Iowa sanctuary gets Hollywood apes

The Great Ape Trust in Iowa is taking in simian actors.   ScienceBlog[*1] :

The first of the new residents, 3-year-old Rocky and his 19-year-old mother Katy, arrived safely at Great Ape Trust on Saturday, July 12, from the Los Angeles area, where they had been privately owned by Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, co-owned by Steve and Donna Martin. Their company specializes in providing trained animals for entertainment and advertising.

Wild and crazy?  Excuuuuuuuse me!

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Who’s “fighting the last war?”

Iraq is quickly becoming the last war . . . i.e. a war that objective, on-site observers like Michael Yon[*1] increasingly believe we have won.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, due in large part because of Pakistan’s frail political system, begins to slip back.

So, let’s see . . . today, Obama gives a speech about Iraq[*2] (Iraq mentioned 53 times; Afghanistan; 15)  McCain, about Afghanistan[*3] (Iraq mentioned 21 times, Afghanistan 33).

Quiz:  Which one said this?

What’s missing in our debate about Iraq – what has been missing since before the war began – is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq and its dominance of our foreign policy.

Actually, there has been a thorough and continuing discussion in many circles about the strategic consequences of Iraq.  Obama and his leftist fellows are the ones who have been absent from this discussion, holding to an inflexible position of immediate withdrawal regardless of the strategic consequences of that action.

They did it again!

South Dakota State University’s women’s basketball team leads all women’s college basketball teams[*1] , from all divisions, in team grade point average again in 2007-08, as compiled by the WBCA[*2] :

NCAA Division I
South Dakota State is making quite a name for itself on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll as the Jackrabbits secured the top spot amongst NCAA Division I institutions for the third consecutive season. In addition to compiling the top GPA in their division, Aaron Johnston’s team also claims the top overall team GPA amongst all divisions which is yet another distinction they have captured for the third year in a row. Aside from its classroom successes, South Dakota State also enjoyed another great year on the court as the Jackrabbits advanced to the Women’s NIT before falling in the first round to Creighton.

“The women on our team have made our entire university and community very proud,” said Johnston. “They have truly committed themselves to success in the classroom, on the court and in the community. Being recognized for the top GPA the third consecutive year is a tremendous accomplishment for our student-athletes.”

That’s three straight #1 finishes for the Jackrabbits.

Try to top that, Tennessee!

Rights or uniforms?

From the Butterflies and Wheels[*1] philosophy blog (a possible candidate for a new must-read blog), via Reason Online[*2] :

The alternatives, the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut suggests, are simple: ‘Either people have rights or they have uniforms; either they can legitimately free themselves from oppression… or else their culture has the last word.’

A right means nothing if it applies only to the group, not the individual.  There is no such thing as a “group right.”  No such thing as “civil rights.”  Only individual rights are true rights.

Culture is by its nature oppressive.  Culture requires conformity–any culture.  The words “black culture,” “white culture,” “American culture,” “Chinese culture,” and “Islamic culture” all bring to mind different things.  Call them stereotypes if you want, but what is a culture but a collection of behaviors that are unique and distinctive to a particular group?  Within any particular culture, certain behaviors are encouraged, others are discouraged, and some are taboo.

The problem, of course, is that things that one culture encourages, another culture discourages, or even declares taboo.  Eating dog meat.  Chopping off the heads of your enemies.  That kind of thing.

So, then, how can an individual be “multicultural?”  (Unless, of course, that individual belongs to the “multicultural culture.”  Left as a thought exercise to the reader are the contradictions inherent in a “multicultural culture.”)

Can a person hold two cultures to be equally “valid” without, at some point, choosing between the cultural dictates of one or the other?  If you kind of like pork chops, but don’t eat pork because you’re respecting Islam, are you being multicultural, or are you submitting to one culture’s taboos over another culture’s permissions?

Snookums claims that I sometimes have “intellectual” tendencies.  I guess she’s right.

“Drive small cars and wait for the wind”

That’s all that the Democrats have for an energy policy.  Quoted in The Hill[*1] (via PowerLine[*2] ):

Exactly when Democrats will change their present course and bring an energy bill to the floor remains uncertain.
“Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind,’ ” said a Democratic aide.

Enjoy your $6 a gallon gasoline, coming soon to a gas station near you courtesy the Democratic Party of the United States.

And no, McCain isn’t much better, either, although some Republicans are trying to push increasing the supply.  Drill here, drill now.

Sports smack!

I haven’t been doing much sports blogging lately.  So, to celebrate the birth of a new NCAA Division I conference (actually, it’s probably closer to say the conception of an un-viable tissue mass which might one day emerge to become a baby D-I conference), I give you one of the members of the newly, um, conceived Great West Conference:

The U-Dot S-Dot D-Dot Ki-Yoteees

It is, I think, unusual to find a Division I team for which the pronunciation of the mascot needs to be defined in documents like conference press releases[*1] (PDF).