Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Which old witch?

The wicked witch.

Alas, this calls into question the efficacy of Tiger Hand.

Pen Missile was always lame.

Hang 'Em High

Just finished watching a bit of Fox news, where the commentators were bemoaning the lack of publicity surrounding Saddam's atrocities. For some reason they seemed to believe this was the Bush administration's fault, not, um... , theirs. Bizarre logic, but just in case anyone needs reminding why hanging Saddam is a good thing, Halabja is why. Warning: link has disturbing pictures.

Prince Harry to Iraq

Britain's Prince Harry is set to serve with the military in Iraq. Good on 'em. The primary argument against this seems to have been that the Prince would be a target for terrorism, bringing his troops into increased danger.

Prince Harry has been a target for terrorists since he was born.

British troops have been a target for terrorists for at least the last 100 years.

They're kinda MFEO, don't you think?

Kinda looks like he has the same taste in hats as his stepmother. Any chance she's going to Iraq?

Michigan's Feelings Hurt

Some Michigan senators are very upset because the University of Michigan was left out of the BCS championship game, so they are demanding that the NCAA adopt a play-off system for Division-I football.

Sens. Mark Schauer and Mike Bishop, the incoming Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate, say subjectivity should be removed from a process that has financial and emotional repercussions. The pro-playoff resolution they introduced Thursday is purely symbolic. (My emphasis.)

Nobody should ever have to have hurt feelings. It's just not fair.

"The whole purpose of the BCS was to ensure a championship game between the best two teams in college football," he said.

And you guys aren't one of 'em. Nope, nope, nope. You've already lost to Ohio State. Deal with it.

Maybe the Military Should Hire Better Publicists

This story of young men who risked their lives to save a baby Iraqi girl deserves more press. But it's not likely to get it.

"An IED exploded immediately adjacent to Chris' vehicle, so they all piled out to chase the trigger man," said Capt. Sean Donovan.

But the Marines had a surprise encounter in their pursuit.

"And as they did so, a woman came from one of the houses calling to them that the baby was sick. So they stopped, and Chris came up and looked at the baby," Donovan said. "And this was baby Mariam, and it was immediately clear to him that this baby desperately needed care."

Baby Mariam was just 2 months old and suffering from a rare intestinal abnormality. Under the threat of another attack, Walsh had to make a quick decision.

"Right on the spot, the mission changed from the trigger man to the baby girl," Donovan said.

And these guys know at least as much about Iraq as James Baker and Friends, but they won't receive half the publicity the ISG gets.

"You have to occupy ground and stay there," said Capt. Greg Pavlichko, commander of a company involved in "Squeeze Play." "You have to live where you're fighting and let the people see you're committed to an area."

Commanders also say that any progress in Ramadi will evaporate almost overnight if U.S. forces pull out of the city. There is speculation the U.S. may scale back its operations here and throughout Anbar to focus on the violence and chaos in Baghdad.

Because the violence and chaos in Baghdad is getting more press.

That last is from the AP, so take it with a grain of salt. We can only hope there really is a Capt. Greg Pavlichko.

Kofi Annan Says UN Not Really All That Good at Peacekeeping

Okay, he didn't say that exactly. Here's what he did say:

"We must do better," Annan says. "We must develop the responsibility to protect into a powerful international norm that is not only quoted but put into practice, whenever and wherever it is needed."

Granted, I'm no ambassador, but I'm pretty sure that's Standard Diplomatic for "We suck at peacekeeping." Or maybe that's what this means:

"Above all we must not wait to take action until genocide is actually happening, by which time it is often too late to do anything effective about it."

Or maybe not. Perhaps I'm just confused by the seeming similarity between Standard Diplomatic and English, which everybody knows are not the same language at all.

Maybe this means "the UN sucks at peacekeeping."

The news comes just a day after the UN was forced to evacuate all non-essential staff from El-Fasher, a major town in north Darfur, amid soaring violence between Janjaweed militias and armed rebel units.

But that's not something Kofi said. It's something he did.

And, how come no one's asking where the Janjaweed got all those shiny new 4x4's?

US Airways Acted Correctly

Probes Dismiss Imam's Claims.

Three parallel investigations into the removal of six imams from a US Airways flight last month have so far concluded that the airline acted properly, that the imams' claims they were merely praying and their eviction was racially inspired are without foundation.

We can only hope the imam's and their like-minded friends will continue their noble boycott of US Airways. Perhaps they should consider expanding it to other airlines.

Small Yappy Dog Alert

Follow God or Vanish, Ahmadinejad Tells West. Yap, Yap.

Let the Terraforming Begin!

This is so shiny. Water on Mars! The guys on the moon are gonna be so jealous.

Political Correctness Hampering Iraqi Army?

This article about an Iraqi army sergeant is very revealing, both as to the difficulties they encounter with sectarian politics, and the use of the media to pressure the Iraqi army by the different sects.

“We need to give the Americans back all the authority over the Iraqi Army like before.”

Concerns abound that Iraq’s Defence Ministry is being manipulated to serve the interests of powerful Sunni and Shia political parties. A decision by the US military to hand over full control of Iraq’s Army to a Government plagued by sectarian interests, could well spell its ruin.

The sergeant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears that his criticism of the Government’s handling of the military could get him fired or killed, is one of several officers who complained to The Times of government threats against army units that have led raids against Sunni and Shia armed groups.

Senior US military officers have also expressed concern over campaigns to remove defence officials and commanders considered to be tough on government-linked militias.

The sergeant, dressed in a US Army shirt, bemoaned the intensifying government pressure. He feels that the Americans have taught his men to be a professional, non-sectarian force and political parties are undermining them.

“If we detain Sunni terrorists, many of the Sunnis working for the Government will keep pushing us and our battalion commanders and ask us why you do that. Sometimes they will make a complaint against us. If we do the same thing in Sadr City, they (Shia officials) will make an announcement on television that we are doing the wrong thing and killing innocent people.”

He recalled two instances where high-profile raids against a suspected armed group led to requests from within the Defence Ministry to transfer a key officer. The sergeant was afraid things would only get worse as the Iraqi Government takes more power.

He thinks that putting the army back under American control would alleviate the problem. I wish I could be as sure.

Also of note, he plans to leave Iraq if the US withdraws.

Yet in his years with the Iraqi Army he has learnt one simple lesson: once the US military pulls back in Iraq, he should leave the country if he wants to survive. “As soon as it happens, I will quit my job and live outside Iraq,” the sergeant told The Times.

...A colleague concurred, shaking his head at the partisan situation. “Each party is fighting to make his party first in a ministry. All people are just fighting for their own interests. If the coalition forces withdraw, all the people really working closely with the coalition forces, will leave because we will all be targets.” Between them, the two soldiers have had 50 colleagues killed in the past three years and another 10 troops kidnapped by the al-Mahdi Army.

I've noticed that the biggest problem for the third world seems to be the lack of honorable men willing to serve for the good of their societies. It's understandable why they would want to leave when they find themselves severely out-numbered and in fear for their lives, and that is why it's so important that we not abandon them, even if it means staying for a very long time. How else can we expect anyone to take on the sort of risk it entails to reform a corrupt, failing society in a decent manner if we bail on these guys.

