Judicious Asininity

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Wed Dec 31, 2003

2003's Top Words

Tongues Wagging and Words Buzzing

Having discussed one of the words in this previous post, it's interesting to take a look at this years winners.

"Metrosexual" is the Word of the Year.

The term denoting meticulously groomed straight males was the overwhelming winner, getting 57 percent of the more than 3,000 votes cast in an SF Gate poll.

"Bling-bling," the hip-hop word for shiny stuff like jewelry and tire rims, finished a distant second, followed by "embedded," "governator" and "Kah-lee-for-ni-a."

The definition and the word speak for themselves. My own view has been duly noted in this post and remains the same.

Questions, Questions

Things That Make You Wonder

Walter Williams wonders about some things. Such as:

I also wonder about judges. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. The R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. Winnebago changed its manuals. I wonder why. Anyone so stupid as to leave the driver's seat is probably also too stupid to read a manual.

Perhaps Merv simply confused the cruise control with the auto pilot. Either way, this man obviously had more dollars than sense and now a jury has made matters worse. On the bright side, now Merv may be able to afford an airplane. Head on over and check out the other things that make Walter wonder.

Electric Venom

Kate is Back

Welcome to you visitors from Electric Venom.
Kindly take a look around and set your bookmarks accordingly. You may as well set me straight while you're here by using the comments to add your opinion. Come back often.

Kate has returned and resumed blogging so head on over and see what's up. One thing seems to be a return to her roots after having a rough past year. It seems Kate neglected to serve her black-eyed peas last New Year and thus experienced a lot of bad luck. Not this time, just in case, the peas are cookin' in preparation for inducing a great '04.

The Wilson/Plume/Novak Affair continues

But the biggest question remains unanswered

What I want to know is how come a hard-left zealot got sent to Niger on a politically sensitive mission. His hard-left credentials were amply documented by Clifford D. May writing in NRO

It also would have been useful for the New York Times and others seeking Wilson's words of wisdom to have provided a little background on him. For example:

He was an outspoken opponent of U.S. military intervention in Iraq.

He's an "adjunct scholar" at the Middle East Institute — which advocates for Saudi interests. The March 1, 2002 issue of the Saudi government-weekly Ain-Al Yaqeen lists the MEI as an "Islamic research institutes supported by the Kingdom."

He's a vehement opponent of the Bush administration which, he wrote in the March 3, 2003 edition of the left-wing Nation magazine, has "imperial ambitions." Under President Bush, he added, the world worries that "America has entered one of it periods of historical madness."

He also wrote that "neoconservatives" have "a stranglehold on the foreign policy of the Republican Party." He said that "the new imperialists will not rest until governments that ape our world view are implanted throughout the region, a breathtakingly ambitious undertaking, smacking of hubris in the extreme."

He was recently the keynote speaker for the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a far-left group that opposed not only the U.S. military intervention in Iraq but also the sanctions — and even the no-fly zones that protected hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and Shias from being slaughtered by Saddam.

And consider this: Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Wilson did believe that Saddam had biological weapons of mass destruction. But he raised that possibility only to argue against toppling Saddam, warning ABC's Dave Marash that if American troops were sent into Iraq, Saddam might "use a biological weapon in a battle that we might have. For example, if we're taking Baghdad or we're trying to take, in ground-to-ground, hand-to-hand combat." He added that Saddam also might attempt to take revenge by unleashing "some sort of a biological assault on an American city, not unlike the anthrax, attacks that we had last year."

In other words, Wilson is no disinterested career diplomat — he's a pro-Saudi, leftist partisan with an ax to grind. And too many in the media are helping him and allies grind it.

Who selected him? Novak reports that his wife put forward his name. But who approved her suggestion? And she surely knew that someone of her husband's ilk was the last person on Earth to be used for such a sensitive mission. But maybe that was the point.

Manipulating News

Bush and Company Silence the Critics

James Zogby seems to feel that the Bush administration is somehow 'managing' the news that Americans recieve:

All of this is to say that the United States public is in the dark about much of what is happening or not happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and the magnitude of the challenges facing both countries. What they know is that the United States is facing an upgraded “Orange Alert”, “Saddam has been caught” and the “United States is still fighting and winning the long war against terror”.

Even with this, the public remains deeply divided. But with accurate news so difficult to come by in this “cloud of war” that has descended on the country, it is increasingly hard to discuss the merits, or even the reality, of this war or the foreign policy that led us into it.

This will continue to be the situation in the next year. Reality may, on occasion, break through and the press may respond with tough stories, asking hard questions. But as the past few weeks have shown the administration has more arrows in its quiver, and, as the situation warrants, they may decide when and how to use them.

Perhaps Mr. Zogby simply fails to state that it is possible to 'manage' the news in ways that are not in any way deceptive. You know, like doing positive things that supercede the negative. Otherwise, if Zogby is asserting that Bush has control of every liberal media outlet in the country, his claims are absurd. Either way, it seems that Zog is himself attempting to sway opinion in some way. Given that his views appear in Arab News one is left to wonder exactly what it is that Zogby hopes to accomplish. Or not.

Tue Dec 30, 2003

Richochet Effect

Moderates Moving to Moderation

Dick Morris explains why the Democrats are favoring an 'extremist' candidate in the form of Howard Dean:

Here's how it works. An incumbent president tends to catalyze opposite reactions among the moderates and the extremists in the opposition party. Because he is adopting policies which help the nation and echo the demands of the broad center, he attracts moderates in the other party. But as he pursues the core policies of his own party, he generally triggers greater hostility from the true believers on the other side.

