Around the Web on 11-16-05

I am leaning -- personal circumstances permitting -- towards doing a midweek roundup on a more or less regular basis. With my good friend Martin Lindeskog in entrepreneurial mode these days, I plan to cross-post these to his blog fairly often.

I had planned this week on a blog roundup, but ended up concentrating on a wholly different topic than I'd planned, so this one's going to be more of a link dump of what I was going to blog at more length....

Good News for Freedom of Speech

Via TIA Daily is this article reporting that the United States will maintain its control of the Internet.

Will McCain Become a Republican John Kerry?

John F. Kerry had the advantage, having been in the military, of being able to pose as a patriot while actually serving as the Democratic Party's anti-war candidate in the last presidential election. Some recent news about John "F." McCain seems to indicate that this possible 2008 candidate may have an even better cover: He, too, is a veteran, but he is also a member of the supposedly -- based on recent Senate activity -- pro-war Republican Party.

Otherwise, why is he proposing legislation that would make it illegal to torture prisoners of war? And did he leak information about the so-called "black sites" where terrorism suspects are held on foreign soil? If so, it is interesting that he did this as the legislation is being debated. Predictably, some news media are making a big deal out of this.

The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress and human-rights groups about how the detainees -- often Arab and male -- are treated.

I am personally happy to hear that we have imprisoned 83,000 possible terrorists over the past four years and, unlike this reporter, I am unsurprised that so many are Arab males. That is, not coincidentally, what many terrorists are.

Interestingly, the victims of Islamic terrorism were never mentioned, only being alluded to when the phrase "9/11 attacks" was used late in the article. Some, apparently, are forgetting why we're at war.

Is McCain one of them? Seems like it to me.

Secular Knee-Jerking?

I don't know much about the Anti-Defamation League, but they are reportedly growing concerned about the increasing power of the religious right.

Whether the ADL ultimately prove to be a worthwhile ally in the cause of keeping America secular, it is certain that Michael Newdow is not such an ally. After suing to have the phrase "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, he is attempting to have "In God We Trust" removed from our money -- the subject of a couple of jokes in the comments to the above post.

He is correct in that the government should not be promoting religion by endorsing these phrases, but I think he could choose some better battles.

Timely Editorials on Economics

Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell have a trio of related articles on inflation and prices that should be required reading for ... well, everyone who spends money. Williams does a great job of explaining inflation succinctly by means of an analogy to the game of Monopoly. With Alan Greenspan on the way out and gasoline prices as volatile as they are, these are very timely articles.

By the way, I recall that someone once came up with rules for "Free Market Monopoly". I've never played it before. If you know how to get the rules and/or have played it before, drop me a line.

-- CAV

Updates

11-17-05: Corrected a typo.
11-20-05: Added hypertext anchors.