small dead animals

CBS Draft Story: "Fake, But True"

Who says that a competitive marketplace encourages the best and brightest to rise to the top? Less than a month after the forged TANG memos blew up in their faces, CBS is defending a story by Richard Schlesinger on "Reviving The Draft".

Nevermind that Schlesinger overlooked telling his audience that his star "mom on the street", Beverly Cocco, heads up an advocacy group called People Against the Draft. To advance his piece, Schlesinger used the content of an email hoax.

Bill at INDC Journal tracked down Schlesinger, CBS spokeswoman Sandra Genelius, and producer Linda Karas, for an interview. The responses must be read to be believed.

INDC: "Probably the main concern with the story is that the e-mails that are shown in the piece are false; they've been debunked on various internet sites long ago ..."

Schlesinger: "The fact is, they were going around. I know several people that got them, and it's gotten people all riled up. Whether or not there's any reality to there being a draft, is almost besides the point. Do I think there's going to be a draft? No. But it's an issue that people are talking about."

[...]

Karas: "The truth of the e-mails were absolutely irrelevant to the piece, because all the story said was that people were worried. It's a story about human beings that are afraid of the draft. We did not say that this (e- mail) was true, it's just circulating. We are not verifying the e-mail."

"We are not verifying the e-mail".

What does that mean? They didn't bother going to the trouble of fact checking and didn't know it was a hoax? Or that they knew, and deliberately withheld that information from their audience, even though it was cited as reponsible for the "fear" they are reporting?

Is there a third explanation that I've overlooked, that validates this response as evidence of the thinking of intelligent, professional journalists?

There's a long list of media observers who have accused CBS of pro-Democrat bias. There are websites - rathergate.com and ratherbiased.com - devoted to exposing it. But reading Bill's interview, I'm no longer sure that bias is really at the root of CBS's problems. These responses indicate something quite different is going on, for they are devoid of any cleverness or obfuscation. We saw hints of that in the defense by Dan Rather of the forged memos. "False, but true". They actually believe that a hoax is valid basis for a news story, so long as the response to it is "genuine" or that some people believe it to be true. It's a wonder we don't get monthly updates from CBS based on press releases from the Flat Earth Society.

I realized this morning, that I've seen this sort of "logic" before - in the dog world. Dog breeders usually enter their field as rank novices, without training, accreditation or passing muster with an employer. They buy a dog (or two or three), go to a few shows, start making puppies and learn as they go. As might be expected, a few of these people have trouble getting velcro to work. They approach dog breeding with the intellectual quality of an excited moth sighting a light bulb.

When the puppies that result reflect the mediocrity any reasonably knowledgable breeder would have predicted, they rejoice in their quality. When others beg to differ, they can't see the shortcomings, they can't understand why their results are questioned. With beauty so conveniently located "in the eye of the beholder" they rationalize that it is the beholder who is lacking.

They don't progress, they repeat past mistakes and if they're stubborn enough to stick it out a few years, develop a reputation as serial losers.

This type of dog breeder is so well known, that we even have a name for them.

We call them "stupid people".

The more explanations of this type I read from employees of CBS, the more I realize that they don't sound like crafty politicians or spin doctors at all. They sound like the clueless twits we read on doggie email lists.

It's not bias at all. Someone at CBS is going out of their way to hire stupid people.

Najaf - Safer Than Saskatoon?

The Belmont Club puts the data cited in a NYT article on "sweeping" violence in Iraq into perspective. Or more accurately, into a graph. (image below is a partial snapshot - go read the whole thing).

Bush Lied, Holsteins Died

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told voters in America's Dairyland on Monday that President Bush had a secret plan that would hurt milk producers after the election.

[...]

Kerry said he would fill milk bottles at his uncle's dairy farm as a young boy. "I have a great sense of the land," Kerry said. "I really do. I'm tired of small family farmers getting squeezed."

The details are a little murky, but it seems the "secret Bush plan" is to drive the cows of Wisconsin into a river.

