Tuesday Reading

Begin the work week (What? You didn't take Presidents Day off?) with Fred Fry's Maritime Monday 149 at gCaptain.com. Fred covers an Icelandic port which most of us have never heard of before and a whole lot more to get you into the nautical mood for the week.

Armchair Generalist has a device for killing bugs. Bio-hazard, terrorist type bugs. For mail rooms everywhere.

Jane peeks under the curtain in Yemen and finds -terrorist financing schemes involving drugs and guns.

In an important post, Betsy Newmark looks at the "liberal" desire to control free speech by going after content:

Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. "It's all about diversity in media," says a House Energy staffer, familiar with the meetings. "Does one radio station or one station group control four of the five most powerful outlets in one community? Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."

Waxman being old Henry Waxman, the representative of the People's Republic of Hollywood/Beverly Hills. Odd how he hasn't shown much interest in making sure Hollywood movies reflect "both sides" of political issues . . . Waxman is a dangerous man to our freedoms.

Is it gloom or just facts, when here, Barry Ritholtz pounds the "silver lining" investment crowd. Reality bites. Read the comments, too. A positive outlook on the "stimulus bill?". Maybe. But...read the comments.

"Saturn" at Bosphorus Navy News (a site devoted to the Turkish Navy), asks an interesting question about the Gulf of Aden pirates:

Are the pirates changing their tactics in face of increasing naval forces? Are they targeting ships of the companies that have already paid ransom once?

Chap has a note about historical replications perhaps not being true to life.

North Korea - it just keeps the pot boiling, and our State Department provides some fuel:

On the other hand, the Obama national security team clearly puts negotiations at the top of its options list for any crisis. With that in mind, it's no surprise that Mrs. Clinton would adopt a fairly mild tone toward North Korea, believing that the U.S. can "talk" Pyongyang out of the test, and keep the Six Party process on track.

Clearly, Kim Jong-il welcomes that sort of thinking, seeing another opportunity to press the U.S. for even more economic and political "carrots." That's one reason that he's pushing ahead with preparations for the TD-2 test, which could easily occur within the next month.

In fairness, the Obama Administration's approach to North Korea is not dissimilar to that of the Bush Administration. As we've noted in previous posts, the previous crew at Foggy Bottom went to great lengths to excuse and overlook Pyongyang's efforts at stalling and duplicity after agreeing to the Six Party deal two years ago. It's the sort of behavior that encourages further misbehavior by the North Koreans.

More at One Free Korea, positing a possible U.S. missile shoot down . . .

A collection of submarine collision posts at The Sub Report. Sometimes the odds are that something will happen that the odds are against. Even you could win the lottery.

Not to make you paranoid, but see here - your cell phone tells where (and maybe who) you are. Which might be problem for certain jobs.

Stteljaw says farewell to the Vikings. All I know is that from plane guard station, they were quiet.

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson: Obama Irony.

I think he just scratched the surface.