cut on the bias

A true hero

If you want to know what a true hero is, read about this one at Sgt. Stryker's.

Here's a little of what he went through:

Every time the plane showed up and you could hear them, we weren't being shot at. Just having the planes nearby kept the enemy away. Continuously dropping bombs discouraged them from coming after us. So every now and again, we would drop bombs on them with B52s, B-1s, those were the last aircraft we had. I cannot remember which one.

I was watching our medic, he was a part of the second team, as he was working on the PJ. I saw him doing CPR on the PJ and I knew it was bad. I then saw the medic stand up, look over at me, and start walking to me. That is when I got on the radio to Controller and told him that we now have seven KIA.

The whole fifteen and one half hours we were on the ground I was fighting, talking on the radio, or telling CCT what to call in. I shot a total of 420 rounds during the fifteen and one half hours.

Read it, and remember it every time you hear about our soldiers in a fire fight. And pray they make it out alive.

WSJ solicited letter from EU countries

Or so says Jesus Gil at Ibidem, citing Spanish newspapers. Looks likely, from what he says, and since he's in Madrid, Spain, I'm thinking he has more inside scoop than most of us. That doesn't mean the sentiments aren't real - there's no indication that the WSJ dictated the contents. JG's discussion of the situation and its implications is fascinating.

And he also asks a pretty good question: Should the WSJ be in the business of mucking about so directly in world affairs? I guess planting seeds is not improper, when it's an opinion piece, but if it went beyond that... I'm not happy. I'd like to know more details.

Deconstructing a shrill anti-Bushite

John Rosenberg at Discriminations masterfully deconstructs an article by one of the NAACP attorneys representing minorities in the University of Michigan affirmative action case - an article where she attacks Bush rather than making a case for her, well, case. Worth your time.

The right ANSWER

Ombudsgod explores the probable truth behind the numbers reported for recent protest marches. It's highly enlightening, and a good example of how bias can be injected into the news media through manipulation of facts by their sources. It's a serious problem, and one that should be anticipated by the news agencies with plans for ways to obtain neutral assessments rather than reliance on those with clear investments in the portrayal. The extreme version of this is clear in an excerpt from an article in The Nation that Ombudsgod quotes. A reporter is being pressured to report a march (not the most recent one) at 150,000, even though she estimated it at about 50,000-75,000; here's ANSWER's response:

"It's not about accuracy. It's about politics. It's not about counting," said ANSWER's Tony Murphy condescendingly. "It's us against them. [The pro-Israel] demonstrators had 100,000 here last week."

And there you go.

Ombudsgod has a number of other excellent posts, including taking a flagrantly anti-Bush ombudsman to task and finding a conservative bias against the use of Ritalin.

Schooling in bias

I get regular email updates from The Daily Targum, which is the Rutgers-New Brunswick student newspaper. I generally don't look at it, and the few times I have I've noticed a distinct liberal slant. I did go this week, because they highlighted an article on the State of the Union. And it was actually pretty funny.

Here's the full text - I'm not sure if you have to sign in to get it:

Experts question calls for war By Carmen Cusido, Staff Writer

U.S. President George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, discussing domestic and international issues, but focused heavily on his justifications for military action in Iraq -- action that may Americans see as excessive.

Bush also discussed the possibility of war with Iraq, saying [Saddam Hussein] is not disarming, but rather deceiving the international community seeking the elimination of Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, according to the Fox News Web site.

Bush said Iraq, Iran and North Korea threaten not only peace internationally, but their leaders are threats to their own people, according to a prepared statement.

The associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics on Douglass campus, John Weingart, said the president's two goals are "to convince Iraq that he wants to go to war and the secondary goal is to convince the American public to be supportive of the decision."

"Everyone pretty much agrees that Saddam engages in practices that are dangerous," Weingart said.

Jan Kubik, a University professor of political science, said, "We have not seen proof [of weapons] yet. On the other hand, it is a bit foolish to think that such proof is easy to obtain."

Kubik said Iraq is an indirect threat to the world's peace and stability and that "may be even worse."

David Abraham, a professor at the University of Miami Law School said, "Bush's [war] rhetoric intended to obscure his failure as a leader in diplomatic and military areas."

Abraham said, "Osama is still alive. The anthrax terrorists are still on the loose. Our best friends the South Koreans and the Germans are turning against us and North Korea gets away with what they want."

Yes, yes, it's obviously written by a student. Let's move beyond that. Notice the headline: "Experts question calls for war". Now look at summaries of the actual quotes from the "experts" at Rutgers:

Weingart: Bush's goals were to convince Iraq he's ready for war, and get the US behind it. He also says everyone knows Saddam's actions are dangerous.

Kubik: No proof of WMD yet, but it's tough to find. Iraq is at least an indirect threat to world stability, and maybe more.

Hmmm... no reason for that headline yet, is there? Nor even that little comment in the lead graph: "...action that ma[n]y Americans see as excessive." So where does that come from? Maybe from the quote from a professor in Miami - and we're given zero reason as to why they went to him. Who is he? Why two quotes from Rutgers professors and then one from a professor thousands of miles away with no apparent connection to anything Rutgers, New Jersey or evident expertise in presidential politics? Could it be because he said what they wanted to include? He was their dissenting voice? I can't say, I wasn't there. But it is fairly bizarre.

I'm calling it bias. Any dissent?

Sore loser

Bruce Kluger has a piece in the USA Today op/ed section that trashes Fox News, most specifically Bill O'Reilly, while lauding Phil Donahue to the heavens. It's so thoroughly lacking in reasonable specifics that it's almost funny. But not quite. His basic premise is that the kind of "genuine, affable, well mannered and well informed" host that Phil Donahue is no longer is appreciated by an audience who now has a taste for gratuitous mean-spiritedness - which Bill O'Reilly represents. He's crying because Donahue's show has tanked in the ratings, and that is his excuse: It's not that people have caught on to Donahue's sugar-coated leftism, it's that they've all gone stupid and hateful.

