Christy Cagle e-mails the following:

A VISITORS’ GUIDE TO KNOXVILLE

1. You must learn to pronounce the city name. It is NOX-VUL.

2. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Knoxville has its own version of traffic rules….Hold on and pray. There is no such thing as a dangerous high-speed chase in Knoxville. They all drive like that.

3. All directions start with, “Go down to Kingston Pike”… which has no beginning and no end.

4. The Chamber of Commerce calls getting through traffic a “scenic drive.”

5. The morning rush hour is from 6:00 to 10:00. The evening rush hour is from 3:00 to 7:00. Friday’s rush hour starts Thursday morning.

6. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out and possibly shot. When you are the first one on the starting line, count to five when the light turns green before going to avoid getting into any cross-traffic’s way.

7. Gallaher Road can only be pronounced by a native.

8. Construction on I-40 / 75 is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment.

9. All unexplained sights are explained by the phrase, “Oh, we are in Farragut!!”

10 . If someone actually has their turn signal on, it is probably a factory defect.

11. All old ladies with blue hair in pink Cadillacs have the right of way.

12. The minimum acceptable speed on the Pellisippi Parkway is 85. Anything less is considered downright sissy.

13. The wrought iron on windows in east Knoxville isn’t ornamental.

14. Never stare at the driver of the car with the bumper sticker that says,”Keep honking. I’m reloading.” In fact, don’t honk at anyone.

15. If you are in the left lane, and only going 70 in a 60 mph zone … people are not waving when they go by.

16. The Pellisippi Parkway is our daily version of NASCAR.

17. If it’s 100 degrees, Thanksgiving must be next weekend.

18 If it’s 10 degrees and sleeting/snowing, the Dogwood Arts Festival is going on.

19.Any amusement parks, stadiums, arenas, race tracks, airports, etc. are conveniently located as far away from EVERYTHING as possible so as to allow for ample parking on grassy areas.

20.Anyone within 20 miles of Knoxville on the day of a UT home game, is certifiably crazy.

It’s funny because it’s true!

What would a world without America look like? If you want to find out, visit Sudan. Who can help?

So that leaves . . . guess who? The cowboy President, the American unilateralists, the Yankee imperialists–or, to put it another way, the only nation with the will and wallet to provide order in an otherwise Hobbesian world. However, that will and wallet are being stretched today in Iraq and elsewhere, and Mr. Bush is rightly wary of committing more American blood and treasure to a conflict in Sudan that the rest of the world doesn’t seem serious about ending in any event. One lesson of Darfur is that there really are limits to American power, and in its absence the world’s savages have freer reign.

Indeed. Read the whole thing.

I don’t think this is what America had in mind when we liberated Afghanistan:

An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told the Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country’s Islamic laws.

Prosecuter Abdul Wasi offered to drop the charges if Rahman converted back to Islam, but Rahman refused. President Karazi needs to step in - fast.

Via Impossible Scissors

UPDATE: I caught part of Bush’s speech today, and he mentioned this incident. This is promising.

As a history buff, I found this interesting:

A group of mostly white seventh and eighth graders sleepily sauntered into their school library, soon to get a surprise awakening about a part of their town’s history they never knew existed.

“Did anybody in this room know there were 60 enslaved Africans, people, human beings, buried a mile from here?” Alan Singer, a professor at Hofstra University, asked them. “Those people have been erased from history. It is as if they never existed.”

Singer and Mary Carter, a retired middle school social studies teacher, were in Oyster Bay recently to speak to the kids - part of a quest to develop a public school curriculum guide focusing on slavery’s impact in the northern U.S., specifically New York.

It’s good to see interest in showing the role slavery played in the North as well. Slavery was a crime against humanity, and treating it as only a sectional issue downplays its horror.

