headlife

headlife has moved

2006-06-24T13:55:00.000-04:00

I've moved headlife to wordpress.com. Most of it is because I am an incessant tinkerer, but Wordpress is cooler. I couldn't be bothered to host it myself, but wordpress.com seems to do the job. The port from blogger seems to have put all posts in my name. I will fix this as I go along.

Adieu, Maryland

2006-06-18T21:12:00.000-04:00

America has this smell, you know. It's aromatically neutral and you only notice it when you land at an American airport, but it's there all right. Off the plane...sniff...ah America!Four years ago I caught my first whiff of Maryland. It was a steamy summer's evening. I had two suitcases and a bike and was ready to begin my life in Baltimore. Lutherville, actually, but Baltimore will do.I have a

Why the US soccer team lost

2006-06-12T17:07:00.000-04:00

3-0 is a drubbing. No getting over it. And this from a team that is supposed to be ranked number 5 in the world.But Team USA's woes are easily remedied: get W to keep his nose out. Whatever the opposite of the Midas touch is, Mr. Heckavajobbrownie's got it. Bush called the US team today before their game vs. the Czech Republic. This was the sporting equivalent of his famous call to Rumsfeld

Road Trip #2: Wyoming and the Rockies

2006-05-29T00:36:00.000-04:00

After four years, I think I finally get America. The Truth came to me as I changed a tyre on a dirt road in the Laramie mountains of Wyoming.I think I already "got" the coasts, but that big bit in the middle -- those ghastly "Red States" -- had eluded my intellectual grasp. In Europe, and also from the American Northeast, we sneer at these cowboys in the centre. Their conservative values, their

Were we terrorists? Apparently so.

2006-05-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

My silly story about English Germanophobia hides a grimmer truth. During the Second World War, the British slaughtered German civilians in a way that boggles the mind. A new book asks whether the Allied bombing campaign in the War was a war crime. For the British child who hunts imaginary Jerries with plastic guns the narrative is simple: evil Nazis started the war; evil Nazis invaded other

Chick Diplomacy

2006-05-23T08:55:00.000-04:00

The New Times reports that America has caught up with the Dixie Chicks. The article refers to the Incident. That's when Chick Natalie Maines proclaimed her disdain for George Bush in London on the eve of the third Gulf War. The right wing forced country radio stations to boycott the Chicks. When their songs got no air time, the album sold "only" six million times.As Americans have come to

Why Isn't Thomas Hobbes Conservative Enough?

2006-05-15T19:49:00.000-04:00

According to a blog of the Washington Post, professors at Patrick Henry College feel discouraged from reading Thomas Hobbes. Patrick Henry College sees itself as a conservative Christian institution.Isn't it ironic that a "conservative" university would dicourage its students to read the conservative philosopher Thomas Hobbes?I don't know why Patrick Henry College takes this position but I have

Iranian Letter

2006-05-10T18:25:00.000-04:00

I read with great interest the letter sent by Iran's President to President Bush this week -- and, despite myself, liked much of it.Unfortunately, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reveals his true colors in a predictable non sequitur at the end of the letter. Ahmadinejad closes an otherwise relatively sensible letter with the following statement that by no means follows from the foregoing content

English Germanophobia

2006-05-09T12:35:00.000-04:00

Hellmut will be horrified by this, but here goes. As a boy, I used to play soldiers with my mates. Now, this may be a normal thing for a boy to do, but who, in 1983, were our play "enemies"? Invariably, they were the Germans, or "Jerries"* as we preferred to call them. (Remember that in 1983 we had just finished a war with Argentina, yet Argie-hatred was nothing close to Hun-hatred.)British

How to save Europe

2006-05-03T14:59:00.000-04:00

Actually, I have in mind how to "save Britain." This may or may not save Europe but it might help. Quite frankly, I have no idea how to save Belgium.Not a week goes by without some commentator predicting the death of Europe from "cultural suicide." Europe is under attack from two aggressors, writes George Weigel this week.The aggressors in Culture War A are radical secularists, motivated by what

The Great American Road Trip #1

2006-04-27T05:24:00.000-04:00

It is the size of America that astounds the European, for whom a mere twenty miles (say Holland to Germany) entails meeting a new country, a new people, a new language.The Great American Road Trip is the shangri-la of many European travellers. It's a dream as old as Tocqueville (one recently revived with grating pomposity by Bernard Henri-Levy). My battered Rough Guide to the USA lists "hitting

