:: PROLEGOMENA ::

:: Monday, December 29 ::

QUAKEY POLICY

The Earthquake in Iran, no matter what the death toll - a few thousand to the widely reported estimate of 40 thousand, only throws me back to the Paso Robles quake a week ago which killed two. Two.

The people of that region have had some seven thousand years to learn to not build deathtraps for houses. It will be interesting to figure out what lead to such abandonment of precaution.

Do we blame Islam? Is this the failure to embrace technology that is so characteristic in the Muslim world? Or is this corrupt government not giving a care to resurrect the building codes of the ancient Persians, whose excavated streets exhibit grids and uniformity in wall construction? Perhaps the Mullahs are content to have forty thousand less to feed.

This article in the Guardian offers some insight to the inaction since Iran's mega-deadly quake.

Within Iran the recriminations have started. The reformist Al-Sharq newspaper said that it was wrong to blame 'nature' for the catastrophe. 'Nature is not violent, it is man that makes himself vulnerable by not observing the rule of nature,' an editorial said, drawing attention to the country's widely flouted construction laws.

Many point out that recommendations made by a series of high-profile inquiries following the 1990 earthquake in north-west Iran have gone unimplemented. Others stress that the disaster could have been much worse. A recent survey by Japanese specialists found that a major earthquake hitting Tehran itself would cause half a million casualties.

I asked these questions with the usual prejudices in my head: images of the Muslim world living in deserts and dust. However, this page of Iran photos surprised the hell out of me. I cannot wait for the Iranian democracy movement to succeed.

NO JEWS NEED GIVE AID

And this is why the mullahs must go. Reminiscent of the time donations of blood from Israel were rejected so Palestinians could die instead of having Jew blood, we get the following (entirely predictable) declaration from Iran's current leadership:

Government spokesmen said foreign aid workers would not need entry visas and that aid would be welcome from everywhere but Israel. In a televised address, President Mohammad Khatami urged on rescue efforts, thanked nations that sent aid and said he was preparing to leave for Bam.

:: michael Monday, December 29, 2003 [+] ::
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NO WONDER I TOOK A BREAK

So I went to San Francisco to get away and wine and dine for nine days, the trip beginning with the confiscation of my corkscrew at the Asheville airport. I ended up skipping mystical wine country and drank Stella Artois the whole time instead, staying in an apartment in hippie central, the Haight-Ashbury. Just for kicks on the last day, I bought the only Wall Street Journal for sale on the whole length of Haight Street after an hour's search.

It was a pleasure to not look at the news or the internet for the rest of that time, with the exception of looking over the shoulder of an N-Judah commuter and seeing the headline announcing Gore's endorsement of Dean - ouch. It was a good laugh. I saw one lonely Kucinich sign in a Judah Street window.

On display at the SF Museum of Modern Art were the photos of Diane Arbus, known commonly as a photographer of freaks (a description she hated and contested), and was saddened at the reminder of her suicide in 1971. If only she were alive today to cover the 2004 Democratic candidates.

The news of Howard Dean's belief in Jesus Christ and the increased references to scripture that are sure to follow will likely mirror Jimmy "Best Ex-President" Carter's path of faith. Dean's specific naming of Jesus surprised me in the wake of a Gore endorsement. It was Gore who referred to his own faith as a "religious tradition" - theological chicken shit from the would-be President who can hypnotize chickens.

And where is Wesley Clark's faith? Did Madonna not consult him on Jesus Christ when he sought her insights? Did Madonna deny Christ? He has faith - that's fer sure... how else would one believe that it was Bill Clinton, three years into a Bush Presidency that has toppled two terror-sponsoring regimes, who actually managed to warm the heart of Muammar Qadhafi without a shot fired?

:: michael Friday, December 26, 2003 [+] ::
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BLOGGED OUT

Taking a break for a couple of weeks.
Besides, now that Wesley Clark has consulted with Madonna, we can all rest that we are on a road to a better America.

Click the links to your left, especially Israpundit, in the meantime.

:: michael Wednesday, December 03, 2003 [+] ::
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FINDINGS WERE "TOO CONTROVERSIAL"

So under the rug goes the European Union's latest brilliant findings:

A study backed by the European Union on the rise of anti-Semitism has been shelved after officials decided that its findings were "too controversial".

The 112-page survey, commissioned by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia based in Austria, found that many anti-Semitic incidents were carried out by Muslim and pro-Palestinian groups.

Is it any damned wonder we have had to fight and win their wars for them for the past century?

:: michael Sunday, November 23, 2003 [+] ::
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MORE THOUGHTS ON THAT STATUE-PULLING

The leftie at Claireified says the right thing about the Trafalgar reenactment of Fardus Square.

I also can't help but feel like this mocks a time-honored act of liberation. Usually a statue that gets knocked down is one that some tyrannical dictator put in the middle of town square to celebrate himself and intimidate the little people. It is usually a glorious moment -- a "ha, take that Mr. I'm all made of bronze and think I'm so great. I'm not afraid of you anymore." Would anyone think it cool to replace famous flag raising moments, like Iwo Jima or India's liberation, with made up, fake flags ... sheesh...

But seriously, why build a statue to tear it down? That's what effigies are for, easy-to-make, stuffed sheets with black magic marker saying who it's supposed be. No muss, no fuss. What do they do with that statue now

She's absolutely right about what statue-pullings are for, and what they did is far more than raising a flag to set it on fire. Their contempt for that moment in Iraqi history was more like putting on blackface to entertain an audience of African Americans.

LA Times cartoonist Ramirez recently took the famous Vietnam execution photo image and changed it to "Politics" executing the President on a street in Baghdad. That, however, was was not offensive. It did not mock a sacred moment in the history of an oppressed people.

again, via Karol at Spot On

:: michael Saturday, November 22, 2003 [+] ::
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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Those who can never win elections, always take to the streets. Street politics enables them to escape debate on complex issues that cannot be reduced to a few simplistic slogans."
-Amir Taheri, on London's protesters, in a richly informative essay at National Review

via Karol at Spot On

:: michael Friday, November 21, 2003 [+] ::
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BALLS

Which of you would have had the courage to hold a pro-Bush sign amid the crowd in front of Downing Street yesterday?

...
In a numbers game reminiscent of the Million Man and Million Mom Marches, the government count of protesters in London is 70,000 while the protesters claim double. Will they sue Scotland Yard for a greater number like Louis Farrakhan threatened to do to the Park Service? Hell, even Clinton left DC during Farrakhan's march.

Amnesty International displayed its true colors in support of those imprisoned at Guantanamo by dressing up as the enemy combatants who were picked up on the battlefield. This brings back the days when Amnesty's website was all over the situation in Gitmo but had very little to say about the September 11 attacks - almost nothing to say, actually, in comparison to their fixation on our prisoners, except for the solutionless slogan, "Justice not Revenge."

...
After the revelation that actual spying was going on there, via Muslim chaplains, has anyone thought that might suggest they are exactly the enemy we say they are? Why would the enemy want to spring them if they weren't with the enemy? If they were ordinary Muslims they would just be down the list to blow up after the Islamists are done in Istanbul.

Now that depends on your definition of ordinary. Let's go back to Nigeria for riots reminiscent of the Miss World Pageant. Then it was an insult to Mohammed (PBUH) on the op-ed page of the Lagos daily. This week, it was a single Christian student who was rumored to have insulted the Prophet. Since he evidently wasn't disciplined by the university with a good necklacing (Where is UNC Chancellor Moeser when you need him?), they have torched thirteen churches, plus stores and other buildings after looting them. No word yet on whether ordinary Muslims in India will again follow the Nigerian lead and murder dozens of Hindus.

:: michael Friday, November 21, 2003 [+] ::
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PROTEST IN LONDON

In what may be a mocking reenactment of the April 9 toppling of Saddam Hussein's 20ft statue in Fardus Square,

organizers say the rally, which will culminate in the toppling of an 18ft effigy of Mr Bush in Trafalgar Square, will be Britain's largest weekday protest.

Clever, but not really.

Of course, the case is made by some that the statue-toppling in Fardus Square was staged for the international media, pointing to the sparse crowd present. Why these people think that a huge crowd would be out on the streets during an invasion points to their faulty thinking.

The only case that can be made today is that the enemy America fights is one that only wants to steal and kill and destroy, as demonstrated, again, in Istanbul. These protesters oppose the men who fight that enemy, an enemy that beyond any shadow of a doubt kills its own people in its own territory.