One thing the world is not short of is corrupt, failing societies.

It's not just honorable people we'd be abandoning, it's honor itself.

I'm a gangster

Iran is blocking access to YouTube. I'm pretty sure this video is the reason why.

Hat tip to The Daughter.

Live and let die

Guns 'N Roses cover of the Bond theme.

Calling 007

Come on, James. We know you're out there, and we need you. This Polonium-212 thing is getting really scary.

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to suitcase nukes that were developed by U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War. Reliable sources, including Hans Blix of the United Nation, have confirmed that bin Laden purchased several of these devices from the Chechen rebels in 1996. According to Sharif al-Masri and other al Qaeda operatives who have been taken into custody, several of these weapons have been forward deployed to the United States in preparation for al Qaeda’s next attack on American soil.

So far, no extremely attractive, provocatively named, very inappropriately dressed young women are involved, but I'm sure you won't let that stop you.

Eeewww!

Bedbugs. This is why we wash our sheets more than once per semester.

Nobody Does It Better

Radiohead's cover of the Bond theme.

Where's James Bond When You Really Need Him?

Turns out that Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent who died recently of radiation poisoning had ties to the Chechen Rebels, the same group responsible for the Beslan school massacre. According to the TimesOnline:

Litvinenko's father, Walter, said in an interview published today that his son - who was born an Orthodox Christian but had close links to Islamist rebels in Chechnya - had requested to be buried according to Muslim tradition after converting to Islam on his deathbed.

Which gives some weight to suggestions that the Polonium-212 that poisoned him may have been intended for a bomb, not sushi. Could Putin actually be the good guy in this? I doubt it, but it's certainly an interesting twist, the sort only 007 can really get to the bottom of.

Maybe James will come if we play his theme song.

Sunni Fatwa Against Joining Terrorist Groups, Killing Shiites

In Basra.

Yes, that's the Basra in Iraq.

So far, no comment from the AP.

Really Bad Journalism: NYT vs. AP

Tom Zeller of the New York Times certainly seems to have his doubts about that AP story on the Sunnis who were allegedly burned alive. He starts with this knee-jerk response to anything which looks like it might require journalistic responsibility:

Iraq’s interior ministry wielded the article like a bludgeon and used it as an opportunity to create a press monitoring unit that suggested, in no uncertain terms, that reporters in Baghdad should come to its press officers for “real, true news.” A ministry spokesman promised “legal action” — whatever that might mean — against journalists who publish information the agency deemed wrong.

That may seem patently absurd. But in a country where most of the on-street, in-neighborhood reporting for Western news organizations is done by native Iraqis — working at great personal risk — the threat of “legal action” may reverberate with tones more menacing, and more damaging to a free press, than they seem at first blush.

I think he's being a bit disingenuous here. It seems far more likely that someone would be at risk of his or her life if they were telling stories harmful to the insurgents than to the Iraqi government. But he does get around to taking the AP to task.

Then there was The Associated Press itself, which by Friday had come to view the continued scrutiny of its article as evidence that everyone — the military, the blogosphere, even other media outlets tracking the back-and-forth — was either agenda-driven, insolent, or both, but not legitimately curious.

It's not a good sign when the New York Times thinks you're too self-righteous.

And this is from his blog, The Lede.

Hi Tom,

You ask me about what our own reporting shows about this incident. When we first heard of the event on Nov. 24, through the A.P. story and a man named Imad al-Hashemi talking about it on television, we had our Iraqi reporters make calls to people in the Hurriya neighborhood. Because of the curfew that day, everything had to be done by phone. We reached several people who told us about the mosque attacks, but said they had heard nothing of Sunni worshippers being burned alive. Any big news event travels quickly by word of mouth through Baghdad, aided by the enormous proliferation of cell phones here. Such an incident would have been so abominable that a great many of the residents in Hurriya, as well as in other Sunni Arab districts, would have been in an uproar over it. Hard-line Sunni Arab organizations such as the Muslim Scholars Association or the Iraqi Islamic Party would almost certainly have appeared on television that day or the next to denounce this specific incident. Iraqi clerics and politicians are not shy about doing this. Yet, as far as I know, there was no widespread talk of the incident. So I mentioned it only in passing in my report.

Best,

Edward Wong

Makes it pretty clear he thinks the AP is out to lunch on this one.

So, when does the shunning start?

Did You Get Enough to Eat Today?

If so, thank Norman Borlaug. He engineered a new ways of growing wheat and rice, saving more than a billion lives so far. That's billion, with a B. One in six people living today owe their lives to this man.

He's absolutely, positively the coolest geek ever, and he's sick, so Congress better hurry up and honor him.

Update: They have.

Shunning the AP

Another voice heard from. Maybe there is a chance.

Country French Rap

Marly-Gomont is by Kimini, the son of a Congolese doctor living in rural northern France.

Or Tennessee, maybe, if Tennesseans spoke French.

And we appear to have taught the world cow-tipping. I'm so proud.

This One's Just for the Daughter

Doogie Howser does Les Mis.

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Sue 'Em

The Iraqis have formed a unit to monitor the news.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the ministry, said the purpose of the special monitoring unit was to find ''fabricated and false news that hurts and gives the Iraqis a wrong picture that the security situation is very bad, when the facts are totally different.''

He said offenders would be notified and asked to ''correct these false reports on their main news programs. But if they do not change those lying, false stories, then we will seek legal action against them.''

This seems a little like going after Al Capone for tax evasion. Which means it could actually work, which would be a good thing.

This was from the NYT. Scroll down to Update: Really Bad Journalism for more from them.

Beam Me Up, Stephen

Stephen Hawking has said again that we must colonize space to survive. I'm not sure space colonies will save us in the long run; John Scalzi's Old Man's War comes closest to my idea of what we'll find when we get out there -- lots of competition . But I really, really want to go anyway. I think making the effort will work wonders for us.

Plus, I just have itchy feet. I'm pretty sure Go Forth is at least as deeply ingrained on my soul as Multiply.

Santa, Reindeer Sing

The Grandad sends this, which was, oddly, exactly what I needed. Enjoy.

Lee Camp Responds

It seems Dr. Camp has been misquoted and had the substance of his remarks badly misrepresented. (See my previous post, God, Theologian Disagree)

“In my lecture, I too insisted that we must not discard what is most important to us. I am a Christian who holds, without apology, to the Lordship of Jesus. I cannot accept any strategy of “conflict resolution” that asks me to set aside that particular claim. I believe and teach that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

“This exclusive claim of the authority of Christ thus presents a problem for “conflict management.” I went on to ask these questions: How can the Jew or Muslim trust us Christians if we hold onto the exclusive Lordship of Jesus? Given that I refuse to deny the Lordship of Jesus, what can I or other Christians possibly contribute to peace-making, whether global or local?

“Here is my answer: Because I profess that Jesus is Lord of Lords, I have committed myself to loving both neighbor and enemy. Because I profess that Jesus is King of Kings, I have committed myself to serving and honoring all people. Because I profess that Jesus is the ultimate authority to which all other authorities must submit, that authority requires of me to extend gracious, generous hospitality to the stranger, the pilgrim, and those who do not see the world as I see it.

