Yeah, this pretty much sums up how I feel about the UN too.
Thanks, Bunker.

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The third part of that series is out: World Speaks Our Language and Attends Our Colleges

For two years, the Pew Research Center for People and the Press polled 66,000 people from 44 countries on whether children "need to learn English to succeed in the world today."
The answer was a resounding "yes."
More than 95 percent of those surveyed in Indonesia, Germany and South Africa agreed that English is necessary for children. More than 90 percent of those surveyed in China, Japan, France and Ukraine agreed.
Only one of the 44 countries had a substantial minority that disagreed — 35 percent of Jordanians said English is not a necessity.

And that attitude will make all the difference for the future of the Middle East.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I had to do a double take: an article about the US that's all good? Woah.
America enjoys view from the top

And it looks like it's a five-part series; I'm anxious to read the rest.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Look at Bunker's new style for the holiday season! I like it.

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Law and order are coming to Iraq. In baby steps, naturally, but they're coming.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had read this Michael Crichton speech on junk science before, pointed out by Kalroy, but I returned to it today, pointed out by Hud. It's amazing how much junk science we're inundated with every day. My favorite bit, per global warming:

Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?

This is one of the best articles I've ever read.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:16 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Varifrank tackles the underpants gnomes of "import less oil".

Posted by: Sarah at 02:57 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'd like to meet Ben Stein. He sounds like a good guy.

Hud says:

I've talked to people on the left who live in red states, who told me they've encountered some ugliness for expressing their beliefs, but I'd be really surprised if they feel they have whisper to each other like the people in this article. Most lefties I know are pretty open about it. On the other hand, I have known many people on the right who were afriad to speak out for losing work. I've even had some people tell me I was risking never getting hired for the stuff I say on this blog. And what I tell them is, if you let people oppress you, they win. And now more people are going out and challenging the leftist orthodoxy

I know I never show my Bush support unless asked a direct question about whom I voted for, and we live on a military post, for pete's sake.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:45 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Bunker's son nearly got shot yesterday. No, not the Marine. Not the Soldier either. The cop. That's why I don't waste time worrying about whether my husband could die in Iraq; non-Soldiers are just as mortal. And most of them don't spend life in IBA and an M1A1.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Lots of my friends here are red-state voters who come from coastal blue states. They sort of can't figure out why I want our next duty station to be Texas. Lo and behold, Vinod says it better than I could. A blog post in praise of Texas that includes references to 1) Lila and 2) groking: could it get any cooler than that?

Posted by: Sarah at 07:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Man, did I get sucked into this comments section!

And if there's one thing I can say about Ann Coulter, it's that she sure knows how to make me laugh:

But Bush nominates a brilliant geopolitical thinker who happens to be black and female and all of a sudden she's Butterfly McQueen, who don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no Middle Eastern democracies.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Congress Eyes UN Fund Cut...well, it's a start.

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I have a million articles to read that have been emailed to me, but I need to grade a couple of papers before class. I'll try to get caught up this evening, but in the meantime, read Under Fire (via Oda Mae), an article that compares the Fallujah Marine to Ethics in America, the series I've been raving about for some time now...

Posted by: Sarah at 03:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Wretchard puts a final nail in the Bush-is-Hitler meme. I have no idea if readers click on every link I provide, but this is certainly one you want to check out. You also need to click on Wretchard's link to the liberation of Dachau when he compares it to the shooting in Fallujah.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:34 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Bill Whittle's long-awaited book, Silent America, is now for sale. I personally have to wait two torturous weeks until it goes on sale through Amazon, because pre-sale orders can't be shipped to APO. But I will be first in line to buy a copy once they're available.

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Good Bleat today...

I was a cranky teen too. Now there's nothing I like more than shopping for Christmas decorations with Mom.

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The Stars and Stripes account of the memorial service for CSM Faulkenburg, CPT Sims, 1LT Iwan, and SSG Matteson.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:24 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Wallace got a fitting tribute for his Vietnam service! (via Bunker)

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Some links this morning:

Hell no, I am not sorry
Super Bush?
a short video clip on Arafat: Yasser Arafat's Dark Legacy (via David Kopel at Volokh)

Lots of grading to catch up on today, but I will post final thoughts on R&R soon.

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This paragraph was the first thing to catch my eye:

Many writers, to be sure, have offered apologies for war. Under the title "Give war a chance", Edward Luttwak wrote in the Summer 1999 edition of Foreign Affairs, "Since the establishment of the United Nations, great powers have rarely let small wars burn themselves out. Bosnia and Kosovo are the latest examples of this meddling. Conflicts are interrupted by a steady stream of ceasefires and armistices that only postpone war-induced exhaustion and let belligerents rearm and regroup. Even worse are UN refugee-relief operations and NGOs [non-governmental organizations], which keep resentful populations festering in camps and sometimes supply both sides in armed conflicts. This well-intentioned interference only intensifies and prolongs struggles in the long run. The unpleasant truth is that war does have one useful function: it brings peace. Let it."

I won't even pretend to be a good history student -- it's always been my weakest subject -- but the article by Spengler that springboards from this quote is very interesting. (via The Corner)

Posted by: Sarah at 02:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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