Kerry told the town hall that voters shouldn't be wary of changing horses midstream when the horse is drowning. Kerry also poked fun at reports that the Bush campaign insisted that the debate podiums be set relatively far apart so Kerry's five-inch height advantage won't be so apparent.

"May I also suggest that we need a taller horse?" he said. "You can get through deeper waters that way."

John "great sense of the land" Kerry - unaware that horses can swim.

hat tip - Canadian Comment.

Sushi And The Case For Beef

CTV News reports on the latest Liberal Nanny State Law.

Ontario gourmands are smacking their lips in protest over a new provincial regulation banning the use of fresh fish in raw dishes.

You voted for them.

Affecting such menu items as tartare, ceviche, cold smoked fish and the popular Japanese delicacy sushi,

I interrupt this post with a disclaimer. I believe the only fresh fish appropriate for human consumption is caught on a red and white spoon and cooked in a pan over a campfire or on propane barbeque. That said, I have eaten at a sushi bar.

...the province has enacted a new regulation that forces chefs to use fish that's been previously frozen.

Once. I had salmon. Cooked salmon.

Ontario Ministry of Health officials are concerned that, otherwise, unwitting patrons could be served with a portion of a parasitic roundworm ...

Unwitting? As opposed to the "witting" patrons paying 5 times what it's worth to be served with a portion of raw fish?

Ottawa sushi chef Hiro Iida told CTV News he has been making sushi for fifteen years -- following centuries-old techniques.

Ahem. And where did centuries of raw fishing eating get you?

Let's see... paper houses?

The non-invention of the fork.

Massive drycleaning bills.

Fancy writing. That nobody can read.

Poor rhyming skills.

I hate to point out the obvious, but the introduction of North American beef to the Japanese diet, and the 20th century emergence of Japanese technology, productivity and industry are not mere coincidence.

When asked whether she's worried about eating raw fish, Ottawa restaurant-goer Kristen Smith laughed. "No," she said, jokingly dismissing concerns of food-borne parasites. "Wasabi kills it, it's strong. And we need to build up our tolerance, too."

Yeah, that's what they all say, 'til they find worms in their poopie.

Then, they want a law.

Barbara Walters: The Dan Rather Interview

"If you were a fish, Dan, what would it be?"

Update: Ratherbiased.com is down, so I've redirected the link to Jeff Goldstein's save of the story

Update2: "Sugarcoat it" Memo surfaces via an uninpeachable source.

Me and Mr. Meyers

Editoral director of CBSNews.com, Dick Meyers, was a guest this afternoon on the Murray Wood Show (Rawlco Radio - 650 CKOM), explaining the decision of his network regarding the use (or rather, non-use) of beheading images on television. While explaining his own difficulty struggling with the issue, and propensity to "err in favour" of disclosure, his rationale included the fact that the images were beyond the realm of good taste and they served as propoganda.

?

I called in, and suggested that his explanation would make more sense, had the contraversy over supressing "propoganda" images of Nick Berg's murder not been played out over the backdrop of Abu Graihb and the weeks of tasteless prison photos that amounted to nothing more but different camera angles.

(Sorry, there are no transcripts, so this is from memory).

In addition to making a weak attempt to justify the use of the prison images as part of a "developing story" , Mr. Meyers actually attempted to claim that CBS had "broken the story" on Abu Graihb.

I corrected him. I reminded Mr. Meyers that the story had been actually "broken" by the Pentagon months before it made national news, had been covered in the back pages of print media, and was pretty much ignored until months later - when the photos became available.

I don't think he was expecting that.

He seemed a little rattled. Then, the (extended) segment ended and he had to go.

Heh. Thanks, Murray.

Added to the Beltway Traffic Jam

"Jihad Has Broken"

Stewart Bell, author of Cold Terror, in the National Post;

Yusuf Islam, the British singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, was the guest of honour at a Toronto fundraising dinner hosted by an organization that has since been identified by the Canadian government as a "front" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

In a videotape of the 1998 event obtained by the National Post, Mr. Islam describes Israel as a "so-called new society" created by a "so-called religion" and urges the audience to donate to the Jerusalem Fund for Human Services to "lessen the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Palestine and the Holy Land."

