Rants and Raves from a proud card-carrying, unilateralist and simplistic American member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Oh, and full-time Emperor and Ruler of All the Known Universe and Every Last Organism in it as well.




Comments?
Suggestions?
Questions?
Ask Mr. Misha

[Email policy: The content of any and all emails sent to the above address will become the property of the owner of this website and eligible for publication, with the exception of personal details. Such details will not be published unless specific permission is given by the sender.]

 

More Linkage

I was initially led to this website by a link at the DailyPundit pointing to a take-down of an NYT article that compares bloggers to pamphleteers.

The post itself is brilliant, but I then made the mistake of reading through the rest of the posts on the page. I think it's been quite a little while since I've laughed that hard, and I mean that in a most complimentary manner! It's a damn good thing that I hadn't yet gotten around to changing the keyboard that Andrea Harris destroyed for me a few hours ago...

Most likely, anybody who reads this will already know about Bigwig's "Silflay Hraka"-site and be asking themselves what planet I've been living on for the last year or so but, nevertheless, he receives my full endorsement for sharp, raunchy humor that'll have you in tears, along with some pretty excellent insight to boot.

Welcome to my permalinks, Bigwig. (not much of an honor considering the circulation of this site compared with yours, but the sentiment behind it is sincere)

UPDATE: Since Bill Quick put up his altogether too kind endorsement of yours truly, it seems I've had quite a few more visitors. One of them is Laurence Simon of Amish Tech Support fame, who asks the very pertinent question: "I wonder if the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is skipping the same meds that I skip", to which I can only answer: "Wroof!", "you mean there's medication for it?" and "whatever it is that Laurence is skipping, I want some so I can skip it too!".

You're in the permalinks, Laurence, where you should have been from the beginning. Go read his site if you haven't already, but be sure not to have anything in your mouth when you do!

UPDATE the 2nd: Also, Laurence sent me a boiler plate on how to use www.weblogs.com, something that would've taken me forever to dig up on my own. You know, for an Amish, you sure are helpful, man! Thanks :-)
posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 11:42:00 PM

 

The Fisk is on a Pilgrimage

Bobbie "Hit Me" Fisk has just come back from a visit to the graves of dead al-Qaeda "martyrs" and seems to have been deeply moved by the whole affair (probably disappointed that nobody beat him, I know I am. But then again, I'm mean).

They are honoured as saints. Beneath the grey mounds of dust and dried mud lie the "martyrs" of al-Qa'ida.

...feeding the worms, which is the only useful thing they've ever done.

Here, among these 150 graves, lie the three men who held out to the end in the Mirweis hospital, shooting at the Americans and their Afghan allies until they died amid sewage and their own excrement.

...which was still too good a death for them.

Other earth hides the bodies of the followers of Osama bin Laden who fought at Kandahar airport in the last battle before the fall of the Taliban.

One can almost feel the nostalgia emanating from Fisk's writing. The Glory Days of the Taliban.

They are Arabs and Pakistanis and Chechens and Kazakhs and Kashmiris and all – if you believe the propaganda – are hated and loathed by the native Pashtun population of Kandahar.

Based on the vile "propaganda" of Afghans dancing in the streets, burning their burkhas and the complete and utter rout of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, one might certainly reach that conclusion. But how wrong can you be? The Fisk himself is about to show us...

Not true. For while the US special forces cruise the streets of this brooding, hot city in their 4x4s, the people of Kandahar visit this bleak graveyard with the reverence of worshippers. They tend the graves in their hundreds. On Fridays, they come in their thousands, travelling hundreds of miles.

...walking through the blizzards of the Brutal Afghan Winter™, no doubt, wandering through the treacherous minefields deliberately placed by the Evil Americans to kill innocents, blah, blah, blah...

They bring their sick and dying. For word has it that a visit to the graveyard of Mr bin Laden's dead will cure disease and pestilence.

Word also has it that beating Robert Fisk over the head with a 2 by 4 will miraculously heal blindness. Spread the word, please.

As if kneeling at the graves of saints, old women gently wash the baked-mud sepulchres, kissing the dust upon them, looking up in prayer to the spindly flags which snap in the dust storms. The Kandahar Kubrestan – the place of graves – is a political as well as a religious lesson for all who come here.

Indeed. "If you attack the US, you'll be turned into gooey paste and spend the rest of your existence in an unmarked grave somewhere in the world." Unfortunately, the lesson seems lost on Fisk, but then again: What'd you expect?

"Foreigners are advised to stay away from the al-Qa'ida graveyard," a Western aid worker announces with ceremony. "You may be in danger there."

...which was Fisk's cue to go there immediately. "Great! I might get another beating that I can whine about for months!" So he did. Unfortunately nobody bothered to beat him up this time.

But when I visited the last resting place of Mr bin Laden's men, there was only the fine, gritty winds of sand to fear. It crept into my eyes, my nose, my mouth, my ears.

...your brains too, it would appear...

Many of the men around the graves kept their scarves around their faces, dark eyes staring at the foreigner in their midst.

...still hoping for that beating, are you? You might want to consider whether they kept their scarves on to keep the dust out, unlike an Idiotarian Euro-weenie "reporter" I could mention.

The local authorities have put two Afghan soldiers on duty to control the crowds, but all they do is watch the visitors as they put bowls of salt on the graves and take pieces of mud from the graves to touch with their tongues.

What'd you expect them to do? Shoot civilians for the "crime" of pouring salt on the ground and kissing dirt? Of course you did. You must be horribly disappointed.

An old man from Helmand was there. He had put stones and salt and mud on the tombs – he shook hands with me with salt on his fingers – and he had come because he was sick. "I have pain in my knee and I have polio and I heard that if I came here I would be cured," he said. "I put salt and grain on the graves. Later I collect the grain and eat the salt, and take the mud from the grave home." Khurda, the Pashtuns call this, bringing salt to the tombs of saints.

Other people pour salt on the ground to render it forever infertile. Other people again believe that if you throw salt over your shoulder it wards off curses, if you buy kippers it will not rain and that trout live in trees.

A second, older man had travelled from Uruzgan with his mother. "My mother had leg and back pains and I brought her to Kandahar so she could see the doctors. But when I heard the stories about these martyrs' graves – and that they might cure her – I also brought my mother here. She is happier here than going to the doctor's." I watched his elderly mother on her knees, scraping dust from the mud tombs, praying and crying.

Mind you, she did go see the doctors, which is the reason she came in the first place. I can't blame the poor woman and her son for trying every possibility in the book. I know I'd have, if it was my mother. After all, what could it hurt? But it hardly makes for "travelling hundreds of miles to visit the graves of saints", which seemed to me to be the point of your whole article, Bobbie.

