Musings Archive January 2004
Saturday, January 31, 2004 ALRIGHT, THE PATS WILL WIN: I guess it's time for me to register my absolutely final Super Bowl prediction. As you will remember on January 19 I had a 3 point spread with the New England Patriots winning because I thought the Pats were softer than most people thought. Well, two weeks of thinking has brought me to the conclusion that the Carolina Panthers defense isn't that good. They beat up on a Philadelphia Eagles team that simply ran out of gas in the second half. Oh yes, and that small matter of Donovan F. McNabb playing injured.
Las Vegas has moved its spread from 6.5 to 7 points in favour of the Patriots and I follow suit. I am now picking the Patriots to win by 10 points.
Posted by steve @ 06:17 PM EST [Link]
~ ONCE WE KILL YOU DEMOCRACY WILL BE ASSURED: Mullah Omar reportedly faxed in a message today to the Associated Press which accused the U.S. of destroying "Muslim values" in Afghanistan -- which presumably means shooting women in the head for leaving the house alone -- and that the Taliban would return.
Also, the best dressed man in that region, Hamid Karzai, said that Osama bin Laden was alive and likely somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:07 PM EST [Link]
~ EMAIL PROBLEMS RESOLVED: Hi ho there! Just reporting that our email problems have been resolved thanks to the kind people at Interland. Unfortunately I know for a fact that some of the email people sent to the editor at enter stage right dot com address has been lost. If you sent anything after Monday evening and didn't get a response, please feel free to resend it.
Posted by steve @ 02:55 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 30, 2004 LAST CHANCE TO BE BORED: Just got some sad news from Alan Caruba, the proprietor of The Boring Institute. After 20 years Alan is closing the shop on the institute and taking the web site down tomorrow. For your last chance to view the institute's work, visit the web site here.
Posted by steve @ 06:27 PM EST [Link]
~ AND THAT MAKES THREE: Andrew Gilligan, the man responsible for the "sexed up" story today resigned from the BBC. Certainly a victory for journalistic accountability even if Gilligan refuses to admit his part in the mess.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:00 PM EST [Link]
~ I SUPPOSE THAT'S LEADERSHIP OF ONE SORT: The New York Daily News reported today that Wesley Clark apparently sought the support of a radical Muslim group that is being investigated for ties to terrorist activities.
The Democratic presidential candidate's videotaped message was played Dec. 27 in Chicago for the annual conference of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America - a Queens group being probed by the FBI counterterrorism agents, said two federal law enforcement officials.
Both groups have held conferences featuring speakers accused of terror ties and have published material supporting suicide bombings against Israel.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:20 PM EST [Link]
~ OH COME ON...: I realize that not everyone believes in evolution. Frankly, I don't understand that but I can accept it. After all, my faith in the Toronto Maple Leafs has been unrewarded during my lifetime and yet I continue to to soldier on while Colorado, New Jersey and Detroit -- not to mention Montreal -- fans taunt me.
A lack of belief in evolution doesn't explain a proposal in Georgia. The state's school superintendent, Kathy Cox, has proposed dropping the word 'evolution' from the curriculum and replacing it with 'biological changes over time.'
Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. The proposal would not require schools to buy new textbooks omitting the word evolution and would not prevent teachers from using it.
Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching.
"If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, 'This is not what we want,' then we'll change it," said Cox, a Republican elected in 2002.
With all due respect to Ms. Cox, her teachers and the socially conservative parents who object, it's time to take that step into the 19th century. It won't hurt.
Posted by steve @ 02:09 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO WAS GIFTED: I don't know why this didn't get any press yesterday but ABC News apparently has a list it believes is made up of people who received contracts for barrels of oil. Who is on the list? How about British MP George Galloway, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Canada's own Arthur Millholland, CEO of Oilexco.
Read it all here.
Posted by steve @ 02:01 PM EST [Link]
~ THIS GUY WANTS TO BE OUR PRESIDENT?
During last night's Dem debate in South Carolina, Sen Kerry said that the threat of terrorism has been "exaggerated".
According to the Washington Times story:
'"I think there has been an exaggeration," Mr. Kerry said when asked whether President Bush has overstated the threat of terrorism. "They are misleading all Americans in a profound way."
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination said he would engage other nations in a more cooperative fashion to quell terrorism.
"This administration's arrogant and ideological policy is taking America down a more dangerous path," Mr. Kerry said. "I will make America safer than they are."'Terrorists kill 3,000 of our people in the worst attack ever on our soil, and this nut thinks the threat is exaggerated? God help us if he gets elected.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 10:41 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY ARE THEY CONSIDERED AN ALLY?: A spokesman for the Pakistan government denied this morning that American troops will be allowed to operate inside of Pakistan in their hunt for al-Qaida personnel.
I realize that Pervez Musharraf is still consolidating his position against extremist elements in his government but even denying the right to hot pursuit? What's worse is the wholesale transfer of nuclear technology out of Pakistan, as this story earlier today documents.
These guys are becoming about as trustworthy as the Saudis...
Posted by steve @ 04:59 AM EST [Link]
~ JUST DON'T ASK WHAT PERIOD IT IS: The Christian Science Monitor reports that advertising for the Super Bowl will be different this year: some of it will be geared to women.
• An ESPN poll three years ago revealed that women who watched TV sports favored NFL games above all other sports broadcasts.
• In 2002, a survey by Scarborough Sports Marketing, in New York, estimated that 50 million US women avidly followed professional sports - and confirmed pro football's top ranking.
• When last year's Super Bowl rolled around, nearly 40 million women tuned in, says Andrew Rohm, a professor of marketing at Boston's Northeastern University, "which is 10 million more than turned on the Academy Awards."
Actually, despite that jab at the top, I dig women who watch football. A good friend's girlfriend is very knowledgeable about the game and had a higher season percentage in a football pool she participated in at work then I did at a bar I frequent. In fact, I'll be watching the game with them.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:25 AM EST [Link]
~ DEPENDS ON WHAT NORMAL MEANS: Amir Taheri says that Iraq is becoming a normal nation despite what you've been told.
At a radio phone-in program the other day I was taken to task by some listeners for what they believed is Iraq’s “slide into chaos.” “You campaigned for the liberation of Iraq and now look what has happened!”
This was followed by a “what has happened” list of events that included Shiites demonstrating, Kurds asking for autonomy, Sunnis sulking, and various political parties and groups tearing each other apart in the Iraqi media over the shape of the future constitution.
The truth, however, is that, far from sliding into chaos or heading toward civil war, Iraq is beginning to become a normal society. And all normal societies face uncertainties just as do all normal human beings.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:19 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record arguing that the McGuinty government must cut spending in order to balance the budget, not tax and spend us to "prosperity." Click "More" to read it.
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Posted by steve @ 02:13 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 29, 2004 GOOD NEWS FOR GOP IN CALIFORNIA: According to a recent poll, Dubya's approval rating is sitting at 52 per cent in California.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:47 PM EST [Link]
~ IS THIS REALLY A SURPRISE?: Gen. Ricardo Sanchez warned today that al-Qaida was attempting to gain a foothold in Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:44 PM EST [Link]
~ ONE OF OURS: One of the victims of this morning's terrorist attack in Jerusalem happened to be Jewish World Review contributor and Canadian native Chezi Goldberg.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:46 PM EST [Link]
~ I'VE BEEN IN LOVE WITH HER FOR YEARS: I've long believed that Patricia Heaton, co-star of Everybody Loves Raymond, is one of the best looking women in Hollywood. Heaton also happens to be a Christian who isn't caught up with life in the fast lane.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:31 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT'S ALWAYS A GOOD SIGN. NOT.: Howard Dean will skip Super Tuesday next week and concentrate his efforts on Michigan and Washington.
