Musings Archive February 2003
Friday, February 28, 2003 GOLDBERG ON GAROFALO: Jonah Goldberg isn't quite as down on comedienne Janeane Garofalo as Charles Bloomer, but he's darn close. And I think he's quite right that fewer than 32 million Americans have even heard of Win Without War, much less belong to it.
Posted by antle @ 11:53 PM EST [Link]
~ WRONG MAN TO SELL TAX CUTS?: Stephen Moore sounds off on Gregory Mankiw on NRO. Is Glen Hubbard about to be replaced by someone hostile to the low-tax, pro-growth policies of the Reagan years? If so, this does not bode well for the promotion of such policies today.
Posted by antle @ 11:24 PM EST [Link]
~ THE FOLLY OF LIBERAL TALK RADIO: Marni Soupcoff has a characteristically clever piece in The American Enterprise On-Line on the idea that the left needs to take talk radio by storm to undo the damage wrought by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
My favorite line: "Adding a specifically themed 'liberal' radio network to the mix would be like adding a special 'chocolate' themed area to a Godiva store."
Posted by antle @ 11:07 PM EST [Link]
~ CAROLYN PARRISH WATCH CONTINUED: Damian Penny links to a shocking interview that Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish gave to Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly last year.
How this woman got elected is beyond me, and I've seen some truly messed up candidates get elected.
Posted by steve @ 03:37 PM EST [Link]
~ THE LAST MINUTES OF THEIR LIVES: A videotape recovered near Palestine, Texas shows the Shuttle Columbia crew during the final moments of their lives.
Posted by steve @ 03:22 PM EST [Link]
~ SHOCKING story about the thugs that are terrorizing (and even killing) teen-aged girls in high-rise apartments in France. This well-written article has something that will make many mad, especially feminists, immigration reformers, family values activists, city planners, and plain ol' French bashers.
Posted by izzy @ 03:16 PM EST [Link]
~ RE: MIDDLE EAST: Think the unthinkable, says Mark Steyn.
"These days, everything's thinkable, everything's up for grabs. But, once you recoil from the unthinkable, it's all too easy to slump back into the unthinking. Take Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, veterans of that golden age, the Ford-Carter era. They wrote a thing in The Wall Street Journal a week or so back arguing that we urgently need to get -- ta-da! -- the Palestinian 'peace process' back on track. To this end, they propose several exciting new ideas that sound exactly like the same old ideas: a Palestinian state on the land occupied by Israel since 1967; a '100% Palestinian Authority effort to end violence'; a Jerusalem that will 'accommodate two separate sovereignties' yet be 'physically undivided' ..."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:45 PM EST [Link]
~ QUIT SLAMMING AMERICA AND HER SOLDIERS PLEASE: "After complaints that the children of soldiers were upset by anti-war comments at school, Maine's top education official warned teachers to be careful of what they say in class about a possible invasion of Iraq."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 PM EST [Link]
~ PARRISH APOLOGIZES AGAIN: Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish apologized again yesterday for calling Americans "bastards".
"I share a fear of imminent war experienced by many Canadians. That fear and frustration do not justify my comments," she said in the House of Commons.
"I sincerely regret having made them and have made a full apology to . . . the ambassador of the United States."
For me that's not the story. The telling part (and I think the journo responsible for the story must have loved putting this in) was her profoundly anti-democratic response to being questioned about it before her first apology.
"Parrish said her remarks were not intended for publication and, before issuing the apology, told one reporter who contacted her: 'If you use it, don't bother calling here again.'
"She added that she would work to restrict access journalists have in Parliament if the comment was reported."
Not only is she a moron, she's an arrogant moron.
Posted by steve @ 10:12 AM EST [Link]
~ HEY, I JUST WATCHED LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: Ahem, on DVD. Actor Omar Sharif has come out against a war against Iraq.
"The Islamic world is in danger of becoming completely radicalized. You're going to encourage a war of religion, East against West and Muslims against Christians, the Crusades. You're going to create more terrorists with this than ever you can imagine," he said.
I guess Mr. Sharif missed the note that some Muslims had already declared war against the West and Christianity. The 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre. The USS Cole. The bombings of two American embassies in Africa. The 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre. Assorted terrorist attacks stretching back decades.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:42 AM EST [Link]
~ LILEKS ON SADDAM AND DUBYA: Good piece by James Lileks today on Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush's landmark speech in Washington, D.C. the other day on his hopes for the Arab world.
"I don’t fault Dan Rather for going to Baghdad. If someone had interviewed Hitler in ‘39 for three hours, we'd prize the tapes as an invaluable historical document. Every year the History Channel would run them without commercials: Hitler Unplugged. Granted, the interview would consist of one question followed by three hours of spittle-shower ranting, but it would be the sort of up-close-and-personal document we don’t have of Herr Hitler. He’s always on the podium pounding and howling, or smiling as he pats the cheek of some doomed Hitler Youth, or staring off in full Adoph Mode as the Robotmach stomps past in endless parade. We have plenty of Fuhrer, but very little Hitler. To see him in repose out of uniform, dog at his feet, fire crackling behind him, peering over steepled fingers as he takes in the translation of the question - well, it wouldn’t tell us anything new, but it would be fascinating to see him just being unnervingly normal."
Posted by steve @ 09:32 AM EST [Link]
~ NO HUMILITY ALERT. My homeschool piece that was featured on mises.org got me invited on a talk show, a CBS affiliate in San Antonio, Texas. The show is hosted by a Eliza Sonneland. Alas, it's not Alan Colmes. :>)
Posted by izzy @ 12:34 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, February 27, 2003 MUSIC FOR SOLDIERS: Michele over at A Small Victory is collecting money to send CDs to soldiers serving over seas. The little things count so please help her out.
[Update - 11:19pm] The campaign is going well!
Posted by steve @ 11:16 PM EST [Link]
~ DESTROY THEM WITH ACID: "New York medical examiners using DNA samples have identified the remains of two of the 10 suicide hijackers who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, officials said Thursday."
They deserve no burial. Destroy the remains completely. Let there be no trace of them ever again.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:04 PM EST [Link]
~ QUIBBLING ALWAYS WORKS: Steve, my only regret is that I didn't win a free book :( Of course, when most people say something about "Eisenhower-era conformism," they're referring to McCarthyism (Jonah Goldberg has just made a not-altogether convincing defence of Tailgunner Joe; here's a good summary of McCarthy's career, which more than shows why no one, least of all conservatives, should be caught defending McCarthy). Of course, this is historically myopic given that McCarthy was at the height of his powers during the Truman adminstration. In fact, it was McCarthy's former ally, Vice President Nixon (!) who made the first real counterattack against McCarthy when he made a televised speech warning against McCarthy's "reckless talk and questionable methods." And it was Eisenhower who manouvered McCarthy (I'd like to see Goldberg explain that) into overreaching when McCarthy began making baseless accusations of Communist infiltration in the US Army. The baby-boomer phenomenom of Fifties-bashing, like the Lytton Strachey-led attack on the Victorian era, will be seen in the future for what it is: utterly baseless self-promotion.
Posted by Barton @ 06:30 PM EST [Link]
~ DAMN BARTON WONG!: I review Mark Steyn's book and I don't get a mention on his web site but Barton Wong writes a letter and gets published.
DELIBERATE MISTAKE OF THE WEEK
I believe I have detected one of those many deliberate errors hidden throughout your columns you speak of in your latest mailbox. In your review of The Hours, you say that the section involving Julianne Moore set in 1951 seems like "just another movie ganging up on Eisenhower-era conformism." Of course, General Eisenhower did not formally take the oath of office and thus get to impose conformism upon America until January 1953.Barton Wong
TorontoNicely done Barton!
Posted by steve @ 03:43 PM EST [Link]
~ SEA KING CRASHES DURING TAKE OFF: A Canadian Forces Sea King helicopter crashed this morning on the desk of the HMCS Iroquois as it was attempting to take off. Two men were injured.
"At the time of the accident the Iroquois was on its way to patrol the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and the southern part of the Arabian Gulf with two Canadian frigates."
In every story I have ever written about the Canadian military I unfailingly mention the 40 year old helicopters. So aged that they require 30 hours of maintenance for every one hour of flying time. Read that sentence again if the disparity slipped by you. They are in essence the very symbol of the Canadian military. Used past the breaking point with little help in sight.