Bigots and Heroes

2006-04-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

I love the bumper sticker "God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions." This morning the BBC Newshour broadcasted a spontaneous demonstration in Dahab where residents chanted: "We love everyone! We love everyone!"By contrast, Osama bin Laden is calling on his followers to defend the genocidal murderers in Sudan. Apparently, bin Laden does not care that the murdered men and raped women are

America at 800

2006-04-24T06:39:00.000-04:00

Lawrence Wilkerson had an interesting OpEd in the Baltimore Sun this past weekend. Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and aide to Colin Powell, claims the US Government has fallen pray to a neo-Jacobin conspiracy, that Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld et.al. are latter-day Robespierre's, not brave patriots of the American model like George Washington.For Wilkerson, the American Revolution was not so

The Shia Kurdish Front in Iraq

2006-04-23T09:27:00.000-04:00

The vote for an Iraqi prime minister and last week's fighting reveal that the Shia Kurdish alliance is disintegrating. In the past, their fear of Saddam and the Baathists has united Shiites and Kurds. The axiom that the enemy of my enemy is my friend now induces the collaboration of Sunnis and Kurds in parliament. A coalition of Sunni and Kurdish voting blocs had vetoed Ibrahim al-Jafaari.

The Queen at 80

2006-04-21T08:44:00.000-04:00

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is 80 today. This loyal subject and ardent monarchist would like to wish Her Majesty many happy returns.I am a big fan of the constitutional monarch, the symbolic, apolitical head of state. To those republicans in the UK who want a president I have two words: Jacques Chirac. Something about the fact that Tony Blair has to bow before the monarch every week is

Fancy Footwork

2006-04-18T18:25:00.000-04:00

Soccer fans: if you haven't seen it, you have to go to the Nike website now. Then go to the Soccer section. To the right are a series of small videos called "Joga TV." Scroll down till you find the one called "Brazilian Ping Pong" and watch it. It will blow your mind.If that doesn't convince you that Ronaldinho is the best player in the world right now, nothing will.

Iraqi Cartoons

2006-04-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

There is a fascinating discussion of Iraqi cartoons in the New York Times.Among other things, one cartoonist is denouncing Mubarak as an Israeli agent for stoking communal violence.

The Writing Is On the Wall

2006-04-13T10:51:00.000-04:00

Accusing Iraqi Shiites of treason, Hosni Mubarak implies his desire to restore Sunni hegemony in Iraq. When the Americans leave then Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan will support the Sunnis while some Shia militias will enjoy the support of Iran. From the perspective of foreign Arab powers, support for Iraqi Sunnis makes sense not only on cultural but on realist grounds. Iraq and Iran

On Niger

2006-04-12T14:43:00.000-04:00

Hearing so much criticism of the war in Iraq lately, I have begun to wonder whether people think (at this point) that the United States and Great Britain would have been justified to invade Iraq even if Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger, as Bush alleged in his State of the Union address in 2003.It would seem that Iraq did make such an attempt, as noted on Slate (and the Deulfer report

Power Corrupts and What to Do About It

2006-04-10T18:04:00.000-04:00

When the First Vatican Council proclaimed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility in 1870, the Catholic historian Lord Acton responded: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”If one subscribes to the notion that there can be too much power then one ought to be worried about a unipolar world where the sole superpower can pursue her whims at will.That is indeed the attitude of

American Triumph, European Failure

2006-04-04T08:54:00.000-04:00

Fareed Zakaria's excellent comparison between European and American immigration policies gives the price to the United States. It's true. American immigration policy bests France and Germany easily. Driven by petty jealousy and fear, Germans have been unable to attract tech workers from India. But Germany does have plenty of underpriviliged immigrants from the former East bloc and Africa.

The Special Relationship is back on

2006-04-03T09:38:00.000-04:00

Make up your mind about the Special Relationship, kids! A couple of weeks ago the Guardian told us that the UK-US alliance was a load of meat pie. Now, after Condi's sampling of said pies in Blackburn, the Observer (Sunday Guardian) tells us that "Britain's special relationship with the world's most powerful democracy is a prized strategic asset, not just for us but for Europe as a whole."Why the

The People's Soldiers

2006-04-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

Vietnam and Afganistan veteran Geoffrey Lambert complains how the neo-cons are hiding behind the honor of our military and how misguided lefties are beginning to scapegoat soldiers.

