CHANGING WINDOWS FROM A TORTOISE TO A HARE
Windows can be as slow as a tortoise. You try all the tricks in the book, but your computer still crawls along. During some computing sessions, things sort of limp along, but in others, you can barely get the mouse to move.
Defragmenting the hard drive, uninstalling programs you don't use, closing applications you aren't using - all seem to have at least a temporary effect, but sooner or later, your PC just goes back to its old, slow ways.
It turns out that there are a bunch of things in Windows itself - especially in Windows XP, now the dominant version of the operating system in the marketplace - that actually hamper performance.
But it also turns out there's a quick fix that'll change your PC from a tortoise to a hare.
NO MORE EXCUSES FOR MEXICO
Why do Mexicans only have one-third the per capita income (on a purchasing power parity basis) of Canadians and only one-fourth that of Americans?
The answer is that Mexicans are relatively poor because have been plagued by semidespotic regimes that have ignored the rule of law and often engaged in destructive economic policies.
Mexicans have been free of their Spanish colonial masters for almost 200 years (almost as long as their American neighbors and far longer than Canadians have enjoyed independence).
Mexico has a better growing climate than Canada, and it is rich in natural resources -- oil, gas, and metals.
Yet Mexican politicians frequently resort to blaming their northern neighbor for their economic woes but would not dare answer the question: "If the U.S. were as poor as Mexico, would Mexico be better off or worse off?"THE PRISON DREAM TEAM
Will Mary McCarthy and Dana Priest end up sharing a jail cell?
The CIA announced Friday it has fired a senior analyst for leaking classified information to the news media.
After she failed a polygraph examination, Mary McCarthy confessed to leaking to Dana Priest of the Washington Post information about secret CIA prisons for al Qaeda bigwigs. Earlier this month, Ms. Priest was awarded a Pulitzer prize for her reporting on the secret prisons.
Prison is where they both could end up.WHAT BUSH CAN DO TO GET CHEAPER GAS
The front page headline in the Washington Post explained it all: Bush Calls For Probe Of Raising Gas Prices (April 26).
Here is the absolutely perfect opportunity, with the whole country outraged at gas prices above $3 a gallon, to explain to America exactly how Democrats have blocked every single possible effort to increase oil production and reduce gas prices - and Bush calls for price-fixing investigations of US oil companies.
It's easy to understand why a politician will opt for demagoguery when the truth is against him. But to opt for it instead of the truth when the truth is on your side - that takes political incompetence to a whole new dimension.
Rather than stupidly demagogue Big Oil, Bush could actually solve the problem of increasingly expensive gasoline. Here's how.THE REAL CIA
[First a note on OBL, as so many of you have asked: how can the Bin Laden audio tape be real when I said he died last December? Two comments. Why do we never get to see this guy? Why is there never a video like with Zawahiri or Zarqawi? It's much easier to fake audio than video. Yet the bottom line now is I don't know. My sources in Iran are very - very - well placed. They all swear OBL died early December 2005, and tell me they have been to his grave site. They are mystified by this tape and doubt it's for real. But they are checking, and I'll let you know what they know. ---ML]
You just don't get it, but it's all so obvious. I mean, we had to do something, so I set it up."
I had finally gotten through via my broken-down ouija board to my old friend, the late James Jesus Angleton, for many years the head of CIA's counterintelligence operations, and I had asked him about the Mary McCarthy story. I had expected him to be furious at the discovery that a CIA officer was meeting with Washington journalists, contrary to agency policy.
ML: Huh? What's that supposed to mean? You telling me you're responsible for setting up McCarthy's conversations with Dana Priest? You've been dead for a long time, how could you manage that from, uh, where you're at?FOR LIBERALS, IT’S NEVER TERRORISM IF AMERICA IS ATTACKED
Ever so often, the America-hating depravity of liberals is exposed with breathtaking clarity. Normally, they try to hide their embarrassment at being an American. Or they'll get angrily defensive. "Are you questioning my patriotism?" they'll intimidatingly ask. To which the answer is: "I would if you had any patriotism to question."