Posted by steve @ 01:44 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT THE WAR IS ABOUT: Steve den Beste had a good piece yesterday about what a war with Iraq would really be about.
"That's what will be needed in Iraq: we must make them feel as if they've won because their lives have improved. We will force on them certain things which will replace the most diseased aspects of what they have now, and that will be integrated into their culture and create a new-and-better Iraq. They must begin to achieve, for once they do their pride will be satisfied and their resentment will subside, and they will cease to be a danger to us. Nation building in Iraq is a strategic requirement for the US for purely selfish reasons. But we cannot get what we need by placing a new friendly dictator in charge to replace the old unfriendly dictator. Iraq itself must be reformed.
"This means that we are fighting this war to free the Iraqi people. We're not doing so out of altruism, but the effect for the Iraqi people will be the same as if we were. (We didn't free Eastern Europe from Soviet rule out of altruism, but they don't seem to mind.) And we need Iraq to keep being a success, because it will induce reform in the rest of the Arab world, leading to further and broader Arab success, rising pride, decreasing shame, lessening resentment and less violence aimed at us."
[Update - 2:07pm] In what may have been the most important speech of the year, U.S. President George W. Bush talked about the future of Iraq last night.
Posted by steve @ 01:38 PM EST [Link]
~ "TIRED, LEFT-WING LIBERAL": Woo, woo, Phil Donahue yesterday issued a statement blasting MSNBC for cancelling his struggling talk show. Donahue stated that MSNBC was attempting to "out-fox Fox" by going more conservative.
"Meanwhile, the Web site www.allyourtv.com posted a commentary on Wednesday by Rick Ellis saying that he had been leaked an internal NBC study that described Donahue as 'a tired, left-wing liberal out of touch with the current marketplace.'"
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:25 PM EST [Link]
~ HUMBLE THURSDAY: No self-promotion today.
Posted by antle @ 12:26 PM EST [Link]
~ DON FEDER'S SPEECH was taped. So, Steve can invite you fellas over, and you can all watch it on his DVD. Click here to read Why the Left Hates Israel.
Posted by izzy @ 10:25 AM EST [Link]
~ THEY AREN'T SURRENDURING ALREADY ARE THEY?: U.S. intelligence reports that a Republican Guard unit was on the move in northern Iraq today.
"U.S. intelligence indicated the unit will be positioned in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland, but it also could be enroute to Baghdad to defend the capital. This unit is believed to be possibly one of two Republican Guard infantry divisions in northern Iraq."
Read on. Also reports on Turkey's continual delaying on approving U.S. troops. I hope they didn't complain about NATO refusing to plan for Turkey's defence earlier this month...they had at least one ally on board and her name was America.
Posted by steve @ 10:00 AM EST [Link]
~ I LIKE THE SYMBOLISM: The proposal of the son of holocaust survivors has been chosen for the new World Trade Centre. The plan includes a tower that's 1 776 feet tall (for 1776) and would make it the tallest building in the world.
"The architect says that having calculated the arc of the sun, a wedge of natural light would funnel visitors to the memorial site, and that every September 11 between 8:46 a.m., when the first tower was struck by a plane, and 10:28 a.m., when the second tower collapsed, no shadows will be cast by his buildings."
I don't know if I like Daniel Libeskind's proposal yet but I like the thought that went behind some of the touches.
Posted by steve @ 09:56 AM EST [Link]
~ I THINK YOUR BASTARDS, I JUST DIDN'T MEAN TO SAY IT: Yet another Liberal MP (I'm going to have to start using YALMP) has publicly apologized for an anti-American remark.
Liberal MP Carrolyn Parrish, a nobody in her own ranks besides on the national stage, stated yesterday, "Damn Americans, I hate the bastards." The remark was picked up by a TV microphone and after the story broke Parrish issued a hasty apology.
"My comments do not reflect my personal opinion of the American people and they certainly do not reflect the views of the government of Canada."
Of course they don't.
[Update - 1:28pm] This isn't the first time Parrish has made the papers making an asinine remark. Damien Penny chronicled last fall how she berated the National Post for running a journalist's stories because he won an award from B'nai Brith.
Posted by steve @ 09:51 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY DONAHUE FAILED: At least according to Jack Shafer in Slate. Sayeth Shafer: "First and foremost, Phil failed because the plurality of regular cable viewers will not watch a lefty commentator who doesn't have a right-wing co-pilot."
Shafer trots out figures to show that the audience of all news shows lean to the right regardless of what channel your talking about. That means regardless of what network he was on, regardless of whether he was on broadcast or cable, Donahue had no chance.
Posted by steve @ 09:46 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, February 26, 2003 USSC THROWS OUT GUN RECORDS CASE: The US Supreme Court said today that it would not decide after all if the government can withhold information on some gun purchases and crimes because a new law may affect the case.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:34 PM EST [Link]
~ EUROPE'S NEW FLAG: David Govett wrote to tell me he has a new flag for Europe. You can find it here.
It's funny because it's true.
Posted by steve @ 07:01 PM EST [Link]
~ JOHNNY CASH'S HURT: Virginia Heffernan over at Slate discusses Johnny Cash's video for Hurt, the remake of the Nine Inch Nails song. There is also a link to the video online.
Happy birthday Johnny.
Posted by steve @ 03:32 PM EST [Link]
~ AHEM! I know that Steve's DVD purchase has distracted you chaps and temporarily turned this into a Men's Home Shopping Network blog. While you were dishing, some of us were reporting about big issues like affirmative action.
Posted by izzy @ 02:39 PM EST [Link]
~ IMAGINE NO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA: "Envision it: Poof, Ottawa is gone. Of course by this I mean no harm to the flesh-and-blood creatures who live there, even the sleazier inhabitants of the patronage and chequebook world of lower Liberalism. Let us look simply at the central apparatus of the state."
End result? No harm to anyone. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:16 PM EST [Link]
~ CAN I HAVE SOME MORE PLEASE?: Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon will ask Parliament for another $170 million to continue operations for the federal firearms registry, bringing total spending on the program to close to $1 billion.
If you're keeping track at home, the original cost of the program was pegged at $2 million.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
Posted by steve @ 02:12 PM EST [Link]
~ STEVE AND HIS DVD: PART 1 OF 1: I have to admit DVD rules. I watched Unbreakable last night and I was amazed as to the quality of the picture and sound. So much so, I went on a buying spree today and bought Spider-Man (2 disc collectors), Zulu, Fight Club (2 disc collectors) and Requiem of a Dream (Directors cut).
Tonight, Lawrence of Arabia...I can hardly keep myself from saying I'm sick and going home.
I can't imagine ever putting up with VHS again. Now I just have to buy Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress and a couple of other Akira Kurosawa movies to please myself...and Good Fellas...The Alamo...Bladerunner...well, lots more.
Posted by steve @ 02:06 PM EST [Link]
~ QUESTIONS FOR SADDAM: I'm having a little bit of trouble with Saddam's solutions to the whole stalemate over Iraq. If he's prepared to die, why don't we just shoot him and spare his country an invasion? Then there is his proposal that he debate President Bush. My own feeling is that if he wants a debate styled after the U.S. presidential debates, he should hold free elections and debate his opponent. Deal?
Posted by antle @ 01:26 PM EST [Link]
~ SO LONG OLD FRIEND: This makes me sad. NASA announced yesterday that Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, has been given up on. It's last signal was received by the Deep Space Network on January 22.
"NASA engineers report Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source has decayed, and it may not have enough power to send additional transmissions to Earth. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) did not detect a signal during the last contact attempt Feb. 7, 2003. The previous three contacts, including the Jan. 22 signal, were very faint with no telemetry received. The last time a Pioneer 10 contact returned telemetry data was April 27, 2002. NASA has no additional contact attempts planned for Pioneer 10."
Goodbye old friend. You are now truly a part of the cosmos for the rest of time. That or until a Klingon Bird of Prey blows you up for target practice (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier reference).
Posted by steve @ 09:49 AM EST [Link]
~ I NEVER EVEN GOT TO WATCH IT: Because I'm not rich enough to afford that fancy digital satelite stuff. MSNBC has cancelled Phil Donahue's six-month old talk show because of poor ratings.
"The political talk show format has yet to prove -- and may never -- that it can support a liberal voice, said Andrew Tyndall, head of ADT Research, a television news consulting firm."
You know what Phil would say right? "This proves, woo woo, that conservatives control the, woo woo, media."
