Read it. Interesting stuff – sort of a CAT scan for documents. This is very much like the use of laser “needles” to play vinyl records without touching the disk itself (and so not deteriorating it).

Read it. I have a question: How is it any business of Congress what kind of light bulbs we use? Haven’t they got anything better to do with their day?

Read it. Construction of artificial languages as a hobby has a long and distinguished history, from Quenya to Klingon.

Read it. In case you were wondering. I know I was.

Read it. No, I don’t know where they get this stuff.

Read it. As the face goes, so go the genes?

Read it. Mickey Kaus brings up a point that has irritated me for a long time.

Is it really a good idea, from President Bush’s point of view, for him to give a prime time address today about Iraq? Seems like Bush speeches haven’t convinced anybody of anything for several years now–especially about Iraq, but also about Social Security reform and immigration reform. The president’s rhetorical campaigns not only didn’t win those fights–it seemed as if they didn’t even move the needle in his direction.

I am regularly amazed at how bad most politicians are at public speaking. The whole point of politics is persuading people that you have a better idea, and yet most people in public office today could scarcely persuade someone to sell them a Happy Meal. This is like an engineer not being very good at math. If they were businesses, they’d soon go out of business, because nobody would buy their product. The only thing that saves them is that everyone else is so much worse.

Read it. Come to find out that it’s not an archeology book at all, but a political book with an archeological theme. But that just makes her a typical liberal, so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. If they got rid of every professor who received tenure based on political writings masquerading as scholarship, the universities would be empty.

Read it. This is not good.

Read it. Boy, that’s a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it. Wonder how much those “$100-a-pop” guys made before their business model crashed.

Read it. And ponder.

Steve Sailer looks at the sociology of crime. Sort of.

Read it. One wonders why they don’t design a vehicle specifically for these urban-commando operations. I don’t see that putting armor on the pig makes it any more effective than putting lipstick on it makes it prettier.

Read it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Read it. Had it been Arabic, of course, there would have been no problem — that’s diversity.

Read it. Syria forgets that it’s dealing with Israel, not America. Israel will kick their asses, as is traditional, if they step out of line.

Read it. I’m surprised that there weren’t subsidies for buggy-whip manufacturers.

Read it. This is kinda cool. YUCK YUCK YUCK

Read it. I have this book, and I highly recommend it.

Although rather dated by now, it still has a great deal of cultural relevance.

James Taranto has a good overview, and some sharp insight.

In order for the Democrats to satisfy both constituencies, America has to lose in Iraq (making the base happy) but the Democrats must not be seen as having brought about defeat (making the normal Americans unhappy with the Republicans). This explains the passive-aggressive approach the Democrats have been taking o Iraq, complaining endlessly about how America is doomed to lose but never taking the kind of bold action the base wants to make defeat a reality.

And that explains everything you need to know about the odd whine-and-stumble dance the Congressional Democrats have been doing these last six years.

Read it. In case you were wondering. I know I was.

Of course, the article that Tyler references has a lot of the standard prog tropes: that charitable giving is just a scheme to screw the government out of tax revenue that would otherwise go to Worthy Causes (those dogs in the manger!), that government is more “effective and efficient” in helping society than charitable giving because let’s face it private persons have really screwed up priorities compared to civil servants who are more likely to listen to enlightened progressives like us, that it’s a pity that the wealthy control so large a share of the National Income which is of course not something that they produced after all that’s why it’s called the National Income so why should they have any say over how it is spent at all that just makes no sense, etc., etc.

In essence, the public is letting private individuals decide how to allocate money on their behalf.

See, it’s not really their money anyway, it’s the public’s money, and it just wound up in their hands because our society is oppressive and degenerate but just hasn’t realized it yet the way we enlightened leftists have. So it’s just a question of public policy whether we let they spend it or have it spent by the aforementioned enlightened civil servants I mean the question really answers itself ya know?

Read it. More than you’ll ever want to know about.

Read it.

Read it. I’m surprised they didn’t just sue Bin Laden and let it go at that.

Read it.

 But now a considerable amount of solid evidence about multiculturalism is in, and it suggests that far from something positive, it is a corroding and corrupting influence on just about everything that it comes in contact with, from social capital, trust, and community spirit to altruism, volunteering, friendship and even happiness.

Yeah, well, that doesn’t surprise some of us.

Steve Sailer spots the elusive, uh, whatever-it-is.

Read it. The problem is easy to see; the solution less so.

Read it. Is that what it will take?

Well, if a society develops a large Muslim population with radicals who believe the literal texts of Islam then such a society either has to suppress these radicals in ways that the American Civil Liberties Union would find evil or such a society has to submit to the will of the most fundamentalist Muslims. To Western societies that are letting in substantial numbers of Muslim immigrants I ask which of these two paths are you planning to take.

Read it. Norman Podhoretz points out that America’s most powerful enemies are all internal.

Read it. The only thing that saves us is that we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Energy efficiency sounds so nice. Who could be against efficiency? Tradeofs, however, cannot be avoided. Thus, energy-efficiency really means that the government is going to choose how white your shirts are gonna be.

And therein lies the problem.

Ironically, the law could well reduce cleanliness and increase energy use.  If the new washers are as bad as Consumer Reports say they are people will just start to wash everything twice.

Can you say “AlGore”? Can you say “wimpy 1.6 gallon flush toilet”? We’re sure you can.

Read it.

Why do I pay attention to anecdotal evidence? Because academics are always the last to find out what’s happening. If you wait until a social trend turns up in some professor’s peer-reviewed charts, you are waiting too long. (Example: Anecdotal evidence always said people spent a long time on welfare. Academics said they didn’t. Until, after a decade or two, the academics looked at their printouts more carefully.)

And there you have it.

Read it. What economists bring to the table in discussions of public policy. What’s the correct spelling of “politician”? L-E-E-C-H.

Read it. I’m not sure but what this might not be a case of Oversharing, but it’s a fascinating discussion.

Thomas Sowell on the dogs barking at the heels of Petraeus.

The real problem is that many Democrats have bet the rent money on an American defeat in Iraq, and without that defeat they could find themselves in big trouble in the 2008 elections.

Got it in one.

Read it. The problem is that everybody is afraid that their kids are going to ge snatched or molested or something.

Read it. An interesting thought.

Steve Sailer discusses a fashionable problem in an unfashionable way.

Read it. The hits just keep on coming.

Read it. Apparently dogs are smarter in some respects than wolves or chimps. Lord knows it can’t be due to hanging around with us.

Read it. *snort*

Read it. For the Democrats to win, America must lose. What do you call people like that? There’s a word I’m thinking of….

Read it. There is a great book on this, full of conspiracy theories and skullduggery, called Red Star Rogue.

Read it. If you were so foolish as to buy the special Screw The User And Fill Steve’s Pockets edition (soon to be a Classic Collectible) of the iPhone, this ought to reduce the pain somewhat.

Hey, maybe $100 on top of $400 for the phone seems like a lot now, but if it saves you from those $3000 roaming bills later…?

Here’s the video.

Read it. Don’t know why this ought to come as a surprise to anyone.

Read it. The price of being hip and trendy.

Read it. Put that kid on the treadmill….

Read it. The politicization of academia proceeds apace. Soon prog orthodoxy will be the only permissible approach.

Read it. In case you were wondering. I know I was.

Read it. Virtual worlds may be more useful than we think.