Playtime is over, back to work I was looking over the local alternative weekly newspaper, the Metro Pulse when I came across an opinion column by a Mr. Massimo Pigliucci. Mr Pigliucci is an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee, and a regular contributor to the Rationalists of East Tennessee web site. The column concerns the war on terror and is entitled Those who Understand Bin Laden Seeing that title, I of course had to read on to see what the man had to say. Sorry for the lack of a link; a new edition of Metro Pulse has been issued, and the archives on their site is very limited. Remember, as I go through this, Mr. Pigliucci claims to be a rationalist.
Warning: this article is not an exultation of terrorism or a defense of Bin Laden. But the very fact that I have to start with this disclaimer is a sad commentary on the state of freedom of opinion and speech in contemporary U.S.
Now hold on a minute. We have a man who is voicing his opinion in a column which he was paid to write, an opinion which, based on the title of the column, will be an opinion which runs counter to the current political climate, and he is complaining about the lack of freedom of opinion and speech. Was he forced to write that disclaimer by the editor of the Metro Pulse, or the publisher of the paper? Of course not. He wrote it to establish a moral high ground, i.e., if the reader disagrees with his opinion, then the reader must support censorship and thought control.
Continuing:
The U.S. government, on the one hand, insists in calling this a "war" against terrorism (even though, technically, only Congress can declare war---and it hasn't); but, on the other hand, it refuses to treat its prisoners as POWs
What's the difficulty? It's not a declared war; they aren't prisoners of war. Congress has authorized all actions taken to date, so where is the problem? We are engaged militarily, against an adversary who struck first, on our soil. What would you like to call it, a 'negotiation through force' against terrorism? Doesn't really sing, does it?
Worse, since the Taliban were obviously a ridiculously puny enemy for the mighty U.S., we are now looking for additional ones, and Bush nonchalantly threatens Iran, Iraq, and North korea, lumping them together under the laughable label of the "axis of evil." Never mind that it is difficult to see communist North Korea plotting together with Islamic fundamentalists (or, for that matter, mortal religious enemies Iraq and Iran working with each other).
Wow. You'd think a professor, even a biology professor would be a little more versed in history. How closely did Japan and Germany work together during WWII? Were their economies compatible? How about their basic philosophies, forms of government, or religious beliefs? Yet those two nations nearly ran the table in the 1940s. As for Iran and Iraq never working together, if the good professor would check back just a decade ago, Saddam Hussein sent most of his air force to Iran prior to Desert Storm, to keep it safe from the US attacks.
More importantly, Iran, Iraq and North Korea do not have to become allies in order to become a combined threat. North Korea is still working to develop nuclear weapons. If they are successful, does Mr Pigliucci really think that they won't use them against the US unless they've formed a formal alliance with Iran and Iraq? President Bush recognized that with a minimum amount of interactions between the three countries he named, the threat they represent would increase geometrically, not just arithmetically.
By the way, does anybody remember how we were being warned that we couldn't beat the Taliban without heavy losses and years of effort? Now it is obvious that the Taliban was 'ridiculously puny.' First we aren't strong enough, then we are too strong, and we get criticized either way.
I am most certainly not missing the Taliban. Heck, I think somebody should have kicked there asses long ago. I have no sympathy for people who use religion to subjugate women, annul civil rights, and destroy priceless historical monuments. What I am questioning is the assumption that, just by bombing people, we will solve our problems.
If that was all we were doing, then Mr. Pigliucci might have a point. However, we aren't just dropping bombs. We are feeding refugees; we are trying to help Afghanistan form a stable government; we are going after the lifeblood of the terrorist organizations, their funding; we are investigating world wide with the help of our allies, and closing down the places where the terrorists can go and get support; we are sharing information with other countries, and they with us, resulting in thousands of arrests, and who knows how many lives saved from attacks thwarted through a stoppage of funds, or the arrest of a conspirator. In short, we are doing one hell of a lot more than dropping bombs. Mr. Pigliucci wants to ignore all that we are doing and oversimplify our effort in order to discredit it.
The war on terrorism will never be won, just like the equally misnamed and misconceived "war on drugs." That's because to solve these problems we first have to understand their roots. Until we acknowledge that human beings will always go after the easy pleasure of drugs and that people outside the U.S. (especially in the Middle East) have a justifiable rancor against America, we will not make progress on either front.
Ahhh, decadence, thy name is Pigliucci. People are going to use drugs because it's fun. Why fight it? By the way, not all humans go after the "easy" pleasure of drugs. I guess they are the real problem. But that certainly is an interesting argument. Let's try it on a few other illegal activities.
I know Mr. Pigliucciu is going to accuse me of failing to make the 'subtle distinction' between motivation and justification, but here's the thing: The people who died on September 11 did nothing to deserve the death that Bin Laden saw fit to give them. Bin Laden himself was not wronged by any of those people, nor was he personally wronged by the United States. If his motivation was some inchoate rage against the presence of the US, and he felt that this rage was justification for the slaughter of 3000 inoocents, then he needs to be put down like any other rabid animal.
But let's take Mr. Pigliucci's side, for the sake of argument. What has America done to provoke such a violent rage?
Where does the anit-U.S. acrimony come from? If you don''t know, you haven't paid attention. Even the European allies of the U.S. have repeatedly taken action against what they see as the cultural and economic imperialism of Americans, and if you add the extreme poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism of many people in Middle eastern countries, you have the perfect recipe for disaster.
That's it? Cultural and economic imperialism? That explains the slaughter of over three thousand? Surely you can do better than that, Mr. Pigliucci. Cultural and economic imperialism....hmmm. If the folks around the world like to watch our movies and eat our fast food and buy our products more than those they make at home, maybe that says more about what is available in their countries than about American imperialism. McDonalds and Coca-Cola don't force their way into other markets, and once there, don't hold guns to people's heads to force them to buy. It's called the marketplace. People buy what they like. People adopt behaviors that appeal to them. Perhaps Mr Pigliucci would be happier if we restricted what people could see, and hear, and buy, so that they wouldn't be unduly influenced by the vibrancy of American culture.
As an evolutionary biologist, Mr. Pigliucci should be familiar with the concept of competition, where the stronger replaces the weaker. This concept applies to cultures just as it does to organisms, albeit with different mechanisms, and a greatly contracted timescale. Cultural evolution does not equal imperialism. We don't force our way of life on anybody.
I also note the elitism in Mr. Pigliucci's assessment of the Middle East. Only one problem. Most of the terrorist's leadership cadre come from upper middle class to wealthy families and are usually well educated. They use the poor as foot soldiers, playing on their ignorance, inflaming their hatred and fanaticism with religious rhetoric, but what causes they're hatred? We're back to Osama now. Why did he hate America so much that he wanted to detroy thousands of lives? What motivated his to feel such rage that he felt justified in unleashing such carnage? Let's assume Mr. Pigliucci is right and it was American foreign policy which set Bin Laden off, particularly our support of Israel. Do we renege on our commitments, abandon our national interests to appease the wishes of a madman? Of course not; that course of action would be folly.
But it takes a much more serious commitment, and the art of making subtle distinctions, to address the problem seriously. It requires a radical revision of American foreign policy, and perhaps even a bit of a self critical attitude toward the sacred cow of free-market capitalism.
And here, Mr. Pigliucci exposes himself. Capitalism is the evil here. That's why America is a target. As long as we turn a profit, as long as we create wealth, as long as we continue to produce in abundence, we will be targets. We aren't targets because of 'cultural and economic imperialism.' We're targets because of our wealth.
Finally, I did a little research on Mr. Pigliucci. Mr. Pigliucci is an Italian citizen with a permanent residence in the U.S. He's lived here for about twelve years, but has not become a citizen, choosing instead to remain a resident alien.
Mr. Pigliucci, I'm speaking to you directly now. People leave their homelands only because there's something missing there, something they need that they can't find. They travel until they find whatever it was they were looking for, then they settle down. Whatever you were looking for, you found in America. Maybe it was a job, or an educational opportunity, or a better lifestyle. America has fulfilled her promise to you sir, but you are repaying that hospitality with scorn.
You have every right to be here, and every right to voice your opinion, and if you can pocket a little change doing so, well then, that's the free market capitalism that makes America great. But as long as you hold a green card, you are a guest here, and it is very rude for a gueast to criticize his host, even if that criticism is well founded and well intentioned. If you want to be taken seriously, then do one of two things. Either go back to Italy, and then tell us why we are wrong, and why you couldn't stay, or stay here, become a citizen, and work from within to improve your new home. I'll still believe you are wrong in almost every particular, but I will respect your opinion as coming from a fellow American, rather than the whining of an ungrateful houseguest. Right now, you remind me of the Yankees who come to Tennessee to live because it's so much nicer here, then spend hours complaining about how they handled things much better up north. It's time for you to put up or shut up.
Vistory is ours! My friends, a scurrilous outrage has been averted through the power of the blogosphere! Yes, Terry from possumblog has graciously (sort of) admitted defeat, and added Lewis Grizzard to the list of nominees for the Croix de Grits.
I spoke to Mr. Grizzard, and told him about the honor thus bestowed upon him, and the tremendous victory for all pulseless persons. When I asked him how he felt, he was quietly humble.
Playing down the Titannic I know some of you are wondering how after the gloom and doom posts of yesterday, where I basically conceded that the world we know is about to end, and a very nasty transformative period is about to begin, how I can turn around today and mess around with some frivolous posts about dead humorists and phoney lipless kazoo playing orphans.(You did know he was phoney right?)
