The Cutting Board

2002-09-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the prolonged absence. Here's my review of Peter Gabriel's latest, Up, over at Blogcritics.

It has been ten long years since he last put out a studio album, Us, and now Peter Gabriel is back with Up. As a fan, it was worth the wait. This album is unlikely to win him any new fans - there is no Sledgehammer here. However, this is a great album, very dark at times, and moody and atmospheric throughout. The production sounds great and the music is very interesting, with shifting rhythms and moods. It harkens back to earlier Peter Gabriel, mixing melody and dissonance very well. The whole album is filled with "world beat" rhythms and shimmering synths, that combination of tradition and technology that Gabriel has long been a master of.
Long time Gabrielites David Rhodes (guitar) and Tony Levin (bass) are back, along with drummer Manu Katche, who played on So and Us. The gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama show up on several tracks, including my favorite Sky Blue, where they add a beautiful, soaring background to an already haunting song. Daniel Lanois (who produced So, among many other great albums) shows up and plays a little guitar and Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan adds his voice to Signal to Noise.
Up is not a very radio-friendly album and the single The Barry Williams Show does not fit very well with the rest of the tracks. It sounds somewhat dated, being about a Jerry Springer-style talk show, and lacks the beauty of much of the rest of the album, but it has grown on me the more I've heard it. This is also a long album. Most of the ten tracks clock in around seven minutes, too long for commercial radio. It is an album that demands repeated listens, growing stronger each time around. Parts of it resemble Passion, Gabriel's soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ, or the Birdy soundtrack.
Ten years was worth the wait for Up. Peter Gabriel has delivered an album that he knows his fans will like, and it is nice to see an older musician catering to his long-time admirers, rather than to the commercial music market of the time. This is a great album, and I highly recommend it.

2002-09-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

My first Blogcritics post is up! It's on one of the best films of all time, The Last Waltz. And while you're there, check out the whole site. It's pretty cool.

2002-09-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Horrible news. Warren Zevon has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Apparently he is trying to write and record as many songs as possible before he dies. I was just listening to the live Mohammed's Radio on I'll Sleep When I'm Dead:

The Ayatollah's got his problems too

(What a crybaby)

And even Jimmy Carter's got the highway blues

Zevon is one of my top 5 all-time favorite songwriters. Terrible news.

2002-09-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Too much good stuff to read today. Start with Lileks, then here.

2002-09-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

NEVER FORGET

2002-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

John McEnroe has an op-ed in the Telegraph today. It's not totally bad, not that great either. But this paragraph sticks out.

In travelling the world as a tennis player, I have a better appreciation of other countries than most Americans. We could do with being a little less besotted with money, money, money, win, win, win. When I am in England each summer people always ask: "Why don't English players win Wimbledon? They ought to be more like Americans and play to win." To my mind, it's time Americans started being more like the English - or at least learnt to lose with grace.

Not only is this insulting to the English, who apparently don't play to win, but where the hell does John McEnroe get off telling me to learn to lose with grace?!

2002-09-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

The Giants just beat the Dodgers, evening up the NL wild card. In the game, Bonds hit a 491 foot blast, Jeff Kent got his 1,000th career RBI and closer Robb Nen got his first big league hit in his 10 year career. And his 200th save as a Giant. Oh yeah, there was a football game or something tonight, too.

2002-09-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

Tim Blair, using his alter-ego of Timmy T. Timson, age 5, is trying to get his poetry published on the World Hug Day website.

If I could meet Osama
I'd ask if it was brave
To kill so many people
And why he lives inside a cave

If I could meet Osama
I'd say, "Please be nice instead."
Then I'd whip out my revolver
And shoot the motherfucker dead

-- by Timmy T. Timson, age 5

Rivals Coleridge, I think. And he points out that John Hawkins has some more "movement" quotes, this time from the animal rights folks.

Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it. -- Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA (Vogue, September, 1989).

To those people who say, `My father is alive because of animal experimentation,' I say `Yeah, well, good for you. This dog died so your father could live.' Sorry, but I am just not behind that kind of trade off. -- Bill Maher, PETA celebrity spokesman.

On the consequences of stopping animal research: "Don't get the diseases in the first place, schmo." -- PETA's David Mathews (USA Today, July 27, 1994).

And so on.

2002-09-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight on Foxnews, it's the intellectual debate of the century as Bill O'Reilly takes on Tom Arnold!

2002-09-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a little late to the Amazon.com Harry Potter Nimbus Broom review party, but this shit is pretty funny:

I think the Nimbus 2000 is perfect for any age; Harry Potter fan or not! (But really, who isn't a Harry Potter fan?)
I'm 32 and enjoy riding the broom as much as my 12 yr old and 7 year old. The vibrations, along with the swooshing sounds make for a very magical journey! It is a very durable toy, as well. My only complaint is, I wish the batteries didn't run out quite so quickly!
This toy is a wonderful escape into a world of imagination!

Well, I had my doubts of buying my daughter such a toy, but she seemed to like this movie a lot so..I got it. I wasn't too keen on letting her play with it when the batteries were in so I took them out. I mean come on it VIBRATES ...

I recently bought this for my son, Vantro. He's a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Seen the movie 32 times (in the theaters) and made the paper. This toy gives him the ability to fly around the house zapping things. My only problem I see with the toy is the batteries drain too fast and his sister fights him over it, so now I need to buy her one.

2002-09-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Jonah Goldberg in The Corner:

Here's how Bush should begin his speech to the UN on Thursday...

"Let me explain why we bombed Iraq yesterday...."

2002-09-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hyperactive economic commentator Jim Cramer on Spet. 11 (via Instapundit)

Yes, my heart has been hardened by what my head saw on that awful day and it will remain hardened until the good guys -- and don't doubt for a moment who they are, either -- wipe out all of the bad guys. Do we have to go it alone? Who cares? England went it alone. Our allies weren't attacked as we were. They don't know what it's like or have long forgotten what it's like to be bombed as we were a year ago.

How can one justify such a swing in thinking on the basis of just one day's worth of attacks? Go back in history. Look at the people in this country who were opposed to fighting the last Axis of evil that proclaimed us as an enemy. In the U.S., we had isolationists and pacifists and disarmament types galore in the 1930s and even in the first year of a new awful decade, 1940. Then Pearl Harbor happened, and only the cranks and the fools stayed that course. The nation united in recognizing the need to preserve and defend itself at all costs.

That's where we are now. For those of you who don't know that yet, I recommend you go see the sailors of the battleship Arizona in its permanent lagoon tomb. Or take a look in my closet, where I keep the pair of Rockport wingtips that I wore Sept. 11, untouched, because I know what made up those gray ashes wedded to the soles and the uppers that fateful, horrible day.

In years to come, there will be people who stayed pacifist or ignorant or oblivious to what has happened, and they will be looked upon in later history as cowards or dreamers or fools. And then there will be the people who saw Sept. 11 for what it was, a declaration of war against us, and acted accordingly. I want nothing more than to be in the latter camp, if only because yesterday was and always will be Sept. 11 until our enemies are vanquished.

Right on, Jim.

2002-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

This Drudge report on ABC's upcoming interview with Saddam's mistress is actually pretty funny.

Lampsos, 54, who left Iraq a year ago, not only offers stories of the Iraqi dictator's personal life that she says few others know, but tells of his alleged effort to have his oldest son killed, his take on President George W. Bush, his extreme vanity and love of American films and music.

