In their relentless quest for bad news to continually report from Iraq, the major media surprisingly missed this major problem in the Bush administration’s rebuilding effort.

Headline Wired: Slow Going for Linux in Iraq

As Iraq emerges from years of stagnation wrought by a closed political system and tough sanctions from other countries, Iraqi interest in computing technology is finally burgeoning.

Reports from inside the country say curious citizens are keeping Internet cafes filled to capacity, that eager students are returning to universities to learn how to program and that high-end computer workstations can be bought for as little as $150 in city marketplaces.

But even with all the growth, there is still one aspect of technology that has yet to penetrate the country’s borders: open-source software. With software piracy so rampant that a CD copy of almost any program can be bought for just 2,000 dinars, or , the demand for free software just isn’t there yet, according to Ashraf Tariq and Hasanen Nawfal.

The two graduate students at Al-Mansour University in Baghdad are among just a handful of Iraqi citizens who are familiar with Linux — and that has them deeply worried. If nothing is done to educate computer users in Iraq about open-source software, what is now a blank canvas will quickly be painted over with expensive, proprietary Microsoft products, they argue. And if that happens, the country could end up spending millions more than it needs to on software purchases and hardware upgrades, they say.

But unlike the computer experts who have traditionally advocated the adoption of open-source software in other countries, Iraq’s technocrati have yet to grasp the benefit of using an operating system like Linux, Nawfal said in a recent e-mail interview.

"Most of them just heard about Linux but are afraid of trying it. For home users things are worse — for them, a computer equals Windows, and vice versa."

Apple Computer, too, is a mystery to Iraq’s new computing class. In a February Q&A session on Slashdot.org, Minnesota Public Radio’s Adam Davidson, who is stationed in Iraq, wrote, "I’ve found exactly one Iraqi who has heard of Apple, and maybe a few dozen who’ve heard of Linux. So, just letting people know there is an alternative is a big issue."

It is obvious that the Bush administration either did not have a plan for promoting and distributing open-source operating systems at the termination of the war in Iraq, or worse yet, they are in the pay of Microsoft. I expect Ted Kennedy to condemn Bush for removing Saddam Hussein only to replace him with Bill Gates, and for Al Gore to call for additional resignations due to this scandal.

Q.92. What is a sacrament?

A. A sacrament is a holy regulation established by Christ, in which Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers by physical signs.

AFP Photo:

Caption: "Technoparade : A techno music fan sports a funky hairstyle during the ‘G-Move,’ a technoparade, where some 15,000 techno music fans participated in the streets of the center of Hamburg. (AFP/DDP/Roland Magunia)"

This picture reminds me of one of my favorite poems: Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark. From Fit the First – The Landing:

He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry,

Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!"

To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!"

But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!"

While, for those who preferred a more forcible word,

He had different names from these:

His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"

And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."

Headline Washington Times: Kerry camp demands apology for quip

After months of nothing but praise for John Kerry’s Vietnam War service, President Bush’s campaign spokesman publicly made light of it, drawing a stern response yesterday from Democrats who called the remarks an insult to all veterans….

Mr. Kerry’s campaign was outraged, and demanded an apology.
“What Terry Holt said last night was an intentional effort to diminish John Kerry’s military service,” Kerry campaign chairwoman Jeanne Shaheen said. “Not only was it wrong, it shows a fundamental disrespect for the service and sacrifice veterans of military combat duty have given our country.”
Both the Democratic National Committee and veterans supporting Mr. Kerry, in a statement issued by the Kerry campaign, called the comments an attack on veterans and troops serving today.

“No one who serves in this country’s military — not John Kerry, nor the men and women serving in Iraq today — should ever have their patriotism or their courage questioned by one of George W. Bush’s political agents,” DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe said.

What was this terrible insult to all veterans? Did he say that all veteran’s mothers wear combat boots? Prepare yourself, because it is MUCH WORSE THAN THAT.

Terry Holt, appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball” program Tuesday, was being pummeled by questions from host Chris Matthews about why, if Mr. Bush supported the Vietnam War, he didn’t join up and fight.

After repeatedly answering that Mr. Bush served as a fighter pilot in the National Guard, Mr. Holt then changed the subject to Mr. Kerry: “In John Kerry’s case, he went to Vietnam. He took his own photo camera, by the way, so he could get some good pictures.”

That’s it. That is the terrible insult to all veterans. That is the attack on John Kerry’s patriotism. John Kerry took a camera to Vietnam and got some good pictures. How can this country go on with such mudslinging going on in our presidential politics?

By the way, when I deployed to Diego Garcia during Gulf War I, I took my camera. I got some pretty nice pictures. But don’t tell anyone, because I don’t want to have my patriotism challenged.

Headline Washington Times: Kerry to accept nod at convention

Time after time, we see the government create campaign finance spending laws to somehow control how much money (and consequently influence) some people can have over our political process. But every time the Congress passes “campaign reform” laws, it simply moves where the money is spent.

The amount of money spent on political campaigns continues to grow. This year, it is estimated that the two major candidates for President, George Bush and John Kerry, will combined spend over one billion dollars on the presidential campaign. This comes immediately after the latest round of “campaign finance reform”.