“This, of course, is not how the authority of Christ has always been practiced. In serious dialog with Jews and Muslims, we American Christians, who tend to have very short historical attention spans, must acknowledge the sins of Christian history. The claim of the Lordship of Jesus has often been divorced from Jesus’ call to be merciful to those with whom we differ. In fact, the claim has often served as a battle-cry, an imperialistic profession used to destroy Jews and Muslims. In view of this history, Jews and Muslims have good reasons for not trusting those who wear the name Christian.

“Because I profess Jesus as Lord, I must let go of any strategy that seeks to violently impose “Jesus is Lord” upon another. I believe and profess “Jesus is Lord,” and am compelled by Jesus’ Lordship to share this Good News world-wide. (Emphasis mine.) But if such sharing treats others in a way contrary to the teachings of Jesus, I have thereby denied my profession. I choose not only to proclaim that “Jesus is Lord,” but to live Jesus as Lord, among all—believer or unbeliever, Catholic or Protestant, Muslim or Jew.”

This is certainly not the sense of his remarks I perceived from the Tennessean. I am sorry that I dealt so harshly with those remarks.

I also wish it had been more difficult to believe that a theologian would so willingly alter his beliefs for the sake of political correctness.

I am especially sorry I was stupid enough to take the article at face value. I should have known better, and I am very grateful to the commenters who pointed out Dr. Camp's response. I am honored to have them as readers.

Again, my apologies to Dr. Camp. I am very, very glad to read his response.

AP responds to Centcom

Scroll down to Really Bad Journalism to get the link.

God, Theologians Disagree: My Kingdom Come, My Will Be Done

Christians Must 'Let Go' Some Beliefs for Sake of Peace, Theologian Says.

To live peacefully with Muslims and Jews, Christians must put aside the notion that their faith requires the creation of a Christian kingdom on Earth, a Lipscomb University theologian told an interfaith gathering at the university.

Our faith doesn't require us to create the kingdom. Jesus is going to do that. And it's not going to be a pretty process. Christians proselytize to keep people from being on the wrong side when the kingdom comes, not to cause the second coming. But maybe that's less obvious if one is a theologian.

"We are not going to get very far in our relationship with Jews or Muslims if we do not let go of this idea," Lipscomb professor Lee Camp said at Tuesday's conference.

The important relationship is the one with Jesus Christ, all others are less important by far.

The unusual gathering of several dozen clergy and lay people was devoted to resolving religious conflict in Nashville and around the world.

"We need to forsake the Christendom model," Camp said. "The most basic Christian commitment … is that we say we believe in the Lordship of Jesus. But, if we claim that, how can a Muslim or Jew trust us, if we say Jesus is the Lord of all Lords?"

How could they possibly trust us if we don't say that?

Co-sponsored by the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, the daylong conference was prompted by a desire to begin a dialogue about global religious conflict.

After five years of rising gas prices, disturbing privacy issues that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and the fear of terrorism, it became apparent that everyday life in Nashville is directly affected by religious conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, conference organizers said.

Uh, sure, Nashville's pretty much the center of the universe in global-religious terms. Plus, gas really did get expensive, so obviously one calls for a gathering of theologians to bring down prices. I'm sure they spent the conference talking about demand, market-pricing, and the rising economies of places like China and India.

"We felt like the larger community is calling for this," said Larry Bridgesmith, executive director of Lipscomb's newly established Institute for Conflict Management.

Usually when the larger community is calling, one hears it before one feels it, but maybe they have really deep voices in Nashville.

Panelists representing different faiths presented their own views on how to begin to bridge the religious divide.

For Kahled Sakalla, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Nashville, some of the answers lie in better education about Islam in the non-Muslim world.

But, the non-Muslim world is free to learn all it wants to about Islam. It's the Muslim world which restricts knowledge of Christianity, so surely his next suggestion will be to spread information about Christian belief among the Muslim world, right?

Allah, the God Muslims worship, is the same God Christians and Jews worship, and the Quran recounts the same biblical stories of Mary and Jesus, he said.

"Yes, we have differences, but it's important to focus on commonalities," said Sakalla, one of four panelists representing different faiths who addressed the Lipscomb conference.

Oooh, guess not...

Mark Schiftan, rabbi of the Temple in Belle Meade, said he also believes people of faith must begin to look for common ground.

"If all of us believe we were created in God's image, then we have to believe that everyone else is also created in God's image," Schiftan said.

Uh... We do. Don't you?

Charles McGowan, president of the Christian group Operation Andrew said: "It's important to us in Nashville that we be proactive. Religious leaders must engage one another if we are going to experience in this city the peace and calm we all desire."

And it's been so rough there lately. Did you hear how high gas prices were?

But the issues that have divided the world's religions for millennia are so deep and fundamental — ranging from the question of whether the land of Israel rightfully belongs to the Jews and whether there is one way to salvation — that tackling them will require both dialogue with other faiths and a more introspective look at one's own beliefs, panelists said.

Some liberal theologians have suggested that different faiths are all variations on one another and that beliefs are all basically the same, a position with which Camp deeply disagrees.Instead, he believes, Christians must not back away from their beliefs but further examine them and their own history.

Except this belief. That belief, apparently, has to go. Probably that whole section of the Bible has to go. But otherwise, hey, we're home free...

First, Christians must examine their "sins of omission," he said — such as not taking the time to learn about other religions.

And the adherents of other religions? They know all they need to know?

Then they must look at their "sins of commission."

"We have such short historical (memory) spans as white Christians," he said. "There is a history of anti-Semitism, the violence and bloodshed of the crusades and cultural imperialism. We have to deal with the reality of what Christians have done, which in some cases has been to kill people."

Black Christians, on the other hand, have really long memories. And, were we really the only ones involved in the Crusades?

Camp described himself as a conservative Christian but conceded his opinions may be viewed as "radical" by other evangelical Christians.

Well, sure, most evangelicals believe in the whole Bible.

Christians must shed the idea that they need to promulgate a worldwide Christianity, he said.

"If I hold to a model of Jesus … what I've committed to in my baptism is loving my enemy," Lee said. "I'm committed to not killing you, but to serving and honoring you. It's an exclusive commitment to the way of Christ, not to the exclusive authority of Christ." (My emphasis) Sakalla said there may never be reconciliation on the fundamental theological divisions.

So, Jesus isn't really his Lord of Lords, King of Kings?

"Every religion has different teachings," he said. "For Muslims, it's: Do you believe in one God and that Muhammad" is his prophet? "I don't think we can teach individuals that the way you go to heaven in other religions is OK. You have to teach differences."

So, you guys admit that the way you go to heaven is wrong, and we'll give up that whole Thy Kingdom Come thing? Even if we could convince them to buy this, would God?

If it lowered gas prices? 'Cuz this guy's willing to trade a lot for lower gas prices.

When You Finish With Your Christmas Shopping

You can play this lovely time-waster. No fair starting early.

Free International Calls

Unlike Eugene Volokh's wife, I haven't tried out this number, but what could it hurt? The one commenter who had tried it likes it. Others recommend Skype, which The Daddy and I have used successfully, but just calling a number seems simpler.

