Month: April 2004

  • Clear mission?

    There are increasing signs that Senator Kerry is starting to “get it.” Glenn Reynolds noted Kerry’s statement that failure is “not an option” in Iraq. And in a speech yesterday in Philadelphia, Kerry hinted that he might be re-thinking some of his earlier statements about Vietnam: Thirty-five years ago, on a boat, in the Mekong…

  • Abortive thoughts on free speech

    Here are some heretical thoughts which occurred to me after I heard complaints about this group bombarding female college students (who did not seek them out but wanted to use the student lounge) with gruesome images like these. (Interview with the group’s leader here.) Barring a time, place, and manner argument, I think the right…

  • Nothing unites like Barbie, Kirune-ra, and Clarissa!

    It’s Friday, and I found some tests, even though the Quizilla site is under construction. The first one — “If You Were A Barbie, Which Messed Up Version Would You Be?” –is definitely in the top ten of the most idiotic tests I’ve featured here, but I guess idiocy as one way of taking one’s…

  • Not worth publishing?

    A columnist for a student newspaper has (apparently) apologized to the family of Pat Tillman for his Ted-Rall-like remarks: Rene Gonzalez had written a column for the campus paper saying the football player-turned-soldier who died in combat in Afghanistan wasn’t a hero — but a “G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him.”…

  • GIVE OIL A CHANCE!

    Dick Morris on UNSCAM: At the start of the Oil-for-Food program, America and Britain proposed that the money flow only to accounts entirely controlled by the United Nations. Soon this standard was lowered to include accounts not actually controlled by the United Nations, but only monitored by it. Then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, warned that “oil…

  • Appetizer….

    Moblogging from special occasion dinner (at restaurant next to X-rated bookstore!) Tough to write here; hopefully more later. Don’t know whether this will post…. UPDATE: Would I lie?

  • Steal my face!

    After Susie saw my last post (in which I mentioned the Flea’s “glimpse of self“), Susie put me to shame by running the test on herself (she’s Juliette Binoche and Judy Garland). This, of course, put the onus on me to see what who I look like. Being a naturally distrustful person, I thought I…

  • Burn while you learn!

    Everyone, please take a moment to do two things. Peruse the 84th Carnival of the Vanities, hosted by Trudy W. Schuett at WOLves. And don’t miss the 43rd Bonfire of the Vanities, hosted by On the Fritz. I’ll highlight some of my favorites, starting with the Bonfire. Incredible as it sounds, the Gleeful Extremist was…

  • Long term thinking

    Three stories — all of which I found at InstaPundit — have me thinking. According to Kenneth Timmerman, WMDs have been found by the U.S. military, but the U.N. jumps through hoops to declare otherwise. (Via Glenn Reynolds.) There’s a lot of evidence, and I am surprised it isn’t getting more coverage. Surely the U.N.…

  • A U.N. story at last — in the Inky!

    I can’t believe it, but my newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, has finally mentioned the United Nations! Kerry speech to spell out foreign policy By James Kuhnhenn Inquirer Washington Bureau WASHINGTON – With Sen. John Kerry and President Bush sounding similar in their prescriptions for stability in Iraq, Kerry this week plans to call for a…

  • A vote against the Culture War

    There was an election today, and I voted. Big deal. Moderate Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter faced a tough challenge from Pat Toomey, and I voted for Specter. (Luckily for me, I switched from Democrat to Republican last year so I can vote in the primary.) This is not to say that I think Specter…

  • Kerry’s doing fine in the backwater provinces….

    Is Kerry finished as a serious candidate? The question beginning to be asked by a growing number of bloggers. Most of the mainstream media are taking Kerry’s medal-toss contradictions pretty seriously too. Certainly, there has been no dearth of reporting nationwide since it sank in what an utter fool Kerry made of himself on yesterday’s…

  • Stolen hopes for hate speech?

    Colby Cosh has just alerted me to a novel defense to a theft charge: blatant theft can be an otherwise honest person’s response to extreme stress I did not know this. On reflection, I don’t think it should be a defense (although if true, I suppose it might mitigate sentencing). The accused thief is Svend…

  • This attack dog likes chomping on mystery left legs!

    This is very annoying: “It’s time for Dick Cheney to call off the Republican attack dogs. The American people have better things to do with their time than listen to more misleading attacks from a man who has been misleading them from the day he took office,” McAuliffe said. (Via Travelling Shoes.) OK, for the…

  • An explosive must-read!

    All new readers should know that Jeff Soyer, blogger extraordinaire, happens to be my blogfather. Jeff is the author of two blogs, his own blog Alphecca, and Tarazet, a new blog he recently started for pets and pet related issues. Jeff’s Weekly Check On The Bias is a must-read for all aspirants to blog literacy.…

  • Achtung! Amerikaner DVD Verboten!

    As I marvel over how much Linux has improved over the years, I still find myself appalled by what seems to be a genuine conspiracy against this rather excellent operating system. Take Fritz Hollings’ bill. Please. This could be interpreted as prohibiting Linux operating systems because someone might use them to copy DVDs: The Hollings…

  • Inky Doo?

    When I was a little boy growing up around here, Philadelphians had a nickname for the Philadelphia Inquirer; they called it “The Inky.” Cute, isn’t it? Anyway, I grew up respecting the paper, because they used to do really cool stuff like this: reported actual news stories, without regard to whom they might upset kept…

  • 25 years to life!

    In prison. For trying to stop your own pain! Stuff like this article by Jacob Sullum makes me sick beyond words. A guy who medicated himself, for pain, and who refused to plead guilty to being a drug dealer (which he wasn’t) is now locked up where he can do society no harm: [H]e sits…

  • Still breathing? Test yourself at home!

    OK, so it’s not Friday! To anyone who missed the online tests yesterday, I asked everyone to please donate to the Spirit of America. I have no way of knowing whether anyone did, so I am a bit conflicted over what to do. The usual pattern here has been to offer four tests, but I…

  • Today, please test your spirit!

    Well, it’s Online Testing Day at Classical Values, but right now I am so confused that I feel like creating my own test, along the lines of “Which Spirit of America Alliance Are You?” I mean, I can’t keep track of which sides all these bloggers are on. I am, um, challenged. There are several…