The piece reveals a few important insights, but not the ones Kluger means to reveal. You learn this about Kluger: He's a liberal. He's against the war in Iraq. He doesn't trust the American people. He thinks they're meanspirited and stupid. He thinks asking hard questions of liberals and not letting them dodge them is mean. And he thinks holding 9/11 charities accountable for how they spent the millions in donations they received while this country's heart was newly bleeding is just wicked.

Did I mention that Kluger also writes for National Public Radio? Everyone who finds this surprising, raise your hand. Hmmm... I see no hands. Shocking.

I don't particularly care for Bill O'Reilly, mainly because I find him smug and humorless. But from what I've seen and heard, he does go after issues with an intensity and bull-dog tenacity that is often sorely needed. Phil Donahue goes after issues too, but his tools are belittling and superiority, rather than butting heads with people he considers equals. An interesting thing about Kluger's column is that he actually emphasizes this elitism vs. O'Reilly's populism, and finds it to be a good thing. And this is a man who fits right in with NPR.

I found out about this piece from CPO Sparkey, who detests Phil Donahue for a very specific reason. He even traces his conservative political views to a day when he was nine, home from school and listening to Donahue affably discuss a topic close to Sparkey's heart - and skewing his approach to heavily favor the liberal agenda. It's a good vignette to show the kind of damage a Phil Donahue can - and does - do. I don't think a show like Bill O'Reilly's would have the same effect.

And one last note about Kluger. His whole whiny rant is about the meanspiritedness of modern cable news channels, and even the reality shows. And in the midst of that, he says this:

The chances of any TV executive pulling the plug on a ratings champ — or keeping a runner-up on the air — are about as likely as Greta Van Susteren's old face suddenly reappearing.

Now, if that's not gratuitous meanspiritedness - directed at one specific person too, which IMHO makes it worse - then I don't know what gratuitous meanspiritedness is. I guess it's okay if the liberals do it.

OH PLEASE!!

Nelson Mandela needs a firm smack with a clue bat:

Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Thursday accused President Bush of planning a "holocaust" with his Iraq policy, and said U.S. and U.K. leaders were undermining the United Nations because it was headed by a black man.

That's right. If Kofi were a white guy, why, we'd be lifting the sanctions on Iraq and feting Saddam in the streets of New York City! We'd be giving him the keys to the nation in a White House ceremony! We'd be lapping up the UN's edicts like fudge sauce on a sundae! But noooooo.... because Kofi is black, we're going to mobilize our military at the cost of billions of dollars and invade a country half a world away!

And get a load of this:

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said the United States itself had been guilty of atrocities in Japan when it had used the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

"If there is a country which has committed unspeakable atrocities, it is the United States of America," Mandela said. "They don't care for human beings."

No, no, we care naught for the world. We're vicious slavering warmongers who rape the world to fill our coffers, nary a dime crossing our borders the other wa... oh. We seek only our own good, we never make any attempt to help othe... oh. Wait a minute. Is Nelson Mandela living in an alternate universe?

Either that or he's so soaked in white-hate that he has lost all relevance as a world leader.

[Link from Bryan Preston]

Why are fewer doctors performing abortions?

It has something to do with this:

MedPundit Sydney Smith tell us why in her TechCentralStation column today.

UPDATE: Sydney also posts about an exhibit with MRI and CT scans of a fetus at conception (an egg surrounded by sperm), 44 days and 56 days. Stunning.

For some reason the one of the egg and sperm made me laugh. Maybe it was because of all the evident frenetic activity around this calm sphere. Kinda like a bar full of men when a really hot babe comes strolling in alone. "Me me me me me me me...!!"

Bias roundup

And here we go for today:

Just another world leader

Juan Gato gets testy about this article on Fidel Castro, which he says is:

...just another normalization of a tyrant article.

You mean he isn't a fine and altruistic kinda guy? I'm crushed. It can't be that the writer saw Fidel through his own lens, could it?

More later, probably.

I don't think I could sit through this movie, even with popcorn

Mike at Cold Fury is a talented man.

Sometimes that talent runs wildly amuck.

Today... well, today was one of those days.

Just look.

(Not for the faint of sensibilities, or any anti-Americans)

How Frodo, France and Germany are connected

It's all in Dave Barry's column, which is a Cliff Notes version of the LOTR II script.

Here's the evidence:

(Scene 5)

FRODO: How come, if I'm the protagonist, Lord Aragorn has TWO love interests, and I'm stuck in a subplot with Dick Cheney?

GOLLUM: Maybe it's because your big hairy feet make you look like you're wearing a pair of dead weasels.

It gets even weirder. Seriously. Okay, maybe it isn't France and Germany, they aren't dead. Yet. Perhaps it is their ancestors. Huh.

Run Kofi out of town

George Jonas in the National Post gives more strength to the argument (which I discussed earlier) that the UN has to go:

It's been alleged that the choice of "going the UN route" was urged on the Bush Cabinet by Secretary of State Colin Powell against the objections of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Be that as it may, it turned out to be the wrong choice. UN weapons inspector Hans Blix's report this week -- concluding that Iraq still hasn't shown "genuine acceptance" of the demand to disarm -- was too little, too late. While in September the President had overwhelming support for his call that the United Nations "fulfill its promise in our time" by authorizing military action if Saddam fails to disarm, within months the UN support dissipated, carrying with it much of the support for Mr. Bush's policy even at home. Far from enhancing the mission of challenging tyrants who threaten the world's peace, the UN subverted it. The momentum was lost; the task of dealing with Saddam became harder. In September, Mr. Bush could have confronted Saddam with a support of 81% of Americans if Iraq failed to co-operate with UN inspectors. Today he may have to do it with the support of about 52%.

And here's the closer:

As a bastion of multilateralism, the UN has become a menace -- a menace, above all, to its own original principles. By now, the institution's main role is to enable dysfunctional dictatorships to punch above their weight. Still, people who have high regard for the ideals that brought the UN into being continue to be on the lookout for saving graces. Some argue that the UN is a worthwhile institution, only it has been "hijacked" by coalitions of dictators, hate-mongers and their appeasers.

