HOT5 Daily 6/29/2010

1. "Thanks to the Feds ‘A-Whale’ – A Giant Oil Skimmer – Is Not Skimming Oil in the Gulf" Given the situation, you might think the government would be expediting cleanup measures. 

Representative Sample: This is getting so old. Day after day we hear of the resources that aren’t being used to clean the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico before it reaches shore. The latest is a Japanese vessel called the A-Whale. The owners claim it can skim 500,000 barrels of oil per day. In the first 66 days of the Gulf oil spill disaster the total oil skimmed has been 600,000 barrels in total.

2. "What The Hell? Let’s Give Them $400 Million Dollars We Don’t Have" Arson, kidnapping, and calls to genocide. Isn’t that what you learned at the YMCA Camp Widjiwagan too? 

Representative Sample: More reasons not to give money to the Palestinians -- as if we needed more reasons.

3. "I Don't Want to Hold Your Hand" An interesting analysis of U.S. relations with Saudia Arabia.  

Representative Sample: Despite the official blandishments, there are clear indications that under Abdullah, and especially since 2001, Saudi Arabia has put distance into its relationship with the United States. Abdullah is trying to gain more room to maneuver in the Sunni-Shiite rivalry and between extremists and moderates within Sunni Islam. To do so, he has to erode the notion that the House of Saud is a pawn of Uncle Sam.

4. "A leftist guide to mis-defining terms when it comes to Kagan" Particularly with regard to "activism." 

Representative Sample: To the Left, however, “activism” means any decision that overturns liberal precedent — even if that precedent is, in and of itself, unconstitutional. It’s therefore no wonder the Left is dismayed by the fact that the Roberts court is tidying up the record and reversing preexisting cases enacted by activist judges.

5. "'Only thoughts reached by walking have value'" Walking is good for the mind as well as the body.

Representative Sample: I am pleased to see emerging scientific data supporting Nietzsche's maxim from Twilight of the Idols that walking generates and improves thought.

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