September 30, 2004
The duck from hell
Anyone else watch Hardball after the debate? And was anyone else as creeped out as I was by the guy in the Uncle Sam duck costume?
Debate live-blogging
(All times NST)
10:30PM - I'm watching this on Fox. How often do I get to see Fox News?
- The rules were just explained. Too bad the candidiates won't get to ask each other questions or actually debate each other. (Mind you, after the fiasco that was the Canadian electoral debate, that might not be a bad thing.)
10:45PM - Bush just said "Saddam Hussein" when he meant to say "Osama bin Laden". Some would say that's a Freudian slip if there ever was one.
10:48PM - Kerry, talking about Iraq, just said there are "weapons of mass destruction crossing the border all the time and blowing people up".
- Bush got a chance to respond to Kerry's assertion that American troops in Iraq were under-equipped, and he didn't even note Kerry's vote against increased funding for the war.
10:54PM - man, I hate to say it, but it's painful watching Bush answer some of these questions. From what I've seen so far, Kerry looks much more prepared. Bush has had moments of passion, but his answers have been pretty vague.
11:01PM - first Halliburton mention. (From Kerry, of course.)
11:02PM - in talking about allies, Bush mentioned Tony Blair and the Prime Minister of Poland, but not John Howard. Perhaps he thinks that wouldn't help Howard.
11:07PM - first "imminent threat" mention. I hope Bush gets a chance to refute that one.
11:10PM - oh, now Kerry says something good about Reagan. Didn't hear that in the 1980s.
- I think Bush has 4 or 5 talking points, and he's just bringing them up again and again. ("Kerry keeps changing his position!")
11:14PM - Bush just mentioned a woman - by name - whose husband was killed in Iraq, and he discussed how it weighs on him that he put him in harm's way. He seems sincere.
11:17PM - good line from Kerry: "you can go to johnkerry.com and look at my plan, which has 4 points - or you can listen to the president's plan, which is 4 words: 'more of the same'." (Im paraphrasing here.)
11:21PM - Bush finally mentioned Kerry's disappointing comments (and Joe Lockhart's disgusting comments) about Ayad Allawi.
11:27PM - Bush's best point: that another round of UN resolutions on Iraq would simply have shown that body's impotence - and strengthened Saddam.
- whenever Kerry talks about North Korea getting nuclear weapons, I really want to yell, "thanks to Jimmah!"
11:33PM - Bush just pronounced "mullahs" as "moolahs". Twice. In discussing Iran, he missed a great chance to mention a determined (and pro-American) student movement.
11:34PM - Good Lord. Did Kerry just propose giving nuclear fuel to Iran? To "test" the Iranians?
11:37PM - Lehrer just asked why neither candidate is talking about Darfur. Good question. Kerry says he was "pressing for action" months ago (really?) and says the U.S. military is over-extended. Bush says the U.S. is the leading aid donor, and that they're working with the UN. He says American troops should not be committed.
11:41PM - Bush was asked whether Kerry has any character flaws which should prevent him from being President. Bush responded, "whoo! That's a loaded question."
- The best possible response to such a question? "No. I'm not getting into that."
11:47PM - oh, man. Bush is taking up to 6 seconds to find his words on occasion. No question about who's the better public speaker.
- Kerry just said he would shut down any new programs to develop nuclear weapons. I'm disappointed Bush didn't pick up on that.
11:54PM - Kerry just quoted George Will.
- a truly Reaganesque moment from Bush - Lehrer asked if he was upset that Kerry implied he was lying, and he responded, "no, I'm a pretty cool guy."
INTERIM VERDICT: Kerry did not score a "you're no Jack Kennedy" knockout, but I think he did well. He seemed better prepared and more knowledgable; Bush, at times, seemed downright confused. I think the candidiates came out about even on substance (Kerry was actually better for much of the debate, but he really stumbled on Iran. I'm still stunned that he would even think about giving the moolahs nuclear fuel, for any reason.)
In contrast to the raucous, incoherent Canadian leaders' debate a few months ago, this one was almost too civil. I think the candidates really needed the chance to address each other.
Minutemen strike again
35 children - children - are dead after the latest Iraqi car bombing. Michael Moore, John Pilger and Ted Rall must be so proud:
Three bombs exploded at a neighborhood celebration Thursday in western Baghdad, killing 35 children and seven adults, officials said. Hours earlier, a suicide car bomb killed a U.S. soldier and two Iraqis on the capital's outskirts.
The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago. The children, who were still on school vacation, said they had been drawn to the scene by American soldiers handing out candy.
The blasts - at least two of which an Iraqi official said were suicide car bombs - went off in swift succession about 1 p.m., killing 42 people and wounding 141 others, including 10 U.S. soldiers. The bombs targeted a ceremony in which residents were celebrating the opening of a new sewage system, and a U.S. convoy was passing by at the same time, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.
"The Americans called us, they told us, 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body.
The bomb exploded at a ceremony to open a new sewage plant:
Residents said a ceremony to open a new water and sewage plant was taking place when the attack occurred.
[...]
Not only is the overall picture inside Iraq bleak, so increasingly is the independent assessment of progress in the country's reconstruction.
Almost daily, new reports and studies highlight the slow pace of rebuilding, and the dilemmas posed by the security crisis. With both Western and Iraqi hostages being held, the mere threat of kidnapping has become enough to prevent all but the most essential movement outside fortified compounds.
The "insurgents," when they aren't attacking reconstruction projects directly, are forcing the Americans to divert resources away from the crucial project to rebuilding that shattered country. The left cheers on the terrorists (did I mention that Michael Moore called them "minutemen"?), and savages the Americans for not "fixing" Iraq quickly enough.
And Iraqis are caught in the middle. In this evening's debate, I don't want to see blind optimism from Bush or confused flip-flopping from Kerry - I want to see a serious discussion of what must be done.
Radio Days
I'll be on Corner Brook's CBC Radio station (990 AM) tomorrow morning to discuss this evening's Presidential debate.
Am I nervous? Hell, yeah. But I know I'll be kicking myself if I don't give it a shot.
The Jooooooos strike again
According to the National Post - yes, I finally broke down and started paying ten bucks a month for an electronic subscription - NDP members are complaining that Jack Layton is controlled by the omnipotent Jewish lobby:
A group of 25 New Democrats have distributed an open letter to Jack Layton criticizing the party's "sudden lurch toward Israel" and the pro-Israeli stances of NDP MPs Pat Martin and Judy Wasylycia-Leis.
The group, including defeated Ottawa NDP candidate Monia Mazigh, charges in the letter that the Canadian Jewish Congress is exerting "undue influence" within the party.
The group had complained to the NDP leader in a series of letters since Aug. 20 that he was turning the social democratic party into a "pro-Israel political party."
After Mr. Layton failed to respond, they fired off an open letter to all NDP members that ended up on the Web site of the U.S.-based Al-Jazeerah Information Centre. It was not released to the Canadian media.
[...]
The group also deplored Mr. Layton for failing to join the United Nations and the International Court in the Hague in condemning Israel for building a wall to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.
They suggested the NDP has come under the influence of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) since Mr. Layton became leader.
"We have noticed a subtle yet significant shift in the party's stance on Palestine," the letter said. "We are now worried that the recent tilt in the NDP toward Israel and the abandoning of its anti-occupation constituency, has come about as a result of lobbying and undue influence by the CJC and its partners within the NDP."
Note the wording: it's not that Layton has decided to moderate his party's Middle East policies now that Svend Robinson isn't around; no, it's all about "undue influence" (wink, wink) from the - say it with me, folks - powerful Jewish lobby.
Anyone want to tell me what "undue influence" means here? Will the CJC use the media (controlled by Jews, of course) to attack the NDP if it doesn't get its way? Have they used Jewish control over international finance to pay off Jack Layton? Are they threatening to use his children's blood for Passover pastries, as described in Saudi and Syrian newspapers?
Tell me. I really want to know.
September 29, 2004
How we treat our heroes
The Canadian Forces are launching an investigation into the treatment of Canadian snipers who served with - and were decorated by - American forces in Afghanistan:
The military ombudsman has launched a special investigation into why Canadian Forces snipers were treated like "turncoats" by their comrades after serving with American troops in Afghanistan.
The probe was started last week by Andre Marin after he received an unprecedented request from Gen. Ray Henault, chief of defence staff, The Canadian Press has learned. "It's the first request we've ever had by the chief of defence staff to investigate a case," Marin said Wednesday. "We're taking it very seriously."
Hailed as heroes in early 2002 by the U.S. military, the six Canadian marksmen were later given highly coveted Bronze Star medals - awards normally reserved for American soldiers who display extraordinary heroism during combat.
However, sources close to the investigation say the snipers were treated with much less than high regard when they returned to their Canadian bases, both in Afghanistan and back home.
"They were treated as outsiders and sort of turncoats," said one source who didn't want to be identified.
"At least three of these guys have since quit the army over their treatment."
He's writing for what?
In addition to all the other eeeeevil things he's done, Glenn Reynolds will be writing a weekly column for The Guardian - yes, The Guardian - until the Presidential election. (Reynolds would probably not call himself a Republican - but then again, to the Guardian crowd, anyone to the right of the Daily Kos is a "Republican".)
Any newspaper that wants to let me write a column, of course, is free to make an offer. A sandwich would be nice.
Diplomatic Incident in Beijing
44 North Koreans have scaled the wall at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, seeking asylum. CTV has video, and reports that those who make it may be sent to South Korea. Those who didn't make it will likely be sent back to the DPRK by the Chinese - and shot as soon as they cross the border.
Farewell to the Expos
It's been talked about for years, and now it's official: the Montreal Expos are set to move to Washington.
To be honest, I'm glad this is finally over with. (I don't follow baseball too closely, but I think this is the Expos' third consecutive "final year in Montreal".) No matter how badly the club has been treated by the league, or how unlucky they were to have the 1994 season end prematurely while they were in first place, there's no excuse - none - for consistently drawing as few fans as the Expos.
If only they played in a better ball park (I saw the Expos play Atlanta at the Big Owe in 1996, and the stadium was even more dismal than I thought - though at least the roof didn't collapse that night). If only that 1994 season had been completed. If only they hadn't lost to the Dodgers in the 1981 playoffs. If only so many great players hadn't been developed and then sold off for peanuts. If only, if only, if only. (A perspective from an actual Montrealer can be found here.)
You know who I'll miss the most? This guy.
Rooney's back
Three goals against Fanerbahce (who?) in his very first match for Man U. You know, I think that 27 million pounds may have been well spent.
Buying freedom
Good news: two Italian hostages have been released by their Iraqi captors. Bad news: according to The Independent, a million-dollar ransom may have been paid to the hostage-takers:
Two Italian aid workers held hostage in Iraq for three weeks were released by their captors yesterday amid reports that a $1m (£552,000) ransom had been paid to buy their freedom.
Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were handed to the Italian Red Cross in Baghdad after they were kidnapped by gunmen from the offices of their charity in the capital on 7 September.
Arriving in Rome on a military aircraft late last night, the two women appeared to be in good health. "It went well, we have been treated with a lot of respect," said Ms Torretta.
Dr Sabah Khadim, the spokesman for the interior ministry in Iraq, said the kidnappers' motive was always to extract a ransom. Italian newspapers, quoting reports from Kuwait, claimed that $500,000 was paid via intermediaries on Monday and the rest was to be paid yesterday. The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, spoke of "difficult" negotiations, and did not comment on whether a ransom had been paid.
September 28, 2004
I'm not a George Soros fan...
...but if he wants to use some of his billions to buy a BlogAd on my site, that's alright with me.
Indeed, like Roger and most other bloggers, I'll happily accept advertising from groups with whom I disagree, provided I don't find the content of the ad offensive. Of course, it's easy for me to be so open-minded and tolerant when I only have one BlogAd, right?
So when will we see an election in your country, Abdullah?
The King of Jordan says the situation in Iraq is too violent for an election to be held anytime soon:
Elections in Iraq are impossible to organize under the current violence, Jordan's King Abdullah II warned in an interview published Tuesday.
The Jordanian monarch, who is to meet with President Jacques Chirac before heading to Italy, told Le Figaro that he sees no chances of improvement in the immediate future.
"It seems impossible to organize indisputable elections in the chaos of Iraq today," he said.
"The situation is very, very difficult and in the immediate I don't see any chance of improvement."
Reasonable people may take such a position, though I do not agree with it. (I'm with David Brooks on this one.) But does anyone really believe King Abdullah II, or any of his fellow Arab League dictators, wants to see a free election in Iraq?
Down with weak whiskey!
This may be even more wrong than building Bentleys in Germany. (See below.)
Cat's Guts
It now appears Cat Stephens's expulsion from the U.S., on security grounds, was a result of a spelling error. But before you all have a good laugh about it, check out this morning's National Post:
Yusuf Islam, the British singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, was the guest of honour at a Toronto fundraising dinner hosted by an organization that has since been identified by the Canadian government as a "front" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
In a videotape of the 1998 event obtained by the National Post, Mr. Islam describes Israel as a "so-called new society" created by a "so-called religion" and urges the audience to donate to the Jerusalem Fund for Human Services to "lessen the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Palestine and the Holy Land."
The Jerusalem Fund is one of four "fronts" named in a secret Privy Council Office memo that was sent to Jean Chretien, then prime minister, on May 23, 2000, discussing what it called groups that "have unsavoury links with terrorism.
[...]
But on June 20, 1998, Mr. Islam gave the keynote address at a Jerusalem Fund fundraising dinner held in Toronto. The event was videotaped, and a copy was obtained by the SITE Institute, a U.S. terrorism research organization.
The video opens with a scene of Niagara Falls, overlayed with the Jerusalem Fund logo, which features the al-Aqsa Mosque and the maple leaf. It begins with an unidentified man explaining the activities of the Jerusalem Fund, which he describes as "helping the Muslims in Palestine" by financing hospitals, health clinics, families in need and orphans.
"Palestine is close to the heart of each and every Muslim. What the Muslims of Palestine have been doing for many years now has been that bright light shining, that hope ... that they are still believers that can raise the banner of jihad in the most difficult of circumstances."
Mr. Islam then begins a 45-minute speech in English in which he says it is "intolerable" for Muslims to "stand and watch" the situation in the Middle East. He describes Jerusalem as the centre of a land that is holy because of its connection to Allah.
"So this city which is blessed because of its religious nature. Therefore, what we see today is the result of the departure of religion from this area, of the uprooting of religion. So many of the people of the faith have been exiled from this region, moved on, to make way for what? Strangely and ironically, they moved on in the name of so-called religion, on behalf of ... the Jews.
That "Peace Train" has taken some strange turns, hasn't it?
Fightin' words
The sci-fi geeks aren't going to like this one: Lileks says Return of the Jedi is the best of the Star Wars trilogy.
I, too, think Jedi is underrated - despite the presence of the "fuganewocks". The original - sorry, "Episode IV" - is still the best, though. For the record, I'm refusing to buy the newly-released DVDs on principle, since I understand they contain the "special editions" Lucas cooked up in the late 1990s. Greedo shooting first? No way.
Das Bentley
In a world where Volkswagens are built in Mexico, Mercedes-Benz builds SUVs in Alabama and GM makes Chevy Equinox engines in China, it probably shouldn't matter where they build Bentleys. But a German-built Bentley just seems so wrong.
