Shoehorn: Shoehorn

(Quicktime required)

UPDATE: Did we mention that weed kills cancer?

One of the most dry and comprehensive debunkings of 9/11 conspiracy theories can be found here. (That's the first of the 3 part series.) The series is a debunking of the "Loose Change" video, complete with time indexes of the claims being debunked. This one made me laugh:

00:12:30 The filmmakers quote an October 12, 2001 Parade interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in which Rumsfeld says, "Here we're talking about plastic knives, and using an American Airlines flight filled with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building..."

I am not sure what the point is of citing this simple slip of the tongue, unless the filmmakers mean to imply that one of the chief plotters of the most extensive, diabolical and secret conspiracies in the history of the human race accidentally gave the whole thing away in a quote to Parade magazine.

(As excellent as it is, I get the feeling it won't change this guy's mind.)

*** Blackfive:

Google news on Peralta and you'll find only a few items. You'll find more from around the time of the Battle of Fallujah but not much esle. Rafael Peralta doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry.

But my kids will know Rafael Peralta - I'll make sure of it.

*** The Commissar examines one argument against global warming and finds it wanting.

*** Meanwhile, Florida Cracker fires off some zingers:

Every time Al Gore gets on a plane, a polar bear drowns.

I'm not sure of my opinion on global warming, but I know entertaining prose when I see it.

*** Star Trek: Cribs

*** Penn & teller debunk 9-11 conspiracy theories.

*** Hip haute couture in moonbat Sudamerica.

*** I like my testaments like I like my whiskey and women - old and brutal.

Memorial Day 2006

Take a moment to remember Dan Eggers and all of those like him.

Mary Jane: Is There Anything She Can't Do?!

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."
...
Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.

Now if only she didn't make me want to barricade myself in a bathroom with a can of Pringles and a loaded Sig Sauer, chambered and itching to deliver vengeance against those plotting against me.*

I'll stick with green tea, thank you.

* I mean, I'd imagine.**

** If I'd ever actually tried any.***

*** Weed, that is.

Via Teen Hearthrob Leif Garret, who has additional thoughts.

Read More �

"Some of my best friends are Englishmen," continued Maturin. "Yet even the most valuable have this same vicious inclination to make a confused bellowing when they are happy. It is harmless enough in their own country, where the diet deadens the sensibilities, but it travels badly: it is perceived as a superabundancy of arrogance, and is resented more than many worse crimes. The Spaniard is a vile colonist, murderous, rapacious, cruel; but he is not heard to laugh. His arrogance is of a common, universal kind, and his presence is not resented in the same way as an Englishman's. Take the case of this island alone: it is scarcely a decade since the Navy rescued the people from the horrible tyranny of the French and filled the place with wealth rather than carrying away the treasures of the churches by the shipload, but already there is a great and growing discontent, and I believe the laughter has much to do with it."

-- O'Brian, writing Stephen Maturin's situationally testy perspective on culturally-based anti-Anglicanism in an early 19th Century Maltese port in 1983's Treason's Harbor. I believe that this description has certain amusing parallels 23 (and "196") years later.

Someone help me out here:

Blair and Bush Are Duo Even in Descent

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; Page A04

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair once bestrode the globe as powerful leaders who spoke boldly of bringing democracy to the Middle East. Now, dragged down by popular discontent over their adventure in Iraq, both have reached the lowest point of their careers.

I'm confused - is there an "editorial," "Op-Ed," or even mealy-mouthed "analysis" disclaimer that I'm missing in the run-up to the article's text? I'm not disparaging any rational analysis of Bush or Blair's current popularity (though I'd argue that the degree of Bush's problems have much more to do with immigration than anything else), but "over their adventure in Iraq[?]" The derision leaks off the page in an ostensible "news" hole, spurring reminiscence of what ticked me off so bad in '04. How superficial leftist snark boldly creeps into mainstream news - in a comparatively professional paper like the WaPo - will always baffle me, even as it infuriates.

(Credit: Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika)

What a photo. See it in its intended, superior composition here.

Blackfive has two posts featuring the fantastic photography of SSG Russell Lee Kilka, who appears to be at home with a camera as well as a weapon.

UPDATE: Cracker's uncovered other brilliant photos.

*** Let's get some homework out of the way: I promised a series of posts about the NSA data mining program ... and I lied. But this deception wasn't born of malice, rather incorrigible laziness of both the intellectual and physical varieties - my typing fingers hurt something fierce, and it's well known that the act of poring through legal statutes eats little pieces of one's soul.

That said, I owe dorkafork his due, as the lil' scamp's post on the legal angle holds up in the face of all that I've read. Summarizing telephone record data mining: not afoul of the Fourth Amendment, may or may not snub FISA (opinions vary) and looks likely to violate the letter of several other statutes, including the Pen Register statute dorkafork mentioned, though perhaps not the intent - if identities are never attached to the numbers. All of these statutes can be circumvented by a warrant - though it's highly impractical to tell a judge that you're investigating all phone numbers in North America regarding a criminal investigation - or potentially by a claim of Executive wartime authority found in the Constitution.

Which, you know, is exactly the catch-all that gets certain leftists to convulse and spit frothy Beer Hall Putsch references, as well as legitimately presents the greatest avenue for abuse of executive power. Orin Kerr's got a detailed post on the matter, if that's your bag.

Of course, none of this changes my opinion on the utility or base necessity of data mining something as simple as phone record patterns as an element of domestic defense, and thus, I still regard dorkafork's overall position as nuttier than squirrel shit.

*** Donnah discovers a surprisingly engaging and difficult internet time waster.

*** Michele has changed her blog name and URL from "A Small Victory" to "Faster than the World," now featuring punk rock and fast cars.

Beats politics, though I've always found Orrin Hatch to be sort of "punk rock."

*** Ruthless, effective:

*** Jim Joyner is hosting a caption contest featuring Eurovision Song Contest winners and Finnish Gwar knock-offs "Lordi."

My entry:

"No Blood for OIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Yeah, still a bit traumatized from all of that ANSWER protest coverage I did in '04.

Lordi's winning Eurovision song is as laughable as Dean says it is, featuring arguably the first lyrical use of the word "Arockalypse."

That said, this other video and song are actually fairly entertaining:

***WARNING: FOAM LATEX AND TERRIFYING UNDEAD***

***SERIOUSLY FOLKS, I AM NOT EFFING AROUND; I HAD NIGHTMARES ABOUT ITCHY FULL-BODY CHAFING AND LINGERING CONTACT EXCEMA AFTER WATCHING THIS CRAP***

Make sure to author your caption contest entries under the OTB post.

Rare video footage of Jesse MacBeth in a court appearance is below.
****EXCLUSIVE TO INDCJOURNAL MUST CREDIT INDCJOURNAL****

Meh.

