Northeast Corridor

2007-07-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Americana that James Lileks would love. A closed restaurant in Havre De Grace, MD called the "Chat N Chew". There was no one around to ask what the story was of how the restaurant was named. I took it on my trip to Baltimore and the new Smithsonian Air and Space museum at Dulles airport. You can see the pictures here.

The Tube Music Video Channel

2006-11-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

For anyone that has the Cablevision IO package, there is a great music video channel. It's called The Tube and is at 184. It plays the best of the 70's 80's and 90's. It started a short time ago and seems to be commercial free. I highly recommend it !

SAINTS FANS DESTROY SUPERDOME

2006-09-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

So sez a funny headline from The Onion.

GOLF TOURNEY IN MANHATTAN

2006-09-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, there will be a pro-golf tournament in Manhattan in a few

weeks starring Annika, The Donald and super-hottie Natalie Gulbus.

news
tournament site

I think it sez tickets start at $400 - I guess I won't be going, shame because it sounds like fun.

CLINTON CONTROVERSY

2006-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Bill Clinton has come under some heat lately from some bloggers and opinion writers for his terror policies in the 90's. You can read about it here and here . I think that some criticism is valid but is misses an important point that is still relevant now. After the attack on the WTC in 1993 it was apparent that there were immigrants here, some illegal, who hated us, who had drivers licenses, and were planning to attack in some way. The Clinton administration refused to do anything about this because illegal immigration and multiculturalism are sacred cows to liberals. We had Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in the USA illegally for years spreading hate and plotting against us before we finally arrested him. George Bush atleast addressed the problem after 9-11 but he too does not think we should secure our border against our enemies.

DHS FUNDS

2006-06-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

I heard Secretary Chertoff on Hannity today giving a rational for cutting %40 of funds from New York. He said that deciding that New York has no national landmarks is good for New York because buildings with people in it are more important. Fine, that makes sense, but why is there no category called landmarks-with-people that would be the most important of all? By making all office buildings the same he makes no distinction between the Empire State Building and an office park in Peroria. He later said that New York is getting it's funds cut because "we have locked the front door, now we are tending to the side door and window". Here's what Hannity should have said: Secretary Chertoff, with 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, our front door is not secure. Our front door is wide open with a big welcome sign on it. I would have also asked him how come coming up with a biometric ID card for guest-workers will take 18 months when the DOD already has a biometric card for it's workers. It is called a CAC card and by using it for ID the DHS could share costs with the DOD and use an existing software. To go one step further it could be used as an optional national ID card.

FOREIGN POLICY PROPOSAL

2006-05-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

I read in the WP, a fact noted by Andrew Sullivan in his blog, that Muslim countries are the ones who do the most searching for the word sex. I have also been reading that companies like Google and Yahoo have cooperated with the Chinese Government in filtering content to it's own people. It gave me an idea, why can't the US use companies like Yahoo and Google as a tool to enact Foreign policy. Say Iran continues with it's course to pursue nuclear weapons, the US should use Google, Yahoo, and MSN to block all access to porn in Iran. The sceen they will see will look something like this:

Dear Sir: We know that as a Muslim man you must have come accross this site by accident. This site contains very sexy and shocking adult content. The US Government has decided that as not to offend any Muslim sensibilities, it will now block any site that does contain this adult content. Please take this as a goodwill gesture from the US to the Islamic world. Any questions about this policy should be directed to the leaders of your country or your local Mullah. Thank you and have a good day.

BUFFET ON INVESTING

2006-03-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

Warren Buffet gives a good lesson on investing here.

TRIP TO ASIA

2006-02-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

In January I went to Singapore and Phuket for 11 days. I liked Singapore alot, it is clean safe and tourist friendly. The only thing wrong with it is that beer prices were very high, I would say the average price was US$7.50 for a pint of decent beer.

Here is a picture of me and Viv, a waitress at Hooters in Singapore.

