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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Incredible WWII StuffGet this: MI6 [roughly the British equivalent of the CIA] was accused by senior Foreign Office diplomats of undermining the policy of appeasement with alarmist predictions of Adolf Hitler's war-mongering intentions.In January 1939, one of Sinclair's agents reported that Hitler planned to bring France to heel by sending troops through Holland and Switzerland to get round the Maginot Line defences.
The report was passed to America and other countries, to the fury of Sir George Mounsey, the Foreign Office assistant under-secretary.
He complained: "These secret reports, if accurate, are usually borne out by our own information and therefore, while harmless, of little value; whereas if inaccurate they may lead to serious consequences.
"If action is taken on them the whole international atmosphere may be poisoned and the policy of appeasement jeopardised.Interesting to hear somebody defending appeasement using that word; nobody would dare use it today.
Survivor UpdateOnce again the worst tribe in the history of Survivor lived up to their reputation as the "that's good enough to win" group, and once again they lost. Unfortunately this time they could not blame it on James, who seemed to be the problem earlier. On the reward challenge they didn't even bother with the drama of who won; as soon as the plane passed over the Koror beach it dropped the reward. And then Ulong made the mistake of designating dumb Bobby Jon as the puzzle-solver. And at the end, Bobby Jon made comments that indicating he was voting based on who was a threat. Dumber than two rocks, our Bobby Jon. So now there are two. It's beginning to look increasingly possible that there will be no need for a merge. Better update here. Later thought: They almost have to do the merge next week. Why? Because if Ulong loses next week, what are they going to do at tribal council? Bobby Jon's pretty dumb, but I doubt if he will actually vote himself off, which means a tie vote and no real way of breaking it (unless they go back to the old "whoever had more votes in the past" loses rule). Not sure if they've made it a rule that whoever makes it to the merge is on the jury, although that's the way I recall it from prior shows. That might cause some problems as there would be eight jury members, which leaves open the possibility of a tie on the last show, which is surely undesirable.
McCartney UpdateHere's a very solid interview with Catherine McCartney, who seems to have a good head on her shoulders. "We've had some media pundits who have tried to focus on us as women, which should be dispelled," says Catherine, who is a politics and history lecturer.
"I mean, sometimes I feel that talks down to men. Is it saying that men wouldn't have been able to do this or men wouldn't have done this, wouldn't have had the capability to do this?
"This idea of being women, and being brave women - it's nothing to do with anything like that. Women helped clean the bar that night. So you can have women who believe very much in human rights and others who can very callously clean up the scene of a crime and not come forward to help a family get justice.
R.I.P. TerriSad story, but she's gone on to a better place.
Coming Soon to a Theatre Near YouThis article about a quartet of young illegal alien high schoolers defeating a team from MIT in an underwater robot contest is made for the big screen. There's a little too much moaning by the writer about how unfair it is that they won't qualify for in-state tuition, but the underlying story itself is terrific. You can almost hear the music soaring at the end.
Another One for the Dumb Criminals FileA young gangster shot himself in England with a "designer" gun. Dozens of similar weapons have been smuggled into Britain from Bulgaria in the past 18 months. They are sold initially as novelty flare guns but then modified by criminals to fire twin .25 bullets.
The weapons, which change hands for several hundred pounds, are notoriously unstable and lack accuracy. However, at point-blank range they are lethal.
Early users were attracted to key fob guns because rivals did not recognise them as firearms, and many criminals regard them as fashion accessories.
At some point in the evening Flowers went to the lavatory with some of his friends. Police sources suggest someone had recently borrowed the key fob gun and was returning it.
An inquest yesterday heard that Flowers's final words to his friends were: "I'm going to put it to the test - watch."
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
The Amazing Race UpdatesViking Pundit summarizes last night's episode here, while Dummocrats has an update here. I've started following the show since reading about it at Viking Pundit and Byrd Droppings. My own take is that I was glad to see the retired couple did not get dropped from the game, and elated to see the last of obnoxious Ray, who seemed to spend every episode glaring at his on-again, off-again girlfriend Deanna. He was annoying to the end, spending his last seconds of face time talking about how he didn't ever want to be in a competition with her again. Boston Rob gets a fair amount of chiding for not stopping to see what had happened to the brothers, who rolled their jeep on the way to the final detour. One of the definite problems with the show is the celebrity status of Rob & Ambuh. Last night they got assistance from a woman who helped Ambuh with the shopping and then guided them to their last two destinations. This definitely seems unfair, although the show did highlight that their fame was a double-edged sword, when they couldn't get quick directions earlier from some star-struck natives.
The Problem with PollingIs that you often get uninformed responses. Get this polling result: Two-thirds of Americans say no nation should have nuclear weapons, including the U.S., and most of the others say no more countries should get them.I agree with the second part, but the first part is just silly. Perhaps an analogous situation will explain best. Back in 1982, when I lived in San Francisco, then-Mayor Diane Feinstein passed a law banning handguns in the city. At the time, being a fairly liberal person (but already starting to have my doubts), I commented that I didn't have a gun, and therefore I would be safer if my neighbor didn't have a gun. Now this may be true in one sense (I would certainly be safer if I ever got into a fight with my neighbor), but in another sense it's very untrue. Burglars and home-invaders, for example, would be far more likely to target my residence, since they could be reasonably sure that they would not meet armed resistance. Indeed, in the UK, which has largely banned all guns with the exception of hunting pieces, relying instead on security alarms, the new MO for burglars is to ring the doorbell, cosh the person who answers over the head, and then rob the place at their leisure. This is why a majority of burglaries in the UK occur when the owner is at home, while in the US only a small fraction of burglaries happen that way. Those types of burglaries are far more dangerous for the homeowner. The same applies to countries. The threat of nuclear retaliation is an awfully good deterrent to invasion, and the fact that the particular country you're invading may not have nukes doesn't necessarily matter. Why did Saddam not use gas against our troops during the first and second Persian Gulf Wars? Could it possibly be because he knew that the response could be devastating?
Excellent Rundown of the Facts in the Schiavo CaseAs usual, John Hawkins does a brilliant job of summarizing the issues.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Gay Terrorist?You'll note a new little wanted poster on the sidebar. You can read the story behind this here and here. The silencing and harassment of Gay Patriot by Rogers definitely irks me.
My Heart Fails to BleedFor convicted terrorist abetter Lynne Stewart. Here's an extraordinarily biased account of her conviction. Because the Sheikh retains enormous support among his followers in Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya or "The Islamic Group", one of Egypt's most violent extremist organizations, strict rules limit his contact with the outside world. These rules, drawn up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, are known as Special Administrative Measures, or SAMs and, as the Sheikh's attorney, Ms Stewart agreed to obey them.
But then, in May 2000, she broke them. Ms Stewart called a Reuters journalist in Egypt to release a letter from the Sheikh, which said he was withdrawing his personal support for a ceasefire that The Islamic Group had signed with the Egyptian Government in 1997. When asked why she did it, Ms Stewart has argued that keeping the Sheikh visible and politically active was part of a long-term plan to have him returned to Egypt to serve his sentence.No mention of her speaking gibberish to distract the guards while the Sheikh gave orders to his interpreter. And this part is unintentionally hilarious: Ms Stewart has always believed in the jury system. In 1986 she managed to persuade a jury that a young black man who shot a white policeman did so in self-defence because of the systematic violence that his community had suffered.
But now, feeling that her own jury were unable to shake off the fears induced by "four years of unremitting orange alerts and a new Bin Laden tape unearthed, etcetera, etcetera," she says, "I am struggling with that underlying belief that is really the bedrock of my whole ability to practice."She used to believe in the jury because she was able to get a thug off for murdering a cop, but when she couldn't get off for helping the terrorists, her belief was shaken? And sorry, but as a convicted felon she's about to lose her law license, so she won't have to worry about the her "whole ability to practice".
