Sometimes Pat Buchanan hits a bullseye.

Eric Raymond argues in favor of the war. Or rather, he argues in favor of some ideal war that will crush Islamic dreams of worldwide empire. What’s missing is any defense of the war actually in progress.

I like Russ Nelson‘s attitude:

How do you stop terrorism?

By not being terrified. By not overreacting. By not giving up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety. By not wasting treasure on useless tactics.

. . .

If terrorists came to America and killed 1,000 people a year, it wouldn’t even begin to show up on the causes of death. We can safely ignore terrorism. . . .

The above was published on Dave Farber’s IP list. I received several “attaboy”s and one comment saying “Anyone with a single brain cell would agree that we need to stop terror.” I disagree. Do we need to stop earthquakes? Hurricanes? Tornados? Volcanos? Blizzards? Or do we need to survive them?

Some clown is using my address to spam everyone@amherst.edu with what appears to be an account of the bombing of Dresden. Why??

Seeing a twist of yellow ribbon stuck sidewise on the tails of many cars, it struck me that the present conflict would be better symbolized if the loose ends of the ribbon were joined.

The Manchester Guardian (Oct.27):

Torture is simple – amazing results can be achieved with the everyday household objects that any Blue Peter presenter might recommend. And it’s really sexy – think of all that painstaking attention to genital areas. Better yet, it’s about power – having the power to make somebody into something. The kind of exhilarating stuff you’re not supposed to try at home. Never mind that even Malleus Maleficarum (the original torture manual for the Spanish Inquisition) cautioned that its victims might say anything to make it stop – torture is definitely about truth and about justice springing in a really surprising and frankly rather ill-defined way from unjust and criminal acts, and don’t forget, if we don’t do it to them, they’ll do it to us.

Cited by the Future of Freedom Foundation. There’s a daily mailing of links, but I don’t see offhand how to subscribe.

Wo, Jim, catty much?

Recent reading: Julian Sanchez (and those whom he links, and so on) on the specter of conscription. Will Wilkinson‘s argument (from last summer) is especially readworthy.