True as this may be, it's meaningless. It's like saying that Islam is a peaceful religion, only it has been "hijacked" by Wahhabi sheiks, theocratic ayatollahs, and followers of Osama bin Laden. The point about a hijacked entity, whether it's a commercial jet, a great religion, or an international institution like the UN, is that once it has been diverted, it's under the hijackers' command. At this stage, regardless of its benevolent origins, regardless of its innocent passengers and crew, it becomes an instrument of destruction. A hijacked airliner is a missile on its way to the Twin Towers. If it can't be rescued from its hijackers, it must be shot down.

The same goes for a hijacked institution. Irrespective of what action Mr. Bush contemplates against Saddam, America should cut itself loose from the United Nations. It should withdraw from the world body, then offer Kofi Annan and his cohorts a generous period -- say, six months -- to get out of town.

Amen and amen. There's nothing I can add.

[Thanks for the link go to Capt. J.M. Heinrichs, who is a strong reminder that Canada is our friend, even though the government there is friend to neither the US or its own citizens]

A caricature of reality

Former US ambassador to South Korea Don Gregg writes this in the Feb. 3 issue of Newsweek:

KIM JONG IL of North Korea is now being subjected to the same ridicule that we applied to Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam for years. We now see “Uncle Ho” as a man who was not necessarily our enemy—but that perspective came too late to avoid war and its tragic consequences. As we did with Ho, we are now filling in the gaps of our knowledge about Kim with prejudice.

Let’s face it: Chairman Kim is easy to caricature. And no one should entertain any illusions about the horrendous human costs the system over which he presides exacts from the people of North Korea, many of whom don’t have enough food to survive the winter. At the same time, I believe it is counterproductive to treat Kim in a derisive or disdainful manner. For all his defects, he demonstrates a willingness to learn from neighboring countries’ economic policies and to differentiate his rule from that of his father, Kim Il Sung.

The middle of the column is filled with kiss-ass quotes about how he has talked to the Chinese and Russians concerning the ways Kim has admired their systems and ostensibly seeks to improve things similarly in North Korea. He even tosses in a quote from that Bastion of Foreign Relations, Madelene Albright. Then he closes with this:

So how are we to deal with this man, who stands staring at us, surrounded by the horrid detritus of 50 years of dictatorial rule? Are we to believe that he embodies hope for a new and different North Korea? Now we are filled with legitimate doubts, but reasonable certainty about Kim’s potential cannot be reached through ridicule. We need to talk to him and to test him. Only then will we know what Kim Jong Il represents for the future of Korean-American relations.

That's right. We need to "talk" to him and "test" him. Guess what Gregg doesn't mention? Nuclear weapons! Just a small omission, that Kim's regime serves as an active threat to rain radioactive destruction on whomever they wish if the Western world doesn't accede to his blackmail demands. Please, don't ridicule him! He has sensitive feelings, and he's talking to Russia (while driving through the country in an extravagant custom-outfitted train as his citizens literally starve to death) and to China! Can't you see how valuable an ally he could be? And...and...he's not his daddy, he isn't nearly as mean!

Somehow, I don't think destroying the lives of, say, only 500,000 people as opposed to a million people with your deliberately evil policies is reason for dancing in the streets. But for Gregg, I suppose it is.

This column is such noxious liberal twaddle that it boggles the mind. And what's Gregg's current interest? Why, he's the chairman of The Korea Society, which is an organization dedicated to making connections between Korean and American businesses and culture. Surprisingly (at least to me, after reading this column), he was the ambassador to South Korea during Bush I's administration, and Bush I is on the Advisory Council to the Korea Society. So I don't quite get what he's up to here. But whatever it is, he's wrong. And needs to be called on it.

NOTE TO SELF: Do not use public restrooms in Britain

Oh, yeah, that's not public:

A new offence of sexual activity in a public place, carrying a maximum jail term of six months, was proposed in legislation published by the Government yesterday.

For the first time, the law would define the circumstances in which sex in public could happen. The new offence would rely upon whether the activity was witnessed and the couple was reckless about being seen...

Hilary Benn, the Home Office minister, said homosexuals meeting in a public lavatory would avoid prosecution provided the participants were not seen.

"If the cubicle door was open then clearly an offence was committed. If it's closed, it's different," he said.

"No one wants to be an unwitting spectator to other people having sex in a public place. At the same time it's not intended to catch activity which takes place in private, which is no business of anybody."

You know, I have no problem with people adding a little adventure to their lives by taking it on the road. As a matter of fact, I'd actively encourage it as long as I don't have to see or hear it. However, and I hate to break this to Mr. Benn, who apparently has been celibate from birth, has seen no racy movies or even talked to his buddies in the locker room, but two people going at it in a bathroom stall, even with the door closed, are not going to be unobtrusive. Mr. Benn, there are sounds. And those aren't sounds I want to hear when I open the bathroom door, even if I can't see anything more than four feet in the same stall. I assure you that few if any men of my acquaintance would find it unobtrusive either.

It's one thing to leave something out of the books altogether - to keep silence about people out for a little playtime in the public loos. That gives the proprietor the ability to say, "Not in my restrooms, you aren't!" and send them on down the road. It's another altogether to explicitly identify public restrooms as permissible places to get it on. You just gave irresponsible homosexual activity* legal protection. Now isn't that a fine idea!

I think the next wave of illegal aliens will be Brits frantic to escape their country gone mad. What idiots!

UPDATE: My friend Melody made a good point - what about children? Do you think a five-year-old isn't going to a) want to know what's going on and b) talk about it loudly and c) likely crawl under the door to find out? It's just ... well, you get the picture. Unfortunately probably in too great a mental detail.

* Since public restrooms are still, for the most part, single sex, most sex in the restrooms is going to be homosexual. And while married people (or committed partners) may occasionally take it to a semi-public place to add a little spice, the majority of those who have intercourse in restrooms are going to be engaging in opportunistic sexual promiscuity (and that includes heterosexual loo-lovers). Regardless of your stance on homosexuality, you have to admit that this encourages the very kind of behavior that is most likely to lead to the spread of AIDS. Reason bows again to political correctness.

