tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37572062011-04-21T22:57:42.261-04:00L8rL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comBlogger2131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1131508470185675322005-11-08T22:52:00.000-05:002005-11-08T22:54:30.196-05:00Western Civilization: Not only the best Plame thread out there, not only the best political thread for a good long while, but possibly the best thread that has ever been published on the web.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1112579868897136272005-04-03T21:43:00.000-04:002005-04-03T22:13:06.243-04:00When the history of the fall of the Soviet Union, a fascist empire, is written, more than a footnote should be given toKarol Józef Wojtyla the bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic church since 1978, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first ever from a Slavic country. His crusades against political oppression have been widely praised, and his trips abroad—90 by the year 2000—L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1111800610407256902005-03-25T20:24:00.000-05:002005-03-25T22:27:52.070-05:00Pursuant to the Supremacy Clause, if the federal Congress passes a law which is in conflict with a state law, then the federal law preempts the state law. That seems to be the basis for Pub. L. 109-3, which arguably conflicts with Florida state courts' judgments and procedures. The mere fact that such regulations conflict is immaterial. The federal Act would trump any state regulation under the L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1111717946736541132005-03-24T21:18:00.000-05:002005-03-25T22:29:16.240-05:00Since everyone else in the universe is writing about Terri Schiavo, I might as well put in my 2 cents. Firstly, the stereotype of Michael Schiavo as the evil villain twirling his moustache as his wife struggles on the railway tracks needs to be put into perspective:During a January 2000 court battle in which Bob and Mary Schindler sought to wrest Terri's guardianship from Michael Schiavo, the L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1110247712023974942005-03-07T20:35:00.000-05:002005-03-07T21:57:31.953-05:00Ah, George Bush. The Texas chimp. How could he possibly have been so insensitive, so uneducated, in his state of the union address on Jan. 29, 2002, to denounce Iran's leading role in an “axis of evil.” Iran part of the "Axis of Evil"? After all, Persia used to be a worldwide cultural center. What is true of Islam is true of Iran generally - the conversation that Greece was having with Persia hasL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109988812110096072005-03-04T21:13:00.000-05:002005-03-04T21:58:50.080-05:00Delacroix 1830Itjihad 2005.It occurs to me, on a tactical level that others may find cynical, that the appearance of such women at moments of extreme revolutionary danger like this may be almost consciously conceived in order to confound the (male) soldiers of the oppressive regime (in this case Syrian soldiers or Hezbollah). These soldiers may be on the ground, observing, and may be ordered to L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109906959707118832005-03-03T22:06:00.000-05:002005-03-04T21:00:00.270-05:00We can rightfully celebrate not only the increased freedom of women today, but U.S. foreign policy. “Afghanistan has appointed its first female provincial governor in keeping with the new government's policy of promoting women to positions of power”. This is not merely fortuitous. I predict that this will be repeated in Iraq. Compare this event with the ‘democratic’ process in a country that the L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109817967420938022005-03-02T21:44:00.000-05:002005-03-02T21:46:07.423-05:00Senate Judiciary Committee: “Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar, who some Republicans had suggested might be willing to vote with them for certain nominees, wrote Mr. Bush asking him to withdraw all of the candidates Democrats blocked in the Senate during the president's first term”. There goes one of Specter’s two votes. Looks like he’s inching closer to having to drop those nukes he talked about. “[L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109817879542872992005-03-02T20:54:00.000-05:002005-03-02T22:27:38.303-05:00Iran:“Iran won't allow United Nations inspectors to revisit a military base where U.S. officials suspect it might have tested high-explosive components for a nuclear weapon”. I wonder why Iran feels so empowered, given the intense scrutiny given to this issue by the U.N.?In January, after months of public and private pressure, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors were allowed to visit L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109700766732863682005-03-01T06:35:00.000-05:002005-03-01T18:22:33.836-05:00Western Culture: I am getting a little bored with the American Spectator's shrill crusade against Million Dollar Baby. The Spectator's blockheadedness, which seeks to identify a 'liberal agenda' within films, is the equivalent in politics, not of McCarthyism, but of the laughable phallus-hunt and equivalent practices that characterized Freudian criticism. Yes, I hate the political opinions of L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109390508235482982005-02-25T22:53:00.000-05:002005-03-01T09:34:36.116-05:00Israel: "The explosion sent bodies sprawling on the street and covered the sidewalk with blood, body parts and debris. Cars were mangled and windows were blown out. Store signs came crashing down and wires dangled from buildings along the beachfront strip". What is new about this is that this is a message from Al-Aqsa to Abbas, not Sharon, and the target is not the Gaza withdrawal, but Abbas' L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109350859653780932005-02-25T06:54:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:01:40.090-05:00Judicial Committee: "Conservatives have been pressing for a so-called nuclear-option strategy under which Republicans would summon the 51 votes needed to change the decades-old Senate cloture rules to make it easier to end a filibuster. 