Northeast Corridor

EMERGENCY GADGETS

In light of all these hurricanes to hit the Gulf, the WSJ has a review of emergency gadgets that may be of use during an emergency.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 3:46 PM 1 comments

ROCK N' ROLL HALL OF FAME

This years inductees have been announced and they are not at the same level as when the the Hall of Fame was new. John Mellancamp, Cat Stevens, and Blondie are among the strongest candidates this year. I want to know how come the Moody Blues and Yes have been ignored. I believe this is a case of musical snobbery by the journalists who vote for the bands. The Moodies and Yes have probably sold 10x the albums of Patti Smith, another one of this years inductees.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 3:36 PM 0 comments

FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL

There has been some controversy regarding the proposed Flight 93 Memorial in PA. JAMES LILEKS has his thoughts here:

Now our memorials are muted things whose passive beauty often seems at odds with the events they describe. Such a problem arises from the ill-named Crescent of Embrace, a memorial designed to commemorate the heroes of Flight 93.

In this crescent -- a red one, in the mockups -- many see the symbol of Islam, which was not exactly represented by its best ambassadors on Sept. 11, 2001. Even the design committee noted the Islamic implications of the word "crescent," but went with it anyway -- perhaps to show that they were Citizens of the World, ecumenical in their sorrow, and surely not Islamophobic. (Islam is peachy! Unless it's in the Iraqi constitution.)

MARK STEYN has his thoughts here:

That sounds like a fabulous winning entry - in a competition to create a note-perfect parody of effete multicultural responses to terrorism. Indeed, if anything, it’s too perfect a parody: the “embrace” is just the usual huggy-weepy reconciliatory boilerplate, but the “crescent” transforms its generic cultural abasement into something truly spectacular. In the design plans, “The Crescent of Embrace” looks more like the embrace of the Crescent – ie, Islam. After all, what better way to demonstrate your willingness to “embrace” your enemies than by erecting a giant Islamic crescent at the site of the day’s most unambiguous episode of American heroism?

Read The whole things.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 8:26 PM 0 comments

QUESTIONS FOR ROBERTS

Instapundit and some others have posted 5 questions each for John Roberts that they would like to be asked during the confirmation hearings. Patterico has an exellent response to what his answers would be here. The best question:

3. Could a human-like artificial intelligence constitute a "person" for purposes of protection under the 14th Amendment, or is such protection limited, by the 14th Amendment's language, to those who are "born or naturalized in the United States?"

posted by Long Island Bob @ 1:50 PM 0 comments

MEDIA AND TERRORISM

AUSTIn BAY on terrorists and the media:

History, going wrong for Islamist supremacists at least since the 16th century, really failed when the caliphate dissolved. Though Al Qaeda’s timeline to Utopia remains hazy, once the caliphate returns, the decadent modern world will fade, as Western power collapses — and presumably Eastern power, as well. (Islamists are active in China’s Sinkiang province.)

At some point, bin Laden-interpreted Islamic law will bring strict bliss to the entire world. If this sounds vaguely like a Marxist “Workers Paradise,” that’s no accident — the communists also justified the murder of millions pursuing their atheist Utopia.

Terrorism as practiced by Al Qaeda — and, for that matter Saddamist killers in Iraq — is 21st century information warfare. Terrorists don’t simply target London and Baghdad, they target the news media.

Al Qaeda understands that our media craves the spectacular. But don’t place all the blame on headline writers and TV producers. Like sex, violence sells, and Al Qaeda has suckered audiences by providing hideous violence.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 9:00 PM 0 comments

WAR ON TERROR

MARK STEYN on the war on terror:

Four years ago, I thought the "war on terror" was a viable concept. To those on the right who scoffed that you can't declare war on a technique, I pointed out that Britain's Royal Navy fought wars against slavery and piracy and were largely successful. Of course, since then we've had the shabby habit of presidents declaring a "war on drugs" and a "war on poverty" and, with hindsight, that corruption of language has allowed Americans to slip the war on terror into the same category -- not a war in the sense that a war on Fiji or Belgium is a war, but just one of those vaguely ineffectual aspirational things that don't really impinge on you that much except for the odd pointless gesture -- like the shoe-removing ritual before you board a flight at Poughkeepsie. The "war on terror" label has outlived whatever usefulness it had

.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 8:55 PM 0 comments

MARDI GRAS 2006?

A topic of conversation the other night was whether or not New Orleans could possibly have Mardi Gras in 2006. Well low and behold, there is a story in the NYT about how business leaders are planning for a party this year and plotting to eventually get a super bowl.

In the cramped offices and hallways of this building, called the Capitol Annex, and continuing into the evening at bars and restaurants around Baton Rouge, New Orleans's business leaders and power brokers are concocting big plans, the most important being reopening the French Quarter within 90 days.

Also under discussion are plans to stage a scaled-down Mardi Gras at the end of February and to lobby for one of the 2008 presidential nominating conventions and perhaps the next available Super Bowl.

So far, those conversations have been taking place largely without the participation of one central player: the city. "They're still in emergency mode and not yet thinking strategically," said J. Stephen Perry, the chief executive of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We're thinking strategically."

The hurdles are formidable when so much of the city is still flooded and some are predicting it could be six months to a year before New Orleans is once again habitable. But the power brokers are not deterred.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 2:00 PM 0 comments

KATRINA AFTERMATH

MARK STEYN on Hurricane Katrina:

The nation's taxpayers will now be asked to rebuild New Orleans. The rationale for doing so is that it is a great city of national significance. Fine. But, if it's of national significance, what have all the homeland security task forces been doing these last four years? Why is the defense of the city still left to a system of levees each with its own individual administrative regime? If it's of national significance, why did the porkmeisters of the national legislature and national executive branch slash a request by the Army Corps of Engineers for $105 million for additional flood protection measures there down to just over $40 million, at the same time they approved a $230 million bridge to an uninhabited Alaskan island? Given that the transport infrastructure's already in place, maybe it makes more sense to rebuild New Orleans in Alaska.

Read the whole thing, meanwhile please contribute.

posted by Long Island Bob @ 8:29 PM