Posted by steve @ 09:37 AM EST [Link]
~ NO PROBLEM: Saddam Hussein announces he would rather die in Iraq then accept exile.
I heard of a couple of guys who are preparing to help him out right now.
Posted by steve @ 09:25 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece on Dennis Kucinich's abortion flip-flop today in The American Prowler. If there was ever a time for the good congressman to reveal his inner pro-choicer, his 1998 run against a pro-life activist would have been it.
Sean Higgins provides background in earlier pieces here and here.
Posted by antle @ 08:30 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 I'VE SUSPECTED THIS ALL ALONG: Steve and Orrin, the methods you have perfected for sustaining your unbelievable "reading" rate are finally exposed for all the public to see ;) The literary editor of London's Evening Standard has provided his fellow literary hacks with a how-to guide for book reviewers who have a deadline to fill and a paycheck to earn, but who just don't want to read their assigned books. The paragraphs that say it all:
My predecessor as literary editor in this paper, A.N. Wilson, told a remarkable story in a book of essays called Secrets of the Press. He had rung the historian Paul Johnson to ask him to review a big book - more than 800 pages - on the American Civil War. To give Johnson more time, Wilson asked his assistant to have it biked over that same day. The next morning, she admitted she had forgotten to send it and that it was still sitting on her desk.
At that moment, "the fax machine had begun to whirr into action, and 800 perfectly formed words on the American Civil War, with observant comments on the merits and faults of the book, had dropped into the intray. I saw no reason not to publish this review", says Wilson. "Like all really good journalists, Paul had somehow intuited the true nature of the thing under discussion."
Now, A.N. Wilson believes all journalism to be a form of imaginative literature rather than "an exact science", so this incident, too, may have been somewhat shaped by the crebadative impulse. But we must believe him, when in the same piece, he cheerfully announces: "I have lost count of the number of dull books I have hailed as masterpieces, rather than trouble myself to finish."
I'm going to print this out and file it away for future reference. (Via The American Scene)
Posted by Barton @ 05:55 PM EST [Link]
~ LIBERAL PARTY, R.IP.: New York's 60-year-old Liberal Party has shut down after losing its automatic ballot access for the first time in 2002. The party's membership and support base had been in decline for some time. And it's claim to be the oldest active third party in the United States wasn't true either - the Prohibition Party has been around since 1869. Sure, it hasn't had any influence in decades, but in recent years neither have the Liberals.
Now we only have to wait for the Democrats to disband... Sigh, I can dream can't I?
Posted by antle @ 04:36 PM EST [Link]
~ ARE MUSLIMS GOOD MULTICULTURALISTS?: Mark Steyn says no.
Posted by steve @ 02:08 PM EST [Link]
~ AVRIL LAVIGNE WILL HAVE MORE CHANCES AT A GRAMMY: Says the normally intelligent National Post.
"If Ms. Lavigne and her fans are seeking further consolation, they might consider the fate of recent Grammy darlings. For Alanis Morissette in 1996, Lauryn Hill in 1999, Macy Gray in 2001 and Alicia Keys in 2002, big Grammy hauls seem to have been career pinnacles rather than harbingers of longevity."
Perhaps, but I like to think the candle that burns twice as bright lasts only half as long. And your candle is burning very bright right now Avril.
Posted by steve @ 02:04 PM EST [Link]
~ LET IRAQ'S PEOPLE RULE IRAQ: Says Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.
"However, there must be no gap in the sovereignty over Iraq by Iraqis. We reject notions of foreign military government or United Nations administration for Iraq. Iraqis are fiercely independent and, at the same time, are perfectly capable of governing Iraq. There are many able and talented Iraqis who are not tainted by serving the dictatorship; after all, nearly one-third of all Iraqis live outside Saddam's control -- four million in exile and three million in the liberated area of Iraqi Kurdistan."
I don't disagree with him but I think Mr. Chalabi is a little sanguine about how difficult it will be for Iraq's people modify a state that has dedicated itself to decades of brutal repression and is a powder keg of ethnic tensions. Added to that is that Chalabi himself has little credibility among other Iraqi leaders.
Posted by steve @ 02:01 PM EST [Link]
~ NO RACE: If U.S. President George W. Bush is rushing to war against Iraq then it must be the slowest race on the history of the world. I mean it has been over a year since he identified Iraq as a member of the Axis of Evil, right?
Christopher Hitchens agrees. He points out that early in Dubya's administration he hinted at lifting some sanctions against Iraq and since then he's taken the slowest possible road to war.
"Some 'drumbeat.' Some 'drive to war.'"
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:30 AM EST [Link]
~ AGGRANDIZING THE SELF or self-promo alert. Mises.org features my "Why of Homeschool" piece. (That desk in the photo is passe.)
Posted by izzy @ 10:30 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in the Washington Dispatch today comparing Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The short version? Dubya ain't no Reagan yet, but he could be someday.
Posted by antle @ 10:11 AM EST [Link]
~ I JOINED THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY TODAY: That's right, I finally broke down and bought a DVD player. It came by delivery this morning so I'm eagerly awaiting the opportunity to tear apart my home theatre system just to install a component I swore I would never buy until I could record (I time shift my television watching) on it so that I could ditch my VCR.
That said, Future Shop offered a pretty sweet deal on a Samsung unit so I decided to pull the trigger. Remember, every time you delay a purchase the terrorists win. Tonight's viewing? Either Fight Club, Unbreakable, Lawrence of Arabia or Dark City. The early favourite is Fight Club since I feel in an anarchistic mood this morning.
Now the question is what is the first thing I'll buy for it. My first tape was Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, my first CD was U2's Achtung Baby (well, that's not true but it was the first new CD I bought for it) and my first DVD? Probably Fight Club.
Posted by steve @ 09:57 AM EST [Link]
Monday, February 24, 2003 AN UNLIKELY NORAH JONES FAN CLUB MEMBER: Even some social conservatives who don't think much of popular culture/music like Norah Jones.
Posted by antle @ 11:18 PM EST [Link]
~ PUT A SOCK IN IT, RALPH: I talked before about Ralph Klein's separatist fantasias, but I'm not a professional journalist employed by a major national newspaper. Don Martin is though, and it's because of articles like this:
With every fill-up of 83¢ litres of regular gas, and with every monthly whack from hefty heating bills, it gets harder to feel Alberta's pain as the hard-done-by energy sheik of Canada.
As home to the lowest taxes, the highest per capita program spending, the most vigorous economy, the lowest unemployment and the fastest growth by the nation's youngest population, well, cry me a river, Alberta.
Yet once again, from homes out on the range, a discouraging word is heard, voices suggesting Alberta is sick of serving as a no-fees ATM to a federation of ungrateful shopaholics and may opt to create its own bank account...the Alberta Republican movement is the same as it's always been -- a tiny sometimes-vocal sliver of the actual population. I suspect this to be true because a survey of a dozen prominent Albertans yesterday failed to yield a single informed voice expressing fresh separatist sentiment.
For some reason, Martin goes all portentous in the very last word of the article, but this and Andrew Coyne's commentary in today's National Post (not posted on the website yet), should relieve any anxious busybody actually scared of Alberta separatism occuring within the next century or so. Doesn't Klein have a clue that everytime the word "separatism" comes out of his mouth, we selfish central Canadians (unfortunately, including the conservatives among us) take him just a smite less seriously then we did before or is he really that tone-deaf?
Posted by Barton @ 09:02 PM EST [Link]
~ ATTACKING PEOPLE WHO EARN $6.85/HR. IS SO COOL: I have to agree with Steve that given a choice between the "X-Men" and the Grammys, I watched the "X-Men" (my sister's teacher, Mr. Brown, got to scream in agony before an audience of millions since he plays the cop whose forehead Magneto slowly drills a bullet into; I wonder what kind of audition you need to prepare for a role like that?). As for Avril...well, I've got a tiny little rant to get off my chest about her. You're going to think I'm insane, but here it goes.
