I am really hung-over.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/2005-06-30/ex2.html
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
God I love these people.
From Hostage-Taker to President
The newly “elected” president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was a key figure in the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran; here’s a photograph of Ahmadinejad holding the arm of a blindfolded American hostage: AP Photo shows Iran’s new President as 1979 US hostage-taker.
The newly “elected” president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was a key figure in the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran; here’s a photograph of Ahmadinejad holding the arm of a blindfolded American hostage: AP Photo shows Iran’s new President as 1979 US hostage-taker.
The Coolest Thing I Have Ever Heard-
The holy warriors messed with the wrong hostage this time: Ex-hostage hires bounty hunters.
A HOSTAGE held alongside Australian Douglas Wood in Iraq has hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one.
Swede Ulf Hjertstrom, who was held for several weeks with Mr Wood in Baghdad, was released by his kidnappers on May 30.
Mr Hjertstrom has since claimed he shared information with US and Iraqi troops about Mr Wood which led to the release of the 63-year-old Australian engineers two weeks ago, after 47 days in captivity.
Now, he wants to find those responsible.
“I have now put some people to work to find these bastards,” he told the Ten Network today. “I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one.”
A HOSTAGE held alongside Australian Douglas Wood in Iraq has hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one.
Swede Ulf Hjertstrom, who was held for several weeks with Mr Wood in Baghdad, was released by his kidnappers on May 30.
Mr Hjertstrom has since claimed he shared information with US and Iraqi troops about Mr Wood which led to the release of the 63-year-old Australian engineers two weeks ago, after 47 days in captivity.
Now, he wants to find those responsible.
“I have now put some people to work to find these bastards,” he told the Ten Network today. “I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one.”
Social Entrepreneurship
Anybody else see this on PBS? Great show and stories. I thought it was funny how the discussion of capital/labor avoided the disastrous ideas of the left that have had negative effects since Marx et al-
http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/whatis/resources.html
Greater profit, greater good.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/whatis/resources.html
Greater profit, greater good.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Phone Moi...
If you're feeling sad and lonely, there's a service I can render. Call the one who loves you only. I can be so warm and tender. Call me. Don't be afraid to just call me. Baby, it's late, but just phone moi. Call me and I'll be around...
Monday, June 27, 2005
MSM Bias?
I think I’m getting cynical, perish the thought, because this Washington Times account of insanely biased mainstream media reporting just seems like business as usual: Press pounces on Rove’s remarks.
Major news outlets that largely ignored the controversial comments of the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate last week immediately reported on a fiery speech by White House adviser Karl Rove, giving the story front-page prominence and the lead of newscasts. Early yesterday morning, NBC’s “Today” show, the CBS “Morning Show,” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” all featured the Democratic outrage over Mr. Rove’s comments that after September 11 liberals “wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers” while conservatives “prepared for war.” Each network’s nightly newscasts on Thursday also ran stories on Mr. Rove’s speech, delivered Wednesday night.
On June 14, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin compared the military’s interrogation techniques at the prison camp at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to that of the Nazis and other murderous regimes. Yet CBS did not broadcast a single story on the Illinois Democrat’s comments. “Today” and “Good Morning America” and those networks’ nightly news programs didn’t air anything about it until the senator apologized after a week of complaints by Republicans, the Anti-Defamation League and veterans groups. “What the networks did was zero, zero, zero, zero on Durbin, and as soon as Rove shows up, boom,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “To say that one deserves zero coverage and the other huge coverage is just bizarre.”
Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Daily, said he’s “not sure if the network morning shows even qualify as journalism these days,” describing them as “yuk-fests with periodic headline updates tossed into the mix almost as an afterthought.” But he was still puzzled about why CBS, including their evening news program, ignored the Durbin story altogether. “Nothing about Durbin ever, even after the apology,” he said. “I’d love to hear how they justify that.”
Major news outlets that largely ignored the controversial comments of the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate last week immediately reported on a fiery speech by White House adviser Karl Rove, giving the story front-page prominence and the lead of newscasts. Early yesterday morning, NBC’s “Today” show, the CBS “Morning Show,” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” all featured the Democratic outrage over Mr. Rove’s comments that after September 11 liberals “wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers” while conservatives “prepared for war.” Each network’s nightly newscasts on Thursday also ran stories on Mr. Rove’s speech, delivered Wednesday night.
On June 14, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin compared the military’s interrogation techniques at the prison camp at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to that of the Nazis and other murderous regimes. Yet CBS did not broadcast a single story on the Illinois Democrat’s comments. “Today” and “Good Morning America” and those networks’ nightly news programs didn’t air anything about it until the senator apologized after a week of complaints by Republicans, the Anti-Defamation League and veterans groups. “What the networks did was zero, zero, zero, zero on Durbin, and as soon as Rove shows up, boom,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “To say that one deserves zero coverage and the other huge coverage is just bizarre.”
Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Daily, said he’s “not sure if the network morning shows even qualify as journalism these days,” describing them as “yuk-fests with periodic headline updates tossed into the mix almost as an afterthought.” But he was still puzzled about why CBS, including their evening news program, ignored the Durbin story altogether. “Nothing about Durbin ever, even after the apology,” he said. “I’d love to hear how they justify that.”
Iraq Update
An excellent, clearly argued editorial at the Wall Street Journal has the subheadline, “Zarqawi’s bombs hit their target in Washington:” The Iraq Panic.
“It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we’re losing in Iraq.”—Senator Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.), June 27, 2005, U.S. News & World Report.
“And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying and there really is no end in sight.”—Senator Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), June 23, 2005, Armed Services Committee hearing.The polls show the American people are growing pessimistic about Iraq, and no wonder. They are being rallied against the cause by such statesmen as the two above. Six months after they repudiated the insurgency in a historic election, free Iraqis are continuing to make slow but steady political and military gains. Where the terrorists are gaining ground is in Washington, D.C. This is despite tangible, albeit underreported, progress in Iraq. In the political arena, an Iraqi transition government has formed that includes representatives from all ethnic and religious groups. Leading Sunnis who boycotted January’s election are now participating both in the parliament and in drafting a new constitution. The Shiite uprising of a year ago has been defeated. The government now has three deadlines to meet: drafting a constitution by August, a referendum on that constitution in October and elections for a permanent government in December. This political momentum vindicates the decision to hold the January election, despite warnings that it was “going to be ugly” (in Joe Biden’s phrase). Some of those who predicted the worst because the Sunnis refused to participate—Mr. Biden, the Hoover Institution’s Larry Diamond—are the same people who now say again that disaster looms. Clearly the smart strategy was to move ahead with the vote and show the Sunnis they had to participate if they wanted a role in building the new Iraq. So why should we believe these pessimists now? As for security, the daily violence is terrible and dispiriting, but it is not a sign of an expanding insurgency. As U.S. and Iraqi military targets have hardened their defenses, the terrorists have turned to larger bombs delivered by suicidal jihadists aimed at softer targets. This drives up the casualty figures, especially against Iraqi civilians, but it does not win more political converts. Insurgencies that have prevailed in history—Algeria, China, Cuba—have all had a large base of popular support. That more of the bombers seem to be coming from outside Iraq is cause for worry, since it means there will be a continuing supply of suicide bombers. But it also means that the insurgency is becoming an invasion force against Iraq itself, which means it lacks the native roots to sustain it."
“It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we’re losing in Iraq.”—Senator Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.), June 27, 2005, U.S. News & World Report.
“And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying and there really is no end in sight.”—Senator Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), June 23, 2005, Armed Services Committee hearing.The polls show the American people are growing pessimistic about Iraq, and no wonder. They are being rallied against the cause by such statesmen as the two above. Six months after they repudiated the insurgency in a historic election, free Iraqis are continuing to make slow but steady political and military gains. Where the terrorists are gaining ground is in Washington, D.C. This is despite tangible, albeit underreported, progress in Iraq. In the political arena, an Iraqi transition government has formed that includes representatives from all ethnic and religious groups. Leading Sunnis who boycotted January’s election are now participating both in the parliament and in drafting a new constitution. The Shiite uprising of a year ago has been defeated. The government now has three deadlines to meet: drafting a constitution by August, a referendum on that constitution in October and elections for a permanent government in December. This political momentum vindicates the decision to hold the January election, despite warnings that it was “going to be ugly” (in Joe Biden’s phrase). Some of those who predicted the worst because the Sunnis refused to participate—Mr. Biden, the Hoover Institution’s Larry Diamond—are the same people who now say again that disaster looms. Clearly the smart strategy was to move ahead with the vote and show the Sunnis they had to participate if they wanted a role in building the new Iraq. So why should we believe these pessimists now? As for security, the daily violence is terrible and dispiriting, but it is not a sign of an expanding insurgency. As U.S. and Iraqi military targets have hardened their defenses, the terrorists have turned to larger bombs delivered by suicidal jihadists aimed at softer targets. This drives up the casualty figures, especially against Iraqi civilians, but it does not win more political converts. Insurgencies that have prevailed in history—Algeria, China, Cuba—have all had a large base of popular support. That more of the bombers seem to be coming from outside Iraq is cause for worry, since it means there will be a continuing supply of suicide bombers. But it also means that the insurgency is becoming an invasion force against Iraq itself, which means it lacks the native roots to sustain it."
Wizard of Armageddon
Very interesting. Check out the whole story-
"He is supposed to have had the highest I.Q. on record...
[Herman] Kahn began working on the problem not long after Dulles’s speech. In 1959, he spent a semester at the Center for International Studies, at Princeton, and then toured the country delivering lectures on deterrence theory. In 1960, Princeton University Press published a version of the lectures (with much added material) as “On Thermonuclear War.” Kahn was not really a writer, and his book—six hundred and fifty-one pages—is shaggy, overstuffed, almost free-associational, with a colorful use of capitalization and italics, long excurses on the strategic lessons of the First and Second World Wars, and the sorts of proto-PowerPoint charts and tables that Kahn used in his lectures.
“On Thermonuclear War” (Bruce-Briggs suggests that the title, an allusion to Clausewitz’s “On War,” was devised by the publisher) is based on two assertions. The first is that nuclear war is possible; the second is that it is winnable. Most of the book is a consideration, in the light of these assumptions, of possible nuclear-war scenarios. In some, hundreds of millions die, and portions of the planet are uninhabitable for millennia. In others, a few major cities are annihilated and only ten or twenty million people are killed. Just because both outcomes would be bad on a scale unknown in the history of warfare does not mean, Kahn insists, that one is not less bad than the other. “A thermonuclear war is quite likely to be an unprecedented catastrophe for the defender,” as he puts it. “But an ‘unprecedented’ catastrophe can be a far cry from an ‘unlimited’ one.” The opening chapter contains a table titled “Tragic but Distinguishable Postwar States.” It has two columns: one showing the number of dead, from two million up to a hundred and sixty million, the other showing the time required for economic recuperation, from one year up to a hundred years. At the bottom of the table, there is a question: “Will the survivors envy the dead?”
Kahn believed—and this belief is foundational for every argument in his book—that the answer is no. He explains that “despite a widespread belief to the contrary, objective studies indicate that even though the amount of human tragedy would be greatly increased in the postwar world, the increase would not preclude normal and happy lives for the majority of survivors and their descendants.” For many readers, this has seemed pathologically insensitive. But these readers are missing Kahn’s point. His point is that unless Americans really do believe that nuclear war is survivable, and survivable under conditions that, although hardly desirable, are acceptable and manageable, then deterrence has no meaning. You can’t advertise your readiness to initiate a nuclear exchange if you are unwilling to accept the consequences. If the enemy believes that you will not tolerate the deaths of, say, twenty million of your own citizens, then he has called your bluff. It’s the difference between saying, “You get one scratch on that car and I’ll kill you,” and saying, “You get one scratch on that car and you’re grounded for a week.” “Massive retaliation” sounds tough, but unless a President can bring himself to pull the nuclear trigger, it’s just talk."