They fudge and smudge over the fact that they are always on the side of America's enemies. They always blame America for any problem in the world, and root for America to lose in any conflict.
What they hide best is their secret admiration for Osama Bin Laden. They know how many Americans would like to tar and feather them if they admitted they were thrilled that a guy in a beard and turban living in an Afghan cave destroyed the world's tallest buildings in America's greatest city, killed thousands on American soil, and humbled the Great Superpower in the eyes of the world.
So liberals keep this to themselves. Once in a while, though, one of them exposes himself and reveals the ugliness of his soul.
Like a fellow named Richard Marshall did in an email to me this week.
WHY IS AFRICA SO STUPID?
Endless wars, bottomless corruption, disease, tyranny and dictatorship seem standard operating procedure for Africa. Out of the over 50 nation-states on the continent, one can point to the mild success story here and there - but these are exceptions to Africa's being the bottom of humanity's barrel.
What is going on here? Why can't Africa get its act together? Billions upon billions of foreign aid dollars have been poured into the place, nothing ever works. Democracy and free markets rarely catch on. Paleolithic poverty seems hard-wired into Africa. How come?
Here's the blunt truth: Africans, on the whole, are stupider than folks in other parts of the world.
REVOLTING GENERALS
In every army, there are (a few) Grants and (many) McClellans. The key to success in war is to find and promote the Grants. Keep this in mind as you examine what Time magazine calls the "Revolt of the Generals."
Six retired Army and Marine generals have called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. There are about 4,700 retired flag officers. For every general speaking out against Secretary Rumsfeld, there are more than 780 who are not.
The generals speaking out may have reasons other than patriotism for doing so. Gen. Zinni is flogging a book. MajGen. John Riggs was busted a grade and forced to retire because of a procurement scandal. MajGen. Eaton oversaw the rebuilding of the Iraqi army in 2003-2004, when everyone now agrees this was a disaster.
THE TORTURE OF TIBET
[To The Point salutes the courageous Chinese lady, Wenyi Wang, who publicly denounced Communist oppression in China to Hu Jintao at the White House yesterday, April 20.
Hu Jintao governed Tibet for several years, brutally tyrannizing the Tibetan people. One of those Tibetans is Phuntsog Nyidron, who tells her story here. For information on how to help liberate Tibet, go to FreeTibet.org. ---JW]
I was 19 years old when I made the protest that resulted in my imprisonment for 15 years. It happened in 1989, when my country, Tibet, was under martial law.
Together with a group of fellow Tibetan nuns, I went to the Barkhor area of central Lhasa, and we shouted, 'Long live the Dalai Lama!' and 'Free Tibet.' We had been inspired by the news that His Holiness the Dalai Lama had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, and we wanted to make a statement of our continued loyalty to him.
I did not experience freedom again until I was finally released to the care of the D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet last month on March 15.
On my arrival in Washington, I was told the Chinese government had apparently allowed me to go to the U.S. to help ensure a smooth and successful visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who meets President Bush.FORGET YOUR RIDE—PIMP YOUR WEB SERVICE
When it comes to the Web, dedicated search engines that only, well, search are out. These days, the focus is one-stop shopping-with a Web service.
The recipe is simple: Start by combining all kinds of search capability-general Web, desktop, image, and whatever else-in one spot. Stir in a bunch of free services like news, weather, and mapping.
Garnish with a generous supply of customization options-let users design their own homepages, drop the components they don't want and add the ones they do, and more. Make it available for free and, voila!-an all-inclusive Web service, cooked to order.
In an attempt to win over the multi-tasking masses, two new services are doing exactly that. Windows Live (which is still in Beta) and Google Desktop 4 offer many of the same features, but each has a unique look and different packaging.