Bashar Al-Assad on Charlie Rose

2006-03-29T19:59:00.000-05:00

If Charlie Rose were British he'd be Sir Charlie. This guy is a national treasure and his show on PBS is one of four must-watch current affairs programmes for me (along with Bill Maher, Fareed Zakaria's Foreign Exchange, and the Daily Show). His recent hour-long interview with Bashar Al-Assad is excellent. Ever since I went to Syria in 1999 I have been fascinated with the Assad's. Bashar's

Multilateralism

2006-03-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

The absolutist philosopher Jean Bodin pointed out that the sovereign cannot credibly bind himself. Any promise that a sovereign king might make, can be reversed with impunity in the future. That's a serious problem for the biggest kid on the block. Nobody can ever trust his promises.As the only superpower, it is difficult for the United States to make credible commitments. Nobody believes us

Arrogane, Ignorance, and Impotence

2006-03-27T10:19:00.000-05:00

On the Sunday talk shows Condoleezza Rice argued that were the United States to withdraw then Iraq would become Al Quaeda’s refuge like Afghanistan used to be. Her rhetoric reveals that the Bush administration has still not come to terms with realities in Iraq and with the limits of American power.Afghanistan and Iraq are different. In the absence of Russian aspiration to the Indian Ocean,

Why Russia is Funny

2006-03-25T00:48:00.000-05:00

Russia is a caricature of itself. These guys weren't just opposing the action in Iraq, they were handing over the playbook. The notion--which seems to be uncritically embraced by plenty of war critics--that Europe's (or the part of Europe known "Germany, France, the little countries that hang out with them and their barrel-chested cousin, Russia") opposition to the Iraq invasion was all about

Geography Matters

2006-03-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

Hellmut joins us, a German political scientist at the University of Maryland.Walter Russell Meade attributes the aphorism “A special providence protects fools, drunkards, little children, and the United States of America,” to Otto Prince Bismarck. Likewise Nate Oman, who will no doubt be pleased to be cited in the same breath as Prince Bismarck, advances an argument of American exceptionalism.

Seattle, Washington

2006-03-23T20:56:00.000-05:00

Not so special

2006-03-23T09:07:00.000-05:00

Remind me again what the British get out of the US-UK "special relationship"? Writing in the Guardian, Richard Norton-Taylor sets out this disfunctional relationship in all its glory: A senior British military commander says that Donald Rumsfeld should be tried for war crimes. The Brits are still furious that the decision to disband the Iraqi army after the invasion contradicted orders given

Truman National Security Project

2006-03-18T10:48:00.000-05:00

I met yesterday with a rep from the Truman National Security Project, a Democratic think tank in DC that is relatively new but is coming on strong.I was blown away by the clarity and honesty of their vision. If John Kerry had managed to frame and articulate a view of American foreign policy this candid and this thoughtful he might have got my vote in 2004. If Joseph Biden does the same he might

Dr Wafa Sultan: Muslim Critic of Violence

2006-03-12T01:55:00.000-05:00

From Saturday's New York Times...in an interview on Al Jazeera Dr Wafa Sultan a Syrian-American psychiatrist living near LA had this to say:"We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church....Only Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches,

Help me understand Hillary Clinton hatred

2006-03-10T10:08:00.000-05:00

I did not live in America during the Clinton years and so I feel I am missing some essential piece of the Hillary hatred puzzle. Help this poor Brit understand. In a Gallup poll in January, 51 percent of respondents said they would definitely not vote for Hillary Clinton."Definitely not." Wow. That's some hatred. But what's at the root of it? Here are some of the random associations I make

Poor City + Free Zoo = Chaos

2006-03-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

Note to self:When a city zoo in the heart of the ghetto offers free admission one weekend, do not under any circumstances go. Queues and chaos for a glimpse of a baboon's bum with two tired kids is hell. In future, get your wallet out and pay to go when half of Baltimore is not there, you cheapskate.

Bush plays cricket, Imran stays home

2006-03-05T12:48:00.000-05:00

I think this could be the start of something special.This, however, is not cool:"Pakistan's most famous-ever cricketer, former captain-turned-politician Imran Khan, spent Saturday confined to his home where authorities detained him to thwart his plan to lead a march to protest against Bush's visit."Freedom and democracy? Er, no. (For cricket virgins: Khan is HUGE, Pakistani cricket's Babe Ruth,

Messiah David Ben Cameron

2006-03-02T13:27:00.002-05:00

Let me see if I can convey the sense of human loathing I sometimes feel towards politics. So, I'm liking the new British Tory leader, David Cameron. Firstly, New Labour needs a good kicking. Secondly, Cameron isn't an uber-weird Tory (see William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard). Thirdly, he seems to represent a genuine liberal-conservatism [1] that appeals to me. Good luck to him. As of

New Concerns?