'I prefer not to come to that bridge, and I'm certainly not going to jump off a bridge until I come to it', Mr. Specter said. 'I'm going to exercise every last L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109281739111052532005-02-24T20:23:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:01:24.893-05:00Iran: "'They were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn't enrich uranium', Mr. Bush said in a joint press conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder". It doesn't get any truer or simpler. As a direct result, it looks as if U.S. policy regarding North Korea is also being applied with consistency to Iran: if you break your agreements, you don't get any L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109187753788840672005-02-23T23:40:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:01:57.226-05:00Peru: Coca is "good for you". Guess we won't be seeing a Plan Peru anytime soon.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109181817685243482005-02-23T22:21:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:02:12.350-05:00Iraq: "[S]ome of the Mosul terrorists are Marxists, not Sunnis, not Baathists, and, at least at the leadership level, not even Iraqis. They are foreign, Christian Marxist killers". The idea here, breathlessly expressed, is that the terror networks are motivated first by hatred of America, not by Jihad, and that until we eliminate the "terror masters in Tehran, Damascus, and Riyadh" we can expect L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1109038040393529412005-02-21T21:01:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:02:25.633-05:00Europe: "As for European intellectuals, who command so much power in the media, universities and opinion-forming circles, they have done everything they possibly could to abuse America's initiative in Iraq and to prevent the installation of freedom. Some make it clear that they would much prefer Iraq to be run by men like Saddam than by American-backed democrats. Of course, intellectuals pay lip L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1108939375316720452005-02-20T23:31:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:02:42.543-05:00United Nations: "Indicating the secretary-general had decided it was time for him to go, Lubbers said, 'To be frank, and despite all my loyalty, insult has now been added to injury and therefore I resign as high commissioner'". Oh the injustice. Would it be Ruud of me to ask whether the U.N. appears to have a systemic problem in this regard, and I do not mean a problem with 'media pressure'?L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1108780415235224122005-02-18T22:58:00.000-05:002005-02-25T12:02:50.780-05:00Social Security Administration: "'I think it's important to recognize that the president has not embraced raising the cap as the way to deal with the shortfall in funding on Social Security', Snow added". Maybe, maybe not. But in any event it's the best solution currently on the table, despite the doubters. W sells raising the cap to the Dems (easily), and private accounts to the GOP. The hard L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1108784748663431992005-02-18T22:27:00.000-05:002005-02-23T15:58:42.846-05:00Epistemology and Ethics: "The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These “anti-realist” doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1097011685248658552004-10-05T17:25:00.000-04:002004-10-05T17:28:05.246-04:00Islam, via Yahoo News"Blessed be your hands," Umm Issa tells Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, nicknamed "prince of cutthroats" on Islamist websites for his beheading of foreign hostages in Iraq. Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who heads the Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, must be getting used to such messages of support from Muslim e-mailers. He is on track to overtake Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1096907760266198852004-10-04T13:34:00.000-04:002004-10-04T12:39:43.013-04:00The President, via The Chicago Sun-TimesIn his prebaked soundbite of the night, Kerry said: ''Well, you know, when I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?''
Interesting question. The play-by-play pundits thought it brilliant. But I beg to differ. It would have been a better line if he'd said,L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1096906591548749792004-10-04T13:14:00.000-04:002004-10-04T12:16:31.546-04:00Israel, via The Australian[T]he 22-member Arab League is planning to appeal to the UN for urgent action to halt Israel's "continuing war of extermination against the Palestinian people".
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the Israeli actions barbaric. "The rockets that Israel is talking about haven't killed anyone," he said. "They just make noise."L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1092326697003351962004-08-12T12:03:00.000-04:002004-08-12T12:05:42.766-04:00The President, via USA TodayVice President Dick Cheney ridiculed John Kerry's call for a "more sensitive" war on terror Thursday, saying it won't impress the Sept. 11 terrorists or the Islamic militants who have beheaded U.S. citizens.
"America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney told supporters in this swing state. "A L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1090881852846326532004-07-26T18:42:00.000-04:002004-07-26T18:45:01.273-04:00The President, via MSNBC Last October, explaining his vote against Bush’s request for $87 billion in funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kerry said, “We need a detailed plan, including fixed timetables and costs, for establishing civil, economic and political security in Iraq.”
