August 31, 2005
"If Carter beat Reagan in 1980, would New Orleans have flooded?"
A trivia question: did a post with that title appear on the Huffington Post blog, or at the parody site Huffington's Toast?
The answer shouldn't surprise you one bit.
The vultures start circling
If it's not left-wingers saying Bush caused Hurricane Katrina by not ratifying Kyoto, it's "Christian" extremists saying the people of the "wicked" city of New Orleans brought it on themselves. Absolutely vile.
Update: right on cue, here come the race hustlers. (via Hit & Run)
Never mind
Cindy Sheehan has changed her mind on that "I have to meet with the President to get answers" thing.
Did the levees have to break?
They're staples of every bad disaster movie: the heroic engineer/scientist/professor warns everyone of impending catastrophe if his recommendations aren't followed, and the politician who blows him off. If this disturbing story in Editor & Publisher is true, that may have happened in New Orleans:
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.
To be fair, the story notes that work was being done this summer on the levee near the 17th Street Canal, where most of the damage occured. And even if the Corps had gotten all the money it wanted, I'm not sure that would have been enough to prevent a disaster of this magnitude. (I have a feeling engineers will be debating this for years to come.) But it does merit further debate and discussion.
(via The Corner)
Update: a dissenting opinion here.
An island of sanity in an ocean of madness
Mr. Gutfield, should you ever find yourself in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, the beer's on me.
Update: I use the word "madness" literally.
How Canadians can help
The Canadian Red Cross and the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse are accepting online donations for Hurricane Katrina relief. As I find more Canadian charities helping the relief effort, I'll update this post.
Update: the UJA of Greater Toronto has set up a Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
Update II: The Mennonite Disaster Service is accepting donations for Katrina victims. There's no specific provision for Hurricane Katrina on the Salvation Army's donation page, but you can specify where you want your contribution to go.
Update III: also the Anglican Church-affiliated Primate's World Relief and Development Fund.
Update IV: World Vision.
What hurricane?
Still nothing from Jack Layton or Paul Martin regarding Hurricane Katrina. Of the major national party leaders, only Stephen Harper has issued a statement expressing his condolences (of course, since he has to curry favor with his American neoconservative corporate Zionist masters!!!)
Update: the federal government has issued a formal statement and offered assistance. (via Angry in T.O.)
"That oughta satisfy the little SOBs"
Bob Tarantino, the Canadian blogosphere's go-to guy for criticism of the Supreme Court appointments process, has the latest on the Martin government's latest pointless gesture toward "reform".
If Tarantino has been called to the Bar for ten years, I'll make a submission promoting him for the Supreme Court.
Who thought that was a good idea?
It's not surprising that Kos can't express his sorrow about Hurricane Katrina without taking a slam at George W. Bush, nor is it surprising that he doesn't say what else the President could do about it. (Bush will visit the region on Friday, but if he'd done so earlier, you can be sure the Kossacks would have savaged him for "capitalizing on a tragedy" and "diverting much-needed resources away from rescue efforts". It's just the way of these people.)
That said, I can only conclude that Karl Rove must have been napping when Bush decided playing the guitar yesterday was appropriate. Robert Stanfield found out the hard way that a bad photo-op can do staggering political damage, and surely some of Bush's advisors must have known this would be fodder for left-wing websites and newspapers ("Bush fiddles while New Orleans drowns!") for weeks to come. Bad move, George.
In related news: if gas prices haven't yet gone up in your area, I suggest you top off your tank right now.
Update: Andrew Breitbart, in the comments section for this post at the Huffington NoSignOfGwynnethPaltrowYet, says the "guitar" photo was taken before the levees broke in New Orleans, when most people (including myself) thought New Orleans had been spared the worst damage. (Not surprisingly, Breitbart is completely ignored by subsequent commenters. Couldn't someone at least have responded, "your a brainwashed Nazi!" or something?)
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe's descent into madness and megalomania has fallen off the radar in recent months, but that doesn't mean things have been getting any better:
Zimbabwe's parliament voted Tuesday to give President Robert Mugabe new constitutional powers to seize farmland and to restrict travel by government opponents in a country whose government is already regarded as among the most repressive in Africa.
[...]
The practical effect of the changes was hard to predict in a country where the government has already endorsed violent land invasions, demolished hundreds of thousands of homes, shuttered independent newspapers and threatened would-be protesters with arrest and attack.
But opposition leaders predicted that Mugabe, who is expected to swiftly sign the changes into law, would soon revoke their passports, making it more difficult for them to lobby for international pressure against Mugabe's autocratic leadership.
"We are the immediate targets," said Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, speaking by phone from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. "They are going to take away our passports. I'm sure of that."
No great loss
The Bears have given up on Chad Hutchinson. Not that I have high hopes for the quarterbacking tandem of Kyle Orton, Jeff Blake and Kurt Kittner (who?), mind you. Isn't Jeff George available again? What about Tim Couch? Ye Gods, it's painful to watch.
In other football news, the Saints will be playing out of San Antonio for the time being.
Stampede
A scene of almost unimaginable horror in Iraq: over 630 Shia pilgrims were killed in a stampede after terror rumours panicked the crowd.
More than 630 people were killed in a stampede and attacks in Baghdad on Tuesday as thousands of Shi'ite Muslim faithful gathered near a sacred shrine, officials said.
Many of the dead drowned after falling of a bridge in a surge of panic triggered by rumours there were suicide bombers in the crowd, in what is by far the deadliest single incident since the United States-led war on Iraq.
"Some 637 deaths have been accounted for and 238 wounded, according to information obtained from five hospitals," a security official said, while a hospital official said 20 people died of poisoning.
