Musings Archive October 2003
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 WHICH RAT PACK MEMBER AM I?: According to Modern Drunkard's online test, I'm Dean Martin. I always suspected that.
Find out which Rat Rack member you are here.
Posted by steve @ 01:52 AM EST [Link]
~ CLARK FADING: A poll released Monday evening shows that support for Wesley Clark is "ebbing" and that the Democratic Party may be moving to the left. I smell me a Bush victory!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:41 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: A slightly better weekend for me this time with 10 of 14.
There's always an big upset and this weekend it was Arizona beating San Francisco. Not surprisingly, after another amazingly bad outing, it appears that the Squared Sevens will replace kicker Owen Pochman with free agent Todd Peterson. If Pochman makes it out of 'Frisco alive I'd be surprised.
From ESPN:
Pochman missed two field goals and, to compound his problems, shanked the kickoff at the beginning of overtime out of bounds. The penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds permitted the Cardinals to begin the extra session at their own 40-yard line, and Arizona moved quickly toward the game-winning field goal by Tim Duncan.
In retrospect, picking Dallas on the road to beat Tampa Bay was a mistake, though an almost justifiable one. The New York Giants once again messed me up by beating Minnesota and Cincinnati beating Seattle was a surprise.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14Season %: 70.6 (+0.1%)
In honour of Arizona's victory, this week's cheerleader of the week is Brooke, a five year veteran of the Card's cheerleading team. A Public Relations major -- Dean's Honour roll at that -- Brooke enjoys dancing, pilates and babysitting. Sadly, Brooke was born in a year I have clear memories of, proving that at 32 I am old.
Posted by steve @ 12:21 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 27, 2003 FLYPAPER CATCHES FLY: One of the bombers responsible for the attacks this morning in Baghdad was Syrian, proving that foreigners are flocking to Iraq to commit crimes.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said.
"He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference.
Proof positive that when someone talks about "Arab solidarity" or "Muslim brotherhood" it's mostly BS. Arabs and Muslims are travelling to Iraq and killing other Arabs and Muslims along with the foreign troops that liberated them.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 PM EST [Link]
~ THE EXPERTS DEBATE: Although I'm not sure I should call myself an expert. John Hawkins of Right Wing News invited some heavyweights of the blog world -- Mike Hendrix from Cold Fury, Daniel Drezner, who is a monthly contributor to The New Republic Online & who was an unpaid foreign policy advisor for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, Bryan Preston from JunkYardBlog, and myself -- to discuss the 2004 election. You can find a transcript here.
Posted by steve @ 03:03 PM EST [Link]
~ A WORTHWHILE PROJECT
WorldNetDaily is planning to publish a book in support of US troops involved in the war on terrorism. The idea is to get real Americans (and others, I suppose) to write a 250 word letter, poem, or other appropriate tribute. WND will then publish in time for distribution at Christmas.
I have in the past advocated sending Christmas cards to troops, but the anthrax scare squelched that idea. This is a great alternative.
More details at WND.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:14 AM EST [Link]
~ BUT THE FRENCH SAID THEY NEVER SOLD IRAQ WEAPONS: According to U.K.'s The Sun, the rockets fired at the Al Rashid hotel this weekend where Paul Wolfowitz was staying, were made in France -- half of which were produced after the weapons embargo. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:22 AM EST [Link]
~ TIME FOR SOMEONE TO RACK UP THOSE BILLABLE HOURS!: Indymedia's dislike of Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs is legendary but it appears that this time someone crossed the line and Johnson is considering libel action. Learn all about it here.
Posted by steve @ 05:18 AM EST [Link]
~ RAMADAN STARTS OFF WITH A BANG: Several car bombs exploded in Baghdad today with at least ten people killed. Boy, I remember when everyone was pressing the Americans not to bomb Afghanistan during Ramadan a couple of years ago. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:48 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 26, 2003 EASTERBROOK SPEAKS AGAIN: Gregg Easterbrook posts at Football Outsiders that Tuesday Morning Quarterback may be back soon and is in talks with several web sites. He's also pretty messed up after the recent controversy and not watching all that much football.
Gregg, football is the tonic for all that can hurt a man.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:33 PM EST [Link]
~ NEO-CON HATERS DISPLEASED: Eight rockets slammed into the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad while U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying but he was unhurt in the attack.
Speaking at a press conference after the attack, Wolfowitz said one American may have been killed in the rocket attack on the hotel.
Wolfowitz, a major force behind the Iraq war, was paying his second visit to Iraq in three months and stressed the need to speed up the formation of a new Iraqi army, police force, border guard and civil defense corps.
A "quick reaction force" was dispatched to the scene in response to the attack, the coalition statement said.
There was initial uncertainty as to whether the rounds were rockets or mortars.
Witnesses inside the hotel described hearing a "whooshing" sound before the explosions, suggesting rockets were fired. Mortar rounds are generally silent when approaching a target.
I guess it will be a while before Dubya visits Iraq...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:07 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 25, 2003 BLACK CONSERVATIVE WRITERS WANTED: Are you an African-American/Canadian conservative writer? The Black Conservative wants to hear from you! The web site is asking for submissions from black conservatives to join an already impressive line-up of writers which includes Larry Elder and will soon feature work by Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. You can find the web site here.
Posted by steve @ 04:48 PM EST [Link]
~ HAPPY UNITED NATIONS DAY. It was yesterday, actually. So, I wrote a column about the world body.
Posted by izzy @ 11:26 AM EST [Link]
~ DIDN'T THEY HEAR THAT THE WAR IS OVER?: Communist-backed International ANSWER is holding a protest today (Saturday) in Washington, D.C. to protest the U.S.-led war in Iraq...something I thought ended a couple of months ago.
"The U.S. government has no right to try and recolonize Iraq," said Peta Lindsay, national youth and student coordinator for International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which organized the protests with another group, United for Peace and Justice.
It figures that a student would say something as stupid as that. The good news? The Free Republic web site will be holding a counter demonstration. Conservatives, get down there and show your support for the liberation!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:13 AM EST [Link]
~ KILL BILL KILLED: I will not launch into any Easterbrookian diatribe about the people behind the movie and nor will I condemn Quentin Tarantino as overrated like Kathy Shaidle (not that I'm linking Greg Easterbook and Kathy Shaidle!) but I went and saw Kill Bill tonight and I have to say I rather enjoyed it.
I won't do a real review of it but I think it was an effective homage to Kung Fu movies with elements of Western movies thrown in. Tarantino also broke away from his long standing principle of not showing the worst violence -- Kill Bill had buckets of blood. Uma Thurman looked fantastic. Overall, not as good as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs but much better than Jackie Brown. The only disappointments? One, the movie should have been released as one long movie as Volume 1 moved very quickly. Two, Sonny Chiba really should have gotten involved in the action.
Posted by steve @ 03:30 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 24, 2003 PASSAGE: A fond farewell for Madame Chiang Kai-shek who died today at the age of 106. No matter what you think of her husband, she was justly renowned for her grace and charm.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:48 PM EST [Link]
~ NYT UP TO ITS OLD TRICKS: There's an absolute plague of rapes occurring in France these days which is receiving coverage but Tacitus wants to know why the New York Times doesn't tell the whole story. Well, because it's the New York Times for one.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:33 PM EST [Link]
~ SCHIAVO BACK IN COURT: Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri Schiavo, is heading back to court to argue that Florida Governor Job Bush's order to reinsert his wife's feeding tube is unconstitutional.
Read on.
This follows yesterday's announcement that the ACLU would assist him. AARP is also weighing in on whether to get involved.
Posted by steve @ 05:35 PM EST [Link]
~ ARAB NATIONS SHAFT IRAQ: Interesting thing about the donors list of aid to Iraq. The evil crusading nations of the West are fronting serious cash while the hyper-rich nations of the Middle East are throwing what appears to be what they found in the couch.
The U.S. has announced $20 billion, the U.K. $496 million, Spain $300 million, Japan $5 billion, the EU $1.7 billion, Canada $225 million, Italy $236 million.
In contrast Saudi Arabia offered $1 billion (in loans), United Arab Emirates $215 million, Qatar $100 million and Kuwait -- who to their credit didn't have to throw anything into the kitty -- an extra $500 million in aid on top of $1 billion already spent.
As the Arabs have done with the Palestinians, so to are they doing with Iraq. It's in their interest to have a weakened Iraq because they can use it as a propoganda tool. The Arab world could rebuild Iraq itself within a decade (and could have solved the Palestinian 'problem' decades ago) but that would only strengthen America's pro-democracy arguments. Memo to Mahathir Mohammed: It isn't the Jews keeping the Muslim world down, it's men like you who prefer to blame everyone else. Where's your cheque?
Then again, with Saudi Arabia's support for fascist Islamists, perhaps we don't want their help.
Read a news story here, the complete donors list here.
Posted by steve @ 01:54 PM EST [Link]
~ NOTHING IS BETTER THAN HELPING A CHILD: Chief Wiggles' toy drive for Iraqi children is doing well but he's like more to distribute to needy children -- and God knows Iraq's children have suffered enough. Operation Give tells how you can become involved and who Wiggles is if you aren't familiar with him.
Just one toy...
Posted by steve @ 01:42 PM EST [Link]
~ IN HOMAGE TO TMQ: Tuesday Morning Quarterback is gone -- at least until someone else picks it up -- but the people of Football Outsiders (a web site worth ten times its weight in gold) is holding a contest/homage to TMQ.
With all of the interest in TMQ -- and all of the TMQ readers on this website who have expressed sorrow at the column's disappearance -- we've decided to dedicate this weekend to TMQ with our first Football Outsiders Homage Contest. It's very simple. Watch this weekend's action. Then e-mail your best TMQ-like commentary to info-@-footballoutsiders.com. We'll put the best examples together and print them next week, and the best TMQ-esque comment will win a guaranteed Football Outsiders t-shirt.*
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:36 PM EST [Link]
~ SO MUCH FOR "INCLUSIVE DIVERSITY"
Diversity is the newest liberal religion. With it comes a mantra of "tolerance" and "inclusion" -- as long as it doesn't have to tolerate or include caucasians or Christians.
CNSNews.com reports, "A 15-year-old high school freshman who proposed the creation of a Caucasian student club at a California high school has transferred to another facility, citing harassment from other students."
I'm sure it's just an oversight that the liberal public school system has overlooked tolerance of whites and Christians in its touchy-feely classes. I'm also sure that they must have forgotten about students like Lisa McClelland when they taught about "sensitivity". And while I'm sure about those things, I am also sure that my deed to the Brooklyn Bridge will arrive any day now.
No wonder home-schooling is catching on so well.
The rest of the story is at CNSNews.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 01:30 PM EST [Link]
~ WE HAVE A STAMP FOR THE "RELIGION OF PEACE", but...
"After almost 20 years and despite more than 20,000 signatures in hand, the
U.S Postal Service is still denying requests for a stamp honoring troops
killed in the 1983 terrorist bombing in Beirut. And veterans are still
asking why. . . . The request requires the approval of the Citizens' Stamp
Advisory Committee, 12 to 15 volunteer members on a board appointed by
Postmaster General John Potter who is supposed to review background on why a
stamp is recommended. But the group meets in secret and isn't required to
state why a stamp is or is not approved."- Jacksonville Daily News, 10/20/03
Another good reason to do some serious overhaul of the US Postal Service. The USPS will never be a real "business" as long as it is run by liberals.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:34 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 23, 2003 CMOH TO BE AWARDED POSTHUMOUSLY: SFC Paul Ray Smith will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for leading 15 to 20 engineers, mortarmen and medics against a force of over 100 Iraqi Special Republican Guard. Smith was killed during the action that resulted in saving dozens of American lives.
On the morning of April 4, the Task Force was inside of the airport and several enemy soldiers had been captured, so a containment pen had be to quickly built. There was a wall 10 ft tall paralleling the north side of the highway, on the battalion's flank just behind the front lines. Smith (whose callsign was 'Sapper 7') decided to punch a hole in it, so that the inside walls would form two sides of a triangular enclosure and the open third side could be closed off with rolls of concertina wire.
Smith used an armored combat earthmover to punch through the wall and, while wire was being laid across the corner, one of the squad's two M113s moved toward a gate on the far side of the courtyard. The driver pushed open the gate to open a field of fire, revealing between 50 and 100 enemy soldiers massed to attack. The only way out was the hole the engineers had put in the wall and the gate where the hardcore Iraqis were firing.
What happened next was equal to Audie Murphy's legendary World War II heroism. Iraqi soldiers perched in trees and a nearby tower let loose with a barrage of RPGs and there were snipers on the roof. A mortar round hit the engineers' M-113, seriously wounding three soldiers inside. Smith helped evacuate them to an aid station, which was threatened by the attack as well.