But on Thursday night in Boston, Kerry is not likely to offer details, fixed timetables or costs. If he wereL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1088539461832821972004-06-29T16:03:00.000-04:002004-06-29T16:04:21.833-04:00The United Nations, via the Hudson ReviewI need only quote from an address made to the Security Council by Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari on December 16, 2003. Accusing the U.N. of failing to save Iraq from “a murderous tyranny,” Zebari said: “Today we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament to that failure. The United Nations must not fail the Iraqi people again.”L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1088537701604852032004-06-29T15:33:00.000-04:002004-06-29T15:35:01.603-04:00Politics, via SFGate.comHeadlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters -- some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend -- to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress.
"Many of L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1088431536163884482004-06-28T10:04:00.000-04:002004-06-28T10:27:45.663-04:00Iraq, via MSNBC[S]aid artist Qassim al-Sabti[:] “Of course I feel I’m still occupied. You can’t find anywhere in the world people who would accept occupation. America these days, is like death. Nobody can escape from it.”I have three words for you, Qassim. Go. Fuck. Yourself.
Maybe Qassim preferred life with the plastic shredders.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1087999552093111582004-06-23T10:03:00.000-04:002004-06-23T11:48:27.320-04:00Western Civilization, via The Wall Street JournalJust Like Stalingrad: If Bush is another Hitler, what words are left to describe Hitler?
According to Sidney Blumenthal, a onetime adviser to president Bill Clinton who now writes a column for Britain's Guardian newspaper, President Bush today runs "what is in effect a gulag," stretching "from prisons in Afghanistan to Iraq, from Guantanamo to L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1086541980427763002004-06-06T13:11:00.000-04:002004-06-06T13:14:05.470-04:00Western Civilization, via Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette.Ernest Lusebrink
Ernest Lusebrink was determined to see action on D-Day. He'd been told it would be the greatest show on earth.
But here he was at a hospital in England with an Army doctor telling him he'd have to stay behind because of a bum leg.
The previous evening, the feisty 23-year-old resident of Paintertown, Westmoreland County, and L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1084399359431333432004-05-12T18:01:00.000-04:002004-05-12T18:02:39.430-04:00Islamic Civilization, via Andrew Sullivan.How dumb is Al Qaeda? This is the really striking thing about the Zarqawi execution of Nick Berg. Al Qaeda never learns. Listening to the hooded coward shriek on that video and reading what he says can only remind us that these people are a) vile, b) as alien to true Islam as the KKK was to the Gospels, c) pathetic and d) dumb. They think they terrify us L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1083690242336922732004-05-04T13:04:00.000-04:002004-05-04T13:06:42.466-04:00Diplomacy, Iraq, via The Review.I have some pretty complicated feelings about the firestorm this has created.
[T]he whole gay aspect is kind of...odd. Now, I understand that Muslims are kinda fanatical when it comes to homosexuality, so there is an argument that this kind of humiliation has a special psychological undertone when used against Muslims.
But look, the explicitly homosexual nature L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1083001317181081522004-04-26T13:41:00.000-04:002004-04-26T13:48:18.670-04:00Western Civilization, via the Weekly Standard. If you read no other article this year in its entirety, read this one.The events of the past several months have cast doubt on a century of mostly bourgeoisophobe cultural pessimism. Somehow the firemen in New York and the passengers on Flight 93 behaved like heroes even though they no doubt lived in bourgeois homes, liked Oprah, shopped at Wal-Mart,L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-108153947041707082004-04-09T15:37:00.000-04:002004-04-09T15:40:36.360-04:00Iraq, via the Jerusalem Post.Moqtada al-Sadr told his followers last Friday, “I am the striking arm for Hizbullah and Hamas in Iraq because the fate of Iraq and Palestine is the same.”L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1081452432663464882004-04-08T15:27:00.000-04:002004-04-08T15:40:51.263-04:00Western Civilization, via Victor Davis Hanson. There is starting to be almost no point quoting anybody else.Out of all the recent chaos emerges one lesson: Appeasement of fundamentalists is not appreciated as magnanimity, but ridiculed as weakness and, in fact, encourages further killing. A shaken Spain elected a new government that promised to exit Iraq. In return, the terrorists planted more L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1081289685491571972004-04-06T18:14:00.000-04:002004-04-07T12:49:47.936-04:00Civilization, Western, via Mark Steyn"We're Sending You A Cluster Bomb From Jesus." I can't quite believe my old Loose Ends confrere Alistair Beaton has written a song by this name. But apparently so: Bush and Blair sing it in his new satire of the war on terror at the Birmingham Rep. Charles Spencer pronounced the show a stinker. "There is," he wrote, "one kind of laughter I loathe, and Follow L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1081187418655465152004-04-05T13:50:00.000-04:002004-04-05T14:02:32.793-04:00Diplomacy, Islamic Civilization, via Victor Davis HansonFlip through the newspaper and the stories are as depressing as they are monotonous: bombs in Spain; fiery clerics promising death in England, even as explosive devices are uncovered in France. In-between accounts of bombings in Iraq, we get the normal murdering in Israel, and daily assassination in Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Chechnya. L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1080403014547586762004-03-27T10:56:00.000-05:002004-03-27T10:59:43.013-05:00Diplomacy, United States, via MSNBC"Even now after Sept. 11, it is far from clear that our society truly appreciates the gravity of the threat we face or is yet willing to do what is necessary to counter it. ... After all, it is commonly noted, there have been no attacks since 9/11. This is a dangerous delusion. The enemy is not only coming, he has been here. He is already amongst us."
