Black History of Drag Racing

If like me you look to IowaHawk mainly for humor, you'll be surprised and impressed by his extensively sourced, by blogosphere standards, review of Black Americans in drag racing and stock car racing. Black History Month: Quarter Mile Soul

Top 10 Signs...

Strategy Page has the Top 10 Signs that the Unites States is About to Bomb Iran. Do not mistake this for a prediction.

Before any major military operation, there are always tell tale signs. With
all the talk about Israel or the United States bombing Iran's nuclear
weapons program, it would be wise to check for the signs before taking the
pundit prattle too seriously....

My favorite:

8 -Sudden loss of cell service near some air force bases (from which heavy
bombers would depart). At the same time, there would be sightings of Middle
Eastern looking guys around these bases, trying to get their cell phones to
work, while being observed by what appears to be FBI agents.

....These warning signs are no secret, and intelligence officers regularly run
down their check lists. As a result, nations will sometimes stage a false
alert by deliberately performing many of the items on someone's check list,
with no intention of following through.

Where Can I Get "Do Not Euthanize" Orders?

Drudge is linking to LifeSiteNews about euthanasia of patients at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This time the report is sourced back to National Public Radio, so those suspicious of LifeSite may find some corroboration. Might make some people think about their Do Not Resuscitate orders.

If the story turns out to be true, I'm sure we can find a bioethicist, maybe even a whole committee of them, who will defend the practice.

Port Security

As much as I’m enjoying watching Democrats and parts of the Left suddenly embrace racial profiling, I can’t find anything wrong with Bush’s statement -

"I think it sends a terrible signal to friends around the world that it's OK for a company from one country to manage the port, but not a country that plays by the rules and has got a good track record from another part of the world can't manage the port..."

Many of the 9/11 hijackers including Mohammed Atta spent years in Germany. Have we denied Germany access to our defense markets?

Which port owners are doing a good job of security? Do we have a metric? Are any of them US firms?

Someone tell me when Bill Frist became the Right’s go-to-guy on national security.

Having Your Genome "Done"

Christopher Hitchens (connect from his website to "Shalom Professor Gates" to avoid the Times free registration), writing in the LA Times, offers a brief but fascinating look at mitochondrial DNA testing, or having your genome "done" and the potential surprises awaiting us all.

The fantasy of ethnic purity is simply a fantasy, and the fantasy of racial
purity is not even a delusion, because we are all of the same race. Ex Africa
semper aliquid novi, as the Romans phrased it. There is always something new out
of Africa.

I don't think these guys will be surprised to find out Henry Louis Gates was descended from a female Ashkenazi Jew.

Caving In To a Rebellious Adolescent

I’m a little late to the party on the Cartoon Jihad, but does it seem like parts of the conservative blogosphere, especially Christians, another one here, are engaged in a kind of moral preening in their desire for the European and American press to self-censor in deference to the fragile sensitivities of Muslims?

Let me be clear, I don’t seek a "clash of civilizations", nor do I agree with the unfettered "right to blaspheme". I don’t seek vengeance for the portrayal of Jews and Christians in the Arab press. I don’t seek vengeance for the western press’s willingness to denigrate Christianity at every opportunity.

I see this strictly as a child-rearing problem.

Christianity, Judaism, the west in general, and Hinduism all have a stake in seeing Islam finally pull out of its 600-year adolescence and join the adult world. The first conversation any parent has with a rebellious adolescent is "as long as you live under this roof, you will follow my rules." Well our rules, even the indulgent parent Europe’s rules, include freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Period. You don’t like it, move out, but we are not changing the rules.

The radical Muslim world has been throwing tantrums for decades and until now the only adults willing to enforce the rules have been the wicked uncle Israel and the stern but forgiving United States. Finally, Western Europe may be on-board as a willing partner in child rearing, so why should anyone lose their nerve now? Because the tantrums are getting louder and longer?

Also, Hugh Hewitt's (at Radio Blogger, scroll down) insistence on seeing it as a strategy issue, i.e. what happens if Pakistan becomes too radicalized thanks to these cartoons and stops being our ally, doesn’t recognize the larger issues. Pakistan is already radicalized. They’ve been burning US flags for years to protest our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. The country is loaded with radical madrassas and imams. How is western civilization showing a united front on free speech and free press going to further radicalize them?

If we’re constantly worried about what our children’s friends think of us, we’ll never make it as parents. Why should a bunch of grown-ups, however boorish their behavior, subject themselves to the rule of violent adolescents?

Richard John Neuhaus get it right.

Noonan on The Coretta Scott-King Funeral

Soxblog nails it exactly on Peggy Noonan's "pompous imperious tone she customarily adopts when she’s trying to show her highly cultivated sensitivities especially when compared to the rest of pundit-dom. Counter-intuitively, Noonan found the services to be “wonderful--spirited and moving, rousing and respectful, pugnacious and loving.”

He does credit her with a couple zingers.