The two soldiers at the graveyard appear to have succumbed to the same visionary trance as the worshippers. "I've seen for myself people who get healed here," a young, unbearded man with a Kalashnikov rifle on his shoulder told me with a smile. "It's true. People get well after visiting the graves. I've seen deaf men who could hear again and I've seen the dumb speak. They were cured."

...would that it could've cured Fisk of his terminal case of stupidity, but alas, it was not to be.

This is not the time – and definitely not the place – to contradict such conviction.

Aww... Come on... Contradict it, you know you want to... But then again, you are a whining sissy.

The sand blasts over this graveyard with a ruthlessness worthy of Osama bin Laden.

OK, I've found out how we can obtain definite DNA evidence of bin Laden's demise: Whack Robert Fisk on the back, because Osama's dick seems to be stuck in his mouth.

The city cemetery is much larger – there are square miles of tribal graveyards within the perimeter. But it is the al-Qa'ida dead who attract most mourners. Attracted by what, the foreigner wonders? By the rumours and legend of healing?

Undoubtedly. Sick people tend to grasp at any straw they can find, no matter how unlikely, which is perfectly understandable.

By the idea that these men resisted the foreigners to the end, preferred to die rather than surrender, that the non-Afghan "martyrs" had fought like Afghans?

...and died like rabid dogs.

Perhaps it's as well the American special forces boys don't drop by for a visit.

I'm sure our Spec Forces guys are shitting their pants at the thought of facing a crowd of sick and debilitated old Afghans. Especially considering that the local government feels that sending two guys out there to control the "thousands" of worshippers is adequate. Has it ever occurred to your befuddled brain that our soldiers might have more important things to do?

They might see something that would – and should – worry them.

Such as? The sight of a reporter from one of our allied nations worshipping at the Altar of Death? Possibly. But then again, I much suspect that the only reason any of our soldiers would have for visiting the graves of terrorists would be to relieve their bladders, and I don't think that the prospect of facing a bunch of invalids would deter them much if they really wanted to.

UPDATE: In the "comments" section, the brilliant Andrea Harris advances the entirely plausible theory that Bob Fisk may have become a much-needed and well-deserved source of entertainment for the Afghans. In her own words:

They must send rumors of his impending arrival ahead to every town and village: "Hey, that stupid Westerner is coming! Think up your best stories for him! He'll believe _anything_ an Afghan tells him! We told him that that cemetery in Kandahar was a major religious shrine and the idiot ate it up!"

Next week: "Osama Bin Laden raised my mother from the dead!" a True Story as Reported by Robert Fisk.

Andrea, I think you're right! (and you owe me for a new keyboard, dammit!)

posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 06:26:00 PM

 

Wrong Move by the Church

Apparently the Catholic Religious Orders have reached the conclusion, after their annual conference in Philadelphia, that child molesting preachers should not be expelled from the Church.

Meeting in an annual conference in Philadelphia, the leaders of the 125 Catholic orders said they considered it inappropriate to force sexual abusers from their communities, which include the Jesuits, Benedictines, Dominicans and more than 100 other service and missionary groups.

The lifelong vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that commit the priests, monks and brothers to their Catholic communities obligate their religious superiors to support them financially and to oversee them throughout their lives, even if they commit sexual crimes, the leaders of the orders said.

Now, being a Christian myself, though not Catholic, I do believe in loving thy neighbor, but this is carrying the principle to its extreme and beyond, in my opinion.

Child molestation is not, in my admittedly biased opinion, an area in which anybody should show "leniency", and excommunicating the offenders, once proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, would be the least that I'd expect from a religious order with any sort of self-respect. Personally, I'd like to tie the offenders in a bag and throw them off a cliff, but that's a different matter.

I fear that the Church is going to taint its own name beyond belief with this decision and it saddens my heart in a time when it seems, to me at least, that we need to revive our spirituality more than ever.

As always, your mileage may vary...
posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 05:36:00 PM

 

It's The Jews Again!

Those dastardly Jews are trying to sabotage peace negotiations! At least that's what the Paleostinian cabinet secretary claims in a NYT "All The News We Can Fit, We Print" article.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 — Palestinian officials today accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of trying to sabotage their talks in Washington with a tough speech on Thursday in which he called the Palestinian Authority "a gang of corrupt terrorists and assassins."

Sounds pretty accurate to me... I'd have put "inept" in there somewhere too, though. PM Sharon is being much too kind...

Lashing back, the Palestinian cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, called Mr. Sharon's government "a coalition of terror and a gang of killers."

Gee... I Know You Are, But What Am I? The rhetorical tricks of Paleostinian Terror Chiefs never ceases to amaze me. What'll be next? My mommy can beat your mommy? A fascinated world waits with bated breath...

"He wanted to intimidate the Americans and to warn them against reaching any agreement with the Palestinian delegation by describing the Palestinian Authority officials as people against peace," Mr. Abdel Rahman said.

...and why on Earth would anyone think that an entity busily sitting on their hands while terrorists roam the streets and jubilant crowds cheer mass murder in the streets was "against peace"?

"If we are like that, why are we in the States, now exerting every possible effort to reach a way out?"

...because you got your nuts caught in the wringer and realize that you're losing, BIG TIME?

A delegation appointed by Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader — with whom President Bush says he will not deal — met on Thursday with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

...begging for their lives...

At the same time, Mr. Sharon went on national television with a speech that his advisers said was meant to prepare Israel for a long struggle.

"We can't hold talks with the gang of terrorists that is the Palestinian Authority," Mr. Sharon said. "Rooting them out is the only way to reach peace."

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. And talking to the Paleostinian Semi-authority hasn't exactly proven useful in the past.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a close adviser to Mr. Arafat,

...and thus utterly irrelevant, but don't tell the NYT that.

...said today that Mr. Sharon's "declarations hamper international efforts to come back to the political process."

No. What's hampering it is you maniacal murderers and your total lack of willingness to comply with simple and reasonable demands. Such as stopping the explosion of Israeli civilians. And until you get that, there isn't a snowball's chance in Hell that you'll ever get back to the "political process".

"Sharon's declarations are suitable to most Israeli officials who are war criminals and who must face international justice and be tried for the crimes they perpetrated against our people," Mr. Abu Rudeineh said.

...oh do shut up, you silly little man, before somebody decides to shut you up for good!

Mr. Sharon's speech, Israeli political commentators said, was also meant to enhance his popularity, which has fallen recently.

Throughout the spring he was riding high in opinion polls, mainly because of his tough actions against the Palestinians, including the military incursion into West Bank areas ceded to Palestinian control under the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995.

...the terms of which the Paleostinians have been busily violating ever since, but the NYT seems to be blissfully unaware of that fact, much to nobody's surprise.

But polls published today in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot were headlined "Sharon Does Not Know How to Get Rid of Terrorism."