Smith promptly organized the engineers' defense, since the only thing that stood between the Iraqis and the Task Force's headquarters were about 15 to 20 engineers, mortarmen and medics. A second M113 was hit by an RPG, but was still operational. Dozens of Iraqi soldiers were charging from the gate or scaling a section of the wall, jumping into the courtyard.
Smith took over the second APC's .50-caliber machine gun and got the vehicle into a position where he could stop the Iraqis. First Sergeant Tim Campbell realized that they had to knock out the Iraqi position in the tower and after consulting with Smith, led two soldiers to take the tower. Armed only with a light machine-gun, a rifle and a pistol with one magazine, the trio advanced behind the smoke of tall grass that had caught fire from exploding ammunition.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. With men like these a nation cannot fail.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:07 PM EST [Link]
~ NOW EVEN THE IRAQIS HATE THE FRENCH AND GERMANS: Ayad Allawi, the head of Iraq's governing council, said today that Iraqis won't soon forget the paltry aid that France and Germany have promised for the rebuilding of Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:58 PM EST [Link]
~ IRAQ APOLOGIST KICKED FROM LABOUR PARTY: About bloody time too. The Labour Party has expelled George Galloway after he described George W. Bush and Tony Blair as "wolves" during the Iraq war.
Read on. Read reaction to it here.
I'd have kicked him out for serving as Saddam Hussein's British mouthpiece for years.
Posted by steve @ 03:12 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT'S CLASSY BEHAVIOR: Dubya is heckled this morning while giving a speech to the Australian parliament. Not surprisingly the classless humps were members of the Green Party.
Posted by steve @ 04:47 AM EST [Link]
~ SHUT UP: There are sports commentators I like: Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser -- both too intelligent to be shouting at each other on Pardon the Interruption. There are sports commentators I dislike: Mike Lupica. But all of them share one trait that I despise: griping.
Take, for instance, this year's World Series. A lot of people thought that the Yankees would roll over the Marlins in four straight. Instead we have a series knotted at two games a piece thanks to extra inning heroics by the Marlins and a reasonably exciting -- for baseball any way -- series. Is that good enough? Not for Frank Deford. He babbles on about a fantasy Chicago-Boston series.
Seriously Frank, shut up. Unless I missed the point of your essay, be quiet.
Posted by steve @ 02:50 AM EST [Link]
~ RUMMY UNHAPPY OVER LEAK: Well duh. Donald Rumsfeld was apparently livid over the leak of an internal memo which pointedly asks whether the Department of Defence has the will to continue battling terrorism.
Glenn Reynolds updated a blog entry throughout the day with reaction to the memo and its leak. Like many, I don't think the memo's contents are necessarily bad because I think honest self-examination is a good thing -- something that the media and the Democrat nominees seem not agree with.
You can find the whole memo here.
Posted by steve @ 02:27 AM EST [Link]
~ SO IS THIS GOING TO BE AN ART HOUSE CIRCUIT?: Mel Gibson has landed an American distributor for his newly renamed picture The Passion of Christ ("The Passion" apparently is being used by someone else). The distributor is Newmarket Films, an independent company.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:22 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 22, 2003 HELP MR. GRACE: Jeremy Lott reports that blogger Kevin Michael Grace, ex-editor over at the now defunct The Report, is in dire financial straits.
If he doesn't raise over a thousand dollars in the next few days, he and his family (including the young Rebecca Grace) will likely be kicked out onto the street.
I lost my job right around the same time that Kevin -- who is responsible for my first appearance in a Canadian news magazine -- did so I'm unable to help him financially myself but I am asking any of you cats who can afford it to help a good conservative out.
Read Jeremy Lott's appeal here and Kevin's appeal here.
Posted by steve @ 09:49 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 HITCHENS ON MOTHER THERESA: It's no secret that Christopher Hitchens really disliked Mother Theresa so it should be no surprise that he's written yet another anti-MT essay. I'm neutral on the issue because I'm not a Catholic but Hitchens does raise some proper points:
It used to be that a person could not even be nominated for "beatification," the first step to "sainthood," until five years after his or her death. This was to guard against local or popular enthusiasm in the promotion of dubious characters. The pope nominated MT a year after her death in 1997. It also used to be that an apparatus of inquiry was set in train, including the scrutiny of an advocatus diaboli or "devil's advocate," to test any extraordinary claims. The pope has abolished this office and has created more instant saints than all his predecessors combined as far back as the 16th century.
As for the "miracle" that had to be attested, what can one say? Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness of the fakery. A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of MT, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumor. Her physician, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumor in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine. Was he interviewed by the Vatican's investigators? No. (As it happens, I myself was interviewed by them but only in the most perfunctory way. The procedure still does demand a show of consultation with doubters, and a show of consultation was what, in this case, it got.)
This beatification does strike me as a personal crusade by Pope John Paul II but then again, he's the one with the big hat, not me.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:19 PM EST [Link]
~ SENATE PASSES PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN: Today is a good day for those who like life. The Senate passed a ban on partial birth abortion -- all that remains is for George W. Bush to sign the legislation.
I'm pro-choice (though I admit that lately I've been debating with myself the morality of abortion) but I'm solidly behind this ban. I realize that a lot of people despise this procedure because of its graphic nature but for me it's a sample matter: The fetus is being delivered so that it can be killed. You can debate whether a group of cells is a living being all you like but I will never support partial birth abortions.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:28 PM EST [Link]
~ MURDER AVERTED!: Florida lawmakers gave Gov. Jeb Bush the power to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube!
The state Senate voted 23-15 on Tuesday to approve a measure allowing Bush to issue the one-time order. The tube was removed after a lengthy court battle between Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael, and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
The bill also allows a judge to appoint an independent guardian for Schiavo, taking away guardianship from Michael Schiavo, who has been fighting to remove the tube.
Tuesday afternoon, a judge in Clearwater refused to issue a temporary restraining order that Michael Schiavo's attorneys had sought.
Good things can happen...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:44 PM EST [Link]
~ PETA SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO GET A LIFE: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have called on the California community of Rodeo to change its name because the name recalls the sport of rodeo. If the town changes its name then PETA will donate $20 000 worth of veggie burgers to local schools. That would be enough for me to keep the name.
Read on.
As you may remember, some years ago PETA wanted the New York town of Fishkill to change its name. We gave them the treasured Earth is Flat Award for that one.
Posted by steve @ 03:53 PM EST [Link]
~ SO WHAT IS THE TSA GOOD FOR?: Nathaniel Heatwole apparently left his terrorist prize packs -- consisting of box cutters, bleach, strike-anywhere matches and modeling clay resembling plastic explosives -- on Southwest Airlines jet liners over a month ago.
As James Bovard points out in Terrorism and Tyranny, which I'll be reviewing for ESR in the next issue, airport security is probably no better now than it was before September 11, 2001.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:38 AM EST [Link]
~ GOLDBERG IS BACK: Howard Kurtz reported yesterday that Bernard Goldberg, of Bias fame, reports that the ex-CBS reporter has a new book coming out called Arrogance.
"There's no question the media elites salivate more when they're going after Republicans and conservatives," he writes, and they would probably admit it "after a few drinks."
He sneers at "their liberal friends in Manhattan and Georgetown." He derides liberals for having "become precisely what they accuse conservatives of: being closed-minded and nasty." And he prescribes a 12-step program to cure journalists of their affliction.
But unlike in his first book, the best-selling "Bias," in which Goldberg mounted an argument -- a very personal argument, when it came to CBS -- that journalists lean to the left on many issues, "Arrogance" has a smug, us-and-them tone captured by its subtitle: "Rescuing America From the Media Elite." Maybe best-selling writers can get away with that sort of thing.
Goldberg scores some points, according to advance excerpts, but also renders sweeping judgments, as if everyone at every major news outlet is a card-carrying, Clinton-worshiping, ACLU-loving leftist.
The problem Howard isn't that everyone is a card-carrying, Clinton-worshiping, ACLU-loving leftist, but that a large number are. That said, Kurtz is one of those few journos I do admire. He's a liberal himself but he's exceedingly fair and always presents both sides without forcing his own beliefs on you.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
~ HEALING IRAQ: A cat named Zeyad has a new blog out of Iraq detailing the post-war struggles to establish a new nation. Great stuff about some clown whose trying to start his own private army and play the role of minor despot and other news that the media is too busy to tell you about. Find Healing Iraq here. Steven Den Beste discusses that minor despite wannabe clown here.
Posted by steve @ 04:15 AM EST [Link]
~ THE AMBLER ON THE EASTERBROOK SCANDAL: Kevin Michael Grace weighs in on the Greg Easterbook scandal with a typically unique look. I won't ruin it by quoting so go read it yourself.
In related news, The New Republic has posted a statement about Easterbrook and the reaction to his blog entry.
Posted by steve @ 03:58 AM EST [Link]
~ PROSECUTING THE PEOPLE WHO SPARK SUICIDE BOMBINGS: A petition has been organized calling on the United Nations and other organizations to declare that 'homicide/suicide bombings and acts of terror against civilians are "war crimes against humanity.'"
Furthermore, we insist that the United Nations, its Security Council and World Government Leaders declare that raising infants and children to become suicidal/homicidal bombers is a violation of fundamental human rights, a breach of the Geneva Convention and a war crime. We ask that those political, governmental, military and religious organizations and their leaders and supporters be prosecuted by the International War Crimes Tribunal to the fullest extent of International Law.
Read it all and sign the petition here.
Posted by steve @ 12:40 AM EST [Link]
~ DEFENDING JANICE BROWN: Marvelous article by Marni Soupcoff, daughter of ESR contributor Murray Soupcoff, on the Iconoclast web site about Janice Brown. She's a Bush nominee to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and also a target of liberals.
Since Governor Pete Wilson appointed her to California's highest court in 1996, Brown has been a consistent defender of Californians' property rights, economic liberty, and freedom of speech.
Brown wrote a searing dissent in Aguilar v. Avis Rent-A-Car System , a case in which the California Court instituted an unprecedented prior restraint on speech (essentially, singling out certain words and banning their use in the workplace under any circumstances). In a "friend of the court" brief, the supposed guardians of freedom of expression at the ACLU gleefully championed the speech ban, arguing that the right to "equal treatment at work" permits "some limits on the unrestrained speech of bigots in the work place." Brown, however, proved the true protector of liberty, warning that the decision "would create the exception that swallowed the First Amendment."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:25 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: An absolutely calamitous weekend for me with a meager 8 games picked correctly.
Huge disappointments? Baltimore losing to Cincinnati. Miami losing to New England (in retrospect I should have went with the Pats). The New York Giants being embarassed by a bad Philadelphia Eagles team (and keeping with the tradition of the Giants messing up my picks). Carolina losing to Tennessee (another one I should have picked correctly). Tampa Bay playing like my old high school football team against San Francisco. Oh, did I mention the Browns losing to the Chargers? Bah.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14Season %: 70.5 (-2.2%)
Since Tuesday Morning Quarterback is gone -- at least until Greg Easterbrook lands somewhere else with the column (come Slate, bring him back!), I offer his famous cheerleader profile. In honor of the Eagles beating the Jets I offer Eagles cheerleader Adrienne. Her profile tells us that she's "Pursuing a career in Education" at the University of Delaware. A woman after my own heart Adrienne also enjoys boxing and her favourite movie is "Scarface." Make sure you aren't at work when you click on her Calender Photo shot as it's a spicy one.
Posted by steve @ 12:17 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 20, 2003 MILLER Q&A: (via Brothers Judd Blog) ESR's favourite comedian, Dennis Miller, is the subject of an American Enterprise Institute interview.
Posted by steve @ 05:10 PM EST [Link]
~ IRELAND FIRED: (via Traditional Values Coalition) Here's some news that the mainstream press ignored. The YWCA announced October 16 that it had fired its chief executive Patricia Ireland. Ireland is perhaps better known as head of the National Organization of Women.
“We have the deepest admiration for Ms. Ireland’s dedication to women’s issues and social justice, but the YWCA has proved to be the wrong platform for her to advocate for these issues,” said NCB Chairman Audrey Peeples. “The Board has great faith in the abilities of Dorris Daniel-Parkes and is confident she will be a positive force in our ongoing mission to further empower women and girls and eliminate racism.”
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:06 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIAN ALLIANCE MPS OKAY MERGER: It's not binding but the grand merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives moved one step closer last night when CA MPs voted in favour of the merger.