That's simple enough to understand. Most moderates should honestly admit that Bush has done at least a pretty good job with some very difficult problems. In fact, the issues that this president had to face were, and still are, very near the worst any president has ever had to deal with. Bush inherited a stock market collapsing from a mania induced bubble, an economy falling into recession from an over-revved state that did tremendous damage, and a security situation that was primed by history to explode into the worst and most dastardly attack on America in history. Throw in a Democratic obstructionist controlled Congress for a good portion of his first term and Bush has accomplished the damn near impossible. Surely, at some point, even Democrats must admit that the man deserves some credit for getting some things right. At this time it would be a good bet to say that quite a few moderate Democrats see Bush much differently that they did in '00. The difference, respect for the man and the leadership he and his administration has shown and a positive view of the job he has done.
Still, the extremists and their hatred for Bush will push a like minded candidate onto the election stage. Moderates will have no sensible choice other that to vote to re-elect Bush.
Morris sees the same alternatives:

It will be interesting to see how soon the Democrats wake up and realize that they can't let their party be hijacked by the left without writing off the general election. But the wake-up call is unlikely to come until after Bush is safely re-elected.

This all boils down to a matter of pain. With a sufficient degree of hurting the Dems will be able to nominate a more moderate candidate for the next election. With even more pain, moderate Democrats may stand a chance of staging a coup to regain control of their party and put it on a footing more in touch with mainstream Americans. Either that, or the entire party will go as mad as the lunatic fringe, fall further and further into the black hole of petty jealousy and hate, and move farther and farther away from the vast majority of American voters. Interesting times are a'comin for America and the Dems. Hopefully this party will regain some of its senses and present some ideas that put the health of the country first for a change. After all, that is what all moderates want. If not, they may as well get used to pain.

Another Democrat Changes Sides

Looking at the Big Picture

Another Democrat pledges alligiance to Bush:

So in November, I'll break with tradition and vote for a Republican. I'll place my trust, fears, and future in the hands of a man who has shown the world what it means to lead a nation. It's a tradition of leadership that began with Washington and Lincoln, continued with FDR, and has been resurrected by Bush.

It's a tradition I expect our future presidents to follow.

Basically, P. Amy MacKinnon thinks that Bush has become a leader, a leader who makes the correct and difficult decisions. Head on over and read the excellent reasoning behind this woman's change of heart and mind.

Link via Cato the Youngest

Sanctions

Created to be Violated

PowerLine points out this interesting article regarding the effectiveness of U.N. sanctions on Iraq:

The Iraqi files reveal the futility of relying on U.N. sanctions and inspections to prevent weapons transfers (there are a number of references to concealing the weaons transfers from inspectors). The following itemization of equipment that Iraq was seeking in the run-up to the war is interesting, as well:

"Iraqi records show that SES signed more than 50 contracts to supply tens of millions of dollars' worth of arms and equipment to Iraq's military shortly before the U.S.-led invasion in March. They reveal Iraq's increasingly desperate search in at least a dozen countries for ballistic missiles, antiaircraft missiles, artillery, spare parts for MIG fighter jets and battle tanks, gunpowder, radar systems, nerve agent antidotes and more." Gosh, I wonder why they were looking for nerve agent antidotes? Oddly, this item passes without comment by the Times reporters.

This fascinating glimpse into the records of a single (albeit very important) private company whets our appetite to learn what else is being discovered in the secret files of Iraqi companies and government agencies.

Go read the entire article.
Once again, all together now: Sanctions Work, Sanctions Work, Sanctions Work.

GE Sees the Light

Withdraws Ad Withdrawal Due to Popular Demand

The recent withdrawal of advertising from Paul Harvey's show by GE has taken a new turn:

General Electric has felt the heat of a "significant" number of Paul Harvey listeners and has decided to resume advertising on the newsman's radio program after initially pulling its commercials due to complaints about a negative comment the broadcaster made about Islam.

"We have had significant feedback from Mr. Harvey's listeners," Sheffer told WorldNetDaily. He says those contacting GE have expressed support for the newsman and asked that the advertising be restored.

Having initially shown the backbone of a worm and caved into CAIR's squealling, GE has at least listened to 'the rest of the story'. Next time, think before you panic and attempt to placate a loud and very small minority. If nothing else, think of it this way: The majority represents a much larger group of consumers and buying power than the few. That should help you overcome the spinal deficit represented by your caving to CAIR.

More Sunni Cooperation

Reality Offsets Fantasy

Further evidence that Iraqi Sunnis may have seen the light as mentioned in this previous post:

Influential spiritual leaders from Saddam Hussein's hometown, a bastion of anti-American sentiment, are joining forces to persuade Iraqis to abandon the violent insurgency, one of the leaders said yesterday.

Sheik Sabah Mahmoud, leader of the Sada tribe, said he and 10 other tribal elders have formed a reconciliation committee in Tikrit to speak to other Iraqi leaders about trying to persuade rebels to put down weapons. He said he took that message last week to a group of scholars, religious leaders, and other prominent figures meeting in Baghdad.

"It's about time we put our differences aside and looked to the future," Mahmoud said. "I told them: `The reality is, [US forces] are here on the ground; the past is dead. Give the Americans a chance to see what they are going to give us.' "

Reality sinks in.

Mon Dec 29, 2003

Turf War in NYC

Murder and Mayhem as a Result of Government Intrusion

According to this article, NYC mayor Bloomberg is responsible for the death of a teenager:

As far as the cops can tell, Cody spotted members of rival pushers, tried to run but went down hard as his attackers piled on. With one hand clutching the overstuffed garbage bag of contraband he had been peddling, he did not put up much of a fight before the knife found his throat.

That was pretty much it for the aspiring artist and "all-round good kid", as his mother described him at the funeral. The trail of his blood indicated that he struggled to his feet, lurched around the corner and crumpled on the footpath of Brooklyn's busiest shopping district.

Beyond hope when the ambulance arrived, the medics could do no more than cover the corpse, wait for the cops to finish and haul the young man's remains away.

