Honda commercial. Now that is a talented choir!

Clarice Feldman predicts that members of the MSM who helped the Pouting Spooks play Gotcha! on conservative policy adversaries in the Bush Administration in L’Affaire Plame will soon be hauled into court via subpoenas by Scooter Libby’s defense team, and find themselves on the hot seat, where they will be forced to divulge independent knowledge of Valerie Plame’s occupation (Take that Nicholas Kristoff) and expose other information sources, or –like Judith Miller– face penalties for contempt.

Right Wing News emailed more than 230 “right of center” bloggers and asked for a 1 to 5 list of candidates they would most like to see being the Republican nominee for President in 2008 and the list of candidates they’d least like to see nominated.

(Votes were weighted as follows:
1) Worth 2 points
2 or 3) Worth 1.5 points
4 or 5) Worth 1 point)

Results:

Top Most Desired:

1) Condoleeza Rice (65.5)
2) Rudy Giuliani (58.0)
3) George Allen (42.0)
4) Newt Gingrich (32.0)
5) Dick Cheney (26.0)

Top Least Desired:

1) John McCain (74.5)
2) Chuck Hagel (55.5)
3) Bill Frist (43.5)
4) George Pataki (33.0)
5) Jeb Bush (22.0)

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Frankly, I do not see how anybody who claims to be conservative could consider supporting Guiliani in the remotest of circumstances. My own list would look like:

Most Desired:

1) Dick Cheney
2) Newt Gingrich
3) Is there anybody else genuinely conservative, articulate, and reasonably intelligent?

Least Desired:

1) I wouldn’t have thought of Chuck Hagel as a potential Republican choice, but if he’s on the list, he gets my number 1 vote
2) John McCain
3) Rudy Giuliani
4) George Pataki

Iraqi Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr visited Tehran over the weekend, and pledged his support and that of his so-called Mahdi Army to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, if it is attacked.

AP report.

There must have been some great minds along the Larry Wilkerson lines restraining the US military commanders from dealing with this noisy self-appointed holy man when his personal militia began acting up in the early days of the US occupation. al-Sadr actually led uprisings against US forces already in 2004 in Najaf, but was saved by taking shelter in a mosque while Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani negotiated to save him.

US policy in the War on Terror has been too often influenced by namby pamby-ism and too frequently has featured undue deference to the bigotry and superstitions of Mohammedanist fanatics. Can anyone imagine the US military command supplying copies of Mein Kampf to Waffen SS prisoners during WWII, and requiring POW camp guards to treat the Holy Bible of Nazism with respect? Would we have allowed some particularly belligerent Gauleiter in Bavaria to retain his own Werwolf resistance militia? Weakness in dealing with these kinds of troublemakers only leads to greater insolence, and further and worse trouble down the road.

Iran Deploys Human Shields to Protect Nuclear Bomb Facility

Isfahan – Iran on Sunday gave a fresh show of its determination to press on with its disputed nuclear programme, enrolling about 1 000 athletes to form a human shield in front of a key nuclear facility.

The demonstration, which took place in front of just a handful of journalists, was held under winter sunshine outside the main gate of a uranium conversion facility near the historic central city of Isfahan.

“Since we have reached this technology indigenously and with our own scientists, we will safeguard it at any cost,” the director of the facility, Behrouz Samani, said at the event.

Around him were about 1 000 sportsmen and women of all ages and from across Iran, who were wearing free T-shirts brandishing the slogan: “Nuclear Energy is our Legitimate Right.”

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IRNA, his official news agency reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Damascus yesterday told a radical Palestinian group that Middle East has become “the locus of the final war” between Muslims and the West .

Kathimerini reports:

Recent findings from a mass grave in the Ancient Cemetery of Kerameikos in central Athens show typhoid fever may have caused the plague of Athens, ending centuries of speculation about what kind of disease killed a third of the city’s population and contributed to the end of its Golden Age.

Examined by a group of Greek scientists coordinated by Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis of Athens University’s School of Dentistry, the findings provide clear evidence that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi was present in the dental pulp of teeth recovered in remains from the mass grave.

The plague that decimated the population of Athens in 430-426 BC was a deciding factor in the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars, ending the Golden Age of Pericles and Athens’s predominance in the Mediterranean.