Michigan and Washington offer the former Vermont governor a better chance of victory and a bunch more delegates than do the states in Tuesday's contests.
"We're going to have to win eventually," Dean said, who has suffered back-to-back defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"But the question was do we have to win on February 3? Of course we want to. But we don't have to. What we've got to do is amass as many delegates as we can."
Read on.
Although the chap has lost two primaries, it must be noted he has more delegates than John Kerry. If you're wondering why, read this.
Posted by steve @ 06:26 PM EST [Link]
~ KIND OF LIKE KISSING THE PRETTIEST OF THE UGLY GROUP: Mark Steyn explains in a Spectator piece that John Kerry won in New Hampshire not because he's electable, but because he's the least unelectable of the Democratic candidates.
Read on.
Looks like both and I Mark gave Lieberman double digit points in New Hampshire...didn't cost me anything though.
Posted by steve @ 01:28 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER AT THE BEEB BITES THE DUST: Yesterday it was Gavyn Davies and today it's BBC director general Greg Dyke.
There is one name conspiciously missing in all of this...Andrew Gilligan?
It's not going to happen but the BBC needs more than a few good soldiers to fall on their swords. They need a wholesale philosophical shakeup -- not to turn them into a mindless drone that simply parrots the government's pro-Iraq message, but one that isn't blatantly (or otherwise) biased against the message. You know, neutral.
Posted by steve @ 01:23 PM EST [Link]
~ KERRY VS. EDWARDS: Interesting little piece in today's NRO about how John Kerry is bringing the battle to John Edwards.
But that's the story in South Carolina where prominent black congressman Jim Clyburn is publicly endorsing Sen. John Kerry while his most prominent adviser, Ike Williams, has been working hard for Sen. John Edwards for a week. Even in the Byzantine political world of South Carolina, this is strange.
It could be a sign that electability continues to replace anger as the dominant Democratic motivation in the primaries. Clyburn sees Edwards as electable in South Carolina, but he also sees Kerry as the most electable in November, so he makes the Solomon-like decision to support them both.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:14 PM EST [Link]
~ RELIGION OF PEACE STRIKES AGAIN: 55 people have been killed or wounded in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem today. The attack occured near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence onboard a bus.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 28, 2004 I THOUGHT THINGS WERE GOING WELL: After losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean today fired his campaign manager and replaced him with Roy Neel, a former chief of staff to Al Gore during his Senate and VP days. I'm not sure invoking the ghost of Gore is what you want to do after a bad start to the primary season.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:38 PM EST [Link]
~ PROBLEMS FOR THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY: John R. Bradley reports that discontent with the Saudi royal family has provoked a minor uprising in Sakaka, a city that borders Iraq. Both Islamic militants and those more tolerant, such as Shias who have been persecuted by the Wahhabist loving family, are causing big problems.
The tiny city of Sakaka, the capital of Saudi Arabia's remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq, may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a popular, violent revolution against the ruling Saud family. But you do not have to spend too long here to realise this is what is happening.
Al-Jouf has been witness to an extraordinary level of political violence in recent months. The deputy governor, say locals, was assassinated. Also killed was the police chief and the region's top Sharia court judge. Seven men have been arrested. Saudi officials admit the attacks are linked and that the seven may have been aided by as many as 40 others.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:58 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M SHOCKED: The Iraqi governing council is looking into allegations that that dozens of politicians, including those from sturdy ally France, received bribes to support Saddam Hussein's regime.
The 46 individuals, companies and organisations inside and outside Iraq were given millions of barrels of oil, the documents show. Thousands of papers were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organisation after Baghdad fell to US forces on 9 April.
"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a Governing Council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Rumours had circulated for months that documents implicating senior French individuals were about to surface. Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac staked out the moral high ground in opposing the invasion.
Although the list is news, I remember watching a news report about this early last year. The segment alleged that Switzerland was home to dozens of bank accounts where Iraqi money was funnelled to apologists of the Hussein dictatorship, proceeds from the sale of oil earmarked for the bribees.
Posted by steve @ 06:52 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE VOUCHERS FOR ALL: U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige announced today that private school vouchers represent "emancipation" for poor and minority students.
Shhhh Rod...all the white parents who send their children to private schools will cry racism.
Posted by steve @ 06:39 PM EST [Link]
~ TEKNUCKLE DEFFIKULTIES: It would appear that our mail server isn't functioning properly at the moment, probably because of the incredible amount of virus-laden email we're receiving. If you try and send us something and don't receive a response, please be patient.
[Update - 6:44pm] Wow. I just went into the administrator's section and I'm literally receiving one to two thousand emails every minute in a catchall account I primarily use as a spam bucket. I currently have nearly 36 000 emails at this moment taking up nearly 2 gigs of space.
Posted by steve @ 06:29 PM EST [Link]
~ BLAIR WINS, DAVIES LOSES: The Hutton Report looking into allegations that Tony Blair's government "sexed up" the late David Kelly's report on WMDs in Iraq today announced that the BBC's charges were completely unfounded.
In response, BBC chairman Gavyn Davies resigned.
Read the Hutton Report here.
This is a big blow to the BBC and justly so. Perhaps in the future it won't allow its prejudices to taint its reporting. Well, you can always hope.
Posted by steve @ 06:18 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO REALLY LOST IN N.H.: John Podhoretz argues that the biggest loser in New Hampshire was the media.
The results last night in New Hampshire represent a humiliating disaster for the mainstream media. The political reporters and editors who have been judging this race for a year have made utter fools of themselves.
Nobody foresaw John Kerry's huge victory in Iowa. It was suggested that Kerry was doing better in the weeks before the caucuses, but no reporter even imagined Kerry might pull 38 percent of the caucus-goers there. The press failed just as miserably in New Hampshire - but this time by overestimating and overrating John Edwards.
The North Carolina senator was said to be surging by journalists on the campaign trail who positively slobbered over Edwards' brilliance - a "natural" campaigner, better than Bill Clinton, etc. That talk continued unabated after Edwards' horrible performance in the New Hampshire debate last Thursday, when at least one or two reporters in Iowa might have thought twice about praising his skills as a campaigner.
There was no such thing as the Edwards surge. He ended up somewhere around 12 percent, a spectacularly dismal showing considering that he had scored 32 percent in Iowa only eight days before.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:26 PM EST [Link]
~ TWO FOR TWO FOR DEAN: Close but no cigar for me:
My guess/Results
Kerry: 36% / Kerry: 39%
Dean: 26% / Dean: 26%
Edwards: 15% / Clark: 12%
Clark: 11% / Edwards: 12%
Lieberman: 10% / Lieberman: 9%
Kucinich: >1% / Kucinich: 2%
Sharpton: >1% / Sharpton: 0%Better luck next time. Rather funny to hear Howard Dean be happy about a second place finish, though I suppose it is better than what happened in Iowa. At any rate, read all about what happened in New Hampshire here if you haven't already.
Posted by steve @ 01:01 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 27, 2004 AFGHAN WAR HALTED CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAMS: American and Malaysian security officials stated today that the American-led war against the Taliban halted a nascent al-Qaida program to develop biological and chemical weapons.