The Jerusalem Fund is one of four "fronts" named in a secret Privy Council Office memo that was sent to Jean Chretien, then prime minister, on May 23, 2000, discussing what it called groups that "have unsavoury links with terrorism.

Via Norm Spector.

[...]

The video opens with a scene of Niagara Falls, overlayed with the Jerusalem Fund logo, which features the al-Aqsa Mosque and the maple leaf. It begins with an unidentified man explaining the activities of the Jerusalem Fund, which he describes as "helping the Muslims in Palestine" by financing hospitals, health clinics, families in need and orphans.

"Palestine is close to the heart of each and every Muslim. What the Muslims of Palestine have been doing for many years now has been that bright light shining, that hope ... that they are still believers that can raise the banner of jihad in the most difficult of circumstances."

Mr. Islam then begins a 45- minute speech in English in which he says it is "intolerable" for Muslims to "stand and watch" the situation in the Middle East. He describes Jerusalem as the centre of a land that is holy because of its connection to Allah.

"So this city which is blessed because of its religious nature. Therefore, what we see today is the result of the departure of religion from this area, of the uprooting of religion. So many of the people of the faith have been exiled from this region, moved on, to make way for what? Strangely and ironically, they moved on in the name of so-called religion, on behalf of ... the Jews.

"Of course, that would explain what is happening. Because the moment that religion and religious virtues disappear, there for sure follows trouble, tyranny, oppression," he says. "So what do we see then today? The concoction of a so-called new society based on an old society."

He says there could be "no redeemer except Allah. No political concept or construct or treaty or agent except the laws of Allah, which he instructed for this world. Jerusalem is that, the symbol of that. Out of the hands of the righteous then it falls into disrepute and blood.

"Jerusalem, al-Quds, it is a mirror reflecting the reality ... If it is dark, if it is bloody, then so too is the world. Today it reflects injustice of the secular man over the religious man. And how can the secular man be given the control and the sanctuary of the divine place of worship when he doesn't even respect what is holy? How? And how can those of faith allow that to happen? Therefore, peace will not return until we return to the Holy Land."

National Geographic Takes It On The Tusk

French photographer Gilles Nicolet sells National Geographic staged photos. The magazine doesn't notice.

The readers do.

On pages 78-9 (photograph above), the picture caption reads that hunters are carrying "tusks taken from an elephant found dead in the bush." Soon after the article was published, several readers pointed out that there are faint but unmistakable numbers on the tusk on page 78 which we failed to notice before publishing the story. We now know that the tusks belong to the Tanzania Department of Wildlife. When we asked photographer Gilles Nicolet to explain, he admitted that he himself had supplied the tusks to the hunters after borrowing them from local wildlife authorities.

This was in direct contrast to what Nicolet had repeatedly assured us when we were preparing the story. As part of our rigorous internal system of checks and balances, we routinely obtain independent verification of the circumstances in which a photograph is made. In very few instances, we are unable to do so. This story was one of those cases, and we published it knowing that we were relying heavily on Nicolet's accounts.

In light of his disturbing admission about the tusks, we immediately launched an investigation into the other photographs in the story and determined that the two on page 85 which the caption identifies as showing a successful hunter removing his spear from an elephant and then removing the tusks were actually made several years earlier and are not of the Barabaig. (See photographs below.)

And National Geographic editor-in-chief William L. Allen does the right thing.

By publishing this story, we failed our readers. We are currently reviewing our internal procedures to do our best to ensure that this type of mistake does not happen again. In addition, we are re-examining Nicolet's only previous story for National Geographic ("Hunting the Mighty Python," May 1997); to date it appears that all of the pictures and accompanying captions are accurate.

We apologize to our readers.

Of course, here the stakes weren't as high. The elephant story wasn't written to help get a donkey elected.

Cat Blogging

He wasn't answering my emails, either, and it was really starting to bother me. So, I decided to do something to change that.

I've started mailing him dead cats. One or two a month.

And it's worked. He still doesn't answer my emails, but I no longer lie awake at night wondering why.