UPDATE: Ok, this is one of the most technically perfect satires ever set down on blog.

Paul Oakenfold ft. Brittany Murphy: Faster Kill Pussycat

I figured that I'd beat Flea to the punch on posting this song ...

And yeah, bizarrely, that Brittany Murphy.

*** These kids may have the right idea ...

Ninja madness hits Canterbury campus

Its headquarters are at a secret location, but Ninjasoc, Canterbury University's hottest new social club, has no trouble signing up new members.

Started as a joke, the four "founding fathers" are astounded to have more than 250 members on the books this year.

Ninjasoc president and engineering student Richard Flett, 21, with only his eyes visible through a black mask, said: "We expected 50 people and it ended up being 250."

Michael Down, 21, another founder member, studying fourth-year commerce and law and brandishing a plastic ninja sword, said the club, with 40 per cent female membership, tapped into students' secret need to be ninjas. I guess we appeal to people.

... but they suffer from totally lame execution:

However, so far martial-arts skills are limited to instruction on the art of tying jumpers around heads to make a ninja mask and "getting pumped".
...
"I don't think they are a secret bunch of real ninjas. I think they do stuff that is more ninja-aimed. I don't really know what, but they have had a couple of barbecues. Ninjas have to eat," he said.

Being a ninja without the ability to pass through walls, kill one's own students and pluck a man's eye from his skull is like being a dog that hates roast beef, won't chase rabbits and can't lick its own "kibble n' bits." Pointless.

*** Amir Taheri releases a statement about his story concerning an impending Iranian dress code:

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun.

As far as my article is concerned I stand by it. The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation.

Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation, including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such. The zonnar was in use throughout the Muslim world until the early 20th century and marked out the dhimmis, or protected religious minorities. (In Iran it was formally abolished in 1908). I have been informed of the ideas under discussion thanks to my sources in Tehran, including three members of the Majlis who had tried to block the bill since it was first drafted in 2004.

I do not know which of these ideas or any will be eventually adopted. We will know once the committee appointed to discuss them presents its report, perhaps in September.

Interestingly, the Islamic Republic authorities refuse to issue an official statement categorically rejecting the concept of dhimmitude and the need for marking out religious minorities.

I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development.

Allah isn't quite buying it. For my part, it seems like there's a solid basis for the thrust of the story (legislation about religiously determined dress codes), but getting "the spirit" of a story right is hardly the standard for adequate journalism. It appears that Taheri strongly asserted potential outcomes of a legit story as facts, and thus ... well, got "ahead of the news cycle," to borrow an unfortunate turn of phrase.

Aziz over at Dean's World takes a harsh line on Taheri and his story, and a very good back-and-forth follows in the comments section.

*** Looks like the Milblogs collective is zeroing in on its first kill, an Iraq war crimes faker in the "Vietnam Winter Soldiers Conference" mold.

Scroll up from that post to witness the progressive*, righteous deconstruction of a likely phony.

* By "progressive" I mean "incremental," rather than the euphemistic self-identifier used by wacky leftists that eat up stories by fake Iraq War veterans.

Original ...

Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK

Live version here.

v. Remake ...

Read More �

Under "Best of 'Glenn Beck,'" click "War Creates a Family."

(Via Hot Air)

*** Michele is back!

*** The Commissar is popping popcorn over Truthout's Rove indictment story (emphasis on "story"):

Whatever one's politics, this sure is interesting. I can't ever recall such a potentially explosive story being presented in two wholly contradictory versions for so long. The Lefties must be freaking out. Popcorn, anyone?

My money is on further, catastrophic shaming of Leopold. Or at least what would count as "catastrophic shaming," if indeed there were any real consequences in Blog World ...

*** How much do I hate the Llamas? Well, the second I found out that this real live Civil War-era fort was up for auction on E-Bay, I had only one thought: historical geekenfraude. I must find a way to buy it, thus purchasing the cruel discretion not to invite either of the Llamas to come over and play. Instead, I'd taunt them with a flurry of happy-snaps: "Here's me hanging on the restored 'Napoleon' 12-pounder! Here's me balancing on a parapet! Here's me in full Union general officer regalia, looking intently over the outer wall at sunset! Here's me naked, doing the snoopy danc - hey! How'd that get in there?!"

Ooh that would chafe 'em. Yes it would.

*** Bing West pens a dispatch from Iraq:

"Sadr's militia tried to take it over," Capt. Muhamed Eba, 28, explained. "We got here first. They drove up, shouting and honking horns. Then they drove away. They knew they'd lose. We have the Americans."
...
Winski stopped in a dusty field filled with taxis waiting for fares from the nearby market. He called out, and a crowd of men and boys gathered around.

"Another IED went off on the river road last night," he said through an interpreter. "You keep telling me it's outsiders. I keep telling you they're not invisible. Someone saw something. My Humvees are armored. Your children are the ones who get hurt."

Men started out-shouting one another. The translator, Muhamed Ayanda (a pseudonym), yelled until he restored order. The Shiite crowd demanded lights on the road. That would fix it. Most blamed Sunni villagers who lived up the road. A few suggested Sadr's militia had placed the IEDs. Winski offered cash for information. The men laughed, making slicing motions across their necks.

Both sides waited for the conclusion of the discussion: soccer balls. Winski always had some for the kids. Sure enough, Sgt. Maj. Fields selected half a dozen of the smallest children and gave them backpacks and soccer balls. Winski had a final word before he left.

"A kid up the river road had his right leg blown off at the knee. You've all seen him. That'll be your kid one of these days."

Selected scenes from 24 through history.

Read More �

2401: A Jack Odyssey

Read More �

Amir Taheri, back from "the Real Iraq:"

Spending time in the United States after a tour of Iraq can be a disorienting experience these days. Within hours of arriving here, as I can attest from a recent visit, one is confronted with an image of Iraq that is unrecognizable. It is created in several overlapping ways: through television footage showing the charred remains of vehicles used in suicide attacks, surrounded by wailing women in black and grim-looking men carrying coffins; by armchair strategists and political gurus predicting further doom or pontificating about how the war should have been fought in the first place; by authors of instant-history books making their rounds to dissect the various fundamental mistakes committed by the Bush administration; and by reporters, cocooned in hotels in Baghdad, explaining the carnage and chaos in the streets as signs of the countrys impending or undeclared civil war. Add to all this the days alleged scandal or revelationan outed CIA operative, a reportedly doctored intelligence report, a leaked pessimistic assessmentand it is no wonder the American public registers disillusion with Iraq and everyone who embroiled the U.S. in its troubles.

It would be hard indeed for the average interested citizen to find out on his own just how grossly this image distorts the realities of present-day Iraq. Part of the problem, faced by even the most well-meaning news organizations, is the difficulty of covering so large and complex a subject; naturally, in such circumstances, sensational items rise to the top. But even ostensibly more objective efforts, like the Brookings Institutions much-cited Iraq Index with its constantly updated array of security, economic, and public-opinion indicators, tell us little about the actual feel of the country on the ground.