Phuket was great, the town I was in, Patong Beach, seems to have recovered from the tsunami and there were alot of tourist there. There are still some problems on other parts of the island and the Red Cross is still doing operations there.

EMPIRE BROKEBACK

2006-02-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ed Driscoll has a link to a hilarius send up of a Star Wars meets Brokeback Mountain trailer.

HOTTEST FEMALE ATHLETES

2006-02-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

ESPN has an online poll where you can vote for the hottest female athlete. Th group that they picked from are all current athletes, no Anna Kournikova, and has quite a few recent athletes from this winter's Olympics. I picked Natalie Gulbis.

HANGOVER CURES

2006-01-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

For those of you who had too much to drink last night, the NY Times has an article on hangover cures. The conclusion is that nothing really works except rehydrating yourself. My favorite cure these days is iced tea.

EMERGENCY GADGETS

2005-09-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

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.

ROCK N' ROLL HALL OF FAME

2005-09-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

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.

FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL

2005-09-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

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.

QUESTIONS FOR ROBERTS

2005-09-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

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?"

MEDIA AND TERRORISM

2005-09-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

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.

WAR ON TERROR

2005-09-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

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.

MARDI GRAS 2006?

2005-09-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

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.

KATRINA AFTERMATH

2005-09-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

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.

LIST OF CHARITIES

2005-08-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

INSTAPUNDIT has a list of charities for the people affected by hurricane Katrina.

IN PRAISE OF JERSEY

2005-08-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

ILYA SHAPIRO has a great post over at TCS praising New Jersey.

Moreover -- and in case you're wondering why I'm writing this without remuneration from the state tourist bureau -- New Jersey is a quintessential purple state. Not that I'm revamping my thesis -- Purple America is more about states of mind than states -- but of all the states out there, which (on the whole) better combines cosmopolitan tastes and the spirit of free enterprise? There are strong arguments to be made for places like Florida and Arizona (though the former is polluted by stodgy retirees and the latter by even stodgier Californians) but certainly no state outside the Sun Belt has come closer to embracing globalization while maintaining a sort of live-and-let-live individuality. Maybe New Hampshire -- in the parts easily accessible to Boston -- but I just wouldn't be able to stand the winters there.

Read the whole thing.

HOTTEST FEMALE GUITARISTS

2005-08-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of the top 12 hottest female guitarists ever. I would have put Jewel as #1.

TITANIUM JEWELRY

2005-08-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

An article in the NYT highlights a new trend. Imitating MLB players, many people are starting to wear titanium jewelry. It's supposed to work by enhancing your body's natural electric currents and will help with sports performance and all around health. Doctors and scientists are skeptical of such claims. This reminds me of a trend from a couple years ago where golfers would wear copper bracelets to ward off arthritis.

POP-TOP BEERS

2005-08-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

The WSJ has an article about how more and more upscale beers are being delivered to consumers in cans. Among the reasons given are cost, storage, and the ability to have the product in such places as airplanes, that require cans.

Scott Maitland, for one, is convinced the can has a bright microbrew future. Founder of Top-of-the-Hill Restaurant and Brewery in Chapel Hill, N.C., he launched two canned lines in May after being frustrated that he couldn't find craft beer on the golf course. When he sold 60 barrels (about 800 cases) in the first five weeks, a lot of them to a local supermarket chain, he knew he was on to something. "The consumers actually get it better than anyone in the craft-beer industry," says Mr. Maitland, who expects his canned output to grow to about 600 barrels of his Leaderboard Trophy Lager and Ram's Head India Pale Ale a year.

The article includes a taste test that concludes that being in a can does not affect the taste of beer.

BASE CLOSINGS

2005-08-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL BARONE on BRAC base closings:

These decisions will also increase the already high likelihood that Congress will not reject the final regulations. They will be rejected only if both houses of Congress vote to do so within 45 days of submission of the final list. Maine's senators may still vote no because Brunswick Naval Air Station remains on the closure list, but New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island will face only minor losses—probably not enough to prompt their senators to vote no.

