:: PROLEGOMENA ::

TO HOBBY, OR NOT TO HOBBY

Conservative bloggers got cocky after the demise of Dan Rather. There was the John Fund thing, which isn't worth even explaining. There was the Jeff Gannon thing, which is the best the liberal bloggers could do (only to be buried alive by Ann Coulter). Brian at Junk Yard Blog posted a reminder to all that blogging is a hobby and to not get so uppity. I agreed mostly... Prolegomena does not pretend to be journalism. Hell, it's not even prolegomena for 99% of it's readers, considering how rarely comments are left behind.

But Brian has re-thought the hobby label, and correctly de-generalizes blogging-as-hobby, and then blogs deeper into what he also no longer calls "Ra^thergate"

The best illustration of his point is this Cox and Forkum cartoon.

:: michael Monday, March 14, 2005 [+] ::
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BURKHA'D BABES IN BLACK

At Little Green Footballs, the weirdest images in the cover-your-hair category since:

:: michael Monday, March 14, 2005 [+] ::
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DODGING THE BARRIERS, BUT NOT THE CONSEQUENCES

Via LGF, the Italians screwed up... badly.

The Italians say the car was swerving around cement blocks in the road when a bright light went on and, with no warning, the car was pummeled with automatic weapons fire for 10 to 15 seconds. U.S. military officials say troops made hand and arm signals, flashed white lights and fired warning shots to no avail.

You know damn well that our guys fired warning shots at a speeding, approaching car swerving aroung the concrete barriers.
If the Italians do not own up to this big mistake made in the hostage payoff, we might do better without such stupid friends.

:: michael Monday, March 14, 2005 [+] ::
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THE FIRST AFGHAN BLOG

Afghan Warrior

He reports women's news as well, including a health and fitness club for women in Kabul!
(Imagine that happening during a Gore Presidency. Remember, dear liberal friends, they would have been executed for exercising before Bush overturned the Taliban.)

via Daily Lunch (link at left)
:: michael Saturday, March 12, 2005 [+] ::
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NORTH KOREA

Here, have a nice up-to-date read about the barbaric government which best-ex-President Jimmy Carter helped become nuclear capable:

N. Korea launches harsh crackdown

And easily predict what liberals will say when it is time to take action against Kim Jong-Il's brutal, Stalinist regime.

:: michael Friday, March 11, 2005 [+] ::
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FOR WHAT SHE HAS WROUGHT

Miscreant Abu Ghraib guard Lynndie England faces court martial on May 3, and Drudge has the famous leash photo posted right now.



I only had minimal sympathy for these prisoners, assuming they were Ba'athist thugs, not men thrown in prison for looking funny, but the media never cared what kind of men these prisoners were. Of course not. They didn't care what kind of devil Saddam Hussein was, either. Americans did, however, go on laughing at the idea that Martha Stewart was going to get beaten in prison.

Still, I wonder about fair punishment. I expect such military prison guards to not be the best and the brightest in uniform, but even the dumbest Americans should know to avoid the camera when committing a crime. These guards gave the enemy and the enemy media, theirs and ours, exactly what they wanted, severely and terrifyingly endangered the real soldiers in the field, and made the idea of women in the military look like a bad idea, which in turn would surely hurt women's rights in the region.

About punishment: the thought of her getting 16 to 30+ years is mesmerizing. Will the military court be fooled by the incorrect labeling of her actions as torture? But look at the damage, I am at the same time in agreement with Christopher Hitchens's May 4, 2004 opinion, that it is not unreasonable to think that these guards should have been "taken out and shot." Had there been a firing squad for the guards, I would still be typing in support of it now, a year later. Oh, the pain of being civilized...

About women: what was the media saying about women when they made Lynndie England the face of this scandal? Why didn't it matter that she had likely leashed a man who raped wives and daughters in the name of Saddam's state? Why do we know only her name and not the names of the other guards?

About ordinary people: the media made damn sure you knew she was from West Virginia.

About the importance of events: I woke every morning last year for months to a voice from an obsessed NPR saying the words, "Abu Ghraib." Helen Thomas called the scandal, not the capture of Saddam Hussein, but the scandal, "the biggest story of 2004" (making Ann Coulter's recent characterization of Thomas as an "old Arab" even more fitting). And leftists and war protesters dressed as the Ba'athist prisioners and engaged in a worldwide, multilingual scream of "BARABBAS!" Here, in my local pool of liberal people, it means nothing to them when reminded that women and men voted in Afghanistan after the removal of the Taliban, and the Iraqi rape-rooms, torture chambers, and mass grave-diggers are gone. It means nothing.