"He is supposed to have had the highest I.Q. on record...
[Herman] Kahn began working on the problem not long after Dulles’s speech. In 1959, he spent a semester at the Center for International Studies, at Princeton, and then toured the country delivering lectures on deterrence theory. In 1960, Princeton University Press published a version of the lectures (with much added material) as “On Thermonuclear War.” Kahn was not really a writer, and his book—six hundred and fifty-one pages—is shaggy, overstuffed, almost free-associational, with a colorful use of capitalization and italics, long excurses on the strategic lessons of the First and Second World Wars, and the sorts of proto-PowerPoint charts and tables that Kahn used in his lectures.
“On Thermonuclear War” (Bruce-Briggs suggests that the title, an allusion to Clausewitz’s “On War,” was devised by the publisher) is based on two assertions. The first is that nuclear war is possible; the second is that it is winnable. Most of the book is a consideration, in the light of these assumptions, of possible nuclear-war scenarios. In some, hundreds of millions die, and portions of the planet are uninhabitable for millennia. In others, a few major cities are annihilated and only ten or twenty million people are killed. Just because both outcomes would be bad on a scale unknown in the history of warfare does not mean, Kahn insists, that one is not less bad than the other. “A thermonuclear war is quite likely to be an unprecedented catastrophe for the defender,” as he puts it. “But an ‘unprecedented’ catastrophe can be a far cry from an ‘unlimited’ one.” The opening chapter contains a table titled “Tragic but Distinguishable Postwar States.” It has two columns: one showing the number of dead, from two million up to a hundred and sixty million, the other showing the time required for economic recuperation, from one year up to a hundred years. At the bottom of the table, there is a question: “Will the survivors envy the dead?”
Kahn believed—and this belief is foundational for every argument in his book—that the answer is no. He explains that “despite a widespread belief to the contrary, objective studies indicate that even though the amount of human tragedy would be greatly increased in the postwar world, the increase would not preclude normal and happy lives for the majority of survivors and their descendants.” For many readers, this has seemed pathologically insensitive. But these readers are missing Kahn’s point. His point is that unless Americans really do believe that nuclear war is survivable, and survivable under conditions that, although hardly desirable, are acceptable and manageable, then deterrence has no meaning. You can’t advertise your readiness to initiate a nuclear exchange if you are unwilling to accept the consequences. If the enemy believes that you will not tolerate the deaths of, say, twenty million of your own citizens, then he has called your bluff. It’s the difference between saying, “You get one scratch on that car and I’ll kill you,” and saying, “You get one scratch on that car and you’re grounded for a week.” “Massive retaliation” sounds tough, but unless a President can bring himself to pull the nuclear trigger, it’s just talk."
Friday, June 24, 2005
The End of Private Property?!
Neal Boortz on yesterday's distrubing Supreme Court ruling-
"Friday -- June 24, 2005
THE END OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
I cannot remember being more dismayed at a court ruling, and this includes the occasional ruling against me when I was practicing law. What ruling? Just in case you don't already know, the United States Supreme Court yesterday issued a ruling that goes a long way toward destroying private property rights in this country. [full text of ruling]
Background: The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution restricts the government's right of eminent domain. It does not, as I heard so many commentators say yesterday, grant a right of eminent domain, it restricts it. The right of eminent domain was assumed as a basic part of English Common Law. The Fifth Amendment merely said that government could not exercise this right for a public use without paying for it. The exact working is "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
For hundreds of years the term "public use" was interpreted to mean use for something like a school, library, police or fire station, power transmission lines, roads, bridges or some other facility owned and operated by government for the benefit of the general population. As politicians became more and more impressed with their own power they started to expand this definition of public use. The new theory is that increasing the property taxes paid on a parcel of property is a public use. Increasing the number of people who can be employed by a business located on a particular piece of property can also be a public use. This would mean that government would be free to seize private property if it can be handed to a developer who will redevelop the property so as to increase the property taxes paid or the number of people employed. This is the theory that was validated by the Supreme Court yesterday in its ruling approving just such a private property seizure in New London, Connecticut. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said in her dissent, this decision renders virtually all private property vulnerable to government confiscation.
Bottom line: If you own property, and the government wants that property --- you're screwed. You now own your private property only at the pleasure of government; and that means that you own your property, be it your home, your business or a piece of investment real estate only at the pleasure of the local controlling politicians."
"Friday -- June 24, 2005
THE END OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
I cannot remember being more dismayed at a court ruling, and this includes the occasional ruling against me when I was practicing law. What ruling? Just in case you don't already know, the United States Supreme Court yesterday issued a ruling that goes a long way toward destroying private property rights in this country. [full text of ruling]
Background: The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution restricts the government's right of eminent domain. It does not, as I heard so many commentators say yesterday, grant a right of eminent domain, it restricts it. The right of eminent domain was assumed as a basic part of English Common Law. The Fifth Amendment merely said that government could not exercise this right for a public use without paying for it. The exact working is "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
For hundreds of years the term "public use" was interpreted to mean use for something like a school, library, police or fire station, power transmission lines, roads, bridges or some other facility owned and operated by government for the benefit of the general population. As politicians became more and more impressed with their own power they started to expand this definition of public use. The new theory is that increasing the property taxes paid on a parcel of property is a public use. Increasing the number of people who can be employed by a business located on a particular piece of property can also be a public use. This would mean that government would be free to seize private property if it can be handed to a developer who will redevelop the property so as to increase the property taxes paid or the number of people employed. This is the theory that was validated by the Supreme Court yesterday in its ruling approving just such a private property seizure in New London, Connecticut. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said in her dissent, this decision renders virtually all private property vulnerable to government confiscation.
Bottom line: If you own property, and the government wants that property --- you're screwed. You now own your private property only at the pleasure of government; and that means that you own your property, be it your home, your business or a piece of investment real estate only at the pleasure of the local controlling politicians."
Sportfight
Sportfight Sat, July 9 7:30pm Rose Garden Portland, Oregon
Portland's own Olympic silver medalist and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star, Matt Lindland and his partner (5X UFC Champion) Randy Couture bring the Rose Garden's first Sportfight competition on Saturday, July 9 at 7:30p. The Lindland and Couture production will showcase world-class fighters from across the nation including the many of the best from Oregon for a legendary night of one on one combat. After winning the silver medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in Greco Roman Wrestling and a world silver medal in 2001, Lindland teamed up with Couture, who is a three-time UFC and national wrestling champion to begin Sportfight. The duo of fighting specialists has built the sport to a new level, as they bring their successful fierce event to a major venue for the first time on July 9.
Portland's own Olympic silver medalist and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star, Matt Lindland and his partner (5X UFC Champion) Randy Couture bring the Rose Garden's first Sportfight competition on Saturday, July 9 at 7:30p. The Lindland and Couture production will showcase world-class fighters from across the nation including the many of the best from Oregon for a legendary night of one on one combat. After winning the silver medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in Greco Roman Wrestling and a world silver medal in 2001, Lindland teamed up with Couture, who is a three-time UFC and national wrestling champion to begin Sportfight. The duo of fighting specialists has built the sport to a new level, as they bring their successful fierce event to a major venue for the first time on July 9.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Get your ticket Gordy-
Saturday, August 06, 2005 :
Wells Fargo Bend Summer Concerts presents SUMMER CAMP on Saturday, August 6th, 2005, featuring Death Cab for Cutie with Built to Spill, The Decemberists, Pedro the Lion and Viva Voce. Tickets for Summer Camp go on-sale Saturday June 25th at 10 am at the Ticket Mill in the Shops at the Old Mill District and other Ticketmaster outlets, online or via phone. $27.50 for general admission, plus Ticketmaster fees.
We can stay at the Scranch.
Wells Fargo Bend Summer Concerts presents SUMMER CAMP on Saturday, August 6th, 2005, featuring Death Cab for Cutie with Built to Spill, The Decemberists, Pedro the Lion and Viva Voce. Tickets for Summer Camp go on-sale Saturday June 25th at 10 am at the Ticket Mill in the Shops at the Old Mill District and other Ticketmaster outlets, online or via phone. $27.50 for general admission, plus Ticketmaster fees.
We can stay at the Scranch.
6 Million Dollar Man
Bionic Man Moves Artificial Arm With Brain
CHICAGO -- Researchers have developed artificial arms that can be moved as it if they were real limbs, simply by thinking about making them move, according to Local 6 News.
When Jesse Sullivan's brain tells his arm to do something, it's done in seconds.
The world's first bionic man, Jesse Sullivan, 54, accidentally touched live wires while working as a utility lineman in Tennessee. He suffered severe burns, causing him to lose his arms.
SLIDESHOW: Images Of Bionic Man
Now, Sullivan is the first to try out the most sophisticated artificial arms ever designed.
Surgeons attached his arm nerves to healthy muscles in his chest.
"So now when Jess thinks, close hand, the impulse is picked up by a transmitter, and goes to his hand," doctor Todd Kuiken said. "He thinks, closes hand and it does."
Sullivan's hand rotates 360 degrees, according to the report. When Sullivan's brain tells his arm to do something, it's done in seconds and he has feeling in the bionic arm.
"This gives me a lot of hope," Sullivan said. "I was an independent kind of guy. I didn't ask anybody for anything. If I could do it, I did it."
Eventually tiny sensors in the fingertips will allow Sullivan to feel texture and temperature.
Doctors at Chicago's Rehabilitation Center said the breakthrough could change the lives of amputees, patients with spinal cord injuries and stroke victims, according to the report.
By the time it's perfected, the cost of manufacturing the bionic arm is expected to be about $6 million, according to the report.
CHICAGO -- Researchers have developed artificial arms that can be moved as it if they were real limbs, simply by thinking about making them move, according to Local 6 News.
When Jesse Sullivan's brain tells his arm to do something, it's done in seconds.
The world's first bionic man, Jesse Sullivan, 54, accidentally touched live wires while working as a utility lineman in Tennessee. He suffered severe burns, causing him to lose his arms.
SLIDESHOW: Images Of Bionic Man
Now, Sullivan is the first to try out the most sophisticated artificial arms ever designed.
Surgeons attached his arm nerves to healthy muscles in his chest.
"So now when Jess thinks, close hand, the impulse is picked up by a transmitter, and goes to his hand," doctor Todd Kuiken said. "He thinks, closes hand and it does."
Sullivan's hand rotates 360 degrees, according to the report. When Sullivan's brain tells his arm to do something, it's done in seconds and he has feeling in the bionic arm.
"This gives me a lot of hope," Sullivan said. "I was an independent kind of guy. I didn't ask anybody for anything. If I could do it, I did it."
Eventually tiny sensors in the fingertips will allow Sullivan to feel texture and temperature.
Doctors at Chicago's Rehabilitation Center said the breakthrough could change the lives of amputees, patients with spinal cord injuries and stroke victims, according to the report.
By the time it's perfected, the cost of manufacturing the bionic arm is expected to be about $6 million, according to the report.
Princess
http://www.atypical.net/mm/princess/
These two movies were made by Trey Parker & Matt Stone - The South Park Guys. They were commissioned to make these two flash cartoons, and when they submitted them, the company took the contract back and refused to pay them.
These two movies were made by Trey Parker & Matt Stone - The South Park Guys. They were commissioned to make these two flash cartoons, and when they submitted them, the company took the contract back and refused to pay them.
Dirtiest Joke Ever
South Park does the "Aristocrats" joke. (WARNING! Windows Media file, very very not safe for work.) "The Aristocrats" is a long-lived comedians' in-joke--or, rather, an extraordinarily filthy joke that's not really a joke. (Gilbert Gottfried knocked 'em dead with it shortly after 9/11.) Now it's going public (sort of): Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza are making a movie featuring over 100 comedians telling their own versions. The South Park version linked above is "not even in the top 5 for dirtiest." Yikes!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Ouch
Wife sells DJ's Lotus on eBay in revenge for his on-air flirting
By Jonathan Brown
22 June 2005
Tim Shaw has suffered for his art. During his career as a DJ he has forced pepper into his eyes, given his private parts an electric shock and bobbed for apples in his co-presenter's urine. All of it live on air.
