Several things not deserving of a post of their own
If our nation's cab drivers are actually killers by night, is it because they have finally grown tired of having validating conversations with the conservatives that they pick up who insist on calling them either Apu or Carl?
~~~
The Anchoress seems to think that the latest in Bush hate makes the hater "multiple-orgasmic" " and "bloated and gaseous ". Insert your own 'coming and going' joke here.
LORD KNOWS I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study.
Usually conservative commentators try to avoid using 'Bush', 'monkey' and 'cocaine' in the same sentence. I blame this on conservative fatigue. And the fact that Jonah's an idiot.
But if the idiot wants to embarrass himself by making such a film (most British filmakers end up embarrassing themselves when trying to make a film about America), let him have at us and be done with it.
Lastly, George Felix Allen is spared the potential ignominy of having to give a speech to a bunch of macacaheads:
A senator who had singled out an Indian man at a campaign event and referred to him as “Macaca” declined a leadership award from a minority scholarship fund Thursday after donors protested his selection.
Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund donors had threatened to withhold contributions if Sen. George Allen, a Republican seeking re-election this fall, received the fund’s Community Leadership Award.
“The foundation told the senator that they’ve been catching a lot of static from members and some of their donors, and before it spins into a week of controversy, we just decided to decline it,” Allen spokesman John Reid said.
[...]
The senator said fallout from the scholarship fund award stems from political adversaries in an election year.
“I regret that there are those who would put their personal or political dislike of me ahead of the needs of deserving students and I do not want to be the cause of any controversy which could in any way harm the efforts to help these young people,” Allen said in a statement.
Yeah. They're the ones who put a noose to his head and made him say it.
Pre-Friday Random Ten Rennblautur Allur rennvotur Engin gúmmístígvél Hlaupandi í okkur ? Vill springa út úr skel
What? You don't speak Icelandic?
Well, I'm stuck at work for a few more hours (it's the end of the fiscal quarter for us) so here they are, downloaded earlier.
Winter Must Be Cold - Apples In Stereo Generique - Miles Davis Silent Spring - Massive Attack 10AM Automatic - The Black Keys Right Between the Eyes - Garbage December Skies - Cowboy Junkies The Riot Act - Joe Lovano & Bill Frisell Hoppipolla - Sigur Rós Jet Set (Sigh)/Rocky Mountain Way - Stephen Stills Marrow - Ani DiFranco
In the two years since we bought Beckham his own bed, this is probably about the fifth time we've actually caught him using it, not counting the time he flipped it over and ripped out about 70% of the foam.
With just over two months until Election Day, Bush said opponents of the war in Iraq who are calling for a plan to bring home troops would create a disaster in the Middle East.
"Many of these folks are sincere and they're patriotic but they could be -- they could not be more wrong," the president said. "If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable, and absolutely disastrous. ..
I would feel a whole lot better about the expression "absolutely predictable" if it were coming from someone who had not gotten Every. Fucking. Thing. Wrong on Iraq.
He is a master of disaster though...
By the way, who outside of Focus on the Family holds a convention in Utah? I guess the American Legion isn't the hard-drinkin' hard-humpin' bunch of guys that they used to be...
In the time-honored tradition of bloggers waiting for the blog muse to cometh, we present a youtube music video as a stalling tactic. In this case it's For Squirrels
About eight years ago I bought For Squirrels Example in a used CD store for about $4 and since then it has been a favorite of mine. Sounding very much like early REM, I was disappointed to learn that the band had been in a tragic car accident a month after the release of the CD, killing lead singer John Vigliatura, bass player Bill White, and the bands manager (Tim Bender). Since that time, whenever I find used copies of Example I tend to buy them and give them to friends.
The surviving members of For Squirrels later formed Subrosa but the end result was pretty awful.
By the way, the "Mighty K.C." is supposed to be Kurt Cobain.
Democrats are being monumentally stupid in taking the bait of Rumsfeld's speech. It would have been much better to ignore it on grounds that Rumsfeld said things everyone agrees with—we're dealing with a totalitarian threat that can't be appeased and whose evil there should be absolutely no confusion about. Democrats would be shrewd not to appear to contest any of that, and keep the argument about how well the war in Iraq is going. But they can't help themselves—if someone says the word "appease," Democrats reflexively leap to protest too much. Part of what's at play here is the mis-applied lesson of the Swift Boat episode—respond to everything. But sometimes it makes no sense to respond. Administration officials are delighted, just delighted with the Democratic response and the debate is going so well that the GOP Senate leadership, after waiting 24 hours to see how it would play, is apparently going to weigh in sometime soon here.
Because if you respond to Rummy when he calls you a Nazi appeaser, he wins! And if you say nothing, then he must be right...and he wins!
All of this must be very gratifying to Donald Rumsfeld since, based upon his SecDef performance in the two wars that he has started, he's going to be retiring with a record of 0-2. No other Secretary of Defense has managed to lose consecutive starts, much less two wars in a career.
Mancrush ...others may prefer to practice on a banana
Captain Corndog is a fickle kind of guy. Last week it was George W. Bush:
I had the opportunity this afternoon to be part of a relatively small group who heard President Bush talk, extemporaneously, for around forty minutes. It was an absolutely riveting experience. It was the best I've ever seen him. Not only that; it may have been the best I've ever seen any politician. If I summarized what he said, it would all sound familiar: the difficult times we live in; the threat from Islamic fascism--the phrase drew an enthusiastic round of applause--the universal yearning for freedom; the need to confront evil now, with all the tools at our disposal, so that our children and grandchildren can live in a better and safer world. As he often does, the President structured his comments loosely around a tour of the Oval Office. But the digressions and interpolations were priceless.
I spent part of the day today with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He is, of course, a very impressive guy: a physician, a heart and lung transplant surgeon, an upstart politician, a hands-on doctor in places like Sudan and New Orleans, and one of the most powerful people in our government. Despite those obvious accomplishments and Frist's skills as a legislator, I've always felt that he lacks the executive persona necessary to be a strong Presidential candidate.
Maybe. But I was impressed by the close-up contact I had today. Frist is deadly serious about the war on terror, the pre-eminent issue of our era. He tells a chilling story of receiving a call from President Bush a week before the recent British airline bomb plot was disrupted. The message at that time, communicated to less than a handful of top federal officials, was that a terrorist plan was known to be in progress which could kill several thousand Americans, but there was no assurance that it could be stopped. It was stopped, thankfully, and news accounts suggest that the very terrorist surveillance programs now under attack by the Democrats were instrumental in saving thousands of American lives.