Hacking Xerox

If the company photocopier suddenly starts pumping out ads for penis enlargement products, there may be a reason...

Using Google hacks -- requests typed into the search engine that bring up cached information on networks -- hackers are discovering and using login details for networked photocopiers so they can watch what is being copied.

"You don't have to be a genius to do this," said Jason Hart, security director at Whitehat UK. "You can see what people are photocopying on your monitor. You just have to search for online devices on Google."

Something like searching for passwords, I presume?

McFuehrer The Crime Nazi!

You know, with this many recent appearances by der Fuehrer, I'm surprised that little black mustaches aren't making a fashion comeback. Today, rock producer and accused murderer Phil Spector finds himself in the clutches of the Third Reich.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Spector criticized the prosecutor's decision to seek a grand jury indictment, saying: "The actions of the Hitler-like district attorney and his storm trooper henchmen are reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable."

For those keeping score: President George W. Bush is Hitler, Attorney General John Ashcroft is Hitler, and now Hitler has even trickled down to little ol' Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.

At this rate, the late, great Adolph is on the brink of being rehabilitated into Defender Of Justice and Fighter Of Crime.

An American Soldier: "Re-Upping"

If I am able to get out of the Reserves later this year, I am thinking about the idea of re-upping. However not in the Reserves, I am thinking of joining a Special Forces Group that is near me. However that entails joining the National Guard.

[...]

I know my resource can be used to help people.

My wife came to me after and asked me if I watched the video. I acknowledged her and she said: "You should just go, why don't you go back and help those people. Make it so people don't have to get killed anymore!" I just looked back at her and felt a sense of peace that I could go again and she would be ok. She would be ok because she knew I was helping people. She knows the consequences but yet she knows that no matter what, I would be helping, even if it was one person from not getting killed like that again.

So folks, with that said. I have placed a call with the person I would need to talk to.

Some people go through their entire life to try and find the reason for their existence. It was in that instance yesterday that I knew what mine was.

Crotch Hounds

That dog who gooses you may just save your life.

Researchers at the Hospital were inspired to train dogs for the cause as they believe that cancer cells release molecules into the urine that have a characteristic smell of the disease, it said.

One of the first cases to reach the medical literature reported a woman who had gone to the doctor after her dog started sniffing suspiciously around a skin sore. It turned out to be a malignant tumour, it said.

Trainers worked on the dogs for seven months and trained them to detect the unique odour signature of cancer, compared to those of infections, inflammation or blood, it said.

The trainers also coached the dogs to discriminate between the urine of cancer patients and those with other bladder conditions, it said.

After the training was over, the dogs were asked to choose between laboratory dishes of seven types of urine and lie down in front of the one from a cancer patient, it said.

When the trained dogs were put to the test, they were correct over 40 per cent of the time, says Willis.

Who Is Running This Man's Campaign?

Via Paul, at Wizbang, who has more that are just as good or better. Or worse. Depends on your perspective, I guess.

Football Fans For Truth has much, much more.

The Oprah Vote

Michael Totten "gets it".

Kerry fails to understand that women, at least a significant number of those in the center, are more likely than before September 11 to admire toughness and strength. It's not that he's been neglecting "women's issues" and needs to catch up. Rather, "men's issues" are more important to most people now.

I hate to put it that way, and I apologize if it seems ridiculous. I don't think of myself as a "man" when I vote. I have never asked myself who's the most manly - and voted accordingly. ("Women's" candidates have always won my vote anyway.) And I seriously doubt the women who moved to the right did so because they think Bush is "girlier" than Kerry. What a laugh! For one thing, hardly anyone actually thinks in those terms. And if they did Kerry would still have his edge among women. George W. Bush is not more "feminine" or "nurturing" or "caring" than John Kerry.

But Kerry seems to believe people do think that way. And that's precisely why he's losing support among women right now. "Women's issues" still matter, and they matter to me. But they are not front and center this year.

I'd go out on a limb and suggest so-called "women's issues" aren't front and center with the majority of women in any year. Not since we got the vote, anyway.

