Call It a Lockbox

Now here's a great idea. Hijack a term from Algore but -- and here's the twist -- use it correctly!

It’s obvious when you think about it. When your payroll tax dollars go into your own personal account — which you can invest in private markets, and in which you have heritable property rights — that account is a lockbox. Government can’t spend the money in there, because it’s yours, and you’ve invested it.

Egyptian Paper Uses the T Word

The times they are a changin' in Egypt, too. Scroll down a little ways into this from the Big Pharaoh:

Someone hit me now. Someone punch me in the face because I still cannot believe what I read today on the front page of Al Ahram newspaper. They published a picture of an Iraqi man rescuing a young girl right after a motorcycle suicide bombing in Iraq. The caption under the photo went like this: Iraqi man helps young girl after a terrorist attack in Azamiyah in Iraq.

My jaws dropped when I read this caption. This is the FIRST time Al Ahram, Egypt’s largest newspaper, uses the word terrorist to describe an attack on Iraqi civilians in Iraq!!! It never happened before. Such attacks were simply described as “bombings” without the word “terrorist”.

And Now, a Musical Interlude

A coworker forwards a Flash animation which is a very nice integration of music and visuals, set to Coltrane's Giant Steps.

Bolton Nominated to UN

How about some good UN news for a change? President Bush has nominated John Bolton as ambassador to the UN. Bolton wrote the letter to Kofi Annan explaining that the US would not be part of the International Criminal Court. He is, in fact, a critic of the UN and a hawk on Korea and Iran.

How good a choice is he? Consider this Reuter's statement:

"Several officials from U.N. Security Council member states expressed astonishment that Bush would name someone they believed had a known antipathy towards the United Nations."

Props to the White House. Watch the Democrats scream on this one.

Update:

Frank. J. Gaffney, Jr. on NRO agrees.

President Bush is responding to these tough times at the U.N. with a bit of tough love. His selection of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations signals a call for systemic change, not merely superficial behavior modification.