While we launch SpaceShipOne, they threaten to behead Kim Sun-il.

Stephen Green tries to answer the question - Why are Iranians mobilising their forces on the Iraqi border? And he presents this possible conclusion.

Oh, who the hell knows. Dictatorships do stupid things with their armies all the time. The Minister of This and That might have told his general friend to move some troops around, to scare his mortal enemy, the Minister Against This and That. If you think democracies like ours can be schizo, do a little research on how tyrannies operate — they make Sybil look like Gary Cooper. (here)

Stephen has what the entire field of Sovietology was lacking. Apathy.

Newt Gingrich is an Amazon top 500 reviewer. He likes spy novels.

Via Drudge

Inside, I have a coffee. A heater facing me and pumping out toasty heat. I’m reading Jeff Jarvis’s blog - an American. I’m listening to Fats Domino. Its very pleasant.

Outside, a 1/4 of a metre away, it is storming. So far there has been hail, rain, lightning and thunder. If I was out there, I would be cold, wet and probably hungry.

Ah, shelter. My favourite of basic human needs.

Israel Tarann, who owns and operates an ice cream truck in Savannah, seranaded the group as it passed.

“All we are saying, is give ice cream a chance,” he sang.

Though the song attracted a few protesters to his truck, Mr. Tarann did not make a sale.

“I had to tell them I was capitalist, and I sell ice cream for profit,” he said. “The guy who came up to me said, ‘Oh, we thought you were a collective.’ Then they left.”

G-8 protests cause a stir, but little else.

Iraqis want their own domain code - “.iq”

I’d buy one.

Via Chrenkoff

Silencing Dissent: Non-government organisations and Australian democracy (PDF)

I think that one of the first legacies of this decade will be the rendering of the word ‘dissent’ irrelevant. In the Soviet Union, the KGB sent dissidents to mental asylums and pumped them full of happy drugs. If that ever happened here, what word would we use?

The left seems to be trying to redefine ‘Free Speech’ as a right to be heard, no matter what, rather than a benign protection. Of course this does not apply to racists or bigots - only to those whose speech fits the agenda. Forcing people to listen to preapproved messages is NOT free speech.

Via Catallaxy

Tom Franck has a stunning indictment of Quidditch…

“The NBA finals are upon us. Bring a friend over, turn on the TV and each pick a team. Then pull out a chess board and play while the game is going on. If you win the chess game, give yourself 150 points and add it to the score of whichever NBA team you picked. If that total score is greater than the number of points of your opponent’s NBA team, you win! The marriage of the two contests into one makes just as little sense as quidditch . . . .”

This is what Blogs are for.

Via Eugene Volokh