I hope he washed up afterwards
Jack Straw, the British foreign minister, "accidentially" shook Robert Mugabe's hand last week:
Jack Straw said yesterday that he had shaken hands with President Robert Mugabe because it was "dark" and he did not realise he was greeting the Zimbabwean leader.
The Foreign Secretary, who had described Mr Mugabe's last election victory as a "tragedy" for the people of Zimbabwe, met him last week at a reception in New York. It came just after President Mugabe had attacked Tony Blair and George Bush at the United Nations for "raining bombs and hellfire on innocent Iraqis, purportedly in the name of democracy".
After he was filmed meeting Mr Mugabe by BBC2's Newsnight programme, Mr Straw said: "I hadn't expected to see President Mugabe there. Because it was quite dark in that corner, I was being pushed towards shaking hands with somebody just as a matter of courtesy and then it transpired it was President Mugabe."
The Foreign Secretary added: "The fact that there is a serious disagreement between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom does not mean that you should then be discourteous or rude."
Last night, an official of the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said: "Whatever the circumstances, it sends the wrong message to see the British Foreign Secretary shaking hands with President Mugabe." He described Mr Straw's reasoning about the darkness as "remarkable", adding: "He actually said that! Obviously he needs better lighting in the future."
Remember Beslan
The photo essay which accompanies this NY Times story is absolutely devastating.
September 27, 2004
Mental health court
When I worked at Legal Aid in St. John's, I regularly dealt with people suffering from mental disorders, some of them stuck in the criminal justice system for years. So I think this is a promising idea:
The provincial court is setting up a special court in St. John's to deal specifically with mental health issues.
A separate mental health court was one of the recommendations from an inquiry into two shootings in 2000 where the police shot and killed two men with mental illnesses.
The court is a pilot project with its own judge, crown and defence lawyers, psychiatrist and case manager.
The chief judge of the provincial court, Reg Reid, says there's a real need for this kind of system.
"They'll be getting more attention than they are able to receive right now in the general court. And I think most people would agree they deserve a different kind of attention," he says.
One question: what standard will be used to determine whether an accused should appear before this special court? There's nothing on the Department of Justice or Provincial Court websites yet, but I'll be watching.
Merry Christmas to you, too
An Israeli woman applied for a job with a British company that designs Christmas decorations. If the rejection letter is any indication, I presume they don't do Hanukkah decorations.
(via Mick Hartley)
Things that make me happy
Sunshine, lollipops, and the news that Z magazine is in financial trouble.
Peter misses the point
Peter King's Monday Morning QB column is essential reading every Monday afternoon (in Newfoundland, it's usually after lunchtime before the column appears), but he's waaaaay off with this "non-football thought of the week":
Certainly this is not the popular view in CBS-bashing America right now, but I applaud Dan Rather for standing up and saying something we in the media don't say nearly enough: I screwed up. Blame me. This is my show, and I put on a flawed story, and the buck stops with me.
I think this is a misprint, and King actually wrote, "I applaud Dan Rather for breathlessly reporting on 'documents' a five year-old could have determined were forgeries, repeatedly insisting they were genuine long after everyone else figured it out, misrepresenting his network's own 'expert opinions' on the air, whining about vast right-wing conspiracies, and finally being shamed into admitting he'd been hoaxed by the time everyone had started switching over to Tom Brokaw."
C'mon, Peter, that's what you meant, right?
Google the censor
The new Chinese version of Google News doesn't feature news sources which might upset the authorities:
Google, the internet business that made its mantra "do no evil", is accused of pandering to attempts by the Chinese government to censor certain websites.
The internet icon launched its news service in China recently, which many hoped would help the country move to a new era of openness. Yet early tests of the service reveal that Google blocks search results that would show internet pages banned by the authorities.
Dynamic Internet Technology, a firm that monitors online censorship, found search requests made from computers that are linked to the internet in China are heavily edited. Bill Xia, Dynamic's chief executive, said: "Users expect Google to return anything on the internet. That's what a search engine does."
Mr Xia believes that Google has chosen not to take on the Chinese government while it attempts to establish a presence in the country. "That's a problem because the Chinese people need to know there are alternative opinions from the Chinese government and there are many things being covered up," he said.
HItch 'n' Hari
Johann Hari interviews Christopher Hitchens for The Independent. You know you have to read it all. Money quotes:
He explains that he believes the moment the left's bankruptcy became clear was on 9/11. "The United States was attacked by theocratic fascists who represents all the most reactionary elements on earth. They stand for liquidating everything the left has fought for: women's rights, democracy? And how did much of the left respond? By affecting a kind of neutrality between America and the theocratic fascists." He cites the cover of one of Tariq Ali's books as the perfect example. It shows Bush and Bin Laden morphed into one on its cover. "It's explicitly saying they are equally bad. However bad the American Empire has been, it is not as bad as this. It is not the Taliban, and anybody - any movement - that cannot see the difference has lost all moral bearings."
Hitchens - who has just returned from Afghanistan - says, "The world these [al-Quadea and Taliban] fascists want to create is one of constant submission and servility. The individual only has value to them if they enter into a life of constant reaffirmation and prayer. It is pure totalitarianism, and one of the ugliest totalitarianisms we've seen. It's the irrational combined with the idea of a completely closed society. To stand equidistant between that and a war to remove it is?" He shakes his head. I have never seen Hitch grasping for words before.
Some people on the left tried to understand the origins of al-Quadea as really being about inequalities in wealth, or Israel's brutality towards the Palestinians, or other legitimate grievances. "Look: inequalities in wealth had nothing to do with Beslan or Bali or Madrid," Hitchens says. "The case for redistributing wealth is either good or it isn't - I think it is - but it's a different argument. If you care about wealth distribution, please understand, the Taliban and the al Quaeda murderers have less to say on this than even the most cold-hearted person on Wall Street. These jihadists actually prefer people to live in utter, dire poverty because they say it is purifying. Nor is it anti-imperialist: they explictly want to recreate the lost Caliphate, which was an Empire itself."
He continues, "I just reject the whole mentality that says, we need to consider this phenomenon in light of current grievances. It's an insult to the people who care about the real grievances of the Palestinians and the Chechens and all the others. It's not just the wrong interpretation of those causes; it's their negation." And this goes for the grievances of the Palestinians, who he has dedicated a great deal of energy to documenting and supporting. "Does anybody really think that if every Jew was driven from Palestine, these guys would go back to their caves? Nobody is blowing themselves up for a two-state solution. They openly say, ?We want a Jew-free Palestine, and a Christian-free Palestine.' And that would very quickly become, ?Don't be a Shia Muslim around here, baby.'" He supports a two-state solution - but he doesn't think it will solve the jihadist problem at all.
Can he ever see a defeat for this kind of Islamofascism? "This kind of theocratic fascism will never die because we belong to a very poorly-evolved mammarian species. I'm a complete materialist in that sense. We're stuck with being the product of a very sluggish evolution. Our pre-frontal lobes are too small and our adrenaline glands are too big. Our fear of the dark and of death is very intense, and people will always be able to profit from that. But nor can I see this kind of fascism winning. They couldn't even run Afghanistan. Our victory is assured - so we can afford to be very scrupulous in our methods."
But can he see a time when this kind of jihadist fever will be as marginalised as, say, Nazism is now, confined to a few reactionary eccentrics? "Not without what that took - which is an absolutely convincing defeat and discrediting. Something unarguable. I wouldn't exclude any measure either. There's nothing I wouldn't do to stop this form of fascism."
I still can't believe Christopher Freaking Hitchens is on our side. But I like it.
Don't use the "G" word
[cross-posted to The Shotgun]
Unlike those John Wayne types south of the border, we nuanced, intelligent Canadians aren't going to do something simplistic like calling the Darfur situation "genocide":
Despite evidence of war crimes in Sudan and crimes against humanity, Canada says it is still "premature" to describe the situation as genocide.
"We're supporting very strongly the Security Council resolution calling for an independent investigation of the possibility of genocide," Aileen Carroll, the Minister for International Cooperation, told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
"And we're willing to stay with that -- at this time."
Carroll spoke to CTV from Khartoum, where she is leading a Canadian delegation to Darfur in the western part of Sudan.
When asked if Ottawa would echo the warning of U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and call the situation "genocide," Carroll stuck to a more nuanced diplomatic tone.
"The decision to use that word may still be premature," she said.
Isn't "soft power" grand?
September 26, 2004
Have you seen these bloggers?
Anyone know what happened to Andrew Coyne's weblog? And while we're at it, where's Debbye?
My church sinks even lower
A delegation from the "Anglican Peace and Justice Network" is going to recommend that the church divest from Israel:
Leading members of the Anglican church will recommend that their decision-making body adopt an anti-Israel divestment policy similar to the one the Presbyterian church passed earlier this summer. The announcement, made yesterday in Jerusalem by representatives of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN), came at the close of the delegation's 10-day tour of the region.
"We will return home and recommend that the Anglican Consultative Council [the church's decision-making body] adopt a resolution calling for divestment from Israel, and if our delegation is representative of the larger Anglican sentiment, then I'd say we're in good shape," Dr. Jenny Te Paa, who led the APJN delegation, told Haaretz yesterday.
The 30 or so delegates in the APJN, who were appointed by region and represent the church's extensive global network, will make their official recommendation to the Anglican Consultative Council [ACC] in June, when the body meets formally in Wales.
Ahead of that in February, delegates will also address an international meeting of archbishops in London, to convince spiritual leaders such as the archbishop of Canterbury that divestment is a "moral" imperative.
"The church has become increasingly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians," said Te Paa, "and the chances of the ACC accepting our recommendation are quite high."
The delegation, which arrived here last week, toured extensively in the West Bank, and met yesterday with Yasir Arafat in Ramallah. Delegates insisted that they made sure to schedule time with Israeli leadership as well, and pointed to a meeting with MK Azmi Bishara last Wednesday.
As Ecumenical Insanity notes, Bishara is an Arab communist and an outspoken apologist for the intifada. That's the only kind of "Israeli leadership" suitable to the "Anglican Peace and Justice Network," it appears.
We like to think Christians' attitude toward the Jews has become more enlightened in recent years, but I wonder.
Update: even chocolate isn't going to bring me back, guys. Forget it. (via God Save the Queen)
How advertising can save the NHL
Colby Cosh makes a pretty good case, though I hope NHL uniforms don't end up looking as garish as those in the Czech league.
I have little time for those who say it would take away from the game's "purity", since the NHL was once so "pure" players had to pump gas in the summertime just to make ends meet.
Secret identity revealed
John Kerry and C3PO are the same person. Or same droid.
Threepeio has the more engaging personality, however.
Whom to blame?
The Iraqi "minutemen" (never, ever forget that Michael Moore praised them with that glowing term) have wrought havoc throughout the country in the name of Islamofascism and/or Ba'athist tyranny - but it seems like the more brutal they get, the more blame is heaped upon the Americans and their allies. Charles Moore is, rightly, outraged:
In his agony and under duress, Kenneth Bigley, the engineer from Liverpool who has been kidnapped in Iraq, made what he said was an appeal on behalf of the people of Iraq: "Would you like the Germans or any other country walking down the street with a gun, in England, in Scotland? I don't think so."
Yet the man who forced Mr Bigley to make the appeal, the man who has already personally beheaded the two American hostages, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is not an Iraqi himself, but a Jordanian. If anyone is, he is the "German with the gun" on the streets of Iraq.
Zarqawi wants foreign-led fanatics to enslave the Iraqi people, persecuting anyone who disagrees with them, particularly the majority Shia community. He wants to create a state like that run by the Taliban in Afghanistan, having worked with bin Laden there. He sees murder as the key instrument of policy, as a religious duty and as a pleasure.
Yet one notices that Zarqawi and his gang are not getting the blame for their revolting deeds. Anger seems to direct itself at the Foreign Office, at America, above all at Tony Blair.
[...]
There is a terrible illusion in the Western mind that somehow, if only we ourselves behaved a bit better, the situation would come under our control. People ignore the fact that victims will be kidnapped and killed whether they come from America, which prosecuted the war, or from France, which opposed it. It makes little practical and no moral difference to Zarqawi whether he kills a Christian or a Muslim (he has done plenty of the latter), a Turk, a Nepali, an Italian, an Egyptian or Mr Bigley. What he is trying to do is to internationalise the Iraqi question, picking subjects (such as the fate of Muslim women) which touch strong emotion in the Islamic world, and offering the most violent possible solutions. He makes videos of his atrocities for propaganda, being both utterly barbaric and yet alarmingly modern. The media should ask themselves whether they're helping Zarqawi's strategy, and therefore inflicting worse suffering on the family, by showing whatever the terrorists want.
This is not all some terrible misunderstanding which can be cleared up by assuring Zarqawi, as the Bigley family appeal did, that his gang had "proved to the world that you are committed and determined", or by promising a renewed search for peace in Palestine. We are confronted with pure evil, and when we try to plead with it we only add to the evildoer's demonic pleasure at our weakness.
Dormant, not dead
I've long resigned myself to the fact that WMDs may never be found in Iraq. However, Mahdi Obeidi, a scientist who worked on Saddam's nuclear program, says UN sanctions (the "genocidal American sanctions which killed a million Iraqi children," in Chomsky-speak) damaged Saddam's nuclear ambitions, but that the program could easily have been re-started if the sanctions had been lifted:
What was really going in Iraq before the American invasion last year? Iraq's nuclear weapons program was on the threshold of success before the 1991 invasion of Kuwait - there is no doubt in my mind that we could have produced dozens of nuclear weapons within a few years - but was stopped in its tracks by United Nations weapons inspectors after the Persian Gulf war and was never restarted. During the 1990's, the inspectors discovered all of the laboratories, machines and materials we had used in the nuclear program, and all were destroyed or otherwise incapacitated.
By 1998, when Saddam Hussein evicted the weapons inspectors from Iraq, all that was left was the dangerous knowledge of hundreds of scientists and the blueprints and prototype parts for the centrifuge, which I had buried under a tree in my garden.
In addition to the inspections, the sanctions that were put in place by the United Nations after the gulf war made reconstituting the program impossible. During the 1980's, we had relied heavily on the international black market for equipment and technology; the sanctions closed that avenue.
Another factor in the mothballing of the program was that Saddam Hussein was profiting handsomely from the United Nations oil-for-food program, building palaces around the country with the money he skimmed. I think he didn't want to risk losing this revenue stream by trying to restart a secret weapons program.
Over the course of the 1990's, most of the scientists from the nuclear program switched to working on civilian projects or in conventional-weapons production, and the idea of building a nuclear bomb became a vague dream from another era.
[...]
To the end, Saddam Hussein kept alive the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, staffed by junior scientists involved in research completely unrelated to nuclear weapons, just so he could maintain the illusion in his mind that he had a nuclear program. Sort of like the emperor with no clothes, he fooled himself into believing he was armed and dangerous. But unlike that fairy-tale ruler, Saddam Hussein fooled the rest of the world as well.
Was Iraq a potential threat to the United States and the world? Threat is always a matter of perception, but our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.
Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.
September 25, 2004
The six stages
In today's New York Times, David Brooks has an excellent, wickedly sarcastic column on the UN's non-response to the Darfur crisis:
There was even some talk of sending U.S. troops to stop the violence, which, of course, would have been a brutal act of oil-greedy unilateralist empire-building, and would have been protested by a million lovers of peace in the streets. Instead, the U.S. proposed a resolution threatening sanctions on Sudan, which began another round of communiqué-issuing.