Another Poll Result

56

44

Monumental Moonbattery

NELSON, British Columbia -- Plans for a bronze monument and festival to honor U.S. draft dodgers in 2006 in this picturesque lakeside town have generated a wave of anger in the United States, local officials say.

[...]

In announcing Our Way Home, a celebration set for July 8-9, 2006, director Isaac Romano said the purpose was to honor "the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters and the Canadians who helped them resettle in this country during that tumultuous era."

This calls for a photoshop contest - put your creative juices to work, and help the good people of Nelson in their quest to make absolute asses of themselves.

Joining the Beltway Traffic Jam to spread the word and solicit your entries!

Distrust In Media

The Sept. 13-15 poll -- conducted after the CBS News report was questioned but before the network issued a formal apology -- found that just 44% of Americans express confidence in the media's ability to report news stories accurately and fairly (9% say "a great deal" and 35% "a fair amount"). This is a significant drop from one year ago, when 54% of Americans expressed a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the media. The latest result is particularly striking because this figure had previously been very stable -- fluctuating only between 51% and 55% from 1997-2003.

Hat Tip - Jeff Jarvis

"Hundreds Of Planes"

Reluctantly, the American prisoners did as they were told, all 150 of them, crawling single file into the dark, poorly ventilated pits. Everyone but Stidham, whose stretcher was conveniently placed beside one of the trench entrances. If the planes came, his buddies would gather his limp form and tuck him into the shelter with everyone else.

They waited and waited but heard not a single American plane, let alone a hundred. They huddled in the stifling dankness of their collective body heat, sweat coursing down their bare chests. The air-raid bell continued to peal. A Navy signalman named C.C. Smith refused to go into his pit. Suddenly the Buzzard set upon him. He raised his saber high so that it gleamed in the midday sun, and with all his strength he brought it blade side down. Smith's head was cleaved in two, the sword finally stopping midway down the neck.

Then, peeking out the ends of the trenches, the men saw several soldiers bursting into the compound. They were carrying five-gallon buckets filled with a liquid. The buckets sloshed messily as the soldiers walked. With a quick jerk of the hands, they flung the contents into the openings of the trenches. By the smell of it on their skin, the Americans instantly recognized what it was -- high-octane aviation fuel from the airstrip. Before they could apprehend the full significance of it, other soldiers tossed in lighted bamboo torches. Within seconds the trenches exploded in flames, The men squirmed over each other and clawed at the dirt as they tried desperately to shirnk from the intense heat. They choked back the smoke and the fumes, their nostrils assailed by the smell of singed hair and roasting flesh. They were trapped like termites in their own sealed nest.

Only a few managed to free themselves. Dr.Carl Mango, from Pennsylvania, sprang from his hole, his clothes smoldering. His arms were outstretched as he peaded -- "Show some reason, please God show reason" -- but a machine gunner mowed him down.

Another prisoner crawled from his trench, wrested a rifle from the hands of a soldier, and shot him before receiving a mortal stab in the back. A number of men dashed toward the fence and tried to press through it but were quickly riddled with lead, leaving a row of corpses hung from the barbed stands like dried cuttlefish. A few men managed to slip through the razor ribbon and leap from the high cliff, but more soldiers were waiting on the beach to finish them off. Recognizing the futility of escape but wanting to wreak a parting vengeance, one burning prisoner emerged from his trench, wrapped his arms tightly around the first soldier he saw, and didn't let go -- a death embrace that succeeded in setting the surprised executioner on fire.

All the while, Lieutenant Sato scurried from trench to trench with saber drawn, loudly exhorting his men and occasionally punctuating his commands with a high, nervous laugh. At his order, another wave of troops approached the air-raid shelters, throwing grenades into the flaming entrances and raking them with gunfire. Some of the troops poked their rifle barrels through the entrances of the trenches and fired point-blank at the huddled forms within. James Stidham, the paralytic who had been watching all of this from his stretcher, quietly moaned in terror. A soldier stepped over to him and with a perfunctory glance fired two slugs into his face.

From Ghost Soldiers- an account of the atrocity at Palawan, Dec.14, 1944.

Today, as we witness acts of what seems unprecedented barbarism, we must remind ourselves that others have been down this road before.