I think that closing Fort Monmouth is a very poor decision. A great deal of important work happens there. (Disclosure: I work at Ft. Monmouth)

UPDATE: I have thought of another argument against closing Ft. Monmouth. The government will need to spend money now to close the base in order to save money later, but the federal government is running a deficit. This means that any monies spent now will be from a bond that interest will have to be paid on. I am certain that this factor was not used in deciding the fate of these bases. The Pentagon and the BRAC commission probably looked at the savings just in terms of the DOD's budget not in terms of the entire federal budget.

UPDATE2: Fort Monmouth may have an out. The commssion passed an amendment that said the facility could not be closed until the Army proved that the move would not hurt military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

2005-08-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

MIDLIFE ASSESMENT

2005-08-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Well I turned 41 this year, my health is pretty good, i'm a little overweight and my diet sucks but i'm really glad I don't have this 41 year olds problems.

REAL ESTATE vs STOCKS

2005-08-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

An article in today’s NYT explores the idea that stocks are actually a better investment than real estate in the long run. It states that after counting for inflation, improvements, taxes, and interest, that stocks will make you more money in the long run. The article also notes the difficulty of cashing out your real estate profits because you will need to buy another place to live in.

Since 1980, for example, money invested in the Standard & Poor's 500 has delivered a return of 10 percent a year on average. Including dividends, the return on the S.& P. 500 rises to 12 percent a year. Even in New York and San Francisco, homes have risen in value only about 7 percent a year over the same span.

That does not mean real estate is a bad investment. It is often an important source of wealth for families. But its main benefit is what it has always been: you can live in the house you own.

I agree with the article, it reminds me of a debate I had with a friend in the 80's about the price of a seat on the exchanges vs real estate. I think the caveat here is that investors need to be disciplined and mostly invest in low cost index funds.

CINDY SHEEHAN

2005-08-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

JAMES LILEKS has his thoughts here and here on Cindy Sheehan.

The hard left in America needs to realize a bald, cruel fact: Anyone who sees no moral distinction between Israel and the mullahs of Iran, or sees the U.S. attempt to set up a constitutional republic in Iraq as equivalent to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, suffers from incurable moral cretinism. The more the fervent anti-war base embraces these ideas, the more they ensure that no one will trust the left with national security. Ever.

Will they learn the lesson? Even money says Sheehan will be sitting in the Michael Moore seat next to Jimmy Carter at the '08 Democratic convention.

100 DOLLAR BEER

2005-08-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

WINS has a story about a bar in the East Village that has a beer going for $100. The beer, Utopia by Sam Adams, is a super strong beer, way past what a barley wine would be. At a whopping 25% alcohol it is stronger than some liquors and most wines. Perhaps this is a sign that the economy really is back on track.

PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGS

2005-08-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

The WSJ has a good look at some personal finace blogs here.

UNFREE UNDER ISLAM

2005-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

AYAAN HIRSI ALI in the WSJ on womens rights and Islamic law.

Canadian women are told that the Arbitration Act of 1992 was passed in order to provide citizens with the opportunity to resolve minor conflicts through mediation and thereby save valuable court time. They are reassured that Muslim women in Canada have nothing to fear because parties must enter into arbitration out of their free choice, and that there are enough limits to safeguard the rights of women. The Muslim women's arguments that "free choice" is relative when you are psychologically, financially and socially dependent on your family, clan or religious group seem to fall on deaf ears. The populations of battered Muslim women in "tolerant" Canada's women's shelters seem to be ignored. In Canada, battered Muslim women say that their husbands told them that it is a God-given right to hit them. If the current Iraqi constitution goes through, Iraqi wife-abusers will be able to add "It is my constitutional right to beat you."

UPDATE: Roger Simon has his thoughts on her op-ed here.

