Synova

First there's Mario Burgos who has a blog of the same name. And Lucky Dawg News . It's sort of weird because the blogosphere isn't geographical and I don't think in terms of geography and Mario probably lives within a couple of miles of me. It actually feels strange. Maybe we can have some sort of New Mexico conservative blog party or something. Or maybe they already have that sort of thing and I can get myself invited. Hmm?

What happens when people who've been trying their best to be culturally sensative have finally had enough of being unappreciated. It will probably not be a *violent* backlash, but expect some disrespect, Islam, because you've earned it.

The insult of Pope Benedict to Muhammad and to Islam is nothing to the insult of Muslims themselves. It's as though they're trying to prove every statement against them 100% correct. I wish the Pope had not given even his non-apology. I wish he'd just out and out said, "But you're proving that what I quoted is true." and then let them choke on it. I'm *appalled* that other churches or church leaders have apologized *for* him. It's like apologizing to the Mafia for suggesting that they are breaking kneecaps in hopes that they won't break your kneecaps. Doesn't truth matter? Or does only safety matter? Or maybe, if there really *are* Muslims who don't believe in violence the analogy should be that it's like apologizing and pretending to *Italians* that there is no Mafia. It might make them feel good, but it encourages the Mafia. And the usual victims of the Mafia were other Italians just as the usual victim of violent Islam...

I can hardly even watch this. These guys are amazing. (h/t Instpundit) It *is* just like any other sort of conspiracy theory. It all depends on the truth being hidden from thousands of people. And the only agencies capable of pulling off such a stunt? Huge government agencies. I guess if you're in the government the saying "two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead" doesn't apply. There were bombs in the world trade centers. They were installed ahead of time. How many man-hours? How many engineers and explosive experts and scientists figured out just where to place those explosives and how many workers humped how many tons of explosives up how many trips in the freight elevators and wired the detonators? And not only was the government able to *find* people who would be willing to do this, none of those people bragged about it over a beer? No one told their husband or wife or lover that they spent the wee hours of the morning install...

I recall watching a show about Bin Laden, probably on the History channel, a *long* time ago that was a documentary and did show how time after time (someone said 10?) the Clinton administration either had Bin Laden in their sights or else were offered him, and they didn't take action. The "why" according to that documentary was essentially that they believed that either assasinating him or taking him prisoner would have been *illegal*. In hindsight, of course, this was a mistake. Still, the idea that the threat from Al Qaida was less than it was was a pervasive idea, not limited to the Clinton administration. And I don't really think that most people support the notion that we ought to go about assasinating potential threats as a matter of policy. The trailer says "why not" and quite frankly I think that a strong answer to "why not" can be made. The problem is that the only answer that will fly is that what is clear in hindsight was not clear at ...

My husband came home with a Breville cappaccino machine. We had just enough milk to make ONE experimental latte. What I really need, however, is for someone to tell me how to make Chai tea with the frothy milk stuff. I don't care for coffee. I need to find out how to make Chai like at the coffee places. In any case, further experimentation has to wait until we can get to the store and buy MILK! Update: Now that I have milk I've been trying to figure out how to make a Chai latte. I've gotten pretty good results by using one tea bag in 1/3 cup water and letting it seep then adding sugar to the strong tea, frothing half a cup of milk and then mixing the two together.

This began as a reply to a commenter on Wizbang who uses the name Muslim Unity. MU had made the statement that George Bush (in so many words) would pay for his crimes in the afterlife. I've rewritten my response. Just after 9-11 a couple of prominent Christian personalities told us that it was judgement on America because we tolerated homosexuality. My pastor at that time denounced those men in the strongest terms for presuming to speak for God. My thought at the time, when I considered what the future was likely to hold, was that it was just as likely a judgement on Bin Laden and his fellow religionists who seemed convinced that God was on their side. God's will can be a twisty sort of thing. Who can understand the mind of God? So I asked and ask this question: How do you know that Bush (and America) isn't doing the will of God? Even if Islam is correct, doesn't God use godless nations and wars when His people refuse to shape up? Why presume to speak for God when He cl...