Now it could be that John Hinderaker is still a Bush-kinda guy and he was just overwhelmed by Bill Frist's ape-like musk, a powerful pheromone known to give conservatives four-hour erections. Or maybe, just maybe, John is what is known as a starfucker. A winsome lad from Minnesota who gets all weak-kneed before men of power like an easily dazzled Washington intern.
Either way, I'm guessing that there is a stained blue suit sitting in a closet somewhere in Apple Valley that will never see a minute at the dry cleaners...
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals. Except the weasel.*
Alberto Gonzales goes to Iraq and teaches the natives how to distance yourself from the results of your labors by using bland pronouncements and weasel words:
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales met Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and discussed the tactics used by Iraqi security forces to combat a wave of violence, including torture.
"It is a somewhat difficult decision as to where to draw the line," Gonzales said, referring to possible measures that Iraqi police might use to extract information from suspected insurgents and death squad leaders.
"It is difficult to decide what is appropriate and what is allowed under law," said Gonzales, who has drawn criticism in the past for describing the Geneva Conventions against prisoner abuse as "quaint".
Gonzales, who arrived in Baghdad Tuesday, told reporters the issue of interrogation tactics came up during his meeting with Saleh but said the techniques to be used were a decision for the Iraqi government.
But he stressed that the US government was against any kind of torture.
"Our President is very clear that government does not engage in torture. The US is not engaging in torture. We are part of a convention against torture."
Yeah. We're people persons.
Somehow I get the impression that the Gonzales family crest contains two quotes, "Plausible Deniability" and "It was like that when I got here".
My paranoia drives a black SUV It's not all black hats and good deli
In an early scene in Annie Hall, Alvy Singer ( played by Woody Allen) confides to his best friend:
"You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said, 'Did you eat yet or what?' And Tom Christie said, 'No, JEW?' Not 'Did you?'...JEW eat? JEW? You get it? JEW eat?"
Which is the first thing that I thought of when I read through the assortment of updates and frantic handwavings about Omeed Aziz Popal over at Michelle Malkin. Now if Aziz Popal's name had been, oh, Bozell or Hewitt, they would just being laughing it off as more wacky antics by those drugged-up California weirdos in that crazy liberal town and thank G-d I live in Septictank, Arkansas where all we do is keep kidnapped hitchhikers in makeshift dungeons underneath the doublewide and meet for Bible study every Tuesday after COPS!. But Popal has one of those names and this surely means that todays incident must be a Very Honda Pilot Kristallnacht.
Someone once said the evangelicals think more about gay sex than gays. I'm beginning to wonder if the entire rightwing is going to convert to Judaism, like Jerry Seinfeld's dentist who converts for the jokes.
It seems like they need another venue for their outrage.
(Added): Dave thinks this post is "anti-Semitic". I just think my crack about keeping kidnapped hitchhikers in makeshift dungeons underneath the doublewide touched a sore spot.
My problem with cormac mccarthy [Rich Lowry] I just came back this week from a vacation and had a chance to do some casual reading, which included Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I had never read any McCarthy before, and he has a certain power. But I can't say I enjoyed slogging through the two-thirds of the book that involves detailed descriptions of guys wandering through the desert. I know this is mood music and know it provides some relief from all the blood-letting, but it makes the book feel like a padded-out novella.
I know just the person to produce a movie from one of Cormac McCarthy's books.
My guess is that the Derb is making a reference to Gibson's Jesus of Fangoria, but who really knows what passes for a thought in the musty shallows of that cranial backwater. And, of course, a McCarthy book has already made it to the screen , but since it lacked a nymphet it probably flew under the Derb's radar.
I don't know anyone who reads Cormac McCarthy for 'the story'. One reads McCarthy for the writing that constitutes the portion of the book that Lowry calls "padded-out". And if people like Lowry insist on dumbing down the culture or misusing what little intellectual capital they still have, squirreled away like a linty breath mint in the pocket of their favorite khakis, the least they can do is leave off the whinging over all that 'padding' they skimmed over while hoping for more interesting words like "nipple" or "boom!" to breach the surface and bring them back to the task at hand.
As Exhibit A, and from a previous post on Blood Meridian, here is a favorite passage of mine:
They began to come upon chains and packsaddles, singletrees, dead mules, wagons. Saddletrees eaten bare of their rawhide coverings and weathered white as bone, a light chamfering of miceteeth along the edges of the wood. They rode through a region where iron will not rust nor tin varnish. The ribbed frames of dead cattle under their patches of dried hide lay like the ruins of primitive boats upturned upon that shoreless void and they passed lurid and austere the black and desiccated shapes of horses and mules that travelers had stood afoot. These parched beasts had died with their necks stretched in agony in the sand and now upright and blind and lurching askew with scraps of blackened leather from the fretwork of their ribs they leaned with their long mouths howling after the endless tandem suns that passed above them. The riders rode on. They crossed a a vast dry lake with rows of dead volcanoes ranged beyond it like the works of enormous insects. To the south lay broken shapes of scoria in a lava bed as far as the eye could see. Under the hooves of the horses the alabaster sand shaped itself in whorls strangely symmetric like iron filings in a field and these shapes flared and drew back again, resonating upon that harmonic ground and then turning to swirl away over the playa. As if the very sediment of things contained yet some residue of sentinence. As if the transit of those riders were a thing so profoundly terrible as to register even to the uttermost granulation of reality.
Now that's writing for people who love writing. If you want to read McCarthy for straight narrative drive, and incidentally the only McCarthy novel that seems specifically built for the screen, you should read No Country for Old Men, not Blood Meridian which is more Moby Dick and less Louis L'Amour.
Gore Vidal once wrote a celebrated essay with a very plain title: "The Top Ten Best Sellers According to the New York Times as of January 7, 1972." He had a high old time. He got to read Mary Renault, which he loved, and Solzhenitsyn, which he did not. He dropped a brace of Vidal smart bombs - phrases such as "I once wrote a screenplay" and "when my father was in the Administration." And he argued that the art of fiction was thoroughly, and perhaps irreparably, infected by the art of film. People were writing novels to remind us of old movies, and structuring them along the sleek lines of a good script. Within a few years of Vidal's essay, Hollywood proved his point, turning several of the books that he pondered - The Eiger Sanction, The Odessa File, Semi-Tough, - into motion pictures: back to the womb, as it were, from which they sprang. There was even a birdbrained screen version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which a friend of mine, ignoring all warnings, paid to see. A fortnight later, he was sitting up and back on solids, but it was a close thing.