The coming war has been building for generations, and appears to be inevitable. We in America have the mistaken impression that history is over, that today represents the ultimate world order, that the way things are now is the way things will stay. Unfortunately, we are waking up from that pleasant dream to some ugly realities. History is today. America is no more eternal than was Athens or Rome or Constantinople, and borders are still nothing more than lines scrawled in blood on the earth.
It boils down to this: I'm not the captain of the ship; hell, I'm not even a crew member. With this blog, I've assumed the only role open to me right now; I am the court jester. I work to entertain you, to intrigue you, to excite you, to move you, to piss you off, to make you laugh, to make you cry, because that is all we have in this world. Whatever we build will crumble and be forgotten in time. Whatever we feel remains part of us forever.
So, I'll go on playing my songs as the water creeps higher. I'll sing to you about the icy cold of the sea, but also about the warm sunny beaches. I'll show you love and hate, treachery and redemption, courage and cowardice, brilliance and stupidity. I'll tell you the truth as I see it, and we'll pass the time away until the water gets too high to continue.
In the end, I'll do all that I can to make things a little better, and it won't make a bit of difference. I know that, but do it anyway.
Besides, if I quit, the terrorists win.....*grin*
Time for a first Over to the left is a small button with the word "Donate" on it. This is commonly referred to as a tip jar, and it allows you dedicated people to show your appreciation for the work I put in around here.
But there's more to the story than that.
If that was all there was, I wouldn't waste your time talking about it, but you see, little Timmy is an orphan, and he needs an operation. Without that operation, it is doubtful whether little Tony will ever play the kazoo again. He was in a freak sno-cone machine accident and the result was a tragic lip disfigurement.
I went to visit little Andy in the hospital just last week, and he told me how much he wanted to play the kazoo again. Tears rolled down my face as that frail weak little voice asked me, "ahn yuo hellt nhe?"
I said, "Little Tommy, you precious child, I shall do everything in my power to see that you play the kazoo again. A new light of hope flared up in little Bobby's eyes, the childish belief that a grownup can fix anything.
And so now I turn to you good people, and ask that you help me help little Petey play the kazoo again.
I'll be back in a minute. I suddenly feel the need to wash my hands.
Rejection and discrimination All right folks, fasten your seatbelts and make sure your tray tables are locked in an upright position, because I am well and truly miffed!
The folks behind possumblog have decided to reject my nomination of Lewis Grizard based on the mere fact that he happens to be 'vitality challenged' at the present time. This is an outrage that must not go unpunished! Metabolic rate discrimination should have vanished a long time ago, but here we see it is still perpetuated in our beloved South. We protested against aparthied in South Africa while practicing our own brand right here. After all, the dead represent a plurality if not an outright majority in the South, and deserve to be treated with the respect their numbers deserve. Instead, we see them being held down and excluded. It's enough to make you sick.
I tell you, we must act forcefully now to root out this prejudice and treat our dead with the same respect and reverence as our Yankee brothers. Hell, in Chicago, they revere their dead so much, they still let them vote! And here we are, denying Mr. Grizzard the chance to win an honer, merely because he hasn't drawn a breath for a couple of years. I've held my breath for as long as two minutes; I guess that means I can't run for President now.
I think it is time to mount a write-in campaign, and inundate Possumblog with letters demanding that the nomination of Lewis Grizzard be honored. If all six of my regular readers do this, I'm sure Terry will see the error of his ways.
Or at least get a good laugh out of it....
Interesting tidbit from the Idler:
Saddam Hussein's appetite for weapons of mass destruction is well-known; his taste for women from the Western hemisphere less so. Executive Secretary of the Foreign Chamber of Commerce in Brazilia Roberto Gianetti da Fonseca has created a sensation with the publication of his memoirs "Memorias de um trader " ("Memoirs of a Trader.") In 1981 Fonseca accompanied a Brazilian trade mission to Baghdad which was renewing a contract to supply meat to the Iraqi government in return for continued access to Iraqi oil, a critical concern for the Brazilian government. In the middle of negotiations, Fonseca was startled when Hussein himself showed up at the trade talks. Hussein insisted on three conditions for the negotiations to go forward. First, he wanted Brazil's civilian ambassador replaced by a serving military officer, preferably a general. Secondly, he wanted more access to Brazil's burgeoning defense industry with increased supplies of missiles, tanks, and other military hardware. Last but not least, "tell President Figueiredo that I will order the release and return of the Brazilian women who are now here being kept by the delegation members who visited Rio de Janeiro during the last Carnival, but I don't want any fuss made about it." Fonseca was startled to learn that Iraqi "delegates" were holding six Brazilian women as virtual slaves.
Cos drops the ball When President Bush went to Congress to get authorization for a military response to 9-11, there was one lone holdout in the House. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from the 9th Congressional district in California, which includes Berkeley, was the lone NO. Her obstinance has been rewarded, according to this FoxNewsstory.
She has gotten help with that effort by increasing her status and practically guaranteeing that she doesn't need to worry about re-election in California's liberal 9th Congressional District, home to Berkeley and Alameda County.Though Lee faced death threats and hate mail after her controversial congressional vote, she also received accolades and donations. Singer Bonnie Raitt and actor Bill Cosby are among the celebrities who've helped boost Lee's national profile and political war chest.
Bonnie Raitt has a new album coming out in 2 weeks. I hope it joins Gosford Park on the dungheap of history. I really enjoy her music, but she won't get the chance to recycle my money to Barbara Lee.
Which brings us to an interesting point. I know a lot of people who say they don't care about an artist's politics; all they care about is their art. That would be great if the artists themselves didn't care about politics, or kept it out of their art. But that is rarely the case. Look at how many Hollywood actors feel the need to actively support and promote causes or political ideologies. Whatever possessed Alec Baldwin or Whoopie Goldberg to think they have the right to use their influence as celebrities to advance a political agenda?
Now, I'm not calling for some kind of political gag rule on actors; that would be constitutionally indefensible. What I am saying is that if these performers feel the need to espouse political opinions and ideology and trade upon their celebrity to do so, they must be willing to lose revenues from people who disagree with theri position. Going one step further, if those who disagree with the celebrity organize a boycott of the artist's performances, that too is part of the price.
Grim news from Israel As most of you probably already know, another suicide bomber struck in Israel yesterday, killing 20 and wounding over 100. As we learned earlier this week, that's another $25,000 from Saddam Hussein to the family of the bomber.
The attack took place during a ceremony marking the beginning of Passover, a Holy season which commemorates the liberation of the Jews from Egypt. Oddly enough, the international press has been strangely silent about this aspect of the attack. I say strange because these were the same folks castigating the US for continuing the afghanistan campaign over Ramadan, an Islamic Holy season. I can think of two reasons for this puzzling silence:
The EU has revealed their prejudice once again in their seeming neutrality:
"I am horrified at the level of violence reached. Civilians on both sides are by now the main victims of a conflict situation which they never chose to be part of," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement.
Question: Why did the Holocaust occur in Europe?
Answer: Because nobody there really gave a damn about stopping it.
It seems that attitude still holds true today. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that many Europeans deplored the Holocaust while it was occurring, and did everything in their power to stop it, just as there are many today who deplore the actions of the Palestinians, and see them for ehat they are. But most of what we hear coming out of the EU and the European press is sickeningly favorable to the Palestinians.
President Bush, in the meantime, is still publicly clinging to the hope that he can line up Arab support for his campaign against terrorism. The time is reapidly approaching when he will have to admit publicly what he must already know, or at least suspect privately:
We are watching the beginnings of World War III.
Events have begun to move with a ponderous momentum like a ship colliding with a pier while docking. The velocity is minor, but the momentum causes a spectacular amount of damage. Attempts to appease the Palestinians have done nothing to reduce the momentum. In fact, they may have added to the momentum by encouraging the Palstinians to press harder for more concessions. Every concession which has been made by the Israelis has been answered by more bombings, more suicide attacks, more Israeli bodies blown apart in the street. This naturally causes the Israeli people to demand swifter and harsher reprisals, and more stringent security measures. The Sharon government is in danger of losing support not because they've been too harsh and aggressive, but because they've not been agressive enough in the eyes of many Israelis. It seems evident that within a short period of time, Israel will be forced to go to war against Palestine, and her backers in Syria, Irag, and Saudi Arabia.
As for the Suadi Peace Plan, as I demonstrated below, it was a non starter to begin with. With the collapse of the Arab Summit, it is made even more irrelevant.
So, the Middle East is all set to cascade into full blown warfare, and drag the rest of the world along with it.
Is there anything that can stop it?
Short of an asteroid impact wiping out al life on our planet or the Second Coming, I don't think so. The double ought decade is going to be the bloodiest in history.
My nomination for the Croix de Grits Earlier, I supported Fred Thompson as my choice for the inaugural award, but as I was writing up my reasons, I was struck by another, more worthy candidate. (My bookshelf collapsed and one of his books hit me in the head. Coincidence? I think not.)
This would have to be a posthumous award since he died a couple of years ago, but my vote goes to Lewis Grizzard.
Here's an excerpt from his biography, maintained here:
It was Mr. Minter, his mentor and professional father figure, who first encouraged him to write a column. "What the hell would I write about?" he asked. But one day, he tried it. He rolled the paper into his old manual clunker and he hit a key and wrote a column. It was a task he would repeat afterwards for upwards of two decades. Steve Enoch, his friend and manager in later years, tells a story about a lady of the evening who approached Grizzard in a bar in Mexico. "I make you very happy," she is supposed to have said, "for one hundred American dollars I do anything you want!," whereupon Grizzard shouts, "Thank you Jesus! It's a miracle!" pulls out a hundred dollar bill and says "Here. Go upstairs and write my next column." Grizzard likened the pressure to top oneself day after day in print to "being married to a nymphomaniac... it's a whole lot of fun for the first week."Every blogger that's been around more than two weeks knows exactly what Lewis meant.
