Likelihood of Success

Dean Esmay:  Why I’m No Longer A Libertarian.

Not that I’m one to talk, either, but I hadn’t realized that Jonathan Alter was the inspiration for the George Costanza character on Seinfeld!

And Mickey Kaus… um, Kramer?

The Journal News:

A tech-savvy White Plains woman whose apartment was burglarized solved the crime herself after she was able to log on to her stolen laptop, photograph one of the suspects with it and get photos of another, police said.

Edmon Shahikian, 23, of 13 Cobbling Rock Road, Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of 1609 E. 174th St., the Bronx, were picked up at their homes Wednesday night after the victim turned the pictures over to police. The police said they recovered most of the $5,000 worth of electronics stolen in the burglary.

“Our victim did a phenomenal job,” said Lt. Eric Fischer, commander of the Detective Division. “She knew her computer, and she let us know as soon as she obtained the information. We rolled on it immediately, and the result is the arrest of two burglary suspects and the recovery of most of the stolen property.”

Now the stolen stuff tells on you! Pretty impressive. Hat tip to Avigdor M’Bawlmawr.

You sometimes have to go deep below the surface, even into the dark and dank, to find beauty. At least, of a certain kind.

This is a subway station wall ornament at the Borough Hall Station in Brooklyn — “BH” … for Borough Hall.

Michael Young at Reason Magazine is shocked, shocked at all that “strange new respect” being directed to Hezbollah by “the writer and academic Norman Finkelstein.” (Via Goldberg, via Instapundit.)

“Writer and academic”? Yeah, wasn’t Joseph Goebbels one of those, too?

Then, as a topper — Noam Chomsky! Sympathetic to Arab mass murderers, those guys? Really? Who knew. Good thing about these Internets is you get the news and stuff fast!

For some reason, I’ve taken an interest in some of the more accessible books about evangelical Christian culture. I just finished Hannah Rosin’s God’s Harvard, and I’m almost done with Daniel Radosh’s Rapture Ready. I’d like to read a book that looks at contemporary Christian evangelical culture from the inside, but does so with at least a moderately critical eye. Any suggestions?

John Hawkins polled righty bloggers (I was a no-show this time — got to keep him honest!) and has now published a list of The 25 Most Influential People On The Right According To Conservative Bloggers.

Chris Wilson in Slate explains how and why news organizations decide to acknowledge a country’s or political subdivision’s name change.

I didn’t even know Mumbai was Bombay!!

West view

Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman

Across 42nd Street.

Subway rider

Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman.

On the way to court this afternoon my paralegal and I shared the number 5 subway with the Mayor of the City of New York! That’s the Honorable Michael Bloomberg right there.

He was blocking the door, completely contrary to the instructions clearly posted in the subway. But, you know, he is an old guy, so I didn’t give him any aggravation over it. Still, rules are rules. I did suggest to the paralegal that she should mostly be impressed by the fact that neither of us had ever been that close to that much money before, but — being a drooling fan of the Mayor herself — she just nodded, tight-lipped.

We got off at the same stop — City Hall, of course, where the courthouses are too. This is easily one of the worst-off subway stops I have any regular truck with in Manhattan. You’d think the Mayor would have some pull on this!

Good day in court, too, except on the merits of the motion being made to dismiss my client’s case. But I sounded great. You know, a nice resonant vocal quality can be its own reward (something I have over the Mayor, mind you). Luckily we are billing by the hour on this so I don’t have to rely on that, however.