The information on the state of Osama bin Laden's weapons plan came from interrogations of terrorist suspects captured in Southeast Asia and from clues gathered in the Afghan battlefield, the authorities said.
The project was being developed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials believe the program was being run by Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and U.S.-trained biochemist, under the direction of Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, an Indonesian accused of heading al-Qaida's operations in Southeast Asia.
Both men are suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group.
Yazid was arrested in December 2001 as he returned to Malaysia from Afghanistan. Hambali was arrested last August in Thailand and is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:05 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIAN SOLDIER KILLED: Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, less than 10 days away from coming home, was killed today by a suspected Taliban suicide bomber in Kabul.
Murphy was a member of the Parachute Company Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battalion Group.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:01 PM EST [Link]
~ HIPPIES SHOULD DIE: I won't inflict another baby boomer related attack on you but David Janes tears apart the silly Ben of Ben and Jerry's fame, who recently whined about the lack of social spending in the U.S. David's response was more effective than words.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ CLARK WINS BIG IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: You heard it here first! Okay, the reality is that the residents of Dixville Notch in N.H. have just cast their ballots -- all 15 of them -- and Clark came first with 8 votes.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:18 AM EST [Link]
~ STEVE'S NEW HAMPSHIRE GUESSES: I suppose I should join the rest of the blogosphere in guessing the final numbers for today's New Hampshire primary. Here goes:
- John Kerry: 36 per cent
- Howard Dean: 26 per cent
- John Edwards: 15 per cent
- Wesley Clark: 11 per cent
- Joe Lieberman: 10 per cent
- Dennis Kucinich: <1 per cent
- Al Sharpton: <1 per cent
Posted by steve @ 02:30 AM EST [Link]
~ GOOD...JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH: David Brooks believes that John Edwards' "January speech" is a thing of beauty, "an overarching vision and the coherence of a fine short story." Why isn't he going to win? Because the answers he provides are too shallow compared to someone like John Kerry's platform.
Read on. (NYT, free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 02:19 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY DEMS ARE MOVING TO KERRY: According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, many Democrats are moving to John Kerry because they believe he can beat George W. Bush.
When Democrats are asked whether they'd rather have a candidate they agreed with on most issues or a candidate who would have a better chance of beating Bush, they choose the latter by a margin of 2 to 1, says Rich Killion, a pollster at Franklin Pierce College. "That isn't a gap, that's a canyon," he says.
This sentiment is clearly motivating Democrats to a greater extent than in recent cycles, with most observers here expecting a large turnout Tuesday, even amid predictions of a snowstorm.
But it's also created challenges, as candidates struggle to stand out in a race where issue contrasts are less important. At times it has made the process seem strangely depersonalized.
At a recent Clark rally in Portsmouth, one speaker opened by saying, "Now I know many of you are just ABB [Anyone But Bush]," pleading with them to look specifically at Clark's qualifications. Likewise, in Nashua, a voter at a Kerry rally held up a sign that didn't even contain the candidate's name: "He's the one Bush won't beat."
Well, I don't know about that. I think even the most partisan of Democrats will admit that November is Dubya's election to lose.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:17 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 26, 2004 MORE ON MILLER: AP has a little story about Dennis Miller whose new program on CNBC debuts tonight at 9:00pm. Make sure to watch it!
Dennis Miller has usually been happy to spray his acerbic wit across the political spectrum, but things will be different on his new CNBC talk program.
President Bush is in a mock-free zone.
"I like him," Miller explained. "I'm going to give him a pass. I take care of my friends."
Hey, there's nothing wrong with unloading on your friends occasionally Dennis...keeps them on their toes.
Posted by steve @ 01:57 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WAR IS BIGGER THAN JUST IRAQ: Michael Ledeen argues that we are too focused on Iraq, that we must realize that the real war is.
Bad analysis leads inevitably to bad policy, and our narrow focus on Iraq costs lives. Widespread terrorism and political demonstrations are not organized solely, or even primarily, by the shattered remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime, nor by the splintered pieces of al Qaeda. The war against us in Iraq and Afghanistan is an existential struggle guided, funded, and armed by tyrannical regimes in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, because they are convinced — rightly enough — that if we succeed, they are doomed to fall in a regional democratic revolution. Their plan, modeled on the strategy that drove us out of Lebanon in the 1980s, was prepared long before we attacked.
They made no secret of their intentions. Prior to the liberation, Syrian President Bashar Assad publicly called for a "Lebanon strategy," and in August, the head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, called for the entire Muslim world to join in a jihad against Americans in Iraq. Throughout, Iranian leaders and Saudi clerics have denounced the American actions in Iraq and joined the call for jihad.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ THE REALITY ABOUT IRAN: Darius Dana corrects some accepted 'facts' about Iran, such as that President Khatami is a democratically elected moderate.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:45 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WORLD IS CHANGING: Excellent piece in today's Christian Science Monitor about the changes Sudan is experiencing.
Standing amid the ruins of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant here, an avuncular man named Idris Babiker Eltayeb has every reason to detest America. After all, the US sent 13 cruise missiles to demolish his factory in 1988, saying there was evidence it was making chemical weapons for Osama bin Laden.
Yet as he steps carefully between piles of twisted concrete, pointing out pieces of American missiles still lying in the dust, he's got a smile on his face - and architectural plans under his arm. He aims to rebuild the factory - and make American drugs in it. He's also negotiating with a US firm to distribute its drugs here.
His long journey from US target to budding partner mirrors Sudan's. In five years, this North African nation has gone from international pariah to tentative US antiterror ally. America is now deluging Sudan with promises of aid and invitations to the White House to sign a peace deal ending its 20-year civil war. Many here think it could be a model for Syria, Iran, and even North Korea to come in from the terror-supporting cold.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:09 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 25, 2004 MADNESS AND BOREDOM: Mark Steyn has a typically humorous and insightful piece about what Iowa has wrought for the Democrats.
As some readers may recall, having spent a decade watching Dean govern Vermont as a dull centrist, I've long argued that the crazy guy running around this last year was just an act, a bit of canny opportunism from a minor local pol who needed to get himself a national profile in nothing flat. Unfortunately, Dean's simulated Mad How disease was so convincing he caught a touch of it himself. If you've seen ''Lost In Translation,'' you'll know there's a marvelous scene where sad middle-age Bill Murray has a night out with Scarlett Johansson and comes to life doing karaoke versions of '80s rock songs. That's Dean. He's right: He's not a rock star. But for months on end he's been doing rock-star karaoke with legions of Scarlett Johansson-type college cuties. You can't blame the guy for getting carried away.
The trouble is that he has now overcompensated. His minders have evidently told him it's not enough to go back to being the authentically boring Howard Dean -- he's got to be mega-boring. In his interview with Diane from Vermont's charmingly restored Norwich Inn, he seemed to be fading into the authentic colonial wainscoting. The Vermonster had become, in '80s karaoke terms, the Calmer Calmer Calmer Calmer Calmer Chameleon. At Thursday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, the calmer he got -- ''balanced budgets, fiscally conservative manageable budgets, budgets in balance fiscally conservative'' -- the more the bored Dean watchers speculated that he was about to go berserk, like kids at the zoo eager to start lobbing pebbles at the slumbering gorilla.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:09 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 23, 2004 ONE COOL SIDE EFFECT OF MULTICULTURALISM: The birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns and the dawn of the Chinese New Year apparently coincide. What do good Canadians do? Why celebrate both at the same time!