Lampsos tells Shipman how Saddam's favorite movie is the GODFATHER. And his favorite song is "Strangers in the Night."

SHIPMAN:

He likes Frank Sinatra?

LAMPSOS:

Yeah

SHIPMAN:

And would he play it, would he dance to that?

LAMPSOS:

Sometimes.

Lampsos says Saddam swims almost every day, drinks milk and honey in the morning and his favorite food for dinner is fresh gazelle. She says he raises and nurtures the gazelles -- and then handpicks each one to be slaughtered for his meal.

I have no idea why I think that's funny. I just do. Maybe it's the gazelle nurturing imagery.

2002-09-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

Volokh links to this article in The Weekly Standard on the Democrats Iraqi position in 1998, and it's pretty amazing.

Matters looked different in 1998, when Democrats were working with a president of their own party. Daschle not only supported military action against Iraq, he campaigned vigorously for a congressional resolution to formalize his support. Other current critics of President Bush--including Kerry, Graham, Patrick Leahy, Christopher Dodd, and Republican Chuck Hagel--co-sponsored the broad 1998 resolution: Congress "urges the president to take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."

Daschle said the 1998 resolution would "send as clear a message as possible that we are going to force, one way or another, diplomatically or militarily, Iraq to comply with international law." And he vigorously defended President Clinton's inclination to use military force in Iraq.

Summing up the Clinton administration's argument, Daschle said, "'Look, we have exhausted virtually our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that, what other option is there but to force them to do so?' That's what they're saying. This is the key question. And the answer is we don't have another option. We have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily."

So much for not politicizing the war. Where was all your grave, soft-spoken concern for "process" and "coalitions" back then, Tom?

2002-09-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

~~Wacky~~ Nutjob ex-weapons inspector Scott Ritter is praising Saddam - in front of the Iraqi Parliament.

"The truth is Iraq is not a threat to its neighbors and it is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside its borders," Ritter said.

Can you say "bought off?" (His trip was sponsored by the, you guessed it, Iraqi government.) Meanwhile, the White House is searching for video that purportedly shows Saddam presiding over an execution.

2002-09-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

According to SportsCenter (they may have been kidding, but I don't think so) People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked the Milwaukee Brewers to add a veggie dog to their pre-game sausage races.
UPDATE: They weren't kidding.

"If given a sporting chance, our lean, mean veggie dog might run rings around those fatty ‘brats’ in the Sausage Race," says PETA’s Sports Campaign coordinator, Dan Shannon. "The veggie dog would be a big hit, especially with hip, young baseball fans."

I'm sorry, but PETA's site plays like an animal-rights parody. For example, this headline:

PETA URGES TOUGH PROSECUTION OF O.J. SIMPSON'S EX IN CAT STARVATION CASE

You just can't make this stuff up.

2002-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Taranto points out this charming story in the Sun-Times:

Taking a stroll with her 6-year-old daughter past the Garfield Park Conservatory on Tuesday, Evelyn Smith could offer no explanation for why the girl was not with her fellow first-graders for the first day of school.

"I just didn't take her today," said Smith, 19.

This guy couldn't make it, either.

Dan Walker, a senior at George Collins High School, skipped out on lunch and his last class of the day, career exploration, to go home and hang out.

Career exploration? This guy takes 4 classes, one of them being career exploration, and we wonder why our public schools are failing.

2002-09-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Stephen Moore pretty much sums up how I feel about the US basketball team losing.

Let me be clear on this: The U.S. losses in the World Basketball Championships (on our home soil, no less) is no embarrassment for America. But it is a well-deserved black eye for the NBA. And please, please, please, I don't want to hear any pathetic excuses that if only we had had Shaq, or Alan Iverson, or Hercules, or Spiderman, we would have won. Goodness, the game against Argentina wasn't even close. The U.S. was down 20 at half-time to players who make less money in a year, than the all-stars on U.S.A. Nightmare Team #1 make playing one-quarter of an NBA game. What do we pay these people for anyways?

Next time why don't we get some people who really want to be there, playing hard and representing this country, instead of some over-size egos who would be playing harder in a pickup game.

2002-09-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Two good Mark Steyn (the best writer out there) pieces today, here and here.

2002-09-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Rightwingnews has a collection of quotes from various environmentalists. Here are some of the best:

The only real good technology is no technology at all. Technology is taxation without representation, imposed by our elitist species (man) upon the rest of the natural world -- John Shuttleworth

I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems. -- John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal

Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental. -- Dave Forman, Founder of Earth First!

If radical environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human populations back to sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS -- Earth First! Newsletter

If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels. -- Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund

You get the idea...
(via Tim Blair, who has a lot of typically great stuff up today)

2002-08-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

Will this asshole just go away?

MICHAEL A. NEWDOW, a lawyer and emergency room doctor, this week filed suit in federal district court in Washington contending that it is unconstitutional for taxpayer-funded chaplains to pray in Congress and minister to lawmakers. He wants the court to prohibit the House and Senate from employing spiritual chaplains, who are paid by Congress to lead prayers, counsel members and perform other religious tasks. Chaplains make as much as $147,000 per year.

“If congressmen want to go to church, [then] walk down the block like other Americans do and go to church,” Newdow said in an interview yesterday. “Don’t get my government engaged in it. There are some people who don’t love God Almighty. That’s why we have an Establishment Clause,” the constitutional ban on government establishment of an official religion .

2002-08-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

As a long time Deadhead, I really wanted to rip into this Slate piece:

A Long, Staid Trip
How Deadheads ruined the Grateful Dead.

Sadly, it's pretty accurate.

With nothing to strive for and no musical goals to attain, the band lapsed into a creative torpor for the last 15 or so years of its career, even resurrecting itself this summer for another go-round without Garcia. If McNally's book teaches us anything, it's that, for a band with a prodigious drug and alcohol habit, the Deadheads' unquestioning faith was perhaps its most dangerous narcotic.

While I disagree that the last 15 years were spent in creative torpor - they were still making great music in the late 80's/early 90's - they were quickly going downhill, and a legion of obsessive fans, unwilling to be critical or demanding helped push them down that slope. And while there were those of us who did criticize bad performances, our voices were shouted down by the people who thought Jerry tuning his guitar was magical.

But hey, I still love the Dead, and the 50 or so shows I saw were some of the best times I ever had.

2002-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

And just like that, there will be NO STRIKE!
Thank you, guys. Play ball.

2002-08-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

Some good news? ESPN's Jayson Stark thinks a strike is close to being averted.

Come on. Did anybody think this World Series of Labor wasn't going to go the full seven games?

So that's where we are now. It's one more day of the old luxury-tax tug o'war.

But these two sides are so close now and there is so much optimism out there, it would be a shock at this point if they don't avert a strike. And after all that's gone down on this front over the last three decades, it's hard to believe we even wrote that last sentence.

Essentially, though, this fracas is almost over. They're now only about $8 million apart on a luxury-tax threshold. And does anybody really believe that's worth shutting down the sport for?

2002-08-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

I somehow got the Nigerian e-mail scam in my comments section. Although it was from Sierra Leone this time.

2002-08-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Once again in here in California we debate the BIG ISSUES.

Senior citizens of San Francisco would like to remind lawmakers and office-holders that there's a reason it's called a sidewalk. Wheels and pedestrians, they say, don't mix.

The sidewalk's for walkin'. Not that fancy walkin'.

