Essay of the week: 5/3/09-5/9/09
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Category Archives: Front Page
Links For Today
I don’t care what studies show. Don’t drug the water.
Getting away with murder. We all knew it was going to happen. But it still disgusting that not even a scape goat was put on trial.
Links For Today
Remember all those highly educated Chinese who were going to crush us lazy Americans? Really it was a secret American plot to destroy China by exporting our ridiculous obsession with college education.
Air Force is determined to bankrupt the country. The jury may still be out on whether automated landing systems really work better. But it has already been proven that non-pilots can do a perfectly fine job piloting drones and yet the Air Force still insists on using expensively trained pilots.
Ground zero for the swine flu? Sounds like a lovely place.
Links For Today
A different way of shingling steep roofs.
Are running shoes bad for you?
Smart thoughts on the swine flu. Make sure you read the comments.
Poem of the Week: 4/26/09-5/2/09
Here is the song that caused Anzac Day to experience a resurgence of popularity in Australia when the day was in danger of being forgotten.
Rant of the Week: 4/26/09-5/2/09
This piece on torture from the Belmount Club is so good it does not really deserve to be called a rant. But it is a little short to be an essay (by our standard).
And make sure you read this comment after you read the post.
Essay of the Week: 4/26/09-5/2/09
This documentary from the Guardian is worth watching provided you keep two things in mind. The first is that the documentary is from the Guardian with all that implies. The second is that the journalist is captive to a Sunni perspective and he does not even realize it.
No Shia would talk about how nobody in pre-invasion Iraq paid any attention to sectarian divides. To be sure, Shia and Sunni served together in the Iraqi army. But Shia did not serve in the elites unites that kept Saddam in power. It seems that the narrator’s fond memories of his childhood Iraq in part reflects the fact that he had a privileged Sunni upbringing (This is conjecture on our part based on his biography).
Having said that, the Sunni view point is important for the future of Iraq. I doubt that any Sunni in Iraq is feeling optimistic now that the Iraqi government is going after Sunni militias that fought for the Americans and the Americans seem inclined to leave and let God sort the whole mess out.
If you want other views on the documentary, here is the comment section of Abu Muqawama talking about the piece.
Links For Today
Probably every one has been keeping up on the swine flu out break. But just in case you are one of those that have not here is the Instapundit’s collection of links.
Misleading statistics explained.
How an anti-Taliban militia got the legs kicked out from under them by the Pakistan government.
Today is ANZAC Day
Anzac Day celebrates a disaster that occurred during a disastrous war. If I know my history, the clip above is trying to portray this fight.
Emergency Carbon Knife
An explanation of the principle of making a knife from a cigarette. The demonstration does not go so well but there were some distractions that probably didn’t help.
This is not a hunting knife, but if you just need a little extra edge it can come in handy.