Vote for Pat Tillman! Tillman pic Sports Illustrated is holding a fan vote for 2004's Sportsman of the Year. The voting is a little tricky: you have to scroll down to the picture of Tillman (next to last) click on the picture and then choose "Vote". So far Tillman is in the lead; let's make it a runaway.
Third Anniversary of Jenin "Massacre"Frontpage Magazine remembers the hysteria of the pro-Palestinians over this phony crisis. The vilification rang out across the world, but the British press was in a class all by itself. The Independent called the Israeli operation "a monstrous war crime."(2) A. N. Wilson, writing for the Evening Standard, called it a "massacre, and a cover-up of genocide."(3) The Guardian, not to be outdone, ran a lead editorial opining that "Jenin was every bit as repellent in its particulars, no less distressing, and every bit as man made, as the attack on New York on September 11."(4)
The Party of Glitz & GlamorNoemie Emery describes the transmutation of the Democrats from the party of the working man to the party of the jetset, led by magazines like Vanity Fair. After the election, when the American Prospect and the New Republic were engaged in solemn bouts of soul-searching, the glossies indulged in new bouts of hysteria. "There will be a draft," imagined New York's James Atlas: "The polar ice caps will melt. . . . The Patriot Act will be used to stifle dissent in the media. . . . Jews will be rounded up." "Rounding up Jews" might not seem to compute with Bush's being a captive of neocons, but logic is not the strong suit of this faction. What Bush seems to be facing is less the normal opposition of a traditional part of the political class than a visceral uprising among fashionistas, a vast metrosexual spasm on behalf of a self-image based on cultural preening. "Read it all; this is one of those articles where every paragraph cries out to be snipped and posted. The good news is in the opening paragraph: "[N]ewsstand sales for the magazine Vanity Fair... plummeted by 22.5 percent during the last half of 2004...." Hat Tip: Lucianne (can't seem to put the link in now due to blogger).
Monday, March 28, 2005
McCartneys to Sue Killers?Don't know how this will work in Northern Ireland (I assume they have the British, loser-pays system), but it seems a little premature. Where it has worked here (e.g., with OJ), there had already been a great deal of evidence brought out in the trial that could be combed over by the plaintiff's counsel.
Schiavo-quiddick ExplainedHindrocket explains the new Rathergate. Questions about the genuineness of the memo intensified when, later the same day, the far-left website Raw Story published, for the first time, a JPEG version of the scanned memo, which it said "[a] source on Capitol Hill has leaked." The print version of the memo, as posted on Raw Story, was identical to ABC's "exact, full copy of the document," except that the four typos that ABC had identified with a "sic" were all corrected. Interestingly, however, the fifth typo--"applicably" instead of "applicable" in the sixth paragraph--which ABC did not so identify, was not corrected in Raw Story's "leaked" version of the document.Are these idiot lefties just amazingly incompetent, or what?
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Monday Morning StarterRachel at Tinkerty Tonk is looking for a few good coffee cup quotes. I'll be traveling again on Monday, so there may not be many posts. Sorry, but my job is really starting to remind me why it's called "busy-ness".
Sanity on SchiavoMark Steyn, as usual, gets it right: There seems to be a genuine dispute about her condition -- between those on her husband's side, who say she has ''no consciousness,'' and those on her parents' side, who say she is capable of basic, childlike reactions. If the latter are correct, ending her life is an act of murder. If the former are correct, what difference does it make? If she feels nothing -- if there's no there there -- she has no misery to be put out of. That being so, why not err in favor of the non-irreversible option?Famed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card checks in: Inability to plead for your life should not be sufficient grounds for killing you.
If this woman can be murdered, with the active help of the courts that granted permission and blocked legislators from changing the law, then who is safe?
Jor-El Was Known to Complain About This ProblemHere comes another scientist with an "end of the world" scenario: Society, on the whole, doesn't listen to scientists — unless they are bearing good news at minimal cost to the citizen and no risk to the politicians' reelection. This is the theme of Caltech professor David Goodstein's jeremiad, "Out of Gas," published last year. Goodstein argues that "civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century unless we can find a way to live without fossil fuels." Science, as Goodstein explains, has a way. Several in fact. But "unfortunately, our present national and international leadership is reluctant to acknowledge that there is a problem." The crisis, Goodstein prophesies, "will occur, and it will be painful." Painful, like what happened to the dinosaurs.Don't you just love optimists?
Thursday, March 24, 2005
No Blogging on FridaySorry, I'll be traveling. Check out: Tall Dave aka Semi-Random Ramblings. A highly intelligent blogger, found him via his comments on Tim Lambert's blog. Kitty Litter. My favorite blogger. Lifelike Pundits. Where Kitty and I post when we're not posting on our own blogs. Christian Conservative. Mike Gallaugher's blog is the best argument I know against anti-Christian bigotry.
Schiavo-Quiddick?That's the winning entry in Ankle-Biting Pundits' contest to name the scandal over the apparently fraudulent memo that ABC News claimed proved Republicans were just using Terri Schiavo.
DePaul Professor Story Getting Some NoticeOur buddy John Ruberry has been blogging on the sad story of Dr Thomas Klocek, the DePaul University professor who has been suspended without pay apparently for having the effrontery to argue with some pro-Palestinian students. John points out that the university apparently doesn't mind anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish viewpoints, as it hired the noted Holocaust revisionist Norman Finkelstein. The good news is that the story has started to attract the attention of some of the bigger blogs out there. Roger L. Simon has now posted twice on this story. Interestingly, Klocek himself is Catholic, not Jewish, so his support for Israel appears to be intellectually based and not an artifact of family ties or a cultural affinity for the Jewish state.
IRA Tries a Little DiversionThey issue a denial of something that nobody claims: In an Easter statement published in An Phoblacht, the paramilitary group said the [Robert McCartney] killing "was wrong, it was murder, it was a crime.But it was not carried out by the IRA, nor was it carried out on behalf of the IRA."We all agree on that point; that it was simply a pub brawl including some people that happened to belong to the IRA. However, the IRA participated in the coverup of the incident, and their claims later in the statement that they have done everything they could ring hollow.
Updated Bible Story?John Hawkins updates the tale of the two women who claimed the same baby, as resolved by King Solomon. Great job, read it all.
The Gang That Couldn't Type Straight?Once again, the media gets deceived by a memo that contains very suspicious mistakes. And I'll say it again; the reason the media get scammed by memos like this is because they reinforce their existing biases. Of course the Republicans are only exploiting Terri Schiavo because they can get political benefit therefrom, so the memo must be true. Great wrap-up of the various threads of this story at In The Right Place. Hat Tip: Lorie Byrd at Polipundit.
Then Why Does He Wear the Ugly One?Victor Davis Hanson says Ward Churchill has many faces, none of them true. Even before that, 1950s Hollywood showed how quite a lot of white people like Ward Churchill can indeed pass as Indians, if they grow their hair long, get a beaded headband, and put on some tassels and buckskins. But instead of the 1950s Kemosabe lingo, by 2005, the script had evolved to add shades and scream about massacres, genocide, and getting even.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
For the Best In Terri Schiavo CoverageTake Just One Minute, Polipundit (especially Lorie Byrd's posts) and Lifelike Pundits.
A Lighter TouchBuckley Williams has more on the attack on the Easter Bunny, which we have covered (seriously) here. The Easter Bunny was attacked and severely beaten yesterday at an anti-war rally in Fayettenam, North Carolina. The rally was being held to protest the second anniversary of the Iraq War and was attended by literally tens of people.
