Sky of Ashes

Sakuraba's Final Chapter

2008-06-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=13257

Sakuraba took a brutal beating at the hands of Manhoef at the last Dream event - and an unnecessary one. Despite my complaints about early stoppages in the Wedum-Vera, Kimbo-Thompson and Carano-Young fights, I think this fight should have been stopped much sooner.

Sakuraba is a living legend, no doubt. He may well be the best pound for pound fighter in MMA history, and his prime was truly awesome to behold. But that day is long past, and Sakuraba is a shade of his former self. Most of his fights see him take a terrific and unwarranted beating that simply dims his legacy in the eyes of ordinary fans. I hope he will at last retire of his own accord before someone retires him, or sends him to the graveyard.

Demographics vs. Ideology

2008-06-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/05/democrats-and-republicans-and-race-and.html

This article explains in a more articulate way than I can the fundamental structural difference between Democratic and Republican base-building. The Republican base is structured around people who share an ideological program, whereas the Democrats are often still grasping for a consistent program, and instead tend to offer different identity political groups (often masquerading as sociological categories) their own share of the spoils in the event of a Democratic victory.

Oil Reinvestment

2008-06-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121253600160243157.html?mod=todays_columnists

Recently, there have been a spate of articles, of which this one is representative, which argue that the current high price of crude oil is reflective more of a speculative bubble or conditions of temporarily high consumption, and that the price will diminish in the near future.

I do not wish to speculate about the near future, but I doubt that the price of oil (and by implication, gasoline, plastic, and the other derivative products of oil) will continue to rise much higher. If it surpasses and remains above $140 per barrel for long, many solar powered electric alternatives will become price-competitive. If it continues to rise past there (perhaps propelled by a speculative bubble), more exotic technology, like the glitch-prone wave power technology and its ilk will begin to come on the table.

Now, oil prices do not have to remain high for a transition towards these technologies to take place. Quite aside from any entirely premature "peak oil" speculation, oil companies (with the exception of SaudiARAMCO and Exxon) are investing heavily in renewable energy sources and alternative technologies - research that is funded by oil profits and will be implemented by hard headed and experienced energy companies, rather than some bureaucrat or hippie. They do so not out of concern for the environment, nor out of sense of obligation to the crackpots that have been heaping scorn on them for providing the energy they use to broadcast their messages of ignorance and hate, but rather out of the fundamental profit motive: there is a genuine opportunity to make money by providing energy, in whatever form, and if green energy is or at some time in the future will be cost competitive with the older products, then energy companies want a cut of that action. They, unlike all "dreamer" organizations, have the infrastructure and the institutional know how to implement such technologies when they become available. Only they have such assets.

In the coming years, there should be a natural transition towards more renewable energy sources, powered not by environmentalists but by market forces. We will see it in the oil market, yes, but also in the electricity market, which is not so heavily reliant on oil as many believe.

In the meantime, we could encourage the government to stop meddling in the gasoline market, and allow the natural transition to take place. Rather than being a jarring process, this can be a steady and largely painless transition - if the government would allow us to drill for oil in our own country and sooth the demand for oil.

Latest Fedor Interview

2008-06-13T11:57:00.001-07:00

This was an excellent interview; Fedor usually does not seem to answer questions so thoroughly. Fedor remains the #1 fighter in the world by almost any criteria, and I look forward to his victory over Sylvia.

First Amendment Rights

2008-06-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12hate.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=4b649355873aa689&ex=1213502400

Rare among the nations of the world, the United States legally allows all speech, no matter how controversial or unpopular. European nations limit speech to only those areas that the government has decided are debatable. Likewise, Canada severely limits the abilities of its citizens to question or criticize not only government policy, but their fellow citizens as well.

If offensive speech is removed from first amendment protection, then the amendment is worthless. Speech that is popular, uncontroversial and generally agreeable does not need an amendment to protect it. It is only the advancement of unpopular, controversial, or disagreeable ideas that politicians or bureaucrats seek to limit.

Now, this is not to say that there can be absolutely no limits on speech whatsoever. The "Fire in a crowded theater" standard is a reasonable one, and fraud, slander and libel are legitimate, thought greatly overused, reasons to penalize speech that is provably inaccurate and deliberately harmful to the reputation of another. Personally, I would like to see the public figure/private figure dichotomy obliterated and apply the less stringent public figure rules to all slander and libel cases.

Nor is it to say that wartime should not have its own unique requirements. Just as the constitution allows habeas corpus to be suspended in times of "insurrection," I would like to see an acknowledgment that during times of war a temporarily expanded ability to limit certain speech that undermines the war effort is legitimate. Typically, however, this set of expanded powers should not even be invoked.

Rather than having the government censor the speech of individuals, it is better to ask them, as fellow private citizens, to exercise their right to free speech in a responsible manner. If our fellow citizens do not, we have the right to respond with speech of our own - this is not censorship but the essence of debate. Criticizing opinions with which you disagree is not the same as government censorship. Nor is the refusal of reputable people to associate with disreputable speakers a form of censorship - it is a natural consequence of strong disagreement, albeit not an ideal one.

Free Speech in Canada Under Assault

2008-06-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/show_trial.html

Apparently Voltaire did not make it to Canada.

I do not recall having ever read any of the works of Mark Steyn, but their contents are irrelevant; censorship (the suppression of ideas by the government) is categorically unacceptable, no matter what those ideas may happen to be. The free exchange of ideas is one of the most critical contributions of western modernity. That Europe and Canada are now turning away from and abandoning this heritage is a great blow to the western world.

That is is done outside the rule of law is all the more worrying; the decisions are handed down not by a court, no matter how embarrassingly biased, but rather by a panel of political activists with no particular qualification or basis to either evaluate or challenge such cases. This means, in practice, that who is or is not penalized is largely a factor of popularity of the person or her or his ideas before the tribunal members, rather than any settled law. In fact, there is no controlling precedent, no case law and little statutory guidance to restrict the rulings of the tribunal members.

Affliction MMA and Donald Trump

2008-06-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

http://mmayou.com/news-and-exclusive-interviews-with-mmayou/42-news-reports/198-affliction-to-announce-partnership-with-donald-trump-on-thursday

Affliction MMA (the people putting on the July 19th card that will be perhaps the best in the sport's history) has now officially partnered with Donald Trump. This should be good for the sport overall, as Trump's known prowess at promotion should help the brand and keep Affliction MMA going.

Copenhagen Consensus

2008-06-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=788

The 2008 Copenhagen Consensus wrapped up its work five days ago in Denmark. A panel of Nobel Prize winning economists and experts from universities around the world gathered in the Danish capital to discuss the costs and benefits of various policies. The main discussions centered around the spending of a hypothetical $75 billion pot and how it might be best allocated to benefit the world most.

The participants noted the ineffectuatilly and cost inefficiency of domestic antiterrorism measures, although they grudgingly admitted that it would be difficult to get rid of such measures, no matter how ineffective. They also dismantled the broken-windows like theory that global warming research and development spending would spur the general economy, and pointed out that almost any global warming spending proposal would have a cost far greater than its benefit. (This does not deny that global warming is real, or that it will cause significant changes in the future climate of the world; it only disputes the cost efficiency of the measures that proport to combat it.)

Addressing malnutrition became the top priority for the conference, while AIDS treatment (the #1 priority just four short years ago) dropped several places in light of more recent data and success in treatment worldwide.

I hope that the Consensus will get at least some of the attention it deserves. These are solid proposals put together by women and men with hard heads and true hearts.

Elite XC Card the Most Watched MMA Event Ever

2008-06-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=13036

The recent Elite XC event broadcast on CBS was the most watched MMA event ever - and it may be the cutting edge of a whole new era of MMA on free TV. True, Spike has been broadcasting both original and old UFC fights for some time, and WEC has been on free TV for years; the IFL and Bodog encountered major financial difficulties despite their presence on free television. However, CBS has deeper pockets and more viewers - not only does it signify that the sport has gone mainstream, it also provides an opening for more media coverage of MMA events and potentially a higher profile for fighters.

Although free MMA should be good for the sport as a whole, it might be a blow to the UFC and its current business practices. The UFC has relied on a publicity machine and pay per view earnings to maintain its place atop the other leagues. However, with high quality heavily hyped fight cards available for free, the willingness of normal individuals (as opposed to hardcore fans) to shell out forty dollars or more for a UFC event will be diminished. At the same time, fighters on higher profile broadcast TV stand to make more money from endorsements than their soon to be less-visable colleagues on PPV - and soon, fighter may be willing to accept a smaller fight purse if it gets them on CBS or other broadcast stations, where the endorsements might make up for the difference and then some.

Although I was pleased to see that the first Elite XC card on CBS featured exciting (although prematurely stopped) fights between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young and between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, I question the wisdom of putting forward Kevin Ferguson (better known as Kimbo Slice) as the popular face of mixed martial arts. The art has spent so long trying to get away from the sort of image that Kimbo promotes and indeed, embodies - that of a poorly trained streetfighter who fights only for the money and love of brutal violence.

Great Interview - Free Markets, High Technology and Terrorism

2008-06-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052308A

The former Israeli PM makes several salient and succinct points. The ability of a country to capitalize on its technological innovations is as important as its ability to make those innovations in the first place - if not more so. Overrugulation caused first Japan and then Taiwan and South Korea to become the major producers of semiconductors, even though they were originally invented in the United States. The same can be said, to a lesser degree, of many other technologies as well. Israel's tradition of kibbutzim and social solidarity aided it in maintaining a moderate yet firm religious identity against Muslim extremist encroachment, but it does not aid its economic growth and stability - thing that Israel needs to continue to hold its place in the world. American government aid accounts for more than one percent of Israel's national GDP, and private donations are also a significant source of funding. Save North Korea (mostly from Koreans in Japan), no other nation receives so much private aid as a percentage of national income. Israel could certainly take steps to liberate its economy without forfeiting its heritage as the world's only Jewish state (although it might not be a bad idea to phase that out too in favor of a more secular identity).

Israel has the potential (like Ireland and Singapore) to have an extended and consistent high rate of growth despite the maturity of its economy - if it deregulates. If it chooses not to, it may be possible to prop up some of Israel's older economic privileges for the few, but in the long run, the transition will bring more prosperity for all. No radical structural adjustment in the Israeli economy is even needed.

WEC - Faber-Pulver

2008-06-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.mmalinker.com/xViewer.php?vidid=5157&vidt=i

I don't usually follow the featherweight division too closely, but this was a truly great fight. I was pulling for Jens the whole way, but Uriah Faber, who I haven't watched very often, definately impressed me with his performance.

Randy OK if He Never Fights Again

2008-06-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2008/06/01/couture_future/

In a new interview, Randy Couture stated that he would be alright with him if he never fights again - which would truly be a shame.

Hughes vs. Serra

2008-06-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

http://dreamfighters.com/site/?action=detail&id=1212420662

Hughes vs. Serra will happen whether or not Matt Hughes defeats his next opponent.

This fight could actually go either way, although I think Hughes will win via a late-round TKO or by decision. I'll post a more complete analysis when the fight gets closer.

Fight Results

2008-05-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dd-exclive053108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

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Video Link to Kevin Ferguson vs. James Thompson

I thought that this was actually a pretty good fight, although the stoppage came early.