The stampede occurred shortly after the Kadhimiya shrine had come under mortar fire, which left at least seven people dead and dozens wounded, as crowds gathered to commemorate the death of a revered figure, Imam Mussa Kazim.
"Dozens of pilgrims fell in the river Tigris as they panicked following rumours of the presence of two suicide bombers in the crowd, while they were crossing Al-Aaimmah bridge near the mosque," the source said.
The US military said helicopters had fired on suspected rebels who carried out the mortar attack on the shrine and had sent ground units to the area to assist in tracking down those responsible. A dozen individuals were detained for questioning.
This would be a disaster under any circumstances. In an country rocked by tension between Shi'ites and Sunnis, it's absolutely catastrophic.
Update: CNN says the death toll is now 841, mostly women and children. My God.
August 30, 2005
Sunken city
Michelle Malkin's blog, which has been full of updates on Hurricane Katrina, has an astonishing aerial photo showing much of New Orleans underwater. It looks like something out of a movie. This evening, the news chanels also showed video taken from a news helicopter, showing the horrifying devastation in Biloxi, Mississippi.
News reports are suggesting that hundreds may have died. InstaPundit has a list of relief agencies accepting donations. The Canadian Red Cross says its American counterpart has not yet asked for donations from Canadians, but the agency is still seeking help for other hurricanes which struck the Caribbean earlier this year.
Update: all the bodies haven't even been recovered yet, but Robert Kennedy, Jr., in the Huffington Self-Parody, is already calling Katrina karmic payback for the Bush Administration's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol. But the the New York Times - really! - strikes a more sober note:
...the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught "is very much natural," said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.
From 1970 to 1994, the Atlantic was relatively quiet, with no more than three major hurricanes in any year and none at all in three of those years. Cooler water in the North Atlantic strengthened wind shear, which tends to tear storms apart before they turn into hurricanes.
In 1995, hurricane patterns reverted to the active mode of the 1950's and 60's. From 1995 to 2003, 32 major hurricanes, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater, stormed across the Atlantic. It was chance, Dr. Gray said, that only three of them struck the United States at full strength.
[...]
Global warming may eventually intensify hurricanes somewhat, though different climate models disagree.
In an article this month in the journal Nature, Kerry A. Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote that global warming might have already had some effect. The total power dissipated by tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and North Pacific increased 70 to 80 percent in the last 30 years, he wrote.
But even that seemingly large jump is not what has been pushing the hurricanes of the last two years, Dr. Emanuel said, adding, "What we see in the Atlantic is mostly the natural swing."
(via Warwick)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
CBS News is starting a blog:
After a controversial run-in with bloggers last year that helped sink "60 Minutes Wednesday," CBS has hired a "nonbudsman" to write a blog that will go behind the scenes at the news division.
Former "Hotline" editor Vaughn Ververs will report his findings on "Public Eye," which debuts next month on http://www.cbsnews.com.
Ververs will be a kind of media reporter, mostly focused on CBS News, reporting and writing about how the news is gathered, produced and placed. In addition to providing Journalism 101, "Public Eye" also could offer extended versions of segments that appeared on CBS, interviews with correspondents and producers and maybe even the daily story meeting for the "CBS Evening News."
Phelps of Arabia
Some startling details in the Wikipedia entry for Fred Phelps:
In 1997, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets". Furthermore he stated that he, if U.S. Government and laws permitted and at the invitation of the Iraqi government, would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The parishioners stood on the streets of Baghdad and in heavily patronized Baghdad establishments holding signs reading:
[vulgar slogans deleted]
Phelps mourned the fall of Hussein's regime and has consistently criticized the invasion of Iraq, citing, "IRAQ=USA=SODOM" and keeping a toll on his webpage celebrating the death of every American soldier killed and pronouncing loyalty to Iraq.
Phelps has also repeatedly championed Fidel Castro for Castro's stance against homosexuality; in 1998 Harper's magazine published a letter Phelps sent to Castro in which he praised Castro and lambasted the US. In 2004, when a pro-homosexual Cuban refugee announced plans to travel to Cuba, Phelps sent another letter to Castro "warning" him of the man's plans and requesting travel visas for a group of WBC congregants so that they could follow the refugee around Havana with signs bearing anti-US and anti-homosexual slogans.
One thing I've always wondered about Phelps is how this disbarred lawyer, who "ministers" only to members of his family and a few hangers-on, can afford to travel all over America (and occasionally Canada) holding vulgar protest demonstrations. And I presume getting to Baghdad in 1997 wasn't cheap, either. Who's funding this guy? (Probably worth a read: the complete text of a book about Phelps, available online.)
No Jews allowed
Jordan's authors and poets can't even bear to be in the same room as someone who might be Jew...er, Israeli. (Compared with our progressive, tolerant artistic communities in the West, the Jordanians' attitude toward Israel and the Jews is...well, pretty much the same, actually.)
Jordan's writers union said Sunday that it was boycotting a weeklong international poetry festival over claims an American citizen allegedly holding an Israeli passport was allowed to participate, a charge vehemently denied by organizers.
Festival chief Munir Meziyed said the US citizen at the center of the controversy - who is believed to be a Native American - had not even traveled to Jordan after pulling out of the Odyssey Dream International Literary Festival, which started Friday.
The boycott by the Jordanian Writers Society, which comprises hard-liners opposed to Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel, underlines how deep anti-Israeli sentiment runs in some segments of Jordanian society.