:: michael Friday, March 11, 2005 [+] ::
...

IT TOOK THEM A YEAR?

Spanish Muslims issue fatwa against Al-Qaeda's Osama Bin Laden

MADRID (AFX) - Spain's Islamic Commission, which groups the nation's Muslim community, said it was issuing a fatwa against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden,
'We are going to issue a fatwa (religious decree) against Bin Laden this afternoon,' Mansour Escudero, who leads the Federation of Islamic religious entities (Feeri) and co-secretary general of the Spanish governmenmt-created Commission told AFP.
The Commission invited Spanish-based imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers, when the whole country will be remembering the 191 people who were killed in the train blasts and the 1,900 injured a year ago.
The attacks have been blamed on mainly Moroccan Islamic extremists loyal to Bin Laden.
'We have called on imams to make a formal declaration condemning terrorism and for a special prayer for all the victims of terrorism,' Escudero said.
The Commission has also drawn up a document designed to 'thank the Spanish people and the government for their attitude towards Muslims' since last March 11, in particular for not taking 'disproportionate' measures similar to those which the Sept 11 attacks sparked in the US.
The Commission called on Muslims to take part in Friday's commemorative programme being organised by Spanish authorities and community groups and to work with them to ensure terrorism was defeated.

This article should be reporting the second fatwa, don't you think? ..but that explains the slur against nonexistent "'disproportionate' measures similar to those which the Sept 11 attacks sparked in the US." Well, at least they didn't call us the Jewish-controlled U.S.

Of course it took them a year.

IT TOOK HIM HOW MANY YEARS?

Kofi Annan's uselessness is, in light of American-led success, truly laughable. Annan has actually managed to make Al Gore's endorsements look timely:

Annan proposes treaty on terrorism

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed the creation of a comprehensive treaty outlawing terrorism, denouncing attacks that target civilians and arguing that no political grievance justifies killing the innocent.

whoop. ee.
Isn't it interesting how Spain's tardy terror-condemning Muslims actually have more substance than the UN Secretary General?

:: michael Thursday, March 10, 2005 [+] ::
...

¡PELIGRO! ¡CHRISTIANOS!

William Thatcher Dowell writes with spectacularly clichéd ignorance on today's LA Times opinion page:

In fact, George W. Bush may now find himself in the same kind of trap that ensnared Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdulaziz ibn Saud. To gain political support, Saud mobilized the fanatical, ultrareligious Wahhabi movement — the movement that is spiritually at the core of Al Qaeda. Once the bargain was done, the Saudi royal family repeatedly found itself held political hostage to an extremist, barely controllable movement populated by radical ideologues. The evangelical movement in the U.S. nudged the president back into the White House, and Bush must now try to pay off the political bill for its support.

Did this writer notice that support for Bush's war against the fruits of Muslim extremism "nudged" him back into office? Has this writer ever read a thing about Wahhabism? Yes, he has:

In Saudi Arabia, what drives the Wahhabis is a deep sense of grievance and an underlying conviction that a return to spiritual purity will restore the lost power they believe once belonged to their forefathers. A belief system that calls for stoning a woman for adultery or severing the hand of a vagrant accused of stealing depends on extreme interpretations of texts that are at best ambiguous. What is at stake is not so much service to God as the conviction that it is still possible to enforce discipline in a world that seems increasingly chaotic.

But he doesn't bother to think about what is different, like the illiteracy rates, state-controlled media, and blaming all problems on the Jews throughout most of the Middle East. And... do what? - discipline is no longer enforceable?

It's no surprise he repeats the failing abortion/death penalty talking point which demonstrates the liberal inability to distinguish innocence from criminal condemnation. And of course he goes to counting abortion doctor murders without analyzing the seven - seven - such murders (and convictions) in more than three decades of Roe... Yeah, those Christians are out of control in this nation of free speech, constantly open debate, and successfully prosecuted criminals. Again - quick! Let's bitch about the numbers in our prisons.

¡Qué susto!