To make matters worse, many of the newsmen, pundits, and commentators on whom American viewers and readers rely to describe the situation have been contaminated by the increasing bitterness of American politics. Clearly there are those in the media and the think tanks who wish the Iraq enterprise to end in tragedy, as a just comeuppance for George W. Bush. Others, prompted by noble sentiment, so abhor the idea of war that they would banish it from human discourse before admitting that, in some circumstances, military power can be used in support of a good cause. But whatever the reason, the half-truths and outright misinformation that now function as conventional wisdom have gravely disserved the American people.

For someone like myself who has spent considerable time in Iraq - a country I first visited in 1968 - current reality there is, nevertheless, very different from this conventional wisdom, and so are the prospects for Iraq's future. It helps to know where to look, what sources to trust, and how to evaluate the present moment against the background of Iraqi and Middle Eastern history.

Read the rest.

Read this ...

Germans were not the problem. Even German nationalism was not the problem. And yet "Germany" was most definitely a problem.

... and this:

I've been informed by The Flea that poor attention-starved, Muslim-fearing Pierre LeGrand is once again writing silly things about Bill Ardolino and me, about our supposed blindness to the mass-murdering religion of Islam.

I'm pressed for time, so I'll quickly add ...

... there is a continuum on which ideology - in this case, religious ideology - is scored in its power to influence systemically bad or good behavior among humans. The weighted score for this factor is one among several factors that determine a specific culture's character and behavior. We'll label it "cultural modeling." Of course the influence of a religion like Islam is not immaterial, and certain ideologies may be statistically more prone to abusive reading by extremists, for example, but it's also far, far from deterministic. And a religion's ostensibly fundamental definitions can adapt character and quickly reorder internal priorities in the face of a whole host of other, more powerful factors, succumbing to things like the consistently growing authority of humanistic impulses and man's chosen interpretation in open societies.

As far as I'm concerned, the problem (to different degrees) with folks like Pierre LeGrand, Robert Spencer and the LGF comments section is one of proportion and perception: it's difficult for most humans to evaluate the nature of anything, especially a perceived threat or alien belief system, within a multifactorial context that escapes the "tyranny of the me and now." Basically, our amygdala keeps jerking the neocortex back towards simple answers for complex problems, lending a soothing confidence that a threat has been clearly defined and addressed, or, at least in LeGrand's case, defined and impotently raged about while offering nothing remotely resembling a constructive solution.

Basically, these impulses are the foundation of bigotry without distinction, a consistent element of the human character. LeGrand mistakes my interpretation of Islam as something akin to typical cultural relativism among leftists, the inability to recognize threats as the product of an insulated society. Since I largely and explicitly reject this concept, I find that characterization amusing. In truth, I'm offering my best dispassionate evaluation of the problem of Islamic extremism and the realistic and constructive way to address it, rather than prioritizing an assertion of cultural superiority and personal comfort through simplistic threat definition.

And while I consider Robert Spencer's treatises on Islam far more coherent and rational than any of the mad rantings scrawled in mud daub and poo on the rusted tin walls of LeGrand's backwoods hate shack, I also believe that he falls into a similar trap: assigning outsized, deterministic weight to the value of a Christian theologian's reading of "Islam," when attempting to define the roots of the Muslim world's recognized problem with violence and terrorism. As a specific example, the unerring tendency to cite elements of Koranic text as immutable proof of the religion's malicious character becomes tiresome, when most religious texts are remarkable studies in contradiction, contain some fairly nasty elements and have been situationally interpreted to dramatically different effect within the twin filters of culture and era.

And while an individual like Spencer might make an analogous argument about folks like Dean, dorkafork, Flea and I - that we simplistically place undue weight on the value of political freedom to moderate the problems within the Muslim world, to the detriment of recognizing a fundamentally negative character of Islam - I'd strongly disagree. Because I believe that the historical record ably demonstrates that universal humanistic trends in open societies have been far more consistent in effect than subjective interpretations of religious doctrines. I'm not by any means devaluing all of his arguments - I just think that he's exagerrating the weights that he applies to them, a prisoner of the self-reinforcing frame of reference established and exemplified by the name of his site.

And by the way, what would an example of the quiet advancement of humanism over literal religious doctrine look like in the Muslim world? Baby steps like this, I suppose.

UPDATE: The Glittering Eye quickly summarizes a good bit of my typically wordy point:

Religion just doesn't work that way. Whether you're talking about Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other religion there are two rather different things: the formal doctrine of the religion and the folk religion - the religion as it is actually practiced by its adherents.

Today's e-mail arrives from "ÁÂ¥Á®pH299844247¾G¦t§uÀ¹¶®¼z," who I'm guessing is a Robot Overlord from the year "2038:"

1/19/2038 11:14:07 (·s¤H¤W½u) "¸õ¸õ³J¦Û½Ã¨q"·|º¡¨¬§A¦b¤£¦PªºÀô¹Ò»P¨ë¿E¤Uªº§Ö·P¸ò°ª¼é..

Heh. True enough, ÁÂ¥Á®pH299844247¾G¦t§uÀ¹¶®¼z, though I'm alright as far as that goes.

But hey, since we're rapping, question about the future: is dorkafork right?

Specifically, will the slippery slope of NSA data mining lead to an algorithmic police state that surpasses Orwell's worst fever dreams about human enslavement to our government's centralized whim, cementing the ease of the eventual post-Singularity machine rebellion and takeover?

Your e-mail muddies the water - because while I find it awful impressive that an artificial intelligence is turning known physical law on its head to e-mail me from the future, I'm a little surprised that a vaunted "machine overlord" would be hawking BONER PILLS.

Please advise.

Since today is opening day for The Da Vinci Code, today's selection is a short piece Tom Hanks made a while ago that involves a pagan conspiracy. Here is:

City of Crime

Faith No More: Stripsearch (Live)

Studio version here.

AT&T may be getting out of its lawsuit over the (reported) NSA program due to a legal loophole. According to CNET news.com:

An AT&T attorney indicated in federal court on Wednesday that the Bush administration may have provided legal authorization for the telecommunications company to open its network to the National Security Agency."
...
AT&T may be referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company to provide "information" and "facilities" to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it. The authorization must come in the form of "certification in writing by...the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law."

Could get AT&T off the hook, but I wonder what kind of liability the AG would have if he certified no warrant or court order was required by law when it actually was required.

Please note that all of this may not have happened. Neither the Bush Administration nor AT&T would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the program. The fact that the Bush Administration is trying to get the case dismissed under the state secrets privilege should not be taken as confirmation.

Related: Statement by the key witness in the AT&T case for those interested. If correct, includes details such as names of some of the equipment used and room numbers where the equipment was located.

