Vox Popoli

I’m looking to buy a decent mike for my PC and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I don’t want a DSP-USB one, unless the sound is significantly better as I’ve heard there are some volume issues. It should have a two-ear headset too. Thanks.

From Drudge: President fell off bike today… Kerry told reporters in front of cameras, ‘Did the training wheels fall off?’… Reporters are debating whether to treat it is as on or off the record.

The only thing they’re debating is how much damage it’s going to do to Kerry. If Clinton had said it, they would have reported it because it was funny. Since Kerry comes off as an unlikable jerk, there’s a strong possibility that it will harm him. Therefore, a statement made openly in front of the cameras has to be treated as off the record.

The mainstream press is a joke. And remember, if you’re subscribing to them, you’re supporting them.

Marine Capt. Brian R. Chontosh received the Navy Cross Medal from the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, during an awards ceremony Thursday at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. Three other Marines received medals for valor at the same ceremony.

Chontosh, 29, from Rochester, N.Y. , received the naval service’s second highest award for extraordinary heroism while serving as Combined Anti-Armor Platoon Commander, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom March 25, 2003. The Medal of Honor is the highest military award.

While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh’s platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalitions tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone. He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advanced directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.

He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack. When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers. When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.

“They are the reflection of the Marine Corps type who’s service to the Marine Corps and country is held above their own safety and lives,” said Gen. Hagee, commenting on the four Marines who received medals during the ceremony. “I’m proud to be here awarding the second highest and third highest awards for bravery to these great Marines.”

“These four Marines are a reflection of every Marine and sailor in this great battalion,” said Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. John L. Estrada. “I was just doing my job, I did the same thing every other Marine would have done, it was just a passion and love for my Marines, the experience put a lot into perspective,” said Chontosh.

That’s why they called them Devil Dogs. It sure sounds as if he might have played Doom at one point or another.

SW writes: Bill Buckler, from his newsletter the Privateer… says that the Asians have to make a choice about whether to buy the continuing avalanches of US debt that will be issued from the US Treasury. If they buy the debt, they have to expand their own money supplies. If they don’t, then the dollar will fall. “They know that they can either crash their own economies, or crash the US Treasury.” Why will the dollar fall if the Asians don’t?

If the Asians don’t continue to buy US Treasuries, which are loans taken out from the Federal Reserve by the US government, then the government has two options: raise taxes dramatically or print more money. (Actually, there is a third option of providing worthwhile services for which people are willing to pay, but don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.) Since increasing the tax burden would drive the greedy, overburdened American consumer into default, the only serious option is inflation.

We have been seeing plenty of signs of this over the last few years, as asset prices have increased, now accompanied by rising producer prices and, despite the best efforts of the statisticians to hide it, consumer prices. Now, the USA is in serious trouble if the Japanese and Chinese stop printing yen and renminbi in order to buy dollars since the Asians account for about two-thirds of our debt purchasing. Inflation would have to increase dramatically for government to keep spending at its current rate, much less increase its rate of spending as is currently planned.

More dollars equals lower value. So, the dollar falls.

From the Gargler’s blog: Jeanne says: I am so excited to be part of a harem! I can’t wait to tell my husband!

I don’t laugh out loud often but I did when I read that. But hey… I’m not really suprised that Jeanne and Tonya are happy to be here. Deep down, almost all of them wanna play “Egyptian Slave Girls”.

It always amused me when feminists were outraged by John Norman’s GOR novels, which are Conanesque soft-core adventure porn. With titles like SLAVE GIRLS OF GOR, you can understand why they were irritated, especially since the fiesty captured princess who is sexually awoken by the sensuous appeal of her slave collar was a regular theme. The punch line, however, is that the GOR books are far more widely read by women than by men.

Digital Cowboy has been kind enough to set up a website hosting, among other things, the Canon of Answers Vox Explained, at voxday.net. The site is open for perusal, but not for business as I have yet to order the books from the publisher. There is still some work to be done, (the CAVE isn’t numbered, I haven’t written a bio, etc), but DC has done yeoman’s work in constructing a complete and searchable column archive, and the two MP3s from the Northern Alliance Radio Show can be found there as well.

Finally, the much-requested Powerpoint slides for alphabet and phonics instruction are also available for download. So, check it out if you are so inclined.

I recently coached a team of little kids in a big soccer tournament. I’ve been the assistant coach for three summers, and we’ve been consistently terrible. This year, I was the head coach and I made a few changes, most of which consisted of teaching the more skilled kids a few basic tactics as well as the concept of positioning.

It paid off rather nicely, as for the first time we managed to knock off the always-dominant heavyweights, the children’s adjunct of a professional team. Since they beat us 12-0 last year, they were shocked to get knocked off 4-2 in the first group game. We went undefeated the rest of the way, and had to meet them again in the finals. They were even more surprised when our best scorer didn’t drive straight towards the goal when he had the ball in the open, but instead lured the goalie and two defenders towards him then slipped a pass across the middle for an easy goal by one of his teammates. It was the game’s only goal.

