evolution

A while back, I changed the post commenting system from enetation over to Blogger’s own system. Many readers, however, complained that Blogger’s was too complicated to use; so I have switched back. Commenting behaves now as it once did.

Mark Steyn writes:

Here’s a story no American news organization thought worth covering last week, so you’ll just have to take it from me. In the southern Iraqi town of Amara, 20 men from Scotland’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders came under attack from 100 or so of Muqtada al-Sadr’s ”insurgents.” So they fixed bayonets and charged.

It was the first British bayonet charge since the Falklands War 20 years ago. And at the end of it some 35 of the enemy were dead in return for three minor wounds on the Argylls’ side.

If you’re used to smart bombs, unmanned drones and doing it all by computer back at HQ, you’re probably wondering why a modern Western army is still running around with bayonets at the end of their rifles. The answer is that it’s a very basic form of psychological warfare.

In the last few months, there have been three somewhat-publicized mishaps involving our Presidential candidates. Let’s take stock:

• President Bush falls wrecks his bicycle (photo courtesy of lgf). As you can see, he messed up his face and hand pretty badly. John Kerry’s reaction? A comment about “training wheels”.
• Kerry had a similar bicycle accident a few weeks ago. Bush’s reaction? None.
• Over the winter, Kerry takes a spill on the slopes, doing snow-based rich-white-guy activities. His reaction? To say “I DON’T fall down”, and blame the whole thing on a “son-of-a-bitch” Secret Service agent. Bush’s reaction? Again, none. (The quotes are Kerry’s, not mine.)

Who conducts themselves in the appropriate manner?

UPDATE (15:04):Jennifer Graham, writing in National Review, says she’d like to see a Presidential race - on bikes.

Tired of partisan politics? I can’t say that I blame you - so am I.

So have some fun, won’t you? Sgt. Stryker takes on all comers in his Daily Briefing in a piece on political conventions. To wit:

In the hierarchy of coolness, politics sits at the absolute rock-bottom. I would rather be caught wearing a hooded brown robe and casting a 10th Level Spell of Enchantment against a chaotic good half-elven Ranger, than be standing in a sea of uptight dorks and declaring to the world, “Mr. Chairman, the Great State of Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers and latent sexual frustration, nominates John Kerry to be the next President of the United States!”

As a former Dungeons and Dragons player, I laughed out loud when I saw this.

From Newsday.com: E.L. Doctorow nearly booed off commencement stage at Hofstra.

This was a commencement speech which had almost nothing to do with graduating college, and was wholly inappropriate for the event. Don’t get me wrong - politics in general is not an inappropriate subject; a political hate-fest is.

Most of the parents and many of the students booed so loudly that Doctorow had to stop mid-speech and wait.

Guess how the faculty reacted.

[University president Stuart] Rabinowitz approached the podium and called for calm. “We value open discussion and debate,” he said. “For the sake of your graduates, please let him finish.”

Uh-huh. “For the sake of your graduates”, just do what we say. Some more:

Some Hofstra professors said Doctorow was on target in discussing the war. “I thought this was a totally appropriate place to talk about politics because that’s the world our students are entering,” said sociology professor Cynthia Bogard.“I only wish their parents had provided them a better role model.”

Got it kids? You believe what you believe in because your parents are stupid. Just do what we say and don’t argue.

Professors should remember that the parents aren’t so stupid that they can’t make enough money to pay faculty salaries. Parents, your (hundreds of) thousands of dollars buys your kids a good education, to be sure, but it also pays for a good portion of leftist indoctrination.

Here’s a story from Afghanistan that makes me feel a bit better. From Insight Magazine, Internet sister to the Washington Times, a conservative-leaning newspaper: Dramatic new development in Afghanistan offers hope for entire region.

In a dramatic show of support for democratic efforts by President Hamid Karzai, the highest religious body in Afghanistan has issued a 13-point declaration of support for free elections, called for protection of women’s rights, and strongly condemned illegal drug trafficking and terrorist acts, both in Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world. The declaration of the Ulema Council of Afghanistan, which is to Afghanistan what the College of Cardinals is at the Vatican, also denounced the practice of forced marriage, including the so-called feud marriages in which children are married to end family disputes.

A most reassuring sign.

The world has stopped in Lawrence, KS at one of the most far-left campuses on the face of the Earth - and that’s saying something. Former President Bill Clinton is to speak at 14:15 before a crowd of 12,000 fawning worshippers at the University of Kansas’s Allen Fieldhouse today. You can get the round-up from the Lawrence Journal-World.

A fact worth noting but hardly mentioned in the article is that this lecture is the first in a series sponsored by KU’s Dole Institute of Politics - as in former Senate Majority Leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole (R-KS), the shining star of Kansas politics. Except, of course, in Lawrence.

UPDATE: I noticed a quote from a KU student who, after all he has surely seen and been exposed to at the university, still has his head screwed on straight:

John Benjamin, a freshman from Lawrence, was sitting in front of Snow Hall this afternoon and waiting for the the excitement to die down so he could move out of the dorms.

“Bill Clinton is getting paid so much to speak, he can’t possibly have anything interesting to say,” Benjamin said.

Tired of Starcraft or Command and Conquer? Try the real-life PC war game.

I am an avid player of Mah Jong. I haven’t played against actual human opponents in a while; I’m hoping to teach my friends and family how to play so that I can have some opponents. I have some links if you’d like to learn about this game.

• The Online Guide to Traditional Games (UK). An excellent history of the game.
• The Four Winds Knowledge Base. Four Winds is the computer version of the game that I play, and the Knowledge Base lists several regional variants of the rules.
• The Independent Internet Mahjong Newspaper. This has rules as well as information on all things Mah Jong.

I might include my own Mah Jong page as well.

A while ago, a dispute arose involving a Christian student organization and the Purdue Administration, mentioned in this earlier post. The student group contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which wrote President Martin Jischke in November 2003.

President Jischke has finally resolved this matter in a manner which guarantees the freedom of religious conviction for all students, and the rights of all students in general. Kudos to you, President Jischke.

You can read about both the problem and its solution in the previously mentioned post on this site, and this announcement on FIRE’s Web site.

[Thanks: Students for Academic Freedom.]