The numbers were grim. Does Sharon know how to eliminate the attacks? Yes, 36 percent; no, 60 percent. Since the Sharon government took office, who has been winning? Israel, 30 percent; Palestinians, 33 percent; neither, 30 percent. How long will the attacks last? A year, 28 percent; two years or more, 53 percent. Will attacks diminish? Diminish, 16 percent; increase, 67 percent.

"We are condemned to live with the terror attacks for years to come," Sever Plotzker wrote in the newspaper, summing up the poll. "Condemned to bleed and fear."

...and caving in to the Paleostinians ridiculous demands along with complete withdrawal from the cesspool in which they breed their splodeydopes is going to help in what way, Mr. Plotzker? Just asking.

The mutual recriminations continued, too, over a breakdown in talks this week about a possible security plan to ease pressure on the Palestinians, whose economy and very lives have been disrupted by the Israeli takeover of the West Bank.

...not to mention the disruption of Israeli buses, pizza parlors and discotheques that prompted the Israeli "takeover", the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Paleostinians that you morons at the NYT and CNN, to name a couple of the worst offenders, have been studiously ignoring.

Much of the wrangling is regarded as political posturing on both sides. Indeed, any such initiative would face internal opposition among the fragmented leadership on both sides.

That is particularly true of the Palestinians. Mr. Arafat's decision to have his aides meet with the Israelis this week — an apparent effort to reclaim his diminishing relevance — is being criticized not only by the militants in groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad but also by his own base in Al Fatah.

"Diminishing relevance". You've gotta love the NYT. He hasn't got any relevance, you pathetic bunch of bumbling, babbling babboons! He's history, out, down for the count, not relevant, and the fact that his own base won't listen to him just proves that point.

It also proves that the paper formerly known as "The Paper of Record" should be renamed "Pravda on the Hudson"...

If I was a member of the "Evil Zionist Conspiracy" that "controls the US media", I'd demand my friggin' money back!
posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 03:44:00 PM

 

More Local Morons

Everytime I feel that we Texans have a superior grasp on reality and my head gets too big for me to walk out the door, all I have to do is to check out the "Letters" section of the "Dallas Morning News" and I'm back on the ground in no time:

Bush's high comedy

Does anyone else find it comical to hear George W. Bush, practicing his unique brand of golf cart diplomacy, reiterate the "need for new leadership from the Palestinians"?
Imagine, a man who received a minority of the votes in his election, demanding the resignation or removal of a man who received an overwhelming majority of the votes in his election! High comedy indeed!

Greg Gayden, Dallas

Mr. Gayden, there is indeed comedy to be found in your piece, but I don't think you want to know the exact nature of the comedy, nor do you want to know who the joke is ultimately on.

Of course, your personal mileage may vary (at least on the part of your gasoline that you aren't busy huffing), but I generally think that we're much better off with a President who received a majority of the votes of the Electoral College (you really should check up on that document called the "Constitution", especially if you want to pretend that you're from around here) in a regularly scheduled free election, than the Paleostinians are with a maniacal thug "elected" by a majority of votes given at gunpoint who has since determined to do away with "elections" altogether. Actually, I think most Paleostinians would agree, those of them that aren't busy blowing themselves up, that is.

But if you're still disgusted with the "lack of democracy" in the US, I suggest you go try out the Paleostinian version for a while. Just be careful not to blow yourself up, y'hear?

Idiot...
posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 11:19:00 AM

 

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways...

...His wonders to perform.

Yesterday my wife and I found out how true this is.

We had decided, on impulse, we certainly hadn't planned on going out, to forgo the pleasures of cooking and go get some restaurant grub instead, so I picked her up from work and we went there immediately. When we'd both pretty much finished our meals and were enjoying a sinking spell, one of the waitresses rushed to my wife (she was still wearing her scrubs) and said : "Are you a nurse? There's an infant over here that is choking!". My wife looked at me and said "come along, honey, we're gonna need you" (medicine is another part of my mysterious and colorful past), and we both rushed after the waitress...

When we got to the "scene", we found an understandably upset and crying mother and a limp 7-month old little girl... And that's when "the switch" inside of me was thrown and everything started happening very quickly, as it should. I picked up the child and my wife checked her airways and vitals, no breathing, no visible objects and no palpable pulse, and I laid her on my arm and started the infant version of the Heimlich maneuver to get her to start breathing again, all the while trying to calm down the mother and barking orders to make sure that somebody was on the phone with 911. It's amazing what a little epinephrine in your bloodstream makes you capable of...

After a few thrusts alternately to her back and abdomen, I could feel her moving on my arm and gagging ever so slightly (it's one of the best feelings I've ever had!) and my wife found a pulse... And then the paramedics arrived, God bless 'em... We briefed them on the situation and they hauled the little girl and her parents off to the hospital.

When we got home, we pulled every string we knew and called every hospital in the metroplex to find out where they'd taken her and how she was doing. After a looooong while we finally found the ER she'd been taken to and got the very welcome news that she'd been stabilized and was doing very well indeed.

So what's my point with this whole post?

I don't know if there has to be one, the only thing I'm left with is an intense and overwhelming gratitude that my wife and I happened to be there last night and that we could make a difference. And I know in my heart that it was no coincidence that we were. The folks at the restaurant were calling us "heroes" and "life-savers" and neither my wife nor I, to tell the truth, feel that we are. We just did what anybody with our abilities would've done and we thankfully happened to be in a place where those abilities were useful.

And that's God at work right there... We were there because He wanted us to be there, so that He could work through us, that's what I know in my heart.

And I'm very grateful that He trusted us to do the right thing and that He saved this precious little girl through us.
posted by Misha at 8/10/2002 10:13:00 AM

 

Translation Services'R Us

It has come to my attention, last time from Mike Hendrix at "Cold Fury" that there was an article in a Swiss rag about the Blogging Phenomenon, but that the language in which it was published (German) made it rather useless for your average American blogger.

Now I'm anything but "average" (mostly I'm seriously below par), and through a set of particularly strange twists of fate it just so happens that German is one of the languages with which I have a more than passing familiarity (don't ask), so, always being eager to please, I set out on the "arduous" task of translating the article into a civilized language. I'm sure that some actual Germans out there might beg to differ on a number of technicalities in my translation and, if so, I'm more than eager to hear what they have to say (blogging is a learning experience, after all, and he who refuses to listen is no better off than he who cannot hear). Post away, my German friends:

Without further ado (I might actually have a few comments to add to the article later, but I don't have the time right now, so have at it if you want), the Official Rottweiler Translation™ of the article "Kakofonie der Meinungen":

A Cacophony of Opinions.

Private Websites are booming. The interest in information and discussion about political subjects is rising steeply.