Former L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1080243207952281322004-03-25T14:33:00.000-05:002004-03-25T14:42:49.060-05:00Politics, Department of Defense, via the NY PostRarely has a former public servant with such a sterling reputation shot it all away so quickly.
For evidence of this, look no further than Clarke's August 2002 briefing for reporters while he was still at the National Security Council.
[I]f what Clarke said was true (and no one has contradicted it), why didn't he include it in his book?
A L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1080054158095477172004-03-23T10:02:00.000-05:002004-03-23T10:10:35.310-05:00Politics, Department of Defense, via (I never thought I'd be linking to this guy) Rush Limbaugh Question number 1: Mr. Clarke, the first time the Sudanese government offered bin Laden to the United States, exactly what advice did you give Bill Clinton?
Question number 2: Mr. Clarke, the second time the Sudanese government offered bin Laden to the United States, exactly what advice did you give L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1079983511949476262004-03-22T14:25:00.000-05:002004-03-22T14:30:21.983-05:00Diplomacy, Iraq, via Victor Davis HansonI just filled up and paid $2.19 a gallon. How can that be, when the war was undertaken to help us get our hands on "cheap" oil? Where is the mythical Afghan pipeline when we need it?
"No Blood for Oil" (never mind the people who drove upscale gas-guzzlers to the rallies at which they chanted such slogans) was supposed to respond to one of two L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069375861713249242003-11-20T19:51:00.000-05:002003-11-20T19:51:27.263-05:00Western Civilization, via The Daily TelegraphGeorge W Bush's Whitehall address yesterday represented the boldest challenge to the conventional wisdom of the British and European elites since Woodrow Wilson preached the rights of self-determination of smaller nations after the First World War.
A summary of that wisdom would go like this: (a) terrorism cannot be defeated in the long run, its L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069375124649937382003-11-20T19:38:00.000-05:002003-11-20T19:44:47.576-05:00Iraq, via Stephen F. HayesTHE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT late Saturday, November 15, issued a statement that began: "News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate."
The statement didn't specify the "inaccurate" news reports, but most observers have inferred L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069336987700221452003-11-20T09:03:00.000-05:002003-11-20T09:03:33.466-05:00Sports, via Charles P. PierceLen Bias would have been 40 years old in November had he not celebrated by putting the Cali Cartel up his nose on the very night in 1986 that he'd been drafted by the defending champion Boston Celtics. The tragedy was put to immediate use by a bipartisan passel of opportunistic hysterics led by then-Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, who demanded a tough new law to L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069114199384136172003-11-17T19:09:00.000-05:002003-11-17T19:11:35.936-05:00Israel/West Bank, via Soraya Sarhaddi NelsonRaped by her brothers and impregnated, Rofayda Qaoud refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the 17-year-old a razor with which to slit her wrists.
So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what she believes any good Palestinian parent would: restored her family's "honor" through murder.