Bill Adds: I'm not sure if dorkafork is going for smart-ass points here ...

Read More �

Absolutely "something?"

(For lack of time, I'm breaking up a larger examination of the NSA data mining program into smaller posts)

First, let's be clear: no one knows exactly what this program is intended to do, much less its specific methodology. In the first point of my previous post, I took a speculative stab and partially whiffed, as I was applying my experience with how the private sector uses data mining to target market, with the assumption that instead of identifying willing consumers, the effort was trying to identify terrorists via behaviorial modeling, with little specific info. Such a strategy would not only face the efficacy challenges of trying to definitively identify such a small population of people, but would bring the program closer to running afoul of privacy concerns and violations, given a goal of identifying specific individuals and who they called, as well as potentially basing an act of further investigation on the imprecision of behavioral data models, which measure statistical tendencies within given populations and aren't oracles of indiviual behavior.

But if I was wrong in some of my angles and assumptions, I may have been warm in others; plus, a completely unthought of application for the database might have little to do with violating anyone's privacy. Histrionic cover aside ("Does this man have your phone number?"), Time magazine has a surprisingly great, concise round-up of most of the issues surrounding the program (you must have a subscription or watch ads to get to content, unfortunately). Regarding its purpose:

Read More �

Given the recent fight here that is turning increasingly ugly, I decided to come back for a little while. I am considering banning both dorkafork and Bill and replacing them with a bunch of the commenters from Ace of Spades HQ. I think that RightwingSparkle gal would make a great addition. Any thoughts, readers?

10. Purchased multiple copies of "Crashing the Gates." You know, to nudge the sales figures.

9. Spend oodles of "me-time" with Kennedy memorabilia: Thomas with her personally-autographed picture of JFK, dorkafork with his gummy, dog-eared copy of 1988's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue.

8. Outsized paranoia about anonymous data mining.

7. An unshakable belief that in addition to "Greedo shooting first," there was a third gunman crouching behind Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes. A Republican gunman.

6. Shared wonder about David Gregory's carpet matching the curtains.

5. Nipples the size of HUBCAPS.

4. Hold advance tickets to "EschaCon II: This time we're REALLY pissed!"

3. Favorite movie: Cocoon.

2. Incontinence.

1. "Bush lied!"

I received this e-mail from Ayaan Hirsi Ali's publisher:

As you are probably aware by now, there is yet another smear campaign against Somali-Dutch Parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, renown for her outspoken criticism of conservative Islam and the mistreatment of Muslim women. There has been another attempt to silence her, not through violence this time, but politically. Yesterday the Dutch Minister of Immigration revoked Ayaan's Dutch citizenship (thus making her stateless and forcing her to resign from Parliament - you cannot be in Parliament unless you are Dutch.) There is also a very racist undertone to some of the attacks with calls from the extreme right wing for Ayaan to "go home to Africa".

This charge against Ayaan stems from the conditions in which she applied for asylum, when she first arrived in Holland. She was advised at the time to lie about certain details (her age and full name, and the country she was fleeing - to say Somalia rather than Kenya), in order to speed up the process. Since 2002, Ayaan has been VERY open about this. It is in hundreds of profiles of her and interviews she has given over the years, and she told the political establishment officially when they approached her to become a political figure. This has been public knowledge, by Ayaan's own admission, since 2002.

However, the reason why it is suddenly an issue is that the Minister of Immigration (Rita Verdonk, who is very ambitious and currently trying to become the next party leader) is now taking a very hard line against asylum seekers, and sending people back to their country of origin who have lied. The Dutch Parliament is currently debating the issue and Rita Verdonk is coming under fierce attack from members of her Party.

Assuming accurate characterization, this becomes a more interesting and slightly ironic event, because while most of Hirsi Ali's supporters in the blogosphere have strictly interpreted her citizenship troubles as run of the mill European (perhaps leftist) appeasment of the Islamists within their borders, in fact, at least part of the push to revoke her citizenship may stem from traditionally right wing interests (exemplified by an ambitious politician) in tightening immigration controls, presumably as a political blowback to recent negative actions by ... unassimilated Muslims in their midst. At which point one of the strongest advocates against the cultural segregation and appeasement in Holland is thereby revoked citizenship and effectively booted out of Parliament. Head-spinning irony? I can't be certain that I'm perfectly interpreting the Dutch political climate, but it seems that way.

Then again, many have predicted that Europeans will rapidly swing between popular socialist/leftist values and popular hard right-wing values as they begin to appreciate and perhaps overreact - late - to the cultural and demographic problems within their midst. Probably an oversimplification, but we certainly see the odd blend in this case.

UPDATE: On the other hand, looks like it wasn't such a popular move after all:

Backlash: Dutch parliament sides with Hirsi Ali

Though make sure to read the atrocious excerpts from the WSJ article at that link ...

Excerpts from her resignation from Parliament speech (and an update) below the fold:

Read More �

First of all, let's be clear on what this new program is. It is essentially a pen register. A pen register records all numbers dialed from a phone, though this definition now also covers other means of communication that work on the same principle (e.g. a device that monitors IP addresses). Smith v. Maryland (1979) held that warrants were not necessary for pen registers*, but Congress changed US Code to require a court order (also required under FISA). To obtain this order, all the attorney general has to do is show "relevance" to an ongoing investigation, a lower standard than "probable cause". (I would assume the AG would also have to have a more specific target of the pen register than "everybody", but that's just me.)

But that doesn't matter anymore, and not just because Congress is now irrelevant, and the President can do whatever he pleases, US Code be damned. Luckily for the Bush administration, their purported actions in this case are not technically illegal, since they asked the telecoms to do the illegal work for them. Title 18, § 2702 describes who can be provided non-content information. It can only be provided to governmental entities "an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury". This is why lawsuits are pending against the phone companies.

So, the Bush administration is technically off the hook. But what they are accused of doing would normally require a court order. And apparently I am some sort of crazy person for questioning the propriety of this program. A veritable "Doubting Helen Thomas" with regards to the wisdom of letting the fox guard the henhouse the executive to police itself and ignore previously required court orders. I must be some sort of paranoid lunatic! Don't I know we're at war?

* Here's where I get into the slippery slope:

Read More �

When did dorkafork start sounding like Helen Thomas?

*** The "Big Bounce?"

Three physicists say they have done calculations showing that before the birth of our universe, which is expanding, there was an earlier universe that was shrinking.

The results stem from a theory that claims the fabric of space and time is made up of minuscule, indivisible bits, much as matter is.
...
According to some proposals, the Big Bang is a repeating cycle. Universes might expand, then shrink back to a point, then expand again. Thus the "bang" would be really more like a bounce.

Whoa.

Just ... whoa.

Can I get another make-out session with that apple bong?

