Finally a new soft drink for all the anti-American/anti-globalization groups out there. In France, businessman Tawfiq Mathlouthi has launched "Mecca Cola" as a "politically correct" alternative to Pepsi-Cola and Coca Cola.

As the sun drops over the Parisian skyline, Abdullahziz brings out bowls of soup and open cardboard boxes full of dried dates. He is soon joined by his friend Ayed Ouanes, who is drinking a glass of Mecca Cola with his food. "Yes, there are a lot of people, me I'm one of the first, who have effectively decided to boycott Coke because notably it's a symbolic product, not just because it's American. I have nothing against Americans. I like Americans and there are sensational Americans. But Coke, it symbolizes something. How can I put it? All the things that are most diabolical in history. I use that word because Coca Cola, it really symbolizes American imperialism. You don't have to be a revolutionary or an extremist to know that," Ouanes said.

(via Hit&Run)

Good survey by Robert Levy of the numerous threats to civil liberties caused by the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and related measures by the Federal Government.

Here's the guiding principle: In the post-September 11 environment, no rational person believes civil liberties are inviolable. After all, government's primary obligation is to secure the lives of American citizens. But when government begins to chip away at our liberties, we must insist that it jump through a couple of hoops. First, government must offer compelling evidence that its new and intrusive programs will make us safer. Second, government must convince us there is no less invasive means of attaining the same ends. In too many instances, those dual burdens have not been met.

John McWhorter has a excellent piece in the WSJ today on why Trent Lott should resign. I think this and the piece by Charles Krauthammer in yesterdays WaPo are two of the best of the many pieces that have been written about this sorry incident to date. Even if Lott hadn't made the comments he was always a sorry leader with very few, if any, actual leadership qualities. The most that could be said for him was that he was inoffensive and even that is no longer the case. If he doesn't make his resignation speech from Republican leadership soon, the rank and file should eject him.

Good op-ed by Ruth Wisse in the WSJ today on the spread of anti-semitism on US college campuses.

...This antipathy to Israel grows from a campus culture that is selectively repressive. All the while that students, in the spirit of diversity, are actively discouraged from making pejorative comments about other vulnerable minorities, some Arab and Muslim students have been actively fomenting hatred of Israel as an expression of their "identity." On campuses with a large Arab presence, such as Wayne State in Detroit, this has resulted in a palpable threat to Jewish students, and outbreaks of physical violence have actually occurred at San Francisco State and Concordia University in Montreal. Since Arab and Muslim students are currently the only ones who exuberantly defame another group, and who blame that group rather than Arab and Muslim governments for the failings of their own anti-democratic societies, it is hardly surprising that they should be joined by others looking for a villain or scapegoat. Anti-Semitism thrives because slandering Israel is the only aggression against a minority that is encouraged by the rules of political correctness.

Along similar lines, universities have allowed Middle East departments to disseminate anti-Israel propaganda to an extent unimaginable a generation ago, representing violations of intellectual honesty and academic impartiality that may be unique in our academic life. Martin Kramer's book on Middle East Studies in America, "Ivory Towers on Sand," points out the conditions that encourage this abuse. Instead of scrutinizing the obsession with Israel that has retarded the development of Arab societies, many professors of Arab and Muslim civilization have themselves become obsessed with the obsession. Here the damage to America is at least as great as to Israel, for had these scholars been submitting Arab regimes to honest scrutiny, they would have long since have been investigating the connections between anti-Semitism, opposition to democracy, and hostility to the U.S. Why has it been left to private think tanks to inform us about the rise and nature of terrorism in the Middle East?

The Counterrevolutionary has an interesting series of essays on why Muslim hatred of the West exists.

Saudi Arabia is the kernel of the Islamist hate, not only does it provide the ideological basis for the hate, it also supplies many of the most violent adherents and finances it around the world. Why the Saudis? If you look at the three factors I propose, you will see that nowhere else is the individual so squeezed and frustrated than in Saudi Arabia. Nowhere else is the welfare state so thorough, the possibility of upward ascent so blocked and the grievance so strong. At the heart of it all is the oil and the Two Mosques.