Armed with a plastic bag, razor and L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069109983656509042003-11-17T17:59:00.000-05:002003-11-17T18:18:53.903-05:00Iraq, via Stephen F. HayesOsama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069108495186167812003-11-17T17:34:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:35:17.936-05:00NHL, via HockeyPunditsNo one here on The Hockey Pundits will argue the fact that the lack of scoring in the NHL today is hurting the game and detracting from the enjoyment of the fans. Unlike Gary Bettman, we don't think everything is hunky dory with the league. Fans are getting frustrated and their patience is running out. As a result, several ideas have floated around the media about how to L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1069107262880065112003-11-17T17:14:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:31:41.920-05:00Mutual Funds, via Marginal RevolutionIt's not market timing, not according to Mark Hulbert. He writes:Market timing, as the phrase has traditionally been used in the stock market, refers to shifting a portfolio from equities to cash in the hope of sidestepping a market decline, then moving back into the market in anticipation of a rally. There are many approaches to market timing; they vary L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1068954049702946522003-11-15T22:40:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:16:20.483-05:00Islamic Civilization, via CluelessLast year Lee Harris wrote an article called "al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology", which included the following:The terror attack of 9-11 was not designed to make us alter our policy, but was crafted for its effect on the terrorists themselves: It was a spectacular piece of theater. The targets were chosen by al Qaeda not through military calculation — in contrast, for L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1068838906059637402003-11-14T14:41:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:17:40.090-05:00The President, via Cynthia TuckerPerhaps nothing was more pathetic in the last Democratic debate (and much about it was pathetic) than the diminished status of John Kerry (news - web sites). The Massachusetts senator was left on the sidelines as other Dems aimed potshots at Howard Dean (news - web sites), who, according to his rivals, either impugned rural Southerners or cozied up to them, L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1068578695441705432003-11-11T14:24:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:19:57.013-05:00Pessimism, via God of the MachineThe sky is always falling. The "new philosophy" was putting "all in doubt" in the 17th century (Donne); "Chaos and dread Night" were descending in the 18th (Pope); "the demons [of unreason] were let loose upon the land" in the 19th (Robert Bridges). Today's featured blogger, one Porphyrogenitus, has found that it is impossible to persuade people with reason who L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1068568438112706872003-11-11T11:33:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:20:31.576-05:00Iraq, via Victor Davis Hanson[W]e must accept that Christians and secular Westerners will condemn an over-the-top comment by Jerry Falwell far more readily than a President Mubarak or Saudi prince will admonish the far worse ravings of the president of Malaysia — in the same manner Christian believers are more endangered in Islamic countries than their Muslim counterparts are endangered in EuropeL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1068567455112666382003-11-11T11:17:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:19:37.000-05:00Iraq, via Trojan HorseshoesSaddam Hussein's government is believed to have buried as many as 300,000 opponents in 263 mass graves that dot the Iraqi landscape, the top human rights official in the U.S.-led civilian administration said Saturday. Sandy Hodgkinson said the administration has been sending forensic teams to investigate those grave sites reported to U.S. officials. So far, the L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1067640639975274142003-10-31T17:50:00.000-05:002003-11-17T17:18:33.670-05:00Iraq, via Victor Davis HansonIt is possible to win a counterguerrilla war. The British did so in Malaya in the 1950s. The United States may succeed in doing so in Iraq today. It is far more difficult, however, to defeat the car bomb. It is on the car bomb, therefore, that the Saddam Hussein loyalists' hope for victory rides.
The guerrilla war in Iraq is wearing and painful for Americans. The L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066929462416948702003-10-23T13:17:00.000-04:002003-11-17T17:21:57.403-05:00Iraq, via VOA EditorialSix months ago, there were no police on duty in Iraq. Now there are more than forty-thousand. The first battalion of the new Iraqi army is on active duty. But Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator Paul Bremer says security remains an issue: “We certainly still have attacks on coalition forces coming largely from organized extremists. And there is certainly a problemL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066929240071301142003-10-23T13:14:00.000-04:002003-11-17T17:20:59.390-05:00Islamic Civilization, via John HughesEver so gently, the breezes of change - we can't yet call them "winds" - are rippling across hitherto repressed parts of the Islamic world:
• Saudi Arabia announced last week it will hold elections for municipal councils within a year - its first flirtation with real elections.
• In Morocco, King Mohammed VI outlined sweeping changes in polygamy, marriage, L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066433519734682882003-10-17T19:31:00.000-04:002003-11-17T17:26:22.763-05:00The President, via Tom CurryAlmost exactly a year ago, four of the nine Democratic presidential contenders voted for the congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to wage war against Iraq. Ever since, they’ve been haunted by that vote, because many rank-and-file Democrats are passionately opposed to the war. Now, with the impending vote on $87 billion to fund operations in Iraq and L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066433317483063502003-10-17T19:28:00.000-04:002003-11-17T17:30:20.826-05:00Department of the Army, via Bradley Graham and Dana MilbankA broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist. The survey, conducted by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066432565026089872003-10-17T19:16:00.000-04:002003-11-17T17:29:53.390-05:00Center for Disease Control, via Anita ManningLess than a year after President Bush announced a smallpox vaccination plan to protect Americans in the event of a terrorist attack, a fraction of the expected number of health workers have been immunized and the much ballyhooed program is dead in the water. Federal health officials say they're not ready to declare the program dead, but they readily L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1066432503630128692003-10-17T19:15:00.000-04:002003-10-23T13:27:13.760-04:00MalaysiaOct 17, 03. Malaysia's outspoken leader accused Western countries of using a double standard for criticizing Jews and Muslims, and refused to apologize Friday for a speech in which he said Jews ruled the world.MalaysiaOct 16, 03. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1065036736192619922003-10-01T15:32:00.000-04:002003-10-15T10:08:06.400-04:00Politics, Executive Branch, Executive Office of the President, Office of Political Affairs:
Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1063302447770043052003-09-11T13:47:00.000-04:002003-09-11T13:57:52.026-04:00Clipped from an article by Tom Junod:
THEY BEGAN JUMPING NOT LONG after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1061347189150980612003-08-19T22:39:00.000-04:002003-09-11T13:48:19.420-04:00The Baghdad and Western Wall bombings:
There are only two teams. You are either for us or against us. Want me to elaborate? You are either for civilization or for savagery. There is no in-between any more. You either are behind the crucible of civilization, culture, decency, or you are for death, vacuum, void. There are no more explanations, no more whining excuses.
