Month: January 2007

  • War Is A Racket

    Major-General Smedley D. Butler: Common Sense (November 1935) I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service as a member of our country’s most agile military force—the Marine Corps. I have served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a…

  • WW IV Is On

    The former head of Israeli Intelligence says that World War III has already started. I actually count it as WW IV since I think WW III was fought against the Soviet menace. However, that is a mere quibble. Let us listen to former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy in his own words. A third World War…

  • Very Complicated

    Here is a Gaza resident’s view of the Palestinian Civil War. Independent legislator, Rawya Shawa, said she was not surprised that the situation had come to this. “This fight has no end,” she said. “One group won the election; the other doesn’t want to believe they have lost. The feeling on the street is that…

  • The sixth sick gay sheikh’s sixth gay sick sheep’s straight!

    Much as I hate to dwell on things like the interplay between what we call “science” and what we call “morality,” sometimes it seems that duty calls. Whether in this case it’s a duty to science or a duty to morality, I do not know. To back up, in a post last week, I complained…

  • Social weather science class issues

    Recently I’ve been reading that global warming causes suicide, as well as terrorism, which means it probably threatens to hurt an emerging identity-politics-group of people called “the homeless.” I don’t know whether there’s a bureaucratic plan in place to deal with the unique threat that “global warming” poses to them, but the right now, the…

  • Palestinian Civil War Watch – 10

    No slack Saturday. The bodies pile up. Deadly battles between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have continued in the Gaza Strip, leaving at least five more dead. Saturday’s deaths raise the toll since Thursday night to at least 22. However, despite tension, the funerals for those killed on the previous day passed off peacefully…

  • Who you gonna call?

    Mountain lions are predators whose only natural enemy has traditionally been man. Or in this case, woman: Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced. “He didn’t scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I…

  • The Right Loses Faith

    It is interesting to read the hard right’s take on the justice system based on the Duke case. When folks from Free Republic lose faith in the justice system, we are in serious trouble. Here is a typical comment: To: TommyDale “Multiply that in North Carolina, where the legal system can screw innocent people and…

  • past and future demolition

    People who complain about being controlled by the past might get a chuckle reading about the extent to which modern Rome is still controlled by ancient Rome: In Rome, modern progress is often slowed down by the past. Italy’s robust preservation laws make it difficult to renovate, remove or otherwise tinker with anything deemed to…

  • Reparations for you and me too?

    There’s a very peculiar full-page ad in this week’s Philadelphia City Paper for a group called the International Coalition for British Reparations (and its web site, BritishReparations.com), which is demanding 31 trillion pounds in reparations for — well, for literally billions of people worldwide, and almost everyone in the United States. Here’s what it looks…

  • Guilford Is A Street In Rockford

    It is also a Quaker founded college in Greensboro, N.C. GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Three college students were assaulted on the campus of Guilford College early Saturday morning, according to court documents and the school’s Web site. The Greensboro News & Record reported Tuesday that Faris Khadar, Osama Sabbah and Omar Awartani were the victims…

  • Enabling the flatulence of flat-screen swine

    As I remarked in a previous post, I loved the new Barajas airport in Madrid. So much, in fact, that I had my picture taken there: I was, of course, very upset when I read it had been bombed by Basque terrorists. That’s because not only do I hate it when terrorists kill people, I…

  • Palestinian Civil War Watch – 9

    It has been about 20 days since the last Palestinian Civil War Watch. And the Palestinians are at it again: By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – Rival Palestinian factions clashed across the Gaza Strip, killing six people, as thousands of Hamas supporters marched on Friday to mark the Islamist group’s election victory over Fatah opponents…

  • My inner hypocritical desires — exposed at last!

    You know, for all my criticism of government bureaucrats, reading a story like this makes me want to be one: [Recently resigned Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Chairman Jonathan H. Newman] often stayed in style, at times booking $500-a-night New York City hotel rooms, an Inquirer analysis of documents obtained through the state’s Right to Know…

  • War Talk

    Bush is starting to make his case for a strike on Iran. Fri Jan 26, 12:46 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian agents active inside Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the plan. The…

  • Iran Answers American Moves

    In An Act Of War I discussed American moves on Iran. It looks like Iran is making a counter move in Lebanon. BEIRUT, LEBANON – Lebanon’s army imposed a curfew on the capital Thursday after hundreds of government supporters and foes wielded rocks, Molotov cocktails and sometimes guns in street battles that dragged past nightfall.…

  • NEWS UPDATE? Castro still alive?

    Yes, that’s what’s being reported at Euro News, apparently because Castro’s enemies have been spreading evil rumors about his demise: Castro shows doubters he is alive and well A defiant Fidel Castro has issued more footage of himself, as proof that he is on the road to recovery after intestinal surgery. The Cuban leader –…

  • Iraq Comes To Gaza

    Evidently the Palestinians have learned a great lesson from the Civil War in Iraq. Road side bombs work. GAZA, Jan 25 (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed a member of a Hamas-led security force in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and wounded five others, a Hamas police spokesman said. The spokesman said the six were…

  • free isn’t always free

    More on the right of free association, which (as I pointed out yesterday) seems to be a court-ordered emanation from the penumbra of the First Amendment right of the people to peaceably assemble. The comments intrigue me, and I realize that this issue is far from settled. Just what is freedom of association and how…

  • The year that dare not speak its name?

    In China, it’s the Year Of The P-P-P-Pig! Yay! Right? Not in China. According to this detailed WSJ report, the Chinese government is systematically censoring all mentions of pig and pig images — putting Western advertisers in a mad editing scramble: SHANGHAI — Next month, China will ring in the Year of the Pig. Nestlé…