Trafalgar Square, the pigeon shit capital of the world, is in that way a fitting gathering place for these people. But history is what is represented at that square, a fact that will be missed, or dismissed, by the 150,000 who will rally. With their contempt for history's lessons and for doing what is right, what is really stopping them from pulling down Lord Nelson as well? Too much work, perhaps. In exposing themselves as showmen for the international media, these were the human shields who fled Baghdad when the Baathists wanted them to make their stand in dangerous places.

:: michael Thursday, November 20, 2003 [+] ::
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AN AMERICAN IN LONDON

Watching the predictable protesters in London, you see, again, a very nice contrast between the President and the unruly people who oppose him.

Enough was said on that subject - the real left - when the feminists opposed the war in Afghanistan and when the head-up-its-ass Queers for Palestine banded together.

Now, right now actually as I write, as the left in England bitches about the cost of extra security, the President is praising the exercise of free speech there in London, and noting that free speech is now happening in Baghdad as well.

Of course, the left's leadership could help curb extra spending on security if they didn't encourage such huge demonstrations with their exaggerations and by turning the defintions of words and the meanings of actions upside down.

But I am still taken back to President Bush's inaugural parade, the protesters, particularly the environmental protesters, waving such signs as the policy-inspiring "Bush is a Moron" and "Hey Cheney - I'm hot for your lesbian daughter!" They dropped them on the ground and walked away for the extra forces paid by the taxpayers to clean up after them.

London is going to have a lot of extra rubbish this week as well.

:: michael Wednesday, November 19, 2003 [+] ::
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A LORD HAW-HAW FOR THE NEW CENTURY

Since Paris seems to award an honorary citizenship only every thirty years or so, perhaps John Muhammed won't get the honor, unless the Mayor of London would choose to follow Paris' lead.

He is of the mind to do it, saying something like this:

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen".

And this:

Mr Livingstone recalled a visit at Easter to California, where he was denounced for an attack he had made on what he called "the most corrupt and racist American administration in over 80 years". He said: "Some US journalist came up to me and said: 'How can you say this about President Bush?' Well, I think what I said then was quite mild. I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction."

Mr Livingstone, who is holding a "peace party" for anti-war groups in City Hall tomorrow, added: "I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush."

His drag name, by the way, is Carol Moseley Braun.

It is speech such as this that makes one think poor Elizabeth Windsor - what is the point of being a monarch if you cannot have someone like this beheaded? Livingstone's actions are not simply the product of free expression and opinion because it's his right. He is deliberately misinforming the masses, encouraging them to protest and exhaust England's police resources in the process. Further, with North Korea and China peddling nuclear material, with unstable Pakistan having already repeatedly tested the Islamic bomb near India's borders, Iran's clear nuclear ambitions, and the Muslim leadership of the world awarding standing ovations to speeches calling for the eradication - not of Israel - but of the Jews in general, it is clear the mind of the Bush-hating left will overturn the definition of any word and the meaning of any action in the modern-day version of yelling, "BARABBAS!"

The aims of the east to annihilate itself, particularly in the Iran-Iraq war, and the seemingly imminent Pakistan-India war, threaten far more life in the most populous region of the world than an even twisted argument could make of the aims of George Bush. Perhaps Livingstone projects his own racism while he downgrades the value of life in Asia.

:: michael Tuesday, November 18, 2003 [+] ::
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OUR FAILURE IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM

It's just what Dick Gephardt's been saying:

"U.S. Court to Arraign al-Qaida Suspects"


:: michael Monday, November 17, 2003 [+] ::
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THE NEXT HONORARY CITIZEN OF PARIS

John Allen Muhammad is officially guilty of capital murder. For his literal terrorism of the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area, I would bet all that the sentence will be execution.

France, which just officially began to address the rising tide of anti-semitism within its borders with the formation of a new committee, will need to doctor this seeming self-contradiction with a swift repeat of honoring Muhammed as they did when convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal was named an honorary citizen of Paris in October.

:: michael Monday, November 17, 2003 [+] ::
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TOPIC OF THE MORNING

I woke up thinking I would catch up on Iraq this morning, and ended up reading about breast feeding.

Dennis Prager mulls over not breast feeding, actually, but the current mentality surrounding it. I didn't know that there was a war currently against bottle feeding. Prager, as usual, sees the human condition within:

In much of the West, the well educated have been taught to believe that they can know nothing and that they can draw no independent conclusions about truth, unless they cite a study and "experts" have affirmed it.

"Studies show" is to the modern secular college graduate what "Scripture says" is to the religious fundamentalist.

A second explanation is the God-like status of health in the secular West. As G. K. Chesterton foretold a hundred years ago, when people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. When people stop worshipping God, they begin worshipping many gods. Health, for example. In the name of Health, condoms are given out to high school students. In the name of Health, many parents would rather their teenager cheat on tests than smoke. And in the name of Health, women are pressured into breast-feeding.

Such are my thoughts when they come to peacemongers and anti-racism zealots. I have watched people in my own church overturn their Messiah in order to march against the hateful bigot Franklin Graham for doing his job as an Evangelical Christian minister. Never mind that Graham's charity benefits Muslims, he wouldn't deny the God he believes in.

:: michael Tuesday, November 11, 2003 [+] ::
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STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY

A blog inspired by Karol at Spot On.

"Well, he shouldn't have said those things. I think all Americans - and this is a joke! - all Americans, even if they're from the South and 'stupid,' should be represented"

I do not believe that Clark was calling all Southerners stupid.

However, Clark has with this remark proven himself an utter failure at diplomacy and why he should not be allowed to address other nations as a head of state.

He has given his opposition some powerful ammunition, and very likely has lost most of the South for the Democratic Party. Reminders of Clark's Little Rock origins will serve as reminders of another (in)famous Democrat's Little Rock origins.

This Democrat general also ignores that the South is always overrepresented in the US military, which will show for him the same disdain deserved by General Eric Black-berets-for-everyone Shinseki.

For all the jokes we've heard about Bush's malapropos, the worst example I have heard so far is from the time he called the People of Pakistan "Pakis". Compared to Clark, that is a big, big difference.

:: michael Monday, November 10, 2003 [+] ::
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STAMP OUT

I got sent an alarmist e-mail about a US postage stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday, a list of "Muslim" atrocities, and of course a call to boycott.

However, the writing contradicts what the President has been saying since 9-11, that ordinary Muslims are not responsible for the actions of the Islamists. This weekend's bombing in Riyadh seems to back that up. The Postal Service, given effective pressure to stop printing this stamp, may also elect to stop printing Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa stamps while pretending to run under the thought-vacant umbrella for separation of church and state.

If the President is correct in his recent Reaganesque speech that Islam is compatible with democracy, then we should not give productive American Muslim citizens the idea that democracy does not want them.

Still, there is something very wrong with that religion. You can add many, many events to that list (state-sanctioned persecution of Christians in Muslims countries, mass killings in Nigeria to protest the op-ed page, mass killings of Hindus in India to protest the Nigerian op-ed page, the 1972 Olympic slaughter of Israeli athletes, the alarming number of “honor killings” within Muslim families in England, the dancing in the streets by ordinary Muslims after 9-11, and Palestinian streets named after suicide bombers). Anyone remember the 2002 boycott of Starbucks by American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice? It was their response to Starbucks' CEO denouncing the rise of anti-semitism. Religion of peace, my ass.

Further, the now-retired Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad received a standing ovation at the 57-nation Islamic conference after he ranted about how the Jews control the world and how Muslims should arm themselves to defeat that enemy. We also know that something is wrong with that religion given how fiercely liberals (like Paul Krugman) have run to its defense.

In this country, a better alternative to boycotting a stamp is for Christians to continue the work of reaching out to Muslims and working, prayerfully, to convert them. -Don’t think that can happen? Ask the underground Christians in Mecca.

:: michael Monday, November 10, 2003 [+] ::
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SIXTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

What do you know about Kristallnacht?

:: michael Sunday, November 09, 2003 [+] ::
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CAN THEY DO THIS WITH MUSLIM EXTREMISTS?

Saudi Arabia has reportedly imposed strict border checks to enforce a ban on the export of sand.

:: michael Friday, November 07, 2003 [+] ::
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FORGOTTEN FIRE AT FREDDY'S

Remember the much-forwarded e-mail story about Hillary Clinton playing a significant role in defending Black Panthers accused of torturing and murdering Alex Rackley? It's false. The newer version claims Paul Harvey featured it on "The Rest of the Story," which is even more false.

What's so frustrating here is how true stories with even more power get forgotten. This February 2000 WSJ article about Al Sharpton and the massacre at Jewish-owned Freddy's Fashion Mart needs get circulated instead:

Mr. Sharpton is best-known for the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which he insisted that a 15-year-old black girl had been abducted and raped by a band of white men practicing Irish Republican Army rituals. In fact she had made up the story to protect herself from her violent stepfather.

