Late August Round Up

The Coast in Bray, Ireland, July 2007

A few important things you may have missed in the news recently:

- In a rather disturbing sign of the times, "stab proof" clothing is now becoming popular in the UK to protect kids from knife attacks. (Remember years ago when British police didn't even carry guns?) I would also be curious how effective it is; in my experience, thin kevlar can make a decent bulletproof barrier but a sharp knife could still go through it.

- Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard thinks that since tide of illegal immigration is is coming no matter what, US Repubicans should just lie back and ride it, not fight it. However, Steve Sailer has pointed out on several occasions why these predictions are usually wrong about the hispanic electorate. (Also, look at the item below)

- The results of a recent Rasmussen survey on US attitudes toward immigration are quite astonishing: 58% favor cutting off federal funds to "sanctuary cities", 56% favor continuing work on the border fence, and a whopping 71% favor requiring all foreign residents to carry a universal ID card denoting their status. This is an idea brought up by Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, but I thought there already was such an ID. It's called a Passport!!

- This story about the Iraqi boy who was badly burned by criminals who doused him with gasoline, practically brought me to tears, especially when he said the other children wouldn't play with him becaus of his appearance. It brought an outpouring of offers of support, but for some reason CNN didn't help by providing any contact info whatsoever. Of course politics can't escape even this, over at the Daily Kos, diarists were not only blaming Bush and Americans for this boy's attack (even though the guys that did it are the very people we are fighting in Iraq), but trying to take credit for helping the boy before a deal was even set up! Now, help is on the way for him, however. This is wonderful, but it also makes me sad, because there are a lot of Iraqi children who need help but don't get the massive publicity of a front page CNN story.

- "Diversity hurts civic life...In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings" The ravings of a hate group? No, it's the results of a massive Harvard study whose lead researcher was disturbed his own results. Nonetheless, he's sticking by them. As I said many times, Diversity has a good and bad side; it is not always a source of strength.

- Iranian hostage Dr. Haleh Esfandiari has been freed on bail in Iran. She still cannot leave the country and faces charges of espionage. I wrote about this case earlier here.

- The Bush administration has now reached a deal to allow Virginia mining companies to literally remove the tops of mountains for coal mining, and dump the debris in the valleys. I'm no expert on mining, but this goes against every fiber in my body. Anyone remember the classic 1948 Bogart film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"? After they were finished digging the gold out of the mountain, the old miner said they had to fill the mine back in, like allowing the mountain to heal itself from the wound they made. What healing is going on here, and how will these mountains look after the coal miners have moved on?





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