April 22, 2007

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Mark’s Sun-Times column is on VA Tech.

… The “gun-free zone” fraud isn’t just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia’s distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality. Michelle Malkin wrote a column a few days ago connecting the prohibition against physical self-defense with “the erosion of intellectual self-defense,” and the retreat of college campuses into a smothering security blanket of speech codes and “safe spaces” that’s the very opposite of the principles of honest enquiry and vigorous debate on which university life was founded. And so we “fear guns,” and “verbal violence,” and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ”The Three Musketeers.” What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

Bill Kristol contrasts the courage of McCain to Harry Reid.

Now we are at a moment of truth. There is McCain’s way, a way of difficulty and honor. There is Reid’s way, a way of political expediency and dishonor. McCain may lose the political battle at home, and the U.S. may ultimately lose in Iraq. But some of us will always be proud, at this moment of choice, to have stood with McCain, and our soldiers, and our country.

New Editor posts well on McCain as described by James Carville. And, provides a look at French elections from The Economist.

Speaking of the French, Adam Smith quotes the famous French economist Frederic Bastiat.

Hugh Hewitt follows along on his disgust with NBC’s airing of Cho’s video. Dean Barnett picks up the theme and then posts on Edward’s $400 haircuts.

Eugene Volokh finds a blast from the past. In a different age, the Far Rockaway High School’s shooting team’s exploits are celebrated in the paper.

Canada may pull out of Kyoto. The Captain says they’re saying Bush could be right. He also posts on Hillary’s rapper friends.

The AP6 makes a lot more sense than Kyoto does for that very reason. Kyoto would force the West to commit economic suicide while allowing India and China to pollute to their hearts’ content in reaping the rewards. Bush’s AP6 engages all sides equally and uses technology sharing as an incentive for compliance. The Chinese need access to Western technology so badly that they jump through hoops to steal it. India doesn’t need it as badly, but they want to create a cleaner energy system for themselves, and have expanded their nuclear program to accommodate that need.
If Canada joins the AP6, Kyoto will collapse. It will bind only those nations who already have economic difficulties, and Kyoto compliance — which none of them have met — will cost them even more. In the end, AP6 will bind all nations together in a manner that Kyoto explicitly rejected and will allow everyone to proceed with clean-environment initiatives on an equal footing.

Josh Muravchik follows up on the giant rabbits shipped to North Korea.

Rachel Carson reconsidered by an editor of Reason.

Lotsa posts from some of our favorite blogs.

The humor section is started with a Corner post on Joe Biden who has figured out why things have gone wrong.