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Saturday, January 07, 2006
Today's NFL MatchupsThe "early" game is Washington at Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is favored by 2 points, as befits the home team. However, they have a quarterback (Chris Simms) who has never played in a postseason game. They are facing a team that's won five games in a row and which is led by a quarterback with experience at winning playoff games on the road. I really see this game as a coin toss, slight edge to Washington because of the experience factor at quarterback. The later game features Jacksonville at New England. Is there anybody in the world who thinks Jacksonville can win this game? Yeah, on any given Sunday, but this is Saturday and Cinderella ain't going dancing. Start with the quarterback. Tom Brady has done more to push forward his case as the the greatest player in the history of pro football at his age than anybody in the past. Joe Montana didn't have three Super Bowl rings after four years in the league; it took him nine. Brady's 9-0 as a postseason starter. Byron Leftwich is playing in his first playoff contest. Leftwich seems to be developing into a top-flight quarterback. In his third season, he upped his yards per attempt to over 7.0 and threw only 5 interceptions. His TD total was low at 15. Although he's black, he doesn't play the black style of quarterbacking; he was credited with only 67 rushing yards on 31 attempts. Could I see Jacksonville winning? Sure, if they get a couple of lucky plays and Tom Brady stops playing like Bart Starr's more athletic brother. But don't count on it!
Saddam's Terror Training CampsI'll assume that this story won't get linked over at the HuffPo. THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.
The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak--and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis. According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing.Let's see if we can guess the libs reactions: 1. So what if he was training "terrorists"? As Cindy Sheehan reminds us, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. 2. Diebold manufactured the machines that analyzed the intelligence that led to this discovery. And there's no paper trail. 3. Joe Wilson, in between sips of mint tea, discovered there was nothing to this report during his trip to Africa. Nick Kristof and Walter Pincus columns to follow. 4. "Lalalalalala Halliburton Cheney lalalalalala--I can't hear you!" Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin
Friday, January 06, 2006
Yet Another Slanted PollThe Bulldog Pundit takes a bite out of the latest AP-Ipsos poll. As BDP proves, if you start out by oversampling Democrats, the areligious and the poor, you will undoubtedly end up with a result that favors the Democrats.
Cindy Mourns Iraqi Innocents?There aren't five dumber people in the United States: Then we have the unfortunate innocents of Iraq. I have heard reports of up to as many as 200 of them killed yesterday...."I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis," said George on Dec. 12, 2005. Even if one accepts this very low guess-ti-mate by George, his policies have been responsible for ten times the 3,000 deaths on Sept. 11, 2001. By his own admission, he is ten times the terrorist that Osama ever was. If George says 30,000…who knows what the truthful total is. It fills me with sorrow and hurts my heart to even contemplate the number."Of course, who killed the 200 or more innocents yesterday? This article gives us a pretty good idea: Suicide bombers infiltrated a line of police recruits and a crowd of Shiite pilgrims Thursday as insurgents killed 125 civilians and seven U.S. troops, escalating attacks while political factions worked to forge a coalition government.Suicide bombers and insurgents, eh? Isn't there another term for those that Cindy Sheehan used with a CBS reporter? "No, because it's not true," Sheehan replied. "You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded. I mean they're not even a threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not involved in 9-11, Iraq was not a terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [American troops] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country. The terrorism is growing and people who never thought of being car bombers or suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country."Even by Cindy's brain-addled standards, that's quite a mess (freedom fighters from other countries are going into Iraq because they want the US out of their country?). But more important, Cindy forgives all the suicide bombers and car bombers, and ascribes their deaths to President Bush. What an idiot!
As Predicted HereMichael Ramirez, the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, who was fired at the LA Times, has landed on his feet at Investor's Business Daily. Ramirez is a terrific cartoonist; so good in fact that I wonder how in the world the Pulitzers ever honored him. Meanwhile, Robert Scheer is still looking for work after being canned in the same purge that unemployed Ramirez. Who says there's no God!
What Crazy SaidCrazy Politico reprints a letter from the parent of a Marine who was killed in Iraq. I believe I linked to this letter just before the holidays, but it's worth rereading.
Lurch Gets Eyelids?Kitty forwarded me this link to some pix of Le Fraude. As I commented in 2004, I have seen occasional photos where John Kerry looked quite handsome; I'm sure it was just bad lighting.