The Yellow-Bellied Draft SpottedWell, it's been awhile since a liberal claimed that the draft was coming, but the wait is over. Don Negus has spotted it with his reverse binoculars. When it comes to defining the mendacity of George W. Bush, I am reminded of something the George Armstrong Custer character said in "Little Big Man,“ Arthur Penn's brilliant revisionist-western from 1971.Referring to the protagonist, Jack Crabbe's desire to secure the vainglorious Indian-fighter's demise, Custer says to his skeptical aide-de-camp: "Everything that man (Crabbe) tells me will be a lie. He will therefore, be a perfect reverse barometer.“
Bingo. If we automatically reinterpret everything that comes out of Bush's mouth to be the exact reverse of what he tells us, we'll be in a much better position to ferret out what's really going on in any given situation.Yet Bush still promises "no Draft.“
Our perfect reverse barometer.Will somebody wake this buffoon up and tell him the election's over, and that the only reason morons like him were mentioning a draft five months ago was in the hope that it would scare the college kids?
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Arianna Tries Her Hand at LogicWith predictably bad results: I just got back from a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. Didn’t ride the teacups, though, because I wasn’t in Disneyland, but in Washington, D.C., where everyone is walking on air, swept away by the Beltway’s latest consensus: President Bush was right on Iraq.But then I thought back to my time at Cambridge, when I took a course in elementary logic, and studied the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle.
For those of you in need of a refresher on the concept, here’s an example: “All oaks are trees. All elms are trees. Therefore, all oaks are elms.’’
So: We invaded Iraq. Change is afoot in the Middle East. Therefore, the Middle East is changing because we invaded Iraq.Of course, Arianna is correct in describing the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle with regard to trees. However, the logical fallacy that she describes with Iraq is actually post hoc ergo propter hoc. Literally, after this, therefore because of this. Now of course, post hoc is not always wrong. If somebody is walking by and I stick out my foot and they trip and fall, we may say that they fell after I stuck out my foot, therefore they fell because I stuck out my foot, and provided there is not another reason for their tripping, we can say that indeed they fell because I stuck out my foot. On the other hand if I had been, say, thinking about the NCAA basketball tournament just before the person tripped and kept my foot under my desk and the person tripped, it would be quite appropriate to point out my thinking about college hoops had nothing to do with them tripping, because it was completely unrelated and non-causative. So the question becomes, did the invasion have anything to do with change in the Middle East. And the answer, obviously is that you can make an argument that it didn't but few people are, as even Arianna admits: In the corridors of power, Republicans are high-fiving, and Democrats are nodding in agreement and patting themselves on the back for how graciously they’ve been able to accept the fact that they were wrong.
A Theme I Have Often NotedJohn Hawkins comments on the Democrats' dearth of ideas, and the fact that they generally have to hide their real beliefs. There are a number of reasons why liberals aren't as forthright about what they believe as conservatives are. One problem for liberals is that the Democratic Party is much more evenly divided than the GOP. Sure, the libs may run the Party, but if they're too open and up front about their agenda, they risk alienating significant numbers of moderate Democrats. Of course, given that the leftward drift of the Democratic Party has cost them much of their support in the South, perhaps the Party leadership hasn't been secretive enough about what they believe.This is a theme I have returned to quite often in the past, both here and at KH. Democrats seem to have the idea that the way to get elected is to lie about what you really believe. This is disastrous for two reasons: First because the people sense that you are lying and won't vote for you, and second because it cedes the issue to the opposition. For example, Hillary is currently trying to finesse the abortion issue by terming it a tragic choice. The problem with this (from the Democrats' standpoint) is that her position probably isn't going to sway many voters over to her side, and it undermines what most Democrats really feel, which is that abortion is just a choice involving a clump of cells that is no more a human than a dog is.
McCartney Murder QuestionFresh clues? That's what this report says. However, I found this part more interesting: The party announced last week that Deirdre Hargey, who has been identified as a Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast City Council; Cora Groogan, who stood in the 2003 Assembly election, and former city councillor Sean Hayes had given statements to their solicitors.Sinn Fein has called on people to help the McCartneys and suspended seven members who were in the bar. Those members did not include Ms Grogan or Ms Hargey.So that means that there were either nine or ten members (depending on whether Hayes was one of the members suspended) of Sinn Fein in the bar, which brings up an obvious question: Were any of them involved in the murder or in the cover-up? We've been told that three IRA members were expelled; could three people have done all the dirty work?
Racism in Hiring/Firing NBA Coaches?Here's an interesting article in the NY Times: Over the last decade, black N.B.A. coaches have lasted an average of just 1.6 seasons, compared with 2.4 seasons for white coaches, according to a review of coaching records by The New York Times. That means the typical white coach lasts almost 50 percent longer and has most of an extra season to prove himself.The pattern holds in almost any important category of coaches. Winning black coaches have been replaced sooner than winning white coaches on average, and experienced black coaches have served shorter tenures than experienced white coaches. The same is true among losing coaches, among rookie coaches and among coaches who played in the N.B.A. and those who did not.I have looked in the past at the records of black NFL coaches, and concluded that there appeared to be some racial bias in hiring. Most black NFL coaches have a winning record and as a group they are well above .500, which certainly indicates to me that there is a possibility that NFL owners have not been making a sufficient effort to locate all the qualified black head coaches out there. It is also possible (because of the small number of black NFL coaches) that this is just a fluke, or that black coaches may have tended to be hired in situations where their success was likely (e.g., Tony Dungy in Indianapolis). However, the number of black NBA coaches is much higher and the NY Times study appears to have looked at different factors that could account for the differences. I am generally suspicious of claims of racism (which is, after all, sometimes hard to differentiate from simple incompetence), but in this case it certainly seems possible that is what is happening.
Vernon Baker Update: AgainBlogger seems to be losing this post for some reason. I wrote last week about Vernon Baker, the Congressional Medal of Honor Winner whose medical bills for an emergency brain surgery to remove a tumor, are not being paid by the VA or Medicare because he failed to turn in the necessary forms. I spoke with his neighbor, Marilyn Fletcher, who is handling fund-raising for the Bakers, and she has set up a bank account to defray the bills. Checks should be made payable to the Vernon Baker Medical Fund and sent to: Marilyn Fletcher 1731 Fletcher Road St. Maries, ID 83861 I have sent a check for $25 and hope some of you will consider doing the same.
Global Warming Leads to Killer AntsMore paranoia from the global warming crowd: Kaspari found that worker ant and colony size varied almost 100-fold in his survey of ant colonies in 49 ecosystems in the Americas. Average nest populations varied from 63 workers in a cold temperate pine forest, to over 9000 workers in a hot, temperate desert. "The tiniest colonies are not much bigger than the inside of a Cheerio while the largest colonies can fill up a garbage can," he told New Scientist.
Monday, March 21, 2005
The New Democratic Base?Michael Barone notes the rise of the trustfunder left. It's a good news/bad news scenario for the Democrats: The good news for Democrats is that they have found a new source of votes and money. The bad news is that an important part of their core constituency has the characteristic that the British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin ascribed to the press, "power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."Not hard to predict the reaction of the blogger left to that column.
Running from the Screamer?Ankle-Biting Pundits has a scoop. Looks like some Democratic candidates will be running away from Howard Dean, while of course happily accepting any spare change the Vermonster can rustle up.
More SchiavoTeflon has been covering the twists and turns in the Schiavo case; just keep reading. I am astonished at how insistent the liberals have become that Terry be starved to death. And the constant complaints of hypocrisy are amusing; if we're hypocrites for not accepting states' rights in this issue, aren't they hypocrites for suddenly accepting states' rights? Or is it only in this case that states' rights trump all? Hint: Look at the reaction to the ruling striking down execution of murderers who committed their crimes while juveniles. This isn't about states' rights at all, it's about judges' rights.
When Poets AttackHere's an amusing controversy over at the American Thinker. Sad to say, American poetry has fallen on hard times. At least that branch of it represented by the dozen or so poets recently outraged by an article we published which dared to criticize anti-Israel poet Ammiel Alcalay. Judging by the communications we have received, and by the “guerilla” tactics employed against us, these poets, many of whom teach at respectable universities and colleges, are a pathetic lot. Incapable of reasoned argument, spewing epithets, pretentious, paranoid, and stupid enough to conspire and provide cause for legal action right in public, they embody, in James Taranto’s phrase, a “toxic mix of self-pity and thuggery… characteristic of an alienated political minority.”