The Russians, who sell military planes to Sudan, decided sanctions would not be in the interests of humanity. The Chinese, whose oil companies have a significant presence in Sudan, threatened a veto. And so began the great watering-down. Finally, a week ago, the Security Council passed a resolution threatening to "consider" sanctions against Sudan at some point, though at no time soon.
The Security Council debate had all the decorous dullness you'd expect. The Algerian delegate had "profound concern." The Russian delegate pronounced the situation "complex." The Sudanese government was praised because the massacres are proceeding more slowly. The air was filled with nuanced obfuscations, technocratic jargon and the amoral blandness of multilateral deliberation.
The resolution passed, and it was a good day for alliance-nurturing and burden-sharing - for the burden of doing nothing was shared equally by all. And we are by now used to the pattern. Every time there is an ongoing atrocity, we watch the world community go through the same series of stages: (1) shock and concern (2) gathering resolve (3) fruitless negotiation (4) pathetic inaction (5) shame and humiliation (6) steadfast vows to never let this happen again.
The "never again" always comes. But still, we have all agreed, this sad cycle is better than having some impromptu coalition of nations actually go in "unilaterally" and do something. That would lack legitimacy! Strain alliances! Menace international law! Threaten the multilateral ideal!
It's a pity about the poor dead people in Darfur. Their numbers are still rising, at 6,000 to 10,000 a month.
If Indians aren't offended, why should the rest of us be?
I have little time for PC complaints about the names of professional sports teams, but even I've believed that "Washington Redskins" goes too far. A new poll, however, suggests that an overwhelming majority of Native Americans simply aren't offended by the name:
Ninety percent of American Indians say the name Washington Redskins does not offend them, according to a new national survey.
Only 9 percent of polled Indians say they find the name of Washington's professional football team "offensive," according to the results of the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey. The other 1 percent did not respond.
[...]
A total of 768 persons from all 48 continental states interviewed in the Annenberg election survey identified themselves as Indians or Native Americans, slightly more than 1 percent of the survey sample and about the same percentage of Indians as counted in the census.
The question was phrased: "The professional football team in Washington calls itself the Washington Redskins. As a Native American, do you find that name offensive or doesn't it bother you?"
Data showed that 8 percent of men and 9 percent of women found the name offensive, while 90 percent of each sex said it did not bother them.
Those having more education, higher incomes and being younger and "politically liberal" were more likely to dislike the name than those whose education and income levels were lower, who were older, or who described themselves as "moderate" or "conservative" politically.
For example, 14 percent of those who called themselves liberal said they found the name offensive, compared with 6 percent of conservatives and 9 percent of moderates. Yet, even 85 percent of self-identified liberal Indians said the name did not bother them.
The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Kerry the Consensus-Builder
William Kristol nails it:
Two days later, Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. Sen. Kerry could not be troubled to attend, as a gesture of solidarity and respect. Instead, Kerry said in Ohio that Allawi was here simply to put the "best face on the policy." So much for an impressive speech by perhaps America's single most important ally in the war on terror, the courageous and internationally recognized leader of a nation struggling to achieve democracy against terrorist opposition.
But Kerry's rudeness paled beside the comment of his senior adviser, Joe Lockhart, to the Los Angeles Times: "The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips."
Is Kerry proud that his senior adviser's derisive comment about the leader of free Iraq will now be quoted by terrorists and by enemies of the United States, in Iraq and throughout the Middle East? Is the concept of a loyalty to American interests that transcends partisan politics now beyond the imagination of the Kerry campaign?
John Kerry has decided to pursue a scorched-earth strategy in this campaign. He is prepared to insult allies, hearten enemies, and denigrate efforts to succeed in Iraq. His behavior is deeply irresponsible--and not even in his own best interest.
There is some chance, after all, that John Kerry will be president in four months. If so, what kind of situation will he have created for himself? France will smile on him, but provide no troops. Those allies that have provided troops, from Britain and Poland and Australia and Japan and elsewhere, will likely recall how Kerry sneered at them, calling them "the coerced and the bribed." The leader of the government in Iraq, upon whom the success of John Kerry's Iraq policy will depend, will have been weakened before his enemies and ours--and will also remember the insult.
September 24, 2004
Madonna Esther banned from Egypt
Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, but the Egyptian parliament has banned the world's most famous Kaballah devotee from entering the country after she visited Israel:
Egyptian Parliament members have submitted an order to Government demanding that American singer Madonna be prohibited from entering Egyptian soil. Parliament members also included a number of other international singers on their list of people forbidden from entering Egypt and called on all their embassies abroad to not grant any of them visas into Egypt or be allowed to shoot any of their music videos on Egyptian soil.
The demand came after Madonna announced that she will celebrate the Jewish New Years in Israel and that she had converted to Judaism. On a similar note Arab Parliament member, Ahmad Al Taibi, in the Israeli Knesset turned down an invitation from Madonna to an event she held after she showed inconsideration for the sufferings of Palestinians, especially children, under the occupation of Israeli soldiers.
[...]
Madonna had announced that she has changed her name, which has become a marker throughout her career, and now demands to be called by her new Jewish name Esther. The singer who has adopted the Jewish sector "Kabbalah", revealed that she has become so affected by her religion that she felt she must change her name to go with her belief. The well known Material Girl was named after her mother who died when the singer was young and said she wanted to be attached to the "energy" of a new name.
The Egyptians have done the impossible: they've made me feel sorry for Madonna. (Or whatever she calls herself this week.)
(via The Corner)
Kerry-Dean 2004
Reading stories like this, I can only conclude that the Democrats have decided they should have nominated Howard Dean, so now they're going to campaign as though the candidate is Howard Dean.
To say I've been disappointed with Bush's Iraq strategy would be a massive understatement. But what on earth makes Kerry - supposedly the "smart" candidiate - he can pacify the country by calling its Prime Minister an American puppet?
Kerry can redeem himself by firing Joe Lockhart's ass immediately. But I'm not holding my breath.
Totalitarian pin-up
Paul Berman (whose Terror and Liberalism, a call for his fellow liberals to take a stand against Islamofascist terror, is essential reading) savages the new film version of The Motorcycle Diaries and says the sainted Che was a tyrannical, sadistic thug:
The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads. He founded Cuba's "labor camp" system—the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che's imagination. In the famous essay in which he issued his ringing call for "two, three, many Vietnams," he also spoke about martyrdom and managed to compose a number of chilling phrases: "Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become …"— and so on. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967, leading a guerrilla movement that had failed to enlist a single Bolivian peasant. And yet he succeeded in inspiring tens of thousands of middle class Latin-Americans to exit the universities and organize guerrilla insurgencies of their own. And these insurgencies likewise accomplished nothing, except to bring about the death of hundreds of thousands, and to set back the cause of Latin-American democracy—a tragedy on the hugest scale.
As Berman notes, the enlightened masses at Sundance who applauded The Motorcycle Diaries won't life a finger to help the democratic dissidents in modern-day Cuba. Read the whole thing.
(via Let it Bleed)
While Zimbabwe starves
Economists say there has never been a famine in a country with free elections and a free press. Robert Mugabe - about whom I haven't written much lately, but whose regime keeps getting worse by the day - seems determined to prove that famines are a political tool:
President Robert Mugabe's rosy claims of a bumper harvest were flatly contradicted by the mayor of Zimbabwe's second city yesterday when he disclosed that 162 people have starved to death in Bulawayo since January.
The regime retaliated by vilifying the mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Jonathan Moyo, the information minister, called him a "liar" and insisted that starvation was unknown in Zimbabwe. "Malnutrition is just a case of not having a balanced diet," he told The Herald, an official daily.
"People in the USA are fat because they eat too many burgers. That's malnutrition."
Remember that line, because Mugabe's American apologists - like Cynthia McKinney - are going to be using it before too long.
Zimbabwe once exported food to drought-stricken countries in southern Africa so its dependence on international help has come as a serious embarrassment for Mr Mugabe. His response has been to deny that there is a problem.
In May, he said Zimbabwe would no longer accept supplies from the UN's World Food Programme. "Why foist this food upon us? We don't want to be choked." he said.
He has effectively ended co-operation with the UN. When James Morris, the UN envoy for humanitarian affairs in southern Africa, conducted his last tour of the region, Zimbabwe declined to receive him and said officials in Harare had no time for a meeting.
Zimbabwe holds parliamentary elections next March and Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has been accused of channelling food to its supporters and denying help to anyone suspected of backing the MDC.
By keeping out the UN and aid agencies, Mr Mugabe can ensure that his regime controls all food supplies. Critics suspect that this is his real objective.
A simple handshake
At the UN the other day, Ayad Allawi found himself sitting next to the Israeli foreign minister. Whereas the old Iraqi government would have paid a suicide bomber to kill the Israeli, the new Iraqi Prime Minister shook the Israeli's hand.
Needless to say, Hezbollah is whining:
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas heaped scorn on Iraq's prime minister on Thursday for shaking hands with Shalom at the United Nations, saying he had disgraced Iraq and offended Arabs and Muslims.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi shook hands with Shalom on Tuesday at the General Assembly, where alphabetical order put them side by side.
"(It) is a sign of one of the most dangerous goals of the American war on Iraq, yanking Iraq from its place in the Arab and Muslim worlds and sticking it in the U.S.-Zionist political cosmos," Hezbollah said in a statement.
"This unacceptable handshake is at once a true insult to the Iraqi people, their history, culture and Islamic and national commitment; and flagrant scorn for the suffering of Palestinian people and the sentiments of Arabs and Muslims," it said.
Shalom said the incident was the first official contact between Israel and Baghdad since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Israel attacked to destroy a nuclear reactor in 1981.
Sadly, for a lot of people who would genuinely prefer Saddam Hussein were still in power, this "proves" the new Iraqi government is a Zionist puppet and that the Iraq war was masterminded by the Jews.
These people do not all live in the Middle East.
(via Silent Running)
British ambassador: Jews control America
Sir Ivor Roberts, British ambassador to Italy, recently caused a stir by saying Al-Qaida would prefer George W. Bush be re-elected. Getting less attention were his subsequent comments, that the omnipotent "Jewish lobby" was basically controlling the Bush Administration.
The madness continues to escalate. The British ambsassador to Italy, Sir Ivor Roberts, has been outed for having said: ‘If anyone is ready to celebrate the re-election of Bush it is al-Qaeda’. It rates alongside the infamous remark by the French ambassador to Britain that Israel was a ‘shitty little country’ as a revelation, not so much of one diplomat’s maladroit absence of diplomacy but the corrupted mindset of a country’s foreign policy establishment. Indeed, as the Times reported, the ambassador revealed his true agenda by adding that the Jews were behind it all. The Corriere della Serra 'also quoted the ambassador saying, at the conference near Siena, that the Bush Administration was subject to “conditioning” and “pressure” from Israel and “the Jewish lobby”. '
In normal times, this ripe piece of ancient conspiracy theory and racial prejudice would have created uproar. Now it occasions no remark whatever. Indeed, as far as I could see yesterday it was only reported at all in the Times: other papers reported the al Qaeda barb but left out this contemporary update of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. No doubt that’s because — astonishingly — this demented racial libel is now a commonplace among the so-called cognoscenti, not to mention anyone else. I read and hear it frequently — including from the lips of a distinguished military figure, who confidently told me that Rupert Murdoch had personally decreed that the Times should severely restrict the number of pieces opposing the war in Iraq ‘having been told to issue such an order by the Jewish lobby in America’ -- oh, and that one of the main reasons President Bush had removed Saddam Hussein was because ‘Bush had Ariel Sharon’s hand up his back’. Once upon a time, this kind of comment would never have been made, and if it had been would have consigned the speaker to public opprobrium and contempt. Now you can barely open the Independent, Guardian or even the Times without falling over it, with no protest other than the occasional squeak from Britain’s beleaguered and shell-shocked Jewish community.
Read the whole post, which savages those who now say "there was no terrorism in Iraq while Saddam was in power" and that Bush is a greater threat than Al-Qaida. We can only win the war against Islamofascist tyranny if we want to, and I fear a growing number of people simply don't want to.
September 23, 2004
Greatest. Store. Ever.
Should you find yourself in Halifax anytime soon, check out this place.
But don't tell your dentist.
September 20, 2004
Work-related blogging break
I'm flying to Halifax this afternoon for discoveries ("depositions," in American), and as soon as I get back on Wednesday I have to head up to Port au Choix for a court appearance. Even in the unlikely event I'd have time to blog, I'm not taking the laptop with me. (The reason? I need two briefcases for Halifax, and you're only allowed two pieces of carry-on luggage. I don't feel comfortable putting the computer or the briefcases through as checked baggage.)
So, I'm afraid there won't be any new posts until Friday morning at the earliest. Catch you later.
Admitting the obvious
According to the New York Times, CBS may be ready to admit the alleged Bush National Guard memos were fake:
The officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents' origins. CBS News has already begun intensive reporting on where they came from, and people at the network said it was now possible that officials would open an internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report. Officials say they are now beginning to believe the report was too flawed to have gone on the air.
But they cautioned that CBS News could still pull back from an announcement. Officials met last night with Dan Rather, the anchor who presented the report, to go over the information it had collected about the documents one last time before making a final decision. Mr. Rather was not available for comment late last night.
[...]
Sandy Genelius, a network spokeswoman, said last week, "We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents."
But officials decided yesterday that they would most likely have to declare that they had been misled about the records' origin after Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.
Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.
It was unclear last night if Mr. Burkett had told Mr. Rather that he had been misled about the documents' provenance or that he had been the one who did the misleading.
In an e-mail message yesterday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents.
Last night, in its profile of Bill Belichick, 60 Minutes said the Patriots won the last Super Bowl. I'm going to need independent verification of that one.
Update: The truth is out there.
They hate France, too
The French stayed out of the Iraq war, but that hasn't earned them any points with the 'Islamic Army of Iraq', currently holding two French journalists hostage:
The statement, carried on http://iaminiraq.tripod.com, cited France with a list of "crimes" that France had allegedly carried out against numerous Muslim countries.
"France has distinguished itself for its war against Islam and Muslims and has committed butchery against the nation," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
"France's history with Muslims is a black one, blemished by hatred and malice and blood. Its modern history is no less so that in the past," the statement added, calling on the "Islamic nation to unite against its enemies," such as France.
It accused France of "playing a principle role in blocking Muslims from taking power in Algeria after their victory" in 1992 legislative elections.
It said French prisons are "full of Muslims" being held in the name of the fight against terrorism, while denoucing continuing French support for the "Zionist entity" (Israel) and its "war against the symbols of Islam, such as the headscarf" for women.
[...]
The statement accused France of "active participation in starving the Iraqi people for 12 years," an allusion to UN sanctions on the regime of Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War.
And it ridiculed France's refusal to participate in the US-led war on Iraq last year, saying that was calculated to "protect its own interests and and not to please the Iraqis." [no argument there - DP]
The statement allso accused France of "active participation in the (Israeli air) strike against (Iran's) Osirak power plant" in 1981 by "providing sensitive and precise intelligence on the plan to the Zionist enemy."
The statement went on to include a long litany of grievances involving alleged French meddling in the affairs of Syria and Lebanon "to serve the interests of Jews and Zionists," of combating the Arabic lanauge and Islamic law in former colony Tunisia, of seeking to divide Sudan and make Chad a French base.