By Andreas Bucher

The claim is as absurd as it is untrue. «You must never forget: Bill Clinton got Osama bin Laden’s head offered to him on a platter, and refused. Twice! Make him responsible for this» the 400lb gorilla Rush Limbaugh has been using such made-up allegations to rail against the Democrats, homosexuals, women and draft dodgers. His railings haven’t changed much but, technologically speaking, Rush is keeping up with the times: In the 80’s he spread his tirades via the radio. His producer had to knock on the door of innumerable local broadcasters to sell his hate-broadcast. Now, ten years later, Limbaugh can use his web site to spread his manure over Bill and Hillary Clinton with the click of a mouse.

Rush had to dig deep in his pocket to finance his Internet performance – programmers and graphics people cost a lot of money. Nowadays he could put forth his discharges over the ‘Net as a one-man business, just as thousands of others are doing: Software from Blogger.com or Userland.com work as a simple content management system. They can be quickly installed on your home computer and are cheap. Websites made by individuals in this manner that are updated with the owners personal vitriol several times daily are called “weblogs” in Internet jargon, shortened to “blogs”. Two years ago there were no more than a few dozen of these electronical logbooks. But since then Blogger.com alone has grown to more than half a million registered users. Hundreds are added daily.

The simpler the interface, the lower the bar for content: Most ‘bloggers produce a mixture of poetry and personalized versions of “Reader’s Digest” – here a burst water main, there a computer virus, over there snap shots from a diving holiday or a link to the bowling alley. The distributors of Blogger™ once asked themselves if their software wasn’t a little bit too easy to use and simultaneously coined the term “Bloggarrhea” to cover the unlimited, mostly apolitical, addiction to share seen in many logbook owners.

That’s when 9/11 happened.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon happened in the morning. After this, part of the Americans went home from work early or didn’t go to work in the first place, sat by the window or the computer, hungry for news and interpretations. But since the major players (CNN, NYT, FOXNews) tended to be overloaded, people started looking around for other sources. They soon found some, for instance with Glenn Reynolds, a Law Prof. at the University of Tennessee, who started his weblog “Instapundit” in August of 2000. One year later he had approximately 1,600 hits a day. On September 11, he had already passed 4,000. Since then Reynolds has reached about 50,000 hits daily and even makes a little money doing so. “I’m actually turning a profit”, says Reynolds, “I can’t live on it, but at least it’s a hobby that generates a positive cash flow, something that you can’t say about golf or tennis.”

Andrew Sullivan, the most prominent blogger back then and at the same time correspondent for the London Sunday Times, can’t complain either: “Two years ago, I launched a website with the help of Blogger.com, just to be able to offer my scribblings to a few hundred readers every day. Today I’m being read by close to 250,000 people a month.” This kind of publicity has provided the established media with some serious competition.

One might assume that the public would have returned to the usual fare of blow-dried TV news anchors and newspaper editorials once the initial shock had worn off, but the reaction from the established media to President Bush’s war in Afghanistan ticked a lot of surfers off. In particular, the East Coast Liberal newspapers tended to dwell on the lessons of Vietnam entirely too much to please the taste of a lot of surfers. They didn’t want to be reminded of the Afghan Winter or the brutality of the Taliban 24/7 and, as a consequence, a large part of the public decided to hang around with blogs that concentrated on the theme of terrorism and that supported the war efforts of the government without many reservations. For a lot of representatives of Journalism, these “warbloggers” turned into a major headache pretty quickly: “Welcome to Blogistan”, the liberal Boston Globe quipped, “where every thought is published, where every blogger, no matter how brain damaged he is, is praised and hailed.

Of course bloggers also cover other subjects, such as the Middle East conflict, disputed Oscar nominations or pedophile preachers. And they gang up and remorselessly beat up on their favorite enemies: Black Harvard professors that record rap albums, European politicians that are offended by the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo and, in particular, American intellectuals on the left such as Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag that utter criticism of George W. Bush’s policies. What strikes you is that the bloggers rely on the media that they despise for their sources. “You bloggers can drag the NYT through the dirt as much as you like”, says one critic, “but they at least have a reporter in Afghanistan. Do you?”

The Left are having a hard time to establish themselves on this new playing field. The anarchistic publicism that made its mark in the late 60’s in the form of underground newspapers and alternative radio stations, now seems to have been reborn on the Internet with a decidedly conservative bent. But since blogs are currently multiplying like bacteria in a petri dish, it shouldn’t be long before the critical Left make themselves heard in the the cacophony of bloggers. Are blogs really the next big thing, the “new journalism” of the 21. century? Star blogger Andrew Sullivan has great expectations: “Blogger.com could revolutionize the written word just as much as Napster revolutionized the music industry, only this time it might actually work”, he says euphorically. Just as the romantics of the sixties missed out on the changes in society and left the playing field to a new generation of authors such as Hunter S Thompson or Tom Wolfe, the bloggers, , thanks to their unconventional MO, stand to rediscover continents of material that have been ignored by the established media. “Sitting as they are in the middle of all of the media, the blogs are capable of generating articles that are just as nuanced and well-researched as the traditional media”, says Sullivan, “but in addition, they offer the reader the accessibility of talk show radio. Blogging has changed the world of media and stands to revolutionize the role of journalists.”

Perhaps it’s still a little early for this revolution, but: The established media are going to have to get used to this new competition and deal with it. This fall, blogging will be offered as a course at J-school for the first time.

Always at your service...
posted by Misha at 8/09/2002 07:11:00 PM

 

Somebody Just Tore this damn fool a Fresh One!

Adrian Hamilton of the Independent, cave of the Fisk™ and Certified Alternative to Arab News and Al-Guardian or Daily Wanker for Target Rich Environment, decides to come out and offer the most depraved example of moral equivalence in a long time.

It didn't take long for the Blogosphere's own Sasha Castel to get out the Fisking Gear and thrash this despicable little excuse for a human being well into next month, give or take a week, and then she jumps on top of the sad remains of his curmudgeoned carcass and stamps on the pieces, sending bits of Hamilton flying all over the place.

But WAIT! There's MORE! Whacking day takes over where Sasha left off and does a 'roo dance on Adrian's fetid waste of bandwidth that has me cheering loudly for the Ozzies. Good on ya, mate! Australia, Australia, Australia we LOVE ya, Amen!
posted by Misha at 8/09/2002 05:24:00 PM

 

The Power of Linkage!

...I think I need to go lay my swollen head down. One link from Instapundit and my hits go through the roof!