But at Freddy's, Mr. Sharpton was even more malevolent. He turned a landlord-tenant dispute between the Jewish owner of Freddy's and a black subtenant into a theater of hatred. Picketers from Mr. Sharpton's National Action Network, sometimes joined by "the Rev." himself, marched daily outside the store, screaming about "bloodsucking Jews" and "Jew bastards" and threatening to burn the building down.

After weeks of increasingly violent rhetoric, one of the protesters, Roland Smith, took Mr. Sharpton's words about ousting the "white interloper" to heart. He ran into the store shouting, "It's on!" He shot and wounded three whites and a Pakistani, whom he apparently mistook for a Jew. Then he set the fire, which killed five Hispanics, one Guyanese and one African-American--a security guard whom protesters had taunted as a "cracker lover." Smith then fatally shot himself.

At least it was a diverse massacre.


:: michael Thursday, November 06, 2003 [+] ::
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Senator Joe Biden just asked Imus, "How the hell are we better off if we've got France and Germany and Russia giving us trouble?" that's a good question. I was passing through the room and do not know the context, but by itself, the Democrat asked a good one.

The positive answer exists, however, in the allies known as Britain, Australia, Israel, Poland, Spain, and the six other European nations who signed their names with us. The actions of these nations, plus others, are what a leaked Democratic memo continues to call "unilateral." This has gone way beyond not understanding the word's meaning. These people know exactly what it means.

This refusal to think was also on show in last night's Democratic debate. For saying he wants "to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," Howard Dean was saying, "It's the economy, stupid." In other words, Dean has not written off the redneck vote, he believes they can be persuaded. Of course, the other candidates, too intimidated by the anti-racism-indoctrinated student body before them, continue to demand his apology. If I were a Democrat, I would admire Dean.

The former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards, walked forward, spoke in his best Southern accent, and denounced Dean's divisive language as well as denouncing him for coming down from up north and telling us Southerners what to do. So much for undivisive language.

:: michael Wednesday, November 05, 2003 [+] ::
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So there was another left-right debate over conservative pressure to cancel "The Reagans" on CBS. On Fox this morning, the woman on the right sat silently while the man on the left ranted on about how the right complains about every little thing and complained all through the 90's. He actually sited Filegate and Travelgate - two events involving illegal acts and rights violations, as examples of when conservatives whined. She called him a window to the Democratic soul. Indeed.

She had a chance, however, to say where conservatives agreed with the left during the 90's, and here is a list of it. I don't know who put this list together - many people could have. But these quotes are worth remembering:

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to
develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That
is our bottom line."
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We
want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction program."
- President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal
here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear,
chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest
security
threat we face."
- Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times
since 1983." S
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S.
Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate,
air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to
the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction
programs."
- Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John
Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass
destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he
has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass
destruction and palaces for his cronies."
- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999

"There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has invigorated his weapons
programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs
continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam
continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a
licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten
the United
States and our allies."
- Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others,
December 5, 2001

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a
threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the
mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction
and the means of delivering them."
- Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical
weapons throughout his country."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to
deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in
power."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing
weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are
confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and
biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to
build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence
reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."
- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority
to use force-- if necessary-- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe
that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real
and
grave threat to our security."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively
to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the
next five years .. We also should remember we have always underestimated
the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every
significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his
chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has
refused to do" Rep.
- Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that
Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weap ons
stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has
also
given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members
.. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will
continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare,
and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam
Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for
the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal,
murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a
particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to
miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his
continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction
.. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real
..."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003

:: michael Tuesday, November 04, 2003 [+] ::
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I THOUGHT WE WERE A BUNCH OF RACISTS DOWN HERE

Census: Blacks migrating to South in record numbers

Oh. I see. We were.

A strong economy and vastly improved race relations are luring record numbers of black Americans to the South, a region that many deserted early in the 20th century.

However - and I love this report - the Northeast was the only region that had a net loss in each category of racial minority. HA! Do the race theory claques throughout Northeast academe approve of the move? Are the movers the "right kind of black"? Or will those schools become even more obsessed with what white man is doing wrong to drive out the minorities?
:: michael Friday, October 31, 2003 [+] ::
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THIS IS NEWS?

U.S. says WMD went from Iraq to Syria

I thought we knew this in January, when aerial/satellite photos caught convoys going to Syria. We have known for some time that the heavily guarded Bekaa Valley is Saddam's likely self-storage. Really, l do not understand this administration sometimes. I am well aware of the importance of protecting information to protect informants, but this is not, and never was, the case here. Satellites are not NOC's.

Anyone remember when the Israeli drone filmed the Palestinians faking the massacre at Jenin? They released that footage immediately.

:: michael Thursday, October 30, 2003 [+] ::
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THE NEXT ROSS PEROT

Not turned on since Meet the Press, the TV was still on NBC this morning, and just in time for a Today Show interview with Wesley Clark. Like the psychiatrist whose patient wore plastic wrap, I can clearly see he's nuts.

"We need to go after Osama bin Ladin," he declared in a brilliant alternative to attacking states like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Saddam's Iraq, or the Syria which stores Saddam's convoy of weapons in the Bekaa Valley. Clark rambled that hitting states instead of terrorists was plain wrong. It seems that he cannot recognize state-sponsored terrorism, or he is willing to do away with that very important distinction for the sake of sound bite. This makes him either the worst sort of leader, or the worst sort of politician.

:: michael Wednesday, October 29, 2003 [+] ::
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STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY

The Democrats are going to help fund an Ed Schultz radio show to compete with the Rush Limbaugh Show...

"The Democrats are getting the tar beat out of them constantly by Limbaugh and Hannity, and they feel they don't have a platform," Schultz said. "There's this conservative mantra that's being jammed down the throats of the American people, and the other side of the story is not being told."

At last someone feels my pain. First, the tobacco companies bound and dragged me off to a dimly lit room to jam cigarettes into my mouth (but I fought them away). Then for years the evil EIB network has been locking me into a room and forcing me to hear Rush's voice, the way they made those chimpanzees watch violence on film in 28 Days Later.

They feel they don't have a platform? Por quoi? Because bashing a President who is adamant about fighting a global terror network is something you cannot stand on? Because flying to Mexico to claim that Mexican illegal aliens in America are being terrorized indicates a serious vocabulary problem? Because flying to Baghdad to side with Saddam Hussein is tantamount to treason? Because condemning a general for calling the terrorists "Satanic" is a clue of whose team you are rooting for?

:: michael Tuesday, October 28, 2003 [+] ::
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The Rumsfeld memo was read aloud yesterday by Tim Russert to Colin Powell. It was the first time I had seen it. His excellent question was, paraphrased, "Are we killing the terrorists faster than they are reproducing?" In his exact remark, he questioned the productivity of the madrasses along with the training camps and other recruiters.

Is it any wonder he showed up at the podium last week with a dictionary? Not only does the press need that, they need a course in reading comprehension. The Islamic schools need to be watched and watched ever more closely, as do their funders. It is important that he sites the madrassas in the memo. It reminded me of the one near DC.

Also in great need of a dictionary is U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who finds it appropriate to tell Mexico that Americans are terrorizing illegal immigrants. Is anyone thinking of Bonior and McDermott's fact-finding mission to Baghdad? But that is the new role of the Democratic party, to go abroad and talk badly about America, even if what they do amounts to treason.

:: michael Monday, October 27, 2003 [+] ::
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FINAL FLIGHT

There were only sixteen of them built, and I likely would never fly one for the expense, but the end of commercial Concorde flights feels like a step backwards. At least the cancellation is for economic reasons and not because a bunch of environmental crybabies won an argument with an end-is-near-because-of-16-Concordes claim.

I remember the frst time I saw one. I was touring Chiswick House, west of London, built in 1729. Through the front east window in late afternoon, I was admiring a heavily detailed capital atop a front porch column, and a Concorde flew into view. It made a very good photo, combining western achievement and, ironically, two things that would outlive their usefulness.

:: michael Friday, October 24, 2003 [+] ::
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AND WITHOUT SLAUGHTERING INFIDELS...

Two-thirds of Americans believe they are going to heaven.

This article, while reporting a little of the complete obvious, still is a good survey of what Americans think about the most important of personal questions. Ministers will find much of the information instructive, especially when it comes to some of the liberalism within beliefs which by definition are being contradicted.

:: michael Friday, October 24, 2003 [+] ::
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HA!

