evolution

A Miami man whose grandfather served in WWII decided to take his grandfather’s war journals and letters home and publish them in a weblog. What a great read.

Please - go meet LT Theodore “Ted” Elman, 376th Heavy Bombardment Group, US Army Air Force.

Because one irrelevant turn deserves another: Nader, Dean to debate if Ralph should run (AP). On NPR, of all places.

Is there a baseball game on?

John Kerry says no to driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants:

“I think that driver’s licenses are part of the legality of being here and if you’ve been here a period of time we may work something out as part of that immigration process, but I wouldn’t give somebody who is automatically one year in here illegally all the rights and privileges of being here legally,” Kerry said in the interview.

“I think that’s wrong. That defeats the purposes of the law,” he said.

Thank God somebody does. Illegal immigration is something the Bush administration has been incoherent on. I also hope Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) is a reader of evolution and picks up this story.

Read the rest of this AP story.

I redesigned my brother’s blog about Japan. He’s going to live there for a year, starting at the end of July. He’s participating in something called the JET Programme, where the Japanese government invites people from around the world to come and work as translators for their government, to teach their language (which is what Neil is going to do), or to simply be exchange students.

He has promised pictures and stories from the Land of The Rising Sun - and his blog should be a good read.

Imagine my surprise - Lawrence Journal-World entertainment editor Jon Niccum loves Mad Mike’s flick.

In “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore portrays the leader as a lazy, incompetent, indecisive tool with a history of having his father and friends bail him out. More disturbing, Moore paints a picture of the president as having more vested in Saudi Arabian interests than those of the American people.

These charges are hardly new. But Moore backs up his argument with his most powerful, cohesive and persuasive piece yet.

Among the most damaging pieces of evidence is in the president’s immediate reaction to the event — or lack thereof. Remember, he was reading “My Pet Goat” to Florida elementary school students when apprised of the situation. The media has always reported that he rushed off to take care of business. However, a teacher in the classroom was videotaping the entire episode.

This last one is the one that really pisses me off. On the day of the most devastating event in the entire lives of any American under 60, the President - or anyone else - is expected to jump up, control himself, and do something in under thirty seconds? What we saw is an incredibly human moment, and not the wheels spinning in an empty skull, as Moore and this reviewer try to portray. What do you suppose Franklin Roosevelt’s reaction to Pearl Harbor was? I’m amazed that it only took George Bush seven minutes to compose himself and do something - I’m still boiling with anger three years later.

When I want to read filthy leftist trash, the Lawrence Journal-World always delivers.

UPDATE : Just for fun (or as an exercise in self-abuse), I went and read some of the blog posts and comments hosted by Lawrence.com. Not all defended this film. So, I think it’s fair to say that Lawrence is a city of idiotarians with pockets of common sense (on the left and on the right). The J-W is still fish-wrap, though.

In this election year, the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is up for grabs. The following candidates will be in the Aug 3rd primary:

• Sen. Brownback, 48
• Arch Naramore (R), 52, Lawrence businessman
• Horace Edwards (I), 79, former Kansas Secretary of Transportation, of Topeka
• Lee Jones (D), 53, union lobbyist from Wichita
• Robert Conroy (D), 76, retired rail worker from Shawnee

Web sites have been linked where available.

Personally, I think that if you are running for a major public office anywhere and you don’t have a Web site, then you might as well go home.

My brother Neil (a registered Democrat) is reading My Life, which of course is former President Clinton’s autobiography. Here are his thoughts halfway through:

So far, he has nostalgically reminisced about the deaths of about a gajillion close friends and family, reformed Arkansas’ everything, and saved an indigenous people of the Amazonian rainforest from certain death by flexing a pectoral muscle. I shit you not, just one pectoral muscle. The guy was AMAZING.

Legal XXX also has a review of Mad Mike’s flick.

Two Iranian security guards at the Iranian mission in New York have been “un-invited”. evolution’s counter-terrorism expert Michael sent the following from the world’s most alarmist Web site:

The United States has expelled two Iranian security guards at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations for conduct unbecoming to their status,according to a U.S. official.

The two were seen taking pictures of New York City and transportation
systems, the official said.

It was the third occasion that they were spotted videotaping and taking
photographs, the official said.

The Iranians were expelled this weekend.

An official declined to comment on which landmarks the two were seen photographing.

I didn’t think much of it at first - but apparently CNN did. Jihad Watch has more.

Damn it.

These sacks of shit stole my site’s name.

Bastards.

Kansas was the scene of fierce fighting prior to and during the Civil War as abolitionists, or “free-staters” clashed with pro-slavery militias in the Kansas Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1860 permitted states admitted to the Union to determine themselves, by popular vote, whether or not slavery would be allowed. This angered the pro-slavery folks, who had the understanding that Nebraska was to be admitted as a free state, while Kansas was to be a slave state.

In 1863 Kansas was admitted to the Union as the 34th state - a free state - and contributed 20,000 troops to the Union Army during the Civil War. Lawrence was sacked and burned in 1863 in what is now known as “Quantrill’s Raid”.

The Lawrence Journal-World has been doing a number of articles on this history in honor of the 150th anniversary of the city’s foundation. This article has links to those other articles as well as video and audio of re-enactors portraying well-known people of that era. You should go - it’s an interesting read.