Author Archive | Jim Lindgren

There are several highly interesting long posts on the psychological makeup of those who interpret the Hezbollah War (and the world) in irrational terms. Perhaps the most interesting is at ShrinkWrapped, which I would recommend reading in its entirety. But Richard Landes also has some good insights, though his tone deteriorates somewhat as he gets […]

Jon Stanhope, the head of the Australian Capital Territory (and a Labor Party leader) has nominated Australian Terry Hicks for “Father of the Year.” Terry is the father of David Hicks, who was arrested in 2001 while fighting for the Taliban (against coalition forces including Australia). THE father of terrorist suspect David Hicks has been […]

Robert Samuelson looks back at the greatest success of the Clinton years: Welfare Reform (tip to Betsy). President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as “welfare reform,” on Aug. 22 of that year. A decade later it stands as a rarity: a Washington success story. It […]

TNR publisher Marty Peretz has an amusing blog post making fun of some John Kerry’s statements meant to jumpstart his run for the 2008 presidency: JOHN KERRY AND JESUS: . . . [1] According to The New York Times yesterday [4-8-06], in what appeared to be rather inchoate remarks, Kerry used Iraq as a trope […]

Israel has called a 48-hour unilateral cease fire in its air strikes: The Israeli suspension of air strikes in Lebanon began early Monday and covers the entire country, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. The suspension of strikes allows for an investigation into Sunday’s bombing that killed 56 Lebanese civilians. Israel will also coordinate with […]

As someone who has occasionally cited Wikipedia in scholarship, I found this Onion article amusing (tip to my daughter): Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence: Founding Fathers, Patriots, Mr. T. Honored July 26, 2006 NEW YORK—Wikipedia, the online, reader-edited encyclopedia, honored the 750th anniversary of American independence on July 25 with a special featured […]

James Lileks has an interesting account of attending his high school reunion in Fargo, ND, presumably his 30th. Among the things that Lileks mentions is that: “The band is too loud. Of course, the band is always too loud. Everywhere. It’s what bands do: be too loud.” I attended only one HS reunion, my 5th, […]

A couple months ago, I was looking at the patterns over time of sulfur pollution in the atmosphere and global warming. Sulfur emissions have long been known to reduce surface temperatures, as has been shown after large volcanic eruptions. I noticed that while sulfur emissions were growing in the two decades lasting into the early […]

1. Background. Jason Leopold, who used to be a reporter for the L.A. Times and the Dow Jones News Service, has had a bad last few years. His story on former Enron official Thomas White included several plagiarized paragraphs, and its main revelation was an email that Salon editors were unable to verify (the email […]

Scrappleface reports that John Kerry is going to end the latest Middle East war, which wouldn’t have happened if Kerry had been elected President: Bush Sends Kerry to Solve Israel-Hezbollah War After learning that the battle between Israel and Hezbollah could have been prevented if Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, had been the U.S. Commander in […]

At Daily Kos is a translation of a very long Al Jazeera interview with the head of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah. Diarist “PersianCat” comments: My observation is that this guy clearly underestimated Israel’s response and he is now having to justify himself to the Lebanese people. The other major point is that he claims to have […]

Ann Althouse has a good critique of Stanley Fish’s op-ed in the New York Times on the University of Wisconsin professor who teaches 9/11 conspiracy theories in class. Here is Fish: In short, whether something is an appropriate object of academic study is a matter not of its content — a crackpot theory may have […]

I’m having a pleasant morning watching the Open Championship, aka The British Open, on ABC. Ernie Els just tied Tiger Woods for the lead at 13 under par with a birdie on #5. Playing in the next (and last) group, Woods then eagled the hole to take a 2-shot lead at 15 under par. Sergio […]

In 1991, Michael Jordan was informed that he had fathered a child with Karla Knafel. Knafel claims that Jordan then agreed to pay his lover $5 million to keep silent, an assertion that Jordan denies. Many years later Knafel sued on the alleged $5 million promise. Jordan then countersued for extortion. Paternity tests proved that […]

As Ilya Somin mentions below, J.K. Rowling is hinting that Harry Potter (and another main character) may die in the final book in the series. I thought of blogging on this earlier, but decided to wait to see if Dave Kopel was going to do so, since in a long essay last July Kopel predicted […]