WORLDS UGLIEST DOG

2005-08-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

The LAT has a story about the worlds ugliest dog. You won't believe the picture, it looks like something from a horror movie or a cloning experiment gone bad.

BIG GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVES

2005-08-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

The WaPo has an editorial rightly criticizing President Bush and Congress for spending money like liberals used to.

The nation is at war. It faces large expenses for homeland security. It is about to go through a demographic transition that will strain important entitlement programs. How can this president -- an allegedly conservative president -- believe that the federal government should spend money on the Red River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Louisiana? Or on the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan?

Read the whole thing

MCDONALDS DIET

2005-08-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

There is a story at CNN about a woman in North Carolina, taking a cue from the movie "Super Size Me", went on a diet just eating McDonalds for 90 days and lost 37 pounds. I wonder how much I could lose just eating Buffalo wings ?

MULTICULTURALISM IN EUROPE

2005-08-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

DAVID RIEFF in todays NY Times Magazine examines the issues of Islamic alienation in Europe.

The multicultural fantasy in Europe -- its eclipse can be seen most poignantly in Holland, that most self-definedly liberal of all European countries -- was that, in due course, assuming that the proper resources were committed and benevolence deployed, Islamic and other immigrants would eventually become liberals. As it's said, they would come to ''accept'' the values of their new countries. It was never clear how this vision was supposed to coexist with multiculturalism's other main assumption, which was that group identity should be maintained. But by now that question is largely academic: the European vision of multiculturalism, in all its simultaneous good will and self-congratulation, is no longer sustainable. And most Europeans know it. What they don't know is what to do next.

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

2005-08-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

IMMIGRATION REFORM

2005-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

DAVID BROOKS on immigration reform.

So here's the bottom line for the guy in San Antonio: Everybody's expecting a big blowup on this issue, but we've got a great chance of enacting serious immigration reform. It won't solve all problems. There will still be wage pressures and late-night parties. But right now immigration chaos is spreading a subculture of criminality across America. What we can do is re-establish law and order, so immigrants can bring their energy to this country without destroying the social fabric while they're here.

Read the Whole thing.

BEER TASTING

2005-08-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

The WSJ has conducted a taste test a various lagers, imported and domestic. American craft beers did well, but rather surprisingly Heineken took the top spot.

TIPPING

2005-08-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

STEVEN A. SHAW has an op-ed in todays NYT about how we should get away from the practice of tipping:

For their part, restaurateurs believe it is their right to have consumers pay servers, so they don't have to pay their employees a living wage. They prefer the current system because it allows them to have a team of pseudo-contractors rather than real employees.

But that too is shortsighted. Over time, as in any service-oriented business, waiters loyal to the restaurant will perform better and make customers happier than waiters loyal only to themselves.

In this, the world's most generous nation of tippers, most restaurants don't even offer service as good as at the average McDonald's. While it lacks style, service at McDonald's is far more reliable than the service at the average upper-middle-market restaurant. This is not because the employees of McDonald's are brilliant at their jobs - it's because they are well-trained and subject to rigorous supervision.

And come to think of it, at McDonald's there is no tipping.

I think that he is right since I have been to other countries where there is no tipping and the service was better there. I wish that he included bar service in his article as well.

IN DEFENSE OF DATA MINING

2005-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Mickey Kaus of Slate has an interesting article which explores the issues involved in 'data-mining' for terrorists. Data-Mining is a process of extracting useful information from large amounts of data. It is used in many industries but it’s use in military and law enforcement has been controversial. Apparently, before 9/11, the DOD discovered through data-mining that some of the 9/11 terrorists were in the country, but did not share that information with law enforcement.

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

2005-08-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

TECHNOLOGY THAT IS MISSED

2005-08-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

CNET has a list of the top 10 technologies that are missed. My favorite is the LP, I still argue with my friends that albums sound better than CD's.