For once, I beat Taranto to it.
He adds a very clever analogy, though: "The New York Times does provide one synonym, referring to "a procedure that doctors call intact dilation and extraction but critics call partial-birth abortion." But "intact dilation" is just a clinical way of saying "partial birth"; the Times' formulation is the equivalent of saying "a condition that doctors call melanoma but critics call skin cancer."

:: michael Thursday, October 23, 2003 [+] ::
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THE PARTIAL BAN MOVES FORWARD

Rather, NPR just reported that the Senate has voted in favor of "what critics call" partial birth abortion.

"what critics call"

However, NPR's word for the procedure was not in the report. They broadcast a sound bite from a Republican making a sensible argument, and then another from a Democrat dismissing the argument as "political."

"political" -Now that's about the emptiest argument one can give. Of course there are politics involved, good politics, but the Democrat is afraid to acknowledge that the debate is about right and wrong.

Anyway, "what critics call" partial-birth abortion is actually "mostly-born abortion". Study this diagram of "what neutral people call" the procedure and find a way to not call it wrong.

Add to that the 1996 testimony before Congress that the aborted feel great pain in spite of the anesthesia. There it is. Of course anyone with an agenda can misrepresent it, as NPR did this morning, but what the hell is anesthesia for in the first place?

If it is not yet human, even with legs and torso outside the body, even with a brain to suck out with only the head still inside the mother, what is the anesthesia for, if it is not yet alive?

:: michael Wednesday, October 22, 2003 [+] ::
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TEXAS STRAIGHT-TALK, DEFINITELY NOT A TWO-STEP

Would the man who sued to become president, the winner of the popular vote in 2000, have ever gone to the face of a Muslim head-of-state and told him he was wrong?

The face to face rebuke came after US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice attacked the speech as 'reprehensible'.

Dr Mahathir, attending his last major summit ahead of retirement on Oct 31, has not commented on his exchange with Mr Bush, but he continued to fire salvos against the West yesterday.

What was that word? - wrong? Not very diplomatic, there, President Bush.

Did you say it in his language? Sala, Mahathir! Sala! Sala! Sala!

But be careful, Madeleine Albright, Clinton's Secretary of State who didn't even know she was Jewish, has been blasting your foreign policy in France. The French, armed with her rhetoric, may just launch a pre-emptive strike (it's OK for France to do that) and tell you... you're wrong! What are you going to say then?

:: michael Tuesday, October 21, 2003 [+] ::
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SEMI-STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY

Not this:

Deputy TSA Administrator Stephen McHale said Monday's court action "makes clear that renegade acts to probe airport security for whatever reason will not be tolerated, pure and simple.''

But this:

"Amateur testing of our systems do not show us in any way our flaws,'' McHale said. "We know where the vulnerabilities are and we are testing them ... This does not help.''

Then what exactly did it show you, Mr. McHale? Why are you testing the vulnerabilities you know of when you should be solving the vulnerabilities you know of? Again, we will handle any box cutter-wielding nutjob in the cabin, a la Todd Beamer. You get the damn plastic explosive detection machines online, screen the airport employees, screen the checked luggage, and teach your airport security people that no one can actually hijack the plane with GI Joe's rifle.

I wonder, when Nathaniel Heatwole first e-mailed his intentions to test the system, was he given this warning?

:: michael Monday, October 20, 2003 [+] ::
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A LITTLE BIT TESTY

So this kid from a Quaker college in Greensboro, NC warns the government that he will sneak illegal materials onto planes to expose holes in security.
And he does what he said he would do.

Government prosecutors still were trying to determine what charges they might bring against Nathaniel T. Heatwole. The 20-year-old student had warned officials he would try to bring forbidden articles onto commercial flights to expose holes in security, an official said.

Indeed what might they charge the student who exposed much of the farce that airport security still is? They should punish him, or every smart-aleck student will make a sport of grounding planes, increasing delays, and causing the annoying re-screening of passengers, and the confiscation of GI Joe's 2-inch plastic rifle.

But here's the truth we still have to live with:

The aviation security system has undergone enormous changes since the Sept. 11 attacks, in which 19 hijackers used box cutters to take over four planes. Gaps remain, however. Government officials acknowledge X-ray machines can miss plastic explosives and box cutters. Airport workers who have access to planes are not screened, nor is much of the cargo that goes aboard commercial flights.

Yeah, great changes. Scrutinized hip replacements and special searches of little Jimmy's Beanie Baby bag. They actually looked under my wristwatch.

It's up to the passengers. Mohammed Atta and friends did not just use box cutters, they used the passengers' belief that if they did as the were told, all would be well. But Todd Beamer had a cell phone and the latest news.

Americans are no longer going to move to the back of the Airbus, so it's up to security to screen what lies beneath.

:: michael Monday, October 20, 2003 [+] ::
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MEMO TO MUHATHIR: YOU JUST CAN'T SPIN THAT

AP reporter Patrick McDowell implies, perhaps accidentally, that the Malaysian leader was simply Dan Quayle siting Murphy Brown as an example.
Read my post at Israpundit.

:: michael Friday, October 17, 2003 [+] ::
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THE PROOF: RELIGION OF PEACE, MY ASS

NO- THE NEW STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY, WEEK .... YEAR!

Someone tell Michael Moore he won't get the prize.

The President of Malaysia just told the world what a complete failure and farce is the religion of peace. Speaking to the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, he was not representing or speaking just for those who have hijacked Islam, he was speaking for Islam.

With his own numbers he acknowleges that this tiny race of people, down six million in World War II, with six million left (his numbers), has what it takes to hold down 1.3 billion Muslims. Of course they cannot do it by themselves, but the Jooooooz possess the power to control the rest of the world enough to control the rest of the world.

Mahathir Mohamad, who rules Malaysia in the shadows of two of the tallest buildings in the world, said Muslims for years believed mistakenly that Islam rejected new technology and progress.

They evidently have a motivation problem as well. In spite of their efforts to continue the circulation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and even turning it into an Egyptian TV show, they have had the Jews' own diabolical plan for over a century, while they believe that the people with a plan to conquer the world would actually be dumb enough to publish their plan. Now how could the Muslims think that anybody could be that dumb.. hmmm?

:: michael Thursday, October 16, 2003 [+] ::
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STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY, WEEK? - (but not the year!)

"In his campaign, Bush had said he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and a national missile defence," Clinton said. "I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden."

So if he knew that, why didn't Clinton during his second term....?
Oh. Nevermind. If that bastard Ken Starr had backed off and let Clinton get his job.
Done, I mean.

But seriously, it's just better to ask why Osama bin Laden was still our biggest security problem at the end of his eight-year Presidency.

It won't be long before Al Gore claims he said this to Bush first. Plus, it brings back the old joke, "How do you know when Clinton is lying?" I wonder what Michael Moore thought our biggest security problem was when Clinton allegedly said this to Bush.

:: michael Thursday, October 16, 2003 [+] ::
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FRENCH MUMIA

The funny thing about watching the world every day and making a big effort to to be mega-informed is how you still miss some very big things the other bloggers got.

So... Paris made convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal an honorary citizen. In what is obviously a protest against American capital punishment - murder in the eyes of the French - they have honored a murderer.

Old Europe, indeed. How do you yell "Barabbas!" in French?


KILLING TERRI

In another example of missing a huge, and in this case a years-long story, a friend pointed this out to me last night. Guest blogger Doug is repulsed by another kind of state-sanctioned killing.

The more I think about the case of Terri Schiavo, the more disgusted I become. How any sane, rational person can conclude that by taking away her only means of nutrition it is justice is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Those who say this is a right to die case are just plain wrong. Right-to-die cases are about people whose death is imminent due to illness or injury. This woman is not ill. She does not have a life-threatening disease. She is horribly brain-damaged, but she will not die as a result of her condition. She is going to die, because the man who pledge to love her in sickness and in health would prefer to starve her to death than continue caring for her.

What probably galls me the most is that he is completely unwilling to allow her parents to take over custody of their daughter and her care. It would seem to me that he'd be happy to be free of the responsibility, so he could then get on with his life guilt-free. As much as it pains me to think this, my gut feeling is that he's afraid she'll rehabilitate enough to be able to communicate something that he doesn't want known. Why else would he stop them from caring for her? Why would he care if she lives another 25, 35 or 50 years if he's no longer footing the bills or visiting her?

The judge in all of this is no saint either. Why not allow an attempt to spoon feed the woman? What if she proved that she can eat? Why is that no even an option? Does he not understand the concepts of 'death by natural causes' versus 'death by starvation?' To take it many steps futher, is the judge ruling that those who cannot feed themselves have no right to life? Isn't that how every one of us comes into this world?