We are no longer fooled by L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-1059188311152144292003-07-25T22:58:00.000-04:002003-09-11T13:58:48.300-04:00The always unassailable Victor Davis Hanson:
These are still perilous times. But if anyone on September 12, 2001, had predicted that 22 months later there would still be no repeat of 9/11; that bin Laden would be either quiet, dead, or in hiding; that al Qaeda would be dispersed, the Taliban gone, and the likes of a Mr. Karzai in Kabul; that Saddam Hussein would be out of power, his sons dead, L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001425692003-04-13T22:42:00.000-04:002003-04-14T08:36:49.000-04:00The purpose of the administration's current posturing with regard to Syria is not to immediately generate another conflict in the near future - the administration's concern is strategic, not tactical. The 3rd and 4th Divisions are going to have quite enough to do in the near future. The point is not to begin another crisis but to introduce a new vocabulary which can provide a discourse two years L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001356002003-04-11T19:10:00.000-04:002003-04-11T19:10:16.463-04:00Rumsfeld in 2008? Why not?L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001242872003-04-09T21:57:00.000-04:002003-04-09T22:26:00.000-04:00In fact, scratch that, it is over. The fact that the Firdos Square toppling of Saddam was seen, live, on Arab TV sets throughout the Islamic Civilization, will send shockwaves throughout the world. The regimes currently in power in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia will see their own populations dragging down their own statues. The game is, indeed, over, Mr. Ambassador, and not only L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001200282003-04-09T08:50:00.000-04:002003-04-09T08:50:01.913-04:00It is almost over. Baghdad residents are celebrating, looting, tearing down Saddam statues. Many pictures are coming from the older, eastern Shi'a area of the city. The remaining Iraqi forces which persist are fragile pockets. The long, slow process of clean-up and reconstruction has almost begun. Phase Two may be over in days, where I thought it might take months. The history of darkness in thatL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001036242003-04-06T00:42:00.000-05:002003-09-11T13:57:14.706-04:00The following is an excerpt from an essay, written by Bill Whittle and published on his weblog. It is quite simply the best piece of writing I have read on the current conflict so far. It deserves to be read in its entirety.
Here is what I personally believe:
I believe that after September 11th, 2001, the Bush Administration sat down and took a very cold and hard look at what was going on in L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2001034902003-04-05T23:40:00.000-05:002003-04-05T23:40:02.553-05:00And again, guilty as charged.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000997402003-04-04T19:34:00.000-05:002003-04-04T19:34:26.083-05:00Iraq is guilty as charged.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000943392003-04-03T20:49:00.000-05:002003-04-03T22:07:18.000-05:00Another reason why we are going to win this war.