Yes, Tennessee’s men’s basketball season came to an end with a disheartening 80-73 loss to Witchita State. Of course it was disappointing, but this season won’t be remembered for today. It will be remembered as the year Tennessee men’s basketball turned the corner. Who could possibly have imagined that a team who lost its two top scorers from a 14-17 season the previous year would win 22 games, the SEC East, be ranked in the top 10, make the NCAA tournament, get a #2 seed, and make it to the second round, along the way sweeping Florida, Vandy and Georgia, winning at Rupp Arena, and beating Texas? Not I.

The future is indeed bright for the Vols. Opinari sums it up best:

I loved watching this team. I loved listening to the coach. I loved the publicity we got all season. I loved being proud to wear my orange and white during the winter months and not just because of the Lady Vols.

Next season we will be in the preseason NIT, showcasing a wiser group of kids, and integrating perhaps the Vols’ best freshman class since Ernie and Bernie. Will we win 22 again? Will we go deeper in the tournament? I believe so. I believe this basketball team will go as far as chemistry and effort will take them. And with a few more shots falling, and a little luck, maybe we’ll show up in Atlanta for the Final Four, and not just because we happen to have tickets.

It’s good to dream in March, and know you’re not just hallucinating. Heh.

Go Vols, and thanks for a terrific run.

Basketball season isn’t over yet for Vol fans. The Lady Vols take to the hardwood today against Army. Good luck, ladies! You’ve made us proud all season (and dozens of seasons before), and I know you will continue to do so!

Via Stop the ACLU

Smokey VIII, Tennessee’s mascot from 1995 through 2003, has died. The Vols compiled a 91-22 record during his tenure, including two SEC championships and a national title. Smokey IX currently serves as UT’s mascot, the latest in the line of Smokeys dating back to 1953.

A glowing article about Tennessee from ESPN? Will miracles never cease?

There is much to like about this sports-crazed school — the local area code is VOL — but my favorite is the way Tennessee names just about all the campus streets after someone. Tooling across campus is like driving through Volunteers history. There’s Neyland Drive and Johnny Majors Drive and Peyton Manning Pass and Chamique Holdsclaw Drive and Todd Helton Drive and Phillip Fulmer Way (which, I can only assume, will be downgraded to Fulmer Alley should the Volunteers lose to Vandy again).

And, of course, there is Pat Head Summitt Street, which really ought to be an interstate.

Read the whole thing. Otherwise, you’ll miss tales of conceptions at Neyland Stadium and tips for drinking moonshine.

I never tire of Thomas Sowell. His column today is outstanding as always:

Academic freedom is the freedom to do academic things — teach chemistry or accounting the way you think chemistry or accounting should be taught. It is also freedom to engage in the political activities of other citizens — on their own time, outside the classroom — without being fired.

Nowhere else do people think that it is OK to engage in politics instead of doing the job for which they are being paid. When you hire a plumber to fix a leak, you don’t want to find your home being flooded while he whiles away the hours talking about Congressional elections or foreign policy.

It doesn’t matter whether his political opinions are good, bad, or indifferent if he is being paid to do a different job.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Walter Williams on the whole “he shouldn’t be taping lectures” argument:

I’ve taught economics for 37 years. I encourage students to record my lectures. Moreover, I tell them that the class deals with positive economics and if they hear me make a statement appearing to be an opinion, without saying so, they are to raise their hands and say, “Professor Williams, we didn’t take this class to be indoctrinated with your personal opinions passed off as economic theory; that’s academic dishonesty.” I also tell them that if I ever preface a comment with, “In my opinion,” they can stop taking notes because my opinion is irrelevant to economic theory.

My distinguished state Senator Tommy Kilby (D) wants to ban the sale of violent video games (via Professor Reynolds:

Add Tennessee to the list of states considering gaming legislation. Last week, Democratic Senator Tommy Kilby filed SB3981, which would make it illegal to sell or rent an “extremely violent video game” in the state of Tennessee.