I think that is what Lowry was looking for in Meridian, or possibly what Lane found when he attempted to replicate Vidal's footsteps:
And so on to No. 9, Disclosure, by Michael Crichton. This is what might be called an issue novel, something of a Crichton specialty. In his last two books, Jurassic Park and Rising Sun, the issues raised were, respectively, "Look out! Raptors!" and "Look out! Japs!" The new one is intended as a thoughtful, provocative, and altogether serious investigation of sexual harassment. In other words: "Look out! Women!" You can almost hear the ping inside the Crichton brain as the bright idea came to him: not just sexual harassment but sexual harassment with a twist, where the harassing is done by - you guessed it - a woman.
Sure it lacks the "power" of a McCarthy but its has both an issue and a simple beat that you can dance to.
Incompatible software Huriya Al Assad meets her first tweaker
Somebody accidentally jacked AutoRummy v2.0 into the Lauratron 3000:
ROBERTS: You've been here more than a dozen times over the year, your husband as well -- $110 billion the federal government has allocated for hurricane relief. Yet, there is still criticism. In The New York Times on Monday, a very critical article saying that this is going to be a "mark" on the Bush administration for a very long time, and "[i]t will be in every textbook." How do you respond to that?
BUSH: Well, I think that's not right, of course, and I think we should consider the source. But, with all due respect, there is a lot of money appropriated by the United States Congress that's coming here, that has been coming here, and different communities have used it in different ways. Some communities, obviously, are using the money to start rebuilding schools.
There is money for everything, but it takes more than just money. It really takes the efforts of everyone who lived here, who wants to come back, who's working there, of all officials, public officials, local, state, and federal, of other neighbors, other people who can figure out a way to help. Was the federal government slow? Sure, probably. Was every government slow, state and local? Absolutely. But, have they responded in a very, very helpful way? I think they have.
Have you been pounding down Red Bull and vodkas like a sixteen year-old at her first rave?
Maybe it's my west coast orientation but when I watch the Cialis Joe commercial I see a setting sun. Not exactly the image I would be going for in an effort to prolong a career that appears to have gone on too long.
Osama bin Laden, Mitt Romney, some Mormon guy captured.
Thank Jeebus. This comes just in the nick of time as the JonBenet Ramsey case falls apart and we were just getting ready to put Rita Cosby and Nancy Grace back in cold storage.
I thought about this a couple of years ago when Nick Berg was beheaded. I don’t think Berg was a Christian or given the choice to deny or die. He was doomed just for being an American, and being a Jew certainly didn’t help matters.
If I’m ever captured by Muslim maniacs or non-Muslim maniacs who gave me a choice between denying my Savior and death, I’d want to face death with all the dignity I had left. As a prideful person (for better or for worse), I don’t want to give my would-be murderers the satisfaction of breaking me, especially if they’re going to kill me anyway. And what is my life worth without Christ?
Later, she gives herself an out:
[Clarification: If I gave the impression that I thought I would “lose” my salvation if I denied Christ, I certainly didn’t intend to, though the previous sentence may read that way. The Bible teaches that once Christ forgives us, we’re always forgiven. Once saved, always saved. I don’t have to work to “keep” my salvation. Yes, even if I denied Christ, God forbid it, he’s still my Savior.]
I've got twenty bucks that says she'd flip like a coin.
Maybe we'll find out if a group of Islamoninjas storm GodBlog. I, for one, wish to witness a blubbering Hugh Hewitt hiding behind La Shawn and Charmaine Yoest...
(Added) Alex Koppelman is on the same wavelength but a different cultural reference.
Glimmers of progress in iraq [Rich Lowry] There's this wire story from the other day:
The meeting came amid reports from military commanders in Iraq that violent incidents in Baghdad have come down by 40 percent in the past three weeks as US and Iraqi troops have cordoned off and cleared some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods.
Rumsfeld said he had discussed the situation with his top commanders in Iraq and was encouraged by the turnaround.
The military's efforts "have been successful in the sense that we are seeing a reduction in the levels of violence, and in the numbers of attacks, in the areas particularly that the forces have been able to clear," Rumsfeld said.
"Iraqi forces have been doing a very good job," he added.
Thousands of US troops were brought into the capital earlier this month amid fears that spiralling sectarian violence could descend into all-out civil war, pitting Shiites against Sunnis.
Some analysts believe the situation had become a low-level civil war with elements of the Iraqi security forces either abetting the violence or looking the other way.
But Mahdi said the improved security situation in Baghdad was "our answer to all those talking about civil war in Iraq. We don't think we are leading to one."
At least 20 gunmen and 8 civilians were killed Monday when the Iraqi Army battled fiercely for hours with members of a militia loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, in Diwaniya, Iraqi officials said.
The violence, which one Iraqi general said included militiamen executing Iraqi soldiers in a public square, amounted to the most brazen clashes in recent memory between Iraqi government forces and Mr. Sadr’s militia.
After weeks of rising tensions and skirmishes between elements of the militia and American-led forces, it could increase pressure on Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a conservative Shiite, to find a way — political or military or both — to rein in Mr. Sadr’s powerful militia.
The battle erupted after a particularly violent weekend in Iraq for American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, in what had been a relatively quiet month.
The American military announced Monday the deaths of nine American service members in attacks on Sunday. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least 13 people on Monday and wounded dozens at a checkpoint just outside the Interior Ministry headquarters.
Over all, more than 100 Iraqis were killed Sunday and Monday.
A group of Iraqi soldiers recently refused to go to Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, to help restore order there, a senior American military officer said Monday.
The officer, Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, who oversees the American-led effort to train Iraq’s security forces, said the episode last week involved about 100 Iraqi soldiers based in Maysan Province, which borders Iran.
A formal investigation has begun, and the Iraqi government will soon decide whether to rescind the deployment order to the soldiers’ parent Iraqi Army unit, the Second Battalion of the Fourth Brigade of the 10th Division.
