monday, july 31 2006
Unique rose images
Looking for rose photographs, fine art prints to decorate your home or office. Check these out.
thirties redux?
The history of 20th-century America is largely about a country that never prepared for war, and was always compelled — by our enemies — to conduct enormous crusades. It was seemingly all or nothing for us. The history of America in war, like that of most others, is largely about making enormous blunders at the beginning, and then sorting it out.
Our great strength is not so much avoiding error, but the ability to recover quickly, change tactics and even strategy, and get it done. I think that applies to the three world wars in the last century.
The scary thing about our current jam is that 9/11 was supposed to have been the wakeup call, but we are again asleep. For this I blame our leaders — both the administration and the Dems. The administration is constitutionally unable to explain itself, and the Dems have no qualms about losing all present battles so long as they can elect their candidates and bring down this president.
The greatest failure of our leaders, with rare exceptions, is their refusal to see the war plain, which means Iran and Syria (might as well call them “Syran,” since they operate in tandem, with Tehran pushing most of the buttons). It was never possible to “win in Iraq” so long as we insisted on fighting in Iraq alone. You can not win a regional war by playing defense in one country. It was, and remains, a sucker’s game. Syran pays no price at all for killing our kids and our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now in Gaza and Lebanon/Israel.
and the crowd yelled "moo!"
A leading agricultural show ended in disarray when a young woman performed an impromptu striptease among the cattle lines.
As security officers at the Royal Welsh Show rushed to the scene and tried to restrain her, she was hosed down with water normally used to wash the cattle, preventing them from getting a grip on her.
The stripper ended her table-top performance by throwing her thong into the crowd, which was returned on the end of a pitchfork.
photo or line art?
If I didn't know it already, I wouldn't discern that the gallery below is made up of drawings. Yes! They are NOT photographs. Vector drawings using gradient mesh to be specific. Except for Bert Monroy, all of the vector art displayed here are 100% made from Adobe Illustrator.
Whether for challenge, or for pushing the boundaries of what the Illustrator can do, or just for the sheer pleasure of creating, these brilliant artists have dazzled, wowed, and amazed me with the pyrotechnic showcasing of their technical mastery.
Check out the gallery he links to.
microsoft "photosynth" technology
Watch the video here. Read about it here.
john bull's slow suicide
SCHOOLS would no longer be required to teach children the difference between right and wrong under plans to revise the core aims of the National Curriculum.
Instead, under a new wording that reflects a world of relative rather than absolute values, teachers would be asked to encourage pupils to develop “secure values and beliefs”.
The draft also purges references to promoting leadership skills and deletes the requirement to teach children about Britain’s cultural heritage.
congo quiz
Today, the Democratic Republic of Congo goes to the polls to elect a new president. Under President Mobutu Sese Seko, who died in 1997, Zaire (as the country was then called) saw its per capita gross domestic product decline by an average of 4.9 percent per year between 1980 and 2000, the worst record among countries for which data are available. As Congo heads to the polls, we wonder: What is most remarkable about its recent past?
A. Fastest economic growth rate
B. Received more development aid than any other country
C.Highest birth rate in the world
D. Lowest income per capita in the world
They have their answers, and it's certainly factual. But 3.5-4.5 million estimated deaths from the civil war are certainly remarkable, too.
H/T: VikingPundit
sunday, july 30 2006
clear thinking
From Omar:
...if Zawahiri, Nesrallah, Ahmedinejad and Sadr are calling upon extremists whether, Sunni or Shia, from all over the world to put aside their differences and unite in this war against the free world and to establish the Empire of terror from "Afghanistan to Andalus" then this is more than enough reason for you in the free world and for us who are struggling for our freedom to put aside our differences and disagreements and unite, from Sydney to Mumbai to Baghdad to Paris and London all the way till California, all must stand against this evil that is trying to destroy our world.
ghettoization of war
...the notion that "fighting" a war is the monopoly of those "in uniform" gets to the heart of why America and its allies are having such a difficult time in the present struggle. Nations go to war, not armies. Or, to be more precise, nations, not armies, win wars. America has a military that cannot be defeated on the battlefield, but so what? The first President Bush assembled the biggest coalition in history for Gulf War I, and the bigger and more notionally powerful it got, the better Saddam Hussein's chances of surviving it became. Because the bigger it got, the less likely it was to be driven by a coherent set of war aims.
War is not like firefighting: It's not about going to the burning house, identifying what needs to be done, and doing it; it's not a technical solution to an obvious problem. And, if you think it is, you find yourself like George Bush Sr. in 1991, standing in front of the gates of Baghdad and going, "Er, OK. Now what?"
Some people look at the burning house and see Hezbollah terrorism; others see Israeli obduracy, or a lack of American diplomacy, or Iranian machinations, or a need to get the permanent Security Council members to send peacekeepers, or "poverty" or "despair" or an almighty pile-up of abstract nouns. You can have the best fastest state-of-the-art car on the road, but, if you don't know where you're going, the fellow in the rusting '73 Oldsmobile will get there and you won't. It's the ideas that drive a war and the support they command in the broader society that determine whether you'll see it through to real victory. After Korea and Vietnam and Gulf War I, it shouldn't be necessary to have to state that.
No one can argue with U.S. military superiority. America has the most powerful armed forces on the planet. The Pentagon is responsible for 40 percent of the world's military spending, and outspends the next 20 biggest militaries combined. It's responsible for almost 80 percent of military research-and-development spending, which means the capability gap between it and everyone else widens every day.
So why doesn't it feel like that?
In Iraq, the leviathan has somehow managed to give the impression that what previous mid-rank powers would have regarded as a little light colonial policing has left it stretched dangerously thin and bogged down in an almighty quagmire. Even if it were only lamebrain leftist media spin, the fact that it's accepted by large numbers of Americans and huge majorities of Europeans is a reminder that in free societies a military of unprecedented dominance is not the only source of power. More importantly, significant proportions of this nation's enemies also believe the spin. In April 2003 was Baby Assad nervous that he'd be next? You bet. Is he nervous now?
We live in an age of inversely proportional deterrence: The more militarily powerful a civilized nation is, the less its enemies have to fear the full force of that power ever being unleashed. They know America and other Western powers fight under the most stringent self-imposed etiquette. Overwhelming force is one thing; overwhelming force behaving underwhelmingly as a matter of policy is quite another.
Read it all.
living longer, healthier lives
New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”
The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.
The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.
So maybe the "food police" will disband and leave us alone? Don't count on it.
saturday, july 29 2006
looks like mel will be self-financing all his movies
Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."
The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"
current events
Q. What do these nations have in common?
Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Ecuador, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Zambia
A. They are members of the UN Human Rights Committee.
Q. What has the committee done of late?
A. Told the USA to shut down secret detention facilities. It urged the government to ensure the rights of poor people and blacks were respected in relief efforts. And claimed both poor people and black people were "disadvantaged" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Ain't it a crazy world when the likes of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba get to lecture the US on human rights? Perhaps it the opinions of some of those nation's ambassadors about John Bolton that so troubled John Kery.
missed cinema: "journey into amazing caves"
Filmed for IMAX, this DVD packs a powerful visual experience as it follows two adventurous women into some, well, amazing caves. The screen cap shows them rappelling into a cave inside the Grand Canyon. There's also a trip down a 50 foot ice cave in Greenland and an underwater cave in the Yucatan.
The film lasts 37 minutes. Then watch the "making of" extra, another 37 minutes. Next time you read about some heroic actor doing his own stunts, think of these adventurers -- and that includes the film crew. This is truly extreme filmmaking.
friday, july 28 2006
cross your fingers
A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine.
hilarious
Stephen Colbert infuriates another politician. Or so it seems.
iranians ticked off at mullahs
...for plenty of reasons, but one of them is giving money to Hezbollah:
“Let them fight with each other until they get tired,” said Reza Muhammadi, 33, who runs a small grocery in the center of town. “Arab countries are not supporting Hezbollah, but my country is? They are giving my share to the Arabs.”