Mohammad al-Mashayekh, spokesman for the writers society, said the body was "boycotting the festival in view of Israeli participation and the secrecy shrouding the financing of the event."
When asked what information he had proving the American poet identified as Shawki Bani Ami held an Israeli passport, al-Mashayekh said he had none, adding only that "his name is Israeli." (via Roger L. Simon, who suggests that PEN should look into this)
Sadly, this kind of thing is all too common in the Arab world. Earlier this month, an Israeli official was unceremoniously booted off Al-Arabiya television after the Lebanese "expert in international law" with whom he appeared protested at having to share screen time with one of them. (via Harry's Place)
Update: meanwhile, some Palestinian activists in Toronto have filed a formal complaint against a regional police chief for studying anti-terrorism and law-enforcement strategies in Israel. The increasingly essential Angry in the Great White North has some background on the complainants - two of whom have served on the federal Immigration and Refugee Board.
Death in Mississippi
Hurricane Katrina didn't cause as much damage in New Orleans as expected, but dozens of people were killed in Mississippi - many of them in the same apartment complex:
Hurricane Katrina's strike on Mississippi killed at least 54 people Monday, 50 of them in one county, state officials said, and caused what Gov. Haley Barbour called "catastrophic damage" along the coast.
The death toll was expected to rise in other states, as well.
According to Kelly Jakubic with the Harrison County Emergency Operations Center, an estimated 50 people have perished as a result of the storm, with 30 confirmed deaths at the the St. Charles apartment complex, near the beach in Biloxi.
Now the question becomes, why weren't that state's coastal areas evacuated like New Orleans was? And if they were, why did so many people in the same building stick around?
Until the revolution comes, we'll use lawsuits
Che Guevara presumably didn't think much of the concept of intellectual property rights, but that's not stopping his family from suing to prevent unauthorized use of his image:
But as well as being one of the world's most reproduced, the image has become one of its most merchandised. And Guevara's family is launching an effort to stop it. They plan to file lawsuits abroad against companies that they believe are exploiting the image and say lawyers in a number of countries have offered assistance.
"We have a plan to deal with the misuse," Guevara's Cuban widow Aleida March said in an interview.
"We can't attack everyone with lances like Don Quixote, but we can try to maintain the ethics" of Guevara's legacy [no comment - Ed.] said March, who will lead the effort from the Che Guevara Studies Center which is opening in Havana later this year.
[...]
Korda's daughter Diana Diaz has continued to fight political misuse of the picture.
In 2003 she won a lawsuit against a Paris-based press rights group for using the Che photograph in a poster campaign aimed at dissuading French tourists from vacationing in Cuba after the jailing of 29 dissident journalists.
Reporters Without Borders had superimposed Che's face on a picture of a baton-wielding riot policeman. The caption said: "Welcome to Cuba, the world's largest jail for journalists."
(via Let it Bleed)
Goalless no more
Boy, did we need this to come true:
Newcastle United pulled off a sensational transfer coup when they finally managed to persuade Michael Owen, the England forward, to keep his World Cup dreams alive on Tyneside.
In a move which dashed the hopes of former club Liverpool of securing the 25-year-old's return, the Magpies completed their club record swoop - believed to be in the region of £17 million - for the Real Madrid star to hand Graeme Souness, the Newcastle manager, a massive boost.
Owen will undergo a medical on Tyneside this afternoon before sealing his switch to St James' Park in a move which represents a coup for Newcastle on a par with their capture of skipper Alan Shearer back in July 1996.
August 29, 2005
Next: NBC wins exclusive broadcast rights to Hurricane Katrina
This is just...surreal:
CTV News, Global News, City TV and CPAC have filed a joint complaint with the Department of National Defence for giving exclusive coverage to CBC of the state funeral of Sergeant Ernest (Smokey) Smith, the last recipient of the Victoria Cross who died earlier this month.
"Without our knowledge and without tender or consultation with other broadcast news organizations, DND assigned broadcast rights for the funeral to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation," stated the four broadcasters in an Aug. 18 letter addressed to Defence Minister Bill Graham (Toronto Centre, Ont.).
In the letter, obtained by The Hill Times, the four broadcasters also said they were "censored and denied access to a news event of important national interest," and demand to be reimbursed for the costs CBC charged for access to the coverage of the state funeral which took place in Vancouver.
[...]
When they found out that CBC was the sole host broadcaster before the funeral, the three stations got together and proposed that two of eight camera positions in the church be assigned to private broadcasters and in turn they would provide a common pool at no charge, but DND rejected the offer, Mr. Hurst said.
"We said, 'What's going on here?' and their response was, 'This has been organized for two years and it's too late to change anything. What's your problem?'"
Mr. Hurst said CTV paid the CBC $2,500 for news access and decided not to carry a live feed, which would've cost the network $6,500. Mr. Wyatt said Global also paid the $2,500 fee and decided not to carry a live feed. "[The situation] was forcing us into a position where we were held hostage by two tax-supported organizations, one the Department of National Defence and the CBC. We paid the ransom," he said.
The soundtrack of my life
The newest meme: go here to find the Top 100 songs from the year you graduated from high school, list 'em on your site, highlight the ones you like and cross out the ones you hate. You underline your favorite, and ignore the ones to which you're kind of indifferent.
God, what a mediocre musical year 1991 was. I still maintain that Nirvana is one of the most overrated bands of all time, but in reviewing this list, I can kind of understand why we needed Nevermind to come out that fall...
1. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Bryan Adams (I bet Bryan Adams was thinking, "this crap sells like hotcakes every wedding season" when he wrote this one)
2. I Wanna Sex You Up, Color Me Badd
3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory ("Dad, why did you take me to a gay steel mill?")