The oil makes the largest welfare state in the world possible – every Saudi perceives an entitlement of privilege. Almost all get government jobs where they work only a few hours a day (most of the physical labor is done by migrants). However, the custodianship of the Two Mosques made possible by the Wahabi sect ensures that the Saudi male has nothing to do with that extra time except to pray. Economic and political advancement is blocked by the ever growing list of royal princes and their favorites. Unless you are a member of the “in crowd” there can be no economic or political self-actualization. In the West, similar situations (we are all a little frustrated) are alleviated by a dose of fun – like movies, sex and alcohol, but in Saudi Arabia these things are illegal.

At the same time, and because of the oil and the Mosques, the Saudis have the greatest “grievance” on the face of the world. Many believe that their possession of the two of the most holy places of Islam and the largest oil fields was divinely ordained. But, in that case, why are they still so backward compared to the West? Why do the numerically inferior (and despised) Jews repeatedly defeat the Muslims if the latter are backed by God? Why do the infidel Americans have to station troops to protect the “chosen” nation from the secular tyrant of Baghdad? These are the questions you ponder when you have nothing else to do, work or recreation, but to contemplate and pray. Eventually you reach the conclusion that this must be the work of the Great Satan.

Another big victory for the Institute for Justice, they are having a fine week. Superior Court Judge G. Thomas ruled that New Jersey's method of financing police and prosecutors through civil forfeiture is unconstitutional. Under New Jersey's civil forfeiture law prosecutors and police had been entitled to keep the money and property confiscated from individuals through the state's civil forfeiture law, thus giving them a direct financial stake in the outcome of forfeiture efforts. The court
ruled that this provision violates the Due Process clauses of the U.S. and New Jersey constitutions. Let's hope this goes upstream to the Supremes and stops this countrywide. (from an IJ press release).

Just a short comment about something that irks me. I've seen the phrase 'The end doesn't justify the means' bandied about by various antiwar types who agree that Hussein is a menace but still don't think we should do anything to remove him. I saw it last said by, I believe, Mike Farrell, in reponse to some reporters query at the Stars-Against-War gathering a few days ago. When, exactly, did this empty and ridiculous statement achieve the level of high wisdom? Whether or not the end justifies the means depends entirely on what the end is and what the means are. If I would like $10 from you and shoot you to get it, then I agree, the end did not justify the means. If you have broken into my house and are about to shoot my children in their bed and I smash the back of your head in with a baseball bat to stop you, then the end certainly justified the means.

I was going to write something about Bob Herbert's idiotic column in the NYT today, but Matthew Hoy has already said everything I wanted to.

A genuine U.S. patent: Method of Bra Size Determination by Direct Measurement of the Breast "A method of direct measurement to determine cup size of the breast which includes band size measurement by initially measuring the user's chest or torso circumference with a flexible tape measure immediately below the breasts followed by the step of adding five inches to the measured number and incorporating conventional rounding-off procedures."

A physicist has published a study that says that many women are wearing an incorrectly sized bra. I can just imagine how this project started. "Er, hi honey, I forgot you were meeting me at the lab today...what am I doing with my hands cupped around my lab assistants breasts?...Don't worry it's just part of my reasearch, yeh, that's it, part of my research into 'spurious rounding'." Large numbers of women are wearing the wrong-sized bra because of a mathematical error known as "spurious rounding" claims a University of Southampton physicist. In "Graphical Analysis of Bra Size Calculation Procedures", published in the International Journal of Clothing, Science and Technology, Dr Matthew Wright, from the university's institute of sound and vibration research, has analysed the effects of small errors in measurements.

French to Send Surrender Advisors to Iraq

Paris - In a stunning reversal of policy, French President Jacques Chirac announced today that the French government will be supporting the War on Terror after all. Five hundred soldiers from the elite L'Abandonnement du Field d'Honneur Battalion (French Surrender Battalion) of the Legion Etrangere (Foreign Legion) are in the process of shipping out to Iraq where they will assist the elite Iraqi Republican Guards in their inevitable surrender to the overwhelming might of the American Armed Forces.

"Eet ees important to be haughty and insufferable when surrendering," said General Philippe de Peepee, the Commanding Officer of the Surrender Battalion, who has personally surrendered in over 200 battles going back to Dien Bien Phu in 1954. "We French are ze world masters at surrendering, n'est ce pas, not like you arrogant Americans who never surrender. Ha, I spit on your filthy American victories."