Mr. Muhammad said he worked six days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to feed his family. So, he said, he had no tolerance for his government’s financial commitments abroad. “One percent of our budget has been approved by my Parliament to give to Palestine,” he said. “Why should I not get angry about this?”
two comedians, neither one funny
Warren Christopher, former Secretary of State, waxes on about how his diplomacy stopped the fighting in the mideast over and over and over... Like any true believer, he counsels repeating the same strategy, more ceasefires.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda's #2 man says, "The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," said al-Zawahri. "We will attack everywhere."
Hear that, Spain? Your foreign minister can don a kafiya and condemn Israel, but Al Qaeda wants the Iberian peninsula back.
poseurs in turbans
It would actually be wiser for Moktada (or his puppet masters) to study the case of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, than it would be to come to his aid. There is a lesson waiting for Al Sadr in Lebanon.
Where exactly is Hassan Nasrallah these days? He's hiding in a figurative spider hole of his own, redefining "victory" as survival while waiting for the diplomatic corps to save his reckless hide. (One report has him hiding in the Beirut embassy of his Iranian paymasters, though Iran denies it.)
Hezbollah's gunmen are regarded as making a better showing in battle than such predecessors as the Egyptian army, which took off its boots in order to run away faster. But then those poor Egyptians fled because they wanted to live, whereas
Hezbollah's gunmen have been persuaded to embrace "martyrdom" even as their leader keeps his distance from battle and his location a great secret. Perhaps there's a spider hole awaiting Moktada, too, depending on the role his "movement"
plays.
Do you remember when Al Sadr used to appear in public wearing a shroud in anticipation of his own martyrdom? That was when the U.S. sought to arrest Al Sadr for the murder of the reformist cleric Khoe'i (who was, unlike Moktada, a real cleric). What a set of poseurs these are under those turbans.
john vs. john
Gateway Pundit shows how John Kerry tried to embarrass John Bolton yesterday in his confirmation hearing. Among other things, JFK Lite bitched about lack of progress with North Korea:
John Kerry: This has been going on for five years, Mr. Ambassador.
John Bolton: It's the nature of multilateral negotiations, Senator.
John Kerry: Why not engage in a bilateral one and get the job done? That's what the Clinton Administration did.John Bolton: And, very poorly since the North Koreans violated the agreed framework almost from the time it was signed.
And it's not all Clinton's fault. In the midst of negotiations with North Korea, Jimmy Carter (pompous, pious failed president and Nobel laureate) pulled a Jesse Jackson and, unasked, publicly inserted himself into the mix, limiting Clinton's options.
(Be sure to follow the CSPAN link and watch the video.)
Kerry's suggestion to "engage in a bilateral one and get the job done" underscores the dangerous mindset among liberal Democrats: they believe in talk, talk, talk. Just sit down like reasonable adults and talk through your differences.
Which ignores the existence of evil psychos. Kim Jong Il has starved two million of his own people. But to Kerry, the North Koreans are reasonable, not us. Why? Because we "invaded" Iraq and all the poor North Koreans want is assurances they're not next.
To believe that, you'd have to ignore North Korea's long history of paranoid isolation and belligerence. Besides, the threat of becoming another Iraq actually makes talk work. Witness the end of the multi-decade civil war in Sudan after the bastards in Khartoum saw Saddam climb out of a spider hole. Or Libya giving up its nukes. Or Syria leaving (mostly) Lebanon.
Will Rogers said, "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock." To Kerry and his feminized brand of Democrats, diplomacy begins and ends with "nice doggie." How deliciously ironic that these very same Democrats refer to themselves as the "reality-based community."
JB
politics in science? how shocking.
Earlier this week the Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a report, Ensuring Independence and Objectivity at the National Academies. The National Academies of Science, like many government agencies, routinely recruit outside experts from universities, industry and other organizations to advise them on scientific matters.
Just how objective are such experts? The CSPI report found that over a five year period that one out of five scientists on 21 different NAS scientific panels had "direct conflicts of interest." Famously, CSPI describes itself as the "food police" decrying all manner of fat and cholesterol laced delicacies. The CSPI released its new study at a panel discussion, Government Science Panels: Fair and Balanced?, at the National Press Club this past Monday. The CSPI is not alone in worrying about conflicts of interest on government scientific panels.
thursday, july 27 2006
slain u.n. peacekeeper: we're being used as shield
"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.
"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."
Those words, particularly the last sentence, are not-so-veiled language indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, said Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie.
"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said.
That would mean Hezbollah was purposely setting up near the UN post, he added. It's a tactic Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie, who was the first UN commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, said he's seen in past international missions: Aside from UN posts, fighters would set up near hospitals, mosques and orphanages.
throwing flowers
This is not the first time an Iraqi leader has thanked America, but it's nice to be reminded:
"Let me begin by thanking the American people, through you, on behalf of the Iraqi people, for supporting our people and ousting dictatorship. Iraq will not forget those who stood with her and who continues to stand with her in times of need.
Thank you for your continued resolve in helping us fight the terrorists plaguing Iraq, which is a struggle to defend our nation's democracy and our people who aspire to liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. All of those are not Western values; they are universal values for humanity."
Read the whole speech.
one man's experience with the wisdom of crowds
From Business Pundit:
The Business Experiment began as an idea in February 2005, after I read James Suroweicki's "Wisdom of Crowds." I wondered if a crowd could make better strategic decisions than a handful of upper level managers, and decided it could be tested (sort of). In June 2005 I launched the site, which quickly grew to over 500 members. My initial plan was to let the crowd choose a business, and have them vote on all the major strategic decisions of the company. It made some nice waves around the blogosphere.
npr's lightweights
Daniel Schorr is used to producers popping into his Washington, D.C., office at National Public Radio to ask, on deadline: Which war came first, Korea or Vietnam? (Answer: Korea.)
Of course, they know the answers to everything else. Just listen and learn.
HT: Best of the Web
hizbollah, hezbollah, hiz'b'allah
Any way you spell it, the news ain't good for them, says Captain's Quarters:
Haaretz reports that Israel has penetrated Hezbollah communications, and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has quite a different spin on events internally than externally. While issuing public statements full of bombast and dire predictions for Israelis, his private communications acknowledges the shock of Israeli military action has taken a toll on operational capability and morale:
An Israel Defense Forces analysis of the messages transmitted by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to his men during the fighting in Lebanon reveals a slightly different tone from the one he took in three public television interviews in the same period and in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper A-Safir. ...
Nasrallah admits that his organization is having morale problems and says his group will receive support and encouragement.
He adds that not only Hezbollah, but also Israel, has been badly hit.
He also complains frequently that the Arab states have deserted Hezbollah and the Lebanese and are not helping them against Israel.
wednesday, july 26 2006
iowahawk
...writes I Love You Too, Cecilia Lucas.
hezbollah hiding in plain sight
The FBI had better be taking note. As Iran's Hezbollah issues direct threats to America while Israel continues to pound the terrorists, apparently the FBI is frantically looking for Hezbollah sleeper cells in the United States. Considering some of the characters at an anti-Israel rally in New York city today, it seems Persons of Interest may be hiding in plain sight.
aging (dis)gracefully
Ain't it time to weed the Baby Boomer patch? Let's get a list going. Kay S. Hymowitz make clear the need as she writes about Desperate Grandmas:
The women of the Second Wave were already highly evolved—liberated yet sensitive, strong yet compassionate—but in Second Adulthood they are ascending into goddesshood. Christiane Northrup’s bestseller The Wisdom of Menopause describes the years after menopause—average age 51—as potentially “the beginning of a woman’s most sexually passionate, creatively inspired, and professionally productive phase of life.”