Other VoicesJohn Hawkins catches Michael Kinsley in another fatheaded comment. Aaron threatens to banish Glenn Reynolds from the Lifelike blogroll for not blogging on the Schiavo case. Reynolds responds by saying he's tried to come up with an opinion but he just doesn't have one. John Hawkins weighs in on the matter, with some comments I certainly agree with: Let me also add that I find the "state's rights" arguments being tossed around about this case in some circles to be rather frivolous. Since when does one unelected judge speak for a state? Especially a judge who's imposing his will to force a result that's directly contrary to wishes of the real voice of the people of that Florida, the elected state legislature?I have not blogged on Schiavo myself for the simple reason that I haven't brought myself up to speed on the case and so many other bloggers are already there that it's not like the story's being ignored. Plus the radio guys are all over it; Hugh Hewitt devoted his entire Friday program to the topic. I'd rather find the story that's being ignored in the US so far, like the McCartney sisters were four weeks ago. Bulldog Pundit has an astute analysis of the political implications of the Schiavo case. Joel Gaines brings up a case in Texas that did not get nearly as much attention as Terry Schiavo. Van Helsing has a post on the newest target of those who would erase all mention of religion in the public square: The Easter Bunny. Blackfive has a great post about a hero in the British Army, Private Johnson Beharry. "With the blood from his head injury obscuring his vision, Beharry managed to continue to control his vehicle, and forcefully reversed the Warrior out of the ambush area. The vehicle continued to move until it struck the wall of a nearby building and came to rest. Beharry then lost consciousness as a result of his wounds. By moving the vehicle out of the enemy’s chosen killing area he enabled other Warrior crews to be able to extract his crew from his vehicle, with a greatly reduced risk from incoming fire. Despite receiving a serious head injury, which later saw him being listed as very seriously injured and in a coma for some time, his level-headed actions in the face of heavy and accurate enemy fire at short range again almost certainly saved the lives of his crew and provided the conditions for their safe evacuation to medical treatment.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
A Young Man to WatchFrom the NY Times Magazine, a profile of Harvard Economist Roland G. Fryer, Jr. Roland G. Fryer Jr. is 27 years old and he is an assistant professor of economics at Harvard and he is black. Yes, 27 is young to be any kind of professor anywhere. But after what might charitably be called a slow start in the scholarly life, Fryer has been in a big hurry to catch up. He was in fact only 25 when he went on the job market, gaining offers from -- well, just about everywhere. He abruptly ended his job search by accepting an invitation to join the Society of Fellows at Harvard, one of academia's most prestigious research posts. This meant he wouldn't be teaching anywhere for three years. The Harvard economics department told Fryer to take its offer anyway; he could have an office and defer his teaching obligation until the fellowship was done.Read it all; it's a fascinating portrait of a young man who succeeded despite (apparently) having the deck stacked against him.
We've Heard This BeforeIn the middle of a noodler on Kerry's possible candidacy in 2008, comes this: And he's been dogged by bloggers who want him to authorize the release of all his military records, to clear up questions raised in 2004. He told NBC on Jan. 30 that he would sign military form SF-180 to do so, but he hasn't yet. Most of the heat has come from conservatives, but Democratic blogger Mickey Kaus also is on the case, urging party brethren to "remove this increasingly pathetic figure from our national stage." (The word in Washington is that Kerry will sign the form soon.)Sure he will. Let's put it this way. If Kerry signs the form, I'd say it's clear he's not running in 2008, because there's obviously something damaging in those Navy files that Kerry has been trying to hide. But of course, the only reason for signing the form is to get the issue out of the way so he can run in 2008. My guess is he continues to dither, hoping that people will drop the issue.
Here's a Good SignIt doesn't look like the McCartney story is going away; here's a letter to the NY Post from the sisters and Bridgeen published today: Our lives are in bits. Every morning, Bridgeen has to walk past them when she takes her and Robert's 4-year-old son to school. And she returns home in tears — every day.
What we want to happen now is for the witnesses — or anyone who knows anything about what happened to Robert — to come forward to tell the police.
We want Sinn Fein and the IRA to do all they can to make sure that happens.
Sinn Fein and the IRA say they did order them to go forward. But those who did exercised their right to silence — they were ordered to go forward, but told to say nothing.
We believe this is nothing more than a stalling tactic in hopes that the whole story will peter out. We believe Sinn Fein are saying one thing to the journalists and the governments — telling them what they want to hear — and saying something else to its membership.
We feel a conspiracy of silence has developed, that some kind of pact was taken that night. We feel there is a lack of will, not ability.
The Reality-Based Party? Part XXXVIHere's another group that believes that changing the words around will get folks to vote for the Democrats. To hear some people tell it, the problem with the Democratic Party is that the political left no longer knows what it believes. A young graduate student named John Paul Rollert says these doubters can find their answer on the Web.
Rollert, a political activist who says his aim is the long-term revival of progressive politics, is one of the leaders of an effort called the "Principles Project," which recently completed an online convention designed to define and promote what Democrats believe.
Six weeks of e-mail debate and balloting ended earlier this month with "A Declaration of Progressive Principles." It is posted at www.principlesproject.com.Typically, what was left out is more revealing that what stayed in: During one draft, for instance, participants were invited to weigh in on whether to change a statement that "America must be a leader in the building of global institutions that protect the vulnerable, promote liberal democracy, and improve the health and welfare of all people."
One option was to change "a" to "the." Others thought it sounded less unilateral to drop "leader" altogether and say that "America must join with like-minded nations." There was considerable debate about how much to emphasize a "strong military."
The final statement declared: "America's security requires an effective military and a commitment to enduring alliances, but we must remember that America's true power is found in its wisdom as well as its strength"; and "America must join with other nations to build global institutions that protect the vulnerable, promote democratic self-government, and improve the health and welfare of all people throughout the world."No surprise there; the Left can't acknowledge that America is the leader among nations. Also gotta wonder about the political correctness of using "America" as a shorthand for the United States; don't we constantly hear that Brazilians are Americans too?
Details of the McCartney Sisters' TripThe Telegraph publishes their travel diaries. Choice bits: Donna: We flew from Dublin this morning. Now we're waiting on the tarmac for the BA flight at Heathrow and the stewardess comes down and asks if we're the McCartney party. We say "yes". Gemma thinks we're going to get thrown off, but actually the captain has moved us to empty seats in the first class cabin.After arriving in the US: Donna: Only now are we starting to grasp how big this issue is over here. Even our taxi driver told us he couldn't believe the IRA was murdering innocent Catholics. Part of the success of this campaign is its spontaneity. We haven't prepared speeches, we just tell people what happened. If it gets too orchestrated, we could lose momentum.
That evening, the group attends the American Ireland Fund gala dinner alongside Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister. Gerry Adams is also present. Senator McCain delivers the main speech, condemning the IRA and Sinn Fein and lauding the bravery of the six women.
Donna: It is great to hear the applause just watched Adams during the Senator's speech. He stared ahead and looked really grim. I didn't expect him to clap when there was criticism of Sinn Fein, but he didn't even put his hands together when McCain praised our courage. That speaks volumes. I realise now how badly this is going for Adams.Their trip to the White House: Bridgeen: We are ushered in with 12 people from different groups. There are pieces of paper on the floor with our names so we know where to stand. I move mine because I want to be in the middle of the other girls. Then the President comes into the room. He spends about five minutes with our group. He asks who is the widow and asks me about the boys and how I am. He clearly knows what happened to Robert. He is gracious and friendly, but I am too nervous to think straight. It is all a bit of a blur.
Paula tells him Robert was a quiet, gentle, good man and Catherine tells him that we hope he can use his influence to help bring the murderers to justice and that this is a test of the sincerity of Sinn Fein in the peace process. He says that he is 100 per cent behind us and that justice would be done. And he thanks us for our courage.Great article, have your hankies ready!