Morocco and Mauritania were also listed as victims, while France was also accused of "effectively participating in the war in Afghanistan" against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
(via Melanie Phillips)
September 19, 2004
Hidden agenda uncovered
In the comments section for this post, a reader calling himself "martinvannodstran" posts the shocking news that this blog "has sided with the Zionists". I've been trying so hard to hide it, but I guess you got me there, "martin". By and large, I do side with the Israelis, and this article by Bret Stephens helps to explain why.
For good measure, "martin" also declares, "There would be no terrorism anywhere in the world if Israel didn't have it's claws in every single government in the world." Yes, every government in the world. In addition to all the other crimes against humanity perpetrated by the eeeeevil Israelis, we can also blame them for genocide in Sudan, political repression in Zimbabwe and the collapse of the bird-dropping-based economy (really) in Nauru.
Pesky Israelis.
Monkey thrown from back
The Giants upset Washington 20-14 this afternoon - giving Kurt Warner his first win since January 27, 2002.
There might also be hope for the Bears, too - one week after a humiliating loss to Detroit, they beat Green Bay 21-10. (Come to think of it, maybe losing to the Lions wasn't so humiliating. With their win today - admittedly over lowly Houston - they're 2-0.)
The monster awakens
Two German far-right parties with ties to neo-Nazi movements - the National Democratic Party and the Deutsche Volksunion - are expected to gain seats in regional elections today:
In a shopping precinct in the east German town of Heidenau, the 37-year-old driving-school owner was all smiles as he handed out leaflets for his National Democratic Party (NPD) in the run-up to state elections in Saxony.
Mr Leichsenring railed against the shortcomings of the centre-Left government of Gerhard Schroder. He focused on controversial plans to reform the country's costly social welfare system - particularly unpopular in the former communist east where unemployment is high - rather than speaking about immigrants and asylum seekers.
Yet lurking nearby was the true face of the NPD. Among his campaign helpers was a band of shaven-headed, muscle-bound youths who handed out posters bearing a photograph of Turkish immigrant workers and the slogan once used by Hitler's Nazis against the Jews: "Germans Defend Yourselves!"
Mr Leichsenring has previously been investigated by German intelligence over his links to a violent skinhead group called SSS, which has been banned for hoarding weapons and beating up immigrants.
[...]
Opinion polls predict that the far-Right NPD will win nine per cent of the vote in Saxony - the most heavily populated state in the former communist east with 4.4 million inhabitants. The average age of an NPD supporter in Saxony is just 28.
That result, a dramatic increase since its 1.4 per cent share in 1999, would take the party comfortably over the five per cent hurdle set by Germany's proportional representation system, to give it seats in a state parliament for the first time since 1968.
Chancellor Schroder's beleagured Social Democrats (SPD), who are just two points ahead of the NPD in the opinion polls, are heading for the latest in a series of calamitous showings in regional ballots.
Saxony's ruling Christian Democrats are also expected to slip, by 10 points to 47 per cent, while the reformed communists are encouraged by their rating of about 20 per cent.
Saxony is not the only state to be successfully wooed by the far Right. As disillusionment spreads across eastern Germany, in neighbouring Brandenburg another hard-Right party, the Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), is also expected to enter parliament with six per cent of the vote.
I don't think either of these parties will ever win an election at the national or regional level. But some success at the municipal level is not out of the question (Britain's BNP wins some council seats now and then, and the French Front National actually controls some important city governments), and the far right could become just successful enough to help set the terms of debate. And that's a terrifying prospect.
Update: and on the other end of the spectrum, the PDS - the "reformed" East German communists - have a real shot at winning the election in Brandenburg.
Update II: results and analysis at Davids Medienkritik.
Citizen stands up
The editors of the Ottawa Citizen are defending their use of the word "terrorist" to describe groups like the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade:
The chief complaint is that this newspaper freely uses the word "terrorist" to describe certain groups and acts. The CBC and some wire services prefer terms such as "activist," "militant" or "gunmen." These media organizations argue that "terrorist" is a subjective term, laden with too much emotion, and that the imperative to be impartial prohibits journalists from using it.
We reject the argument. Terrorism is a technical term. It describes a modus operandi, a tactic. We side with security professionals who define terrorism as the deliberate targeting of civilians in pursuit of a political goal. Those who bombed the nightclub in Bali were terrorists. Suicide bombers who strap explosives to their bodies and blow up people eating in a pizza parlour are terrorists. The men and women who took a school full of hostages in Beslan, Russia, and shot some of the children in the back as they tried to flee to safety were terrorists. We as journalists do not violate our impartiality by describing them as such.
Ironically, it is supposedly neutral terms like "militant" that betray a bias, insofar as they have a sanitizing effect. Activists for various political causes can be "militant," but they don't take children hostage.
There is a popular misconception that violence committed for a legitimate cause cannot be terrorism. That's incorrect. Sikhs may, or may not, have legitimate complaints against the Indian government, but the 1985 Air India bombing was a terrorist act, because it deliberately targeted civilians. Journalists betray neither a pro- nor anti-Sikh bias to report it as such.
A newspaper's mandate is to present accurate reports. The Citizen receives wire service reports from many news organizations; in order to ensure consistency in the terms used by these various sources, editors sometimes change words such as "militant" to "terrorist," if it more accurately describes the person committing a violent act. Anyone who deliberately targets civilians in pursuit of a political goal is a terrorist, and we use that term.
Good. If the Citizen is changing the wording of wire-service reports, it should clearly say so in the byline. But the paper deserves credit for telling it like it is - which is more than you can say for Reuters and the CBC.
Coming soon to IndyMedia
Just this morning I was wondering what happened to the two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq last month. (It looked like they'd be released a couple of weeks ago, but nothing came of it.) According to their captors, they're no longer being held against their will, but have voluntarily (wink, wink) agreed to write fawning news reports on the "heroic Iraqi resistance":
A statement from a militant group in Iraq says two kidnapped French journalists have agreed to cover the "activities of the resistance", according to an official from the London-based Islamic Observatory.
Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were seized along with their Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Jundi, on August 20.
The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the kidnappings south of Baghdad.
Yasser Sirri, head of the Islamic Observatory, today said he had received an email purportedly from the Islamic Army saying it had "ended the detention of the two French hostages ... who are now carrying out their work under an agreement" with the group.
"The two journalists accepted, willingly and without being pressured, to cover the battles and attacks (by the resistance) and to film them for the Islamic Army for a set period," it said.
The statement - read out on the telephone by Mr Sirri, whose organisation defends Muslim causes around the world - said the period would only be disclosed after their reports "on the reality of the heroic Iraqi resistance".
The new order in Russia
A couple of interesting and disturbing articles on Vladmir Putin's consolidation of power, in the Washington Times and the Los Angeles Times.
It's a gross exaggeration to compare Putin to Stalin, but it looks like Russia is sliding into a kind of semi-democracy in which some dissent is tolerated, but one party effectively controls the media and electoral machinery. (Mexico under the PRI, which ruled for most of the 20th century, is perhaps the best example.) That's still better than communism, but not even close to the high hopes I had when the Soviet Union collapsed.
September 18, 2004
Pajama Party
The new Weekly Standard has a long, detailed, link-heavy article about Rathergate. Highly recommended.
One you-can't-make-this-shit-up detail they left out: Tim Blair found a press release from a leftist advocacy group complaining about all the attention being given to whether the memos were fake, while ignoring the allegations about whether the Bush-in-the-National-Guard stories were true. The name of the advocacy group? "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting."
Sheila Copps, Master Thespian
You just can't make this stuff up:
Sheila Copps has spent much of her life writing cheques for starving artists. Now she's one herself.
From Rat Packer to actress, Ms. Copps, 51, will earn Equity wages of about $720 a week plus benefits and an RSP contribution for her role as Clairee Belcher in the play Steel Magnolias.
She's making her acting debut next month at a dinner theatre at the Howard Johnson's in Kingston, performing five shows a week for four weeks.
September 17, 2004
Not available in Canada
The Fox News Channel is airing a special on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal this Sunday night.
Anyone want to tape it for me?
One man's terrorist is a...oh, never mind
The Canadian Arab Federation and the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations have filed a complaint against CanWest for daring to call the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade a "terrorist" group.
Arab and Muslim advocacy groups, undeniably upset about the way their communities have become identified with terrorism, have had a choice: they could denounce the horrendous acts being carried out in their name, or they could whine about people daring to say Hamas, Hezbollah and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade are something more sinister than advocacy groups.
It's absolutely disheartening to see the path they've chosen.
Ford leaving F1
They're selling the Cosworth engines division - the most successful engine manufacturer in the sport's history - and getting rid of the perenially underachieving Jaguar F1 team.
If only the Jags had run as good as they looked.
How not to run for President
The latest Gallup poll puts Bush ahead of Kerry, 55-42%.
How on earth can Kerry be losing so badly? A good analysis can be found here.
Update: BoiFromTroy wonders what the campaign would be like if Dick Gephardt had won the nomination. I have my own problems with Gephardt (he's an anti-trade protectionist of long standing, for one thing), but I'd take him over Kerry in a second.
I still say they should have picked Lieberman.
Medicare saved forever and ever
We'll see. But I have a feeling we'll be going through all this again within five years.
September 16, 2004
Bye Bye, Johnny
Johnny Ramone has passed away at age 55.
Unintended consequences
Nicholas Packwood once told me the USSR made propaganda films showing the misery and violence of American slums - and that Soviet audiences noticed that even the poorest Americans had their own apartments, cars, television sets and - if their appearance was any indication - too much to eat.
A similar phenomenon is now occurring in Iran, where the authorities have approved Fahrenheit 9/11 to be shown in theaters. Audiences are wondering why no Iranian filmmaker can make a movie so critical of his government:
Cinemagoers in the Iranian capital were given their first glimpse of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' this week, but appeared to enjoy more the rare chance to watch an American movie than its assault on their regime's arch foe George W. Bush.
Michael Moore's Bush-bashing polemic may have cruised through Iran's unforgiving censors thanks to its indictment of US policy, but the premiere of the film also had the side effect of making some viewers relate the same questioning to their own state of affairs.
[...]
On Tuesday night the film was sold out and the theatre packed with close to 380 people, most of them young. Many admitted they were just out to watch an American film, and not that one in particular.
"I love to see foreign films on the big screen, and I never miss Farhang cinema shows no matter what is on," said Sima Gharavi, a 24-year-old dressed in a short bright blue coat rather than the more conservative all-black attire.
But she hastened to complain that "out of all the films people would love to see, the authorities had to go for this one -- just because this film is in line with the view of the Islamic regime."
And despite sporadic laughs here and there, most of Moore's sardonic humour appeared to fall flat. The end of the film was also greeted with some half-hearted clapping.
"The problem is the subtitles," said Sogol Zand, an English teacher. "The jokes are not as funny."
Others, obviously out for a rare taste of Hollywood entertainment, disagreed.
"It was just too political. I was bored from the middle, and I wished we had gone to see "Kill Bill" instead," said one young man, referring to the trendy Quentin Tarantino flick also being shown.
But those of the older generation appeared to relate well to the film, which succeeded in sparking some vigorous after-show chatter.
"I saw it as an Iranian who has also lived in America," said Kourosh Amini, a man in his 50s.
"It perfectly depicted the realities of American life, and they have to learn what war really looks like."
And even though his twenty-something son quipped in to say he was "disappointed" by the film and asserted "politics is not as important" for Iran's younger generation, he did envy Moore's position.
"It sure is a great country, where someone like Moore trashes the president and gets away with it -- and makes so much money!" he laughed.
Another woman said she was impressed with the scene where Moore chases US congressmen to ask them if they would send their children to Iraq.
"How many top officials here sent their offspring to fight in the Iran-Iraq war?" asked the woman, one of several who directed their frustrations at Iranian authorities -- and not President Bush.
Moore says he made Fahrenheit 9/11 to facilitate 'regime change' in America, but the film may instead help to bring down the theocratic government of Iran.
Which makes me wonder which one Moore would prefer.
He just doesn't get it
Dan Rather granted an interview to the New York Observer. The short short version: "who cares if the documents are fake? The point is whether the information contained in the documents is true."
An InstaPundit reader, comparing Dan Rather to the unfortunate Frank Grimes from The Simpsons, nails it:
He can't understand why no one is getting upset about his "blockbuster" story that Bush might not have met all his ANG requirements, and it's making him crazy. He has completely missed the point that most people already assume Bush got preferential treatment, and was not the most repsponsible person in his youth - AND THEY DON'T CARE. They've already put that into their voting calculus, and if it didn't hurt Bush when he was relatively unknown in 2000, it certainly ain't gonna after he's been Commander in Chief for four years. Why someone would put their credibility and career on the line to make this politically insignificant point continues to baffle me.
I could care less about whether Bush met his National Guard requirements when he was young. Or whether Dick Cheney was nailed for drunk driving in 1963. Or whatever stupid things John Edwards did when he was young. I wouldn't care about John Kerry allegedly whoring for undeserved medals in Vietnam, except that his Vietnam service is the only reason he's ever given for why he should be President. (If Bush had based his entire campaign around being a flawless ANG pilot, CBS might have something here.)
The enlightened consensus seems to be that Bill Clinton getting sexual favors in the Oval Office didn't render him unqualified to be President, but the people who feel the most strongly about that are the same ones screaming "Bush went AWOL!" at the top of their lungs. Go figure.
It's a start
The U.S. State Department has deemed Saudi Arabia a nation where freedom of religion "does not exist":
The State Department yesterday put Saudi Arabia on its blacklist of severe violators of religious freedom for the first time, opening the door to U.S. sanctions.
U.S. officials, however, said penalties against the desert kingdom are not likely to follow.
Vietnam and Eritrea were also added to the list, which includes China, Sudan, Iran, Burma and North Korea.
Iraq was taken off the list earlier this year.
The Bush administration has been criticized by religious and human rights groups in recent years for turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's religious practices by failing to designate it as a country of "particular concern."
Even though in previous years the State Department has used strong language on the situation in the kingdom in its annual report on international religious freedom, this year's edition is especially harsh.
"Freedom of religion does not exist" in Saudi Arabia, the report says. "Freedom of religion is not recognized or protected under the country's laws, and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam."
The document also cites "frequent instances in which mosque preachers, whose salaries were paid by the government, used violent anti-Jewish and anti-Christian language in their sermons."
It's a start, but not much more. Certainly, Colin Powell has rushed to assure the Saudis that there won't be any, you know, consequences of this blacklisting:
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell played down the criticism of one of Washington's key allies in the Middle East and the world's largest oil exporter.
"Let me emphasize that we will continue engaging the countries of particular concern with whom we have bilateral relationships," Mr. Powell told reporters.
"Our existing partnerships have flourished in numerous capacities and they are just one of the best ways for us to encourage our friends to adopt tolerant practices," he said.
September 15, 2004
Classy
Offered without comment: this tasteful advertisement for Spain's El Pais newspaper.
I don't have anything more to say about it (aside from raising the possibility it could be an internet hoax) - but Tim Blair notes in his comments section, "If the images truly reflected changes happening after a single day, the second shot wouldn't show a pristine WTC-free New York skyline. It would show a mountain of smoke rising above the still-smouldering mass grave of nearly 3,000 people."