In no way am I arguing that I think Terry Schiavo has a high quality of life or could possibly be rehabilitated to the point where she might have one. All I am saying is that she has a right to live, and I wouldn't want to be the judge or the husband come Judgement Day. I only pray that Governor Jeb Bush has the strength of conviction to do what only he might be able to do: stop the state-sponsored murder of Terry Schiavo.

-posted by Doug M.

According to the article linked just above, Governor Bush has begun to act. The Christian Broadcasting Network, unsurprisingly on the story, posts this interview at its website. From this in the interview, if it is true, then somebody is definitely going to hell:

GORDON ROBERTSON: I hate to call it this way, but I think I have to. Isn’t this really murder? Aren’t we having a court-appointed guardian for financial self-interest reasons wanting his former wife or current wife to die?

WESLEY SMITH: Well, he certainly wants her to die, but we can’t call it murder, because the judge has approved it. But I think we do need to take a look at the facts of this case. He promised a jury when he sued for medical malpractice that he’d provide her rehabilitation. Since the money was put in the bank, not one hour, not one minute, not one second of rehabilitation has been given to this woman. She’s been forced to just lay in a bed for 10 years. Within two months of the money in the bank, he put a do-not-resuscitate order on her chart. He started to deny her medical treatment, such as antibiotics for an infection. He got engaged. He’s had one baby with his fiancée. I understand they’re pregnant with a second child. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term "till death do us part," doesn’t it?

For the husband, and then for the judge and other like-minded people, no example betters this for the need for spiritual training, for the tests given by God like the ones Joseph endured in Egypt, for the belief that this life will not matter once finished compared to the rewards of Heaven, and for that matter, even the eventual rewards while still in this life.

I must agree this is about killing her to get her out of the way. There's even a website - how about that? http://www.terrisfight.org/

:: michael Thursday, October 16, 2003 [+] ::
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BITCHSLAP IN BEANTOWN

A hilarious picture show posted today at Allah is in the House.

:: michael Tuesday, October 14, 2003 [+] ::
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THEY SAY WE FAKED THE MOON LANDING

China pulls plug on live broadcast of manned space launch.

Are they trying to avoid this bad publicity?

:: michael Tuesday, October 14, 2003 [+] ::
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FATWA FOR BEGINNERS

I'll bet you've never read one. Click here for a death warrant issued by the Shari'ah Court of the UK. Yes, that's the United Kingdom.

Several of you will say you've seen such hate in America, in Separatist Church literature and Klan pamphlets. However, Kodak, Tennessee Jew-haters and white trash in white sheets aren't stealing planes and flying them into buildings. Nor are they affecting the sensibilities of a fifth of the world's population.


PEOPLE OF THE BOOK UNITE!

The fatwa quotes something those who repeat the religion-of-peace mantra repeatedly overlook.

"O Believers, do not take Jews and Christians as an alliance, they are only allies to each other, and whosoever allies with them, he is one of them, and Allah does not guide the oppressors." [EMQ Surah Ma'idah, 5: 51-52]

MUSLIM ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY

Do they amputate a limb, or kick them out of the Madrassa?

And for those who go to fight, remember that the Prophet (saw) forbade for Muslims to point a small knife at another Muslim even as a joke, he (saw) said:

"Whoever points a small knife or piece of metal jokingly towards his Muslim brother, the angels will curse him and he will never smell paradise."

-via a Lapides Israpundit post - Fred's comments are cool, too
:: michael Tuesday, October 14, 2003 [+] ::
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This weekend saw the first anniversary of the bombing in Bali, and also of my learning of Indymedia. It brought to mind a whacko article posted at Indymedia which explained the whole thing:

Mossad Bombs Kill Almost 200 in Bali Tourist Nightspot
by Dean Bates 6:39am Sun Oct 13 '02 (Modified on 5:56pm Mon Oct 14 '02)

BALI, Indonesia (Sun Oct 13, 2002) – Mossad Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight in a Israeli staged terror attack, killing at least 182 people, many of them Australians.

The Saturday night blasts, which where a mossad terror operation followed persistent reports that mossad was operating in the area. After the massive peace rally in Australia yesterday these mossad operations where put into high gear in a deadly way. Mossad terror network operations are trying to draw the western world into war for Israeli and U.S conquest.
Police said the dead included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, but declined to speculate on who might be responsible.

Indymedia describes itself as "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, objective, and passionate tellings of the truth." The article was quickly pulled from indymedia.org, but remains posted at indy sites at Chapel Hill (unsurprisingly), Jakarta, and even Sydney.

...
Friday's headlines reported a current, and truly American, example of placing the blame where it doesn't go:
Family Sues NFL After Daughter Injured By Drunken Fan

:: michael Monday, October 13, 2003 [+] ::
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THE KIM JONG-IL SCHOOL OF TALKING POINTS

The Palestinians have threatened the US:

If Israel is allowed to continue construction, "this will mean the end of the two-state solution, and that will take us to either a more drastic and radical solution or perpetual conflict. It should be looked at that seriously," Palestinian U.N. envoy Nasser al-Kidwa said.

Er - that two-state solution was a non-solution, as evidenced by the Palestinians' wholesale rejection of the two-state solution, also known as the Second Intifada. The fence, the threat-to-peace-of-the-moment, is an enormous statement about the suicide bombers and where they come from. Perhaps if the Palestinians didn't dance in the streets and pass out candy after each Islamakazi attack, (and then name those streets after the "martyrs") the world might be less convinced about where the suicide bombers actually come from.

"A more drastic and radical solution"? What - send in all the suicide bombers at one time? Five armies lined up along the 1967 borders wasn't enough against Israel. Or are they suggesting a different drastic measure, like, say, forcing the Israelis to put them out of their misery?

Other alumni from the talking points school:
Nelson Mandela: "The U.S.A. Is a Threat to World Peace" (news flash, Mr. Mandela, we don't have world peace.)

Jimmy Carter: "The peace [attacking Iraq] establishes must be a clear improvement over what exists" (What is your definition of improvement, Mr. Carter?)

Allah: "Those to whom We have given the Book, and who recite it as it ought to be read, truly believe in it; those who disbelieve it shall be the losers."

:: michael Saturday, October 11, 2003 [+] ::
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IGNOBEL PEACE PRIZES

The world is excited by the rumor that the Pope will receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize. However, the media reports it is specifically for his opposition to the US-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. This headline, "Pope mooted for Nobel Peace Prize," was a bit amusing. Pardon me for playing Bill Safire here, but moot is an odd verb for nominating, ya think?

On the other hand, moot is a good word to have in the same sentence with "Nobel Peace Prize." Here's a headline to to support that: "Peres Says Arafat Deserved Nobel Peace Prize"

Arafat, he said, broke ground by publicly recognizing Israel, declaring he would "go out of terror to the domain of negotiations" and saying a Palestinian state should be formed in the West Bank and Gaza rather than inside Israeli territory.

Well, then, the winning's in the words. Clinton may get his prize yet.

In other lands, the shamefully underpublicized movement for democracy in Iran will get a little attention via the award to female Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi for her work fighting for democracy and the rights of women and children. She is the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive the prize.

She is not in good company, however. Let's go back to Say-the-right-thing Arafat, with a few lines plucked from James Taranto:
1. The official TV station of his Palestinian Authority broadcast a sermon by a Gaza imam who declared that "the United States will remain our primary enemy" and added: "O God, help our kinfolk in Iraq defeat their enemy."
2. Speaking for Arafat, the Lebanon commander of Arafat's Fatah faction, explained Arafat's call to stop suicide bombings as not condemning the bombings themselves, but rather the killing of innocent civilians and organized Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people.
3. While Arafat has amassed a personal fortune of about $1.3 billion, and keeps tight control over it, with little accountability a study for the United States Agency for International Development is finds that malnutrition among Palestinian children in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip increased substantially during the conflict with Israel.
4. (July 2002) Fatah's military wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement in which it threatened "to strike at Zionist and American interests and installations" in Israel and throughout the world if the United States maintains its opposition to Arafat.
5. (June 2002) Yasser Arafat declared Saturday that if Israel doesn't meet his demands and withdraw completely from disputed territories, "the whole region will witness a disastrous explosion that will impact not only the region but the stability of the whole world."

:: michael Friday, October 10, 2003 [+] ::
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DADDY - WHY'D THAT TIGER DRAG THAT MAN OFF THE STAGE?

Having learned nothing from the recent stage, a grizzly lover, along with his lover, got eaten alive by the subject of his love. The camera recorded only the sound of the attacks, and was found with the lens cap still on, indicating a near-miss loss of the joke, "What's a redneck's last words?" -this guy was from Malibu.