One of the more aggravating things about my television viewing experience in 2002 was the fact that Avril's first music video for her hit single "Complicated" was inescapable for anyone living in the First World (if you wish, you may gaze upon that masterpiece here). The first time I saw the damn thing, I got really, really angry. I mean we're presented here with that stupid spoiled brat of a "rocker," her all-male punker "crew," and the lyrics of a song about how love's so complex and what not. So what kind of concept does the video's director think of? Why, let's have Avril and the gang trash a shopping mall! Fine, whatever. Vandalism is a traditional mode of youthful exuberance. What that has to do with the mysteries of the human heart is beyond me, but then again, I'm not a music video director. But even better, let's have Avril and friends steal from, mock, and physically assault some hapless, pimply, minimum-wage earning drones who look like they're exactly the same age, except they aren't as cool-looking or "rebellious" as Ms. Lavigne and her pals. Ms. Lavigne's unfortunate victims (including a poor sucker who has the oh-so dignified job of being a store mascot) look like they're all toiling away to pay for their college-tuitions, while real-life high-school dropout Avril and her thugs actually have the temerity to walk right in and humiliate them as they try to work. I mean, those losers and conformos just had it coming to them, didn't they? Avril and her unbathed gang of goons are just too cool to bother with the niceties of earning their money for a living. This is supposed to be the new face of rock?
Anyway, I actually ranted about this to my fellow student-interns at the Ministry of Culture, and the first response was a well-deserved eyeroll along with, "Dude, it's only a music video." To which I responded, "Yeah, but think of the age group that the video's aimed at. What kind of message are we sending to little kids: 'Multimillionaire, vandalizing, skater queen good; hard-working, minimum-wage earning nerds bad?' What happened to the rock music that was supposed to stand up for the have-nots in the world, instead of telling us to squish them like a bug?" Alright, as you can tell, I'm still inexplicably deranged about this four-minute long spool of film. But that's why I hate Avril Lavigne (that and the fact that my little sister stole one of my only ties in order to get that "Avril" look, but that's another story...).
Posted by Barton @ 08:41 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER TALKING AIRHEAD
I watch very little television and even fewer new movies, so I wouldn't know Janeane Garofalo from the cleaning lady. Someone told me she's an actress or something. Whoever she is, she is woefully confused, or maybe just wrong, on this whole Iraq situation.
She was interviewed by Tony Snow on Fox News Sunday. The transcript is here.
I am a strong believer in the US Constitution and its free speech protections. Garofalo has as much right to express her opinion as anyone else. I just object to her access to big time TV interviews just because she is a celebrity. I pay attention to experts with credentials. Being able to act does not count as credentials.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 03:52 PM EST [Link]
~ GOVERNORS BEGGING AT THE WHITE HOUSE
I have written more than once in the illustrious pages of Enter Stage Right that the one of the major reasons that we have an out of control federal government is because State governors are addicted to federal handouts. State governors think that everyone should pay for their problems, even if they don't live in that State.
The governors are at it again. Fox News has the story.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
~ A FREE NATION DEEP IN DEBT: Orrin over at Brothers Judd reviewed A Free Nation Deep in Debt this weekend as well and as usual his review kicks the tar out of mine.
Posted by steve @ 03:27 PM EST [Link]
~ POOR AVRIL: I didn't watch the Grammys last night, opting instead for X-Men on Fox (anyone who turns down an opportunity to watch Ian McKellan act should be beaten), so I didn't know who won anything until this morning. Frankly, I still don't care.
But I am happy that Canadian skater queen Avril Lavigne was shut out last night after receiving five nominations. It's popular now for entertainment journalists to write about the "Avril backlash"...people who are jealous of the girl's success. For the record, I'm not jealous of her success. Good for her! Enjoy the money! The reason I hate Avril is that faux-angst skater garbage she calls music. If you want good thrashing Canadian girl fronted music I suggest Scratching Post (if you look on the web for their site, I must warn you ahead of time it's filled with the stuff conservatives hate), who's lead singer I am inexplicably in love with. I think it's the flaming red dyed hair and the way she screams in "Wake Up You're On Fire".
[Update - 3:41pm] Fellow Canadian Sarah Kelly has a blog entry from earlier this year detailing her dislike of Avril as well.
[Update - 4:16pm] Fellow Canadian Damian Penny considers the Grammys a bad joke. To prove that, he lists the Grammys that were won in years that The Beatles lost. Example? (Winner in brackets) "1964, Record of the Year -- The Beatles, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (Getz and Gilberto, "The Girl From Ipanema")" I just put the Rubber Soul album in to wipe the memory of The Girl from Ipanema from my mind...
Posted by steve @ 02:24 PM EST [Link]
~ H-K UNITS TO KILL SADDAM AND SONS: (via Brothers Judd Blog) The NY Post reports that "hunter-killer teams and aircraft would target Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein - and his two evil sons - within 48 hours of the launch of any military campaign."
"The moves would include a series of massive, surgical airstrikes and commando raids in the opening hours of the action. Specially trained operatives would target Saddam, sons Uday and Qusay and other key aides.
Qusay, who heads Saddam’s personal Republican Guard unit, has orders to unleash weapons of mass destruction should something happen to his father, according to British intelligence.
Saddam’s eldest son, Uday, is said to command Iraq’s vicious paramilitary groups in charge of sabotaging infrastructure, such as bridges, and committing atrocities against their country’s own civilians to blame on the United States."
I know I'd weep if they bit the bullet. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:07 PM EST [Link]
~ IRANIANS HAVE NO LOVE FOR IRAQ: Which shouldn't be a surprise. Good LA Times story about how many Iranians want to see Saddam Hussein removed from power.
"At least 300,000 Iranians were killed in the war, and more than half a million were wounded.
However, the depth of Iranian antipathy for Hussein predates both the war and the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s.
Iranians and Arabs are ethnically and culturally distinct, and a prejudice against Arabs has run through Iranian history for centuries. After the Iranian national soccer team lost a game to Iraq in 1977, the shah wept openly before fans at Tehran's Azadi Stadium.
Because Iranians speak Persian instead of Arabic and identify with a culture that predates Islam, most of them do not have the emotional ties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that reinforce the anger Arabs feel toward the United States, which they see as Israel's sponsor. Iranians do not sleep and rise with televised images of Palestinian suffering, as Arabs throughout the region do."
Read on. (Free registration or use name: esrmusings pass: coffee)
The best part may be the final paragraphs in the story which recount how some young Iranians want an U.S. invasion of...you guessed it...Iran.
Posted by steve @ 01:13 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece today in Tech Central Station on Libertarians trying to fill the void Republicans have left in the fight to shrink Massaschusetts' state government. I think the lesson is applicable to anyone working for smaller government, not just those who belong to or support the Libertarian Party - I myself am a Republican. And I also believe in giving credit where it's due.
Posted by antle @ 09:28 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, February 23, 2003 MESSAGE FROM THE REVEREND AL: Al Sharpton wants you to know that he is viable. Along with a series of other pronouncements from your friendly neighborhood Democratic presidential contenders.
Posted by antle @ 06:17 PM EST [Link]
~ DISPLAYING YOUR CONVICTIONS: Louisvillians show their support of George W. Bush and America's soldiers with a billboard and they invite people across the country to do the same. You can learn more about the campaign here.
Posted by steve @ 05:05 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, February 22, 2003 POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS FOR BUSH: Ralph Reed, who made the Christian Coalition into a potent political force during the 1990s and helped lead Republicans to unprecedented victories in Georgia in 2002, is resigning as chairman of the Georgia Republican Party in order to focus on President Bush's reelection in 2004.
Of course, a large part of the reason for his resignation is to help new GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue consolidate his control over the state party. But if Reed is in fact going to be a player in Bush's reelection campaign, the president can only benefit from his proven track record of success.
Posted by antle @ 09:12 PM EST [Link]
~ GEORGE W. BUSH, ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE- Well Steve, prepare to feel more unhappy. Here's three stories I noticed today:
1. War support hits new low. Canadians want U.N. support: Poll American motives found to be suspect
Support in Canada for a U.S.-led war on Iraq has reached a new low, a poll done for the Toronto Star shows.According to a poll conducted by EKOS Research Associates for The Star, La Presse and the CBC, 74 per cent of Canadians would oppose Canadian participation in a war without the "full support" of the United Nations Security Council. Only 25 per cent would support a war without it. (snip)
Many Canadians are suspicious of American motives for an attack on Iraq, the poll shows. Asked about the most important reason for a U.S. attack on Iraq, 39 per cent answered that it was to ensure that the United States' strategic oil interests in the Middle East are protected, while 30 per cent think it is to protect the security of Americans from threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, and only 18 per cent think it is to remove Saddam Hussein and install a democratic regime in Iraq. Ten per cent think it is to ensure the popularity of the Bush administration for the next election.