To that end, a group from the Senior Action Network -- representing 30,000 senior citizens -- began a campaign to fight a proposed state law that could allow the newfangled two-wheeled Segway scooters to hum along city sidewalks.

"They're just too dangerous to share the sidewalk, the street or even a bike path," said Bill Price, president of the Senior Action Network.

Have you seen these things? They go 12 miles/hour.

San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly introduced a resolution Monday that would put the board on record opposing the bill.

"Sidewalks are no place for these Segway vehicles," Daly said. "Seniors, children and folks with disabilities would be especially endangered."

This is the guy who had to be convinced by the rest of the Board that public defecation was unacceptable in SF.

Horace Hinshaw, spokesman for the Postal Service in San Francisco, said there have been no problems with the Segways being tested in the city. The only reported accident nationally appears to have been in Atlanta -- where an employee of one of the several agencies there that use the scooters fell off.

That didn't stop the San Francisco protesters from carrying signs saying: "Stop the Segway slaughter," and "Segway: Zero Emissions, Senior Killer."

I think there's a joke about global warming and prescription drug benefits in here somewhere, but...

2002-08-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

Donahue's ratings are the lowest. Not the just the lowest among his competition, but actually the lowest possible Nielsen rating - 0.1. (from Drudge)

2002-08-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here we go again. (via Instapundit)

Israeli hopes to keep a low profile at the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development were already dashed on the first day of the conference Monday, when Palestinians accused Israel of torturing children, stealing land, and poisoning Palestinian water.

The Jewish National Fund, the only Israeli non-governmental organization exhibiting at the conference, has been under consistent attack by Palestinian demonstrators and Muslim local radio on political grounds.

The PA has its own booth some 15 meters from the exhibition void of any environmental information, adorned with a banner reading "Viva Intifada." At the booth Palestinians are handing out anti-Israel newspapers and keffiyehs with a map of Israel on the back that says "Palestine."

After the Barghouti event, a group of Palestinian students came to the JNF platform and accused the JNF of stealing Palestinian land in 1948. An Israeli peace activist came and supported the Palestinian students, who called on delegates to the conference to protest during the JNF's workshop on deforestation tomorrow.

Thank you President Bush, for staying home.
UPDATE: TechCentralStation has continuing summit coverage here.

2002-08-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Steve DenBeste is having an interesting discussion of tanks and guns and other cool stuff over at USS Clueless.

2002-08-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a great quote from Michael Moore that actually explains a lot (I found it in Entertainment Weekly. Don't ask.)

"But I guess the French like me. I found out that they show Roger & Me in schools here... It's like Economics 101."

2002-08-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

A question: Have the gay-rights activists who claim that the NYT's printing of same-sex union announcements pushes these unions more into the mainstream ever actually looked at the NYT's wedding page? Let's just say you'll never see this announcement:

Joe Smith/Juanita Diaz

Joe Smith and Juanita Diaz celebrated their marriage this weekend. The groom is a graduate of P.S. 124 and is now assistant foreman for ABC Construction. The bride fled Haiti at age 3 and is now a maid. The couple will reside in Trenton, NJ and are honeymooning for the weekend in Atlantic City.

2002-08-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today's Washington Post leads with:

Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft
Justice Dept. Chided On Misinformation
The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.

Wow, this sounds like great proof that Ashcroft is bent on undermining the Constitution, eroding civil liberties, yada yada yada. But you have to read the related editorial to get the full story.

Most or all of the misstatements appear to have taken place during the prior administration, and the court notes that the department and bureau wrote new rules last year to ensure the accuracy of FISA applications. The judges, moreover, appear to have no complaints about the quality of applications since Sept. 11.

Obviously there is a serious problem here, one that needs to be fixed fast. But how hard would it have been to include the above information in the main article?
UPDATE: The SF Chronicle runs the same story, but with the headline:

Court says Justice misused spy power
Terror-fighting request brings scathing criticism

So was it a "scathing criticism" or a mere "chiding"?

2002-08-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. It is also the birthday of John Lee Hooker, Norman Schwarzkopf, Valerie Harper, Paul Molitor, Deng Xiaoping, Ray Bradbury, Carl Yastrzemski, Claude Debussy and Howie from the Backstreet Boys! Happy birthday, all. My apologies to those of you who are dead.

2002-08-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

So poor Colin Powell is being sent to the United Nations Blame America For Everything conference in South Africa. There's a thick brown cloud of death cruising around Asia - must be our fault, but let's exempt China and India from Kyoto anyways. The worst flooding in Europe in 150 years - must be our fault. But doesn't the statement "worst flooding in 150 years" imply that there were worse floods 150 years ago? Long before America caused global temperatures to rise?

Have fun, Colin!

2002-08-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

I was going to write something about Maureen Dowd's typically juvenile and utterly pointless column the other day, but I think Josh Chafetz says it all.

2002-07-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

After the amazing rescue of the trapped miners yesterday - a testament to the American spirit - the New York Sun runs this editorial.

Amid all the justifiable rejoicing over the rescue of the nine miners who had been trapped underground in a Pennsylvania coal mine, it’s worth asking what they were doing underground to begin with. And the answer to that question involves two names that wouldn’t ordinarily come to mind when it comes to mining coal: Senator Lieberman of Connecticut and a 30-year-old rock star named Kevin Richardson, a member of a group called the Backstreet Boys.

Give me a break.

2002-07-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Bruce Springsteen has good words for Bush and the war on terror.

Springsteen, a 52-year-old married father-of-three, is known for his liberal views but told Time magazine: "The war in Afghanistan was handled well. It was deliberative, which I wasn't counting on. I expected a lot less from this administration." The Boss led the tributes to the victims of the September 11 attacks during a celebrity telethon appeal held a week after the event and has performed at several other benefits since.

This must be driving Eric Alterman crazy.

2002-07-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

San Jose State University sponsors the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction award, which challenges contestants to come up with the opening sentence to the worst novel ever written. Here's this year's winner.

On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky, not quite a roller-coaster ride but more like when the toilet-paper roll gets a little squashed so it hangs crooked and every time you pull some off you can hear the rest going bumpity-bumpity in its holder until you go nuts and push it back into shape, a degree of annoyance that Angela had now almost attained.

Wow.

2002-07-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Armstrong keeps dominating the field...

2002-07-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite things combined...

"The Simpsons" will start its 14th season on Sunday, Nov. 10, with an episode featuring Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, along with rockers Tom Petty, Brian Setzer, Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello. The episode is titled "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation."

2002-07-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been following this story, but it seems we have a possible serial killer on the loose here in California. At least that's what the authorities are saying. Only one person has been killed, so it seems a little premature to slap on the serial killer label. But this creep has already raped and killed a five year old girl, so if the serial killer designation brings more man power and money to the investigation...
Our esteemed governor has offered a whopping 50,000 dollar reward. That's real generous of you, Gray.
UPDATE: Authorities have made an arrest...

2002-07-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Reuters reports that George Michael has been asked to write the theme song for the 2004 Athens Olympics, thus assuring the Games will be a total disaster. Out of all the places I've ever been, I can't think of a worse place to hold a summer Games. Athens is hot, dirty, polluted and not very friendly (in my experience). When I was there all the historical sites were covered with trash. Needless to say we hightailed it out of there to Turkey, which in contrast was clean and extremely friendly. Still hot though. And totally lacking in George Michael.