But when he started making jokes that he was considering leaving his wife and two children after interviewing the model Jodie Marsh, he went too far. Listening at home to his show on Kerrang 105.2, Hayley Shaw was outraged at her husband's flirting with the model and decided to hit him where it hurt by putting his £25,000 Lotus Esprit Turbo up for sale on eBay. In one of the great acts of marital revenge she offered the black sports car for a price of 50p. "I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next 3-4 hours before my cheating arsehole husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street," read the posting on the internet auction site. Unsurprisingly it did not hang around and the buyer, contacted by a local newspaper, asked to remain anonymous. Kerrang 105.2, which is based in Birmingham, said yesterday that Mr Shaw was taking a few days off from his late-night show, Asylum, to talk things over with his wife. Mrs Shaw was still smarting from a stunt in July last year when her husband told listeners that he fantasised about his wife's sister while he was having sex. When Mrs Shaw, then heavily pregnant, rang up tearfully to berate him, he broadcast their conversation. "When he said he would leave me and the kids for Jodie Marsh, that was it for me. He has two daughters. One of them goes to school. I am sick of him disrespecting this family for the sake of his act," said Mrs Shaw. "Maybe it was childish but I had had a few drinks that night and I just thought I would get him back the best way I could. The car is his pride and joy but the idiot put my name on the log book so I just sold it. I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to get him back," she added.
By Jonathan Brown
22 June 2005
Tim Shaw has suffered for his art. During his career as a DJ he has forced pepper into his eyes, given his private parts an electric shock and bobbed for apples in his co-presenter's urine. All of it live on air.
But when he started making jokes that he was considering leaving his wife and two children after interviewing the model Jodie Marsh, he went too far. Listening at home to his show on Kerrang 105.2, Hayley Shaw was outraged at her husband's flirting with the model and decided to hit him where it hurt by putting his £25,000 Lotus Esprit Turbo up for sale on eBay. In one of the great acts of marital revenge she offered the black sports car for a price of 50p. "I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next 3-4 hours before my cheating arsehole husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street," read the posting on the internet auction site. Unsurprisingly it did not hang around and the buyer, contacted by a local newspaper, asked to remain anonymous. Kerrang 105.2, which is based in Birmingham, said yesterday that Mr Shaw was taking a few days off from his late-night show, Asylum, to talk things over with his wife. Mrs Shaw was still smarting from a stunt in July last year when her husband told listeners that he fantasised about his wife's sister while he was having sex. When Mrs Shaw, then heavily pregnant, rang up tearfully to berate him, he broadcast their conversation. "When he said he would leave me and the kids for Jodie Marsh, that was it for me. He has two daughters. One of them goes to school. I am sick of him disrespecting this family for the sake of his act," said Mrs Shaw. "Maybe it was childish but I had had a few drinks that night and I just thought I would get him back the best way I could. The car is his pride and joy but the idiot put my name on the log book so I just sold it. I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to get him back," she added.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Terrorist Rights
Mark Steyn has the last word on Dick Durbin and the Democratic Party’s lemming-like rush over the cliff: Facing the Music.
"Judging from the way he’s dug himself in, Dick Durbin, the Number Two Democrat in the US Senate, genuinely believes Gitmo is analogous to Belsen, the gulags and the killing fields. But he crossed a line, from anti-Bush to anti-American, and most Americans have no interest in following him down that path. You can’t claim (as Democrats do, incessantly) to “support our troops” and then dump them in the same category as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge. In the hermetically sealed echo chamber between the Dem leadership, the mainstream US media, Hollywood, Ivy League “intellectuals” and European sophisticates, the gulag cracks are utterly unexceptional. But, for a political party that keeps losing elections because it has less and less appeal outside a few coastal enclaves, Durbin’s remarks are devastating. The Democrats flopped in 2002 and 2004 because they were seen as incoherent on national security issues. Explicitly branding themselves as the “terrorists’ rights” party is unlikely to improve their chances for 2006."
"Judging from the way he’s dug himself in, Dick Durbin, the Number Two Democrat in the US Senate, genuinely believes Gitmo is analogous to Belsen, the gulags and the killing fields. But he crossed a line, from anti-Bush to anti-American, and most Americans have no interest in following him down that path. You can’t claim (as Democrats do, incessantly) to “support our troops” and then dump them in the same category as the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge. In the hermetically sealed echo chamber between the Dem leadership, the mainstream US media, Hollywood, Ivy League “intellectuals” and European sophisticates, the gulag cracks are utterly unexceptional. But, for a political party that keeps losing elections because it has less and less appeal outside a few coastal enclaves, Durbin’s remarks are devastating. The Democrats flopped in 2002 and 2004 because they were seen as incoherent on national security issues. Explicitly branding themselves as the “terrorists’ rights” party is unlikely to improve their chances for 2006."
Friday, June 17, 2005
Cheerleaders Disciplined for Feces Pizza
Staying with the Feces theme...
KELLER, Texas - Four Keller High School cheerleaders were sent home early from camp after allegedly putting human feces on a pizza and trying to frame rival cheerleaders for the deed.
Cheerleaders from rival Fossil Ridge High School had sent the pizza to the Keller squad on the last night of a four-day camp at the University of Texas at Arlington. Less than an hour later, some Keller cheerleaders took the pizza to the Fossil Ridge sponsor, claiming that Fossil Ridge cheerleaders had doctored the pizza with feces.
After questioning, four Keller cheerleaders were sent home, cheerleaders and parents told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story in Thursday's editions.
Federal laws bar officials from discussing the girls' discipline, but such an incident would be considered "serious misconduct," district spokesman Jason Meyer told the newspaper. He said punishment could include sending the girls to the district's disciplinary alternative high school and removing them from the team.
The day after the pizza prank, other Keller cheerleaders apologized and read a letter to the Fossil Ridge squad.
Little disappointed that we don't know if anyone ate any of the delicious pie.
KELLER, Texas - Four Keller High School cheerleaders were sent home early from camp after allegedly putting human feces on a pizza and trying to frame rival cheerleaders for the deed.
Cheerleaders from rival Fossil Ridge High School had sent the pizza to the Keller squad on the last night of a four-day camp at the University of Texas at Arlington. Less than an hour later, some Keller cheerleaders took the pizza to the Fossil Ridge sponsor, claiming that Fossil Ridge cheerleaders had doctored the pizza with feces.
After questioning, four Keller cheerleaders were sent home, cheerleaders and parents told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story in Thursday's editions.
Federal laws bar officials from discussing the girls' discipline, but such an incident would be considered "serious misconduct," district spokesman Jason Meyer told the newspaper. He said punishment could include sending the girls to the district's disciplinary alternative high school and removing them from the team.
The day after the pizza prank, other Keller cheerleaders apologized and read a letter to the Fossil Ridge squad.
Little disappointed that we don't know if anyone ate any of the delicious pie.
Democracy in Action
Human Turd Banned From Meetings
News Edition: 05/13/2005
A man dressed up as a giant piece of faeces has been refused entry to a government meeting in Canada.James Skwarok arrived as 'Mr Floatie' to represent POOP, People Opposed to Outfall Pollution, reports Canada.com.But the cross-party meeting in Victoria-Beacon Hill refused him entry.Skwarok said he wanted to protest against the daily dumping of 120 million litres of raw sewage into the Pacific ocean.He said he was "a little bummed out" by the politicians' refusal to meet him and that British Columbia province should look good for the 2010 Olympics if it didn't want to get a "brown medal".
News Edition: 05/13/2005
A man dressed up as a giant piece of faeces has been refused entry to a government meeting in Canada.James Skwarok arrived as 'Mr Floatie' to represent POOP, People Opposed to Outfall Pollution, reports Canada.com.But the cross-party meeting in Victoria-Beacon Hill refused him entry.Skwarok said he wanted to protest against the daily dumping of 120 million litres of raw sewage into the Pacific ocean.He said he was "a little bummed out" by the politicians' refusal to meet him and that British Columbia province should look good for the 2010 Olympics if it didn't want to get a "brown medal".
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The New World
300 private islands shaped like world map, near Dubai
A developer near Dubai is building a supervillain lair straight out of the funnybooks -- a collection of private islands arranged to look like a map of the world, with African game preserves, luxury hotels, McMansions, condos, etc etc etc. Also, a fleet of (heavily armed?) water-borne private coppers patrolling the islands for crooks, and, I'm guessing, hidden missile silos, or possibly a labroatory for breeding a race of superbeings.
The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artifical islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.
A developer near Dubai is building a supervillain lair straight out of the funnybooks -- a collection of private islands arranged to look like a map of the world, with African game preserves, luxury hotels, McMansions, condos, etc etc etc. Also, a fleet of (heavily armed?) water-borne private coppers patrolling the islands for crooks, and, I'm guessing, hidden missile silos, or possibly a labroatory for breeding a race of superbeings.
The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artifical islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.
The UN will save us Sen. Dick
No Need to worry, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (America's not on it)is on the case. The Global Diplomats have assuaged our disappointment by installing Libya, Sudan, Syria and Cuba on the Commission to make sure human rights get a fair shake on Planet Earth.
CUBA
For the crime of reporting the news, Jorge Olivera Castillo spent most of two years in the hellish conditions of Cuba's prisons. The director of a small independent news agency, the Havana Press, Olivera Castillo was one of 29 journalists arrested in a massive government crackdown on dissidents and the independent media in March 2003. He was convicted in a one-day, closed-door proceeding under a law prohibiting acts "aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system." ...we were placed in solitary confinement. We had an hour a day to get some sun. I began having pain in my bones, due to the cell's humidity and the lack of sunlight. I was sick all of one year. The food arrived rotten sometimes, and the water was muddy and brown. I contracted parasites twice. ...Hunger, alienation, the guards' willingness to beat up prisoners who in many cases do not deserve it—the prisoners become so alienated that they turn to self-mutilation. I saw two people make a hot paste by melting plastic shopping bags and then put their hands inside this substance. They lost their hands, which were amputated, and were released on medical parole. Other people stab themselves; swallow wires, small spoons; take fluids that are harmful to their digestive system. To sum it up, it's a world of horror.
SUDAN
The Sudanese Government has a poor human rights record. The Government's security forces reportedly commit extrajudicial killings, rape women, torture, beat and abuse detainees and prisoners and harass and detain persons on the basis of their religion and political affiliation, generally with impunity. The security forces reportedly arrest and detain persons arbitrarily. Those prosecuted cannot be guaranteed a fair trial.
Libya
It is customarily during the process of the arbitrary and unlawful detention to experience searches without courts permission, looting and robbing all the detainees possessions and harassing their wives and daughters. In most cases, the bosses themselves torture the detainees to get information from them or to make them admit doing something, which may lead sometimes to death. They do this as a means of punishment or terrorising the detainees. Also they arrest their parents and torture them to get information from them or to force their wanted relatives to surrender themselves
The types of torture include beating on hands and feet with belts and sticks and electric cables, hanging in twisted and painful positions while beating, using electric shocks, raping and sexual violence as well as threatening them to rape their wives and daughters to force them to admit, not to mention the inhumane treatment that prisoner meets inside the prison like forcing him in many times to drink his urine.