That was Lewis' gift; he knew us, and could talk to us and about us.
My first exposure to Lewis was the book When my Love Returns from the Ladies room, Will I be too Old to Care? I was a young man, just starting out dating a lovely young lady, and this issue was at the forefront of our relationship. What does a man do when his date has left the table to go to the ladies room? You're sitting there, feeling awkward with nothing to do and no-one to talk to. You would welcome the return of the waitress who couldn't stay away from your table long enough to allow you to finish a single bite of your meal without interrupting you to ask if everything was OK, but she is bound by Female Law 137.2 to stay away from your table while you wait for the eventual return of your date. When I saw Lewis's book, I knew that I had found my master, the man who could explain everything about women and the world. Of course, as I read, I found out that Lewis was just as befuddled as I was, but it didn't seem to matter. Instead of a master, I had found something even better; a friend walking the same road I was.
I went out and bought more of his books, and the titles alone were worth the price:
Inside the covers, I explored taverns and honky tonks on the side of the freeway where a barmaid is willing to fix breakfast for a couple of out-of-towners. I watched a local pool stud whiff on the break, and watched the room go still with surpressed laughter. I watched a young boy being taught that giving involves sacrifice, even though he didn't understand the lesson until years later. I met a woman sending her son back to the Marines after his first leave. I met a homeless man with a quiet dignity that shattered the stereotypes I'd always believed in. I met a father who came back from the war tormented and broken, unable to handle the burdens on his soul, but who still believed that America was worth fighting for.
Daddy, it embarrasses me when you sing our national anthem so loudy.
Son, it embarrasses me when you don't.
Lewis wrote about the people of the South, and about what makes it a special place. He blasted those who attacked her through cliche and stereotype, making fun of our lifestyles, the way we play, even the way we talk without ever taking the time to actually get to know what southern culture truly is. But Lewis was more than a southern humorist; he was a humanist. He told us of the pain, disappointment and loss of his three failed marriages and we all, Reb and Yank, could understand that. He told us of the unsung heroes which surround us every day. He told us about the joy of a good dog, and the sorrow of losing him. He told us about ourselves.
I hope that someday I am able to write with even half the flavor and honesty of Lewis Grizzard.
I Hate it when that happens!
Dudley Moore isdead.
Actor Dudley Moore, an unlikely Hollywood heartthrob in "10" and "Arthur" as a cuddly pip-squeak whose charm melted female hearts, died today. He was 66.Moore died at 11 am EST (0300 AEDT) at his home in New Jersey, said publicist Michelle Bega in Los Angeles.
He died of pneumonia as a complication of progressive supranuclear palsy, she said.
This is a bit outside of my field of expertise, but for a very readable, personal account of the Battle of Kontum, go here. The link was sent to me by Air Force Major John Heslin, and the website was written by his father, Lt Col John G. "Jack" Heslin, US Army, retired.
Major Heslin writes:
However, in the short excellent recap "Vietnam Revisited," comparing the French and American experiences in Vietnam, the author discusses three critical mistakes made by the French in the 50's and repeated by the US in the 60's: first, a flawed definition of victory; second, an underestimation of the Vietminh's mobility; third, the unforeseen ability of the Vietminh to create effective fire.
These are points worth raising, comparisons worth making, with today's asymmetric battle against terrorists.
Of the three concerns raised, the first two are evident in the new war. What is victory, and how do we achieve it? It's easy to say "the eradication of evil," but that is just a bit nebulous to be used as a basis for strategy. Do we need to capture or kill Osama, or just render him ineffective? Is al Qaeda the only group we are targetting, or should we go after all identified terrorist organizations?
Second is the question of mobility. We are operating at a tremendous disadvantage. Because they don't have a homeland to defend, the terrorists can vanish in the face of any attack. We've seen this, both in Tora Bora, and during Operation Anaconda. We had a foretaste of this tactic during Desert Storm. The Iraqi army surrendered faster than we could take them into custody. This was not a sign of cowardice, but a successful strategy to minimize Iraqi losses when confronted with an overwhelming force. Rather than fighting, they withdraw, retaining the capability to inflict more damage at a later date. Our adversaries are like a swarm of bees without a hive. We can't take them out by destroying the hive, and it is difficult to fight a swarm.
As for the third concern, I don't think we have seen any capability on the part of Al Qaeda/Taliban soldiers to create an effective field of fire. I even question whether they should be called soldiers. Our forces are well prepared to deal with any military actions that they may come up against, but I don't know how well prepared they are to counter terrorist/geurilla type actions. Should our adversaries adopt those tactics, then we could be in for some very long nights.
Blackmail is blackmail no matter what the supposed justification. This quote comes from an amplification of a story I commented on yesterday.
"The real problem is they are publicly-traded companies, and they cannot afford the publicity. It’s a form of shakedown, extortion. The companies today are completely different from the companies they are talking about in the past; the people who will get the money are people who aren’t slaves," said scholar David Horowitz, who recently released Uncivil Wars: The Controversy over Reparations for Slavery.But Joyce A. Ladner, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institute and author of The New Urban Leaders, said even if they don't succeed, the suit will have made its point.
"This case does two things, it educates the larger public about the role that institutions played in slavery," she said, and it "redresses old grievances" by tying specific harm to companies and the government.
"These lawyers — and they are some of the finest legal minds in America — know that this is basically a frivolous lawsuit that will not succeed, but to the extent that they can stir the pot and get us to talk about this and maybe create this fund for scholarships and maybe get an apology from Congress, they will have accomplished their purpose," Napolitano said.
"...create a fund for scholarships..." Interesting when even the suporters of the suit realize there is no merit, but still believe they'll get something out of it.
By the way, I apologize for the racially insensitive term "blackmail" used to head this story. I wish to change the term to "African American Extortion Process." See, I can be politically correct when I want to be.....
Those wacky french IN a move worthy of a Twilight Zone episode, the French government has asked the Justice department to forgo the death penalty in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man indicted in relation to the 9-11 attacks.
Gilles Sainati, of the French Magistrates' Union, said France should threaten to withhold information about the Al Qaeda network of Usama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, if that information would help to convict Moussaoui.
Here's a hint for all you french folks. If the man is guilty, he's dead. If you withold information that could convict him, you are guilty of aiding and abetting a known terrorist. I think we've made it clear to the world what the penalty for that is.
But don't worry. We won't come after you. You're not worth the effort.
It's called a clue. You might want to look into it. Speedy gonzales is not welcome at the Cartoon Network.
The rapid rodent has been deemed an offensive ethnic stereotype of Mexicans, and has been off the air since the cable network became the sole U.S. broadcaster of old Warner Brothers cartoons in late 1999
Oddly enough, there is one place to catch Speedy Gonzales on TV:
But Speedy boosters shouldn't expect to see their furry hero anytime soon, at least in the United States, Goldberg said. But there is a place where Speedy can still be found zipping across TV screens — and, presumably, where the crude stereotypes he embodies don't touch a cultural nerve.That place: The Cartoon Network Latin America, where, ironically enough, Speedy Gonzales is "hugely popular," Goldberg said.
I think we should force the Cartoon Network Latin America to take Speedy Gonzales off the air, because of the offensive portrayal of Americans as personified by Sylvester the cat.
Bait and Switch Crown Prince Abdullah is getting a lot of media attention for his proposed peace initiative, which offers complete normalizations of relations between Israel and the arab nations in return for an Israeli pull back to the 1967 boundaries.
Or does it?
It seems that the idea floated by the Crown Prince has changed drastically. The text of the draft proposal may be found here.
The Arab summit calls for:_ complete withdrawal from the Arab lands occupied in 1967, including a full withdrawal from the Syrian Golan and from all the lands that are still occupied in south Lebanon, to the borders of June 4th, 1967.
_ acceptance to reach a fair solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees that will be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. Resolution 194.
_ acceptance of an independent sovereign Palestinian state on the Palestinian lands occupied since June 4, 1967, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), with holy Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolution 1379.
In return, the Arab countries assert the following:
_ to consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and to reach a treaty to cement this between them (the Arab countries) and Israel.
Looks like the right of return has quietly slipped back into the picture, which is an automatic deal breaker as far as Israel is concerned. Go here to read the text of resolution 194. One excerpt:
11. Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;
Not only does the Arab plan call for the right of return, it also calls for Israel to pay compensation for the refugees who decide not to return. Interestingly enough, Resolution 194 also calls for Jerusalem to be placed under UN control, not installed as the capitol of Palestine.
8. Resolves that, in view of its association with three world religions, the Jerusalem area, including the present municipality of Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns, the most eastern of which shall be Abu Dis; the most southern, Bethlehem, the most western, Ein Karim (including also the built-up area of Motsa); and the most northern Shu'fat, should be accorded special and separate treatment from the rest of Palestine and should be placed under effective United Nations control;Requests the Security Council to take further steps to ensure the demilitarization of Jerusalem at the earliest possible date;
Instructs the Commission to present to the fourth regular session of the General Assembly detailed proposals for a permanent international régime for the Jerusalem area which will provide for the maximum local autonomy for distinctive groups consistent with the special international status of the Jerusalem area;
This would appear to conflict with the claim of the Arabs that Jerusalem should be the capitol of Palestine according to U.N. Security Council resolution 1379. I looked up this resolution. It says nothing about Jerusalem, but instead deals with "Children and armed conflict." In fact, a search of UN Security Council resolutions turns up nothing which states that Jerusalem should be the capitol of Palestine.