The Reality-Based Community? Part XXXV The New York Times has this account of the antiwar demonstrations yesterday: The American crowds ranged from about 350 in Times Square to several thousand in San Francisco. And in contrast to the vociferous rage of demonstrations two years ago, yesterday's protests were mostly somber and low-key, with marchers carrying cardboard coffins in silence to the beat of funereal drums, with rally speakers alluding often to the war dead and subdued crowds keeping behind police barriers.Losers, every single one of them. The good news is that there are a lot fewer than in 2003. It might have something to do with the war being over.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Chickens, When Not to Count ThemWell, I enjoyed the day of basketball right up until the last game of the day, when my predicted runner-up team bowed out in the second round to West Virginia.
Anybody Feel a Draft Coming?John Hawkins remembers a prediction from the liberals that has not come true.
The Reality-Based Community?Here's a fun article on the decline of the antiwar movement in Florida. But their numbers have thinned and, for some, so has their enthusiasm.
Alfredo Tamburrino, 67, Fort Lauderdale, no longer takes to the streets. "I just sort of gave up," he said. "Once the war started, there was nothing really that could be done."
A major blow, activists and experts said, was President Bush's re-election in November. "To lead up to this war, we saw the greatest anti-war movement in history. What really hurt the anti-war movement was the Kerry campaign and the run for president," said Sarah Steiner, co-chairwoman of the Palm Beach County and Florida Green parties.
"Truthfully, we're very, very disheartened at the [Bush] re-election," said Jim Worl, 82, a Fort Lauderdale World War II Army vet. "There was a great letdown, a great letdown."
Professor Stephen Zunes, chairman of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, compared the '04 election to the 1968 victory for Richard Nixon, which temporarily sidelined the anti-Vietnam War movement.Yes, but in this case, the killer has been the same thing that killed the anti-Vietnam War movement; the end of the war.
NCAA Tournament So FarOkay, it's way early to be gloating, but my picks are proving pretty good in the NCAAs so far, especially compared to some of the "experts". CBS Sportsline has four expert brackets prepared by the guys who supposedly know their stuff; all four have fewer points in the first round than I do, and all four have fewer points remaining that they can score. Hilariously, the Dodd bracket had Syracuse winning it all, so he's now lost points in every single round of the tournament and is reduced to rooting for Bucknell, which would at least make everybody else look bad. Doyell's Bracket had eight losers in the first round, and more important, he's already lost five games in the second round because the teams he had picked bowed out in the first. I lost five games in the first round (Alabama, LSU, Creighton, Kansas, and Syracuse). More important, I've only lost two games in the second round: Bama and Kansas, and none in the third or later (yet). Mejia's bracket is only modestly better than Dodd's because he had Syracuse losing in the semifinals instead of winning it all. He had 10 wrong picks in the first round, but amazingly despite having the most of his first round teams losing, he's still got 14 teams that could win him points in the second round, the same as I. Still, with him guaranteed not to score points with Syracuse in the next two rounds, he's starting out well behind me, and in the other three brackets we come out the same, so he's not going to pick up any points except possibly in the Illinois/Wake Forest semi, where I pick Wake and he picks the Illini. I could lose to him but it's unlikely starting out with that big an advantage and very few opportunities for him to close the gap. Darst's bracket does it again with Syracuse. Cool that the town I spent many summers around and where my mom grew up has a college basketball team that is so respected, but if they'd looked at Sagarin predictor, they'd have seen that yes, the Orange should have easily handled Vermont, but after that they'd be in trouble. They were almost four points behind Michigan State in predictor. If they won, they'd face Duke which was four points better than Michigan State! After picking Syracuse to go to the Final Four, Darst has eight down in the first round (to my 5) and five down in the second round(to my two), and two down in the third (none yet), plus of course the regional championship. However he probably does have the best chance of catching me since he picks Ok State to go to the final, which is far enough different to have a chance. BTW, the twelve seed/five seed jinx proved to be just a fluke as anybody with half a brain would have figured except for Alabama. The five seeds were 3-1 this year. Too bad the CW was the opposite. My bracket predictions (some already wrong): Chicago: Illinois Alabama (wrong) Arizona Oklahoma State Finals Illinois/OK State Albuquerque: Washington Louisville Texas Tech Wake Forest Finals Wake Forest/Louisville Syracuse: North Carolina Florida Kansas (wrong) Connecticut Finals North Carolina/Connecticut Austin: Duke Michigan State Oklahoma Kentucky Finals: Duke/Oklahoma And for the National Championship: NC/Wake
Friday, March 18, 2005
Can the Left-Wing Bloggers Get Any More Disgusting?From the NY Post comes the word that they are readying another attack on a gay Republican. A GAY political activist is getting ready to out a "high-profile" female Republican well known in Washington. Mike Rogers, who outs closeted Republican politicos on his blog, blogactive.com, tells the April issue of GQ he's close to going public. "One of my sources was an employee of a woman she dated," Rogers tells the magazine, noting that a number of people from the woman's past "allege that she's gay, that she's dated women." He's proceeding cautiously on the advice of his lawyers. "I can't really discuss upcoming cases," Rogers tells PAGE SIX. "But I'm workin' it." Of course, there are many powerful women in the capital who have been the targets of lesbianism rumors. Rogers began his campaign last summer to combat the Republican stance against gay marriage. He has since "exposed" many high-level Republican officials and has forced some politicians out of office.I surfed over to his lame site, where he talks about his "work" as if it is something to be proud of. As I mentioned in his comments, I hope that gays everywhere will denounce these activities and desert the Democrats as the party that encourages homophobia. Disgusting and vile are two of the tamest words I would use for Rogers and Aravosis. There is a special corner of hell reserved for these two slimeballs. I surfed from this twit's site over to a site where a GQ article featuring him and Aravosis was discussed. Get the "evidence" presented for the notion that Ken Mehlman, the new head of the RNC, is gay: “If he’s now heterosexual, I’d like to know why he’s single at 38,” Aravosis told RAW STORY. “Because we’ve heard nothing about girlfriends, we’ve heard nothing about marriage, we’ve heard nothing about nothing–and he’s bashing [us] about gay marriage? Because he doesn’t seem like much of a defender of marriage himself.”Oooooh, that's very convincing, John! Rogers does even worse, if possible: “With all those eligible, beautiful Republican activist women at his beck and call,” he added, “you would think one would have been handsome (sic) enough for that Harvard-education (sic), handsome lawyer.”
Friday Afternoon Blogroll-SurfingNeo-neocon wonders how much credit President Bush should get for the Cedar Revolution. Take a look at Kitty's beeee-yooootiful smile in a wedding picture. Mobile phones may help poor countries more than wealthy ones, says Tim Worstall at the Globalization Institute blog. Marathon Pundit shows an example of McCarthyism on campus that does not have the left up in arms. Michael King reflects on his close shave in the Brian Nichols case.
Hero Getting Screwed?Found this at InDC Journal via Schadenfreude: War hero turned away by VA
Vernon Baker battled Nazis to win the Medal of Honor. Now, at 85, he’s battling red tape.
Baker, purportedly the only living black Medal of Honor winner from World War II, needed emergency surgery in September to remove a malignant tumor from his brain.
Healthy for much of his life, the Idaho resident had overlooked the need to enroll for Veterans Affairs and Medicare benefits. When his medical bills arrived, Baker and his wife were surprised to learn the government did not intend to help pay them.
Patients must enroll with the Department of Veterans Affairs to receive benefits, and cannot be reimbursed for costs incurred before their enrollment, said Roxanne Sisemore, spokeswoman for VA.
And although some Medicare coverage kicks in automatically when a person reaches retirement age, coverage to pay doctors’ bills also requires enrollment, said Peter Ashkenaz, a Medicare spokesman.
Residents of St. Maries, Idaho, are organizing a fund-raiser to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills Baker already owes.