*** Fidel Castro: Ideological Con-Man?

During the struggle against Batista, Castro always said that once the dictator was overthrown there would be free elections, a return to the 1940 Constitution, complete freedom of the press, freedom of expression and respect for all human rights.

Never did Castro say that he was a communist or that he was planning to become dictator for life.

But Castro betrayed the true ideals of the Cuban Revolution and jailed or murdered those who had joined him in the fight against Batista but were not willing to go along with his betrayal of the Cuban people. Such is the case of Humberto Sorí Marin, Huber Matos, William Morgan, Mario Chanes de Armas and thousands more.

When he needed help, Castro was also very friendly to Cuba's wealthiest class who had the means of providing the financial aid that he needed. But once in power, Castro paid them by stealing their businesses and in many cases jailing or killing those who had helped him

*** Harry Callahan at AoS notices that dissatisfaction is a greater impetus to negative political hyperbole than particular ideology, as he observes an immigration shouting match among righties at Polipundit:

Frankly, sirs, a pox on both your houses. Get a grip and try again. Please.

Or, you know, they could always just quit. Just throwing that out there.

*** Check out the Milblogs new group effort. The rapid fire mini posts remind me of the Corner, except written by folks that could actually kick my ass.

*** Pundit Review Audio: Michael Yon and Blackfive discuss the war on terror.

What could those two CHICKENHAWKS possibly know about that?

Dave Price welcomes Ayaan Hirsi Ali to America:

Her story is rather amazing. At the age of 5, she was subjected to ritual genital mutilation. At 22, she was forced into marriage by her family, but fled and eventually received asylum in Holland. Attending college while working menial cleaning jobs, she became an outspoken critic of Islamic repression, documenting abuses of women and condemning multiculturalism as incompatible with individual rights. She received credible death threats and was forced to go into hiding even as she was elected to Dutch parliament. Finally, she accepted a position at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, certainly a great prize for them (meanwhile "liberal" Yale has other priorities; oh, the irony!).

So welcome to America, Ms. Ali, and know that here your freedoms are held sacred.

I'd love to assure her that she won't have to put up with this kind of stuff any longer, but, you know ...

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Weasel

The Weekly Standard expands upon my rudimentary data mining explanation served up in the comments to dorkafork's post ...

Ever since allowing the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project to go down the tubes in 2003, the administration has failed to explain the potential of data mining, even as it secretly continues to use this vital technology. Thus, at every revelation of a government data mining program, privacy extremists enjoy unchallenged supremacy in characterizing the technology as a massive threat to life as we know it.

Only a paranoid solipsist could feel threatened by the recently revealed calling analysis program. Since late 2001, Verizon, BellSouth, and ATT have connected nearly two trillion calls, according to the Washington Post. The companies gave NSA the incoming and outgoing numbers of those calls, stripped of all identifying
information such as name or address. No conversational content was included. The NSA then put its supercharged computers to work analyzing patterns among the four trillion numbers involved in the two trillion calls, to look for clusters that might suggest terrorist connections. Though the details are unknown, they might search for calls to known terrorists, or, more speculatively, try to elicit templates of terror calling behavior from the data.

As a practical matter, no one's privacy is violated by such analysis. Memo to privacy nuts: The computer does not have a clue that you exist; it does not know what it is churning through; your phone number is meaningless to it. The press loves to stress the astounding volume of data that data mining can consume--the Washington Post's lead on May 12 warned that the administration had been "secretly . . . assembling gargantuan databases." But it is precisely the size of that data store that renders the image of individualized snooping so absurd.

True, the government can de-anonymize the data if connections to terror suspects emerge, and it is not known what threshold of proof the government uses to put a name to critical phone numbers. But until that point is reached, your privacy is at greater risk from the Goodyear blimp at a Stones concert than from the NSA's supercomputers churning through trillions of zeros and ones representing disembodied phone numbers.

All true enough, but the potential problem surrounds how the government acts on the information. But serious concern over the simple existence of such a database itself is demogogic, naive or both; this is the exact type of basic use of information technology that one would hope our government officials use, cynically expect them not to use and/or excoriate them for not having in the event of a successful terrorist attack on US soil.

That said, there are several challenges to the program's utility, which has been further diminished by a public revelation of the project:

1. Assuming the analysts create a statistical model based off of a reliably determined template of a terrorist calling behavior, the ongoing effort will sift through trillions of calls and apply values to various combinations and patterns that match this "terrorist model." It will then score and rank all of the numbers in the database, where the 0-10th percentile might represent the "10% of the population least likely to be terrorists" and the 90-100th percentile would be the "10% of the population most likely to be terrorists."

The fundamental challenge is that a "terrorist model" represents and attempts to identify the behavior of such an infinitesimal portion of the population - the number of individuals able and willing to blow up buildings and kill masses of people - without a wealth of particularly identifying characteristics - i.e., terrorist sleeper cells probably call out for pizza too - that the application of even a fantastically designed model based strictly on calls may only triple the government's chance at identifying people likely to be a terrorist. If the government appends data overlays of relevant information to the specific numbers in the model - say, "Arab ethnicity" - that chance of identifying those likely to be a terrorist might, for the sake of argument, quintiple. To be extremely charitable, let's even assume that outsized weights applied to calls made to Palestinian Aid organizations makes the model 100x more predictive.

If, say, one in a million people in the United States is a terrorist, and the upper reaches of a successful model increases the likelihood of being a terrorist 100x, you're still left with 100 in a million in a given population. And that's still an awful big haystack. In this sense, assuming accurate modeling, a utility might be found in the effort's ability to rule out huge swaths of the population, or simply cross-tab the "terrorist score" with searches on a specific phone number discovered elsewhere. For example, if Waleed Smith is the target of a terrorism investigation based on human intelligence received from an informant in Afghanistan, it might be a relevant ancillary endeavor to check out his "terrorist model score" and find out if he's at the tippy-tippy-top. That said, the specificity limitations of the best modeling are pretty clear for such a limited target population.

2. Assuming the database is used to flag calls to specific numbers known to be affiliated with terrorism, the collection and background monitoring of calls in the United States strikes me as a surprising example of the government doing its job. This basic cross-referencing is the exact kind of useful signals intelligence that would catch a terrorist that makes the wrong phone call. Nothing fancy, nothing complex, just a supercomputer churning through trillions and trillions of data looking for BIG RED FLAGS, like a call to Osama's cave phone. Such an effort could be integrated with the profile modeling I discuss in the previous scenario - the calls to specific terrorist numbers would simply be assigned massive weights in the predictive statistical model, exponentially increasing the "likely to be a terrorist score" to "hell yes."