Chinese men don kilts and Scots tuck into haggis wonton in a multi-culti Chinese New Year party for Robbie Burns that began as a gag get-together among university friends and spread like an endless egg noodle.
More than 500 culture vultures in Vancouver have snapped up tickets for the festivities Saturday and Sunday to celebrate the Scottish bard whose day falls at the dawn of the Chinese New Year. Chicken feet, haggis, anything goes at the 12-course fusion feast.
"This is what Canadian society is all about, introducing each other to our cultures and celebrating more holidays," said organizer Todd Wong.
It actually is kind of cool though you'd have to put a gun to my head for me to eat haggis. I have, however, worn a kilt. It was part of my regimental formal dress for the Second Battalion, Irish Regiment of Canada.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:57 PM EST [Link]
~ WE NEED A CIVIL WAR: Although she occasionally annoys me, Elizabeth Nickson had a marvy essay in today's National Post arguing that unlike our American cousins, Canadians discuss little of importance.
Not fair, not fair, not fair. The Americans can have a war of ideas and we can't discuss anything. Because anything not out of the Bigger Government playbook is called right-wing extremism, and worse Christian, and thus demonized. Meanwhile, the sleepiest country in the world, which lives next door to the most vibrant country in the world, continues to tumble into the wormhole of complete irrelevance. Unluckily for us, the extraordinary American growth and innovation can float even our dozy economy, and we never have to grow up and behave like adults.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:47 PM EST [Link]
~ DAMNED LIES: John Stossel, whose new book I just received and can't wait to tear into, has a special on ABC tonight entitled "Lies, Myths and Downright Stupidity with John Stossel". It will be on from 10:00pm to 11:00pm EST.
Sorry for the lack of blogging today...taking care of a 2 1/2 year old, as any parent will testify, can be somewhat time consuming.
Posted by steve @ 06:36 PM EST [Link]
~ I'D SAY BETTER: The Democrats have been trying to make the case that the U.S. is worse off than it was before the invasion of Iraq, a conclusion that Victor Davis Hanson doesn't share.
Posted by steve @ 11:28 AM EST [Link]
~ A TRILLION HERE...A TRILLION THERE: And pretty soon you're talking about real money. The Christian Science Monitor reports today that Republicans are getting ready for a battle over the budget. With their own president.
Although Dubya promised to keep growth in non-discretionary spending below 4 per cent in his State of the Union speech earlier this week, plenty of GOPers are worried about how much money is being spent by the president on all his pet projects.
Many Republicans worry that tax cuts without significant spending cuts cannot be sustained. Moreover, they note that much of the increase has been in nondefense discretionary spending. The conservative Club for Growth estimates that the Bush administration has increased domestic discretionary spending by 8.2 percent, compared with 2.5 percent during the Clinton years.
In response to such concerns, the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of some 90 GOP conservatives, this week called for zero net growth in spending for the 2005 fiscal year and urged the president to find offsets for any new spending.
Hard to argue with anyone who thinks Bush is spending like a poet in a bar on payday.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 22, 2004 YOU THINK IT'S RAINING HARD NOW?: Mel Gibson told a meeting of 4,500 evangelical Christian pastors yesterday that the "worst is yet to come" over his movie The Passion of the Christ.
I guess we'll find out on February 25.
Posted by steve @ 07:35 PM EST [Link]
~ THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO PARTIES: All the focus has been on the Democrats and Republicans so far when it comes to Election 2004 coverage but there are other parties out there. One of them is the Constitution Party which is holding its convention in June. It would appear that the party's nominee will be Michael Peroutka. Learn more about him here.
Posted by steve @ 07:24 PM EST [Link]
~ CLARK CLASSLESS: As you may have heard, Wesley Clark, the general fired as Supreme Commander in Europe, dissed John Kerry's war service this week on two seperate occasions.
"[W]ith all due respect, [John Kerry is] a lieutenant and I'm a general....It's one thing to be a hero as a junior officer. He's done that and I respect him for that. He's been a good senator. But I've had the military leadership at the top as well as at the bottom."
I dislike Kerry's politics as much as anyone on the right can but this is one of the more abhorent attacks on the man I've seen in a while. As Tacitus points out, Kerry was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts during his service in Vietnam. It's absolutely disgusting that a fellow Vietnam vet would disrespect one of his brothers like this.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:42 PM EST [Link]
~ THE HULK ISN'T UNBEATABLE: Contary to what you may think, The Hulk isn't unbeatable. He's fought The Thing -- and usually won -- but he's also lost to The Abomination and Doc Samson. Going into Iowa, Howard Dean was The Hulk, as evidenced by his screamapiller yelp Monday night, but he got beat nonetheless.
Mark Steyn goes over the results of Iowa, why The Hulk lost, and who he thought was the real winner. Hint, it isn't who you think it is.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:33 PM EST [Link]
~ FACE TO FACE WITH BELINDA: ESR contributor Jackson Murphy met Canada's newest political star Wednesday night. Belinda Stronach met with Conservative Party of Canada party members and the curious in a pub in Vancouver and Jackson was impressed by her...well, except for her being 45 minutes late.
Jackson's permalinks aren't working correctly so go to his blog and scroll down to "Close encounters of the Belinda Stronach kind"
So she smells nice, eh Jackson?
Posted by steve @ 01:12 AM EST [Link]
~ VINCENT GALLO...CONSERVATIVE?: Vincent Gallo, a writer, actor and director, has made the entertainment news quite a bit in the past year. After Roger Ebert savaged his movie The Brown Bunny -- one that includes Gallo being...hmmm...pleasured on screen -- and a resulting war of words between the two, Gallo has been pilloried by the media. Now comes word that he's a conservative.
Mr. Gallo, 41, is a devout if unlikely member of the G.O.P., an outspoken Republican who rivals only punk rocker Mr. Ramone, Motörhead bassist and hair-meister Lemmy Kilmister, and Factory alum Paul Morrissey for the title of Least Likely Celebrity Conservative. He has been a part of the downtown art scene since the late 1970’s—a product of the days of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Studio 54’s Steve Rubell (both friends of Mr. Gallo before they died of a drug overdose and AIDS, respectively)—and his most recent film, The Brown Bunny, turns an extended *** into a new form of cinema vérité.
He is hardly the poster child for the Moral Majority.
But Mr. Gallo insisted that he’s the real deal. "There’s a picture of me at 6 years old campaigning for Richard Nixon. I’ve always been the same. Always. I was against hippies," he told his Young Republican Club hosts. He loves President Bush and loathes "self-serving" lefties, particularly "that commie crawfish, Al Franken," and that "destructive hog," Michael Moore. And he thinks politicians spend too much time pandering to special interests like "the gays, the AARP, handicapped groups." When he gets going on the media’s anti-Republican bias, as he did the other night, Mr. Gallo sounds like a regular Bill O’Reilly.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:49 AM EST [Link]
~ IRAN LINKED TO SEPTEMBER 11?: A shocking development in Germany on Wednesday:
On what had been the eve of his widely expected acquittal, the trial of the second person charged by German authorities as an accomplice of the Sept. 11 hijackers was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after prosecutors disclosed the existence of a surprise witness purporting to link Iran to the hijackings.