Who we have to thank

This is who we have to thank, and this is why we will win the war with Iraq.

I couldn't be more proud.

UPDATE: I can't get the link to work the usual way. It's a 4:39 min video by the Navy and Marines, and this is the link: www.usmc.mil/videos/ef.asf. Apparently you'll have to cut and paste. Sorry to be so inept.

Mutation

A caller to the Curtis & Kuby show on WABC 770 just said that he thinks the reason Bush wants to help with the AIDS crisis in Africa is...

......(wait for it).....

oiiilllllllllllll.....!!!!

It's a mutant meme, taking over the world, eating up all actions in its path!!!

NPR for President

Scrappleface has the inside scoop on the candidate(s) most likely to succeed as the 2004 Democrat candidate for president.

Can you begin to imagine what a fundraiser with them would be? "And for donations to our presidential campaign in the $1,000 range, we have the mug of Daniel Schorr AND the embossed leather program guide AND a CD of the "Give Peace A Chance" compilation put together by the great humanitarian Barbra Streisand. If you donate in the next 30 minutes, Ben & Jerry's will match your donation..." Talk about good theater.

It's a woman thing

Bigwig has a funny post on men doing housework; the perfect complement to it is Deb's comment on the post. The main point is - men and women approach things differently, in most cases, and expecting that to change isn't going to take you far. I remember growing up that when I washed the dishes, my mom taught me you weren't done until you washed down the sink, including behind the faucet, wiped down the countertops, put away all the extraneous things on the counters and swept the floor. Now my dad is the Chief Dishwasher, and yes, my mom complains to me about it sometimes. "He'll do the dishes and not even see the crumbs on the countertops! I don't know how he can miss them!" she'll say. But Bigwig excerpts an Atlantic article that explains it:

What we've learned during this thirty-year grand experiment is that men can be cajoled into doing all sorts of household tasks, but they will not do them the way a woman would. They will bathe the children, but they will not straighten the bath mat and wring out the washcloths; they will drop a toddler off at nursery school, but they won't spend ten minutes chatting with the teacher and collecting the art projects. They will, in other words, do what men have always done: reduce a job to its simplest essentials and utterly ignore the fillips and niceties that women tend to regard as equally essential. And a lot of women feel cheated and angry and even—bless their hearts—surprised about this.

Very funny. Bigwig adds his own twists, including his general "not getting" the whole card thing. But he's adjusted:

In my world, cards were pathetic substitutes for presents. In my wife's world, cards were required, regardless of present presence. She thought I was uncaring. I thought she was insane.

I still think she's insane, but after several special days were rendered slightly less special by my inability to remember to buy a card, I said the hell with it and bought 5 years of special day cards.

Read the whole thing.

Confirming UN's irrelevance

Bryan Preston thinks the UN is defunct, and finds encouragement in the support for the US shown by eight European countries standing in solidarity while Germany and France go off the diplomatic cliff. And he also thinks another international body will succeed the UN. I'm not sure how all that would come to pass. I think it needs to, and the countries he identifies as the main players in a new world order look right to me. But the UN has such a monolithic political presence worldwide that it would be difficult to dismantle. So many countries have used it as their only source of international influence that they will fight its demise long after the rotted corpse is nothing more than pocked bones. If the UN dies, it will take a long long time, and it will be very painful. And that's sad because it will only confirm what we know already to be true: the UN is not about improving the world, but rather about brokering influence to improve the internal interests of member nations.

Maybe the US could shoot it in the head by withdrawing its funding and kicking it out of the country, reforming a new organization with the collaboration of the countries Bryan mentions, and the other allies the US has. Only that kind of aggressive action will prevent the slow death of the bloated irrelevant organization. Japan has already said that it will soon cut its financial support in half, and they are the second largest source of support.

It needs to happen. I just wonder when, and how, and whether it will try to take down as many others as it can in its death throes.

and now for something stupid

Okay, Juan Gato says this is the stupidest thing he's seen all day. While I agree it's way stupid, it's so stupid that it's funny. Requires sound.

The big questions to me are: Who? And why?

You have to seriously worry about the mind from whence this came...

(I think Laurence will like it.)

UPDATE: This is so wrong, on so many levels. But it does explain why Spoons quit blogging. The burning question, though, is does it explain why we've never seen a photo of Laura?!

I mean, if 30 seconds could do ... what it did, and a minute did... what it did, can you imagine what a long kiss would do? I don't even want to contemplate it. Much less... baby spoons.

I'm going to get offline now so I can curl into a ball of misery in a corner and keen. It's all too much.

Paging anti-Americans

Here's what people truly in need in the world think about things:

Demonstrators take part in a protest near the American embassy in Abidjan, January 28, 2003. Young supporters of president Laurent Gbagbo called for American support for their country and denounced France, its former colonial ruler, for brokering a recent peace initiative in the four-month civil war. The protests in the Ivory Coast capital underlined the problems facing the power-sharing deal agreed by Gabgbo to end the war that has split the world's top cocoa producer along ethnic lines. Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters

Instapundit notes that France is in trouble with this, as a peace they brokered has imploded. I hope for the sake of The Ivory Coast that things improve soon, and that it serves as a wake-up call to the French. I'd say (a) will happen before (b). Also, we need to see large 11x17 prints of this to Babs, Sean, Janeane and, um, that guy in Germany.

A new meme!

I just heard The Carpet Kitten on Sean Hannity's radio show suggest this for a term for the Hollywood idiotarians:

The Asses of Evil

I'm liking it!

A fisk from down under

A brainless twit of an Australian Democrat has ennumerated 10 Reasons To Be Un-American. Fortunately, Whacking Day was right there to thoroughly and righteously fisk his countrywoman. And you have to love any fisk that says this:

The UN: the geopolitical equivalent of being slapped in the face with a wet lettuce.

Just a thing of beauty.