That said, the challenges to this program are still significant, because the telephone numbers of terrorists with an IQ above 50 rarely remain static, and with the advent of diposable phones, a number might only last for one call. The utility of the information that such a program is looking for is strictly dependent on accurate and timely human intelligence, and in most cases the government would have to act with lightning speed on any red flag. BUT - if a phone number is identified in Osama bin Laden's rolodex, and that number is cross referenced to a relatively static phone number by a goofy terrorist - say, a NYC REIT or a Palestinian political organization - then the NSA will have possibly identified a viable fixed target for investigation and infiltration leading back to a terrorist network. In addition, some terrorists will inevitably be too stupid or lazy to consistently rotate phone numbers 100% of the time, and a supercomputer trolling the huge database could very well nail them. But the challenges remain, not the least of which is a computer powerful enough to sort such a massive amount of data with changing characteristics on a timely basis.

Utility aside, the mere existence of a program to analyze a database of domestic calls and flag events - contingent upon rational protocols that define actionable data and administrative oversight to prevent abuse - strikes me as a rather rudimentary, fundamental function of our national defense, in an age of exponentially heightening threat from bad actors with destructive weapons. This gets a big shrug from me.

(Bickering between dorkafork and Bill below the fold.)

Read More �

The Post interviews 100 Iraq War veterans, summarizing various sentiments and experiences:

On the airplane home, wearing his Navy uniform, Clint Davis sat in the same row as a 5-year-old boy who got out his crayons and drew a picture of the American flag. "It says, 'Thank you for fighting for our country,' " Davis said. "I'll hang it up on my refrigerator till I die."

They came home grateful for their country, for their freedom, for hot showers, flushing toilets and blissful quiet. When Chris Arndt's plane touched down, it was 3 in the morning. A slight drizzle was falling, and the air just felt different.

"You could smell the grass," the Army reservist said. "I hadn't smelled that smell for a year. It hit me and made me realize I was home."
...
Jon Powers came home and "swore I would never go back to Iraq until they build a Disney World in Baghdad." But then he thought about how he and his soldiers used to deliver toys and clothing to the orphanage. He thought about how the children had given them something back: a respite from the war. The soldiers would take off their gear, put down their weapons and join the children's soccer matches.

Not long after coming home, the former Army captain knew his work in Iraq was not finished. So he helped start a nonprofit, War Kids Relief, that helps Iraqi children. That's his new career.

Read the whole thing; there's quite a range of emotions present.

I've written previously on the NSA program here, here, and here, but it looks like I can just throw all those arguments out after this USAToday article. IT means Bush lied when he stated "The program applies only to international communications. In other words, one end of the communication must be outside the United States." Nor does it sound like "a targeted program to intercept communications in which intelligence professionals have reason to believe that at least one person is a member or agent of al Qaeda." The description of "a database of every call ever made" made up of "records of billions of domestic calls" doesn't exactly scream "targeted."

So we've got a very non-targeted program that doesn't look like it's caught any terrorists yet, but at least we can take some comfort in the fact that it didn't monitor the content of the calls. Which is undoubtably the next step on the slippery slope. Because if this program that hasn't caught terrorists is so vital to national security, it doesn't make sense to disallow monitoring the content. That would mean Osama could chat away about a terrorist strike and we would never know it. "The government can already legally get the numbers of who the terrorists are calling without a warrant under the President's inherent authority, but the NSA can't actually listen to them make their terrorist plans on the phone?"

George Bush: "Progressive"

(via IP)

Now this, this, is what I call a smackdown.

BECAUSE OF THE ENTERTAINING DESCRIPTIONS!

*** Looks like the far right is getting squirrely, tiptoeing into terra moonbatia.

Well, not all of them.

*** The Flea discusses the neuro-anthropological impact of digital pron:

An "Eden of pornography" where any old smut is found ready-to-hand on a low-hanging branch may sound idyllic. But it is an elastic waistband for the soul.

*** Attaboy, Tony:

Snow issues detailed rebuttals to media coverage of the president

WASHINGTON - New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is starting off in a combative mode against the press by issuing detailed rebuttals to what he considers unfair coverage of Bush.

"The New York Times continues to ignore America's economic progress," blared the headline of an e-mail sent to reporters Wednesday by the White House press office.

Like, say ...

April's revenues were the second highest ever.

Click through for more. And remember the WaPo's focus on "many people ... feeling pinched."

*** Kevin Drum continues to believe massive troop intervention is necessary in Darfur, and thus is impossible:

Eric Reeves, in his useful Darfur FAQ, estimates 15,000 troops, but I suspect he's being optimistic. I'm not pretending to be a military expert here, but based on the sheer size and scope of the problem, it's hard to see an effective solution that involves less than several combat brigades plus a serious commitment to local air superiority. Call it 30,000 troops plus all the associated logistics. I mean, we're basically declaring war on Sudan if we do this.

*But that's not going to happen. The UN doesn't have a standing army, after all, so it's no help. U.S. troops are committed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The African Union isn't quite a joke, but it's close to one. China, Russia, and the Muslim world plainly have no interest in intervening. And Europe has simply stuck its collective head in the sand. They aren't willing to even think about doing anything serious.

So what's left?

Drum and Kofi, call me.

Today's e-mail is from Ricardo Bell:

5/10/2006 23:33:47 Ricardo Bell Don't be left behing- the enlargement revolution!

It's been my assumption God already left me "behing" at about 21, when my growth plates closed up shop on the outskirts of a stingy 5'6," thereby cursing the world with another stewing Napoleonic monster. But if you've really got some sort of magic tonic that'll squeeze a few more inches out of this yorkie-sized endoskeleton - thus fulfilling my lifelong dream of riding Disney's Thunder Mountain roller coaster unaccompanied by "adult supervision" - send a gallon of that shit along! Pronto, ese.

UPDATE: Nevermind. I've been informed that you're probably hawking a different kind of "enlargement." And the Lord may taketh away, but he also giveth, ifyouknowwhatI'msayingandIthinkyoudo, my entrepreneurial amigo.

*wink*

UPDATE AGAIN: Nevermind the nevermind, Ricardo - dorkafork has requested a case of your most potent brew.

"A Religion of ... Peace?"

Just quotes, not scare quotes. Sorry to disappoint.

Also, be sure to listen to the audio of Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Harvard, as well as watch her interview on Swedish TV:

Notice the rational distinctions that she makes when talking about the compatibility of Islam and Democracy - the gentleman featured in the first link of this post is attempting to put these distinctions into practice. That said, one quibble with a non-contextual evaluation of her characterization that Islam's purest forms are contrary to Democracy: no doubt they are, but the purest forms of many religions are/were contrary to secular law, even advocating violence against women (and men) in literal texts. Only through the revision and interpretation of era, culture and church doctrine (which she prescribes for Islam) have theologies been sucessfully moderated.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali links via Hot Air, where Allahpundit has a more thorough round-up, including more clips.

Fresh evidence that Al Qaeda is disintegrating in Iraq.