The point of this blog: there is nothing new here, yet this guy gets his re-hashed, second-hand opinion published for the (thankfully) less-than-fifty percent of Americans, those who nod their heads in agreement today, not even recognizing that he would have already been tortured and executed in the culture he compares to that of American Christians.

:: michael Wednesday, March 09, 2005 [+] ::
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MOUSETRAP!

I got him, finally, with a nugget of gorgonzola and a D-Con trap that closed on his little mousy head and nearly popped out his eye, but created no mess. The guy at the hardware store suggested the trap I used because it was the most "humane." I really haven't half a shit to give about how a mouse gets caught, I like the covered-box design of the trap.

He got into every kitchen drawer, every dining room drawer, even on top of my refrigerator and wall-mounted cabinets, and on top of my bar. Cheese and rice! - mice can go anywhere! The pit bulls were worthless, and kept me from bringing in a cat. He ignored the bread in the trap, but went for seashell-shaped candy in a closed box in the cigar drawer atop the buffet instead. That's when I switched to a little nugget of stinky cheese. WHACK!

:: michael Wednesday, March 09, 2005 [+] ::
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THE JACKSON TRIAL

"Not guilty," will say the jury. These inconsistent witnesses, plus the paralegal who testified having witnessed coaching in the kids' mother's past lawsuit, make it predictable. I really do not think he is guilty of child molestation. Wouldn't there be a victim from a normal family? Wouldn't there be witnesses who wouldn't get caught in their lies? This time, we do not have race-baiting lawyers, brain-damaged jurors, a Fifth-taking cop, or a Judge Ito to blame.

:: michael Wednesday, March 09, 2005 [+] ::
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P-P-P-P-PU-LEEEZ - - DON'T THROW ME INTO THE BRIAR PATCH!

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Saturday it will never agree to a permanent halt on enriching uranium and warned that a more unstable Middle East would result from a U.S.-backed effort to haul Tehran before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Any effort by Washington to bring Tehran's suspended uranium enrichment program under Security Council scrutiny is a dangerous path, warned Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani.

Given that the UN Security Council gave Saddam Hussein another ten years to do his thing, Iran 's mullahs should be begging for the reappearance of Security Council sanctions and Susan Sarandon.

Allah did not grant their prayer for a Kerry-Edwards victory last November, but maybe it is a test of their faith, maybe ten years from now, the Security Council will get to surpass what they did with Iraq and pass an eighteenth resolution against Iran.

Still, the above phrase "U.S.-backed effort" is a disappointing thought, that we would still have to, again, play that stupid game of acting like the UN has any worth in these matters. This second-trerm, war-winning, world-changing President should call that spade a spade and jump straight to taking charge of Iran.

:: michael Sunday, March 06, 2005 [+] ::
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CHAPEL HILL DRAMA CRIME
(brought to your attention by Gina in Chapel Hill)

Already, I am cringing for two reasons. Someone minding his own business got beaten, badly, beside the busiest intersection on Franklin Street. The thugs didn't even care that he was on the phone.

The other reason is not the large protest that was organized to raise awareness, it was is the call for a change in so-called hate crimes legislation. For all the arguing that that a racist or anti-homosexual motive is especially heinous, the people are better served when the message is simple: beating someone is wrong. (The police have called it aggravated assault for a long, long time.)

So the community does the predictable: they hold a rally. But there is a problem with these things, hundreds of people showing up not to protest violence on principle, but to relate to the crime victim, with many even lying about knowing him. One campus gay activist did contribute a remark worth remarking on:

"You'd think in 2005 we'd move beyond this and clearly we haven't yet."

Well, there is the facts-of-life right there, young man. College campi will always be populated by adolescents, with adolescence in charge of their human nature. This includes guys from backgrounds where the sign says, "No whiners." There will always be incidents like these, best fought with simple messages about right and wrong, and severe punishment for the wrong.

The murder of Matthew Shepard was a horrifying reminder, and the dragging death of James Byrd in Texas further reminded that men will never be rid of it. But thoses cases also reminded us that life sentences and death penalties follow such crimes, and are far more likely in an ever-improving world of crime-solving. Quick - let's now bitch about the number of convicted in our prisons!

Do you get outraged? Yes. Do you rally against violence? Yes. Do you, as the leading figure of the community, say something like this?:

Chancellor James Moeser was the first to deliver prepared remarks affirming the University’s commitment to tolerance and inclusion. He said the response to the attack reminds him of how the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, accepted the Jews in desperate times under the Nazi regime.