The mysterious witness, who goes by the name Hamid Reza Zakeri and claims to have been a longtime member of the Iranian intelligence service, is said to have told German investigators that the Sept. 11 plot represented what one termed a "joint venture" between the terrorist group al-Qaida and the Iranian government.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:45 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 21, 2004 THE NOT STUPID PARTY: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) Earlier this month a clod named Neil Starkman wrote a column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer claiming that the reason why people supported George W. Bush was, gosh darned it, because they are stupid. Channeling Michael Moore, he wrote that they are the type of people who just don't understand the wider world. Said Starkman:
The answer, I'm afraid, is the factor that dare not speak its name. It's the factor that no one talks about. The pollsters don't ask it, the media don't report it, the voters don't discuss it.
I, however, will blare out its name so that at last people can address the issue and perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it.
It's the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people -- sometimes through no fault of their own -- are just not very bright.
Well, Caroline Overington of The Age has a different opinion of why Americans support Dubya.
Americans support the war in Iraq and, by extension, Bush because they see it as part of a bigger picture. Like everybody, they now know that Saddam was not the threat they thought he was (at least, not to them) but they still think it was a good idea to deal with him, before he became one.
The price of freedom is high. You might think you would not sacrifice your life for it, but maybe you don't have to. After all, 20-year-old Americans are doing it for you, every day.
The saddest moment of 2003 was when I realized that Canadian soldiers would not be marching beside their American and British cousins and fighting for liberty.
Posted by steve @ 06:41 PM EST [Link]
~ IT DOES SEND A MESSAGE: If you will remember, on Sunday radio stations across the world played host to a six hour program that promised a method that would eventually topple the Iranian theocratic regime. If you missed the show, the plan basically entails turning off as many lights as possible.
A long study has shown that "Silent Referendum" which could take place by a "Black Out" at a pre-determined time and interval, will result in unity of the Iranian people. Base on declaration of the IOT members and their approval, since Jan. 22, 2004 (2 Bahman Mah 1382) all Iranians who believe that this regime should be removed from power, will turn off all their lights at home and workplaces (if private & possible) for half an hour from 9.00 - 9.30 pm on Thursday nights. No one should wait for others in order to follow him. Every Iranian should feel that he or she is a leader in this movement and should speak with at least two people in order to convince and ask them to do so.
Visit here to find out all the details and why they think this will work.
[Update - 4:44pm] Please note, this is merely one segment of the plan. As Blog Iran points out, the rest of the plan is being translated from Farsi to English at this moment so stay tuned.
Posted by steve @ 02:10 PM EST [Link]
~ SAY "THANK YOU"
Chuck Muth, in his "News and Views" email newsletter reflects on the President's State of the Union speech. One of his points is this:
'* Finally, my favorite line of the entire evening. In giving that
10-year-old girl her good-citizen marching orders, the President suggested
something which every darned one of us should take to heart: When you see a
man or woman in uniform, say "thank you."'I bring this up so that I can share a personal experience. Over the holidays, I had occasion to be in the Baltimore-Washington airport. Uniformed military personnel were all over, coming back from or going back to Iraq and Afganistan. My wife and I made it a point to say "thank you" and to shake hands with as many as we could. When I went to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, there was a soldier in line in front of me. As the clerk rang up his order, I reached around him and paid the clerk. The soldier said to me, "You sure you want to do that?" I said yes, I was sure. He thanked me and at that point, I was so choked up, I couldn't respond.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the military, I guess since I spent half of my life in the military. All those dedicated young kids, working in wretched conditions to protect our freedom and safety, makes me incredibly proud of them. We can't thank them enough.
So again, I say "Thank you".
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 09:54 AM EST [Link]
~ REACTIONS TO THE SOU: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of some of the blogosphere's reaction to George W. Bush's State of the Union address.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 MIXED BAG: QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE SOU ADDRESS: As Joe Klein stated on CNN, this is the first speech in the Bush administration's history that was delivered without some major drama surrounding it so it wasn't surprising that this wasn't George W. Bush's strongest State of the Union address.
Not surprisingly about half of the speech -- the strongest part in my opinoin -- dealt with the ongoing war against terrorist activity and related issues like Iraq. With Adnan Pachachi, head of interim Iraqi council, in attendance, Bush painted a fairly positive picture of how things were going in Iraq. Although Bush mentioned that dozens of WMD programs and "significant" amounts of related equipment had been found, he chose to dwell on other benefits of the war, namely the liberation of the Iraqi people.
I have to admit I particularly enjoyed the moment when he argued that it was "not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers," that military action was needed as well. That military action, he stated, underlined America's resolve to stop hostile regimes from gaining WMDs or employing them. I think it was quite credible for him to argue that this resolve was key in the U.S. and Britain in convincing Libya to renounce its WMD programs.
I was surprised that Bush brought up the USA PATRIOT Act, a piece of legislation that has its enemies on both sides of the political fence. Although some Democrats applauded the idea that certain provisions would expire in 2005 -- this after all but one of them voted in favor of the act in the first place -- it's hard to believe that those controversial provisions won't be renewed by Congress. I thought it was risky for Bush to bring up unpopular legislation.
Best bit: "Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their sacrifices. From the beginning, America has sought international support for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people."
Unfortunately the second half of the speech was a bit of a letdown for me. I realize that he faces reelection later this year so he has to appeal to Americans on domestic issues, but much of his proposals could have been directly lifted from a Bill Clinton speech. The call for the tax cuts to be made permanent was a good one and action against frivolous lawsuits -- which he repeated twice -- are good moves though I'm not confident that any meaningful tort reform will actually take place given the lobbying power of lawyers. Less enticing is all the spending that he wants to commit to education, which according to my copy of the American constitution, is not a federal matter.
What I really liked in the second half was Bush's call for personal retirement accounts and medical savings accounts. He faces a very tough fight on both these fronts if he decides to pursue them but I think they are both good steps in preventing those entitlements from growing substantially in the future.
It was, as the title of this blog entry states, for me a mixed bag. It's hard to fault the president on the war against terrorism and initiatives like tort reform, personal savings accounts and medical savings accounts, but his increased spending on education and praise of the prescription drug benefit and proposed immigration reforms leave me a bit cold.
Grade: C+
Read the speech here.
Posted by steve @ 10:42 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS THE UNION COVERING IMMIGRATION WORKERS CAN BRAG THEY STOPPED A TERRORIST AT THE BORDER: U.S. officials suspect that one of the men being held at Guantanamo Bay is in fact the 20th hijacker that al-Qaida sent to carry out the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Al-Qahtani (whose full name has not been disclosed) is "not saying anything" to his interrogators at Guantanamo, an official said.
Newsweek magazine first reported that al-Qahtani was suspected to have been a potential 20th hijacker and that he was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
U.S. immigration authorities turned the man away at Orlando International Airport in Florida in August 2001, Newsweek reported. The immigration officer who stopped him from entering the United States is expected to testify soon before the independent commission investigating the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials said.
Posted by steve @ 07:10 PM EST [Link]
~ BELINDA!: As expected, Belinda Stronach announced her candidacy for the Conservative Party of Canada today. You can visit her very colorful web site here to learn more about here. Interesting item: She has a blog, but then again so does everyone. Disappointing feature: Few specifics on policies but I'm sure she'll address that soon.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 PM EST [Link]
~ THE PASSION OF CHRIST SAGA CONTINUES: In the latest in the saga, an aide Pope John Paul II said yesterday that while the Pontiff watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, he told no one about his opinion of the movie.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's long-time private secretary, told the Catholic News Service Monday: "The Holy Father told no one of his opinion of this film."