Then: "America, you lost. I won."

Now:
Uhh... Do-overs?

Robert Kagan and Amartya Sen discuss the validity of the concept in Slate.

Sen:

In my book, I discuss how the broad identities of Muslim people, linked with their commitment to science, mathematics, architecture, engineering, culture, language, and literature, allowed them to play such a leading role in world civilization over more than a thousand years. That capacious understanding has, of course, been challenged over the centuries by those who have advocated undermining all those achievements through the unique prioritization of a sectarian - and often belligerent - Islamic identity. Sometimes the advocates of narrowness have won for a while, but the broader understanding has been a living presence in the flourishing of Arab culture and in the richness of Muslim contributions to global civilization. If the broader understanding is under severe challenge today (as it certainly is), that narrowing is being fed not only by the "pull" of resurgent Islam but also by the "push" of distancing coming from the West.

I generally agree with his sentiment, though I think he underplays the impact that a self-popularized "belligerent ... Islamic identity" has had on any distancing "push" from the West.

Kagan:

But I reiterate my concern that at least in that part of the Muslim world, the self-identification of most community leaders as Islamic rather than as democratic is quite troubling and certainly fuels the idea that we are in a clash of civilizations.
...
Nevertheless, like you, I choose to be optimistic. And not only for optimism's sake. To look at the world today is to see not only a dispute between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also a growing conflict between liberalism and autocracy. The course being taken in Russia and China today suggests that this old struggle is by no means over. You mention the international community's inability or unwillingness to promote democracy in Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. As you know, the fecklessness of the international community is compounded by Russian and Chinese efforts to protect and support these regimes for a variety of reasons that include both self-interest and an opposition to liberalism more generally. I believe we make a strategic as well as an analytical error if we take a one-dimensional view of the present international system. We should conduct our policies in the world not as if we are doomed to slug it out in a clash of civilizations but rather as if we could appeal to what we regard as the basic human desire for freedom and the protection of individual rights.

Read the rest of the exchange. Perhaps a bit contrary to my excerpt, Kagan is much more of a pessimist about the pervasive influence of Islamism, yet still ultimately places his chips on hyperaggressive religious and cultural identity yielding to the "human desire for freedom."

UPDATE: Dean fisks common claims against Islam, exemplified by a particular right-wing hack. A tour de force. Seriously, read it.

Received early this morning:

5/08/2006 14:38:01 +0500 Administrator Re: your web site needs help..

Don't I know it!

The Citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various soils and climates of the World, and abounding with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life, are now by the late satisfactory pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and Independency; They are, from this period, to be considered as the Actors on a most conspicuous Theatre, which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity; Here, they are not only surrounded with every thing which can contribute to the completion of private and domestic enjoyment, but Heaven has crowned all its other blessings, by giving a fairer oppertunity for political happiness, than any other Nation has ever been favored with. Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations; The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government; the free cultivation of Letters, the unbounded extension of Commerce, the progressive refinement of Manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and above all, the pure and benign light of Revelation, have had a meliorating influence on mankind and increased the blessings of Society. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be intirely their own.

-- George Washington, 6.8.1783

Better than Spinal Tap:

"I was curious. Somebody had shown me a picture of them. The assumption is, you can't look like that, you can't play that kind of music, if you come from a Christian background. Christians don't normally look like that. (Humans outside of a New Jersey mall circa 1988 don't normally look like that. --ED) I saw them first as a Bon Jovi concert, they were opening for Bon Jovi at a place called the country club."

As an 80's metal aficianado, I can honestly say that my opinion that Stryper sucked had little to do with their religious affiliation, though metal is the natural province of the Beast (The same statement technically applies to Bon Jovi, come to think of it). And to be honest, no just God - Jesus, Allah, Swahili Earth Spirit - would countenance those hairstyles.

(Via Lauren)

Now if you want some real 80's metal, packaged with perhaps the most outstanding artistic achievement in the history of music video ...

Read More �

*** Give to the "Save the Dancing Armadillo Fund."

*** The New York Times asserts its priorities, again.

*** In the mold of aggressive gay activists before him, Jeff Percifeld attempts to "out" Ghost of a Flea. I admit to finding this confusing, as I'd simply assumed that all Canadians were gay. BTW Percifeld, "Canuckistan fop" is a serviceable nickname, but I like to call our friend an "absinthe-swilling Canadandy."

UPDATE: I've been informed that my assumption about our northern neighbors is a simple misunderstanding: in actuality, Canada has two official languages. Who knew?

*** Another MSM doom and gloom economic story, in the midst of an economy that's actually kicking ass. You see, ever since interest rates have risen a point or two - to still near-historical lows - and even though inflation has largely been held in check ...

Rising Expenses Have Consumers Feeling Pinched

This is how it feels when the days of cheap energy and easy money give way to $70 barrels of oil and ascending interest rates. The economy may be strong, but many people are feeling pinched.

"Many people," you say? Is that like, all scientifical and stuff?

Economists say that feeling overshadows the fact that inflation overall is relatively low -- running at a 3.4 percent annual clip, the same rate as all of last year. The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates for nearly two years to control inflation, and it is likely to again boost rates this week.

Read the rest for a good chuckle. Other than the obvious bit about high energy prices, most of the piece represents horseshit anecdotal agenda journalism at its worst. Or finest, depending on the narrative one champions ... when Bush is in the White House.

So she's canceled her home Internet service, saving $50 a month. She rarely eats out anymore. Instead, she eats frozen meals made by her mother. "That's pretty much what I live off of the entire semester," she said.

A poor student? Frozen food? OH SWEET GOD, IT'S LIKE THE GREAT DEPRESSION! And check out this tale of woe:

Arlyne Foy of Fairfax city said she and her husband recently slammed the brakes on plans to buy a larger home in Loudoun County because of rising mortgage rates and the prospect of much higher commuting costs and utility bills.

Foy, 40, and her husband figured they could have afforded a bigger house, since their 3,000-square-foot townhome probably had grown about $200,000 in value since they bought it two years ago. But they didn't want to part with their very low 4.875 percent mortgage or her husband's 10-minute drive to work as a massage therapist and yoga instructor.

Any snark about that excerpt would be superfluous.

* 3,000 square-foot home
* Appreciated $200,000 in two years
* Massage therapist and yoga instructor

What a country!

Alternately, talk about your insulated urban bubbles of liberal unreality and bizarre entitlement. The vacuous economic analysis and high school newspaper narrative-building of those authors are an embarrassment to the WaPo.

UPDATE: Similar sentiment at this blog:

In the midst of one of the great booms in modern history, the Washington Post pretends everyone is suffering.
...
The picture they present is just a lie. Just a lie. What's wrong with these people? Where did their brains go? Where did their sense of truth go? Where did their honor go?