2002-07-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Arab News has an Ode to Cynthia (McKinney)

Ode to Cynthia

By Israel Shamir

Things must be bad indeed if a woman steps forward to the line of fire.

Nature arranged that a woman does not court danger unless her land and her folks are in real trouble. But when she does, she teaches men a lesson of manly behaviour.

When France was fading away, a shepherd girl Jeanne d'Arc took a heavy sword and led the flower of French nobles to assault the walls of Orleans. When cities of Republican Spain was strafed by the Nazi Luftwaffe, it was a woman, Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria, who said to her people: it is better to die tall, than to live on your knees. In 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev led his country to disaster and disintegration, a year before the wealth of Russia was embezzled in privatisation spree, only one person has dared to raise her voice against the dictator in the parliament. She was the indomitable Sashie Umalatov, an MP from the Chechen Mountains.

Now it is the turn of the US to feel the chilly wind of eternity on its face. It came from unexpected direction. People of America became hostage in the hands of a few men with too many dollars in their pockets and endless greed in their hearts. For millennia, the difference of income, education, and standard of living was not so vast in one land. The wealth of the nation could provide every American with a superb education, perfect medical care, happy childhood, secure old age, guaranteed home, and free time to open one' s mind to new thoughts and old friends. America could be on its way to the Golden Age of universal happiness and wisdom.

Instead of it, a small group of men squeezes the nation in order to add another billion to their coffers. They would surely destroy the US by their limitless greed. The devotees of Mammon, they are totally devoid of compassion to the people they live amongst. They do not see the local people as 'their own kind'. If they want to show compassion, they send money to Israel. Out of five dollars American taxpayer gives for aid, four dollars land in the coffers of the Jewish state. They appear unstoppable, as the politicians are scared of them and docilely raise their hands and sign the pledge promising to send more money to Israeli generals. Support of Israel is not a foreign policy. It is the covenant of the Mammonites, and you sign it with blood. With Palestinian blood.

But one woman refused to sign the pledge. One woman, Cynthia McKinney, a member for Georgia, dared to refuse. Four hundred congressmen signed it; they preferred their own personal advancement to the good of the country.

It goes on like this for some time. This is my favorite part.

This woman with a name from the love lyrics of Propertius, the delicate Greek poet, who called himself 'a pale knight in thrall of my angry Cynthia', is an all-American figure, brought forth by the spirit of America. The great country does not want to die. In such moments, the land calls for its sons and daughters to step forward to the line of fire. Cynthia heard the call. Support of Cynthia is the ultimate test of love to America, of belief in America's future in the family of nations, as an equal and friendly nation, not as an enforcer for creed of Greed.

Yuck.

Via NRO

2002-07-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

There's no justice like Islamic justice.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian man, convicted for raping and killing his 16-year-old nephew, will be executed by being thrown off a cliff in a sack, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

If the unnamed man survives the fall down a rocky precipice, he will be hanged, legal experts said. He has 20 days to appeal the court sentence.

Gotta give points for creativity, though.

2002-07-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Armstrong takes the lead in the mountains...

2002-07-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

Interesting Rich Lowry article on West African oil.

2002-07-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

The State Dept. apparently can't take the heat over Visa Express.

High-level State Department officials have circulated e-mails accusing Rep. Dan Burton and Bush administration officials of McCarthyism and neo-Nazism for criticizing the visa system's failure to keep the September 11 terrorists out of the country.

Chuck Keil, the consul general in Rome, complained to several State Department officials — including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman — that congressional critics have been saying terrorists "were able to enter the United States due to lack of vigilance or downright negligence."

"All of this smacks of the days of Senator Joe McCarthy, when a witchhunt conducted in the name of protecting Americans from the communist menace ruined the careers of Foreign Service Officers who had allegedly lost China to the Reds, or else helped Communist and Communist sympathizers obtain visas to enter the United States," he wrote.

One recipient of the Keil e-mail, Colombia A. Barrosse, is another consular official. She replied in an e-mail to some, but not all, of the same people that firing the popular Miss Ryan — after 36 years in the Foreign Service — makes it more likely that the visa function will be removed from State and given to the new Department of Homeland Security.

"We assume Mary's replacement will not be a career officer with a balanced approach but a neo-Nazi who views us as incompetent or criminal," wrote Mrs. Barrosse, who works in Washington. She declined to speak to The Washington Times.

These people should all lose their jobs right now.

2002-07-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the silence, I've been busy moving. Back in a day or two.

2002-07-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

AN OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN FROM THE WEBLOGGING
COMMUNITY

We are not politicians, nor are we generals. We hold no power to dispatch
diplomats to negotiate; we can send no troops to defend those who choose to
risk their lives in the cause of freedom.

What power we have is in our words, and in our thoughts. And it is that strength
which we offer to the people of Iran on this day.

Across the diverse and often contentious world of weblogs, each of us has
chosen to put aside our differences and come together today to declare our
unanimity on the following simple principles:

- That the people of Iran are allies of free men and women everywhere in the
world, and deserve to live under a government of their own choosing, which
respects their own personal liberties

- That the current Iranian regime has failed to create a free and prosperous
society, and attempts to mask its own failures by repression and tyranny

We do not presume to know what is best for the people of Iran; but we are firm
in our conviction that the policies of the current government stand in the way of
the Iranians ability to make those choices for themselves.

And so we urge our own governments to turn their attention to Iran. The leaders
and diplomats of the world's democracies must be clear in their opposition to the
repressive actions of the current Iranian regime, but even more importantly, must
be clear in their support for the aspirations of the Iranian people.

And to the people of Iran, we say: You are not alone. We see your
demonstrations in the streets; we hear of your newspapers falling to censorship;
and we watch with anticipation as you join the community of the Internet in
greater and greater numbers. Our hopes are with you in your struggle for
freedom. We cannot and will not presume to tell you the correct path to freedom;
that is for you to choose. But we look forward to the day when we can welcome
your nation into the community of free societies of the world, for we know with
deepest certainty that such a day will come.

(written by John Weidner)

2002-07-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

It seems like we see this story at least once a week.

LONDON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden is alive and planning another attack on the United States, an Arab journalist with close ties to the Saudi-born militant's associates said on Monday.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London based al-Quds al-Arabi magazine, said bin Laden's associates told him that al-Qaeda network has regrouped and was determined to strike the United States.

Wait, here's the best part -

Bin Laden's followers informed Atwan the world's most wanted man would not appear on television video again until his al-Qaeda group launches another attack on the United States.

"They also said bin Laden would not appear in a video and just say words. He will make another appearance only after his people attack the Americans again," he said.

"He wants to appear when he has something to discuss." (Emphasis mine)

2002-07-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Lance Armstrong has moved up to 2nd place following today's time trial. Coming Thursday, the mountains.

2002-07-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

Is Michael Leeden the only person writing about what's happening in Iran?

2002-07-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a surprise:

JERUSALEM — Israeli sources say Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recently transferred $5 million to his wife in Paris and that other leading Palestinians have transferred tens of millions to private bank accounts abroad as fears grow that the Palestinian Authority is near collapse.

2002-07-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

I just discovered Adam Curry's blog. Yes, Adam Curry from when MTV was cool. He lives in Holland.

2002-07-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

Interesting news from the Middle East (well, London, actually).

IRAQI opposition leaders seeking the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein received the unexpected public endorsement last night of a senior member of the Jordanian Royal Family, raising hopes among royalists for a return of the monarchy to Baghdad.