“I don’t see how we could contribute to the reconstruction without the United Nations playing the key role,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel. I don't see how they could contribute to any discussion of the reconstruction of Iraq without Europe playing a key role in the war. They not only want to talk to us now, they want to make demands L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000889452003-04-02T22:24:00.000-05:002003-04-02T23:01:02.000-05:00Well, that answers that. Not only did we wipe the Baghdad and Medina divisions into history, we are being openly welcomed in An Najaf. Can't fake those kinds of pictures, peeps. At this point, part two of two begins - Baghdad. And part two was always going to be tougher than part one. It's going to be less glamorous, and may last longer. Chemical weapons may be used. But once we get done there, L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000831562003-04-01T22:05:00.000-05:002003-04-01T22:11:08.000-05:00If we define losing the war as becoming entrenched in a prolonged guerilla action, the war will be lost or won in the next 48 hours. These two days are crucial because U.S. air power is at stake. Our aircraft have reached a peak of frenzied activity. The question is whether or not our ordnance can dispose of the Medina armored division, and the Hammurabi mech infantry division and whatever other L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000708812003-03-30T22:49:00.000-05:002003-03-30T22:57:41.000-05:00We are beginning to see reports out of an anonymous town in Southern Iraq (obviously Umm Qasr), dubbed "Free Iraq" which has now demonstratively been liberated from the Ba'ath thugs and is being controlled by coalition forces. It hints at the amazing result that this war could actually achieve - the town elders smiled and stood to greet the MSNBC reporter, but were fearful that the Ba'ath Party L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000465152003-03-25T22:33:00.000-05:002003-03-25T22:33:58.333-05:00Basra: then again, maybe the media have really created something out of nothing. Welcome to the fog of war.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000464882003-03-25T22:30:00.000-05:002003-03-25T22:30:26.576-05:00If Basra really is rising up against the 51st Division we will have to exploit that situation to the fullest. If true, this situation is somewhat like a city in Nazi Germany rising up against the SS after years - decades - of brutal oppression. We must win the city, then immediately roll in humanitarian supplies.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000464642003-03-25T22:26:00.000-05:002003-03-25T22:28:05.000-05:00The government of Syria calls for the "the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and British invading troops from Iraqi territory."
Would that be "immediate" and "unconditional" as defined by Saddam's immediate and unconditional compliance with Res 1441? Hmmm?
Thanks Clueless.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000403752003-03-24T21:57:00.000-05:002003-03-24T22:18:54.000-05:00The war against the French has begun.
Thank LGF.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000311872003-03-23T00:33:00.000-05:002003-03-23T00:36:28.000-05:00What are the Palestine Liberation Front doing in Baghdad? Picking up the final batch of martyr checks?
Thank Jeneration.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000311372003-03-23T00:10:00.000-05:002003-03-23T00:12:43.000-05:00Two worlds collide.
Thanks LGF.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000311332003-03-23T00:07:00.000-05:002003-03-23T00:16:08.000-05:00There is great wisdom in acting for G-d's sake and refusing to act for any other reason. Once Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, was fighting on the battlefield with one of the most powerful champions of the enemy. He finally managed to strike the warrior's sword from his hand. As he raised his sword to take the enemy's life, the man spat in his Ali's face. Ali stopped and sheathed his sword. L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000311052003-03-22T23:57:00.000-05:002003-03-22T23:59:51.000-05:00Southern Iraq is basically under coalition control. The question now is - will the Republican Guard fight? If not, we can quickly divert forces to the north to deal with the Turkish problem. If so, the 3rd Infantry and its 7th Cavalry component will likely be engaged first, and we will have decisions to make.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000238792003-03-21T12:30:00.000-05:002003-03-21T12:30:49.210-05:00Shock and Awe is imminent. A massive wave of B-52s took off from the UK at 5am EST this morning. The Pentagon must figure ensuring a good result in Basra is more important than waiting until we've encircled Baghdad. The resistance so far has been this light presumably because enemy forces are all waiting for us around the capital.
In addition we probably just knocked out or captured any Scuds L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000205162003-03-20T22:03:00.000-05:002003-03-20T22:03:44.593-05:00A disturbing thought - why hasn't Saddam fired his Scuds into Israel yet? It is possible we got them all already? Or is it possible we haven't got any of them already and Saddam figured he has more time till they start getting destroyed?
The short-term key for the future is Basra. What are the Shiites going to do when we show up?