A few years ago, before former Mayor Rudy Giuliani reminded the police how to do their job, teenage casualties of dealers' turf wars were so common that the city's newspapers treated the incidents as filler items. Another black or Hispanic kid blown away? So what. The drug trade is lucrative and competitive, so people commit murder to control it.

Cody did not quite fit that old mould, however.

Cody's chosen product?? Cigarettes. According to this article at least 3 people have been killed while circumventing the system that attempts to benefit from very high taxes on cigarettes. With the cost per pack $6-9, cheaper smokes can be found to supply the demand. With the underground industry created by government comes the crime. Simple, yet some just don't get it. There is also the matter of lost revenue per pack. High taxes don't amount to much when the product can be imported from and taxes paid at other locations. Seems easy enough to figure out.

When Unknowns Become Knowns

Stewing in the Broth of Possibilities

It looks like some peoples' worst nightmare may be coming true:

Iraqi Governing Council member Iyad Allawi said that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has confessed to "extremely important issues" during interrogation, the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper said Monday.

"Saddam confessed to names and parties he assigned to safeguard money as well as names of elements who have information on locations of weapon and supply storages," Allawi told the Saudi-owned newspaper.

Allawi, however, said that the IGC was still looking for $40-billion Saddam took out of Iraq and "invested under fabricated companies in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries."

"The council appointed international law firms to look into this matter," he said.

Reckon what he is really saying? For previous posts related to the 'unknown' effect look here and here.

Hits Sanctions Work

When Backed Up With Action

This from a man who says, "I was Khaddafi's handler":

In my judgment Khaddafi is not a man of honor in the making. Rather, he is afraid for his life. He does not relish Saddam's fate. Tyrants are always paranoid — for good reason. Ceaucescu never ate anything unless it had been tasted for poison by somebody else. Khaddafi calculates that his best chance of holding onto wealth and position for his golden years is by cutting a deal and getting Libya delisted as one of the world's worst rogue regimes.

More reason to believe that words and sanctions will only work when the very real possibility of action backs them up.

Baghdad Crime

Signs of Progress

Baghdad safer that some U.S. cities??

Startling new Army statistics show that strife-torn Baghdad - considered the most dangerous city in the world - now has a lower murder rate than New York.

The newest numbers, released by the Army's 1st Infantry Division, reveal that over the past three months, murders and other crimes in Baghdad are decreasing dramatically and that in the month of October, there were fewer murders per capita there than the Big Apple, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Whether completely true or not, the trend is encouraging.

Sun Dec 28, 2003

Snake Oil Goes South

Pulling the Wool on Dixie

Zev Chafets lays out some sound reasoning as to why Liberal Democrats haven't fared well in the south. This is particularly timely with 'born again' illusion being promoted by Dean:

But on the eve of primary season in the Bible Belt, Dean has found religion. And not just any religion. That old-time religion.

He confided to The Globe that he prays every day, is a committed believer in Jesus Christ and plans to include his relationship with his Savior in his hitherto godless campaign speeches.

This will probably come as a surprise to Jesus. It will not, however, shock Southerners long accustomed to the Northern belief that they will swallow anything.

This assumption runs especially strong in what Dean likes to call "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." These people don't believe in much, but they are fervent on the subject of their own superiority. To them, America's red states (as identified in TV maps on Election Night 2000) are populated by ignorant cowboys, unwashed swampies, hellfire preachers, beauty parlor bimbos, redneck sheriffs, Confederate flag wavers and retarded hillbilly kids sitting in trees playing the banjo.

This picture of Southern inferiority, like all articles of faith, is immune to both empirical observation and personal experience. To guys like Dean, Dixie is and will forever remain a vast county fair where a slick Yaleman can sell 5-gallon jugs of snake oil in return for votes.

But that doesn't work, especially not in national politics.

Yeah, Dean's religious conversion, along with other portions of his 'policy', will continue to be seen as exactly what they are, ill-conceived con games that no longer play well with southerners. It would seem that Dems would learn from past mistakes, but evidently their superiority syndrome precludes such a process. After all, it would require those afflicted to admit they had been wrong, and that is a rare event indeed.

Sat Dec 27, 2003

Tracking Visitors Within the Country

A Start, But There is a Better Way

Here's an idea:

Major U.S. airports and seaports are preparing to begin using fingerprints and photographs to keep track of when foreigners enter the country and when they leave.

The program, to be up and running on Jan. 5 at all 115 airports that handle international flights, will let Customs officials instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background.

"I think people have come to understand that an increase to security is necessary," said U.S. Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, between 1,000 to 2,000 passengers will be fingerprinted and photographed each day. Security officials are setting up equipment, training personnel and asking for volunteers to test the program.

The program, called US-VISIT, or U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, will check an estimated 24 million foreigners each year, though some will be repeat visitors.

Inkless fingerprints will be taken and checked instantly against a national database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists, Strassberger said. The process will be repeated when the foreigners leave the country as an extra security measure and to ensure they complied with visa limitations.

Sounds pretty good, but what took so long? Even better, start the entire process over. Make every foreigner get verified BEFORE they come this way. This will mean starting a new visa and passport process and requiring every single solitary visitor to reapply. The process should include the most technologically advanced identification methods available and the cost should be borne by the visitors. Naturally, many could be processed rapidly as known knowns, but the unknowns should get extra scrutiny. Know what I'm saying? Force the terrorists to hijack a plane bound for another destination because they didn't have the proper paperwork to board a U.S. bound flight. Waiting to check them here on the ground may involve searching through rubble. Hopefully, our government is working on the situation and can cut off some of the easier access routes to terror targets. If not, they best get to it.

