From Reuters: President George W. Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to expand the government’s domestic spying powers permanently or risk leaving the country vulnerable to another terrorist attack. The Democratic-led Congress in August temporarily expanded the Bush administration’s authority to monitor phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications between individuals in the United States and…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
Saudi Women Want to Drive
And why not? The BBC says that a group of Saudi women plan to deliver a petition to the King Abdullah which would, if approved, allow them to drive cars for the first time. Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars plan to deliver a petition to King Abdullah by…
Robert Jordan Dies at 58
Robert Jordan, the author of the popular Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels died yesterday at the age of 58. I’m sorry to see Jordan die so young. He was a talented writer whose WoT series was terrific for the first few books. The last few were not as good and now I wonder…
Basra, Test Case for Withdrawal
The Christian Science Monitor says that Basra is turning into an emerging "Shiite Taliban state" now that the British are packing up their kit bags and leaving town: The billboard in Umm al-Broom Square was meant to advertise a cellphone service. Instead, it has become a message to those who dare to resist the rising…
Basic Morality Index
Michael van der Galien and Jason Steck both wrote about this article in the NY Times: Many people will say it is morally acceptable to pull a switch that diverts a train, killing just one person instead of the five on the other track. But if asked to save the same five lives by throwing…
The Difference
The back and forth between Robert Spencer, author of “Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t“, and John Derbyshire is ancient history in terms of Net time. But the subject is still highly relevant. Derbyshire said this in his initial review of Spencer’s book: I understand that this bogus equivalence must be very…
Shah and the Case for Isolationism
Syed Maaz Shah was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison Friday after a Houston federal jury convicted Shah in May of two counts of unlawfully possessing a firearm while in the country on a student visa. Born in Pakistan, Shah, 20, was on full scholarship at University of Texas at Dallas last…
A Liberal’s Take on Condi Rice
I recently followed a memeorandum link to a piece by Michelangelo Signorile about an interview with Glenn Kessler, the author of a new book titled The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy. The focus of the post is squarely on Rice’s sexual orientation, as if that were the most interesting and…
Unity08 Candidate Rankings
Unity08, an attempt to influence the presidential nominating process on-line, has published a new set of results. A few of the slides caught my interest. First, the slide that ranks the presidential candidates (at the time): Unity voters are nonplussed by the field, that’s for sure. Obama garnered a distinct preference, which leads me to…
Newt Gingrich and WW IV
Gingrich has a long and fascinating post entitled "What If? An Alternative History of the War since 9/11" up on his web site. I recommend reading through the entire thing as it is very good and consolidates several important ideas into a coherent vision of the Islamic problem facing the U.S. and the rest of…