Well, maybe the Crown Prince was confused. Let's continue on with this draft of the proposal.
When Abdullah first floated this idea during an interview with Thomas friedman, he used the term "full normalization" of relations with Israel. This term has a very specific meaning, which includes the exchanging of ambassadors, the establishment of embassies, all predicated on the acceptance of Israel as a legal entity. Naturally, there is strong resistance to this proposition among Arab states, and we see in the draft resolution, that the term does not appear. Instead, we get the mealy-mouthed, "to consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and to reach a treaty to cement this between them (the Arab countries) and Israel."
Quite a large step back from the initial proposal.
As I commented here back when the story first came out, the proposal is another smoke screen on the part of the Arabs in an attempt to look like they are interested in peace.
To make things worse, it looks like half the Arab nations will not be represented at the conference. Must not want to be seen agreeing or disagreeing with the proposal.
A new page I'm keeping a journal of my battle to lose weight. I've added it to the list of personal links to the left. I've called it The Battle of the Bulge. (He's just so creative, isn't he?)
That's good to know Courtesy of the Midwestern Conservative Journal comes this site which will tell you how long you have to live. I'll be around until 7:09:41 AM Monday, March 10, 2053.
I'll have to remember to keep that day clear on my schedule.
Where was I when this party started? Via Spinsters.com, I find that possumblog has started a new award for Southerners of Merit, The Croix de Grits. (Real grits, I'm sure. None of that instant stuff that is suitable only for repairing roof leaks, or glueing your kid sister to her high chair) Now, who is worthy of such a high honor? My first impulse is Senator Fred Thompson. Any comments?
What else do we need? According to the Sydney Morning Herald (why do I have to read a foreign paper's web site to get good world news?) Saddam Hussein is paying the families of suicide bombers to step up the campaign against Israel.
The hall was packed and the intake of breath was audible as a special announcement was made to the war widows of the West Bank - Saddam Hussein would pay $US25,000 ($47,000) to the family of each suicide bomber as an enticement for others to volunteer for martyrdom in the name of the Palestinian people.The men at the top table then opened Saddam's chequebook and, as the names of 47 martyrs were called, family representatives went up to sign for cheques written in US dollars.
Any questions about what we have to do?
I did not know that This is what happens when you go on night shift. You miss things.
The two men identified themselves as pilots when they came to the emergency room of Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last June. One had an ugly, dark lesion on his leg that he said he developed after bumping into a suitcase two months earlier. Dr. Christos Tsonas thought the injury was curious, but he cleaned it, prescribed an antibiotic for infection and sent the men away with hardly another thought.But after Sept. 11, when federal investigators found the medicine among the possessions of one of the hijackers, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Dr. Tsonas reviewed the case and arrived at a new diagnosis. The lesion, he said in an interview this week, "was consistent with cutaneous anthrax."
Most of the markers examined indicate that the anthrax came from a domestic supply, and we had the news flap a couple of weeks ago about an American scientist under suspicion. Now it looks like there may be an Al Qaida connection as well. This leads me to the disturbing possibility that we have a 5th column at work here in the US. Take this new information, and combine it with the recent revelations about Terry Nichols and his trips to the PI, potentially to meet up with Al Qaida sponsored terrorists, and the possibility grows a little more likely.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Washington on March 14, alleges that convicted Oklahoma City conspirator Nichols met repeatedly in the Philippines with World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Youssef, and that Youssef was an Iraqi intelligence agent. If these allegations are confirmed in court, they constitute a stunning indictment of Iraqi state complicity in murderous attacks on the United States well before Sept. 11.
Thanks to Rand Simberg for the above link.
If Al Qaeda terrorists are working through home grown terrorists, then we have a much bigger problem than we first suspected.
UPDATE Maybe it isn't just the night shift. I've just finished doing my daily rounds, and nobody seems to have picked this up.
Lady Vols avenge tournament snub A regular season split and a poor showing in the conference tournament relegated the Tennessee Lady Vols to a second seed in the NCAA Midwest regionals behind the number 1 seed, Vanderbilt. Tonight, UT replied with a 68-63 victory over Vandy to advance to the Final Four, where they will face UConn.
Way to go Ladies!
This is Embarrassing Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis will be fighting in Tennessee after all.
Sometimes, the money just isn't worth the cost.
Frivolous Law Suits Here we go again. Johnnie Cochran, Cornell West and others have decided to sue companies for actions involving slavery.
Eight major corporations are expected to be named Tuesday in an unprecedented lawsuit that seeks payback for the companies' historical ties to the slave trade over 137 years ago.
New York slave reparations activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann is seeking unspecified damages in a suit that names Aetna Inc., CSX Corp. and FleetBoston Financial Corp., among others, as unjustly profiting from the slave trade before the Civil War ended in 1865."We targeted these industries because the plaintiff can show a direct linkage between the plaintiff and her descendants," said attorney Ed Fagen of Fagen and Associates, one of the firms working for Farmer-Paellmann. Farmer-Paellmann would not take any questions, referring all calls to another firm, Thomas, Wareham & Richards.
So, she wants to sue a company for actions it performed legally over 100 years ago? What an interesting precedent. You can hold a company or person liable for legal activities if the law changes in the future. So, by the same logic, if partial birth abortions are outlawed, can we sue those who provided them before the law changed?
This suit, and the copycat suits to follow should be immediately dismissed.
I saw this one coming Russel Yates is now in the sights of the law.
HOUSTON — Less than a week after Andrea Yates began serving life in prison for killing her children, the Harris County district attorney's office said it is looking into whether her husband had any culpability in the drownings.
To call it an "investigation" would be too strong, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said Monday.Rosenthal said his office began looking into Russell Yates at the urging of "gazillions" of e-mails which have arrived in his office inbox in months since the drownings last June 20.
Investigations instigated by polling? Scary.
By the way, Russell Yates' mother spent a lot of time with Andrea and the kids trying to help her through her depression. Andrea's family has been blasting Russell in the press, accusing him of contributing to his wife's problems, calling him cold and indifferent. I'm wondering how much time they spent with her, trying to help her.
Sadly Plausible Either I just dropped in on a lost episode of Monty Python, or David Carr is at it again. Don't laugh too hard folks. It may be an exaggeration, but not by much. Check out our college campuses, and their policies on regulation of speech.
It's too bad youth is wasted on the young This young woman is unhappy with her prospects after working to get a degree at Yale.
So I can earn $0 an hour not working at a marketing firm with my Yale degree, or potentially earn a couple of hundred bucks a night serving up fajitas at Chili's.I can forfeit a paycheck while not employed with a publishing company, or I can earn seven bucks an hour plus commission folding sweaters at that boutique down the street. I can be broke while the ad agencies keep sending me letters beginning with, "Thank you for submitting your résumé. . . ," but you get the picture.
Will someone please tell me where I went wrong?
I was an English major which, for most people, roughly translates into "I have no marketable skills." But that's not so. I have many valuable skills honed during my days with Dickens, my nights with Nabokov, those wee hours with Woolf.
Your next clue:
First of all, you know I can read. And I don't mean read like "Hooked on Phonics" read. I can read long, wordy, small printed works with relative speed and what's more, I can remember what I have read and write long, wordy, papers about it without any trouble. I have developed impressive analytical skills. I am trained to think -- really think -- about everything I read. And I am accomplished at putting those thoughts on paper.
Third clue:
I have taken that Yale degree to marketing firms, publishing companies, advertising agencies, and it has not worked any magic.
In short Shawna, you wasted years on a degree with no immediate applications in the job market. The careers you mentioned assume you have a command of language; a degree saying you do is not impressive. What else do you bring to the table? Do you have any experience in marketing? Did you work on the school paper? Did you intern with an advertising agency? Did you do anything to acquire skills in demand in the real world? If not, then maybe that's another clue.
Shawna, you need to re-evaluate your career track based on reality, instead of wishful thinking. By opting for a degree in English instead of more directly applicable degree in marketing or advertising, you've set yourself back, but only temporarily. You can get a job in marketing or advertising, but it will be an entry level position, like copy-editing. Use your time in the trenches to acquire real skills and experience. Then you will be able to cash in on your degree, and move up to the more desirable jobs.
Or you can give up, and add "Do you want fries with that?" to your permanent vocabulary.
Why it won't work Just below, I broached the idea that Europe is trying to recapture some power on the global stage by recreating the American experiment in the EU. David Carr tells of a new initiative which demonstrates why it will never work.
Another draft Directive is formenting in the cesspit of Brussels and this time it's pensions that they are pawing at with their oily little hands."Spanish officials were trying to insert a clause that would limit the amount of equities that pension schemes can hold. The EU directive could become UK law within as little as two years."British pension funds typically invest some 70% of their funds in equities and, if this law passes (Did I say 'if'? I mean 'when') they would have to drastically reduce this figure to bring Britain into line with many European countries where such investment in strictly limited by national law.But this is not madness, it is cold, hard method. The main alternative to equities in funded pension scheme portfolios are long-term financial instruments such as government bonds and, by a simple extension, EU bonds.
The EU is copying the form of America by forging a monolithic trading block, but ignoring the qualities that allowed America to prosper far beyond other large economic powers. The Soviet Union, China, India, all are or were, in the case of the Soviets, large unified economies, fully able to compete on a scale with America. They failed to do so because, as I hear so often, size doesn't matter. It's what you do with it that counts. America did not achieve superpower status because of the size of our country, or the resources we have. Remember, we've been a net importer of raw materials for decades. America achieved greatness based on the freedoms recognized in our Constitution. Power was kept in the hands of the people, and they used it to prosper.