CUBA
For the crime of reporting the news, Jorge Olivera Castillo spent most of two years in the hellish conditions of Cuba's prisons. The director of a small independent news agency, the Havana Press, Olivera Castillo was one of 29 journalists arrested in a massive government crackdown on dissidents and the independent media in March 2003. He was convicted in a one-day, closed-door proceeding under a law prohibiting acts "aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system." ...we were placed in solitary confinement. We had an hour a day to get some sun. I began having pain in my bones, due to the cell's humidity and the lack of sunlight. I was sick all of one year. The food arrived rotten sometimes, and the water was muddy and brown. I contracted parasites twice. ...Hunger, alienation, the guards' willingness to beat up prisoners who in many cases do not deserve it—the prisoners become so alienated that they turn to self-mutilation. I saw two people make a hot paste by melting plastic shopping bags and then put their hands inside this substance. They lost their hands, which were amputated, and were released on medical parole. Other people stab themselves; swallow wires, small spoons; take fluids that are harmful to their digestive system. To sum it up, it's a world of horror.
SUDAN
The Sudanese Government has a poor human rights record. The Government's security forces reportedly commit extrajudicial killings, rape women, torture, beat and abuse detainees and prisoners and harass and detain persons on the basis of their religion and political affiliation, generally with impunity. The security forces reportedly arrest and detain persons arbitrarily. Those prosecuted cannot be guaranteed a fair trial.
Libya
It is customarily during the process of the arbitrary and unlawful detention to experience searches without courts permission, looting and robbing all the detainees possessions and harassing their wives and daughters. In most cases, the bosses themselves torture the detainees to get information from them or to make them admit doing something, which may lead sometimes to death. They do this as a means of punishment or terrorising the detainees. Also they arrest their parents and torture them to get information from them or to force their wanted relatives to surrender themselves
The types of torture include beating on hands and feet with belts and sticks and electric cables, hanging in twisted and painful positions while beating, using electric shocks, raping and sexual violence as well as threatening them to rape their wives and daughters to force them to admit, not to mention the inhumane treatment that prisoner meets inside the prison like forcing him in many times to drink his urine.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
What a Dick (Durbin)
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, took the Senate floor yesterday and likened American servicemen to Nazis -
"When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]--I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor."
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."
We are fighting an enemy that murdered 3,000 innocent people on American soil less than 3 1/2 years ago and would murder millions more if given the chance--and according to Dick Durbin, our soldiers are the Nazis.
"When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]--I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor."
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."
We are fighting an enemy that murdered 3,000 innocent people on American soil less than 3 1/2 years ago and would murder millions more if given the chance--and according to Dick Durbin, our soldiers are the Nazis.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
It eats "Haaaaaaayyyy"
Meanwhile, the Cherwell http://www.cherwell.org/?id=3228 , a student newspaper at Oxford, reports a student there is accused of being coarse--to a horse, of course:
"A student at Balliol College was arrested and detained in custody for a night after he verbally abused a police horse. . . . [Steve] Brown was fined for "causing harassment, harm or distress," after he repeatedly called the officer's horse "gay." . . . Brown inquired, "How do you feel about your horse being gay?" of one of the policemen, stating that his colleague's was clearly not gay. After repeated comments on the sexuality of his horse, and despite warnings from the policeman about his behaviour, Brown's offer of an apology to the horse was rejected and he was handcuffed and taken by the officers to the police station. . . . The [police] spokesman also said that the "homophobic comments" were not only offensive to the policeman and his horse, but any members of the general public in the area."
"A student at Balliol College was arrested and detained in custody for a night after he verbally abused a police horse. . . . [Steve] Brown was fined for "causing harassment, harm or distress," after he repeatedly called the officer's horse "gay." . . . Brown inquired, "How do you feel about your horse being gay?" of one of the policemen, stating that his colleague's was clearly not gay. After repeated comments on the sexuality of his horse, and despite warnings from the policeman about his behaviour, Brown's offer of an apology to the horse was rejected and he was handcuffed and taken by the officers to the police station. . . . The [police] spokesman also said that the "homophobic comments" were not only offensive to the policeman and his horse, but any members of the general public in the area."
Raw deal-
Land of the Lost
"Up to 1,000 teenage boys have been separated from their parents and thrown out of their communities by a polygamous sect to make more young women available for older men, Utah officials claim. Many of these "Lost Boys," some as young as 13, have simply been dumped on the side of the road in Arizona and Utah, by the leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), and told they will never see their families again or go to heaven."
"Up to 1,000 teenage boys have been separated from their parents and thrown out of their communities by a polygamous sect to make more young women available for older men, Utah officials claim. Many of these "Lost Boys," some as young as 13, have simply been dumped on the side of the road in Arizona and Utah, by the leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), and told they will never see their families again or go to heaven."
Stress & Dave Matthews = Lethal Combination
Suspended Florida State quarterback Wyatt Sexton was doused by pepper spray and taken to a hospital by police after he was found lying in the street and identifying himself as God.
An incident report by Tallahassee police officer Zachary Lyne said he was called to a residential neighborhood about reports of a man doing push-ups in the street and jumping on a car.
Lyne said he found Sexton in the middle of the road wearing only a wet pair of shorts. The officer asked Sexton several times to identify himself, and eventually he said he was God.
Sexton later got on his hands and knees, yelled obscenities at the officer and stared at him. He was doused with pepper spray and handcuffed, and identified himself as Sexton.
Police said Sexton "appeared to be under the influence of some unknown narcotic or alcohol." Hospital officials said they didn't have any information on him.
Once at the hospital, Sexton continued to say he was God and that he didn't know why he was in the hospital, Lyne wrote.
Police said Sexton's roommates told them he had been at a Dave Matthews Band concert in Tennessee with them earlier Monday. They said he had been stressed out over trying to win the starting quarterback job.
An incident report by Tallahassee police officer Zachary Lyne said he was called to a residential neighborhood about reports of a man doing push-ups in the street and jumping on a car.
Lyne said he found Sexton in the middle of the road wearing only a wet pair of shorts. The officer asked Sexton several times to identify himself, and eventually he said he was God.
Sexton later got on his hands and knees, yelled obscenities at the officer and stared at him. He was doused with pepper spray and handcuffed, and identified himself as Sexton.
Police said Sexton "appeared to be under the influence of some unknown narcotic or alcohol." Hospital officials said they didn't have any information on him.
Once at the hospital, Sexton continued to say he was God and that he didn't know why he was in the hospital, Lyne wrote.
Police said Sexton's roommates told them he had been at a Dave Matthews Band concert in Tennessee with them earlier Monday. They said he had been stressed out over trying to win the starting quarterback job.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Amnesty/Gitmo Editorial
Once again, Mark Steyn’s aim is true: Quran desecration crock a win for Jihad spin docs.
"Why would an organization in the human rights business want to trivialize the murder of millions in totalitarian death camps by comparing them with a non-death camp that flatters every aspect of the inmates’ culture? If Gitmo’s a gulag, what words are left for the systemic rape being practiced by the butchers of Darfur? Or is it because they’ve so exhausted the extremes of their vocabulary on Guantanamo that the world’s progressives have so little to say about real horrors like Sudan?
No serious allegation of torture at the camp has been substantiated, and in the al-Qaida training manual found in Manchester, England, a couple of years back Rule 18 couldn’t be more explicit: When held captive by the infidel, members must “complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison” and say that “torture was inflicted on them.” A healthy skepticism would thus seem to be advisable. Instead, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times runs around shrieking like a hysterical ninny that Washington needs to shut down Guantanamo right now — not because of anything that actually occurred there — but because of negative “perceptions” of the camp in the overseas press.
And would caving in to those negative perceptions lead to any better press? Nobody got killed in Gitmo, so instead America’s being flayed as the planet’s No. 1 torturer for being insufficiently respectful to the holy book of its prisoners, even though the Americans themselves supplied their prisoners with the holy book, even though Americans who fall into the hands of the other side get their heads hacked off, even though the prisoners’ co-religionists themselves blow up more mosques and Qurans than the Pentagon ever does, even though the preferred holy book of most Americans is banned in the home country of many of the prisoners, where respect for other faiths is summed up in the headline, “Seven Christians Released In Saudi Arabia On Condition They Renounce Private Religious Practice.”
That was in the British Catholic newspaper, the Universe, last week, by the way. Sadly, no U.S. newspaper found room for the story due to pressures of space caused by all the “Al-Qaida Press Secretary Denounces Insufficient Respect For Koran By Rumsfeld” front page splashes. But sure, go ahead, close Gitmo and wait for the rave reviews from the media — right after the complaints that it’s culturally insensitive to rebuild the World Trade Center when it’s the burial site of 10 revered Muslim martyrs."
"Why would an organization in the human rights business want to trivialize the murder of millions in totalitarian death camps by comparing them with a non-death camp that flatters every aspect of the inmates’ culture? If Gitmo’s a gulag, what words are left for the systemic rape being practiced by the butchers of Darfur? Or is it because they’ve so exhausted the extremes of their vocabulary on Guantanamo that the world’s progressives have so little to say about real horrors like Sudan?
No serious allegation of torture at the camp has been substantiated, and in the al-Qaida training manual found in Manchester, England, a couple of years back Rule 18 couldn’t be more explicit: When held captive by the infidel, members must “complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison” and say that “torture was inflicted on them.” A healthy skepticism would thus seem to be advisable. Instead, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times runs around shrieking like a hysterical ninny that Washington needs to shut down Guantanamo right now — not because of anything that actually occurred there — but because of negative “perceptions” of the camp in the overseas press.
And would caving in to those negative perceptions lead to any better press? Nobody got killed in Gitmo, so instead America’s being flayed as the planet’s No. 1 torturer for being insufficiently respectful to the holy book of its prisoners, even though the Americans themselves supplied their prisoners with the holy book, even though Americans who fall into the hands of the other side get their heads hacked off, even though the prisoners’ co-religionists themselves blow up more mosques and Qurans than the Pentagon ever does, even though the preferred holy book of most Americans is banned in the home country of many of the prisoners, where respect for other faiths is summed up in the headline, “Seven Christians Released In Saudi Arabia On Condition They Renounce Private Religious Practice.”
That was in the British Catholic newspaper, the Universe, last week, by the way. Sadly, no U.S. newspaper found room for the story due to pressures of space caused by all the “Al-Qaida Press Secretary Denounces Insufficient Respect For Koran By Rumsfeld” front page splashes. But sure, go ahead, close Gitmo and wait for the rave reviews from the media — right after the complaints that it’s culturally insensitive to rebuild the World Trade Center when it’s the burial site of 10 revered Muslim martyrs."
Four Count Rhythm
"The four-count rhythm, of course, is functional. The one count takes the line, leader, and fly off the water; the two count tosses them seemingly straight into the sky; the three count was my father's way of saying that at the top the leader and fly have to be given a little beat of time to get behind the line as it is starting forward; the four count means put on the power and throw the line into the rod until you reach ten o'clock—then check-cast, let the fly and leader get ahead of the line, and coast to a soft and perfect landing. Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on. "Remember," as my father kept saying, "it is an art that is performed on a four-count rhythm between ten and two o'clock."
My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."
-Norman Mclean
My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."
-Norman Mclean
Friday, June 10, 2005
Such a great quote-
I am an American, Chicago born— Chicago, that somber city— and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.
Saul Bellow -The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
Saul Bellow -The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
Boonler 'The Badass' Boonpan coming to WWE
Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday.
The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said.
"When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I," it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai Monday.
Boonlert said he usually carried a knuckle-duster in his shoulder bag during the morning collection of alms on which Bhuddist monks depend, it said.
Boonlert and the four other monks, all aged between 15 and 28, were each fined 1,000 baht ($25) by police for public brawling and were defrocked by senior monks, Wut Pomraksa, head of Nong Khai police station, told Reuters.
But Boonlert was unrepentant.
"If senators can fight in parliament, why can't monks?" he said.
The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said.
"When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I," it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai Monday.
Boonlert said he usually carried a knuckle-duster in his shoulder bag during the morning collection of alms on which Bhuddist monks depend, it said.
Boonlert and the four other monks, all aged between 15 and 28, were each fined 1,000 baht ($25) by police for public brawling and were defrocked by senior monks, Wut Pomraksa, head of Nong Khai police station, told Reuters.
But Boonlert was unrepentant.
"If senators can fight in parliament, why can't monks?" he said.