So profound are the changes that a woman goes through as she passes into Second Adulthood that she must first pass through what Sheehy has dubbed “Middlescence,” a term that may sound to the cynics suspiciously like “obsolescence” but is actually meant to stand for “midlife adolescence.” Middlescence is Sheehy at her most canny—which is very canny indeed. Through the elixir of pop sociology, she offers boomers what they have most wished: they can now remain teenagers into old age.
Just what we need, another celebration of arrested development...
The shape of midlife teen turmoil is well on display in Levine’s Inventing the Rest of Our Lives, a book of such stunning banality it makes Sheehy look like Hannah Arendt. “My teenagers and I are grappling with the same two disorienting questions,” Levine explains. “What is happening to my body and Who am I?”
...and narcissism.
kofi's clowns
With apologies to the Everly Brothers:
Don't want your help any more.
Don't need your mush mouth, that's for sure.
As more folks die, come hear the sound:
"In they march, they're Kofi's clowns."We all gotta stand tall.
Before the devil never, ever crawl.
Not one more inch or it's good's demise
It's life or death so no more lies.
And no giving in at all.Don't want your resolutions any more.
No more emtpy talk, that's for sure.
More bombs will fall despite this sound:
"Here they come, they're Kofi's clowns."
Yeah Kofi sheds a tear,
Could be quite sincere,
But Kofi's corrupt and Kofi's weak
And with situation bleak
We defend our own frontier.Don't need your talk any more.
Don't want your mush mouth, that's for sure.
More lies will die despite this sound:
"Here they come, they're Kofi's clowns."
why the u.n. is worthless
If anyone wonders why the UN has rendered itself worse than irrelevant in the Arab-Israeli conflict, all he or she need do is read UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's July 20 statement. Annan goes to great pains to suggest equal fault and moral equivalence between the rockets of Hezbollah and Hamas that specifically target innocent civilians and the self-defense efforts by Israel, which tries desperately, though not always successfully, to avoid causing civilian casualties. In his statement, Annan never condemns, or even mentions, terrorism, which is a root cause and precipitator of the conflict.
tuesday, july 25 2006
cnn: stooges for hezbollah
A few years after having admitted that CNN let Saddam Hussein have control over their reports from Iraq, they now admit that they let Hezbollah have control over Nic Robertson's piece on how civilians, not Hezbollah were being harmed by Israel's attacks.
who hates whom in the mideast
are you a conformist?
Click the rectangle and find out.
printing on water
New technology.
hating evil
...everyone hates someone, and that includes people on the Left. The problem is that because they don't hate evil, they hate those who oppose evil. That is how liberals went from anti-communist to anti-anti-communist.
To paraphrase one of the greatest moral insights of the Talmud, those who show mercy to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful. So, George W. Bush, not the Islamic terror world, is the Left's villain; life-embracing Israel is the Left's villain, not their death-loving enemies; and religious Christians who note moral weaknesses within the Islamic world are the real danger, not the moral weaknesses within the Islamic world.
james lileks
You can’t call this the Arab-Israeli war of 06, since the usual belligerents have declined to participate. You could call it World War Three, as Newt Gingrich has suggested; he has a point, but that annoys everyone who wanted the Cold War to be WW3. (Somehow World War Four is less scary if we got another one out of the way without a nuclear swapmeet.) You could call it the Israel-Hezbollah War, but that lets the Syrians and Iranians off the hook.
So let’s just call it Bush’s Fault! At least that’s what Howard Dean proposes. The energetic head of the DNC had this to say:
“If you think what’s going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn’t, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn’t get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
The problem with Moral Authority is its antonym, the Palestinian Authority.
Does Dean mean the Oslo accords? President Clinton had been in office less than a year. There‘s a reason they’re not the Little Rock Accords: Norwegian diplomats did all the heavy lifting. (Specifically, suspending disbelief about Arafat’s motives, which can throw your back out if you’re not careful.) Does Dean mean the Camp David negotiations, which ended in the bloody second intifada? Details, details. Moral authority, that’s what counts. Doesn’t stop wars, but it makes the bad guys look extra guilty. Ingrates!
nobel peace prize winner: "kill bush!"
NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.
Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.
"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.
"I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."
What an idiot. Did she want to kill Saddam for torturing/murdering children? How about Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe? Or Kim Jong Il for starving two million people in North Korea?
stadium venue for saddam
Really, I think the world needs to listen to Saddam. He's certainly proved his ability to correctly gauge political situations ("Those chickenhawk Americans would never dare try to depose me.") respond appropriately to human behavior ("Son, if the girl says no to a date, we'll just have her kidnapped, you and the Republican Guards can rape her, then we'll feed her to the dogs whether she's still alive or not.") and even to stunningly decorate a wide variety of dwelling spaces ("It has to be kinda like those whorehouses and even a little better. You can never have too many Moorish Gold screens or too many airplane hangar sized tapestry depictions of me. Trust me, when it's done you'll wish you'd been living there all your life.")
I think I can find a little space here if Saddam wants to be a regular contributor. Readers, post your questions and concerns and we'll let wise old Uncle S. enlighten us. I'll even start the ball rolling with this simple inquiry: Suppose you have a maniacal dictator who tortured and slaughtered enough people to populate a good-sized city. Would the proper procedure be to put him, naked and unarmed, in a stadium with all the next of kin, give them ice picks, box cutters, cattle prods and vise grip pliers and see what happens?
limited options
...an exasperated West is running out of choices in the Middle East .
For years, the Arab world clamored for the Israel "problem" to be solved. Then peace and security would at last supposedly reshape the Middle East . The Western nations understood the "problem" as being Israeli retention of lands it had captured in Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza , Syria and Lebanon after defeating a series of Arab forces bent on destroying the Jewish state.
But after the Israeli departure from Sinai, Gaza and Lebanon , and billions of dollars in American aid to Egypt , Jordan and the Palestinians, there is still not much progress toward peace. Past Israeli magnanimity was seen as weakness. Now Israel 's reasoned diplomacy has earned it another round of kidnapping, ransom and rocket attacks.
Finally, the world is accepting that the Middle East problem was never about so-called occupied land — but only about the existence of Israel itself. Hezbollah and Hamas, and those in their midst who tolerate them (or vote for them), didn't so much want Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza as pushed into the Mediterranean altogether. And since there will be no second Holocaust, the Israelis may well soon transform a perennial terrorist war that they can't easily win into a conventional aerial one against a terrorist-sponsoring Syria that they can.For its part, the United States has spent thousands of lives and billions in treasure trying to birth democracy in Iraq . We wished to end our old cynical support for Middle East dictators that earned us such scorn and instead give liberated Iraqis a choice other than either theocracy or autocracy.
In multilateral fashion, America has also welcomed the help of the European Union, the United Nations, China and Russia in convincing the Iranians of the folly of producing nuclear weapons. But like Hezbollah and Hamas , Iran does not wish to parley -— just as the beheaders and kidnappers in Iraq don't, either.
The two most liberal societies in Europe — Denmark and the Netherlands — welcomed almost anyone to their shores from the Middle East . Their multicultural hospitality was supposed to have led to a utopian "diverse" nation of various races, nationalities and religions.
Instead, such liberality has earned both small nations pariah status in the Muslim world for the supposed indiscretions of a few freewheeling filmmakers and cartoonists.