“The majority of this particular unit was Shia, and they felt — the leadership of that unit and their soldiers — like they were needed down there in Maysan,’’ General Pittard told reporters in a videoconference from Iraq. “Now, that will be worked out by the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Defense, and we’ll be in support of that.”
Though the episode involves only a small fraction of the 10-division Iraqi Army, it points to an important issue. The new Iraqi government wants to build a national military, one that is ethnically diverse and can be deployed anywhere in Iraq. It does not want to field a military that is essentially a collection of local units with regional loyalties.
But many Iraqis are reluctant to serve far from their home provinces. Sunnis in Anbar Province, for example, are reluctant to join the army if they will be sent far from home to predominantly Shiite areas. Shiites are often hesitant to serve in overwhelmingly Sunni regions.
“The Iraqi Army is supposed to be a national army,” said General Pittard. “They were recruited regionally, and for the most part they’ve been operating regionally. So that’s where the difficulty is.”
The refusal of some Iraqi soldiers in Maysan Province to serve in Baghdad was reported late last week in The Daily Telegraph of London and The Washington Post.
And, no, I didn't forget... Rich Lowry's Greatest Hit...and Miss
Today is not about the recovery of the Gulf Coast, not really. Because even though one year later, the “job of clearing debris left by the storm remains unfinished, and has been plagued by accusations of price gouging,” and even though one year later, “tens of thousands of families still live in trailers or mobile homes, with no indication of when or how they will be able to obtain permanent housing,” and even though one year later, “important decisions about rebuilding and improving flood defenses have been delayed” and “little if anything has been done to ensure the welfare of the poor in a rebuilt New Orleans,” and even though one year later, huge numbers of people are still displaced, the president doesn’t believe in the significance of this anniversary, or pointing to it in urgency to get local and state officials, who he blames for the delays in rebuilding, to get things done. What today is really about is the recovery of Bush’s image.
Maybe I'm missing something, but what — exactly — did the press do wrong in covering the Karr story? Beyond, I mean, devoting "too much" attention to it? If the story turned out to be true and Karr was the guy, no one, or almost no one, would be saying that it was overplayed. So is the problem that the media didn't know the news in advance? I'm open to the idea that the press spent too much time on the story, but I don't think it's anything like an embarrassment or a scandal that they spent a lot of time on it. Considering how crappy the Katrina thumbsucking is, I'd certainly rather watch CNN covering the Jon Benet Story than listen to Anderson Cooper frown. I mean it's not like there is any news in Katrina coverage.
Cheney has planted aides in major Cabinet departments, often over the objection of a Cabinet secretary, to make sure his policies are carried out. He sits in on the Senate Republican caucus, to stamp out any rebellions. Cheney loyalists from the Office of the Vice President dominate interagency planning meetings.
The Iraq war is the work of Cheney and Rumsfeld. The capture of the career civil service is pure Cheney. The disciplining of Congress is the work of Cheney and Rove. The turning over of energy policy to the oil companies is Cheney. The extreme secrecy is Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
If Cheney were the president, more of this would be smoked out because the press would be paying attention. The New York Times' acerbic columnist Maureen Dowd regularly makes sport of Cheney's dominance, and there are plenty of jokes (Bush is a heartbeat away from the presidency). But you can count serious newspaper or magazine articles on Cheney's operation on the fingers of one hand.
Main Entry: gun lap Function: noun : the final lap of a race in track signaled by the firing of a gun as the leader begins the lap
Tomorrow morning at 8AM on what will most likely be a bright and sunny San Diego day, the lovely and talented Casey begins the last lap of, what we call her "involuntary" school career as she enters her senior year in high school. Earlier last week her books arrived (for those just catching up, she goes to a private school) , 50 pounds of AP Art History and calculus and physics and Beowolf (Seamus Heaney translation) and God knows what else (that would be the religion books). And so begins nine months of the routine that is lacking in the summer months, and the shuffling through of applications to various colleges and universities that crop up in the mailbox on an almost daily basis.
In all likelihood this will be the last nine to ten months that we will live together (since she can't become a blogger and move into the basement because we don't have basements in San Diego and I think there is a dearth of them in Santa Barbara too) and then it's the trip to Europe with her mother (the cosmopolitan and intoxicating mrs tbogg) and then off to school with her...location to be determined.
By this time next year I will also be elsewhere, location already determined, trying to cobble together a new routine in a new city beginning what I like to think of as my third act until the final curtain comes down, the music comes up, the audience applauds and then goes out for drinks. The smart money is on Beckham having no small part in my demise.
Change is good I guess, but you don't have to like it. You just have to live with it. I'm trying, but it's hard.
It is possible that using the most inarticulate and stupid President in my lifetime to explain the war on terror to the yokels was a bad idea.
You know, after three years of war in Iraq, the "President Bush needs to explain it better" excuse has become the "dog ate my homework" of the 21st century.
Reporting from the Stephen Spruiell Institute of Reportorial Ethics and MiniBar Raiding Five dollar beers and a dial-up connection
I kind of expected Stephen Spruiell to jump on the Greg Mitchellgate brouhaha (actually it's more of a brouha if not just a brou-):
After E&P editor Greg Mitchell attacked bloggers for exposing staged and altered photographs of Israel's offensive against Hezbollah, Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee found an embarrassing story that Mitchell had written about his own experience faking a news story for a small paper in Niagara Falls.
Embarrassing, yes. Funny. But not really that bad. After all, it happened a long time ago, and Mitchell copped to it.
Local politicians usually love it when Wal-Mart builds in their jurisdictions, and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano was no different. Here's what DeStefano had to say about the opening of a new Wal-Mart in New Haven in 2004:
The New Haven Wal-Mart will employ 340 full and part-time workers. Wal-Mart and three Sam’s Clubs, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, employ 8,340 in the state.
“We’re glad the space is filled, it’s a great location,” said Mayor John DeStefano Jr. “We think the store is going to be successful there. We’re taking something that was empty and filling it with more jobs and tax revenue.” (New Haven Register, 7/20/04; free reg. req’d)
Needless to say, now that DeStefano is a Democratic candidate for governor here in Connecticut, he was right there with Lieberman and Lamont* at today's anti-Wal-Mart rally. How quickly things change when there's pandering to do.