Murtha Fears US VictoryI know he's a Marine, but I gotta question his patriotism. Appearing at a town meeting in Arlington, Virginia, with fellow Democratic Rep. James Moran, Murtha said, "A year ago, I said we can't win this militarily, and I got all kinds of criticism." Now, Murtha told the strongly antiwar audience, "I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing."
The meeting, which attracted an overflow crowd, was promoted by the Internet activist group MoveOn.org, which said that "Congressman Moran has extended a special invitation to MoveOn members in his district and nearby." It was also promoted on some antiwar websites like afterdowningstreet.org. War supporters organized by the conservative freerepublic.com demonstrated outside.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Cindy's Tireless Work Never EndsThat is, when she's not taking a week in Hawaii: Since her Texas demonstration, Sheehan has been traveling around the world, making speeches at conferences and leading anti-war protests.
Over the past week, Sheehan has been vacationing on Kauai. She was set to fly out of Honolulu last night, hours after the speech.
Impeachment Watch ISince impeach Bush seems to be the platform the Democrats are going to run on, rather than, you know, the vision thing, I thought I'd start a regular post on the impeachment front. Hugh Hewitt interviewed Rosa Brooks a law school professor and LA Times columnist on her reasons for impeachment. RB: You could have a long list. To me, actually, the latest scandal, the NSA wiretapping scandal, is in some ways, the least of it. It seems to me that that looks more like a technicality than for instance, possibly deliberately misleading people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, potential violation of federal law on interrogations and detentions policy, and speaking specifically of the torture statute in the war crimes statute. You could go on. Other people have tried to compile lists. I'm not an impeachment hobbyist. It's not my hobby.Of course she's not, she's just writing a column out her rear end. Deliberately misleading people about WMD in Iraq? Does she have a specific incident in mind? Hugh does an excellent job of painting her into a corner: HH: But let's focus on, from the December 30th's column, the paragraph, the NSA's domestic surveillance program is not the only impeachable offense with which the president could be plausibly charged. That does imply you do believe it is an impeachable offense.
RB: Yeah, I think it is. I mean, I think on its...I think that that's a separate question from whether he would in the end be found guilty and removed from office. But when Hugh starts pressing her on case law, she backtracks: RB: Well, you know, Hugh, I mean, you've got the case law at your fingertips, and I'm not going to challenge you on it, because I don't. And this is actually why, as I said a few minutes ago, this seems like the least of it to me. I mean, this seems to me to be an open question. You know, I'm not an expert on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or the case law behind it. I don't know.The old "I'm not an expert on FISA, but this seems to me a clear violation, unless of course it isn't, in which case, never mind," dodge. Deb Saunders takes up the FISA thing and chides Jonathan Alter a bit. As Alter wrote after the story broke that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international calls in efforts to uncover possible agents of al Qaeda, "Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974."
Angry leftists are so hysterical that they cannot distinguish between government agents eavesdropping on a president's political enemies, and the data mining of international phone calls in an earnest effort to thwart another Sept. 11 terrorist attack. They don't see that Bush, rather then trying to hide his role in the effort, signed off on the program more than 30 times.
Tribute to the SoldiersOur buddy Chris does a nice job with these multimedia presentations; this is one of his best.
The 20 Most Annoying Liberals of 2005John Hawkins lines them up and knocks them down. I particularly agree with his pick for #1.
Anybody Think This Guy Saw Munich?A judge sentences a man who raped a little girl many times over a four-year period, to 60 days. Get this bit of rationalization, which could have come out of the new Spielberg film: "The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom. Most of the on-lookers were related to a young girl who was repeatedly raped by Mark Hulett who was in court to be sentenced.Hat Tip: Large Bill via Michelle Malkin
Why Aren't The Feminists Supporting This War?Mark Steyn notes: In other words, isn't the war on terror the real "women's issue"? As Ahmad al-Baqer, an MP from one of the more progressive Muslim nations (Kuwait), breezily put it, nixing a proposal to give broads the right to vote, "God said in the holy Koran that men are better than women. Why can't we settle for that?" Why indeed? From the Associated Press:
"Multan, Pakistan -- Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year-old stepsister to salvage his family's 'honor' . . ."