No.

Do you, as a newspaper, use this rally photo to change the bad guys' ways?:



No.

Back to Chancellor Moeser - whose administration is guilty of literally persecuting Christian organizations at UNC - that remark is exactly the kind of sanctimonious and historically inaccurate crap that gets protesters off the point, and, I believe, motivates the thugs to go beat up another queer.

Memo to Moeser: those who hid Jews in Copenhagen would have, along with their entire families, faced bayonettes and bullets, on the spot, for their good deed, and they knew it. You were only serving the protesters' onward-tolerant-soldiers illusion, while at the same time most of these people would be back tomorrow with new signs if you decided to protest Israel.

Interestingly, the press has little to say about the disparaging remarks spoken to the crime victim before the beating began. The word "fag" is quoted third-hand, but the rest is only references to "other" "several" remarks. It happened as the bars closed. Were the thugs students or not? Drunks? It is known that there are many witnesses, but only one has come forward. Why? Was the word "fag" even being used because they knew he was a gay man? That word is loosely used. If so, how did they know he was gay?

Are we going to learn via a conservative college newspaper (before college liberals steal them) that this victim acted like an ass in the bar? It's possible. In dozens of articles on this event, robbery is not reported as a motive.

My main point: this taking-action in Chapel is not as much a protest against crime, it is a self-congratulatory gathering of the oh-so-tolerant, willing to distort history and eager to control thought by law. Thank God the real world is coming soon for most of them.

:: michael Thursday, March 03, 2005 [+] ::
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SCARY COOKIES UPDATE

The gun news blogged below reminded me of another infamous name, Wanita Young, the woman who sued two good girls after they anonymously delivered a love gift of cookies after dark (blogged here Feb. 6).

Wanita Young said she hasn't returned to her part-time job at Wal-Mart and might have to give up the presidency and her seat on the board of the local food bank, a post she's held for 16 years, because of the negative attention she's received.

She's received hundreds of crank calls, along with truckloads of strange packages some containing cookies or cookie crumbs.

Whataminute - the President of a food bank did not recognize the concept of an anonymous gift of food when it was found at her door with a construction paper heart gift tag attached? That food bank is about to get smarter leadership.

Well, people shouldn't harrass her, but maybe a little mob justice isn't always all that bad. Especially when it is clear that she still doesn't get it:

"All this over cookies," she said. "Our home is like a funeral parlor. They've robbed us of our laughter. My spirit, my soul, is damaged." Despite that, Young said she believes going to court was the right thing. "I don't know how to change. I don't know how to compromise my principles," she said.

Uh, hello, bitch. "All this over cookies" is the girls' line. For you, it is over suing two sweet girls, even after the parents offered to pay your bills for overreaction and melodrama. It is over abusing the ER and the courts.


:: michael Wednesday, March 02, 2005 [+] ::
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REMEMBER: SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Anti-gun activist arrested after firearm found at home

Annette Stevens of Million Mom March fame. Remember that? - the march that drew, oh, some 200,000 marchers?
It gets interesting:

Annette "Flirty" Stevens, however, said Monday she's innocent, and the arrest is an attempt by police to get her to give up information about unsolved crime in the city. The handgun, which had a scratched-off serial number...

Well, these anti-gun activists wanted gun owners to be guilty until proven innocent. Not only is she in a heapa her own trouble, she is going to feel very lonely during this trial.

AND SOME HAVE SMALLER BRAINS THAN OTHERS

In Vermont, a Town-Meeting revolt over Iraq war

Foes call the resolution so much "poppycock," and complain activists have hijacked an annual event they say is better suited to debate on snowplows and school roof repairs. But to supporters, the war in Iraq is the essence of town business: It's about the men and women who live, work, and raise families in the community.

:: michael Wednesday, March 02, 2005 [+] ::
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WHO GIVES PUTIN HIS INFORMATION?

"We Didn't Criticize You When You Fired Those Reporters at CBS"

Is it that Putin is crazy, or not smart enough to run a country? - meaning, who might be pulling his strings? How in the world can you be the Russian head of state and a former KGB agent, and not know about the power of the American press, and that Presidents don't fire reporters? How can you know of rolling heads at CBS but not that it was ratings, something more like people pressure, and certainly not Presidential pressure.

