James Doohan, the actor who played Star Trek’s Scotty, has died In reading the story I learned that we had something in common; like the average person we have/had less than 10 fingers. There are a couple of small differences; I’m missing the tip of my right index finger, whereas he was missing his right middle finger; and he lost his on Juno beach during D-Day, while I lost mine sitting on the step outside the toilet. But there’s a connection there, even so.
Here’s an account of an amateur cyclist doing a mountain stage of the Tour de France. I particularly like this bit, while he is cycling up the Col d’Aubisque:
At times I was going so slowly my computer stopped registering my speed
I tune in to the Powerline blog from time-to-time. I agree with a small handful of things on there, disagree respectfully with a lot of stuff, and shout vehemently at my monitor about the rest. That is, perhaps, as it should be. But this post has has irritated me to the extent that I can’t be bothered to visit any more; if these people are so very, very blind, I’m unsure what insight they can provide except to gauge how blind the rest of the right might be.
How is the American left responding to today’s terrorist attacks in London? The posters at Democratic Underground represent the heart and soul of the left, and, arguably, of the Democratic Party. Check out this message thread for their views on the latest terrorist outrage. Warning, this is only for those with strong stomachs. The debate is basically between those who think President Bush is only indirectly responsible for the terrorist attacks, and those who think the administration actually carried out the bombings.
Now the post referred to is pretty unpleasant, or should I say largely nonsensical. As easy and tempting as it is to fall into conspiracy theory overload, these attacks were nothing to do with Bush beyond maybe being inspired by some of his policies. But the people posting in that thread are not the heart and soul of the left. The very fact that they care enough to post puts them outside the mainstream of the left, and saying otherwise is a lie intended to spin what the Powerline folks have deluded themselves into thinking. Or worse, they’re not deluded, just sufficiently unpleasant that they think lying so openly is a price worth paying. Either way, it’s a lie, just as much as if I said that the Little Green Footballer’s 101st Chairborne Brigade represented the heart and soul of the right.
I dislike posturing generally, but I look upon this (scroll down some, it’s an active journal) as simple defiance:
At King’s Cross the professionalism and control of the emergency services was impressive, and the mood was one of calm, as if they’d managed to suck the terror out of terrorism. If yesterday was about the euphoria of winning the Olympic Games – today is about the horror of losing so many lives in Central London.
But if this was the work of al-Qaeda trying to terrorise Londoners, my impression from King’s Cross is that they failed.
Listening to a Podcast this morning, and a woman from the Philippines was being interviewed. I’m not sure on the spelling, but my best guess is that her name was ‘Trixie Concepcion’.
Update: According to Google either Trixie is active in the fields of paternal rights, environmentalism, and cell phones, or it’s a more common name than you might expect.