In the past seven weeks, major world media organizations have written reports based on Church sources saying the pope liked the film and that he told aides that it was an accurate portrayal of Biblical accounts of Christ's final hours.
I'm seriously getting sick of this movie before I've even seen it and I really want to see it.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:30 PM EST [Link]
~ QUICK IOWA RUNDOWN: So John Kerry has won the Iowa caucuses and John Edwards has come in second. What does it all mean? Here's the breakdown for each major candidate:
KERRY: This last-minute upset victory unquestionably breathes new life into his candidacy. It gives him enough momentum going into the New Hampshire primary to throw that race open. He might be able to bypass Wesley Clark for second place or even do something that has been unthinkable for months - come in first, beating Howard Dean. But even if he doesn't, Iowa makes it possible for Kerry to lose N.H. and not have to drop out of the race.
EDWARDS: This establishes John Edwards as a major candidate, not merely a darkhorse, and makes some sense out of his decision to forego reelection to the Senate in favor of a longhshot presidential bid. He needs to keep the momentum going in N.H. and absolutely has to win South Carolina or this will be his peak.
DEAN: This is extremely disappointing for Dean and does make him look less than inevitable, but let's keep this in perspective. George Bush ran third in the Iowa caucuses against Bob Dole and Pat Robertson in 1988, but nevertheless managed to win the nomination and the presidency. Similar examples abound. But this just reinforces Dean's need for a convincing win in N.H. and a way to handle lingering Democratic doubts about his electability.
GEPHARDT: Time to drop out. Iowa was a must-win and he did not. It will only get worse from here and there is no longer any compelling rationale for his campaign or reason to think he is viable.
CLARK: He needs to finish in the top three in N.H. and preferably ahead of Kerry, otherwise he will be lost in the post-Iowa shuffle. Will he be able to keep up his momentum now that it has been proven other candidates can outpoll Dean? We'll see, he's been drawing large and enthusiastic crowds in the Granite State.
LIEBERMAN: Let's face it Joe, you're a long shot. Lieberman needs to establish himself as a credible, top-tier candidate in N.H. to stay alive. He needs to finish in the top three at this point or hope that Dean wins by enough to force Kerry, Clark and Edwards out of the race. The latter ain't gonna happen, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that the former will either.
Posted by antle @ 12:50 AM EST [Link]
~ SURPRISE IN IOWA: Hound dog faced Sen. John Kerry won in Iowa Monday evening in what can only be called a surprise...if you ignore the fact that Howard Dean placed in third behind John Edwards. After placing fourth, it is expected that Dick Gephardt will likely drop out.
So what does this mean? You guessed it, absolutely nothing. If you remember back in 2000, George W. Bush got an early scare from Pat Buchanan and yet history records Dubya in the White House these past four years. Kerry still has as much chance of winning the Democratic nomination as I do.
Read on.
Make sure to also go to Mark Steyn's Demo*lition Derby and make new picks if you didn't have Gephardt.
Posted by steve @ 12:47 AM EST [Link]
~ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BATTLE FLARES UP AGAIN: The battle over affirmative action in Michigan appears not to be over. An effort is under way right now to place an amendment in that state's constitution that bans racial preferences in hiring and school admissions.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:36 AM EST [Link]
~ GIMLI UNDER ATTACK: Brian Tiemann reports on, and has some comments about, the controversy surrounding comments John Rhys-Davies made which some are taking to be an attack on Muslims.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 19, 2004 SO I WANT AN APATHETIC, CENTER-LEFT POLITICIAN WHO DOESN'T CARE ABOUT POLITICS?: Belinda Stronach, the 37-year old CEO of the $15 billion Magna International empire will formally announced tomorrow she's running for the leadership of Canada's new conservative political party, the Conservative Party of Canada.
I have to admit that I was surprised to learn that she was a conservative. I met her father in the late 1980s when I was a member of the Liberal Party and I never got the impression he was a conservative liberal. That said, I'm kind of interested in Belinda Stronach -- the fact that she's single, female and conservative doesn't hurt -- for the fact that she's a new face.
Some, however, think that it's not her newness that's a handicap, but her wealth.
David Taras from the University of Calgary said Stronach must overcome her millionaire roots by being honest about who she is and what she's done as the CEO of a $15-billion-a-year corporation.
"She has to prove to Canadians that she's like them, and I think that's very difficult," he said.
"People see her through the limousines and the private jets and the horses. Who is this person and how do they relate to me?"
I seriously don't want to come across as an elitist, but I really don't want a politician who is like the average Canadian. The average Canadian doesn't care. And if Canadians are so in love with the common man, why is a multi-millionaire who inherited a giant shipping company the current prime minister?
For the record, I'm leaning towards Stephen Harper because I supported him during his bid for the Canadian Alliance leadership but I am open to different candidates. And Belinda, if you aren't soured on marriage after your last divorce, entertain the option of dating a slightly younger, hardworking, nice, conservative writer. I'll even sign a pre-nup.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:33 PM EST [Link]
~ WHEN COULD YOU TRUST A PROMISE BY SHEILA COPPS?: The ongoing saga between Sheila Copps and Paul Martin continued today. Today the ex-cabinet minister announced that she would sign a Liberal Party form promising not to run for the NDP. She also stated, however, that she doesn't consider herself legally bound by the promise.
"I don't believe that the form is worth the paper that it's written on," Copps said in an interview Monday. "But I will sign it, because I have no choice."
Unless the Martin regime consolidated all power and has turned Canada into a dictatorship, I believe Ms. Copps still has a choice. If she signs it and then runs for the NDP, she has broken a promise. You know, like that GST thing a couple of years ago...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:22 PM EST [Link]
~ TCS LOOKS AT THE IOWA BREAKDOWN: Chris Hull has a great piece looking at the Iowa caucuses for Tech Central Station.
Posted by antle @ 06:25 PM EST [Link]
~ ON THE RUN: Good report by AP today about the increasing anger of Iraqis over the guerrilla attacks which are killing coalition troops and civilians alike. In response, they are helping coalition forces target insurgents.
For six months, the Arab foreigners lived quietly in a Baghdad neighborhood with their wives and children, until neighbors tipped off U.S. forces they could be insurgents.
On Monday morning, American soldiers came to the door of a brown-brick house and - speaking in Arabic over a loudspeaker - ordered those inside to surrender.
When the raid was over, three men were dead, a Syrian and two Yemenis. Two of the men were shot trying to escape; the other blew himself up in the front yard. Inside the house, U.S. troops found a weapons cache.
The U.S. military had no comment on the incident. But witnesses and Iraqi police described how Iraqi civilians, increasingly frustrated with guerrilla violence, are cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition to catch suspected rebels.
Other Iraqi neighbors applauded the move.
"Had I known who they were, I would have turned them in myself," said Almas Zia Youssef, 24, standing with curious onlookers outside the house where her neighbors were killed at dawn.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:38 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M MORALLY OPPOSED TO DRINKING GAMES: As I believe drinking is a philosophy, but longtime contributor Jackson Murphy (who also runs the blog Dispatches) brought my attention to the The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2004.
After a quick look at what you have to take a drink for, I can see someone getting seriously hurt by the end of the speech.
Posted by steve @ 03:22 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: Readers who live in the Cleveland area might be interested in purchasing tickets to the Medina County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, where I will be the keynote speaker. It's being held on February 28 and I believe tickets are on sale. The county party's website is here.