Literary Notes for Today
It's the birthday of Saul Bellow, (books by this author) born in Quebec, Canada (1915). He grew up in Chicago. He was often sick as a child, and spent his time reading the great classics of literature. Saul Bellow later said, "I came humbly, hat in hand, to literary America. I didn't ask for much; I had a book or two to publish. I didn't expect to make money at it. I saw myself at the tail end of a great glory. I was very moved by the books I had read in school, and I brought an offering to the altar."
His father wasn't happy that Bellow wanted to be a writer. He said, "You write and then you erase. You call that a profession?" His brothers went into more conventional careers and Bellow once said, "All I started out to do was to show up my brothers."
He wrote a couple of novels that didn't do that well. He went to Paris on a Guggenheim fellowship. He hated Paris. The more he hated Paris, the more he loved America and Chicago. It was there he began writing his first big successful book, The Adventures of Augie March.
It's the anniversary of the establishment of A(lcoholics) A(nonymous), (1935) in Akron, Ohio. It was founded by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson and a surgeon, Bob Smith, who found that the best way to keep from drinking was to spend time with other people who were trying to keep from drinking. Between the two of them, they developed the main traditions of AA: anonymity, confession, and mutual support.
Alcoholics Anonymous grew rapidly in the '40s and '50s, but Bill Wilson refused to appear on the cover of Time, wouldn't accept an honorary degree from Yale, because believed in anonymity, and he stuck with it to the end.
His father wasn't happy that Bellow wanted to be a writer. He said, "You write and then you erase. You call that a profession?" His brothers went into more conventional careers and Bellow once said, "All I started out to do was to show up my brothers."
He wrote a couple of novels that didn't do that well. He went to Paris on a Guggenheim fellowship. He hated Paris. The more he hated Paris, the more he loved America and Chicago. It was there he began writing his first big successful book, The Adventures of Augie March.
It's the anniversary of the establishment of A(lcoholics) A(nonymous), (1935) in Akron, Ohio. It was founded by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson and a surgeon, Bob Smith, who found that the best way to keep from drinking was to spend time with other people who were trying to keep from drinking. Between the two of them, they developed the main traditions of AA: anonymity, confession, and mutual support.
Alcoholics Anonymous grew rapidly in the '40s and '50s, but Bill Wilson refused to appear on the cover of Time, wouldn't accept an honorary degree from Yale, because believed in anonymity, and he stuck with it to the end.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Religion of Peace
US Muslims Desecrate American Flag
Here is a video of a New York-based Muslim group called The Islamic Thinkers Society (an American offshoot of the British Al-Muhajiroun gang), in which they step on and rip apart an American flag (on a street apparently somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens), while chanting “Allahu akbar!”
An article about this appalling spectacle is here: US Muslims desecrate American flag.
Read it, and know thy enemy!
Here is a video of a New York-based Muslim group called The Islamic Thinkers Society (an American offshoot of the British Al-Muhajiroun gang), in which they step on and rip apart an American flag (on a street apparently somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens), while chanting “Allahu akbar!”
An article about this appalling spectacle is here: US Muslims desecrate American flag.
Read it, and know thy enemy!
I just ordered this bad boy.
Check this out- Benchmade Knives is a client of ours so we get a vendor discount. I decided to get the biggest knife they have.
http://www.benchmade.com/products/product_detail.aspx?model=10520
E, check out the HK Models!
http://www.benchmade.com/products/product_detail.aspx?model=10520
E, check out the HK Models!
Free Fishing Weekend
Free Fishing Weekend: June 11 and 12, 2005
Enjoy free fishing and shellfish harvesting all weekend. Take kids to a Learn to Fish Clinic near you or teach a friend, child, co-worker or family member to fish. No license is necessary, but anglers and shellfish harvesters must follow all regulations for species and daily catch limits.
Enjoy free fishing and shellfish harvesting all weekend. Take kids to a Learn to Fish Clinic near you or teach a friend, child, co-worker or family member to fish. No license is necessary, but anglers and shellfish harvesters must follow all regulations for species and daily catch limits.
Germans and City Planning
German city prepares "sex huts" ahead of World Cup
Wed Jun 8, 2005 6:22 PM BST
Printer Friendly Email Article RSS
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German city is rushing to install a series of drive-in wooden "sex garages" in time for next year's Soccer World Cup and an expected boom in the local sex trade, a city official said on Wednesday. Dortmund, one of 12 cities to host World Cup matches, is anxious to keep prostitutes and their clients off the streets by providing them with discreet places to do business. Experts estimate as many as 40,000 prostitutes may travel to Germany to offer their services to fans during the tournament. "The World Cup has put us under added time pressure, as we don't want a situation where prostitutes and their clients disturb residential areas," the official said. Prostitution is legal in Germany in designated areas.
"In Dortmund we have an official red light district on the outskirts, but there is a problem. There is not enough space for everyone to park." Dortmund plans to arrange the Dutch-designed huts, which have been introduced in the city of Cologne, another World Cup venue, in an area with condom machines and snack bar. "Men have to get used to them of course, but a high percentage accept them because they can protect their anonymity," the official said.
"That said there will always be those who want to go behind a bush, under a bridge or into the woods."
Wed Jun 8, 2005 6:22 PM BST
Printer Friendly Email Article RSS
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German city is rushing to install a series of drive-in wooden "sex garages" in time for next year's Soccer World Cup and an expected boom in the local sex trade, a city official said on Wednesday. Dortmund, one of 12 cities to host World Cup matches, is anxious to keep prostitutes and their clients off the streets by providing them with discreet places to do business. Experts estimate as many as 40,000 prostitutes may travel to Germany to offer their services to fans during the tournament. "The World Cup has put us under added time pressure, as we don't want a situation where prostitutes and their clients disturb residential areas," the official said. Prostitution is legal in Germany in designated areas.
"In Dortmund we have an official red light district on the outskirts, but there is a problem. There is not enough space for everyone to park." Dortmund plans to arrange the Dutch-designed huts, which have been introduced in the city of Cologne, another World Cup venue, in an area with condom machines and snack bar. "Men have to get used to them of course, but a high percentage accept them because they can protect their anonymity," the official said.
"That said there will always be those who want to go behind a bush, under a bridge or into the woods."
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Future of War?
Judge wants to question U.S. troops on Iraq deaths
By Daniel Trotta Tue Jun 7,11:55 AM ET
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge wants to question three U.S. soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad. "It would be a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named. The Pentagon found no fault with the soldiers, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three men who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday. Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsiuk died and several other people were injured by a shell fired on the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital on April 8, 2003, in the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein. The Spanish court would only have jurisdiction in the death of the Spanish citizen. The soldiers would be questioned as suspects for murder and for crimes against the international community, which carry sentences of 15 to 20 years in jail and 10 to 15 years respectively. Legal sources say the U.S. Army is unlikely to grant access to the soldiers, and if the case ever got far enough to warrant arrests the soldiers could only be arrested in Spain. The judge is willing to travel to the United States to take their statements, the court official said. "I just cannot imagine how any U.S. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition," the State Department official added.
By Daniel Trotta Tue Jun 7,11:55 AM ET
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge wants to question three U.S. soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad. "It would be a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named. The Pentagon found no fault with the soldiers, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three men who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday. Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsiuk died and several other people were injured by a shell fired on the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital on April 8, 2003, in the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein. The Spanish court would only have jurisdiction in the death of the Spanish citizen. The soldiers would be questioned as suspects for murder and for crimes against the international community, which carry sentences of 15 to 20 years in jail and 10 to 15 years respectively. Legal sources say the U.S. Army is unlikely to grant access to the soldiers, and if the case ever got far enough to warrant arrests the soldiers could only be arrested in Spain. The judge is willing to travel to the United States to take their statements, the court official said. "I just cannot imagine how any U.S. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition," the State Department official added.
Crank Yanker
According to a police report, a busboy in a Delray Beach eatery found Buffett's cell and kept it for a week. After coaxing by Buffett's staff and even wife, Jane Buffett, went awry, it took a visit from Lake Worth cops and a U.S. Secret Service agent to the home of busboy Jason Martin on June 4 for Buffett to get the phone back. Problem is: The fancy Ericsson's memory card with the names, phone numbers and some addresses of dozens of big-deal Buffett buds is missing. It may be time for Democratic giants Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter; country music stars Clint Black, George Strait and Alan Jackson; rap-reggae star Cam'ron; actors George Clooney, Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford; and Microsoft supergeek Bill Gates to change their numbers. Martin says all their info is on the microchip. "We were sitting around smoking weed and strolling down the list on Jimmy's phone, going 'Wow!' " Martin told Page Two. He said he didn't call anyone on the list. But according to the police report, Martin said some of his friends may have crank-called former President Clinton. Martin, 22, said he found the $500 phone at 4 a.m. May 29 outside the Cuban joint Brisa Atlantica. Buffett was spotted going wild on the dance floor earlier that morning. Lake Worth police didn't return calls for comment, and neither did staff for Clinton, Carter, Clooney and Black. Martin, whose criminal record includes a marijuana-related conviction, wasn't arrested.
How I am Going to Spend My Financial Aid Check
This All-American pump gun brings hunters the best of all worlds. Beneath no-nonsense, ready-for-work exterior of the Model 870 Express lies the same quality, precision, and dependability that you'll find in our legendary Model 870 Wingmaster®, but at a much more affordable price. Check out the link!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Making Moonshine!
Equipment Needed:
1 5-gallon bucket with lid 1 stirrin' stick 1 lg. kettle with lid (the one you boil spaghetti noodles in) 1 smallish bowl 1 squatty heavy-duty mug 1 pair oven mitts & tongs Ingredients: 5 lbs sugar 32 oz. ketchup (yep!) 32 oz. orange juice 1 1/2 gallons warm water 1 potato 1 or more bags of ice
An estimate of the amount of money I've spent on alcohol during my adulthood clocks in at around $15,000--and that's a conservative estimate. This contemplation, and possibly my humble rural white background, started me thinking: Hey, why don't I just make my own hooch? And, we're not talking brewing beer--I mean, any hippie can brew up a batch of Dreadlock Stout, right? What I want is what the FBI lovingly calls "moonshine." Whenever you make alcohol of any kind--beer, whiskey, whatever--you have to start with a base product. This slurry of enzymatic activity is commonly referred to as the "mash." Think of it as a rough draft--only with booze. You work on the revision later.
The mash is easy: Combine all of the ingredients except the potato; stir until dissolved. Next, cut the potato in half and plop the halves into the bucket. That's it! You now have mash.
Next, put a lid on your project (in more ways than one--the DEA frowns on moonshine so you may want to keep your experiment a secret). After finding a discreet, cool (but not too cold) home for your mash, secure the lid on your bucket. You should vent the bucket twice daily--for five days--by gently lifting the lid, careful not to disturb the contents.
Next is the extraction. For this segment, I personally devised a one-kettle distilling method that both simplifies the process and reduces the risk of blowing yourself up.
1) Place the kettle on the stove without heating it.
2) Place the heavy-duty mug upside down in the kettle.
3) Pour in the mash until it almost reaches the top of your mug. (The top of your mug should form a little island on which to place the bowl.)
4) Place the bowl (facing upward) on top of the inverted mug.
5) Next place the lid on the kettle upside down and fill the lid with ice.
6) Heat burner under kettle to "Med-High" making sure the burner isn't glowing red. If you're using a gas range, exercise extreme caution here. Remember, alcohol is extremely flammable and will explode if provoked.
7) The heated mash should now start evaporating toward the super-cooled lid. As it condenses there, it will trickle down and drip into your bowl. By the time the ice has melted in your lid, the bowl full of distilled spirits should be ready to empty out.
8) Be careful! You must now remove the lid full of melted ice without dumping the water into your booze bowl. This is where the tongs and oven mitts come in handy. Dump your top lid, retrieve your prize bowl and pour the rapidly evaporating booze into the vessel of your choice. A glass Mason jar is classic.