Yet for all their threats, what the Islamists — from Hezbollah in Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley to the Iranian government in Tehran to the jihadists in Iraq 's Sunni Triangle — don't understand is that they are slowly pushing tired Westerners into a corner. If diplomacy, or aid, or support for democracy, or multiculturalism, or withdrawal from contested lands, does not satisfy radical Islamists, what would?
monday, july 24 2006
arrogance and bad grammar
"If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," said Kerry during a noon stop at Honest John's bar and grill in Detroit's Cass Corridor.
Bush has been so concentrated on the war in Iraq that other Middle East tension arose as a result, he said.
So Kerry's smooth manner would have soothed the savage breast in Hezbollah? Convinced 'em not to fire rockets at Israel?
And the proper grammar is, "If I were president..." It's called subjunctive mood and comes into play when you express a wish or something that is not actually true.
Thank god Kerry's only a subjunctive president.
UPDATE: Kerry vs. Rush Limbaugh:
Limbaugh said the most frequent guest in the Clinton White House, besides Monica Lewinsky and the campaign donors in the Lincoln bedroom, was Yasser Arafat. He called President Bush the best friend Israel ever had in the White House.
This got Kerry mad.
"Rush Limbaugh needs to pick up a history book instead of a doughnut. It was a Democratic president who first recognized the State of Israel. It was a Democratic president who first sold Israel defensive weapons. And it was a Democratic president who first sold Israel offensive weapons."
A donut? Besides being ad hominem, it's dated. Limbaugh lost weight a long time ago. Come to think of it, Kerry's list of Democrat deeds for Israel reach back quite a few decades.
air america co-founder dons tinfoil hat
Sheldon Drobny is a wealthy Jewish financier of the Democrats, and founder of Air America, the liberal-left “answer” to conservative talk radio. See this Chicago Jewish News interview for a sense of the man.
Remarkably, Drobny actually believes the virulent anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on the left is in reality a conspiracy orchestrated by the right. As Drobny’s last sentence states: “I see Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over this”. Below are excerpts from his blog:
“I came to the conclusion that the hostile comments about Israel on these liberal blogs are not coming from true liberals. Most of the anti-Semitism comes from racism and most of the racism I have experienced has come from the far right, not the left.
“So my conclusion is that the bloggers who violently hate Israel and see it in black and white terms are not really liberals. They may even be anti-Semites, but they are not representative of the liberal community that was so active in achieving racial and ethnic equality. It is a contradiction for a true liberal to be an anti-Semite.
Furthermore, I would not put it past the right wing to flood the liberal blogs with hateful criticisms of Israel to advance a perception that liberals are anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. And I see Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over this.”
Cognitive dissonance leads to denial. Drobny discovers anti-Semitism on the left and cannot reconcile it. He's right, true liberals are not anti-Semites. Which is why many former liberal Democrats say that "we didn't leave the Democrat party, it left us."
Instead of facing the painful truth, Drobny concocts a conspiracy. Here's a fact: while on vacation in Kauai recently I listened to Pacifica Radio news. The Gaza skirmish had begun after Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier. The anti-Israel bias was blatant. Israel was an "invader" and Hamas terrorists were "resistence fighters." Karl Rove was not writing their news copy.
How ironic that a man so divorced from reality funnels money to leftist propagandists (Air America) to set us straight.
"dirty bomb" ingredients stopped on route to iran
Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb.
The lorry set off from Kent on its way to Tehran but was stopped by officials at a checkpoint on Bulgaria's northernborder with Romania after a scanner indicated radiation levels 200 times above normal.
The lorry was impounded and the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) was called out.
On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box was a soil-testing device, containing highly dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium.
The soil testers had been sent to Iran by a British firm with the apparent export approval of the Department of Trade and Industry.
czechs put heat on castro
Those who endured communism stand up to it best:
Once a subservient member of the Soviet bloc, the Czech Republic is now one of Fidel Castro's top foreign tormentors, providing material and moral support to dissidents, leading efforts to condemn the island's human-rights record in U.N. bodies and pushing a reluctant European Union to take a tougher stance on Castro.
Such actions have earned the tiny nation of 10 million vitriolic condemnations by the Castro government, the harassment of its diplomats in Havana and the gratitude of the Cuban-American community.
''The Czech Republic is at the heart of the U.S. efforts to secure multilateral support for precipitating a transition for democracy in Cuba,'' says Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. ``They've stuck to their principles every step of the way. Thank the Lord for the Czech Republic.''
And lately the Central European nation seems to be devoting more resources to the cause. Besides the antennas, believed to be beaming pro-democracy broadcasts to Cuba, the embassy has a full-time Cuba desk officer and is distributing pro-democracy literature on the island, said Czech Ambassador Petr Kolar.
The 44-year-old Kolar, who worked as janitor in the 1980s after he was ejected from a university for refusing to join the Communist Party, and more recently oversaw a human-rights division in the foreign ministry, said Czechs have a sense of kinship with the Cuban opposition.
''After the fall of communism, it became our natural duty to help people in countries where they have authoritarian or totalitarian regimes,'' he told The Miami Herald. ``We remember how important it was to be supported from outside.''
That history gives unique legitimacy to the Czech efforts on Cuba, as well as a sense of what might work best to undermine a communist government.
paul graham's island test
I've discovered a handy test for figuring out what you're addicted to. Imagine you were going to spend the weekend at a friend's house on a little island off the coast of Maine. There are no shops on the island and you won't be able to leave while you're there. Also, you've never been to this house before, so you can't assume it will have more than any house might.
What, besides clothes and toiletries, do you make a point of packing? That's what you're addicted to. For example, if you find yourself packing a bottle of vodka (just in case), you may want to stop and think about that.
For me the list is four things: books, earplugs, a notebook, and a pen.
Read on...
god's army has plans
...to run the whole Middle East, writes Amir Taheri:
Hezbollah, the group at the heart of the Lebanese conflict, is the spearhead of Iran’s ambitions to be a superpower, says Iranian commentator Amir Taheri ‘You are the sun of Islam, shining on the universe!”
This is how Muhammad Khatami, the mullah who was president of Iran until last year, described Hezbollah last week. It would be no exaggeration to describe Hezbollah — the Lebanese Shi’ite militia — as Tehran’s regional trump card. Each time Tehran has played it, it has won. As war rages between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Tehran policymakers think that this time, too, they can win. “I invite the faithful to wait for good news,” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last Tuesday. “We shall soon witness the elimination of the Zionist stain of shame.”
What are the links between Hezbollah and Iran? In 1982 Iran had almost no influence in Lebanon. The Lebanese Shi’ite bourgeoisie that had had close ties with Iran when it was ruled by the Shah was horrified by the advent of the clerics who created an Islamic republic.
Seeking a bridgehead in Lebanon, Iran asked its ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a radical mullah, to create one. Mohtashamipour decided to open a branch in Lebanon of the Iranian Hezbollah (the party of God). After many meetings in Lebanon Mohtashamipour succeeded: in its founding statement it committed itself to the “creation of an Islamic republic in Lebanon”. To this end hundreds of Iranian mullahs, political “educators” and Islamic Revolutionary Guards were dispatched to Beirut.
sunday, july 23 2006
presidential humor
The legions of Bush haters have excluded themselves from enjoying one of the funniest, quick-witted presidents in memory. Yes, yes, Bush can come across as a stammering dope. But to conclude that that's the man is a big mistake. It's misunderestimation.
Yesterday we posted about Maureen Dowd mistaking Bush's teasing relationship with Tony Blair, which Blair seems to enjoy, as bad manners. Such sour critics forget that much of Bush's humor is self-deprecating.