4. Rush Rush, Paula Abdul (lost to the mists of time: the Rebel Without a Cause-inspired video with Keanu Reeves in the James Dean role, dude)
5. One More Try, Timmy T
6. Unbelievable, EMF
7. More Than Words, Extreme (great example of how a hit song can destroy a band's career - Extreme normally had a much harder sound than "More Than Words", but few rock fans took them seriously after it hit #1)
8. I Like The Way (The Kissing Game), Hi-Five
9. The First Time, Surface
10. Baby, Baby, Amy Grant (I never thought I'd say this, but I wish she'd never abandoned "Contemporary Christian" music)
11. Motownphilly, Boyz II Men
12. Because I Love You (The Postman Song), Stevie B
13. Someday, Mariah Carey
14. High Enough, Damn Yankees
15. From A Distance, Bette Midler (from a distance, this song is still a piece of shit)
16. All The Man That I Need, Whitney Houston
17. Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones
18. I Adore Mi Amor, Color Me Badd
19. Love Will Never Do (Without You), Janet Jackson
20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway (shut up)
21. Justify My Love, Madonna ("EEEEEEEEEEEE!")
22. Emotions, Mariah Carey
23. Joyride, Roxette
24. Romantic, Karyn White
25. I Don't Wanna Cry, Mariah Carey
26. Hold You Tight, Tara Kemp
27. You're In Love, Wilson Phillips
28. Every Heartbeat, Amy Grant
29. Sensitivity, Ralph Tresvant
30. Touch Me (All Night Long), Cathy Dennis
31. I've Been Thinking About You, Londonbeat
32. Do Anything, Natural Selection
33. Losing My Religion, R.E.M. (sorry, but I never liked R.E.M.)
34. Coming Out Of The Dark. Gloria Estefan (don't want to sound cruel, but she really milked her bus accident for all it was worth, didn't she?)
35. Here We Go. C+C Music Factory
36. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, Lenny Kravitz
37. Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Celine Dion (amazingly, there was a time when Celine Dion was listenable, if not great)
38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
39. Wind Of Change, Scorpions (I liked it in 1991, but maybe I was just so happy about the fall of communism that I didn't realize how lousy the song was)
40. P.A.S.S.I.O.N., Rhythm Syndicate (somewhere in Hollywood, there's a guy in a seedy bar, telling everyone who'll listen that he was in a group called "Riddim Shyndicate" that had a top 10 hit in 1991. And everyone else is thinking, "yeah right, rummy")
41. The Promise Of A New Day, Paula Abdul (years before Corey Clark came along, Abdul was involved in another "scandal" because of the video, in which she was artificially slimmed down)
42. I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston (I still like "Don't Treat Me Bad", though)
43. Love Of A Lifetime, Firehouse
44. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave), Roxette
45. This House, Tracie Spencer
46. Hole Hearted, Extreme
47. Power Of Love-Love Power, Luther Vandross
48. Impulsive, Wilson Phillips
49. Love Is A Wonderful Thing, Michael Bolton (a perfectly good name, until that no-talent assclown came along)
50. Rhythm Of My Heart, Rod Stewart
51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm..., C+C Music Factory
52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
53. Tom's Diner, DMA
54. Iesha, Another Bad Creation
55. Something To Talk About, Bonnie Raitt
56. After The Rain, Nelson
57. Play That Funky Music, Vanilla Ice (some songs should just never be remade. Ever)
58. Temptation, Corina
59. Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Bryan Adams
60. I Can't Wait Another Minute, Hi-Five
61. 3 A.M. Eternal, The KLF
62. Time, Love and Tenderness, Michael Bolton (the Gregorian-chant fad had died out by Labour Day, thank God)
63. Saideness Part I, Enigrna
64. Around The Way Girl, LL Cool J
65. I'll Be There, Escape Club
66. Cream, Prince and The N.P.G.
67. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D. and The Boyz
68. Show Me The Way, Styx (the original was bad enough, but the Gulf War remix - anyone else remember that? - was in a class of awfulness all its own)
69. Love Takes Time, Mariah Carey
70. Cry For Help, Rick Astley (I said, shut up)
71. The Way You Do The Things You Do, UB40 (see "Play That Funky Music", above)
72. Here I Am (Come and Take Me), UB40
73. Signs, Tesla (commie crap - but the rest of the album, Five Man Acoustical Jam, was great)
74. Too Many Walls, Cathy Dennis
75. Crazy, Seal
76. I'll Give All My Love To You, Keith Sweat
77. Place In This World, Michael W. Smith
78. Something To Believe In, Poison
79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak
80. Get Here, Oleta Adams
81. Round and Round, Tevin Campbell
82. Silent Lucidity, Queensryche (14 years later, I still have no friggin' idea what Queensryche were talking about)
83. I'm Not In Love, Will To Power (see "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" above)
84. Piece Of My Heart, Tara Kemp
85. Real Real Real, Jesus Jones (holds up way better than "Right Here, Right Now". These guys deserved better.)
87. Just Another Dream, Cathy Dennis
88. Everybody Plays The Fool, Aaron Neville
88. Strike It Up, Black Box (I said, shut up!)
89. Rico Suave, Gerardo
90. Disappear, INXS
91. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
92. All This Time, Sting
93. The One and Only, Chesney Hawkes
94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature
95. Freedom 90, George Michael ("I'm rich and famous! Waaaah!")
96. I Saw Red, Warrent
97. Miles Away, Winger (not one of their best efforts, but I still love Winger, dammit)
98. Do You Want Me, Salt-N-Pepa
99. The Motown Song, Rod Stewart
100. Shiny Happy People, R.E.M.
Update: I gotta admit, 1986 was even worse. Good Lord.