2006-02-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

Earlier, we all got in a bit about how perhaps objections about the UAE's running US ports was just a Democratic smoke-screen. Even a few far-left New York Times columnists (witness Nick Kristoff's recent op-ed piece) have gotten in the act.Is the UAE port deal safe for the US? I still don't know. However, I argued that when Bush and his sycophants tell us that it is, we should be worried. And

Thought for the Day

2006-02-26T22:59:00.000-05:00

Following Bob Herbert's piece in today's New York Times, I thought it might be a good idea to post the words of a past President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense;

So Is Profiling Okay or Not?

2006-02-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

The Port Deal is in the news yet again today, with lawmakers in Congress continuing to raise shrill criticisms of the decision to allow a company based in the United Arab Emirates to take over operations at six U.S. ports from a British company. President Bush has threatened to veto a bill blocking the sale; his question to the Congress has thus far remained unanswered: why is it acceptable for a

Beyond Metric

2006-02-23T09:08:00.000-05:00

Britain tried to go metric 40 years ago. We have only been partially successful. You buy your petrol in liters but drive in miles. Weather forecasters use celsius for temperature but give wind speed in miles per hour. I weigh 13 stone. The Irish painlessly ditched this silliness a few years ago. Now the UK Metric Association wants us to do the same. Apparently it just makes us look weird.Hogwash.

British Conservative in America

2006-02-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

Shadow Defense Secretary Liam Fox has been stoking Anglo-American pride in the Special Relationship. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation he quoted Churchill:"We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English speaking world, and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus,

Conservative Bush Bashing

2006-02-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

Bush-bashing always tastes better when it comes from the Right. First up is Slate's review of a number of books by conservatives that round on the president for his anti-conservative policies. Second, and more interesting, is a must-read article by NeoCon guru, Francis Fukuyama. Seriously, you've got to read this one. The short version: the Bush Doctrine (save the world through the projection of

Soccer Surprise!

2006-02-17T09:46:00.000-05:00

I was going to post about news regarding the world's richest soccer clubs. The winners are:1 Real Madrid £186.2m2 Man Utd £166.4m3 AC Milan £158m4 Juventus £154.9m5 Chelsea £149.1m6 Barcelona £140.4m7 Bayern Munich £128m8 Liverpool £122.4m9 Inter Milan £119.7m10 Arsenal £115.7m11 Roma £89m12 Newcastle £87.1m13 Spurs £70.6m14 Schalke £65.8m15 Lyon £62.7m16 Celtic £62.6m17 Man City £60.9m18 Everton

Stu and Gitmo (WWSD?)

2006-02-16T22:09:00.000-05:00

Such is the power of headlife that whenever I have snarky thoughts about American policy I wonder how Stu will come back at me. So, I know that Stu will reject the anti-American politicization of the UN report that slams Guantanamo. "The investigators didn't even go to Guantanamo," opines Stu (in my head). "This is just half-baked cock-and-bull."[1] But....Allegations of torture aside [2],

Why the Bush White House is retarded

2006-02-15T12:24:00.000-05:00

Christopher Hitchens noted in an op-ed several months back that he was only forced to make the case for the invasion of Iraq so loudly because the Bush White House seemed to think it didn't have to talk at all.I believe that the invasion of Iraq is defensible on multiple fronts--humanitarian, regional security, national security and the more cosmic aims of human liberty. If anyone would like to

Cricket Guilt

2006-02-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

No, the title is not a ref to what should be felt by hundreds of thousands of men in the Commonwealth who are willing to spend days on end watching other men in sweaters and white trousers bounce a ball at a stick.It actually refers to an experience I had last night... in the shower, as it turns out. As I stepped in with the water blasting a saw a cricket caught in the downpour trying to escape.

Iranians hate Brits more

2006-02-13T12:41:00.000-05:00

In Britain, the consensus view is that the Anglo-American "special relationship" works one way, that the UK is, in effect, America's poodle. In a typical display of paranoid weirdness, the Iranians beg to differ (ht: Adam). Apparently, Britain is more hated than even the Great Satan. America is only the "marionette with Britain pulling the strings."Colonial meddlings by the British have meant

A New Labour Dynasty--what rubbish!

2006-02-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

If there is any truth to this (that Gordon Brown* and Tony Blair have agreed to run the UK under a "dual premiership") then:a) they can both go to the Tower right now for treason. Your Majesty!b) my vote for David Cameron's Tories (Fareed Zakaria's man to watch -- and you know Fareed is always right) has now been sealed.There's nothing wrong with a Parliamentary democracy -- you vote for the

"It has long been impossible to take anything he says seriously."

