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This is wicked awesome:

Popular Mechanics takes a look at the equipment and services behind their new “street view” maps:

The 11-lens, softball-size, video game-style gadget that had privacy advocates shifting in their seats turns out to be changing how users interact with video and the commercial realms. Now it’s got everyone from the military to the NBA ready to remap the world, and we get hands-on in a PM exclusive.

The rest of the story…

VDH Strikes again:

February 27, 2008
The Future with Europe
The Swiss newspaper Junge Freiheit interviews VDH
Private Papers

JF: Professor Hanson, you criticize U.S. immigration policy in your recent book Mexifornia. What is it that bothers you about the development at the Southern border?

VDH: Many things. 1)We are wide open to terrorist infiltration; 2) We privilege illegal immigration from Mexico, while penalizing and delaying legal immigration from Asia, Africa, and Europe; 3) We serve as a safety valve and enabler for Mexico, which therefore will never make needed reforms; 4) We are creating a chauvinistic tribalism, a race industry that tries to convert the presence of 15 million illegal aliens into some sort of political movement; 5) We use cheap illegal labor to ensure our own entry level workers cannot bargain or organize.

As you see, I could go on…

The rest of the story…

A brilliant opinion piece by Dr. Hanson, be sure to hit the link and read the whole thing at his site:

Victor Davis Hanson
27 February 2008

Listening to the give-and-take entitlement bidding war between Hillary and Barack, I thought there must have been a number of Americans—tens of millions in fact?—whom they have more or less forgotten. Who are they?

The forgotten American day in and day out pays off his monthly mortgage…

The rest of the story…

One of the roles of this blog is to track trends. One of the more interesting ones is what is ahead for the religious right. A fascinating look at this comes from David Kuo, former deputy director of faith initiatives for the White House under George W. Bush. He has published a piece called Not Your Father’s Religious Right. The link is:

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_8370168

The rest of the story…

A very nice summary from John at Power Line:

… Today, the benefit of that experience has largely been lost. A generation of American voters has not experienced the failures of the Great Society, the near-collapse of American cities, double-digit inflation and unemployment, seventy percent tax brackets, or the disaster of Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy. In the absence of historical memory, and with a powerful assist from the ever-forgetful press, liberalism is once again emerging as the philosophy that sounds good. The fact that it doesn’t work awaits as an unpleasant surprise for a new generation. In the meantime, Barack Obama may well be the plausible candidate who can lead voters, once again, down the blind alley of leftism. He is, as Steve Hayes argues, an opponent who must be taken seriously. …

Link

From Scott at Power Line:

Watching the Democratic debate last night, I thought to myself: I would buy a used car from Barack Obama. He is smart, disarming, adroit, and likable. In a debate format with Hillary Clinton, the competition has been reduced to seeking Democratic votes on claims to the greatest ideological purity. For Obama, the claim rests on his opposition to the Iraq war. For her, the claim rests on her health care program. Both Obama and Clinton are peddling tales of gloom and doom, and both recognize no greater threat to the United States than the Bush administratoin. In substance, they both portend a grim Eurosocialist future for the United States. With his personal attributes, however, Obama has it all over her.

For John McCain to prevail against Obama, McCain will have to deploy an intellectual rigor in exposing Obama that he has yet to display on the campaign trail. Tony Blankley draws the lessons of the Clinton campaign against Obama and calls for “a surgeon’s scalpel.” Does McCain have it in him?

Link

Steyn on Canada and the Commonwealth
Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Since Maclean’s got into a spot of bother with Canada’s “human rights” pseudo-courts, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of our media confreres who don’t think it should be a “crime” for magazines to publish excerpts from books by yours truly. Nevertheless, in defending free speech in general, they usually feel obliged to deplore my exercise of it in particular:

“Maclean’s published an alarmist screed by Mr. Steyn . . .” (The Economist)

“While the book may be alarmist . . .” (CFRB)

“Steyn’s argument is indeed alarmist . . .” (The Guardian)

And, oh dear, even:

“The fear of ‘a Muslim tide’ was alarmist . . .” (Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan in Maclean’s)

Okay, enough already. I get the picture: alarmist, alarmist, alarmist. My book’s thesis — that most of the Western world is on course to become at least semi-Islamic in its political and cultural disposition within a very short time — is “alarmist.”

The question then arises: fair enough, guys, what would it take to alarm you?

The rest of the story…

Some friends with a son in the Navy sent me some great photos of his ship leaving port. I thought I would post one here. God Bless our Sailors and Soldiers!

Ryan and I watched the eclipse last night.  Lots of clouds, but we could see it often enough.  It was quite beautiful.  I took some photos, but lenses is not long enough nor aperture big enough to get any really good shots.

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: February 19, 2008

At first it seemed like a few random cases of lassitude among Mary Chapin Carpenter devotees in Berkeley, Cambridge and Chapel Hill. But then psychotherapists began to realize patients across the country were complaining of the same distress. They were experiencing the first hints of what’s bound to be a national phenomenon: Obama Comedown Syndrome.

The rest of the story…

Interesting…

via lifehack.org

We all want to get stuff done, whether it’s the work we have to do so we can get on with what we want to do, or indeed, the projects we feel are our purpose in life. To that end, here’s a collection of 50 hacks, tips, tricks, and mnemonic devices I’ve collected that can help you work better.

The rest of the story…

Charles Krauthammer | Primetime Politics

There’s no better path to success than getting people to buy a free commodity. Like the genius who figured out how to get people to pay for water: bottle it (Aquafina was revealed to be nothing more than reprocessed tap water) and charge more than they pay for gasoline. Or consider how Google found a way to sell dictionary nouns– boat, shoe, clock—by charging advertisers zillions to be listed whenever the word is searched.

And now, in the most amazing trick of all, a silver-tongued freshman senator has found a way to sell hope. To get it, you need only give him your vote.

The rest of the story…