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Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Yin.typepad.com] The Yin Blog: Some unrelated thoughts/links on a lazy Saturday morning: 6) The whole rhetoric of the Coalition of the Bribed/Coerced or Unwilling or whatever strikes me as a fundamentally unsound approach. While Bush did appear a bit unhinged when he cut off Charles Gibson in the debate last night to mock Kerry's assertion that we're "going it alone," I think he was effective in arguing that Kerry was denigrating our closest allies (Britain, Australia) as well as others that had contributed, perhaps not much in personnel in absolute terms, but still significant numbers relative to their capabilities/size. In fact, Kerry's attack on Iraqi interrim Prime Minister Allawi was the final straw in pushing Ann Althouse to decide to vote for Bush. Kerry's inability to win Prof. Althouse's vote is pretty significant because (1) she's voted for the Democratic candidate in six straight Presidential elections; (2) is a moderate/independent voter (though registered Democrat) in a very important swing state (Wisconsin); (3) had been open to voting for either candidate.

[Yin.typepad.com] The Yin Blog: Rants: I'd like nothing more than to see him captured, tried, and punished. And that's precisely why I hate Bush so much: his maniacal need to get the guy who tried to kill his daddy (and enrich his oil buddies in the process) diverted precious military and intelligence resources from the hunt for bin Laden and ensured, by further alienating the Arab world against us, that the Taliban will have no problem recruiting enough suicide bombers to repeat 9/11 countless times over. The world is indeed less safe after 9/11, through no fault of the US or Bush (intelligence failings aside, I don't believe Bush could have prevented the WTC attacks). But it is Bush's fault that, post-9/11, his actions -- invading Iraq, underfunding homeland security, uncritically supporting Israel, and so on -- have made the world less safe still.

[Yin.typepad.com] The Yin Blog: October 2004: This no doubt is where Bush is hoping to round up votes from those who are disenchanted with both candidates. The whole summer and fall have been spent with Bush on the attack and Kerry on the defense about whether John Kerry would be "strong enough" to protect us from terrorists. Kerry lost points for mentioning a "global test" (a poor choice of words but unfairly distorted out of context, in my view), for opining that terrorism could not be eliminated but only reduced to a "nuisance" along the lines of prostitution or drug use (another poor choice of words and analogies, but a reasonably accurate statement), and for generally having a vague, at best, explanation of his vote to authorize the use of military action against Iraq in 2003 (and, notably, no coherent position at all as to why he voted against a similar resolution in 1990, when Bush I appeared to have met the "global test"). Thus, Kerry has taken to emphasizing in the debates how he will "hunt down" and "KILL" the terrorists.

 [Biofuels.coop] Energy Blog: Letter to President Bush: Have a nice day and use the entry by poster "teester" as an object lesson in ignorance (theirs). Your lesson for the day is to debunk the 1,000,000 dead figure (it's pretty easy - start by assuming that everyone that died in the Iran/Iraq war that we helped out with were killed by Saddam). I'd assign you to take on the WMD stuff but that would be like shooting trolls in a barrel (too easy for someone with your intellectual chops).

[Exceptionalmarriages.com] Heart, Mind & Strength - Blog Admin Panel: I've criticized libertarians like McElroy before (e.g., 1, 2), and I'll do it again, e.g., apropos of her recent column.  Mark Shea exposes the absurdity of her view.  It might be added that, as a matter of principle, there is such a thing as the common good, and criminals attack it, and hence, do incur a "debt to society."  What libertarians fail to grasp is that while - contra collectivism - "society" is not everything, neither is it nothing, nor at any rate a mere "category."  Its ontological reality is, in fact, demonstrated by the consideration that the societies (from small, like family, to large, like polis or Church) to which we belong play a role in making us who we are - as well as vice versa.  Were they merely the sum of their individual parts, that would not be possible.  But if society has being, then it also has goodness, which can be violated, leading to a debt against it.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Environment, The Green Files