I've already gone on record describing this merger as a waste of time but I am eager to be proved wrong. Heck, maybe I'll even seek a nomination to be a candidate in next year's federal election. I do need a job after all...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:01 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER VICTORY AGAINST TERRORISTS: U.S. and Afghan forces have captured a senior Taliban commander in central Afghanistan.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:57 PM EST [Link]
~ TO WIN YOU HAVE TO RUN: Democratic presidential candidates Joe Lieberman and Wesley Clark have both decided not to run in the Iowa caucuses. Neither has a chance of winning so they've decided to save their money for later in the campaign.
I can dig Lieberman's decision but I thought Clark was so popular that he could win anywhere?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:13 PM EST [Link]
~ I USUALLY JUST ORDER SOME PIZZA: But some people can use the phone to order a fatwa! See Kathy Shaidle for more details here.
Posted by steve @ 02:06 PM EST [Link]
~ I SMELL SMOKE: Wesley Clark joined the race for the Democratic nomination last month with such fanfare you thought he'd already won the party's nod. Since then, however, he's looked less than stellar prompting some to believe that his campaign is having internal problems. Not so, say insiders.
And yet...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:32 AM EST [Link]
~ A LOOK AT BUSH-HATING: A great, even-handed profile of the phenomenon of Bush-hating by Howard Kurtz appeared in the Washington Post. It was brought on after The New Republic's Jonathan Chait admitted he hated President Bush and Byron York wrote an article about Bush-haters for National Review. This piece features quotes from Chait, York, Ramesh Ponnuru, David Brooks, Paul Krugman and others.
I would take issue with Hendrik Hertzberg's comment that Bush-hating is less personal than Clinton-hating. Hertzberg correctly observes that many conservatives hated Clinton in part because they saw him as a '60s hippie. But many liberals hate Bush because he is a Southern-accented, Middle-American-style born-again Christian. Elements on the left and the right hated Clinton and Bush respectively out of proportion to their policies - which in both cases are more moderate than many of their strongest supporters' preferences - because they each see them as symbols of what they dislike about the other side.
And as part of my ongoing campaign to show how ahead of the curve ESR is, I'd like to remind you of my piece on Bush-hating almost a year ago.
Posted by antle @ 12:20 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 18, 2003 I GUESS MARIJUANA REALLY IS BAD FOR YOU: One of the problems of being a supporter of the relegalization of drugs is that some of your allies are -- to put it politely -- losers. Visit Gawker here to see why.
Posted by steve @ 05:51 PM EST [Link]
~ EASTERBROOK FIRED: Earlier this week a controversy erupted when Greg Easterbrook wrote in his blog about Jews, violence and Hollywood. He deservingly was thrashed for comments that were widely perceived to be incredibly insulting. Easterbrook apologized but the damage has been done and lot of people weren't convinced.
The comments were made at The New Republic but ESPN, for whom Easterbrook writes the hugely popular Tuesday Morning Quarterback column, has decided to fire him. Roger Simon spoke to Easterbrook and reports here while Glenn Reynolds blogs some other news about it here.
Posted by steve @ 04:22 PM EST [Link]
~ DEAD MAN CONTINUES TO MAKE MESSAGES: The National Enquirer should be on this! Osama bin Laden, currently suffering the same torments of hell that Saddam Hussein's are experiencing, has released two new audio recordings.
According to a CNN translation, the tapes -- one addressed to Iraqis and Arab Muslims throughout the world, the other to the American people -- feature a man claiming to be the al Qaeda leader discussing suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and the Iraqi Governing Council.
He's dead. No matter how much al-Qaida wants to convince us otherwise.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:08 PM EST [Link]
Friday, October 17, 2003 HEY, AND SHE WENT TO ANOTHER COUNTRY TO CRITICIZE BUSH!: Madeleine Albright, whose tenure as secretary of state in the Clinton era was an utter and absolute catastrophy, appeared on Europe 1 today to blast the foreign policy record of the Bush administration.
"America is much stronger in a multilateral system, we must be on the same side, work with other people in the world. It shouldn't be America versus the others," Albright said, speaking in French.
"It's difficult to be in France and criticise my government. But I'm doing so because Bush and the people working for him have a foreign policy that is not good for America, not good for the world," she said.
Hey, I can speak French as well. Fermez la bouche mme. Albright. Votre temps a au delà.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:55 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S BECAUSE THE JEWS MADE HIM DO IT: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today refused to apologize for stating yesterday that Jews ruled the world. In his speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference yesterday he stated that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Not surprisingly Mohamad's comments earned a standing ovation from those Muslim leaders gathered.
Read on.
[Update - 3:43pm] I hate to use "not surprisingly" so many times but not surprisingly, the European Union couldn't agree to condemn Mohamad's remarks.
Posted by steve @ 03:35 PM EST [Link]
~ MEMO TO FOX SPORTS: Less is more. It's the guiding principle that I try to live my life by whether it's how I dress, how I behave...even to what I carry in my pockets. Ostentation is for people with something to prove.
With this in mind I am writing an open letter to Fox Sports concerning the screen clutter they are inflicting on viewers of baseball. As I watch this, a chunk of the screen running at the entire top of the picture is taken up by the following:
* A graphic depicting the bases and whether anyone is on them
* The score
* Number of outs
* the pitch count/pitch speed
* A graphic that takes up a lot of room "MLB on FOX"So what has to be here?
1. One does not need an omnipresent graphic telling me how men on base. That's the job of the play by play. Flash it only occasionally.
2. If you've been watching the game, you know the score. Flash it only occasionally.
3. See number 2.
4. The play by play should be telling me the pitch count but I can accept it occasionally being flashed. Pitch speed? I don't care. I know a fastball when I see one and it should be the job of the play by play to bring it up when it becomes important. I've watched baseball for two decades and never cared about how fast a fastball was.
5. I know it's on FOX and I know I'm watching baseball. Keep the FOX graphic if you want, but get rid of the MLB logo.
So what do we have left? Nothing but the logo which I can live with. Also, when that top graphic appears, I don't need a sound to signify its arrival. I'm watching the damned game, I can see it.
Just as annoying, whenever FOX shows a replay, they accompany it with what sounds like a pitch shifted engine sound. To repeat: I don't need a sound to signify its arrival. I'm watching the damned game, I can see it.
Posted by steve @ 12:25 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 16, 2003 DOES MICHAEL MOORE EVER TELL THE TRUTH?: Why bother when distortions and outright falsehoods pay so well. Bryan Keefer over at Spinsanity fisks Moore over his latest book, Dude, Where's My Country?
In his latest book Dude, Where's My Country? -- a polemic against President Bush -- liberal gadfly Michael Moore again demonstrates why he has a reputation as a slipshod journalist who has trouble getting his facts right.
Funny thing is, the mainstream press loves to pillory the blog world for its mistakes but when it comes to a "mainstream" writer like Moore, the book rises up the NYT Bestseller List and an adoring press grants him a free pass.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:42 PM EST [Link]
~ CAN THE INTERNET SAVE TERRI SCHIAVO?: Probably not, but Jeremy Lott asks the question. The Web has organized people for all those WTO demonstrations so why not a demonstration to save Terri?
Good essay but one paragaph I thought was completely off the mark:
There is, of course, another aspect of this case that I almost hesitate to mention. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has promised Terri's parents all the support he can muster, but he insists that the courts will have the final word. In a legal sense, he's correct, but I wonder if his decision isn't a bit like Pontius Pilate cleverly washing his hands of what is about to happen.
J-Lott...Jeb had state attorneys file motions and briefs in an attempt to intervene in the case. Comparing him to Pontius Pilate is more than a little unfair.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:54 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR YANG: China's first taikonaut has returned to Earth.
Yang touched down on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China as planned at dawn and minutes later emerged from the capsule without help and waved at rescuers, though footage showed him appearing a bit dazed.
His landing came after Shenzhou V orbited Earth 14 times. Yang, a 38-year-old fighter pilot turned astronaut, landed just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from his target, the government said.
"The mission was a success," said Li Jinai, the head of China's manned space program, according to The Associated Press.
Congratulations to Yang Liwei for returning safely.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:23 PM EST [Link]
~ TIL DEATH DO YOU PART: Conservatives have something to cheer (?) today as it seems a merger between Canada's conservative parties, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives, seems to be moving forward again.
Alliance Leader Stephen Harper cancelled a town hall meeting in Calgary and was flying back to Ottawa to hold last-minute negotiations with Tory Leader Peter MacKay, who was flying in from Halifax.
"I do think we're approaching something that is very historic," Harper said in Calgary.
"It's not often that the political landscape is altered in a big way so quickly, but I think we're very close to doing that."
A merger would reunite the western-based and more socially conservative Alliance with Eastern Canada's progressive Tory wing, ending a 15-year split in their ranks.
I've wrote in the past that a merger between the two would be a waste of time. The Progressive Conservatives aren't conservative anymore and a merger would only weaken the populist conservatism of the Alliance. Anyone who was a conservative already left the federal PC Party...that said, end result of this merger? Liberal Paul Martin is elected prime minister next year.
Read on.
Kevin Michael Grace also recently wrote on the merger talks after they collapsed here and if you click on [more] you can read an article I wrote about it last month. [more]
Posted by steve @ 04:48 PM EST [Link]
~ TERRI SCHIAVO OUT OF TIME?: An appeals court in Florida has okayed the removal of a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo but Gov. Jeb Bush says he's still trying to find a way to intervene in the case.
The tube removal came just hours after Gov. Jeb Bush told Bob Schindler and his wife, Mary, he was instructing his legal staff to find some means to block the court order allowing Michael Schiavo to end his wife's life.
"We are going to seek whatever legal alternatives are available and seek the best minds to find another avenue to submit to the courts to see if there can be a change in this ruling," Bush said at an appearance in Dover dedicating new housing for migrant workers.
"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer. But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."
We covered the Schiavo case here a few days ago thanks to a note from Rachel Alexander. You can find that blog entry here. You can read the latest news here.
[Update - 4:51pm] Kevin Michael Grace dedicates a poem to Terri here.
Posted by steve @ 03:14 PM EST [Link]
~ SUPPORTING RUSH: Although some liberals and libertarians have been gloating about Rush Limbaugh's admission that he is addicted to painkillers, not everybody is cheering. The always thoughtful libertarian blogger Gene Healy says he takes no joy in Rush's travails. Past ESR contributor Lawrence Henry writes movingly about how Rush will come out of this even better than before, based on his own experiences.
Posted by antle @ 09:09 AM EST [Link]
~ LIVE FREE OR...: Also over at The American Prowler is an article by super-intern Shawm Macomber on the Free State Project and their choice of New Hampshire as their destination. As far as utopian schemes go, I've always thought that this one was pretty well thought out and at least worth a look. Macomber agrees, pointing out that New Hampshire offers at least some prospects for success.
Maybe at least they can offset the damage being done by big-government Massachusetts transplants. Here's a piece I did on the Free State Project for ESR before they were famous.
Posted by antle @ 08:55 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: My review of Will Saletan's Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion Wars is running over at The American Prowler/The American Spectator On-Line.
If you're curious, the title is mine. I've had mixed results with editors when I try to be clever with titles (maybe it's because I don't often succeed). I orginally submitted my article on Boston's pub smoking ban under the title "Smoke on the Watering Hole," a cheesy take-off of the Deep Purple hit "Smoke on the Water." Editor Wlady Pleszczynski wisely thought better of it. But I will confess that I was disappointed when AFF's Brainwash ran my review of Jacob Sullum's Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use under something other than my suggested "A Sober Case for Drugs."
Oh well.
Posted by antle @ 08:47 AM EST [Link]
~ WAS HE ON THE SAUCE WHEN HE WROTE THAT?: Gregg Easterbrook, popular with this writer for his Tuesday Morning Quarterback, fell into a pit yesterday with a blog entry at TNR about Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1. For the most part Easterbrook was sane but his last paragraph went a little far for some people:
Set aside what it says about Hollywood that today even Disney thinks what the public needs is ever-more-graphic depictions of killing the innocent as cool amusement. Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice. But history is hardly the only concern. Films made in Hollywood are now shown all over the world, to audiences that may not understand the dialogue or even look at the subtitles, but can't possibly miss the message--now Disney's message--that hearing the screams of the innocent is a really fun way to express yourself.
Not surprisingly more than a few people's jaw dropped. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Like Orrin Judd, I'm trying real hard to come up with an interpretation that isn't offensive but I'm unable to. I don't believe that Easterbook is an anti-Semite but I can't explain this paragraph at all...
Meryl Yourish responds here, Orrin Judd wonders what Easterbook was thinking here and Oscar nominated screen writer Roger Simon is astonished here.
Posted by steve @ 03:29 AM EST [Link]
~ TERRORIST AIDED BY CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER KILLED IN PAKISTAN: Back in 1995, Ahmed Said Khadr was arrested by Pakistani police for his role in the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. At the time, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien lobbied the Pakistan's government to release Khadr -- who was a Canadian citizen.