But, unlike today's helpless individuals whose names flash around the globe as they plead for mercy, their murders recorded single file -- the American and Filipino prisoners of war who suffered years of unspeakable cruelty, who died of torture, starvation, disembowling, decapitation at the hands of the Japanese, were dumped in nameless thousands in mass graves, or simply left to rot.

Yet, those who survived were witness to the transformation of that society into a peaceful, prosperous democracy in their lifetime. It must still seem miraculous to them.

I'm nearly finished reading Ghost Soldiers. It's a difficult book. As I turn the pages, another contrast becomes evident - that of the steady and courageous resolve of leaders of that time, and a would-be-President of today, whose reaction to the ugly reality of defeating and reforming inhuman ideologies is to publicly proclaim the effort a "mess", and announce that "We need a summit."

The ghosts of Bataan would despair.

Green Power: Blowing In The Wind

Saskatchewan's Wide Open Wallet delivers another hit to taxpayers.

News Release: SASKPOWER AND ATCO POWER JOINT VENTURE WILL NOT PROCEED

After detailed discussions regarding the project, SaskPower International and ATCO Power have announced their joint venture to build 150 megawatts of wind generation in Saskatchewan will not proceed.

SaskPower remains committed to pursuing wind generation as part of the Green Power Portfolio and will now review options related to the project.

[...]

SaskPower International Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SaskPower and is the corporation's development arm. SaskPower operates three coal-fired power stations, seven hydroelectric stations, four natural gas stations, and nine wind turbines (Cypress Wind Power Facility) with aggregate generating capacity of more than 3,000 MW, and has 449 MW of contracted capacity (Meridian Cogeneration Station, Cory Cogeneration Station and SunBridge Wind Power Project).

SaskPower is a Saskatchewan government corporation, actually - one of around 70 such government-owned entities. (ATCO is Alberta based.)

The news isn't good for SaskTel (another wholly owned subsidiary of the Saskatchewan government), either.

[...]for SaskTel, letting you talk on the phone from your computer -- free of long distance charges or for mere pennies per minute - - won't be as cheap for them as it will be for everyone else, if the CRTC has its way.

[...]

Currently the CRTC regulates telephone service but the Internet is largely unregulated. The problem, from SaskTel's perspective, is the CRTC is leaning toward calling the technology a phone service and regulating it as such -- at least for the existing phone companies.

"Certainly, we look at it as an Internet service," said John Meldrum, SaskTel's vice- president for regulatory affairs, in an interview from Ottawa. "We think the CRTC is looking backward, not forward."

The regulations would force the incumbent companies to adhere to similar pricing restrictions based on costs as they do for landline service. They would also force telephone companies to re-file any price changes to the CRTC, and allow them to offer promotions, like free trials, or bundle options.
SaskTel feels it is unfair to force incumbent providers to adhere to these regulations when all other potential VoIP providers will be able to operate free of regulation.

"They'd cause competitive harm to the incumbent so new competition can flourish," Meldrum said of the CRTC's position.

Cable service providers, like Rogers, Shaw and Regina's Access Communications, feel regulation will help them compete.

Those 'good old' days when it was illegal for private citizens to own their own phone in the province of Saskatchewan seem so quaint and far away.

Patronage at the CBC?

Via Adam Daifallah, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has released findings about patronage at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"For too long, appointments to Canada's most important cultural institution - the CBC - have often been made based on political affiliation rather than merit," said FRIENDS' spokesperson Ian Morrison, commenting on a new report that examines government appointments to the CBC.

92% of appointees have been affiliated with the governing political party

21% of appointees have been women

3 of 152 appointees have been visible minorities or aboriginal people

[...]

The report also examined the 83 appointments made to the CRTC since 1968 and found that, based on available information:

83% of appointees to the CRTC were affiliated with the governing party

25% of appointees to the CRTC have been women

two appointees have been visible minorities and none have been aboriginal

In related news, FRIENDS also reports that the Earth revolves around the sun, that water runs downhill and bears shit in the woods.

