The O'Quiz for July 31st Is Up
Try your luck at this on-line quiz about current events.
BillOReilly.com: O'Quiz
Monday, July 31, 2006
Quote Of The Day
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits."
- Albert Einstein
The War Against Syran?
Michael Ledeen makes some very interesting points about our inability to see the Middle East conflict as a regional war being conducted through surogates.
Michael Ledeen on Syria and Iran on National Review Online: "Certainly there is lots of bad news, most of which confirms what we already knew: The Western world hates Israel; the taboo on anti-Semitism is off; the Western world has been P.C.'ed to the edge of death; there is no stomach for fighting the war against Islamic fascism.
Sounds like the Thirties to me."
It Is Really Hot
And it looks as if there is no relief in sight - 91 today and 94 tomorrow with heat indexes as high as 104. At least we have air conditioning and James Lileks to help keep it in perspective.
LILEKS (James) :: the bleat: "Welcome to the humidor. These are the days of which we dream in deep January, but once they are upon us we curse them. Some do, anyway. I never complain about hot weather, partly because it's useless, and mostly because it's boring. It could be worse; I could be living 80 years ago, in which case I'd probably be wearing canvas underwear and a thick wool coat, my Wicking Hat and "Care-Free" neck cinch, which could only be relaxed after sundown when the ladies had retired. I would have no air conditioning; I would have one underpowered fan that shoved humid air in my face like a damp towel; I would have a damp towel, on my neck; I would have exhausted the ice allotment long ago, and would be sitting in the dark room with the radio off, because the tubes heated up the house. Sundown would be met by weary cheers from the porches adjacent. Every hour or so, you'd hear the dull thud of a horse passing out. No, I don't complain about the heat."
The Corner on Parents - Again
My children were often dismayed when I told them that the main resonsibility their mother and I took on when we had them was to raise responsible citizens for the Republic.
The Corner on National Review Online: "I think Hanna Arendt was right when she said that Western Civilization is invaded every generation by barbarians - we call them children. I would add that parents are the first, best, line of defense against the invaders.
There are no citizen factories. The State cannot create citizens on a mass scale (history is full of bloody failed attempts to demonstrate otherwise). In a successful society, citizens must be made by small artisans working on a case-by-case basis. We call these artisans "parents." I have no doubt that in a world of bad parents some children would still become good citizens. But not enough, not nearly enough.
A civilization that forgets this has signed its death warrant. Parents matter - a lot. "
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Fair Week Is Upon Us
The Fair begins tomorrow and runs through next Sunday. I think M'Lady and I will be giving the chickens and rabbits a good looking over since we would like to begin raising them next year. And, of course, we'll have to stop by the honey exhibit to talk with our fellow beekeepers.
General Info: "The Medina County Fair has been a family tradition for 161 years. We emphasize the preservation of Medina County's agricultural heritage and family traditions. Your county's fair, since 1845, has grown to become one of the top agricultural fairs in the state. "
Cool Car
This car has it all - style, speed (0-60 in 4 seconds), great mileage (135 mpg) and its eco-friendly (100% electric).
Now all they have to do is make it affordable.
Tesla Motors
Words Of Wisdom From Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn, Columnist to the World, accurately points out just exactly which state wields power in the Middle East. And just think what it will be like when they have a nuclear weapon.
Failure to solve Palestinian question empowers Iran: "Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: It's finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding resolution of the 'Palestinian question' has helped deliver Gaza, and Lebanon and Syria, into the hands of a regime that's a far bigger threat to the Arab world than the Zionist Entity. Cairo and Co. grew so accustomed to whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in decade out that it never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella. The Zionists got out of Gaza and it's now Talibanistan redux. The Zionists got out of Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing demographic advantage) are Iran's Shia enforcers. There haven't been any Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran's first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires."
On Parenting
While I agree with Tigerhawk and John Derbyshire to a certain degree, I think the biggest difference between my childhood and my children's was that mine was less structured than theirs. But on the flip side, my children got to do and experience things I could only dream about.
TigerHawk: "John Derbyshire today wrote a paragraph that speaks precisely to my greatest regret as a father, that my children are not growing up with the freedom that I did:
I've been aware for some time, and reading that made me freshly aware, of my own great good fortune in having been in the last (actually, I think, about last but one, or last but a half) generation of Western children to have a real childhood: roaming over fields and through woods, falling out of trees and into ponds, experienced with firecrackers, roller-skates, airguns, and slingshots, being bullied and occasionally beaten up by older boys, playing 'British Bulldog' in the schoolyard, sailing model boats and flying model planes, playing complicated street games handed down intact from ancient Rome-and all with never an adult in sight! How lucky we were! How miserable our children must be!"
James Lileks High School Reunion Recap
Lileks 30th High School Reunion piece would be a great deal more humorous if mine wasn't next year.
LILEKS (James) :: the Bleat :: Thu
Blackberry Pie
One of the fringe benefits our son has discovered while working at a local alpaca ranch during his summer college break is that the ranch has wild blackberry bushes! He brought home enough berries to make at least two pies and they were still warm from the sun. Guess what's for dessert tonight - does life get a lot better than this?
TigerHawk
I saw this post from Tigerhawk when it was published last week. It presents the Middle East 'democratization strategy' debate very well and is worthwhile reading.
TigerHawk: "Saturday, July 15, 2006
Wither the 'democratization strategy'?
By TigerHawk at 7/15/2006 10:49:00 AM
Several of my absolute favorite terrorism analysts, Andy McCarthy, John Podhoretz, Cliff May, and Michael Ledeen, spent the afternoon of Bastille Day duking it out at The Corner over the 'democratization strategy.' Let's examine the back-and-forth, and then reprise a topic I have been writing about for more than a year: the 'realist' case for promoting democracy in the Muslim world."
Welcome
After reading blogs for quite sometime, I have decided to enter the blogosphere myself. As the sub-title indicates, this blog will be composed of "random thoughts" with a heavy emphasis on random. I hope you will find the posts to be interesting, sometimes humorous and occasionally thought provoking.
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