I just wanted to point out that making a big deal about this doesn't enhance bloggers credibility when they complain about this . A pile on is tons of fun but getting carried away doesn't help the cause.

The ladies at the Independent Women's Forum linked to this article about a school in the Bay Area that is catering to those who do not want to force small children into strict gender roles. This letter (I'm J.P.) was my reply. My philosophy about gender in child-rearing has always been that most harm is done by making a big deal of things. Children should not be made to think that something is wrong with them because of their preferences. They shouldn't be searching for the answer "what is wrong with me" when absolutely nothing is wrong with them. When I was a child I was completely unaware of what was going on around me. As an adult I found out that some of my classmates were deemed in danger of not being masculine enough or not being feminine enough. The adults, parents and school councilors, were trying to *fix* these kids. The parents of my tomboy neighbor were told to have her spend lots of play time with a girl who was very feminine. She's married, las...

Well I'm feeling rather smugly smart just now, this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by Pete Du Pont says what I've said many times. The electoral college is a *good* thing and direct popular election of the President is a *bad* thing. The problem with democracy is that nothing about majority rule protects the minority. Nothing. At one time I found it baffling that dissident groups in some far away country would boycott elections. What sense did it make for them to complain when they refused to participate? There is nothing baffling about it. They refuse to participate because they don't want to contribute to the illusion that they have representation when they have nothing at all. When our constitution and our laws about the government were being set up the people discussing representation knew this very well indeed. This is why we have severe constitutional limits on the Federal government (not so much as when we started out, but that was the plan) and two houses of Cong...

Well, if it's true I'd like to take this opportunity to publically authorize the US government to use my tax money to send the pervert back to Thailand. They were nice enough to cooperate with an extradition. It's only fair that we return the favor.

Ghost in the Shell Ghost in the Shell - stand alone complex : 6 or so DVD's Corrector Yui : 2 DVD's Blue Seed : box collection - I haven't watched this yet My Neighbor Totoro (I'm including Miyazaki movies) A Chinese Ghost Story (probably as good as Miyazaki) Orphen : box collection Nausica (Miyazaki) Castle in the Sky (Miyazaki) Lost Universe : 8ish DVD's Noir : 6 or so DVD's - I haven't watched this yet Gasaraki : complete series Dirty Pair : 3 DVD's Bubble Gum Crisis - Tokyo 2040 : complete series Elhazard : 4 or 5 DVD's Spirited Away (Miyazaki) Tenchi : The movie - Tenchi Universe - one other version Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki) Porko Rosso (Miyazaki) The Cat Returns (Miyazaki) Metropolis Ninja Scroll : a couple DVD's Akira Jin-Roh The world brigade : box set Gunsmith Cats - Bulletproof Macross Plus Castle Cagliostro Lodoss War : 2 DVD box Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki) Rahxephon : 6 or so DVD's Kiki's Delivery Service (Mi...

Drudge has this article linked. Two scruffy looking Asian men had the gall to terrorize British vacationers by *gasp* speaking a foreign language on an aircraft. I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand the article seems to clearly lay the blame for irrationality on the passengers with mention that political opponents blamed the government for failing to reassure people. (You'd think that the opposition could also take some initiative to reassure people but there, like here, scoring political points takes priority.) Why blame people for being scared? Is this actually an *irrational* fear? Are they responsible for the perception that scruffy looking possibly Arab men are dangerous? Or are terrorists responsible and the public response *rational*? On the other hand, I feel a bit like rubbing the sophisticated Euro nose in this unsophisticated behavior. Europe doesn't admit it's racism, and that's on a *good* day. While I agree that airport s...

I've said for a while now that fears that Giuliani can't sway the Republican base of conservative Christians is simply not true. This article supports my view though it's not conclusive. It's not skeletons you know, it's skeletons that are IN closets. And dressing up like a girl only matters if people have any reason to expect that you mean it. ;-) The social liberalism matters. The 2nd Ammendment matters. But they aren't going to matter as much as people think they will. I've heard liberal persons explain who OTHER people won't vote for... how do they know? I think it's their own prejudice speaking, either their prejudice ("a black person/woman/Jew can't get elected") or prejudice about other people's supposed prejudice. And people don't like it when those assumptions are made about them. In the last election Kerry and Edwards tried to play on what they *believed* would put off the Republican religious base......