The bill defines the phrase “extremely violent video game” as “a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being,” with a number of clauses specifying that a game would have to be patently offensive to prevailing community standards, among other things, to be considered extremely violent.

The law also takes into account whether or not the virtual victim is an authority figure, whether the victim is conscious of the abuse taking place, and whether the player of the game intends to inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering on the virtual victim.

What a joke. Senator Kilby needs to read the Constitution.

You’ve probably heard that the P&O, the United Arab Emirates company that was poised to take over six port terminals, has backed down. Following a 62-2 committee vote to block the deal, the company concluded that it simply had no chance, and handed the ports over to an American company.

Frankly, I can’t recall ever being this disgusted with the actions of our elected officials. Following 9/11, President Bush declared that the world was “either with us or with the terrorists.” The UAE went out of its way to be with us. No less an authority than General Tommy Franks praised their efforts and declared the port deal safe. Yet apparently the Hillary Clintons and Peter Kings of the world know more about national security than Gen. Franks.

The American public opposed the port deal, which is understandable. Most everyone had the initial reaction that it was a bad deal. This would have been a good time for our elected officials to step in and explain that the company was a legitimate company, that the UAE was our closest ally in the Arab world, and that said company would have no responsibility for security. I’d expect Democrats to exploit the situation; they’d never miss a chance to run to the right of Bush on national security, even if it means embracing racism. The Republicans - with at least one exception - also exploited the situation. Both parties fanned the flames of mass hysteria instead of trying to defuse them. That’s not leadership. That’s demagoguery.

So what happens now? We may well have lost out best friend in the Arab world. You simply can’t kick someone in the teeth and expect help from them. And the UAE is in a good position to retaliate. As Professor Drezner points out, the UAE has big time Boeing contracts they could cancel. They could also demand our troops leave their country (not likely, but possible). All this because Congress couldn’t resist exploiting our fears - and igniting racist passion. The next time someone spouts off about Bush alienating allies, remember this.

For years, Usama bin Laden and his ilk have railed about how Americans will never respect or trust Arabs. Then our Congress goes and proves him right, in the process angering our Arab friends and potentially turning millions of moderate Muslims against us. What an effective strategy for winning the War on Terror.

Congratulations are in order for the Lady Vols, who defeated LSU today to win the SEC tournament. Pat Summitt has proven yet again she is the greatest women’s basketball coach of all-time, and quite possibly the best ever basketball coach, period.

I also want to recognize the men’s team, who defeated arch-rival Vandy yesterday for their 21st win of the year. The Vols were picked to finish fifth (out of six) in the SEC East, yet finished first. At the beginning of the year, Vol fans wondered if the Vols would reach .500 and get an NIT bid. Now, they’re in a strong position to get a third or fourth seed.

Tennessee is very fortunate to have two great individuals, Pat Summitt and Bruce Pearl, at the helms of our basketball programs. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to go to a game this season.

Yes, this stuff happens in Knoxville, too:

A Knoxville firefighter claims she’s being discriminated against because she used to be a man.

Fire Capt. Jamie Faucon has filed a grievance against Knoxville Fire Chief Carlos Perez and her supervisor, Mark Foulkes.

She accuses them of depriving her of a take-home car, of reassigning her and cutting out her overtime because she is a transgendered firefighter.

Faucon also says in her grievance Foulkes used incorrect gender terms when referring to her in conversations.

She says she never thought she would wind up in a situation like this but the actions that allegedly took place earlier this week left her with no other choice.

Faucon had surgery to change from male to female in March 2005. Before making the change, she says she spoke with several city officials and her co-workers were supportive.

Faucon’s personal data change form notes her gender change was entered into the system in May 2005.

America is not a democracy, and neither should Iraq be. Also, what can Switzerland teach us? Dr. Walter Williams has the answers.

The UT/Kentucky game always produces fun stories like this.

Mitsubishi Motors sponsored a poll of its readers to determine the wackiest street names in America. Tennessee made the list.. Twice! The top ten went something like this (via Sukhmani Singh Khalsa):

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Tenn.

