How about the Fog of Peace? Link via RealPolitik. There are some excellent points in Brook's article. A definite must read.
4:03:27 PM
Sparse posting days ahead
Until I get a manuscript in the mail!
11:18:14 AM
Saturday, September 21, 2002
Saddam says no to new UN resolutions
So let's get moving. He had his chance to comply, and is instead trying to dictate to the UN what terms he finds "acceptable". It is apparent that he will continue to play the UN like fools and simpletons, and even more clear that the UN will allow him to do just that. The US said it was willing to allow unconditional inspections, but both the UN and Iraq have now shown what they interpret "unconditional" to mean. Send Scott Ritter over on a peace mission, and launch the full scale attack as soon as we are sure he is in the same room with his new best buddy, Saddam.
5:00:58 PM
And the worm squirms
So now Schroeder feels the need to apologize for the comments made by his defense minister, while simultaneously insisting that she never made them. This sounds like spinmeistering of a most frantic sort, and Schroeder is trying control the damage before the week-end elections.
Here is a nice little historical perspective on why most Arabs left Israel in 1948. Not because the Jews forced them to, but because some Arab leaders promised them that it would only take a matter of weeks to destroy Israel, and the Arabs could then return at their leisure.
I sure wish 1 major news outlet, just one, would actually refer the the West Bank and Gaza as the "disputed territories" rather than the "occupied territories". It seems to me occupied suggests that the country doing the occupying was the aggressor. In this case, Israel was defending itself, and captured these lands by routing the Arab armies. If the Arabs would have left Israel alone, Gaza and the West Bank would be neither occupied nor disputed, but Arab.
4:48:39 PM
Just got back
From a gun show here in Baton Rouge. These things are pretty standard, but I like to go and just look around. But I did see an interesting thing happen at the one today. I had been looking for a Mossberg model 500 shotgun, and stopped by 1 vendor to see what they had. While there, I ran across a fairly irate guy who was incensed because he couldn't buy the rifle he wanted. He had filled out the form, and the vendor had received a "delay" code. Now, delay is different than "deny", but it means that there is some reason that the database is unable to give you a "proceed" ranking, meaning that you can't purchase the firearm you were interested in. The vendor explained to the guy that the most likely reason was that the database was unable to process the request in a timely fashion, which apparently happens if it receives a lot of requests in a short period of time. Now, I have no idea if this is true or not. But it was nice to see evidence that there is no "gun show loophole" in real life.
4:36:33 PM
Friday, September 20, 2002
Arafat "Pleads" for help
If he could control the murderous bastards within his own government that choose to blow up innocent people, he wouldn't be in this mess. Surely all of the Warblog Watchers will be taking Dr. Weevil up on his offer of free airfare. The original Shropshire challenge was intended to provide airfare to Iraq to serve in a human shield brigade. I'm sure we could change the destination to Ramallah, with a continuation to Baghdad if necessary.
4:26:20 PM
No, No, No, I meant the OTHER Adolph Hitler
The German beaurocrat who is quoted as comparing Bush's policies to those of Adolph Hitler is now claiming she was misquoted. It's great to know that this good old standby of saying anything you want and then blaming the press for carelessness is alive and well in countries other than the US. Lots of good old boilerplate to spread around:
"The unbelievably loaded reporting in the election campaign has begun to damage the good relations with the United States
Yeah, that and the fact that you refuse to support us on Iraq, and threatened to withhold evidence against Massoui because he might get the death penalty.
"I don't have to answer for the reporting ... but I believe that relations between our countries are good despite the unbelievably emotion-charged discussion over the Iraq conflict."
No, you don't have to answer for the reporting, especially if its correct. What you should have the balls to do is answer for yourself; don't say it if you don't mean it.
But the newspaper that reported the remarks stands by its story:
The chief editor of the Schwaebisches Tagblatt said Friday he stood by the remarks as reported, insisting that several witnesses had confirmed Daeubler-Gmelin's choice of words. The editor, Christoph Mueller, also said his reporter had checked the wording with Daeubler-Gmelin herself when she telephoned to clarify her remarks.
Let's just hope it jumps up to bite our "friend" Gerhard Schroeder in the ass in the upcoming elections.
4:13:59 PM
American RealPolitik
Rocks! Look at the cartoons (this one of Kofi is really nice), read the commentary. Definitely worth a daily read.
3:55:51 PM
Some people
Just shouldn't have children. I love the way CNN uses the word "allegedly" when describing the beating the 4 year old took from her mother. The mother is now at large, and apparently her family is being less than cooperative in helping police find her. If she does this in public, think about what must happen to these kids (mom has 3 in all) in the privacy of their own home.
