I have experienced it myself….. (Wolly used to be a fierce hunter, who would track down and kill — much to my relief — mosquitos, which she especially hated. Tiggy is more mouse-oriented.)

Hat Tip: Mike

Russia’s new code-breaking game

Not as physically challenging as Parkour, mind you, but mentally challenging in interesting ways:

Wollstonecraft (”Wolly”) Palmer in a Chat Chambre (she speaks French)

for economically illiterate advocates of monarchy: “Turks mourn relative of Ottoman sultan”

Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, from Osman I to Mehmed V

BBC: “Denmark pulls ‘promiscuous’ video”

Critics says the video implied that along with traditional tourism, Denmark was a place to go to have unprotected sex with strangers, with one Danish newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, labelling it “grotesque” and a “waste of tax payers money”.

Um, right.

“No More Marches on DC”

Is it possible to be more transparent?

Note: The Post Magically Disappeared! Here’s the screen shot (click to enlarge to readable size):

So “the purpose” of the organizers of last Saturday’s march (disclosure: I neither organized nor attended it) was “to dissipate energy, and fool people into thinking that their time and money have accomplished something, as the regime laughs up its sleeve.” Ohhh-kaaay….

CNN: “Muslim teen fears for life after changing religion”

Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July and took refuge …. The teenager claims her father added, “I will kill you!”

….

Although Mohamed Bary said he did not expect his daughter to run away, Rifqa Bary was placed in foster care by an Orlando judge in August while the Florida Department of Children and Family investigated the threat allegations against the parents.

The allegations are certainly serious and one would not want to run the risk that they are true and she would be harmed (note: not all Muslims believe in punishing “apostates”), but why on earth does a 17-year-old need to be placed in foster care? Some reasonable age of emancipation from parental control is appropriate, but…. 18??? Why not let her live where she wants? (I am in Austria at the moment, where the voting age is 16.)

Jason Talley interviewed me recently for his MotorHomeDiaries.com project. It was fun! (I was wearing a bit of Tracht that day.)

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has nnounced “Human Achievement Hour” to coincide with “Earth Hour”

Erich Honecker

Berliner Morgenpost: “Verlassene DDR-Wohnung in Leipzig entdeckt”

BBC: “Untouched East Germany flat found”

Ah, for the DDR, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, the German Democratic Republic…I have…such fond memories. Of being followed by secret police when walking through Berlin. Of low quality dreck for sale in dusty stores. Of spending my worthless DDR Marks on the most expensive meal I could find (on Unter den Linden), during which, upon biting into a large stone (not a cherry stone, but a stone) in the mousse, I showed it to the waitress, who noted, “Hmmph.. a stone…how interesting!” and marched off. Of “medicine” for a sore throat that was apparently manufactured for a giraffe and caused me to go so numb I feared I would swallow my tongue. Of cheap shabbiness. Of buildings that had not been painted since the war and still bore the peeling paint and posters from the National Socialists. Good bye, DDR. And good riddance.

(See “Good Bye Lenin!” sometime.)

Czech artist David Cerny strikes: “Czech EU art stokes controversy”

Here’s the official account.

*Jaroslav Hašek

With my great-nephews, Samuel (5) and Silas (18 months)

Samuel marveling at the Märklin model trains and Weihnachtspyramide

Samuel with his Granddad learning how to manage model trains

Samuel, Camryn, and Silas with their Dad directing the trains

CNN: “A judge sentences some teen noise offenders to listen to Barry Manilow. KUSA’s Chris Vanderveen reports“

The Scoop on “the Oxford Comma.”

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God……

Hat tip: David Archer

Cass Sunstein

“Absolutism Redux” and “The Cost of Rights” (both on the political, economic, judicial, and ethical theories of Cass Sunstein)

Since the internet in my central KL hotel was not functioning at all (at least I could not get online), I checked out early to head over to the hotel near the main conference. While driving there a motor cyclist in the left lane went tumbling over and over on his bike and landed face down, with his head at a frightening angle in a pool of blood. I screamed at the driver to pull over and ran out to stop traffic and see what could be done. The victim was a young Chinese man. He was face down in a growing pool of blood, with his shattered helmet (which almost certainly saved his life, if he does survive) in pieces around him. Other car and motorcycle drivers started to stop and come over. None had seen the cause of the accident, whether a car had clipped him or something else, but one motorcyclist called an ambulance and another started directing traffic to avoid “rubber necking” that would slow down the ambulance. Two who stopped managed to gently get the man’s mouth and nose out of the pool of blood so he would not drown (we were all terrified of harming him) and after a while he started to regain consciousness. As I had my luggage in the trunk, I managed to get some of my shirts out to cover him to avoid problems from shock. I asked if someone there could speak to him in Malay or Chinese, and a Chinese motorist started to speak gently to him in Chinese to keep him calm. I managed to get the attention of a police car that was racing with sirens in the other direction on the freeway, and it seems that they called the accident in, as shortly after two motorcycle officers appeared. The officers said they would care for him until the ambulance arrived, so the taxi driver suggested we clear the road and go on to my hotel. I left my name and mobile phone number with the police. I hope and pray that the poor man survives and that he doesn’t suffer any permanent injuries. Seeing so much thick blood bubbling out of his mouth was a terrible sight. I have seen worse, but it doesn’t fail to shock. My heart is still racing.

College chiefs urge new debate on drinking age

It turns out — who knew? — that few college students actually wait until turning 21 for that first drink of alcohol. And the result of our ban is that they drink in huge quantities, away from adult supervision or socializing, and in ways that are very, very destructive.

I prefer European approaches, in which one can have a little beer or small glass of wine with the family (as I did with my parents as a child), and then can drink in pubs at 16, but cannot drive until 18, meaning that you learn how to drink in the company of adults and then take the bus home. In the US and A, on the other hand, you can drive at 16 and the only place you can drink is away from adults, so young people tend to get into their cars to be able to drink. But the irrational defenders of the US’s current approach, notably MADD, are more concerned with posturing than with actually reducing deaths from drunk drivers, so they persist in their MAD policies, usually articulated in the most irrational, shrill, and nasty way possible. MADD and their fanatical campaigns against reasonable laws governing alcohol are responsible for deaths on the highways. Their irrationality costs lives.

I noticed I can’t hear it on my computer……Not sure if it’s my computer or a lack of audio input….

When a picture tells more than a thousand words…..from my friend Ivan Osorio.