This is a rather interesting article by Josh Manchester. At first I thought that "caveman" was supposed to be insulting but apparently not. I suppose it makes more sense if you've seen the SNL sketch... it seems a take on "I'm a simple person and I don't know much but I do know *this*." Josh gives us this version of the Caveman: Hey, all you elected politicians and media types and academics! I'm just an average guy. I wake up and I go to work and I have a family. I don't know much about Shi'ites, Sunnis, Wahhabis, Salafists, Imams, Mullahs, root causes, or the desire for democracy in the Muslim world or whatever. My mind can grasp these concepts just fine, the fact of the matter is I just don't care. I don't know much about all that stuff, but there is one thing I do know: when a bunch of "death-to-america" chanting yahoos want to destroy our culture, attack our cities, down our aircraft, and build nuclear weapons, then th...

This is my response to yet another comment (this one on neo-neocon's blog) claiming that Bush was the worst president EVER and Condi was a laughingstock in the world. (The Condi bit was somewhat unusual, I will admit. What wasn't all that unusual was that the commenter, IIRC, claimed to be reasonable.) I'm reminded of that saying: Metaphysics - I'll see it when I believe it. The force of WILL displayed is incredible. The belief that Bush is bad-evil-theworstever existed before he ever took the oath of office. The sore feelings that Bush was better at stealing an election than Gore was taken up by people who are professionals when it comes to the ultimate moral authority... outrage. Gore started out by displaying a petulant attitude and it's never let up. And this was in 2000. When there was a limit to the damage that any president could do. The difference between a Dem status quo and a Rep status quo resembled the libertarian refrain "The Democrats and their...

I believe the reason is very simple. First, humans get a pleasure response from doing survival related things... hunting, growing things, eating, having sex, solving puzzles, recognizing patterns and building things. Our advancement as a species is directly related to the fact that we love to do these things even *beyond* what is needed for survival. As bizarre as it may seem, the compulsion that gives us science also gives us conspiracy theory. We are hardwired to seek out and make sense of patterns of every sort. The more complicated the pattern the better. Secondly, there is something utterly seductive about having knowledge that other people do not have. You'd think, logically, that if most people are satisfied with a mundane or obvious version of events we'd question our more elaborate version... but we don't. It's riddiculously easy to believe that all the experts are wrong/compromised/in on it, if we can believe in our own greatness at the same ti...

Israel went to war with Hezbolla. I had a good reason to be gone. My grandmother died on the 4th of July. I'm saying that just as an explanation for why I was away. I could talk about her and the funeral and seeing all my relatives for pages and pages but I won't. Just this one observation: Grandma was difficult, but well loved. What I wanted to post about: It's weird being off-line. My father has dial-up. It works well enough for him for e-mail and mailing lists and besides, I'm not sure anything faster is available. While I was visiting I didn't even try to get on-line. I saw a little bit of the news so I knew what was happening in the world but the connection was missing, the discussion, the *processing* that comes with living on-line. Now, I *can* talk politics with my parents, which is probably unusual in the grand scheme of things, so that helped a little bit. But still... being off-line is weird.

It wasn't *bad* exactly. Milla Jovovich did a good job. It was supposed to be very comic bookish and the affect was of an animated film. I haven't watched the commentaries yet but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was almost entirely green-screen sets. The DVD we got is the unrated extended cut. Lots and lots and lots of killing but it's all very sanitary. I wasn't sure if the minions falling left and right were supposed to be human or sort of robots. No gore to speak of. The freakiest thing is right at the beginning when Violet sits in an auto-examination chair. The kids will get an okay to watch it. Worst part? Way too much explaining at the beginning... which was hard to follow anyhow so it was a lot of narration for nothing. Best part? Fight at the end... the bad guy starts with the very standard "you're evil too" pitch, and asks her if she thinks that God will welcome her into heaven after all the hundreds and hundreds...

If there were no hammers, there would be no nails.