Update
Go here to view the video. Then decide for yourself whether or not there's any "allegedly" about it.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson was here in Baton Rouge, to talk to some of our "younger generation". Sounds like lots of the same rhetoric and pump 'em up pep rally stuff. However there are a couple of points in his message to students at Southern University and LSU that are telling:
"To turn our back on Al Quaida who struck us September 11th and now shift to Sadaam Hussein is in fact to spread terrorism and not to contain it," says Jackson.
Hmmmmmm. So going after Saddam makes us the terrorists. Unless, of course, there were a Democrat in the White House, it which case it would be a continuing heroic struggle against terrorism. Except for the fact that if Gore were in office, we probably would have already surrendered to the Taleban (after killing a couple of camels in a cruise missle attack, and then declaring the war unwinnable), and my wife would be shopping for burqas.
I also liked this bit:
Reverend Jackson also encouraged students to stay in school and vote when they turn 18. He told LSU Lab students in the Capitol's Senate Chamber Room he would rather see them deal strong blows at the polls then on a battlefield in Iraq.
Isn't this what has the black caucus so upset? The fact that a group of people dealt "strong blows" to some candidates they felt did not represent their views? But Jesse says that it's OK afterall. Who'd a thunk it?
Update
This story, from another Baton Rouge news source, shows that some of Jackon's message is very helpful and positive. If only he would drop the jingoism and victemology.
9:43:15 AM
Whatever happened to school discipline?
Man, I would hate to be a teacher in grade school. It's bad enough dealing with adults in a graduate program (and I use adults to refer to physical age, not emotional and intellectual maturity). I think the teacher was wrong to tape the little girl's mouth shut (should have sent her to the principles office, etc). But to have the teacher be physically assaulted by the mother is a wee bit extreme, too. If the mother had spent half of the energy in disciplining her own child that she expended roughing up a kindergarten teacher, this whole affair would probably never have happened.
9:28:02 AM
Hey, I work for a "Quasi-Parental Hug Factory"
Here's a nice essay on how universities have morphed from a bastions of free speech to hovels of "say anything you want, as long as it doesn't offend any ethnic or religious group". Jews and Americans, however, seem to be exempt from the "offend clause". From Instapundit.
Here is a beautiful op-ed piece from the UK Mirror. Drives home the fact that not everyone hates the US. The money shot?
The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.
Great to hear that this New Zealand artist thought the September 11th attacks were "wonderful". And she's the queen of Moral Equivalence as well. Quoth the moron:
"Since September 11, I've been asking people how that day was for them - almost inevitably I get the answer that in the end, it was wonderful."
She should come to Baton Rouge and ask that question. Or else stop hanging out at fundamentalist mosques when taking her surveys. And isn't the word she is looking for "invariably" rather than "inevitably"? Invariable means that people give the same answer, inevitable means that the conclusion is sort of foregone, as in "we progress inevitably towards death". However, I suspect this particular loon has very selective hearing. I would guess a typical conversation with her might go something like:
She: Isn't that a beautiful sunset! It's just wonderful.
Innocent bystander: Yep, its a wonderful sunset.
She: Oh, I agree! And what about my shoes, aren't they wonderful?
Innocent bystander: Yep, they sure are wonderful all right.
She: Oh, I agree. So what did you think of the events of September 11th, 2001? Weren't they just wonderful?
Innocent bystander: What? Are you crazy? Why, they were terrible! How can you forget the sight of those innocent people leaping to their deaths, the sound of their bodies hitting the pavement, the buildings falling in slow motion, the grief stricken families wondering around downtown Manhattan looking for their loved ones, or the site of the Palestinians dancing in the streets, celebrating the barbaric act like something wonderful had just happened?
What She hears: blahblahblahblahblahblah. blahblahblahblahblahblah wonderful blahblah.
She: Oh yes, you are so right! I'm glad we agree.
Innocent bystander: ?
"What I found, when I went into work the day after, everyone was accusing somebody, everyone had something bad to say about somebody else, whether it was Bush or Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda or whatever - someone was in the wrong and I found that position quite hard to handle."
Notice how Bush is first in the "blame someone" brigade. Let's blame the leader of a country that just suffered a devastating terrorist attack before we mention the perpetrators of the crime. I didn't know that masterminding the hijacking of planes for use as guided missles to kill thousands of people could be dismissed with a simple "or whatever". It is, however, just a hint of things to come.
As part of her doctorate, completed last year, Haffern created an exhibition and wrote an accompanying book called Control Room which dealt with institutionalised control. "With every adversity a scapegoat is found," she wrote, quoting Nietzsche.
Awwwww, poor little Taleban and Al Qaeda. They were scapegoated. Apparently having culpability has nothing to do with it. If you are criticised or found quilty, it is just because you were being treated as a scapegoat. But it gets better.