Prince Hassan of Jordan, the uncle of King Abdullah and a well respected statesman in the Arab world, addressed about 200 Iraqi exiles, including scores of former army officers and several prominent émigré leaders, at the start of a three-day conference to discuss how to overthrow the Iraqi regime.

Prince Hassan paid tribute to his “fellow officers” in the Iraqi military and said that he supported efforts to “end the suffering of the Iraqi people”.

The last few days certainly have seen some positive developments in regards to Iraq and Iran.

Certainly there was nothing ambiguous about the aim of the conference. Three former Iraqi generals received rousing applause from the audience after speeches on how the armed forces could be mobilised to mutiny against Saddam, how they could maintain security after an uprising and how they could help to create the climate for a new democratic regime.

2002-07-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, a BBC profile of Farrakhan has this headline:

Louis Farrakhan: Prophet or bigot?

Prophet?

2002-07-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Louis Farrakhan continues his whirlwind "Suck Up To Despots 2002" tour with a stop in Zimbabwe.

Louis Farrakhan, leader of the US Nation of Islam organisation, has backed Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme at the start of a three-day visit to the troubled country.

Mr Farrakhan told the state-owned Herald newspaper that he was in "full support" of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's policies "as it was aimed at correcting a historical injustice".

The paper in turn praised Mr Farrakhan for his "stance against Western manoeuvres to undermine the sovereignty of Zimbabwe," the Associated Press news agency reported.

Apparently "correcting a historical injustice" is more important than feeding the people.
Where's the next stop on the tour? Stay tuned...

2002-07-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

The US folded in the face of international pressure and agreed to a one-year exemption from the ICC for US troops deployed in UN peacekeeping missions. I was under the impression that the ICC wouldn't begin prosecuting cases until late 2003 anyways, so this immunity seems worthless. All that has really been accomplished is that we have ensured that next year we'll be in the same argument - we'll threaten to pull out of peacekeeping missions, and then we'll agree to a compromise extending the exemption one more year.

Under intense opposition from its closest allies and countries around the world, the United States backed down this week from its demand for permanent immunity for American peacekeepers.

Court supporters argued that the demand even for a one year exemption would have amounted to an amendment of the treaty.

The impasse was resolved when key court supporters — Britain, Mauritius and France — made a new proposal Friday morning that would ask the court for a 12-month delay in investigating or prosecuting peacekeepers from countries that don't support the court "if a case arises."

Isn't Mauritius a tiny island in the Indian Ocean?

2002-07-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been keeping up with the Yasser Arafat/baby wipes situation, check it out.

2002-07-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Free Joel Mowbray!

2002-07-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Blogger is finally working again. Here is an idea for what the blogosphere can do to help Iran.

2002-07-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

How dumb are these people? Days after attacking Bush for not being able, due to his business ties, to lead on the issue of corporate corruption, Drudge reports that a bank founded by Terry McAuliffe once gave an "unusual and unsecured" loan to none other than Dick Gephardt.

2002-07-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Michael Newdow (the Pledge guy) is a huge jerk.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 11 -- The 8-year-old girl whose father successfully sued to have the Pledge of Allegiance declared unconstitutional has no problem with reciting the pledge at school, her mother said today.

"I was concerned that the American public would be led to believe that my daughter is an atheist or that she has been harmed by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words 'one nation under God,' " Sandra Banning said. "We are practicing Christians and are active in our church."

Banning never married Michael Newdow, the third-grader's father and plaintiff in the pledge lawsuit. She has full custody of the girl, which Newdow is challenging.

In his lawsuit, Newdow argued that his daughter was "injured" by being forced to listen to others recite the pledge at the Elk Grove Unified School District.

Newdow said today that he has the right to determine how she is raised. "I have a right to send my child to a public school without the government inculcating any religious beliefs," he said.

Doesn't the mother having full custody mean that Newdow does not have the right to determine how she is raised?

2002-07-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Fascinating, and scary...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Experts can now download a genetic blueprint from the Internet and use mail-order materials to assemble a deadly virus, say researchers who made a synthetic polio virus in the lab to demonstrate the threat.

``The world had better be prepared,'' said Dr. Eckard Wimmer, leader of a biomedical research team at the University of New York at Stony Brook where the virus was assembled.

The researchers made the virus in the laboratory using data from the Internet and tailor-made sequences ordered from a laboratory supply service. They injected the virus into mice to show that it worked. The animals were paralyzed and then killed.

2002-07-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

MBABANE (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's convoy of armored cars and female bodyguards swept through the tiny African kingdom of Swaziland Thursday as the flamboyant Libyan leader made his way home from an African summit.

Nowhere in this article does it explain why Gaddafi's bodyguards are all female, although it mentions them twice. Anyone? In other Gaddafi (how many different ways can that be spelled?) news, the WSJ prints this translation of one of his poems.

I look for you in every quarter
Don't you hear me?
If you are near by
be my sweet heart,

Not only because you're so beautiful, brunette, and blonde but because you are so pure, chaste and disdainful, knows nothing about somebody else, subdues not to a human being,

I love you being lonely, unique and stubborn.
Are you the mirage or the inconceivable?
Because it is impossible for the impossibility to exist.
Respond not to his sweet tongue

Shun away from his smile as long as you are not a loose woman, nor you are an unwanted.

Presumably it loses something in the translation.

2002-07-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Amnesty (International) took aim at Palestinian militants in its seventh report on the human rights situation since the September 2000 eruption of the Palestinian uprising for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It said the Palestinian attacks on civilians violated "fundamental principles of humanity which are reflected in international humanitarian law. In the manner in which they are being committed ... they also amount to crimes against humanity."

Ya think?

2002-07-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

More bad news for baseball.

NEW YORK (AP) - On the eve of resumption of baseball's labor talks, commissioner Bud Selig said a major league team might not be able to meet its next payroll.

Selig did not identify the team, whose payroll is Monday. In an interview Wednesday in Milwaukee with the Houston Chronicle and other papers, Selig also said a second unidentified team had so much debt it might not finish the season.

There was no way to corroborate his remarks. Reached at his home Wednesday night, Selig refused to discuss the subject.

"I'm done. Major league baseball's credit lines are at the maximum," Selig said in the Chronicle on Thursday. "We've done everything we can to help people by arranging credit lines. Frankly, at this point in time, we don't have that luxury anymore.

"If a club can't make it, I have to let 'em go. I'm a traditionalist, and I hate all that. It pains me to do it. I just don't have any more alternatives."

2002-07-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

We must give support to the people of Iran, where big changes seem to be afoot - massive demonstrations against the mullahs, the recent resignation of an important cleric. What does the State Department have to say about it? Here's a transcription (via Michael Leeden in NRO).

QUESTION: Scheduled for tomorrow, there are supposedly going to be major demonstrations in Tehran. Does the State Department have a message for the demonstrators, given US interest in this recently?

MR. BOUCHER: No.

QUESTION: You have no message?

MR. BOUCHER: We don't.

QUESTION: This is supposed to be a really big demonstration and, you know, the "axis of evil" speech from the President, un-elected few — (laughter) —

QUESTION: Is that the official US line?

MR. BOUCHER: That's the official US line. No, the official US line is, you know, we don't comment when people demonstrate. I mean, when do we give messages to demonstrators?

QUESTION: Well, no.