2. Via Iberian Notes:
Today's main page three Vanguardia international headline: "Africa supports France against Bush". All fifty-two African states have voted, at the Franco-African summit in Paris, to follow the French line on Iraq policy. There's a lovely photo of Chirac talking with Thado Mbeki of South Africa, the guy who says that HIV doesn't cause AIDS and whose country has the highest murder rate known in the world, well over 100 per year per 100,000 people. (In comparison, in America it's five point something and in Spain it's three point something murders per 100,000 people.) At least Mbeki was elected more or less democratically; the other three guys in the picture are Kabila of the Congo, Kerekou of Benin (this guy is sort of OK, he was dictator for many years, got voted out, and then got voted in again), and Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Fine folks, those. Salt of the earth. The French managed to talk the Brits into letting Mugabe into the EU; he's under EU sanctions and isn't supposed to be able to enter. Patassé from the Central African Republic and Ngueso from the other Congo are being threatened with international human rights violations charges. Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast didn't show up because if he left the country he'd be overthrown. Other lovely governments in attendance were Libya's, Algeria's, Uganda's, Rwanda's, Ethiopia's, Eritrea's, Equatorial Guinea's, Malawi's, Angola's, Sudan's and Mozambique's. How much do you want to bet that each of these governments is responsible for many times the number of deaths that will be caused to civilians in the upcoming Iraq War?
3. Grammy stars free to sing out on war
Get ready for antiwar protests at tomorrow night's Grammy Awards ceremony. Despite a report that CBS executives had considered blocking politically outspoken rockers, the network said last night it would not pull the plug on anyone protesting a war against Iraq. The Drudge Report, an Internet news site, quoted an anonymous CBS chieftain as saying the network would cut the microphone of any rocker who engaged in antiwar rhetoric. But CBS quickly moved to squelch the story.
"There will be no restrictions on artistic expression or opinions expressed during acceptance speeches," said CBS spokesman Chris Ender.
Musician Sheryl Crow, who made headlines when she wore a "War Is Not the Answer" T-shirt at the American Music Awards in January, plans to hand out 300 "No War" buttons tomorrow. "If we can't turn to our artists, who can we look to?" Crow told the Daily News. "I think there will be artists stepping forward and making statements."
At Thursday's Brit Awards in London, Chris Martin of English band Coldplay said, "We are all going to die when George Bush has his way. But it's great to go out with a bang." The Grammys will be handed out during a 3-1/2-hour telecast from Madison Square Garden. (Via Drudge Report)
Doesn't it feel great to be a rebel in these days of massive anti-war sentiment? The more everyone squeals for keeping Saddam in power, the more defiant I feel.
Posted by Barton @ 06:59 PM EST [Link]
~ DEMS SHOW DOUBLE STANDARDS ON ESTRADA: Apparently I am not the only one who believes that the Democrats are showing their double standards by blocking Miguel Estrada. Liberal columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. is also questioning the nature of the Democrats' opposition and wondering what the Democrats have done for Hispanics lately. (Link via Brothers Judd.)
Just for the record, my argument is not that it is necessarily racist to oppose a minority nominee. If the Democrats think Estrada is too conservative and want to make that case, fine. What I do object to is the double standard that says that when conservatives oppose minority nominees they are being racist - or at least their motives are so suspect that they should be on the defensive by default - but liberals can oppose conservative minorities with impunity. What makes this double standard all the more outrageous is the fact that liberal Democrats escape criticism even when they make race or ethnicity a factor in their opposition. Whatever your opinion of conservative Republican opposition to any number of minority nominees over the years, ranging from Jocelyn Elders and Henry Foster for surgeon general to Ronnie White for a federal judgeship - I can think of no point at which they explicitly raised race or ethnicity in their opposition. Yet a Democratic leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus can, in the presence of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, question the ethnic authenticity and solidarity of a minority nominee without reprisal. And observers can make at least a plausible argument that the intensity of Democratic opposition owes in part to a desire to deny President Bush the opportunity to appoint someone who could potentially become a leading Hispanic judge and possibly even the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice at some point in the future.
Race and ethnicity should obviously not be a factor in judicial nominations and other government appointments. Instead, the debate should focus on the qualifications and positions of the nominee with both sides free to oppose a nominee on those grounds without being called a racist if the nominee in question is a minority. What cannot be tolerated is a double standard by which opposition to one side's minority nominees is considered evidence of racism while oppostion to the other side's minority nominees is acceptable even when opponents bring up race and ethnicity. Yet this appears to be the situation that we've found ourselves in.
Posted by antle @ 05:46 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE BAD NEWS: In addition to all the terrible things Steve mentioned in his earlier post, now a roof has collapsed in a Maryland toystore. Fortunately, not many people appear to have been injured.
It's almost enough to make you want to stay in bed.
Posted by antle @ 05:03 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: Earlier in the week, Ether Zone ran my second article on immigration myths. Past ESR contributor Vin Suprynowicz, who has tended to take the traditional libertarian position in favor of open immigration, also had a good column on the subject recently.
Posted by antle @ 04:58 PM EST [Link]
~ IRAQ WAR DIVIDES DEMOCRATS: The divison in the Democratic Party over whether to back President Bush on war with Iraq is starting to show among the party's presidential candidates. The Washington Times reports that Howard Dean addressed the Democratic National Committee with a fiery antiwar speech in which he also criticized Democrats for supporting other Bush policies.
Dean, the former governor of Vermont, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun are all antiwar. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who most polls show to be the prohibitive front-runner, and former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt have consistently supported going to war with Iraq. Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards have tended toward a more ambiguous position of openness to war with Iraq if broad international consensus and U.N. Security Council approval can be reached while criticizing Bush's diplomatic efforts and "rush to war." Among the Democratic aspirants who serve in Congress, Lieberman, Gephardt and Kerry voted in favor of the Iraq war resolution while Edwards and Kucinich voted against. If Florida Sen. Bob Graham gets into the race, the Democrats will have a candidate who voted against the resolution not because he opposes war, but because he did not think the resolution went far enough - he would intervene militarily in a variety of countries to disarm not just Iraq and al Qaida, but Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.
War with Iraq - and perhaps the war on terror generally - figures to be the most emotional issue debated by Democratic contenders during the 2004 election cycle.
Posted by antle @ 04:06 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M IN A FANTASIC MOOD TODAY!: Let's see...96 people dead in a fire in a Rhode Island bar...girl who got wrong organs transplanted has brain damage (medically dead in other words)...Four people stoned to death in the Congo after being accused of casting an evil spell to cause an outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease that has killed nearly 70 people.
Yup, I'm in a great mood this morning.
Posted by steve @ 05:05 AM EST [Link]
Friday, February 21, 2003 AL FRANKEN ON THE AIR: I'm not prepared to predict that Al Franken will flop in his bid to become liberalism's first successful national radio talk snow host. He's a pretty talented guy and it should be remembered that most who have tried before him (the one exception would be Jim Hightower) were just boring gasbags. But I think Jonah Goldberg makes a pretty good case for why liberals have trouble on talk radio.
Liberals for the most part don't listen to talk radio. They don't need talk radio because they have most of the major media, NPR, Hollywood and the rest. Maybe the rise of FOX and a growing perception that the left is being shut out of the media will create a liberal audience for talk radio as an alternative media, in much the same way these circumstances created a conservative talk radio audience. But so far there is no evidence for this. If liberals don't listen to talk radio but conservatives do, that in and of itself will doom most liberal hosts. Combine that with Goldberg's observation that liberals can't afford to offend anyone from the "Coalition of the Oppressed" with their shtick, and their chances get even slimmer.
Boston has a few moderately successful liberal talkers. But even in this Democratic bastion, the most popular talk show hosts tend to be right of center. Even on TV, the most successful liberals are usually paired with conservatives. My guess is if Franken succeeds, it will be because he talks about more than just politics.
Posted by antle @ 11:26 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU TOO COULD BE A WINNER!: The opportunity that all Canadian conservatives have been waiting for can be found right here. Don't delay, operators are standing by to take your calls now! (Via ToryDraft)
Posted by Barton @ 07:10 PM EST [Link]
~ ALRIGHT, THIS IS JUST CREEPY- From the BBC:
Nauru loses contact with the world
The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed.
Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more.
Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world.
That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia.
The president said that many people had not been paid since last year and that the eight square mile (21 square kilometre) island was effectively broke.
"You are all aware and conscious of our critical situation," Dowiyogo said in the address.
Nauru's telephone system collapsed on 8 January amid political chaos, and since then the island has only been contactable when ships equipped with satellite telephones made stops there, the AFP news agency reported.
Nauru's diplomats in New Zealand confirmed to the agency that apart from these few calls, they had been unable to contact home for weeks.
The situation is compounded by the fact that when contact was last made, a battle was raging for power between President Dowiyogo and the man he unseated in January, Rene Harris. No one is quite sure who runs the island now.
Additionally, whoever is in charge is thought to have no budget with which to rule, while the official presidential residence was reported to have burned down last month.
It is a sad demise for an island which not long ago boasted one of the world's highest per capita incomes through lucrative phosphate mining.
But with the phosphate reserves nearly gone - and most of the island reduced to a barren moonscape as a result - Nauru has gradually slumped into chaos.
In an attempt to find a new source of income, Nauru has recently become a major centre for offshore banking and is accused of allowing rampant money laundering.
The problem is so bad that more than 400 banks were registered to one mailbox alone, international investigators say.
The island has also begun interning asylum seekers while their applications to live in Australia are processed, in return for aid from Canberra.
However this appears to have gone badly wrong.
Late last year, Australian immigration officials admitted that the asylum seekers, mainly Iraqis, had been running their own detention centre since officials abandoned the site following a riot.
"Effectively you could call it a self-managed centre," a senior Australian immigration official told an inquiry.
Can anyone say Lord of the Flies? (Via Free Republic)
Posted by Barton @ 06:54 PM EST [Link]
~ FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY "HOSTAGES HELD FOR 444 DAYS" CARTER OPENS HIS MOUTH
Former President Jimmy Carter blamed U.S. policy in the Middle East for creating animosity abroad, according to an AP report at Fox News.
And just which US policy is Mr. Carter referring to? The one that allowed Iraq to violate its surrender agreement, as practiced by former zipper-in-chief Bill Clinton? Or maybe he's referring to his own US foreign policy. You remember, the one that led to Iran holding Americans hostage for 444 days. The foreign policy, coupled with his complete lack of military and defense policy that led to a disastrous rescue attempt that failed miserably in the desert, with our own pilots and crews as the only casualties?
Mr. Carter has a perfect opportunity to be quiet. He should take advantage of the chance. If he keeps his mouth shut, we may think he's an imbecile. If he opens it again, we'll be convinced.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 05:58 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A judge granted child custody to a transsexual man involved in a bitter divorce case and ruled Friday that the man is legally male under Florida law, even though he was born female.
I don't care if he/she was born an alien in outer space. This judge, not uniquely, overlooks how his ruling will impact a couple of otherwise normal kids. This ruling shows that judges are more concerned about the egos of the nut cases involved than he does about the children that will now live with a deviant. I don't know if this judge is a liberal or not, but the ruling shows more concern about deviancy than it does "for the children".
This is an AP story at Fox News.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 04:45 PM EST [Link]
~ WEAPONS OF MASS HYSTERIA
Jed Babbin has a good piece over at The American Prowler that puts a more sensible spin on the threat from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
I am less concerned about the effects of the weapons than I am with the breakdown in society that would accompany the panic associated with their use. That panic would be a result of 2 things -- the lack of knowledge among the general population and the overwhelming media hype that would result from their use. Other people buy duct tape, I buy bullets.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 04:12 PM EST [Link]
~ HOCKEY GAME TOO VIOLENT FOR MILITARY: The brain trust at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, a university that trains officers for the Canadian military -- and a place where I was nearly arrested by two humourless MPs back in the late 1980s in connection with a bottle of exceptionally cheap white wine and my ability (or lack thereof) to hold my booze back then, has ruled that cadets cannot play in a historic re-enactment of a hockey game.
"The game is a re-enactment of one of the first recorded games of hockey in Canada, an 1886 match between RMC and Queen's played on an inlet of Lake Ontario."
The reason? The replica 19th-century hockey uniforms worn for the event do not include helmets and protective padding.
Canadian Armed Forces officers, active and retired, are justifiably flipping out.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:35 PM EST [Link]
~ WORST. BOOK. EVER.: I love reviewing books and it's not because I get free books. I like discovering something new and telling people about it. I guess that's why we write and work as journalists. Telling stories. Writing about bad books can be as fun, if not more, than writing about good ones. There's something fun about writing a poison review.
In a recent Washington Post interview, Gene Weingarten talks to Robert Burrows, a man he says has written the worst novel in the history of the English language. That's high praise indeed. He decides to interview Burrows but tells him that his review will won't be, to put it politely, kind. Burrows, amazingly, agrees.
"I have said this before, and I'll say it again. I really love my job," writes Weingarten.
The central point of Burrows' novel? The Bush tax cuts are bad. Trust me, that doesn't steel you for how bad Great American Parade promises to be.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:59 PM EST [Link]
~ LOYAL AUDIENCE?: Yahoo! story says liberal mag Salon.com may not survive past this month. It has so little money that it hasn't paid its rent since December.
The funny part of the story is the following sentence:
"Although its news coverage and commentary have attracted a loyal audience, Salon hasn't been able to make money."
Unless I don't know what loyalty is, such an audience would make sure that Salon wouldn't be in the straits that it is. Less than five per cent of its audience has ponied up for the premium service. That's like two per cent more than respond to flyers in newspapers. Hardly loyal or impressive.
Posted by steve @ 10:52 AM EST [Link]
~ WAIT, I THOUGHT THERE WERE NO TERRORISTS IN IRAQ: That's what Saddam Hussein said.
"Iraq has rejected U.S. claims of links to a Kurdish terrorist group believed connected to Al Qaeda, and said it has offered to hand Washington a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:17 AM EST [Link]
~ LILEKS ON WHO THE REAL ENEMY IS: "It takes a particularly rarified variety of idiot to look at a Jew-hating fascist with a small mustache - and decide that his opponent is the Nazi."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:12 AM EST [Link]
~ COEDS AND GUNS. This is a slightly longer version of that gun column I originally wrote for my local paper.
However, this version has a few photos of Mount Holyoke students with firearms.Posted by izzy @ 09:38 AM EST [Link]
~ FORGIVE ME FATHER: For I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
I got Johnny Cash's most recent album, American IV: The Man Comes Around, yesterday and I have to say that I'm very unhappy. Cash is 70 years old and he hasn't got too many more years to crank out the amazing stuff he's been doing since signing with American Records. American IV proves once again that the Man in Black is one of the most important singer/songwriters in American history. Each album from him these days is truly a gift.
American IV opens with The Man Comes Around, a song written by Cash which is filled with Apocalyptic imagery about the last days when the Earth sees a return of the Kingdom of God. It then moves into one of the more unlikely covers I've heard, Trent Reznor's (Nine Inch Nails) Hurt. In fact, American IV is filled with unlikely covers. Depeche Mode is one band I blame for destroying music in the 1980s yet Cash's cover of Personal Jesus is truly a masterpiece. If there's anything bad on this album it's Cash's rendition of Oh Danny Boy. He does it fine but I think a moratorium has to be placed on this song. Enough people have done it. Enough already.
Reading the liner notes and listening to the album I'm struck by how religious Cash really is (Hey, he was on an episode of Touched by an Angel, an execrable show I only watched because he was on it). He opens his personal note in the notes by thanking God for both being alive and for his wife, the superb June Carter Cash. He recounts a dream he had of visiting Buckingham Palace and having the Queen recite a line from the Book of Job. He may have been stuck in Folsom Prison but it's likely he spent a lot of time in its chapel.
I've long thought that Johnny Cash would make the perfect priest. Has he sinned? Damn right, though probably nowhere near what the public thinks – he's made it to 70 years of age after all. But who knows God better than the sinner? (ref. fallen angels Satan and Moloch) Cash has lived. He understands the darker side of humanity and yet his faith in a higher power is proof that he also believes in the beauty of humanity. I can see him minister to his flock and understand their sins only because he knows what sinning is.
