Tuesday's links and comments

Our kitchen is almost done so I'll attempt to post more regularly.

If you read no other opinion piece today read Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus.

For all the talk of a Democrat takeover of Congress, I've seen several articles like this one which lead me to believe the Senate will not change more than one seat either way.

Party insiders wonder if Menendez can survive

With all 435 House seats being decided in November any thing can happen, but when you hear talk of a rising anti-incumbency movement remember this; people talking about throwing the bums out are usually referring to the bums in other districts not their Representative.

On the same track, David Hogberg has an article in The American Spectator examining each of the competitive senate races this year. Personally, I think Hogberg is being overly pessimistic in his assessment of several races.

Here is some good news for Republicans for future elections.

PHOENIX (AP) -- A federal judge yesterday refused to block a law that requires Arizona voters to present identification before casting ballots.

Anything that reduces vote fraud hurts Democrat chances.

James B. Meigs who is editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics wrote an op-ed piece regarding his magazine efforts to refute the "Conspiracy Cranks" who deny that 9/11 happened the way it did.

On Feb. 7, 2005, I became a member of the Bush/Halliburton/Zionist/CIA/New World Order/Illuminati conspiracy for world domination. That day, Popular Mechanics, the magazine I edit, hit newsstands with a story debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. Within hours, the online community of 9/11 conspiracy buffs - which calls itself the "9/11 Truth Movement" - was aflame with wild fantasies about me, my staff and the article we had published. Conspiracy Web sites labeled Popular Mechanics a "CIA front organization" and compared us to Nazis and war criminals.

For a 104-year-old magazine about science, technology, home improvement and car maintenance, this was pretty extreme stuff. What had we done to provoke such outrage?

Research.

Victor Davis Hanson asks Is the Western Way of War Dead?

In the world of sports, the National Football League's opening weekend concluded with two games last night. I'm glad I wasn't blogging this past week because I might have accidentally posted a positive prediction for the Browns. Defensively, they held they're own. Offensively, they seemed clueless. As Terry Pluto of the Akron Beacon Journal wrote yesterday:

This morning, Browns coach Romeo Crennel needs to sit down with his offensive coordinator and ask this question -- just what was the game plan Sunday? It's easy to pick on the guy calling the plays, and it can lead to some unfair criticism. But not in the case of Maurice Carthon, considering what happened in the Browns' 19-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints Sunday.

Too many times, the Browns' offense appeared confused, disorganized and ill-prepared. There were costly, silly penalties. There were wasted timeouts. There were moments when the players were pointing at the opposition, then pointing at each other. Not only were the fans wondering what the team was doing, that also appeared to be the case with the players.

Due to Fall little league baseball commitments I only saw the first half, but from what I saw the offense seemed hamstrung by the play calling.