2006-02-12T00:54:00.000-05:00

That's arch-Democrat Arthur Schelsinger describing Noam Chomsky. And yet it seems that much of Europe takes everything Noam says ever-so seriously.When I was last in Berlin--late in 2004--I was amazed (and somewhat amused) at how Chomsky volumes headlined the English language section of almost every bookstore I entered (which is pretty much every bookstore I saw). And not just in English--loads

False dichotomies

2006-02-10T11:53:00.000-05:00

Rant warning:The genius of Bush II (cf. Rove, Karl) is to paint all these false dichotomies, which, in Middle America, must make him look so righteous. Take the State of the Union address re: domestic spying:Bush: If Al Qaeda are making calls to this country, I wanna here 'em! (Implication: the Dems don't want us to spy on Al Qaeda. Pinkoes!)So, the Republicans roar him on (and Middle America

The Turks hate you too

2006-02-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

To the extent they are even aware of it, most Americans seem to be pretty unfazed by the fact that half the world hates them. Perhaps it's because as long as you are big, strong, and have all the cool toys you don't care whether the other kids hate you. Still, if I were an American I'd be pretty depressed about a horribly anti-American film coming out of Turkey. In Valley of the Wolves: Iraq,

So Much for Debate

2006-02-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

I know that I said that I was through talking politics, but this really has me stunned. I am absolutely amazed to find this today:If you read enough numbers, you never know what you'll find. Take President Bush and private Social Security accounts.Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put

The last sacred cow

2006-02-07T11:40:00.000-05:00

So I was listening to NPR this morning, as you can probably tell, and I heard a report that an Iranian newspaper was soliciting cartoons lampooning the Holocaust in an effort to test the limits of free speech.I know that it is merely showboating, but I admit that I was momentarily offended. I wasn't offended by Kanye West dressing up like Jesus; I am not offended by "This week in God" or "South

Trust me! I wouldn't hurt you!

2006-02-07T11:31:00.000-05:00

This seems to be the basic message being projected by the Bush administration regarding the terrorist surveillance. Having listened to about one and half hours of the testimony yesterday, General Estrada (note to self: become Attorney General so that I can be called General) repeatedly asserted that the program was necessary and that it was not illegal in any way while providing no evidence for

"I am 12 years old and I memorize the Koran"

2006-02-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

If you want to know what is wrong with the Arab world, if you wonder if a rational peace process can really progress, if you question whether Palestinian/Arab perennial indignation are more the effects of political marginalization or of the religious cancer that has now eaten into the vital organs of the Arab political anatomy, go have a look at some of these videos and transcripts:http://

Nice flag

2006-02-04T12:40:00.000-05:00

Bin Ladin & Iraq in the 9/11 Report

2006-02-03T23:58:00.000-05:00

Any time I hear a war critic referencing the 9/11 Commission's report as evidence decisively debunking the claims of the Bush administration I know one thing immediately--they've never actually READ the Report, they've only heard about the parts that got the biggest cheers on the Daily Kos. A couple of excerpts y'all might have missed are below. Basics: there was one hell of a lot of

In Utah, British flags burn

2006-02-03T08:11:00.000-05:00

Further fallout for headlife's posting of this cartoon of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith digging for the Gold Plates:Infuriated at this blasphemy, angry Mormons have protested outside the British consulate in Salt Lake City, demanding that the British government distance itself from this blog. Some protesters burned the British flag and copies of the Harry Potter books.Supermarkets across Utah

What it means to be an American

2006-02-02T18:16:00.000-05:00

To belong to the only nation in the history of the world whose heroes have all championed either liberty, equality or human rights, and which does not hold up any tyrants or autocrats as originators of its national identity. To belong to the only nation-state in the world into which someone who was NOT an American one month ago can legitimately be assimilated--and even become the definitive

Being British....

2006-02-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

The NYT ponders what it is to be British. What makes that tricky is separating "British" from "English." I know what it is to be English. It means that you cannot hear this quote without welling up:"If I should die, think only this of me / That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England." (from Rupert Brooke's World War I sonnet, "The Soldier.")But I think I understand

Just Reporting?