To all of you coming here: Welcome to my soap box and I'm very glad you came by!. I hope you find something you like here (if not, I personally guarantee that the list of links on your left are more than worth it to go visit, if you haven't been there already) and that you'll pop by again every now and then, don't be a stranger y'hear?
posted by Misha at 8/09/2002 05:04:00 PM

 

Another Excellent Post by Steven Den Beste

...in which he manages to outline exactly why I feel the way I do about German and French "criticism" of the US and does so far better than I could ever hope to. I never miss reading Steven's blog (and neither should you, if you ask me), but I have to admit that every time I read a new post of his, I'm left with this slightly sinking feeling of "and what do you, Misha, have to add to the Blogosphere that isn't already available in abundance?"

Anyways, back to Den Beste, who sums it up nicely in his last few grafs:

What the Europeans can do "right" is to stop talking down to us, stop treating us like children, stop trying to pretend that they're our superiors. Blair doesn't, and he's OK in my book because of it.

As to Chirac, I don't ultimately care whether he is socialist, capitalist, communist or some other kind of "ist". I don't care if he's liberal or conservative. What I care about is that he's got a swelled head and seems to think that we care what he thinks of us and our policies, and that when he offers us advice, or chastises us for what we do or plan, or announces that he doesn't approve and won't cooperate, that we'll bow our heads, apologize and humbly beg his forgiveness. Fuck that.

And fuck him.

...and the rest of the post is just as good, you should really go read it, if you haven't already.
posted by Misha at 8/09/2002 09:59:00 AM

 

The Fisking™ Gift That Just Keeps On Giving

Oh and Marc Herold, the tee-totaller of Afghan Dead™ is back again, this time with an angry huff that nobody is taking him seriously. Where? The Daily Wanker of course:

When the US bombing of Afghanistan started on October 7 2001, an official "counting of the dead" was deemed unnecessary. The public was assured that American and British military planners would go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. The combination of newer, precision-guided munitions and the fact that bombing would take place in remote areas would mean that, in this war, only the "bad guys" would get killed.

I must've missed the "guarantee that only the bad guys would be killed". The fact remains that fewer innocents have been killed than anybody could reasonably expect.

Subsequent events have proved these claims wrong.

Which might have been remotely interesting if it wasn't for the fact that the only thing "proven wrong" is Marc's own straw man.

Everyone now accepts that civilians have died in American bombing raids in Afghanistan,

I wish I knew one, just one person who disputed that fact. I might find one in the local loonie bin, but I wouldn't want to disturb Marc's noon nappie time.

but exactly how many is hotly disputed.

Yep. Some, like Marc, insist that thousands upon thousands have died (using questionable "statistics", but Bruce Rolston among others have already thoroughly debunked this), others stick to "just the facts, Ma'am.

Given the lack of official interest, the counting of the dead fell upon interested individuals and non-governmental organisations.

...such as idiots as yourself, Marc.

To date there have been nine studies, of which eight have been made public.The first study was my own, published in December last year. Relying on wire services, NGO and worldwide newspaper reports, I attempted to survey the bombing incidents to date and concluded that more than 3,500 Afghan civilians had been killed. A weakness of the initial study was some double-counting due to confused site names

...and the fact that you had an agenda to push. The fact remains, however, that you're a complete and utter idiot, Marc, and therefore a legitimate target of the "Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler" (not to mention anybody else with a lick of sense). Why don't you just lay down and admit that you were beaten? Because you're a die-hard leftie and don't accept facts as "arguments"? Why did I even bother to ask?

Soon afterwards, a couple of cursory estimates were made by Le Monde and Reuters of about 1,000 dead civilians.

I can assure you that if the French and Reuters (one man's news agency is another man's metastatizing pancreatic cancer) set the figure at 1,000, an educated guess would be around 2 dead and 3 slightly wounded, one with a hangnail, but even I don't believe that the count is that low.

At first sight, these seem considerably lower than my own,

Ladies and Gentlemen: the British Understatement™

but this is because only a sample of bombings was examined. Reuters looked at just 14 incidents, which reportedly killed 982 Afghans.

...whereas the venerable Prof. Herold looked at anything that he could possibly interpret as civilian casualties, multiplied by 10 and carried the two.

If one extrapolates out from the sample, the count broadly tallies with my own.

...and if one consults a tide chart for French Guinea for the date of Sept. 11 2001, rolls two ten-sided dice, multiplies by this plus the number of virgins allegedly received by martyrs and adds a couple million in for good measure, you'll arrive at a number roughly equal to three times the current population of the Earth! Wow!
And your point (apart from the one on the top of your head) is?

In February, the Wall Street Journal announced that Human Rights Watch was sending three researchers to Afghanistan - headed by William Arkin, a supporter of the war - to produce the "correct" tally of Afghan dead. HRW officials, it was widely reported, had "said privately" that they estimated the civilian death toll at between 100 and 350 in December, figures consistent with the group's record of severe undercounting in the 1999 Nato campaign in Yugoslavia.

They missed a couple of traffic cops who were run over by their own... Am I the only one thinking that if even a deeply anti-American organization like the HRW sets the figure at 100-350, then "Professor" (of what, comparative folk dancing?) Herold's estimate of several thousands might be just a little bit off?

The HRW study has never appeared, though it has - absurdly - had some influence: the number 350 is still bandied about as if it had some scientific basis.

...much like Marc Herold's "study" has been vigorously bandied about by all living lefties on the planet as having any significance other than the number of trees that had to die to get it printed, but I digress... The only numbers worthy of being "bandied about" are, after all, the numbers of the much-renowned Prof. Herold.

Around the same period, a major study was released by a prominent US thinktank, the Project on Defense Alternatives, arguing that US bombing in Afghanistan had killed civilians at a rate four times higher than the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia. By January 1 2002, the report calculated, between 1,000 and 1,300 civilians had been killed. The bombing campaign "failed to set a new standard for accuracy" because of the mix of weapons used, the unreliable nature of intelligence and the decision to bomb al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in their houses, where little margin of error existed. The PDA study was authoritative.

It was, now was it? Then how come that this "authoritative" study was still lower than your wild guess, Prof. Herold?

Its total was lower than mine only because it relied exclusively on western sources. This made it more palatable to the media, but meant it involved a restricted number of incidents.

Oh, that explains it. When you've got the time, Prof. Herold, you might want to explain to me how a study can be "authoritative", yet incorrect. It seems to me that you're trying to argue that it's better than the HRW's because it's higher than theirs, yet you won't admit that your "study" (and I'm really stretching the limits of the definition of that word here) was ridiculously off the mark in the opposite direction. Of course, it may just be my American "simplisme".

On February 11, the Associated Press released its counter-study, boldly reassuring an increasingly alarmed public: "Hundreds lost, not thousands". Its astonishingly low figure of 500-600 was reached "by examining hospital records, visiting bomb sites and interviewing eyewitnesses and officials."