Of course, there were suggestions in the comments about who might be listening-in, but The Daddy and I have long figured some of our calls have been monitored, and we pity the monitors. Unless a caller is actually engaging in terrorism, and openly discussing it on the telephone , phone-call-monitor must the most boring job ever, and what are the odds that it ever gets interesting? We should be glad someone is willing to do it.

Okay, glad may be a bit of an overstatement, but no more of an overreaction that the paranoia one sees so much of.

The Mama's New Favorite TV Show

Extreme Engineering. It's shiny, shiny, shiny. And the host reminds me a little of Jack Bauer. If Jack were a geek.

Update: Really Bad Journalism, Part 52,384 or so

Centcom is demanding a retraction from the AP on that Sunnis burned alive story. Hot Air has the scoop. Read the whole thing, and click on the links, too.

It's almost as if they want the war to go badly.

Update: Gateway Pundit has more. Looks like the original source for the story is very bogus indeed. Centcom's letter makes it sound as if they've been warning the AP about this for quite some time.

This all reminds me of Green Helmet Guy.

I think we should shun the AP. Fat chance, I know, but still...

Still more: Hot Air keeps the ball rolling. (Don't you just love bowling metaphors?)

The AP is standing by its man. But they stood by Green Helmet Guy too.

Another Update: The New York Times weighs in, in a stunningly even-handed way. Seriously. Look:

For its part, The New York Times took note of the incident on Saturday, in a larger story about the mosque burnings, this way: “In the evening, a resident named Imad al-Hashemi said in a telephone interview on Al Jazeera, the Arab news network, that gunmen had doused some people with gasoline and set them on fire. Other residents contacted by telephone denied this."

And this:

The one thing that remains unclear, though, is this: The Associated Press said in its story yesterday that Mr. Hussein “has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions.” The military, meanwhile, seems to suggest that Mr. Hussein is not a police officer, nor a civil servant in the employ of any Iraqi agency.

So who IS Mr. Hussein?

Good for them.

Yes, I know, it's just the blog, but still...

Those Imperialist Ethiopians

It seems Ethiopia, now under its Christian name of Abyssinia, has had it with Somali Islamist jihadis.

According to Agence France Presse, Ethiopia is about to attack the Somali Islamists single-handed, on their own hook, and with assistance from nobody. On Thursday Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the Ethiopian parliament that the Islamists represented “a clear threat to Ethiopia” and that the government had “completed the preparations” for full-scale war. The Islamists, who triggered the crisis by declaring Jihad on the Ethiopians, have (of all possible moves) turned to the United States for mediation. (My emphasis)

Seriously.

No word on whether these are the Black Hawk Down jihadis, or, like, totally different Islamist jihadis from Somalia. 'Cuz we'd want to be clear on that, wouldn't we?

Dog Bites Man

Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices. Seems obvious enough, but I find I disagree with the conclusion reached by one of the articles subjects.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are held up as models, certainly by Dr. Glassman. “They are going to make much greater contributions by having made money and then giving it away than most, almost all, scientists,” he said, adding that he is drawn to philanthropy as a means of achieving a meaningful legacy.

Not to discourage Mr. Gates, Mr. Buffett, or Dr. Glassman from giving away their money, but I think that one scientist who does cure AIDS does a lot more for humanity than all the people who give money to buy the drugs which help prolong the lives of its sufferers. It's good to survive, it's better to live virus free.

Unlike business, science depends upon failures as well as successes. Learning what doesn't work is an important part of learning what does, so all of the scientists working on a cure for AIDS, cancer, whatever, contribute to the ultimate success of whoever actually finds the cure.

Not everything's about money.

Small, Yappy Dogs

Hugo Chavez says he will defeat the devil (meaning US) when he wins re-election December 3rd.

"On December 3 we're going to defeat the most powerful empire on earth by knockout," Chavez said.

Iran's president Ahmadinejad predicts the crumbling of the US, Israel and the UK.

``The Zionist regime is on a steep downhill towards collapse and disgrace,'' Ahmandinejad told supporters at a rally of Basiji militia forces near Tehran today. In a reference to the U.S. and U.K., he said ``the collapse and crumbling of your devilish rule has started.''

The CIA factbook lists the respective 2005 GDP's of the threatened and the threateners at :

US 12,310,000,000
VEN 162,100,000
Iran 569,900,000
Israel 156,900,000
UK 1,818,000,000

To put that in perspective, Venezuela has a GDP about 1/75th that of the US. So, if a 1/75th scale is about what is required to bring down a nation, and checking out The Mama's own GDP, I figure I need to get together with about 14 of my closest friends to "knockout" Chavez. Just 14.

It's a little bit mean, but I could use a hobby.

As for Ahmadinejad, Iran's GDP is about 1/25th of the combined GDPs of the US, UK and Israel. Going on a 1/25th scale, The Mama would need about 151 close friends to brag about the imminent demise of his regime. Lucky for him, I'm really not that social.

Governments Unite to Create Fusion Reactor

For the most part, I think this is very good news. But it would probably be more effective if we just told a bunch of teenagers they could get advance copies of all the latest gaming platforms if they would develop some nice, small, efficient and inexpensive cold fusion reactors.

Free pizza for life for the first one finished.

Free Schools

Students at this Brooklyn school set their own curriculum, and study only when they are inclined. Which is fine as long as Super Model and Video Game Beta Tester are expected to be high-growth industries.

Umm.. Okay...

Muslims Call for Airline Boycott.

Now, I understand their complaint, and they'll undoubtedly get some sympathy, but I strongly suspect most people will just be glad to find shorter lines at airport security. Indeed, if someone could find a way to encourage all the people with complaints to boycott the airlines, I think there would be much gratitude among the flying public.

If they really wanted to do some economic damage, they'd announce that they had booked a collicky baby on every flight.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Turns out burglar is a skill-position.

I'm not sure if he's eligible for one of these, since he didn't die.

Gen Dallaire Testifies

He was head of the UN Security forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.

The UN security council rejected Gen's Dallaire's repeated requests for extra troops. Though his presence during the genocide is now seen as having helped save thousands of lives, Gen Dallaire was initially made a scapegoat for the international community's failure.

Guess whose biography never mentions Rwanda, despite bragging about the growth in UN Security missions during his tenure as Under Secretary General.

German Police Foil Planned Terror Attack on El Al Plane

I'm not sure, but the German intelligence community seems to be out-of-sync with the German public when it comes to the WoT. Thank goodness for that.

The six, as well as other people who have not yet been identified, are believed to have begun preparations for an attack on behalf of "so far unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

No telling who the backers were. Angry Eskimoes maybe.

The War on Terror

Atlas Shrugs has some uncensored pictures of beheadings in Indonesia, most taken in the late 90's, early 2000. They are the worst thing I hope I ever see. They are graphic in the extreme and not for those with a weak stomach or work censorship type concerns. The last one shows some wannabe rambo-jihadi holding a machete in one hand and the head of a toddler in the other. I am linking to them mostly because so many people seem to be wearying of the War.