2006-01-31T12:50:00.000-05:00

American journalist Jill Carroll is being kept as a hostage by Muslim terrorists. They will behead her unless U.S. forces release all female criminals being held prisoner in Iraq. Al Jazeera has released new footage of Jill begging for her life, a sign of hope for many who thought she was surely already slaughtered by "pious" Muslims. Al Jazeera has long claimed that it is not supporting the

Superbowl delamed

2006-01-31T08:25:00.000-05:00

What's an American football fan to do the Sunday after the championship games? Twiddle his thumbs, that's what. Tell me, was it always the case that the NFL waited two weeks to stage the Superbowl? This delay is lame and seems designed only to squeeze every corporate ounce out of the event. And that's what it is, an "event." I like football (go Bengals!), but the Superbowl just seems so, well,

'Super-size' Charles

2006-01-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

Alas, poor America, she makes such an easy target. Even Prince Charles can't resist a jab, fearing an American-style "super-size" epidemic in Britain:THE Prince of Wales warned yesterday of a "super-sizing" epidemic in Britain, as he urged more people to walk and cycle to tackle unhealthy living and childhood obesity.Prince Charles said Britain was following close behind the United States in the

Reality or Not?

2006-01-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

This morning, while looking at the blubs featured on the TV Guide Channel (my better half is fascinated by this channel and sometimes actaully watches it), I saw that they spent a few minutes talking about so-called "reality" TV. They noted that, for instance, many of last week's highest-rated shows were hits like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, and so on.My question, though, is this:

Evil, sick bastards

2006-01-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

What kind of [scumbag] pieces of [filth] hold a 74-year old peace activist hostage and threaten to kill him?

Eye-ran

2006-01-28T08:29:00.000-05:00

When you read stuff like this do you roll your eyes and think "Mullah, Schmullah, what crazy, paranoid kids," or do you (having watched and trusted the Syriana-scenario)[1], say, "hmmmmmm......"?Iran is blaming the US, UK (and Israel, of course) for recent plane crashes in the country. Now, the Big Bwana of the Revolutionary Guard is sabre rattling, reminding the West that:Iran's improved version

Bad words

2006-01-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

"Wog. Spastic. Queer. Nigger. Dwarf. Cripple. Fatty. Gimp. Paki. Mick. Mong. Poof. Coon. Gyppo."These are all terrible words. But Jeremy Clarkson wants to know why people are allowed to say the word "beverage".Another gem:I’m not a grammar freak — I can eat, shoot and then take it or leave it — but when someone says “myself” instead of “me” I find it more offensive than if they’d said "spastic

Contraception and the abortion war

2006-01-24T10:46:00.000-05:00

If/when Roe vs. Wade is struck down, pro-life advocates will wake up the next day with a headache. With abortion gone, they will need to find another reason to vote Republican, a party which has otherwise shunned all other good "conservative" values. They will also realise that people are still having sex, still getting pregnant, and still faced with unwanted babies. Oh, we can wish that people

Can we agree on this?

2006-01-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

When a civilian leader feels a need to dress up in military uniforms and have members of the military present for all of his speaking engagements, isn't that a bad sign?

Now they do it!

2006-01-19T16:26:00.000-05:00

I read my hometown newspaper from time to time, just to know what's going on. Mostly, the news it pretty dull. However, one of the articles appearing today readPayne County residents interested in learning about Oklahoma weather are encouraged to attend the second annual Storm Spotter Training Class.The class is being hosted by the Stillwater Emergency Coordination and Communications Center and

They Just Don't Abuse Civil Liberties Like They Used To

2006-01-18T16:55:00.000-05:00

Feeling a little nostalgia for the old days when you could count on some robust civil liberties' abuse. You look at Geoffrey R. Stone's 2004 book "Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism" and it just tells you what a sissy liberties' abuser W is. I mean John Adams jailed a congressman for criticizing his "continual grasp for power." Abraham

Fuk King

2006-01-18T14:28:00.000-05:00

Mr. Fuk King Kwok has changed his name to Andy Kwok.Hey, what are you laughing at? It's pronounced "Fook," you philistine.

Un-Super Bowl?

2006-01-18T13:33:00.000-05:00

For the first time in years, I am utterly unimpressed with any of the final fours teams left in the playoff race for XL. Granted, I haven't followed things this year as closely as in years past. However, is anyone particularly "wowed" by Denver, Pittsburgh, or either NFC team? True, Pittsburgh has looked good of late, and did a nice job against a typical underperforming Colts postseason team.

