Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:
- Today is the 60th anniversary of V-J Day and marks the practical end of World War II. Reflections at Chicago Boyz, Chester, and Varifrank..
- Nadezhda is on a roll. Read her strong post at Chez Nadezhda on realism on outcomes in Iraq. UPDATE: Dan Darling responds to Nadezhda’s response with a long, thoughtful post. And raises her a helio-copter.
- Pundita exclusive! Pundita publishes an improved translation of the interview with “Dr. Wong” from Boxun on the outbreak of an unknown illness in Sichuan province. Even if you read it the first time around read it again in this improved form now. If you didn’t read it the first time around, this is chilling stuff.
- This is a post I intended to link to yesterday and, for some reason, it fell off my radar. Armando of Daily Kos has a very interesting analysis of Democratic Party political strategy.
- Over at Tech Central Station Arnold Kling mulls over something I’ve been pitching for years: increasing the size and consequently the representativeness of the Congress. In 1790 each Congressman represented a constituency of roughly 39,000 people—roughly the same as a Chicago alderman. Today each Congressman represents 690,000 and that’s clearly a charade of democratic representation. I don’t think much of Arnold’s approach but the states could be subdivided and the Congress substantially increased in size without a Constitutional amendment. Won’t happen. But it’s interesting to think about.
- Ave atque vale. Josh Chafetz returns to blogging just long enough to say he’s giving up blogging.
- Randall Parker of ParaPundit expresses my thoughts precisely on the “immigrants do the jobs that the native-born won’t do” canard.
- Read The Fourth Rail’s post on the seven phases of Al Qaeda (“The Base”). They’re in Phase 2 now. More from TigerHawk.
That’s the lot.
Hmmm.. raises me a helio-copter. Either the greymatter is working even slower than usual, or I’m now embarrassingly displaying some form of gross ignorance. But that allusion went right over my head. No pun intended. Englightment kindly requested.
It’s an obscure reference to an old movie, The Wheeler-Dealers. At one point a couple of Texas oilmen and cattle magnates are playing high stakes poker. One oilman calls. Another says “I’ll call your call and raise you a helio-copter”. (they’re playing with money, oil wells, catlle, etc.)
Much obliged, sir.