Possibly that New York Times article on the economies of China and India wasn’t so great after all. The New Republic has more. I’m going to take credit for wondering how much foreign investment has to do with the differences anyhow; NRO suggests that a lot of the apparent Chinese economic growth is simply due to the amount of foreign investment flowing into China. (Link via Electrolite.)

While I’m thinking about Volokh, here’s another National Review article he wrote recently. Executive summary: we shouldn’t worry about military discrimination based on sexual preference, because the military does so much good for us. Well. There you go.

Eugene Volokh has some thoughts on that Ninth Circuit decision. Not bad; this is more of a start. However, he fails to recognize that the states prrrrobably have the right to change their definition of militia with the times. He also doesn’t touch the question of what “bear arms” means. I’d really like to see someone quoting a contemporary usage of “bear arms” outside the military context. While I’m on the subject, here’s a Volokh article in the National Review. It doesn’t really address the Ninth Circuit decision, but it does have intelligent things to say about evolving standards. How Appealing comments on the article, somewhat snidely. Well, OK, it’s just a comment on the timeline.

The White House has approved executing US citizens as a matter of policy (original), as long as they’re working for Al Qaeda. Well, that’s interesting. The spin is that any such action will wait for Presidential approval. However, the White House is not saying that it must wait for Presidential approval — just that in practice it will. The underlying assumption is that the President has the right to authorize executions without court approval, under certain conditions. ...

William Shatner. Not likely to rival Wil Wheaton in the epic contest for coolest post-Star Trek life. Still making a valiant showing on slashdot. “It seems to me that you need to get a life.” Shatner! Master of dry humor!

True Porn Clerk Stories has ended. If you never read this, it’s worth reading. There’s nothing spectacular there; it’s just a literate intelligent writer working at a video store that does a lot of porn business, talking about her experiences. “Just,” in this case, encompasses a lot of good writing and some quietly sad stories and some really funny stories. I admire her willingness to talk about taboo issues head-on without resorting to the easy outs of mockery or condemnation.

I want to open a movie theater. That’s not a new thing; I’ve fantasized about it for a while. Not a first run theater, or even a first run art house; I want to open up a quirky little theater that shows second run movies of quality (whether that means Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys or Matrix) and retrospectives of directors and actors I like and so on. There’s no evidence this would make money, mind you. ...

I don’t really read the RPGnet forums, cause they are big and bulky and populated by flamers. (Not unlike the blogosphere.) Fortunately, people occasionally point me at the good threads. Here’s one entitled Campaigns I Have Never Run (but want to) (original), which is now up to 11 pages of weird little campaign ideas. I could just use this, and never have to come up with an original campaign idea for the rest of my life. That’s not saying much, mind you, given the rate at which I GM.

The UN weapons inspectors found their first irregularity today; a bunch of equipment tagged by previous inspectors has gone missing. This is important for a few reasons. First off, it’s evidence that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the efforts of previous inspection teams. This counters the claim that previous UN inspectors were useless or worse than useless. Second, it’s evidence that the current UN inspection teams are capable of noticing something wrong and that they aren’t tipping the Iraqis off before the inspections. These guys aren’t a rubber stamp for Saddam. Third, and probably most important, it’s evidence that Saddam is up to something. Having positive evidence one way or another — which we don’t yet, but it’s a step in that direction — beats the hell out of maybes. I’m still anti-war but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the situation to be crystal clear no matter which way the US goes.

I’m still waiting for the ideal pulp game. I’m sure Robin Laws or someone will write it eventually. In the meantime, here’s a cool d20 pulp page.