In another instance, Newsweek reported on Bush's trip to Russia for the G-8:
The cold war may be ancient history, but Secret Service agents believe the president and his aides are under surveillance at all times. They have ordered White House staffers to hand in their BlackBerrys and cell phones so Russian spies can't track their conversations. Russian security refuses to allow a sweep for bugs at "the cottage"—a McMansion-style villa complete with a pool and weight room. Hovering above the ground nearby is a white communications balloon that Bush's aides believe is recording everything they say outdoors.
As host of the summit, the Russian leader has decided to ferry Bush around in a golf cart, which Putin insists on piloting himself. NEWSWEEK asks whether Putin maintains his dour KGB face in private, or whether he is more relaxed behind closed doors.
Bush looks up at the spy balloon and states clearly, "That's your phrase, not mine."
Funny. And:
Before leaving for the giant media tent, where the world's press is waiting, Bush and Putin huddle with their aides in different corners of the same cottage. Bush's staffers warn him of likely questions and suggest possible answers. They hand him two cards of bullet points; ignoring the script, as he usually does, he turns one over and scribbles his own notes on the back.
Within minutes the two presidents are standing in a cramped hallway, awaiting their cue. Bush sees Putin clutching some notes, and leans over. "Are you sure you want to say that?" he quips. Putin looks up and glares, then gets the joke. Bush straightens his red tie and pats Putin on the back. "Have fun," he says as they walk into the cloud of camera flashes.
mark steyn
...In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way:
"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."
Swell. But, suppose he got his way, what then? Suppose every last Jew in Israel were dead or fled, what would rise in place of the Zionist Entity? It would be something like the Hamas-Hezbollah terror squats in Gaza and Lebanon writ large. Hamas won a landslide in the Palestinian elections, and Hezbollah similarly won formal control of key Lebanese Cabinet ministries.
But they're not Mussolini: They have no interest in making the trains run on time. And to be honest, who can blame them? If you're a big-time terrorist mastermind, it's frankly a bit of a bore to find yourself Deputy Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions, particularly when you're no good at it and no matter how lavishly the European Union throws money at you there never seems to be any in the kitty when it comes to making payroll. So, like a business that's over-diversified, both Hamas and Hezbollah retreated to their core activity: Jew-killing.
...
[leaders of Arab states] now belatedly realized they're at that stage in the creature feature where the monster has mutated into something bigger and crazier. Until the remarkably kinda-robust statement by the G-8 and the unprecedented denunciation of Hezbollah by the Arab League, the rule in any conflict in which Israel is involved -- Israel vs. PLO, Israel vs. Lebanon, Israel vs. [Your Team Here] is that the Jews are to blame.
But Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: It's finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding resolution of the "Palestinian question" has helped deliver Gaza, and Lebanon and Syria, into the hands of a regime that's a far bigger threat to the Arab world than the Zionist Entity.
Cairo and Co. grew so accustomed to whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in decade out that it never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella. The Zionists got out of Gaza and it's now Talibanistan redux.
The Zionists got out of Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing demographic advantage) are Iran's Shia enforcers. There haven't been any Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran's first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires.
how to parse a research paper
A handy guide.
unidentified flying cloud
A photo.
sacre blue
Pity the French. Ten of the last 21 Tours de France have been won by Americans.
PARIS -- The highs and lows of Floyd Landis' nail-biter of a bike race ended without a hitch Sunday as he won the Tour de France and kept cycling's most prestigious title in American hands for the eighth straight year.
The 30-year-old Landis, pedaling with an injured hip, cruised to victory on the cobblestones of the Champs-Elys Dees, a day after regaining the leader's yellow jersey and building an insurmountable lead in the final time trial.
"I kept fighting, never stopped believing," Landis said, shortly after he received the winner's yellow jersey on the podium, joined by his daughter, Ryan.
sacre brown
What's with the British? Haven't they heard of irrigation? My daughter walked into the room to see the British Open on TV, noting the brown fairways and brown greens.
She: Where is this?
Me: Where do you think, I replied?
She: Uh, the houses look English but the grass is from Arizona.
Wrong. On Arizona golf courses the grass is as green as Ireland.
Also, whatever happened to English manners? The clowns in the gallery couldn't figure out not to fire off their camera phones when the players needed quiet.
the 100 mpg car that isn't
OUR liberal media friends are getting all excited about the birth of the 100 miles per gallon car. There are even people driving around with stickers advertising their triple digit gas sippers. Here’s a characteristic gushy article on the topic from MSNBC.
But wait a minute. These gas sipping miracles aren’t really getting 100 mpg. If their owners were corporate advertisers they would be getting sued for false advertising.
This phoney-baloney way to get to 100 mpg relies on buying an expensive conversion kit, including more of those expensive metal-hydride batteries, and plugging your car into the electric outlet. You don’t really get 100 mpg from the total energy input into the car. You get 100 mpg on the gasoline you buy, augmented by “free” power from your home electric outlet. Only you get to see the cost of the free power on your electric bill.
saturday, july 22 2006
kettle-ette cries black
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes like a catty high school girl who can't get a date and gets revenge on the cool kids with cutting wit in the school newspaper.
A natural Bush hater, this 50-ish spinster coined such bon mots as "Rummy" for Rumsfeld and "Bushies" for members of the administration. Such is the state of the NYT.
In a recent column titled, "W. Always Comes Off As A Frat Boy" (oh, how she must hate frat boys!) she chastises him for blowing off Tony Blair's offer to help with Israel-Lebanon crisis, and instead ridicules his birthday gift, a Burbery sweater.
Dowd writes:
"Thanks for the sweater. Awfully thoughtful of you." Then he razzed the British Prime Ministers, who was hovering and wheedling like an abused wife." I know you picked it out yourself."
Here is the actual transcript:
Bush: Thanks for the sweater — it’s awfully thoughtful of you.
Blair: It’s a pleasure.
Bush: I know you picked it out yourself.
Blair: Oh absolutely — in fact I knitted it!!!
Both of them laugh. Then Bush turns serious, asking Blair about comments apparently made about the Middle East crisis by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, another guest at the summit.
Bush: What about Kofi? He seems all right. I don’t like his ceasefire plan. His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything sorts out . . . But I think . . .
Blair: Yeah, no I think the . . .
Frankly, what I take away from reading the complete transcript is the informal, comfortable manner between Bush and Blair. At another moment, Blair says to Bush, "On this trade thingy . . ."
Anchoress explains how the updated transcript shows how Bush answered Blair.
BTW, Anchoress is a more graceful and insightful writer (go through her archives) than Dowd.
dave chappelle
Best comedy skits, courtesy of Cracked and YouTube.
born to run
The fact that Israel is able to launch an attack on Hezbollah today without instantly inciting a multination conflagration in the Middle East is proof of what Bush has accomplished. He has begun to create a moderate block of Arab leaders who are apparently not interested in becoming the next Saddam Hussein.
There's been no stock market crash, showing that the markets have confidence that Israel will deal appropriately with the problem and that it won't expand into World War III.
But liberals can never abandon the idea that we must soothe savage beasts with appeasement -- whether they're dealing with murderers like Willie Horton or Islamic terrorists. Then the beast eats you.
There are only two choices with savages: Fight or run. Democrats always want to run, but they dress it up in meaningless catchphrases like "diplomacy," "detente," "engagement," "multilateral engagement," "multilateral diplomacy," "containment" and "going to the U.N."
ugliness in spain
From Barcepundit:
There was an anti-Lebanon war demonstration yesterday in Madrid, officially organized by the Socialist party (Zapatero's), the Communist party and several anti-war groups. Turned out to be an anti-Semitic fest, with chants like: "Nazis, Yankees, Jews: no more choosen people!" "Long Live the Intifada!" and "We Want to See, We Want To See, Zapatero Burning the Israeli Embassy!" (trust me, it's more musical in Spanish)
A brave soul went there with a pacard that, on one side, said "Israel DOES want peace; stop the killings", and on the other "Don't be fooled: whoever votes for Hamas or Hezbollah doesn't want peace". He was quickly surrounded by people shouting "Who's is paying you to come and provoke us?" which quickly degenerated into a chorus people rhythmically shouting "Nazi" at him. Things were turning ugly so he had to be taken away by anti-riot police.
