Month: January 2007

You say you know this already? Old news? Well let me say that you really didn’t know this until you read it from first term Representative Keith Ellison. The template set forth by the roadmap for peace currently provides the best outline for achieving a two-state solution to bringing about a lasting settlement. Right now…

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says a nuclear armed Iran is unacceptable. Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable, new House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told The Jerusalem Post hours after entering the party leadership position. The Maryland Democrat said the view is shared by his party, rejecting assertions that the Democrats would be weaker than…

Souvenir anyone? While I didn’t buy one, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of these Che Guevara keyrings in Barcelona. Aren’t they lovely? But for the life of me, I just can’t decide whether I prefer the green or the lavender background. And the one in the middle has a bottle opener, which is very…

The Iranian economy must really be hurting from America’s Cash Flow Jihad on Iran. The Jerusalem Post reports on Iran’s latests threats. A senior Iranian officer warned that if the West continues to threaten Iran’s economy over its nuclear program, Teheran will discontinue the flow of oil via the Strait of Hormuz, Israel Radio reported…

The sands are shifting in the debate over withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The primary argument no longer seems to be along the lines of whether troops should be withdrawn, but when. I agree with Jules Crittenden (via Glenn Reynolds) that withdrawal would be very dispiriting for this country, and would lead to America…

Last night I stumbled upon the latest innovation from Nigeria — puppy scams: 1/1/07 – It is an old scam with a sneaky new twist. Nigerian criminals — known for lottery scams — are now using hard-to-resist puppies for sale. Hanford mom Anjelica Garcia began her search for a Yorkshire Terrier online. It was for…

Larken Rose believes your income if wholly earned in the United States is not taxable. He came to this belief by studying the income tax law and its history. He produced a video now available on Google explaining some of his reasons for his belief. He dared the IRS to prosecute him. They did. He…

Does a dirty computer keyboard indicate mental problems? I realize that’s a strange question, but being away from my keyboard for two weeks made it look especially dirty. And even though I bought the thing used for a couple of bucks several years ago, I have only now realized that I never once bothered to…

Speaking of the truth, um, “issue,” why is it that people so often tend to fight facts they don’t like? A good example is the fact that it was in the 70s yesterday, on a January day. Only a fool or an insane person would deny that. But a lot of people take issue with…

Since Justin has disabled comments on his piece “The Machines Stop” I want to ask if any one remembers the short story “Mars Inc.” Can’t remember the author, but one pertinent bit of imagined future was a pocket juke box that stored (hundreds? thousands?) of songs on a crystal. I read it not long after…

There is no problem that a little fascism can’t fix. Now before you get all over me about fascism I’m using it in the common sense of tyranny. I’m not using it in the sense of Mussolini’s actual political program although the difference is only in detail, not in kind. With that out of the…

In what he doubtless considers a fair and unbiased examination of all pertinent facts pertaining to the Iraqi police captain whose existence was disputed for six weeks, Glenn Greenwald claims to have exposed the right wing blogosphere for what they truly are: And now the right-wing blogosphere stands revealed as what they are — a…

On May 8, 2006, James Kunstler had this to say about our future technological prospects… Riding the van out of the airport Friday night to the Park-and-Fly lot, with the planes floating down in the distant violet gloaming, an eerie recognition came over me that life today is as much like science fiction as it…

I’m back from Barcelona and mentally a little on the jet-lagged side, and not ready for an essay-length diatribe. However, I’ve been so delighted by the many fine posts by M. Simon (including an Instalanched post) that I just can’t thank him enough. It’s an honor to have him blogging here. And it has made…

Farrukh Saleem says they are at the bottom of the pile. He writes the following from Pakistan: Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb: “If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him knowledge” The League of Arab States has 22 members. Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman…

I reported a while back on Iran’s Home Front Problems. It appears they have some new problems. They can’t deliver on their promises. Natural gas deliveries to be exact. The Washington Times reports: Iran has stopped exports of natural gas to Turkey due to a tight domestic market caused by cold weather, but vows to…

Let me start this one out with a clown photo. Which at least at the current time accompanies an article about 8 new deaths in the Palestinian civil war. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday night to discuss a solution to the current inter-faction violence after a…

The Duke case and the OJ case have a lot of similarities. I watched the OJ trial from the point of view that the LAPD was a corrupt police department. I knew this because I followed the drug war and saw lots of instances of LAPD corruption in that war. OJ’s defence made the point…

After over a week of relative quiet the Palestinians are at it again. GAZA (Reuters) – Unknown gunmen killed a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in Gaza on Wednesday and a car carrying Hamas security officers was ambushed, as simmering internal tensions threatened to erupt. A gunbattle between militants loyal to Fatah…

American Thinker has an interesting piece up about American Imperialism. In it J.R. Dunn looks at the difference between American Imperialsm and the Roman version. Much in the way of criticism of the United States comes in the form of accusations of imperialism. According to this view, echoed by everyone from Harold Pinter to Noam…