Another candidate for governor, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who since earlier this year has been critical of Wal-Mart, cancelled his planned appearance Wednesday after a shooting in his city.
I left after Lamont spoke because it was blazing hot, and I assumed that DeStefano made his appearance as planned. I apologize for the error. Nevertheless, as the article points out, DeStefano planned to appear, and he's been critical of Wal-Mart since earlier this year.
So, you see, when Spruiell wrote that DeStefano made his appearance ("He was right there...") but he really didn't, it was because there was a cold and frosty Zima calling Spruiell's name back at the Rodeway Inn, and so it was an "error" as opposed to writing about something he didn't actually witness.
I would say that this calls Stephen's journalistic "ethics" into question.
Not that there was any question about them to start with, mind you...
This morning on Fox News, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said that college men are “very happy” that Plan B will now be sold over-the-counter because they can have “a wild night” and “the burden is off them.”
[...]
KRISTOL: I don’t know, I came into Fox this morning and one of our younger colleagues who works here, a guy just out of college a couple of years, said all his friends in who are still college are very happy about this — all his guy friends, his male friends who are still in college are happy about this. They have a wild night. Precautions aren’t taken. The burden is now totally off them. They tell their girlfriend to go out and get this drug and no problems at all. And I don’t think that’s a very good thing for the the country.
Excuse me if I suggest that this is one of those fake conversations that conservatives have at extraordinarily convenient times when they want to say write or say something but don't want to be held responsible for it, and what Bill was actually doing was indulging in a little one of his fantasies on air.
At least that's what a taxi driver said to me this morning while we were discussing intelligent design, the war in Iraq, the bankruptcy bill, the rise of transnational progressivism, string theory, and why, if we can put a man on the moon, we can't put a man on Condoleezza Rice*.
Allah Fact-Checking Service: He says that's just the UN flag with the sunlight washing out any emblems to make it look entirely white.
Dammit! All those wasted hunh-huhs and lols!!1!
Meanwhile, Dan Riehl-lystupid goes spelunking for something, anything, on uppity minority S.R. Sidarth who had the nerve to be so brown that it caused George Allen to shoot himself in the face. So Dan cocks his own gun:
Shrinking violet S. R. Sidarth is all over autoadmit. Pardon me for questioning his sensitivity before. Apparently this is what the WaPo's hero finds acceptable for a public college admissions posting board. From his appreciation for Playboy and, more significantly, his remarks insulting to Homsexuals and *transvestites, evidently his sensitivity stops with anyone other than himself.
...and then procceds to shoot himself in the face by quoting from the posting board without any proof that the poster really is S.R. Sidarth. When he is called out on it, Big Brain Dan responds (in an update):
While at first having no comment, during a brief phone conversation, S R Sidarth has denied ever having posted on autoadmin.com. Ultimately, that cannot be verified without an IP check, which I imagine would violate privacy restrictions.
A commenter on my personal blog claiming to be a member of that site first suggested someone had altered their nick and that autoadmit.com worked in such a way as to alter all previous comments. However, Google cache proves that explanation false.
It should also be noted that in today's WaPo story, Sidarth is portrayed as an introvert who spends a great deal of time on the computer.
So it's probably true because, you know, Sidarth spends a lot of time on the computer...just like Dan Riehl when he's not playing with toys.
You should probably google cache that just in case he denies it later. Because, if it's on Google, it must be true.
(Added) Riehl updates (again), changes the subject:
As for the board commenter's who have been trolling comments here, I'll note that, if someone is victimizing people by assuming their identities on your posting board, perhaps it would be more productive to address that issue then to continue to troll my blog when you will not alter my positions or posts one bit.
...and then makes sure that nobody can point out the error of his ways by immediately cutting off comments.
Mark Steyn - Half Way To Idiot Savant Nostradumbass
This war is over. The only question now is whether a new provisional government is installed before the BBC and The New York Times have finished running their exhaustive series on What Went Wrong with the Pentagon's Failed War Plan. . .
Michelle Malkin defending Ann Coulter against people who make ad hominem attacks on her (yes, the irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife):
This is Peter Hartlaub. He is the San Francisco Chronicle's pop-culture critic and "helps cover movies, television and the media," according to his bio. In addition to his newspaper duties, Hartlaub blogs for the paper's "Culture Blog." One of his latest posts is an astonishingly ugly, ad hominem attack on Ann Coulter--emblematic of the unhinged, intolerant Left. And it's posted on a "culture" blog.
The jerk compares Coulter to a horse at a children's zoo. He mocks her weight and her face by linking to sophomoric left-wing bloggers deriding her looks--including this, this, and this. He posts photos he took of the horse alongside photos of Coulter, then sits back and waits for Chronicle blog commenters to pile on.
Florida station WJXT reports: Florida Voting So Smooth, Michael Moore Packs Up, Leaves
He's reportedly headed to Ohio. Don't stop there, buddy. Make like a California liberal and keep moving north...Canada is lovely this time of year.
Update: A steamed Canadian reader protests...
As a Canadian I must vehemently protest your suggestion that Mr Moore continue his, (hopefully futile), trek northward and go on to Canada. We already have a surfeit of fat, slovenly lefties in this country and require no additions......particularly THAT one!
Republican voters are mature adults who are deeply serious about the world that we line in and--
Romney Report from Iowa [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A reader:
I listened to Romney at a small local candidate fundraiser today in West Des Moines.
Romney is really building a strong insider undercurrent here within the party people—those are the ones that vote in the caucus. Once you see the guy, he does come across VERY well, and you have ZERO problem seeing him is president. If folks get over the Mormonism and leery-ness of being from Mass., he will do well. Easily a top 3 right now for the caucuses in my opinion. I'm sold on Romney right now. I need a Mitt '08 car magnet.
Talking with a party-person at the event, they reminded me the Iowa GOP Straw Poll is less than a year away. This was a HUGE event in 1999, but seemed to get little coverage outside Iowa. I was lukewarm for Bush at that time, but after I saw him up close and personal at that event in Ames, I was 100% on board. WHY? - Organized, friendly, and people knew what was going on. Made sure everyone voted. - Good entertainment - country star Tracy Bird—got photos and autographs. - Bush spoke to the people various times up close and personal. Very likeable guy. I got his and Laura's autograph and photo with them. - Best food by far. Used local, very well known restraunt to cater the event (Hickory Park) Everyone in central Iowa knows Hickory Park bbq pork is the best, and Bush had tubs of it being served. Shows his people know what they are doing. By contrast, Pat Buchanan had bbq pork by some South Carolina outfit....nice, Iowa is a top 3 pork producing state and you bring in someone out of state. Nice going Pat, it's time to retire.