Go. Read. Now.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities is hanging it's hat up at Ipse Dixit this week. Dodd's done a great job of setting up teasers for each post, and it sounds like an excellent mix. Fifty this week! CotV is one of the best ways to discover new blogs, or get to something you may have missed this past week. So head on over and browse.

This is too funny

I know it wasn't meant to be funny, and if I were Michele and Laurence I'd find it quite annoying, but Aaron at Uppity Negro asks in rather... harsh language for both of them to remove their links to him.

I guess he meant the "uppity" part. As far as I know he's also "negro", but apparently not one with a momma who taught him manners. I got this mental image of some vicious, petty, pouty little arrogant potentate waving his hand dismissively at his minions saying, "Make it go away!" in a whiny little voice. If I used that kind of language, I'd call him that thing you do with a needle to make a balloon burst.

Michelle, Lair, love you guys! Be sure to print out his post, it's good for a laugh.

UPDATE: Is it a troll? You tell me - this showed up in my referer log.

Better do it soon

Theosebes links an article saying that satellite photos are allowing archaelogists to map the ancient Middle Eastern roads probably taken by Abraham and his historical contemporaries, which is very cool.

In his comments, I noted that they'd better map fast.

The ancient roads are in modern-day Iraq.

What will Powell say?

According to The (UK) Guardian, here's one of the things Colin Powell will bring to the UN to bolster the case against Iraq next week:

Mr Powell is expected to produce aerial photographs as evidence that Iraq has been hiding its weapons pro grammes from UN inspectors. These will show activity at suspect sites just before the inspectors' arrival, and will be part of the evidence the White House is in the process of declassifying.

They also have an interesting quote from Karen Hughes:

Karen Hughes, a close adviser to Mr Bush, said: "There is a significant body of evidence _ that shows that Saddam and members of his security forces are engaged in ongoing deception, sanitising sites, moving materials, destroying documents, in advance of the inspectors coming in."

That's strong evidence, it seems to me. I've heard a little about it, but not that part about the photos. Did I just miss it in the other media?

I could learn to like Tony Blair

Tony Blair says we gonna nail Saddam and move on to North Korea next.

Not bad, for a Brit.

But officer, I just forgot!

The student government president at the University of Kentucky has been indicted by a grand jury for failing to return completed voter registration cards last fall.

Did I mention he's in law school at UK? This is really gonna cut into his chances to clerk at the US Supreme Court.

A Fayette County grand jury indicted the University of Kentucky's student government president yesterday for willfully failing to return voter registration cards to the county clerk's office.

Tim G. Robinson, a law student at UK, faces a Class D felony with a potential penalty of one to five years in prison.

Last year, Robinson initiated a voter-registration drive at UK, mostly aimed at ousting city council candidate Dick DeCamp, who supported a plan to curb student partying. Robinson told city council members he had registered 800 students.

But according to student government representatives and the grand jury report, 747 completed cards were found in the SGA office.

DeCamp beat Don Pratt by fewer than 400 votes in the November election, but Pratt has said he won't challenge the results.

But... but officer! I just forgot to turn them in after launching a huge campaign to register people!

Maybe his goal in registering people gives us a clue as to why he "forgot" - DeCamp wants to curb partying at the school. So was Robinson "partying" so hard he got amnesia about the cards? We won't know until it goes on trial.

I lived in Lexington for six years, and I can sympathize with the people who live near UK. Students love to live within walking distance, so the areas around the school have been increasingly taken over by students as the enrollment at UK expands. Of course the students are out from under parental supervision for the first time, and partying is first on their mind. It's Animal House all the time. They'll throw huge parties with dozens in attendance (although probably not that many all at one time), pouring out into the streets and puking on the sidewalks. The next morning, as the bleary eyed neighbors get up at 6 a.m. to go to work, the students are sleeping off a drunk and skipping their morning classes, leaving couches and beer cans and the insides of their stomachs all over the front yard of the party house. Not all the parties are that way, but a lot of them are different only on a matter of scale.

Do I think they shouldn't be allowed to party that way? I honestly don't care - knock yourselves out, I say, as long as you don't drive home. But part of being an adult is recognizing that your behaviors have an impact on those around you, and you have a responsibility to be reasonable in your actions. That's why when I move next time I want to move into a house with a big yard so I can crank my music up until the walls vibrate and no one will be bothered but me. So I'm sympathetic with DeCamp's position (although he gets a bit draconian, being a stuffy old preservationist type who wants to Protect Our History).

And that means, I don't have a lot of sympathy for Robinson. He's an idiot to try to stuff the ballot boxes to help UK be an even bigger party school, and he's beyond an idiot to "forget" to turn in the voter registration cards.

He'll make a great lawyer.

(Sorry, all my fine and upstanding lawyer readers :). I couldn't resist.)

What others thought about the SotU

I said what I have to say about the SotU in the two posts below. So now I'm going to go find out what others had to say, and (because I'm just that way) I'll link them here for Your Perusal.

R. Alex, in the countdown to his Last Day, actually accomplished the feat of Blogging During The Event. Start here and scroll up for live action commentary.

Well, Vodkaguy just about did my whole job for me, what was he thinking? He did Live Blogging as well, then went around collecting what others said (you mean the idea wasn't original with me?). If I link to an individual post, you'll get a page with just that post on it and you can't scroll up from there. So just get over yourself, go to the main page and scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page to start.

Aurora Leigh at Memento Mori says she doesn't know if it was a score for Bush, but it was a shut-out for the Dems.

UPDATE: Mike at Cold Fury really liked the speech. He was inspired, and says so quite eloquently. As usual. He also thinks you're an idiot if you weren't.

Uhoh. Steven Den Beste wasn't inspired. In fact, he says:

Let there be no misunderstanding: if there are no American soldiers patrolling the streets of Baghdad on May 1, we are all royally fucked.

I'm with him in that I think a) removing Saddam is necessary and b) we have to be clear about that. And I think c) Bush wasn't as clear on that as I wanted to see last night.

MORE! Mac Owens at NRO said a couple of things I say "amen" to:

...the first part of the speech was a reminder that "compassionate conservatism" can be almost expensive as unvarnished liberalism.