Posted by antle @ 03:02 PM EST [Link]
~ WEEKEND OF WOWS...SUNDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: Quick: Can you name what arguably was one of the best teams between 1990 and 1994? The answer? The Buffalo Bills. The team made it to four straight Super Bowls but ended up losing to the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. Although the Bills were never able to climb to the top of the hill they deserve respect for at least getting near it.
The Philadelphia Eagles kind of remind me of those Bills. For the third straight year the Eagles reached the NFC championship game and once again they lost, this time in the weekend's unlikiest upset. Going into the game Carolina had a good defense but they absolutely savaged Philadelphia. The Eagles receivers dropped six balls, Donovan McNabb was picked three times and he and Koy Detmer were sacked five times.
I think big changes are in store for the Eagles and we may see a year where they take a step back and reassess the direction they've been taking, especially since a number of players will be leaving due to free agency.
Trivia question of the week: Who is the last team to lose three straight conference championships? The Dallas Cowboys from 1980-82.
In the New England-Indianapolis game I picked the Colts to upset the Pats but the only thing upset was Peyton Manning. New England got him dirty and got him off his game though to be kind nothing was working for the Colts on either side of the ball. On Friday I formally switched my pick to New England but since I am on record having picked the Colts I shall honor my original selection.
So what about the Super Bowl? Well, I had Indianapolis winning over Philadelphia so that's obviously not going to happen. A lot of people will likely give the Patriots the favored status against Carolina but if Sunday proved anything, the Panthers are very dangerous. What bothered me about the Pats was their absolute inability to get the ball in the endzone -- they only scored one touchdown -- and Carolina's defence is considerably tougher than Indianapolis'.
The line in Vegas has New England favored by 6.5 points over Carolina. I don't feel confident about this but I will pick New England to win but by 3. If, however, New England can't punch that ball into the endzone on February 1, I wouldn't be surprised if Carolina wins that game.
With that in mind, this week's Cheerleader of the Week is Pats cheerleader Melinda McGrath, a first year member of the squad. Along with the obvious reason, Melinda earns a place in my heart for loving Frank Sinatra, the namesake of my home Fort Sinatra. She also enjoys shopping, traveling and playing ping pong. I'd lose to her anytime she wanted.
Posted by steve @ 01:36 AM EST [Link]
~ THAT TIGHT DEM RACE: John Podhoretz has a nice analysis of the Democratic race ahead of tomorrow's Iowa caucuses, complete with what it would take for each leading candidate to defeat Howard Dean. Even with last-minute surges by Kerry and Edwards, I still think Dean is the man to beat. But we'll see.
Posted by antle @ 12:33 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 18, 2004 OH WELL: "Mortar shells found in Iraq and believed to be suspicious in fact contained no chemical agents, the Danish army said after a week of tests."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:46 PM EST [Link]
~ IS IT STILL ILLEGAL TO BE A JEW OR CHRISTIAN IN SAUDI ARABIA?: Thousands of Muslim women marched in Paris today to protest a ban on head coverings from public schools arguing that it's an attack on religious freedom.
Posted by steve @ 02:53 AM EST [Link]
~ WHAT QUEER EYE REALLY MEANS: Joseph Kellard has an interesting article up about what Queer Eye for the Straight Guy really means. All I know is I want Kyan Douglas to look at my hair...I need a new haircut.
Posted by steve @ 02:06 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 17, 2004 MAKE MLK DAY MORE POPULAR: Steve Sailer, interviewed by Bernard Chapin in the pages of ESR last week, has a proposal to get more people and employers to observe Martin Luther King Day: change it from King's birthday to the date of one of his greatest achievements:
"Instead of commemorating the day when King was born, follow the precedent set by Columbus Day. We don't celebrate Columbus on the day of his birth, but on the anniversary of his greatest feat, reaching the New World on Oct. 12, 1492.
Similarly, we could commemorate what might be King's most memorable achievement: his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963."
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 09:03 PM EST [Link]
~ CON-CON RUNNING UNOPPOSED: According to this report, no candidates have filed to run against Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) in 2004. This just goes to show that constitutional conservatives can win without abandoning constitutional government or their principles. Via LewRockwell.com's blog.
Posted by antle @ 08:41 PM EST [Link]
~ SCOLDING?: The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said today that it will "scold" Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel for damaging a piece of art work that depicts a Palestinian suicide bomber.
In the piece, a boat floats in a rectangular basin filled with red water, carrying a portrait of Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat. Jaradat attacked a restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa in October, blowing herself up and killing 21 others.
In news footage from Reuters television, Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel pulled out electrical wires attached to the artwork, sending a spotlight crashing to the ground. He was asked to leave.
Mazel told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he didn't cut or rip the electrical wires but unplugged electrical projectors that provided lighting to the display. He told Haaretz it was an act of protest.
I'm kind of torn about this. I can understand Mazel's anger, heck I might done the same thing myself, but I don't like works of art -- even very objectionable ones -- to be damaged.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:03 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 16, 2004 NO LEFTY ADS DURING SUPERBOWL: CBS has rejected ads by PETA and Moveon.org on the grounds they do not accept advocacy advertising.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:55 PM EST [Link]
~ YELLOWCAKE LIKELY FROM IRAQ: The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed today that the scrap metal that has tested positive for yellowcake likely came from Iraq.
The material likely dates back before the first Gulf War but its existence underlines that something was going on at some point.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:48 PM EST [Link]
~ ABOUT TIME: George W. Bush today appointed Charles Pickering to a federal appeals court, bypassing the Senate. The recess appointment is in effect until the next Congress takesover in 2005.
Posted by steve @ 05:12 PM EST [Link]
~ DEMS TO ENJOY THEIR OWN MEDICINE: The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to block a Republican-led redistricting in Texas that could cost Democrats some seats.
The justices will announce later this year whether they will consider an appeal from congressional Democrats and others who claim the map dilutes minority voting strength. In the meantime, they rejected an emergency appeal that sought to stop the state from using the new boundaries in this year's elections.
The districts were approved by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature in a special session following months of partisan bickering, highlighted by two out-of-state walkouts by Democrats.
I'm not a big fan of jerrymandering by any political party -- even if I support them directly with a vote -- but the Democrats have been playing around with electoral boundaries for years in an effort to get rid of Republicans. If this holds up it will simply be a case of the Democrats being forced to swallow their own medicine.
Posted by steve @ 04:14 PM EST [Link]
~ NO RUN FOR HARRIS: Kathleen Harris has announced today that she will not run for the U.S. Senate in Florida this year. No big surprise. After the White House all but endorsed former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez it pretty well spelled the end of her effort.
Posted by steve @ 04:09 PM EST [Link]
~
GOD HAS TOUCHED ME: Back on November 27, during a Thursday Evening Quarterback I evinced my love for one Micaela Johnson, a cheerleader with the best looking squad of any sport, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It was quite a surprise when I checked my email today find out that Micaela wrote in! Thanks Micaela, you made my day! I have a friend who lives and dies by the Cowboys and he'll be quite jealous about this.
I reiterate what I said in November...I would gladly fight wars if anyone from that squad asked.
Posted by steve @ 03:34 PM EST [Link]
~ ON SPACE: Charles Krauthammer has some interesting thoughts on George W. Bush's call to go to the moon and Mars in today's WaPo.
As for the Kennedy stuff, the Bush proposal has less to do with a vision of man's destiny than with a totally dysfunctional government agency. NASA gave us the glory of Apollo, then spent the next three decades twirling around in space in low Earth orbit studying zero-G nausea.
