Toyah

Washed up politicians decide to do an end-run around the Constitution: Former congressmen are pushing state-by-state legislation whereby states would decide to award their electoral votes to the individual who wins the nation-wide popular vote.

My friend Tara argues that the drive for a national popular vote begin with a national, and not state-by-state, debate.

Loving County, Texas, and its county seat, Mentone---located just 65 miles from Balmorhea and Toyah Creek---have made the front page of the NY Times. It seems them libertarians are stirrin' up trouble everywhere!

in select arizona and florida locations the sound your heard was pitchers and catchers reporting. olympics...eh....world baseball classic....nah....fantasy draft....wooo hooo hooo!!
yes, there is march madness to which i am looking forward, but ahh the draft....days of emails and internet searches to figure out who i will be watching baseball tonight to see (other than the reds and indians, of course).

The citizens of Tall 'Afar really like the Third Armored Cavalry:

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget.

You can read an earlier letter written by the city here (via Powerline).

Kurdistan, which isn't a place at all, just an idea.

Someday, I'd like to visit.

no...not to tears by the winter olympics....i have moved into an apartment. i spent the weekend trying to get stuff set up. my girlfriend took it upon herself to help me clean a lot. that was very nice of her. i have now slept 3 nights at 303 C west North street. so i have finally caught up with my age. it only took until 26 to do it.

There's some interesting commentary here on the signifigance and usefulness of having friends who are outside of your own faith, whether that means friends who are Jews, Muslims, or atheists/agnostics.

I would say I haven't had quite as much experience like this as this writer has, but I do count several Muslims and atheists friend, as well as people from many different Christian faiths (here the Internet has been an invaluable asset to my faith). I agree with his conclusion: having theological discussions with these people has deepened and strengthened my own faith, often by knocking it down. That's painful, but that's what I need. Friends who believe as I do are a comfortable sanctuary, but they tend to reinforce me where I'm already strong, while friends who are on the "outside" help me grow where I'm weak. If nothing else, they help you to understand that a great deal of the world does not think as you do (regardless of your particular faith), and if you want to reach those people, you must understand them. And you can't understand those that you never talk to.

Interesting...there are currently 54 vacant federal judicial positions, and only 26 nominations. One of which, incidentally, is Samuel Alito's Third Circuit seat.

The oldest vacancy dates from January 2000. That's six years. Come on, President Bush and Senate Judiciary Committee! Supreme Court judges aren't the only judges we need!

(via Instapundit)

The Wall Street Journal (free) has some interesting perspective on the Muhammed cartoons:

"Keen to 'globalize' the crisis to pressure the Danish government, Mr. Abu-Laban and his colleagues decided to send delegations to the Middle East. They prepared a dossier to distribute during the travels. The document, which exceeded 30 pages, featured copies of the published cartoons and Arabic media reports about the controversy. It also contained a group of highly offensive pictures that had never been published by the newspaper, including a photograph of a man dressed as a pig, with the caption: 'this is the real picture of Muhammad.'"

I think the outrage in the Muslim world is real, but I think it's also being fanned and incited by (some) Muslim leaders for ends that have nothing to do with respect for Muhammed.

I think the Muslim world (at least the Arab Muslims) overdoes the outrage thing. They are perpetually outraged about something, which leads me to think that "being respectful" towards their sensibilities is a lost cause. Basically, the West needs to live its own life and pay as little attention to the Muslim world as possible, since we get the same response from them no matter what we do. That's a problem for old Europe though, with its large unassimilated (and often unemployed) Muslim population.

BBC: Muslim Cartoon Fury Claims Lives

It is little less than astounding how such a furor can result over something as simple as a cartoon. And over something Danish! This mess does more to highlight the chasm between Muslims and the west than even 9/11.

That said, I am proud of American newspapers for not involving themselves by publishing the cartoons, as many European papers have. The cartoons show poor taste and highlight Europe's hostility to and contempt for religion and all things religious.

UPDATE: An Israeli View (Volokh)

no, i'm not talking about the pittsburg aluminums or the seattle seagulls, i'm talking about my birthday. 26 is just 2 days away, and i am clarifying that 26 is definitely still mid-20's. today when i got to work the office was decorated for a barbie birthday party. there were pink balloons and barbie plates/napkins/cups and lots of food. one of the employees here said that this is the first time that our department has had a festive birthday. awwww....i'm special. i have a king's hat that they've "made" me wear today. good times. i'm off to c-town this weekend. my brother (the recent english major/college graduate turned u.s. postal carrier) is also home this weekend. so it'll be mom and dad, jennifer, me, and the mailman...i will call him karl malone, or cliff claven, or newman.

nothing like a well structured/flowing thought patterns post for toyah's discriminating readers.