Thucydides [2:47-54]:

In the first days of summer the Lacedaemonians and their allies, with two-thirds of their forces as before, invaded Attica.., and sat down and laid waste the country. Not many days after their arrival in Attica the plague first began to show itself among the Athenians. It was said that it had broken out in many places previously in the neighborhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a pestilence of such extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they visited the sick most often; nor did any human art succeed any better. Supplications in the temples, divinations, and so forth were found equally futile, till the overwhelming nature of the disaster at last put a stop to them altogether.

It first began, it is said, in the parts of Ethiopia above Egypt, and thence descended into Egypt and Libya and into most of the king’s country. Suddenly falling upon Athens, it first attacked the population in Piraeus,–which was the occasion of their saying that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the reservoirs, there being as yet no wells there–and afterwards appeared in the upper city, when the deaths became much more frequent. All speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and watched its operation in the case of others…

As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But internally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. What they would have liked best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its height, but held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when they succumbed, as in most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the internal inflammation, they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. For the disorder first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and even where it did not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities; for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Others again were seized with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or their friends.

But while the nature of the distemper was such as to baffle all description, and its attacks almost too grievous for human nature to endure, it was still in the following circumstance that its difference from all ordinary disorders was most clearly shown. All the birds and beasts that prey upon human bodies, either abstained from touching them (though there were many lying unburied), or died after tasting them. In proof of this, it was noticed that birds of this kind actually disappeared; they were not about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at all. But of course the effects which I have mentioned could best be studied in a domestic animal like the dog.

Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases, which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this. Some died in neglect, others in the midst of every attention. No remedy was found that could be used as a specific; for what did good in one case, did harm in another. Strong and weak constitutions proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike being swept away, although dieted with the utmost precaution. By far the most terrible feature in the malady was the dejection which ensued when anyone felt himself sickening, for the despair into which they instantly fell took away their power of resistance, and left them a much easier prey to the disorder; besides which, there was the awful spectacle of men dying like sheep, through having caught the infection in nursing each other. This caused the greatest mortality. On the one hand, if they were afraid to visit each other, they perished from neglect; indeed many houses were emptied of their inmates for want of a nurse: on the other, if they ventured to do so, death was the consequence. This was especially the case with such as made any pretensions to goodness: honor made them unsparing of themselves in their attendance in their friends’ houses, where even the members of the family were at last worn out by the moans of the dying, and succumbed to the force of the disaster. Yet it was with those who had recovered from the disease that the sick and the dying found most compassion. These knew what it was from experience, and had now no fear for themselves; for the same man was never attacked twice–never at least fatally. And such persons not only received the congratulations of others, but themselves also, in the elation of the moment, half entertained the vain hope that they were for the future safe from any disease whatsoever.

An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died there, just as they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred or profane. All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the stranger’s pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off.

Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day. Perseverance in what men called honor was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honorable and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there was none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing; and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his offences, but each felt that a far severer sentence had been already passed upon them all and hung ever over their heads, and before this fell it was only reasonable to enjoy life a little.

Such was the nature of the calamity, and heavily did it weigh on the Athenians.

Justice David Souter voted with the Supreme Court majority in the infamous case of Kelo v. New London, which upheld the right of city government to use eminent domain to take away a individual’s property for private development.

On the principle of “what’s sauce for the goose,” Silicon Valley Objectivist Logan Darrow Clements took advantage of the law in Souter’s home state of New Hampshire to file a petition for Mr. Justice Souter’s hometown of Weare to take his property for a development project consisting of the erection of a “Lost Liberty Hotel.”

Voters in Weare will decide the fate of Souter’s colonial house on March 14th.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford at Jawa Report celebrates his blog’s anniversary by reporting its role in bringing about the arrest of Jordanian-born Mohammed Radwan Obeid who had fraudulently obtained US citizenship, and was engaged in attempting to organize a terrorist cell using a free computer in a Miami County, Ohio public library.

Hat tip to PJM.

Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North reports from the Canadian election campaign front:

Liberal candidate to veteran: Get out of Canada!

At the Pembroke Outdoor Sportsman’s Club, Liberal candidate Don Lindsay revealed a portion of the Liberal platform related to compensation for gun owners should their legally owned weapons be confiscated. Essentially, if you think you are owed something, think again.

