In a series of posts over on Arcturus — most substantially here and here (though I must also point to this, where I quote our own Sylvain Galineau) — I sought to define how it is that America is a good place. My actual starting point, approriately entitled Keep ’em Guessing and Make ’em Squirm, even pointed to a famous fake Tocqueville quote beloved of a certain subculture. And my answer was, of course, maddeningly conceptual.
Well, enough of the abstractions. It’s Independence Day; how about some concrete examples? Herewith a list of some of the blessings of liberty:
Jay Manifold
World Fails to End in June; Bloggers Hardest Hit
A while back, I noted an awesomely silly end-of-the-world prediction and promised a gleeful follow-up at the end of the month. Since I haven’t posted anything on ChicagoBoyz in a while, I figured that was as good an excuse as any to put the follow-up here instead of on Arcturus.
The original piece was posted due to the anonymous “Bush Country Staff”‘s belief that “[t]he coincidences are incredible” — so after assuring readers that “unless the entire world is introduced to the Anti-Christ in June, we have to believe these events will not be taking place,” they ran it anyway, all 2,900 words and ten screens of it, apparently on the theory that one apocalyptic scenario’s just as good as another. Latitudinarianism in action?
Don’t worry; I’m not going to fisk the whole thing. Let’s cut to the chase, namely the list of falsifiable predictions:
The Great Chicago Meteor of 2003
Robert Roy Britt has a great follow-up over on Space.com, covering the large meteorite that hit Chicago on the evening of Wed 26 Mar 03. In my posting over on Arcturus , I estimated its kinetic energy at seven-tenths of a kiloton. Now, thanks to the U of C’s own Steven Simon, I can perform the calculation more accurately.
Why We Will Win
— is nicely, and literally, illustrated by A Better Tighty Whitey, currently #6 on Blogdex, in which citizen volunteers make great strides in improving the Presidential Daily Briefing process. Combined with things like technology transfer from FedEx and Wal-Mart and the role of Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter in missile defense (210 kB *.pdf), this demonstrates the strengths provided by a healthy civil society.
UPDATE: If anybody in government is actually paying attention, that is. Jon Osborne, author of Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film and Video, writes:
Apparently John Kerry was given specific and actionable evidence of wholesale security breaches at Boston’s Logan International Airport, over which he had potential authority, with the specific warning that it could be used by jihadists to kill passengers–and he did nothing. More here.
Spread the word.
Chicago Destroyed By Comet
In 1871, that is.