Yeppers. And:

He laid out the case against Saddam so clearly that even the French could understand it.

Or at least they could have understood it if they weren't standing there with their eyes closed, hands over their ears, singing "LA LA LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING LA LA LA LA LA!"

STILL MORE: Jane Galt liked it! She really liked it!

OSAMA'S SPEECH: In the interests of diversity, The Australian has printed Osama Bin Laden's SotU 2003 speech (as channeled through who else but Tim Blair).

[Link via Vodkapundit]

What I didn't like about the SotU

So we're all bully for small government.

So we're all excited about lower taxes, ending the double-tax of dividends, ending the marriage penalty.

So we're all glad that the federal government is going to be less cradle to grave.

Right?

Then what was this all about:

My budget will commit an additional $400 billion over the next decade to reform and strengthen Medicare.

Tonight I'm proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.

I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.

The budget I send you will propose almost $6 billion to quickly make available effective vaccines and treatments against agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, ebola and plague.

Okay. Maybe these are things we need to do. But whence the funds? I dinna like this. I want less government, not more. I didn't see in Bush's speech just how that is going to happen. Seems like an opposite trend to me.

I dinna like it at all.

Power

"There is power -- wonder-working power -- in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people."
-- GW Bush, State of the Union, 2003

Sooooo.... did this sound familiar* to anyone but me?

Great speech. Going to sleep now.

THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD
Words & Music: Lewis Edgar Jones, 1899

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you over evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Refrain

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood.

Just in time!

The UPS guy just handed me the perfect attire for a State of the Union address. It was awfully cold from being in his unheated truck all day, so it's draped over the radiator right now getting warmed up. But I'll be on point by the time 9 p.m. rolls around.

I've been thinking about that peace rally I heard was going to take place in Manhattan on February 15. I may just have to take a trip to the city in my sartorially correct answer to peacemongering.

Skewering with finesse

(Note: Blogger's archives are trashed again; go here and scroll down.)

Aurora Leigh has a cool new blog, Memento Mori, that I discovered the other day courtesy of Steve at HappyFunPundit. I don't know how old she is, or what she looks like, but her writing sounds like your boyfriend's really sassy college-age sister who kind of sneaks up on you with how smart she is. Funny and often spot on.

Here she is on libertarians:

If I ever get a reader, and they happen to be a libertarian who opposes military action in Iraq because they think that the best thing for everyone would be for the United States to retreat behind its borders and make a credible committment to only staging military action in response to a direct attack on US soil, could you tell me what is it about y'all? Do you get better drugs than the rest of us, or what?

Can we talk about the Middle East? The actual Middle East, I mean, not the one in your head that's a couple of Gap franchises away from turning into Peoria, with mosques?

The Middle East is poor. It is desperately poor. You can argue about whether it's cultural, or your old friend, the government, but the problem is not a shortage of MLM salesmen. You can airlift in emergency supplies of MTV and The Wealth of Nations all you want, and they aren't going to get any richer until something radical happens to their societies.

And today she took on liberals:

Iraq is the size of, say, Texas. Okay, I've hidden a bunch of stuff in Texas. You take 300 people and find it. Only, I have spies on your team, so I know you're coming days in advance. Also, everyone in Texas is afraid I'll kill them if they help you. You want to put money down on your chances of success?

Inspections work when you have co-operation. Otherwise, all you're doing is playing hide and seek.

And you know what really chaps my britches? It's the liberals who seem to think that well, yes, this is all just some sort of elaborate kindergarten game that we're supposed to play as if the stakes are an extra piece of candy at snack time. That the object of this whole thing is not to disarm Sadaam, but to play a sporting game until we all get bored and go home. And if Sadaam's better at hiding things than we are at finding them, we have to let him keep his WMD, because after all, he won fair and square.

Earth to liberals: this is not a game.

She promises the Republicans are going to get theirs soon. I'm trembling in my boots.

And the coolest part is - she started blogging as a result of the PBS show starring Glenn, Megan, Anil and Oliver that was on two weeks ago.

Hannnnggg on, Sloopy!

Joe R. Thompson III escaped from serious injury with a high-wire self-rescue after his Jeep rolled several times following an accident.

His dad made it a cautionary tale:

...the elder Thompson said[,] "And don't forget, this is a great story to remind people to wear seat belts."

I think his dad must be my mom in disguise.

[Thanks to Desiree for the link]

Algore - an insider's tale

John Stryker has a tale to tell of Algore and his love of "the little people". Pretty funny. Having worked for a number of politicians myself, I found it ringing very true.

His take on McCain is right under the Algore post. A twofer!

Bias roundup

I'm going to post this now and add to it if I find more. If I add to it, I'll pull it to the top of the page.

Reuters - deliberately anti-war?

Steven Den Beste takes a look at Reuters' coverage of the British response to the Blix report, as opposed to the AP's coverage. His conclusion is, I think, both accurate and fair:

By the way, Reuters is also the agency which decided quite a while back that it would no longer refer to any Arab as a "terrorist" under any circumstances (even when they deliberately blow themselves up with a nailbomb in a crowded place), and Reuters was responsible for this rather strange caption on a press photo last year. They've also been pushing the idea ever since last November that a second UNSC resolution was absolutely required before the US could attack Iraq (which is false), and it was Reuters which (apparently deliberately) misreported Bush's press conference in Texas in December.

Everyone makes mistakes, of course, but when all the mistakes go the same direction you have to begin to wonder.

I didn't transfer the individual links from the quote; check them out when you read the whole post.

UPDATE: Viva la BBC!

Porphyrogenitus reports that the BBC committed a sin of omission:

So I'm listening to the BBC World Briefing on the radio on my way into work this morning, and they decide to have an interview with the executive of a major oil company to discuss the possible consiquences of a war involving Iraq. Fine and well. Which company do they pick? The French company Total Fina Elf. Ok, fine. We know where they're comming from, right?