Headline: Dean blames beef scare on Bush, wants livestock tracking system

Not quite in the same league as blaming Bush for the Iranian Earthquake but close

According to our local outlet for news with a leftward slant, the Cleveland Plain Dealer

The former governor, whose state has a large dairy cow population, said the Bush administration failed to aggressively set up a system that would allow the government to quickly track the origins of the sick cow, quarantine other animals it came in contact with and assure the marketplace the rest of the meat supply is safe...Dean said such a system should have been set up quickly after the mad cow scare that devastated the British beef industry in the mid- to late- 1990s. The Bush administration still hadn't determined the infected animal's origins.

"This shows the complete lack of foresight by the Bush administration once again, " Dean said. "This is something that easily could be predicted and was predicted."

But Mr. Dean, wasn't it the Clinton administration that should have put this system in place in the mid- to late- 1990s? You do know that Bush wasn't president back then, don't you? And what did Vermont do to protect itself from mad cow disease while you were governor? Perhaps that information is still locked away in your archives.

On a more serious note, it is worth looking at the procedures that are currently in place in the US and other countries, and how they might be improved. According to this report by a WP reporter

The Holstein cow was sent to the slaughterhouse on Dec 9. Because it was unable to move on its own and believed to be at higher risk for illnesses like BSE, tissue samples were taken after it was slaughtered. Officials did not say precisely why the cow was immobile -- a so-called downer animal -- but it could have been because of disease, old age or injuries. Scientists conducted routine tests for BSE on some 20,526 cattle in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2003.

A case could be made for removing "downer" animals from the food supply. From the same report

"We shouldn't be using downer cows in our food supply at all," said Karen Taylor Mitchell of the advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority. "There is a USDA regulation about not using them for the school lunch program. Yet it is OK for the same children who are protected at school to go home and be served sick cows."

A case could also be made for testing more animals, as is done in Europe. However, there have been hundreds of cases in Europe and just two in North America, so far. Testing for BSE has its own problems and is no panacea for stopping infected product from entering the food supply, either directly or via animal feed. See this WSJ report from Dec 18th, 2000 for more background. A tracking system is all very well but it may only be useful after you find BSE. It might well be better to allocate resources towards preventing BSE in the first place, by, for example, developing tests that work on live animals.

It seems that Dean has grasped at the news that officials were having trouble tracking the origin of the diseased animal and used that to blindly bash Bush. The American electorate will see through that, especially in the blue states.

Iranian Earthquake

Sinister Tectonic Weapon

An unnamed Democrat at Democratic Underground provides food for thought for the conspiracy theorists among the minions of that august organization:

When I heard the news about the earthquake in Iran, the number of people killed, and how Iran is a "rogue nation", it reminded me of something I heard a while back about how we were developing weapons that could cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Here's a link to a story on that - thought I'd throw it out there for the conspiracy theorists to chew on.

Believe it or not, there seems to be some over there that actually consider the possibility that the evil Bush is somehow involved in this earthquake. If they are right, we're definitely on the right track in the war on terror. Not having any dramamine, it was impossible to read anything other than the titles of the replies to this 'possible theory'. For some very interesting perspectives into the mind of these folks, head on over if you dare. Better yet, take my word, these people are 'lost'. For more on the fascinating subject of 'exotic' weaponry take a tour around Google. Warning, you might want your tinfoil hat and full body armor before taking this journey. And please, please, be careful else you end up with the KuKu brigade over 'there'.

Fri Dec 26, 2003

Is It Real?

Putting Yourself in Their Place

Lucianne.com points out this article in Wired Magazine that makes for some interesting thought:

A London-based Arab magazine said on Friday that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has vowed to launch a "back-breaking attack" on the United States by February, confirming an earlier message by the militant network.

The weekly al-Majalla said it received an e-mail from Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, a little known al Qaeda member, saying bin Laden would release a video tape in which he affirms his group's determination to fight the United States.

"A messenger of bin Laden informed him (Ablaj) that the al Qaeda leader will appear on a televised tape after the execution of an operation which bin Laden described as back-breaking and which would change the order of things," al-Majalla said in a report in its latest edition, a copy of which was sent to Reuters.

This leads to some serious questions about the state of mind, using the term loosely of course, of bin Laden or whichever of his merry men has replaced his camera shy self. Would another attack now or before the November elections help or hurt their cause?

My own guess would be that it would strenghten the case for re-electing Bush and for further strong action in the War on Terror. There is another side though. With Bush leading in current polls and his chances appearing pretty good right now, the terrorists may feel that there is nothing to lose by attacking again. Their hope would rest in the possibility that Americans would listen to the din from Dems about the 'failure to protect'. This seems to me to be a long shot though and more of an act of desperation than anything. Combine this long shot with the fact that the terrorists' image has been tarnished by some serious defeats and another attack may be seen as needed at this time. But....that face saving act could very well result in a hell raining down on a number of people as the Good Guys exact a steep price from those who were involved in any way with another attack. This would mean that the attack would certainly have to be a totally devasting one, one that crippled our ability to fight back, otherwise, it would not be worth the risk.

After having made this circle, the best guess here is that this threat is mostly talk, and the 'back breaker' referred to won't happen. If a 'back breaker' isn't possible, why even bother to inflame America even more at this point? The answer to that might rest in the desperate nature of the enemy. They have been seriously hurt, their famous Arab 'face' has been tarnished, and an offensive might be seen as the best way to reverse the tide that appears to have turned against them in places like Saudi Arabia. But....if I were planning that 'back breaker', it ain't likely there would be any good reason to give notice of it in advance. Unless, of course, it is just talk, intended to mess with our mind.

Put yourself in the twisted mind of a terrorist leader.
What would you do?