(from BrokenNewz)

Aaah, this time of year brings out such heartwarming Christmas tales. A vicar in Berkshire, England told a group of young children that Santa was dead and that reindeer would burst into flames if they traveled at the speed necessary to deliver presents around the world in one night. Odd that the fact that reindeer don't fly didn't bother him as much as the friction aspect.

Gulf War Briefing (SNL skit 1990)

[ open on press conference discussing the Gulf War ]

Defense Secretary Richard Cheney: And so, to sum up, while this war is by no means over, it is certainly fair to say that we have inflicted heavy damage on the Iraqi war machine, and every day brings victory for the coalition that much colser. Now I'm going to hand the floor over to the Lieutenant Colonel Pierson, who will field your questions.

Lt. Col. William Pierson: Thank you Senator Cheney. I'm happy to take any questions you might have with the understanding that there are certain sensitive areas that I'm just not going to get into. Particularly, information that might be useful to the enemy. Yes?

Reporter #1: What date are we going to start the ground attack?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: Well, as I mentioned a moment ago, there are certain sensitive areas which we are just not going to go into, and that is certainly one of them. Yes?

Reporter #2: Sir, knowing what you know, where would you say our forces are most vulnerable to attack, and how could the Iraqis best exploit those weaknesses?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: Well, again, this falls into the area of information that might be useful to the enemy, and I just can't divulge it right now.

Reporter #3: Sir! Which method of hiding SCUD missiles is working best for the Iraqis?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: Now, this again is a good example of information that could help the enemy, and I just can't answer that.

Reporter #4: I have a two-part question. Are we planning an amphibious invasion of Kuwait, and if so, where exactly will that be?

Defense Secretary Richard Cheney: Excuse me. If I could interrupt here, I just want to underscore what Colonely Pierson said at the start of Q&A. There are two general categories of questions that we are simply not going to be able to address. On, those that would give our enemy advance warning of our actions, and two, those that would identify any points of weakness or vulnerabilities to the Iraqi forces. So let's reopen the floor to questions.

Reporter #5: I understand that there are passwords that our troops use on the front lines. Could you give us some examples of those?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: No, that is something I really cannot comment on.

Reporter #6: Yeah! Are we planning an amphibious invasion of Kuwait? And if so, where?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: I believe that question was asked and if you recall, I already answered it, or said I could not answer.

Reporter #7: Sir, what would be the one piece of information that would be most dangerous for the Iraqis to know?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: No can answer! I have time for two more questions. Yeah?

Reporter #8: Yes, Farud Hashami, Baghdad Times. Where are your troops, and can I go there and count them?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: Nope! Last question.

Reporter #9: Is there anything that you can tell us that would lower the morale of our fighting men?

Lt. Col. William Pierson: No. Really, the only thing we're at liberty to say at this time is, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!

The flow of grant money to fund global warming research must be drying up. A group of scientists is now predicting that changes in the Gulf Stream due to fresh water flowing into the oceans may cause another ice age.

In the Northeast, subzero temperatures could become standard winter fare, filling rivers with ice chunks, cutting short the growing season, and altering bird migrations. The cold and snow of the last week would feel like spring break.

Behind that brutal scenario is a baffling ocean phenomenon that experts have watched with rising angst: an expanding mass of freshwater in the usually salty North Atlantic that has spread alarmingly in the last seven years. It now reaches south from Greenland to just off the coast of the Carolinas, an area of 15 million square miles.

If the buildup continues, they say, it could impede the Gulf Stream, a major climate-maker that transports warm air to northern latitudes in winter. Were that critical current to be slowed by the freshwater, let alone stopped, average winter temperatures in the Northeastern United States and in Western Europe could abruptly plummet 10 degrees - a change not experienced by anyone alive today. A five-degree drop would be in store for the rest of the States.

Some of the scientists are hedging their bets though, and have blamed the increased rate of fresh water flowing into the North Atlantic on Global Warming.

Some researchers believe that, ironically, global warming could be to blame, that melting Greenland glaciers and Arctic sea ice could be diluting the salt water of the North Atlantic. Others theorize it could be a phase in a natural cycle, one that ice-core evidence suggests might have happened several times in the last 100,000 years - and perhaps as recently as America's colonial era.