"Terrorism Nests Within Us"

Mundir Badr Haloum, for Al-Safir (Lebanon), September 13;

"Twelve Nepalese citizens are slaughtered - Islam. A metro station is bombed - Islam. Civilian aircraft crash - Islam. A school is taken and the souls of 50 children [are lost] for the soul of [each] terrorist - Islam. A bus is bombed here, a railway train there, and before that there were hospitals and theaters, etc - all of them Islamic acts. [Behind] the color green are exposed rivers red with blood, flowing in the streets and public squares. And Muslims everywhere.

[...]

"Self-examination - would result in favor of abandoning Islam - yet what gets passed on from one generation to the next is - the latest version of Islam - Algeria, Afghanistan, Moscow, and New York, the version of the planes and the buses, the metro stations, the theaters and the residential complexes. What gets passed on from one generation to the next is the faith of Jihad that takes lightly the spilling of others' blood. How easy it is to shove someone into the category of the enemy. What gets passed on from generation to generation is the belief in legal rulings that forbid thought and permit killing. Religious Muslims prepare an offering to heaven - a fresh bit of human flesh, meant to be evidence of the truth and the proof of Jihad for the absolute truth.

"Indeed, we as Muslims produce terrorism, succor it, and praise it. We condemn it only when forced to. Motivated by considerations of power, interests, and diplomacy, we wear a pained expression on our faces but in our hearts we rejoice at the brilliant success - a large number of casualties. Unfortunately, in this black reality it does not matter if it is an American, Israeli, or Russian mind who is responsible for certain terrorist operations or whether those who kill themselves are poor, ignorant, or destitute."

[...]

"Islam is in need of true reform. Islam's need [for reform] - or, to be precise, our need for Islam's reform - is not less than the need for reform in the Arab political regimes. This is the need for people who are capable of fearlessly acknowledging that terrorism nests within us as Muslims and that we must exorcise it. Unfortunately, the meaning of delay is more death. The reform will take a long time and the price will be high, but it is the only path to our return to history as Muslims and not as terrorists."

Kerry Family Values

According to the Boston Herald, an upcoming piece in the New Yorker includes these heartwarming tidbits about Ter-ay-za Heinz Kerry;

The daughter of a doctor, Heinz loves to dispense medical advice. Friends think she is ``delightful, loving, funny and kindhearted'' but her step-daughters, Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry, did not hit it off with her at first.

``I thought, `I love kids, kids love me, I'll be fine.' Baloney,'' Teresa said. ``You have to treat stepchildren like pets. You're nice to them but you don't get too close or they chew you up. Well, I did it the other way.''
     
In fact, we hear the gals refer to Heinz as their ``step-money.'' As for her hubby, the piece says that Kerry spoke French to Teresa when he was wooing her, as is his wont.

Meanwhile, over at the field, John Forbes steps into the QB role to show the young kids a thing or two about football....

What makes the first half of this clip so great is that the coach called a sweep play that involves a pulling guard. For those of you out there that don't know what that means, the short version is that pulling a guard leaves the quarterback less protected on purpose.

The White House is too small for these people.

What they really need is a sitcom.

Hat tip - Tim Blair and Inoperable Terran.

The Dan Rather Mysteries

"I clenched my jaw when I saw a new interrogator enter the filthy room, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves. God, no... it was Goldstein."

Winning By Fighting Back

MIchael Totten on the end of the Intifada.

The doom-mongers were wrong. Period. Just as they were wrong when they predicted disaster in Afghanistan. Just as they were wrong when they predicted disaster in Iraq the first time around. Just as they were wrong when they (although it was mostly Republicans this time) predicted disaster in Kosovo.

Those who keep insisting we or one of our democratic allies will actually lose a war have been wrong for a third of a century now. I am thirty four years old. The last time the doom-mongers were right I was three. They have been consistently wrong throughout my entire living memory. (Am I forgetting something? Have we lost a war since Vietnam?)