Not exactly. Not once did the BBC report mention that Total Fina Elf stands to gain significant wealth if Saddam stays in power and sanctions are lifted. They don't mention the contracts Total Fina Elf has signed with the Ba'athist regime. I find it hard to believe that such interests would go unreported if the shoe were on the other foot. . .

What you don't say sometimes says more than what you do say.

[Link via Instapundit]

NOTE: This bias roundup, let me remind you, is not just for conservatives. If some liberals (or leftists) amongst my readers want to send links to evidence of conservative bias in the media, be my guest. I will comment on it, maybe disagree with you, and I won't use it if I don't think it's legit. But I'm not one to say that conservative outlets don't show bias. They do, and I don't mind calling them on it. So, my liberal friends (Tano? Frank?), have at it.

Steyn on abortion

Have I mentioned he rocks?

[Thanks very much to Steyn's fellow countryman, Capt. J.M. Heinrichs, for the link. It's refreshing to know that non-idiotarian Canucks still make a strong showing.]

No more Washington Redskins (or, Rampant PCism in the hinterlands)

The Lincoln, Neb., Journal-Star has decided that there is no longer a sports team called "The Washington Redskins".

It's now simply "Washington".

Readers of the sports pages may notice a change in the newspaper's style beginning today: We have stopped using the nickname "Redskins" to refer to the professional football team of the nation's capital. When we're reporting on that team, we'll call it Washington.

We also have stopped printing logos for professional and college sports teams that use Native symbols -- ones that adopt imagery such as an arrowhead and ones that caricature Native culture. The Chief Wahoo logo of the Cleveland Indians, which we stopped using last summer, is an example of rank caricature. Instead, we'll use alternative logos that stay away from Native symbols.
Finally, we've decided to drop the stereotypical modifier "Fighting" when used with team nicknames such as Fighting Sioux or Fighting Illini.

We've made this decision out of respect for Native people. Plain and simple.

We will no longer use "Redskins" or "Skins" because it is a racial slur. It derives from an old, genocidal practice in this country of scalping Indians to earn a bounty. A bounty hunter could prove he had killed an Indian by turning in a scalp. The bloody scalps were called "redskins." I learned this from the Portland Press Herald in Maine, which banned "Redskins" from its sports pages in July 2000.

In other news, they will soon refer to the Oakland "Raiders" as just "Oakland", at the behest of the descendents of Vikings, and the Tampa Bay "Buccaneers" will just be "Tampa Bay" because three descendents of pirates say it makes them feel "sad". The "Detriot Pistons" will become "Detroit" because of the phallic symbolism of male dominance really intended by the original name. However, at the urging of PeTA, the "Detroit Tigers" will also be called "Detroit", so no actual animals will be referred to in a sports column. For those who can't pick up which sport is being referred to by the context, they will be referred to in articles with both teams as "Detroit Engine Imagery" and "Detroit Colorful Endangered Species".

Breaking news: Prominent weblog cut on the bias will no longer refer to the Lincoln, Nebraska paper as the "Journal-Star" out of respect for diarists and astronomers, both of whom feel being associated with such idiocy damages their reputation and has resulted in Post-PC Stress Syndrome. The Lincoln newspaper will now be referred to as "That PC rag in Lincoln".

[Link via Romenesko]

Could have been written in the USA

Here's a very interesting column in The Straits Times, a newspaper in Singapore, about a speech from a member of Parliament advocating affirmative action to give the Muslim Malays "icons of success" to improve the community. The columnist is against it.

Where I must disagree with him is on the need to tweak the principle of meritocracy, the very building block of Singapore society that has made what we are today.

This is how he sees it happening.

'There must be opportunities, without affecting the core principle of meritocracy, for there to be some form of action which will see Malays in important positions in greater numbers than they are now.

'I am not suggesting that no regard to ability be given. But I suggest that the principle of meritocracy can be leavened, with some steps which assist the Malay community to have its stars.'

In my view, there is no reason to 'leaven' the principle of meritocracy...

To allow this means that if the best and brightest in the Malay community lands a top job in the public or private sector, some will always question if he or she earned it.

That has always been the concern of those who believe in meritocracy: that Malays who make it to the top must be seen to be making it on their own steam, rather than by having a 'helping hand' extended to them.

After all, affirmative action has been tried in certain other countries and has failed. Miserably.

He notes that part of this concern is because of terrorism, which is certainly a refrain we hear in the US. And here is evidence that unease over terrorism since 9/11 has gone into a lot of other places with greater strength than we always realize:

It is very sad indeed if Singaporeans are made to feel they must conform - like moneychanger A.M. Rafi, who swopped his sarong for Bermuda shorts. Mr Rafi said that after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US, his neighbours and strangers became nervous about him because of the sarong he wore.

Yes, sad indeed.

US military kills 18 in Afghanistan fighting

As we move closer to war in Iraq, don't forget it's not over in Afghanistan yet:

At least 18 people have been killed in more than 24 hours of heavy fighting between United States-led coalition forces and some 80 armed assailants in south-east Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, the US military said on Tuesday.

In a statement issued from Bagram air base, north of Kabul, where its operations are headquartered, the US military said: 'At least 18 enemy personnel have been killed. No coalition casualties have been reported.'

The fighting broke out on Monday near mountains north of Spin Boldak, a border town 450 km south-west of the capital Kabul, and 100 km south-east of the main southern city of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the hardline Taleban militia.

Fighting erupted when US Special Forces and Afghan troops were attacked with small arms at about 11 am (0630 GMT) while they were clearing a compound north of Spin Boldak.

Spin Boldak administration official Saeed Jan said coalition and local Afghan forces were battling around 70 ex-Taleban fighters.

Here's more at the NY Times.

Beheading Tony Soprano's fault

Or so say the two young men, 20 and 15, who strangled their mother before cutting off her head and hands and disposing of the body down a ravine. Her head and hands were found in their apartment.

No motive is established yet.

Somehow I'm thinking the Soprano defense isn't going to work in court.

Think Episcopally, act prophetically

Tom Maguire is worried he's going to hell.