Neighbor Marilyn Fletcher is organizing the March 19 fund-raiser.
Baker earned the Medal of Honor, according to Army records, for his courage and leadership in 1944.I am trying to contact Mrs Fletcher to find out if there is a bank account set up for this purpose and will update when I have more information.
Post-St. Paddy's Day PostI was pleased to see that the News Hour with Jim Lehrer did a segment last night on the McCartney sisters and their quest to bring their brother's killers to justice. Of course, the story will promptly disappear from the media here in the US, now that St. Patrick's Day is over and the sisters are presumably winging their way home, as is Gerry Adams. I have taken down the "Gerry Adams is coming" picture from the top banner; he's come and gone. However, I don't intend on stopping my blogging on the McCartney issue, the Northern Bank robbery and others involving the IRA and the peace process in Northern Ireland. As always, I highly recommend Slugger O'Toole and Richard Delevan as the two blogs that seem to have the best handle on the situation over there. In the meantime, here is a very tough article on Adams and the IRA. [W]ill any of those who entertain Adams this week have the guts to ask him precisely what role he played in the murder of Jean McConville in 1972? Was he really the commander of the death squad that murdered this mother of 10, as is alleged, or can he account for his movements at the time of her death?
It's Not April Fools' DayBut still, this story sounds like a gag: For anyone who looked closely enough, presidential campaign finance reports posed a mystery in the winter of 2003: Why were a handful of wealthy investment bankers making donations to the Rev. Al Sharpton?
Federal prosecutors offered this surprising answer: It was all part of a scheme involving government pension funds, city contracts, and a plan to take over scores of chicken joints. (Boldface added).
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Good News on Global WarmingIt can't be stopped. Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would still get worse, two teams of researchers reported on Thursday.Well, then, no sense in stopping, right? Of course, there are the usual doom and gloom predictions, without which no environmental report would be worth covering: Sea levels will rise more than they have already risen, worsening the damage caused by extreme high tides and storm surges, and droughts, heat waves and storms will become more severe, the climate experts predicted.First point here: There are no sea "levels". There is one sea level, which is sort of the reason for using it as a reference. And of course, they have not "already risen", as folks in Florida can attest. Most of the state is not more than a few feet above sea level. More wonderful nonsense, spoken as fact: Virtually no one disagrees human activity is fueling global warming, and a global treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, aims to reduce polluting emissions. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States, has withdrawn from the 1997 treaty, saying its provisions would hurt the U.S. economy.What's with this "virtually nobody" bit? Did Reuters take a poll? Or is that non-subtle editorializing, like the rest of the paragraph?
Harsh Words--UpdatedGerard Baker wonders why it took the Irish in America so long to wake up to the reality of the IRA. Why does it take the killing of an Irish Catholic outside a Belfast pub to open your perceptive eyes to the reality of Irish republicanism? Where were you when it was a couple of dozen innocent British — Protestants and Catholics alike — in a Birmingham pub? Why were you not similarly outraged when off-duty soldiers and their families were the targets in Woolwich and Guildford? What exactly were you doing and saying when they tried to wipe out half the British Cabinet as they lay sleeping in their hotel beds? Don’t get me wrong. The murder of Robert McCartney is no less heinous than any of the IRA’s other offences. It is as much a study in murderous infamy as the remarkable response of his heroic sisters is a lesson in courage for all who love peace and justice.Speaking for myself, I lost all sympathy for the IRA in 1976, when I spent a semester in a London on high alert for terrorist bombings. John McCain, speaking at the annual American Ireland Fund Dinner, seared the crowd with this: "Anyone, Irish, American or British who desires and works for the success of peace, freedom and justice must denounce in the strongest possible terms not only the cowards who murdered Robert McCartney but the IRA itself and any political organisation that would associate with them," he said.
"Nor should they tolerate the veiled threat to the McCartney sisters or to anyone else with the courage and decency to speak the truth about the IRA."Update: PeteB in the comments noted that McCain's speech can be found in its entirety here.
Survivor UpdateWell, despite my intentions, I'm back to watching Survivor. I gave it up after Survivor: Outback because I got annoyed when Colby took the wrong person to the finals with him and lost the money. Started watching Pearl Islands because of Ruppert, but once again the winner of the final immunity challenge took the wrong person to the finals. Watched a couple episodes of All-Stars, but lost interest because the one tribe kept voting off their strongest players, then was dumb enough not to vote off Amber when she was forced to switch tribes. It's pretty much the same thing this season; with the Ulongs just completely hapless despite starting out with what appeared like the younger, stronger tribe. Early on, they were actually talking about voting off people because they were "threats". Here's a clue, Ulongs. "Threats" threaten to win challenges for you. The biggest threat Ulong faces is losing all their players before the merge. Last night, there was only one challenge; the reward challenge. Both teams were required to go to tribal council, which some interpreted as helping Ulong, since the other tribe hadn't been forced to vote off any members. Of course, it also meant that Ulong had no chance to narrow the 4-person difference between the two tribes. The challenge involved diving down to grab sake bottles. My immediate and uncharitable thought was that the big black guy, Ibrahem, might have some problems. Sure enough, he goes down one time, comes right back up. The second time he actually managed to get his hands on the bottle. But after giving it a yank that would not have taken a rattle from a sleeping baby's hands he gave up. Third time down he didn't even make an effort, and his teammates yelled at him to come back without the bottle. By this time Ulong was easily one bottle behind, but they caught up as Ian was unable to locate the bottles. One of his teammates yelled out "They're white," which given that they'd already collected four of them, even Ian must have known. Eventually he located them, and suprisingly, then went back for the sixth trip. Although it was close, once again Ulong came up short. Big surprise at tribal council. After voting off the old guy, Koror got to give immunity to one of the Ulong members. Probably knowing who's neck was on the chopping block, Koror chose Ibrahem. In an incredibly stupid move, the Ulongs then voted off tattoo girl. Granted, she's ugly, but she's been helping the team in the challenges unlike a couple of the guys (i.e., James). For a more detailed look at last night's episode, check here.
McCartneys Visit with President BushNot a lot on the subject yet. After meeting Mr Bush at the White House, the five McCartney sisters said they had been heartened by what they had heard and encouraged that things could soon change.
"George Bush had an understanding of our case and was 100% behind us on it," Paula McCartney said.
"He said that he believed the result of this could bring peace in Ireland."
The sisters and Mr McCartney's fiancée Bridgeen Hagans said they had come to the US hoping to dispel any romantic vision held of the Troubles.
The support they have received has encouraged them that they have, at least in part, achieved that goal, they said.
Catherine McCartney added: "People did not need us to explain our case, they knew what it was about. And if anyone has listened to what we have been saying then at least that romantic view has been damaged if not dispelled."
Speaking outside the White House after the traditional St Patrick's Day celebration, Paula added she was confident President Bush would use his influence in whichever possible way he could.
"He seemed quite confident - he obviously knows things we don't - that things will change.
"We are very happy with what he said and certainly heartened."
NY Times Bias WatchOur friend Lorie Byrd has a piece in the Am Spec today, on when she'll believe that the media is not biased towards liberalism. One of my favorite quick ways to check is the NY Times search engine. For example, the phrase "liberal Republican" pops up 75 times in the NY Times since 1996. But the phrase "conservative Democrat" comes almost twice as often, with 148 sightings in the same time frame. Or take the moderate label. "Moderate Republican" shows up 618 times in the NY Times database since 1996, while "moderate Democrat" appears 149 times. Get it? As Ann Coulter wrote, Democrats don't require the "good doggie" label anywhere near as often. Same with "liberal Democrat", which appears 448 times, versus "conservative Republican", which popped up 909 times.