9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.

8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.

7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.

6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.

5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston

4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.

3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)

2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.

1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

Via Say Uncle, try this survival quiz. I scored a 10 out of 17, meaning I survived but am “badly injured or maimed for life.”

Still worried about the UAE/port situation? Try worrying about this:

Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday’s New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa. This is taking the obsession that U.S. universities have with promoting diversity a bit too far.

Something is very wrong at our elite universities. Last week Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard when it became clear he would lose a no-confidence vote held by politically correct faculty members furious at his efforts to allow ROTC on campus, his opposition to a drive to have Harvard divest itself of corporate investments in Israel, and his efforts to make professors work harder. Now Yale is giving a first-class education to an erstwhile high official in one of the most evil regimes of the latter half of the 20th century–the government that harbored the terrorists who attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001.

“In some ways,” Mr. Rahmatullah told the New York Times. “I’m the luckiest person in the world. I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead I ended up at Yale.” One of the courses he has taken is called Terrorism-Past, Present and Future.

Read the whole thing. It is at once hilarious and horrifying.

The more I hear about the UAE port deal, the more it seems like a non-story. Sure, when I first heard, I had the knee-jerk reaction that it was bad policy. Who in their right mind would outsource port security to a Middle Eastern regime? Then I learned that nothing of the such was happening.

Some further research led me to find nothing really substantive about the opposing arguments. Basically, as far as I can tell, those who are angry are angry because the United Arab Emirates is an Arab country (Most - Bob Krumm being an exception - won’t admit this.). That alone isn’t enough to convince me the policy is bad. I say this as someone who has argued in favor of strict border enforcement and defended profiling. I have nothing against giving the UAE company closer scrutiny - I’m all for it. But refusing to do business with Arabs because they’re Arabs does not strike me as a good way to win the war on terror. It is also worth noting that P&O hires local labor (read: Americans) and has no responsibility for port security. The Longshoremen and Coast Guard handle that, just like they always have.

The UAE ties to terror are pretty tenuous. Yes, it’s true that two 9/11 hijackers came from that country. It’s also true that the attack plans were made in Germany. Shoe bomber Richard Reid hailed from Great Britain. Jihad John Walker Lindh called California home. Get where I’m going with this? People who believe in individualism over collectivism, well, believe in judging individuals on their own merit, not what other like them do. The UAE isn’t perfect, but it is one of the most open and Westernized countries in the Arab world. Winning the war on terror requires us to cultivate such nations. Refusing to do business with them doesn’t seem like an effective strategy for this.

The argument that Americans should run American ports is a good argument - if you don’t believe in free trade. If you do, it’s necessary to recognize that foreign companies are going to do business in America, just as American companies do business abroad. Either you believe in free trade, or you don’t. Or you favor total nationalization of our ports, which is a different argument and is irrelevant to the issue at hand. Ultimately, P&O wants to make money. Do you think smuggling terrorists or weapons into its client nation is a good way to do this?

Politically, this will damage Bush. Everyone agrees it’s bad politically. But does that make it bad policy? I say no. This won’t stop politicians from taking advantage of the situation, though. I received a press release from the Van Hilleary campaign which contained plenty of Van-isms. One quote: “How do we expect Americans to take the War on Terror seriously… when leaders in Washington are turning over control of several of our seaports… to the enemy?” When did the UAE become “the enemy”? I though Islamofacists were the enemy? Van by far isn’t the only one (see Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, et al.), but he’s the only one who sent me a press release (twice, actually).

In the meantime, if anyone has any evidence of P&O ties to terrorism, I certainly want to hear it. I am completely prepared to change my view if additional evidence surfaces. Until then, I stand behind my belief that this whole thing is a non-story.

Elsewhere: Glenn Reynolds, Opinion Journal, Outside the Beltway, Jay Bush and Mansoor Ijaz