Why, you say, other than his high talents in locating and thoroughly excoriating idiocy of all sorts?

Well... um... he's fisking his minister!

Sad, sad. Shocking, even. But you know what? I read what his minister said, and all I can say is... Tom, honey, you held back. You coulda gone up two or three grades in roughness and not done it justice.

The minister - well, not to be offensive, but Tom, he's Episcopal - what did you expect, hellfire and brimstone rained on the evil one, Saddam? In my experience, the Episcopal clergy are At One with any liberal movement that comes down the chute. But that's just my experience. Tom does a nice job with his fisking, although, like I said, he hung back. There's more than enough peacemonger trash-talking in that sermon to keep me busy for several days. I won't redo Tom's fine work, but I have to excerpt just a tiny bit and give it a brisk smack myself:

This week, I found myself praying – God, send your people a prophet, someone who will tell us your will. And God answered –

DO NOT SEEK A PROPHET, ACT PROPHETICALLY.

Minister, that wasn't God - that was the sausage you had for dinner. God doesn't talk in bumper stickers.

Seeking peace is a prophetic act. As each one of us seeks peace moment by moment, in our daily interactions, we infuse a pattern of peacemaking into our culture that influences the course of our international relationships.

That's right, the more we become French, the closer we are to God. I think that's First Episcopal Minister 6:12.

Making war, imposing any agenda by force, only perpetuates the cycle of violence and hatred. War is always, ALWAYS an admission of failure – the breakdown of negotiations, the demise of hope, the collapse of mutual trust, the inability to root out evil any other way.

The misreading of Scripture, the inability to recognize that God himself advocates war on a daily basis with evil, the minor point that Jesus said*, "I come not to bring peace, but a sword..."

I get cold chills just thinking of having to sit quietly through this tripe. Tom, you're a better man than I. There's so much risible in this sermon that I have to stop now or I'd never get to work. Just go read it and weep. Then, if you really want to know what God thinks, I suggest the next time your minister starts in with a bumper-sticker sermon that owes more to Noam Chomsky than to Christ, just tune it out and read the Bible instead. I promise you'll be closer to God.

UPDATE: Well, as Tom notes in comments, Joseph Loconte trumps us all with his most excellent column on Jesus as warrior. His closing words:

Like Mr. Tittle, many of today's war critics hail Jesus as "the Prince of Peace," while forgetting that the Bible also calls him "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," the one "who judges and wages war." In itself, that's not an argument for a pre-emptive strike on Baghdad. But it's a good reason for a little more humility among the apostles of diplomacy.

Precisely.

UPDATE: My brother Alan, who is a preacher himself, adds a few comments on this at Theosebes. I particularly like this part:

That's fine with me, but don't preach a sermon about it. ...sometimes I might speak on, say, abortion as a moral issue. I will not tell you to vote for (or against) Candidate X based on his abortion views. That's for you to decide. That's not to say that one should separate religious views from political views. That I'm very much against. But I'm not going to abuse a position of trust by trying to make my political preferences a Voice From On High. Be very wary of someone who does.

I agree completely (yes, Alan, you might want to mark that on the calendar). It's a very important point, because "religious leaders" are often treated as if they have a Red Phone To God. The funny thing is, invariably whoever is at the other end of the leader's Red Phone has politics very similar to the leader's. Is the God of this Episcopal minister the same God that "speaks" to Jerry Falwell? Not so's you'd notice, when it comes to politics. If all those "religious leaders" spoke about politics as religious leaders as little as Jesus did, you'd be hard pressed to get an annual 10-second sound bite.

And even that would be 10 seconds too long.

* I know that this passage is talking about the effect the Gospel will have on families - that when people who choose to follow Christ go against what their families believe, there will be strife and it could well end relationships. But the point overall is, peace is not the ultimate earthly goal of the gospel. I think the Bible in no way condemns just war.

Tsk, Radley!

It appears that Radley Balko has a problem with Kentucky.

He keeps talking about it in less than glowing terms.

But then... it all becomes clear when you realize he's a Hoosier.

So I can be magnanimous. That Freudian Kentucky-envy can be debilitating, especially untreated, and Hoosiers are particularly susceptible. I think it has something to do with basketball. Radley, my dear, I forgive you. Love you, man!

Smirk.

Oh, and the article he links? Kentuckian Dodd Harris already linked it with the proper attitude. And please, that's not nearly as bad as the Manhattanite surgeon who carved his initials on the belly of a woman he performed a Caesarian on. I doubt he's ever even been to Kentucky.

Your Guide to Wascally Weasels

Last week Scott Ott brought you the "Axis of Weasels". Today, John Hawkins brings you the definitive guide to identifying French vs. German weasels.

Now what'd I do with my trap and bait...

Bloggish influence?

I've noticed in my stats lately that someone (or several someones) is looking up specific newspaper article links in Daypop and Blogdex. Here's one from today. I find that intriguing, because I can't really imagine that your average blogger or blog reader would care enough about one article in a Sydney newspaper to search out all the references to it in blogs. So who is it? My guess is either the writer or the newspaper itself, most likely the former. That says to me that the blogosphere is beginning to matter more to the "traditional media" as a means to get the word out. And that's very cool.

What a difference a decade (or so) makes

I started working at The Oldham Era in August of 1985. I was two years out of college, a bit battered by the world of journalism, and happy to be landing at a small weekly newspaper right outside of Louisville, Kentucky. I have more stories than I can (or will) share about the two years I was there, but one thing that stands out is that when I arrived, they gave me a desk, a chair, and... a typewriter.

A manual typewriter.

And they were serious.

Computers weren't what they are now, even at newspapers, but we had had them at my journalism school, and at the last newspaper where I worked. Even the teeny tiny weekly I worked at outside of Owensboro had an electric typewriter. But the manager was not techie (or even a journalist), the main office of the newspaper chain hadn't insisted, so there we were. Manual typewriters.

I brought in my little electric.

For a year I pounded out news articles, opinion pieces, feature articles and the occasional business kissy-face article on that electric typewriter that my parents ga