Theodore Dalrymple has another excellent column up at The Spectator. (Free registration required.) Unlike most of his work, this one is rather short.
James R. Rummel
Good Video
Anybody here speak French?
Douglas at The Last of the Famous International Playboys says that there’s an embarrassing segment on a French news program about tsunami aid efforts. The report apparently praises American efforts, while pointing out that the French are helpless to do anything meaningful.
If you’re interested you should click on this link and check it out. If you can speak the lingo I bet it would be more insightful.
(Big hat tip to Prof. Reynolds.)
Dual Use Technologies
Did you know that there was a chance that we’d enter WWI as German allies? It’s true!
There was a huge hue and cry about the blockade that Britain used in an effort to strangle the Germans of needed material. The Brits would seize cargo that was bound for the Kaiser if it was deemed to “have military value”, even if it came from a neutral country like the US.
At first, the list of things to be banned was exclusively munitions or bulk material that was needed by those industries that directly supported the military. Oil was banned, which was to be expected, but so was bird guano from South America that was long used as fertilizer. (You see, the nitrate-rich guano was also used to make explosives……)
So the Brits soon found themselves making longer and longer lists. No matter what it was, from food to leather, books to pig iron, garter belts to chewing gum, everything could either be used directly to support the soldier in the field or it could be reworked into something that would. American companies began to feel the pinch.
Click and Read
Did you have an imagination when you were a kid? Then you need to read this.
It’s from Bob Wallace, who gave up on reading because the schools leached all the wonder out of it. Then, when he was 11, he found his first John Carter, Warlord of Mars book.
Anybody else in here remember that day? When you opened a crappy old book, one with words and no pictures or nothin’, and magic happened?
Bob says that we’re not doing the kids any favor by sanitizing their reading material.
“If stories for kids are boring, kids certainly aren’t going to want to read. And if they don’t read, then they can’t take much advantage of all the knowledge available in literature. That’s saying bye-bye to all the accumulated wisdom of the human race.”
Go read his post. It’s not Burroughs, but there’s still a little magic in there.
(Big hat tip to Trajectory at The Beagle Express, who’s another fellow who remembers.)
Good Stuff
First thing’s first.
Murdoc Online is asking for your help. He wants anyone who has a link that states what the United Nations has done to help the tsunami victims to let him know. He’s rather droll when he frames his request, but it’s a sincere one.
Let me say that this is something that I’m very interested in myself. If there is evidence that the UN actually fed someone or worked to save lives in danger from the tsunami crises, then I’ll gladly put the link up here for all to see.
Please note that press conferences where the UN claims credit for work that others have done isn’t good enough. We need a link to a news report, something where the author was standing next to a line of refugees receiving food from UN personnel.
The next item I’d like to bring to your attention is this post at The Diplomad. They respond to some of their critics by pointing out where the majority of money donated to the UN actually goes. It’s certainly an eye opener.
If you do click on that last link, check out the first comment. It’s worth a read.