Wretchard, at The Belmont Club follows up;

The most remarkable thing about Israel's campaign against the Intifada was not it's adoption of new warfighting concepts, like Europe's Human Security Doctrine, but its reversion to the oldest method of all: winning by fighting back. Social historians in the future, should we ever attain it, may endlessly wonder how it was possible for Western European and liberal American intellectuals to forget 5,000 years of military experience in favor of the slogans, some composed facetiously, of the Peace Movement of the 1960s.

For two fellows as observant as Wretchard and Totten, I'm surprised that they overlook the obvious - at their ideological core, the "Peace Movement" and Western European and liberal American intellectuals have far more invested in the notion of losing wars than they do in winning them.

Why would they endorse methods that have a proven track record of success?

Relaunch?

Thanks to Kathy Kinsley of On The Third Hand the site is starting to resemble its old self again. Still some tweaking to do, she tells me, but so far, so good.

Comments are turned off, but be patient. back on.

Looks like my blog vacation is over.

malfunction

Something rather odd is going on with MT tonight - it started with error messages on multiple attempts to post, a sudden complaince and now, an inability to edit the repeats, or anything else here.

Argh. I've sent a plea for geek help. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Geek help is working on it. Probably tomorrow, it's a corrupt database. Comments and trackbacks are off to prevent further corruption.

Update. So far, so good. Let's see if we can straighten out the front page.

Geek update: comments and trackbacks are on again.

Road Warriors

I'm home. I did have internet access while I was in Montana, but between the challenge of typing blog posts on a Libretto 70CT (with a keyboard that's 8" wide) and general disconnectness from the news world, I didn't get much blogging done.

We finished up at the show around noon Sunday (successfully) and hit the road right away. It's about 5 hours from Helena to the border crossing north of Malta. On the way through Harlem, I tossed around the idea of heading north for the port of Climax, but the roads on the Saskatchewan side being what they are, chose to go further east to Malta and cross south of Swift Current. There was plenty of time.

What we didn't know was that on Sept.15 the border crossing moved to "winter hours". We fueled up in Malta, and turned north. Then, a few miles along, a sign informed us the border now closed at 6 pm. We had 35 minutes to cover 45 miles. And had the clock in the van not been 3 minutes slow, we'd have made it.

This is what the Port of Monchy looks like at 6:03 pm. From the American side.

And this is the border to the east of the crossing, viewed out the passenger window.... hmmmmm.....

It's probably a good thing we didn't have wire cutters.

Moderate Canadian Muslims Denounce "terrorist"

Norm Spector notes outrage by Canadian Muslim groups National Council on Canada- Arab Relations (NCCAR) and the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF);

“This is another troubling example of clear bias by CanWest publications like the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen in applying different standards towards Arabs and Muslims when reporting,” said NCCAR Executive Director Mazen Chouaib.

These two groups are protesting the use of the word "terrorist" to describe the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Staudt Speaks

About a week ago, I began to wonder why one person mentioned in the discredited Rathergate memos had not commented on the controversy. My suspicion is that he may have been seeking legal advice - as far as I can tell, it looks as though he'd have one hell of a libel suit against CBS.

Today, Powerline says he's broken his silence.

"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard. I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them."

"He was highly qualified. He passed all the scrutiny and tests he was given."

"No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard. It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."

"He was a well-educated, bright- eyed young man, just the kind of guy we were looking for. He presented himself well. I'd say he was in the upper 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever we ever talked to about going to pilot training. We were pretty particular because when he came back [from trainin.g], we had to fly with him."

Online ABC version here. Reportedly, the interview will air tonight.

One does wonder why Dan Rather didn't go the extra mile to the do that interview himself.

Well, ok. One doesn't wonder.

No Pajama Blogging

I've resisted commenting on the pajama meme raging throughout the blogosphere.

But today, James Joyner and Donald Sensing have come clean.

Welcome gentlemen to the League Of Naked Bloggers.

And I thought I was the only one!

Imperfect Krime

Wire cutters to cut cable of surveillance camera - $5.95
Gloves to prevent fingerprints from being left on glass case - $18.99
Being apprended in the worlds first Kmart Jewel Heist - priceless

(no link - picked uo on local Great Falls,MT radio news)

Posted by Kate at 11:11 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack