HOT5 Daily 1/8/2010

1. "An Interview with Christopher Hitchens, Part I" Hitchens is always interesting and worth reading.

Representative Sample: two religions make very large claims for themselves, that "without us you cannot get to heaven, and without us you will go to hell." They claim the right to high, middle, and low justice over everything from public affairs to private morals. They make these immense claims for themselves and further say they should be immune from criticism. It's not enough to be an absolutist party, but you're not allowed to disagree. This is totalitarianism.

2. "Is America Addressing Terrorism Correctly?" Some good points.

Representative Sample: What many Americans, including too many of our national leaders, fail to fully understand is that these young men truly want to die in the service of their so-called prophet. Certainly some of the weaker ones can be scared away, but not all and, in my opinion, not even most. They will keep coming until an end is made of the war they’ve declared on western society, one way or the other.

3. "Voting Rights for Felons: "Race Neutral" = Race Biased" The latest idiotic court ruling.

Representative Sample: What do they mean by "race-neutral?" I think it's pretty clear that they demand that all races commit crimes in lockstep with their percent of the population. When that doesn't happen, they immediately see racism as the only possible explanation.

4. "About That Dependency On Foreign Oil – Get Used To It" Obama administration acts to make domestic exploration more difficult.

Representative Sample:Salazar, yesterday, announced a new level of bureaucratic requirements sure to slow and provide disincentives to increases in domestic oil and gas exploration. In the first year of the Obama administration’s tenure, Salazar had already slowed such exploration to a walk  

5. "Japanese Minisubs Key to Pearl History" An interesting line of historical revision.

Representative Sample: The traditional take is that only one minisub got inside the harbor and fired its two torpedoes but neither scored a hit. This positions the Japanese minisub ops at Pearl as ineffectual, a mere afterthought to a decisively crushing carrier-??borne aerial attack. The work of Rodgaard, Hsu, and Neyland supports a rather different conclusion.

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