MR. BOUCHER: I guess — no, I remember. Bob Strauss went out the night that the Soviet Union fell out, fell apart, and he gave the liberty message to demonstrators. That's about the only instance that I can remember that we've been out there. Certainly in places as far away as Tehran, the idea that we would have a message every time there's a demonstration is a little far-fetched.

QUESTION: All right. Well, it's just I asked it because in the context that the President did call them a member of the "axis of evil" and mentioned the un-elected few. There's been a lot of talk about supporting the people who want democracy there, and you know, they're having a big demonstration tomorrow, so I thought it would be a nice way to.

MR. BOUCHER: Iran has been more and more open as time goes on, and we'll watch that process from afar at this point.

We are missing a huge opportunity to support a moderate, pro-Western (at least more pro-Western than what we have now) revolution in one of the few bright spots in the Middle East. Leeden puts it best.

I know it reads like unrestrained satire, verging on slapstick. But it's real. Perhaps the best therapy for comrade Boucher is to lock him in a room and make him listen to the collected speeches of Ronald Reagan and read the collected works of Vladimir Bukovsky, Lech Walesa, and Natan Sharansky.

2002-07-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

This strikes a little too close to home (via Andew Sullivan).

BERKELEY, Calif., July 9 (Reuters) - Is "coffee with a conscience" sexy or just overly politically correct?

City leaders in Berkeley, the famously liberal college town near San Francisco, decided on Tuesday to leave that question to the voters, opting against an executive ban on the sale of coffee deemed politically incorrect.

Measure Sec-C, or "sexy" as it has been dubbed, would require all coffee sold by Berkeley's roughly 300 cafes and restaurants to be certified "fair trade" -- meaning that it has been brewed from beans grown in accordance with strict guidelines protecting workers and the environment, usually in the Third World.

Aside from the questionable use of the term "fair trade" to describe this, it actually seems like a noble effort (noble, not good). And implemented on a small scale such as Berkeley, probably wouldn't have much of a difference in the world of coffee production. But think if the whole of the U.S. suddenly stopped importing any non-organic or shade-grown coffee. That would absolutely devastate the already struggling coffee industry in many African nations, for whom coffee is a main source of revenue. But we could all sleep a little better, knowing that our coffee was picked, in the shade, by unionized workers.

2002-07-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

One more thing about the All Star game. What the hell was that opening ceremony? Is there no dignity in baseball? It's great that all those folks were honored, but did Hank Aaron have to appear from under... I don't even know what to call it. We couldn't stop laughing. All that was missing was the fan parachute guy. Or Up With People bungee jumping from the roof...
UPDATE: I completely forgot about the mangled National Anthem.

2002-07-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

A lot of people more qualified than me are writing about last night's All Star game (see here, here and here), so I'll just say that, in my opinion, the game these days is pretty much a waste of time. Even after Curt Schilling told A-Rod that he would only throw him fastballs, A-Rod struck out on three pitches. Not to take anything away from Schilling's fastball, but come on. A-Rod could have at least managed to foul off more than one pitch.

There doesn't seem to be much to cheer about in sports these days. A baseball strike looming, mostly because of a bunch of whiny, overpaid children. (Nomar Garciaparra actually had the gall to say "We're doing it for all those kids in the sandlots who may someday be major leaguers." Bullshit, you have nobody but yourself in mind.) A warrant out for Allen Iverson's arrest. Ted William's trashy children fighting over his body.
Two bright spots, though. Lance Armstrong going for his fourth consecutive TDF win. He'll get it, too. And the guy from the (football) Cardinals giving up his multi-million dollar contract to take an $18,000/year gig with... the Army. And give him even more credit for refusing to talk to the media about his decision.

2002-07-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

More good news fom Iran.

A senior religious figure in Iran has resigned and issued a bitter condemnation of the way the country is being run.

Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri has held the position of Friday prayers speaker in the major city of Isfahan for the past 30 years, but he has increasingly been at odds with Iran's hard-liners.

Ayatollah Taheri's resignation came as a bombshell in the clerical establishment that has controlled much of the power in Iran since the Islamic revolution in which he himself played a significant role.

Much of what Ayatollah Taheri had to say reflected a concern, which appears to be gaining ground within the clergy, that the growing rift between the powers that be and the people may be threatening to discredit the clergy as a whole.

While Ayatollah Taheri is associated with the reformist camp, a number of senior conservative clerics have also warned in recent months that the country risked a social explosion because of the system's failure to meet the expectations of the people.

In a first reaction to the ayatollah's resignation, Isfahan's five reformist members of parliament issued a statement sympathising with his pain and expressing their support.

2002-07-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Mark Steyn steals my "denial is a river in Eygpt" line...

2002-07-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ted Widmer, writing about Moby in Slate, touches on what's wrong with electronic music...

. What's missing is the organic feeling of real people bouncing real musical ideas off each other and living in the moment—the basic performance honesty that true gospel never strays from, which is why the best gospel is always heard live under the tent or in church. There are beautiful bits and orts of music, but after rote repetition, they lose their appeal and you start to hear them as interchangeable pieces of a rock-by-numbers kit.

Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of electronic music...Ok, I like a small percentage of electronic music (Moby included). But it just isn't the same as a few guys with guitars, drums and keys set up in a studio jamming. I'll take Exile on Main Street, which just happens to be on my friend's turntable as I write, over any electronic music ever made. Come on, honey child, I'm begging you...indeed.

2002-07-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

As a life-long, dedicated carnivore I find this pretty silly:

Radical vegans - who avoid any product that comes from animals - are now buzzing about the evils of honey.

They claim its production uses the labor of oppressed worker bees, according to a Time magazine report on the growing numbers of American vegetarians.

Come to think of it, as a rational human being I find that silly. Unfortunately, our side seems pretty silly too:

"Vegetarians don't live longer, they just look older," said South Dakota cattle rancher Jody Brown. "If animals weren't meant to be eaten, then why are they made out of meat?"

Brown overlooks the obvious - humans are made out of meat as well. I would like to have a bumper sticker that says "Vegetarians don't live longer, they just look older." A friend of mine used to have a bumper sticker that read "Brighten your day, eat beef," with a picture of a cow. One day we came out to his car to find that someone had taken the time to write a page long anti-meat screed and stuck it on the windshield. So we went and barbequed.

2002-07-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

From the Nice Shot Dept.

"Canadian snipers are being credited with more than 20 kills in Afghanistan, including one from 2,400 metres away--almost a mile and a half," the National Post reports. "If validated, the kill would be the longest shot made by a military sniper in combat, according to the latest issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine."

From BOTWT

2002-07-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to Don Rumsfeld.

2002-07-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Kristof, in the NYT this morning, tries to compare Islamic bigotry to bigotry here, especially among conservative Christians, and fails miserably. He seems to be missing the big point. While it may be true that "appalling hate speech about Islam has circulated in the U.S. on talk radio, on the Internet and in particular among conservative Christian pastors," Islamic hate has resulted in a large hole in downtown NYC filled with 3,000 dead bodies. In addition, while our national leaders go out of their way to get out the "Islam is a religion of peace" message, a quick glance at MEMRI.org shows that many Islamic leaders do no such thing. He goes on to say that Islam is the world's fastest growing religion because it "confer(s) dignity and self-respect." Unless you're female. Then Kristof offers up this:

Critics often quote from the Koran, for example, to argue that Islam is intrinsically violent ("fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them"). But the Koran, like the Bible, can be quoted for any purpose. After all, the New Testament embraces slavery ("Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling").