This explanation, of course, ignores the numerous times it has happened in the past well before any man-made greenhouse gases existed. (Flatulence excepted).

"Large, abrupt and widespread climate changes occurred repeatedly in the past across most of the Earth, and many followed closely after freshening of the North Atlantic," said Alley, who is also chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Abrupt Climate Change, which published a report last spring.

Perhaps the most famous of these was the "Younger Dryas" event, so named for the Arctic shrub that appeared in temperate European climes during a dramatic cooldown about 12,000 years ago, 6,000 years after the last Ice Age. And it happened in a hurry, a matter of just a few years.

Changes in the Gulf Stream also are suspect in the onset of the so-called Little Ice Age, which began in the 15th century and ended about 1850. That coincided with Gen. George Washington's encampment at Valley Forge during the fatally frigid winter of 1777-78; the winter of 1779-80 was even worse. It also encompassed the era of Washington Irving and frosty images of skaters on the lower Hudson in December. No one skates there these days.

Federal Judge Ends New York's Prohibition On Direct Interstate Wine Shipments

HooHah! It's about damn time. Big kudos to the Institute for Justice for winning the case.

Natalie Solent has an excellent post defending capitalism.

On sweatshirts and sweatshops. I think that the sweatshop has liberated more women than any law passed in living memory. It takes around two or three generations of sweatshops to go from the ancient pattern of peasant subsistence farming, with its characteristic grinding toil for women, to, well, Taiwan. In 1945 Taiwan was poorer than the Sudan. Now I read somewhere that the Taiwanese goverment felt it necessary to run a campaign against obesity.

Third World women may hate it working in sweatshops, but they hate it less than what they had before. Once the Wal-Mart trainer factory down the road opens its doors, bride-burnings and female infanticide are on the way out. When companies cheat or exploit their workers it is legitimate for concerned customers to boycott them, although I hope they will send someone to talk to the workers first and see what they want given local conditions, just as it is legitimate that companies with a better record should attempt to raise sales by boasting of their relative virtue. And both these things do happen, which takes me to my next point: one of the factors I love about capitalism is its incentives to create and maintain your good name. Likewise one of the things I hate about socialism and statism is that it erodes incentives to respectability.

It explains, very forcefully, one of the major problems I have always had with leftist thinking. Arguments from the left always seem to compare any situation with some Platonic ideal that does not and will not exist rather than comparing it to what existed before. So arguments always focus on the problems that still exist in capitalist societies rather than the strong trend of improvment for the lives of everyone living in them (not just the greedy billionaires). Likewise in socialist societies, since the idea of a socialist utopia is their Platonic ideal (everyone working and striving for the greater good), they ignore the constant failures, decreases in living standards, etc...as unimportant side-effects on the way to a better society. This combined with a philosophy based on envy is at the core of what's wrong with leftist thought. A society where everyone's income drops by 10% is considered preferable to one where the bottom quintile income rises by 20% and the top quintile income rises by 50%.

Check out Bigwigs version of "Nuttin' for Christmas" as sung by Saddam Hussein.

Rachel has pointed out a new blog, started by some of her friends called Moorewatch whose purpose is to keep track of the rantings of Michael Moore. Seems like a worthwhile cause to me. I've added it to the blogroll.

Andrea Harris does a fine fisking of some idiocy that passes for revealed truth at a UK socialist site. I would've added some comments of my own, but she has done a pretty through job already. I would just add that it's amazing to me that despite the long and ever increasing history of the complete and utter failure of socialism in every form it's been tried that people still cling to it, but hey, people paid ONE BILLION DOLLARS to have their fortunes told by 'Psychic Friends'.

Miss Cleo has settled with the FTC for ... $500 Million. Yes, you read that right, $500 MILLION or half of the ONE BILLION DOLLARS people have racked up in charges over the last three years. I guess if congress wasn't sufficient proof of the sheer number of idiots in this country, this certainly is.

Reason magazines new blog starts to day. We welcome them to blogdom and have added their link at the left.

Time's list of the best inventions for 2002. Interestingly the much hyped Segway Human Transporter didn't make the list which included a Robot Vacuum, Dog Translator, Braille Glove and the Cindy Smart Doll. You can see the complete list here.

Kill Kurds, Not Mumia

There's a funny piece in OpinionJournal today on encounters with Seattle peace activists.

