In case you missed it when Himself-Himself linked it this weekend, Colonel Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, explained the detention framework and legal situation with respect to military commissions in the Yale Law Journal Pocket Part.

His article is a lengthy appraisal of the situation at Guantanamo. Of most interest to me, however, is his discussion of international law in relation to the prison. Readers who enjoy my Law Lessons series will want to click over and see what the colonel has to say. He speaks directly to patriotic, but frustrated, Americans who have been subjected to the Lefty echo-chamber:

To paraphrase a quote from Jane AustenÂ’s Pride and Prejudice, there is nothing more deceitful than the contrived indignation of those intent on closing Guantanamo Bay by any means necessary. Blow away the smoke of their hyperbole, and look again through clear eyes. The picture looks much better than you were led to believe.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:10 PM | Comments (2)
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Hey, I've read the books and seen the movies. We all know where this train is heading.

That first cell of synthetic life—made from the basic chemicals in DNA—may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it.

"Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role."

And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

-- A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.

-- A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.

-- A master plan of infecting all humans with the Frankenplasms and turning them into mindless zomborgs for use in mining cobalt for our soon-arriving Neptunian masters

The last point is a paraphrase, but I'm pretty sure it's an accurate one.

I imagine they'll have to keep a certain number of unaltered humans around for breedstock, probably in the Strangelovian proportions of ten women to each male for the most efficient procreative mix.

I just submitted my resume. I've got skills the Neptunians will need. For example, I just started a blog called Submit Or Be Disintegrated, All Hail The Neptunian GodSquids. They're gonna need that kind of thing if they want to keep human resistance to a minimum. I've been doing this three and a half years for Karl Rove; my Dark Lord has never expressed any dissatisfaction with my work.

Posted by: Ace at 11:01 AM | Comments (24)
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What a surprise on that last bit.

If you're in Washington, look out for these good ol' boys. They may be up to no good, and not the funny kind of no good like them Duke Boys.

Of course they also might just be guys particularly interested in videotaping ferries, but the FBI would still like to ask them about that.

Groups of men, including one tied to a federal terrorism investigation, have videotaped Washington ferry operations, prompting federal authorities to conclude the system has been under surveillance as a possible target for an attack.

U.S. Attorney John McKay, officials in the U.S. Coast Guard and other members of SeattleÂ’s Joint Terrorism Task Force all share in that conclusion.

“We may well be the target of preoperational terrorist planning,” McKay said.

Go to Michelle's link to read the Seattle P-I's excuse for not running the photo. Remember, these are the people who favor a law enforcement approach to fighting terror, and are very, very upset when government officials aren't able to "connect the dots" in order to anticipate an attack.

Once again I note I have contacted the FBI about them creating a simple bit of code that would rotate pictures of men wanted in terror probes or fugitives generally, so that thousands of willing blogs could post a constantly-viewed electronic post office wanted wall.

They'll get back to me, apparently.

Do these nitwits realize that blogs collectively reach far more people in Washington than the Seattle P-I?

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (51)
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Even if a scientific theory -- or even just a hunch -- is wrong, certainly science shouldn't label theories blasphemous. And yet that's what an aggressive network of "queer studies" types attempted to do, attempting to hound a man out of his job because he dared to contradict their politically preferred theory of transgender disorders.

They preferred the biological explanation. He dared to suggest it had a significant psychological component. This threatened them, so sexual harassment claims (among other things) seem to have been manufactured against him.

A very interesting piece on the sort of "science" we get in decidedly soft-science areas where what little science there is is easily politicized by an aggressively political "consensus."

Keep it in mind when you read about global warming. The damage here is not just borne by the guy in question, but by even those associated with him; some of his colleagues have been warned to distance themselves from him if they ever want to see federal financing for one of their research projects again.

I think it's safe to say that few scientists, if any, will push the psychological theory of transgenderism again. It's now blasphemous, and the biological explanation is established as the orthodox religion.

And if anyone tells me this sort of thing isn't happening in climatology, I'll tell you you're a buffoon, a dupe, or a liar.

You can't get tenure at a college if you're, say, a historian with a conservative bent. And I'm supposed to believe that those permitted to get jobs in university or government climate studies programs are permitted to contradict AGW without suffering damage to their careers? I'm to believe AGW skeptics are even offered jobs in the first place?

"Consensus." And how is this vaunted consensus achieved, I wonder? Purely through the disinterested majesty of free and full scientific exploration?

Or by less elevated means?

Thanks to Ken.

Thanks to "Danny Elfman" for suggesting a better headline.

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 AM | Comments (24)
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Bernard Kouchner meets with Iraqi leaders for the first time since 2003.

Sarko l'Americain said he'd abandon the Chirac strategy of sniffy disdain, and it appears he's prepared to do that. He said France "acted with arrogance" in the run up to the war, demonstrating once again the French gift for understatement.

Well, he's also positioning France to be (some sort of) a player in the mideast, and is smart enough to know that you have to do that through the US. It's not whole-hearted support, but it's better than the crap they served up under Jacques.

Asked about the timescale for a French role in Iraq, he replied "not today or tomorrow" but "one of these days". He said the US had made mistakes but insisted it was "now time to turn the page".

They still have a gift for ambiguity.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 09:14 AM | Comments (9)
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Which probably means that a sizable fraction of your male ancestors were rapists, though this article doesn't exactly say that.