As David's blog shows, the EU is following the traditional European model and centralizing power in the hands of the state. This will not lead to increased global power and economic might, but will lead Europe down the same path followed by the Soviets.
Sadly, the differences between the European and American models are shrinking rapidly. The Federal government is continuing to grow in size and scope, usurping the rights of the States and the people. If we allow this to continue, like this for example, then our ability to compete, to innovate will ossify. America will lose the very thing which made her great, to the detriment of the entire world. If America stumbles, the rest of the world will fall. This is not jingoistic hubris but economic reality. Of course, no great democracy has lasted for more than two or three hundred years before either rotting from within, or collapsing under its own bureaucratic weight. If we don't change course soon, we will join Europe in the has-been category, and some new energetic upstart will take center stage.
Keelhaul that bastard! David Carr of Samizdata performs a lovely skewering of a particularly meaningless bow in the face of Political Correctness.
Not all ships are TransAtlantic; some are TransGendered, cruising the lonely sea-lanes at night to find solace and company in a world which refuses to even acknowledge their existence!The first faltering steps to their liberation have been taken as ships everywhere find the courage to shout: "I'm coming out of dry-dock. I'm Tran-Sport and I'm Prow(d)"
Tribute to Sept. 11 From Glenn Reynolds comes this tribute site to Sept. 11. It takes awhile to load, but it is well worth the wait.
Circus or good purpose? TJ Butrick of Virtual Sanity makes a compelling case for keeping the horrific images of Sept 11 alive, rather than allowing them to slide into PC oblivion.
NBC apparently showed a clip of one person jumping, once, then apologized for showing it! On September 12, the image that struck me most, and haunts me still, was a photo on page 9 of the New York Post. In that image, 4 people are in freefall from the WTC, another is in the act of jumping. I venture to say that not a single person alive can imagine the desperation that drove these people to believe that jumping 100+ stories was the better option. We dishonor them by not telling the whole truth.
He links to Jonah Goldbergs article which inspired him, and I will too.
Mr. Lileks has a screed which says all that needs to be said about Michael Moore.
So I won't say anything else.
The Last Straw Another suicide bomber in Israel; another indication that there is no desire for peace from the Palestinian Authority.
The uselessness of negotiating with Arafat has never been clearer. Either he has control of the Intifadah, with its associated terrorist attacks, in which case they are operating with his knowledge and consent, or he has absolutely no control of Al-Aqsa, or other terrorist groups, in which case he is irrelevant to the peace process. In either case, negotiating with him is an exercise in futility.
So why does the EU insist that Arafat must be given room to maneuver? Why do they continue to act as his champion, supporting him with their prestige, and more vitally, their money? Why do they continue to pressure Israel and the US to deal with this man who has demonstrated time and again his outright treachery? Even with his record of lies and false promises, the EU still consider Arafat as the key to peace in the Middle East.
So the question is, "Why does the EU support this man?" Rather than taking the easy out and blaming anti-Semitism, I look in a different direction.
The EU is the new kid on the block, and they are trying to prove themselves on the international stage. As the piece in the Guardian showed, they want to be a power equal to the US on a global scale. In order to achieve that equality, they must demonstrate that their influence is equal to the US. This cannot be demonstrated by agreeing with US policy, since “Me too!” is hardly an expression of equality. So, the EU must set themselves up in opposition to the US, and make an impact, in order to demonstrate their equality. In a way, the EU is like a teenager defying his parents, in order to prove his independence. It doesn’t really matter what the issue is, or whether they are right or wrong; successful defiance is the goal.
The problem is that the individual European countries have been irrelevant on a global scale for so long that they are carrying a big chip on their shoulders, and want to show that they are no longer relatively powerless. Like an unruly teen they declare to the US, “You’re not the boss of me!” Sadly for them, that power they hunger for is still largely illusory. While trying to gather a coalition to support their actions, the US has demonstrated willingness, and more importantly the capability of acting independently. The EU is still very much a tag-a-long kid brother, and that infuriates them. The situation is an ironic twist on the American Revolution, with the EU now playing the part of the upstart youth. Unfortunately for Europe, second childhoods are usually marked more by progression to senility rather than to adulthood.
So, they picked the other side in an ongoing fight, not because they really believed in it, but because it was opposite the US. They backed Arafat. They pulled him in to some secret meetings, told him to play nice, and they would give him nice presents, and what the hell, he agreed. Europe stole a march on the US and accomplished what we could not. Peace in the Middle East was at hand.
Except that Arafat didn’t keep his promises. He took the money they gave him and bought weapons, and explosives. He funded training camps for his terrorists, and began making loud noises about Israel failing to hew to the accords, as he blatantly broke them. Europe couldn’t admit their mistake, so they continued to fund him, believing his promises that this time he really would build infrastructure. Except, he spelled it I-N-T-I-F-A-D-A-H. The translation was a little garbled.
And now the EU is stuck to Arafat tighter than Bre’r Rabbit on the tar baby. They’ve sunk not just their money and prestige in backing Arafat, but also their self-concept as a global player. Admitting that they backed the wrong side would be humiliating for the EU, and could possibly cause a complete breakup.
Reaction to the news:
Dept of Outrage Once again our Saudi allies show their true colors
Firefighters told the Saudi press that morality police forced girls to stay inside the burning building because they were not wearing the head scarves and black cloaks known as abayas that women must wear in public in that kingdom. One Saudi paper said the morality police stopped men who tried to help the girls escape the building, saying, "It is sinful to approach them."Girls died because zealots at the gate would rather see them burn than appear in public dressed inappropriately.
And the difference between the mutawwai'in and the Taliban is what?
Dept of unexpectd benefits Due to the budget shortfall here in Tennessee, the State Legislature has decided to reduce their sessions to one per week. Fewer meetings means less time to cause more damage. I like it!
Dept of double takes. Go here and place your mouse over the picture.
Yikes!
Dept of Discrimination Time to sue Mother Nature.
This is a star witness? The case against James Traficant is drawing to a close, and he is about to begin his defense. The prosecution's star witness took the stand yesterday.
Cafaro said under cross-examination that he has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and faces a sentence of up to two years in prison. He acknowledged that prosecutors have promised to recommend a shorter sentence — zero to six months — if he testifies truthfully in the Traficant trial.Traficant asked Cafaro why there was no physical evidence of the favors he did for the congressman.
"We didn't want anyone to know," Cafaro said.
Cafaro testified that over a 10-year period he gave Traficant three cars with a total value of close to $100,000, but never asked Traficant to pay for them.
During cross-examination, he said the cars were junk and that $10,000 Traficant later gave him was more than enough compensation.
If this was the best the government could do, Traficant would win. However, there seems to be no end to the people willing to testify against him. He'll be convicted by the sheer weight of the testimony.
A new name on the list I just added Spinsters.com to my permalinks section for their insightful commentary from two sides of the political spectrum; the right and the wrong. (Sorry Gena!) It also helps that Gena is from my hometown.
I didn't write this but I wish I did. Ken Layne did write it, in his Oscars column for Fox
Billy Bob's Ball: In a powerful film rumored to have been released somewhere in Los Angeles, Billy Bob Thornton overcomes his hatred of black people by sleeping with Halle Berry. KKK members around the country immediately vowed to give up racism if they too could sleep with Halle Berry. At press time, it was rumored that Yasser Arafat would make peace with Israel if he could sleep with Halle Berry. Truly a film for our time. (In related news, Billy Bob's wife Angelina Jolie will win the Best Visual Effects for her chest in "Tomb Raider.")
Dens of iniquity Thailand is worried about the decline in morality of their country, so they are taking drastic steps to protect their youth. That's right, they are banning kids under 18 from going into Karaoke bars.
Well, that's a relief. I was afraid they were going to close all the topless bars, sex shows, massage parlors, body shampoo bath houses, and the rest of the sex industry in Paddaya Beach and the Pat Pong. I was in Bangkok in 1989 while in the Navy. I was stationed aboard the USS Nimitz, and we pulled into Paddaya Beach for liberty. 3 buddies and I took a cab to Bangkok to see the sights, and brother, did we see some sights! I'd go into more detail, but remember, my mother reads this. Let's just I saw things that I didn't believe were anatomically possible, some of which continue to play a role in my nightmares!
But certainly, the Karaoke bar is a much greater threat to morality than having a naked girl lather herself up, and use her body as your washcloth. That's just good clean fun. But karaoke, with its dark, smoky bars, the loud music, the off key singing, it's a pit of the devil. If karaoke had been around when Dante wrote The Inferno, I'm sure he would have reserved a special ring of Hell for the purveyors of this moral disaster, complete with a karaoke machine with only two songs, Seasons in the Sun and Feelings, with an endless lines of demons screeching the treackly lyrics.
Karaoke is dangerous, especially for impressionable youngsters. Lord knows what they might do after hearing the 17th rendition of "I'm not a girl", which in Thailand may not be a metaphor, but a simple statement of fact. (Yikes) Let's not forget that karaoke has been documented to lead to murder. I can't count the times that I've wanted to open fire on a bad version of "My Way," but Frank is already dead, and shooting a record just doesn't carry the same satisfaction. Besides, we were talking about karaoke.
Lest you think this is just a foreign problem, (with apologies to Meredith Wilson)
either you are closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge...
Or you are not aware of the calibre of disaster
Indicated by the presence of Karaoke in your community
Weeellll, ya got trouble my friend
Right here, I say, trouble right here in Knoxville Tennessee
Why sure I'm a bluegrass singer, certainly mighty proud to say
I'm always mighty proud to say it
I consider that the hours I spend with a mic in my hand are golden
Help you cultivate tone sense, and a cool vibe and a keen falsetto
'Jever take and try and give an acapella bridge from a 3 part harmony?