"Hey comrades! Did I miss the protest?"

"Yeah man, it was killer."

"Ah shucks. Hey! Do you know of any other pro-Saddam things going on today?"

The group responds that this is not about being pro-Saddam, it's an antiwar thing.

"Oh. Well. Do you know where any other anti-Iraqi freedom things are going on? Or just anti-Arab democracy. I want to join in the movement."

They let me know that I've missed the point of the protest; I continue riding aside them.

"Well it's all a means to an end, right? I mean"--I pass a nudge at them--"I mean, we're all white here, lets be honest. We can't let colored people democratize. So where can I get hooked in with the crowd? I want to end all hope for democracy in the Arab world! What e-mail list are you guys on?"

Two or three of them have by now figured that I am making fun of them. But the others are lost. They respond that "only part of the movement" is interested in what I'm talking about, and they're not into that stuff. They just don't want war.

"Huh. I guess I don't understand. Why are you guys against war then? Are you guys the pro-oil-cartel-price-fixing types? 'Stability' and all that? I figured the movement was heading towards more of a pro-dictator, anti-Jewish thing. That's what I came out for."

Suzanne Fields has a good piece on the growth of segregated dorms on college campuses.

The New York civil-rights report finds ethnic theme houses part of a larger disturbing "educational" problem. Their survey of colleges reveals a segregationist agenda of race and ethnicity permeating every facet of campus life - academic courses, counseling, remedial programs and socializing, all hiding behind clever euphemisms and pretty facades of diversity.

Ethnic houses actually encourage what they decry, by infantilizing students, pampering them in their ethnic insecurities, and creating a divisiveness through racial stereotyping. A Latino student gives away the insidiousness of this approach, describing how he found his blood roots at Amherst: "For me, there's more consciousness of my background as a Latino male," he says. "Before I came to Amherst, I wasn't thinking about race or class or gender or sexual orientation, I was just thinking about people wanting to learn."

All this, says the New York Civil Rights Coalition, is a giant step backward for the civil rights movement: " The purpose of higher education is to remove narrow constrictions of the mind, to extirpate prejudice, to remove barriers to the open pursuit of knowledge. Separatism in all of its forms, but especially when it is aided and abetted by college and university officials and resources, is a betrayal of that mission."

Also in Japan, researchers, apparently with a lot of extra time on their hands, have calculated pi to 1.24 trillion places. I think this is sufficient to compute the circumference of a circle which has the diameter of the universe to an accuracy of less than the Planck scale. One of the dubious accomplishments of my wayward youth was to memorize pi to 30 places (and despite what you might think, it didn't make me irresistable to women). For anyone interested in learning tons of interesting facts about pi, look here. You can find the first 120,000 digits of pi here.

Geek Alert (if you think Neutrino is an Italian pop singer, you can skip this article).
Recent experiments in Japan seem to confirm long held theories that neutrinos can change from one type to another and that they have mass.

Todays Word of the Day

I particularly liked this one and will try to work it into conversation whenever possible. It shouldn't be hard, since it's second meaning is a perfect self-descriptor.

omphaloskepsis \ahm-fuh-loh-SKEP-sis\ (noun)
: contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation;
also : indisposition to motion, exertion, or change

According to British cardiologist, Graham Jackson, 75% of heart attacks during sex occur while having extramarital sexual intercourse. He also said that the danger of having heart failure during extramarital sex was exacerbated even further when there was a significant difference in age between the partners.

He didn't say anything about the percentage of violent deaths that were attributable to your spouse finding you having sex with someone else.

British author Wendy Perriam won this years 'Bad Sex' award with her description of a patient fantasizing about her foot surgeon in her comic novel "Tread Softly."

Part of the winning extract reads: "Weirdly, he was clad in pin-stripes at the same time as being naked. Pin-stripes were erotic, the uniform of fathers, two-dimensional fathers.

"The jargon he'd used at the consultation had become bewitching love-talk: ... dislocation of the second MTPJ ... titanium hemi-implant ....

"Yes!' she whispered back. Dorsal subluxation ... flexion deformity of the first metatarsal ...'.

"Oh yes!' she shouted, screwing up her face in concentration, tossing back her hair. Yes, oh Malcolm, yes!'."