This meme seems to be having an anti-nostalgic effect on people, at least if they graduated after 1972. (Say what you like about the sixties, the music was a hell of a lot better than what came after.)
Finish your coffee, son, it's good for you
To all these people who said all the coffee I drink is bad for me: who's laughing now?
When the Ink Spots sang "I love the java jive and it loves me" in 1940, they could not have known how right they were.
Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.
Of course, too much coffee can make people jittery and even raise cholesterol levels, so food experts stress moderation.
Moderation? BAH!
Category 4
Hurricane Katrina has been downgraded from Category 5, so the damage to New Orleans might be a little less than anticipated. Keep your fingers crossed...
Hurricane Katrina edged slightly to the east early Monday as it bore down on the Gulf Coast, providing some hope that the worst of the storm's 150 mph winds might not directly strike this low-lying city.
Katrina, which weakened slightly overnight to a strong Category 4 storm, turned slightly eastward as it closed in on land, which would put the western eyewall - the weaker side of the strongest winds - over New Orleans.
"It's not as bad as the eastern side. It'll be plenty bad enough," said Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Mayor Ray Nagin said he believed 80 percent of the city's 480,000 residents had heeded an unprecedented mandatory evacuation as Katrina threatened to become the most powerful storm ever to slam the city.
Update: WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, is running a hurricane blog. They're reporting damage to the Superdome roof, but thankfully it appears to be relatively minor.
Update II: yes, I've already come across at least one "progressive" Canadian blogger (no, not that one) saying the eeeeeevil Yanks deserved this because of Iraq or the softwood lumber decision or something. I could get angry about it, but it's probably better for my health to simply accept that some people were just born assholes, and there's really not a darn thing I can do about it.
Deal pushed through
The draft of Iraq's new constitution has been completed, but despite desperate attempts to bring the Sunnis onside, their leaders aren't going to endorse it.
I had hoped a deal satisfactory to all Iraqis could be reached, but it's hard to have much sympathy for the Sunnis when you remember how they treated the Shia and Kurds when they were running things - and when you read stories like this:
In Tikrit, at least 2,000 protesters assembled near the office of the Association of Muslims Scholars - a hardline Sunni clerical group opposed to the U.S. occupation - carrying Iraqi flags and portraits of the former dictator.
``We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam,'' chanted the demonstrators. They carried pictures of Shiite clerics Muqtada Al-Sadir and Jawad Al-Khalisi who have joined the Sunnis in opposing the constitutional draft.
Sheik Yahya Ibrahim Al-Batawi, an organizer of the protest, read a statement denouncing the ``Jewish constitution,'' saying its goal was to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines.
August 28, 2005
Escape from New Orleans
The entire city is being evacuated as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Good luck and Godspeed to any readers and bloggers in the area, and I really hope New Orleans, a city that ranks very high on my must-visit list, comes out relatively unscathed.
Newfoundlanders' favorite sport is bitching about the weather, but it's at times like this that I realize, once again, how lucky we are. (Given the choice between fog and hurricanes, I'll take fog every time.)
Update: this is one of the creepiest weather bulletins you'll ever read.
Update II: InstaPundit, not surprisingly, has a massive roundup of Katrina-related links. LGF links to lefty bloggers who, even less surprisingly, are blaming the hurricane damage (which, um, hasn't happened yet) on President Bush.
Every time a Daily Kos reader gets his tongue stuck to a frosty flagpole, I bet he thinks Karl Rove had something to do with it.
No goal
Four games into the new EPL season, and Newcastle has yet to score a goal. Not one. Not even against newly-promoted West Ham United, who held them to a scoreless draw (and their only point so far this year).
Between this and the Bears' continuing quarterback woes, I have a feeling this is going to a long, miserable winter.
Smearing her way to the top
A tip for aspiring American radio journalists: write the most grotesque, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel lies in your college paper, and you may get hired by NPR. That's what happened to Mariam Sobh, anyway.
"Tom Paine", in his latest Shire Network News podcast, calls Sobh's "anti-Zionist" smears a classic example of projection. He has a point: the degree of similarity between her (fake) Ariel Sharon quotes and the (real) quotes from the Arab media translated by MEMRI is absolutely astonishing.
Beyond disgusting
The "Reverend" Fred Phelps and his family continue to travel all over America picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq - God's punishment, allegedly, for defending a country that tolerates gays and lesbians. There really are no words to adequately describe it, are there?
I always thought Phelps was a disgrace to Christianity - but this religion-blogger says Phelps has actually established a completely different religion, and that his few followers usually refer to themselves as "Tachmonites". (via Relapsed Catholic)
August 27, 2005
Bloggers in the news
Kate McMillan and Colby Cosh are quoted in this Saskatoon StarPhoenix story on blogging. (Are you really getting 600 e-mails a day, Kate?)
The Liberals' real opponent
Susan Delacourt, in the Toronto Star, suggests that the Liberals will run a solidly anti-American campaign in the next federal election, ignoring Stephen Harper except to paint him as a tool of the Yanks. (Yeah, I'm shocked too. Maybe they'll keep an eye on Gerhard Schroeder's campaign for ideas.)
There are many possible reasons that the official Opposition has suddenly become an afterthought in the minds of Liberals. But perhaps it's because the governing party is seeing a bigger foe on the radar screen these days: the United States.
If there was any running theme to the Liberals' big summer gatherings in the West, it revolved around what seems to be a simmering antipathy to the U.S. Are Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals becoming anti-American?