"Resentment and grievance spring from a ... framework that sources suffering as always originating from the other person.
Well, duh. If I cut my finger while preparing dinner, I usually get mad at myself for being careless. If someone else stabs me with a knife, I'll probably resent them for it, and feel as if I have a justifiable grievance against them. None of those innocent people who died that day flew the plane that killed them. Therefore some other person must have flown the plane that killed them, resulting in the surviving husbands, wives, children, and friends feeling pretty damn resentful about the entire situation. But there we go, in our simplistic way, scapegoating again.
"My doctorate dealt with people in the wrong and I came to the conclusion there is not right or wrong, no evil, no good," she says.
Ahhhhhh, moral equivalence distelled to its very essence. I suppose, in the natural world, this is true. If a lion kills you, it is because he wants to eat you, not because he is inherently evil. If you aren't strong enough to defend yourself, then you end up lunch. But to sit back and declare that there is no inherent evil in the murder of 3,000 innocent civilians (whose only crime, apparently, was to be taxpayers) is stupidity on the highest order. She came to the conclusion that there is no right or wrong? Well, great for her. I have come to the conclusion that she is a simpering idiot.
"The only thing that is good is life on this planet and we are part of it. The way we behave - I can't see it in moralistic terms any more."
I don't even know what this means. Just by being alive means we are good: our actions don't account for anything? Then why are we wasting time with the UN and 400 more resoultions telling Saddam he is a bad man, and please let our weapons inspectors look at your carefully selected sites, and while you're at it could you please stop murdering thousands of Kurds? What we need are a few UN resolutions chiding the Kurds for their unreasonable scapegoating of Saddam, and the inappropriate feelings of resentment that come from watching entire communities be slaughtered by a man who is not good, not evil, but just plain old Saddam. In this numbskulls worldview, there is no good or evil, so Saddam can't be judged. But since there is no good or evilour actions against him ALSO can't be judged. Note to Saddam: We're the lion. Soup's on.
The comments contain a lot of nice observations. Namely that there is no "gun control loophole", and that there is no evidence that gun control deters crime one little bit (some argue, convincingly, that gun control makes it worse)
I was looking at the Brady Centers page, and came across this nonsense, a PR release dealing with Charelton Heston's announcement that he is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. It's not nonsense because of the sentiment towards Heston, but because of this phrase gratuitously tucked into the "we are genuinely sorry" verbiage:
"As you know, we at the Brady Campaign, the Brady Center and the Million Mom March, strongly disagree with Charlton Heston and the National Rifle Association in their opposition to life-saving, sensible gun laws.....
Tell me again about these sensible and life saving gun laws? As I said in the comments section of Rachel's rant, the modus operandi is to repeat the lie long enough, in the hope it finally gets mistaken for truth.
8:57:15 PM
That bastion of fairness, the UN
Go over to the Israeli Guy blog, and read his post about the UN being a ridiculous organization. Be sure and read the comments section, especially those by Nikita. An extract:
"Did you know that Syria, a country on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terror, sits on the UN security council (actually had its rotating chairmanship too) and that while the US is excluded from the UN Commission on Human Rights, countries with the horrific human rights records of Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sierra Leone serve on it and Libya is to chair it? Gadaffi's one-year term begins next March.
Did you know that Israel is the only U.N. member state excluded from a regional group within the overall body of the UN, and as a result, Israel cannot sit on the Security Council or other key committees?
Did you know that of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel, and of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel? The UN has convened emergency session after session to condemn Israel. As Israeli Ambassador Pazner said, "No such session has ever been convened with respect to the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the slaughters in Rwanda, the disappearances in Zaire or the horrors of Bosnia. Israel is a democracy. It is ludicrous to suggest, as the U.N. has, that Israel is a worse abuser of human rights than Iraq or Syria."
SHAME on the U.N. And shame on the European states, dependent on Gulf oil and afraid of their Muslim immigrant populations, for their eagerness to condemn Israel. It smells bad. It smells really bad, and brings back strong memories".
And the UN continues to condemn the only deomcracy in the middle east, while doing everything it can to ensure that a murderous thug remains in power. The UN is irrelevant, the US should close up shop, withdraw all financial support, and leave the UN to its own devices. Why on Earth should we continue to pay to be a member of a club that does nothing but bash us and lecture us on how we should behave, while ignoring horrible situations elsewhere in the world.
8:28:53 PM
More Scott Ritter Musings
Lots of people have questions about Mr. "waging peace is more important than the truth" Ritters apparent change of heart on Iraq. But no one voices them quite like Lileks.
Update
If you are having trouble following Ritter's flip-flops, this little primer might prove helpful.