And then we've got willful dupes like this:

The Washington Post puts a human face on the Bush economy that's forcing hard choices on "regular Americans," those not in the revered top 1% income bracket.

Yeah, brother. Because the indignities of frozen dinners while attending law school and yoga instructors trapped like rats in a 3,000 square foot prison expose the true EVIL FACE of supply-side economics.

Make it Stop.

Apparently, Communism pays:

Cuban President Fidel Castro was furious when Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $550 million last year. This year, the magazine upped its estimate of the communist leader's wealth to a cool $900 million.

If you're willing to step over plenty of cold bodies and broken spirits to collect your paycheck, that is.

(Via Dave Price)

The Han Shot First Version, from Sept. 12 to Dec. 31 only. Lucas still sucks.

Portishead: Glory Box (Live)

You think I might gain romantic leverage with Salma Hayek if I threatened to turn her in to the authorities? I don't know anything about her green card status, but that body ought to be illegal.

Hey-OH!

Read More �

Christopher Hitchens wrote this piece, in which his argument was that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did, in fact, argue that Israel should be destroyed, and that Juan Cole, a so-called "Middle East Expert", was wrong to argue otherwise. Then Juan Cole responded with not one, but two posts full of lousy arguments.

First Cole complains that the e-mail was private and it was unethical for Hitchens to discuss it. I'm inclined to disagree, but that is neither here nor there considering it does not change whether Ahmedinejad talked about destroying Israel or not.

Cole then claims:

Read More �

Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills (Live)

Studio version here.

Yesterday's protest sign makes a superficially strong case - on several levels - that this country needs illegal immigrants. Because in addition to America's immediate and undeniable dependence upon burritos, societies grow and prosper with fresh ideas and determination, as well as the mystically unique brands of American ingenuity that spark and blossom from heretofore sociologically unnatural collisions of cultures. But sometimes these unique cultural compounds exhibit a dark side. A poisonous side. Don't believe me? Nowhere is this positive-negative duality more evident than with the Mexicans and their food. These entrepreneurial innovators combined American moxie with Mexican know-how by placing ten standard ingredients in slightly different proportions, thereby fooling a willing world into believing that their "cuisine" is actually made up of hundreds of diverse dishes.

Cheese * Peppers * Tomatoes * Substandard Meat * Onions * Sour Cream * Avocado * Rice * Beans* Tortillas

... all seasoned with salt.

Ten ingredients and salt. From this outrageously simple mix, a mass of wildly successful Mexican chain restaurants have crept into the American zeitgeist, quietly forcing us into a superficially irrevocable economic dependence on guacamole. Political insiders feel the rumble, as Israel's outsized influence on American foreign policy has been challenged by the whims of the Mexican chain restaurant food lobby/industrial complex. Haven't you considered why the Chimperor is such fast friends with Vincente Fox? Stop counting your brothers and wake up, you sheep. Baaa.

Let's demonstrate. From Baja Fresh's menu:

Burrito Ultimo® Melted jack & cheddar cheeses (CHEESE), grilled peppers (PEPPERS), chilis (PEPPERS), onions (ONIONS), rice (RICE), Salsa Baja (TOMATOES, PEPPERS and ONION), sour cream (SOUR CREAM) and your choice of charbroiled steak, charbroiled chicken or savory pork carnitas (SS MEAT).

But you say that you don't feel like a burrito today ... so you crazy-diversify by ordering a fajita:

Fajitas are served with grilled peppers & onions (PEPPERS, ONIONS), guacamole (AVOCADO), rice (RICE), black or pinto beans (BEANS) topped with anejo cheese (CHEESE), Pico de Gallo salsa (TOMATOES, PEPPERS and ONION), sour cream (SOUR CREAM) and your choice of grilled flour or corn tortillas (TORTILLAS). Try it with charbroiled steak, charbroiled chicken, savory pork carnitas, charbroiled shrimp, charbroiled fish or breaded fish. (SS MEAT)

Or a taco:

Original "Baja Style" Taco The Original "Baja Style" Taco is served in grilled corn tortillas (TORTILLAS) with hot or mild salsa (TOMATOES, PEPPERS and ONION), chopped onion (ONION) & cilantro (OH, CURVEBALL!) and your choice of charbroiled chicken, charbroiled steak, savory pork carnitas or charbroiled shrimp. (SS MEAT)

Abre tus ojos, you stupid, stupid gringos. It's all the same damn thing.

Thus, even though part of me respects the sneaky culinary hubris that initially led Mexican INVADERS to blindside a trusting America with the mysterious value of their "cuisine," I've come to lean towards the immediate deportation of all illegals - as we can probably make this shit ourselves.

Apologies to Ms. Malkin for my earlier moment of weakness.

Is this true? Have Michelle Malkin and Tom Tancredo stopped to consider a life without burritos?

And perhaps more importantly, does this threatening maxim apply to fajitas as well? Chimichangas? I'm a fairly patriotic American, but I'd trade Arizona for a triple combo platter of shrimp, steak and chicken fajitas. In a heartbeat.

Metallica: One

*** My entry in this collective noun naming contest: "an oblivious of tourons." Sure, mine's an adjective, but it works too well for any bourgeois grammatical carping. Anyone working in downtown DC can commiserate about the scourge of slow-witted tourists that clog public streets and conveyances during rush hour ...

*** Harold C. Hutchison in Strategypage:

Despite the many brickbats of the media, al Qaeda has been defeated in Iraq, and is now retreating to lick its wounds where it can.

James Joyner isn't quite buying it. I lean towards the former assessment, as far as it goes towards suggesting a critically weakened position for Al Qaeda. But I lean towards Joyner's skepticism about Hutchison's outsized focus on the impact of the alternative media here at home.

*** A first look at Casino Royale via a French trailer. I dearly hope they've done something different with this outing, as the last few installments of the franchise were unwatchable chaff. I mean, I nearly asphyxiated myself with a belt to mercifully escape the second half of that one with Denise Richards, the ice palace and the North Koreans. Then, 75 seconds and a deep shade of blotchy purple in, it struck me to just leave the theatre.

(Hat tip: Flea)

*** An interesting look at the hunt for Zarqawi:

Just nine days before al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released his latest video, a special operations raid killed five of his men, captured five others and apparently came within a couple of city blocks of nabbing Zarqawi himself.

Then, the day Zarqawi's video debuted, special ops forces killed 12 more of his troops in a second raid in the same town.

The raids in Yusufiyah, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, were the latest battles in a small, vicious war being waged largely in the shadows of the wider counterinsurgency effort.

It is a war fought by a secretive organization called Task Force 145, made up of some of the most elite U.S. troops, including Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. They have one goal: hunting down Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, and destroying his al-Qaida in Iraq organization.

(Via Malkin)

*** Immigrant Val Prieto has been assimilated. Monty Burns' "Exxxxcelleeeent."