Of course, much of the current invective stems from the incendiary U.S. decision this month to flout the NAFTA panel ruling in favour of Canada in the ongoing softwood lumber dispute. This has Liberals' blood boiling and there was no mistaking the anger radiating from all quarters and all levels in the government.
By yesterday, in fact, in reaction to provocative comments on the issue by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, Liberal cabinet ministers were using words such as "bully" and "hypocrite" to talk about Canada's neighbour to the south.
But it's also true that the undercurrent of antipathy toward Americans appears to be rippling beyond trade and bubbling under other issues, too.
Liberal MPs who were seized with this summer's gun violence in Toronto, for instance, were murmuring darkly about the U.S. gun culture, not to mention its guns, finding its way into the peaceable Canadian kingdom.
Even the very domestic concern of the CBC labour dispute, which has thrown 5,500 journalists and technicians off the job, provoked a jab or two at the Americans. Heritage Minister Liza Frulla and Ottawa MP Marlene Catterall were talking about the need to protect the public broadcaster's future as a way to ensure that this country didn't end up with the broadcasting culture we see in the U.S.
[...]
The "left" streak shows up, cynics say, around election time, when Liberals pull out the old tactic of running from the left and governing from the right. Thanks to the precarious state of this minority government and Martin's vow to hold an election in the coming year, the Liberals are in a perpetual state of election readiness. Hence, it could be argued that, for political reasons, the anti-American streak is being allowed to peek out a little more from government than it normally would.
At their election-preparation session at caucus this week, campaign chief David Herle told Liberal MPs that hopes of a majority rested partly on drawing away 5 to 6 per cent of the NDP vote. New Democrat voters, notoriously anti-American and currently highly opposed to George Bush's administration, may need a little reassurance from these Liberals that they share those views to a degree.
So what that means is that no one should be surprised to see Martin's Liberal party flexing a little anti-American muscle in the weeks and months ahead. They've done it on health care, they'll do it on guns and gay rights and trade — anything to tap into the vein of Canadianism that identifies this country by how not-American it is.
Oh, and that guy the Liberals seem to have forgotten? A Conservative politician who goes by the name of Harper? Watch for Martin and his Liberals to suddenly remember his name in this political context, as a politician who'd be far too cosy with the U.S. and its values — all those things that have Martin's Liberals suddenly talking as if public enemy number one at the moment is the United States.
Unfortunately, unless Stephen Harper takes time from the BBQ circuit to do something about this, it's probably going to work. Coming out strongly against the Bush Administration's indefensible decision on softwood lumber - a slap in the face to every Canadian who believes in free trade, including most Conservatives - would be a good start.
Sailor White, R,I.P.
Newoundland's best-known professional wrestler has passed away at age 56.
White was a former WWF (now WWE) tag-team champion, but left the organization after a major falling out with Vince McMahon - just before wrestling became huge in the early 1980s. Returning to St. John's, White set up a local pro-wrestling circuit and even made a few stabs at provincial and federal politics, once running for the Green Party and, on another occasion, for the infamous "Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party". But years of hard living and physical punishment took a staggering toll, and White had been quite ill for the past few years.
White was a family friend of my buddy Neal, but I never got the chance to meet him. Too bad, because I'll bet the man had some incredible stories to tell.
August 26, 2005
Simply Unsuitable
While I was away earlier this month, a video came to light showing Michaelle Jean and her husband cavorting with former - and unrepentant - FLQ terrorists. (I haven't been able to find a working link to the video online, but Calgary Grit summarizes its most damning aspects.) Being a former Quebec separatist shouldn't, all by itself, disqualify you from being Governor-General. But when Jean won't say how she voted in the 1995 sovereignty referendum, and when her "loyalty" statement contains little more than weasel words about never belonging to "a political party or the separatist movement", well, what are we supposed to conclude?
Kate McMillan reprints an e-mail, sent to Winnipeg radio host Charles Adler, from someone who experienced FLQ violence firsthand:
I visited the site and watched the film clip. To say that I'm offended is to understate the case. The people she is cavorting, laughing and toasting with are some of the same people who tried to kill me.
During the FLQ crisis I was stationed at Canadian Forces HQ in Ottawa. The bomb they placed outside of my office window was meant to kill those in the room and I suppose make a statement.
They succeeded only too well The lady they killed was not only a co-worker, but also a friend.
After I picked myself up off the floor some thirty feet from where I was standing I saw my friend laying on the floor. I remember kneeling in a pool of her blood trying desperately to staunch the flow. Her eyes seemed to be pleading for me to help her.
This tiny middle aged French Canadian single mother of two who had been so happy. She had been talking for several days about her up coming vacation. The first in twenty years. Now she lay struggling to breath through her torn throat. Desperately I tried to staunch the flow of blood. I watched as the light in her eyes slowly dimmed and then disappeared.
Here was a grown man and soldier kneeling in the welter of her blood crying like a baby as I cradled her in my arms.
My next conscious memory was lying on an operating table as a young doctor probed my back and side for glass. He continuously apologized for the pain, but explained that he couldn't anaesthetize me because I had to be able to tell him when he pressed on a shard of glass. It took 43 stitched to close my wounds. I still occasionally have pieces of glass surface.
Am I offended? You bet I am offended. This appointment is an insult to me and to Pierre La Porte and most importantly to Jean D'Arc St Germaine.
Paul Martin has insulted all of Canada including the people of Quebec.