When my redneck friend Jerry and I went to Alaska two years ago, we went with a gun. Even then, the Alaskans laughed at the Colt .45, and we were advised to chisel off the site so it would hurt less when the bear shoved it up our ass. A .44 was better, they insisted.

The camera recorded what may have been a withdrawal of the grizzly lover's previous quotes:
"I think they've been misunderstood."
"We are the dangerous ones."
"I would never ever kill a bear in defense of my own life."

I wonder - had he lived, would he have gone back to the grizzlies like the animal rights activist who survived being gored by one of the bulls of Pamplona?

In other unsurprising news, Siegfried and Roy say the show will go on. I thought it would, and strongly suspect they have had a plan for this all along. It would be smart to address the what-if's, especially in a business that employs around 250 people and is nothing without the men who are the name. It's different with these tiger-tamers, I think they have been wary and prepared all along to restart the show if the risk they took didn't turn out to be too costly.

Did you notice however, the flood of reports that the show's employees needed to print their resumes and the numerous calls for retiring the tigers? It brings to mind the Manhattan way of not rebuilding.

The undeniable ferociousness of these creatures also takes me to the Animal Liberation Front, and its release in August of 10,000 minks from a Washington farm. Among the 9000 that were recaptured, cannibalism became rampant. If they are not placed back with their original litter, they will eat each other. Maybe we should put the activists in the cages with them.

:: michael Thursday, October 09, 2003 [+] ::
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LEAKY VOCABULARY LESSON

Bill Safire, famous for more than calling Hillary Clinton "a congenital liar," wrote an amusing what's-what for October 6. you have to register with the NYT, but it's easy and so far has not caused any trouble. I had to read this definition three times. It's one of those words you know the meaning of until you read what it means.

•counterleak (now we're getting sophisticated) is an anonymous source's passing of a charge of someone else's leaking to a reporter, who sees a conspiracy in the exposure of the original, possibly authorized, leak.

:: michael Wednesday, October 08, 2003 [+] ::
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CENSORING OLIVER CASTRO

Drudge links to this report that Oliver Stone was upset by HBO's decision to pull his documentary, "Comandante".

HBO co-produced the 90-minute film, but the cable channel pulled the documentary in May after Castro had three hijackers executed and imprisoned some 70 dissidents. Stone was asked to return to Cuba to reinterview the longstanding Cuban president.

It can be presumed that Stone's documentary put Castro in a favorable light, and HBO seems to understand its viewers better than Stone. Perhaps he should have teamed up with Michael Moore to blame those executions on the NRA. At the very least he could have learned to selectively edit the re-interview with Castro. "The reason ordinary rural Cuban houses have no windows is because they fear American drive-by shooting culture."

HBO's decision followed an event in late April, our ambassador to the UN walking out after Cuba got elected to the Human Rights Commission. To clarify, the same Cuba that took less than a month to execute the Havana ferry hijackers by firing squad, the same Cuba where Amnesty International for more than a year considered treatment of imprisoned Taliban at Guantanamo a priority, and the same Human Rights Commission that has had China, Syria, and Libya as members while the US was voted out.

Perhaps, Stone, who complained in an Arab country about being censored in the US, should pack up Alec Baldwin and move in with Robert Altman.

:: michael Tuesday, October 07, 2003 [+] ::
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DID YOU MISS DIRTY TRICKS THURSDAY?

Most of us know about the October Surprise, and we are very accustomed to dirty tricks shortly before an election (think DUI records). However, I never knew there was a name for the day. Jill Stewart writes about Dirty Tricks Thursday, Schwarzeneggar's Anita Hills, and something very, very ugly that the LA Times knows about about California's seemingly mousy governor.

Some politicos dub the Thursday before a big election "Dirty Tricks Thursday." That's the best day for an opponent to unload his bag of filth against another candidate, getting maximum headlines, while giving his stunned opponent no time to credibly investigate or respond to the charges.

It creates a Black Friday, where the candidate spends a precious business day right before the election desperately investigating the accusations, before facing a weekend in which reporters only care about further accusations that invariably spill out of the woodwork.

A RUNNING MATE FOR HILLARY

Hillary Clinton's recent public surprise at Chinese censorship of her memoir strongly suggested she is the perfect running mate for John Duped-by-a-dope Kerry, who has famously complained that our underintellegent president misled him. However, Jill Stewart's description of Gray Davis' in-office behavior throws us back to those much talked-about Little Rock lamp throwings.

Since at least 1997, the Times has been sitting on information that Gov. Gray Davis is an "office batterer" who has attacked female members of his staff, thrown objects at subservients and launched into red-faced fits, screaming the f-word until staffers cower.

... ... ...

He so violently shoved his loyal, 62-year-old secretary out of a doorway that she suffered a breakdown and refused to ever work in the same room with him. She worked at home, in an arrangement with state officials, then worked in a separate area where she was promised Davis would not go. She finally transferred to another job, desperate to avoid him.

The institutional bias that Stewart convincingly describes leaves me wondering, what do these media people want? As empty as so much idealism is, there still has to be at least a little want there. If they truly do not care at all for that which they say they march, then why bother marching?

:: michael Monday, October 06, 2003 [+] ::
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YAKYAKYAKYAK

Rush Limbaugh's explanation, that his comments were aimed at the media, are perfectly acceptable. Thinking people knew what he meant before the explanation, and only thinking people know what he meant after. It was a far touchier remark than Dusty Baker's comments about how darker-skinned people can take the heat, but the media (the same confidential source-obsessed media that wants to expose Bob Novak's confidential source) did the same damned thing with Colin Powell.

There are interesting non-Clinton-parallels in the Schwarzeneggar apology, especially in that he apologized. I haven't, and probably won't read the details of the six accusers, but women who see superstar athletes in their hotel rooms at 2am come to mind. If anything, Arnold's recent near-scandal is a history lesson about the 1970's, and reminiscent of a DUI record that surfaced four days before Al Gore sued to become President.

Speaking of suing...

Tonight Paula Zahn, who left Fox for CNN to report the election in Saddam's Iraq as if it were an election, will interview the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards about his candidacy is if it were a candidacy. Having already earned "Senator What's-his-name" status in James Taranto's rants weeks ago, he would be well-advised not to make any references to the Martha Stewart case, because he is going to need her in his $3.8 million dollar Georgetown house before he leaves the Senate.

:: michael Friday, October 03, 2003 [+] ::
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THE NOT-SO-SECRET-AGENT

The media has officially imploded. How can you trust any member or outlet of the media that wants to get to the bottom of who-leaked-what, when those same people would (and do) go to jail to protect their confidential sources.

The CIA has not imploded, but it is at fault and needs to admit it.

Go to Sgt Stryker for the best blog I can find on the Novak revelation. If there is anything else to add to this, you will find it in the brown paper bag on the picnic table at Los Alamos.

:: michael Wednesday, October 01, 2003 [+] ::
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TOO WESTERN FOR YOU? GO BACK EAST!

A superb comment posted at the last blog just below highlights how Islam is not just not a religion of peace, but much of the time not even a religion of survival. Kashei wrote, "If you can't get it together to not want to die, what kind of civilization are you going to produce?" This was in reference to the media and its informed missing the fact that Amina Lawal conceded she should be stoned if it is the will of Allah.

Another honor killing is reported in England, where a father slit his daughter's throat because she had been seeing a Christian teenager. Ironically, this man had fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq to escape the brutality. Slitting his daughter's throat and stabbing her eleven times must have seemed calm by comparison to what he fled.

In comparison to Amina Lawal's absent sense of survival, this murder victim barricaded herself in the bathroom, indicating she had been influenced by the West as the article reports, or that perhaps there are pockets of Islam that see life this way. It is not likely, however, that Daddam allowed her to choose a different mosque. Quote Orianna Fallaci, "Behind every terrorist there is an Imam." With an estimated 12 such deaths last year in Britain, Scotland Yard is going to have to poison the Muslim nests where this death is being preached and protected.

Where is the feminist outrage? Look in the same place it was when we were eliminating the Taliban in Afghanistan, where for years they treated women like animals. Yet still for the feminist outrage we cannot forget that seven SEVEN! abortion doctors have been murdered since Roe v. Wade over the past three decades.


:: michael Tuesday, September 30, 2003 [+] ::
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NOT ENOUGH OVERTURNED

Google News linked a report mid-yesterday that Amina Lawal was not going to be stoned to death by the Muslim leadership in northern Nigeria for adultery. Rather than overturn her her death sentence as extreme, which I guessed they would do, they overturned her conviction.

That was the right thing to do, considering that the man who impregnated her was found not guilty by the Muslim court a long time ago. Drudge links this report, which covers some of the odd ways they think, or don't think, such as an adultery conviction requiring four witnesses.

Now how exactly are they supposed to find four witnesses to adultery? That problem is solved by the weight give to a man's testimony over a woman's in that situation, reminiscent of how a Muslim's testimony is given multiple value over that of a Christian in areas where Muslims persecute.

The news reports are good to list the things that the ghastly Sharia legal code prohibits: adultery, fornication, stealing, gambling, drunkenness and dancing in public, among other acts. However, none I can find seem to cover where this adultery-as-capital-crime mentality comes from, especially when the man can be aquitted while the woman can be condemned.

There is a Muslim belief that a wife of Muhammed carried a child for two years. A Muslim man can divorce his wife with a phrase, Talak, talak, talak, but the woman must wait two years just in case she is the first in some fourteen hundred years to have the same gestation as the rumored wife of Muhammed.

Is it any wonder why they live the way they do?

:: michael Friday, September 26, 2003 [+] ::
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A RUNNING MATE FOR KERRY

Senator Hillary Clinton is surprised, surprised! that the Chinese censored her book, Living History, demonstrating that she knows nothing about the Chinese she criticized in her best-selling memoir. Hell, even this website is blocked by the Chinese. Perhaps her ghost-writer should have warned her. I wonder if she's even read the book.

It was Christopher Hitchens who suggested that John Kerry's campaign slogan be "Kerry. Duped by a Dope." The Democrats' persistence at making the President look like a fool, but bitching that he mislead them into war, shows how they will continue to step into their own feces.

Kerry-Clinton, Dumb and Dumber. It's the best match I can think of since Al Franken suggested that Dennis Hopper run with Ross Perot.

:: michael Wednesday, September 24, 2003 [+] ::
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WAKE UP AND SMELL THE IDEOLOGY

From the state that banned cell phone use in cars, nevermind that cell phone use contributes to less accidents than adjusting stereos or eating drive-through food: New York considers banning smoking in cars

I wonder why the cigarette manufactuerers just don't pull their product from that state. They make so little money per pack, not enough to make a public phone call, while the state makes the rest of the money. If the tobacco industry is concerned about the freedom to smoke, why do they allow their products to put so much money into the state that seeks to do away with those freedoms?

Yesterday's blog links a Bruce Bartlett column which criticizes the industry for not fighting smart, but instead giving in to little changes that then get interpreted as admissions of guilt. Just remember that whenever they say they are suing for the public good and especially when they say they are doing it for the children.
:: michael Wednesday, September 24, 2003 [+] ::
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The former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards, (Senator What's-his-name, according to James Taranto) has something to do should Rolling Stone decide that hat tricks with Wesley Clark will sell more issues: Today's Bruce Bartlett column describes the attendees of a recent health Conference

In June, the Public Health Advocacy Institute in Boston held a conference on legal approaches to the obesity epidemic. More than 100 lawyers and "consumer advocates" (i.e., left-wing busybodies) heard from prominent veterans of tobacco lawsuits on how to duplicate their success. The goal of the attendees is to make themselves multimillionaires while pretending that their motive is a high-minded concern for public health. It would be laughable if it hadn't already worked so well with the tobacco companies, which not coincidentally, also own many food operations.

It is interesting how the tax-the-rich masses and their cheerleaders will decry conservative opposition to frivolous lawsuits against the manufacturers as protecting the rich, yet they are happy to not only see a class of trial lawyers get rich, but they will even elect them to power.

Overlawyered.com highlights another revenue avenue, (this one for Johnnie Cochrane), and the alliance so needed between trial lawyers and judges with poor judgement.

:: michael Tuesday, September 23, 2003 [+] ::
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SPIES UNLIKE US

I found this news to be rather unsurprising: Islamic chaplain is charged as spy

Capt. Yee, 35, was a command chaplain for I Corps at Fort Lewis, Wash. The Army dispatched him to Cuba to attend to the spiritual needs of a growing number of captured al Qaeda and members of the Taliban, a hard-line Islamic group ousted from power in Afghanistan.
Capt. Yee, of Chinese-American descent, was raised in New Jersey as a Christian. He studied Islam at West Point and converted to Islam and left the Army in the mid-1990s. He moved to Syria, where he underwent further religious training in traditional Islamic beliefs. He returned to the United States and re-entered the Army as an Islamic chaplain. He is said to be married to a Syrian woman.

What the hell was someone doing when they readmitted him to the US Army? He went to Syria for "religious training" and they let him back in? Was he really able to study Islam at West Point?

This again highlights the need to connect people's actions to the things they choose to believe. Is anyone thinking about Marl Fidel Kools, aka Hasan Akbar, who rolled grenades through the front doors of three tents occupied by US soldiers and officers? Akbar was not allowed to go to the first Gulf War due to his religion. (Where's that decision-maker? -he needs to be reinstated.)

All this brings to mind, again, the recent unsurprising report: Poll finds Americans more suspicious of Islam Let's take that poll again, but let's take it in the recruiting offices.

:: michael Monday, September 22, 2003 [+] ::
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RETURN POLICY

Via Damian Penny, a month-old essay makes a good argument about the so-called "right of return" in so-called Palestine. In the essay, writer Yaffa Zilbershats does a good job explaining so-called "International Law," something that many of refer to but don't really know what it is. After that, he makes the case based on the number of years that have passed and the wisdom of the United Nations' leadership.:

The Dayton Peace agreement of 1995, which ended the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, explicitly provides in Annex VI for the right of return of displaced persons. But as opposed to it, when suggesting a solution to the refugee problem in Cyprus, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan distinguished the Cyprus case from that of Bosnia-Herzegovina and explained that restitution and repatriation are not suitable since: "...events in Cyprus happened 30 to 40 years ago and the displaced people... have had to rebuild their lives and their economies during this time."

The Palestinian refugee problem occurred 55 years ago, which means that even current developments in international law would not call for the right of Palestinian refugees to repatriation and/or restitution.

Activists groups in America who demand reparations for slavery ought to be especially embarrassed, but you can bet money they will nod their heads in agreement with Kofi I-didn't-see-the-memo-about-Rwanda Annan yet continue with their demands.The Egyptian lawyers who want to sue the Jews for the loot taken during the Exodus should also measure the odds against their case.

Focus. It is an old question but never asked enough: Why don't the oil-rich Arab nations allow the Palestinian refugees into their countries? An even more interesting question: Why didn't Jordan allow them their own state before the 1967 war, when Jordan owned the West Bank.

This also takes us back to the number one point in "The Palestinians and the Right of Return" by Efraim Karsh in Commentary (May 2001).

Had the Palestinians and the Arab world accepted the Untited Nations resolution of November 29, 1947, calling for the establishment of two states in Palestine, and not sought to subvert it by force of arms, there would have been no refugee problem in the first place.

:: michael Friday, September 19, 2003 [+] ::
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BEACH BOYS

The once-frightenening Isabel is now the kind of hurricane I grew up with in Wilmington. I kind of wish I were there for it - it would be less stressful than work.

I like the way this guy thinks:

Joe Hardison was prepared to leave his houseboat on Bogue Sound in Morehead City if Isabel had been packing winds of 120 mph or more. But now he figures he'll stay aboard the 35-foot craft and ride it out, as he did Hurricanes Hugo, Fran, Bertha, Bonnie and others whose names he can't even remember.

"We have mullet blows that are that hard," said the 59-year-old air conditioning man, who has stocked the vessel with 120 pounds of ice, 50 gallons of water and a half gallon of rum. "If (the boat) breaks loose, it's going to run aground somewhere. If it does, I'll step off."

Only a half gallon of rum?

Yesterday during a beer break at the usual bar in Asheville, a waiter was overheard saying, "I can't believe people still wear those f*****g beach boy shirts." The men wearing them not Floridians as the server assumed, but were actually the Beach Boys (who are actually from Wisconsin). I have to side with the server, however, those shirts are really bad, worse than Mr. Hardison's mullet blows, and worse than anything the Floridians ever really wear here in Asheville.

:: michael Wednesday, September 17, 2003 [+] ::
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WEST COAST - EAST COAST

A client in California who has me staffing an event this week in DC called to ask about the hurricane - do the lights go out, do phones go out, do people go out?

It's all unpredictable - Hurricane Gloria teased us repeatedly and finally went out to sea. Isabel is weaker now but still frightening. Still, Virginia has declared a state of emergency and called out the National Guard.

That's the difference between my client and me. For natural disasters, we on this side have time to buy beer and plywood. He has just enough time to run for a door frame.


THE ACCOUNTABILITY WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR

Organized Black activists and religious groups are publicly condemning and boycotting not South Carolina, but Rapper somebody's offensively named energy drink. Good for them.