If Romney can pull that off, he will surely fair well at the straw poll & beyond, and everything I have seen about him & his operation in Iowa so far shows he is well organized. The fact someone already mentioned the straw poll tells me they know what they are doing. I was also assured he'd be back MANY times in the coming year.
- examine every issue in great detail before deciding who to vote for because they care about the future and the world their children will live in.
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot - Charlie Chaplin
Bill Hicks can rest peacefully as Jeff Goldstein attempts to blend that wacky humor of his with social commentary and the end result is a Jamie Kennedy Experiment turned tragic. One more career path that will not be pursued.
The road not traveled Block for me while I keep running
First go read the transcript at Hullabaloo where JC Watts is brought in as an expert on Plan B:
BILL PRESS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, you know, that's too bad, Wolf. I think this is a major breakthrough for American women.
And, J.C., it's hypocritical to be against abortion and to be against Plan B. We heard Sanjay Gupta, who knows more about this than you and I do, at the top of the show, say, if a woman is already pregnant, this does nothing. This is not an abortion pill. It's a contraceptive pill. It has been used safely by European women for years. It has been held up in this year only for -- in this country only for political reasons.
And what this pill is going to result in is fewer unwanted pregnancies and fewer abortions, which I thought -- is certainly my goal -- I thought was your goal, too.
WATTS: Well, it's ironic, Wolf, that we say it's a contraceptive, but you take it the morning after.
PRESS: So what?
(LAUGHTER)
PRESS: You take one pill the day before. You can take one the morning after.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESS: It's a medical breakthrough.
WATTS: The morning after.
PRESS: It's a contraceptive.
WATTS: It's...
PRESS: And it's not funny.
WATTS: It...
PRESS: Three-and-a-half -- no.
WATTS: Bill, the bottom line is...
PRESS: It's...
WATTS: ... your mind is not going to be changed by this decision. Nor -- and nor is mine.
Considering his history, you would think that JC might think differently about an unintended pregnancy, but then you were probably never a hot-shot high school quarterback who had family who would step in and bail your horny ass out:
In 1976 Watts' nephew, J.C., had a daughter out of wedlock with a white schoolmate.[4] Both families felt that an interracial marriage would be impractical because of contemporary racial attitudes,[3] and some members of the mother's family did not want to raise a black child.[4] The families decided that the pregnancy should be brought to term and that Wade Watts and his wife would adopt and raise the girl.[3]
Julius Caesar Watts brought his expertise to the Wolf's program, but nobody asked him the right questions. He knows how to get women pregnant, but what comes after is somebody elses problem.
I'm not going to be IGNORED! Seeeeaaan! Save me Sean!
For some time now various bloggers have stated that the best way to treat Ann Coulter is to ignore her, depriving her of the oxygen that her skanky ass needs to survive. This is well-demonstrated in this clip when, after tossing out a few of her boilerplate bon mots, the other members of the panel just move on without her because she is a deeply unserious person with nothing to add to any discussion other than how hot she thinks she is. Think Paris Hilton on C-Span.
I guess there are limits as to how far hair-flipping and a slept-in black cocktail dress will take you.
Pre-Friday Random Ten And I hold you close in the back of my mind And raise my glass 'cause either way I'm dead Neither of you really help me to sleep anymore One breaks my body and the other breaks my soul La Cienega just smiles as it waves goodbye
Stars - Hum St. Judy's Comet - Paul Simon I Know There's A Word For This - Aimee Mann La Cienega Just Smiled - Ryan Adams Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying - Rickie Lee Jones The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentino - Spoon Park Avenue - Girls Against Boys Khalghi Stomp - Thievery Corporation Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-A-Lot I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart - Eels
Michelle Malkin, who is an expert on hate (after all she wrote the book), travels this great country of ours and brings back pictures and has this to say:
Meantime, here's a lovely photo I took while on vacation. There's no escaping BDS. Free signed copy of Unhinged to the first person who can guess where the pic was taken:
Sign of the times
To which her readers, at least the ones with opposable thumbs, offer up:
Joe. M - "I encounter those signs regularly in Massachusetts. Mostly in the Northampton area."
Leza - "This stop sign is on the corner of my street in Atlanta. (Or perhaps its clone?) I keep calling the City to get it cleaned up but so far no response. If you did visit, hope you had a great time!"
Glenn - "Is it in the people's republic of Maryland?"
Eric S. - "I'm gonna go with Dallas, TX as I've seen quite a few of those here, unfortunately."
EiP - "Totally Seattle."
Ed - "I've seen several of these but this looks like one I pass from time to time in PA near Philly."
Ted K. - "I saw one like this in Phoenix, Arizona. So, this is my guess."
Sean - "That is something I see at least a dozen times a day in lovely Portland, Oregon, the capital of Bush Hatred for sure. Perhaps outside of Paris, anyway. There are more Kerry '04 bumper stickers on cars than there are cars, nearly."
Paul - "Just a guess but the trees made me think of the Northeast, maybe Massachusetts or eastern Pennsylvania."
Carolann - "Has to be the Hamptons. Growing up on Long Island and knowing the people, it's my best guess."
JC - "Outside of Clinton's home."
Hah. Several nominations for Crawford, Texas.
And there were scores of votes for Santa Cruz, San Diego, Hollywood, and San Francisco. Right state.
And the winner is...Chris H., who was first with the most precise guess: Berkeley Hills.
Now one would think that with so many readers admitting to seeing these signs in such liberal hotbeds as Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix, Michelle would have started to figure out that BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) is the hip-hop happenin' craze that's sweeping the nation. George Bush's approval numbers are stuck in the mid-to-high thirties. 57% of Americans want a timetable set for the US to get out of Iraq, yet George Bush has promised at least two more years of American military deaths in Iraq...and then it's somebody else's problem. As far back as ten months ago , 50% of those polled wanted Congress to consider impeaching George Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq.
Add to that, you have a rightwing cable host dedicating a show to the age-old question Is Bush an idiot?", and I'd say that there is Trouble in River City and that starts with T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Bush.