Posted by steve @ 09:18 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, February 20, 2003 BASHING THE FRENCH IS FUN: Nice little article detailing the rise of anti-French feelings in the United States. I love the picture of Jacques Chirac with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
Posted by steve @ 07:18 PM EST [Link]
~ THE HISTORIAN WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD: Oh yes, before I forget, you must read this excellent profile in the Telegraph of the High Tory historian and official Kissinger biographer, Andrew Roberts, whose latest book (despite it's godawful self-help title) Hitler & Churchill: Secrets of Leadership, has garnished equally excellent reviews.
Anyone who can admit that he was "a very active bachelor," but that "I'm completely un-priapic now," or cheerfully says he "was an absolutely beautiful child," or despairs because "I don't need to boast . . . but gosh, it's so difficult not to do. I don't know why . . ." gets my vote. Who can't help but like a man who just decides one day to leave his job at a merchant bank and become a spy at MI6, just like that, or who at the grown-up age of 27, upon hearing that Thatcher was resigning, burst into tears (the Telegraph's words) and then decides to immediately rush over to 10 Downing Street with a bouquet of flowers?
Posted by Barton @ 03:23 PM EST [Link]
~ KLEIN TRIES THE "SUBTLE HINT" APPROACH: From today's National Post:
EDMONTON - Ralph Klein says Alberta separation is not on the agenda "right now," but warned it will probably be raised at the provincial Tory party's convention in March.
The issue of separation arose this week during the government's Throne Speech in which it asserted that Alberta's ability to be a partner in Canada is compromised by the federal government.
The Premier insisted he is not in favour of separation but said there is a small but growing number of Albertans who are.
"Based on just the letters I get and so on? Yes, and it's scary," Mr. Klein said yesterday.
"But I can understand the frustration of Albertans over Kyoto, health care, gun registration, the Canadian Wheat Board, Senate reform, the list goes on.
"I wasn't talking about separation at all [in the Throne Speech]. Turn that around and put it the other way, we want to be part of the Canadian family."
Mr. Klein added, "But we're saying, and the Throne Speech was quite clear, Alberta's ability to be a partner is compromised by the current federal government.
"We do believe the federal government's unilateral approach to a number of issues is undermining a united Canada, and is underminig the interests of this province.
"I don't want this to be construed as a threat of separation, because separation is not on the table for discussion. Not right now."
Mr. Klein acknowledged, however, it will likely be brought up at the Tory convention. "But it's not on this table right now," he said.
"But it might be, that's what I'm saying, and it might be at the party convention. It simply puts the federal government on notice that the Alberta government intends to strongly defend our interests.
"We want to be a strong member of Confederation. And I think most Albertans, not all, share that opinion." (snip)
Gosh, is Ralph threatening us elitist central Canadians with the spectre of rising Albertan separatism (a movement which of course, would be out of his hands) unless we conform to a more Alberta view of things or just let them keep more of their goodies? Well, if a rise in seperatism is predicated on who gets shafted the most in the Canadian confederation, our pampered Quebecers would be breaking out into spontaneous choruses of "O Canada" everyday, while I'd be out on the street waving signs reading "Vive le Toronto libre!" and banging the drum for turning our fair city into Singapore North. A Newfoundland-born, Toronto-based conservative like David Janes was begging Albertans to raise the separatism threat several weeks ago in order to force The Permanent-Ruling Party to shape up, while a reactionary such as Kevin Michael Grace was not so subtly telling Stephen Harper to abandon the dream of sitting in the PM's office in favour of leading a party which "would fight like a terrier to prevent Ottawa from raping Alberta again. And, if necessary, he would take Alberta out of Canada." Both are under the delusion that a: Conservatism of any strong sort is actually appealing to Canadians on a national level. b: that the Quebec City/Windsor junta which rule this country will regard Alberta seperatism as more than just another one of Ralph Klein's more hazy, alcohol-induced mirages. That's unfortunately also the sentiment on the street here in Toronto. Hey Albertans, if you're feeling like you're being unfairly picked on by the federal government, well, get in line. Grumbling about Ottawa and threats of separation are two of the things that unite all Canadians.
Posted by Barton @ 02:39 PM EST [Link]
~ FBI ARRESTS PROF OVER ALLEGED TERRORIST TIES: File this under the "It isn't academic freedom if people die" category.
The FBI today arrested a University of South Florida professor over allegations he raised money in the United States to support the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"[Sami] Al-Arian has been under investigation since the mid-1990s when he and Abdullah Shallah founded an Islamic think tank at the University of South Florida. About a year later, Shallah returned to the Middle East as the new head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. The U.S. State Department has designated it as a terrorist group."
Al-Arian is on tape announcing "Death to Israel" and yet he claims that he doesn't support suicide bombings or the targeting of civilians. Hey, I believe him.
Posted by steve @ 09:45 AM EST [Link]
~ REMEMBERING DANIEL PEARL: Interfaith memorial services will be held in major cities around the globe over the next few days to mark the anniversary of the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
"Services have been scheduled at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on Thursday; at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York on Sunday; and at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto on Monday. Other services are planned in London, Paris and Jerusalem."
If you're in those cities on those days please consider going to a service. If you're not near any, spare a moment and remember Daniel Pearl, a genuinely decent human being murdered for being nothing more than an American Jew.
[Update - 9:57am] - His father, Judea Pearl, writes about Daniel in the WSJ.
Posted by steve @ 09:41 AM EST [Link]
~ JAMES EARL JONES, ANTI-IDIOTARIAN: One of my favourite actors, James Earl Jones, says he's for an invasion of Iraq if it's done properly. He says his only concern is that the U.S. gets involved as soon as necessary and hangs around to see the job through this time.
Read on.
What else could you expect from the man who hated hippies in Field of Dreams?
Terence Mann (James Earl Jones): Oh my God!
Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner): What?
Terence Mann: You're from the Sixties!Later in the same conversation:
Terence Mann: Peace, love, dope! Now get the hell out of here.
Posted by steve @ 09:37 AM EST [Link]
~ SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT THE FRENCH: They wouldn't have took any garbage from Greenpeace. The environmental group attempted to block a cargo ship loaded with U.S. military equipment destined for the Persian Gulf from leaving Rotterdam.
"We want to send a signal to the U.S. and British governments, but also to the Dutch government, which is going along too easily with preparations for military conflict instead of looking for a peaceful solution," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Maartje van Boekel.
Read on. I'm trying to figure out what Iraq has to do with the environment...
Posted by steve @ 09:32 AM EST [Link]
~ THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DISCOVERS THAT THERE ARE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SEXES: As this is Reading Week at the Best University In Canada, I feel obliged to occasionally keep up with the campus news from my home computer. That is how I discovered this delightful news item:
In an era of "grrl power" and breaking gender stereotypes, girls still write stories about romance while boys write about action and adventure, says an education researcher.
"What I find alarming is gender identities are becoming more rigid as students get older," says Professor Shelley Peterson of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) and author of the study. "These gender roles don't allow students to explore other topics, styles and ways of being."
Peterson asked 54 Grade 8 students from an urban and suburban school in Ohio to write a story on any topic and consult with their peers while crafting it. She analyzed their writing and put the students in focus groups so they could critique each other's writing and choice of topics. Her findings were published recently in the journal Gender and Education.
Although Peterson found writing and gender stereotypes closely linked, there were a few students whose stories had different themes. Some girls wrote about sports and a couple of boys wrote about relationships, but on a competitive level.
Yep, according to Professor Peterson, it's alarming that young females act feminine and young males act masculine. These unfortunate 14-year olds have obviously been forced by that bad old all-purpose villain, the Patriarchy, into conforming with stereotypical gender roles. I mean, it's not like their minds aren't genetically hard-wired into acting like that, is it? Why that would mean that our beloved "blank slate" theory of the mind is completely wrong, but no one has come along recently to disprove it, have they? I should note that the OISE is considered the finest facility for the education of future teachers in the country, which says a lot about the teaching profession in Canada. Oh well, at least the article notes at the end that the study was funded by a grant from Ohio State University, so I personally thank the taxpayers of that good state for funding this great discovery in modern sociology.