And one of the founding members of al-Qaida.
According to news reports, Khadr and one of his two sons (who also belong to al-Qaida) were killed at an al-Qaida camp by Pakistani security forces earlier this month. No thanks to our prime minister...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:11 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 14, 2003 SELF-PROMO ALERT: A bit late but I only found about it now. On Saturday the Kitchener-Waterloo Record published my latest attack on Immigration Minister Denis Coderre's dream project - a national ID card for Canadians. Click on [More] to read it. [more]
Posted by steve @ 03:53 AM EST [Link]
~ IS MEL GIBSON "BLAIR WITCHING" THE PASSION?: Interesting question: Was the trailer for The Passion that surfaced on the Web a couple of months ago an attempt by Icon Productions to start an grassroots campaign for the movie, akin to what the makers of the Blair Witch Project did a couple of years ago?
If so, it's successful. Web sites hosting the trailer are being hammered by surfers who want to get a look at it. A CNN story yesterday reports that interest in the movie is at a fevered pitch.
The well-documented controversy swirling around Mel Gibson's upcoming movie "The Passion of Christ," formerly known as "The Passion," has movie fans so curious that they've been crashing Web sites in their search for bootleg trailers.
Harry Knowles at AintItCoolNews.com said his site was the first to post a "Passion" trailer about three months ago, though it didn't last long there.
"In one day I got 350,000 downloads of that sucker," Knowles said. "I had to take it down because it slowed down server traffic. My site ground to a halt."
I have a copy of the trailer on my hard drive and was about to upload it to the web site so people could download it after AintItCoolNews.com pulled it but figured the bandwidth useage would kill ESR in hours. Other people have stepped in and you can find a link to it in the story.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:16 AM EST [Link]
~ KILLING FOR PROFIT: Tragic case going on in Florida at the moment. Here's an email from Intellectual Conservative's Rachel Alexander to explain:
Most of you have probably heard about this case - the semi-comatose woman, Terri Schiavo, whose husband is about to pull her feeding tube so he and his new fiancee will get $1.3 million when she dies. He could have just divorced her, but he wanted the money. Her parents vehemently oppose pulling her feeding tube, and she has been somewhat responsive to her parents, so she is not completely comatose. Governor Jeb Bush has tried, unsuccessfully, to intervene to save her life, but has had no luck; the courts ruled against her because her husband had the benefit of the $1.3 million to hire the best attorneys and "experts" to rule that she should die. Over the weekend, some friends of mine (including John Jakubczyck, the #1 pro-life attorney in the nation, God bless him), thought of a last-ditch effort to save her life - have her attorney file for divorce! Her feeding tube is slated to be removed on Wednesday.
Read a story about the case at Rachel's web site here or visit the Terri Schiavo Foundation here.
Posted by steve @ 12:15 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: Another middling weekend for me, 11 out of 14 games correct. St. Louis was a -11 favourite over the Falcons and I went -13 on them. In retrospect I should have picked them at -20 which would have been consistent with my long standing policy of going at least one touchdown over the spread for the favoured team on Monday nights. That said, I got tonight's game right.
Surprises from the weekend? Indianapolis losing to Carolina, Green Bay losing to Washington and Buffalo being absolutely spanked by a bad New York Jets team. The Bills could only muster a pathetic field goal against the Jets? Bah. Small positive? I picked perennial thorn in my side New York Giants to lose against New England and it actually happened.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14Season %: 72.7 (+1.1%) -- A damned sight better than many of those "experts" you see on TV.
Posted by steve @ 12:08 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 13, 2003 YOU MEAN IF YOU IGNORE A THIRD OF THE COUNTRY THEY GET ANGRY?: Long time Chreiten cabinet minister Ralph Goodale said today that Western Canada is alienated after decades of being ignored by the federal government.
"I see it on energy issues, I see it on agricultural issues, I see it on transportation issues, I see it on natural resources issues, where the going-in assumption on the part of Western Canadians is the system won't be fair, the deck is stacked against us."
That's rich. Goodale has long crucified prairie farmers with the Canada Wheat Board -- forcing them to sell their grain to a World War II era collectivist government program -- and defended his actions the whole time (just do a search for "goodale" in our search engine and you'll find articles dating back to 1996). Now Mr. Goodale is concerned about Western alienation? It's like a rapist worrying about the mental health of his victims. Goodale is nothing but a bagman for the Liberal government.
Goodale also whines that the same sex marriage issue may cost the Liberals seats in the West...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:46 PM EST [Link]
~ AYN RAND NAKED?: People used the oddest search terms to find ESR: Last week some of them were:
"ayn rand naked" (via Ask Jeeves)
"body switching" (via Yahoo!)
"pay to assassinate" (AltaVista)
"900 people orgy" (MSN)It takes all kinds.
Posted by steve @ 03:14 PM EST [Link]
~ LOSERS: Although most of California voted to kick out Gray Davis and vote Arnold Schwarzenegger, many Californians aren't pleased.
Marin County author Anne Lamott, whose novels often depict loss, says she cried herself to sleep after Tuesday night's election. But she woke Wednesday and renewed her liberal values.
"I will keep registering voters and taking care of the poor and sending money to the ACLU, and marching for peace, in the hope and belief that we can get our country back from the rich oil men who have sold our country out," Lamott said.
That almost made me laugh.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:28 AM EST [Link]
~ HAPPY HOLIDAY!: Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian readers and Happy Columbus Day to our American friends!
Posted by steve @ 03:17 AM EST [Link]
~ FISKING COLLEEN ROWLEY: Colleen Rowley gained a small measure of fame back in 2002 when a memo she wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller escaped into the wild. The memo blasted the FBI over its failure to act against suspected terrorist activity before September 11, 2001.
Ms. Rowley appeared in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune with a screed denouncing John Ashcroft's contention that Americans are "freer today than at any time in the history of human freedom." It is a remarkably amateurish piece of tripe that never would have been published if Rowley had been a nobody sending the piece in on spec.
James Lileks seems to agree and responds by giving Ms. Rowley a thorough fisking. Find it here.
Posted by steve @ 03:12 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 12, 2003 NOTES FROM THE FRONT LINES: These are self-evident but events this weekend reminded me of their truth.
1. Women notice shoes. I caught a woman I was talking to Saturday night look twice at my shoes and inside my mind I thanked the Canadian Armed Forces for teaching me how to polish shoes.
2. When casting a quick glance at a woman's hand to see if she has a wedding ring, don't accidentally ask out loud if she's married. Fortunately she made a joke out of it and I escaped without looking silly.
3. Women in skirts: Hot. Women wearing jeans: Part of the anonymous crowd.
Posted by steve @ 11:21 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 11, 2003 BY THE WAY...: I've got plenty more stories from the campaign trail and maybe I'll relate them someday. I am just too depressed and exhausted to bother at this moment.
Posted by Barton @ 10:27 PM EST [Link]
~ IN ANSWER TO DAVID JANES' QUESTION: Where's Barton, Mr. Janes asks? Still alive, he replies. Why isn't he blogging, you might ask? Answer: Because he's exhausted (for the campaign having sucked up all his free time for over a month), miserable (for having dedicated all that free time for the sake of Ernie Eves only to have him and his team wage a thoroughly incompetant campaign and gain a lousy 24 seats), knee-deep in trying to write university essays and catching up on his reading (for the campaign having sucked up all his free time, etc.) and trying to decide whether or not to start the whole damn process all over again by volunteering with one of the three right-wing candidates in the Toronto mayoral race in a possibly vain attempt at stopping Barbara Hall. Yet all was not wasted. For example, during the election campaign (it being his very first), Barton Wong managed to achieve the following things:
1. Meet Premier Eves four times, shake his hand thrice, and lose his voice once because he and the rest of the Tory mob he was in had been shouting "ERNIE! ERNIE!" for so long at such loud volume (in retrospect, this last fact is painful to admit).
2. Herd together a group of bored, hyperactive preteen boys, put them in oversized Tory t-shirts which even he thought looked silly, made them carry signs with slogans none of the boys understood, and arrange them all in an aesthetically-pleasing composition around the Premier for a news conference which he was holding.
3. Appear on City TV once in a thoroughly staged walkabout with his candidate ("That looks fake," said Mr. Wong to his son. "It is fake," came the reply). If the people at City TV had turned up the sound on this fake walkabout, the audience at home would have realized that the candidate (who looked like he was saying something very thoughtful and important to one of his aides) was actually quoting at length from the cartoon series Family Guy.
4. Appear in the Toronto Star twice, once in pictorial form in yet another screaming Tory mob which was surrounding Premier Eves and once in verbal form, in an article about his candidate in which he was quoted at length ("You come off as sounding very smart," said the Toronto Vice President of the Ontario Tories to him). He will not link to this article because he is both embarrassed and extremely anti-social (whenever the photographer from the Toronto Star snapped a picture to go along with this story, he made considerable efforts to hide behind the tallest campaign worker).
That being so, the only real satisfaction Mr. Wong derived from the election result (on election night, he was in the audience as a defeated David Young made his concession speech) was the thorough demotion of the NDP and the equally thorough chastening of Howard "30 seats" Hampton. However, telling himself that at least he wasn't part of the NDP was cold comfort indeed.
Posted by Barton @ 07:36 PM EST [Link]
~ PLEASE GOD, MAKE IT STOP: A couple of weeks ago I was at a bar in the metropolis known as Sudbury when I and a lady friend started discussing clothes. Being a foppish dandy, I praised the fact that next year's lines for women would be inspired by the 1930s, full of A-line skirts, pleats, that sort of thing. A la Denis Miller, I went off on a rant about the popularity of low-rise jeans and expressed my happiness that they seemed to be on their way out, especially given that elite fashionistas at Vogue and other like magazines have declared them dead. My friend responded that if that was the case women would have to wear "granny pants" again. Outlandish. Before low-rise pants women wore pants that went up to their rib cages?
Well, Amanda Fortini seems to agree with a piece in yesterday's Slate about the pants that refuse to die.
Read on.
Ladies, I beg you. Stop wearing low-riders!
Posted by steve @ 06:46 PM EST [Link]
~ IF HE HAD TRIED THIS EARLIER, HE MIGHT HAVE WON: Soon to be ex-governor Gray Davis appeared on David Letterman on Friday night and had a top ten list for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Read it here.
Posted by steve @ 03:00 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 10, 2003 WHAT'S HAPPENING IN IRAQ: According to Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator, a lot of good stuff is going on.
He gave a press conference yesterday and illustrated the remarkable good works that's occurring in Iraq, stories that aren't being reported by the media.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:00 PM EST [Link]
~ MOUNT ARNIE: The whole world seems to be falling over itself to honour Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former Soviet republic of Georgia says it wants to name a mountain in his honour.
But there's a catch: To receive the honor, the governor-elect must visit the country, a representative of President Eduard Shevardnadze said Friday.
Georgia, which borders Russia and Turkey, had extended the offer in the past -- to no avail -- but officials resurrected the Mount Schwarzenegger plan in honor of Tuesday's election.
Unfortunately Ah-nuld can't make the trip any time soon...something about a new job.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:56 PM EST [Link]
~ I'VE EATEN PLASTIC FOOD: The incomparible Theodore Dalrymple eats at a fast food restaurant in France and wishes people would stop making promises.
After an invigorating walk across a supermarket parking lot and large intersection, I reached Quick. Garishly lit, it was decorated in the primary colours of a child's first book. I was gasping for a beer, and was told by the assistant in traditional French baseball cap, T-shirt, jeans and sneakers that I could have one only if I ordered a "complete meal," that is to say a burger and chips. This I duly did, adding a salad.
I took my plastic tray with my plastic containers and plastic cutlery to the plastic table and sat on the plastic chair. The food was disgusting, even by North American standards. The bread tasted as if it were made of bread powder to which water had been added. It had a certain consistency, I admit, but no taste. I shall spare you a description of everything else, except to say that it had that authentic North American ersatz taste.
Was this a French satire on the American way of life? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, here was flattery indeed. Then I noticed that on my tray was a paper sheet, printed with Quick's "Seven Promises." I immediately began to tense up.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:50 PM EST [Link]
~ THE GLASS IS HALF FULL SO FAR: Great article by Charles Krauthammer in the National Post illustrating that Saddam Hussein did indeed have a WMD program and that investigators may yet find them.
As yet, mind you. "We are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapons stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone," Kay testified last week.
This is fact, not fudging. How do we know? Because Saddam's practice was to store his chemical weapons unmarked amid his conventional munitions, and we have just begun to understand the staggering scale of Saddam's stocks of conventional munitions. Saddam left behind 130 known ammunition caches, many of which are more than twice the size of Manhattan. Imagine looking through "600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance" -- rows and rows stretched over an area the size of even one Manhattan -- looking for a few barrels of unmarked chemical weapons.