Let's face it, things have gotten so bad that they have had to float leaky balloons such as Bush having read sixty books this year in an effort to stop the "idiot' talk, and we now we have a rash of Bush "extemporaneous" chats with select groups of supporters that just happen to include folks like Kathleen Parker
This theory occurred to me not long ago at an off-the-record luncheon with Bush and a hundred or so of his supporters. I was the guest of a guest, and welcomed the opportunity to observe the president in his natural habitat.
What I witnessed was revealing. Not only was the man fluent in the English language and intellectually agile, he was knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects raised during a 90-minute Q&A. Someone apparently had been slipping intellectual-curiosity tablets into Bush's cola.
Toward the end, one of the guests said, "Mr. President, I think if Americans could hear you speak the way you have today, you'd have a 95 percent approval rating.''
I think that's almost true. Not 95 percent, obviously, but he'd surely have a higher than 30 percent approval rating were he better able to explain what he's thinking. Bush does know; he just can't seem to say.
I had the opportunity this afternoon to be part of a relatively small group who heard President Bush talk, extemporaneously, for around forty minutes. It was an absolutely riveting experience. It was the best I’ve ever seen him. Not only that; it may have been the best I’ve ever seen any politician. If I summarized what he said, it would all sound familiar: the difficult times we live in; the threat from Islamic fascism–the phrase drew an enthusiastic round of applause–the universal yearning for freedom; the need to confront evil now, with all the tools at our disposal, so that our children and grandchildren can live in a better and safer world. As he often does, the President structured his comments loosely around a tour of the Oval Office. But the digressions and interpolations were priceless.
...both of which, for some reason, reminded me of this from Pulp Fiction:
Jimmie: I can't believe this is the same car. The Wolf: Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet.
"And my mission was very simple. I wanted to thank President Bush for the millions of FEMA trailers that were brought down there. They gave roofs over people's head. People had the chance to have baths, air condition. We have TV, we have toiletry, we have things that are necessities that we can live upon.
But now, I wanted to remind the President that the job's not done, and he knows that. And I just don't want the government and President Bush to forget about us. And I just wish the President could have another term in Washington."
That couldn't have been any more scripted if Rocky had said, "George Bush is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."
They are that desperate.
It's time to face facts folks (he said in his best Rush Limbaugh voice), George Bush is not a popular president and you can spin and spin and spin and spin but all that's going to happen is you're going to get dizzy and start barfing and he's still gonna be stuck in the 35 - 38% approval range.
I didn't want to do this but it looks like we're going to have to use some tough-love on these people:
Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Regarding the new Survivor series, Limbaugh also stated that there "are many characteristics ... that you would think would give [the African-American tribe] the lead, and the heads up in terms of skill and athleticism and so forth." He also stated that "our early money" is on "the Hispanic tribe" -- which he said could include "a Cuban," "a Nicaraguan," or "a Mexican or two" -- provided they don't "start fighting for supremacy amongst themselves." Limbaugh added that Hispanics have "probably shown the most survival tactics," that they "have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders" and that they can "do it without water for a long time, they don't get apprehended, and they will do things other people won't do."
And we thought someone who would "do things other people won't do" was called Daryn Kagan.
Taken, without permission, from the comments in this post, (aka Waiting for Godlstein) we have a guest poster:
Oh, no. These assholes don't get to unshackle themselves from Bush and his failed policies, to include any wars he's already started and any he plans on starting, and retreat back into "We're Reagan Conservatives!" until they apologize publicly for voting for the son of a bitch twice, and do some significant community service, and then sign papers saying they will never, ever again speak in a room with more than three people who are not of their own immediate family.
Ideally I want to see their asses painting up a bunch of schools in Iraq, and I want these bastards to pay for the paint themselves.
Jesus, the mess these people have made of the planet, and we're supposed to trust that there's some reason for optimism and accept that it's all the media's fault, that the liberals caused all this and they were just sitting there watching in passive voice? Screw them. Screw them all.
The whole system is so broken I don't think we'll ever fix it, and they're already making plans to announce that Bush just didn't kill enough people because he was too compassionate and too scared of the liberal media.
Screw them. Tie Bush around their necks, tie Iraq around their necks, like a fucking millstone, and let's watch the whole conservative, paleo or neo, sink deep into the ocean trenches. You failed, boys. Failed badly.
And one of the consequences of failing this badly is that you have to shut up and let actual adults take charge and clean this shit up. I don't give a rat's ass whether you're ready to live with it. Sit down, and don't raise your hand again until you have something useful to say.
-D. Sidhe
I think that deserves a round of golf claps if not fireworks.
Well it's almost midnight here at Casa de Tbogg and I have to say that I'm more than a little out out that Jihadhimuslimanarchosyndicalists forgot Flightof the Prophet Day after we spent all day putting up the Flightof the Prophet tree and hanging the Flightof the Prophet ornaments, and don't even get me started on all the baking we did. What am I going to do with all of this date-nut bread?
In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time--Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise.
What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (cf Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.
As it turned out the Hidden Imam, Persiantawny Phil, poked his head out, saw this:
started giggling, and ducked back into his concrete-reinforced hidey-hole.
The world is just not that into you But this torch that I found Its gotta be drowned Or it soon might explode So make it one for my baby And one more for the road
A one act play in which a resolute Jeff Goldstein attempts to negotiate with a hooker in a Denver Holiday Inn bar minutes before closing time.
Jeff:
It could simply be misplaced faith and optimism on my part, but I feel like there almost must be things going on in the background that we’re not seeing. Otherwise, I’d be despairing, too.
Because if this is it—if all we can manage politically at this point, even with someone as stubborn Bush in office, is to declare victory by staying the course—than our adversarial press and the cynical opportunists on the left (with an assist from the nativists on the paleocon right) will have shown the world that America is indeed the weak horse, crippled by its own inner tensions and power struggles, and by the soft transnational leftism that, by controlling the narrative and sowing seeds of manipulated dissent, pushes us ever closer to its goal of turning the US into a kind of European satellite nation and prevents us from committing to the kind of difficult, long-term projects that may just affect the kind of change necessary to stave of an otherwise inevitable worldwide conflagration brought about by an emboldened and resolute Islamism.
And I’m just not ready to live with that.