For some help, there is an interesting article on FrontPage:

If they [America] become more and more entangled in the Iraqi quagmire, and if we strike painful blows in America, those blows will deprive them of their ability to focus on [Saudi Arabia]… What arouses real concern is the acts of their allies the Shiites in the event of the collapse [of the Saudi regime]. This would be an extremely grave situation requiring great thought and preparation of alternatives by the Mujadiheen."

Check out the rest. It seems that the terrorists are in a bit of a quandary on certain subjects and their strategy.

Toast-O-Meter

Poliblog Rounds Up the Latest From the Election Front

Steven at Poliblog has an ongoing feature called Toast-O-Meter that handicaps .....well, let him tell you:

Greetings All,

In case you haven't noticed (and might be interested), I have been doing a semi-tongue-in-cheek, although ultimately serious, weekly news round-up and handicapping of sorts of the Nine who are running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

The latest version is here: Toast-O-Meter

Heck, if Larry Sabato can gaze into a crystal ball, surely I am entitled to check out the Toaster...

Thanks,

Steven L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Head on over and check it out.

Just in Case, Kyoto Again

Some Still Don't Get It

In case there is anyone out there that still doesn't understand the scam that is called Kyoto as has been mentioned a number of times on this blog, here and here for instance, here's some more to chew on:

From the start, the Kyoto plan has been something of a European con game.

For a variety of reasons, most of Europe would have to do far less to meet greenhouse-gas limits than would a compliant United States, which thought the plan over and decided to bow out. Now it turns out that all but two members of the 15-member European Union have failed to live up to their Kyoto goals this past year, as relatively painless as their goals were.

For the United States, the goals would not be painless. Meeting Kyoto objectives would require job- depriving damage to an economy that would then be less competitive with Europe, and to what end? No one seriously asserts that Kyoto would be more than a first step toward solving any warming problems, and meanwhile, the predictions that human-induced warming are leading the human race to catastrophe are suspect.

The Bush administration has taken fierce criticism for its refusal to embrace Kyoto, but the stance has been appropriate from the start, especially since the administration is also proceeding with research intended to provide more reliable answers.

We should all be thankful that Bush and company didn't fall for this scheme. From the sounds of it, this pact may have actually been dreamed up in order to cripple the U.S. Naturally, there are some who will never accept the facts regarding this agreement, but the rest of us have some very sound reasons to be highly sceptical of both the science and sense of Kyoto.

Reality Sinking In

Saddam's Era is Over

It looks like the capture of Saddam may be paying dividends in the form of increased cooperation within the Sunnis of Iraq:

At a meeting this week between tribal leaders and U.S. commanders, a prominent elder from the village where the ousted Iraqi dictator was born made a dramatic acknowledgment that Saddam's era was over.
"I told my people to tell their children that his time is gone," said Sheik Mahmoud Al Nada, leader of the powerful Al Nassari tribe from the village of Uja, near Tikrit, in a region that has been a stronghold of anti-U.S. resistance.
"At first, few people would listen, it was like a trickle of water but now, after Saddam is gone, it is becoming a river," said Al Nada, who has opposed the American occupation and even told commanders in the past that Iraqis had the right to resist it.
U.S. officers have been meeting every week with the region's tribal leaders, but Al Nada was the first sheik who openly spoke out against Saddam, said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, a U.S. commander in Tikrit.
"He is a brave man, he needed a lot of courage to say something like that in Saddam's village," Russell said.
All eight sheiks present at the meeting told the Americans they wouldn't resist the occupation.
The insurgency against U.S. forces -- which the sheiks say they play no direct role in -- has continued even with Saddam in custody. With the heavy American crackdown on guerrillas and with Saddam now out of the picture, the region's tribal leaders appeared to be starting to face the new political reality in Iraq -- and the danger that Sunnis could be squeezed out of post-Saddam power.

Apparently, the reality of the situation may now be sinking in. The Sunnis have a choice to make and must decide between the past and the future. With Saddam gone, Sunnis would be wise to increase their level of cooperation with the Coalition and fledgling Iraqi government in order to avoid the risk of losing their place in the future. This article gives the impression that at least some are making the correct choice and attempting to calm their people. Then there is this:

Leaders of Sunni groups across Iraq agreed on Thursday to form a council to speak with a unified political voice during the transition from American rule to Iraqi governance.

The demands of the group, called the State Council for the Sunnis, could greatly complicate the handover of power for both the Americans and other Iraqi religious and ethnic groups, especially the Shiites and the Kurds.

While the demands of Sunnis may further complicate a complicated situation, prominent Sunnis on the IGC who wisely use their position and voice to calm the fears of their people should go a long way towards the common goals of everyone.

Many Sunnis have said they do not have a strong enough voice on the American-picked Governing Council. That group has 25 members, 5 of which are Sunni Arabs. Of the five, only a couple have any real influence over a large swath or ordinary Sunnis.

Getting with the program, cooperating with the Coalition and IGC, and trying to calm those who insist upon a return of the Saddamites should go a long way towards accomplishing what the Coalition and Iraqis want, an independent and democratic Iraq.

Thu Dec 25, 2003

Christmas Decorations

Playing with the Lights

Here's hoping you all are having a wonderful Christmas.
I'm playing with the site design and this involves a lot of trial and error on my part. If you happen to see something that strikes your fancy or induces nausea, let me know. Otherwise, barring some artistic inspiration, the site may suddenly revert to the previous form.

There is also a bit of news to report.
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EU Support of Terror

Proxy War Against the United States

It appears that one member of the EU parliament is putting the truth ahead of politics:

European Union Parliament member Ilka Schroeder delivered an address entitled, "The European Union, Israel, and Palestinian Terrorism" at the Center for German Studies of Ben Gurion University on Monday.

"The Europeans," explained MP Schroeder, "supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor, and through this, challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power. Therefore, the Al-Aksa Intifada should be understood as a proxy war between Europe and the United States."