Posted by Barton @ 03:14 AM EST [Link]
~ HOW TO JUSTIFY WANDERING AROUND AND BEING LAZY: It might puzzle regular readers of this supposed "group" blog, why Steve Martinovich seems to be the only consistent writer at least since I dropped out over six months ago. I must admit that this puzzles me as well. After all, it was I who proposed expansion of this blog in the first place and that list of recommended blogs to the left is mostly my handiwork. I have any number of excuses at hand: my university work, my work last summer as a Culturecrat (an eye-opening experience which made me sympathize with government bureaucrats more while making me like the administrative state even less, but that is another story), the fact that writing blog entries does not even compare with reading other people's blog entries, especially when they are invariably better-written than your own (and it's less tiring as well). But in the final analysis, I suppose my recent non-contribution can be pinned down to two things: my habitual laziness and my equally habitual hobby of pointlessly wandering the streets of dear, old Toronto during my free time. Like any university student however, I have perfectly good theoretical reasons for this.
First, why would anyone with any sense want to wander aimlessly around city streets, especially during the well-known Canadian winter? Well, wandering around aimlessly isn't just anything: it's an art (complete with a fancy French name: "flânerie"). And perfecting your own "flânerie" is more difficult than it looks. As Walter Benjamin (who along with Baudelaire is the expert on this) put it in the Arcades Project: "Not to find one’s way about in a city is of little interest. But to lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a forest, requires practice." Precisely. Anyone can get lost while looking for a specific place to go to; it takes real intelligence getting yourself absorbed in the myriad details of the city with nowhere to go to in particular, all the while retaining an ironic detachment from the very cityscape which fascinates you. It is aimless wandering for the sheer sake of experiencing the infinitely variable sculptural artform of the very streets.
Or as the invaluable Idler's Glossary puts it: "The flâneur practices a kind of refined street theater, thumbing his nose at hurrying urban crowds by loitering ostentatiously. For Baudelaire—who admired famous flâneurs like Nerval, who is said to have walked a lobster around Paris on a pale blue leash—the 'perfect flâneur' is that urbanite who is neither aloof from the crowd nor surrendered to it, but both at once; this "kaleidoscopic" faculty allows him to perceive the subtle eruptions of the infinite into the everyday."
Not convinced that walking about for hours like some crazed Raskolnikov and hanging out with all those streetpeople is worth your time? To wit, here's the venerable Partisan Review quoting Anke Gleber from her theoretical book about aimless wandering, The Art of Taking a Walk, (304 pages and published by the Princeton University Press) where "the flâneur [is] 'a kind of private eye,' a quintessentially urban figure that 'investigates the sensations he experiences and the riddles of modernity he registers.'" Investigating the riddles of modernity like some professorial Sherlock Holmes? Sounds like grand fun to a jaded arts degree-earning cynic like me. And here's Benjamin again on the psychological and physiological effects of sustained aimless wandering:
An intoxication comes over the man who walks long and aimlessly through the streets. With each step, the walk takes on greater momentum; ever weaker grow the temptations of shops, of bistros, of smiling women, ever more irresistible the magnetism of the next streetcorner, of a distant mass of foliage, of a street name. Then comes hunger. Our man wants nothing to do with the myriad possibilities offered to sate his appetite. Like an ascetic animal, he flits through unknown districts–until, utterly exhausted, he stumbles into his room, which receives him coldly and wears a strange air.
As you can see, aimless wandering is not well, aimless, at least psychologically speaking. It's more of a spiritual quest: denying the flesh for the sake of nourishing the soul with the sights and sounds of the street until the street itself becomes more of a home for the flâneur than the home itself. It's also great practise, just in case you ever fear becoming homeless. And the goal? Why the walk itself of course! Haven't you heard the saying about the point of a journey being not the destination but the journey itself? So there.
Oh and justifying laziness? I'm not lazy actually. Think of it more as a kind of lifestyle choice. It's just that my preferred methods of activity consists of Otioiseness, Idleness, and Indolence. To wit, here's the Idler's Glossary on the word "otiose:" "The Latin word for 'business' is negotium (as in 'negotiate')—which means 'not idling.' Get it? Otium, or leisure, was once considered the true goal of life; and business was just what you did when you weren't idling."
As well, I can't see why I cannot justify being Indolent after reading this: "For Keats, neither Love nor Ambition nor even Poesy contain joy 'so sweet as drowsy noons,/And evenings steep'd in honied indolence.' Although indolence [from the Latin for 'feeling no pain'] strongly resembles habitual laziness, or sluggishness, it's less a physical aversion to activity or effort than it is a romantic repudiation of what Keats calls 'the voice of busy common-sense.' To the idler, nothing is so precious as what Bergson calls 'duration': time divorced from productive operations, and dedicated instead to contemplation and reverie.'"
The man who practises Idleness as a lifestyle choice is not lazy, far from it. In fact, Idleness is how people like me achieve self-fulfillment: "Although the idler might not 'work' in any recognizable fashion, he is neither shiftless nor lazy. His energies, having been freed from the merry-go-round of the working life, are channeled into the pursuit of wisdom and pleasure...That's because idleness is not (unlike slackness), the opposite of 'work,' but is instead a hard-won mode of existence in which whatever one does is an act of creativity." Note the hard-won: it takes real psychological (if not physical) work to get to my goal of perfect Idleness.
In fact, I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson when he wrote that: "Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself." As you can see, my doing nothing is actually my individual way of stickin' it to The Man. When you've got the ancient Romans, Keats, Henri Bergson, and Robert Louis Stevenson all on the side of doing nothing and doing it well, is there any point to continuing the argument?
Posted by Barton @ 01:40 AM EST [Link]
~ AM I BEING SERIOUS IN THE ABOVE ENTRY?: Well, I don't know. You tell me.
Posted by Barton @ 01:39 AM EST [Link]
~ CHOPPING DOWN THE ORCHARD: My poor beloved Tories. They just can't seem to get a break. Media coverage of their leadership race is down to NDP-like levels of anonymity. And now, protectionist Saskatchewan farmer David Orchard (think William Jennings Bryan with a moustache) seems to be out-organizing everyone by recruiting not-exactly conservative new members into the party. His latest ploy? Signing up members of the Serbian community by touting his opposition to the bombings over Kosovo. According to the "Gossip" section of the invaluable Tory leadership campaign tracker, ToryDraft.com (scroll down to "02/17 - This in from Saskatchewan"), Orchard is recruiting 250 members a day compared to the other candidates 50 a day. Not only that, here's an excerpt of a leaked memo from the Canadian Action Party (scroll down to "02/05 - And many Tories are asking, why is another left-wing party backing David Orchard for leadership of our party?"):
We think it would also be desirable if David Orchard became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party at its convention to be held in Toronto at the end of May. But he will need help to achieve that goal. As it is possible to join the PC Party without giving up membership in one’s own party, we urge anyone (except CAP executive members) wishing to help David reverse that party’s policies to give him a hand for these next few critical weeks until June 1st when it will be clear whether or not the transformation is possible.
While there seems to be a growing anyone-but-Orchard sentiment in the party (see "ORCHARD HAS NO PLACE IN THE TORIES" by Jeremy Dutton in the "Opinion" section and a Brison supporter's half-serious plea for MacKay people to give up as to not split the vote in the "Gossip" section entitled, "02/09 - Here's the anti-Orchard word on the street.... "), it all reeks of "geez, how did we let things get this bad?"
Posted by Barton @ 01:36 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, February 19, 2003 TOO FUNNY: I linked a couple of days ago (unless I imagined it) to some pictures of the San Francisco anti-war protest from the past weekend. Well, Rush Limbaugh has some other pictures, ones that are truly hilarious.
Dittoheads inflitrated the protests with some funny signs like: "Communism has only killed 100 million people. Let's give it another chance" and "Except for ending slavery, facism, Nazism and communism, war has never solved anything."
View on. Well done dittoheads!
Posted by steve @ 02:48 PM EST [Link]
~ PROPS TO GERMANY: The first man to face trial in the September 11 terrorist attack was convicted in a German court of over 3 000 accessory to murder charges. Unfortunately, Mounir el Motassadeq will only get 15 years which is the maximum.
Posted by steve @ 01:03 PM EST [Link]
~ BREAK-UP BEGAN EARLIER THAN THOUGHT: "Space shuttle Columbia began losing pieces over the California coast, well before it disintegrated over Texas, the accident investigation board reported today, confirming what astronomers and amateur skywatchers have been saying."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:58 AM EST [Link]
~ BOSNIAN "CHARITY" AND AL-QAIDA LINKED: "U.S. authorities recovered a list of 20 financiers they suspect funneled money to Osama bin Laden and others extremist Muslim causes among a cache of documents that provide insight into the financing of terrorism, an unsealed court record shows."
Read on