Jacques is back
Jacques Villeneuve has signed a two-year deal with Sauber, beginning next season. It also looks like he'll take over Toyota-bound Jarno Trulli's seat at Renault for the last three races of 2004.
With all this excitement, the other teams might be able to hold Ferrari to just 14 wins next year. (Sauber, of course, is basically Ferrari's AAA team - which should tell you why this mid-field team could snare a former world champion.)
Why Kerry is losing
This story couldn't be more trivial, but it says so much about the Kerry campaign:
The Green Bay Packers, more than any other football team, has become intertwined with presidential politics this year, CNN's Steve Brusk writes in the Morning Grind column at www.cnn.com.
Sen. John Kerry "created a mini-flap while visiting this football-crazy city of Green Bay on August 25th when he mispronounced the name of the team's sacred stadium, confusing 'Lambeau Field' with 'Lambert Field.' Within two weeks, the Badger State had flipped from Kerry's column to Bush's. Coincidence? " Mr. Brusk asked.
The constitutional right to advertise
Adbusters is suing the major Canadian television networks for infringing their freedom of speech, because CBC, CTV and Global won't run their anti-capitalist advertisements. (No word on whether any of the ads refer to the Jewish neoconservative cabal Kalle Lasn warned us about a few months ago.)
Adbusters, the Vancouver-based alternative media organization, is suing Canada's major television networks for refusing to broadcast advertisements that criticize consumerism.
It has hired prominent civil-rights lawyer Clayton Ruby to act as counsel in this case, which it describes as the opening salvo in a war for greater media democracy.
"For the last 10 years I've been trying to buy air time and by and large I've been unable to do that," said Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of Adbusters magazine.
"I think it's a violation of my right to freedom of speech."
The lawsuit, which was filed in Ontario Superior Court, names the CBC, CanWest Global, Bell Globemedia and CHUM Ltd. as respondents.
It also names the Government of Canada in its role as regulator of the airwaves.
Adbusters is seeking a declaration from the courts under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that the broadcasters have infringed on its right to freedom of expression.
So, if this lawsuit is successful, will that mean Nike, McDonald's and Lockheed Martin have a constitutional right to buy ad space in Adbusters?
Chemical weapons in Darfur
Germany's Die Welt reports that the Syrians, in cooperation with the Sudanese army, tested chemical weapons in Darfur:
Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people.
The German daily Die Welt newspaper, in an advance release of its Wednesday edition, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims.
It said that witnesses quoted by an Arabic news website called ILAF in an article on August 2 had said that several frozen bodies arrived suddenly at the "Al-Fashr Hospital" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in June.
Die Welt said the sources had indicated that the weapons tests were undertaken following a military exercise between Syria and Sudan.
Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies.
According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, in the south.
But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur.
September 14, 2004
The 80s are back
First Donald Trump makes a comeback, and now another big TV evangelist scandal is brewing.
I think the hot toy this Christmas will be the Rubik's Cube.
Update: Oh. My. God.
It's over, Dan
The embarassment for CBS just gets worse and worse, as the Washington Post says the expert who allegedly authenticated the Bush National Guard memos for 60 Minutes did nothing of the kind:
The lead expert retained by CBS News to examine disputed memos from President Bush's former squadron commander in the National Guard said yesterday that he examined only the late officer's signature and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.
"There's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them," Marcel Matley said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The main reason, he said, is that they are "copies" that are "far removed" from the originals.
Matley's comments came amid growing evidence challenging the authenticity of the documents aired Wednesday on CBS's "60 Minutes." The program was part of an investigation asserting that Bush benefited from political favoritism in getting out of commitments to the Texas Air National Guard. On last night's "CBS Evening News," Rather said again that the network "believes the documents are authentic."
A detailed comparison by The Washington Post of memos obtained by CBS News with authenticated documents on Bush's National Guard service reveals dozens of inconsistencies, ranging from conflicting military terminology to different word-processing techniques.
Remember a few months ago, when an infamous (and now banned) troll in my comments section kept insisting that there was nothing antisemitic about the phrase "F**k Jews"? CBS seems to be acting in the exact same manner.
This mess should (but almost certainly won't) shut up critics who insist Fox News is "biased" and "partisan" unlike the other networks. Like, um, CBS. Meanwhile, courtesy of Slate's Timothy Noah, here's the emerging Democratic spin on the controversy:
Which brings us to a larger point. The documents were entirely consistent with everything that's already been established about President Bush's National Guard service. We know strings were pulled on his behalf to get in. We know that, for whatever reason, he wouldn't take a required physical. We know that Bush agitated for a transfer to Alabama, and that for a period of six months there exists no evidence that he ever showed up. None of this makes Bush a bad person—except insofar as he feels free to question, or permits others on his campaign to question, the manhood and patriotism of his opponent, John Kerry. 60 Minutes may have inadvertently framed the president, but in doing so it framed an already guilty man.
Several writers have compared this mess to the "Hitler Diaries" hoax of 1983, when Stern and the London Times were taken in by an obvious forgery. (Robert Harris's book on the sebject, Selling Hitler, is a must-read.) I have visions of Tim Noah writing, "okay, so we were hoaxed, but the 'Hitler Diaries' are entirely consistent with everything we know about Hitler's personal life."
Carnage in Baghdad
While we argue over who did what during a war that ended 30 years ago, Iraqi "minutemen" (Michael Moore's phrase) continue to target those trying to rebuild their nation:
IRAQ'S descent into a chaotic cycle of violence worsened yesterday when at least 47 people were killed and 114 injured in a massive car bombing outside Baghdad's police headquarters.
The devastating explosion ripped through a bustling market district at the end of Haifa Street, where dozens of young men were queuing for a chance to join the police force.
[...]
The latest attack on Iraq's fledgling security services came two days after fierce clashes between US troops and insurgents in the Haifa Street area, which is considered a bastion of Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Police sergeant Haider Hamid said the vehicle detonated outside the entrance of the al-Karkh police centre at 10am Baghdad time. The blast sent shrapnel through the area, scattering body parts and leaving pools of blood smeared on the pavement.
Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib toured the scene of the attack and blamed the bombing on "Arab groups" as angry locals cursed US President George W. Bush.
"These are planned operations aimed at killing citizens in Baghdad. Probably Arab groups are behind such attacks. We will crush these terrorists," Mr Naqib said.
In Baquba, north of Baghdad, 12 Iraqi policemen and one civilian were killed in a gun attack in the city, where 70 people died in a suicide bombing outside a police station on July 28, police said.
Iraqis curse the Americans for failing to restore order, and they cheer on the "insurgents" who are...killing people trying to set up security forces to restore order. That sums up the whole situation, pretty much.
Iraq is sliding into chaos on President Bush's watch, while the Democratic non-entity changes his Iraq strategy every five minutes. And then there's Ralph Nader and the other fringe candidates, who would abandon Iraq to its fate. What a choice for the American voter.
And whatever happened to these "human shields" who were so anxious to protect Iraq when Saddam was running the country, anyway?
You knew it was coming
An Ontario court has granted the world's first same-sex divorce.
The end of Russian democracy
Even after Beslan, I find this extremely disturbing:
President Vladimir Putin announced radical changes to Russia's democratic institutions yesterday that will give the Kremlin greater power than at any time since the fall of the Soviet Union.
In what critics say amounts to a serious setback for Russian democracy, Mr Putin effectively negated the right of citizens to elect a regional representative. Instead, the country's 89 regional governors will be proposed by the president.
The former KGB spy also announced that seats in the Duma allocated to single-member constituencies will be scrapped in favour of a fully proportional system.
The move will accord his United Russia party, which can already count on the backing of about two thirds of the deputies in the Duma, even greater control.
[...]
Since coming to power five years ago Mr Putin has made no secret of his admiration for many aspects of the Soviet system. While he has pursued a pro-western foreign policy, he has heavily curbed media freedoms and brought down big businessmen who have challenged the Kremlin.
He has also done much to curb regional autonomy, a reversal of Boris Yeltsin's policy of giving the regions as much sovereignty "as they could swallow".
If, as seems certain, Mr Putin's measures are passed, the Kremlin will propose regional governors whose appointments will then be voted on by regional legislatures. It is unclear what will happen if the Kremlin's candidate is rejected.
September 13, 2004
The Boring Benefactor
[cross-posted to Blogcritics.org]
Mark Cuban seems like a cool guy, but his show is probably the most boring, pointless reality show I've ever seen. (I've never seen Temptation Island.) I just gave up on it before the half-hour mark, in the middle of Cuban's interminable one-on-one interviews with the 15 remaining contestants. The Amazing Race has people jumping from airplanes, Survivor has contestants diving off cliffs, and The Benefactor has...interviews.
I'll admit that eliminating one candidiate 15 minutes into the show (after he called the program "stupid", unaware that Cuban was watching the whole conversation) got my attention. But 30 minutes into The Benefactor, I still didn't get the point of the friggin' show. It's kind of like a job interview, I guess, but we already have a job-interview reality show - The Apprentice - which actually has people doing things. The Benefactor, by contrast, is like a particularly dull Big Brother episode. I don't know the development history of this show, but I'll bet ABC was so desperate for a hit that they shoved this one into production before the rules had been completely thought through.
But surely I should watch the entire first episode before I pass judgment, right? Well, I guess it's possible something exciting could be happening right now. But I say that if it couldn't hook me in the first half hour, that's the show's fault.
As Cuban himself noted when he kicked out that first contestant, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. The producers should have taken his advice.
Never Again
[cross-posted to Blogcritics.org]
During the summer Olympics a few weeks ago, famed Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was interviewed by an Israeli reporter. He denied having an anti-semitic in his body, and then spent the rest of the interview saying Jews were "at the root of evil," "hold world finance in their hands," "control most of the big symphonic orchestras in the world," that "there is a group of Jews who surround Bush and control the policy of the United States," and that the 9/11 attacks were almost certainly carried out by the Americans, probably with assistance from the Mossad. For good measure, he also denied there was any anti-semitism in Europe: "it really allows the Jews to do whatever they want. Not only psychologically, but also politically, it gives the Jews an excuse. The sense of victimhood. It gives them a license to hide the truth. There is no Jewish problem in Europe today. There is no anti-Semitism."
That Theodorakis - a cultural superstar in Greece - had no qualms about spouting this nonsense is disturbing enough. That the International Olympic Committee subsequently awarded Theodorakis the "Olympiart Prize" - as "a man who symbolises the spirit of the country of origin of the Olympic Games" - is downright terrifying.
59 years after Auschwitz, Jew-hatred is back: that's the thesis of Gabriel Schoenfeld's The Return of Anti-Semitism. Schoenfeld, a senior editor for Commentary magazine, argues that a rabid hatred of the Jews - stoked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and alternatively tolerated and encouraged by the region's despotic governments - has engulfed the Middle East, that the phenomenon is growing rapidly in Europe, and that it's even showing up in North America at levels unimaginable just a few years ago. (He begins his book by noting the security barriers and alarms set up outside his workplace, the American Jewish Committee headquarters in New York. It sounds like a military base.)
It's almost impossible to look at modern antisemitism without dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and as Schoenfeld notes, today's Jew-haters have simply taken all the old antisemitic slanders, replaced the word "Jew" with "Zionist" or "neocon", and carried on as usual. That's why it's among the "anti-imperialist" left, instead of the extreme right, where antisemitism presently finds its most fertile ground. But where does legitimate criticism of Israel end, and blatant antisemitism begin? That's a difficult question, and Schoenfeld doesn't really give a satisfactory answer. (Here's my own test: if a "Zionism is Nazism" protestor is willing to condemn the region's Muslim theocracies as persistently and loudly as they condemn the Jewish state, we can probably take her at her word. I leave it to you to determine how often that happens.)
Much of The Return of Anti-Semitism will be familiar to regular readers of weblogs like LGF, Silent Running or Harry's Place, which since 9/11 have documented many of the antisemitic incidents described in the book. British MP Tam Dalyell babbling about a "Jewish cabal" controlling the American government, the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh "reporting" blood libels about Jews using childrens' blood for religious rites, "anti-Zionist" protestors at San Francisco State engulfing and threatening a Hillel rally - these incidents got a lot of attention in the blogosphere as they were happening, and The Return of Anti-Semitism only describes a few incidents blog devotees will not already know about. (The most disturbing: newspaper columnists in Sweden - Sweden - denouncing Judaism as "warlike and murderous" just after the Lebanon invasion in 1982.)
The Return of Anti-Semitism relies primarily on secondhand sources and contains little original research. Schoenfeld, as a Jew, would not have been allowed into the most rabidly antisemitic nations of the Middle East, but there's no indication he made any attempt to personally investigate any of the incidents he describes.
Still, the book is worth reading, especially if you haven't been closely following this disturbing phenomenon over the past few years. (I'd recommend it to high-school students, in particular, as an introduction to something which really should be discussed in social-studies classes.) A majority of those involved in anti-globalization, anti-war, pro-Palestinian or Islamic movements may not be antisemitic - but a growing number of their comrades have crossed that line, and they seem surprisingly unconcerned about it. Antisemitism may not yet be respectable in "progressive" circles, but resistance to it seems to be wearing down.
And that's how anti-Jewish persecution - which invariably leads to persecution of other groups - always gets started. Either we fight the monster now, or we deal with something much, much worse in a few short years.
The worst cars ever made
Top Gear - the best argument for the BBC's continuing existence - has compiled a list of the 50 worst cars of all time. They could have loaded up the list with cars from the USSR and Warsaw Pact, but their real targets are vehicles which should have been a lot better - cars whose designers had a lot more ambition than talent, or promising designs undone by cost-cutting or sheer throughtlessness.
This is a British list, so most of the entries are European - but, yes, the Pinto, Pacer and Aztek made it as well. (No Chevrolet Vega, though.) I actually thought their number-one choice was kind of neat, though. (Not that I've ever driven one.)
"This is Mein Kampf on acid"
Tex is back with an armload of new posts, including this devastating takedown of Guardian columnist (of course) George Monbiot.
Also, his last line in this post (about antisemitic crank Joe Vialls) is priceless.
Mohammed Atta died for our sins
Unfortunately, the latest Western Star column by Michael Johansen - not available online - reflects the Canadian chattering classes' conventional wisdom on 9/11. Namely, that the hijackers were misguided social democrats, sort of, and that the attacks wouldn't have happened had the Yanks just been a little nicer:
People like the say the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001 and I wish they were right, but three years after those events it is difficult to see what is different. The conditions that led to the attack still exist and, in fact, have only gotten worse, A fraction of the world's population - mostly those who live in North America and Europe - still feasts while the majority survives on crumbs. Countries with power - notably Russia and the United States - still wield it with little regard for compassion. They are still surprised when the opponents they create respond with a similar lack of mercy. Unscrupulous politicians and leaders still set up scapegoats to divert public attention away from real dangers. It is easier to deal with laregly imaginary threats than to solve problems of their own making: Poverty, pollution and injustice. The powerful still seek to increase their own power and limit the rights of others, rather than protect the freedoms all should enjoy.
[...lots of stuff about America's "greed-provoked war in the Middle East", Russia's refusal to negotiate with the Chechens, Third World debt, et cetera...]
The Terrorist attacks three years ago did not change anything, but they could have. They could have taught us all a horror of violence, no matter what the provocation. If the U.S. had chosen mercy over revenge, had sought to understand rather than condemn, and had responded in a measured way rather instead of unleashing all-out, indiscriminate war, those few who use terrorist tactics to fight their cause could have had their support cut out from underneath them.