"Kimbo" has improved dramatically in a very short time, and he really does have a bright future ahead of him in MMA. Although I don't think he is the face that should be put forward as that of the modern sport, he is no doubt a rising fighter. Given his age, I don't think he will ever be an all-time great in the sport, although he certainly will be a threat to heavyweight journeymen well into the future - as he showed against James Thompson, who is a solid heavyweight fighter albeit not a top level one. Kimbo's striking looks cleaner and yet more powerful with every match, and his knees look smooth and technically correct. His athleticism is also obvious.

Thompson (I am not at all a fan) looked better than usual as well - training at Extreme Couture obviously helped him. He gave a good performance, especially considering he was probably brought in to lose, and was probably even winning overall until the end.

I do find it irritating that Gary Shaw, a former boxing promoter who owns Elite XC, is beginning to use a boxing-like model to promote fighters like Kimbo - I don't think that that bodes well for the future of the sport. As much as I dislike Dana White, at least his UFC matchmaker, Joe Silva, has not allowed big names like Brock Lesnar to receive huge paychecks while skirting competition - Lesnar lost to Mir, which might hurt his future starpower but reflected a more appropriate outlook of matching big name fighters against competent opponents in order to get their high paycheck - something Kimbo did for the first time against Thompson.
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Video Link for Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith Part 1

And Part 2

This was a great fight right up to the premature stoppage to an accidental eye poke. All that the booing showed was that the new breed of MMA fans do not have a good handle on the sport. Lawler and Smith gave a good show of MMA style striking, and this was a standup war through and through. Lawler is starting to seem almost Rutten-like in his standup and his abilities. He is definately one of the top middleweights in the world.

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More on this later.

Government Meddling in the Gasoline Market

2008-05-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28friedman.html?em&ex=1212120000&en=b63e362bd2ed9213&ei=5087%0A

The editorialist proposes a "price floor" (a price under which gas cannot legally be sold) in order to push the price of gasoline higher, and force people to adopt environmentalists' dreams. Even aside from the enforcement problem (what keeps gas station owners from adopting one scheme after another to provide a lower price than their competition while not actually lowering the price at the pump, such as a certain amount of "free" gasoline with each purchase or a "gas rewards card" or something else of the sort), this idea does not make much sense to begin with.

The capitalist system allows for a natural transition that responds automatically to resources becoming less or more available. The best energy policy would be a policy of getting government out of energy entirely - it would be wise to start by barring local and state governments from regulating the blends of gasoline. That practice forces oil producers and retailers to provide dozens of different mixes of gasoline to different states and cities (for instance, Detroit has its own gasoline mix requirements), removing their ability to shift excess supplies of gasoline from state to state, causing them to maintain extra storage facilities, and adding tremendously to the cost of gas. These laws benefit no one. Nuclear power restrictions should be next to go - while nuclear power plants are expensive to build, they are cheap and safe to operate, and don't cause cancer and lung disease from pollution like most other sources of power. After that, you could go about repealing certain drilling restrictions inside the country (say, in ANWR), and then move on to get rid of the 18 cent per gallon federal tax on gasoline. Perhaps after that, you could remove government restrictions that prevent oil companies from building new refineries.

Iraq vs. Vietnam Protests

2008-05-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/50696.html

Although there are a great many topics that I disagree with David Horowitz about, I think that his comments on the Iraq war and Vietnam war protests are spot on and well worth reading.

Free Speech In Afghanistan

2008-05-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,555513,00.html

The Afghans have adopted a form of "free speech" that is more like that of Europeans than Americans - that is, you can only speak freely about those things the government decides to allow debate on. Everything that the government finds offensive, disruptive or disagreeable is out of bounds, and people who speak in a way the government disapproves of on those subjects will be prosecuted.

The ongoing case in Mazar-i-sharif, a comparatively moderate area of Afghanistan, is a potentially telling portent of the future for that country and perhaps, to a degree, the world. There, a university student is facing the death penalty for (accurately) describing Mohammad, the "prophet" of Islam, as a misogynist and an opportunist. The student is himself a Muslim (like most of Afghanistan), and was hoping to spark discussion with fellow students, rather than simply bash the religion of suicide bombings and the burqa. Frighteningly, the judge states "I have already handed down several death sentences. What I do not understand is why this one is causing such a stir, especially abroad. There are no mistakes in the ruling." It is one thing to hand down such a verdict, as bound by the law; it is another to support it.

There is still some hope for the future of free speech in Afghanistan - the defendant's brother expresses it clearly "The text is not important," says Yaqub. "In Afghanistan, one has to be able to read and write everything. Freedom of opinion is at stake here." Amen to that.

Difficult to Find a Summer Job?

2008-05-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/business/25teen.html?em&ex=1211860800&en=312420856c834e5c&ei=5087%0A

The New York Times overlooks the most obvious cause for a shortage of summer employment - the minimum wage hike, which has priced many teenagers right out of the market.

Less skilled, less experienced, and less consistent (ie can't work year round) workers compensate for their disadvantages by charging a lower price for their services. Companies who desire more skilled, experienced and consistent workers can still get them - just at a higher price. When the minimum wage prohibits less skilled, less experienced and less consistent workers from offering their labor for less than the full time adult alternative, then employers have little reason to hire them.

It gets harder and harder to start at the bottom and work your way up when the government limits opportunities at the bottom position. I suspect that more students in summer classes and in unpaid internships are responses to, rather than causes of, the drop in paid summer employment.

Couture Wins Round One

2008-05-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=12810

Randy Couture came one step closer to his fight with Fedor, as a Texas court dismissed motions from his former employer, Zuffa (which owns the UFC) that would have prevented a summary judgment from being issued in his case. This clears the way for a summary judgment to be issued that frees him from any obligation to Zuffa - thus opening the way for a fight with the Russian.

With Fedor set to fight Tim Sylvia in June on the Affliction card, the stage may soon be set for one of the most anticipated fights of all time.

Roger Gracie Vs. Yuki Kondo

2008-05-19T20:05:00.001-07:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5gqrv_rogers-2nd-mma-fight_sport

Roger Gracie has a bright future in MMA. I will return to comment more on this fight later.

Monson vs. Barnett

2008-05-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPo4UFhq-jE&eurl=http://www.mmalinker.com/xSearch.php?name=Jeff+Monson+vs+Josh+Barnett&vidid=4889&vidt=i

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyoOHUiSyQ&feature=related

I'll come back later to give a more complete analysis of this fight. Both fighters looked sharper than ever, and this was a great effort on both of their parts.

Drysdale to Make MMA Debut

2008-05-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.graciemag.com/?c=143

This is an exciting time to be a fan of MMA. There are some great fights in the works, and some magnificent epics have just ended. Robert Drysdale, one of the best grapplers in the world, is now planning his own MMA debut, following the footsteps of so many other BJJ greats, including his perennial rival, Roger Gracie, who recently defeated Yuki Kondo.

Crossovers to MMA from the world of sport grappling are increasingly common, and with top MMA fighters also competing at high levels in sport grappling, the sports should be able to grow together. A better appreciation for the grappling component of MMA on the part of average fans is one of the most urgent needs of the sport - which has become increasingly standup focused, despite the presence of so many high level groundfighters.

The March of Progress

2008-05-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,553301,00.html

As Chinese workers were demanded more and more, their wages rose until they were no longer the least expensive. Today, Chinese industrial workers are now moving into more skilled and higher paying jobs, and the lowest skill, lowest paying jobs are now increasingly being done not in China, but in South Asia.

This is the next stage in China moving up from third world status; it is following the path of Japan and South Korea (more the latter than the former, especially considering its economic policies as well as its political transition).

Political transition will follow economic transformation, just as it did in South Korea and Taiwan. It is already beginning. The usual openness of the internet is restricted greatly in China, but each year, more and more people use it and users become more and more open about their views.

Defeatism, Globalism and Terrorism: Why We Must Fight the Long War

2008-05-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bacevich13-2008may13,0,7251551.story

In a recent LA times article, the author puts forward a fairly standard left wing critique of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - that they are futile, and that we should instead begin "making necessary adjustments to our own way of life" instead.

At least this article is more upfront than many about the need to make a choice between changing our way of life and changing that of others. Many leftists have argued that we can simply ignore the problem entirely, or perhaps go back to attempting to combat Islamic extremists by issuing strongly worded statements in the western press and giving free money to their host countries.

In centuries past, isolationism was a credible alternative for the war weary country; true, eventually, you would have to fight your enemies at home rather than abroad, but if you lived in an area with natural geographical barriers, you could avoid some conflicts through a combination of neutrality in others' wars and deterrence. This is no longer a viable option today. The modern Islamic extremist (and those like him) are not deterred by costs in gold or blood; unlike the Soviet Union, they have little sense at all of the cost and benefit of various courses of action, and are willing to whatever is necessary to achieve victory - deterrence is an impossibility. Geographic barriers are not what they once were. Global ease of transportation means that no location is remote enough to be immune from militants elsewhere; problems like Islamic terrorism are now truly global. In the past, the peaceful coexistence of incompatible universalist ideologies was possible - as long as they never encountered one another. That is no longer possible, nor would it be desirable to make it so.

Today, even a very small band of terrorists can wreck havoc. A terrorist group need not be large or rich to cause death and panic. In the increasingly globalized world of today, terrorist leaders can order attacks from the other side of the world, and a terrorist can be born in one nation, trained in another, and sent to his death in a third; a man can be born in Egypt, trained in Afghanistan, educated in Germany and then fly a plane into a building in America, financed by a man from Saudi Arabia - Muhammad Atta did. It is necessary to leave such people no refuge anywhere in the world. Terror network "headquarters" can easily move from place to place; Bin Laden's moved from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia, then to Sudan, then back to Afghanistan, and now finds itself back in Pakistan, right back where it started. Al Qaeda branches are found all over the world. Affiliates and sympathizers are found in quite unexpected places. It is not possible to shut America off from the world, nor is it desirable to try. Even if American shores could somehow be made safe, American citizens would still be at risk when traveling abroad, even to, say, predominately heterodox Hindu Bali.

If we can neither deter terrorists nor isolate ourselves from them in a globalizing world, that leaves us with two options, defeat them or surrender to them. That is the same choice that Donald Rumsfeld offered us in 2001, and it is the same choice we face today. But is it a choice at all? Can the Islamic extremists be placated? Can their demands be accommodated? The demand for the universal imposition of sharia law is beyond what any reasonable person should be able to stomach. It is not possible to accept surrender on such terms - and I am certain even the furtherest left of my countrymen should be able to agree on that point.

That leaves us with but one option. There is only one way out - we must fight. It will be a long and grueling fight, made all the more so whenever our own citizens offer aid and comfort to our enemies.

Einstein Letter

2008-05-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080513/wl_uk_afp/britainreligionsciencejewseinstein;_ylt=AjMLEd.hSgxGteRdR89Odums0NUE

Rather than debate religious ideas on the basis of proof, many religious people instead rely on an appeal to authority argument, citing a well known person and claiming that that person's religious belief justifies their own. A newly discovered letter by Albert Einstein will undermine further their ability to mischaracterize that great scientist as a theist; in it, he dismisses the idea of the existence of God as "childish."

Given the propensity of religious people to quote famous people out of context when it suits their desires, I doubt that these new facts will change the landscape much, but it is a start.

Natural Transition

2008-05-10T12:19:00.001-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business/10transit.html?hp

I wrote before that as oil prices rose, there would be a natural transition towards using less oil, just as in any other resource. I also warned that government meddling would be counterproductive.

As anticipated, gasoline use will be down as a result of higher prices - the market working perfectly. When resources become scarcer, the price rises, letting people know that it is time to consider a transition. Mass transit is seeing a boom, but there is a problem. Nationwide, fares only cover one third of the total cost of mass transit - the rest is covered by taxes. I would hope that this adjustment would be a good time to allow the price of mass transit to better reflect its cost, but it seems that will only happen in cases where the government sees no alternative; state lawmakers have a poor record of standing up to transit funding demands - the recent cave in Illinois over the funding of the CTA and RTA (City and Regional transit authorities respectively) by the state is a case in point.

AQ in Iraq Head Captured!

2008-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24527960

The head of AQ in Iraq was captured today by Iraqi police commandos. Nice work guys.

I doubt that this will be nearly as significant as the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but then again, none of his successors have had his capabilities. It is still a solid blow to AQ, decentralized as it is.

Politics of Division

2008-05-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

After a fashion, both political parties do play politics of division, but they do so in very different ways.

In the modern day, the Republican party typically divides an "us" of Americans against a "them" of dangerous foreign elements. Most prominently, in the cold war, it was the Soviet Union. Today, it is Islamic extremists. Sometimes, this party tendency can get out of hand, as when it is applied to immigrants in general - a serious pitfall. In general, though, it is "us" Americans against "'them'" terrorists (and, to a lesser degree, their sympathizers, abettors, and intellectual defenders, plus their enablers in the western world).

Of the modern Democrats, a different type of politics of division is occurring. It is a division domestically, and mostly by socioeconomic status, with the rich and poor pitted against the middle class. The general argument is that the middle class spends it money for its own benefit, rather than for that of the relatively poor (who have come to rely on other people's money to fulfill their desires) or of certain among the rich (especially those whose businesses rely on government funding or subsidies of some kind or another). Some affluent people, too, no longer identify with the productive section of society and have become philanthropists or "playboys" more interested in spending their money than acquiring more - members of this group can be a potent tool for the Democrats, because their reputation for largess can lend harebrained policies legitimacy. The larger problem arises when these philanthropists decide their own resources are too meager and begin to agitate for a portion of the funds of all taxpayers to be appropriated to fulfill their dream.

This, of course, is not the full extent of the Democratic politics of division, which goes beyond the economic realm into religious, racist and ethnic politics. The economic "game," however, it their most important strategy.

The Old College Try

2008-05-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20080502/cm_uc_crmchx/op_56000;_ylt=AiXdyyBdJ.zZJPCvM6563ZnSos4F

Unfortunately, it seems that all many colleges are trying to do today is indoctrinate their students. Not all of American higher education is a mess, of course, but much of it needs drastic changes.

In the place of preparing students for their future, many universities have taken to promoting the fringe viewpoints of professors or administrators. Whether commemorating illegal activity (with a celebratory tone from the participants as well), or putting pro-Communist anti-semites in positions of authority, Columbia is a particularly reprehensible case in point.

Whether promoting racism, creating a new speech code, ruling out satire of your ideas, pressuring students in their dorms to adopt your point of view or punishing students for reading historical works about overcoming racism, today's universities are often far more guilty of the sins they condemn than anyone they criticize. Of course, if the students complain, you can always sue them.

Exit testing students could help refocus universities on their proper mission, as could more focus from ratings agencies on the after-college success of students. The success of universities in finding or helping find internships or other employment for students while in school could be another neglected measure worthy of more consideration.

I would have far fewer objections to campus indoctrination and speech codes were they not government funded. The actions of institutions of higher education draw my ire not only because of their obvious harm, but also because we have no choice but to support them through our taxes. If this were not the case, I would be more willing to accept the argument of Michael Shermer, who I normally agree with on other issues, including his comments on indoctrination just the day before.

Malaysia Takes Another Step Backward

2008-05-04T20:49:00.001-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7382859.stm

Rounding out the trend of predominately Islamic countries moving backward, Malaysia recently restricted the ability of single women to leave the country.

Unlike many predominately Islamic countries, however, Malaysia does have women's movement of sorts. They, at least, are attempting to resist the imposition of this new round of government restriction. It is unfortunate that this resistance is coming only from such special interest groups, rather than in a general outburst from the people, but even so, it may be enough to have the changes revoked.

New Cult Motivated Suicide

2008-05-04T19:36:00.001-07:00

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2371180.ece

I admit that I haven't kept up with the cult of Scientology. Since I last commented on their crimes, they haven't changed much. There are another wave of protests scheduled for May, but in the mean time, just consider that the cult has caused another suicide.

Kaja Bordevich Ballo, the daughter of a Norwegian MP, committed suicide after taking a Scientology promoted personality test, and being told that she was set for failure. She has now been buried. My deepest condolences to her family; she didn't deserve to die.

The "Oxford Capacity Analysis" (which, contrary to what the name suggests, has absolutely nothing to do with Oxford University) was designed by the cult to give the similar responses to anyone who takes it - that they are in grave need of assistance from the cult. The test outcomes are, without exception, negative; although the test has a maximum score of 100, no combination of answers will yield anything close to that score. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the cult, instructed test administrators to emphasize the imminent "ruin" of any test taker who failed to look to the cult to solve the problems proportedly revealed by the test.

Although the cult has been running this same test since 1961, and competent psychometric experts have been condemning it almost as long, it still has not been banned, and the cult continues to use it as a recruiting tool. It rarely advertises its own involvement with the test, instead, the test takers simply are given a free test from an obstensibly neutral agency.

(For a more complete discussion of the test's workings, follow this link. For another analysis, see here.)

College Costs

2008-05-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell042408.php3

More on this later.

All of What Needs to be said about Barack Obama

2008-05-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell042908.php3

Thomas Sowell says all that really needs to be said about Barack Obama.

More Advanced Radar Absorbent Paint

2008-05-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,551152,00.html

A German expatriate living in the UAE has developed more advanced and effective radar absorbent paint than has been seen in the past, with major implications for militaries world-wide.

Western Europe Wakes up to a Bleak Future

2008-05-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/worldbusiness/01middle.html

Even the New York Times now recognizes the lack of economic opportunity in Western Europe, although the condemnation of the socialistic policies that brought about such stagnation are not exactly vigorous.

The Europeans are being slowly crushed by their massive welfare state, which has absorbed much of their income. Instead of the producers retaining the products of their labor, they have been redistributed to the short term benefit of the state's political elite - and the detriment of everyone else.

A falling birthrate reflects and reinforces a bleak future for Western Europe. What births there are are often among unassimilated immigrants with little interest in carrying on the proud traditions of their new homes, and much more interest in propagating their backwards religions and old customs.

The people of Europe, acting through the European Union, could alter all of this, lowering their taxes, forsaking government regulations and handouts, casting off the policies that are destroying Europe's future and joining the twenty first century. That, however, appears unlikely.

Israel to Return Golan?

2008-04-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7362937.stm

Will Israel return the Golan Heights to Syria? If so, is this a good idea?

On the one hand, Israel did return the Sinai to Egypt, even though that idea too was unpopular, and it is almost universally acknowledged that, despite the intervening conflict, it was necessary for the Sinai to be returned to Egyptian control in order for a successful and enduring peace. On the other hand, Israel has been giving the Palestinians land that properly should be occupied by the Jewish state, and only received more violence rather than peace; any accommodation with the Palestinians seems to lead only to a vindication of their militants' violent behavior.

Syria, too, had already established a history of disregarding peace agreements with Israel, as well as their betrayal of their deal with Israel when they intervened in Lebanon.

I doubt that the Israeli public will stand for the return of the Golan - nor should they.

Liberalism to Leftism

2008-04-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/how_liberals_lost_a_liberal.html

I have not often used the word "liberal" on this blog. There are many definitions of "liberalism" - and often, different people who identify themselves as liberal hold very inconsistent positions. In the modern day, liberalism is often used to ideas that, in the 19th century schema that produced the term "liberalism" as we know it today, would have been held as Radical rather than classically liberal.

There has been an overall shift in American politics leftward. In 1981, at the dawn of the Reagan Revolution, that tide was slowed, and in some areas even reversed. Bill Clinton, for all his numerous faults, was a moderate leftist, far less ideologically bound that Carter or LBJ.

At the same time, people who identify as liberals on the mold of Truman are all but drummed out of the Democratic party; it is doubtful Truman could even gain his own party's nomination for any office if he were alive today.

One of the primary problems of the modern left, and one that is clear in the article, is the end of the search for truth. Rather than the academy being a place where ideas (and, by extension, their advocates) compete, it is a place where many ideas are to be uncritically accepted as equally true or useful. When different practices are to be assumed to be equal, with none holding a superior claim to efficacy over another, then the whole critical machinery breaks down.

Health Care Spending Waste May Be 50%

2008-04-23T03:33:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080423/cm_usatoday/wastedmedicaldollars;_ylt=Ah8w4TZVnJuZ_PrKEuGY3cCs0NUE

Perhaps the largest problem with our health care is trial lawyers.

GSP vs. Serra

2008-04-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.mmaroot.com/georges-st-pierre-vs-matt-serra-2-ufc-83-video/

Quick comments - GSP looks better than ever, and that is saying something. His performance was very impressive as always, and I look forward to seeing him again. Both fighters were quite explosive.

Serra and GSP are both very well rounded, and that is part of what makes this matchup interesting. Despite some very distinct stylistic differences (Serra's preference for somewhat wild power punches vs. GSP's straight punches and extensive use of kicks, Serra's great BJJ off his back vs. GSP's superb wrestling for MMA), both are a look into the future of all weight classes in MMA. If GSP keeps improving, he may resume giving Fedor and Anderson Silva competition for top P4P fighter (BJ Penn is another fighter reestablishing his p4p credentials).

Fedor vs. Sylvia: Official?

2008-04-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

http://mmajunkie.com/news/4173/fedor-fight-with-sylvia-now-official.mma

After several days of contradictory reports as to whether or not Fedor would fight Tim Sylvia, it appears that we have a new confirmation. That is not to say that it is not certain that the fight will go forward.

I predict that in the event that the fight does happen, Fedor will be able to overwhelm Tim with effective striking, followed by a takedown and submission. I will post a more extensive analysis of the fighters and their respective strengths, weaknesses and records after I am more confident that the fight will actually happen.

I am disappointed but not surprised that certain new UFC fans blanket any article involving Fedor with demands that he join the UFC. Tim was one of the fighters that was often cited as a reason Fedor should join the UFC, and with Andrei Arlovski and Randy Couture now also outside the UFC, Fedor's incentives to join that organization are now weaker than ever.

Obama Recieves Unsolicited Endorsement From Hamas

2008-04-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080418/NATION/334729180/0/ENTERTAINMENT

This should come as no surprise except as to the poor political skills of the Hamas leadership.

Poverty

2008-04-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/The%20Poverty%20Hype.htm

A good reminder of reality.

Great New Article on Affirmative Action

2008-04-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2008/03/by_gail_heriot_i_have.html

The article presents new research in layman's terms that confirms that Affirmative Action is not only destructive to the university and an insult to students who legitimately earned their place, but also hurts the recipient of the University's benevolent handout.

There are no races but the human race. There are no classes in modern western society. Even if there were, people should be judged on their individual achievements, rather than the achievements of any arbitrary ascribed category to which they may belong.

The Death of A "Paradox?"

2008-04-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16leonhardt.html

For some years now, the Easterlin paradox was accepted in the social sciences. This "paradox" stated that after a certain point in material comfort is reached, additional income does not lead to greater happiness. Aside from the methodological problems with coming up with a consistent measurement of happiness from person to person, the study has more or less stood.

Now, its conclusions are being challenged by a new report, which relies on more detailed and consistent analysis.

This political aspect of this entire debate, however, somewhat misses the point. The statement, which appears in the rebutal is the most worrying part. "The conclusion that absolute income does not impact happiness invites far reaching policy
implications. If economic growth does little to improve social welfare, then it should not be a primary goal of government policy." That the first part of this statement is true at all is a reflection of the misguided view of government prevalent in the modern day. The second part is the problem. The proper role of government is to preserve our rights, not guarantee outcomes. Economic freedom is about retaining the results of my own labor and investment - and it is not the proper concern of a government bureaucrat whether I am happy or not.

Atheism

2008-04-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.helium.com/items/875369-atheist-probably-remember-probably

From the same author that I posted a link to some time ago, comes an even better article.

Canadian Free Speech In Crisis

2008-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.reason.com/news/show/125458.html

The Danish cartoons have been controversial since their publication. After a plot to kill the cartoonists, they were republished in Europe. Canada, however, had done what the French and Dutch refused to do - turn the coercive power of government against the people who exercised their right to free speech by making available others' artwork. My best wishes to the editor in his collision with an oppressive restriction.

On Winning and Losing

2008-04-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/49200.html

Definitely worth reading.

Bush Presidency

2008-04-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html

An astonishing 61% of historians polled rate George W. Bush the worst president in American history, while a staggering 98% majority rate his sojourn in office as a failure. While the survey itself made clear that is was an informal poll rather than a scientific (read: representative) survey, it is still a telling indictment of the historical establishment.

It has long been observed that the presence of a large number of ineffectual, and indeed counterproductive, academics in FDR's administration earned him voluminous praise from the academic establishment - praise which preceded his leadership in the Second World War (which partially made up for his ruinous policies beforehand).

There are several objections to be made to this assessment, the first being that it is premature and motivated by a willingness on the part of its participants to be to be political pawns. In a few decades we will be far better positioned to see the fruits of the President's leadership, and we will be able to reassess the long term impact of his policies. Then, too, tempers will have cooled and the fire of our visceral reactions will give way to the cold, calculated analysis that makes up genuine scholarship. (Whether there will be any genuine scholarship left in a couple of decades after continuous politicization of academia and the growth of an increasingly powerful code of political correctness is an open question.) Emotional reactions, no matter how heartfelt, are no substitute for actual analysis.

The second objection, of course, is that the conclusions are wrong.
The question might be asked, if I disagree with this assessment, how do I rate George Bush compared to other presidents? Of course, any rating given now will only be a preliminary conclusion, and it will be years before anyone can be more certain.

Personally, I rate him fourth, behind George Washington (#1), Abraham Lincoln (#2), Thomas Jefferson (#3), and just above Ronald Reagan (#5).

President Bush inherited a situation similar to that President Lincoln did. I realize this comparison is not often made, but I think that it may be the shape of future scholarship on the Bush Presidency. Like Lincoln, he was thrust into a situation not of his choosing that his predecessors, both capable and incapable men, had refused to confront. In Lincoln's case, this was the coagulated problem of slavery and states' rights, and in Bush's case, the problem of Islamic extremism. Like President Buchanan, President Clinton shoved all of the nation's problems under a rug to the best of his ability - leaving his successor to resolve them. Like Lincoln, Bush had to deal with vital economic and security problems simultaneously, and over the vigorous criticism of pacifists, racists, and others of the sort, while simultaneously restraining his own extremists. Both did so masterfully.

People (and not only historians, who ought to know better) often remember conflicts only for their final outcome; missteps like a "prison scandal" that consisted of fraternity style-pranks being carried out on terrorists pale in comparison to the fate of many Confederate prisoners of war (who were legitimate and lawful combatants). Military setbacks, such as early problems with the nascent insurgency that we failed to crush, are quite minor compared to the tens of thousands that died at places like Bull Run, Shiloh, Seven Pines, Cold Harbor and many others when their commanders and commander in chief made far more tragic mistakes.

Civil liberties have been another point of attack for presidential critics, who typically forget or ignore the fact that nearly every security crisis in our country's history has been followed by temporary restrictions on these liberties that are rolled back in full at the conclusion of the conflict. In any case, today's restrictions are minor not only in comparison to Lincoln's limits on the press and suspension of habeas corpus, but are absolutely minimal compared to those put into effect by "progressive" heroes Woodrow Wilson and FDR.

So, if President Bush is not the worst American president, who is?

My vote goes to James Buchanan, whose gross incompetence once in office led to the Utah war (an oft-forgotten incident in which Buchanan mismanaged the only problem he actually tried to solve) and his failure to take action against southern insurrection led to the fall of nearly all American forts in the south without a fight. His failure to address the issue of a common nation currency meant that Abraham Lincoln had to address it in the midst of a major war.

Beyond Buchanan, the two President Johnsons are not far behind - the first ruined America's chance for a true reconstruction that would have not have left the southern problems misaddressed for another century, and the second actually did lie to bring America into a war - and then mismanaged it worse than any other president in American history. His economic policies brought an end to the post WWII economic boom, and reversed the small bit of economic progress Kennedy had brought.

Semantics of Tax Reform

2008-04-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/opinion/15conniff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The semantics of tax reform have always been tricky; a new article proposes replacing the term "taxes" with "dues." The problem with this idea is that it draws exactly the parallel that I think it is inappropriate to invoke - that government it a club that we are all members of.

In point of fact, government is a necessary evil. It is evil, it that its existence can only be justified in that when it restricts some of our freedoms, which we give up, it prevents still greater evils that would be carried out by others. It is necessary, in that we cannot have a society without some form of governance - and formal government just so happens to work better than ochlocracy or its near relatives.

We have a legitimate need, then, to restrict what government spends on. Unlike club dues, we have no choice when it come to our taxes. People only join organizations by choice (with the exception of unions, but I'm critical of them too); if you don't want to be a part of an organization, you don't have to, and you don't have to pay their dues in that case either. Likewise, I can (and will) quit any club that no longer serves my interests - but I can't escape the IRS. This proposal is is very different from a club, where the ability of members to quit if their money is not being used to their liking, even if the process by which dues are assessed is democratic, forms a natural check on spending. There will not be involuntary redistribution of income in a club for long - and this is the cardinal sin of the federal government.

Pakistani Government to Increase Negociations with Taliban

2008-04-12T12:44:00.001-07:00

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/04/new_pakistani_govern.php\

The new Pakistani government plans to increase negotiations with the Taliban. This is a disturbing development; American and Pakistani forces were beginning to work more in sync, and the Pakistani government was feeling sufficiently secure in its legitimacy to allow more American air strikes deeper inside Pakistan.

This is sending entirely the wrong message to the Islamic extremists.

The Begining of an Islamic Reformation?

2008-04-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7342425.stm

For years, the idea of an Islamic Reformation has been considered impossible; the Koran is held to only be interpreted literally, the sayings of the "prophet" are said to be straightforward (although they are not always interpreted that way) and there is little room for a regression to simpler forms of religious organization the way restorationist and quasirestorationist movements in Christianity seek to; modern Islamic is structurally not dissimilar to that in the time of the "prophet."

Radical reinterpretation seemed to be stymied by this set of beliefs. There is now a bit of hope, however, through reinterpretation of the logic of certain statements. The article gives the example of alcohol, which is prohibited even in small quantities, because large quantities can cause intoxication. The tiny amounts of alcohol in certain energy drinks, however, are so small that intoxication cannot result no matter how many you drink - the body metabolizes it faster than a person could reasonably consume the beverage. This opens the door to undermining the blanket provision against alcohol consumption.

If this idea takes hold in the supposedly moderate Islamic communities, it would be a great leap forward.

Could Rice by the VP?

2008-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,546512,00.html

I named Rice as an good candidate for VP some time ago, and since then, the rumors around her name have only increased. With speculation growing more intensified, I am beginning to wonder if she should be chosen, or whether it would be better to sit tight until later in the election cycle.

Rice has more foreign policy experience than both Democratic candidates put together, and her sojourn as Secretary of State has generally been acknowledged as an improvement over her predecessor, Colin Powell, who was overwhelmed by the office. She is a capable leader, whose experience with both the theory and practice of foreign policy and national security issues makes her a good choice.

Then, too, as much as I hate to say it, her race and sex are assets as well. The Democrats will be less able to push the idea that voters should reject Republican candidates because of the skin color or sex if there is a ethnoracial minority woman on the republican ticket.

Concentration of Political Power

2008-04-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=040708A

Even low level politicians have far more financial power than even the wealthiest Americans - and they have the bureaucracy ready made to turn that money into political capital.

What is sickening about all this is that while the affluent spend their own money, the politicians spend money that was never theirs. However wasteful or counterproductive the spending of the affluent, at least they earned the money in the first place; the same cannot be said of our political "leaders."

Many of today's politicians can be described as "do gooders." That is, they view their role as one of correcting the world's problems through the coercive power of government and the liberal expenditure of the financial resources of others. When they become aware of a perceived problem, the solution is to acquire the power necessary to take action against it. Once they gather such resources, it is difficult to reverse the process.

I am far less concerned with the affluent, whose accumulation of wealth can comes through their own productive labor and their investments, than I am with the political elite, whose funding comes from my pocket and ultimately from my labor.

None of this is to say that government could be abolished or anything close to it. Government will forever be a necessary evil in the truest sense of the term, and its regulation of certain aspects of our lives is indispensable; there are some problems which government is the least ineffective at addressing. That said, delegating our thinking and our actions too much to the government deprives us of our independence, individual responsibility and ultimately our freedom.

Relativism and Fundamentalism

2008-04-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=427&MId=19

The two dysfunctional ends of the certainty spectrum are analyzed in this thought provoking article.

Relativism and Fundamentalism both deny that there is a discoverable truth always open to refinement or revision. The scientific method gives us a means to determine factual truths, but moral truths are somewhat more problematic. We are trapped between the Scylla of Fundamentalism and the absolute Charybdis of relativism, with little path in between. To condemn either to strongly often gives way to falling prey to the other, or at very least the appearance of doing so.

This brings us back to a larger and even older question, one only prompted by the modern extreme phenomenons of fundamentalism and relativism - that of the proper method for the discovery and dissemination of truths.

If we accept the view typical of much of premodern civilization, the answer is to by found within one's own cultural traditions - they are neither absolutely true (ie not subject to question, reinterpretation or revision - no culture is or indeed ever has been so slavishly conservative) nor can they be called false. The question then is how to answer a critique from relativism.

In terms of practical matters, legitimacy for a culture is significant in its ability to sustain and propagate itself, excepting some few isolated civilizations in history; globalization means we will have to legitimize our civilization in the eyes of others, or be prepared to fight to defend it - and in all likelihood, both. As a question of modern pragmatism, then, too, we should desire a plausible justification for our beliefs and practices, even to a person who believes their actual morality or ethical basis is not a concern.

Couture Comments on Fedor - Tim Fight

2008-04-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content2393.html

A nice interview indeed - not much nonsense either, except for that bit about the wife. I hope we see Fedor take out Tim, and then beat Randy on New Years Eve (or even before). The Fedor-Tim fight should nicely set the stage for a subsequent Randy-Fedor fight, which I would really like to see (along with most everyone else interested in MMA).

Fedor Vs. Tim Sylvia! July 19 - Unconfirmed

2008-04-09T20:43:00.001-07:00

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=12220

Fedor will fight Tim Sylvia on July 19 according to one set of articles. There are, however, countervailing articles (or here) and apparently a statement on the M-1 Global Website to the contrary.
I had held off on speculating too much about what would happen once Fedor and Sylvia were both free, and I don't want to worry too much now about this fight, in case it doesn't actually happen. At the moment, though, Fedor is set to fight a top ten fighter once more - and Big Tim is in for the fight of his life.

I think this will be a classic and will be one of Fedor's triumphs - but I have to be careful not to rule out Tim just yet.

I'll post a breakdown of their styles and my predictions later. Till then, I will just say that Fedor has beaten five people whose standup is superior to Sylvia's - Semmy Schilt, Big Nog, Mirko Filipovic, Mark Hunt and Hong Man Choi. Although Mirko also had superior takedown defense, he did not have the reach or size of Sylvia. Only Semmy had longer reach, and he had far less takedown defense.

Good New Interview with Aleks

2008-04-08T09:43:00.001-07:00

http://dreamfighters.com/site/?action=detail&id=1207670402

Aleks and his older brother Fedor could not be more different.

At least Aleks is staying active, even if his competition has been subpar. He is also trying to get himself into different organizations - as opposed to Fedor, whose management has rejected numerous offers from different organizations that came to them.

It is good to see that Aleks is now saying that he is training hard and consistently; in the past, a limited training schedule has kept him from his potential.

Hopefully, we will see both brothers fight again (but not each other) soon.

The New Sins and Old Institutions

2008-04-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/opinion/07mon4.html

The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single religious organization in the world, is expanding its list of sins in light of the world's changing opportunities.

The Catholic Church has always had a more communal focus than the Protestant and Anglican denominations; besides the LDS Church, there is no other major Christian group so focused on a claimed relationship between groups of people and the divine. Christianity, in turn, is more focused on the sins of the community in general affecting the view of God towards all constituent members than most other religious traditions. It is in this context that the Catholic Church has moved more towards so called "social sins" and away from the view of individual salvation through an individual relationship with God that has been the dominant trend in Christian religion across denominational boundaries since the reformation.

Religion has long been identified as a threat to an individualist society; even denominations or sects with theologies focused on an individual's actions or beliefs institutionalize the moral codes of their founders or subsequent expositors, which acts as an often irrational brake on human development. This tendency becomes doubly problematic when it now only prohibits individual adherents from participating in potentially beneficial behavior (ie, the Amish prohibiting their members from adopting modern technology), but consider it a duty to prevent nonadherents from doing so as well. This variety of religious prohibition is particularly stringent in the so called "social gospel" and "liberation theology" movements within Protestantism and Catholicism respectively, with dominionism and theocracy the most extreme forms. However, even far more limited "values voting" can be quite detrimental to the freedom of others. Religiously motivated "blue laws," Prohibition, anti-pornography (and for that matter, anti-sex and anti-homosexual) restrictions affect those of us who have no moral or ethical objection, even if we don not partake in consumption of those materials ourselves.

Restrictions on so called "social sins" are particularly problematic in that they attempt to elevate the social arrangements favored by the religious elite of the day to law. Once this takes place, these arrangements have the power of the state behind them.

This is not to say that simply because a movement has religious inspiration it is by necessity detrimental; the abolitionist movement and the movement against abortion in America provide case studies for instances in which religious principles are utilized or in some cases manipulated to serve an end that is itself good. Even so, more appropriate means would be preferable and, in fact, are also typically more effective.

New Sok Interview

2008-04-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.punchdrunkgamer.com/index.php?view=article&catid=30%3Ainterviews&id=163%3Asokoudjou&option=com_content&Itemid=72

The African Assassin, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou launched himself into the top ten at Light Heavyweight with back to back upset victories over little Nog and Ricardo Arona. He wants to be more active in the future, and regrets the gap between his time in Pride FC and his entrance into the UFC. This sort of enthusiasm bodes well for the future as long as he doesn't wear himself out over training (a concern of his for some time now).

His upcoming fight against Nakamura puts him up against a superior judoka - Sok will need to rely on his striking to clinch the win. His kicks looked very good in his fight against Machida - perhaps they will be helpful against Nakamura, who has shown little ability to block leg or body kicks. Then, too, Sok's handspeed is faster, and his hands are heavier; he should have a good change to win.

"FIFAization" of Internation Labor - A Reduction in Individual Freedom and Freedom of Movement

2008-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7322365.stm

High achieving Africans are leaving their poorly governed, economically backward nations for better opportunities in the West. Unfortunately, the same kleptocratic governments back in Africa that send them fleeing now want a cut of the income they have received. Furthermore, they want some of their scientists to be forced to return to the nations they fled in order to enrich the elite there - at the price of the research they could accomplish in the West.

Freedom of movement is under assault; leftists are joining right wing extremists in calling for individuals to be shipped back against their will to dysfunctional countries. A new plan, suggested in the article, calls for these countries to be financially rewarded for failing to provide opportunities for their scientists - thereby getting richer through their scientists working abroad.

Of course, these nations already benefit from substantial remittances from workers who have integrated themselves into superior economies. Furthermore, the positive role models provided by those who successfully found better lives and took care of their families back in the old country is a powerful incentive to the young to work hard and pursue scientific careers themselves.

The portion of this plan that I find most objectionable is that it regards the individual as in some way the property of the state - the individual may flee, but she or he will have to pay the very people who made that success impossible in the home country for the rest of his or her life.

There is an alternative - that of binding the whole world closer together. We can lower travel and migratory restrictions, encourage economic and even political integration, and chip away at backward regimes from at within and without. Integration will reduce conflict between states, and work to the economic advantage of all through the power of comparative advantage. Choose this freedom, and we can prosper more. Refuse it at not only your own peril, but that of those who want only a better life.

UAE Muslim Troops Help In Afganistan

2008-04-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7318731.stm

Just what the title says.

More on this later.

Dutch MP's Film Banned in Indonesia - Censorship Strikes Again

2008-04-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7323984.stm

Censorship struck again in Indonesia - Dutch MP Geert Wilders' film which points out the religious inspiration for Islamic terror has now been banned in Indonesia.

This is characteristic of the difference between modern and outmoded cultures - modern cultures are willing to have debate, even if the other side is fundamentally different. For instance, I and most other American who have seen the film have a great many objections to Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore - but we are not calling for his censureship, much less his extrajudicial decapitation.

Good Metaphorical Article on the Democratic Primary

2008-04-01T20:39:00.001-07:00

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/04/01/knockout-metaphor.aspx

Nice article.

Bank Bailouts

2008-04-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell040108.php3

Bank bailouts in the past were carried out not by the federal government, but by private citizens and other banks. While this was not always successful, it should be studied and considered more as a method that could be applied today - rather than simply dismissed as history. The current system, in which taxpayers have had to bail out companies like Bear Stearns is neither capitalist nor, in the long term, appropriate. It is not an acceptable policy for the use of taxpayers' money.

The End of Cro Cop?

2008-03-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/moltisanti87/video/x4q5j7_mirko-filipovic-vs-tatsuya-mizuno-d_sport

Sorry about the delay in discussing this fight; I just found the video recently.

True to his promise, Mirko has put on a great deal of muscle and as a result, he looks slower and less impressive than ever.

It would be truly sad to see Mirko end his time in MMA as a bloated dinosaur crushing Japanese cans rather than as the sleek superstriker that demolished so many MMA greats, and gave one of the greatest epic performances of all time against Fedor.

Mirko soared to such heights at the end of the last PRIDE FC Open Weight Grand Prix; that night, on his birthday, he looked nigh invincible, and a fight between such a Cro Cop and Fedor would have been the greatest match in MMA history by far. Instead, Filipovic has let himself go far too much; even bringing in Dean Lister and scores of other elite training partners before his fight with Kongo did not get him back on track. I don't know what will. I hope he finds a way soon though.

Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le

2008-03-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4w9i0_frank-shamrock-vs-cung-le-strikefor_sport

An excellent fight. Shamrock's much vaunted strategic insights broke down in this fight; he did not seem to be able to effectively apply his strategy. Instead, he did exactly what no one should try to do - get into a kicking contest with Cung Le. Frank did have more success checking Le's low kicks than Le did at checking his, but this was ultimately not enough. Both fighters showed superb cardio.

Le has shown little takedown defense and almost no ground game. His frequent and predictable (although not too telegraphed) high kicks along with his forward motion should make it easy to take him down. Frank Shamrock has (or had) a very solid and quite unorthodox ground game, and have no doubt he could have beaten Le if he thought this through a little more. Instead he chose to stand with Le.

Standing with Le is not even a bad strategy if Shamrock had tried to fake takedowns and use punches more; he might even have been able to beat the smaller Le if he pressed him up against the fence and maintained a clinch. Instead, he often stayed at kicking range, where Le is most potent. Whenever Frank moved forward and used punching combinations, as he did in the last minute of the first round, he scored successfully and forced Le to retreat. Both times in that instance, Frank drove Le against the fence and failed to exploit that position - the same was true at the end of the third round, during Shamrock's rally. Le's only effective use of hands was when he came forward to follow up after scoring with kicks (an unorthodox strategy, but it worked).

Given Le's tendency to expose his back after throwing side kicks, I am surprised Frank did not try to get behind him and follow up. A good greco fighter could move in behind Le's retracting sidekick and get a suplex from behind. That is not really Frank's style, but it is a tantalizing possibility for a future opponent.

Both fighters gave a good show of MMA-specific striking, and I think that this was one of this year's better fights.

John McCain vs. Democratic Strategies

2008-03-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,544341,00.html

John McCain has by far the strongest biography of the presidential candidates remaining in the race - but that is not to say that he is guaranteed an election victory; far from it.

Today's politics has more to do with wishful thinking that cold hard results. We see that in the strength of the democratic party, the continued funding of the UN, and the existence of Barack Obama's candidacy. The Democrats know that they can come far by playing the politics of division by so called "class," so called "race," and "gender" (a substitution for the empirical sex division). They know that appeals to jealousy and racism are more powerful in today's society than appeals to national unity, national security and even national survival. Rather than uniting us against our enemies abroad, the left seeks to divide us against ourselves at home, at least long enough to loot our bank accounts for their own political and economic gain. This type of politics is more important to the Democrats today than the specific policies that they propose - although these too would be catastrophic were they to be enacted.

McCain should emphasize his superior biography, of course, but that is not going to be enough to sway swing voters who the leftwing media has taught to ask for utopian promises. Fortunately, McCain has a history of speaking eloquently about higher callings - and this country desperately needs a reminder of its potential in the world in light of unwarranted criticism it faces from disloyal citizens.

Large Computing Centers as Bad For Global Warming as Air Travel

2008-03-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,544053,00.html

According to a new article, large computer centers are as bad for global warming as air travel, although the article neglects to discuss any issues of the impact of air travel on the upper atmosphere. Some innovative ideas are coming to the fore due to purely economic concerns - the cost of cooling and the cost of the technology itself. Without any government prodding, major companies and university consortiums are investing in economically viable technology that reduces their environmental impact without costing consumers or taxpayers money.

This is the wave of the future. The economic cost will make scarce resources (in this case, the fuel for the electricity that powers the computing centers) more expensive, prompting the operators to adjust to use less resources - acting purely in their own self interest, they serve humanity and improve the environment while continuing to serve their customers. Everyone benefits, except Marxists and left wing environmentalists, who have less to protest and less political influence every time an environmental or economic problem is resolved without their "help."

Tim Sylvia to Leave UFC; Fedor Might Be Coming

2008-03-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.fightline.com/news/2008/330/dana_white_320391.shtml

UFC President Dana White confirmed that the former UFC HW champion Tim Sylvia is leaving the UFC for greener pastures. He also expressed interest in Fedor, although it is not clear whether he actually intends to make a reasonable offer this time - or whether Fedor's management team is ready to get him in the octagon.

Tim Sylvia's departure is already part of growing trend of fighters leaving the UFC for better opportunities elsewhere - and that trend will probably continue to grow, much to the UFC's detriment. However, no organization since the end of PRIDE FC seems to be able to collect many top fighters and get them signed to itself - or even get their consistent participation. This arrangement may be far more lucrative for top fighters like Sylvia, and even for some rising stars, but it is problematic for the industry as a whole, which remains dominated by the UFC.

Free M-1 Show - Includes Aleks

2008-03-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

http://dreamfighters.com/site/?action=detail&id=1206729562

Aleksander will been one to the fighters featured on a free broadcast show from M-1 Global - he will be beating Chute Boxe's Silvio Santos.

This sounds like a smart move from M-1, and it is unfortunate that Fedor is not a part of this show. True, it has not been long since he last fought, but his presence could help build up a competitor to the UFC, and any wins he can get will only bolster his reputation - even if it is just over another subpar opponent.

Disproving the Existance of God?

2008-03-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.helium.com/items/853003-disprove-question-people-justified

One of the best and most succinct explanations I have ever read on the issue.

GM Foods

2008-03-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.reason.com/news/show/125722.html

I warned already in my post about the promise of nanotechnology that luddites are among the greatest impediments to progress today.

The opposition of European luddites to the development of genetically modified foods represents a grave threat - the evasion of the Mathusian dilemma had been based on the production of food becoming more efficient - and a fair part of the increase in our lifespan can be credited to safer food.

In the case of nanotechnology, their opposition will lead to a tremendous loss of lives that would not otherwise have been lost - and it already has led to that in the case of GM crops. Famine stricken nations refuse to accept GM crops, farmers deplete their soil and refuse to use fertilizers (often browbeaten into doing so by self-righteous European leftists), and those who could most benefit by the planting of GM crops decline the opportunity.

I am not in complete agreement with the interviewee; I do not think that any country or group of people is entitled to handouts, and I know from history that sending free money to Africa has had catastrophic and counterproductive results.

A Very Long Fedor Interview

2008-03-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.fightline.com/news/2008/325/fedor_emelianenko_319884.shtml

This is a much longer interview with Fedor than we usually see - and the world's best fighter is much more forthright that before. It is a really great interview, although it does not give much new information.

Forced Marriages in the United Kingdom

2008-03-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,543344,00.html

Some Muslim immigrants to the UK are compelling both males and females to marry partners that they did not choose and do not approve of. Often, physical violence and psychological abuse is used to coerce unwilling brides (and grooms) into marriages - and to keep them there. Sexual assault is especially problematic.

These practices are a gross violation of the values the United Kingdom has long professed in the modern era. They are not, however, uncharacteristic of the cultures that many of these Muslim immigrants have come from.

In the West, our societies acknowledge and respect the autonomy of individuals. While stable families are helpful in raising well adjusted individuals, when individuals never act autonomously of their families, the situation becomes worrying.

We must acknowledge the ownership of a person over his or her own body - ownership that begins at the dawn of life at conception, and cannot be ceded to another or stolen from him or her. When a family begins to act as though it owns the body of one of its members, rather than being an institution for the benefit of all members, it ceases to be helpful to either society or the individual.

I realize that parents are entrusted with helping their children develop well; parents ability to coerce children, properly limited, is a necessary part of socialization, and we have not yet found a method of aculturation that is superior to it. However, parents should never been seen as owning their children, but rather merely as assisting them in exercising their judgment, and sometimes (hopefully less as they get older) preventing them from utilizing that judgment when it is faulty.

Decisions like marriage are best left to responsible and independent adults - and certainly not parents, still less religious "leaders."

Hopefully the United Kingdom realizes what an assault on human rights, the law of England, the rule of law, individual freedom, physical and psychological health and western civilization these practices are. The head of the Church of England not long ago called for portions of the very law that brought such practices about to be incorporated into the law of the United Kingdom - and is still in office. In light of the inroads made by political Islam into Europe, and even the United States, however, it is unlikely that much will be done.

Adam Smith and Rousseau Article

2008-03-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

http://ept.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/7/2/137

The above is an interesting and enlightening article about the views of Smith and Rousseau on classical liberal economics. It is a fascinating read.

More on this later.

Missing the Mark on McCain

2008-03-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/opinion/26welch.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I think this article largely misses the mark in its assessment of McCain. I do agree the McCain's campaign against earmarks is a positive trait, but the author's assessment of McCain as anti-individual is off base, especially in comparison to the rest of the field.

As an aside, while profit is a reasonable motive for behavior, and there is nothing wrong with it, free people are also free to pursue other ends for other motives.

A better assessment of McCain's opposition to earmarks and his reasons for being is here, although I object to the aside about the Iraq war.

A Better Way With Wine

2008-03-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/dining/26pour.html?em&ex=1206676800&en=1da3241f708c7f73&ei=5087%0A

I think that is a much better idea to teach children to use alcohol in moderation than to try to suppress its use. To be sure, abstinence from alcohol is possible and safe, but moderate amounts can not only be good with meals, but also teach that moderate consumption of anything is better than immoderate abuse. Aristotle's injunction "all things in moderation" rings as true today as ever.

There are, of course, some substances for which the moderate amount is none. Illegal drugs are a good example. Most are utilized with the explicit intent of getting a "high" - the exact opposite of moderate use.

Prefabricated Buildings

2008-03-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/realestate/commercial/26college.html?_r=1&oref=login

I have long been a fan of quality prefabricated buildings - they offer an opportunity for good space to be developed without the same cost or noise. I welcome this development, and I hope (although it is unlikely) that this will contribute to a lowering of college costs for students and families.

Homeschooling Muslim Students

2008-03-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/us/26muslim.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I have mixed thoughts on this article, and I think that the family that decided to send their son to a Catholic private school probably made the best choice out of the group, religious or not.

American public schools are a disgrace. The teachers' unions stymie most attempts at reform, attempts to evaluate learning are scorned or attacked (see the response to No Child Left Behind, which gave massive new government handouts in exchange for minimal standards on testing - only to have unions and others say that even more money and no standards at all are needed), and leftists are vastly overrepresented. Children are socialized with dysfunctional members of society, and told that they should "accept their differences" rather than think about whether some ways of life are better than others.

Unfortunately, many of these students may not have much of an opportunity to see other ways of life - and will be denied much of the opportunity to become part of the American mainstream by overzealous parents.

Latest Josh Barnett Interview

2008-03-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

http://www.undergroundhit.com/urcc/urcc_interviews.html

Good interview from one of my favorite fighters of all time. Hopefully we will get to see him fight again soon. If Cro cop has a good string of fights in Japan and a rematch can be arranged, that would be great - I would really like to see Josh avenge his losses and all of their fights have been action packed even though they didn't turn out the way I would have liked them to.

Chuck Liddell Wants to Face Fedor

2008-03-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/ufc/article890064.ece

Chuck Liddell, one of the top LHWs in the world, would like to fight Fedor, the world's #1 HW. Liddell is a surprisingly good matchup stylistically against Fedor, but I am very doubtful that "the Iceman" could pull off a win against the top fighter ever.

I suspect that if I fight ever was arranged between these to giants of the sport, Fedor would beat Liddell in a fashion similar to that Rampage Jackson used his first fight against Liddell - except that Fedor is faster, more fluid, more powerful, more resilient, has better reflexes and is in short a superior fighter in every way (except freestyle wrestling ability) to Jackson. After seeing Fedor successfully demolish Cro cop, a counter striker far superior to Liddell, I have difficulty seeing what Chuck's strategy would be. To be sure, his clinch defense would be the best that Fedor has seen, and that could pose some problems for Fedor's SAMBO throws, but the Russian is more than a match for Chuck on the feet. I don't doubt that Fedor could put Chuck down with strikes or take him to the ground and keep him there if he chose. No one has come close to being able to prevent Fedor's throws yet, and no one has ever been able to get back on his feet from under the Russian without being let up, with the possible exception of Mark Coleman in his first fight with Fedor.

I will post a more thorough analysis if this fight is ever signed. However, I am fairly certain it will never be. It will just be a stylistic dream match.

Jeff Monson's Schedule

2008-03-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content2267.html?PHPSESSID=2484cd17066f5096896242c2032537cd

Top 15 HW MMAist Jeff Monson is preparing for a brutal schedule - he will fight three high level journeymen within one month - Ricco Rodriguez (fresh of a much improved performance over Antonio Silva), Kevin Randleman and Brad Imes.

Each of these fights will be difficult for Monson, and, as he points out in the interview, these fighters represent very different styles. If he can emerge victorious from all three fights, he will not only have probably launched himself back into the top ten, he will have also demonstrated an ability to adapt and apply his style to different opponents. This could be good preparation for a fight against Fedor, which I still would very much like to see.

It is fortunate the the United Kingdom has not yet adopted the restrictive commission rules that probably would have prevented such as schedule in the United States, especially if Monson were to lose one of his fights. Athletic commissions nearly stymied the sport, and contributed to the near collapse of the sport in the late 1990s, despite spectacular PPV numbers and an excellent safety record (by that point in time).

Good luck to Jeff Monson - he will need it with a schedule like that.

Another Crime From the Cult of Scientology

2008-03-24T13:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.lermanet.com/italian-scientology-crime.htm

A French woman who was the sister of a leader of the cult in France was kidnapped by three people confirmed by police to have been members of the cult, and held prisoner in Tunisia after she tried to seek treatment outside of Scientology.

It is unfortunate that there is not much information available about the case at this time.

A New Film on Islam

2008-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255,00.html

After the murder of Theo Van Gogh, Dutch Islamists could be forgiven for believing that they had heard the last of criticism of their beliefs and behavior. After all, Van Gogh was dead, Ali, had fled the country, and a wave of "tolerance" swept non-Islamic parts of Holland.

Then came the Danish cartoons, and then their reprinting, in the light of a new plot to kill the cartoonists, who had gone into hiding. Bin Laden even issued an audio statement, presumably from a cave in Pakistan. Despite calls from the head of the Church of England to incorporate parts of Sharia into the United Kingdom's secular law, and the survival of his leadership in the face of disappointingly few calls for his resignation, Islamists in Europe surely felt that their grasp of the situation was not quite as firm as they had believed.

A new film will offer a new challenge for proponents of political Islam. So far, attempts to have the Dutch government censor the film have been unsuccessful, and we should hope they will continue to be. Whether Europe will emerge from this latest controversy with more commitment to its secular heritage, or with a mind to appease Islamic radicals is not yet clear.

Harvard's Special Privileges for Muslim Students

2008-03-21T23:02:00.001-07:00

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/america/harvard.php
(Note: the New York Time ran the same article.)

Belatedly, Harvard's special privileges for Muslim students is drawing some attention from the media. Atlantic Monthly defends it as a reasonable accommodation. This leads me to wonder why religious rules need to be encouraged at all. Those who have beliefs outside the mainstream of the secular culture should feel pressure from society to shed their capricious (and, in the case of the Harvard students, self imposed) regulations and join the twenty first century. If they are determined to persist in their old beliefs and behaviors, so be it - so long as it does not discriminate against other parts of society - as these provisions clearly do. This small group of women is disrupting the ability of others to utilize facilities that they have an equal right to make use of based on a set of religious superstitions.

(Quick note: Harvard is not the only institution making such discriminatory concessions.)

It is important to realize that there is an important distinction to be made between persecution and refusal to endorse, enforce, or propagate the beliefs of others. People should, of course, be free to believe what they wish in their hearts. It is not unreasonable, in most cases, to allow followers of various religions the opportunity to express their own beliefs and take actions accordingly. However, this does not require that independent institutions (and Harvard is not a madrassa yet) provide support of any kind for their beliefs or facilitate their actions, especially at the expense of others with an equal claim. This is, at its core, accommodation and institutionalization of religious intolerance, the very thing that Harvard professors have consistently bemoaned over the years when it came from Christians and sometimes Jews.

In the United States, we do not tolerate these sorts of demands coming from Christians or Jews, and rightly so; any argument from religious pluralism falls flat on its face in light of this history. There is no reason we should tolerate these demands coming from Muslims either. It is nothing short of hypocrisy to exempt Muslim superstitions from the sort of secular analysis that banished other superstitions as justifications for campus discrimination. It illustrates once more that the contempt for Western society, rather than reasonable objections to religion underly much of leftist university thinking. This controversy should properly be seen as a conflict between those who embrace modernity and those who emphatically reject it (and, of course, their enablers). Even the most "tolerant" of campuses cannot long tolerate intolerance and survive. Gandhi once said that we must be intolerant of intolerance, and even the far left should be able to accept that much.

Given the clear sexism involved, I wonder where the usual crew of Title IX literalism advocates and gender equality protesters are. If they intend to show themselves to be anything other than hypocrites, someone's car should be on fire by now. Harvard should not give its implicit approval to the idea that women need to be sequestered away from men. Even less should they encourage that idea through discriminatory practices. Some opposition on campus has arisen for that reason, but it is suprisingly little.

Muslim students should be called upon to integrate into western secular society; while they cannot be forced to do so, attempts to maintain a religious lifestyle on a modern campus should be treated with skepticism, and attempts to obtain special privileges should be answered with firm resistance.

Leftist identity politics and excessive multiculturalism divide rather than unite the human family. We are all one. There is but one human race, no matter what modern campus racists might say. There are no classes in western society. There is but one proper standard for the evaluation of truth, and that is the scientific method. Let us hope that someday we can all put unscientific superstitions of all sorts behind us, and relegate such nonsense to the history books and the historical dustbin.

Bin Laden Enters Cartoon "Discussion"

2008-03-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,542638,00.html

After threats on cartoonists lives by Muslims (including some who normally are not considered quite so radical), several Europeans newspapers decided to do a very un-European thing - stand up for themselves. They republished the cartoons, defended freedom of speech, and made clear that the European Union is not yet a Muslim theocracy, where Islamic moral claims have law and the force of the state behind them.

After the original cartoons were published, the cartoonists went into hiding. With a new audiotape attributed to Osama Bin Laden, they might have good reason to stay there.

Suspended for Skittles

2008-03-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080312-0841-odd-skittlessuspension.html

An honors student and a class Vice President, Michael Sheridan has learned the implications of an activist government at an early age; he was suspended from school, stripped of his class Vice President position and barred from an honors students dinner after he bought a bag of skittles from another student. His school has a rule which prohibits students from buying food the educational bureaucracy determines to be unhealthy for them - with penalties like the one Michael experienced. After an outpouring of reason, the school decided to expunge the suspension from Sheridan's permanent record, although its principal remains unapologetic. Michael will not get his position as Vice President back.

While I normally object to resorting to lawsuits, I think that this situation warrants a good several lawsuits - as well as a complete replacement of the school board and any local or district bureaucrats who supported this obscene policy.

If You Haven't Watched "Free to Choose" Yet....

2008-03-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is!

http://www.ideachannel.tv/

This classic explanation of the function of real work economics using simple illustrative examples and very simple explanations should be mandatory viewing in American schools. Its content should be on American citizenship tests and college entrance exams.

Knowledge Immigrants

2008-03-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

http://insidehighered.com/views/2008/03/14/pandiyan

Due to the difficulty of getting a green card or skilled labor visa, few foreign-born graduates of American universities are permitted to stay in the country. Unlike many immigrants, those who are educated at American universities rarely end up consuming more government services than they pay for in taxes, and they are generally a boon to the economy. An excessively restrictive set of government regulations prevents them from contributing to the country and the world economy, as well as preventing them from reaching as much of their potential as they could if they were allowed to stay.

I recognize that because America is a democracy, and a mixed economy at that, it is necessary to keep out many of those who consume more government services than they pay for in taxes, or they will bankrupt the country. Similarly, we need to be wary of immigrants with antidemocratic tendencies or political proclivities or we will lose our democracy. I expect to see just that happen in much of western Europe in the coming decades unless their is a significant change in course.

Personally, I would like to end all welfare type services and then open the borders. I would like people to become full citizens with voting rights after passing a comprehensive examination that will require a strong grasp of the English language and and understanding of American culture. An oath to uphold the American way of life might not be out of line either.

Couture Won't Fight In the UFC Again

2008-03-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

http://mmajunkie.com/news/3952/couture-unwilling-to-fight-emelianenko-in-the-ufc.mma

Randy Couture ended speculation that the UFC could put together a Fedor-Randy fight inside the Octagon.

Personally, I think that this is fair enough on Randy's part. After being mistreated by the UFC in the past, I think it is only reasonable that he is not able to trust them enough to work together again. That said, Randy will not be young forever, and I hope that we will see this fight before he becomes too old for it to be relevant.

I hope that Mark Cuban can get this fight on HDNet fights - it would really put him on the MMA map and mark his network as a major player in the sport. HDNet could do for MMA what HBO and Showtime did for boxing.

Let's hope this gets resolved soon.

The Media Continues to Attack the Iraq War

2008-03-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL0157942120080318?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10112

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7293689.stm

In what has become a media cliche, a statement of progress in Iraq was contrasted with an incident of violence in that country - in another attempt to discredit that struggle.

Make no mistake, it is a struggle. From the hard work done by the troops on the ground, to the emotional struggles of family members back home, who have to deal not only with fear for the lives of their loved ones, but also with a hostile anti-American media and aggressive antiwar protesters, many of whom wish for their loved one's deaths. To this generation's unsung heroes, the message is clear: you and your leaders will remain unsung. Soldiers and marines are portrayed by media leftists as either as victims of warmongering leaders or, alternatively, as bloodthirsty killers themselves. Of course, neither is true.

We must not rush a transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqis before they are ready. Their time will come soon enough.

A chance to interview Iraqis about their lives reveals a mixed bag, but one must remember several things. First, speaking in favor of the American-led forces can get one killed, while speaking out against them almost never has any negative consequence. One should expect responses to be effected at least to a degree by this. Second, the media is biased in who it interviews, and often neglects ordinary people. Third, the media has little presence in Kurdistan (probably because, despite being by far the safest and most stable part of Iraq to report from, there is no opportunity for coalition bashing from up there). Even the twentieth anniversary of Saddam's gas attack passed with little notice from abroad. As a result, those who were the most opposed to Saddam's reign are only rarely heard from.

Another Couple Resources about Scientology

2008-03-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

http://youfoundthecard.com/

Another good resource about the "Church" of Scientology.

If you are looking for something with a less serious angle on a very serious issue, try this one:

http://www.scientomogy.com/stopscientology/index.php

Sex Offenders Recieve College Handouts

2008-03-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23677666

College handouts aren't just for kids with irresponsible parents anymore - they're for sex offenders too! Apparently, sex offenders held in state run treatment centers are eligible for - and receiving - Pell grants (a government handout originally directed to low income college students).

Remember this the next time a politician says she or he will cut back on government waste. This misuse of taxpayer money should be the first thing struck off of next year's budget. I hope everyone will support Representative Keller's drive to end this practice.

In light of the article's revelation that several offenders are fraudulently using Pell grant money for personal items, I hope that an investigation will be conducted and arrests made.

A Great Comment Left on Another Site

2008-03-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.arbiteronline.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticleComments&ustory_id=5b2ca166-2885-4328-99cc-0d5b5c7c7235#b627baa9-e560-4ebb-a4ea-c4673b620297

My thanks to Rao, whoever he may be. I thought that he had an excellent post. With his permission, I have reposted it here.

" posted 3/17/08 @ 1:03 PM MST
Consensus Reality is that Scientology is a Dangerous Cult and a wealthy multinational corporation. You guys should get with the programe. See preceding sentence.

Here's some more judicial opinion for you:

"In January 1980, fearing a raid by law enforcement agencies, Hubbard's representatives ordered the shredding of all documents showing that Hubbard controlled Scientology organizations, finances, personnel, or the property at Gilman Hot Springs. In a two week period, approximately one million pages were shredded pursuant to this order."

--California appellate court, 2nd. district, 3rd. division, July 29, 1991, B025920 & B038975, Super. Ct. No. C 420153

"When a person is subjected to coercive persuasion [as in Scientology] without his knowledge or consent ...[he may] develop serious and sometimes irreversible physical and psychiatric disorders, up to and including schizophrenia, self-mutilation, and suicide."