ISLAMIST VIOLENCE AND THE ECONOMY

2005-08-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Over at the Becker-Posner blog, they have a thread examining the issues of the economy, immigration, and Islamist violence. They compare the US economy to Europe’s and both come to the conclusion that the greater economic opportunities and better assimilation in the US have worked to lesson these tensions as compared with Europe. Here are Gary Becker's thoughts on the issue:

There is an ongoing debate among economists over whether social mobility is greater in the United States or Europe. The general evidence on this does not offer a definitive answer, but there is little doubt that most immigrants believe opportunities for themselves and their children are greater in the United States. This is why America is the first choice of most immigrants whenever they can choose where to go, and it also explains the different attitudes of immigrants in Europe and America. As Posner emphasizes, most immigrants, non-Muslim as well as Muslim, feel far more accepted in the United States than in Europe, are less segregated here in both their living arrangements and employment, and appear to advance more easily toward higher level jobs. As a result, they are less promising material for radical Islam, although clearly radicals are operating and planning in the United States as well as in Europe.

I think they both ignore the history that Islam has with the West, and the fact that the Cold War and the World Wars helped suppress these tensions.

EARNINGS OF TV DADS

2005-07-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

CNN/Money has a fun look at what some famous TV dads would make in 2005 money. It's interesting to me that Homer Simpson would make more money as a Nuclear Safety Inspector than Ricky Ricardo as a bandleader.

(hat tip: The Corner)

SPYWARE

2005-07-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

If your computer has been hit by spyware, you should read this interesting story in the WSJ about a company called Omniture that has been placing 3'rd party cookies on computers all over the world. Omniture has been doing this on behalf of it's clients who include some large companies like Walmart.

The controversy over the 2o7.net cookies highlights the tension that exists between marketing companies like Omniture and Web users who are increasingly aware of, and adverse to, files that are automatically placed on their computers when they surf the Internet. At a time when PCs are under assault by viruses and other nefarious software like never before, users are employing a range of software tools and tactics to protect themselves. Many users don't distinguish between cookies, which are small bits of text commonly used by Web sites to identify users, and malicious software that can steal personal information or change PC settings. That has put marketers on the defensive, as they try to get users to spare cookies when wiping computers clean of potential threats.

Read the whole thing.

BOTW 5'th BIRTHDAY

2005-07-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

The WSJ’s Best of The Web has a nice column celebrating their 5 year anniversary. A highlight is the story on a hoax about monkeyfishing.

PASSENGER BAG CHECKS

2005-07-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is named after a train line I felt the need to comment on the recent decision by NJ and NY officials to search the bags of rail passengers. My take on it is that the cost in human life and to society of the recent bombings in Spain, London and Egypt is too much to bear, and officials like Mayor Bloomberg were forced to act. This is more than a feel-good decision, good security demands deterrence. There have been some groups like the NYCLU that have publicly challenged the decisions but most commuters, and even the NY Times have accepted them. It remains to be seen whether they will be challenged and then upheld by the courts. Some people have called for some kind of profiling to be used, this is tempting on some level but racial profiling would increase the likelihood of a successful court challenge, reduce public support, and could be of limited effectiveness in a polyglot city like New York.

NJ SMOKING BAN IN CARS ?

2005-07-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

A NJ legislator wants to ban smoking in cars. I can't believe that a state that does not ban smoking in bars or restaurants, would propose such a thing. Let's see what is more important, taxes, crime, or traffic, no it's people smoking in cars ! I think we should start giving stupidity awards to politicians like them.

MORE ON MULTICULTURALISM

2005-07-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Mark Steyn has a good follow up on multiculturalism here. Here's the key quote:

Usually it's the hostage who gets Stockholm Syndrome, but the newly liberated Wood must occasionally reflect that in this instance the entire culture seems to have caught a dose. And, in a sense, we have: multiculturalism is a kind of societal Stockholm Syndrome.

Read the whole thing.

TERM LIMITS FOR JUDGES

2005-07-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jund Fund has a column in the WSJ that makes a persuasive case for an 18 year limit for Supreme Court justices.