Is this Putin projecting his relationship with the Russian media?

Perhaps, this was a bone thrown to the American media for more favorable writing toward Putin's leadership.
(You can take the man out of the KGB, but you can't....)

Reading it gave me the same chill as when I read the dialogue of old Soviet interrogations and related propaganda, and the same chill I got when the likes of Gore and Kerry delivered their distracting whoppers at Presidential debates. I am betting, in part, that Putin really believes it, but also he wants the favor of the American press - a little bit stupid, a little bit smart, with a scary dash of Vishinsky.

Still, we have a Sovietologist for Secretary of State, and therefore an informed President. The Bush Administration seems to be doing the right thing with this mess:

U.S. aides say that to help fight against this kind of misinformation, they are struggling to build relationships that go beyond Putin. "We need to go deeper into the well into other levels of government," explains an aide.

Damn right, we do.

Now, this:

Something told me to keep the music on and not tune in to Meet the Press yesterday morning. If I had heard her say this, I might have broken something:

Russert: " Would you now accept the fact that because of the invasion of Iraq, there is a possibility of democracy in Iraq and that may spread in the Middle East?

Dowd: "We are torturing people, we're outsourcing torture, the administration is trying to throw journalists in jail and basically trying to replace the whole press corps with ringers, including male escorts."

Are there shadowy figures whispering into Putin's ear, or does he read Maureen Dowd? If he's reading Dowd, why does he suppose she has not yet been fired by Bush?

:: michael Monday, February 28, 2005 [+] ::
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MONEY TALKS

..and it spoke well when Bill Gates said this to 45 governors:

"America's high schools are obsolete," Gates said. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools _ even when they're working as designed _ cannot teach all our students what they need to know today."

and this:

"Training the workforce of tomorrow with today's high schools is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe," said Gates, whose $27-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made education one of its priorities.

"Everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who believes in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected to uphold the obligations of public office should be ashamed that we are breaking our promises of a free education for millions of students," added Gates, to strong applause.

:: michael Monday, February 28, 2005 [+] ::
...

.
.
ALL EYES ON THE HIGH COURT

For the property rights case that really does have me nervous. Jeff Jacoby's column makes it easy to understand even if you didn't know about the case before now.

:: michael Monday, February 28, 2005 [+] ::
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ANGRY LEFT ROUNDUP

It's an instructive collection of liberal venom, the result of cartoonist Ted Rall's bring-it-on. (The "execrable" Ted Rall, as Bill Whittle put it while putting "execrable" permanently in my vocabulary.)

At the end, something positive from someone I gave up on long ago:

"Believe it or not, no, I did NOT know that any of this stuff was out there. I'd read references by Republican bloggers to such things, but no one ever provided a link and I could never find it....Has the challenge been met? Yes."

:: michael Monday, February 28, 2005 [+] ::
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NOT A FRACTAL

I really should have known better, but friend and superb martini-maker Thomas helped me understand - "Fractals are infinite," he pointed out to me.

This is a loop:
http://emocore.shackspace.com/cantstoplooking.gif

:: michael Sunday, February 27, 2005 [+] ::
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GOOD NEWS FROM THE TOP IN IRAQ

But when asked if he feared that the alliance could impose Islamic rule in Iraq, Allawi said he opposed the creation of any form of Islamic government.

"We are liberal powers and we believe in a liberal Iraq and not an Iraq governed by political Islamists."

In the meantime, next door where Islamists rule:

Iran girl gets 100 lashes for sex

The court dismissed the girl's claim that she was raped. It said she had sex of her own free will, the official Iran Daily newspaper reported. The girl was sentenced to 100 lashes because her accusations of rape and kidnap could have landed her partners a death penalty, the Tehran judge said. Sex outside marriage is illegal in Iran and capital punishment can be imposed. The young men in the case were sentenced to 30 and 40 lashes each.

I had to read this twice before I saw it - her punishment was greater because of her willingness to risk others' executions with a false accusation. Now, I have no idea what really happened, but if there was this tiny element of justice within that judicial mullah-brain, how much lithium do we need to send to help them connect the rest of the dots and stop it with punishing sex crimes altogether? Of course, that won't happen. Minds like that need laser-guided elimination and for better people to replace them.

