imminent. The “causes” in the name of which that violence is committed can be immaterial. There are 67 countries in the world with such “youth bulges” now and 60 of them are undergoing some kind of civil war or mass killing.
Read the whole thing.
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Restless Leg Syndrome
The Freakonomics guys have a post on Restless Leg Syndrome. Virginia Postrel comments
If something is a “disease,” it is worth treating. If it isn’t a “disease,” you should just live with it. But why? Why not treat a biological condition you just don’t like? (I’m assuming that you are directly or indirectly paying for the treatment.) We don’t have to call Restless Leg Syndrome a disease to acknowledge that it disturbs some people’s sleep and that those people would like relief. Contrary to what you may have heard, the only sort of character suffering builds is the ability to suffer–a useful ability in a world where suffering is the routine nature of life but not a virtue that makes the world a better place.
RLS is hardly the worst thing that one can have, but why not use all that modern society has to offer.