Author: Dennis

I pulled this from a Reuters piece on international support of the Iraqi vote: Paris, Berlin and Moscow were dubbed the “non-nein-nyet coalition” for opposing the U.S.-led war in the U.N. Security Council. The subsequent diplomatic chill has been described as the worst crisis in transatlantic ties since World War II. And I wondered if…

E at the Dave, responding to one of the single most offensive pieces of post-9-11 relativist drivel I’ve seen, gives “cultural studies” darling Terry Eagleton a dose of righteous indignation that’s worth reading. Notice that Eagleton starts right in with “insurgents.” At my favorite blog the Bleat, James Lileks shows us the term “terrorist” in…

This seems utterly inane: Under a program begun in 2001, South Carolina drivers may pay a $70 fee to purchase license plates with the “Choose Life” message. The revenue generated goes toward local crisis pregnancy programs and may not, according to the statute that authorized the plates, go to any organization that provides or promotes…

It was a brisk winter’s morn as Dennis sat, alone, at his wobbling computer desk–purchased in thinner days at an outlet store in some sparse suburban strip mall, all sweat pants and tennis shoes and what the French call les ob?ses–there, in his two bedroom apartment on the hill, that he meditated upon the ……

… especially if you’re ‘Loranger’s biggest queer.’ Digital self-defense just might get you expelled, or compared to Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris: “When you have students making threats to other students or groups of students on the Internet, talking about killing someone or blowing up the school or shooting a certain group of people, when…

I’ve heard that nasty little term ‘gun culture’, but what’s all this about a ‘knife culture’ in Scotland? And ‘knife culture’ is the judge’s phrase, approved by a political leader: Today Mr McAveety welcomed Lord Menzies’ comments. He said: “His comments are positive and I welcome the strong sentences he has passed down. “It reaffirms…

This is creepy on a number of levels, but might interest the lawyers in our midst. What happens when a woman chooses to abort her fetus in um … unconventionally? (link via Drudge) What strikes me about this is that she was complicit, yet the law designates her the victim of the crime because the…

Drudge says that there are reports of the capture of al-Zarqawi: Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, whom the US occupation authorities declared to be the “target number one” in Iraq, has been arrested in the city of Baakuba, the Emirate newspaper al-Bayane reported on Tuesday referring to Kurdish sources. Al-Zarqawi, leader of the terrorist group Al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad,…

Crotchety ol’ Robert Bork is hopping mad about American cultural exports, and he’s arm in arm with the mullahs and censors: … Mr. Bork, author of “Slouching Towards Gomorrah,” thinks some conservative (not to say radical) Muslims have a legitimate point ? as do American evangelicals and others on the religious right. “They have good…

There are no jokes or set-ups to this one. This week’s idiot is just offensive: “Poor Phuket got a tsunami, and we got Paris Hilton,” ever-insensitive Taki Theodoracopulos quipped. “It’s an outrage.”

I caught a lot of flak for my last post, but now we hear the faithful crying out: Traditionalists of diverse faiths described the destruction as part of god’s plan, proof of his power and punishment for human sins. “This is an expression of God’s great ire with the world,” Israeli chief rabbi Shlomo Amar…

I read comments like these all too often — when a tornado tears the roof off of a church, or a manaic opens fire on schoolchildren — but it never fails to stick in my craw: As Riza was drifting, she saw her neighbors, two girls — twins — and their mother. Riza, who can…

Straight from Aljazeera, Ramsey Clark is up to his old tricks: he’s joined Saddam’s legal team. And you thought representing Slobodan Milosevic or the PLO was questionable.

Classicist David Larsen (UC Extension) has a piece on the year in classical cinema: THE “sword-and-sandals” film comes in three generic flavors: barbarian, biblical, and Greco-Roman, each envisioning the martial values of a bygone “time before gunpowder” in its own fashion. While the first category may be counted on to support a heavy admixture of…

A judge has upheld an Arizona law which requires proof of citizenship for welfare benefits. It seems so simple, doesn’t it? Who but a citizen is entitled to the benefits of citizenship? So then what do we do about immigration? The President has a plan, scoffed at by defeatists, which the Tucson Citizen finds hopeful:…

Steve Outing of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies has published his first of two articles on ‘What Mainstream Journalists Can Learn From Bloggers.’ I haven’t read it all, but some of you may be intrigued to hear that he suggests blogging ethics to be downright Libertarian (though I should be transparent and tell you…

On election day this year my father gave me this FDR campaign button with the original ribbon. Neither one of us knows the value or rarity of the item, but I was hoping some of our readers might have a clue or point me in the right direction. Here it is:

You’ve probably seen this already, but I hadn’t, so here goes: Researchers at Rutgers University have developed a trio of drugs they believe can destroy HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a published report. The drugs, called DAPYs, mimic the virus by changing shape, which enables them to interfere with the way HIV…

Yuschenko had 1000 times the normal level of dioxin in his system and doctors feel it was intentionally administered, adding it could easily have been ingested in a bowl of soup. If you’re wondering where you’ve heard dioxin before, think Agent Orange.

Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the “professional election losers” who run the Democratic Party: “We bought it, we own it, we’re going to take it back.” Read more creepiness via Yahoo.