Has anyone tried to search Amnesty.org? It pulls little up, and much of it is old stuff. Recently, NPR reported that Amnesty International was bitching about the treatment of women in Iraq, but I can't even find that there. I wonder if Amnesty does anything besides bank on its nice-sounding name.

AND.. OUR TOP SOVIETOLOGIST DOES HER JOB

...by contradicting Vladamir Putin

The White House has argued that Iran's nuclear program appears aimed at producing nuclear weapons, not just generating electricity, as Iran maintains.

Putin disagreed. "The latest steps taken by Iran have convinced us that Iran does not intend to produce nuclear arms," he said after meeting at the Kremlin with Hassan Rowhani, the head of Iran's national security council.

"We will continue cooperation in all areas, including nuclear power," Putin said, adding that there would also be "military-technical" cooperation.

In Washington, Bush and his senior aides offered a muted response to Putin's assertions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the architect of Bush's Russia policy, noted that Russia has promised to provide fuel for Iran's Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr only if Tehran agrees to inspections and promises to return the spent fuel so it can't be used to manufacture a nuclear or radiological weapon.

"I think the behavior of everyone suggests that there are good reasons to be suspicious of what the Iranians are doing," Rice said at an appearance with Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot. The European Union is negotiating with Iran over nuclear issues, and the International Atomic Energy Agency also is scrutinizing Iran's activities.

She don't wear them boots to just look pretty.

:: michael Friday, February 25, 2005 [+] ::
...

Ann Coulter writes on the Gannon thing, a liberal-interest topic otherwise not worth discussing, except that she chooses the words perfectly:

Are we supposed to like gay people now, or hate them? Is there a website where I can go to and find out how the Democrats want me to feel about gay people on a moment-to-moment basis?

..but implies that three men ran for President not with the names they were given at birth.

How did Gary Hartpence, Billy Blythe and John Kohn (Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and John Kerry) run for president under invented names?

Well... Gary Hart dropped the "Pence" in his thirties. Mr. Blythe died, And Mr. Clinton was given the name of the stepfather (remember that?). I didn't think Kerry was not born Kerry - just that his Jewish grandfather escaped European persecution (no surprise there) and made the name change after coming to the states. This is why you gotta read Coulter carefully.

:: michael Thursday, February 24, 2005 [+] ::
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PUBLISHED!

Do you write letters to your editor?

More people than King deserve a memorial road

In naming roads nationwide, Presidents Washington and Lincoln are honored the most. In third place, Rev. Martin Luther King is so honored around 730 times.

The Feb. 8 AC-T headline, "Haywood's African-American community seeks Martin Luther King memorial road," reported an unoriginal, even hackneyed idea, especially when there is already a national holiday for him.

The idea brings to mind two current race problems: 1) resistance to such a dedication often evokes bullying, unjust charges of racism, and 2) it elicits more utterly unoriginal calls for a "white history month."

Weren't there other civil rights activists whose sacrifices also deserve a road name? Can you name the man who endured a pot of coffee poured on his head at a sit-in? Surely, there is a deserving Haywood County activist who endured humiliation, whose sacrifice brought good change, more than those who sanctimoniously wear black at the Vance Monument ever will.

Name a road after that person.

I was worried about the editing that happens on letters pages. In the past, the entire meaning of some letters was lost. This time, they changed nothing.

This will offend local people who cannot read. Fortunately, there are several Michael Parkers in my phone book so my house should still be here when I return from work. Those who wear black are the Women in Black, who protested the war at the town's center, "Standing in silence mourning violence." They do the King march as well.

My message: do something real and have an effect. Give honor to the little people who have. And to the W.I.B.: have you prevented a single act of violence in the world by your... standing there?

:: michael Wednesday, February 23, 2005 [+] ::
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LOOMING LEBANESE LIBERATION?

Please remember, dear non-blogging readers, the real occupation over there is not the territory Israel won in the wars it didn't start, but in Lebanon, by Syria.

Daniel Pipes writes with exciting optimism, and in a way instructive to aspiring dynastic dictators:

The fate of Syria was in good measure determined on January 21, 1994. That's when, driving at a too-high speed to the Damascus airport for a skiing trip abroad, Basil Al-Assad crashed the Mercedes he was driving, killing himself and his passengers.
...
After the car crash, his younger brother Bashar got yanked back from his ophthalmologic studies in London and enrolled in a rapid course to prepare as Syria's next strongman.