A major reason for justices doggedly hanging on to their seats is, simply put, power. The Framers of the Constitution never envisioned a judiciary as powerful as today's courts. But with that unaccountable power has come an erosion of the court's legitimacy. Many people increasingly question if elderly justices with thought patterns set a half-century ago can fully comprehend court cases that encompass the globalization of the world economy or file-sharing on the Internet.

I actually think that 18 years is a bit too long as well. I would propose having 15 year limit for all Federal judges who could then get reappointed if the judge was getting a promotion i.e. getting appointed to a higher court. This would ensure more accountability in the entire judiciary as well as ensuring higher quality judges.

WEB FADS

2005-07-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

CNET has a list of their top 10 web fads here. I know most of them but a few like Mahir's web site I had never heard of. I can't believe that they left Napster off the list. Napster had tens of millions of people using them at their peak. It's fun reminising about the early days of the Web.

TV REVIEW

2005-07-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying Himalaya with Michael Palin very much. It explores an area of the world that does not get much news here in the US. A highlight so far was the interview with the Dalai Lama, who comes across very well. It is on mondays on the Travel Channel.

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

2005-07-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

WHY THEY HATE US

2005-07-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Oliver Roy has a column in todays NY Times that is a rebuttal to all of those who blame Iraq for the recent terror bombings.

The Western-based Islamic terrorists are not the militant vanguard of the Muslim community; they are a lost generation, unmoored from traditional societies and cultures, frustrated by a Western society that does not meet their expectations. And their vision of a global ummah is both a mirror of and a form of revenge against the globalization that has made them what they are.

I think his analysis is spot-on.

CROSSWORD CONNECTION

2005-07-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, the crossword puzzle for both the New York Times and Washington Post magazine had the same answer for 23 across: pirates of the Caribbean. The clue in the Post was: "Disneyland ride that spawned a Depp movie”. An amazing coincidence, it probably happens frequently for smaller words. I wonder how you would calculate the odds for something like that ?

MULTICULURALISM BACKLASH

2005-07-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

There has been a well deserved backlash against multiculturalism since the 7/7 bombings in London. Even some liberals are questioning their faith. Mark Steyn, one of the best, has a scorching column here.

Professor Bainbridge has a column on the subject here.

Diana West gives us her take here.

FLIP-FLOPS AT THE WHITE HOUSE

2005-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here in Belmar, I have noticed many people wearing flip-flops this year, even in colder weather. Here is a story about some young women who wore them to the White House.

Update: Some of the women plan to sell their flip-flops to raise money for a 10-year-old girl with a brain tumor.

NEW JERSEY BLOGGERS

2005-07-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

This weeks Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers is up.

OPEN SOURCE BEER

2005-07-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

Open source is not just for software anymore. This story at wired.com talks about a group of students at the University of Copenhagen that have created the first open-source beer.

ESPY's

2005-07-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

I watched the ESPY's last night in the Boathouse, unfortunately I could not hear much of what was being said, but here is a great story about 2 athletes who won an award for helping disabled people in Ghana. Another highlight was a parody on the movie Hoosiers, with Mathew Perry coaching a bunch of senior athletes and getting some action too!

PANDERING

2005-07-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

I went out last night to the Boathouse, probably the best bar in the state, and there was a bachelorette party who all were wearing shirts that said “Brides against Bush”. I didn’t like what the shirts said but I did find it funny that they were wearing them. I later went up to one of the cute ones and told her that I liked her shirt. Was I pandering or selling out just to get a date ?

ROSE RUIZ

2005-07-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Decided to run in a 5K yesterday, for the first time in a number a years. I have been running on the treadmill in the gym 2x a week since January. I didn't look at the course map before I ran it and it turns out the course was a little confusing. I found myself alone for a while, then just with the fast runners. I must have made a wrong turn somwhere. I just decided to finish up and I finished 33rd although I did not hand in my card to place in the race. I probably ran about 2 miles total