7:56:40 PM
Welcome Silent Running
The replacement for War Now. I'm not really sure what happened to War Now, but it sounds like some nasty bit of business between the content on the site and censors. Therefore, be sure you clearly read and understand the disclaimer at Silent Running before you enter.
7:13:51 PM
Those darn Palestinians
Charles Johnson over at little green footballs has another example of the typical Palestinian resolution to all problems: Kidnap and threaten innocent civilians. This time it was a group of fired Palestinian security personnel who kidnapped some Italian members of a human shields brigade and held them hostage while demanding their jobs back. The only difference? The Italian "peace protestors" were released unharmed. But it was a good idea: kidnap members of a group that is there to show solidarity for your cause and threaten to kill them if you don't get your job back. No wonder the Al Aqsa brigade has no trouble filling their quotas of splodeydopes.
7:05:08 PM
Blame the Jews
Or at least that's what McKinney and Hilliard are trying to do. They are somehow surprised that support for the PA and Arab terrorists cause any kind of backlash in elections in this country. And then to paint it as a "Jews vs Blacks" thing is silly. Yes, McKinney and Hilliard are black. But I think any white candidate that made similar outrageous statements as McKinney would have been treated the same way by the Jewish lobby.
Speaking of lobbies, isn't that what they are supposed to do? Lobby for the candidate they think best serves their needs and interests? If Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton "lobby" for a black candiate by using inflammatory rhetoric and thinly veiled threats, it is political activism. But if Jews work to expose the beliefs of someone they see as having a set of values contrary to what they want to endorse, it is somehow a huge "Jewish conspiracy to keep the black man down". From McKinney's perspective, I suspect having CAIR send out an urgent press release endorsing her did more to hurt her candidacy than anything else. No matter the color of your skin, appearing to be unpatriotic is the kiss of death in a political arena. And then to follow up on that story saying how McKinney's loss has widened the split between Jews and Blacks is pretty funny also. Look at this quote, from the chairman of the Black Caucus:
After the Aug. 20 defeat of Mrs. McKinney, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said "I definitely have some feelings about any outside group exerting this kind of influence in a race, and I've been receiving angry calls from black voters all day saying they should rally against Jewish candidates."
"To have non-African-Americans from around the country putting millions into a race to unseat one of our leaders for expressing her right of free speech is definitely a problem," she said.
Excuse me, but aren't black voters always being rallied to block vote against white candidates? Is it only blacks who get to vote for blacks, and anything else is outside influence? Problem is, McKinney got burned by a tactic that black candidates use all the time, and she has no one to blame but herself. Oh, and by the way, both McKinney and Hilliard were defeated by black opponents. So it wasn't a case of Jews voting to put a white Jewish candidate in office at the expense of a black candidate. It was the case of a lot of people, many of whom were Jewish, making a choice between a black candidate they felt represented their views over one that did not. And for the esteemable Rep. Johnson quoted above: how come you don't mention that much of McKinney's money came from Arab contributors that lived outside of the state of Georgia? Is it only a problem when an outside group inserts influence if the candidate you support loses? If McKinney had won, would we be seeing the same cry about poor Denise Majette, and how unfair it was that she was defeated by the outside influence of Arab money? Would she be receiving "angry calls from black voters" saying they should rally against candidates of Arab descent? Of course not, because that would be racist. But anti-semitic seems to be OK. Geee, what a wonder that black-Jewish relations may need a little mending.
I link most of the stories above through the GoobyeCynthia.com website. Many of the stories originally appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
6:29:38 PM
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
This was kind of eerie
Watching the Monday Night Football game, and seeing the crowd suddenly run onto the field in a panic. A game that was nationally televised, and just HAPPENED to be being played in our Nation's capitol. If you saw it, you had to have just a moment's hesitation. Had someone released a chemical agent in the crowd? Was it a terrorist attack? Had Saddam managed to strike first (OK, a little melodramatic, but my blog to I can have the license)? The answers are Yes, No, and No. Turns out to be pepper spray that was used to break up a fight in the stands that got sucked up by those huge fans ond blown towards the field. Tell me you weren't just a little nervous, that your heart wasn't racing just a little faster, when you saw the Philly players and coaches running onto the field. Yeah, right.
12:47:28 PM
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch
PETA is being investigated for possible ties to terrorist activities in the US, and whether their not for profit status should be revoked. Well, duh. There have always been 2 faces to PETA; that of the "fur is yucky, let's get rich celebrity types to agree" group, and the darker, more sinister side. And the eco-terrorists they support probably don't even have any idea what they are destroying when they burn down labs that are doing alzheimers, aids, and cancer research. What kind of mentality are you facing? This quote by a PETA spokesperson says it all:
PETA's sympathies for ELF actions were apparent in a recent speech by PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich. "I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow," he said.
Let's not forget the home grown variety while we pursue the war on terrorism.