Proving that journalists lean (i.e. practically falling over) left

2006-01-17T14:10:00.000-05:00

Lancer asked for some sourcing on my claim that 80% of journalists describe themselves as liberals. The numbers below vary but in all of them a couple of things remain consistent--American journalists are overwhelmingly to the left of the American mainstream, vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. A comprehensive study published in 1981 by the nonpartisan Center for Media and Public

About that Liberal Media

2006-01-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

A little while ago, Stu posted news on a study which demonstrates that the media are, in fact, biased. I (and several others here) read through it and thought that there were some flaws in the methodology. (Despite claims to the contrary, this is a valid form of critique!)Now, Eric Alterman has a post up at Mother Jones which expounds upon these flaws. Most importantly, Alterman notes thatOne of

How to win hearts and minds...

2006-01-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

Kill 18 people* in a sovereign country, one that is supposed to be your ally, and one that already has a propensity for churning out people who think America Hates Muslims. When the dust settles on this, and if the facts stand as they are now being reported, I will be astounded at the utter idiocy of such an action, both the philosophy behind it and its execution.*Some bad guys, some children,

More on the 345 trampled dead in Mecca

2006-01-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

Following on my post below it looks like some Saudi leaders are speaking out on the situation. Straight up. These are the men in Saudi society with the benefits of education and opportunity. Not loopy wahabists in the outer reaches of the kingdom, but the men running the whole show. And this is their honest response to this tragedy. Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz told reporters the

Kulturblog moviedrome

2006-01-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

Headlife movie-lovers: feel free to participate in the Kulturblog Moviedrome, another prong in Ronan's blogaholicism.

Everybody must get stoned

2006-01-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether to cry, laugh or just shrug at this kind of 4th century behavior. First 345 of your co-religionists get trampled while you're throwing stones at the devil. Well done. Then there's the whole preliterate stone-throwing exercise. What's to be said about a religious culture in which the most sacred act climaxes in an orgy of chucking stones at a rock that is supposed to be Satan?

More Terrorist Lovers

2006-01-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

From the New York Review of Books comes this piece:We are scholars of constitutional law and former government officials. We write in our individual capacities as citizens concerned by the Bush administration's National Security Agency domestic spying program, as reported in The New York Times, and in particular to respond to the Justice Department's December 22, 2005, letter to the majority and

Day of Sacrifice

2006-01-10T23:38:00.000-05:00

In a ritual drenched in blood, Muslims celebrate their Day of Sacrifice by slitting the throat of their sacrificial animals and letting them bleed out. The resulting bloodbath is disconcerting to say the least. In some ways, this is like glancing back in time to the sacrifices performed at the temples of old, both pagan and monotheistic. (hat tip: Die Welt on the picture)It is worth asking, I

If not Steyn, then Klein...

2006-01-09T02:28:00.000-05:00

I find that it can sometimes be useful to find out where the centrists are falling on controversial issues. Sometimes they split. But when commentators with a natural lean to the left break with the hard left or commentators with a natural lean to the right break with the hard right, it's often reliable marker of a sensible position.Few journalists have stronger centrist credentials than Joe

6 words

2006-01-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

Carson. Palmer's. Knee.Ronan's. Broken. Heart.

I love Mark Steyn

2006-01-08T12:48:00.000-05:00

And for any of you that haven't had a Mark Steyn experience, please put aside your partisan loyalties and enjoy a bit of carnage.http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn08.htmlFavorite excerpts:The Democrats and the media want to upgrade every terrorist into O.J. Simpson, insulated by legalisms and entitled to his own dream team. (Their figleaf, the court set up by the Foreign

German Chancellor Demands Closure of Guantanamo

2006-01-07T17:43:00.000-05:00

In an interesting development, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is a Christian Democrat, has demanded the U.S. to close its enemy-combatant holding facilities at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.Wenige Tage vor ihrem Antrittsbesuch in den USA hat Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) eine Schließung des umstrittenen US-Gefangenenlagers Guantanamo gefordert. Merkel sagte nach einer

Terrifying news from Saudi Arabia

2006-01-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

The WSJ Opinion Journal reports that "Osama bin Laden has obtained a religious edict from a misguided Saudi cleric, justifying the use of nuclear weapons against America and the infliction of mass casualties."Tell me: why, oh why is Saudi Wahhabism not the central front of the War on Terror (TM)?