Pictures here, read before scrolling down.

There is no root cause for this besides evil, and we cannot opt out of the fight.

Deal or No Deal

The Daddy's new favorite time-waster.

He does the math.

Bet These Guys Don't Have Any School Shootings

Juneau middle school principal Tom Milliron is teaching gun safety to sixth-graders.

"In sixth grade, we can get kids to internalize the need to practice safety around firearms," he said. "They're willing to listen to instructors and take to heart what instructors tell them."

As part of their outdoors education, students take the standard state of Alaska hunter safety education course. After safety lessons, they take a "shoot-don't shoot" field course, deciding whether it would have been safe to discharge a weapon at an animal simulated by a silhouette.

They also must demonstrate proficiency in firing a weapon, shooting 20 rounds from .22-caliber rifles at Juneau's indoor firing range.

In Mesa, Arizona, where I grew up all junior high school students had to take swimming instruction because pools and canals are so common. They would never have dreamed of simply telling us to avoid the water; nor did they worry that we would use our increased swimming prowess to drown the less fortunate. I'm glad to see the same approach being taken with guns, and I wish it were so where The Children go to school.

"The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death."

So says Maulana Inyadullah in the first paragraph of Mark Steyn's Sleeping Giant, reminding me of the Mother-In-Law, a died-in-the-wool Pepsi fanatic if ever there was one, and a long-standing Democrat.

All dominant powers are hated -- Britain was, and Rome -- but they're usually hated for the right reasons. America is hated for every reason. The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lap-dancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it's controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too godless, America is George Orwell's Room 101: whatever your bugbear you will find it therein; whatever you're against, America is the prime example of it.

That's one reason why its disparagers have embraced environmentalism. If Washington were a conventional great power, the intellectual class would be arguing that the United States is a threat to France or India or Gabon or some such. But because it's so obviously not that kind of power the world has had to concoct a thesis that the hyperpower is a threat not merely to this or that rinky-dink nation state but to the entire planet, if not the entire galaxy.

But the article isn't simply more whining about how unjustly we're hated, it also makes the far more relevant point that we must not cut-and-run from Iraq.

But others cast the hyperpower's geniality in a different light. Visitors to America often remark on that popular T-shirt slogan usually found below a bold Stars and Stripes: "These Colours Don't Run." To non-Americans, it can seem a trifle touchy. But for a quarter century the presumption of the country's enemies was that those colours did run -- they ran from Vietnam, they ran from the downed choppers in the Iranian desert, they ran from Somalia. Even the successful campaigns -- the inconclusively concluded 1991 Gulf War and the air-only 1999 Kosovo war -- seemed manifestly designed to avoid putting those colours in the position of having to run. As Osama saw it, those colours ran from the African embassy bombings and the Khobar towers, just as Zarqawi figured those colours would run from the Sunni Triangle. Being seen not to run -- or, if you prefer, being seen to show "resolve" -- should be the indispensable objective of U.S. foreign policy. Were these colours to run from Iraq, it would be the end of the American era -- for why would Russia, China or even Belgium ever again take seriously a superpower that runs screaming for home at the first pinprick?

This is right. We must succeed in Iraq because not to do so dooms our foreign policy for all of the forseeable future, no matter who wins the next election. I've never understood why some of the Democrats seem so willing to win election at the cost of weakening the nation, or at least the international perception of the nation, but it's not too late for them to do something about it.

Nancy? Harry? Don't you want to mention how much you despise Al-Qaeda, or Ayatollah Khamenei, or countries who assume legal sovereignty over our citizens, or someone? Anyone? Please?

No Pepsi until you do.

NASA Plans to Outsource Orbital Shipping

Since NASA has been terribly protectionist in the past, often underbidding other companies on satellite launches, for example, this is good news. It makes my Libertarian bone marrow do the shiny-happy dance.

Did You Know That There Is A World Toilet Association?

Well, there is. And they are serious. To be perfectly honest, I think public restrooms have improved a great deal since my childhood, when finding a place to do what needed doing while traveling was hit or miss to say the least.

The legacy of my generation: better public restrooms. And Toaster Strudel.

Beats polyester leisure suits and Winter Soldiers.

For Those Who Couldn't Master Rock, Paper, Scissors:

Cup Stacking! So far, no comment from the folks at Rock, Paper, Saddam!

Just doing my share for recruiting.

Root Causes

If they have to use "comedy" and David Letterman style "top ten lists" to recruit religious terrorists, I'm pretty sure it means we're winning.

How to Win in Iraq

Eric Eglund's Six Steps to Victory is hardly the definitive how-to for winning the war, but I'd still like to see more of this kind of thing.

IN THIS POLITICAL season, the debate about Iraq has become almost completely backward looking. It has degenerated into finger pointing and partisan sniping--stuck between a false choice of "cut and run" versus "more of the same."

Failure in Iraq is not an option, because it would spell disaster for U.S. national security and foreign policy credibility, not to mention military morale. Our mission in Iraq continues to move forward, and U.S. forces have successfully defeated the insurgents in several areas, yet the enemy has proven resilient and effective. Thus, we must succeed in Iraq by changing the status quo.

It's high time we moved the public debate from how-badly-we-are-losing to how-to-win. More in this article in Investor's Business Daily.

Foreign Affairs: A nation that's defended Europe from aggression in the 60 years since World War II is asking why Iraq can't defend itself. The fact is, Iraqis risk their lives for their country every day.

Clearly the days when Democrats warned of a long twilight struggle and pledged to pay any price and bear any burden to ensure the success and survival of liberty are over, judging from remarks by Carl Levin, incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee.

"We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves," Levin opined Wednesday at a Capitol Hill press conference. "The only way for Iraqi leaders to squarely face that reality is for President Bush to tell them that the United States will begin a phased redeployment of our forces within four to six months."

"We cannot be their security blanket," he added. But why not, if it's in our best long-term security interest?

We stayed in Europe to prevent the Soviets from taking over the world. That would have been worth it even if the Europeans took longer to settle down. Isn't this war about much the same thing?

They're Not All Arrogant Sons of Nazis

I was pretty hard on Germany the other day over the Rumsfeld lawsuit and their idea that their laws could/should be applied universally. So today I want to point out they are doing something worthwhile in the War on Terror. Good for them.

I just wish this sort of thing got more publicity, but alas, I suspect they're deliberately keeping it quiet to avoid annoying German voters.

Supporting the Troops?

San Francisco schools are phasing out JROTC.

Under the resolution approved by the school board, JROTC will be phased out in two years. Although an original motion required a task force to develop an alternative program, the board approved a substitute motion requiring that the money for salaries and benefits that supports JROTC — nearly $1 million this year — be redistributed in ways that support the district’s most disadvantaged students.

No word on whether those disadvantaged students would be teenage parents, but the district certainly offers them a lot of support.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA)A component of our TAPP programming, the Workforce Investment Act program invests in youth who are already heads of households, providing a pathway to family economic success by encouraging them to stay in school and make plans to continue on to higher levels of education or permanent employment. Addressing such barriers as childcare, transportation and other needs, WIA provides job readiness and occupational skills training, along with job placement, job retention, and job advancement skills both in-house and in collaboration with other organizations. Included in program services is a G.E.D. component.No fees are charged to participants.
2730 Bryant Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110(415) 695-8300,
Program Coordinator, extension 524
Young Family Resource Center (TFRC)The Young Family Resource Center is California’s first peer-directed, peer-focused Family Resource Center for teen parents, their children, and their families. Integrating a youth development model, peer-to-peer service delivery, and wraparound resources, the YFRC acts as the hub of a network of support, education, and child-development information for adolescent and young adult parents throughout San Francisco. Building on our Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Project (TAPP) case-management program for teenage parents, it offers comprehensive, wraparound resources for young parents and their children, including financial education, nutritional education, grief & trauma support, mental health services, and vocational training.No fees are charged to participants.
2730 Bryant Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110(415) 695-8300,
Program Coordinator, extension 516
Young-Teen Parent ProgramThe Young-Teen Parent program provides targeted developmental parenting education and related activities for pregnant or parenting teens under age 15. This school-based program provides intensive daily support. The Teen Parent Child Development Services Program provides developmental education, assessment, counseling, and practicum activities to promote positive developmental parenting for pregnant girls, young fathers-to-be, and parenting teens of both sexes.No fees are charged to participants.
2730 Bryant Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110(415) 695-8300,
Program Manager, extension 538

You get what you pay for.

Stuck on Stupid

Trent Lott has been chosen Minority Whip in the Senate. It's not the "remarks considered racially insensitive" that are the biggest problem. The guy is a major porkster. There are worse things than to allow the senator from post-Katrina Mississippi to take home a bunch of bacon, but naming him Minority Whip makes it look like party policy.

High School, It Just Never Ends...

According to Mike Allen, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi's staff say the upcoming election for Majority Leader is just like a high school election.

The official added that the squabble will not affect long-term public perceptions of the Speaker-to be. "This is like a high-school election," the official said. "People inside the Beltway will buzz about it for a week, but then no one will remember what happened."

So, this is the election for what, the third most powerful Democrat in Washington? And Congresswoman Pelosi's staff finds it unimportant?

The contest is complicated because it is more personal than it is ideological. Republicans want to label Pelosi a San Francisco liberal, while Murtha is pro-gun and pro-life. "People were surprised that she would so publicly endorse Murtha, particularly because it could end up hurting her," said a Democrat not aligned with either side. "She could lose her first big fight, which is not good for her leadership. But if she didn't publicly support Murtha, it would feed into the perception of her as a liberal - something she has been trying to change over the past couple of months in trying to appear moderate."

She seeks to be perceived as a moderate by endorsing John Cut-And-Run Murtha? Because she doesn't want to be perceived as a liberal?
Wow. What a big victory this election was for her.

Dr. House Saves Borat

Hugh Laurie intervened to keep Sacha Baron Cohen from receiving an even worse beating than he got. How positively Wilsonesque.

Catholic Church Giving Up Property to Muslims

Joseph Hippolito's Slouching Toward Suicide tells us the church is giving away its facilities and land to muslims for reasons political. This is why the separation of church and state is so important -- we don't want our clergy to mistake what they perceive as the greater social good with their most important task: the saving of souls.

In Glasgow in 2003, Catholic officials approved attempts by Muslims to turn St. Albert’s School into an Islamic institution. More than 90 percent of the school’s 360 students were Muslim.

“We are in favor of Muslim schools,” an unidentified church spokesman told Edinburgh’s The Scotsman on Nov. 23, 2003. “We support faith schools across the board. In the case of St. Albert’s, we see a school in which for 95 percent of the children, the festival of Eid has more significance than Christmas or Easter. It is de facto not a Catholic school."

Remember when priests used to be, like, pro-Jesus? It was as if they thought He was the only way to salvation, or something. Interesting to see how flexible they've gotten.

Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

Hey, worked for Ted Bundy.

Jonah Goldberg critiques Andrew Sullivan's latest book, providing a pretty good look at the soul of conservatives.

Sullivan takes us through feats of rhetorical prestidigitation — with his magician’s assistants Oakeshott and Montaigne. At the end of the magic show we are left with the assertion that conscience, rooted in every manner of skepticism, is our only guide. Fundamentalist “diktats” from the pope or The 700 Club are ultimately forms of spiritual oppression. The individual can either be guided by conscience or slavishly submit to fundamentalist overlords. If the former, you are like Sullivan himself, a decent person bravely struggling to reconcile the world with your beliefs. If the latter, you’ve outsourced your humanity to a bunch of priests and preachers.

There are many rooms in this mansion of nonsense. Sullivan, for example, dismisses the possibility that “fundamentalists” actually do grapple with their consciences — because such a concession would explode the entire book. So, the question “What Would Jesus Do?” is one that is never seriously asked by anyone Sullivan calls a fundamentalist. Judging from the “fundamentalists” I know, this smacks of pure bigotry. Also, Sullivan would have us believe in an either/or choice: conscience or fundamentalist servitude. This is a false choice, one not found in American conservatism. Conscience is important, but conscience must be informed — not dictated to — by institutions, religion, tradition, and, of course, reason.

Nancy Pelosi Acting Like A Girl, and Not in A Good Way

Soon to be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi won't nominate Jane Harman to head the House Intelligence Committee even though Harman is the ranking Dem and obvious next-in-line because Nancy doesn't like Jane. Ruth Marcus has more on why that's a bad idea here.

Conspicuous Consumption in Kabul

This is a very big problem. Big houses and other trappings of upscale society are showing up around Kabul, but little has changed economically for the poor. I'm a big believer in trickle-down economics, but trickles are slow and these people need help now.

Whether it's true or not, The Daddy confirms that the impression of the locals is that foreign aid money has been stolen by the government ministers and used for luxurious mansions, fancy cars, etc. Given the depth of the poverty in Afghanistan, this isn't just in bad taste, it's extremely stupid. The rest of the world had better put pressure on the Afghan government to do better, much better, and fast, or chaos will reign supreme there once again. Soon.

World Championships

For Rock Paper Scissors players are being held in Toronto this weekend. These guys are very serious.

Tournament organizer Graham Walker said players will have to steel themselves against psychological pressure as players typically form teams to rally each other.

Sure, but do they know Tiger Hand?

Dean Promises Respect

Howard Dean makes many promises as the Dems take control, including this little gem:

"The most important promise we make is this -- we will respect all Americans. We will value your beliefs and your families as we restore America to its position of moral leadership throughout the world."

"Moral leadership" -- I'll bet when he says it, it means the same thing as "French military restraint."

Chien Bites Man

UNIFIL Chief: Israel doesn't trust us. No! How can that be? Could it have anything to do with continued arms shipments to Hizbullah? Surely not, or you'd think they would have mentioned that before the 15th paragraph. Fortunately, the French are very level-headed in a crisis.

"If we avoided an incident, it's because the French military showed great restraint and sang-froid."

French military restraint. Best euphemism ever.

God, Scientists Agree: All We Are Is Dust in the Wind

Smoggy skies 'created life on Earth' according to scientists, who say that a smoggy haze which covered the earth would have contained aerosolized organisms which provided the building blocks for life.

According to the Bible:

But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
--Genesis 2:6-7

God is more succinct, but then He would be.

OIC

Howard Dean responds to Carville. (Emphasis mine).

After the Republicans have admitted to a thumping, why is it that the only one complaining on the Democratic side is James Carville, who today in addition to trashing Howard Dean, praised the RNC, the outfit that brought us the racist adthat defeated Harold Ford, James' supposed candidate for Chair?

Now I understand why Carville wants Dean out. If Howard misread the Tennessee race that badly, it could be he just got lucky in the other contests. Howard, here's a good rundown on what really happened. If you're having trouble believing it, just check out the comments from readers, especially the ones posted on blogs leading up to the election. Then, either give up your job, or lose your bigoted misconceptions about Southerners.

New Chair for the DNC?

I really can't blame the Kos Kids for being upset about this. Howard Dean just took the Democrats to their first victory in a long time, so why replace him with losing candidate Harold Ford, Jr.? Cuz he's pretty?

Outrageous

Germany thinks its laws should apply to our citizens and high officials while they are acting on our behalf in a war in a foreign country in which Germany has chosen not to participate. Yes, it's about Abu Ghraib, and yes, Abu Ghraib was bad, but we have already prosecuted those most responsible for that, and Abu Ghraib is not in Germany.

No word on whether those arrogant sons of Nazis plan prosecutions over the atrocities in Darfur, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, etc. Maybe genocide just hits too close to home.

Nancy, Harry, it really is time for you guys to tell someone to go bake themselves, and I don't mean President Bush. Are you really going to allow another country to assume jurisdiction over our citizens? Is there even anything for you to think about here? Sheesh...

This Must Make the Democrats So Proud..

Al-Qaeda in Iraq celebrates the Dem victory on Tuesday.

The group also said it welcomed the Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and it added that its fighters would not rest until they had blown up the White House.

So does Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.

"Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation."

I'd love to see someone like Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid tell 'em to go to hell, but so far the most quoted post-election Democrat seems to be Charlie Rangel saying no one wants to live in Mississippi.

Doesn't it bother these guys at least a little bit that the terrorists think they're on the same side?

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys Fiddle While Paris Burns

The French were very happy about our elections. Odd, really. Their elections bore us at the best of times; I can't imagine we'd pay any attention at all if we were in their situation. Quick, can you even name the French equivalents to Denny Hastert and Bill Frist? Didn't think so.

No fair gloating (much) if you don't know who Hastert and Frist are.

School Girls, Take Heed!!

Hamas Military Wing Calls for Attack on U.S. Targets.

And terrorist leaders everywhere say "D'Oh. Why didn't we think of that?"

Noviana Malewa

Beheaded Girls Were Ramadan Trophies

Eight male attackers, six machetes, and...

The attackers cleanly beheaded three of the students but a fourth, Noviana Malewa, escaped after a struggle and ran away screaming. Her attackers gave chase but were unable to catch her.

So, Noviana Malewa is an ordinary high school girl walking to school one morning when she is surprised by a bloody attack in which her companions are brutally murdered, but she manages to escape and outrun all of her would-be killers. She didn't escape uninjured.

'All I could do was pray to Jesus for his help,' she said.

This article goes into a lot more detail about the situation in Noviana's area of Indonesia. Including this bit of information:

By the summer of 2001, with little attempt by the government to halt their migration, thousands of militants, mainly from outlawed groups such as Laksar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah, had travelled here with weapons, military training from Afghanistan and a mission to drive out the infidels.

For those who have trouble with chronology, the summer of 2001 is before Iraq. It's even before Afghanistan.

Those Wacky UN Peacekeepers

All things considered, it's hard to believe the rest of the world ever, ever, criticizes the U.S. military. This article sites a report in Der Spiegel.

Spanish UNIFIL official Richard Ortax admitted to the paper that no patrols are carried out at night “because of the danger involved.”

...The report cites a long tradition of UNIFIL inaction, which it says allowed time for a Finnish contingent to construct a giant sauna and an Indian contingent to decorate its base with traditional Indian artwork.

The UNIFIL troops and the 14,000 Lebanese soldiers stationed in the region add up to a total of around 20,000 troops in the 18-by 31-mile region of southern Lebanon. Another 6,000 troops are still expected to arrive.

The United Nations itself has admitted that Syria was still successfully smuggling arms to the Hizbullah, which neither UNIFIL nor the Lebanese army plan to stop.

Israel has maintained overflights in the region in order to monitor and discourage the smuggling, yet UNIFIL officials condemn the continued Israeli maneuvers. The Lebanese army even attempted to shoot down Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday. France and the European Union have been accusing Israel of violating Resolution 1701 with its flights over Lebanon.

The noise from the Israeli jets must really spoil the serenity of the sauna.

Sheesh. Why do certain people in politics seem to think we need U.N. approval or advice for anything?

Attack of the Giant Snails

Seriously. Barbados is being invaded by giant snails.

Couldn't they just invite the French for lunch?

Nuance Is Everything

New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice.

"It’s the permanence of the transition that matters most."

Uh huh.

Faith and Family

Harold Ford, Jr., says God is on his side. I can understand his confusion, what with all the resurrected voters hanging out at the polls these days, but I'm thinking that's not God, it's just Auntie Ophelia.

Still, just in case God really is managing the Congressman's campaign, HF,J might want to avoid hanging out alone in hotel rooms "writing" a "book." I mean, God has enemies, you know?

Fewer British Kids Eating School Lunches

A campaign for healthier school lunches has resulted in fewer kids getting lunch in British schools. Seems kids won't eat food they don't like, which makes it less nutritious, actually. I think if this had happened in the U.S., the press would have touted it a a weight-loss success.

Just Because She's A Hypocrite, Doesn't Mean She's Wrong...

Actually, this gallery of Posh looks pretty much demonstrates the wisdom of her advice. Learn from her mistakes.

Crash! Bang! Pow!

This video of an F-4 hitting a wall is just cool, even if that is the whole plot. I'm hoping that in addition to being very entertaining for those of us who are easily entertained, it also acts as a deterent to those who might think it would be fun to crash a jet plane into a nuclear power plant.

Halloween Hangman

Link sent by The Grandad.

John Bolton Is, Like, Soooo Rude!

The Toronto Star has an article on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton which barely alludes to any of the scandals which have recently plagued the no-longer-so-august institution.

In August 2005, before a historic summit aimed at eradicating dire poverty, a diminutive, mop-haired figure strode into the corridors of UN headquarters in New York and dropped a bombshell that blasted apart a year of diplomatic bridge-building.

John Bolton, Washington's newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, had arrived on the scene, carrying a list of 750 amendments to the painstakingly negotiated summit document and changing its focus from poverty to administrative reform.

With less than a month to go until world leaders gathered for a widely anticipated endorsement of the paper, it was the diplomatic equivalent of "shock and awe."

"Bolton's views were well known, and there were expectations that he'd push hard on UN reform," says veteran Canadian diplomat Louise Fréchette, former deputy secretary general of the world body.

"But when he made such a huge case of it, people were taken by surprise."

Bolton's insistence on pushing Washington's reform agenda ahead of helping millions of poor people outraged developing countries, which had seen the summit as a boost for the UN Millennium Development Goals for wiping out the most extreme poverty by 2015. Some charged that the United States had "hijacked" the summit.

This sounds unreasonable unless you take Bolton's actions in light of the Oil For Food scandal. But, perhaps it's rude to mention that. So, the article didn't. It didn't mention the Congo sex scandal or the recent arrest of the head of the U.N.'s budget oversight committee on money-laundering charges, either. But fear not, they were very even-handed on the matter of Bolton's sartorial style.

So, our ettiquette lesson for the day, courtesy of the Toronto Star: One should never mention unpleasant things about major international institutions, but soliciting opinions on the personal grooming habits of one's ally's ambassador to said institution is perfectly acceptable. I mean, how else is he supposed to learn?

Now that I've made that perfectly clear, I'm off to watch some NASCAR.

You Can't Do This

Nope. Nope. Nope. You can't.

I'd mock your ineptitude, but posting something to my blog at this time on a Saturday night pretty much disqualifies me from mocking anyone. At least until Sunday morning.

Another hat tip to Jonah Goldberg at The Corner, who wastes more time than most people have and still writes like an angel, albeit an angel in Spock ears.

How Many Pixels Deep Is Beauty?

Dove's Evolution of Beauty video gives a pretty good idea of just how fake beauty ads are.

Four Days Is A Long Time in Memphis

On the 23rd, the Commercial Appeal ran an article describing Mayor Herenton's idea for an income tax to pay for badly needed new police officers. Today, they ran an article detailing accusations of mismanagement at the local Homeland Security office. How come no one's suggesting we use the HS grant money to pay for the police? Is it just assumed that money is slated to be misappropriated, or is it because the CA hasn't been properly incentivized?

To be a little bit fair, the Tri-State Defender isn't the Commercial Appeal, but the CA's website did run a nice ad for Mark White right above his comments accusing his opponent of buying favorable coverage from the TSD. So, how big of an ad would Memphians have to buy?

Noooooooooo.....

Collierville to lose Parisian.

The DoD Fights Back

The DoD now has a web page where they print the history of corrections they are seeking to major news stories and editorials. Particularly shocking to me was the section on a Newsweek article they were seeking to have corrected. They show pictures of the various covers which ran internationally, as well as the domestic one. Let's just say they are different. I knew they did this sort of thing, but until I saw it laid out like that, I didn't really know. Those cowardly, warmongering, scurrilous sons of bitches are never getting another dime from me.

And yes, I mean warmongering. What else, precisely, can they think would be the result of running those covers overseas.

Christmas List

The Grandad sends this picture of John Travolta's Ocala house. There's no garage, and the neighbors are noisy as h-e-double-hockey-sticks, but I want one. The jets, too. I find I have a serious case of jumbo-jet envy. If I were a man, it would be positively Freudian. And Santa, if you're reading this, a little boat like Jeff Gordon's would also be nice.

Camille Paglia

Drudge links to her latest Salon interview. Well worth the time to read. She eviscerates the Democrats and decimates the elitist intellectuals who so often speak for them, but it's a labor of love for her. She is both a Democrat and an intellectual. And her opinions on the media and the Foley scandal are spot-on. I don't see much chance of the Democrats becoming a serious party anytime soon, but I sure wish they'd listen to Ms. Paglia's criticisms. It could only help both parties.

She's wrong about Iraq, of course, but isn't everyone?

The Manatee Most Likely to be Named Elvis...

Has left the building. Did anyone check Burger King?

Update: the rescuers have gone home empty-handed. Don't you just hate it when the damsel-in-distress is too impatient to wait for the knight-in-shining-armor?

"We have looked everywhere," said Nicole Adimey, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The weird thing is, it's not acting like a normal manatee in the wild."

I guess a normal manatee would have waited.

I Hate When...

The bar's all full but the file's not done. Blogger's having server issues. I couldn't get on at all yesterday. Looks like my Christmas list will have to wait 'til tomorrow.

The Seduction Community

Instapundit links to this entry at wikipedia, which is why I'm now reading Neil Strauss's The Game. So far, it's very good, and something every young woman should read.

Good For You, Harold Ford, Jr.

I've razzed on him some here, so it's only fair that I point out this video. He's received a lot of flack for having attended a Playboy party, and his campaign has been somewhat less than clear about whether he was really there. His response here is the best he could do, under the circumstances.

'Course, it would have been better not to have filmed that commercial in a church, but at least he didn't blame alcohol, or out himself as a heterosexual-single-male-American, or something equally craven.

Come to think of it, outting himself as an HSMA might have been a good idea after all. Corker's ads are funny. Jr. demonstrating a sense of humor about the whole thing would have been genius. Remember, you saw it here first.

Not That They Want to Influence the Race...

According to a Commercial Appeal article about Harold Ford, Jr's press conference crashing stunt, the congressman will appear, alone, on the cover of next week's Newsweek. It couldn't be that they want to give him a little free publicity, or influence the outcome of a tight race. No. It's not that. Not a chance in Hades it'll be a puff piece.

I anxiously await their hard-hitting story about Ford, particularly his disgustingly corrupt political machine family and the effect they've had on Memphis, which is first in the nation for infant mortality, second for crime, and somewhere around dead last for schools. Yeah, that'll be what they write about.

Worth Remembering

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing. Whenever I'm tempted to blame all of this terrorism stuff on Jimmy Carter, this stops me. We should have responded much more strongly, and nobody should have known that better than Reagan.

I'd still back Reagan over Carter any day, any where, on any thing. But, there's plenty of blame to go around.

Absolutely Do Not Try

This. Hat tip to The Corner.

Mighty Dolphin Defense

Check out Douglas' beautiful tackle for a loss of the Tigers' running back. Douglas is in the #22 untucked teal jersey. See his hand going for the ball. Thrill to the manly round of congratulations afterward!

"Everybody Wants Corker to Win"

So says Douglas. Of course, his circle of friends is hardly representative of the local voting population, but I'm just about positive that this is first time they have demonstrated an awareness of an off-year election. It's telling that they offered no opinion on any of the other races, not even the gubernatorial contest. I don't know how it's going in the rest of the state, but I think the idea of electing a member of the Ford family to the U.S. Senate brings out the broken-glass proclivities of the area's Republicans. That can't be good for Ford, Jr. who is running as a centrist. I'm thinking "everybody" may get their wish.

Fifth Column Alert

Found this via Instapundit. Anderson Cooper's response was the usual, pathetically self-serving crud which so epitomizes the current state of MSM ethics:

We also understood that some might conclude there is a public relations benefit for the insurgents if we aired the material, especially on CNN International.

Just some might conclude airing the tape is beneficial to the insurgents? And would any of the some be, like, the insurgents who submitted the tape?

We also understood that this kind of footage is upsetting and disturbing for many viewers.

Gee, I wonder why... Is it because many of your viewers are fragile, easily disturbed wusses who just don't know what's good for them, or could it be that airing that video was in really bad taste?

But after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.

Well, sure. How else are people supposed to know that soldiers get shot at by the enemy?