There is a compelling argument that the problems with Islamic terrorism wouldn't occur if we weren't interfering in their affairs. It's been echoed with venom by the Left and eloquently by Ron Paul. I've considered it many times, but with that argument comes the uncomfortable notion that we may not want to even help these countries, as simply being there to help can make one a target.

That looks like the case with India. It seems that India does have a low level of troops in Afghanistan, but they aren't there in a military capacity as much as to protect Indians there to help reconstruct the war-torn country:

India is sending 300 special police (Indo-Tibetan Border Police, or ITBP) to Afghanistan to help guard Indians working there on reconstruction projects. Eighty of the ITBP are already in southern Afghanistan, guarding Indians helping to build roads there. Taliban terrorists have attacked the Indian workers several times, with gunfire and bombs. Last year, twenty ITBP were sent to Kabul to guard the Indian embassy.

I have a new review of the ABC show The Middleman up at TheAtlasphere.com, a networking site for fans of Ayn Rand:

The Middleman is a unique television pilot which centers around the familiar theme of a below-the-radar agency that takes on the paranormal anomalies that society either chooses to ignore or is unaware of.

Unlike similar fare such as Hellboy or X-Files, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all, instead treating spectacles such as a gorilla with a machine gun and a giant multi-eyed squid as the ridiculous things that they are.

The plot centers on Wendy Watson (no relation to Mary Jane), played by Natalie Morales, and the Middleman, played by Matt Keeslar.

Wendy becomes embroiled in the world of the paranormal when a giant “hentai tentacle monster” (Yes, they actually said “hentai” on cable television, in a very geeky salute to the infamous Japanese cartoon La Blue Girl) destroys the science lab that she was working at as a secretary.

The Middleman comes in to eliminate the tentacle monster, and, after being impressed by Wendy’s apparent calm in the face of an attack by something straight out of a Japanese adult film, tries to seduce Wendy into becoming his sidekick.

The Middleman is an ex-Navy Seal armed with more weapons than the Punisher and Batman combined, and he uses them quite a few times during the pilot.

Don’t let that make you think that he’s a brute, however. The character seems to be a testament to Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America, in his conservative mannerisms.

During the show, he addresses all the female characters as “ma’am,” says “Jeepers!” and “Gosh” in place of the familiar epithets and orders a glass of milk in a bar occupied by gangsters, all of whom he proceeds to beat up.

For the comic book geek, this show is a dream come true. Instead of filtering comic book fandom into morsels more fit for a mainstream television audience, The Middleman delivers nuggets of geekdom as corny, ridiculous, and socially adverse as we fanboys often are in real life.

Cult comic book series such as Powers, Astro City, old school X-Men, Mouse Guard, and The Flash are all referenced to.

The comic book references are all appropriate, as the show is based on a series of comic books published by Viper Comics.

The comic book series received critical acclaim and was named by the American Library Association as one of 2007’s “Great Graphic Novels for Teens.” Viper Comics provides free samples of the series on their website (www.vipercomics.com).

The satire hit home for me in a way many libertarians and Ayn Rand readers would relate to. 

It’s often noted that libertarians tend to live amongst liberals more than amongst conservatives, and as such have no doubt observed many of the eccentricities of Blue State America, which are satirized recklessly in The Middleman.

Wendy Watson’s boyfriend is a film school student who she beats up after he records himself breaking up with her for an art project, and her roommate is a clueless, blonde animal-rights activist who protests outside of French restaurants.

When Wendy’s boyfriend apologizes for the film project, claiming that it “seemed like a good idea,” Wendy retorts cleverly, “So did the Carter Administration.”

Lambasting of Jimmy Carter is indeed a rare occurrence in the mainstream media, especially in today’s political climate. Is Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the scriptwriter of The Middleman, a libertarian?

The Middleman is being broadcast on ABC Family, which may lead many to cast it aside as a kid’s show. It’s not at all, as many of the jokes I really doubt would get through to youngsters. I would argue that the Sci-Fi Channel would be a much more appropriate home for this show.

Wherever you find it, you’ll no doubt enjoy the light-hearted geekiness of The Middleman.

There's an interesting story over at NPR on the environmental group the Rainbow Family, which continually leaves masses of trash after their annual gatherings at the nation's national parks:

This morning on the BPP, we spoke to a U.S. Forest Service official who's in charge of monitoring the yearly festival of the Rainbow Family, an anti-establishment, pro-environmental group.

"I don't think we question their love of the land, which is very similar to ours," said John Twiss, our guest from the Forest Service. "I think what we question the most is the way they gather."

