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 6/2004
Fear Factor
Here are two headlines currently on MoveOn.org's home page:
Al Gore Speaks on Fear: Its Political Uses and Abuses
Al Gore: The Bush Administration is Destroying Democracy
Hmm. I guess the sec
Playtime
The BBC is too damn funny lately. They've posted a series of views from various parties on the future of Iraq. Each of the eight people whose opinion is given is introduced by name and organization or
Constant Contact
BBC:
Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles at a media centre in a Gaza City tower block and at a workshop in a refugee camp elsewhere in the Strip.
Workshop.... One that made medical d
Fascists, Brownshirts, Etc.
Interesting story about a couple of MoveOn.org wackos (via baldilocks):
Moviegoer, Richard Streeter, was one of the many who made his way to a theatre to see what the hype was about. After viewing
Counterpoint
The Afghan army has come up with an interesting response to their local Islamists' tactics:
Afghan soldiers beheaded four Taliban fighters after guerrillas cut off the heads of an Afghan interprete
And Again
Islamists have scored some more points with Allah, according to Al-Jazeera. "The pan-Arab station said it had received a videotape showing that Kim Sun-il had been executed," AP reports.
In other i
"Any attempts to libel me will be met by force"
By force? Ah, the ironic ineptitude of the left. The quote is from Michael Moore of course. The challenge has been taken on by Christopher Hitchens, in what is the most severe movie review I've seen s
Not Buying It
Thus spake Clinton:
"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," the former president said.
More Islamist Diplomacy
Our friend and Islamic man of letters Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has initiated an overture to the Republic of Korea. He's requesting that the Korean governme
The Reckoning
Pearl, Berg, Johnson. Americans are beginning to get used to this kind of thing. Not in the sense that we don't care about the victims, but in the sense that those instances of Islamist behavior are e
Aftermath
It's been reported widely that the Saudis along with the FBI couldn't find Paul Johnson's would-be killers in time to prevent his death, but that they killed Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin as he was getting ri
Surgery for Mubarek
According to this BBC item, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek is to travel to Germany to have surgery to fix a slipped disc.
This is after rumours of his death circulated wildly on the internet the
Make War, Not Love
Seems everybody has a comment on Andrew Sullivan's recent post disavowing support for Bush in November. Here's another. While I agree with Andrew and most conservatives that the expansion of entitleme
Again
Matt Drudge has posted photos of Paul Johnson, beheaded by Islamists in Saudi Arabia.
This kind of thing can't go on for much longer. The American street won't put up with it. Will Muslims?
Mahm
Rated R, with Guardian
Sayeth the Guardian about Fahrenheit 9/11:
The film, which is being advertised with the strapline "Controversy? What controversy?", has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, me
Not in Their Names
Admiral Stansfield Turner's Ten Steps to Fight Terrorism Without Endangering Democracy, written a few weeks after 9/11:
1. Assassinations are neither an appropriate nor an effective counter-terrori
Terrorists in Ohio
The FBI nabbed another terrorist here in Ohio. Good on them. Nuradin M. Abdi, a Somali immigrant, is accused of planning to set off a bomb in a Columbus shopping mall (via LGF).
Columbus has a size
Zippy
Those electric cars from the G8 summit were pretty cool. An elderly gay couple in my neighborhood can often be seen driving around in one (sans stars
Korean Humor
South Korean newspaper Dong-a Ilbo comments on the proposed US troop reduction there:
"We have to ask whether it is the right action for a 50-year ally to unilaterally pull troops from a potential
More Like This, Please
Reuters:
Bin Laden, responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities, and his followers have vowed to topple the Saudi government, which they loathe for allying itself with America.
Not Like This
The BBC has covered the War on Terror and its battles, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and others, horribly. At times it seems that they're guided by the misinterpreted journalist notion that their duty is to
Ronald Reagan
This shouldn't be a sad occasion. It is sad that he suffered from Alzheimer's for more than 10 years. But I've come to believe that funerals shouldn't be
Blame Game
Reuters:
Saturday saw a spate of attacks, including one that wounded would-be recruits to the new Iraqi army, one that killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad, two apparently aimed at foreign civilians an
Make War, Not Love
Seems everybody has a comment on Andrew Sullivan's recent post disavowing support for Bush in November. Here's another. While I agree with Andrew and most conservatives that the expansion of entitlement spending under the administration is outrageous, and I agree with Andrew and most liberals that Bush's late support for the Federal Marriage Amendment is outrageous, to me this doesn't translate into not voting for Bush in November.
On spending, it's likely that Kerry would spend as much or more, and raise taxes to boot. This is not a better alternative. I'm not a deficit hawk- I don't think it matters very much.
On gay marriage, Kerry's also against it, though he's also against the FMA. I have to take a practical approach here. I'm for gay marriage, but most of the people I know who are against it are also against amending the Constitution. It has no real chance. So while Bush's support for the FMA is distressing on a symbolic level, it doesn't have any practical policy effects.
It does seem to me, spending arguments aside, that Sullivan is one-issuing the FMA question. That's his choice, of course. As for me, and many others, the one issue that I'll be taking into the voting booth is the war. Kerry would not be the disaster as commander-in-chief that many are saying; the realities of that role often transmogrify campaign promises into so much hot air (as we've seen with Bush himself). But while Kerry would play the role of adequate caretaker, I think only Bush will continue to push it forward. And that's what's needed.
If the Democrats nominate someone in 2008 who is serious about bringing the war to our enemies, or if the Republicans nominate someone who is more liberal on social issues, then both Andrew and I and the many liberal hawks and neocons in this country will have a more perfect candidate to vote for. But until and unless that happens, I've got to go with the socially conservative hawk over the socially liberal dove, relatively speaking. It's not a tough call.
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Brian O'Connell.
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