For women throughout history (and prehistory), the odds of reproducing have been pretty good. Later in this talk we will ponder things like, why was it so rare for a hundred women to get together and build a ship and sail off to explore unknown regions, whereas men have fairly regularly done such things? But taking chances like that would be stupid, from the perspective of a biological organism seeking to reproduce. They might drown or be killed by savages or catch a disease. For women, the optimal thing to do is go along with the crowd, be nice, play it safe. The odds are good that men will come along and offer sex and youÂ’ll be able to have babies. All that matters is choosing the best offer. WeÂ’re descended from women who played it safe.

I've read a few accounts of men building ships to sail off to "explore" unknown regions who did a bit more than simply "offer" sex. The Vikings, I understand, were particularly aggressive in their offers.

Kind of an interesting piece from John Tierney (quoting some expert), though, really, not to sound like Amanda Marcotte, but it's a bit much to read about sea raiders building ships in order to "offer" sex to the women they discovered. It goes on to discuss the differences in the social networking of the sexes, women building strong relationships within a limited network of intimate/familial contacts, men building lots and lots of shallow relationships with everyone they came across.

The cultural pressures on men have historically been greater than those placed on women. Or at least different:

What seems to have worked best for cultures is to play off the men against each other, competing for respect and other rewards that end up distributed very unequally. Men have to prove themselves by producing things the society values. They have to prevail over rivals and enemies in cultural competitions, which is probably why they arenÂ’t as lovable as women.

The essence of how culture uses men depends on a basic social insecurity. This insecurity is in fact social, existential, and biological. Built into the male role is the danger of not being good enough to be accepted and respected and even the danger of not being able to do well enough to create offspring.

The basic social insecurity of manhood is stressful for the men, and it is hardly surprising that so many men crack up or do evil or heroic things or die younger than women. But that insecurity is useful and productive for the culture, the system.

I'm linking this primarily for the A-Man. He digs this stuff.

Thanks to TimS, who I think is from Newsbusters. (Update: Nope, he's not.)

Posted by: Ace at 09:04 AM | Comments (37)
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Nope, I'm not kidding.

On the Imagine TV/20th Century Fox TV series, Garofalo will play a government agent who is part of the team investigating the crisis befalling Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and company in the upcoming season.

Garofalo is the second major cast addition to the action drama, which is going through a major revamping coming off a lackluster sixth season. Cherry Jones was tapped last month to play the new president (HR 7/21).

I think Jack Bauer just may have come up against a crisis he can't solve: dwindling ratings and then the inevitable cancellation.

The only way this could possibly work is if Garofalo is a liberal-leaning heavy intent on shutting down CTU, and Chloe gets to rip on her as she does her work:

"This is stupid."

"You smell a little funky."

"What's with the blonde hair and tattoos? Who's your stylist? Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers?"

"You haven't been funny since... well, I was going to say the Ben Stiller show, but that really wasn't all that either, was it?"

"When can we expect a sequel to Mystery Men? I hear it's scheduled for the Summer of Never In A Million Years."

Thanks to Dan Riehl.

Posted by: Ace at 08:40 AM | Comments (40)
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Will it save his candidacy? Unlikely.

Will it save the Iraq war effort? Unlikely, but a bit less so. Kudos to McCain.

We all know we're going to hear the report in September. I believe Democrats are going to propose a date for withdrawal. We're going to get together a lot of our veterans, medal of honor winners, those who have served in Iraq, and we're going to launch the 'No Surrender Tour.' We're going to try to build up support for this strategy, the anti-war people have been very active, so we're going to try to organize not just for men and women serving, but the strategy. Believe me, I understand the frustration, sorrow, and sacrifices made - I would remind you I was one of the greatest critics of Rumsfeld and the previous failed strategy. This strategy will succeed.

If nothing else, perhaps the tour will at least force the MSM to mention the names of some of our Medal of Honor winners.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 08:18 AM | Comments (9)
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Armed and erogenous:

A robber who held up a bookmakers with his girlfriend's Rampant Rabbit vibrator has been jailed.

Nicki Jex, 27, concealed the sex toy in a carrier bag and pretended it was a gun during the raid on the Ladbrokes shop, in Leicester, on December 27 last year.

A member of staff at the Narborough Road branch handed over more than £600 in cash when he pointed it at her, Leicester Crown Court was told.

...

Tim Palmer, prosecuting, told the court: "The defendant pointed the item in the carrier bag at the cashier. She immediately assumed it to be a firearm.

"In fact, what was contained within the carrier bag was the defendant's girlfriend's vibrator."

Maybe this is all just a terrible miscommunication. Maybe the dude just wanted batteries.

Thanks to Thus Spake Ortner from The Sniper blog.

Posted by: Ace at 08:05 AM | Comments (17)
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I was going to ignore this because I donÂ’t know enough about FEC regulation to say whether it has merit. However, it has exploded across the left blogosphere, which means you may be hearing about it tomorrow on CNN.

Here’s the deal. Lefty troublemaker Lane Hudson (also known as the “Fake Foley Blogger”) has filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that Fred Thompson has abused the regulatory exemption for filing as a candidate. The regs give a person who is exploring the possibility of running for office a period of time in which to “test the waters” by engaging in campaign-like activities without actually filing for candidacy.

Hudson claims:

Once someone has decided to become a candidate, the exemption no longer applies, and [the regs list] five factors to determine when that has taken place. On three of these factors, the examples are numerous that indicate that Mr. Thompson has gone far beyond the activities and speech allowable under the law.

His complaint is fairly detailed. Those who are interested in it can find it simply by googling “Lane Hudson.” (I will stick with Ace’s policy of not linking to ass-hats.) It is my understanding that Thompson has 15 days to respond.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:27 AM | Comments (31)
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