9) Refill and repeat as necessary.
The result? Smooth and possessing the distinctive flavor of a harder-edged brandy. Ideally, this deceptively clear raw alcohol should be filtered through charcoal or even redistilled to remove any "blindness-causing" or "deadly" impurities. Enjoy!
1 5-gallon bucket with lid 1 stirrin' stick 1 lg. kettle with lid (the one you boil spaghetti noodles in) 1 smallish bowl 1 squatty heavy-duty mug 1 pair oven mitts & tongs Ingredients: 5 lbs sugar 32 oz. ketchup (yep!) 32 oz. orange juice 1 1/2 gallons warm water 1 potato 1 or more bags of ice
An estimate of the amount of money I've spent on alcohol during my adulthood clocks in at around $15,000--and that's a conservative estimate. This contemplation, and possibly my humble rural white background, started me thinking: Hey, why don't I just make my own hooch? And, we're not talking brewing beer--I mean, any hippie can brew up a batch of Dreadlock Stout, right? What I want is what the FBI lovingly calls "moonshine." Whenever you make alcohol of any kind--beer, whiskey, whatever--you have to start with a base product. This slurry of enzymatic activity is commonly referred to as the "mash." Think of it as a rough draft--only with booze. You work on the revision later.
The mash is easy: Combine all of the ingredients except the potato; stir until dissolved. Next, cut the potato in half and plop the halves into the bucket. That's it! You now have mash.
Next, put a lid on your project (in more ways than one--the DEA frowns on moonshine so you may want to keep your experiment a secret). After finding a discreet, cool (but not too cold) home for your mash, secure the lid on your bucket. You should vent the bucket twice daily--for five days--by gently lifting the lid, careful not to disturb the contents.
Next is the extraction. For this segment, I personally devised a one-kettle distilling method that both simplifies the process and reduces the risk of blowing yourself up.
1) Place the kettle on the stove without heating it.
2) Place the heavy-duty mug upside down in the kettle.
3) Pour in the mash until it almost reaches the top of your mug. (The top of your mug should form a little island on which to place the bowl.)
4) Place the bowl (facing upward) on top of the inverted mug.
5) Next place the lid on the kettle upside down and fill the lid with ice.
6) Heat burner under kettle to "Med-High" making sure the burner isn't glowing red. If you're using a gas range, exercise extreme caution here. Remember, alcohol is extremely flammable and will explode if provoked.
7) The heated mash should now start evaporating toward the super-cooled lid. As it condenses there, it will trickle down and drip into your bowl. By the time the ice has melted in your lid, the bowl full of distilled spirits should be ready to empty out.
8) Be careful! You must now remove the lid full of melted ice without dumping the water into your booze bowl. This is where the tongs and oven mitts come in handy. Dump your top lid, retrieve your prize bowl and pour the rapidly evaporating booze into the vessel of your choice. A glass Mason jar is classic.
9) Refill and repeat as necessary.
The result? Smooth and possessing the distinctive flavor of a harder-edged brandy. Ideally, this deceptively clear raw alcohol should be filtered through charcoal or even redistilled to remove any "blindness-causing" or "deadly" impurities. Enjoy!
Gregoire Victory Upheld
A judge in Washington yesterday declined to order a new election in the disputed governor's race. Michelle Malkin has full coverage. Apparently the main thrust of the judges's ruling was that, while there was evidence of 1,678 illegal votes cast--which I think is around ten times Gregoire's margin of victory--there was no evidence as to who got the illegal votes, so the Republicans failed in their burden of proof.
Of course, if that's the standard, election challenges are futile, since I can't see how there would ever be a record of which candidate a particular voter (real or nonexistent) voted for.
Cheep home movies-
NEW YORK (Reuters) - CVS Corp. (CVS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday begun selling a disposable digital camcorder which the No. 2 U.S. drugstore chain hopes would boost its photo lab business and be as popular as the single-use film and digital cameras.
The $29.99 pocket-sized camcorder was developed by Pure Digital Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based start-up company.
Jonathan Kaplan, chief executive of Pure Digital, told Reuters in an interview the camcorder's launch made CVS the nation's first retailer to offer such a camcorder but it would be eventually be distributed widely as other retailers sign up to sell it.
The camcorder weighs under 5 ounces and holds 20 minutes of digital video and sound. It features a 1.4 inch color playback screen and an ability to delete video, and it saves video on a memory chip instead of tapes.
The $29.99 pocket-sized camcorder was developed by Pure Digital Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based start-up company.
Jonathan Kaplan, chief executive of Pure Digital, told Reuters in an interview the camcorder's launch made CVS the nation's first retailer to offer such a camcorder but it would be eventually be distributed widely as other retailers sign up to sell it.
The camcorder weighs under 5 ounces and holds 20 minutes of digital video and sound. It features a 1.4 inch color playback screen and an ability to delete video, and it saves video on a memory chip instead of tapes.
Strategery
Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student
His 4-year average on par with Bush's
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff June 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- "During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.
But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years."
The last egghead to win the White House was Woodrow Wilson, and he was a genuinely accomplished scholar. In 1956, a supporter is said to have told Adlai Stevenson, "You have the support of every thinking person." He replied: "That's not enough. I need a majority."
His 4-year average on par with Bush's
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff June 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- "During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.
But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years."
The last egghead to win the White House was Woodrow Wilson, and he was a genuinely accomplished scholar. In 1956, a supporter is said to have told Adlai Stevenson, "You have the support of every thinking person." He replied: "That's not enough. I need a majority."
Monday, June 06, 2005
First Wave
The Atlantic Monthly November 1960
First Wave at Omaha Beach
When he was promoted to officer rank at eighteen, S. L. A. MARSHALL was the youngest shavetail in the United States Army during World War I. He rejoined the Army in 1942, became a combat historian with the rank of colonel; and the notes he made at the time of the Normandy landing are the source of this heroic reminder.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/196011/omaha
First Wave at Omaha Beach
When he was promoted to officer rank at eighteen, S. L. A. MARSHALL was the youngest shavetail in the United States Army during World War I. He rejoined the Army in 1942, became a combat historian with the rank of colonel; and the notes he made at the time of the Normandy landing are the source of this heroic reminder.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/196011/omaha
11th Card
Card Trick:
Deal out three piles of seven cards each. (Deal them just like dealing hands for a card game.) Have the spectator choose a pile. Hold the pile up, so the cards face the spectator. Have him/her choose a card, without telling you or pointing it out. Place the packet you hold in between the other two packets. Deal out the cards into three piles again. Hold up each pile separately, asking the spectator if his/her card is in the pile. When they say yes, place the pile with the chosen card in between the other two piles again. Repeat this step two more times (for a total of 4 times.) After the last time, deal the cards, one by one, counting out loud. After the 10th card the next card (11th) will be the spectator's card!
Deal out three piles of seven cards each. (Deal them just like dealing hands for a card game.) Have the spectator choose a pile. Hold the pile up, so the cards face the spectator. Have him/her choose a card, without telling you or pointing it out. Place the packet you hold in between the other two packets. Deal out the cards into three piles again. Hold up each pile separately, asking the spectator if his/her card is in the pile. When they say yes, place the pile with the chosen card in between the other two piles again. Repeat this step two more times (for a total of 4 times.) After the last time, deal the cards, one by one, counting out loud. After the 10th card the next card (11th) will be the spectator's card!
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Ornery American
SF writer Orson Scott Card has an interesting article online about modern Islam- here is a good excerpt-
"What the rioters haven't learned is that blowing up with rage accomplishes nothing except to make themselves look like big babies throwing tantrums. It doesn't make anybody in the world respect Islam more -- it makes us respect Islam less. After all, when babies are prone to throwing tantrums, we may tiptoe around the house to avoid waking them up, but we don't give them the car keys. It's not respect you're giving them. You can't take them seriously as equals. You only avoid provoking them. They're a nuisance. I can hear people already complaining that my rhetoric is "excessive" and I have indulged in "name-calling." I have not. What I have indulged in here is correct labeling. Rioters have surrendered to their passions precisely as babies do, instead of controlling their emotions and acting sensibly, the way grownups are expected to. Nobody respects people who riot over such offenses, period. But we're so used to lying about things like that and pretending to take this sort of thing seriously that the truth has become unspeakable in polite company. Yet this is precisely the truth that most needs to be spoken. The fact that Muslims riot over such an offense does not make anybody in the world admire Islam more, or take the words of the Prophet Muhammed more seriously. It just makes us shake our heads and think, Are these people supposed to be ready for self-government?
The fact is that most Muslims in Muslim countries did not riot. Most of them were appalled and frightened when so many of their fellowcitizens went crazy in the streets.
But those aren't the people who shape the image of Islam. It's the rioters who make the news and get the airtime. The rioters and the terrorists. For what is Osama's "movement" if not a tantrum that has been cynically focused and organized in order to get the maximum attention.
Not real damage, mind you. They're big babies, kicking mommy's shins and screaming "I hate you I hate you." We have to stop them. To that extent we take them seriously. But not as equals. And yet that is the thing that hurts them most. The thing they crave. To be treated with respect. Oh, they can say "We don't care if you respect us," but their actions prove that to be utterly false. All they care about is gaining the respect of the world. And yet they behave in ways that guarantee they'll never have it."
"What the rioters haven't learned is that blowing up with rage accomplishes nothing except to make themselves look like big babies throwing tantrums. It doesn't make anybody in the world respect Islam more -- it makes us respect Islam less. After all, when babies are prone to throwing tantrums, we may tiptoe around the house to avoid waking them up, but we don't give them the car keys. It's not respect you're giving them. You can't take them seriously as equals. You only avoid provoking them. They're a nuisance. I can hear people already complaining that my rhetoric is "excessive" and I have indulged in "name-calling." I have not. What I have indulged in here is correct labeling. Rioters have surrendered to their passions precisely as babies do, instead of controlling their emotions and acting sensibly, the way grownups are expected to. Nobody respects people who riot over such offenses, period. But we're so used to lying about things like that and pretending to take this sort of thing seriously that the truth has become unspeakable in polite company. Yet this is precisely the truth that most needs to be spoken. The fact that Muslims riot over such an offense does not make anybody in the world admire Islam more, or take the words of the Prophet Muhammed more seriously. It just makes us shake our heads and think, Are these people supposed to be ready for self-government?
The fact is that most Muslims in Muslim countries did not riot. Most of them were appalled and frightened when so many of their fellowcitizens went crazy in the streets.
But those aren't the people who shape the image of Islam. It's the rioters who make the news and get the airtime. The rioters and the terrorists. For what is Osama's "movement" if not a tantrum that has been cynically focused and organized in order to get the maximum attention.
Not real damage, mind you. They're big babies, kicking mommy's shins and screaming "I hate you I hate you." We have to stop them. To that extent we take them seriously. But not as equals. And yet that is the thing that hurts them most. The thing they crave. To be treated with respect. Oh, they can say "We don't care if you respect us," but their actions prove that to be utterly false. All they care about is gaining the respect of the world. And yet they behave in ways that guarantee they'll never have it."
Doobie Bro!
Once With Doobie Brothers,Now in Counterterrorism,He Has Ear of Pentagon
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALMay 24, 2005; Page A1
Jeff Baxter played psychedelic music with Ultimate Spinach, jazz-rock with Steely Dan and funky pop with the Doobie Brothers. But in the last few years he has made an even bigger transition: Mr. Baxter, who goes by the nickname "Skunk," has become one of the national-security world's well-known counterterrorism experts.
A wiry man who wears a beret to many of his meetings, Mr. Baxter, who is now 56 years old, has gone from a rock career that brought him eight platinum records to a spot in the small constellation of consultants paid to help both policy makers and defense contractors better understand the way terrorists think and plan attacks.
