Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

THE SCARIEST TSUNAMI VIDEO YET?

Update 4/23/11 - A friend e-mailed me this video which is a new one to me.  It shows the huge tsunammi wave making it's way across farmland, plus a lot more.

 Gizmodo (HT: Allahpundit) describes the video below:

We've seen a lot of scary videos of this month's deadly Japanese earthquake and tsunami — but nothing like this. Watch as the waves ravage the port of Kesennuma, destroying everything in it's path.

First watch as the tsunami begins by tossing cars around like toys at the port parking lot — and then watch how terrifyingly fast the rest of the city becomes enveloped in water. In the end, only a couple of buildings survive.

 

"JIHAD" AND THE "TRUE ISLAM" IS A MOOT POINT

The redoubtable Andrew C. McCarthy clears the air once again. He writes:

[...] Since I wrote my last book, The Grand Jihad, and participated in the recently released “Team B-II” study called “Sharia: The Threat to America,” I’ve heard a good deal of criticism along the lines of “Sharia doesn’t really say what he claims it says,” or “Some scholars offer a different, moderate interpretation,” etc. I humbly submit that this misses the point. I went out of my way in

HUGE "OBAMA-STYLE" UPSET IN JAPANESE ELECTIONS

For many of us, events in Japan rarely penetrate our radar screens, but Matt Gurney's discussion of recent elections should capture our attention.  He writes:

Prime Minister-designate Yukio Hatoyama stands in stark contrast with his LDP predecessors. He considers himself a reformer, views capitalism with skepticism, wants to reform the mighty Japanese civil service, and seeks new relationships with America and Japan's Asian neighbors. During the short campaign, Hatoyama received veritable rock star treatment, and was at times surrounded by cheering supporters, an unheard of phenomenon in staid Japanese politics. With his calls for optimism, change, and reform, he has become something of a Japanese Obama, and young voters have enthusiastically rallied to his side. . .

With Japanese voters concerned about the stagnating economy, Hatoyama has found a convenient culprit to energize the public: free-market capitalism. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, for instance, Hatoyama railed against “unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism” and blamed the recent economic crisis on “American-style” free-market economics.    [Read the whole thing. . .]