Whatever Mohammed Atta was thinking about when he piloted an airliner into the World Trade Center, I'm pretty sure Kyoto and IMF structural adjustment programs were the last things on his mind. Some days, I really feel like I'm in the minority of Canadians in thinking that way.
I can't speak for the U.S. government, but I did seek to "understand" the hijackers, their methods and their totalitarian ideology after 9/11. That's why I'm such a hawk.
Chomsky hammered
Oliver Kamm has been all over St. Noam this month. In a perfect world, Kamm would be one of the ten most commonly-cited intellectuals on earth, while Chomsky would be raving derelict in the inner city somewhere. But it's not a perfect world.
Chomsky has been accused of being a Holocuast denier for his association with French "revisionist" Robert Faurisson. St. Noam denies it, and says he supports Faurisson's work on free-speech grounds. Maybe, but when you're bringing up the "nobody has even found a signed document connecting Hitler to the Holocaust" line (in the context of arguing that Nixon was worse than Hitler, or something), you aren't helping your case.
Explosion explained
The North Koreans say that massive explosion was caused by demolition work for a hydroelectric project:
North Korea said Monday that a huge cloud caused by an explosion near its border with China several days ago was the planned demolition of a mountain for a hydroelectric project, the BBC reported.
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun said the blast was intentional, following a request for information from British Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell, who is visiting the North, the British Broadcasting Corp. quoted Rammell as saying.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that a mammoth explosion in North Korea on Thursday produced a mushroom cloud more than three kilometers (two miles) across.
South Korean and U.S. officials said Sunday that they were trying to ascertain the cause of the huge cloud. The size of the reported explosion on the 56th anniversary of the foundation of North Korea had raised speculation that it might be a nuclear test. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said there was no indication it was.
I leave it to the experts to determine whether such a project would create a two-mile-wide mushroom cloud.
September 12, 2004
Nightmare ends for Detroit -and begins for me
The Lions won their first road game since 2000 today. Against my Bears.
It's gonna be a long year.
High Treason
Al-Muhajiroun cancelled its planned "conference" scheduled for the anniversary of 9/11, but the British Islamofascist group still hails Osama bin Laden as a hero:
Islamic extremists in the UK today hailed the terrorists responsible for the September 11 terrorist atrocities on the third anniversary of the attack.
Anjem Choudary, of radical group Al-Muhajiroun, described Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, as a “Muslim brother” and claimed he would be elected leader in any Muslim country.
Al-Muhajiroun, which vowed that one day the Islamic flag will fly in Downing Street, had planned to stage a conference in London this evening to mark the third anniversary of September 11 but it was called it off on police advice.
Instead Mr Choudary held a news conference in the capital to declare that there had been positive outcomes as a result of 9/11. He said the act had divided the world into two separate camps, Muslim and non-Muslim.
Of bin Laden, he said: “He is my fellow Muslim brother. We believe in the same God, we believe in the same messenger ... whether he is an oppressor or oppressed.
[...]
The group described 9/11 as a “towering day” in history and it also paid tribute to the “magnificent” 19 hijackers.
Mr Choudary stressed that the hijackers were educated men from rich backgrounds.
But he said Muslims who lived in Britain, under the covenant of security, did not have the right to carry out operations in this country.
67 British citzens were killed on September 11, 2001.
Failed unification
15 years after the Berlin Wall came down, many Germans want it back:
Wittenberge, an hour's train journey north-west of Berlin, is frequently cited as an example of how dismally the 14-year-old reunification project of east and west Germany has failed.
And it is no exception, but typical of hundreds of towns and cities across the states of eastern Germany in a similar condition and whose citizens are being swept up in a growing mood of discontent.
For the past six weeks tens of thousands of east Germans have been gathering in town centres for weekly "Monday Demos", a reference to the demonstrations that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall 15 years ago. Their complaint: even before they have benefited from capitalism, the reforms being implemented by the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder - particularly plans to scale back benefits for the long-term jobless - will disadvantage them still further.
Currently the unemployed can get up to two thirds of their last salary for up to three years. Under the new rules, the basic monthly benefit will be capped at £235.
[...]
Post-communists and far-Right groups are seeing their popularity soar in Brandenburg and Saxony, while Mr Schroder's Social Democrats are predicted to emerge with their worst results since the Second World War. Critics blame the government for having communicated their reform plans so badly, thereby instilling irrational fears in the minds of the east German electorate who are suddenly feeling great nostalgia for a strong state to take care of them.
Rumours abound of how the "evil" government plans to take away the east Germans' dachas, or holiday homes, of how they will be farmed out to the crumbling high-rises if they fail to find work.
The huge level of subsidies that have flowed into east Germany have done little to stimulate the economy.
Enlargement of the European Union has only hindered things further: nearby in Poland and the Czech Republic workers are several times cheaper.
The comments of a prosperous moving-company owner in the former East Germany are particularly noteworthy:
"It's somehow sickening to do so well out of people's misfortune," he says, pointing to the array of cars and motorbikes he has parked in his drive, and the new kitchen and jacuzzi he has just installed. "But it's not of my making. It's the west Germans' fault - they lived too comfortably for too long and now we've got to pay for it, even though we never benefited from it." A supporter of the far-Right DVU, he has thought long and hard about a solution. His own will be to migrate to Russia if work ever dried up.
But for his country he has a more drastic idea: "I tell you, what we need is a little Adolf Hitler who would bash a few heads together and ensure that Germany - east and west - had a common future and that no German would feel like a second-class citizen."
Whereas Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic had to make a shock transition to capitalism in the early 1990s - and are now prospering as a result - East Germany had billions of Deutschmarks and Euros lavished upon it by the old West German government. That anyone in the East would fondly remember the soul-destroying totalitarianism of the old DDR shows that something has gone very, very wrong indeed.
East Germans lived their entire lives believing the government is responsible for everything, and unfortunately that hasn't changed. Samizdata's Philip Chaston has more.
North Korea nukes
This sounds ominous, to say the least:
A huge explosion rocked an area in North Korea near the border with China three days ago and appeared to be much bigger than a train blast that killed 170 people in April, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported today.
"There were rumours that the explosion was much bigger than the one at Ryongchon train station and the United States is showing a big interest, as the blast was seen from satellites," Yonhap quoted an unnamed source in Beijing as saying.
The cause had yet to be determined but the source said Washington was not ruling out the possibility that the blast may be linked to a nuclear test.
Yonhap reported that a mushroom cloud up to 4 kilometres in diameter was spotted after the blast in remote Yanggang province in the far northeast.
The New York Times reported in its editions today that the Bush administration had received recent intelligence reports that some experts believe could indicate North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear weapons test explosion.
South Korean government officials were not immediately available for comment. Thursday, the day of the blast, was the 56th anniversary of North Korea's founding. The reclusive communist state often stages extravaganzas and events to mark key dates.
Update: American officials say they don't believe it was a nuclear explosion, but they admit they aren't sure about the cause. They say it might have been a forest fire.
Must be some forest fire.
September 11, 2004
9/11 in Newfoundland
Hundreds of transatlantic airliners were diverted to Newfoundland on September 11. This website features photographs and recollections from those who got an expected layover at Gander International Airport, once an important refueling stop for jets flying between North America and Europe. There's also information on a scholarship fund for students in Gander and Lewisporte.
Stephenville and St. John's hosted hundreds of stranded travellers as well. A lot has been written about how this shows the unique friendliness and hospitality of Newfoundlanders, but I like to think any place would have helped out in the same way, under the circumstances. There's a lot wrong with the world, but an overwhelming majority of people are basically good.
An attack against us, too
A few days ago, a new poll showed that a majority of Canadians do not see their country as a potential terror target. Today, the Canadian government is not even holding any official ceremony to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. (Prime Minister Martin did release this statement.)
24 Canadians lost their lives on September 11. Even if Islamic terrorists are not going to attack Canada - and I think it's hopelessly naive to believe it will never happen - Canadians are at risk as long as we work in, travel to or live in other countries. The September 11 murderers must have known hundreds of non-Americans - and hundreds of their fellow Muslims - would die because of their actions, but it didn't stop them.
We can bury our heads in the sand and keep believing these people won't do anything to inoffensive, friendly Canada, or we can do all we can to stop them. It's our choice.
Blog saved
It took him about 6 hours, but Mike Peckham thoroughly upgraded the blog and freed up over 120MB of disk space last night. He also added a registration process to the comments section, which should keep the spam and trolls away.
Unfortunately, a lot of the old comments were lost, but he might be able to save them. The important thing is that I can resume posting at my regular pace - if a crushing work schedule doesn't get in the way, that is.
One more note: you'll see that actual ads - instead of PSAs - have been showing up in my Google Ads section. Click on 'em, okay?
Update: I've re-opened the comments for my Sept. 10 posts, as well.
A few people have already complained about the registration system. Mike says he's going to make it as user-friendly as possible, but I think it's a small price to pay for keeping spammers out. (When he was working on my system last night, he says 1,000 spam messages showed up in five minutes.)
Forgetting
If you only read one 9/11 memorial post today, make it this one.
Never forget. Never.
Update: read this one, too.
Update II: this essay by Tim Blair, written just after the attacks, is worth revisiting.
September 10, 2004
Hour of the Bloggers
CNET reports on bloggers' role in raising doubts about the Bush National Guard memos.
Elsewhere on the net, parodies are springing up everywhere. Even if the memos are found to be authentic (Daily Kos, not surprisingly, says they are), it's hard to see anyone taking them seriously now.
All too revealing
In Gwynne Dyer's latest apologia for Islamofascist terrorism, this passage really stood out:
WHAT would we do without Mr Richard Perle, everybody's favourite neo-conservative? It was he who came up some years ago with the notion that we must 'de-contextualise terrorism', that is, we must stop trying to understand the reasons that some groups turn to terrorism, and simply condemn and kill them. No grievance, no injury, no cause is great enough to justify the use of terrorism.
[...]
He was speaking specifically about Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, and the point of 'de-contextualising' them was to make it unacceptable for people to point out that there is a connection between Palestinian terrorism and the fact that the Palestinians have lived under Israeli military occupation for the past 37 years and lost almost half their land to Jewish settlements.
Since the Palestinians have no regular armed forces, if we agree that any resort by them to irregular violence is completely unpardonable and without justification, then there is nothing they can legitimately do to oppose overwhelming Israeli military force. [emphasis added]
Dyer and his ideological bretheren, of course, have been "de-contextualizing" Israeli and American military action for decades now. (Here's some context for you, Gwynne: Israel occupies the West Bank because the Arab states tried to destroy Israel in 1967 and keep trying to destroy it today.)
But note his implicit admission that civil disobedience is simply not an option for the Palestinians, and that they have no choice but to blow up buses, discotheques and pizza parlours and murder five year-old "settlers" in their beds. In the 1940s, Dyer would have mocked that Gandhi fool for all his "non-violent" crap.
By way of comparison, note this passage in Victor Davis Hanson's latest NRO column:
The recent slaughters in Russia were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back of excusing or explaining away radical Islamic terror. If the Estonians can break away from post-Soviet oppression and free themselves from Russian authoritarianism without slaughtering schoolchildren and blowing up airplanes, then the Chechens can as well — but only if they wish to create democracy rather than an Islamic fascist state.
Big media screws up
I am now convinced that George W. Bush is the luckiest man on earth.
Frankly, I didn't think the "National Guard memos" recently uncovered by CBS would harm him that much anyway, since the issue of Bush's service already came up during the 2000 election. (That's probably the biggest advantage of being the incumbent: all the dirt on you has likely been revealed already, which is also why I don't think Kitty Kelley's new book is going to hurt him much, either.) But yesterday, several bloggers - notably Power Line and LGF - uncovered evidence that the memos are forgeries, and now other media outlets are beginning to question their authenticity. According to Drudge, CBS has launched an internal investigation into the matter.
If the documents were fake - and that's looking more and more likely - this truly has been a dark hour for "mainstream" journalism. And never has the much-maligned blogosphere looked so good.
September 09, 2004
FOOTBALL!!!
The season starts in about 5 minutes. Don't expect many new posts on Sunday afternoon until February.
Hatemongering scumbag does world favor, dies
It may be unseemly to celebrate when people die, but I'm shedding no tears for Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler.
Note the target of his last public protest:
Because of failing health, he had made few public appearances in recent years. In July, however, he rode in the back of a pickup truck that was dragging the flag of Israel during a parade of about 40 of his followers through downtown Coeur d'Alene, 30 miles east of Spokane, Wash.
(via Harry's Place)
Update: here's his obituary from the Daily Telegraph.
Bombing in Jakarta
The Australian embassy was the target, but it appears nearly all the dead were Indonesian. Tim Blair has lots of updates.
September 08, 2004
Road Trip
I have to take a short business trip to Grand Falls-Windsor. Back tomorrow afternoon.
As I suspected, comments spam is the main cause of my disk space woes - Mike tells me my comments section is now taking up more than half of all my space. If I meet a spammer on my travels, I'll probably need a lawyer of my own when I'm finished with him.
Hopefully we can get this all fixed up over the next couple of days, and I can re-open the comments section. Keep your fingers crossed...
Russia unleashed
The Russians are about to avenge the dead of Beslan:
Russia's top general said on Wednesday he was ready to attack "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, as security services put a $10 million bounty on two Chechen rebels blamed for last week's school siege.
At the scene of the siege in the southern town of Beslan, medical workers began the painstaking task of identifying more than 100 bodies burned beyond recognition in the explosions which ended the crisis.
"As for launching pre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases, we will carry out all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," General Yuri Baluevsky, chief of Russia's general staff, said, according to Russian news agencies.
"However, this does not mean that we will launch nuclear strikes."
I should be nervous about this (it's freakin' Russia, after all), but I'm not. In fact, I can't wait to see what Putin does. And it will be interesting to see how the Islamic world and the "peace" movement react to someone other than America or Israel conducting a War on Terror.
1,000
The U.S. combat death toll in Iraq has surpassed that number.
This doesn't even come close to the number of Americans who died in Vietnam, not to mention the World Wars. But for those of us who supported the war, it's sobering, to say the least. I still maintain that removing Saddam Hussein from power was eminently justified, and that the Americans - now embroiled in combat with the forces of Islamofascism and Ba'athism in the streets of Iraq - are on the right side of the conflict. Those who support the Iraqi "resistance" are ready to comdemn Iraqis to the totalitarian nightmare under which they've lived for decades, and they know it.
Still, it wasn't supposed to be like this. Everyone knew there would be trouble after the Ba'athist regime was ousted, but few predicted this much. The Bush Administration made serious mistakes in planning this war - particularly in committing far too few troops to occupy an entire country - and they have to account for those mistakes.
This is why, if I were an American voter, I wouldn't rule out supporting Kerry this fall - if I believed he was capable of taking a consistent position on whether the war was correct in the first place, much less on the conduct of the postwar occupation.
He has less than two months to start doing so.
September 07, 2004
Euphemisms on parade
Daniel Pipes has compiled a list of words used by major media outlets to describe the Beslan terrorists:
Assailants - National Public Radio.
Attackers – the Economist.
Bombers – the Guardian.
Captors – the Associated Press.
Commandos – Agence France-Presse refers to the terrorists both as "membres du commando" and "commando."
Criminals - the Times (London).