How dare they. Consulting actual hospital records, visiting actual bomb sites and interviewing actual eyewitnesses and officials and then claiming that their figures are more accurate than the ones made up by a delusional prof. hiding away in his office half a globe away???? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

The report was beset by methodological problems.

This one is rich, coming from Marc Herold...

Most Afghan deaths are not recorded in hospital records because people are buried immediately; no details were given of interview methods or which bombing incidents were included; many bomb attacks were not reported; and Afghan officials have been shown often to seriously underestimate civilian casualties.

...whereas the esteemed Prof. Herold's estimates were based on... Wait for it... NOTHING AT ALL...

A far better survey - of 14 sites bombed by US warplanes, which resulted in 830 civilian deaths - was published the same month by John Donnelly and Anthony Shadid of the Boston Globe. The authors noted: "Because the 14 sites represent only a small fraction of the total sites targeted... since October, the total is estimated at 1,000 or more."

...which is still way below Prof. Herold's inflated figures, but let's not mention that. In fact, if Prof. Herold's Lolita Doll™ is as inflated as his figures, I would assume that the good prof has a very close and intimate relationship with Mr. Hand.

The prime culprits for civilian deaths were: faulty intelligence; imprecision of aerial warfare; and "the selection of targets in civilian areas". Another compilation, by the Los Angeles Times, came up with a death toll of between 1067 and 1201 between October and February. But neither raw data nor sources were disclosed.

...much like Mr. Herold's own flawed "study", but let's not get into that either.

Last month, the NGO Global Exchange released a preliminary report of civilian casualties caused by US bombing since the beginning of the war. The study of 11 sites purported to document 812 deaths. This report is seriously flawed.

...it's nowhere near the number that Prof. Herold would have us believe, therefore it is flawed. Oh, the wonders of Leftie Logic™.

We are not told which bombed places were visited (though we do know that only four of Afghanistan's 30 provinces were included). No raw data is produced and the number of bombing incidents is not divulged. Without this context, the low count of 812 dead is meaningless.

...and yet parsecs closer to the truth than the fictional figures produced by Prof. Herold.

In the eight months since I published my original study, I have updated and corrected my database,

...would be nice if you'd actually publish the results.

and incorporated the civilian deaths resulting from British and US special forces attacks. My most recent figures show that between 3,125 and 3,620 Afghan civilians were killed between October 7 and July 31.

...ahhh... There it is... And how did you arrive at this interesting figure? By adding up the results of all previously published studies? I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised, you know. It IS, after all, how you operate.

This is compatible with the sample counts done by Donnelly-Shadid, Filkins and (probably) the Reuters study.

It's compatible (allegedly) with Donnely-Shadid and, the professor guesses, with the Reuters study.

Comparison with the PDA and Los Angeles Times reports is difficult to make as they do not reveal raw data and exactly which sources were employed. The AP count is flawed both in coverage and methodology and the Global Exchange report is incomplete.

...the rest of the studies do not meet prof. Herold's "exacting criteria" (i.e. they weren't arrived at by the rolling of D&D dice), so they're summarily dismissed... The fact remains that not one of the studies mentioned arrived at a number anywhere near the ridiculously inflated figures of "Prof." Herold. But before the reader is allowed to mull too long over that obvious elephant in the living room, he goes on to muse philosophically:

In war, counting is not value-free. To overlook or underestimate the civilian dead gives rein to the enthusiasts of precision-guided weaponry.

...I suppose that Prof. Herold would rather that we return to the good ol' days of Hamburg, Dresden and Hiroshima... It would certainly give him a lot to write about...

It is an invitation to proliferation of war.

...funny, here I was, thinking that it was an invitation to advance technology so that fewer innocent non-combatants have to suffer...

The thousands of Afghan civilians who perished ...

...the "thousands" that you have just, yourself, helpfully proved never perished...

...did so because US military and political elites chose to carry out a bombing campaign using extremely powerful weaponry in civilian-rich areas (the isolated training camps were largely destroyed during the first week).

...and because the remaining few chose to hide behind the skirts of women and the bibs of infants... Very heroic, one must admit...

For political reasons, it has been necessary to hide the human carnage on Afghan soil as much as possible from the western public.

...and for equally political reasons, it has become the raison d'etre for hacks such as yourself to exaggerate wildly the numbers of civilians actually killed...

Given that many of the bombing attacks - such as those on civilian infrastructure (cars, clinics, radio stations, bridges) and those during November and December on anything rolling on the roads of southern Afghanistan - violated the rules of war,

...one of these days I hope that Prof. Herold or one of his acolytes will explain to a military professional such as myself how bombing the enemy infrastructure can possibly violate the mythical "rules of war", but I'm not exactly holding my breath here...

there are war crimes that need to be investigated. An inadequate count will make it impossible for the families of those wrongfully killed to get the compensation to which they are entitled. It will also impede international justice.

..what "international justice"? Did I miss an election or something?

You're an idiot, Marc Herold, and the fact that you don't just shut up and crawl back into your safe little hole in New Hampshire Academia proves to me that you're an unusually stupid idiot...

Now go away and bother me no more, you ridiculous little man....

UPDATE:It has been brought to my attention via the One and Only Instapundit that somebody else has dealt with the dribblings of Marc Herold, that somebody being Bill Herbert at Cointelpro. I have to say that he does a DAMN fine job too and adds, along with several additional good points, the links that I was too lazy to dig up. If Herold has any teeth left now, I'd be very surprised.
posted by Misha at 8/08/2002 06:59:00 PM

 

I've Arrived!!!!

The lovely and talented Sasha Castel has somehow noticed my humle little abode and linked to it, for which I must express my undying gratitude! Sometimes, especially when you're a new blogger, you can't help but wonder if you're like the proverbial tree falling in the proverbial forest with no-one to hear. Well, no longer, thanks to you!

Now that I've thanked her, I have an admission to make: I have actually been a reader of Sasha's site for quite a while, yet somehow I forgot to add her to my links (too many blogs, too little time [excuses, excuses...]. This error of admission has now been corrected (I've even moved her to the top of the list, which she's more than worthy of), along with my apologies. If you don't already read her site, I suggest you go do so... NOW...
posted by Misha at 8/08/2002 05:26:00 PM

 

From the Office of Transportation Insecurity

Seems the minions of that most Inept of Incompetents, High Priest to the Grand Church of Chumpiness, Defender of the Dumb, the Monument to Idiocy Around the Base of Which Lesser Idiots Gather to Worship, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, are once again making a bold breakthrough in the field of making our skies Safe For the Children™.

The latest offensive of the Champion of the Clueless is an attempt at stopping that horrible epidemic of Nursing Middle Aged Caucasian Mothers for Jihad™ that we've been experiencing lately and thank Heavens for that!