The lesson: don't put all your loins in one basket. But think again - grooming two didn't work for Saddam. This is a nifty round-up of the world's hereditary autocracy:

(This made Bashar the second dynastic dictator, with Kim Jong Il of North Korea having been the first in 1994. The third one, being Faure Gnassingbé of Togo, emerged earlier this month. Other sons waiting in the wings include Gamal Mubarak of Egypt, Saifuddin Gadhafi of Libya, and Ahmed Salih of Yemen. Saddam Hussein's pair never made it.) [later addition: a reader notes that Ilham Aliev succeeded his father Heidar as prime minister of Azerbaijan in August 2003.]

Saddam Hussein's pair never made it. Let's savor that for a moment, shall we? And who do we thank?

Back to grooming a couple of back-ups...

There can be little doubt that Mr. Assad was behind the massive (probably underground) blast on February 14 that gouged a 20-yard-wide crater, killing Hariri and 16 others. With his flair for incompetence, Mr. Assad presumably decided that the former prime minister had to die for this betrayal. But, quite contrary to Mr. Assad's presumed expectations, far from reducing pressures on Syria to leave Lebanon, the atrocity magnified and intensified them.

Mr. Assad's response – pretending to denounce the murder, putting a relative in charge of the intelligence services, purchasing SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia, and announcing a mutual defense pact with Tehran – points to his cluelessness about the trouble he has stirred up for himself. For the first time in three decades, Lebanon now seems within reach of regaining its independence.

His optimism doesn't stop there. Click the text and read the whole thing.

:: michael Wednesday, February 23, 2005 [+] ::
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OETZI-BOETZI RESULTS

I like stories about old found frozen friends. The wooly mammoth was a favorite.
Currently in the news: much ado about another frozen man:

Alpine Iceman Reveals Stone Age Secrets

BOLZANO, Italy (Reuters) - Some 5,300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps is slowly revealing his secrets to a global team of scientists.

But despite more than a decade of high-tech efforts by geneticists, botanists and engineers many questions about his life and death remain unsolved.

Well, that would suggest the Alpine Iceman is not revealing secrets, now wouldn't it?
This raised an eyebrow:

In the latest project, genetic researchers in Oxford and Bolzano are testing his DNA for clues about ethnicity. Scientists expect the first results within months. The outcome could stir controversy in a region controversially claimed by Italians, German-speakers and members of the ancient Ladin culture.

Oh-oh, I thought. Now the Arabs are going to use this to claim the bin Ladins were there first. Al-Jazeera picked up the story, but they haven't jumped on it yet.

:: michael Wednesday, February 23, 2005 [+] ::
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DO NOT RESUSCITATE

By contrast, Karol at Alarming News posted recently, "Resuscitate!"

However, an interesting, opposing point of view from an old doctor:

AN emergency medicine specialist has given himself an 80th birthday present with a difference – he's had DO NOT RESUSCITATE tattooed across his chest.
Albert Cutter has performed enough resuscitations to know what his wishes would be if the tables were turned and he was the patient.

Click the text above and read the whole article.
:: michael Monday, February 21, 2005 [+] ::
...

SHUT THE CELL UP?

Cell phone jammers are increasing in use, and its wrong. The FCC says it has fined no one so far, but I await the first negligent homicide case because someone blocked an emergency call.

Their sole goal is to zip inconsiderate lips. The smaller gadgets emit radio frequencies that block signals anywhere from a 50- to 200-foot radius. They range in price from $250 to $2,000.

But don't expect to find jammers at the local Radio Shack — they're against Federal Communications Commission regulations because they interfere with emergency calls and the public airwaves. They are illegal to buy, sell, use, import or advertise.

A violation means an $11,000 fine, but the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has yet to bust one person anywhere in the country.

"This is not a crime that they're going after," said Rob Bernstein, deputy editor at New York City-based Sync magazine.

If someone is talking loudly, people should be able to ask for some quiet in the same way they should be able to ask someone to not smoke. It's all about civility, which does leave some of the responsibility with the would-be-bothered.

The only good that could come from this is if that annoying Verizion guy asks, "Can you hear me now?" and gets no answer.
:: michael Monday, February 21, 2005 [+] ::
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MORE WARMED-OVER ABU-GHRAIB

The AP has 884 words about the torture of Manadel al-Jamadi.

