One last one, maybe talk about sporting events in Turkey.  It seems that Fenerbahce passed out 40,000 tickets to women and children recently and oddly enough the atmosphere was softer.

If I were to spend Christmas in Turkey, where are the best places to go?

The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss.

Teaches children the ills of Mutually Assured Destruction.

The barefoot people kill me.  What do they think will happen to their feet if that car is in an accident? They are going to either eat their knees with their feet on the dashboard, or cut up the bottom of their feet on the windshield. Don't even get me started with the bare feet hanging out the window.

I didn't realize the American Ambassador traveled to Hama.  That's a good use of him if he won't be recalled back to Washington.

The link craziness starts with the Richard Burton quote.

I find it especially important pertaining to the death penalty because once you carry out the sentence, there's no recourse.  At least if a person is found innocent later he can be let free.

You also have to look at how the death penalty is applied.  It seems to be applied more in an statistically significant way among the poor and minorities.  Poor meaning those that can't afford a good attorney.  The last time I looked the percentage of minorities on death row out numbers those in the general prison population. I don't see the death penalty as a deterrent and there are too many cases where people get cleared years later.  I'd rather be wrong ten times and not sentence a man to the death penalty then be right once.

Wisconsin and union busting has to be on the agenda.  Mickey Kaus has a good post titled, Did Scott Walker Win? I love hearing about union-busting.

Also, what about the federal government dictating terms on how the states should take care of the mortgage paperwork snafus?

One of my favorite blogs, Abu Muqawama, had this to say:

Joan Juliet Buck's breathless profile of Asma al-Assad, "A Rose in the Desert". Probably should have spiked this one, Vogue! The only thing worse than Buck's prose -- "Despite what must be a killer IQ, she sometimes uses urban shorthand" -- is seeing the skills of a fine photographer like James Nachtwey applied to taking cuddly shots of Bashar al-Assad playing with his kids.

Gross. What's next, Vogue? At Home with Kim Jong-il? Dining with Grace Mugabe?

Why does it not surprise me that Kissinger under Nixon wanted to circumvent congress, the representatives of the people, and give Egypt arms via Saudi Arabia.

I assumed that after monetary unity, governmental unity would follow for the countries that adopted the Euro.  I figured it would still take another 40 years, but then I started reading the bureaucratic slop that is the "European Constitution" (or the Lisbon Treaty) and realized quickly that will take too long to ever happen.

But really, who's bright idea was it to invite the Greeks and Portuguese into a monetary union?  I'm more surprised the Italians, with their long history of devaluation of the Lira and parliamentary gridlock, aren't the reason for the Euro's problems.

I always stand my right to have bear arms....

Greatest comment on Ricochet to date.

You forgot Lileks commenting on how the movie paid perfect homage to the Bolshevik architecture of the 1930's.

That was the hardest thing for me to learn in the Army was to back up a trailer, but my trailer wasn't but 10' long. I love that you can't back anything up that doesn't have a trailer on it. That made me laugh.

The US Army is a voluntary organization where its members sign a contract to join. Part of that contract means we have to follow the Army's rules and regulations including uniform policy which means I can't grow a beard because I want to.

Why should the US Army be forced to make an exception in this case? If the Sikh in question wants to remain true to his religion, perhaps joining the Army isn't the best way to do that.