And there are 130 of these depots. Kay's team has up to now inspected only 10. The question of whether Saddam actually retained finished product is still open.
But the question of whether Saddam was still in the WMD business is no longer open. "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities," Kay testified, "and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002" -- concealed, that is, from the hapless Hans Blix.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:45 PM EST [Link]
~ THE MYTHS OF WAR: If I could write half as good as Victor Davis Hanson....well, I'd be half as good as him. He has a marvelous piece in today's NRO exploding the myths about the war on terrorism.
Of course, a single dead American soldier is a tragedy, both for the nation and for the aggrieved family. But, by any historical measure, what strikes students of this war so far in its first two years is the amazing degree to which the United States has hurt its enemies without incurring enormous casualties and costs. So far there have been five theaters of conflict: Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Afghanistan, and Iraq. After suffering about 3,000 dead, $100 billion in direct material damage in Manhattan and D.C., and perhaps another $1 trillion hit to the economy at large in areas as diverse as airline losses, increased security expenditures, and tourist and travel drop-offs, the United States has lost under 400 soldiers in defeating the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, and probably spent roughly $100 billion in direct military expenditures, with another $100 billion in slated reconstruction costs.
In terms of American military history, this is a staggering paradox. Usually the initial attacks that have prompted past American wars were relatively mild, while the subsequent reaction was costly — in the manner that Fort Sumter paled in comparison with Shiloh, or Tonkin was not Hue, or Pearl Harbor was nothing like Iwo Jima. But 9/11 itself was much more deadly than all of the subsequent campaigns that have followed in the last two years. Unlike other wars, our present offensives going into the third year of fighting have cost far fewer lives than the first 25 months of any major conflict in American history — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, or World War II. But then, to see the logic of this anomaly, one must first accept the initial premise that we are currently in a war — and millions of Americans apparently do not.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:49 PM EST [Link]
~ NEVER, EVER GO DRINK FOR DRINK WITH A RUSSIAN: Russians are celebrating the 500th anniversary of vodka!
The clear liquor, these days drunk by people around the world, is thought to have been invented in 1503 by Kremlin monks, who used it as an antiseptic before they started downing it.
Oh those Russians!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
~ LIMBAUGH ADMITS ADDICTION TO PAINKILLERS: Rush Limbaugh admitted today on his talk show that he is addicted to painkillers.
"You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life," the conservative commentator said in a statement on his nationally syndicated radio show.
"I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication."
Limbaugh also stated that he is checking himself into rehab immediately. Regardless of the addict's political persuasion, I always feel for them. Good luck Rush.
Read on.
El Rushbo's complete statement here.
Posted by steve @ 03:34 PM EST [Link]
~ ALL THOSE ALLEGATIONS NOT TRUE?: Fox News is reporting that the LA Times festival of groping stories all have one thing in common: a lack of verifiable facts.
"In the final week, the Los Angeles Times showed poor judgment in publishing allegations against Arnold that could not be substantiated," said Karen Hanretty, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman.
The Los Angeles Times said it "corroborated" its stories that Schwarzenegger groped or humiliated more than a dozen women over a nearly 30-year period. But in no case did an eyewitness substantiate for the Times any of the tales despite the fact that the alleged incidents took place while hundreds of crew members on movie sets were present.
As for the important "second source" news organizations often require on sensitive stories, the Times usually used a friend or relative who heard about the incidents afterward from the alleged victims.
A former Times editor defended the practice.
"Anonymous sourcing pervades press coverage of things. It is not ideal. The Times made a judgment. I would support that judgment," said Bob Berger.
I guess the truth will never be known.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:43 AM EST [Link]
~ RECALL FINALE: If you don't think Tuesday's election results were enough of a rebuke to soon-to-be-former California Gov. Gray Davis, Matt Welch does an excellent job kicking him while he's down over at Reason. As much as I enjoyed (and agreed) with it, if you're interested in equal time, Radley Balko has at the Schwarzenegger Republicans over at The Agitator.
You could say that The Agitator seems agitated, to say the least.
Posted by antle @ 12:50 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 9, 2003 HOW TO LOSE MONEY IN FOOTBALL: You never know how people are going to find your web site. One lad, we'll call him W.B., found Musings through my frequent football pool related posts and wanted to know how gambling on football worked. Here's Steve's quick and dirty guide.
First, there are innumerable ways to lose money betting on football but I'll concentrate on the three most popular ways.
The first is what I call "Betting to win" and is the most popular. W. James Antle III approaches Isabel Lyman and offers to bet her on this Monday night's game, Atlanta and St. Louis. Jim believes Atlanta is going to win and offers to bet Isabel. Hiding a laugh, Isabel takes the bet.
The second is called "Betting sides" and features the use of point spreads as determined by experts. Taking Monday night's game as an example, St. Louis is favoured by most books by -11. The "-" means that St. Louis is the favourite so if someone offered you Atlanta +3 you know that means Atlanta is the underdog and the other person believes they will win by more than 4 points. Isabel offers to take the Rams by 11 points, meaning that St. Louis must score 12 or more so she can collect poor Jim's money. Spreads that feature half points (i.e. -3.5) merely mean that the team, in this favoured because of the "-", must cover by more than that. So a team with a -3.5 spread must score 4 to cover. In the above example, if Jim bet on the underdog Falcons, he would win if Atlanta wins, ties, or if the Rams win but fail to cover the point spread.
The third is called "Betting totals" and for my money is the most boring of the three most popular ways of betting football. Essentially, bookmakers will come up with a number that they believe will be the total score for the game. For the St. Louis/Atlanta match up, that number is 45.5 at most books. That means you decide whether the total score, which includes overtime, will be higher or lower than 45.5. Isabel thinks that St. Louis is going to smash Atlanta but that the Falcons won't score that many points (let's say, 34-7 for the Rams) so she decides to bet "under", that the total score will be less than 45.5 points.
So you're probably saying to yourself, "Hey, this is easy, anyone can make money!", well, you're wrong. The spreads and over/unders that Vegas Baby Vegas! comes up with aren't a totally accurate reflection. The numbers are created to favour the house but just tempting enough that you'll take a chance (hence why it's called gambling). Also, the real world intrudes: Just because Atlanta is a large underdog doesn't mean that they won't win. And remember, you have to put up more money to win on a favoured team.
Posted by steve @ 10:20 PM EST [Link]
~ A PLACE TO WORK OUT IN IF YOUR EVER IN BAGHDAD: Happy by the success of Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in California recall election, a gym in Baghdad has changed its name to "The Arnold Classic."
Thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, dubbed ''Arnie's army'' after the movie star visited them on America's July 4 independence day, were also elated.
Fans urged the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan to the White House, although this can only be a dream for him under current constitutional rules barring foreign-born citizens from becoming president.
But It was gym owner Sabah Mehdi's snap decision to change the name of his downtown Baghdad training facility from ''Elegant Bodies'' to ''The Arnold Classic'' that shone the clearest light on the cult-like following Schwarzenegger enjoys in Iraq.
From the man-in-the-street to aspiring bodybuilders sweating to lift weights, Schwarzenegger has long been a near icon in the country.
We truly live in a small world.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:00 PM EST [Link]
~ ABOUT TIME: Apple Computer is expected to announce next week that its popular itTunes software and online music store will be made available to Windows users. The store, which is only available to Mac owners, has sold over 10 million songs at 99 cents a pop/$9.99 an album.
What worries me is that iTunes was launched to do two things: sell iPods and sell Macs. At 10 cents a song profit, iTunes doesn't do very much for Apple's bottom line directly but it has boosted sales of higher margin iPods. If Apple limits iTunes on Windows to just those people who also own iPods I can't see this making that big a splash. I freely admit that I love the casual elegance of Apple products but I hate the casually high prices that accompany them. That's what made me switch from Apple to PC in 1996 -- I just couldn't afford the high cost of Apple.
A lot of PC users are the same way. Sure, competing MP3 players may not look as nice (though notably they have been offering higher capacities then the iPod) and the UI is nowhere near as elegant but they also cost a lot less. It's hard to turn something into a commodity item if you only give it boutique prices. Then again, Apple hasn't cared about the mass market since 1983.
At any rate, I'm poor and unemployed. If someone wants to buy me an iPod (10GB model is fine with me) go here. I'll give you my shipping address ahead of time by email :-)
Read the Zdnet story about Windows iTunes here.
Posted by steve @ 03:45 PM EST [Link]
~ MUSLIMS ASK NAZI TO JOIN 'ISLAMIC AWARENESS WEEK': I wish I could say I was joking. As FrontPageMagazine reports today, Muslim students at the University of Pennsylvannia have invited William W. Baker, ex-chairman of the Populist Party, a group that is racist and anti-Semitic.
Baker, the founder and director of Christians and Muslims for Peace (CAMP) will be one of two invited speakers and the first non-Muslim ever invited to speak at this annual week-long event.
Baker’s selection as speaker is bad enough, but the use of university funds to pay for it is a scandal; the Office of the Chaplain and the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life helped MSA come up with nearly $5,000 for the week-long program.
I could be a jerk and point out how many in Islam worked with the Nazis during the Second World War because they both had a common goal, and I think we all know which goal that was, but I'll just let the story stand by itself.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:33 PM EST [Link]
~ BLOODY MORONS: The real story behind the Plame affair, argues Mark Steyn, isn't the uncovering of the identity of a CIA analyst. Rather, it is that America's intelligence apparatus are morons or working against their president.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:21 PM EST [Link]
~ DRUNK ON POLITICS: Slate has a funny drinking game for you tonight if you watch the Democratic debate in Phoenix.
Among the good ones:
Take one drink if:
A candidate mentions an ordinary American by name
A candidate uses the phrase "when I'm president"Take two drinks if:
A candidate says he or she is "surprised" by something a rival saysIf you have to work Friday, you might not want to play this game. Friday may be casual clothes day but I doubt they want you stinking of alcohol. Of course, it could be funny if you did...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO BOTH SUCK AND BLOW: The venerable men's magazine Esquire celebrates its 70th birthday this month and if there was ever an indication of the sad state of the genre, it and GQ are it.
I missed the glory days of both magazines, generally judged to have been in the 1960s, when men like Ernest Hemingway and Tom Wolfe appeared in their pages. They were guidebooks for manhood...women, sex, cocktail hour, work, literature, clothes and class. Didn't know how to knot your tie in a Windsor? Fear not, once a year one of the magazines would help you.
When I was in university, starting in 1991, I was an avid reader of both -- and thanks to my sartorial splender -- and earned the nickname of GQ for awhile. I stopped some years ago after they both became mouthpieces for the Democratic Party and began shifting away from being men's magazines to lad magazines. With new leadership at both magazines they are beginning to resemble low brow efforts like Details and FHM.
As Russ Smith points out in a Wall Street Journal article, Esquire's 70th anniversary issue bares out how far the mighty have fallen.
These days, however, there's nothing biting in Esquire's editorial content -- not a single story that would be considered, to use the parlance of years past, "hip" or "edgy."
One feature in the current issue shows just how "nerdy" it has become: "The Esquire 70: As in, The Seventy Things That Make Us Very Happy to Be Alive Today." Included on this list are iTunes, Altoids Tangerine Sours, Canada, creamed spinach, the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, JetBlue, outdoor showers, Jennifer Coolidge, The New York Times, "the revenge (if there's even a shred of justice in the world) of Howell Raines," Sarah Silverman, "the nooner," Maura Tierney, deflation and Kleenex Cottonelle.
Okay, I have a bit of a crush on Sarah Silverman and like Maura Tierney but these things just blow. You know had that list been written in 1965 it would have been something like: Grace Kelly, cocktail hour, a dimly lit room with a woman and Frank Sinatra on the Hi-Fi, not wearing undershirts under our button downs, Eva St. Marie and the never ending animosity between the two professional football leagues.
Altoids? Canada? Howell Raines? If Esquire were a guy in a bar he'd be leaving for home alone.
The rest of the issue just plain sucks as we are treated to gems like Muhammad Ali was a great boxer (no kidding!) and how Bob Dylan changed the face of rock music. JFK? Let's retire that legend okay...
Read Russ Smith's thoughts here.
Posted by steve @ 09:43 PM EST [Link]
~ MAKING LISTS OF JEWS EH? I WONDER WHO ELSE DID THAT...: (Via Little Green Footballs) Little Green Footballs reports that University College Cork in Ireland has put together a list of authors and speakers who are Jews so that when you hear then speak, you know where they are coming from ideologically. Hey, you wouldn't want to be accidentally exposed to a yid would you? Sorry, I meant Zionist yid.