Well, just as I say it takes judgement, brains and maturity
To sing in a bluegrass band
I say that any boob can take and sing along with a teleprompted disc.
And I call that sloth! The first big step on the road to the depths of degreda[tion].
I say first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon
Then beer from a bottle!
And the next thing you know, your son is playin'
air guitar in a lipsync band
And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper
Hearin' him talk about Making the Band
Not a wholesome four piece combo, but a pre-fab boy band singing at the mall!
Like to see some MIlli Vanilli singing on the Opry?
Make your blood boil? Well I should say!
Now friends, let me tell ya what I mean:
Ya got 1 2 3 4 5 6 CDs in a player
CD's that mark the diff'rence between a gentlemen and a jerk
With a capital J and that rhymes with K and that stands for Karaoke!
I say we leave the Last Chance in the Old City (a strip club, for all you non Knoxvillians) alone, and go down to Big Mama's Karaoke Cafe, located on Chapman Highway (now serving lunch) and protest the corruption of our children's morals. We'll picket the place to keep our boys pure!
(Pure boys!)
Thank you, Marcellus.
Floods and leaky basements Not a happy way to spend two days. We've been hammered over the last 48 hours with over 7 inches of rain, with more to come after a today's brief respite. And only last week, the Knoxville paper was talking about the serious drought, and how there was no end in sight.
Weather forecasting must be a pretty cool gig. You throw a dart at a map, make a guess, then report it on the local news. You may be right, you may be wrong, but you get to do it all over again the next day. Major league baseball players are the only other group I know of who can screw up 75% of the time, and still keep their jobs.
The scary thing is that the weather forecaster who can't predict what the weather will be like this weekend is the same guy who is predicting climate changes over the next century. The scarier thing is we take him seriously.
Sheeesh.
Dept of science Charles Murtaugh responded to my post about the papers suggesting that adult stem cells are not truly pluripotent unless exposed to embryonic stem cells with a comment which you can read below. I responded to him, then went to Nature to read the abstract (reg. req.)of one of the studies quoted in the report.
The abstract clearly states that the brain cells were mixed with ESC, and that the brain cells became pluripotent through absorbing the ESC. They go on to suggest that this absorption could explain the appearance of pluripotency in cells cultured from ASCs. However, ASCs have shown multipotency without being exposed to ESCs, so I am still unsure what this study proves. Charles has promised to write on his site about this, and when he does, I'll be sure and provide a link.
Dept of revisions Steven Spielberg is re-releasing ET on its 20th anniversery. Not only has he enhanced the special effects, a la George Lucas and the Star Wars--Special Edition Releases, he has decided to edit a few scenes for content, to eliminate objectionable material, like guns pointed at kids, and references to terrorists. What a sell out. Maybe we should re-edit Casablanca, and change the Nazi's to Confederates, one of the few groups it's still politically correct to hate.
Dept of Irrelevancy Miss Cleo is actually from LA, not Jamaica. I'm glad we finally got that settled!
Dept of Justice The jury deliberated quickly and sentenced Andrea Yates to life in prison.
Well done.
Dept of the Obvious pt.2 Clothes make make the man, but cosmetic surgery can't make him a woman. That's the upshot of a decision by the Kansas Supremem court in holding invalid a marriage between an 85 year old man and a 40 year old transexual. It's clearly the right decision. Surgical mutilation of external genitalia does not affect the sex of the recipient any more than having a mastectomy does.
Dept of deja vieux Tipper Gore may be running for the Senate seat being vacated by Fred Thompson, although most stories are referring to it as Al's old seat.
What is it with the Gore families attempt to imitate the Clintons? Maybe the next thing we'll here is Al claiming that he didn't have sex with Monica Lewinski either.
Dept of Movies by XEROX Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to star in a slew of sequels and remakes ovr the next few years. Terminator 3, Conan 3, and a remake of Westworld. Monosyllabic barbarians and murderous robots: Talk about typecasting.
Dept of bald faced lies. Trent Lott has announced that he will block the appointment of Daschle's legal assistant to the FCC, on the grounds that he doesn't have enough experience. Lott insists this has nothing to do with the Daschle led Judiciary Committee's rejection of Pickering.
Dept of the Obvious Rosie O'Donnell has announced that she is gay. Was there anyone in the civilized world who didn't know this already?
Probably an Urban Legend But still funny!
KILLER BISCUITS WANTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER (the actual AP headline) Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, was visiting her in-laws and while there went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows Rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head.One customer who had been at the store for a while became
Concerned and walked over to the car. He noticed that Linda's eyes were
now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay, and
Linda replied that she'd been shot in the back of the head, and had been
Holding her brain in for over an hour. The man called the paramedics, who broke
Into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove
her hands from her head.
When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad
of bread stuck to the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had
exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and
the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to
find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains.
She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold
her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her
aid.
And, yes, Linda is a blonde.
UPDATE And yes, this is an urban legend. I love the Snope page! The sad part is our local paper, The Knoxville News Sentinal is mentioned in the article as one of several mainstream media outlets which published the story as fact. Where's Frank Cagle when you need him?
More gridlock Well, it's over and Pickering is done.
But all 10 committee Democrats stood firm against Pickering -- and effectively sent a message to Bush to offer mainstream nominees, not potentially divisive ones, in the future.The nine committee Republicans backed Pickering. They noted the nominee had earned the American Bar Association's highest rating, ``well qualified,'' and said he had become a racial unifier in the South only to see his reputation tarnished, largely by liberal special-interest groups.
Too bad Leno's joke writers aren't this good. The sad part is this is serious news. "Well qualified" and "a racial unifier." I guess that isn't mainstream to a liberal.
Compensation and controversy I'm hearing a lot of moaning and groaning over how much money the families of the victims of 9/11 are getting, and how some families are getting more than others, and the military gets les than all of them, and the Oklahoma folks didn't get the same as the New Yorkers. On and on in an endless blather that eventually resolves into the petulance of a two year old brat. (Damn, that's harsh...) Do they really have a legitimate gripe? Am I just being a heartless bastard? Or should we be concerned with the equity of victim compensation? Should the family of a fire fighter be paid more or less than the family of a janitor? Should we appropriate some of the money from the Red Cross to give to the families of the victims of the OK. City bombing? Should we take some of the federal money and enhance the death benefits for those servicemen who have died in the Afghan war?
OK, first things first. OK City folks got compensated by what was considered a fair amount at that time. They got federal assistance, and the Red Cross was there for them as well. Just because somebody else is getting more now does not mean you were somehow entitled to more then. You're not talking about fairness here, you're talking about greed, pure and simple. "He got more than I did. I want more now!" Grow up. You're here, which means you survived, which means the compensation was adequate. Move on.
Next, the military, fireman, and police. Every person who serves in these organizations knows that (s)he is putting his life on the line just by going to work in the morning. She knows that the chance exists that she won't be coming home that night. It goes with the job. Each and every one of them has a death benefits package which they are fully aware of when they first start the job. They accept the job, knowing the risks, the benefits, and the compensations. It is a measure of their heroic nature that they chose to take on the risk, knowing these things. They accepted the job; they are owed nothing more. However, to all the people crying about how these poor families are not getting what they deserve, I challenge you to contact the NYPD or the FDNY, and adopt a family of one of the victims. Put your money where your mouth is and help support that family. Make it a neighborhood project, or church project. If you feel they deserve more money, then by all means, give it to them.
Finally, let's talk about the civilian victims, the folks who just went to work at the office, never dreaming for an instant that they wouldn't be going home that evening. How much compensation do their families deserve? Sorry, but that isn't a question that can be answered. How do you put a monetary figure on a life? How can you determine what a father is worth? Do you tote up his paycheck over an average of thirty years, throw in 20% for emotional bereavement, and call it compensation? Of course not.
The money that was donated to the Red Cross came from the hearts of millions of Americans, most of whom wanted to help, and who reached out in the only way they could. This money was not given as compensation, but as an outpouring of sympathy, and solidarity. So how do we parcel it out? Should we divide the money by 3000 and give it all to the victims families? That appears to be the popular solution, but the sum is so large that it is causing an outbreak of greed that dishonors all of those who died.
Maybe we could apportion the money in a reasonable amount to the families of the victims, then use the rest to fund future catastrophies. Well, that was the original plan, but some well meaning, albeit muddle headed, people objected to that, saying the donations were for the victims families, and by God, they should get every penny. In fact the Red Cross director resigned over that issue. It's too bad, because this was the most equitable solution.
Reactions to the news In a continuation of the administrations attempt to crack down on illegal immigration, the INS granted student visas posthumously to Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi. Two more illegal aliens off the street. Way to go INS!
The House bassed a bill today to reduce the number of class action suits filed in state courts in an attempt to stop some of the frivolous suits clogging court calandars, as well as reducing the exorbitant legal fees lawyers collect while their clients get a coupon or two. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America claim that such a law would unlawfully reduce their profits, and promised to file a class action suit if the bill became law.
There is a movement afoot to make Sept 11 a national holiday. Other events up for consideration include the Johnstown Flood, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Massacre at Wounded Knee, and the assassination of JFK.
OK, I'm not a scientist I don't even play one on TV, but something smells fishy here. A couple of studies were done to discredit the idea that adult stem cells may be as flexible as embryonic stem cells. Forget for a moment that the study began with a result already in mind, lets look at the methodology. They used embryonic stem cells for the study! Now, they want to say that this throws doubt on adult stem cells plasticity. Doesn't it actually throw doubt on ESC plasticity?