President Bush Hits the Right NotesSome quotes, apparently prior to the meeting with the sisters and Bridgeen: “It’s very important that people understand that the parties must renounce violence,” Bush told reporters on the eve of the holiday, which is marked at the White House by a traditional presentation of a bowl of shamrocks.“We wanted to make sure that we honored those in civil society in Ireland who are contributing positively to the peace process, and that’s what we’ll be doing on this particular trip,” Bush said.“I’m looking forward to meeting these very brave souls,” Bush said. “They’ve committed themselves to a peaceful solution, and hopefully their loved one will not have died in vain.”
Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's a great day for those who are Irish, or wish they were (which about covers everybody)!
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
NPR Interviews Two of the McCartney SistersRobert Siegel interviews the women (audio available at link).
Pro-Life and ProfoundRight Wing Sparkle has an amazing post on her calling to be active in the Pro-Life movement.
It's Like Cauliflower and MushroomsTwo of my least-favorite things together: Mumia Abu-Jamal sticks up for Ward Churchill. Both Malcolm and Churchill knew something about U.S. actions abroad, its export of violence abroad, and its demonstrated hatred of dark peoples the world over. He recounts how American armies and agents have wreaked brutal havoc all around the world, killing almost countless "innocent civilians", in their efforts to insure continued imperial rule. For example, he mentions the CIA's Operation Phoenix, where the U.S. government, the Navy Seals, Army Special Forces, south Vietnamese Rangers, and Australian SAS, "neutralized" people named by CIA snitches as Vietnamese "guerrillas."
Churchill writes:
Upwards of 40,000 people -- mostly bystanders, as it turns out -- were murdered by Phoenix hit teams before the guerrillas, stronger than ever, ran the US and its collaborators out of their country altogether. And these are the guys who are gonna save the day, if unleashed to do their thing in North America?Let's remember that Churchill used to claim that he was involved in these types of operations, before it was revealed that he was a jeep driver and film strip projectionist.
McCartney Sisters RoundupThey meet with Ted Kennedy, but decline his offer to drive them around. After the meeting Senator Kennedy said: "I think all of us are impressed with the courage of these women in their determination to get rid of violence from their community and country.
"We have learned a lot from them. There will be more meetings with them until we see justice.Hillary also sounds a good note: Mrs Clinton said: "We want to honour the Good Friday Accords and bring the murderers of Robert to justice."Good article in the Independent on their welcome as heroines. America often needs a human face to grasp a faraway story. But, this week, it will have no less than five of them - the sisters of Robert McCartney, the Catholic man kicked and stabbed to death in a Belfast pub fight, whose death may fatally tarnish the IRA in the land where its support is strongest.
Gemma, Paula, Donna, Claire and Catherine McCartney arrived last night to begin a four-day trip. Their schedule may have been hastily arranged, but it includes a visit tomorrow to the Oval Office at which the women will present President George Bush with a dossier on the killing.No mention of the fiancee, Bridgeen, who has more or less remained in the background during this story, but is in the US with the sisters. Slugger O'Toole has a good post on how the Ulster Unionists don't have clean hands either. This is not "whataboutism". The IRA happens to be taking some well-deserved lumps both here and at Slugger's but the other side isn't blameless either. One of the sad ironies of the Good Friday Accords is that both sides have stopped killing each other, but are now killing people on their "own side". Spudnik (great blog name) suggests that the McCartney sisters should have accepted the IRA's offer to shoot the men responsible. Very clever post! Richard Delevan has a superb post on the schedule for the sisters and Bridgeen.
Funny What A Difference a Word Can MakePartisan Pundit notices a little change in the terminology the anti-religionists are using. Did anyone notice at what point the Liberal Loonies stopped using the phrase "a government establishment of religion" and switched to the watered down version of "a government endorsement of religion?"He goes on to explain why this seemingly minor change is important. Great post!
Balanced, Sensible Article on Northern IrelandWritten by Peter King, who has carried the IRA's water in Congress for years. He gives a history lesson in about five paragraphs, building to his main point: When I first went to Belfast 25 years ago, it was a dark, gray besieged city. Some Catholic areas had unemployment exceeding 80 percent. Today, Belfast has luxury hotels, fine restaurants, a hockey arena and a growing economy. Significant police reforms have been implemented. The majority of college students are Catholics who are well-prepared for Ireland's Information Age economy.
The British, Irish and American governments are pledged to guarantee this progress. All that remained was for the IRA to decommission its weapons. Last fall, it appeared that progress was being made and by December a final agreement was tantalizingly close.
Then, out of left field, the IRA pulled off a $50 million bank robbery — followed by the brutal murder of an innocent Catholic by IRA men in a Belfast barroom brawl.
This has caused me and other concerned Irish-Americans to conclude that the IRA must disband without delay. So much has been achieved in Northern Ireland and there is no place for a private army in a burgeoning democratic society.
No one has done more to advance the peace process or has acted more courageously than Gerry Adams. But, now, all that has been attained is being put at risk by an unreconstructed minority who can't put down the gun and replace the bullet with the ballot.He lets Adams off the hook a little too easily there, but I think it's a tactical move, to let him save some face. Hat Tip: Kitty
'We'll tell Bush who killed our brother' Of course if President Bush has been reading Brainster's the last few weeks, he'd know (from the Australian Herald Sun): Gerard "Jock" Davison, said to have ordered the killing following a brawl in a Belfast pub, Jim "Dim" McCormack, reported to have administered the fatal knife blow, and Gerard Montgomery, alleged to have orchestrated the clean-up operation afterwards, have remained defiant despite widespread disgust among the nationalist community.
Davison, McCormack and Montgomery are among the Belfast IRA's most powerful and ruthless "volunteers".
Davison, 37, lives in Short Strand -- an island of nationalists surrounded by loyalists in East Belfast -- a few hundred yards from the house where Mr McCartney lived with his fiance, Bridgeen Hagans, and their two children.
He is frequently seen driving around Short Strand in an expensive four-wheel-drive car and his comfortable home, where he lives with his wife and son, 18, is guarded by burly young men.
Davison remains a member of the Northern Command, regarded as the real powerbase of the IRA. He is the undisputed leader of the IRA in Short Strand.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The Great Lebanese Blog DiscoveredThe Politicker, perhaps proving his point unbelievably well, has turned over an amazing diamond. Check out Ya Libnan, the blogger of the Cedar Revolution. This guy's going to be famous in about 3 days if I'm any judge of the blogosphere.
Fun FictionKitty's been writing some more fiction. I loved this short story; the descriptions are particularly vivid.
The Reality-Based Community?Just came across this bit from a particularly moronic commenter over at Jeff Jarvis' Buzz Machine. The AWOL project. Try not to laugh too hard when reading this stuff; after all, there were those on our side who seriously passed around the Clinton murder list. Looks like a lot of work went into this, but as with most conspiracy theorists, Mr Lukasiak ( a Philadelphia caterer) started with the conclusion (Bush was AWOL) and worked backwards looking for "evidence" to support that result.
New to the BlogrollSay hello to Tinkerty Tonk, the blog of a librarian and former journalist in Maryland. Just surfing around her site, I saw that she's a fan of PG Wodehouse, and she even mentions a theft from the British Library of copies of the Beano.
