This blog is now read by more machines than humans: RSS robots, spam-laying insectopoids, echoes of blog-gathering .edu projects. This essentially is the state of affairs that all human activities w
Cleaning Up the Nation
Austin Bay:
If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at
Rank Materialism
Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some
Fallujah Fonda
Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:
Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.
Acros
John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism
In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:
Month 1/2003
You and Your Big Speech
So SotU 2 happened. It was a good speech, not a great speech. It reassured those who were already there, gently persuaded those who were looking for persuading, and did nothing for those who were alre
Defending Communists
David Neiwert responds and then responds again to my response to his initial response to my multiculturalism post. Well it turns out that what I'm really doing is fighting on behalf of white nationali
War on Dissent, episode 87b
Check this out. I'm taken to task by an actual journalist. David Neiwert, in a post called The War on Dissent, episode 87, says my piece From Multiculturalism to Anti-Americanism in Six Easy Steps is
Blogger Anti-War Coverage
Anna of BBB has her usual sarcastic commentary and some great original photographs of today's anti-war protest in DC. Check it out. I think that I have a better feel for the demonstrations from readi
Attack of the Giant Puppet Heads!
The puppets, the puppets! The giant puppet heads! It's good to see that the anti-war movement is moving forward and is right in tune w
From Multiculturalism to Anti-Americanism in Six Easy Steps
There is a connection between multiculturalism and anti-Americanism. But how can acceptance of the fact that there are no absolutes when it comes to cultural truths lead to hatred of the United States
The Islam Show, Pt. II
From FrontPage (link via Sullivan):
"So why is it somehow all right to offend Catholics and not Muslims? It's a question of relative fear, of the (perceived or real) difference between facing an angr
Public Solutions
Here's a line from Michael Pollan's NYT review of Greg Critser's new book Fat Land, which is about how fat Americans are:
So instead of seriously entertaining any public solutions to what he has so c
The Islam Show
In the Western tradition, nothing is sacred. Everything can be and eventually is criticized and ridiculed. Politics, religion, heroism, honor, truth- none are immune. If you happen to take something s
Saudi Arabia = Al Qaeda
Well, not in the details, but for practical purposes, yes.
The report asserts that the Saudi funds represent the most important source of financing for Al Qaeda and that Riyad, pressured by leading o
On the Other Hand
Remember when Bush made his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address and there were all those complaints that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were different and we shouldn't treat them the same? From the
Happy New Year To You Too!
Along with the new year, this blog has a new look. Whaddaya think? No doubt it's buggy as hell on other OS/browsers. And you need JavaScript enabled. If you feel so inclined, drop me an email or comme
On the Other Hand
Remember when Bush made his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address and there were all those complaints that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were different and we shouldn't treat them the same? From the BBC:
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Mr Bush's comments "a big mistake".
"First of all they (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) are very different from each other," she said.
And here's French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine:
"The second [divergence in views between France and the US] is the opposition in France, and by many elsewhere in the EU, to the American doctrine of 'rogue states.' That notion groups together a number of states and seeks to treat them in the same manner."
The Bush Administration quickly clarified that they had no intention of treating the three countries in the same way. Here's Colin Powell speaking before a Senate panel shortly after Bush's speech:
"The nation that is of perhaps higher level of concern than others is Iraq. With respect to Iran and with respect to North Korea, there's no plan to start a war with these nations. We want to see a dialog."
So now that the US is clearly treating two-thirds of the Axis of Evil, North Korea and Iraq, very differently from each other, the opposition (dometic and international, loyal and otherwise) is making the opposite argument. We should treat both countries the same! Usually they say we should treat them both like we're treating North Korea. In one case I found, it's the same person! Here's Madeleine Albright again, this time quoted in the CS Monitor:
"How do you explain to the international community," says Albright, "that you're going to war with one country that is developing nuclear weapons, but you're willing to negotiate with another country that already has them?"
George, you've got some 'splaining to do! Why don't we go to war with a country that already has nuclear weapons!? It's mystifying, I know. Naturally, Iraq is one member of the international communtiy that doesn't get US policy at all. They think they're less evil than North Korea, but sadly, get no credit for it. Here's something that appeared in an official Iraq daily (and they're all official):
“Isn’t Iraq’s case the opposite of the case of North Korea?” [writer Sami Mahdi asks in Al-Thawra]. “But look at the way America addresses the two situations; how it threatens Iraq, which is free of weapons of mass destruction, with invasion and occupation; how, based on assumptions and probabilities of its own making, it tries to find something against Iraq that Iraq simply doesn’t have.
“Contrast that approach with the US administration’s eagerness to solve the crisis with North Korea by diplomatic means, urging other nations to broker a solution, offering economic inducements (to Pyongyang) and prodding the IAEA to bring the case of North Korean violations before the UN Security Council."
Damned if you do....
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Brian O'Connell.
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