Michaelle Jean is not getting a mere patronage appointment, a Senate seat or even a cabinet position. She's being appointed the Queen's representative in Canada. Surely to God, Paul Martin could have found a less polarizing figure than this?
Blog News
Melanie Phillips is back after a month-long hiatus.
Pejmanesque has been abandoned - but don't fret, because Pejman has launched a new group blog, A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days.
Same old Jane
33 years after her propaganda trip to Vietnam, Jane Fonda will once again share a platform with a Marxist, totalitarian enemy of America. (And once again, we see the standard media whitewash of Galloway, who was allegedly expelled from the Labour Party "making remarks opposing the Iraq invasion in 2003." Plenty of Labour MPs came out strongly against the war, but Galloway openly called for the defeat of British soldiers.)
In the event that any Galloway fans are reading this blog, I'll say it again: you cannot say you "support the troops" and also support a man who openly roots for the people trying to kill them, nor can you call yourself a "peace activist" and also support a man who calls for the violent destruction of Israel. You just can't.
No deal
The latest deadline for Iraq's new constitution has passed, with the Speaker of Parliament desperately trying to keep the Shi'ites and Kurds from pushing it through over the objections of the Sunnis:
The credibility of Iraq's political process was in danger last night as parliament again failed to vote on a draft constitution which a Sunni politician said was "fit only for the bin".
The government had earlier announced plans to bypass parliament in an attempt to push through the document.
But as the final hours ran out before the deadline for approving the constitution, Hajim al-Hassani, the speaker of the parliament, appeared to overrule the country's leaders by insisting that negotiations would continue today, meaning that the deadline would be missed for the third time.
The impression of growing crisis in Iraq was reinforced when a new front erupted in the violent rebellion, with Shia Muslims fighting each other with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
While Western observers are primarily concerned with the role of Islam in the draft constitution, the key sticking points for Iraqis seem to be whether Iraq will become a federal state (which, given its sectarian divisions, would seem logical) and what happens to the country's oil revenues.
I'm trying to remain optimistic about this grand experiment, but it's looking more and more like Iraqis are going to squander this remarkable opportunity to create an Arab democracy. (Unfortunately, much of the blame must be laid at the feet of the Bush Administration, for failing to commit enough troops to combat the devastating extremist violence.) The most depressing aspect of all this is that many people will conclude that an ethnically divided society like Iraq can only be held together by a violent, totalitarian dictator like Saddam. And if that's the case, perhaps Iraq shouldn't be a country in its present form at all. (At the very least, the Kurds, who have enjoyed semi-autonomy since 1991, deserve their own state.)
If Iraq descends into total civil war, and if the Americans and British are forced into a humiliating withdrawl, I suppose the gloating among anti-war pundits and bloggers will be loud and proud. So be it. But while I can understand why leftists would be thrilled to see their ideological opponents proven wrong, I cannot even begin to understand why they would be happy to see Iraq descend into chaos and theocracy, unless their goal is to see Bush and the right humiliated at all costs. Of course, for many of them, that is their only goal.
Update: good point from Gerard Baker in The Times:
...weren’t we better off with a dictatorship, that, for all its faults, at least walled in the chaos? The answer is still “no”.
Not just because the case for invading Iraq was based on the former regime’s grotesque defiance of international law — demonstrated repeatedly from the invasion of Iran up to UN Security Council resolution 1441. Nor is it that the moral imperative for powerful, free states to intervene on behalf of oppressed peoples is compelling.
The reason is that the apparent stability that Saddam provided for us was a false stability. You can’t treat a people as he did for 30 years and not create the conditions for explosive violence with long-term implications for your own people and way beyond your own borders. Indeed what we are seeing now is not what would have happened in the absence of Saddam, but the consequences of what Saddam did to his own people for all that time. You cannot build an international order by embracing tyranny for half the world — we tried that in Iran and Saudi Arabia and Indonesia for decades. We didn’t get stability; we got violence, much of it directed at us.
August 25, 2005
Oil ain't over
The price of a barrel of oil hit $68 today, and analysts say it will almost certainly go beyond $70. But The Prize author Daniel Yergin says we're not even close to running out of the black stuff yet, and that the next decade should actually see a serious boom in oil production. (Presumably, that means the price should come down, too.)
Prices around $60 a barrel, driven by high demand growth, are fueling the fear of imminent shortage — that the world is going to begin running out of oil in five or 10 years. This shortage, it is argued, will be amplified by the substantial and growing demand from two giants: China and India.
Yet this fear is not borne out by the fundamentals of supply. Our new, field-by-field analysis of production capacity, led by my colleagues Peter Jackson and Robert Esser, is quite at odds with the current view and leads to a strikingly different conclusion: There will be a large, unprecedented buildup of oil supply in the next few years. Between 2004 and 2010, capacity to produce oil (not actual production) could grow by 16 million barrels a day — from 85 million barrels per day to 101 million barrels a day — a 20 percent increase. Such growth over the next few years would relieve the current pressure on supply and demand.
Where will this growth come from? It is pretty evenly divided between non-OPEC and OPEC. The largest non-OPEC growth is projected for Canada, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Angola and Russia. In the OPEC countries, significant growth is expected to occur in Saudi Arabia [uh oh - Ed.], Nigeria, Algeria and Libya, among others. Our estimate for growth in Iraq is quite modest — only 1 million barrels a day — reflecting the high degree of uncertainty there. In the forecast, the United States remains almost level, with development in the deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico compensating for declines elsewhere.
While questions can be raised about specific countries, this forecast is not speculative. It is based on what is already unfolding. The oil industry is governed by a “law of long lead times.” Much of the new capacity that will become available between now and 2010 is under development. Many of the projects that embody this new capacity were approved in the 2001-03 period, based on price expectations much lower than current prices.