Alas for Mr. Ahmed's daughters, that's all a long way away for Susan Sarandon, Gloria Steinem and the other sisters whose contribution to the liberation of Afghanistan was to oppose it. But the "honour killings" are getting closer. In London last summer, the police announced they were re-opening investigations into 120 deaths among British Muslim girls that they'd hitherto declined to look at too closely on grounds of "cultural sensitivity." There's a small flurry -- enough almost to form a new category for the Governor-General's Awards -- in books itemizing the violence to women, gay men and other approved groups in the new EUtopia: Claire Berlinski's Menace In Europe and Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept are a staggering accumulation of riveting vignettes, like the non-Muslim girls in les banlieues of France opting to wear veils and other Islamic coverings to lessen the likelihood of being abused and assaulted in the streets.Actually it's not too hard to figure out why the feminists oppose the war. They were an offshoot of the radical antiwar movement in the 1960s, and have become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrats. It's only if you buy the myth that they support "women" that their opposition to Iraq and Afghanistan seems to make no sense.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Congrats to TexasTerrific national championship game. I did have to laugh a bit at some of the hype; for example, after the announcers assured us that the field was in top-notch condition, the players spent a good part of the game slip-sliding around. Vince Young was amazing and Leinart looked terrific. Leinart was better passing but not by much, and Young's running was the difference. I have a strong feeling we'll be seeing both of them playing on Sundays quite soon.
Loads O' NonsenseHere's a particularly frenetic call to arms for the Democrats from a former Kerry campaign worker. Here's a taste: Over the past five years, the Republican Party has moved from a party different from ours, but one that at its center held many of the core American beliefs that Democrats do to the pary of neo-conservative and religious extremists. This shift is most clearly shown in the difference between the two President Bush's (sic). With the elder, there was a middle ground that we could agree on. Now there simply is no middle to move to. A fact the Clintons have yet to grasp.This is a pretty obvious lie: When Governor of Texas, George Bush spearheaded a change to that state's constitution so that it starts, "Texas is a Christian state." If you are Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or any other religion other than Christian, you are a second-class citizen in the state of Texas. You may not want to believe this, or you may believe that you have other protections, but the fundamental fact remains: Texas is a Christian state and you're not Christian.In fact, as a commenter pointed out, you can read the entire Texas Constitution online; the word "Christian" does not appear in it at all.
More Bungled Hostage TakingThis time, the Palestinian hostage takers tried to capture the parents of flag burner (and pancake) Rachel Corrie.  They said Craig and Cindy Corrie, whose daughter was fatally run down by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in 2003, were at the home of a friend in the Gaza town of Rafah when it was stormed by gunmen.
The gunmen appeared set on kidnapping the two Americans, the witnesses said. Gaza has seen a rash of foreigner abductions since Israel withdrew from the territory in September after 38 years of occupation.
Liberating the World, One Hippie Chick at a Time--Updated! The odious 1960s radical Bill Ayers gets his comeuppance from a former flower girl. This is a sad little story which contains some profanity, and if you think you know where it's going after three paragraphs or so, you're pretty much right, so you don't have to read it all the way through. Many of the 1960s hippie chicks later formed the feminists, largely because the only position for them in the radical movements of the time was, as one revolutionary put it, the missionary position. Reading accounts like this, it's not hard to understand why the early feminists were so anti-male; they had been betrayed by the young men that the media put on a pedestal. And in the case of Ayers, still put on a pedestal. Remember, Ayers was the man who the New York Times, with deliciously bad timing, had a suck-up feature on his memories of blowing up the Pentagon, the weekend after 9-11. Update: Our buddy John Ruberry has more on Ayers' wife and fellow terrorist.