A Gore Comeback? John Ellis has a new post where he claims that Al Gore will win the Democratic nomination.
As I posted earlier, in order for Gore to have even a slim shot at the nomination, he would have to do some major image manipulation, as well as have several breaks go his way.
Let's look at Mr. Ellis' points.
He is universally known among Democratic primary voters. He is fairly well regarded. He is especially well-liked among Southern Democratic primary voters. He's a proven fund-raiser and organizer of political campaigns. He speaks with authority on a range of popular Democratic issues (health and pensions, the environment and arms control). But most important, because of his long experience in government and his 8 years of service as vice president, he is perceived by most voters to be "on the raft." He is someone they can imagine as president.
'Universally known' as the guy who lost an unloseable election rarely translates into electoral success.
As for 'fairly well regarded', the man failed to win his home state.
'Popular with southern primary voters' see above.
'Proven fund raiser' was true four years ago. How many requests has he had to go out and raise funds for the 2002 Election cycle? Pretty quiet out there.....
'Authority on popular democratic issues' Note that the issues mentioned do not include any issues which are at the top of the public consciousness right now. Do you really think Al could run on an arms control platform now?
'Somebody they could imagine as president.' Members of his campaign staff were quoted as being grateful that Al was not President on Sept. 11.
John goes on to say:
Second, it means that in the great issue triad of American politics (the national security, the economy and the culture), national security will, for the first time since 1988, be a voting concern.
Funny, I didn't see national security or foreign policy listed as an area of expertise for Al in John's earlier listing. If that is going to be a major campaign issue, and the candidate is weak in that area, how will that help him?
As I said before, for Gore to make a real run for the nomination, he'll need some major help. The beard isn't enough.
Sgt. Stryker has a new blog, and if the rest is like the firstpost, it will be another keeper.
It won't be so bad after all. Why, we can spend the rest of the movie just playing and eating and frolicking in Paradise. It's not soon after the demons arrive and the carnage begins in earnest. Holy Shit! That tubby kraut kid's stuck in the tube! Save him! Get him out of there! Poor Gloop. Wonka, saviour of children everywhere, release Tubby from his plastic encasement! Swoosh! The kid's gone.Wonka has killed. He will kill again. The six year olds in the theater sit in stunned horror, gazing upon Gene's malevolent grin. The parents are laughing. They're in on it. Sweet merciful heaven, a murder's been committed, somebody call the police!
That about wraps it up for Global Warming Sallie Baliunas testified before Jumpin' Jimmie Jeffords' committee on global warming, and the role our greenhouse gas emissions play.
Based on the key temperature measurements of the last several decades, the actual response of the climate to the increased concentration of carbon dioxide and other human-made greenhouse gases content in the air has shown no significant man-made global warming trend. The magnitude of expected human change is especially constrained by the observed temperature trends of the lower troposphere.This means that the human global warming effect, if present, is small and slow to develop.
She also shows that without Kyoto, temperature is expected to rise 1 degree celsius over 50 years, and that with Kyoto, temperature would rise .94 degrees celsius over the same time period. HArdly woth the billions it would cost to redue the temperature by .06 degrees. She then goes on to show that the models which came up with these forcasts are badly flawed, and do not agree with observed data. In short, Global warming is bunk.
The House of Representatives voted last night to approve extending amnesty for illegal aliens in the United States. To see how your representative voted, go here.
My representative, Bill Jenkins, voted NO. Thanks Bill. Knoxville's rep, Van Hilleary did not vote.
The verdict is in Andrea Yates has been found guilty of capital murder. I wrote briefly about it last night, but have deleted that post in favor of this expanded version.
It was clear that under Texas law, the insanity defense would not hold. Andrea Yates waited until her husband had left for work because she knew he would stop her. She called the police immediately after she finished drowning her last child. She knew what she did was wrong, but in her mental state, did it anyway. This does not meet the test for insanity under Texas law, and the jury returned a guilty verdict in under 4 hours. But the question remains,"Was this justice?"
Andrea Yates suffered from post partum depression with psychosis, a mental condition resulting from neurochemical imbalances following pregnancy. She had attempted suicide, and was under medical treatment after her previous pregnancy. She was advised by her doctor not to have any more children, as it would be dangerous for her mental and physical health. Yet she became pregnant again. This, it could be argued, represents depraved indifference not towards the baby she was carrying, but to the other children, who were now at risk from their mother's psychosis. Certainly Mrs. Yates bears some culpability here.
Now, let's consider a hypothetical situation. Andrea Yates is found not guilty by reason of insanity. Now the jury has to decide if she requires committal or not. Obviously, she will be committed, at least for awhile, but since her psychosis is linked to pregnancy, it is highly likely that within a year or two, she will be pronounced sane, and allowed to leave the hospital. Now, she's back on the street, and rejoined with her husband, who stood by her all during the trial and committal. How long before she is pregnant again? How long before we have more children at risk? How long before we have more bodies in the bath tub?
We can't commit her indefinitely, based on what we think she might do. Just as obviously, we can't force her to give up her reproductive rights. Once declared sane, she has the right to become pregnant again, even knowing what the outcome will be. We couldn't stop her, nor should we have the right to do so. This is a complete no-win scenario.
Fortunately, we aren't facing that. The law was clear, and the jury convicted her. She's either going to face life in prison, or the death penalty. I am biased against the death penalty, but even if I weren't, I think this case calls for a life sentence. She can get the treatment she needs, then spend the rest of her life protected from her inability to control her own actions, even while sane.
So yes, this is a just decision.
Reactions to the news: Tom Ridge just announced a new color coded system to detail the terrorist threat levels. The colors are green, followed by blue, yellow, orange and red as the situation gets more perilous. He immediately reduced the usefulness of the system by declaring the current status as "somewhat chartreuse, with pale puce highlights."
President George Bush is putting more pressure on Saddam Hussein, declaring that the status quo will not stand. Did I just lose a decade?
In a breaking story, a last minute addition to the House schedule, HR 1885, which extends the amnesty period for illegal aliens to apply for new visas, was passed in the House by a voice vote of 275-137. Silly me, when they said they were going to work to eliminate illegal immigration, I assumed that meant reducing the number of bodies entering and staying in America illegally. This is much better, and cheaper too. We just make them legal after the fact. Presto, illegal immigration is reduced. Can we use the same tactic to wipe out violent crime as well?
Just when California thought the shortages were over, they run out of lettuce. How will gray Davis handle this looming crisis? Based on his past performance, he will run to the growers, promise three times the going rate for the next three years, and get the lettuse not one second sooner than if he would have waited. He will then demand a federal subsidy for the salad bar industry, and blame President Bush for the bad weather which caused the crop delays. The average Claifornian will ridicule Davis, but still blame Bush, because, after all, he is a Republican.
Richard Riordan has castigated Davis, and claims that if he had been in charge, there would be lettuce for everybody, paid for by government grants. Bill Simon just cut another piece of steak and smiled.
Comments are here. Let me know what you think. Hey, it could be your chance for fortune and glory!
Happy happy joy joy! A topic at last! Nothing has really leapt out at me in the news today until I found this bit by Nick Denton.
The web and weblogs were supposed to reflect the kaleidoscope of opinion. But Blogger has made weblogging so easy that even conservatives can do it. And now the political weblogs - at least the ones to which we all link - have become monotously hawkish. Not Jerry Falwell conservative, of course. But yelling talk-radio poor-are-lazy Clinton-is-evil fuck-the-Saudis fuck-the-Europeans fuck-everybody conservatives. (Okay, not you, Matt.) They make me feel like a bleeding-heart liberal, which is quite an achievement. Where are the liberal weblogs? Okay, let me rephrase that: where are the well-written liberal weblogs?
In the first place, Nick, weblogs do reflect the kalaidoscope of opinion, but what makes you think they were ‘supposed to’? According to whom? Weblogs are supposed to reflect the opinions of anybody motivated enough to maintain one. And that is exactly what they do. There is no entry fee to separate the rich from the poor, nor is there some insidious virus hidden in the software which mutes the voice of liberals. Nor is there some editorial bias that restricts liberal voices from publishing whatever they want. So where else can we look to explain the paucity of liberal voices in the blogosphere?
Maybe we should look at the liberals themselves, since there are no barriers preventing equal representation. Apparently the liberal just doesn’t want to compete in the open marketplace of ideas. The classical liberal is after all an elitist. As Nick points out in his snide comment, even conservatives can blog successfully, which certainly would be off putting to any true liberal.. Oh the horror! Liberals much prefer the sanctified atmoshere of the ivory towers, where they can pretend to be relevant, and where dissent can be peremptorily overruled based on status, rather than on merit.
It’s also possible that there is a Darwinian selection going on in this unregulated marketplace. I’m sure there may be well written liberal blogs out there. It’s just that nobody reads them, just like nobody studies Lysenkoism. They have both proven irrelevant in the real world. It can’t be an accident that, as Nick points out, the blogs we all link to share a certain viewpoint. What Nick fails to understand is that viewpoint is shared not through coersion, or some sort of group think conformity, but from an honest appraisal of the facts. We have been attacked by a group that does not discern between combatants and non-combatants, except as it impacts ease of operations. We have been attacked by a group which has sworn to use violence to sway us from our chosen path. We have been attacked by an enemy who considers us the root of evil, the ‘great Satan’ and vowed to exterminate us, and our way of life. These facts do not need evaluation; they demand action. A little clue for you Nick, when somebody kicks you in the nuts, it’s OK to fight back. Otherwise they’ll kick you harder the next time.
Another possibility is that there are no well written liberal blogs because it is almost impossible to intellectually defend such an emotional ideology. Liberalism has always sprung from the heart, and very rarely can be defended with hard data, and instead relies on appeals to emotion, rabble rousing, and naked attempts to bribe followers. Hard to base a blog on that. Well, you could, but every post would be ripped to shreds within minutes of posting. Rather like yours has been Nick.
Ouch! Lileks has another winner of a bleat. Be careful. There's a 180 at the end which could cause whiplash
My Sept. 11 It's been 6 months now and everybody will be posting something about 9-11. I'm no different, but my take on it is.
For years, I've heard people talk about where they were when they heard JFK was shot. It seems that almost everybody knew where they were, and they were doing. It was an event which transcended it's own reality, and defined a generation.
Now it has happened again. When the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, it fit into a context, and we could deal with it. There was a war on, and while we weren't actively participating, we were engaged, particularly in the European theater. On september 11, on the other hand, we really weren't engaged in any wars, nor was there a major global conflict in progress. The morning started like any other.
I was at my desk at work, getting ready to go into the plant, when Michael stuck his head in the door, and asked if I'd heard anything about a plane crashing into the WTC. This was shortly before 9AM, and he was on his way into the plant for a tour. I told him I'd check it out, and he went on in.
My first clue that something major was going on was my inability to get to any news sites. All of the web sites were jammed. I didn't have access to a radio, so I kept trying the web. I was trying to find out what was going on, if it was a rumor, or for real. I went to a Yahoo club to see if anybody there knew what was going on, and got my first confirmation that it was real. A member of the club lived in Jersey, and had a view of the Manhattan skyline, including the WTC. He started posting shortly after the second plane hit, and kept me up to date on all that was going on.
I couldn't help thinking at the time how amazing this was, that I was sitting at a desk in East Tn, talking to an eyewitness, as events unfolded. I was passing the word on to my co-workers, including the collapse of the towers. Another co-worker managed to connect to BBC radio online, and we started getting some professional commentary, but it was usually five minutes or so behind what I was getting from my contact. Through the internet, we wee hearing everything as it happened, unfiltered by editorial decisions, or slants. I had the very real sense of being part of the story, instead of just an observer.
Then we started hearing about the attack on Washington, that the Pentagon was destroyed, and the Mall was on fire. That last report was one of many that turned out to be wrong, but we listened to every bit of news that came our way. We heard about the crash in Pa, and instinctively knew what had happened, that the passengers had fought back. The confirmation was the first piece of good news in a long morning.
My contact left to go help in the rescue efforts, and we worried about him for three days, until he came back on, exhausted, but uninjured.
Around noon, work closed down and the plant was evacuated. During the drive home, I kept the radio on, listening to local radio host Hallerin Hill, as he provided somewhere around 20 hours of continuous coverage. I kept looking at the sky, not expecting to see anything, but noting the complete lack of contrails for the only time in my life.
I got home around 1:30 and joined my family in front of the TV, and saw my first real pictures of the WTC, and the Pentagon. I switched channels, searching for new information, but hearing the same things over and over again. The pictures brought a visceral reaction, but coming from the television they lacked immediacy. There was none of the intensity of waiting for the next line of text from my contact. His stark message, "The second tower has just collapsed," carried more emotional weight than seeing the tower collapse a couple of hours later. TV put a distance between me and the events of that morning.
9/11 changed a lot of things, but the biggest change is going on almost behind the scenes. And no, I'm not talking about the "Shadow Government." This blog you are reading, and most of the other blogs out there were born out of the immediacy of the web during 9/11. For the first time, the average man had a voice, and he used it, and found out he had something to say. Even more astonishing, he found out that there were people who wanted to listen to what he had to say, even when it was radically different from what the talking heads were saying. Perhaps because it was radically different. We didn't have to listen to what Brokaw wanted to talk about, we could find a primary source. Think about it: An anonymous man living in Jersey kept a group of people in East Tn informed about everything that was going on in NYC during the first chaotic hours after the attack. We heard about what was going on before the major outlets put it out, and in more detail. Our information was first hand, not filtered through the sensibilities of the major news media. And we liked it.
Now, we have Instapundit, and Quasipundit, and Sgt. Stryker, and Andrew Sullivan, and so many others, all with various areas of expertise and experience, and all sharing that expertise freely with the rest of us. Any event is analysed, thoroughly discussed, and resolved in the blogosphere well before the 6 o'clock news gets around to spending 45 to 90 seconds on it. As Glenn said today, he writes about what interests him, which means we get a point of view that is impassioned rather than disinterested, and since most bloggers are the same, we can always find somebody somewhere who is interested in any event, and generate a discussion. Once again, we can deal with the primaries of an event, rather than have to go through secondaries, and intermediaries. We can ask the experts the questions that the networks never seem to think of. WE have our own network of experts, and they are all willing to comment. This network will experience a shake out eventually, as do all startups. Hobbyists will find a new enthusiasm upon which to spend there time; others will grow frustrated with a lack or readership, and will shift to a new venue, and still others will grow bored, and quit. But before this happens, blogs will change the face of modern journalism.
The change is already occurring, with major media outlets scooping up bloggers for their staff, or starting their own blogs. This is only the first wave, and it to will face a shakeout. The bigger changes will occur within the newsroom itself. How long before editors begin to look at blogging as a rapid ratings/polling tool? If a story is picked up by bloggers, and has legs, it will stay in the news casts. If it vanishes from the blogs, so will it vanish from the news. Can you think of a cheaper way to measure the interest in a story? How about paying bloggers to publish for an internet news service? Think about what some of our bloggers, and what they could do if they didn't also have to work for a living. One of the chief complaints made against blogs is they are heavy on commentary, and light on journalism. Although that hasn't seemed to slow down many other news outlets, it is a valid charge against blogs. Of course, blogs did develop as a response to the Sunday morning blowhards who have completely lost touch with the average citizen, but, as shown by my Jersey contact, blogs can be instruments of true journalism. Bloggers close to the source of a story can come baack with inside information. Just think if a member of Arthur Andersen had a blog. Or Enron, for that matter. There was an engineer with NASA who ran a blog on the construction of the Space Station, revealing some of the politics behind the decisions and delays. He posted until they threatened him with his job, but until he stopped, we had a window into an area normally hidden from the public. Multiply these examples by a thousand, and see what true Freedom of Information could be.
The biggest change may be in the field of analysis and commentary. Look at ABC and how they just cancelled Nightline. Did bloggers cause that? No, but it was brought about by the very forces which are creating the rise of blogging. The ability to comment instantly on a story fresh off the AP wires is something that print and television cannot compete with. Static by nature, they can't update, respond, clarify, or analyse with anything near the efficiency of the blog. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sunday shows are next. They will become irrelevant, and they too will be cancelled. The days when a flack can get on the tube and bluster his way through an hour without really saying anything are over. Anything he says will be fact checked, analysed and debunked before the lights on the set are cool.
Which leads us back to 9/11. If nothing else, 9/11 dramatically showed the depth of the gulf between the average American, and the intellectual elite. Those in the ivory towers are still wanting to talk about it, try to appease the terrorists, or to apologize to them. The elites believe that war is an admission of failure, that there is always a compromise, a way to maintain peace. The man on the street has a clearer concept of what happened, and wants to do whatever it takes to keep his family safe, and prevent it from happening again. If that involves the application of force, the exercise of violence, then that is what he will do. The elites have had a couple of generations to present their argument that the common man cannot understand these issues and is not capable of conducting his affairs without the intervention of a paternalistic government to keep him safe from harm. 9/11 showed that intervention is based on a false promise. The federal government cannot keep us safe, even if we were to give up all of our liberties.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." * Benjamin Franklin
Via Instapundit for any of you who read me and not him (yeah, right!):
Every day, these people are probing, testing, finding the weak spots in the system. The government has to stop all of them each and every time. They just have to get through once. Richard Reid was within a few seconds of blowing up a trans-Atlantic jet before his fellow passengers jumped on him. Maybe the next Richard Reid will find himself seated next to a Todd Beamer type. Or maybe he'll get lucky and the next seat will be filled by an Ivy League professor immersed in a long article in Harper's about how crass and misguided America's war on terrorism is because we're not concentrating on the "root causes," and he won't notice the smoking loafer until it's too late. The enemy has a simple war aim: Kill Americans--and if, along the way, you happen to kill a few Aussies, Japanese, Pakistanis or the nationals of some 70 other countries who died on Sept. 11, well, that's no big deal. Mission accomplished.
The author is Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun Times, and the rest of this column is here.
Mr. Steyn contrasts the behavior of the President with the behavior of Congress. As you may guess, Congress doesn't fare very well, although he doesn't spare Bush for the ugly steel tariff decision.
I'm reading Instapundit's coverage of 9/11/01 and I came across this post.
WHEN WILL WE GET BACK TO NORMAL? A colleague asked me that today. "This is normal," I replied. For most of human history, wondering when somebody from another tribe was going to try to kill you was the standard activity. In much of the world, it still is. Three million people have died in the Congo in the past couple of years. Before that, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Middle East, Cambodia, -- you get the idea. It's only in comparatively strong and wealthy Western nations that we can pretend that safety is normal. It really isn't all that normal for us, either. In the past hundred years we've had two world wars and a bunch of others. In the 19th Century we had the Civil War, the War of 1812 (in which most of DC was burned), etc., etc.
"Normal" is what we call those brief periods when something normal isn't happening.
He nailed it in that last line. Only our arrogance, supported by our wealth, allows us to think that peace is the normal state of affairs. We've been given an ugly reminder of that fact.