Also - why has the ground war started before Shock and Awe? We L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000141572003-03-19T23:12:00.000-05:002003-03-19T23:12:57.336-05:00This is why we are going to win this war.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000141442003-03-19T23:10:00.000-05:002003-03-23T00:20:23.000-05:00War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-2000141072003-03-19T23:01:00.000-05:002003-03-19T23:04:23.000-05:00F-117s and cruise missiles are striking Baghdad. More importantly, British special forces and U.S. Marines are engaged in Basra, which is the first stage of the ground war. It is pretty much the only point of entry into Iraq for amphibious assault.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-3903266432003-02-14T23:40:00.000-05:002003-02-15T00:08:29.000-05:00IRAQ: Those who believe that the "air war" which will begin Gulf II will be a general bombardment against Saddam's general infrastructure have some news - such a war has already, to an extent, begun. U.S. and British forces have expanded their airstrikes and are no longer merely attacking surface-to-air missiles, but have begun to attack surface-to-surface missiles. What can the purpose of these L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-903004332003-02-09T23:09:00.000-05:002003-02-09T23:52:02.000-05:00IRAQ: This is the first time I've differed with Clueless for a while. He is essentially worried about the Franco-German plan, entitled "Mirage". I am not. I think I may have a somewhat different view at this point of the relevance of France and Germany on the world stage, or even on the European stage. Let me put it this way: the U.S. doesn't have to shout down this plan. The game is over. It L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-902893892003-02-06T22:25:00.000-05:002003-02-06T23:01:57.000-05:00IRAQ: Scrappleface is brilliant. Why hasn't this individual become a superstar yet? He or she is like an amateur Onion, but maybe even funnier. Yes, Saddam is facing his Eleventh Hour. Or, according to Blix, his final five minutes. If even Blix is using doomsday language, it just means at this point the UN doesn't give a shit about their anti-war stance any more: they just want to cover their L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-902214222003-01-22T20:45:00.000-05:002003-02-07T20:10:48.000-05:00The UN Circus
Iraq: Why are we going to war with Iraq? Not because the inspectors can't find WMD that we think exists. It's simply because "[t]he onus of proof doesn't lie with the UN to prove that Iraq has WMD by finding them. The onus lies with Iraq to prove that they have destroyed their WMD stocks and capabilities in a verifiable manner". That they haven't done. What is the evidence of L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-902117232003-01-21T00:07:00.000-05:002003-01-22T22:19:08.000-05:00Bakke to the Future
Does the following make sense?
Racial profiling helps fight the war against crime. Racial preference expands post-secondary educational opportunity. The first uses race against Blacks. The second uses race to favor Blacks. But, isn't racial preference in college admission just one more example of racial profiling?
If using race against Blacks is wrong in racial profiling byL8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-901941352003-01-16T14:01:00.000-05:002003-01-16T14:28:27.000-05:00IRAQ: Inspectors have found unaccounted-for empty chemical weapons warheads today in a storage area. As Sullivan points out, there ya go - material breach. Given the fact that mustard gas shells have also already been discovered, what part of material breach does the UN not understand? Hell, even Blix is now saying Iraq violated the UN import ban on missile parts. Will this news make one whit of L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-3901910002003-01-16T00:21:00.000-05:002003-01-16T00:23:04.000-05:00NORTH KOREA: Clueless believes that what they really want is oil. Certain stories seem to corroborate this:
Last month, North Korea began reviving its main nuclear complex, frozen since a 1994 agreement with the United States, and threw out IAEA inspectors, who were in place to ensure it was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Experts say the complex can produce weapons-grade plutonium that L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-901807372003-01-13T23:04:00.000-05:002003-01-15T21:49:12.000-05:00ISRAEL: Sunday's death toll was 22. The recent suicide bomb attacks by Palestinian terrorists have virtually guaranteed Likud's success at the elections which are weeks away now. Clueless speculates that the recent attacks simply prove that the Palestinian leadership factions are seeking to establish post-Arafat prestige with the Palestinian street. It does seem slightly pointless otherwise at L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-901806282003-01-13T22:30:00.000-05:002003-01-14T10:27:12.000-05:00NHL: Two teams have filed for bankruptcy in two weeks. Bettman is claiming this is a good thing for the league in the long run since it may increase league supervision of team finances. Hey, if it's one step towards a salary cap and profit sharing, it's fine by me. Hell there are several other teams out there who need to "cleanse their assets". Speaking of cleansing assets, Hockey Pundits L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-901576352003-01-08T09:20:00.000-05:002003-01-13T22:27:44.000-05:00I'll be back for a while. Got the blog itch again.
NORTH KOREA: So North Korea looks like it bullied us around the negotiating table after all, huh? What really gets me are the South Koreans and Japanese who did pretty much the same thing. And yet Roh is going to take office presently and launch his anti-American policies. And the Japanese aren't exactly our bosom buddies at this point either. L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-856987952002-11-20T21:36:00.000-05:002002-11-20T21:36:13.613-05:00Haven't been posting for a while. Weblogging was fun for a while, but may be losing its appeal. I may have to think about a different format, or topic. I find that blogging is kind of like channel-surfing - you surf the web and turn everything good you see into a little interesting sound-bite. So I may take a break for a while. There are more interesting things in the world for a while then L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-856575232002-11-09T11:03:00.000-05:002002-11-10T13:32:55.000-05:00Rhetorical QuestionsDespite overwhelmingly bad economic conditions which are affecting unemployment and job security throughout our nation, U.S. citizens decided on November 5th that our foreign affairs were even more emergent. This election was a clear signal to the world that their views have become increasingly irrelevant. It is we who will determine the proper way to respond to the threat L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757206.post-856565592002-11-08T23:23:00.000-05:002002-11-08T23:23:53.000-05:00Another classic.L8rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16083374385238601752noreply@blogger.com