There's a video of the scene.
bookstore sabatoge
Freakonomics posts about bookstore visitors hiding books they dislike:
“I’ll be glad when [Ann] Coulter drops off the [best-seller] list, for obvious reasons of taste, but also because customers keep turning her book around or taking it off the shelf and hiding quantities in the back of the store.”
So is this practice more widespread by leftists or rightists? The debate unfolds in the comments section. But this stuck out:
I am a bookstore “freak”, and in my regular business travel throughout the country will spend spare time visiting bookstores, and baby, let me tell ya . . .
From: Portland, Oregon, Portland, Maine, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Boston,
Omaha, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, to Chicago...
I have asked this question of the staff and checked the actual stock of both liberal and conservative hot-button authors, and the Left Wing wins this contest hands down. In fact, even in several “liberal” town stores and in one in Orange County, CA, the staff were honestly hard put to even come up with ONE instance of liberal authors ever being moved from where they were originally placed.
Six years ago David Horowitz wrote about the politics of books on Amazon. It's fascinating how the left is so intolerant of free debate.
in other news...
Ethiopia has sent troops into Somalia to restore order, and a Somali Islamist leader declared Holy War.
malignant narcissism and tipping points
Often the woman involved has her own psychological issues that cause her to minimize the danger. Typically, the Malignant Narcissist, who needs the "other" to support his sense of himself, finds a Dependent woman who will tolerate his abuse in the service of her own dependency needs. It is a very unfortunate combination and particularly resistant to intervention. The man does not recognize any problems. His abuse is barely conceded and always imagined as the outcome of his wife's (or girlfriend's) provocation. (I have actually heard one such man say he hit his wife because "she wouldn't shut the f*ck up.") She has such a strong need to be loved and attached that she is willing to accept a great deal of the responsibility. (It was my fault, I didn't have the beer he likes; I should have known better.) For both parties, their self esteem and self concept depends on maintaining the relationship.
In such settings, warnings from others tend to be discounted until something happens which breaks through the victim's denial. In the not so distant past, this was compounded by the tendency of authorities to not take such problems seriously. Even now, when domestic violence is recognized as a serious problem, the legal response, obtaining "orders of protection", are only as good as the paper they are written on in protecting the victims. Only if, and when, victims of such abuse reach a "tipping point" can they begin to extricate themselves; those who never reach such a point are forever at the mercy of the abuser.
I have been wondering if we are reaching just such a tipping point in the Middle East.
Since 9/11 (which was a tipping point for many former liberals, now neocons) those of us who supported an aggressive stance with the Islamic fascists and their apologists, in all their many manifestations (Palestinian, Iranian Shia, Saudi Sunni) were often marginalized and attacked by friends and family for our apostasy. The liberal position was that the Palestinians, and Muslims more generally, were victims of oppressive Israeli and/or Western policies of colonialism, occupation, and oppression.
friday, july 21 2006
lebanon in a nutshell
mideast big bang: shaken and stirred
The US invasion of Iraq has so shaken and stirred the Middle East that some exceptionally strange things are happening. More importantly, these things unequivocally favor the US in influencing the outcome of the Israeli-Hezbollah War now taking place in Lebanon.
...
Before the US invasion, Iraq was the geostrategic pivot of the Middle East. All of the fault lines in the area's politics converge there. The Sunni-Shia split; the Arab-Persian split; the Ba'athist-Wahhabist split; and the Muslim-Israeli split: each of these ran through Iraq via its ethnic and religious makeup; its geographic location; and its former interests, alliances, and enemies.
The 'big bang,' as invading Iraq has sometimes been called, was meant to reorder the nature of politics in the region. This has been accomplished in a fundamental way. The idea of dividing an enemy force into its constituent parts and then dealing with it piecemeal is at least as old as Caesar's actions in Gaul. It applies no less to US strategy in the Middle East. Every faction there has been made to reconsider its relationship with every other. Rather than there being a monolithic clash of civilizations, thus far the US is dealing with the area in pieces -- in whatever way it sees fit to do so -- whether making it tacitly clear to Syria that what happened in Iraq could more easily happen to it, or threatening Iran on behalf of the region and world, or seeking cooperation with the Saudis in hunting down al Qaeda.
Far from being a bit of belated triumphalism about the invasion, all of this has immediate and direct consequences. While the success of Iraq's democracy hangs in the balance from an operational perspective, the strategic advantages created by the invasion of Iraq are working very favorably for the US in the current Israeli-Lebanon crisis in very tangible ways.
Were Saddam still in power, the Arab world would not feel nearly as threatened by Hezbollah, the Frankenstein's monster of Iran's creation. Instead, they would have sided with the Syrian foreign minister's strong support for Hezbollah. Saddam himself might even have offered cash rewards to anyone attempting martyrdom against the Jews.
"hockey stick" and hot air
From Red State:
As we mentioned earlier in the week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing yesterday featuring Dr. Edward Wegman, the Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics, no rube. He had looked at the statistics and statistical methods used by Michael Mann in developing his famed "hockey stick" graph, ostensibly proving the theory of global warming.
Since everybody else who doubts global warming is accused of being on the oil companies' payroll (they are not), Dr. Wegman actually worked pro bono, i.e., for free. He concluded that the statistical methods -- and thus, presumably, the conclusions -- of Mann's famed study were flawed. People who were at the hearing told us he was "bullied" by the minority (i.e., Democrat) members of the Committee. Lovely. That's what dissenting views get you.
You can read a two-page summary of Wegman's conclusions here. Here's a quote:
It is important to note the isolation of the paleoclimate community; even though they rely heavily on statistical methods they do not seem to be interacting with the statistical community. Additionally, we judge that the sharing of research materials, data and results was haphazardly and grudgingly done. In this case we judge that there was too much reliance on peer review, which was not necessarily independent. Moreover, the work has been sufficiently politicized that this community can hardly reassess their public positions without losing credibility. Overall, our committee believes that Dr. Mann’s assessments that the decade of the 1990s was the hottest decade of the millennium and that 1998 was the hottest year of the millennium cannot be supported by his analysis.
In short, we have scientists behaving badly to make political points and cover their own asses. But to question them makes you a DENIER.
Similar criticisms of the hockey stick graph were noted here.
l.a. melodrama
In Los Angeles, the mayor has no control over the school district. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to change that and has been working the political angle to make it happen. Part of that effort has been pointing out the schools' failures.
Yesterday, school superintendent Roy Romer (an ex-governor of Colorado) struck back:
Superintendent Roy Romer's annual "State of the Schools" address erupted in controversy Thursday after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Japanese-American community leaders demanded an apology for what they claimed was a "racially insensitive" comment made during the speech.
During his second annual address, Romer blasted Villaraigosa for portraying the district as failing, comparing his comments to "propaganda spread by the U.S. government during World War II that resulted in the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans."
'Twas a pretty lame analogy, which touched off the usual outrage. Meanwhile...
a real outrage
"In fact, what he did was corruption," Huntsman said. "He stole money. Workers worked for that money and it was taken from them under false pretenses. Through false pretenses, that money was used for his personal benefit so he could get elected to a job he was seeking.
"And when that union inquired what happened, he participated in a cover-up to hide where the money went. It's very much a case of corruption."