Some Blogging ThoughtsI tend not to create posts about blogging, mainly because even when I had a big audience over at KH, nobody ever commented on those posts. Of course, over here, very few people comment on any of my posts, so that's not as big a concern. ;) But I came across a couple interesting posts today on the subject. First up is In Search of Utopia, a left-leaning group blog, which posted an open letter to the "whales" of the lefty blogosphere, asking for more help pushing stories up to the top. Today's story about The Leftsphere reaching out to the MSM, and Paul's response at Wizbang was another Bitch-slap, while more and more I am beginning to think that the reluctance of the big boys to share the linky love, is really not about that at all, but a fear that they may have to share the bling...In response, Oliver Willis posted a very sensible call for emails: I am actively asking liberal bloggers to send me tips. Don't send me "link to my blog" emails or "add me to your blogroll" emails, but tips about stuff you're writing on that further the progressive agenda. I don't promise to link them all or create a revolution, but I will look them over and post the good ones on a regular basis.Now I've been known to poke fun at Oliver, but that is a note-perfect response. A lot of bloggers think that the way to get ahead is to blog a lot and hope somebody notices. That's half-right. Blog a lot, and help people notice. How? Trackback, comments and emails. Sending a trackback ping to a bigger blog that has posted on a story you have also covered (always with a link to the bigger blog) lets the readers of that blog know you've also written about that subject. Sometimes the bigger blogger will click on the trackback and like what you've written so much they'll amend their post to link to you. Comments work because all bloggers love their commenters. And emails work as well because, believe it or not, Glenn Reynolds is very unlikely to come across your blog while surfing the net unless you've already been linked by one of the other major bloggers. Note especially the part about not asking for a blogroll link or saying "come check out my blog". Just about everybody ignores those emails. Rather, email your post (always including the permalink URL). It especially helps if you tie your post into something the other blogger has blogged about or has otherwise indicated an interest in. Send your nanotechnology and good-looking women protestors pictures to Instapundit. Here's a similar post from the right side of the blogosphere. So I'm making a similar appeal: once a day, make a post where you help out a blogger in need. Donate a front and center link to a blog whose post quality is far beyond their hit count, and in the end, everyone wins because we all are bloggers.This looks like a fine blog, but Jordan may not have tried combing the lower reaches of the blogosphere for good posters. I did it a lot last summer, and believe me, while there are some gems out there you have to wade through a lot of sewers in order to find them. It is a lot easier for all concerned if the smaller bloggers try sending their stuff up the line. Not everything will draw interest, and certainly not every post should be emailed out to a list. I've sent two posts out to the big blogs in the last two months; one hit the jackpot and one got linked in only a few places.
Adams the Winnie Mandela of Ireland?Tim Blair with his usual flair. Also, Mark Steyn follows up by deriding the notion of Adams as "Ghandi with a Guiness". Hat Tip: Tinkery Tonk
Molten Thought: Drive the Last Snakes from IrelandOur buddy Teflon has some thoughts on Adams & the IRA. Be sure to read the Mark Steyn piece he links.
Captain Ed Continues to Hammer Sinn FeinThe big guns in the blogosphere are now turned on Gerry Adams and his band of thugs and crooks. Captain Ed posts for at least the third time on the McCartney murder, and focuses on the fact that at least two Sinn Fein candidates were witnesses. Imagine if your local Congressman and mayor happened to be in a bar when a fight broke out, and members of their political party just happened to have killed the man who tried to break it up. Perhaps these men may have even been there to provide security for the politicians. Regardless of what American political party was involved, do you think for a moment that Americans would sit still while that political party stonewalled a police investigation?
Around the HornRoberto at Dynamo Buzz comments on some surprising folks in favor of deer hunting in New Jersey. Joel explains the strategic importance of Taiwan to the US Navy. Interesting stuff. The Nudnik File File finds an important indication of the weakness of Al Qaeda in their latest threats. Aaron hopes that the discovery of anthrax at the Pentagon mail facility does not explain his headache. Superhawk's been covering the TV show "24". He's disappointed at the way a recent message was shoe-horned into the plot.
Here Comes Gerry Adams' Worst Nightmare Six strong women who have the IRA on the run.
Monday, March 14, 2005
The Good Humor TruckA little lighter entertainment is on tap. First, The Nose on Your Face covers the Democrats' outrage at the tactics employed by Counter Terrorism Agent Jack Bauer. Professor Shade covers the sad plight of suicide bombers in Israel, forced to walk for miles due to Israel's heartless security fence. Bill Clinton's blog is being handled by his assistant Bobbi Lamoon while the ex-president is recuperating from surgery. She describes the great chocolate battle at the hospital in this memorable post. Scrappleface comments on the recent merger between the Peoples' Daily of Beijing and the Washington Post.
Kos He's an IdiotPatrick Hynes gets on Markos Moulitsas' case. Markos Moulitsas is a slow-witted hate-monger with almost no clue about anything. Take, for example, his recent screed on the Democrat Party?s commission to examine the shuffling of the 2008 primary schedule.Now, I don't have any particular attachment to the current system where Iowa has its caucus and New Hampshire its first-in-the-nation primary. But Kos is way off base here: If the issue really is "retail politics", there are other states that fit the bill -- states small enough to allow for that retail politicking much more in sync with each party's base supporters. It's high time we stop letting Iowa and NH decide our presidential nominees. There are far more than two states in the union.In point of fact, those two states do not decide our presidential nominees. Iowa has done a poor job of picking nominees, with Ed Muskie winning there in 1972 and nowhere else. In 1980 George HW Bush won Iowa but lost to Reagan for the nomination. In 1988, Bob Dole and Dick Gephardt won Iowa but did not represent their parties. In 1992, Tom Harkin won his home state but did not get to make the speech of his life at the DNC. And if anything, New Hampshire is even worse. In six of the last nine presidential elections, one of the winners in the Granite State did not represent his party in the fall. Pat Buchanan took New Hampshire in 1996 and John McCain in 2000; for both candidates that was the high water mark of their campaign. So what's this really about? Kos is one of those bitter Deanie Babies, with no knowledge of history. If he knew a little more about politics, he'd understand that the real problem with the Democrats right now is people like him, pulling the party leftwards even as the population moves to the right. If Kos really wanted the Democrats to start winning, he'd recommend some obvious changes, like putting the process more in the hands of the party bosses rather than democratizing the primary process (which will probably lead to more liberal candidates, who keep losing). Read "The Making of the President: 1960" sometime. Its description of the primary process sounds like something from a foreign land. The primaries were not the way you got the nomination back then; they were just exercises to prove to the party bigwigs that you could get people to pull the lever next to your name.
Why Am I Not Surprised?Kyoto turns out to be costing Canada far more than expected: "It's a political horror show," one official said, noting that it was only last month Finance Minister Ralph Goodale presented Parliament with a budget allocating $5-billion over the next five years to the Kyoto plan and other environmental programs.
"This is a big issue for ministers because it's a big fiscal issue," another official said.
Ministers on a special cabinet committee tackling Kyoto have been warned by bureaucrats from Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada that Ottawa could end up spending billions of dollars of the total Kyoto bill to buy credits for greenhouse gas reductions made outside Canada in order to meet Kyoto targets.
Second Sinn Fein Candidate in Murder Bar?The McCartney murder story keeps getting stranger and stranger. A second Sinn Fein election candidate was in the Belfast pub where the IRA murder victim Robert McCartney was attacked, it emerged tonight.
As a beleaguered Gerry Adams prepared to give a speech in America amid a US backlash against Sinn Fein, the party disclosed that Deirdre Hargey was still inside Magennis’s Bar when police first arrived.
Cora Groogan, another Sinn Fein candidate, has already confirmed that she was in the bar.Slate has a pretty good backgrounder on the whole story. Check out Richard Delevan and Slugger O'Toole for more.
Leaving Heavy MetalHere's a very interesting post on a heavy metal superstar finding Jesus, by R.F. Burn. Getting away from thrash wasn’t like kicking heroin or any thing, but it was not easy having been literally the biggest part of my life for so many years. I can imagine it was even harder for a person who lived that life and was a major to star and influence to millions of others because he lived that life.Yep. When I was a teenager, the Vietnam War and the youth movement was the big deal, and it was very hard to move on, to accept that there was going to be no "revolution", that "Power to the People" was just a fatheaded slogan, that Abbie Hoffman was a showman first and foremost, and that the Weather Underground were nothing but thugs and hooligans. Which may explain why the Irish in America have had a hard time divorcing themselves from the notion of the IRA as a force for good. Great post, very thoughtful.
Kicking Zombie ButtKeep me in mind as a good person to have nearby when they start coming out of the ground: Official Survivor
Congratulations! You scored 64%! |
Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the
right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere.
Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive. |  | My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 90% on survivalpoints |
| Hat Tip: A Small Victory
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