The guitarist-turned-defense-consultant does regular work for the Department of Defense and the nation's intelligence community, chairs a congressional advisory board on missile defense, and has lucrative consulting contracts with companies like Science Applications International Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. He says he is in increasing demand for his unconventional views of counterterrorism.
"We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles," says Mr. Baxter, who sports a ponytail and handlebar mustache. "My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at."
One of Mr. Baxter's clients -- General Atomics' vice president Mike Campbell -- likens him to a "gluon," a term drawn from quantum physics that refers to the particles binding together the basic building blocks of all matter. Contractors and policymakers say Mr. Baxter can see past bureaucratic boundaries and integrate information drawn from a variety of sources, though some who have worked with him say he can also be a self-promoter.
Mr. Baxter can speak the acronym-heavy vernacular of the professional defense consultant, but he would never be mistaken for one of the hardened ex-military men who fill the ranks of the industry. He rarely wears ties, is fond of self-deprecating jokes, makes frequent popular-culture references, and peppers his speech with casual profanity. He also often appears on VH1 music retrospectives.
Still, he's careful not to discuss current or past projects that might be classified and keeps to a punishing schedule. One morning recently, a black government-issued sport-utility vehicle picked him up outside a Washington café as soon as he had finished breakfast and whisked him to a Pentagon agency for nearly 12 hours of meetings. That evening, he traveled to Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for several days of briefings and meetings. He flew 230,000 miles last year, and makes a point of dissolving brightly colored packets of vitamin supplements into his drinks to stave off illness.
Mr. Baxter, who joined his first band when he was 11, began studying journalism at Boston University, but dropped out after a year in 1969 to begin working with Ultimate Spinach, a short-lived Boston psychedelic rock band. He moved to California a short time later and became one of the six original members of the avant-garde rock group Steely Dan. He quit the band in 1974 and joined the Doobie Brothers, helping to remake its sound into a commercially appealing mix of funk and jazzy pop. Mr. Baxter left the group in 1979 after a long tour in support of its most popular album, "Minute by Minute."
His defense work began in the 1980s, when it occurred to him that much of the hardware and software being developed for military use, like data-compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices, could also be used for recording music. Mr. Baxter's next-door neighbor, a retired engineer who worked on the Pentagon's Sidewinder missile program, bought him a subscription to an aviation magazine, and he was soon reading a range of military-related publications.
Mr. Baxter began wondering whether existing military systems could be adapted to meet future threats they weren't designed to address, a heretical concept for most defense thinkers. In his spare time, he wrote a five-page paper on a primitive Tandy computer that proposed converting the military's Aegis program, a ship-based antiplane system, into a rudimentary missile-defense system.
On a whim, he gave the paper to a friend from California, Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. To Mr. Baxter's surprise, the congressman took it seriously, and the idea proved to be prescient: Aegis missile-defense systems have done well in tests, and the Navy says it will equip at least one ship with the antimissile system by the end of the year.
"Skunk really blew my mind with that report," Mr. Rohrabacher says. "He was talking over my head half the time, and the fact that he was a rock star who had basically learned it all on his own was mind-boggling."
Mr. Rohrabacher passed the report to another influential Republican lawmaker, Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. Mr. Weldon says he immediately realized that Mr. Baxter could be a useful public advocate for missile defense because his rock-star pedigree would attract attention to the issue.
"Most of Hollywood is from the liberal, 'let's hug the tree and be warm and fuzzy and sing Kumbaya,' bent," Mr. Weldon says. "You put Jeff Baxter up against them, and he cleans their clocks because he actually knows the facts and details." He has appeared in public debates and given numerous press and TV interviews on CNN and Fox News advocating missile defense. He also served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of conservative organizations devoted to the issue.
Mr. Baxter, backed by several lawmakers, got a series of classified security clearances. During one background interview, Mr. Baxter says, he was asked whether he could be bribed with money or drugs. He recalls telling the investigators not to worry because he had already "been there, done that, and given away the T-shirt" during his rock career.
His old friend Mr. Weldon chaired the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, and in 1995 nominated Mr. Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a congressional panel.
The missile-defense post led to consulting contracts with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon also began regularly asking Mr. Baxter to lead enemy forces in war games, where he quickly earned a reputation for using creative, terrorist-style tactics. "I'm told I make a very good bad guy," he says.
Pentagon officials say they appreciate Mr. Baxter's creativity. "He's imparted some new ways of thinking about the ballistic-missile threat and the technology that might be necessary to defeat it," says MDA spokesman Rick Lehner. "It's been a good interchange of information."
In the late 1990s, Mr. Baxter led a fictional future alliance of Iran and Iraq that was trying to drive the U.S. Navy from the key oil-shipping routes through the Persian Gulf. Facing a massive military imbalance, Mr. Baxter had covert operatives introduce oil-eating bacteria into the Saudi Arabian oil supply that rendered its petroleum shipments worthless. The Navy was forced to pull out after oil-dependent American allies threatened to pull their financial assets out of the U.S.
These days, Mr. Baxter finds himself with a growing pile of job offers from Pentagon officials and defense contractors hoping he can help them anticipate terrorist tactics and strategies.
Mr. Baxter is working on a solo album and continues to do lucrative studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith, but he spends more and more time doing defense work. He says he earns a "good, comfortable, six-figure income," and in 2004 made more money from defense consulting than from music.
Mr. Baxter's friends in Congress and the Pentagon say they take him seriously as a defense thinker but concede that his celebrity past carries its own advantages. During a trip to Manila with Mr. Baxter in 1998, Mr. Rohrabacher was having a hard time winning permission to fly over a number of contested islands until he brought Mr. Baxter to a meeting with the then-Philippine president, Joseph Estrada. Mr. Estrada immediately put one of his government's few C-130 transport planes at the two men's disposal. "He's apparently just a huge Doobie Brothers fan," Mr. Rohrabacher says.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALMay 24, 2005; Page A1
Jeff Baxter played psychedelic music with Ultimate Spinach, jazz-rock with Steely Dan and funky pop with the Doobie Brothers. But in the last few years he has made an even bigger transition: Mr. Baxter, who goes by the nickname "Skunk," has become one of the national-security world's well-known counterterrorism experts.
A wiry man who wears a beret to many of his meetings, Mr. Baxter, who is now 56 years old, has gone from a rock career that brought him eight platinum records to a spot in the small constellation of consultants paid to help both policy makers and defense contractors better understand the way terrorists think and plan attacks.
The guitarist-turned-defense-consultant does regular work for the Department of Defense and the nation's intelligence community, chairs a congressional advisory board on missile defense, and has lucrative consulting contracts with companies like Science Applications International Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. He says he is in increasing demand for his unconventional views of counterterrorism.
"We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles," says Mr. Baxter, who sports a ponytail and handlebar mustache. "My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at."
One of Mr. Baxter's clients -- General Atomics' vice president Mike Campbell -- likens him to a "gluon," a term drawn from quantum physics that refers to the particles binding together the basic building blocks of all matter. Contractors and policymakers say Mr. Baxter can see past bureaucratic boundaries and integrate information drawn from a variety of sources, though some who have worked with him say he can also be a self-promoter.
Mr. Baxter can speak the acronym-heavy vernacular of the professional defense consultant, but he would never be mistaken for one of the hardened ex-military men who fill the ranks of the industry. He rarely wears ties, is fond of self-deprecating jokes, makes frequent popular-culture references, and peppers his speech with casual profanity. He also often appears on VH1 music retrospectives.
Still, he's careful not to discuss current or past projects that might be classified and keeps to a punishing schedule. One morning recently, a black government-issued sport-utility vehicle picked him up outside a Washington café as soon as he had finished breakfast and whisked him to a Pentagon agency for nearly 12 hours of meetings. That evening, he traveled to Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for several days of briefings and meetings. He flew 230,000 miles last year, and makes a point of dissolving brightly colored packets of vitamin supplements into his drinks to stave off illness.
Mr. Baxter, who joined his first band when he was 11, began studying journalism at Boston University, but dropped out after a year in 1969 to begin working with Ultimate Spinach, a short-lived Boston psychedelic rock band. He moved to California a short time later and became one of the six original members of the avant-garde rock group Steely Dan. He quit the band in 1974 and joined the Doobie Brothers, helping to remake its sound into a commercially appealing mix of funk and jazzy pop. Mr. Baxter left the group in 1979 after a long tour in support of its most popular album, "Minute by Minute."
His defense work began in the 1980s, when it occurred to him that much of the hardware and software being developed for military use, like data-compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices, could also be used for recording music. Mr. Baxter's next-door neighbor, a retired engineer who worked on the Pentagon's Sidewinder missile program, bought him a subscription to an aviation magazine, and he was soon reading a range of military-related publications.
Mr. Baxter began wondering whether existing military systems could be adapted to meet future threats they weren't designed to address, a heretical concept for most defense thinkers. In his spare time, he wrote a five-page paper on a primitive Tandy computer that proposed converting the military's Aegis program, a ship-based antiplane system, into a rudimentary missile-defense system.
On a whim, he gave the paper to a friend from California, Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. To Mr. Baxter's surprise, the congressman took it seriously, and the idea proved to be prescient: Aegis missile-defense systems have done well in tests, and the Navy says it will equip at least one ship with the antimissile system by the end of the year.
"Skunk really blew my mind with that report," Mr. Rohrabacher says. "He was talking over my head half the time, and the fact that he was a rock star who had basically learned it all on his own was mind-boggling."
Mr. Rohrabacher passed the report to another influential Republican lawmaker, Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. Mr. Weldon says he immediately realized that Mr. Baxter could be a useful public advocate for missile defense because his rock-star pedigree would attract attention to the issue.
"Most of Hollywood is from the liberal, 'let's hug the tree and be warm and fuzzy and sing Kumbaya,' bent," Mr. Weldon says. "You put Jeff Baxter up against them, and he cleans their clocks because he actually knows the facts and details." He has appeared in public debates and given numerous press and TV interviews on CNN and Fox News advocating missile defense. He also served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of conservative organizations devoted to the issue.
Mr. Baxter, backed by several lawmakers, got a series of classified security clearances. During one background interview, Mr. Baxter says, he was asked whether he could be bribed with money or drugs. He recalls telling the investigators not to worry because he had already "been there, done that, and given away the T-shirt" during his rock career.
His old friend Mr. Weldon chaired the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, and in 1995 nominated Mr. Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a congressional panel.
The missile-defense post led to consulting contracts with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon also began regularly asking Mr. Baxter to lead enemy forces in war games, where he quickly earned a reputation for using creative, terrorist-style tactics. "I'm told I make a very good bad guy," he says.
Pentagon officials say they appreciate Mr. Baxter's creativity. "He's imparted some new ways of thinking about the ballistic-missile threat and the technology that might be necessary to defeat it," says MDA spokesman Rick Lehner. "It's been a good interchange of information."
In the late 1990s, Mr. Baxter led a fictional future alliance of Iran and Iraq that was trying to drive the U.S. Navy from the key oil-shipping routes through the Persian Gulf. Facing a massive military imbalance, Mr. Baxter had covert operatives introduce oil-eating bacteria into the Saudi Arabian oil supply that rendered its petroleum shipments worthless. The Navy was forced to pull out after oil-dependent American allies threatened to pull their financial assets out of the U.S.
These days, Mr. Baxter finds himself with a growing pile of job offers from Pentagon officials and defense contractors hoping he can help them anticipate terrorist tactics and strategies.
Mr. Baxter is working on a solo album and continues to do lucrative studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith, but he spends more and more time doing defense work. He says he earns a "good, comfortable, six-figure income," and in 2004 made more money from defense consulting than from music.
Mr. Baxter's friends in Congress and the Pentagon say they take him seriously as a defense thinker but concede that his celebrity past carries its own advantages. During a trip to Manila with Mr. Baxter in 1998, Mr. Rohrabacher was having a hard time winning permission to fly over a number of contested islands until he brought Mr. Baxter to a meeting with the then-Philippine president, Joseph Estrada. Mr. Estrada immediately put one of his government's few C-130 transport planes at the two men's disposal. "He's apparently just a huge Doobie Brothers fan," Mr. Rohrabacher says.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
What about Frogs?