That was an assistant DA speaking of one Martin Ludlow, a former City Councilman and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, leader who pleaded guilty this year to serious ethics violations.
Confessed crooks get shunned, right?
Oh, how passé: he's getting a fundraiser from some of LA's biggest swells.
An invitation to the dinner to support the Martin Ludlow Legal Defense Fund portrays Martin and Kimberly Ludlow as having "courageously dealt with tremendous legal and professional challenges" costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and legal expenses.
"Now, admitting to a mistake in judgment during his primary election campaign in 2003, he has sustained three levels of government prosecution simultaneously," the invitation says. "Throughout this process we salute Martin for standing up publicly, admitting his mistakes and blaming no one else.
"We know the true character of a man reveals itself in times of controversy. We're proud of the manner in which he has handled this."
Dinner donations start at $500 and range to $4,000 for the event at a Holmby Hills estate.
It notes a who's who "reception committee" that includes actor Danny Glover, civil rights attorney Connie Rice, Police Commission chief John Mack, former Police Commission chief David Cunningham III, City Councilman Herb Wesson, Senator-elect Mark Ridley-Thomas, U.S. Rep. Diane E. Watson, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles.
axis of evil
Remember the spasms of indignation and eye-rolling from prominent Democrats (Madeline Albright comes to mind) when President Bush made his "axis of evil" speech? Said axis consisted of Iraq, North Korea and Iran. Consider this:
One or more Iranians witnessed North Korea's recent missile tests, deepening U.S. concerns about growing ties between two countries with troubling nuclear capabilities, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.
Asked at a U.S. Senate hearing about reports that Iranians witnessed the July 4 tests, Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator with Pyongyang, replied: "Yes, that is my understanding" and it is "absolutely correct" that the relationship is worrisome.
thursday, july 20 2006
iran's war games
hizballah activity in usa
More than you'd think. And the government has nailed quite a few of them.
turning spam into art
When Romanian artist Alex Dragulescu looks at junk e-mails, he sees patterns - bits and bytes that can be manipulated into colorful plantlike images or stark architectural forms.
As a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, he and fellow student Tim Jaeger collected spam and used it to create live multimedia shows of sound, text, and animation - "like a VJ and DJ performance," Mr. Dragulescu says in a phone interview.
myths
What we must realize here is the involvement of the theological (mythological) element in this particular conflict which is also the reason why this conflict has the potential to expand into full-scale regional war.
It is true that religion had always been playing a central role in the numerous chapters of the conflict between the Muslims and the West but this time there's a totally different theological belief that is being used by Iran to provoke and direct this war; I think the best way to say it is that we are about to see Iran launch the mullahs' version of an 'Armageddon'.
I know this may sound absurd and maybe some of you are thinking no one could possibly be thinking that way but remember, I am telling you what extremist theocrats seem to be planning for and logic has very little space in the mullahs' way of thinking.
It's a long post. Read it all.
pickle face gets set straight
Vile old bat Helen Thomas gets the Tony Snow treatment. Video here.
let slip the dogs of war?
Ali, brother of Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model, blogs as Free Iraqi.
I wish it goes on and on
As horrible as it may seem I do wish the war between Israel and Hezbollah goes on and on, that it spreads to involve Iran and Syria. I feel terrible for the losses among the innocents, Lebanese and Israeli, but I think that this is the only way for them, and us to finally have some peace.
The “anti-war” in the west cannot see any good coming out of war, and how can they when some of them probably haven’t heard a gun shot probably in 10 years if not more! It seems to me that although most of them are intelligent and honest people, they still don’t understand the way we live, here in Iraq, there in Lebanon or Syria. They can’t understand that peace for us, the one we used to live in and the one the Lebanese used to live in, the Syrians and Iranians is not even close to what it is to them and therefore war for us is not even close to what it is for them.
Death is not the worst outcome to us and I’m sure they can understand if they want to but they still can’t imagine it. I only cared that much about life when I was given a chance to live a decent life. Now that this chance is slipping count me on the cheerleaders for death; death of dictators, their killing machine and the terrorists, and if it means our death too then so be it. Some of us (those who are not free yet) will live that life you (anti war people) are so protective of and will value it *just* like you do.
It’s a difficult equation, to value life and then to be prepared to die to protect it for others but also us if we survive. It’s still rather alien to most of us since we were always told that nothing worth dying for except a better life after death. This needs to change.
Read it all.
wednesday, july 19 2006
i spy
China builds a huge scale model of a disputed mountainous area on the Indian border. People playing with Google Earth discover it. Fascinating, and worrisome for India. Or is it a hoax?
move medicine into information age
Bill Frist, Senate majority leader and physician, writes:
At a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center just a few miles from my office in the U.S. Capitol, you can glimpse a piece of American medicine's future. Sitting at an ordinary desktop computer, Dr. Ned Evans hits a few keys on the keyboard and clicks his mouse a few times. Sample patient data spill out: X-ray images, lab notes, and blood pressure numbers. "Everything I might want, everything I need, I can see right here," he says. "It's a seamless part of life. It lets me do just about everything better."
And when the New England Journal of Medicine used 11 measures to compare VA patients with Medicare patients treated on a fee-for-service basis, the VA's patients were in better health and received more of the treatments professionals believe they should. According to the VA's own medical professionals, a computer system called Vista is the key to their success. "I'm proud of what we do here, but it isn't that we have more resources," explains Sanford Garfunkel, the director of the Washington VA Medical Center. "The difference is information."
While it's a glimpse into the future, the VA's computer system isn't a breakthrough. Everything the VA's system does has been possible for some time. I used electronic medical records myself 15 years ago to track the complex regimens of pills and procedures I used to treat my heart transplant patients. I published papers based on the data I collected, and feel I did at least a little to advance the science of transplantation as a result. Given how much data it requires, it seems likely that transplant medicine would have developed much more slowly without computers. But the use of information technology in medicine simply hasn't lived up to its early promise. Even today in transplant medicine, there's no common standard for sharing or keeping data.
Many of our doctors and hospitals remain stuck in a medical stone age. While people speak of a medical "system," American medicine is in fact very unsystematic: It lacks the standards, measures, and ability to exchange information that constitute a true system. Even where the VA and other organizations like Kaiser-Permanente and Utah's Intermountain Health Care have built systems, the systems can't communicate with each other or exchange records. While the VA has invested a lot in its computer system, most hospitals haven't invested enough. Among America's important economic sectors, health care spends the smallest percentage of its revenue on information technology--only about 3 percent. Industries such as banking spend 10 percent or more.
Frist also started a group medical blog.
another liberal idea disproved
Just in the past week we've seen that lower tax rates can increase tax revenues -- an old idea, actually, but one that liberals cannot/will not fathom.
Then we saw that gun control does not reduce crime, another liberal article of faith.
Now, as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of welfare reform, liberals once again are proved wrong.
When Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, conservatives celebrated and liberals screamed; three administration officials quit their jobs in protest. The act ended a 60-year-old federal guarantee of cash aid for the poor.
The law, modeled on state pilot programs begun in 1994 with federal approval, was intended to prod welfare mothers and fathers into the workplace with a series of carrots and sticks. Work, and you got help with child care, job training, transportation. Refuse, and you risked sanctions and being cut off by time limits.
A decade later, the worst fears of liberals haven't materialized. States did not enter what critics feared would be a money-saving "race to the bottom." Thousands of poor children did not wind up "sleeping on grates," as Democratic senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted.
Major employers hired thousands of welfare recipients. UPS hired 52,000; CVS/pharmacy hired 45,000, 60% of whom remain. Welfare offices have shed the look and language of their first 60 years for the aura of job-services agencies.