To be even more precise, if you think the Liberals owe you something, you should hit the road:

Don Lindsay’s self destruction continued when club member and Canadian Veteran George Tompkins stood to ask the candidates his question. “If the handgun ban goes forward. What plan would your party offer to compensate those of us who legally own the guns that would be confiscated?” To which Lindsay replied “Sir America is our neighbor not our nation, if you elect a society that talks about that kind of perspective I suggest that perhaps you go there!”

Maybe Lindsay thought grabbing [Conservative] Paul Martin’s line from the leader’s debate would work for him.

Of course, Linday’s comments don’t even make much sense. If the majority of voters do elect a government with that sort of policy, then wouldn’t it make sense that Lindsay be the one looking for somewhere else to live? I don’t think he needs to. He is welcome to stay, of course.

I don’t think people should leave for holding different opinions, and voting based on those opinions.

Too bad he couldn’t extend that courtesy to a man who fought for this country.

It’s moments like these that a Conservative candidate lives for.

Hat tip to PJM.

Of the Human Events list, my choice would be:

6. “How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.” —Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

5. “The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business, August 15, 1986

4. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” —Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

2. “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” —The New York Times, September 22, 1980

The Elm City will soon be losing another of its links to history. US Repeating Arms Company announced last Tuesday, 1/17, that it will be closing the Winchester firearms factory in New Haven on March 31st. More than 19,000 men once worked in the Winchester plant. Their numbers had dwindled recently to under 200, and only 80,000 guns were produced last year in a facility that still had a capacity of 300,000. Sales of hunting rifles have declined precipitously, along with America’s hunting traditions. What was once a Nation of Riflemen is today a nation of metrosexuals and Dilberts.

Mournful eulogies for the great Winchester firearms brand were published in the Washington Post and the (UK) Independent, but some hard-core gun enthusiasts think the end really came in 1964, when a new group of top-tier executives, imported from Robert McNamara’s Ford Motor Company, introduced dramatic changes designed to reduce production costs. The illustrious Model 12 shotgun was eliminated (just too much hand work went into those), and the detail and quality of finish, and even the mechanics, of the original Model 70 bolt action rifle were dramatically downgraded.

Certainly, a major rupture in Winchester tradition occurred, when (in the aftermath of the strike of 1979-1980) the Board of Directors of Olin Corporation chose to sell the Winchester Sporting Arms division to a group of company executives, having long since relocated Winchester ammunition production far away from over-taxed and highly unionized New Haven. In 1990, control was acquired by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale, owners of Browning, today called Herstal Group.

The emotional WaPo article by Stephen Hunter says that, when whatever reduced production continues is moved overseas, they are going to stop building the Model 1894 lever action and the renowned Model 70 altogether. If so, March 31st will be a sad day indeed.

Theodore Roosevelt, Dakota rancher, poses with Winchester and bowie knife.

Every year, significant numbers of whales individually or en masse strand themselves on the world’s shorelines. Some 10 species of whales mass strand regularly and another 10 species do so occasionally. Most strandings are of toothed whale species.

In other times, the curious periodic behavioral choice of members of certain species of cetaceans, particularly bottlenose whales, stranding themselves on Northern European shores would have been regarded as evidence of the bounty of God, and taken as cause for celebration of the arrival of valuable supplies of meat and oil. Today, urbanized and deracinated humanity typically has forgotten all this, and has no use for whale meat.

But, even today, stranding whales continue to provide for the needs of at least select portions of humanity: for the Press, which covers each such incident as an unprecedented and astonishing 90 day wonder and a heart-rending tragedy; for do-gooders, environmentalists, and animal activists who come running to attempt to de-strand whales determined to strand themselves; and for sophisters, calculators, and economists who get to theorize about what exactly causes whale stranding.

Some humans-are-responsible whale stranding theories include:

naval sonar

increased pair-trawling

Other theories include:

sloping beaches and bubbles

inner ear infections

herd instinct

injury or disease

And what does modern Homo urbanensis do to help stranded whales?

call Big Brother!

throw water on them, and refloat them

shoot ’em

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Despite human and governmental efforts to return it to the sea, and limitless media concern, the bottlenose whale passed away (as it probably had been intending all along).