Here’s a snippet of conversation I overheard at one of the July 4th holiday cookouts I went to this weekend: First Guy: “If the U.S. really wanted to win this so-called war on terror, it’d begin by joining the I.C.C. and by signing that Kyoto whatchamacallit. The protocol.” Second Guy: “Does this pasta salad have cucumbers in it? Who puts cucumbers in a pasta salad?” First Guy: “And you can’t

Reader Randolph Addison sends along this Guardian story trumpeting a World Wildlife Fund study that predicts the depletion of earth’s natural resources by 2050. Not surprisingly, the Guardian reports this agitprop as though it were based on unassailable science and sober analysis: ‘Earth will expire by 2050’ Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer

So I thought this Dan Perkins strip could do with a bit of a makeover. Not the drawings so much. To be honest, I kinda like the drawings. But the commentary needed a little bit of tweaking, that’s for sure… [link found via Walter in Denver, who writes of TT’s original strip: “I can’t decide if he’s really worried about the state of the country or if he just hates

Den Beste’s right: “No matter how many instances of the American flag they burn, or shoot holes in, or trample under foot, or tear to shreds, the American Flag will continue to exist. They can’t destroy the class ‘American Flag’ by destroying instances of it. Nor can they destroy the United States by burning flags. “It’s a symbolic act of anger and contempt and resentment. It’s a political statement.” To

Reader David Lonborg, who was very active in the lengthy debate over Washington state’s decision to pass legislation banning “Oriental” from public documents, sends along this related story from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: According to the writer of ‘Kamehameha,’ starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the upcoming film production is a train already on the tracks. But at least one Hawaiiana scholar is already working to derail it. Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, director of

From retroCRUSH: “When Rock Stars Make Movies: The Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Unwatchable” (Volume 1). Revisit the screen roles of some of your favorite songsters: Vanilla Ice! The Fat Boys! MC Hammer! Susanna Freakin’ Hoffs…! Here, for instance, is retroCRUSH’s review of that much ballyhooed 1988 Jeff Goldblum, Cyndi Lauper vehicle, Vibes: Ugh! A film featuring 3 hours of graphic butt sex between Carrot Top and Jm.

Pssssst! Wanna buy a ’97 Ford Crown Victoria? Low mileage, beefed-up engine, two-way radio. Gunrack… [Related: Pssssst! Wanna buy a coupla’ shotguns…?]

A note of thanks to Americans, from Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, opinion editor at Arutz Sheeva: At this time, I am most thankful to America for its patriotism. Every Israeli reporter stationed in America since that terrible September 11 has commented on Israeli television or radio about the incredible patriotism of the American people. American flags everywhere. Flag pins on every lapel. Patriotic themes appeared in every media outlet. Every store, every

William Easterly, senior fellow of the Center for Global Development and the Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., and former senior advisor of the development research group at the World Bank, has a fascinating article on the failures of what he terms the “aid cartel” in the July/August Foreign Policy. Here’s a bit to whet your appelink™*: The mere mention of a

Writing in the Chronicle Review, Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, argues that Catholic Universities occupy the vanguard of current intellectualism — precisely because of their inheritance in the tradition of natural law. As Wolfe explains it, “the natural-law tradition […] is premised on the idea that there are certain truths in the world that remain true irrespective of whether