According to the database, it exists to:
For many years after the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Zionist propaganda machine was overwhelmingly successful, at least among audiences in "the West". (See the many items in this database about Media Bias on Israel/Palestine.)
Possibly most significantly, Zionist propaganda has permeated, and continues to permeate, the popular media. Among novels, "Exodus" by Leon Uris is an egregious example. Films were probably even more successful than novels, reaching, as they do, a wider audience. Once again, "Exodus", in its film version, played a significant role. However, to this day, many films contain a great deal of subliminal Zionist propaganda. (See the following articles in this database: Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People; The Comic Book Arab; The Arab Stereotype on Television; listen to the following clip CounterSpin interview with Jack Shaheen, author of 'Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People'; )
The effect of this propaganda has been that many people have come to accept demonizing stereotypes of Palestinians (and, indeed, of all Arabs) and to believe such hoaxes as the Zionist myth that the Palestinians willingly left their homes in 1948 (see "The Other Exodus", by an Irish diplomat and journalist, Erskine Childers ). Such demonization and mythology has been used for many years by the Israelis as a justification for their refusal to allow the refugees to return, a right that the refugees have in International Law and that Israel even promised to implement when it joined the United Nations -- this was one of the explicitly stated conditions under which the UN admitted Israel as a member.
My favourite myths are the ones that say the Holocaust never happened, there were no Jews in Palestine before 1948, Jews use the blood of Christians to make their Passover meals and that Jews only care about money. I tried to find refutations of those myths but the database was curiously silent.
Check out the database here.
Posted by steve @ 09:25 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT WOULD BE AN AWFULLY GOOD IDEA: The U.S. is going to try and negotiate a deal with Turkey to keep Turkish troops as far away from Kurds as possible.
The U.S. military official said any discussions with the Turks about deploying to far western Iraq would include specific arrangements that would prevent any permanent presence in the north.
Analysts say a Turkish deployment would help relieve pressure on U.S. forces in Iraq and bolster Ankara's ties with Washington after a period of strain.
Given all the problems the coalition has there, there's no reason to create a new one which the Turks seem intent on trying to do.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:46 PM EST [Link]
~ BOY, THAT'S A THREAT THAT WOULD WORRY ME: Syrian ambassador to Spain Mohsen Bilal said today that if Israel attacked targets inside of Syria again that it would respond militarily.
"If Israel attacks Syria one, two and three times, of course the people of Syria and the government of Syria and the army will react to defend ourselves," Syrian Ambassador Mohsen Bilal told Reuters in Madrid.
With all due respect Mr. Bilal, the Israelis pounded a target within walking distance of the Syrian government and you weren't able to respond. I dig you have to rattle the sword to impressive your other dictatorial neighbours but just don't start believing your own press. I hear the Israelis know how to fght...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:35 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY ARNOLD WON: I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot of articles and essays explaining why Graz's favourite son won last night so in that spirit I bring you one of them. In a column for the Weekly Standard (reprinted by FoxNews.com), Bill Whelan says it was nothing but an earthquake.
But on the morning after recall, as we begin to sift through the rubble that was once the Davis administration and the Democratic stranglehold on Sacramento, one lesson is certain: California's ruling class took it in the shorts last night. Arnold terminated the political elites and their condescending style of campaigning.
In the recall, experience faced off against the experimental--and voters went with the mystery man. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a household name and face, but the fact is he's never governed a day in his life. Still, Californians overwhelmingly went with the novice over a pair of far more ripened Democrats--Davis, who's spent nearly 30 years in the upper echelon of state government; and Lieutenant Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a career civil and public servant. (In another blow to the establishment, voters overwhelmingly struck down Proposition 53, an infrastructure budget grab cooked up by a bunch of Sacramento insiders.)
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:46 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WAR IN GITMO: James S. Robbins has an interesting piece in NRO today about what's going on Guantanamo Bay.
Camp Delta is not simply a detention center; it is an active front in the terror war. It is one of the most important resources the Coalition has for understanding the enemy, his plans, and his motives. If translators have been leading investigators astray, either by altering questions, answers, or both, this severely hampers our efforts to prosecute the war. This can readily be checked, since the interviews are taped, and according to a recent estimate, only 10 of the 100 translators who have worked at Gitmo are under suspicion. Aside from thwarting Coalition military efforts, there are numerous other benefits for al Qaeda. Simply knowing who is being held is very valuable information. The terrorists may know who is missing, but they may not know his precise disposition — dead, captured, incapacitated, gone to ground, etc. Translators and chaplains cannot only tell the enemy who is at Guantanamo, but who is cooperating, and by extension what plans have been compromised, and what networks are in danger. They can also serve as contacts to the outside world, keeping detainees informed about world events, whether factual or not. They can boost morale by telling them the terrorists are winning, that it's just a matter of time before they will be going home, that they should keep hope alive. Perhaps slip them a copy of former President Jimmy Carter's latest speech on human rights, that kind of thing.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:37 PM EST [Link]
~ CONGRATS TO ARNOLD: CNN projects that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the next governor of California. Interesting numbers of the night: 30% of Hispanics voted for Schwarzenegger while 52% went with Cruz Bustamante.
Interesting note #2: Democratic Party activist/actor Ron Silver is on CNN right now not exactly broken up about Schwarzenegger as the new governor as it may slap the Dems some common sense. I knew I always liked him for some reason.
Read on.
Bad news: The Racial Privacy Initiative looks like it's going to fail.
More bad news: My candidate, Brooke Adams, has 458 votes with 21% of precincts reporting. She should have agreed to do an interview with ESR.
Posted by steve @ 12:36 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 7, 2003 THE MEDIA DOUBLE STANDARD ON RACE: Joseph Kellard pens an open letter to ESPN concerning Rush Limbaugh's resignation after he declared that the sports media wants Donovan McNabb to succeed because he's black. If race is verbotten, asks, Kellard, why earlier in the show did ESPN not also condemn comments on the subject.
The subject was Ty Willingham. First, let me say it was obvious that some ESPN commentators were gleeful over Willingham's initial success last year -- explicitly because he is black. Michael Wilbon of "Pardon the Interruption," for one, openly stated his satisfaction about Willingham's winning record because it allegedly showed the (white) Notre Dame elite that a black man could be a competent coach.
This year, however, the Fighting Irish are losing, and the contrast between Willingham's first two seasons was the topic on "The Sports Reporters." On that show, Sal Palantonio said there are "some people" (whites) who don't want Willingham to succeed. Mike Lupica followed up with this rhetorical question: "Are you suggesting that some people don't want to see Willingham succeed because he's African American?"
Obviously there are some white people who want Willingham to fail because he's black. But then how is this truth any different from Limbaugh's comment about the media? The opinion that McNabb is overrated is debatable (I disagree with Limbaugh), but it is just as obviously true that whether the black quarterback in question is as good as McNabb or as bad as Kordell Stewart, there are many people (i.e., advocates of racial "diversity") who want to see him succeed because he is black. You at ESPN were uncomfortable with Limbaugh's comment because, deep down, you know it's true and suspect (correctly) that it is just as racist to hope a man will succeed because he is black. But you won't dare question the "diversity" advocates' fundamental premises.
Read the whole letter here.
Posted by steve @ 08:54 PM EST [Link]
~ REBUILDING A NATION FOR THE PLEASURE OF IT: (Via Trey Wickwire, ESR reader/contributor and Bechtel employee) Great story in the San Francisco Chronicle about the men of Bechtel, engineers who have gone over to Iraq to help rebuild that nation.
They are a weathered collection of middle-age men with well-traveled passports and furniture they haven't seen in years.
They are proud and blunt. Mention the San Francisco protestors who call them war profiteers, and they bristle.
Bechtel's Iraq crew represents a distinct breed of human -- the expatriate engineer. They like building things, fixing things and seeing concrete results. Few on the 160-member team have any love for Iraq's smothering heat and dust. But for some, the job's difficulty is part of the draw. They've built careers moving from one inhospitable clime to another, working in places other people avoid. They even like it.
"It's edgy. It's great," said Cliff Mumm, head of Bechtel's Iraq project, his face breaking into a tilted smile. "It's a way of life. It's something most Americans aren't aware is out there."
They also like having a role in history.
"Rarely in your career do you get a chance to do something that's so close to having an effect," Mumm said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:40 PM EST [Link]
~ PORN GOOD, GUNS BAD
That's the way internet search engine Google sees it.
The story is at CNSNews.com.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 04:03 PM EST [Link]
~ TUESDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK: This week Gregg Easterbrook rants about television networks which don't show marquee games and praises the uniforms of the Kansas City Chiefs. Well actually, the uniforms of the cheerleaders of the Kansas City Chiefs. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:40 PM EST [Link]
~ WALLY GEORGE DEAD AT 71: Wally George, whose influence spread far wider than his television program, died Sunday at the age of 71.
George was best known for his combative television program on KDOC-TV in Anaheim which saw him frequently lapse into shouting and insults. Not the most high-minded approach to arguing the issues but he did influence a generation of similarly aggressive talk show hosts. He is also the father of actress Rebecca De Mornay.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:25 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WAR BETWEEN CONSERVATIVES AND LIBERTARIANS: Noah Shachtman of The American Prospect becomes yet the latest writer to posit that there may be a split occuring between the libertarians and the Republicans. Why?
"The Bush White House's heavy-handed approach to the war on terrorism, its spendthrift fiscal plan and its adventures overseas have soured [Alina] Stefanescu on the GOP. And she's not the only one."
Always ahead of the times, ESR's Jim Antle already tackled this in May and in June.
Is there a split? If you consider Reason to be the official voice of American libertarianism than there does in fact seem to be a growing schism. Like Jim, I don't believe it's permanent but the Bush administration does need to realize that growth in government is endangering some traditional alliances. While Republicans can pretty well ignore libertarian votes on most occasions, that doesn't mean that they should. I like to consider libertarians the sober second voice of the right.
Read Shachtman's essay here.
Posted by steve @ 02:21 PM EST [Link]
~ INVADE IRAN, SAYS KHOMEINI'S SON: I missed this one yesterday but I call it to your attention now. Christopher Hitchens talks with Hossein Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khoneini. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:37 AM EST [Link]
~ GIVING MONEY TO TERRORISTS: I'm surprised this didn't get more play in the news but it was reported Monday that the FBI was secretly funnelling money to Hamas in 1998 and 1999 to see if it would go towards terrorist operations.
Several thousand dollars in U.S. money was sent to suspected terror supporters during the operation as the FBI tried to track the flow of cash through terror organizations, the FBI said in a rare acknowledgment of an undercover sting that never resulted in prosecutions.
"This was done in conjunction with permission from the attorney general for an ongoing operation, and Israeli authorities were aware of it," the bureau said.
The FBI said the money was given through one of its operative's charities to see if it would be diverted for terrorism. The amounts were kept small, usually just a couple thousand dollars, so it couldn't be used to fund a major attack. Court testimony indicates that in one case, a Hamas figure used the sting money to help orphans.
I guess the FBI doesn't know you don't need a lot of money to launch a major attack.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:46 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: A marginally better weekend for me but once again the New York Giants messed up two pool sheets. I like Kerry Collins as a QB but brother, you have to throw for at least one touchdown! As a Bears fan I was personally pleased that they beat the Oakland Raiders -- who are really beginning to look old -- but I had selected Oakland to win so my happiness was tempered. The surprise? Pittsburgh losing to Cleveland. Hey, 11 of 13 on Sunday isn't so bad.
I have in the past lamented picking conservative point spreads for Monday night games but figured that neither Indianapolis or Tampa Bay would get blown out so I picked an 8 point spread in favor of the Buccaneers on the game. All went reasonably well until late in the 4th when Indianapolis ruined it for me and pulled the game within a touchdown. After that it didn't matter who won the game. Oh well.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14Season %: 71.6 (+1.6%)
Posted by steve @ 12:29 AM EST [Link]
~ IT TOOK A COUPLE OF DAYS...: But rumours of Bob Graham dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination have come to pass.
"I'm leaving because I have made the judgment that I cannot be elected president of the United States," Graham said on CNN's "Larry King Live."
A rare moment of honesty from a politician. Apart from that weird diary project of his, I didn't mind Graham.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:14 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 6, 2003 GUN CRIME RAMPANT IN UK
Since banning handguns in 1997, the UK has seen gun-related crimes skyrocket. It appears that criminals don't obey laws that make it criminal to have a gun. Only law-abiding citizens obey the law, meaning there is no armed opposition to the criminals. Say what you like about John Lott, criticize his methods, attack his credibility if you choose. There is no denying the basic truth that more guns in the hands of the law-abiding citizenry, the less crime there is in society.