Many's the time over the last few weeks when I've found myself praying for an end to this Scourge of the Skies, these hordes of Maniacal Mommies throwing gallons of breast milk at unsuspecting flight attendants, whacking pilots upside the head with pacifiers and piloting the craft to a fiery and explosive end.

At last, thanks to the heroic efforts of the Mineta Storm Troopers, this has come to an end.

A humble nation thanks you...

Now somebody hang the damn moron from the balls and wait for his lifeless carcass to drop into a pit of molten lead...
(story via Bill Quick)
posted by Misha at 8/08/2002 04:03:00 PM

 

And Now: More Letters to my Home Newspaper:

Aahhh... Email is a wonderful thing. One advantage for a newbie blogger such as myself is that it allows for idiots as far away as the People's Socialist Republic of California (PSRC) to submit letters to the Dallas Morning News, which makes for much Fisking™ Goodness... One such example of Entirely Unwanted Opinion™ from the Left Coast can be found here:

Re: "California teens safe; kidnapper shot dead," by Jean Guccioni, Andrew Blankstein and Mitchell Landsberg (Los Angeles Times,) Aug. 2.

The Amber Alert system relies heavily on citizen vigilance. I propose that we install barcodes with registration information on the roof of every car. The barcode will be read at scanners installed on traffic lights and highway signs. (Alternate locations for car barcodes could be side panels or chassis bottom – scanners will be installed accordingly.) The privacy issue related to monitoring of movement can be effectively addressed by starting the program on a voluntary basis, with monetary incentive to those who participate.

The car barcode program will be a serious blow to car thieves and fleeing criminals. The program will find a thousand other uses in forensic evidence. Let's develop the technology and implement it.

A.H. Cemendtaur, San Jose, Calif.

Now, Mr. Cemendtaur, I want to make absolutely clear that I wouldn't much mind if public floggings were instituted for those filthy pedophile apes, not to mention putting them in sacks and throwing them off cliffs, but I think you're not "thinking outside the box" enough here, so allow me to help you:

Let's do away with this whole "privacy" deal, shall we? Why not just implant a chip under everyone's skin so the Federal Gov't can see where you're going at all times? Of course, the criminals and other people who might have a reason to be secretive about their whereabouts might find ways around this chip, but we'd still have a wonderful system for keeping track of law-abiding citizens, which is all you Illiberal Utopian Statists (my thanks to Charles Austin for that one and my apologies for the plagiarizm, but I can't for the life of me come up with a more accurate one myself) really want anyways...

On the other hand, we could also just erect a huge fence around the entire PSRC™ and forget about you idiots...

UPDATE: I realized that it's "Illiberal Utopian Statists" and have amended it in the above. Sheesh, if you can't even plagiarize right...
posted by Misha at 8/08/2002 11:26:00 AM

 
Haven't exactly done a lot of blogging today (don't EVEN get me started on what I've been spending my time doing), but I did have time to discover that there's another Scourge up by the inimitable Charles Austin. If you don't know what a "Scourge™" is and you also don't know who or what the Hell he's scourging, I encourage you most wholeheartedly to go by and take a look. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
posted by Misha at 8/07/2002 07:54:00 PM

 

Dog Bites Man

Sameer N Yacoub of the AP reports that the Iraqis are "protesting" US war threats... No sh*t, Sherlock...:

About 10,000 Iraqis rallied outside ruling party headquarters Monday in a demonstration against U.S. military threats, burning effigies of President Bush and American flags.

Guess somebody must have been pulling extra shifts at the local Effigy Plant. I thought their supplies for "spontaneous" demonstrations like these were damn near empty after all of the partying in Gaza.

Participants carried banners pledging their support for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein

...better hold on to those pictures of ol' Soddy Hussein. You're gonna need some effigies this time next year to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation, after all.

Speculation that war is imminent has been strong here in recent months.

Sheesh. I wonder where they came up with that crazy idea...

Demonstrators from women's groups, unions, tribes and the ruling Baath Party marched from points throughout the city to party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, shouting "Iraq is not afraid of the U.S. threats."

Thus proving that that is indeed what they are. And we're only threatening. Just wait 'till we move to the next stage...
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 08:16:00 PM

 

Florida Donks Drop Lawsuit Over Ballot

Rejoicing that the offending and horribly confusing word "pair" has been removed from the gubernatorial ballot, Donk spokesman Ryan Banfill states:

"Just getting that word 'pair' dropped is a significant victory for Florida voters,"

Seems to me that getting their shoes laced correctly in the morning would constitute a "major victory" for some Florida voters.
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 05:28:00 PM

 

Seems we have Idiotarian columnists as well...

One Timothy O'Leary of the Dallas Morning News decides that it's time to iron out the rough spots between France and the U.S. I hope you brought a big iron, Mr. O'Leary...

During his recent weeklong European tour, President Bush chose France of all places to become testy and defensive about Europeans' general chilliness toward him.

...imagine that...

If he harbored any suspicion that all French are aligned against the United States, I hope he came away from his first trip there with a more nuanced and accurate view. It isn't true.

Sacre Bleu! Non! It eez not true! Ze French are ze best friends the US 'ave!

France holds a unique place in the pantheon of U.S. allies.

...that's one way of putting it, I guess...

Zealous in guarding its right to an independent foreign policy and unafraid to openly criticize the United States .

...rolling over while simultaneously exercising a knee-jerk mentality against everything American... This is supposed to make us feel better about the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys?.

witness Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine's January characterization of Mr. Bush's "axis of evil" as "simplistic".

...thank you, we noticed....

– it also is the only major Western European power with which the United States never has warred.

...would be the shortest war in modern history...

The countries' occasional differences notwithstanding, when the stakes are high, France always stands with the United States.

...most notably when the French stakes are high. When our stakes are high, we usually end up having to make do without French "help", as our little incident involving Moammar Khaddaffi proved...

It did so during the world wars. It did so during the Cuban missile crisis and the Gulf War. It is doing so now in the war against terrorism,

It is? By calling us "simplistic" and "unilateralist"? By supporting our enemies economically? Would it be too much to ask the French for a little less "help"?

...with which it had experience even before Sept. 11.

...most notably in funding it, I might add.

Another important thing about France: It is one of the few other countries with worldwide interests. Its possessions span the globe. Like the United States, it is a nuclear power and has a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Its economy is the world's fifth largest.

...trailing behind the world's fourth largest, the State of California...

So it behooves the United States to listen when France speaks.

Now this is easily the single most funny quote in the entire column! I'd say it behooves the French to shut up when the United States speaks, but that'd probably be too much to ask from the Gallic Goons.

With few exceptions, France can be counted on to give its unvarnished opinion from the perspective of a fellow and friendly world power that takes pride in its ability to act and think for itself.

