Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 31

Amba at Ambivablog tells us about an Irish company, Steorn, that claims to have invented a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy. Skepticism is allowed. Read the Wikipedia article too.

Something perhaps a little more credible, but almost as fantastic:
University of Arizona physicists invent single-molecule transistors, which could result in a microprocessor as powerful as the top-of-the-line workstation small enough to fit on the back of an E. coli. Ed at Hassenpfeffer has his eye out for this kind of thing, as befits a science fiction writer.

High tech, low class. Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters takes Radio Shack to task for its recent firing by email - effective immediately - of 400 employees. Callimachus at Done With Mirrors treats the subject with similar disdain.

Technorati tags: Steorn, Micro-transistors, Radio Shack

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 30

After my two earlier posts today, it seems appropriate to signal the Bull Moose's musings on evil and Ahmadinejad. Somehow, it ties right in.

Annie at Ambivablog is talking about the dark side of hyper-freedom, which refuses to accept any limits. Her excerpts from http://victoriaroserobin.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-is-freedom-anyway-july-4-2006.html are spot on. Unfortunately.

Anonymous Liberal muses, with some bitterness, on the importance of getting the media on your side if you are a presidential hopeful.

Technorati tags: Ahmadinejad, [tagname], [tagname]

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 29

Ed at Captain's Quarter's comments on a Jerusalem Post article about Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official who is urging Palestinians to stop blaming Israel for their internal problems and to take responsibility for their own chaos. He blames the armed factions who are crawling over the Gaza Strip for the mayhem. I will confess to a state of shock after reading this. It's not often you hear a voice of reason being raised in the Gaza Strip. I hope he survives.

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 24

Weekend Fisher contemplates the ethical implications of "holy violence" at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength, starting with Biblical examples and adding her own invaluable musings.

The Anchoress sings the praises of he-men and links to a disturbing, devastating and very cogent post by Fausta about being male and female in today's society.

Technorati tags: Violence, Sexism

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 22

Amba at Ambivablog pays tribute to sociologist and cultural critic Phillip Rieff, who died July 1. I was really struck by some of his ideas. I'll give you just a quick peek, but do go check out her post.

Forever anxious and insecure, psychological man eschews political and religious commitments, and even economic calculation, for an obsession with self that is unprecedented in human history. He is "anti-heroic, shrewd, carefully counting his satisfactions and dissatisfactions, studying unprofitable commitments as the sins most to be avoided." Driven by the "ideal of insight" and "self-contemplative manipulation," his interest resides only in himself.

And one more:

[Rieff] believes that in America transgression has now replaced creation as a cultural ideal; that creativity in our time has more to do with the urge to destroy. [ ... ] Art gave way over the course of the twentieth century to transgression for transgression's sake.

Edward Willett at Hassenpfeffer is waxing enthusiastic about ethanol produced from cow manure. Unlike traditional ethanol, it doesn't consume large amounts of fossil fuels in its production.

Technorati tag: Ethanol

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 21

Lebanese intellectuals are speaking out against Hezbollah. So far they are still alive. Hat tip to GayandRight.

Technorati tags: Lebanon, Hezbollah

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 19

Captain Ed thinks that Hamas is trying to have its cake and eat it too. They kidnap Israeli soldiers as a part of their policy and then scream like crazy when Israel does it right back to them. Make up your minds - either kidnapping is legitimate or it isn't. And if it is, then the other guy had the right to do it too.

The same argument could perhaps be leveled at Israel, but there are a couple of differences. First of all, everybody knows where Israel is keeping its captives and what their state of health and care is. Second, Israel is targetting people who actually bear some personal responsibility.


Greg at Sippican Cottage looks at life through a wonderfully lyrical lens, and shares the view with us. Today's homage to childhood baseball games turns into an ode to the dignity of work. He has the gift of making remarkably readable prose feel like poetry, the kind you read because you want to, not because it's in the text book. Absolutely wonderful stuff.


Tim at Challies.com tells a sweet story of his son wanting to repay his Christmas gift and turns it into a parable of the grace of God.


Technorati tags: Hamas, Israel, Kidnapping, Baseball, Grace

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 18

Callimachus at Done With Mirrors looks back.

Back at the beginning, between 1945 and 1952, when the new world was new and unsettled, the Soviet Union was Israel's friend and the Americans were allied with the aspirations of the Arabs and opposed to the fading colonial power of Britain.

Hard to believe, eh? European leftists and socialist Israel on one side, Arabs and Americans on the other, Britain harrassed by both.

How times have changed...


Omayma Abdel-Latif at Al-Ahram examines the looming debate over disarming Hizbullah and how it might impact on the Lebanese political scene. This is written from an Arabic point of view (not surprising), and I choked rather badly at the term "Israel's war" but the reporting is mainly factual and worth a read.


Pat at Stubborn Facts is worrying about the coming war in the Middle East and making a pitch for citizen journalism.


Janet over at Janet's Garden (hmm, that lady looks vaguely familiar) is inordinately pleased to discover that the health benefits of a garden have been recognized. OK, I confess. This is shameless promotion of my gardening blog. I won't do it often, promise.

Technorati tags: Gardening, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 17

Larry Elder is protesting the fact that Mel Gibson has apparently been classified a greater anti-Semite than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hat tip to Booker Rising.

[Update]

Jack Whelan at After the Future is making an impassioned plea for moderates to radicalize and become centrists instead. If he corrects the typo, the link may change. If so, look for the post "Robust Opposition Postscript".

Technorati tags: Anti-Semitism, Polarization

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 16

I managed to miss this post the first time around, but I'm glad I took another look, thanks to Ambivablog. Bobby at Stubborn Facts spouts so much good sense it's frightening, as he goes from the Connecticut primary to the war in Iraq, putting his finger on the dangers of "True Believers" on both the right and the left over-simplifying and radicalizing issues and listening only to those opinions that agree with theirs.

McQ discusses the phenomenon of purging the ranks by true believers - in this case libertarians - who arbitrarily try to decide who can stay in the shrinking tent. I am not a libertarian, so the specifics of this argument mean little to me, but I think his illustration of the dynamic is downright illuminating and a useful caution to anyone who has a cause they passionately believe in.

At Booker Rising, Shay is emphatically rejecting "victomology rhetoric" for the high rates of AIDS among blacks and claiming that rampant promiscuity has more to do with the problem than poverty, ignorance, and prejudice. Does she really think she's going to get an audience by advocating personal responsibility? I'm cheering her on, personally, and I hope there are a lot of non-blacks listening too. Good sense is colour-blind.

Technorati tags: Heresy, AIDS

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 15

Thomas Sowell has some interesting thoughts on discrimination and gay marriage. He contends that laws exist precisely to discriminate against certain actions. And that the laws on marriage are a restriction of individuals' rights, not an expansion of rights to be aspired to. Some very tight, interesting reasoning here. Hat tip to Booker Rising.

Eteraz makes a plea for a "regular Islam", distinguishing between theological Islam, with which he has no argument, and social Islam, about which he has plenty to say.

Previous post on the topic of Homosexuality

Technorati tags: Marriage, Discrimination, Islam