--California Supreme Court, United States v. Lee [455 U.S. 252,257,258 (1982)]

"Substantial evidence supports the conclusion Scientology leaders made the deliberate decision to ruin Wollersheim economically and possible psychologically....We do not mean to suggest Scientology's retributive program... represented a full scale modern day 'inquisition.' Nevertheless there are some parallels in purpose and effect. 'Fair game,' like the 'inquisition,' targeted heretics. "Other testimony established Scientology is a hierarchal organization which exhibits near paranoid attitudes toward certain institutions and individuals -- in particular the government, mental health professions, disaffected members, and others who criticize the organization or its leadership... During trial, Wollersheim's experts testified Scientology's 'auditing' and 'disconnect' practices constituted 'brainwashing' and 'thought reform' akin to what the Chinese and North Koreans practiced on American prisoners of war... "Using its position as religious leader, the church and its agents coerced Wollersheim into continuing auditing even though his sanity was repeatedly threatened by this practice... Thus there is adequate proof the religious practice in this instance caused real harm to the individual and the appellant's outrageous conduct caused that harm... Church practices conducted in a coercive environment are not qualified to be voluntary religious practices entitled to first amendment religious freedom guarantees... "We hold that the state has a compelling interest in allowing its citizens to recover for serious emotional injuries they suffer through religious practices they are coerced into accepting. Such conduct is too outrageous to be protected under the constitution and too unworthy to be privileged under the law of torts."

-California appellate court, 2nd district, 7th division, Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, Civ. No. B023193 Cal. Super. (1986)
(SCIENTOLOGY ENDED UP PAYING WOLLERSHEIM $9.2 MILLION DOLLARS.)

Also see Time Magazine, May 1991: "Scientology: The Cult of Greed."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972865,00.html "

Nicely done sir.

Anonymous Takes on Cult of Scientology In A New Round of Protests

2008-03-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Anonymous opened its campaign against the cult with a bang back in January, with sympathetic hackers temporarily bringing down cult servers. Just over a month ago, Anonymous first took their protest to the real (physical) world - with rallies against the cult in cites across the globe - well over 7,000 people participated. Anonymous has grown since then. Last Friday, on cult founder L Ron Hubbard's birthday, the group launched a second round of protests. Two attempts by cult lawyers to get injunctions failed.

We know that Anonymous is making headway due to the increasingly shrill responses from cult leaders and spokesmen, and the fact that Scientologist celebrities are now getting worried. A group which can remove items from Ebay on its own is powerful - but all its money and starpower still covers a quite deviant group.

San Francisco,Hollywood and Philadelphia saw protests. Boston protests went well. Seattle not only had events, but local media promoted it. So did Washington D.C., where the activists were video recorded by cult goons. (This is a typical tactic of intimidation from the notorious litigious cult.) In Idaho, the cult operative accused the small number protesters of being funded by pharmaceutical groups. In Atlanta, police had a very strong response to the protests. I admire the zeal of the Atlanta police, but I wish they would have applied it to a more deserving group. One other protester from a church group was arrested in Battle creek. There were apparently no arrests elsewhere.

An attempt by the cult's famous attorneys to block protests in Clearwater, Florida failed in court. Perhaps this is a sign that the cult's legal fortunes are finally starting to change.

It is important to realize that low level members of the cult should generally be regarded as victims rather than perpetrators. The deviance of the organization itself, however, is undeniable. I applaud anonymous for finally taking some long overdue action against a group that has preyed on society for decades, and caused untold damage to thousands of lives - including Frank Oliver, whose disturbing file was posted recently to wikilinks.

From the probable murder of Lisa McPherson to the campaign to frame Paulette Cooper to the infiltration of government offices in "Operation Snow White," to the financial exploitation of thousands, the crimes of the cult are as legion as its critics. Litigation, harassment and physical assault have kept former members and critics silenced for too long - and now I am glad to see that the tables have turned.

A third round is planned for April 12. I'll try to post on it the day of.

A Generation Without Privacy

2008-03-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/opinion/16coben.html?_r=1&oref=login

I know that I grew up with less privacy than my parents did. I knew I had less private space than they did from the government, from my employers, from my peers and teachers and bosses and random strangers. I knew, as well, that in an age which parental paranoia is reinforced endlessly by a biased media, and emotional outbursts of unsubstantiated concern are praised as "thinking of the children" and "planning for the future," I could do far less out of their sight.

Generations to come, however, may grow up with no privacy at all. The media is now willing to encourage parents to spy on their children even in their most private moments; they call for parents to eavesdrop without apology on their child's very most private personal conversations.

I am not greatly concerned about government wiretapping or the like. I have nothing to hide from the government and little to worry about - and am certain most people do not either. The government agent who may (but almost certainly is not) monitoring my phone calls or internet usage does not care about my social life - but parents might worry about their child's.

A natural part of growing up is breaking the bonds, one by one, which keep a child from becoming an adult. It is natural that parents are apprehensive when their children get older and start acting more like adults and less like their dear little child from years past. It is not, however, appropriate to monitor their life to prevent them from growing up ahead of some artificial schedule.

Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett

2008-03-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4mdvu_hidehiko-yoshida-vs-josh-barnett-se_sport

After posting Josh Barnett's latest interview, I promised to post the fight and comment on it. Here goes.

Josh Barnett has been out of the MMA ring for over a year; he came backing looking better than ever. However, Yoshida's striking was the biggest surprise of the fight - he certainly has come a long way since being outstruck by Royce.

Josh's ground and pound has improved markedly, at least from my vantage point. That, however, has to take into account Yoshida's strategy on the ground apparently not allowing him to put up a more active defense.

Both fighters offer something different on the ground than the usual fare of low level BJJ plus wrestling. Josh is one of the top exponents of catch wrestling, and Hidehiko is a former gold medalist and world champion in Judo. Each gave a good account of himself and his style on the ground, and it was great to see Barnett go for some step-over leglocks.

World Victory Road is off to a great start - this fight was superb, and should be considered for HW fight of the year.

A Great Fedor-Randy Fight Analysis From Subfighter

2008-03-13T19:40:00.001-07:00

http://www.subfighter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68551&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

"Well, it's still at "discussion" stages according to fightline and limar's boy says its a "quack" (I'm not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound encouraging in translation), but I want so bad to believe this fight will happen.

Fedor deserves at least one fight in the UFC, he is a legend and UFC's the biggest stage in MMA in the world right now (according to Wandy, Cop, Page and number of people who watch it on TV). I don't think it matters if Fedor wins and goes. I think if Randy wins he retires, and there's a good chance of Fedor signing again to fight Nog if he wins. If Fedor wins then goes, Dana just puts Tim v Brock on the card before Fedor's next fight, and the noobs who might switch channels to see Fedor again, spend their PPV money on the UFC.

I don't think Fedor will be technically disadvantaged in a cage at all, he has the best HW GNP game in the world, with sweet armbars and kimuras signature subs. Fits perfectly into a cage format. Of course he would be at an experience defecit compared to Randy of making use of the cage, but if he learns from CC's mistake and actually trains in a cage, it shouldn't be a problem for him at all.

It's pretty funny suggesting that Randy is some sort of coward by asking what if he doesn't take a fight that isn't even officially negotiated yet. Randy has consistently taken the next best fight available to him his entire career. He is the absolute opposite of a fighter who has looked to pad his record. He has taken many fights when he was considered a sure lose. This would be the ultimate example of that and I at least have no doubt this fight is what he has dreaming of for many years. Randy's driving philosophy in fighting has always been to test himself against the best opponent available. At this stage in his career (aka at his age, with perhaps one good fight left in him) he has targeted Fedor as the final and greatest test. Randy's never been afraid of losing.

For the record, I don't know who would win this. I would be barracking for Randy because I respect his career so much. But it would be my emotions picking him, not my head.

My head can't even figure this out. For most of their careers (that have been running pretty much in parallel) I would say Fedor. Fedor won his three big matches against two against Nog and Cop, while Randy lost 2 and won 1 of his big three (lost to Josh and Ricco and beat Tim). But the Randy we saw against Tim and GG was better than any Randy I've ever seen, with the speed and gas of the 205 Randy and with some power behind his striking like a HW. Fedor hasn't been testing himself but has stayed more active with Randy's retirement and resignation keeping him out of the ring. Randy's faced more tougher opponents overall than Fedor, but Fedor has beaten the toughest of all (Nog) twice.

Fedor's got better subs, but Randy showed against Ricco, Josh, GG and Jacare in a pure sub wrestling match that his sub defense is good. I don't think this will end with a sub: Randy won't go for one and I don't think Fedor will get one.

Both have got the two best TD's in HW MMA, though different styles. I think personally that Randy has a slight edge here, but its so close I'll call it even. Randy relies heavily on ground control and a lighter GNP to get grinding wins. Fedor gives more space on the ground but delivers absolutley devastating GNP. I think it comes down to who gets more consistent top position and who can last underneath the best.

If Fedor gets top, Randy will need to be able to reverse or escape quickly, because Fedor will bust him up down there, and that is no easy feat against Fedor. If Randy gets top, Fedor will need to sustain Randy's lighter GNP, while looking for a sub, and that's not easy to get on Randy.

I think this one might end on its feet striking, and there I have no idea who will get it.

Bottom line: this is the best MMA matchup at any division, ever. I hope Dana can put it together this time."

------

When this fight is actually signed for, I'll issue a pre-fight analysis of my own, but I think this one is quite good. Definitely some good thoughts to consider carefully.

This fight really is one of the most compelling match ups possible in MMA - the only fight I would rather see right now is Fedor-Josh, and that can wait until after the Russian defeats Couture.

Although I like Randy, I have to cheer for Fedor. The MMA world needs a dominant champion, and Fedor has been the only stable #1 fighter in MMA in a long time. Sports need dominant champions in order to get attention. As exciting as the "year of the upset" was in 2007, it is best for the sport to have one overwhelming champion who can bring some order to the chaos and give fans someone to compare with high achievers in other sports.

Fedor MIGHT Finally Fight in the UFC - 1 Fight Deal

2008-03-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.fightline.com/news/2008/313/fedor_emelianenko_318666.shtml

The UFC and Fedor's management are now once more in talks - this time, though, it is for a one fight deal, presumably against soon-to-be-former UFC HW Champion Randy Couture.

Fedor left M-1 Global earlier this week, and while its CEO has not yet acknowledged the departure of the organization's main attraction, the MMA world should be holding its collective breath right now, waiting for the Russian's next move.

If the fight is held, it could wrap up a whole bunch of the MMA world's most pressing issues in one neat little package. The UFC and Randy would have to make peace for the fight to go forward. With the promise of a major pay raise and a fight with Fedor, I think Randy could be swayed - and the UFC could avoid a long bruising lawsuit that will only bring more ire from MMA fans - and impoverish Randy Couture. The dislike that many hardcore MMA fans feel toward Dana White and the organization he leads could be greatly ameliorated, and the fight could be a PPV blockbuster. The mainstream media exposure, certainly, would be far greater than for any previous MMA match up. The fans would win the most - we would get to see what would certainly be one of the best fights ever, a true epic in the Heavyweight division (as long as Fedor doesn't get cut).

I'll certainly discuss the possibilities more as I get more information. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, though.

UFC Shedding Some Major Fighters

2008-03-13T19:01:00.001-07:00

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-freeagents031008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

With the UFC now shedding some of its big name fighters, could an improvement in the fortunes of its competition be far behind? Cracks are starting to appear in the UFC strategy. Even with M-1 Global probably going under soon, there is plenty of rising competition for the UFC.

Ever since my premature announcement that Tim Sylvia would leave, I have been wary of speculation on other major draws leaving the organization.

The UFC will, of course, be able to draw on gimmicks like an NFL player, and the perennial TUF show will give more grist to the over-hyped journeyman mill, but many of the sports top fighters are already outside the UFC, and its PPV advertising dynamo may soon stop spinning quite so fast.