[...]
The growing supply of energy should not lead us to underestimate the longer-term challenge of providing energy for a growing world economy. At this point, even with greater efficiency, it looks as though the world could be using 50 percent more oil 25 years from now. That is a very big challenge. But at least for the next several years, the growing production capacity will take the air out of the fear of imminent shortage. And that in turn will provide us the breathing space to address the investment needs and the full panoply of technologies and approaches — from development to conservation — that will be required to fuel a growing world economy, ensure energy security and meet the needs of what is becoming the global middle class.
On a related note, a memo to Andrew Sullivan: high gas prices will get people out of their massive SUVs. Self-righteous "shaming" will not.
You're making it very hard for me to support legalizing it, Marc
This is more effective than any anti-drug ad I've ever seen.
Sure they support the troops
CNSNews.com is an unabashedly conservative, Republican news site owned by Brent Bozell's Media Research Center, so this story should probably be taken with a grain of salt. That's the only thing keeping me from flying into a vicious rage at the sheer gall of these people:
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton."
The anti-war demonstrators, who obtain their protest permits from the Washington, D.C., police department, position themselves directly in front of the main entrance to the Army Medical Center, which is located in northwest D.C., about five miles from the White House.
[...]
Kevin Pannell, who was recently treated at Walter Reed and had both legs amputated after an ambush grenade attack near Baghdad in 2004, considers the presence of the anti-war protesters in front of the hospital "distasteful."
When he was a patient at the hospital, Pannell said he initially tried to ignore the anti-war activists camped out in front of Walter Reed, until witnessing something that enraged him.
"We went by there one day and I drove by and [the anti-war protesters] had a bunch of flag-draped coffins laid out on the sidewalk. That, I thought, was probably the most distasteful thing I had ever seen. Ever," Pannell, a member of the Army's First Cavalry Division, told Cybercast News Service.
"You know that 95 percent of the guys in the hospital bed lost guys whenever they got hurt and survivors' guilt is the worst thing you can deal with," Pannell said, adding that other veterans recovering from wounds at Walter Reed share his resentment for the anti-war protesters.
Mind-boggling.
Who cares about the Kurds?
The Iranian government has come down hard on its Kurdish population, and Michael Petrou, in Maclean's, notes that the world could hardly care less:
Iran, like most dictatorships, assigns a government "minder" to shadow foreign correspondents in the country and to control whom the journalist talks to. Most correspondents don't like to mention this in their dispatches. It ruins their allure as rugged and independent truth-seekers.
Journalists who rub a dictatorial government the wrong way may find their visas revoked and their employer's bureau shut down. In the end, it's easiest just to do what you're told. And if you're told not to cover the deadly violence in Kurdistan, well, maybe there's a press conference about Iran's nuclear energy program you can report on instead.
I wonder if reporters for the CBC, which made a big show out of refusing to let its journalists be "embedded" with American troops in Iraq, have ever had any qualms about this practice? Have they ever even acknowledged it?
The bigger problem is an uglier one. Some causes, and some people, are fashionable to Western journalists and to the public at large, and some are not. Imagine for a moment that 20 unarmed Palestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers in the last month, with hundreds more injured and scores arrested. Is it even conceivable that this would not be front-page news? Already, photographers working in the Middle East have to work hard to avoid getting other photographers in their photos of stone-throwing Palestinian children. The only photos of the unrest in Iran come from local residents.
And what of the so-called "peace" protesters? Unarmed civilians are being shot down by government troops in helicopters. Where are Bianca Jagger and the rest of the celebrity activists? Where are the marching throngs with their "Free Iran!" and "Free Kurdistan!" banners? Are Kurdish lives somehow less valuable than Palestinian and Iraqi ones? Almost all Kurds are also Muslims. Where is the outrage? Or are the deaths of innocent Muslims only enraging when they are killed by Americans or Israelis?
If America, an American ally, or Jews aren't involved, it isn't really a scandal, then, is it?
(via Let it Bleed)
You know you're obsessed with The Simpsons when...
I was in court this morning when the judge mentioned a lawyer named "Molloy", and the clerk said she wasn't sure who he was. I immediately thought, "he's the cat burglar!"
(Which would explain the world's largest cubic zirconia in his office...)
For the first time ever, a heavy metal concert became a scene of violence
I can't vouch for the accuracy of this firsthand account of the Ozzfest show in Los Angeles, in which Iron Maiden's set was sabotaged in retaliation for their comments about Ozzy using a teleprompter in concert, but it's still pretty darned entertaining.
(via Colby Cosh)
Aren't the "Minutemen" supposed to keep people like this out?
The best argument yet for sealing the American border.
August 24, 2005
World domination scheme continues
Google has released Talk, its instant-messenger program.
(By the way, if anyone wants a gmail account, let me know. I've got plenty of invites.)
Yeah, the attacks were bad and all, but what about my problems?
Look, a lot of innocent Muslims have had it rough these past few years, so I can't blame them for trying to combat stereotypes about their faith and terrorism. But might I suggest that this is not going to help matters?
Islamic youth organisations that were not part of Prime Minister John Howard's summit yesterday say they have been working against extremism behind the scenes.
They have chosen a date for a planned day of action - September 11.
Who do they think they are? The CBC?
"Yee-haw"
If you're not listening to the IMAO Podcast every week, you'd better be dead or in jail. And if you're in jail, break out.
More good podcast news: "Tom Paine" has revived "Blog News", hands down the best part of the Silent Running podcast.