WHO’S NEXT?

Now that Bush has utterly outfoxed the Dems on his first Supreme Court nomination – John Roberts is a done deal for Chief Justice – everyone inside the Beltway is handicapping his next choice.

He has confided in no one, including me. Maybe Laura knows, but she’s only given hints. Those hints and everything else points to a feminine direction. The next nominee, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor, almost has to be a woman.

It could be Priscilla Owen, it could be Edith Jones, but I am crossing my fingers for Janice Rogers Brown.

Nominating a black woman for the Supreme (more…)

NERVOUS IN MECCA

It was certainly no coincidence that on the 4th anniversary of 9/11 last Sunday, front page headlines appeared in the nation’s newspapers entitled Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan .

It was a public shot across the Jihadi Terrorists’ bow, meant to make them and folks in Mecca nervous. You know why, since you read Mad in Mecca in To The Point back in October, 2004, and George Bush and the Sword of Damocles: Why There Hasn’t Been Another 9/11 last January.

It’s the clearest sign yet that Mecca is being held as a nuclear hostage.

The Pentagon’s “Doctrine for Joint (more…)

Chapter Eight: MALINCHE

Chapter Eight: Malinche

Aguilar found Malinali cowering in the lee of large sand dune. Perspiration was pouring off her, her chest was heaving with rapid breaths, and her eyes were glazed with panic and terror. “Doña Marina!” he cried, “What is wrong?!” He got a wet cloth and patted her brow. Her eyes slowly focused on him. Finally, she stammered “I… must talk… to Captain Cortez…”

Aguilar was startled. Nonetheless, he said he would relay her request. A few moments later he returned and beckoned, bringing her to the Captain’s tent. Cortez was sitting in his chair and looked up (more…)

SOROS CAN’T COUNTER CAMPUS CONSERVATIVES

News media reports from meetings organized by billionaire George Soros say he and some rich allies are now funding groups intended to counter the efforts on college campuses of conservative educational organizations such as the Leadership Institute (LI).

Although Soros and his allies hope through their spending to increase the effectiveness of the left on campus, I do not fear that activities they bankroll will significantly increase the left’s campus influence. Nor can Soros stop the growth of campus conservative activities.

LI’s Campus Leadership Program, for example, grew its number of active, independent, conservative campus groups from 216 to 437 (more…)

CREDENCE IN GAZA

With apologies to John Fogerty and Credence Clearwater Revival:

I see the bad Palestinian moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightning.
I see bad Gaza times today.

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in (more…)

WHY ARE THESE LITTLE COUNTRIES SO RICH?

REYKJAVIK, Iceland

Why is this cold, rainy land with its stark volcanic landscape, without much in the way of natural resources, one of the wealthiest places on Earth?

Small states, in the past, were most often poorer on a per capital income basis than large states, but in the last half-century many have become much richer then their large neighbors. Among the wealthiest places on the planet, we now find Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Denmark and Ireland, none with many natural resources.

In a just-concluded meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Iceland, some leaders of small states that have developed (more…)

STERILIZING SEWER CITY

With people dying from infected water in New Orleans, which won’t be drained for weeks, it is critically important to disinfect the flood water as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The Army Corps of Engineers has many years of institutional experience at safely chlorinating sewer water. They can scale up that experience for the “Sewer City” that New Orleans has become.

Chlorine is a standard treatment for disinfecting sewage. It would take a few railroad tank cars of liquid chlorine for the job. The chlorine would be transferred with pumps used by municipal water companies throughout the US into standard (more…)

Chapter Seven: QUETZACOATL

Chapter Seven: QUETZACOATL

Don Alonso was unlike any of her previous masters. True she had never been abused or raped either by her Xicalanca captors or the rulers of Pontochan. But Don Alonso exhibited a courtesy to her, treated her with a dignity, that the others had not. Was it because he recognized her royal birth, or did he and the other Spaniards treat women differently in general?

To her Pontochan masters, she didn’t really exist in a certain way. She had been invisible to them – an invisibility Malinali strove consciously to maintain. She did all she could to (more…)