Nearly 70% of all single women are working, compared with 66% of married women, a reversal of the past. Single women's incomes have risen, thanks in part to the expansion of the earned income tax credit, a tax break of up to $4,400 for low-income workers. Child poverty rates have dropped, particularly among blacks and Hispanics. Teen pregnancies are down. Child support collections are up.
"Everything has worked," says conservative Douglas Besharov of the American Enterprise Institute. "Every critique one might have is about what could have gone better, not something that has gone poorly."
The unspoken message, one that will really gall liberals who pride themselves on caring for others, is that welfare often stood between individuals and their own success.
So, in the name of doing good, liberal programs often smother their recipients in pity. And for this libs lay claim to the high moral ground.
top ten dumbest web ideas that struck gold
You never know what's gonna fly.
good shit
Why Bush should swear more.
downsizing the new york times
Pinch's big plans get pinched.
tuesday, july 18 2006
nuts & bolts leadership
Massachusett's governor Mitt Romney is a potential GOP presidential candidate.
He's been dealing with a scandalous public works project, the infamous $14.6 billion (yes, Billion) mile long tunnel in Boston. The project and other highway failures, predate Romney.
Yesterday, Romney took charge of fixing the project. You can watch his live news conference here. Scroll down to "Gov. Romney speaks on bolts..."
A rare chance to see leadership in action.
HT: the Corner
proof of global warming
Why didn't Al Gore use this image?
understanding rockets
...But now for the layer complexity: Hezbollah hides these weapons among apartment houses and in villages– other words, nests of rockets in neighborhoods.
These neighborhoods and villages are controlled by Hezbollah, not the Lebanese government.
Israel is being fired upon from a Lebanon that “is not quite Lebanon” in a truly sovereign sense.The rockets, of course, come from “somewhere,” but Hezbollah’s “somewhere” is a political limbo in terms of maps with definitive geo-political boundaries. Lebanon is a “failed state”– a peculiar failed state (its not Somalia), but nevertheless failed. It will continue to fail so long as the Lebanese government cannot control Hezbollah–and control means disarm.
So Hezbollah attacks Israel with ever more-powerful, longer-range rockets, then hides behind the diplomatic facade of the greater Lebanese nation state.
Thus terrorists and terror-empowering nations, like Iran and Syria, abuse the nation-state system– or exploit a “dangerous hole” in the system..
Iran and Syria then appeal to the United Nations (a product of the Westphalian “nation state” system) to condemn Israel for attacking Lebanon– when Israel is attacking Hezbollah, which “is and is not Lebanon.”
fortune telling
In the 1980's John Naisbitt struck gold with a series of "Megatrends" books portending the future of business and society. You couldn't pick up a business magazine or attend a conference without someone referencing one Megatrend or another. I got a special kick out of Naisbitt's uniform, a bushy beard and a three piece suit: one part guru, one part serious business consultant.
This came to mind reading, "A fascinating and highly accurate picture of the future from a panel of experts" from Paul's Tips.
Catchy title, eh? It's an example of a basic template for one of the most lucrative industries on the planet: fortune-telling. This is an industry that a 1997 estimate found was worth $200 billion a year in the United States alone.
Those are some big bucks.
But what does the fortune-telling industry consist of exactly? Most people would think of psychics, astrologers and tea-leaf readers. The educated and worldly laugh at anyone who believes in the predictions of such charlatans. But judging by the reading-material most people consume, the vast majority of us are in the habit of paying for prophesies.
Many supposedly reputable professions - such as financial analysis, political punditry, economics, futurology, and technology consultancy - are also heavily involved in the fortune-telling game. Pick up any newspaper or most magazines and you'll find that a large proportion of what's inside deals with what "will" happen, not what "has" happened.
"had prince, want frog back"
When I saw that bumper sticker, I wanted to honk and wave until the woman driving pulled over so I could hug her, ask her where she got it, ask her to run for president. It so perfectly captures the reality that began to dawn on American women after 9-11, when firefighters and cops and military guys suddenly were chic and back in demand. A reality that is solidifying now, as the biological clocks are ticking for more and more of our sisters. Reinforced as and more and more men are being seduced by the metrosexual dark side, selling their souls to the next promotion, throwing their lives and money away at girls young enough to be their daughters.
Or granddaughters.
Count your blessings if you don't know this story, ladies. But I'm betting too many of you do. The empty glory of the perfect yuppie life bought at the cost of being married to a MAN. The boredom of having to pretend that your guy, try as he might, will ever even remotely approach the intuitive tenderness that any random woman on the street could give to listening. The bogus heart-to-heart with a man you wish would just give up the pretense, stop trying to hide his interest in your chest and go back to the game so you can clean closets and paint your nails in peace.
The great house and the comfortable stock portfolio, and not a damned soul who cares to get home on time to hang around that kitchen and flirt with you while you cook. Oh, he cares, sure. He'll be home, later, and bring takeout, he has all the local places on speed dial. He'll pick up the dry cleaning when it's his turn, if he remembers. But he's too tired and too politically correct to wrestle you, giggling, into submission. Too "evolved" to order a woman into a sexy little nurse costume. Until he finds a neighbor or a business colleague or a manicurist who "understands" him, of course.
Then his honesty, his conviction that above all you want him to be happy, will compel him to share all the intimate details of his new lustier love. If you've got a tough, Daily Kos case on your hands, he may also try to illuminate your children's lives with all the sensitive, authentic details. So they can "learn about life."
God help you.
Read it all.
racist russia
A report from PubliusPundit.
skydive without leaving terra firma
Wind tunnel skydiving is here. Watch the video.
twisted gipper
Liberals pretend the Reagan years--in contrast to the Bush years--were a golden idyll of collaboration between congressional Democrats and a not-so-conservative president. When Reagan died in 2004, John Kerry recalled having admired his political skills and liked him personally. "I had quite a few meetings with him," Mr. Kerry told reporters. "I met with Reagan a lot more than I've met with this president."
Of course, that wasn't Mr. Kerry's take on Reagan during his presidency: In 1988, he condemned the "moral darkness of the Reagan-Bush administration." A chief complaint of liberals and the media in those days was that Mr. Reagan was a "detached" president, not one easily accessible to Democratic members of Congress or anyone outside his inner circle of aides. But Reagan had to talk to Democrats on occasion since they controlled at least half of Congress. Mr. Bush rarely consults them for the simple reason that Republicans run all of Capitol Hill; so he talks frequently with Republican congressional leaders.
Liberals today talk about Reagan as if the hallmark of his administration was a lack of partisanship--again in contrast with Mr. Bush. Mr. Kerry noted in 2004 that Mr. Reagan "taught us that there is a big difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship." Mr. Bush, naturally, is the bitter partisan. Of course that's what liberals then thought of Reagan--and they were partially right: While never bitter, Reagan was in fact a partisan Republican.
monday, july 17 2006
eat this quote
“If you think what’s going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn’t, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn’t get where we are today.
We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
Oh, really?
The moral authority that got Arafat invited to the White House over and over by Clinton? That earned Arafat's wife a kiss from Hillary?
The same Arafat that robbed Palestinians of billions of aid money, prolonging their squalor to suit his political aims? Who murdered thousands? Moral what?
And what authority (or statesmanlike dignity) was in evidence when Madeliene Albright chased after Arafat -- literally chased him to his car -- begging him to return and continue negotiations?
Former oilman George Bush, once in office, had the smarts to see that Arafat was a dry hole and didn't waste a second on the creep.
teresa kerry's link to hezbollah
...one of the participants from the United States was a group called United for Peace and Justice. Ordinarily, this would just be one of the icky little anti-American groups that America produces, along the lines of Code Pink : Women for Peace (which also attended this little American and Israel hatefest).
What distinguishes United for Peace and Justice is that Teresa Ker