For me, the best part was seeing the happiness in one little boy’s face, whose father – a divorced European professional player – had flown in to see him play. The boy doesn’t see his father very often, so I named him captain for the tournament and started him although he’s usually a substitute. He really put on a show in return, scoring a lovely goal in the first game, crossing the ball for a headed goal in the semifinals, and getting the team out of trouble in front of our own goal with an incredible step-on-the-ball-and-spin move that somehow evaded two opposing players in the finals. He is eight years old.

When the whistle blew, you would have thought from the kids’ reaction that we won the Super Bowl, the World Cup and the NBA Finals combined. I have no patience for those parents who attempt to live their lives vicariously through their children, but there is something to be said for being reminded, even for a brief shining moment, of a time when small and simple things could fill our hearts with such utter joy.

In the morass of Eleanor Clift’s ramblings, an interesting quote appeared:A Republican on the Senate side predicted that the debate here at home would take a nastier turn as a backlash builds among the right. “The right is red hot in going after the traitors among us who are weakening our resolve to win the war.”

I have little but contempt for the “weakening resolve” argument. When a nation’s interests are clear and its survival is on the line, there is no question of resolve. It is only when the nation’s leadership decides to force a questionable war with largely abstract justifications that this becomes a potential issue.

Consider, for a moment, the half-hearted way war was waged in Vietnam, Somalia, and to a certain extent, in the Iraqi Occupation. The lack of resolve started at the top, and from the beginning. This is not the way that WWII was won, when whatever needed to be done and many things that didn’t were performed without hesitation or delay. To blame those who notice the increasingly bad performance of the administration and comment on it for a lack of resolve that has been apparent from the first evasion of the truth of the enemy is ridiculous.

This is not to say that some of the administration’s opponents are not anti-American traitors. But there’s certainly an element of the pot calling the kettle black, too, as no administration hoping to hand over sovereignty of anything to the United Nations can be considered fully innocent of anti-American treason itself.

In any event, there was probably more resolve among Americans for attacking Saudi Arabia or Iran after September 11th than there was for attacking Iraq. Iraq had a few ties to terrorism, but nowhere nearly as many as the two exporters of global jihad. Anyone who wants to point fingers at weakening resolve has no better target than the White House.

Bob Novak writes: During George W. Bush’s keynote address to the 40th anniversary black-tie banquet of the American Conservative Union (ACU) last week, diners rose repeatedly to applaud the president’s remarks. But one man kept his seat through the 40-minute oration. It was no liberal interloper but conservative stalwart Donald Devine. As ACU vice chairman, Devine was privileged to be part of a pre-dinner head-table reception with President Bush. However, Devine chose not to shake hands with the president. Furthermore, he is one of about 20 percent of Republicans that polls classify as not committed to voting for Bush’s re-election.

The conventional wisdom portrays the latest Zogby Poll’s 81 percent of Republican voters committed to Bush as reflecting extraordinary loyalty to the president by the GOP base. Actually, when nearly one out of five Republicans cannot flatly say they support Bush, that could spell defeat in a closely contested election. When Don Devine is among those one out of five, it signifies that the president’s record does not please all conservatives.

Actually, I think 19 percent not being committed to a sitting President is shockingly high. That’s NOT including people like me, who left the Republican party because of its lack of commitment to its professed ideals. But Novak is right to point out what may be the president’s political salvation – Kerry may be even less popular among Democrats. There’s nothing quite so timely as a self-destructing opponent on a day when you aren’t on your A game.

Marcotti writes on SI:BAD WEEK: For Real Madrid, which lost its fourth straight game. It’s the first time in the club’s history that this has happened. So much for the Galacticos, the Zidanes y Pavones and the rest of the smoke chairman Florentino Perez tried to sell. Many, including yours truly, predicted it would all ends in tears. And it did.

It never ceases to amaze me that coaches and managers in every team sport manage to forget that a team is more than a collection of individuals. My high school soccer team had only about two-thirds the talent that my younger brothers’ team had – they had two 30-goal scorers, I think our leading scorer racked up about 12 – but we finished third in state while they were upset in the second round of regionals.

I was so disappointed for my brothers, who were crushed, but unsurprised. The team plays against its alumni every year, and while my team had simply abused the alumni, theirs didn’t take the game seriously and lost 3-1. It’s a bad sign when a team doesn’t mind losing, especially games they should win. I’ll take eleven players with mediocre talent who hate to lose over a squad of Galactic Superstars who think they deserve to win just by showing up every single time.

It’s just so fitting that once it became clear they couldn’t win La Liga or the Champions League, the Real Galacticos would give up and finish the season by embarrassing their historic club.