Funding Antiterror Initiatives

2006-01-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

According to the New York Times (reg. required), Homeland Security is going to start giving out money "based less on politics and more on assessments of where terrorists are likely to strike and potentially cause the greatest damage." You know things are working well in our government when it takes them only four years to stop pork barrelling money for terrorism.Also alarming is that fact that

Car bombers ain't what they used to be

2006-01-01T12:48:00.000-05:00

As they have gradually killed off their own work force Iraqi insurgents have apparently been reduced to hiring total imbeciles to execute their hits. I caught this headline on Yahoo! this morning: "13 Car bombs wound 20 people across Iraq". And from the article: "but the New Year's Day onslaught killed no one and injured only 20 people, police said".What kind of clumsy-ass bush league car

International Committee of the Double-Red Cross

2005-12-31T14:40:00.000-05:00

One of the recurring contentions in the global critique of the Bush administration is its alleged indifference to "international law". My post of a few days back exposed the Mickey Mouse thinking in the argument that the US is under any obligation--moral or other--to embrace the ICC, its ersatsz legalism and its underqualified judges.Today I'd like to focus on the the notion that the United

The Wikipedia-ization of Knowledge

2005-12-30T13:51:00.000-05:00

With all the discussion we have around here about bias in the MSM, an article in the Times Online today poses some interesting questions about the current trend in the democratization of information.In some ways, what blogs are to the mainstream media, Wikipedia is to encyclopedic sources of knowledge or history texts. Is Wikipedia a "wonder of the internet" and a "repository of knowledge" with

Munich Review

2005-12-28T15:17:00.000-05:00

The Free West has posted a negative, but non-professional, review of Steven Spielberg's Munich.From the review:It is almost like a computer game, the characters are approximations, they speak an artificial language of a liberal versus hard liner, repeating all known banalities. The master of the computer game called Munich is a French Papa who lives on a huge farm with dozens of beautiful

Christmas' second meaning

2005-12-25T20:43:00.000-05:00

At this point it's nearly cliche to badger everyone about commercializing the hell out of (or into) the Christmas holiday, but nevertheless...Christmas does not need to be strictly "Christian" in its broader meaning. Christmas begins with the story of three wise men, Eastern Kings, men of great wealth and means who lay their own glory at the feet of a newborn child in a stable after traveling

Why "International Criminal Justice" is so much fun

2005-12-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

HAI (Hate America International, sister org of HBI, Hate Bush/Blair International) loves the ICC (International Criminal Court) and gets a bit OIH (Off Its Hinges) in fronting American (read: Bush, forget: Clinton was the first to actually blow it off) unwillingness to sign on as evidence of "American unilateralism" and foreign policy "arrogance." They might be surprised to find out what an

King George VII

2005-12-24T08:59:00.000-05:00

So, Prince Charles is considering taking the throne name "George VII" when he becomes king. "Charles" has too many negative connotations apparently (King Charles I was beheaded; King Charles II was a joke; "King Charles III" aka Bonnie Prince Charlie was too Scottish).Americans will, of course, remind the Prince of Wales of a King George who also comes with baggage: a mad king who lost a certain

America murders its prophets

2005-12-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

Today, Mormons celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. It is common to speak of the Mormon Church as the quintessential American religion. Despite its global outreach, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is still governed from Salt Lake City and utilises American mores for its cultural currency. For Joseph Smith, America was the land of

Political self-profile on Stu-la-lah

2005-12-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

In the interest of transparency I thought I would offer this guide to my political history & views. Not that any of you should care but it might help people to get where I'm coming from in future posts.Political background: I'm sort of a Utah Democrat and a California Republican. Which is to say that core Utah Republicans wouldn't want me and core California Democrats would also chase me out. I

Interesting Take on Affirmative Action

2005-12-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

The views articulated in this post on LaShawn Barber's Corner have a radical air, and yet, closely examined, are actually very sensible, particularly to the conservative mindset, which values personal responsibility over entitlements. I hate “affirmative action” because it’s immoral, unconstitutional, embarrassingly unfair, and undignified.If blacks with comparable credentials are being passed

Brutalizing Society, part II

2005-12-22T13:31:00.000-05:00

Part II has been a long time in coming. In part I, we looked back at the role "an extremely violent and depraved video game"--a "murder simulator"--played when a 17 year old violently murdered a 14 year old playmate in the British Midlands.Now we look ahead and wonder what effect the Barbie torture craze will have on our already brutalized society. A British study of seven- to 11-year-old girls

Commie media

2005-12-19T18:23:00.000-05:00

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist. Apparently, if you want centrist media, go with The News Hour, Aaron Brown, and Good Morning America. Commies: CBS' Evening News, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the news pages of The Wall Street Journal. Fascists: Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times. Overall, the media leans left. Stu was right all

Note to Christians: Christmas is Safe

2005-12-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

I can't take it anymore. I just can't. Not after I read this today:SACRAMENTO (AP) — A group of religious protesters demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart superstore Saturday, hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer's decision to use "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" in its seasonal advertising.This is all on the heels of a Bill O'Reilly-led (or so it seems)