Extremists – United Press International.
Fighters – the Washington Post.
Group – the Australian.
Guerrillas: in a New York Post editorial.
Gunmen – Reuters.
Hostage-takers - the Los Angeles Times.
Insurgents – in a New York Times headline.
Kidnappers – the Observer (London).
Militants – the Chicago Tribune.
Perpetrators – the New York Times.
Radicals – the BBC.
Rebels – in a Sydney Morning Herald headline.
Separatists – the Christian Science Monitor.
And my favorite:
Activists – the Pakistan Times.
As far as I know, no one has used "freedom fighters". Yet.
Comments temporarily closed
My host just advised me I'm almost out of disk space again, and I blame the absolutely obscene amount of spam which has shown up in my comments section. (Some threads have over 70 spam comments, some of them insanely long.) I'm hoping I can find a way to delete the spam that's already here and/or block any new garbage, thereby avoiding the need to buy more disk space. In the meantime, I'm keeping the comments section closed until all of this is resolved.
But if you really have to get something off your chest - or if you have any advice for fighting spam on a Movable Type-powered blog - feel free to send me an e-mail.
Mayday!
One of the little things for which I've always been grateful is the fact that Canada doesn't celebrate May Day.
We will be soon, if the Canadian Labour Congress has its way. Not that I'm going to turn down an extra day off.
Unappeasable, Part IV
David Brooks, appearently alone among New York Times columnists, gets it:
We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving at the fringes of the Muslim world. This is the cult of people who are proud to declare, "You love life, but we love death." This is the cult that sent waves of defenseless children to be mowed down on the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war, that trains kindergartners to become bombs, that fetishizes death, that sends people off joyfully to commit mass murder.
This cult attaches itself to a political cause but parasitically strangles it. The death cult has strangled the dream of a Palestinian state. The suicide bombers have not brought peace to Palestine; they've brought reprisals. The car bombers are not pushing the U.S. out of Iraq; they're forcing us to stay longer. The death cult is now strangling the Chechen cause, and will bring not independence but blood.
But that's the idea. Because the death cult is not really about the cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and dying.
It's about massacring people while in a state of spiritual loftiness. It's about experiencing the total freedom of barbarism - freedom even from human nature, which says, Love children, and Love life. It's about the joy of sadism and suicide.
We should be used to this pathological mass movement by now. We should be able to talk about such things. Yet when you look at the Western reaction to the Beslan massacres, you see people quick to divert their attention away from the core horror of this act, as if to say: We don't want to stare into this abyss. We don't want to acknowledge those parts of human nature that were on display in Beslan. Something here, if thought about too deeply, undermines the categories we use to live our lives, undermines our faith in the essential goodness of human beings.
[...]
Dissertations will be written about the euphemisms the media used to describe these murderers. They were called "separatists" and "hostage-takers." Three years after Sept. 11, many are still apparently unable to talk about this evil. They still try to rationalize terror. What drives the terrorists to do this? What are they trying to achieve?
They're still victims of the delusion that Paul Berman diagnosed after Sept. 11: "It was the belief that, in the modern world, even the enemies of reason cannot be the enemies of reason. Even the unreasonable must be, in some fashion, reasonable."
This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort of mental diversion. They don't want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.
AP reports that the terrorists, disguised as repairmen, hid a large cache of weapons in the school weeks before the hostage-taking - and a captured terrorist says that those who were queasy about attacking children were summarily executed by their leaders:
Guerrillas behind the horrific slaughter at the middle school in Beslan in southern Russia appear to have planned their operation meticulously, starting months earlier and sneaking weapons into the building in advance.
Still, they may have made at least one glaring miscalculation. A lawyer for a captured hostage-taker said that some of the raiders didn't know exactly what they were getting into and were appalled to find they were holding children hostage.
That sparked a dispute in which some of the objecting militants were killed by their own comrades, the lawyer said.
[...]
Amid the careful preparations, the attack's planners may not have considered psychology.
Umar Sikoyev, a lawyer for a captured militant identified as Nur-Pashi Kulayev, said the band's leader did not tell them what their mission was and that after the seizure a fierce argument broke out in the band, with several objecting that taking children as hostages was wrong.
The raid's commander shot the dissidents' leader to death and then detonated the suicide belts worn by two women raiders by remote control to establish order in the band, Sikoyev told The Associated Press.
Better dead than Ted
Once this would have outraged me, but now I simply shake my head and thank God I didn't turn out like Ted Rall.
(via LGF)
September 06, 2004
Disaster strikes
I don't know how I did it, but it looks like I accidentially destroyed the entire right-hand side of my blog, including my blogroll.
If anyone out there knows how I can rebuild it to original specifications (or change to a new MT template), let me know.
Update: the blogroll has been saved, thanks to Michael Peckham - who's pulled my ass out of the fire more times than I can count when it comes to computer problems. But it may be some time before everything is restored to normal.
Irony alert
A New York cop to Johann Hari, during the anti-RNC protests:
"Excuse me sir - you are obstructing the No Police State Coalition's path. Could you step aside so they can march please?"
The Chechens' case
Bob Tarantino links to this Slate article about the horrors visited upon Chechnya by the Russians (including the Chechens' mass deportation to Siberia in 1944), and Russia's fatal errors in dealing with the Chechen independence movement since the USSR boke up. Russian journalist Masha Gessen concludes that Al-Qaida may not be responsible for Beslan:
So, what does al-Qaida and international Islamic terrorism have to do with any of this? Probably very little. Chechens have plenty of reason to do what they do without outside inspiration. In addition, their tactics are very different from al-Qaida's. Osama Bin Laden's group generally aims for maximum casualties; the Chechens, at least when they have staged hostage-takings, have not seemed to have that goal. Al-Qaida explicitly targets Westerners; the Chechens, on the other hand, explicitly exclude Westerners from their list of targets; they target Russians and Russia-sympathizers. Finally, the Chechens' demands, when they have made them, have always focused on the war in Chechnya to the exclusion of any religious or international agenda. They have consistently demanded a the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya—an unattainable goal in the current Russian political climate, but one that may look plausible to the Chechens because it worked after Budyonnovsk.
Russian intelligence has produced little or no evidence that al-Qaida is present in Chechnya. Russian officials claimed that there were Arabs among the hostage-takers, but this information has yet to be confirmed, and even if it is, it may mean only that foreign men have come to fight on the side of Chechens—something that has happened before and something that happens in every conflict, whether or not a major international organization is involved. On the other hand, it would be surprising if al Qaida had no presence in Chechnya at all. Chechens are Muslims, and they are at war; representatives of virtually every Islamic organization have at one point or another sent missionaries and recruiters to the region. They have also sent money. Researchers of al-Qaida say that, in addition to its own organization, the terrorist network has a number of loose affiliates, essentially freelancers, who get occasional financial support. Most likely, some Chechen groups or individuals fall into that category.
Maybe. Given the Russians' admission that they lied about the number of hostages during the first few days of the Beslan siege, their other allegations - including the presence of Arab fighters among the Beslan terrorists, much commented upon in this blog - may not be credible.
On the other hand, taking over a childrens' school and blowing two airliners out of the sky doesn't seem like the work of a movement trying to avoid "maximum casualties", either.
If only I could be this sophistcated
James Wolcott, acclaimed journalist and compassionate liberal, is rooting for Hurricane Frances:
I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong--Mother Nature's fist of fury, Gaia's stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own.
Wolcott lives in New York City. If, God forbid, a hurricane ever hits NYC, I'm sure Wolcott's neighbours in the shelter will understand when he's yelling, "Come on, storm! Destroy my house! Kick our asses!"
Asshole.
(via Tim Blair)
Unappeasable, Part III
Lileks's local newspaper, in a story on Beslan, contained the jaw-dropping line, "this week’s bloodbath in Russia shattered the notion that innocents are taboo terror victims." His response, as you might expect, couldn't be more devastating.
And then he turns his sights on Maus cartoonist and self-proclaimed "dissident" Art Spiegelman, whose musings on 9/11 are almost enough to make me side with Ted Rall. Almost.
September 05, 2004
Our friends, the French
Interesting to see whether anything comes of this:
Italian diplomats say privately that France was behind forged documents that at first appeared to prove that Iraq was seeking "yellow-cake" uranium in Niger - evidence used by Britain and America to promote the case for war with Iraq.
They say that France's intelligence services used an Italian-born middle-man to circulate a mixture of genuine and bogus documents to "trap" the two leading proponents of war with Saddam Hussein into making unsupportable claims.
They have passed to British journalists a photograph that they claim shows the Italian go-between, sometimes known as "Giacomo" - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - meeting a senior French intelligence officer based in Brussels.
"The French hoped that the bulk of the documents would be exposed as false, since many of them obviously were," an Italian official said.
"Their aim was to make the allies look ridiculous in order to undermine their case for war."
According to an account given to the Sunday Telegraph, France was driven by "a cold desire to protect their privileged, dominant trading relationship with Saddam, which in the case of war would have been at risk".
If this is true, the French did too good a job forging their documents. (If they were as good at building cars, we North Americans might still be able to buy Peugeots and Renaults.)
Unappeasable, continued
Mark Steyn on Beslan: do I even have to tell you to read it all?
When your asymmetrical warfare strategy depends on gunning down schoolchildren, you're getting way more asymmetrical than you need to be. The reality is that the IRA and ETA and the ANC and any number of secessionist and nationalist movements all the way back to the American revolutionaries could have seized schoolhouses and shot all the children.
But they didn't. Because, if they had, there would have been widespread revulsion within the perpetrators' own communities. To put it at its most tactful, that doesn't seem to be an issue here.
So the particular character of this "insurgency" does not derive from the requirements of "asymmetrical warfare" but from . . . well, let's see, what was the word missing from those three analyses of the Beslan massacre? Here's a clue: half the dead "Chechen separatists" were not Chechens at all, but Arabs. And yet, tastefully tiptoeing round the subject, The New York Times couldn't bring itself to use the words Muslim or Islamist, for fear presumably of offending multicultural sensibilities.
[...]
If the Russian children are innocent, the Russian state is not. Its ham-fisted campaign in Chechnya is as brutal as it is ineffectual. The Muslims have a better case in Chechnya than they do in the West Bank, Kashmir or any of the other troublespots where the Islamic world rubs up against the infidels. But that said, as elsewhere, whatever the theoretical merits of the cause, it's been rotted from within by the Islamist psychosis.
Unappeasable
David Aaronovitch's latest Observer column, on Beslan and the West's response to terror, is a must-read:
Yesterday, in the wake of the Beslan school horror, the historian Corelli Barnett more or less blamed the crisis on the war against terror itself. His thesis was that, since September 11th, the actions of the West (and particularly the Americans) had made things far, far worse.
The problem with this is the simple one that the war with terror was declared by terror itself. Declared in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi in 1998, declared in New York on 11 September. It wasn't until 11 September, however, that we began to appreciate the scale of what was already happening. The idea that, had we negotiated with the Taliban, left Saddam in place and put more pressure on Sharon to settle, kids would now be safe in North Ossetia, is just wishful thinking.
In Saturday's Guardian Isabel Hilton gave a more interesting explanation. This is an era, she pointed out, of asymmetric warfare in which - regrettably - outgunned insurgents eventually come after kids, journalists and Nepalese cooks. What else (she implied) are they going to do? But wasn't Gandhi's situation asymmetric? Did he take over schools and kill the kids? Did Mandela? Is it really the case that what we have here are outgunned liberation movements?
On Thursday night Channel Four showed the drama The Hamburg Cell, which attempted to get inside the minds of the young al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the 11 September hijackings. What the film showed was a classic cult in operation, with young men - pampered and envious, frustrated and egotistic - urging each other on to more and more pitiless acts of violence. The film not only explained the Twin Towers, it inadvertently explained Jonestown and the mass suicide in the Guyanese jungle.
[...]
I am not saying that the only answer is in security. In the case of Chechnya I take the argument of those who point out that, until five years ago and Moscow's reoccupation of the province, there was no significant terrorism there. It seems to me that an absolutely necessary part of the battle for a safer world consists of cutting away as much as you can of the potential support for terrorists.
The logic of this is not, however, to concede to terrorists. Much of what they want we can never give them, and much of what they want lies in the act of terrorism itself. And it as false a trope to say that there are usually political solutions to terrorism as to say that there are always military ones.
The hunt continues
A U.S. counterterrorism official says they're closing in on Osama bin Laden:
The United States and its allies have moved closer to capturing Osama bin Laden in the last two months, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.
"If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught," Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.
Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months — when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key al-Qaida operatives — Black said, "Yes, I would say this."
Black, who briefed a group of Pakistani journalists after talks with officials here Friday, said he could not predict exactly when bin Laden and other top al-Qaida fugitives would be nabbed.
"What I tell people, I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he's been caught along with all his lieutenants. That can happen because of the programs and infrastructure in place," he told Geo.
Bin Laden and his top associate, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding some place along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Officials have divulged no solid intelligence about bin Laden's precise whereabouts, and it's not clear if they have any.
I still say he's been dead since early 2002.
September 04, 2004
"Today, we are all Russians"
The death toll in Beslan, Russia, is now at least 340. (A reporter on NBC News this evening said Beslan was second deadliest terror attack of all time, after 9/11.)
President Vladimir Putin promised on Saturday a tough response to what he called an "all-out war" by terrorists against Russia, as the body count from the school hostage-taking rose to more than 340 dead and some relatives still searched for their loved ones amid the confusion.
A grim-faced Putin addressed the nation on television after a pre-dawn visit to the scene of the hostage-taking in Beslan. In a suprise admission of weakness, he said Russia's past response to terrorism had been insufficient and said he would carry out wide reforms to strengthen the security forces.
[...]
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted an unnamed, high-ranking intelligence official in southern Russia as saying that the school seizure and other major terrorist attacks in Russia had been financed by Abu Omar As-Seyf, an Arab who allegedly represents al-Qaida in Chechnya.
The official said the school raid was masterminded by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev and led by field commander Magomed Yevloyev, who was believed to be the leader of the strict Wahhabi sect of Muslims in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya.
Nine or ten of the slain hostage-takers were Arabs, Russian officials said. An Arab presence could boost claims of involvement by international militant groups.
Almost every newspaper editorial I've seen on this subject blames the Russian government for "creating" terrorists through brutal policies against the Chechens. That does not explain the simple fact that many of the people acting in the Chechens' name - and who carried out this horrific atrocity - are not actually from Chechnya.
In an absolutely fire-breathing post, Skippy (who also came up with the line I used in my subject heading), says Russia should be let loose. I'm not sure I'd go as far as Skippy, but read the whole thing.
...the Russians are precisely the last people any rational person should antagonize. The Chechens and al-Qaeda have decided to do so. Now they must be made to feel the full consequences of their actions without interference from, and perhaps the active encouragement of, the West.
The American people would have brooked no opposition from anyone in responding to 9/11 with its operations in Afghanistan. Neither should the Russian people listen to the concerns of the West in responding to this atrocity in Chechnya. The murders of hundreds of their children is a deeply personal affront and they must be allowed to respond as they see fit.
The developments of the last 10 days presents the West a great opportunity. The Russians can now serve as something that the United States and Great Britian will not allow themselves, to serve as the stormtroopers in the War on Terror. Perhaps it has come time for a truly serious power to demonstrate to terrorists everywhere the brutal, terrible efficency with which this war can be fought. I have every confidence that should the Russiand be allowed a free hand, terror groups everywhere will long for the relative mercy of Israel.