"It is an open secret within the European Parliament that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority has not been spent correctly," MP Schroeder said during a recent address in New York. "The European Parliament does not intend to verify whether European taxpayers' money could have been used to finance anti-Semitic murderous attacks. Unfortunately, this fits well with European policy in this area."

"There is no difference in the consciousness of an average member of the European Parliament and an average German peace demonstrator, and I consider this to be a mixture of naivete, moralism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and an altogether serious danger," she said during her U.S. speaking tour. "It is against these trends that my efforts are directed."

The EU, lead by its self appointed leader France, is indeed inhibiting and subverting our efforts to fight terrorism, and not only by their support of the Palestinians. Such active and passive conduct as has been seen from the likes of France over past decade, and in particular the last 2 years, is an attempt to weaken the U.S. and increase the power and safety of the EU and France. While it is misguided at best to attempt to placate terrorists, this point is being overlooked by some who were once allies. The twisted logic of such a position can be explained by a number of factors, not the least of which is a quest for power at the expense of the United States. Combining this quest with a liberal dose of fear due to self-created internal Muslim problems and the position of these countries in the war on terror should be abundantly clear. They are looking out for number one and disregarding the pain and suffering such an attitude may inflict on others. They have chosen their allies in this war, and those allies will eventually exact a price from their supporters in the form of increasingly stringent demands. Failing to comply will result in the monster of radical Islamism turning on the former ally much as we have witnessed recently in Saudi Arabia. Given such a stark example of the monster biting the hand that feeds it, it would seem that even the densest and most selfish of countries would clearly understand the danger of supporting terrorism and turning their back on those who are fighting back. If so, we should soon see signs that France has come to its senses and decided to join the right side in this war. Amir Taheri discusses some of the recent history as it relates to France and concludes:

It is not normal that France should be the only major democracy in which the prime minister and his Cabinet and the parliament, not to mention the political parties and the media, have virtually no say in shaping foreign policy. France must certainly review its foreign policy. But what it needs even more urgently is a reform of its institutions to end the monarchic aspects of the Fifth Republic.

Some very obvious and serious damage has been done by French leaders in their quest to protect Saddam and groups of terrorists at the expense of others. While seeking dubious goals these leaders have shown France as an untrustworthy ally whose actions are based clearly on the selfish aspirations of its leaders. As such, France should be viewed with a highly sceptical eye until such time as real changes in leadership, attitude, and loyalties are evident. The same can be said for any organization that is directly influenced by the same minds that developed the anti-U.S. attitude so evident in the War on Terror, such as the EU.

Turning Up the Heat

Aggressive Moves to Cut Terror Allies

The Asia Times reports that the U.S. is set to increase pressure on some 'allies' in order to nip the source of some terror activities:

With the United States facing the prospect of continuing difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan in the new year, there are signs that it will adopt an aggressive policy to cut all kinds of supply lines to the guerrilla movements in these countries, starting with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and making no concessions.

A well-placed source in the Pakistani strategic community tells Asia Times Online that Pakistan has been given a clear message that although Islamabad has pledged its full commitment to the "war on terror", Washington is not entirely pleased with its efforts to date and still considers the country the "naughty boy" of the region and indirectly considers it a catalyst for support of anti-US forces.

Despite half a century of friendship, in the post-September 11 period the kingdom is now seen in Washington as a hotbed of US antagonism. As a result, the US has drawn up a strategy to combat this, with a heavy accent on education.

We have seen signs of the latter strategy taking place, or at least being given lip service as has been mentioned in this previous post. Hopefully, allies and enemy alike will get the message that the time has come to take a stand and get serious about combating terrorism. Head on over and read the rest.

Wed Dec 24, 2003

Gaddafi Wants to Avoid 'Tragedy'

Good Idea

Asked if he (Gaddafi) had a message for other leaders, especially the heads of Syria, Iran and North Korea,
he replied:

"They should follow the steps of Libya, or take an example from Libya, so that they prevent any tragedy being inflicted upon their own peoples."

Maybe sanctions are consdered a tragedy by Gaddafi, but........
it ain't likely.

Increased Chatter

Words of War

It appears that the recent increase of the Threat level has some basis in fact and this report confirms that our enemies are at the very least threatening an attack:

Alarming messages published on known al Qaeda Web sites are claiming the terror network is about to launch its biggest strikes ever - and are warning Muslims to leave the cities of New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

The statements monitored by U.S. government agencies, as well as by a Washington-based terrorist research group, are part of the alarming increase in "chatter" among terrorist operatives in recent weeks that played a role in the Bush administration's decision to raise the nation's threat alert to high (orange).

Counterterrorism expert Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, said her organization has recently found and translated statements on al Qaeda Web site Al-Lewa - Arabic for "The Banner" - that are promising new attacks on U.S. soil in the coming weeks.

Katz said a posting two weeks ago quoted an al Qaeda spokesman identified as Abu Issam al-Yamani as saying, "The next al Qaeda attacks will be most violent and will target the U.S." and urged Muslims "to leave the country if they don't wish to die as a result of a Jihadist operation."