Of course, while radical Islamic scholars regularly use the words of the Koran to justify violence, when was the last time you heard Jerry Falwell call for the return of slavery? In fact it was Christian groups that spear-headed the abolition movement. And slavery is still practiced in Sudan, a Muslim country.
Now I'm not disagreeing that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, but to compare the words of a few on the extreme right to the deadly actions of many (yes, many) is just ridiculous.

2002-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is just embarrasing:

MIAMI - The "Janet Reno Dance Party" isn't just a comedy skit anymore.
Reno, the former attorney general who wants to become Florida's next governor, will be holding a dance party fund-raiser July 19 at Level, a trendy club on Miami's South Beach.

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" had an ongoing skit featuring Will Ferrell dressed in drag as Reno and leading a dance party.

Reno herself made a cameo appearance on 'SNL' before leaving Washington, breaking through a false wall and performing the twist with Ferrell, dressed as her lookalike.
..."I'll pay $25 to go myself, if she can dance around a disco half as well as she can dance around the issues," said Todd Harris, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election campaign.

2002-07-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

BARCELONA, Spain, July 9 (UPI) -- Whistling, shouting and clapping activists Tuesday drowned out Tuesday's speech of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson at the 14th International AIDS Conference.

About 50 to 100 demonstrators carrying signs denouncing U.S. AIDS policy demonstrated for nearly 30 minutes, although Thompson gamely recited his remarks in an auditorium at the conference.

"He was going to tell lies and we shut him down," said Milano Mark of New York City from the activist group ActUp/New York.

The moment Thompson began his speech, demonstrators erupted with cries of "Shame, shame, shame." Some blew high-pitched whistles while others in the audience clapped and stamped their feet.

About 50 protesters marched in the aisles and to the edge of the stage where Thompson was standing. Security personnel blocked the demonstrators from reaching the stage and at no time was the secretary threatened, although the group held signs that blocked the audience's view of Thompson.

The signs read: "Wanted Bush and Thompson for Murder and Neglect of PWAs (people with AIDS)" and "Where is the $10 billion?" The latter was a reference to the $10 billion per year price tag health agencies have suggested is necessary to treat all people with AIDS in the world. The U.S. government's current commitment to the fund -- which has raised $2.8 billion worldwide -- is about $700 million.

I'm not even going to get into the issue of why the US should be responsible to raise all 10 billion. I just wanted to point out that in San Francisco, one of ActUp's big issues is that the government has been lying and that HIV does not cause AIDS. Real responsible.

2002-07-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Cold Fury posts a very interesting e-mail:

I'm in Intermodal transportation, rail-truck/truck-rail, you know the drill. Anyway, lately the industry has been hobbled by an acute shortage of equipment, trailers & containers. A seasonal shortage is not unusual and is expected every fall. This year however the shortage is way early, like now. And in past years, the equipment always accumulated on the East or West coast and the shortage was felt at manufacturing centers. Rail Roads would reposition empties at their cost to the interior. This year it's different. There is no equipment to be had anywhere. Not East coast, not West coast, not in the interior. The last time this happened was just prior to the Gulf War. The military sucked up the containers/trailer and rail space prior to the public announcement of Desert Shield. Could the equipment shortages the Intermodal industry is seeing now be a precursor to a military build-up? Something for you to consider....

2002-07-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

Good insight on what the upcoming Iraqi adventure will look like - from VodkaPundit.

2002-07-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit late, but I thought I'd weigh in on The Who. I personally never got The Who. They were a decent band, but I never understood how they could be put on the same pedestal as the Beatles or Stones. Keith Moon's reputation seems to be based more on his manic drug-taking than his manic drumming. I've never enjoyed the constant-soloing style of drumming, which is why I never dug Cream. And the fact that you can pass out on stage several times in one show does not impress me. Pete Townshend is at best a competent guitarist and songwriter. (A rock opera about pinball? What's next, a musical about the common cat or the King of Siam?) He does win the prize for being the biggest pompous asshole in the history of popular music - not a category easily won. I did like John Entwistle's playing, although his contributions to the bass are not as great as say, Paul McCartney's. And Roger Daltry is no Mick Jagger. Not even Diamond Dave.
And now to lose all credibilty I will admit that my favorite Who song is Eminence Front.

2002-07-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said on Wednesday in a July 4 message to Americans nervous about new Sept. 11-style attacks that he could kill world terrorism with love -- but he would need $1 billion to do it.

"July 4 could be a great day for freedom," Maharishi, who brought Transcendental Meditation to the West more than 40 years ago and is a spiritual inspiration to some 6 million people worldwide, said in a conference call from the Netherlands.

Maharishi said that with $1 billion he could train 40,000 expert meditators, or "Vedic Pandits", who would generate enough good vibes to save the world. His press office said $85 million toward that goal had already been raised.

Groovy

2002-07-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

Apparently denial is a river in Eygpt:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The wife of an Egyptian who gunned down two people at the Los Angeles airport said Monday that her husband is innocent and that he gave no hint of violence in a phone call hours before the shooting.

``My husband didn't do such a thing. This is nonsense,'' 41-year-old Hala Mohammed Sadeq El-Awadly told The Associated Press on Monday in Cairo.

Of course, the US is to blame...

El-Awadly said she did not believe her husband was responsible for the July 4 shooting. She offered no explanation for how he could be innocent when so many people saw him open fire, but said he was being blamed because he was Arab and Muslim.

``He is a victim of injustice,'' she said three times. ``In America, they hate Islam and Arabs after Sept. 11.''

2002-07-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Interesting piece on Iran in NRO.

2002-07-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

A refutation (scroll down, permalink doesn't seem to work) of Malthus and the WWF's new report on the death of the planet by H.D. Miller (via Instapundit).

2002-07-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson is blasting the racist recording industry, and Tommy Mottola in particular.

Jacko dished up a huge smacko to music world heavyweight Tommy Mottola yesterday during a cross-town tour of New York in which he carried a sign telling the record mogul to "go back to hell."

Michael Jackson's day on the town saw the usually reclusive Gloved One making a string of appearances from Harlem to the East Village. At each stop he blasted Mottola, calling him "devilish" and a "racist."

The article in the NYP is pretty funny, especially this line:

Jackson, who is more likely to be found holed up at his Neverland Ranch in California with a coterie of young friends, started his day in the spotlight alongside Rev. Al Sharpton at the gadfly's Harlem headquarters.

Sharpton, to his credit, is rejecting Jackson's attack.

The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday said Wacko Jacko's bizarre attack on Tommy Mottola was unfair and unfounded, and called the Sony honcho a staunch supporter of black artists.
"I have known Tommy for 15 or 20 years, and never once have I known him to say or do anything that would be considered racist," Sharpton said.

Fortunately for Jackson he hasn't been black since 1987.
And strangely enough a Jackson 5 song just came on the radio.

2002-07-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

Feel free to stay, Louis.

BAGDAD, Iraq, July 6 (UPI) -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan held a series of meetings Saturday with Iraqi officials on the second day of his visit to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, to discuss ways to avoid a possible U.S. military campaign.

The official Iraqi News Agency, INA, said Farrakhan, on a "solidarity" visit to Iraq, held talks with Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Munem Saleh on "ways to confront the American threats against Iraq."

INA quoted the African-American Muslim leader as saying "the Muslim American people are praying to the almighty God to grant victory to Iraq."