It Helps If You Don't SneerMark Gavreau Judge sneers. As most people know, a metrosexual is a heterosexual man who has good taste in art and music, and likes to pamper himself with nice clothes and expensive grooming. There's only one drawback: I can't stand much of the so-called common-man culture celebrated by the Right.I don't celebrate much of that common-man culture myself, but I don't disdain it either. Hell, I read comic books and do posts on Survivor. And I can quote Shakespeare. He notes his love of baseball over football; let me tell you, he doesn't want to go up against me in a test on the history of baseball. But I'm no longer elitist about it. I know too many intelligent people who like NASCAR. I prefer football to baseball while recognizing that the great literature is about the latter. I like Doestoyevsky but don't disdain Rowling out of hand. I'd prefer to listen to an evening of jazz or Celtic music to C&W, but I've heard some C&W that I definitely like. When you're young, and I suspect Mark is somewhat young, there is a tendency to divide the world into things you really like and crap, and crap must be eliminated. I know I was much more judgmental years ago about stuff I was not into, like rap music and Barry Manilow. Still not my cup of tea, but it doesn't grate on me anymore, and I accept that even smart people can like it.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
News You May Have MissedAt last, a 2005 retrospective worth linking! August came and the American media mourned as Peter Jennings passed away, but the memorial service was canceled due to rumors of rival network gangs threatening to take over the world. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blamed Pat Robertson and the American government for Jennings' death, and Newsweek attempted to flush John Bolton down the toilet. The Space Shuttle Discovery returned to space, but NASA astronauts panicked when unforeseen problems arose. An unnamed official later explained it was not really a life-threatening issue that arose, just the shock and surprise around the JSC headquarters when George Takei came barreling out of the closet yelling, "Beam me up, Scotty!"
About the Blog's NameI realize that Brainster's a somewhat unusual blog name, and may sound a bit like boasting. Believe me, I am not trying to talk about cranial capacity in a right-wing blogosphere that includes folks like Eugene Volokh, John Hinderaker and Glenn Reynolds. Many years ago, before the internet, there were these things called Bulletin Boards that you could dial up to and do some of the things we use the internet for, like downloading files and communicating with others. Well, one day I was talking politics in a bulletin board chatroom and somebody who disagreed with me said "You're brain dead." One of my supporters chimed in with "No, he's Brain Death, and he's come for you!" We all LOLed like geeky nerds and the next time I came on, one of my friends said "Look, it's Brain Death!" and the nickname became one I used for years while posting on usenet newsgroups. So when I decided to start a blog one fine evening after a few beers and surfing other blogs, I naturally typed in braindeath.blogspot.com, and was appalled to discover that somebody had already taken the name. So I chose Brainster just as a variation on "Brain" like the guy on Saturday Night Live in the mid-'90s who dubbed everybody "the Mikester! Mikaroonius!"
More AmusementKitty has a wonderful post about how her grandfather snookered the city slickers.
Further Confirmation That the Leftwing Blogosphere Is Way Out of the MainstreamCheck out this poll at MyDD, one of the largest left-wing blogs around. Wes Clark and Russ Feingold lead by a large margin, with Hillary well down in the pack. But surf over to Tradesports, and Hillary's well out in front, with Clark and Feingold registering as also-rans.
Always Good for a LaughCenk Uygur, writing in the Huffington Post, which can always be counted on to provide plenty of unintentional comedy: I was once in a meeting with a television executive at ABC. I was explaining how people who didn’t vote for George W. Bush felt frustrated because television isn’t representing them at all. She stopped me in the middle and said, “Wait a minute, no one would accuse us of not being liberal enough.”
That’s when I realized it – it’s not just Bush who lives in a bubble. All these TV executives seem to hear is conservative propaganda, so they actually think they are being too liberal. What a laughable thought. There is wall to wall conservative talk show hosts on air right now and not one show representing the liberal point of view on any of the television news networks and she still believes they are being too liberal.Yes, I know, the notion that the TV networks aren't largely liberal seems odd, but it's a staple of the far left. Just how out of touch Uygur is can be gleaned from this passage: For the last year or so, our listeners put together a letter writing campaign to MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and CNBC. They asked these stations to hire just one liberal or progressive or moderate host. They already have Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews (if you think Matthews is moderate, check this out ), John Gibson, Pat Buchanan and Robert Novak, let alone Neil Cavuto, Brit Hume and every other host on Fox News pretending to be a news anchor.Yep, that's right, Chrissie Matthews isn't liberal, he isn't even moderate. He's a conservative. No mention of Olbermann, either--is his show still on?
Carnival of the Clueless is Up!I apologize for not linking this lately; I got lazy about submitting posts to Rick and so I don't see the referring link and realize that it's time to alert my readers. Rick does a great job with these posts and deserves the recognition. I'll try to submit my best pieces on clueless libs more often.