I can say without a moment's hestitency that this policy will not be pretty. Russians forces are not known for following the nicities of Israel and the West, such as allowing terrorists refuge in Mosques. Historically, they have been willing to kill any number of civilians to ensure the destruction of there enemies.
So be it. Perhaps it is at long last time for Islamic terrorists to learn what it's like to live on the receiving end of jihad. And I can't think of a better people to deliver such a message to these animals than the Russian Federation.
To hell with Newsday
The paper I'll always remember for breaking the "Crocodile Dundee" story printed excerpts from Roger Simon's blog entries during the GOP convention. Their editing was selective, to say the least:
In tomorrow's Newsday there will be a number of quotes from those who blogged at the Republican Convention. While crossing the country yesterday, I received two urgent emails from a gentleman named Seifert from that newspaper. My email box gets rather clogged and, despite dodgy WiFi connections, I could easily have missed them, but I did manage to read them. They asked permission to excerpt my blog, without providing the excerpts they had in mind (a normal and professional thing to do - I would have). I smelled a rat, but gave them permission to do so as a test. And guess what? They chose the most anti-Bush remarks I made, highlighting my firm opposition to the President on the social issues. You would have to read these excerpts very closely to realize that I unequivocally support Bush in the election and would no more vote for John Kerry for President in an era of terrorism than for a protester on Seventh Avenue. (I will provide the Newsday link tomorrow, if it is available.)
Summer ends
The Labour Day weekend is here, the parents are visiting and we're going to brave the picket lines and hike at Gros Morne today. Back later.
Summer may not officially end until Sept. 22, but it's already starting to feel like autumn here. Yesterday was the first day in months when I had to turn on the furnace. Ugh. I rather like autumn, but I certainly don't like being reminded winter will be here in a matter of weeks.
Update: amazingly, there were no strikers at the trail site. I guess they put up their picket lines at the campgrounds, interpretation centre, and anything else where visitors were required to pay.
September 03, 2004
Upcoming conspiracy theories
1. Bush tried to have Clinton killed to distract from the trouble in Iraq.
2. Kerry tried to have Clinton killed to gain sympathy for the Democrats (to make up for all the sympathy the Republicans gained when they had Reagan killed).
3. Clinton's faking the whole thing to boost publicity for his new book.
4. Hillary tried to poison him. (That one's kind of plausible, actually.)
1984
ESPN's Bill Simmons says it was the greatest year ever. (Well, the greatest year of the past 25 years, anyway.) He makes a pretty good case.
Carnage in Russia
AP says 150 people may be dead:
Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding hundreds of hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. Ninety-five bodies have been identified, but one official said the death toll could far exceed 150.
The hostage-takers, who had been been demanding independence for Chechnya, fled the assault, took refuge in a nearby house and a basement in the school compound and traded fire with security forces. After about 12 hours, the Russian government said resistance had ended, though four others were still being sought. Twenty militants were killed, including 10 Arabs, officials said.
[...]
Officials at the crisis headquarters said 95 victims have been identified so far, and Valery Andreyev, the regional Federal Security Service chief, said 556 people were hospitalized, including 332 children. Emergency Situations Ministry officials put the number of hospitalized at 646 - 227 of them children.
Officials said security forces had not planned to assault the school, where the militants had been holding hostages - up to 1,500 of them, according to one freed captive - in the gymnasium since Wednesday morning. But the troops' hand was forced when the militants set off explosions and began shooting Friday afternoon, officials said.
I've read a lot these past few days about how the Chechens have been forced into terrorist attacks by Russia's scorched-earth policy in Chechnya. Chechens aren't Arabs. If there were ten Arabs among the "militants", how were they provoked into this?
Clinton admitted to hospital
Bill Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery:
Former President Bill Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath, his office said Friday.
Clinton, 58, was being admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital, a statement said. He had seen a doctor first on Thursday, and additional tests Friday revealed the need for the surgery, it said.
A source confirmed that Clinton was admitted after encountering a blockage in his arteries.
A family friend close to the former president told FOX News that Clinton experienced chest pains a few days ago while at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., and was taken to a local hospital.
The sources said that Clinton had angioplasty done in the last day or two, but the results showed the problem was more serious than first anticipated.
My feelings about the man and his Presidency are mixed, but I sincerely hope he comes out of this okay.
We're back
Well, more accurately, I'm back. There was some technical problems with the site earlier today (after it was moved to a new server), but hopefully everything will be fine now.
While this blog was out of commission, I wrote some new posts on the Russian hostage situation at The Shotgun. If a suspiciously long time passes without any new material on this site, that's the best place to look for me.
September 02, 2004
Three cheers for Kilgour, none for the Arab League
I don't praise Liberal backbenchers very often, especially not Liberal backbenchers who used to be Tories. But I salute Edmonton MP David Kilgour for chiding his government's mealy-mouthed response to the Darfur crisis:
A Liberal backbencher has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin accusing the federal government of responding to genocide in Sudan with nothing but humanitarian aid.
David Kilgour, a former cabinet minister who once handled Asia-Pacific, Latin America and African issues for the Liberal government, is comparing Africa's latest bloody civil war in Sudan's Darfur region to the genocide in Rwanda of a decade earlier.
"Ten years ago, Canada, along with the United Nations Security Council and dozens of other countries, shamefully apologized for allowing one million Rwandans to die under our watch and we promised not to do it again — but isn't that what we've done so far?" wrote Kilgour, an Edmonton MP and one of only two Liberals elected in Alberta.
"Has humanitarian aid become Canada and the UN's response to genocide?"
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said the UN Security Council is getting a report on the Sudanese situation on Thursday.
"We certainly share everyone's concern with the grave humanitarian crisis in Sudan," said Sebastien Theberge.
While Canada, the United States and Europe dither and stall while black Muslims are killed by the thousands, the Arab world has sprung into action:
Last week UPI reported that the Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had told journalists in Cairo that his government possessed "information that confirms media reports of Israeli support (for the rebels in Darfur)." He added that he was "sure the next few days will reveal a lot of Israeli contacts with the rebels."
[...]
On July 29 Egypt's government newspaper, Al-Ahram, published an article entitled "The Key to the American Voting Booths Is in Darfur: The Plot which Is Called Oil." An English translation of the article can be found on the Middle East Media Research Institute's Web site at www.memri.org.
Al-Ahram is probably the most important newspaper in the most important and populous Arab country. The article is typical for the kind of hatred and paranoia that pervades much of the wider Arab Muslim world. Given the tight control the Egyptian state has over the media in general and Al-Ahram in particular, the paper's views must also be seen as reflecting the views of the country's ruling elite. "Bush is awaiting his fate in November and the U.S. is planning to make Darfur an easy path towards its major plan to transport the (Persian) Gulf Oil and the African oil to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, so that Washington can meet its needs in the next decade," the article said.
[...]
So last Sunday, foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League rejected "any threats of coercive military intervention in the region or imposing any sanctions on Sudan."
Darfur is not just a humanitarian disaster. Darfur shows once again, and more tragically than ever, that the Arab-Islamic world is a hostage of its own delusions and will not lift a finger to prevent the deaths of countless fellow Muslims.
Deja Vu
Yesterday, when news of the Russian school standoff broke, I wrote that to the best of my knowledge, even the Palestinians had never taken a school hostage.
I should have known better. The PFLP took over a school in Ma'alot, Israel, in 1975 - with tragic results.
The GOP is an inclusive party
Or this guy didn't put a lot of thought into the wording of his T-shirt. Your call.
Update: it's actually a gay Republican blogger, Boi From Troy.
HAIL ANTS
SETI researchers say they've picked up a mysterious radio signal which might - might - be evidence of extraterrestrial activity:
A radio signal picked up by a search for extraterrestrial intelligence marks the best candidate yet for "first contact" by aliens.
The signal was traced to a point between the constellations Pisces and Aires, according to New Scientist.
Astronomers who have been scanning the universe for years seeking contact with intelligent life said it stood out as being "unusual".
The signal has been observed for only about a minute, not long enough to allow astronomers to analyse it in detail.
It is unlikely to be the result of any obvious radio interference or noise, and does not bear the hallmark of any known astronomical object.
Although it is the best candidate yet for contact with an alien life form, the astronomers say that it may turn out to be an unknown astronomical phenomenon, or simply a blemish produced by the telescope.
I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords, and as a promient blogger I'd be willing to use my influence to help them find humans to toil in their sugar caves.
Update: the researchers are now saying there's nothing special about their discovery. Well, that's what they'd want you to think, isn't it?
In the meantime, this blogger would like to reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human Prime Minister. It may not be perfect, but it's still the best government we have. For now.
It's all the same war
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, in Newsweek, note the links between the Chechen "rebels" and Al-Qaida:
The new series of attacks—including the seizure of a school today by a team of more than a dozen suicide-belt-wearing terrorists near the Chechen border—also raises fresh questions about a relationship that for years has gotten little attention from U.S. intelligence officials: the links between Chechen militants and the broader international movement spearheaded by Al Qaeda.
Indeed, a close reading of the recent report by the September 11 commission reveals 27 different references to connections between Al Qaeda and the Chechen rebels. The Chechen conflict was such an important cause to Islamic militants throughout the Middle East and Western Europe during the 1990s that, according to the commission’s report, many of the 9/11 hijackers themselves originally intended to fight in Chechnya before migrating to Afghanistan.
[...]
But the larger question about links between Chechen rebels and the international jihadi movement is more troubling. There has been a history of such contacts going back more than a decade. Indeed, according to the September 11 commission report, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed—the mastermind of the terror attacks in New York and Washington—himself sought to join forces with the Chechen rebel leader known as Khattab. The report also states that, among other leaders of the attacks in the United States, Mohammed Atta, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah had all sought to enlist in the Chechen cause in 1999—and only ended up in Afghanistan because of a chance meeting with another jihadi on a train in Germany. There is also little doubt that Osama bin Laden used the Chechen cause—and the fierce Russian counterattacks to suppress it—to enlist new recruits. After the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000, the report states, bin Laden ordered his media committee to prepare a propaganda video that reenacted the attack on the Cole laced with images of Muslim suffering in Chechnya, Kashmir, Indonesia and among Palestinians.
U.S. intelligence officials say that so far there is little evidence to suggest that Al Qaeda’s central command is directly involved in the current wave of attacks inside Russia. But as with so much in the murky world of international terror, nobody is ruling anything out.
During the Cold War, the United States and its allies had little choice but to team up with and support some pretty vile regimes in the fight against Soviet totalitarianism. In the new war against Islamofascism, the West may have to hold its nose and fight alongside Putin's Russia.
The Russian government is bad. An Islamist regime in Chechnya would be catastrophic.
Quote of the Day
"Ask people about God nowadays and they usually reply, 'I'm not religious, but deep down, I'm a very spiritual person.' What this phrase really means is: 'I'm afraid of dying, but I can't be arsed going to church.'"
- via Stephen Pollard
Pray for the children
The Russian school hostage crisis continues. A Russian interior ministry official says the terrorists have threatened to kill 50 children for every Chechen fighter killed.
I've been worried about the Russian government's increasingly authoritarian tendencies for quite some time, and some of their actions in Chechnya have been absolutely brutal. Neither side in this dispute has clean hands. But it's also increasingly clear that the Chechen cause has been co-opted by militant Islamists - and God only knows what kind of society they'd create in Chechnya should the Russians abandon it.
Update: AP reports that two explosions have come from the vicinity of the school.
September 01, 2004
How to criticize American foreign policy
This handy guide covers pretty much every situation. Michael Moore and Ted Rall probably have copies taped up next to their computers.
A few small changes
1. I've given up on Hotmail (though I still use MSN messenger quite a bit, so I'll still be checking the account) and gotten one of them fancy-pants Gmail accounts. The new e-mail address is damianpennyNOSPAM -at- gmail.com.
2. I replaced the Bravenet counter with one from Site Meter, which will hopefully take care of the annoying pop-up ads which have infested the site lately. (Mind you, I'm resigned to the fact that Site Meter may come with its own ads.)
3. I've updated the blogroll, changing the URLs for some sites and de-linking some blogs which appear to have gone dormant. If I deleted your site but you haven't given up on it, let me know.
The IOC: ignorant, or something much worse?
Just days after Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was quoted making insanely, blatantly antisemitic statements in Ha'aretz, the International Olympic Committee responded by...giving him an award:
At the proposal of its Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, the IOC has awarded the Olympiart prize to Mikis Theodorakis. This Prize was established in 1992 to recognise artists who contribute through their work to the promotion of sport, young people and peace. It was presented at the close of the 116th IOC Session in Athens.
[...]
In his tribute, the Chairman of the Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, Zhenliang He, presented Mikis Theodorakis as a man who symbolises the spirit of the country of origin of the Olympic Games, as a man of peace who has never ceased to fight for freedom, and as a man of culture who has brought Greek music to the stage of the entire world for four decades.
It's all happening again.
Update: I forgot to give credit to Harry's Place, rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs, for finding this one.
Alan Keyes is not making sense
America's most insane politician not named Lyndon or Cynthia is now going after Dick Cheney's daughter. (The Republicans must be wishing they'd gotten Alicia Keys to run against Obama.)
Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, said Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a "selfish hedonist" because she is a lesbian.
His comments came during an interview with SIRIUS satellite radio.
Keyes said: "The essence of ... family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism."
Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."
If Keyes had a chance at actually winning an election, I'd be scared. Fortunately, in the real world, I can just laugh at him.
Not the hair!
I'm sorry, but if you're not willing to get your head shaved for a chance at winning a million bucks, you should really be on Temptation Island instead, okay?
Red Rooney
Newcastle tried to get him, but he's signed with Man U. (Graffiti spotted in Liverpool: "Rooney could have been a God, but he chose to be a Devil.")
This season, it's starting to look like Newcastle sold their souls to Satan to avoid relegation a few years ago, and now he's come back to collect.
Another Russian nightmare
Just a week after blowing up two Russian airliners, and a day after a suicide bombing in downtown Moscow, Chechen fighters have attacked a school and taken about 400 people - half of them children - as hostages:
Around 400 people, including 200 children are being held hostage in a sourthern Russian town bordering Chechnya after attackers, some wearing suicide-bomb belts, seized an elementary school Wednesday.
The attackers traded gunfire with police after the seizure of the school in Beslan in the North Ossetia. Three teachers and two police officers were wounded, a police spokesman said.
The hostage-takers, who drove up in a covered army transport truck, have warned they would blow up the school if police storm in. They have demanded talks with regional officials but their demands are not known. It is also not known who the assailants are.
There are reports that 50 children may have escaped.
The attack came after a ceremony to mark the start of classes on the first day of the Russian school year.
There are 17 attackers, male and female, according to the Interfax news agency, citing a spokesman for the Federal Security Service.
I don't think there's much doubt about what cause the hostage-takers are supporting. Recent days have seen a serious escalation in the Chechens' tactics, and as far as I know, even the Palestinians - though they've killed many children in cold blood - have never taken a childrens' school hostage.
It seems like the Chechens are determined to squander whatever legitimacy their cause once had - but then again, it seems like the Palestinians have gained support by using "desperate" tactics, and that may be what they're banking on.
Revenge of the Nerds
Don't make Al Franken angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.