Now if we can just get the Imams to be so publicly against Islamic extremism...

Still, it brings to mind an old DeWayne Wickam column, "Can We De-fang the N-Word?" which does a good a job as any covering Chris Rock's famous opinions about the situation between American blacks and the kind of people who make Pimp Juice. "But I hate n-s. It's like our own civil war. On the one side, there's black people. On the other, you've got n-s. The n-s have got to go."

Bill O'Reilly tackled the Pimp Juice problem last night. He had a rather well-spoken someone on the show to explain what they mean and don't mean by the words they use and how they use them with each other, that one calling another "pimp juice", or, for that matter, the n-word, doesn't really mean what the word was meant to mean.

This is again where I say our decline is much rooted in the failure to keep words solidly matched with their definitions. I am sympathetic with George Carlin over the "Seven Dirty Words", however - oh the struggle.


SPEAKING OF IMAMS...

While I still wait for significant voices, Islamic voices, not the President's, to soundly and consistently denounce (and renounce) Islamic extremism, I find this poll entirely unsurprising: Poll finds Americans more suspicious of Islam "It finds that more than a third of Americans surveyed now believe that Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims -- up from 14 percent who felt that way 20 months ago."

Wow - a third of the country seems to understand the definitions of the words of Surah 98:6 in the Qu'ran: Lo! those who disbelieve, among the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, will abide in fire of hell. They are the worst of created beings.


AND ON TO THAT REMAINING TWO-THIRDS

"Returning From Iraq War Not So Simple for Soldiers," reported the NYT last week. A major problem: "Less tolerant of stupid people," Staff Sgt. Matthew E. Jordan of the First Brigade, Third Infantry Division, said bitterly. "Stupid people doing stupid things."


THE NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING

Stupidity was encouraged yesterday by a Ninth Circuit court that, from its lofty perch, declaring that ordinary minority people are stupid and cannot handle the punch ballots of California. Granted, many people in South Florida were stupid, but the long-term, international publicity of what can go wrong with a punch ballot should prevent any informed person from failing to connect the dots, and it does not cost money to be informed.

Before making a final ruling, the Ninth Circuit should have considered, rather, the tendency of Democrats in local election boards to close the door and recount, re-recount, and re-re-recount the ballots until they get the result they want. If only the Ninth Circuit could have extended the deadline for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Florida rather than the one in DC.

:: michael Tuesday, September 16, 2003 [+] ::
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RACAL PROFILING WORKS IN EFRAT

But he was from the good neighborhood. Women in Green report crime prevention via Israpundit.

USING HITLER'S NAME IN VAIN

Jonah Goldberg explains why we need more Virgos when it comes to the definitions of words, and exhibits at the same time why he should be read every time he writes.

:: michael Wednesday, September 10, 2003 [+] ::
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THE UN-EULOGY

One of the most unnerving new reports recently was that of the pizza delivery guy who claimed to have been forced to rob a bank for the criminals who locked a bomb around his neck. Brian D. Wells was well-known to be modest and to have no concern about money. I know people like this. I don't know how they are going to like life when they have to pay rent in their old age, but they are the types who can live simpler and simpler.

However, Stuart Buck points out that while the dead are almost always eulogized in journalism (the reason I dread the deaths of Clinton and Arafat), Wells' murder was followed by some particular disrespect. Among other things, his landlady was quoted saying this: "I always wondered what would happen to him because he didn't have any goals except being Brian and delivering pizza," Payne added. "By 46 you should have your life in gear, but he didn't mind."

Her specific tactlessness, and the fact that it got press coverage in a paper as big as the Washington Post, suggest something about the way Americans view their lesser-employed. We are not the class-conscious nation that, say, even England still is, but my inner liberal is going to go ahead and make time to read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

:: michael Wednesday, September 10, 2003 [+] ::
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THE BEAST IS BACK

President Vladimir Putin is going to enforce some frightening control over political speech in Russia.

The Kremlin has introduced a draconian election law which threatens the media with closure if they give details of candidates' personal lives or analyse their policies.

analyse their policies? Will this include merely reporting what candidates say they stand for? You bet - it even happens here. Remember those Christian Coalition voter guides? ...the guides that reported the voting records of incumbent candidates ... and the lawsuits that were filed against the Coalition reporting public information as important as how elected leaders voted?

In the meantime, James Taranto pointed out yesterday how a protest in Chapel Hill was described in the NYT as "raucous" and spanned two blocks. Naturally, at a University considered among the best in the country, a raucous, two-block long protest protested the loss of free speech.

Only in America can someone complain at a "raucous protest" about the suppression of free speech.

Again, it is the lost grip on the established definitions of words that directly contributes to our decline.

:: michael Tuesday, September 09, 2003 [+] ::
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THE SPEECH

The President made a very clever, nearly hidden point. For those who claim he has no command of language, in this reference: "I recognize that not all of our friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council resolutions " was a terrific follow-up to a comment made months ago, that United States policy will not be determined by others.

But it is an even deeper comment on history, that these nations pretend that the Security Council matters while demonstrating by their clear unwillingness to enforce the law that it doesn't matter at all.

:: michael Sunday, September 07, 2003 [+] ::
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BAD NEWS
Some conservatives are saying the treatment of Miguel Estrada was racist. (Some perhaps use the nonsense term reverse-racist.. but badness is badness.) It's an overused and abused word. In a world where people increasingly don't know or won't go with the established definitions of words, it's a waste of time.

More specifically, the Senate Democrats simply can't have a Hispanic (or a black) setting a good example, and, more seriously, cannot tolerate judges who would not view the Constitution as "living", since they are too lazy to appreciate the legislative process. These are people who wanted a re-vote for the low IQ's of lower Florida but refused to let the Estrada nomination come to a vote -you are not disenfranchised unless you are in the majority.

GOOD NEWS
That's one less column for Maureen Dowd to write about how a Bush-nominated judge got where he was due to his race.

PHAT NEWS
The suit against McDonald's is dismissed. Would Jared have been called as a defense witness? Would the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards, have taken the case were he not running for President? Awaiting implications...

:: michael Friday, September 05, 2003 [+] ::
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BOURBON AND GINGER, PLEASE!

James Taranto points out that Robert Musil points out that the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards, is, according to his aides, very likely to drop out of running for re-election and instead run for president. Retiring from the Senate would finally add that distinguishing and needed note of service to his job history as Senator for North Carolina, which so far has been indistinguishable from a Presidential run.

He might have a chance, Howard Dean will eventually come across as too much.. something, J. Pierre Kerry will be haunted by the fact that he cried today over the sad story of a jobless woman, and the press (especially People Magazine) will remember by that time that Edwards is handsome. Just get Rolling Stone to airbrush a new dick and he's good to go.

Unpersuaded by Edwards' "support" and "honor" of the NAACP boycott of racist South Carolina, I am going to support blacks employed in the tourist and service industry by going to Charleston for the weekend. It's hard to say which sight is more inspiring: the skyline from the roof of the Vendue Inn, or the sight of a C-17 from nearby Charleston Air Force Base flying over.

Well, thank God the Air Force decided not to boycott South Carolina, as the base's economic impact exceeds $400 million annually. As the area's second largest employer, its payroll exceeds $100 million, and indirect payroll, the jobs that wouldn't be there if it weren't for the base, also exceeds $100 million.


INSPIRED

This letter by Ron Bird was submitted to the Winston Salem Journal fairly recently. While I think they never printed it, it inspires me to write my own paper again. God knows we need more letters written like this:

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed
that NC just has one US Senator now?
As soon as Edwards hit Washington, the
Kennedy faction told him that he was
presidential material, and he has been
campaigning non-stop in every state since
then, and has forgotten the Senate and NC.

I really noticed this problem of only one
senator this past Memorial Day. This is
the one day, for sure, that the politicians
come home to make their patriotic
speeches, kiss the babies, and to generally
make as many appearances as possible.
Edwards did all of this, except I noticed
that he was doing it in Arizona!

I hold the Republicans responsible for
giving us Edwards. By wanting to let
an old and tired Lauch Faircloth see
his name one more time on a ballot
in appreciation for his past services,
they blew it big time - particularly
with so many articulate and personable
younger Republicans waiting in-line.

Hopefully, in November, 2004, the people
can let Edwards use the millions of
frequent flyer miles he has accumulated
campaigning all over the country, to
chase after the Kennedys whenever he
wishes.

Luckily he has recently purchased a $3.8
million dollar home in DC that he is
renovating (for $3.8 million what do
you renovate??), so he will have a
place to live when his term ends. As far
as an income to live on, I guess that he
can just start suing people again.

:: michael Wednesday, September 03, 2003 [+] ::
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