It's crazy, and it might have gone on forever had it not been for the Columbia tragedy. Columbia made painfully clear what some of us have been saying for years: It is not only pointless to continue orbiting endlessly around the Earth; it is ridiculously expensive and indefensibly risky.
The president's proposal is a reasonable, measured reconfiguration of the manned space program. True, he could not go all the way. Binding agreements with other countries made it impossible for him to scrap the space station -- a financial sinkhole whose only purpose is its own existence. But he is for phasing it down and for retiring the shuttle within six years.
That frees up huge amounts of NASA money to do what is useful and exciting: going to other worlds. For this generation, the only alternative to wandering about in low Earth orbit -- other than the Luddite alternative of giving up manned flight completely -- is to return to the moon. And this time, stay there.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:39 PM EST [Link]
~ LIFE AFTER SADDAM: Interesting story in today's Christian Science Monitor about the mental adjustments Iraqis are facing and making about life after Saddam Hussein.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 AM EST [Link]
~ SERIOUSLY, LET IT DIE ALREADY: It just goes to prove that Internet economics haven't completely died. Jann Wenner, chieftain of long in the tooth Rolling Stone, and John Warnock, co-chairman of Adobe Systems, announced Thursday they would pump another $800 000 into Salon, the magazine that couldn't earn money if you could grow it.
As part of the alliance with Mr. Wenner, Salon and Rolling Stone, each known for liberal political leanings, will collaborate on a series of articles about the presidential election. "I really like what they have been doing over the years," Mr. Wenner said. "I have been impressed with their journalistic drive and energy. And given that we are gearing up our political coverage, we thought they would be a good partner."
David Talbot, the site's chief executive and editor in chief, said, "This is all part of Salon ramping up its political coverage in a major way for the coming election." In addition to the collaborations with Rolling Stone, Salon has hired Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, as a consultant and columnist.
There were so many irrelevant people mentioned in this blog entry I almost burned myself out.
Read on. (NYT, Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 12:21 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 15, 2004 WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT YELLOWCAKE?: A recycling company in Rotterdam has found what is believed to be uranium oxide -- AKA yellowcake -- in a shipment of scrap steel believed to be from Iraq.
I thought Tony Blair and the British were lying about that...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:02 PM EST [Link]
~ MAN, I WISH I HAD CNBC: The New York Times talks to Dennis Miller, whose new show launches in about two weeks.
"People say I've slid to the right," Mr. Miller said in his office at the NBC Studios in Burbank, speaking in his rat-a-tat-tat style. "Well, can you blame me? One of the biggest malfeasances of the left right now is the mislabeling of Hitler. Quit saying this guy is Hitler," he said, referring to Mr. Bush. "Hitler is Hitler. That's the quintessential evil in the history of the universe, and we're throwing it around on MoveOn.org to win a contest. That's grotesque to me."
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 06:46 PM EST [Link]
~ LIBERTY TAKES A BLOW IN D.C.: A federal judge yesterday upheld a District of Columbia law that prohibits the ownership of handguns and places strict conditions on other types of firearms.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton dismissed the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs argued that the 28-year-old law violated their Second Amendment right to own guns. The D.C. law prohibits ownership or possession of handguns and requires that others, such as shotguns, be kept unloaded, disassembled or equipped with trigger locks.
Walton ruled that the Second Amendment is not a broad-based right of gun ownership.
"The Second Amendment does not confer an individual a right to possess firearms. Rather, the Amendment's objective is to ensure the vitality of state militias," Walton wrote.
Walton is probably a big admirer of Michael Bellesilses.
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Posted by steve @ 03:43 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: If you live in Kitchener/Waterloo, feel free to pick up today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record. On today's op-ed page I argue that Canada must participate in the American ballistic missile defense shield. Don't live in KW? Fear not, merely click on "More" and you can read it.
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Posted by steve @ 12:18 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU WON'T BE MISSED: This won't be of much importance to our American readers but a well-known Liberal Party MP, former cabinet minister and two-time loser in leadership races, may be switching over to the socialist NDP.
Sheila Copps confirmed Wednesday that she has talked to NDP leader Jack Layton and says she is keeping the "lines of communication open" about switching over if she is prevented from running as a Liberal in her Hamilton riding.
Copps, who billed herself as the champion of left-wing, socially progressive Liberals during the leadership race, could play havoc with Liberal hopes in the riding if she jumps to the NDP.
A legend in Hamilton, she could conceivably win for the New Democrats, who have ran run a distant second to her in the past. Or she could split the traditional Liberal vote with Valeri to allow a Conservative win.
Copps, the annoying yappy little dog of Canadian politics, could probably win in her riding even as a socialist. Back a few years ago she resigned after breaking a pledge to push for the elimination of the hated Goods and Services Tax and won her seat back in a byelection. The rest of the country truly seems to dislike her but in Hamilton...or at least her riding...she is a minor deity. That said, I doubt she will be missed in a Liberal Party that seems to be trying to position itself as a centrist force under Paul Martin.
Posted by steve @ 02:05 AM EST [Link]
~ A DIFFERENT KIND OF EMPIRE: Interesting set of articles over at the Christian Science Monitor today on the notion of the United States as an empire. Military power, economics and culture are examined.
Posted by steve @ 01:55 AM EST [Link]
~ REALITY BITES: Well the first tree has been felled. CNN reports that Carol Moseley Braun will drop out of the Democratic race later today. She will throw her support, which is funny because she had none, behind Howard Dean.
"It's true. Carol felt like she had done what she needed to do," a Democratic source said. "She did herself a lot of good in this race.
"She ran a good race and now she felt like it was time to hand it over to someone who can win. Those are the feelings that were expressed to me this evening."
Well, all of you who picked Braun in Mark Steyn's "Dem*olition Derby" should be pleased.
Posted by steve @ 01:48 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 14, 2004 THE PASSION OF CHRIST TO OPEN ON 2000 SCREENS: A spokesman for Mel Gibson announced today that "The Passion of Christ" will open on about 2 000 screens next month, equivalent to a major studio release.
Read on.
Back in September 2003, the peerless Jeff Snyder examined the movie for ESR and what it means. You can read that article here.
Posted by steve @ 08:11 PM EST [Link]
~ WOMEN'S RIGHTS TAKES HISTORIC STEP FORWARD IN MIDDLE EAST: For the first time, terrorist group Hamas employed a female suicide bomber. The attack at the Erez border crossing separating Israel and northern Gaza killed at least four Israelis.
Israel Radio and the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz quoted Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Gad Shamni, commander of the army's Gaza Division, as saying when the bomber reached the area where Palestinian workers are inspected prior to entry into Israel, she told security personnel that she had a metal plate in her leg, which could set off an alarm.
"Because she was a woman, a female soldier was sent for, to inspect her," Shamni said. "While she was waiting for the arrival of the woman soldier, [the bomber] apparently succeeded in penetrating a meter or two into the inspection hall, and blew herself up."
Who says progress doesn't occur in the Middle East?
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Posted by steve @ 04:48 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU'LL EXCUSE ME FOR LAUGHING: There are plenty of smart liberal comics out there -- no really, it's true! -- but a proposed liberal radio network has decided to hire the most boring one they could find. You guessed it. Al Franken, who makes Charles Grodin look like an excitable host -- and isn't as funny, has been signed to do a daily three-hour radio program that will anchor the network's schedule.
The time slot of this show? Right up against Rush Limbaugh. Even if I was a communist I'd rather listen to Rush.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:10 AM EST [Link]