Now some people may feel that this is just talk, but the reality after 9/11 indicates otherwise. Besides, whether or not an actual physical attack occurs, we are being attacked with threats that exact a price of their own. Increased security costs money, taxpayer money, my money, your money, and also results in a slowing of processes that reduce their efficiency and profitability as well as the associated inconvenience to all involved. Add to this the mental burden that such hostile talk causes and there should be no doubt that we are at war. This type of conduct can only be classified as destructive to our and our nation's health. These are people who will use whatever means they can muster to cause us grief and the ideas in the previous post should be seriously considered by all. Hamstringing our own defense in order to protect the rights of those who seek our destruction is suicidal. These are not criminal matters, they are matters of war. In war, you must do whatever it takes to win or face the consequences of your own lack of determination. At best, those consequences will very possibly result in more pain and suffering than would have occurred otherwise. At worst, they will result in losing the war. In this case, perhaps even beyond other possible scenarios, a loss is totally unacceptable, for every single citizen of this country. We must win, there is no other option, and we must do whatever it takes to accomplish that victory. So ask yourself: 'What rights do terrorists have?'. The only common sense answer to that is 'none'. This all boils down to trust. Who do we trust more, our own leaders or the terrorists? That should be pretty simple for the vast majority of people to answer, with the possible exception of certain judges and leftists. As such, we must allow our leaders to do whatever they deem necessary to defeat the enemy. Otherwise, we will have only ourselves to blame for defeat and its resulting destruction of our society.

Tue Dec 23, 2003

The Rule of Law vs War

Terrorist Rights are Hazardous to our Health

Ruth Wedgewood attempts to add some common sense to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Padilla case. :

Of course, it would be preferable to know everything that is important in life by standards of "beyond a reasonable doubt." But imagine if the intelligence dots had been replete and connected on Sept. 10, 2001. What if we knew, from out-of-court sources, the names of Qaeda operatives who were planning to hijack the jet-fueled airplanes for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

Even then, we would likely have lacked admissible criminal proof. By the logic of last week's decision, the president could not have held the hijackers as combatants — even after they had entered the United States, even with habeas corpus review of the president's decision, until the moment they appeared at Logan Airport with box cutters.
.....the training camps of Osama bin Laden created a dangerous and far-flung network that criminal law alone may not suffice to vanquish.

Given the nature of our enemy it is beyond reality to expect to win this war by being nice to them and respecting their rights. This includes those enemies who may be American citizens. The stakes are too high, the potential destruction and loss of life is too terrible, and the consequences of losing this war are too horrible to even consider the rights of those who want to destroy our entire society. Lock them up. They have the ability to use habeas corpus to find relief. That is sufficient, and it is more than they deserve.

Private Property in China

Marx and Mao FlipFlopping in their Graves

Marx takes a hit in China:

Officials revealed the language Monday for a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee private property rights. The move comes 25 years to the month after China began its long march toward a market economy. The wording simply states that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated," and that it is "on an equal footing with public property."

But those words were a difficult step for a party whose authority has long rested on the theory of Karl Marx that the state must eliminate all private means for creating wealth - especially land - in building an egalitarian society.

The party has slowly realized that the creation of new wealth relies more on those who risk money on property and ideas ("capitalists") than on labor. And its own survival now relies on keeping the economy humming at its rapid rate, and providing more legal protections for the wealth-creators, including farmers.

Another light comes on in the dark. Recall the words of Mao:

The Communist Party does not fear criticism because we are Marxists, the truth is on our side, and the basic masses, the workers and peasants, are on our side.

I reckon not.

Saddam Gets Demoted

From Son of the Prophet to Son of a .......

Saddam seems to have worked in mysterious ways but his capture has now reversed one of his previous victories:

It's official: Saddam Hussein is no longer a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The committee of Ashrafs, a group in Baghdad that guards the Muslim Prophet's genealogy, has admitted that Saddam forced them to add him to Muhammad's family tree. Three days after he was captured by American forces, the committee corrected the record. When it has received any attention at all, this story has been played in the Western press as a sign of Saddam's outsize ego. In fact, however, his attempt to claim status as a descendant of the Prophet may have been much more significant than that: it is likely to have been part of an attempt to position himself, despite his tenuous attachment to Islam, not only as a brother-in-jihad of Osama bin Laden but as the great unifier of the distinct ideologies of Arab nationalism and Islamic jihad, and as the true leader of the global jihad movement.

That's odd. And everyone thought that Saddam and Osama had nothing in common.
Hey, but take heart Saddam, you are still the son of a slew-footed sow, among other things.

College Idiocy

Top Ten Astounding Examples of Enlightenment

Take a look at some of the idiocy going on at college campuses:

A conservative college group has unveiled its list of top ten campus follies for 2003, and topping the list are a "gender blind" dormitory and a professor who required her students to write anti-war letters to President Bush.

Number one goes to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, which offers a "Gender Blind" dormitory floor for incoming students who aren't sure about their sex. Students who ask for the floor will have roommates appointed without regard to their sex - perceived or otherwise, according to YAF.

The rooms will be set aside for transgender students, described as those students born with ambiguous genitalia or who don't identify with their physical sex.

Prof. Nicholas De Genova of Columbia University in New York City said during a six-hour university teach-in on the war in Iraq that he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" - a reference to the 18 American soldiers ambushed and killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.

The third campus folly goes to Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., where a professor forced students in her Speech 106 class, a required course, to write anti-war letters to President Bush and penalized those who refused, according to YAF.

When some students asked for permission to write supportive letters instead, the professor refused and told them their grades would suffer if they did. The college sanctioned the professor and apologized to students.

Head on over and check out the rest of the list.

'04 Looking Rosy

For Republicans

Things are looking pretty good for Republicans for the '04 elections:

The most likely result would be a Republican gain of three or four, knocking the Democrats down to only 44 or 45 seats, barely enough to sustain a filibuster. If Bush wipes out Dean in a landslide, the Democrats could fall even lower, although it seems unlikely that they would drop below the magic number of 40 needed to oppose closure on Democratic filibusters.

Republicans will keep control of the House easily; the reapportionment of 2002 assures GOP control for the rest of the decade. In a series of state deals, Republicans and Democrats both agreed to put Democratic voters into districts now represented by Democrats. The Republicans liked the idea because it gave them permanent control of the House. Democrats loved it because it assured them of lifetime tenure in the lower house. (The only reason the Senate is so competitive is that the politicians can't gerrymander state lines!)