Kite-flying event claims 13 livesFrom correspondents in Lahore
THIRTEEN people have been killed and more than 500 injured during an annual kite-flying festival in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.Seven people with severe head injuries died in the city's General Hospital alone, and about 220 people were admitted with a variety of injuries including broken bones, hospital officials said. The two-day festival of Basant, marking the start of spring, began with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. Two teenagers were killed when they fell from a roof, and two more were killed when a car hit them while they were trying to catch a stray kite, police said. A man was killed by a stray bullet, while another was electrocuted when metal wire used to fly a kite became draped over live electric lines. Officials said more than 300 injured people were taken to four other hospitals in different parts of the city.
THIRTEEN people have been killed and more than 500 injured during an annual kite-flying festival in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.Seven people with severe head injuries died in the city's General Hospital alone, and about 220 people were admitted with a variety of injuries including broken bones, hospital officials said. The two-day festival of Basant, marking the start of spring, began with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. Two teenagers were killed when they fell from a roof, and two more were killed when a car hit them while they were trying to catch a stray kite, police said. A man was killed by a stray bullet, while another was electrocuted when metal wire used to fly a kite became draped over live electric lines. Officials said more than 300 injured people were taken to four other hospitals in different parts of the city.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Can I get a What What?
Oregon Lawmakers Discover Unexpected Revenue from Medical Marijuana
E-mail This Article
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon lawmakers have discovered an unexpected source of revenue -- medical marijuana. When Oregon began its medical marijuana program six years ago, officials didn't expect it to grow so fast. Now, there are more than 10,400 registered patients who have produced a surplus of $1.1 million. Hungry to balance Oregon's lopsided budget, House legislators voted 49-10 last week to siphon $900,000 of that money to pay for other Human Services' needs. The bill now moves to the Senate. Barry Kast, the agency's assistant director for health services, said the department was left with no choice after "three years of cuts, cuts, cuts." But backers of medical marijuana say that the surplus should be poured back into the program, not Human Services. "If any of this money came from the general fund, I'd agree that some of it should be transferred back. But the medical marijuana program never cost the taxpayer a dime," said Dr. Rick Bayer, a physician who was the chief petitioner of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, which passed in 1998.
E-mail This Article
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon lawmakers have discovered an unexpected source of revenue -- medical marijuana. When Oregon began its medical marijuana program six years ago, officials didn't expect it to grow so fast. Now, there are more than 10,400 registered patients who have produced a surplus of $1.1 million. Hungry to balance Oregon's lopsided budget, House legislators voted 49-10 last week to siphon $900,000 of that money to pay for other Human Services' needs. The bill now moves to the Senate. Barry Kast, the agency's assistant director for health services, said the department was left with no choice after "three years of cuts, cuts, cuts." But backers of medical marijuana say that the surplus should be poured back into the program, not Human Services. "If any of this money came from the general fund, I'd agree that some of it should be transferred back. But the medical marijuana program never cost the taxpayer a dime," said Dr. Rick Bayer, a physician who was the chief petitioner of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, which passed in 1998.
Amnesty
David Rivkin and Lee Casey show how dishonest Amnesty International's 2005 Report on worldwide human rights is, at least when it comes to assessing the U.S. "First and foremost," Rivkin and Casey state, "Amnesty’s report is emphatically not an honest assessment of American compliance with international law. Rather, it is an assessment of how well the United States complies with Amnesty International’s political and ideological agenda — equivalent to the grading of individual members of Congress by domestic advocacy groups."
Vice President Cheney and the Washington Post may not agree on much. But both recognize that Amnesty International cannot be taken seriously on this issue.
Vice President Cheney and the Washington Post may not agree on much. But both recognize that Amnesty International cannot be taken seriously on this issue.
The Great Unraveling
Powerline has some interesting bits on the Okrent/Krugman break-up. Worth noting as Krugman is such a lefty fav-
>>
We commented here on the end of Daniel Okrent's tenure as Public Editor of the New York Times, and the parting shots he took at Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and William Safire. Krugman is not one to take criticism lying down (or any other way), so he replied to Okrent, which triggered a dialogue that you can read here.
Krugman's efforts to defend himself against the charge of slicing and dicing, and flat-out misrepresenting, economic data in order to support his far-left political positions are, I think, lame, but what really jumps out at me is the intensity of Okrent's apparent loathing for Krugman. Consider the following paragraphs:
This was the first he heard from me on these specific issues partly because I learned early on in this job that Prof. Krugman would likely be more willing to contribute to the Frist for President campaign than to acknowledge the possibility of error. When he says he agreed “reluctantly” to one correction, he gives new meaning to the word “reluctantly”; I can’t come up with an adverb sufficient to encompass his general attitude toward substantive criticism. But I laid off for so long because I also believe that columnists are entitled by their mandate to engage in the unfair use of statistics, the misleading representation of opposing positions, and the conscious withholding of contrary data. But because they’re entitled doesn’t mean I or you have to like it, or think it’s good for the newspaper. Believe me -- I could go on, as could a number of readers more sophisticated about economic matters than I am. (Among these are several who, like me, generally align themselves politically with Prof. Krugman, but feel he does himself and his cause no good when he heeds the roaring approval of his acolytes and dismisses his critics as ideologically motivated.) But I don’t want to engage in an extended debate any more than Prof. Krugman says he does. If he replies to this statement, as I imagine he will, I’ll let him have what he always insists on keeping for himself: the last word.
I hate to do this to a decent man like my successor, Barney Calame, but I’m hereby turning the Krugman beat over to him.
Ouch. Paul Krugman is a perfect emblem of the sickness at the heart of the New York Times. Notwithstanding his protestations of affection for that once-great institution, it is hard to miss Okrent's relief at putting down his "Public Editor" shovel.
>>
We commented here on the end of Daniel Okrent's tenure as Public Editor of the New York Times, and the parting shots he took at Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and William Safire. Krugman is not one to take criticism lying down (or any other way), so he replied to Okrent, which triggered a dialogue that you can read here.
Krugman's efforts to defend himself against the charge of slicing and dicing, and flat-out misrepresenting, economic data in order to support his far-left political positions are, I think, lame, but what really jumps out at me is the intensity of Okrent's apparent loathing for Krugman. Consider the following paragraphs:
This was the first he heard from me on these specific issues partly because I learned early on in this job that Prof. Krugman would likely be more willing to contribute to the Frist for President campaign than to acknowledge the possibility of error. When he says he agreed “reluctantly” to one correction, he gives new meaning to the word “reluctantly”; I can’t come up with an adverb sufficient to encompass his general attitude toward substantive criticism. But I laid off for so long because I also believe that columnists are entitled by their mandate to engage in the unfair use of statistics, the misleading representation of opposing positions, and the conscious withholding of contrary data. But because they’re entitled doesn’t mean I or you have to like it, or think it’s good for the newspaper. Believe me -- I could go on, as could a number of readers more sophisticated about economic matters than I am. (Among these are several who, like me, generally align themselves politically with Prof. Krugman, but feel he does himself and his cause no good when he heeds the roaring approval of his acolytes and dismisses his critics as ideologically motivated.) But I don’t want to engage in an extended debate any more than Prof. Krugman says he does. If he replies to this statement, as I imagine he will, I’ll let him have what he always insists on keeping for himself: the last word.
I hate to do this to a decent man like my successor, Barney Calame, but I’m hereby turning the Krugman beat over to him.
Ouch. Paul Krugman is a perfect emblem of the sickness at the heart of the New York Times. Notwithstanding his protestations of affection for that once-great institution, it is hard to miss Okrent's relief at putting down his "Public Editor" shovel.
Kiss my Dutch D*ck!
Dutch Voters Reject EU Constitution
By ARTHUR MAXThe Associated PressWednesday, June 1, 2005; 6:18 PM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Dutch voters worried about social benefits and immigration overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution Wednesday in what could be a knockout blow for a charter meant to create a power rivaling the United States.
With four-fifths of the votes counted, the charter was losing 62 percent to 39 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote delivered in a French referendum Sunday.
"Naturally, I'm very disappointed," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said in conceding defeat in his campaign for ratification and promised the government would respect the results.
The charter was designed to provide such trappings of statehood as a flag, a president and an anthem on what has largely been an economic bloc while creating a more integrated political entity of 450 million people with a bigger economy than America's.
But the idea has proved increasingly polarizing, with opponents worrying about loss of national control and identity to a strengthened EU bureaucracy at the heart of a superstate.
Nine EU states have ratified, but the charter needs approval from all 25 states to take effect in late 2006, and the "no" vote in both France and the Netherlands - founding members of the bloc -was a clear message that European integration has gone awry.
Uh oh, why don't citizens want to turn their fate over to unelected elites in Brussels? Don't they know what's good for them?
By ARTHUR MAXThe Associated PressWednesday, June 1, 2005; 6:18 PM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Dutch voters worried about social benefits and immigration overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution Wednesday in what could be a knockout blow for a charter meant to create a power rivaling the United States.
With four-fifths of the votes counted, the charter was losing 62 percent to 39 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote delivered in a French referendum Sunday.
"Naturally, I'm very disappointed," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said in conceding defeat in his campaign for ratification and promised the government would respect the results.
The charter was designed to provide such trappings of statehood as a flag, a president and an anthem on what has largely been an economic bloc while creating a more integrated political entity of 450 million people with a bigger economy than America's.
But the idea has proved increasingly polarizing, with opponents worrying about loss of national control and identity to a strengthened EU bureaucracy at the heart of a superstate.
Nine EU states have ratified, but the charter needs approval from all 25 states to take effect in late 2006, and the "no" vote in both France and the Netherlands - founding members of the bloc -was a clear message that European integration has gone awry.
Uh oh, why don't citizens want to turn their fate over to unelected elites in Brussels? Don't they know what's good for them?
Zerzan
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
For Immediate Release CONTACT: Brookly McLaughlin
May 27, 2005 (202) 622-1996
Statement of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow on Resignation of Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Gregory Zerzan. The Treasury is preparing to bid farewell to a highly valued member of its team. Gregory Zerzan has served in Treasury's Office of Domestic Finance since March of 2003, first as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy and currently as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. His expertise and contributions on legislative and policy matters involving financial institutions have been invaluable, and he has been a highly effective leader within the Office of Domestic Finance, as well as among the Treasury management team. Greg's sharp mind and engaging personality will be missed by his colleagues and staff, and I speak on behalf of the Department in saying we wish him the very best in his future endeavors.
For Immediate Release CONTACT: Brookly McLaughlin
May 27, 2005 (202) 622-1996
Statement of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow on Resignation of Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Gregory Zerzan. The Treasury is preparing to bid farewell to a highly valued member of its team. Gregory Zerzan has served in Treasury's Office of Domestic Finance since March of 2003, first as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy and currently as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. His expertise and contributions on legislative and policy matters involving financial institutions have been invaluable, and he has been a highly effective leader within the Office of Domestic Finance, as well as among the Treasury management team. Greg's sharp mind and engaging personality will be missed by his colleagues and staff, and I speak on behalf of the Department in saying we wish him the very best in his future endeavors.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
On Francisco Franco
On Francisco Franco written by Charles Few Americans know much about Francisco Franco, leader of the winning side in the Spanish C...
-
Starálfur Blá Nótt Yfir HimininnBlá Nótt Yfir MérHorf-Inn Út Um GluggannMinn Með HendurFaldar Undir KinnHugsum Daginn MinnÍ Dag Og Í GærBlá ...
-
"From our perspective this is an issue between Colombia and Ecuador," he said. "I'm not sure what this has to do with Ven...
-
OK, Grandma ... put your hands in the air ... slowly ... step away from the bingo machine ... put down the knitting needles...