Patrick Basham writing in an article in the National Review nails the problem. We don’t need more “campaign finance reform” to cure the ills of continually increases on campaign contributions and spending. The only thing that will clearly work is to decrease the size and scope of government.

the most important factor driving campaign finance upward is “more government.” Simply stated, the growth of government spending fosters the growth in campaign spending. Taxes and regulations on society have increased the ambit of government at all levels. Increasing government activity leads to more efforts to influence political decisions, including spending on campaigns, a relationship confirmed by scholarly studies.

As government does and spends more, individuals try to influence government, both to advance their causes and to protect themselves from abuse. And government has grown enormously. In 2000, the federal government taxed Americans to the tune of $2.03 trillion, a 250-percent real increase since 1970. On the expenditure side, federal-government spending reached .79 trillion in 2000, a 915 percent nominal increase over the previous 30 years….

There’s solid empirical evidence that expanding government results in increases in campaign spending. For example, research by economist John Lott Jr. found that 87 percent of the rise in federal campaign spending between 1976 and 1994 was attributable to the ,101 per capita rise (in real terms) in federal government spending….

The only plausible solution, then, is to limit the size of government. Anything else merely treats the symptoms without addressing the underlying disease of the body politic. Lower government spending will lead to lower levels of campaign contributions; in turn, that will result in lower levels of campaign spending.

So, the only reasonable way to decrease the amount of money spent on campaigns is to reduce the power of the politicians who are elected. Limited government is the only cure to problems with campaign spending. If people and businesses no longer need to purchase government support in an attempt to minimize taxes and regulations, they will stop giving their hard earned money to the candidates for political office.

It is a simple and logical solution. However I doubt it will be implemented. Instead we will be subjected to yet another round of “campaign finance reform” laws to deal with the latest increases in campaign contributions, with the end result of the money moving to the candidate via some newly found loophole.

Start up the Merry-Go-Round. We’re about to go around again.

In a "classic" article originally published in the National Review back in 1999 but republished this week in honor of Al Gore’s speech to MoveOn, Rick Brookhiser points out that Al Gore is not entirely stable. And he doesn’t have the best delivery for speeches.

Weird Al

He is stiff as a railroad tie. Recently there have been a number of politicians with odd body language — Gerald Ford, George Bush — but Gore is uniquely dense and inert. His debate with Dan Quayle in 1992 was a typical performance. When making debater’s points he swung his upper body heavily towards Quayle, like a de-mothballed gun turret. His face, whether speaking or listening, had the glazed look of a gaffed fish. When he tries to be more animated, the effect is painful, reminiscent of the Monster in Young Frankenstein singing "Puttin’ on the Ritz."

I’ve always enjoyed the "Puttin’ on the Ritz" scene in Young Frankenstein. That makes a good illustration for an Al Gore speech except that the Monster is much less wooden in its delivery.

I still recall a speech Al Gore gave on data delivery through optical cables. He had a fiber optic cable in his hand and a table of books in front of the podium. He said in his scripted tone, "We can transmit all this" (sweep right hand across the table of books) "through this" (hold up optical cable in left hand) "in one second" (hold up right hand with index finger raised indicating one). Repeat a second time for emphasis. It was so stilted as to be humorous, but he did exactly what his coaches told him to do. It just wasn’t natural or flowing.

Gore’s physical rigidity is periodically enlivened by rhetorical frenzies. Louis Menand wrote in a New Yorker profile that Gore has, as a public speaker, "only two dials on the console: speed and volume. To convey gravity, he slows down; to convey urgency, he gets louder." He can bellow like Jesse Jackson or Louis Farrakhan, but unlike them, there is no crescendo: The triple forte simply pops out of nowhere.

If we want to continue movie comparisons, Brookhiser could have compared Al Gore’s volume dial to Spinal Tap’s specially made amplifier volume that goes up to eleven when other band’s amplifiers only go up to ten. But perhaps needing to go to a volume of eleven wasn’t applicable back in 1999. That was before Dean’s "scream heard around the world". Now Gore is trying to out Dean Dean, and it is working about as well for him as it did for good old Howard.

Can’t you just imagine Al Gore saying in his serious voice, while thrusting his pointed index finger for emphasis on each word, "Putting … on … the … Ritz!" I think the Monster could do it better.

Headline New Zealand Herald: Universe is shaped like the Eiffel tower, say scientists

In last Friday’s Opinion Journal, Diana West writes of her decision to home school her children.

There’s No Place Like Home: The secular case for home-schooling

West mentions the Southern Baptist will consider a resolution urging its members to pull their children out of the government schools because of the hostility of the government schools to the Christian faith.

She goes on to relate what drove her to begin home-schooling.

This decision was not made in despair. As anti-Christian and officially godless as Baptists would find the excellently rated, wealthy and very white public elementary school in Montgomery County, Md., that my daughters attended last year, it eventually inspired in me a deep and abiding faith: I came to believe there was no way on, er, God’s green earth that I could possibly teach my girls less than they learned in that school.

After seeing what they did with her children all day, how they indoctrinated rather than taught, she realized how easy it is to do better than the government schools.

I thought that is a nice summary of why you should home-school your children: You can’t teach your children less then the government schools do.

What’s gold and purple, costs $700, fits inside a eight inch by 10 inch by 12 inch cube, communicates via mobile phone, generates a centrifugal force of two hundred thousand g’s, and cleans your house? The new DC12 vacuum cleaner, going on sale now in Japan.

With all that high tech gadgetry, I was pretty impressed. Until I realized you still have to push the thing around. Small and powerful is good. But I’m sorry. It’s just not as impressive as self propelled robot road cones.