Indeed, it's not getting the French's opinions what's difficult. It's getting the idiot sheep burning fools to make any sense at all that is the hard part.

I visited France in March and got multiple doses of French opinion about the United States. Some of it I could dismiss – as when a retired army general told me his kooky theory that the CIA masterminded the attacks on the United States to boost Mr. Bush's political standing and to stimulate military spending. Some of it, a small portion, I thought was reflexively anti-American. Most of it was thoughtful and rational, not to mention sane.

...stand by for a dose of Gallic "sanity"...:

The consensus opinion was that the administration doesn't consult enough;

French "Wisdom": Let's sit down and have a conference or two while the world is burning and hijackers fly planes into office buildings.

that it hypocritically closes its market while professing to uphold free trade;

...I suppose we're talking about steel tariffs here, which would be a valid point. That the criticism comes from the "engine" of the EU, one of the most anti-"free trade" organizations in the world, makes it just plain funny...

that its view of the war is unrealistically Manichaean;

...which is anti-"simplisme" for "dualistic", but we wouldn't want to appear plebeian, now would we?

and that it is too interested in military solutions and not interested enough in eliminating what one official called the war's "root causes," such as poverty and Israel's occupation of Palestine.

...ahhh, "root causes"... Damn my "simplistic" American soul! Of course... The only reason 19 rich madmen (15 of which were Soddies) flew planes full of civilians into the WTC and Pentagon last year was their abject poverty and Israel's "occupation" of the non-existant state of Palestine... I feel so enlightened now, thanks to Mr. O'Leary and our non-Manichaean French Friends™

I also observed great affection for Americans. Jacques Poinas, a policeman who is helping to coordinate his country's anti-terrorism efforts, keeps a New York Police Department cap in his office in memory of his friends who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Christophe Planty, a port official in Nantes, related with pride how the United States used the port during the world wars to supply its armies in Europe.

...well that makes it alright then. A policeman with an NYPD cap and a port official expressing pride in the fact that his port was used to save the Surrender Monkeys' asses in two consecutive world wars and all is well with the world. How I could ever get myself to think twice about whose side the French are really on when such blatant and wholehearted support for the US is on display for all the world to see... I feel so humbled now...

France is France. The United States should be all right with that,

...as indeed most of us are, as long as the Frogs keep being "France" well within their own borders

even grateful.

...not a chance, you brie-eating collaborator... Indifferent, perhaps, but masochist, no...

It is good to have a friend who has a different outlook, who tells the truth as he sees it and who stands by when the fists start swinging.

Don't worry, boys and girls, the French are behind us... WAY behind us...

Mr. Bush has real public-image problems in France, which he shouldn't paper over.

What are they gonna do? Surrender to us?

But the overall U.S.-French relationship is deeper and stronger than most Americans probably assume. Properly tended, it can continue to benefit both countries.

...It would be great if it would begin to benefit other people than just the yellow-bellied French themselves, but that would be hoping for way too much, I'm afraid...
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 01:04:00 PM

 
In the meanwhile, over at WarWimps, Grady Olivier notes, with considerable regret, that not a single one of the detestable "warbloggers" are celebrating the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I didn’t even find a single National Review Onliner registering sincere appreciation of the bomb’s innumerable boons, something that seems to happen there daily.

...something for which he, par for the course, provides us with no examples of...

I'm sure I speak for all of the "warbloggers" when I express my deepest sympathy for your inability to find proof for your allegations that all of us are blood-thirsty murderous thugs who celebrate the deaths of thousands, Grady. But you'll have to go to Gaza to find that, bon voyage...
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 11:48:00 AM

 
So... Unable to come up with anything right now, I've decided to use an idea that works so very well for Mr. Quick over at the Daily Pundit, namely the wonderful "Letters From My Home Town". I apologize most profusely for the plagiarism, Bill, but it is the most sincere form of flattery, after all.

So, with this narrow save in mind, let's proceed:

Seems we have Idiotarians in Dallas as well

Mr. Pervez Anwer writes in today's Dallas News of the President's "double standard":

President Bush condemned the latest Palestinian attack in Israel and vowed the bombing would not undermine his "vision of peace" for the Middle East.

Here we go again. President Bush was nowhere to be found in condemning the recent Israeli F-16 attack that killed innocent civilians including children. His press secretary, Ari Fleischer, just regretted the killing of the civilians. Why is it so difficult for this administration to use the word "condemn" when innocent Palestinians are killed?

Mr. Bush's "vision of peace" is to give Ariel Sharon a free hand in daily killing of civilians, the siege of Palestinian cities, the unhindered use of American-supplied weapons and the building of Jewish settlements. Mr. Bush has toed Mr. Sharon's line in demanding democratic reforms in the Palestinian Authority before any peace talks – but he never demands the same democratic reforms in U.S.-friendly Arab countries.

It's time for this administration to stop using double standards and condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians as it does in case of Israeli civilians. It must also condemn the building of settlements and the prolonged military curfews of Palestinian cities. It must review the use of American-supplied weapons to Israel. Failure to do that will leave it with no credibility at all.



Pervez Anwer, Plano

Geez, Mr. Anwer, I don't know where to start...

Perhaps the lack of "condemnation" in Mr. Bush's comments on Israeli counter-measures has something to do with the fact that, unlike the Paleostinians, the Israelis go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, whereas murdering innocents is the 'raison d'etre' for the Pals? I don't know. You be the judge...
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 11:09:00 AM

 
It seems that I'm getting there. Comments, check... Mailto, check... Links, check...

Now does this quoting thingummajig work too?, if it does, we're ready to roll... Maybe...

Hmmm...

Not too bad... Yeah, I know, I still need to add a LOT of links to my "favorites", but one thing at a time, right?
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 10:54:00 AM

 
Hmmm... again...
posted by Misha at 8/06/2002 09:43:00 AM

 
Whoa! I made it, I'm blogging (thanks to the inspiration of, among others, Donna, one of the most efficient Fiskers at WBW)

Now the question I have to ask myself is: "What to do with this blog?"

Most will, justifiably, say "who gives a shoot?" It's not like there's not already a treasure trove of blogs out there doing exactly what I want to do already, i.e. provide a public forum for thrashing and ridiculing Idiotarians, so why bother? To tell you the truth, I don't know. All I DO know is that all too often I've found myself nodding in agreement with one of the posts on the "established" blogs and yet felt the urge to add something. So that's what I can do with my "own" blog.

A lot of what I say may be along the lines of "I agree with the above post" and, initially at least, I'll have to fall back on the tireless research of other more worthy bloggers than myself. But I hope that in time I may become a resource for useful views and information myself, rather than just another "me too"-blog.

Whether I succeed or not time will tell. I hope I do.
posted by Misha at 8/04/2002 01:11:00 PM