Air America Phoenix Heading Off the AirI can't find any news stories about this right now, but Charles Goyette, the local morning guy, has been talking about the sale of KXXT-1010 AM, the Phoenix affiliate of Airhead America. They are reporting that the station will convert to a religious station effective 2/1/06. :) The local manager is talking bravely about raising capital to purchase another station, but I suspect that AA is facing its final days in the Valley of the Sun. There was a fair amount of gallows humor on the show; Goyette did an ad for a computer company noting that they'd done such a good job with KXXT's computers that he'd be able to type up his resume quickly. At one point the station GM said the word "sh*t" without the bleep. Update: Brian Maloney obviously sniffed something out a couple days before New Year's, but nothing was official then. It's obviously out there now, but Phoenix media hasn't reported it yet; does that mean Air America is too insignificant to merit coverage?
The Great God KosThis is completely overblown: Moulitsas's appearance before the Democratic caucus was a verbal version of what he writes every day on his blog, DailyKos. The site, which has existed for only around three and a half years, now has 3.7 million readers each week. That's more than the top 10 opinion magazines—of both left and right—combined, more readers than any political publication has had, ever, in the history of the world. In addition, Moulitsas used the site to raise $500,000 for Democratic candidates in the last election cycle—making him one of the party's top fund-raisers. And, thanks to his early and enthusiastic backing of Howard Dean's campaign for the party's presidential nomination, Moulitsas became perhaps the key player in Dean's Internet-based rise to prominence.Of course, the writer is misinformed. Kos may have 3.7 million visitors to his site in the course of a week, but that is not 3.7 million different people; it's probably more like half a million or fewer who come to the site several times a week. And even those aren't all readers; Kos has the diary pages where people can create their own blogs. The article is reasonably balanced, but this got a horselaugh: In June 2003, after television cameras caught a cheering, thousand-strong mob in Fallujah dragging the charred, dismembered bodies of American contractors through the streets, Moulitsas linked to the reports and said of the contractors: “I feel nothing… Screw them.” The declaration, gleefully seized on by right-wing bloggers, provoked weeks of controversy. Democratic candidates came under pressure to pull their advertisements from the site, and even Moulitsas's traditional allies in the liberal blogosphere—including The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum—criticized him. (When I asked Moulitsas recently how he felt about the episode, his mouth stretched into a smile: “Vindicated,” he said. The media has recently begun to question the role of American contractors in Iraq, he pointed out, which was the point all along. This is how a liberal noise machine, freed from the don't-shatter-the-porcelain decorum, might work.)
This Looks CraptacularDuring the bowl games last night, ABC was pushing a new drama series, called Injustice. It looks like CSI thrown on its ear; instead of proving criminals guilty by high-tech means, this show will be dedicated to proving them innocent. Anybody think they'll take on Sacco & Vanzetti? The clips shown on TV confirm that it will be a liberal's dream. We have the noble lawyers, fighting against racist cops. It looks like the lawyers will burst into speeches about the injustice of our system at the drop of a hat. The star is Kyle McLachlan, perhaps best known for his role in Showgirls as mean guy #1. Okay, so what, you ask? There's nothing wrong with a little liberal courtroom fare. True enough, but this show is airing on Fridays in the 8PM timeslot, which means it's aimed squarely at the kiddies.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Those Annoying TerroristsPeaceniks can't even help them without getting in trouble. THE British aid worker kidnapped and held for three days with her parents in Gaza, had a blazing row with her captors shortly before the family was released in a back street in the dead of night, she told The Times yesterday.
As the two Palestinian gunmen who had abducted Kate Burton and her parents, Hugh, 73, and Win, 55, prepared to video their captives as a condition of their release, she burst into a tear-filled rage demanding they be set free.
“The kidnappers were getting nervous and angry and started shouting at me,” she said. “They told me I was being disrespectful, despite all the food and blankets they’d given us. I got really mad. I screamed at him, ‘Do you want me to get down on my knees and say thank you, thank you?’The story certainly has elements of farce, but let's remember that had Kate and her parents been Israeli, they'd probably be dead now.
We Did It Once--Updated!Kerry Haters is ready to spring back into action if needed. It's almost as if Sen. John Kerry never stopped running for president. He still jets across the country, raising millions of dollars and rallying Democrats. He still stalks the TV news show circuit, scolding President Bush at every turn.