This story, from the Guardian (UK), reinforces Lott's findings. It also shows the tenacious resistance of politicians and law enforcement to the concept.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 03:55 PM EST [Link]
~ LAST MAN STANDING: Tomorrow is recall day in California and only God knows what's going to happen. The latest poll sees a slim majority in favor of the recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger but the impact of the "groping story" may actually kill off both campaigns. Way to go Los Angeles Times! You actually managed to protect your man Grey Davis!
At any rate, read about the poll here or visit the Brothers Judd Blog 1st Annual Brothers Judd California Recall Prognostathon and win two great books
You pick the %'s of the "Yes" and "No" votes; the % of the vote that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cruz Bustamante will each get; and, as a tie breaker, the % of eligible voters who will turn out on October 7th.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:47 PM EST [Link]
~ IS MARTINOVICH A THREAT TO SOCIETY?
According to a piece in the Sydney (AU) Morning Herald, jobless, single and male is the description that means trouble.
'Increasing numbers of men in their prime have neither full-time jobs, wives nor children and pose a threat to society, a senior labour market economist says.
Professor Sue Richardson, of the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University, said Australia was re-creating an underclass "of the excluded and the dangerous" not seen since the late 19th century.
"Back then, large numbers of men were excluded from secure jobs, never got to be fathers - at least officially - and were a menace to society."'
I know all this can't apply to our fearless editor-in-chief, mainly because he lives in Canada.
Check out the piece here.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 01:34 PM EST [Link]
~ LIFE IN HELL: The Washington Post had a good story on Saturday about what life in North Korea is like based on reports by defectors. As you would imagine, it's not a pretty picture.
Defectors have gradually opened a detailed and frightening window on the brutal realities of survival for 22 million people in North Korea. For many years, the stories of the relatively few defectors were suspect, viewed as propaganda tools of the South Korean government. Their often lurid accounts of life in North Korea had the ring of exaggeration to please their new hosts.
But today North Korean defectors number in the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands -- the full scope of the exodus is not clear. They sneak across the river to China, where they live as fugitives, or flee through deserts or jungles to Mongolia, Burma or Thailand.
Their accounts have gained credibility by their number and their consistency, and by corroboration from the few outsiders who have worked in North Korea. In dozens of interviews in Seoul over two years, defectors painted a picture of cruelty, hardship and repression that made escape seem their only option, no matter the cost.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:28 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 5, 2003 THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA: On Thursday Brian Tiemann argued that next year's election would tell us a lot about Americans. Yesterday he posted a superb follow up dealing with the media. You can read it here.
Posted by steve @ 05:58 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 4, 2003 FRENCH MISSILE STORY WRONG?: An aide to the Polish prime minister today said the report of finding new French anti-aircraft missiles in Iraq was wrong. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:49 PM EST [Link]
~ THINGS NOT GETTING BETTER FOR ARNOLD: The Oakland Tribune has withdrawn its endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger after allegations of sexual harassment sprang up this week.
The Oakland Tribune withdrew its endorsement of Schwarzenegger on Saturday, saying the sexual harassment allegations indicate "a pattern of recurring abuse and boorish behavior that in different circumstances could have led to assault charges."
"By no stretch of the imagination can his groping and grabbing on 'rowdy movie sets' be dismissed as an isolated incident," the newspaper said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:34 PM EST [Link]
~ FROM THE PAGES OF A COMIC BOOK!: Arnold Schwarzenegger's old trainer in Austria says that far from being a Nazi, a teenaged future governor of California would use his menacing bulk to break up pro-Nazi rallies.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, gym owner Kurt Marnul said the young Schwarzenegger participated at least twice in organized disruptions of neo-Nazi gatherings near his hometown of Graz during the 1960s.
Marnul, 74, recounted how he personally saw Hitler's soldiers kill three people - two Jews and a young boy - and that the experience motivated him to break up neo-Nazi rallies later in life.
He told AP he described his experiences to Schwarzenegger, who was about 17 at the time, and said the young bodybuilder reacted with shock and anger. He said Schwarzenegger, whose late father served as a volunteer with the notorious Nazi storm troops, told him such horrors had never been discussed at home.
I'd move if Arnold "asked" me to.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:49 PM EST [Link]
Friday, October 3, 2003 WE'LL ALSO PROVIDE YOU WITH A PRESCRIPTION BONG. YOU WANT THE WIZARD OR THE SKULL?: Who knew that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was pot smoker waiting to happen?
Chretien said today in an interview that while he's never puffed on the magic leaf that he may give it a try once it's decriminalized.
"I don't know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."
Yes, that is how our leader speaks English. Not that I've ever smoked a blunt myself but I urge Chretien to keep a couple of bags of cookies nearby. Those munchies can be hell.
Read on.
15 points towards the Legendary No Prize to anyone who can tell me (in the comments section) in what prime time television series the words "We'll also provide you with a prescription bong. You want the wizard or the skull?" appeared in. 15 more bonus points if you identify the character. This should be an easier one than the last one I asked about (Father Ted).
Posted by steve @ 07:14 PM EST [Link]
~ THE FRENCH ARE ALLIES...YOU JUST HAVE TO ASK WHOSE ALLIES: Polish soldiers in Iraq reported today that they have found four anti-aircraft missiles built by France. The missiles were apparently built this year.
The French say it's simply impossible that their weapons have turned up in Iraq. Non, non et non!
One of two possibilities exist to explain this. One, France deliberately circumvented the UN trade embargo and sold Iraq missiles...just ahead of a war with the U.S. it knew was going to happen. Two, arms dealers sold Iraq those missiles which means that France doesn't really keep track of where its weapons systems end up. Is either acceptable? I mean just imagine what have been said had these been Stinger or Sidewinder missiles...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:02 PM EST [Link]
~ ONTARIO ELECTION 2003: Okay so I lied last night, I said I'd have more reflective comments about the win by the Liberal Party in the province of Ontario. Though I went out to vote -- and cast my ballot for the Progressive Conservatives -- I have to admit I had nothing invested in this election -- outside of commentary I wrote for the local paper. I just didn't care.
The race was between the Liberals and the PCs, the NDP had about as much chance to win as I have of scoring with Uma Thurman. The PCs had the marginally better economic plan -- which at least didn't promise to raise taxes -- but I knew that after eight years of Tory rule that the replicant known as Dalton McGuinty was going to win this time. You could see it in the pathetic campaign run by Ernie Eves and the fatigue of the people. They were just tired of the Tories.
Perhaps it's a good thing they got tired. This will give the Tories a chance to remember why they got elected in the first place. Until 2000, the Tories were serious about holding the line on spending but in the last couple of years they began throwing money around like me on payday surrounded by attractive waitresses. They stuck to their guns on the tax cuts -- and it paid off for the province's economy -- and managed to reduce the debt for a couple of years. But you got the sense they just stopped caring about their core agenda.
The selection of Ernie Eves as Tory leader cemented that. I have nothing against the man, I'm sure he's a decent sort, but with Eves you got the stereotypical Bay Street lawyer turned politician: A lot of sizzle but not very much steak. The government began to seriously drift and was more reactive than proactive. A Liberal victory should send the Tories back to the grassroots and begin rebuilding and rediscovering why they won two elections. Whether that needs a leadership change -- and my money is on Eves quitting pretty soon -- or simply to remind themselves of their populist appeal, it's something that has to be done.
Regardless, there is one positive. Though the Tories lost a ton of seats, they didn't lose that many votes. The Liberals scored 46.45%, the Tories 34.64% and the NDP stumbled into the finish line with 14.70%. With the super low turnout, the Tories could have picked up a lot more seats if they had gotten out their supporters better.
So we get a Liberal government for a while. Funny thing, the last time we had a Liberal government I was a member of the Liberal Party. Now I get to sit outside the lines and shoot at will.
Posted by steve @ 03:20 PM EST [Link]
~ ALLEN BARRA -- GET SOMEONE ELSE TO START YOUR CAR TONIGHT: Allen Barra says Rush Limbaugh was right: Donovan McNabb is an overrated QB and it's probably because he is black.
Let's look at a quarterback with similar numbers who also plays for a team with a great defense. I don't know anyone who would call Brad Johnson one of the best quarterbacks in pro football—which is how McNabb is often referred to. In fact, I don't know anyone who would call Brad Johnson, on the evidence of his 10-year NFL career, much more than mediocre. Yet, Johnson's NFL career passer rating, as of last Sunday, is 7.3 points higher than McNabb's (84.8 to 77.5), he has completed his passes at a higher rate (61.8 percent to 56.4 percent), and has averaged significantly more yards per pass (6.84 to 5.91). McNabb excels in just one area, running, where he has gained 2,040 yards and scored 14 touchdowns to Johnson's 467 and seven. But McNabb has also been sacked more frequently than Johnson—more than once, on average, per game, which negates much of the rushing advantage.
In other words, in just about every way, Brad Johnson has been a more effective quarterback than McNabb and over a longer period.
Is McNabb a mediocre QB like Barra says? Judging by the stats, he is. Frankly, I'm shocked that Barra would write this. When he was writing football for Salon.com I figured him for a liberal because of those little clues you get in people's writing. That said, he always concentrated on football and I loved him for it.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:07 PM EST [Link]
~ RUSH 'FRUSTRATED' BY DRUG STORIES: Could this be the unraveling of Rush Limbaugh? I think not but keep it in mind. Rush today said that he's "frustrated" over stories he's a pill head but didn't go into any specifics about the case.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:04 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE FUN IN IRAQ: U.S. soldiers arrested a man who is described as Saddam Hussein's executioner and also got to watch two Iraqis blow themselves up while trying to plant a roadside bomb in Kirkuk. Enjoy hell lads!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:02 PM EST [Link]
~ THE FINAL HAND WILL SOON BE DEALT: Brian Tiemann over at Peeve Farm has a out of the park homerun with his latest blog post about what the 2004 election really means.
More and more it appears that what the people of this country really want is what people like Michael Moore and Peter Camejo want: apologies, capitulation, accession to the practices of the enlightened governments of Europe and Asia, and the voluntary surrender of our nation's armed might-- a gun buyback program for the United States Military-- so as to bring about true global equality and unarmed world government. The people calling in to NPR this morning on the ongoing Recall coverage show, if their sheer numbers were any indication at all, show that there's only so much propaganda we as a people can absorb from the get-the-government-overturning-scoop-or-die media before we start to believe it, facts on the ground be damned. 9/11 brought the world into sharp relief for many people-- but for nearly as many the wound scabbed over far too rapidly, forming an ugly scar as they worried it endlessly, searching for a way to take solace in ritual self-mutilation.
Next year's election will be where the final hand is dealt. It will tell us how many people in this country have been able to weather the battering of the guiltmongers and the doom-seekers and the sowers of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, and hold on to what we know is the right course of action for ourselves and for the world-- and how many are ready to cash in, give up, lie down and let blissful slumber overtake our eyes while the Pods placed by the social-progressive Europeans creep ever closer to our bedsides.
If Bush manages to win reelection, there's a chance. It means we have room for a much longer-term plan to be executed, a mandate to do things right in this effort to bring democracy and the rule of law at long last to the last part of the world still mired in medieval theocracy. It will spark outrage from the Left, but it'll be muted-- chastened, driven to the sidelines-- while the voices that gleefully revel in slogans like "Selected not Elected" and "Bush Lied, People Died" have to suck up the fact that they aren't being listened to, that they have no voice and no power after all. They'll have to face the fact that in order to win over a significant portion of the people of this country to your views, you have to grow up a little, walk a mile in the other man's shoes, find out what it is to live the kind of life you were raised to oppose. They'll have to understand that Americans aren't so fickle, so easily duped, so susceptible to cheap shots and low blows and infantile slogans repeated ad nauseum. They'll have to realize that America still believes, for all its faults, in America-- and it's not going to be converting itself into a clone of Canada or England or France (or, for that matter, Nazi Germany) anytime in the foreseeable future.
Read the whole thing here. Brian! Please join the staff of ESR!
Posted by steve @ 03:43 AM EST [Link]
~ THE REAL COST OF PEACE: Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez reports that coalition soldiers are facing 15 to 20 attacks every day in Iraq with 3 to 6 soldiers dying weekly. Read on.
In Afghanistan, two of my countrymen were killed and another three wounded when their vehicle hit a mine in Kabul. The names of the Canadian soldiers were not released. Read on.
O Thou
the Cause and Effect of the Whole universe
the Source from whence we have come
and the Goal toward which all are bound:
receive this soul, who is coming to Thee,
into Thy parental arms.
May Thy forgiving Glance heal his heart.
Lift him from the denseness of the earth.
Surround him with the Light of Thine own Spirit.
Raise him up to heaven
which is his true dwelling place.