Twiss says the group leaves large amounts of trash and bring other problems you'd expect from gatherings of thousands and thousands of people on remote federal lands.

The Rainbow Family's own website puts it this way: "Some say we're the largest non-organization of non-members in the world. We have no leaders, and no organization."

Due to the actions of the Seattle Public Schools in invoking its race-based bussing, I learned about race at a very young age. Going from a predominantly school in North Seattle to a school in the Capitol Hill area, which was predominantly minorities, I was aggressively introduced to what race was by other students. As a result, I've thought about race relations far more than I believe most white people do. I've read Malcolm X's autobiography twice, seen the bulk of Spike Lee's films, and have immersed myself in black culture.

I didn't end up becoming a racist. Far from it. I was also bullied by white kids, and saw myself acting as a bully without realizing it immediately. Despite the conventional wisdom that we had progressed beyond racism for the most part, I kept seeing remnants of it in one of the most liberal cities in America. Over time, I came to the conclusion that racism is about as relevant as someone's hair color or their shoe size when measuring someone's character. 

This was said better than me by Ron Paul. I was skeptical of him until I saw this quote, which pushed me to vote for him: 

"Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans only as members of groups and never as individuals. Racists believe that all individual who share superficial physical characteristics are alike; as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their intense focus on race is inherently racist, because it views individuals only as members of racial groups."

Over at her blog former GOP activist and political pundit Sophia Nelson contends that it is a mistake for Republicans to "go after" Michelle Obama. She contends that to do so is to continue in "race baiting:"

If the GOP is so sorry as to have to go after a candidate's wife (wait, haven't we been here before--hmmm--Clinton. . .Hillary--ring a bell anyone???) in what will go down in history no matter what the outcome as the most historic Presidential candidate on record since we started electing Presidents in the 1780s, the Party is in more trouble than I even I had suspected.

The GOP's obsession with sticking with the tried and true of subtle race baiting is starting to annoy me. We saw the ugly specter of race baiting in the democratic primary play out over and over again and sadly, the Clinton's were at the epicenter of the racial storm. Can't the GOP (Grand Old Party) see that to win this election by scaring white voters about the prospect of having a black President and his equally intelligent ivy league educated wife as First Lady is pathetic?

I just read a pretty good article on the overlooking of the concerns of the Iraqi people by American leaders over at Reason magazine. The article's overall thesis was thus: 

In his own defense, Obama might remind us that he's accountable only to his countrymen, not to the Iraqis; that the "good government" he has talked about in his campaign applies to embittered Americans, not to Iraqis embittered by the prospect of a precipitous U.S. departure. He might even be elected on that basis. But this would show that Obama, who has sold himself as a man of vision at home, is selfishly unimaginative abroad. Worse, because it is unlikely he will be able to much alter U.S. policy in Iraq, since Iran will not cede much more to the next administration than it did to this one, Obama's promises are potentially deceitful.

For as long as American leaders don't treat Iraqis as important in their own right, the Iraqis will have no incentive to tie their long-term interests to America's wagon. Should that matter? Both realists and idealists would probably answer in the affirmative. But where does Barack Obama stand? It's hard to imagine that Iraqis see in him change they can believe in.

America shouldn't give a damn about the Iraqis

So asks Mary Battiata at The Huffington Post:

Lately I've been wondering what an Obama White House might mean for the future of bling. For the fate of heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim, the whole hip-hop gangsta fashion habit. What if January 20, 2009 turned out to be not just a cultural and clothing pivot point for adults -- a return to the minimalism of sleek, 60s-era sharkskin suits, the containment of golf-ball sized Barbara Bush costume pearls -- but a watershed fashion moment for teenaged boys? Picture it. On Inauguration Day next year, thousands and thousands of young men and boys from city street corners to suburbs, look up from their X-Boxes and catch a glimpse of the impeccable President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama climbing the steps of the Capitol and suddenly feel... unfashionable. Out of it. Old. What if they are overcome by the same stunned, something's-happening-here feeling that teenagers in the early 60s, their closets full of sock hop regalia, felt when they first laid eyes on The Beatles in 1964, on the nationally televised Ed Sullivan Show. For adults, this kind of moment is, at most, something to take note of. To a teenager, it's a gale force warning of imminent social tsunami, an urgent prod from the eyeballs and the amygdala that to everything there is a season, and now is the time to change, change, change. Ask not what you can do for your closet, but what your closet, if ignored, can do to you.