Links of the Day...

Armchair parkour.  The helmet camera really brings it home...

I don't think there's a practical cure.  You don't have to know much history to understand that the safest time in human history is right now.  It never ceases to amaze me how few people seem to understand this rather basic (and quite verifiable) fact.  This ignorance, unfortunately, drives a lot of public policy (both directly and indirectly, via elections)...

I'm a big supporter of gun rights, but...  Iowa is granting concealed carry permits for blind people.  Their laws require it.

A majority of low information voters can't be good.  I'm glad to see leaders taking note of this problem.  Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor:  “Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name.”

Sad cat diary.  If you own a cat, this will resonate :)

Tyrants rule us.  What else can you call a government that won't even let you know how many security-related inquiries it makes?  Yahoo! reports that it supplied customer content (presumably email and/or chat) to the government for 4,604 requests (each of which may encompass information on multiple individuals).  Yahoo! states: “The U.S. Government does not permit us to disclose additional details regarding the number of requests, if any, under national security authorities at this time, or even to separate them in aggregate from other requests.”  We're not allowed to know how our own government works.  That's tyranny.

At this point, color me completely unsurprised.  The Obama administration secretly removed Bush-era restrictions on NSA spying on American citizens.  We can't believe anything these bozos tell us!

Speed riding on Mont Blanc.  Via reader Simi L.  Be sure to go full screen...

Jury to decide whether science data is accurate?  A judge has ruled that Michael Mann's defamation suit against the National Review (prompted by this Mark Steyn post) can proceed.  To prove defamation, Mann will have to prove that the allegations in Steyn's post are false – which means we may end up having a jury decide on the “truth” of the science.  In my opinion, that's a very bad idea...

I wondered about these...  I once saw a giant concrete arrow, in a remote area of the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada, and I could not figure out what the heck it was for.  It's all the Post Office's fault!  

Ouch.  Conrad Black, writing in the New York Sun:

“But for this administration to redeem its credibility now would require a change of direction and method so radical it would be the national equivalent of the comeback of Lazarus: a miraculous revolution in the condition of an individual (President Obama), and a comparable metamorphosis (or a comprehensive replacement) of the astonishingly implausible claque around him.”

I think the first chance for Lazarus to return is after the next election – and I'm not too optimistic about that, either.  Especially after the 2012 elections...

Wow!  Now this is some juggling.  A team of jugglers!

Embarrassed, repelled, and outraged.  How does our military leadership feel about the Obama administration's preparations for intervention in Syria?  Robert Scales, retired U.S. Army Major General and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, writing in the Washington Post:

They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama administration’s attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense. None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective.

They are repelled by the hypocrisy of a media blitz that warns against the return of Hitlerism but privately acknowledges that the motive for risking American lives is our “responsibility to protect” the world’s innocents. Prospective U.S. action in Syria is not about threats to American security. The U.S. military’s civilian masters privately are proud that they are motivated by guilt over slaughters in Rwanda, Sudan and Kosovo and not by any systemic threat to our country.

They are outraged by the fact that what may happen is an act of war and a willingness to risk American lives to make up for a slip of the tongue about “red lines.” These acts would be for retribution and to restore the reputation of a president. Our serving professionals make the point that killing more Syrians won’t deter Iranian resolve to confront us. The Iranians have already gotten the message.

I find it very plausible that Scales is well plugged into our military leadership's thinking, and what he reports is even more plausible...

How much does a bullet cost? Between the time Nidal Hasan (the Fort Hood Shooter) killed 13 and wounded 30, and his sentencing next week, U.S. taxpayers will have paid him over $300,000.  We've also paid over $650,000 just to house him.  A bullet certainly would be less expensive.  Seems like a win for process over common sense.  Just sayin'...