So, 2004 is shaping up as a nice year for Republicans all around.

It's early, but Dems appear set up to take a royal drubbing in '04.

Mon Dec 22, 2003

Libyan Sanctions

Actions Speak Louder

Steven at Poliblog takes a look at the effectiveness of sanctions on Libya and reaches a conclusion that shoots holes in the 'sanctions are working' crowd's argument:

Okay, twenty years of sanctions (some of which were lifted in the last several years) and no serious capitulation from the Colonel. Then, the US demonstrates its willingness to act preemptively against rogue states with WMDs and Gaddafi decides to negotiate.

Coincidence? I think not.

Me too.

And....thanks Steven, for the link to Judicious Asininity

Anti-terrorism Pact

Arab Leaders Taking a Stand?

The leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states — Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates agreed to a pact to fight terrorism following a 2 day summit. What is even more interesting is one of the possible methods of accomplishing that goal:

Reading the final communiqué, al-Attiyah said the summit discussed common steps to "develop education curricula" according to studies carried out since last year. He did not say if this meant revising textbooks to eliminate words that sow hatred for Jews and Christians and encourage religious intolerance.

Kuwaiti liberals have been calling for this reform for years. Saudi columnists joined them after 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were found to be Saudi.

Ayed al-Manna, an analyst, said he believed the leaders discussed reform, including how Islam is taught, but that they were "cautious" when it came to commenting publicly on such a sensitive topic.

Just the mere mention of such an idea is a big move for some of these countries. Maybe, just maybe, something is seeping into the minds of these leaders that will result in some real changes of attitude towards the rest of the world. At least there is a glimmer of hope.

Death Penalty Convert

Pollard Experiences a Change of Heart

Stephen Pollard has had a change of heart about capital punishment. Having opposed the ultimate penalty primarily based upon the idea that it is 'better that ninety nine guilty men should go free than that one innocent man should be killed', he has now reversed course in light of recent events and swung over to the other side.

As for the idea that it is better that ninety nine guilty men go free than one innocent man dies, the response of one Chinese jurist to that statement is perhaps the most pertinent observation: “Better for whom?”.

Head on over and read it all as Stephen discusses his change of heart in light of Saddam's recent capture. There is also a good bit about the hypocrisy of some persons who seem to think it acceptable to selectively apply capital punishment. My own thoughts echo that Chinese jurist, 'Better for whom".

Imaginary Horribles

Alarmist Cries Ignore Fact

An article on Green Watch begins:

I once had a gruff college professor who spiced his lectures with the phrase "imaginary horribles." I think of him whenever I read the latest far-fetched prediction of doom to befall the planet or the human race. Last week, for instance, the United Nations Population Division released a statistical projection claiming world population will leap from about 6 billion today to "134 trillion in 2300." That's no misprint! This particular U.N. division has a long record of spreading alarmist talk. If there were a Nobel Prize Committee for imaginary horribles, it would have to give out a special medal for this nonsense.

Having discussed some of the 'imaginary horribles' here in the past, suffice it to say that there is quite a bit of alarmist rhetoric out there that shouldn't be allowed to dictate our policy. What is needed is some common sense action to reduce pollution levels and do the best we can to protect our most valuable asset, the earth. This type of attitude would preclude much of the present 'environmental' movement because they seem to be basing their opinion on emotion instead of fact and because they seem bound to return the earth to a state that would require a severe reduction in population. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to volunteer to become one of the 'great sacrificers' in order to allow these groups to reach their goal.
Head on over and read the rest of the story about the imaginary horribles, and remember, things are not always as they seem.

The Green Inquisitor

Environmental Heretics Hounded

TCS Tech Central has more on the subject of this previous post, dealing with environmentalism as a religion:

Best-selling author Michael Crichton recently observed that environmentalism is a kind of pseudo-religion. He's right. Environmentalists have their own holy days (Earth Day, April 22), their saints (Rachel Carson, Jacques Cousteau), demons (George W. Bush), and Gardens of Eden (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). They also have their own Grand Inquisitor -- the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Union's job is to hunt down heretics who desert the true faith. One of those is a Danish academic named Bjorn Lomborg. The green witch-hunters have been after him for the past three years.

Head on over and read the sordid details. Meanwhile, here's a preview:

In 1992 the Union issued a "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity." This petition is no different from the jeremiads of Paul Ehrlich, Lester Brown and other members of the environmental clerisy. None dare quarrel with their dark vision of the future. The Warning speaks of "vast human misery" and a planet left "irretrievably mutilated." Mankind "may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know."

However, the appeal hedges on the question of climate change. "Increasing levels of gases in the atmosphere from human activities, including carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel burning and from deforestation, may alter climate on a global scale. Predictions of global warming are still uncertain -- with projected effects ranging from tolerable to very severe -- but the potential risks are very great."

"May alter"…. "still uncertain"… "projected effects"… "potential risks." The appeal calls on humanity to regulate its activities in order to fit the Union's fears about future climate change, despite the absence of certainty that climate change is actually taking place. Sounds like an example of how someone's "values" can "taint" their conclusions, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

It's a Secret

Crossed Signals Emanate From France

There seems to be a bit of confusion in France regarding the 'secret' talks that resulted in Libya's change of heart about their WMD programs:

France had no prior knowledge of British and American negotiations with Libya that prompted Tripoli's pledge to renounce weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Monday.

The comments came a day after France's defense minister said precisely the opposite. Michele Alliot-Marie said in a televised interview Sunday that France was "perfectly informed of the negotiations ... by the Americans several months ago."

When asked about the conflicting reports, De Villepin said:
'Obviously the Defense Minister was referring to the fact that when France is perfectly informed of a secret, that means we know nothing. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a secret'. Oui Oui?

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