Interesting Posts From Around The Web - 18 May 2008

Interesting posts from around the web, all below the fold.

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Art: The Knight, Death and the Devil, Albrecht Durer, 1513

A Happy 60th Birthday to Israel. Soccer Dad adds his views on this event to Charles Krauthammer’s. In the category of dark humor, TNOY has posted a birthday card to Israel from Iran.

Hamas, now armed with improved Iranian rocketry, continues its assault on Israel with a promise to wipe the country off the map. Seraphic Secret raises the salient questions about that situation – and but for his greater eloquence, they are precisely the same questions I have. Hamas had a choice to make two years ago, peace or war. They have chosen war. When will Israel actually join the war? Israel must fight back robustly and with no concern for the international Islamist echo chamber or it will, in the foreseeable future, it will mean the end of Israel.

Rick Moran has some brilliant analysis of Obama’s outrage after deciding that any discussion about appeasement had to be aimed at him. As Rick notes, we’re still waiting on Team Obama to actually address the substance of the argument that he’s a Chamberlain clone. In a related essay, Bookworm Room makes what I think is a fair assessment, that Obama is "either incredibly naive or, as I’m beginning to suspect, that – while he’s clearly academically quite bright — he is, in practical terms, an idiot." A point that I make here is that Obama views the world through a marxist paradigm which, by its nature is inherently flawed. He no doubt scored high under hard left professors, but his view of the world, its problems and workable solutions comes out of the collected works of Karl Marx. I believe that explains the disconnects that both Bookworm Room and I have noted.

The Covenant Zone and proof of pure evil. As the Shield of Achilles notes, Muslim apologists in the West, such as Juan Cole, have their work cut out for them.

From Bizzyblog, it’s the recession that never was. That said, the steady drumbeat of negative economic news by the AP over a period of years has worked wonders for the left to make the economy seem much worse than it is.

From JammieWearingFool, there is an "anti-war kook" visiting Iraq as we speak. I am waiting to hear the fallout from Pelosi when she returns. I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Pelosi is preparing to rehabilitate Iraq for the far left, thus making it much less of an issue in November. Nah.

One of the bedrock characteristics of the progressive left is an utter disdain for free speech or debate. Q&O has an example of the free speech. I have an example of the debate.

The Velvet Hammer has an excellent post showing how, when Obama does talk substance, he has an incredible problem with consistency. And there is a darkly humorous post at Vast Right Wing Conspiracy where Obama airs his a new poster detailing his many supranational endorsements.

Senator and phony soldier Tom Harkin is at it again, now criticizing the military service of John McCain. That this amazing hypocrite still holds an elected position above dog catcher mystifies. But for the left, who seemingly have no standards, he is still accpetable. The Democratic position on what constitutes acceptable military service to qualify for the presidency is ever changing, depending on the background of their candidate. Four Right Wing Whackos has the story.

Red Alerts finds it difficult to swallow that the UN plans to investigate the U.S. for racism and xenophobia. That is sticking in my craw also. As This Ain’t Hell colorfully describes the UN, it is a "steaming boil on the ass of humanity" – a characterization they back up with a bevy of facts.

Visit the excellent blog, Irish Elk, and help him celebrate his sixth year on the blogosphere. At that blog age, he has now attained the status of elder statesman.

Discriminations notes that the left is having an incredibly difficult time dealing with race and racism in any way that includes even a patina of intellectual honesty this campaign season. And as Fulham Reactionary notes, the problem is much the same across the pond.

Whited Sepulchre has a fascinating and thoughtful post up for National Human Rights Day that looks at America through the eyes of our nations iconic artist, Norman Rockwell, and compares and contrasts that with the brutal reality outside of our borders.

Subadei plumbs the depths of the net to find an individual in severe need of an attitude adjustment session with an airborne ranger.

I always knew that the EU was a bureaucratic nightmare, but I never imagined it could be this byzantine. An Englishman’s Castle touches upon the incredible complexity of being a farmer with sheep across the pond.

The 14th Military History Carnival is posted at Investigations of a Dog. It looks quite interesting.

Everything new is old. As Got Medieval points out, even break dancing is apparently medieval in origin.

I really don’t want to blog about McCain and his embrace of global warming. That said, No Oil For Pacifists has stepped into the breach with an excellent post on this depressing topic. The ever illuminating Aurora provides more thoughts. As much as I like McCain, and I would vote for him on national security and the judiciary alone, stuff like this is absolutely maddening. It is apparently shared by Simon at Classical Values. That said, Republicans need to heed the advice of the Barking Moonbats and GOP 2.0.

Dave of Arabia has led a fascinating life. I wait to hear more of his adventures in the Middle East.

Newsweek’s cover story of the past week was so outrageously partisan I had hoped it an anamoly. From what I read in Verum Serum, its not. There is more hyper left ventilating from News Week, a publication that seems to have taken a huge step to the left of the NYT – something I did not think possible. I was wrong.

Heh. From KG, pondering feminist chomskyesque academic musings beyond the level of human understanding: "For the love of God, someone take the keyboard from this idiot."