We pray Thee, grant him the blessing
of Thy most exalted Presence.
May his life upon earth become as a dream
to his waking soul,
And let his thirsting eyes behold
the glorious vision of Thy SunshineAmen
-- Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid 'Inayat Khan
Posted by steve @ 02:32 AM EST [Link]
~ ERRR...SO WHICH IS IT?: Sen. Bob Graham tells a Senate chum that he's dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination. Graham aides say he's continuing to "soldier on." I guess we'll find out later today.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:37 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 2, 2003 I'M NOT SURE WHETHER TO BE DISAPPOINTED OR APATHETIC: I did my democratic duty tonight and voted in Ontario's election knowing full well that the Progressive Conservatives were going to loose and big. It has come to pass.
According to early results, the Liberal party were leading or elected in 71 ridings, the Progressive Conservatives in 25 and the New Democratic Party in seven. About the only good news is that the NDP may not have enough seats for official party status though undoubtedly the Liberals will be charitable and give them status nonetheless. A reward for unpopularity as it was.
So why did the Liberals win? I'll address that later tonight.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:36 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT YOU DRINK IS WHAT YOU ARE: The New York Daily News consults with three bartenders to ask them what they think about the women who order specific drinks are like. As an example, Tom Cecchini thinks a woman who orders a Mojito is hip and sultry. I hate the "You are what you eat/drink/wear/read" things.
I agree with them, though, that any woman who drinks Long Island Iced Teas is sending the "Take me home" signal. The "Sex on the Beach" should be banned as the lamest drink ever created.
One day I'll have to blog about my philosophy of drinks. It's quite interesting and controversial.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:17 PM EST [Link]
~ NO DEATH PENALTY FOR MOUSSAOUI: A judge today sanctioned the prosecution in the Zacarias Moussaoui case after they refused to present defense witnesses. This means the government cannot introduce evidence that Moussaoui had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. The judge also removed the death penalty from the indictment.
The prosecutors opposed letting Moussaoui depose detainees and defied [U.S. District Judge Leonie] Brinkema's order to make them available, saying such actions would disrupt their interrogations and subvert the president's constitutional powers as commander-in-chief to conduct the war on terrorism.
The sanctions were not as serious as dismissing the whole indictment, but the ruling was a blow to the government's case.
Brinkema stayed her order pending an appeals court review.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:48 PM EST [Link]
~ YES, BUT HAVE THEY LOOKED IN SYRIA?: Former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay will tell Congress tomorrow that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
[He] is expected to report that Iraq had civilian technology that could have been converted to weapons programs on short notice, and an extensive effort to conceal that capability, the officials say.
Members of House and Senate intelligence committees are expected to ask him some hard questions about the Pentagon's 1,500-member Iraq Survey Group during two closed-door hearings.
"My first question is, 'What have you found and if you haven't found very much what were the problems with our intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq?'" Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN.
This will certainly create many problems for George W. Bush.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:45 PM EST [Link]
~ FRANCE EST MORT?: France has done a lot to get the world angry. Cavalierly messing around in African politics. "Vive la Quebec libre." Not pulling its weight in NATO (when it decides it's a member). Iraq. Those two guys who forced Bart Simpson to work in their vineyard to pick grapes for their low-grade anti-freeze ridden wine. So much to answer for.
Well, increasingly a lot of French intellectuals are arguing that France is indeed in a decline. Nicolas Baverez has a new book out arguing exactly that and it's bothering many in the French establishment.
Although he has little patience with the American role in the world (it is branded unilateral, imperial and unpredictable, yet flexible and open to change) Baverez charges that the failure of French policy on Iraq and Europe - resisting the United States with nothing to offer in exchange, and attempting to force the rest of Europe to follow its lead - "crowns the process of the nation's decline" and leaves France in growing diplomatic isolation everywhere.
Over the past year, said Bavarez, "French diplomacy has undertaken to broaden the fracture within the West, and duplicate American unilateralism on the European scale by its arrogant dressing down of Europe's new democracies. It has sustained a systematically critical attitude that flees concrete propositions in favor of theoretical slogans exalting a multipolar world or multilateralism."
As for Europe, Bavarez maintains that France has been discredited by its reticence to transfer any kind of meaningful sovereignty to the central organization, its resistance to giving up its advantages in the area of agricultural policy and its disregard for the directives and rules of the European Union executive commission.
He does not stop there. Of a united Europe, Bavarez said, France has "ruined what might have remained of a common foreign and security policy, deeply dividing the community and placing France in the minority." His country was at the edge of marginalization in Europe and the world, he claimed, because of its "verbal pretense of having real power" that is "completely cut off from its capacity for influence or action."
Worth reading. Find it here.
Posted by steve @ 02:24 PM EST [Link]
~ 60 MINUTES UPDATE/EMINENT DOMAIN: If you watched 60 Minutes this past Sunday you probably saw a piece on eminent domain, the accepted practice by government to take property from its owners (with compensation) for the public good. The show focused on the increasing use of eminent domain as a transfer of property that has nothing to do with improving a community. One of those cases was Randy Bailey, the owner of a brake shop in Mesa, Arizona.
Mesa city officials are attempting to take Bailey's brake shop, which has existed at its current location for decades, in an attempt to transfer it to another citizen who wants to open a gigantic hardware store, ostensibly to make the corner where Bailey's shop is to look nicer and raise the tax base. Not surprisingly Bailey decided to fight and yesterday the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled in his favor.
Here's a press release by the Goldwater Institute on the matter:
Goldwater Institute constitutional studies director Mark Brnovich applauded yesterday's decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals in the case of Bailey v. Myers, which pitted brake shop owner Randy Bailey against the City of Mesa. The Court ruled in favor of the Bailey family, holding that "Article 2, Section 17 of the Arizona Constitution prevents the City from taking the Baileys' property for this redevelopment project because the ultimate use of the property is not a ‘public use.'" The court's decision can be reviewed in full at: http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/SA/SA020108.pdf.
But Brnovich also stated that the matter is far from settled. "Bailey and the Institute for Justice have won an important battle for Arizona property owners," he said. "But the war is not over." First, Mesa may appeal the case to the Arizona Supreme Court, where Bailey's brake shop will face an uncertain outcome. Second, whatever happens in the Bailey case, the Supreme Court is unlikely to strike down Arizona's 1997 redevelopment statute, which Brnovich sees as a primary cause of eminent domain abuse.
Under the 1997 statute, an area can be targeted for redevelopment if, among other reasons, it is deemed by a municipality to have a predominance of "defective or inadequate street layout," insufficient "diversity of ownership," or "improper or obsolete subdivision planning." Brnovich said that the language of the statute gives municipalities a "ready grab-bag of excuses to take private property from some citizens in order to give it to others."
In a study published by the Goldwater Institute in August 2002, zoning attorney Jordan Rose argued that the 1997 statute had "gutted the Arizona Constitution's prohibition against taking private property for private use" and led to an increase in takings for private use. To stop the kind of eminent domain abuse that prompted the Bailey case, the Goldwater report urged the Arizona legislature to revoke the redevelopment statute in its entirety. The report is available at http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/134.html.
"Although the Bailey decision represents a positive step toward the protection of private property rights," Brnovich said, "the redevelopment statute is still intact. Until the statute is repealed, any Arizona property owner can become the next Randy Bailey."
Hopefully we'll hear good news about that neighbourhood in Lakewood, Ohio that the Institute for Justice is fighting for as well.
Read a transcript of the 60 Minutes segment here.
Visit the Institute for Justice's web site for information on eminent domain and their fight against its abuse here.
Posted by steve @ 01:44 PM EST [Link]
~ I LIKE THE TIMING OF THE ALLEGATIONS SURFACING: Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized a few minutes ago if he behaved inappropriately towards any woman. The apology came as a result of a news story in the LA Times which contained the accusations of six women.
The women in the article all charged that Schwarzenegger had touched their breast or butt, or made ontoward sexual advances. Two of the six women in the article allowed their names to be revealed, but none had ever filed a complaint against the former bodybuilder with the state, employers or police.
But they did make sure to reveal their accusations days before the recall vote...I'm not saying they aren't telling the truth -- obviously Arnold's apology suggests that he certainly has behaved as a cad -- but I find the timing to be very interesting.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:30 PM EST [Link]
~ RUSH LIMBAUGH...PILL HEAD?: Rush Limbaugh is having what we can all agree is a horrible week. Just one day after stepping down as an NFL analyst at ESPN, it was reported today that the conservative commentator is being investigated for illegally obtaining and using OxyContin.
A statement from Limbaugh released this morning stated he was not aware of any investigation into his alleged drug habits.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:26 PM EST [Link]
~ SOONER OR LATER MY BOY: Jalal Talabani, one of the cats on Iraq's governing council, states that Saddam Hussein was purportedly seen in Kirkuk a couple of days ago and in the words of The Guardian, "and is moving in increasingly smaller circles in order to evade capture."
Talabani is opposed to Hussein's execution because he's opposed to the death penalty so let's hope he gets clipped by the coalition forces.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:27 AM EST [Link]
~ OF COURSE THEY FOLLOWED THE RULES: North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon admitted that his country has reprocessed 8 000 fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor to boost its nuclear capabilities over fears that the U.S. could be a threat.
Choe claimed Wednesday the war with Iraq convinced the North Korean government to further strengthen its military defense -- implying it may have nuclear arms in its arsenal.
"As we have clearly pointed out, since the United States is now threatening the DPRK (North Korea) with nuclear weapons to launch a preemptive nuclear attack against the DPRK, we have been left with no alternative but to be in possession of the nuclear deterrence," the minister said.
"That's why we have taken up all measures to maintain and strengthen that nuclear deterrence."
Thank God Jimmy Carter trusted them...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:04 AM EST [Link]
~ LOOK WHO'S JUDGING RUSH: Steve is right that Rush should have known better, but did we really need a lecture from Al Sharpton?
Posted by antle @ 12:55 AM EST [Link]
~ EL RUSHBO OVER AT ESPN: Rush Limbaugh announced tonight that he is resigning as a commentator with ESPN NFL Sunday Countdown a couple of days after saying Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb was overrated and was being promoted by a media simply because he was black.
"My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated," Limbaugh said in a statement. "I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret.
"I love 'NFL Sunday Countdown' and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it," Limbaugh said.
Rush, Rush, Rush...despite what Howard Dean and Al Sharpton say, we know you aren't a racist but you should have known better. That and it's not true what you said about McNabb.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:48 AM EST [Link]
~ 101 ISN'T THAT BAD I GUESS: John over at Right Wing News has released a new version of his 125 most popular political web sites on the Internet and ESR rates at 101st after rising 50,800 spots on Alexa's rankings.
Had he done this a couple of weeks ago we would have hit 91st ahead of some big ones but 101st is okay by me. Most popular? Hey baby, it hasn't changed...Drudge still rules the scene.
See the list here.
Have you told someone about ESR today? Go to our front page here and use our handy "Recommend this site to a friend" feature (right side, half a page down).
Posted by steve @ 12:30 AM EST [Link]
~ WEATHER UPDATE AT FORT SINATRA: It snowed here at the headquarters of Enter Stage Right tonight. My exasperation with Sudbury, Ontario only grows.
Posted by steve @ 12:07 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 1, 2003 TED, I THINK I'M GOING MAD: Denis Leary once went on a rant about not buying your children anything that needs batteries. Explanation: Whatever has batteries makes noise. Lots of noise.
My niece recently turned two -- with all that implies -- and for her birthday some wiseguy bought her a Fisher Price tape deck. My sister today brought over a Mother Goose tape for the deck. The group singing the songs is called the Madacy Group (A combination of Madness and Lunacy?) and believe me, I'm slowly growing mad. You don't know insane until you hear I'm a Little Tea Cup...over...and over...and over.
Bonus 15 points towards the Legendary No Prize if anyone knows which Irish sitcom the line "Ted, I think I'm going mad." appears in. Another 15 if you name the character.
Posted by steve @ 03:43 PM EST [Link]
~ THE LIVE FREE OR DIE STATE FOR FREE STATERS: The Free State Project has picked the state that they will target - New Hampshire. Hopefully, these libertarians will be able to reverse some of the damage inflicted by Massachusetts transplants.
Posted by antle @ 02:43 PM EST [Link]
~ RUNNING AWAY WITH IT?: An LA Times poll released today shows that support for both the recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger is growing.
Republican challenger Arnold Schwarzenegger made strong gains in the latest poll and was favored by 40 percent of likely voters, followed by Democrat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante with 32 percent and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock with 15 percent.
Bustamante had led in the earlier September poll with 30 percent, followed by Schwarzeneggar with 25 percent and McClintock with 18 percent.
Read on.
[Musings Archive Index] [Back to New Musings]