Threats Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq (washingtonpost.com) The attacks have ramped up again after the capture of Saddam and we seem to be responding, politically, in exactly the wrong way. I know the attacks on the troops are not the only issue — getting support from other countries based on a transfer of sovereignty, etc. — and these are the worst reasons to be scaling...

Judging from the reviews and IMDb comments, it seems I’m the only person that likes this movie. Paycheck is based on a Philip K. Dick short story — he wrote a ton of them — and is about the futility of being able to see into the future, even if we could. The movie doesn’t get too wrapped up in the contradictions of seeing the future — if we can see it, and we have the...

Tough Pill For the Democrats (washingtonpost.com) George Will is at his sarcastic best in this piece on Duck, M.D. Duck has made so many misstatements it’s a wonder he’s the frontrunner. Some are merely stupid, others are lies. He actually accused Republicans of wanting to end public education, though even the most open voucher system couldn’t be said to do that because there would...

Foreign Affairs – To Form a Government – Lloyd N. Culter The media has been flooding the zone with coverage of Reagan and it can get tiresome, even for an admirer of Reagan’s. However, we haven’t had a full blown state funeral for a President since Johnson in 1973 and we aren’t accustomed to it. Nixon opted for a more modest funeral ten years ago and it was probably a wise choice...

Reagan’s death is getting a lot of attention and, I think, with good reason. I do remember how despondent the country felt after losing the Vietnam War and after enduring the economy of the 1970s. I was just watching Senator McCain, every Democrat’s favorite Republican (unless he became a Democrat; they would find him just as infuriating as the Republicans do), on Hannity & Colmes and he made...

The only good things that came out of the 1970s were the Steelers, the Reds (hey, I’m from Mississippi and we don’t have our own teams!!), some movies and some music. Virginia Postrel has a couple of years on me, though she’s way ahead on looks and brains, and remembers why Reagan was so consequential: Amazingly, his prescriptions worked. The economy got worse at first–much, much worse, so...

U.S. Plans Major Cut Of Forces In Korea (washingtonpost.com) The same is supposedly going to happen in Germany, and it’s long overdue. I realize there are some logistical advantages to having facilities around the world, but alternate plans can be made. Korea, in particular, seems like a bad idea. We have 37,000 troops tied up there and they can do nothing that the South can’t do to stop the barrage...

Economist.com | Europe and America The Economist seems to understand the reason so many in America were angry with Europe last year: obstructionism. Even when we have made mistakes in the past – Vietnam could be considered one, though it did have the effect of destroying a lot of Soviet infrastructure and contributed to their downfall – Europe looked the other way and let us do what we wanted....

CNN.com – Bush: America would do it again – Jun 6, 2004 It’s sad to think that this ten-year anniversary will be the last that a good number of the actual veterans of the Normandy invasion will be able to attend. Facing that kind of peril took enormous courage and these vets are entitled to any and all recognition we can give them before they pass on. With it being D-Day and all, I’m...

Chris Lawrence has a post on blogging frequency and the like. This explains a lot of my recent rollback in posting. I have other commitments over the next couple of months and blogging has started to feel like a chore. I have noticed a steep dropoff in people that are hitting the main page since I didn’t resume my normal blogging after Memorial Day. Apparently my traffic levels were tied heavily...