As a blow to almighty God, an Iraqi victory seems pretty unlikely, given the history. (As an aside, couldn't Iraq come up with a more creative name for their state run news agency than INA?)
The article continues with the usual everything-is-the-fault-of-sanctions b.s.

Mubarak described the resolution as "arbitrary that further complicates the import of medicine and medical equipment to Iraq." He added the total lifting of the sanctions was "the only way to end the suffering of the Iraqi people." (emphasis mine)

Really? I can think of another way.

2002-07-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

President George W. Bush would rout Al Gore by more than 2 to 1 in Iowa, a state he lost in 2000, if a rematch of the historic election were held today, according to the latest Iowa Poll.

A year and a half after Gore edged Bush by fewer than 5,000 votes in Iowa and by a similarly narrow margin in the popular vote nationwide, Bush has turned the tables on his former opponent, prevailing in Iowa by landslide proportions among likely general-election voters, 64 percent to 27 percent, the poll shows.

Fortunately for Gore, he no longer relies on polls.
From the Des Moines Register

2002-07-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

This seems highly unlikely, but a Jordanian magazine is reporting that Arafat will step down in the next few weeks.

AMMAN, Jordan, July 8 (UPI) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is expected to step down in the coming weeks through an agreement between the United States, Israel and certain Palestinian and Arab parties, a Jordanian magazine said Monday.

The opposition periodical, Al-Majd, which is considered close to Syria, quoted unidentified high-ranking Palestinian sources as saying the president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Qurai, known as Abu Alaa, is Arafat's most likely successor.

They said Abu Alaa has the upper hand over another favored candidate, Mahmud Abbas, who goes by the name of Abu Mazen and is secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,

The sources said Arafat was almost acquiescent about stepping down willingly after being briefed about a U.S. and Israeli request to replace him as a condition for restarting peace negotiations and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Of course...

The reports about Arafat's projected departure coincided with denials by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that they were involved in contacts aimed at ousting him.

Given the guy doesn't even think we're talking about him when we call for a new Palestinian leadership, this report is probably a little premature, to say the least.

2002-07-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Another tidbit from the UNDP Arab Human Development Report mentioned below: the Arab world has fewer internet connections per capita than sub-Saharan Africa.

2002-07-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm off to Tahoe for the weekend, so I'll leave you with a piece of 4th of July history. In the first days of July, 1826, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were gravely ill. Jefferson had been unconscious since the 2nd, and Adams could barely speak. They both held on just long enough to see the 50th anniversary of the country they had held create. Purportedly some of Adams' last words were "Thomas Jefferson survives." They both passed in the afternoon, July 4th, 1826.

Happy Independence Day.

2002-07-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

From ESPN:

The Padres blew a 5-0 first-inning lead Thursday in San Francisco, then blew another 5-0 first-inning lead the next day in Kansas City. That made them the first team to score five runs in the first in back-to-back games and still lose both games, according to Elias, since the 1893 Chicago Colts did it on the same dates.

2002-07-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

What we have to celebrate this 4th.

2002-07-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't exactly call this news:

A blunt new report by Arab intellectuals commissioned by the United Nations warns that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, the repression of women and an isolation from the world of ideas that stifles creativity.

It is refreshing to see the problems in the Arab world being viewed from an internal perspective, rather than attempting place the blame on U.S. imperialism, the Jews and the rest of the usual suspects. Here's a disturbing statistic - in the last 1,000 years Arabs have translated as many books as Spain does in 1 year.

2002-07-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

One point supporters of the International Criminal Court constantly make is this one, as the NYT does today:

The administration invokes the possibility that an American on international police or peacekeeping duty in Bosnia could be maliciously accused and hauled off for prosecution in The Hague. That ignores the fact that the international court could become involved only if Washington failed to prosecute international crimes.

Of course, Washington is not going to maliciously prosecute it's own soldiers, so right there this argument is invalidated. The administration is absolutely right to vociferously oppose the ICC, which is ostensibly set up to prosecute the next Hitler or Pol Pot. Some other names that have been bandied about? Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Ariel Sharon... strangely no Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro...

2002-07-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Norm's gotta go.

Retired New York City police officers are furious that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta rejected a proposal to use 1,000 retired officers to provide airport security in New York in favor of helping hundreds of non-U.S. citizen security screeners keep their jobs in San Francisco.

Last month, Mineta announced that San Francisco Airport had won a pilot program cheered by many in the Bay Area because it could potentially save jobs. But what wasn't revealed is that the San Francisco proposal was competing with a New York plan that lawmakers and officers there say better reflects the program and provides a stronger blueprint for airport security.

``It's politics, and it's the worst kind,'' said Charles Slepian, a retired New York City officer who drafted the pilot program proposal for John F. Kennedy Airport. ``Picking San Francisco instead of New York could put passengers at risk, and I put the blame for that at the doorstep of Secretary Mineta.

``He's charged with protecting passengers, and this pilot program was supposed to find new and better ways to do that. It wasn't designed to be a `jobs' program.''

On the plus side, the screeners will no longer be able to legally defecate on the sidewalk. (I know, SFO is not in SF)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to potty train the public Monday with a ban on answering nature's call in public, in response to growing complaints about unpleasant sights and smells on city sidewalks.

The board's unanimous vote came as a surprise after months of rancor. Even the most liberal supervisors went along with the ban on public urination and defecation, despite lobbying by homeless advocates and calls for more public toilets.

Only in SF is this surprising.

2002-07-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

Last celebrity posting today, I promise...

AMID ALLEGATIONS of witchcraft, Hollywood superstar Bill Cosby has evicted a longtime friend, the ex-wife of basketball legend Guy Rodgers, from Cosby's Elkins Park estate, which she had overseen for 19 years.

Gladys Rodgers said Cosby and his spiritual adviser accused her of using blood, sparkles and other items in bizarre witch rituals to gain control over the Philly-bred comedian. Rodgers says she is a Methodist.

Blood and sparkles? Read the whole article. It's hilarious.

2002-07-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Jonah Goldberg on provisional states in The Corner...

President Bush has been getting a hard time for dangling the possibility of a "provisional state" in front of the Palestinians. Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian official, did the talk show rounds expressing his contempt for the idea. He told CBS:

My only problem is we do it provisional because we've heard about a provisional government, a provisional Cabinet but not a provisional state. It's either a state or not a state. You cannot be provisionally pregnant.

And, CNN's John King matter-of-factly asserted, "Well, international law recognizes no such thing as a provisional state."

But is this really true? There are plenty of nations and peoples with what we could legitimately call "provisional states" even if we don't use that term. Scotland, one could argue, became a provisional state under the Scotland Act a few years ago. It gained sovereignty over all domestic affairs while London retained total control over defense and foreign policy and quite a bit of control over taxation. Prior to the Scotland Act, however, the Scots spent 300 years without a state of their own, provisional or otherwise. And yet, it's worth noting, there were no Scottish suicide bombers murdering English school children. (It's also worth noting that the Scottish independence movement is dying because the Scots are smart).

Indeed, when you think about it, there are lots of semi-autonomous, largely self-governing nations with what look remarkably like provisional states. Puerto Ricans have a provisional state in the sense that their local government would run foreign policy too if the Puerto Ricans ever decided to vote for independence. The Kurds in Northern Iraq also have what could easily be mistaken for a provisional state.

The Palestinians claim there's no such thing because they want to treat any state they get, provisional or otherwise, as the real deal -- and will undoubtedly do so. But that doesn't mean they're right.