Two-thirds of the way down the article, they offer thirty-one words as to why he may have been the subject of such contempt:

Navy SEALs apprehended al-Jamadi as a suspect in the Oct. 27, 2003, bombing of Red Cross offices in Baghdad that killed 12 people. His alleged role in the bombing is unclear.
STOP! THAT DOESN'T REALLY BOTHER US. THIS DOES:
According to court documents and testimony, the SEALs punched, kicked and struck al-Jamadi with their rifles before handing him over to the CIA early on Nov. 4. By 7 a.m., al-Jamadi was dead.

Gee, do you think he had information about upcoming events and wouldn't spill it?

Such bombings don't just kill 12 people, they leave behind survivors with missing limbs, blindness, deafness, and shrapnel in their bodies to provide pain - torture, if you will - as long as they live. Then there is the loss of the medical facility and the number of would-be patients affected.

Quick, leave open the possibility that Bush knew:

The prisoner died in a position known as "Palestinian hanging," the documents reviewed by The AP show. It is unclear whether that position was approved by the Bush administration for use in CIA interrogations.

(Notice how the Leftist idea that Bush knew about 9-11 would be reprehensible and deserving of constant contempt, but the probability of a terrorist holding vital information is no reason to get tough.)

Of course, let's give the routinely terrorized Jewish State some bad publicity, too:

The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture in 1996 in a case of Palestinian hanging ? a technique Iacopino said is used worldwide but named for its alleged use by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

So the technique is certainly used worldwide, but we'll still name it after the tiny, terrorized Israeli state which is alleged to use it.

Let's finish today with the x-ray of a bombing victim:


:: michael Friday, February 18, 2005 [+] ::
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as VDH put it:

THE SAME OLD THING

Abbas okays 'collaborator' executions

In the first decision of its kind since he succeeded Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has ratified death sentences against three Palestinians found guilty of "collaboration" with Israel.

You would suppose they were murderers. Their crime:

tipping off Israeli security forces about the whereabouts of wanted gunmen.

Well, I guess that speaks for itself.
:: michael Thursday, February 17, 2005 [+] ::
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SO WHAT DOES SHE MEAN BY THAT?

Ann Coulter writes a reminder of what many have already written, and what those of us who went to supposedly good universities witnessed:

Tenure was supposed to create an atmosphere of open debate and inquiry, but instead has created havens for talentless cowards who want to be insulated from life. Rather than fostering a climate of open inquiry, college campuses have become fascist colonies of anti-American hate speech, hypersensitivity, speech codes, banned words and prohibited scientific inquiry.

..and they teach students (but only the right kind, their kind, of students) to want the same: I experienced my own trouble at UNC for publicly ridiculing a student government leader. I faced sexual harassment charges while she and her fellow lawbreakers were absolutely no cause for concern to the school's administration. This was the event that confirmed my conservatism. After that, everything else I witnessed made sense.

Fascist colonies? Well, a friend argued that public support for the Vietnam War was evidenced by huge box office success of The Green Berets. He got a D on his paper until he argued the professor back up to a B. The student newspaper opined that there was no coincidence when the Allied forces lauched Operation Desert Storm on Martin Luther King's birthday.

Hypersensitivity? When Rite-Aid Pharmacy moved their number-one category of shoplifted inventory to within visual range of the cashiers, organized black activists on campus went nuts. Black hair-care products were what got moved. Instead of calling against their own for making them all look bad, they blamed the store that suffered the losses. I remember mere a handful of days, in four years, when the Daily Tar Heel did not mention racism, sexism, and homophobia on the front page.

Harvard, of all schools, was the first I remember actually creating free speech zones. My language was blamed for creating "a demeaning academic environment for another student's academic pursuits." My victim, the one who broke four laws, never filed a complaint. Someone else made the decision for her that she was a victim. Her grades were never presented as evidence. Five months later, my case was dropped for lack of evidence by the Chancellor. Thank God it was not the current UNC Chancellor.

talentless cowards who want to be insulated from life

An accurate description? Yes, especially if lawbreaking is not an issue with them but being told they are wrong is. And all that happened over 14 years ago. To keep up with current campus antics, I regularly read Dr. Mike Adams's columns, in total amazement that he hasn't been fired or beaten on campus.


:: michael Thursday, February 17, 2005 [+] ::
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