His campaign Web site boasts of an online army of 3 million supporters.I suspect that the three million number consists of those who signed up for emails; calling them supporters is dubious. I didn't sign up for Kerry's email list, but I did get on Dean's. At any rate, the good news is that Kerry's not going to be nominated by the Democrats in 2008. He will forever be the guy who couldn't beat Chimpy Shrub McBushitler. Update: Our buddy Chris at Lucky Dawg, who did a great job with his Kerry Waffles (among other names) site, has some incriminating emails.
Playoff Matchups SetAFC Seeds: 1. Indianapolis (will host lowest AFC seed remaining after next week's Wild Card games) 2. Denver (will host highest AFC seed remaining other than Indianapolis after next week's Wild Card games) 3. Cincinnati (will host Seed 6 Pittsburgh next weekend) 4. New England (will host Seed 5 Jacksonville next weekend) Obviously there are some interesting questions about next week's games. Can Tom Brady make it to 10-0 as a playoff quarterback? Can Carson Palmer win his first postseason matchup, a crucial hurdle on the way to becoming one of the great QBs? Or can Ben Roethlisberger win his first road playoff game? NFC Seeds: 1. Seattle (will host lowest NFC seed remaining after next week's Wild Card games) 2. Chicago (will host highest NFC seed remaining other than Seattle after next week's Wild Card games) 3. Tampa Bay (will host Seed 6 Washington Redskins next weekend) 4. New York Giants (will host Seed 5 Carolina Panthers next weekend) Ironically, the only proven playoff quarterbacks in the NFC are from the two Wild Cards. Mark Brunell won a pair of postseason games in 1996. More important, they were road playoff wins, which are hard to come by. He's won four playoff games in total, which is more than anybody not named Tom in this year's Super Bowl tournament. Jake Delhomme has won three postseason games, which means he's equal to Eli Manning's older brother in playoff wins. The other NFC teams are all led by quarterbacks who've never won a playoff game. Fearless prediction: The home teams will win next week except for Cincinnati, which will be beaten by the Steelers.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Another Leftist Myth Bites the DustSacco and Vanzetti were guilty according to a recently discovered letter written by Upton Sinclair, who wrote a fictionalized account of the case. "Alone in a hotel room with Fred, I begged him to tell me the full truth," Sinclair wrote. " … He then told me that the men were guilty, and he told me in every detail how he had framed a set of alibis for them."
"Of course," he added, "the next big case may be a frame-up, and my telling the truth about the Sacco-Vanzetti case will make things harder for the victims."
He also worried that revealing what he had been told would cost him readers. "It is much better copy as a naïve defense of Sacco and Vanzetti because this is what all my foreign readers expect, and they are 90% of my public," he wrote to Minor.I remember another author looked into Sacco and Vanzetti a few years back and reached the same conclusion. As time goes by, all the Leftist icons of generations back are being exposed. Sinclair deserves a raspberry for writing his book (which indicated the pair were innocent), despite knowing better. I'm struck by the blathering tone of this part of the story: But the fearless Sinclair was left a conflicted man by what Sacco and Vanzetti's lawyer — and later others in the anarchist movement — told him.The fearless Sinclair turned out to be fearful, however, when it came to the likely reaction of his "comrades" on the Left if he published the truth: "My wife is absolutely certain that if I tell what I believe, I will be called a traitor to the movement and may not live to finish the book," Sinclair wrote Robert Minor, a confidant at the Socialist Daily Worker in New York, in 1927.Hat Tip: Common Sense & WonderNo Great Matter points out that there has been literary evidence for awhile that Sinclair was doubtful of some of the claims of Sacco and Vanzetti, although he does indeed conclude that this was possibly the first we knew that he felt they were guilty of the crimes for which they were executed. And it is plain that many, if not most of the popular websites on the Sacco and Vanzetti case presume they were innocent--even some websites that are not obviously liberal, like the Crime Library. While memories of the details of this particular case are fading, the Sacco-Vanzetti case remains in its broad outline the prime example of defendants tried not for what they did, but for whom they were: poor, passionate radicals, in an era in which the United States lived in a state of fear. It was the era of "The Red Scare."
This Could Cut Down On Fluffy Wolf SyndromeA wolf pack in Canada attacked and killed an 22-year-old man. "I think you can safely say that wolf attacks are rare, and fatal attacks are unknown," said Paul Paquet, a wolf biologist at the University of Calgary in Alberta who is helping to investigate the death for provincial authorities. "So this attack is really exceptional."Exceptional for now, he means.
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