Hooker:
It's still gonna cost you fifty bucks. Take it or leave it.
A peaceful demonstration yesterday in Riverside against a law punishing those who hire or rent to illegal immigrants was met by a larger, slur-spewing crowd that tried to drown out the protesting speakers from the other side of a police barricade.
[...]
After an hour of prayers and speeches, Rivera and the protesters headed up Scott Street, the Burlington County town's main drag, as hundreds on both sides of the street cursed, spit and shouted at them to leave and never come back.
Some in the crowd were intoxicated. Some waved Confederate flags, while others thrust their right arms up to resemble a Nazi salute. Dozens had signs calling for tighter border control.
As the protesters walked along the center line, police kept the opposing crowd on the sidewalks. When the march ended and the two groups were allowed to mingle, the verbal attacks continued.
Some claimed illegal immigrants took jobs away from citizens. Some said they were angry because some illegal immigrants pay no income taxes. For others, the matter seemed personal.
"You spread germs," screamed Mary Goff, 32, a lifelong township resident. "You're ignorant, disgusting and lazy. Go somewhere else and give us back our town."
(Actually that's how most of us in San Diego feel about tourists, but we're polite enough to keep it to ourselves while charging them $54 for a day at SeaWorld)
Make sure to go all the way to the link provided by the Editors and check out the slideshow to see America at its white-trashy best.
He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.
Flying on the redeye with brown people makes me blue Brown passengers: Please have your Not-Muslim ID out
I don't know about you, but I long for those innocent days of tell-all books about being abducted and anally-probed (and not in a good way) by aliens. It was all fun and games and swamp gas and guys named Booger or Zell. But, as it did with so many things, 9/11 changed everything and we entered into the age of Boogie Men with Brown Faces Under the Bed and the psychopathology that used to to be limited to people with Cracker Barrel Frequent Fryer™ cards has metastasized to the coasts where it festers and burbles beneath the trés cool urban veneer.
The Godmother of the Mile High Xanax Generation is Annie Jacobsen who took her 4-hour Detroit-to-LA sphincter clench and turned it into a career as the Soccer Mom Laurie Mylroie. Since then Jacobsen has added extra innings to her fifteen minutes of Fox Fame by peddling her special brand of pteromerhanophobia and xenophobia (Annie's House Blend™) and the recent events in the past week must have her giddy with anticipation of the attention and paying gigs sure to come her way as an expert in airborne paranoia du jour. I hear she's ordering ventes, damn the cost, no foam, triple shot for that extra-vigilance caffeine jolt.
And if there is a out-of-control bandwagon running down that hill towards CrazyTown USA you can bet that La Shawn Barber is sprinting to catch up:
When I read that passengers on a British flight refused to fly with two Middle Eastern men on board, I knew we’d finally reached the point of no return. I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen.
Welcome to the age of terrorism.
(Note to self: 9/11 start date no longer operative)
A flight from Málaga, Spain, to Manchester, England, was held up for three hours after passengers became suspicious of two men of Middle Eastern appearance speaking what they believed was Arabic. The men were “escorted” off the airplane.
I’m as “tough on terrorism” as any red-blooded American, but I cringed when I read the story. It’s come to this. I want people to be free and happy and left alone to live their lives in peace, but that’s not the way the world works. The men likely were not terrorists, but people are fed up with this stuff. There is evil in the world, and that evil is intent on destroying as many people as it can.
It is unfortunate that Muslims with no terrorist intentions get singled out, too, but the fact is that mostly young, Middle Eastern, Muslim men are responsible for worldwide terrorism. (Including this latest attack?) That’s indisputable. So what are the rest of us supposed to do? Ignore it for the sake of political correctness?
Hell no! Get involved, Citizen Sky Marshal!
There aren’t enough resources, presumably, to watch everything all the time. Bureaucratic, soft-stepping government agencies are virtually hamstrung to do what really needs to be done. The problem is deep and cultural, and taking off our shoes at airports is as effective as trying to lift a boulder with a feather.
Muslims on a Plane: A Personal Account
Last year while on a flight back to D.C. after a road trip, I saw several men I suspected were up to no good. They were young men of Middle Eastern appearance, and one in particular was acting suspiciously. I was in an aisle seat on the right side, and he was a few seats in front of me on the left sitting with another Middle Eastern-looking man. I noticed that he kept looking back, smirking, and nodding his head at two other young men of Middle Eastern appearance several rows behind me.
It’s an understatement to say the guy was strange. He was too far away to actually talk to his companions, and I didn’t hear him speaking to the man he was sitting with. He just kept turning around, smirking, and nodding during the entire flight. My imagination kicked into overdrive. Was that a signal?
I remained alert, just in case…I don’t know. If I were mistaken, I had nothing to lose but the enjoyment of a good book. If I were right, I and everyone else on board had a lot to gain. But the flight was uneventful. I guess the man was remembering some inside joke or had forgotten to take his meds.
On a different flight, I sat a few seats behind two young men of Middle Eastern appearance. This time I wasn’t worried. Directly in front of them sat two men I believed with 90 percent certainty were air marshals. They had that look, know what I mean? Anyway, they were sitting right behind the bulkhead, and one got up to use the first class bathroom. Upon his return, he did a double-take at the men, eyeing them in a subtle but definitely alert manner. Again, the flight was uneventful, expect for a little turbulence.
I’m not sure that what happened with the Málaga-Manchester flight would happen here just yet, this being a neurotically politically correct, don’t-hurt-their-feelings kind of country, and all. People who aren’t raising a ruckus, or who merely speak in Arabic or look Middle Eastern typically don’t get thrown off planes in this country. But I’m certain I’m not the only passenger in America who’s ever suspected Middle Eastern-looking men on a plane. One day we’ll read about passenger revolts on American flights.
Do you have a “Muslims on a plane” story?
Well I never thought this would happen to me, but when I was a freshman at a small midwestern college I met these two muslim lesbian coeds from Michigan State and the three of us went into the airplane restroom and we---
Oh wait. Sorry. That's for the Dubai Penthouse Infidel Forum. Forget I mentioned it.
Getting back to Annie and La Shawn's point (and they do have one) it would be prudent to keep in mind words of abolitionist Wendell Phillips who once said:
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty ... but you can find cheaper fares if you book early through Expedia™
...and no sleeping on the redeye. America expects you to do your part.
