Right in the Fischer

2003-01-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

Extra! Media is missing a potential story in the making!
Yet more evidence for the "North Korea is getting unstable" theory.
Last year, 1,141 North Koreans defected to South Korea, most of them through China. The number was a sharp increase from the 583 in 2001, up from the 312 in 2000 and 148 in 1999.
I'm getting increasingly suspicious about this, especially right after I found out about the new chinese program mentioned in my previous post. Just how stable is North Korea?

2003-01-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting story I found on Google that sheds some new light on the Bush North Korean Policy:
Chinese Policemen rounded up 58 refugees from North Korea
Chinese police have rounded up 58 North Koreans preparing to make what would have been an unprecedented and daring mass escape to freedom in South Korea and Japan, international refugee activists said on Monday.
Fascinating stuff, but in another article, I found this little statistic:
China, the statement said, launched a massive manhunt for North Korean hideouts in early December and deported thousands to their homeland.
As of mid-January, 3,200 North Korean civilians in China were "repatriated as a result of this so-called 100-day campaign," the group said.
Its statement said 1,300 others were awaiting deportation in detention centers in Tumen and Longjing, along the border with North Korea.
Now why is China launching a "massive manhunt" for these North Korean refugees at this moment?
Because there are a lot more refugees in the past few months than there have been in quite some time. Why would there be more refugees? My guess is that the regime in North Korea might be less stable than people think. I mean, if this increased refugee rate is resulting after only a couple a months of the "no aid" policy of the U.S., what is going to happen in six?

2002-11-28T21:28:00.000-08:00

Machinists reject concessions, increase odds of UAL bankruptcy
In rejecting wage and benefit concessions early Thursday morning, a group of machinists at United Airlines has increased the chance that the world's second-largest air carrier will be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just as the busy holiday travel season begins.
The rejection comes as United is facing a Monday deadline for making a $375 million debt payment. United officials said Thursday that they would decide on Monday whether to make the payment or take advantage of a 10-day grace period.

Bankrupting the corporation that pays you? Now that's really, really, dumb.

2002-11-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

About 160 people have fallen sick aboard a Disney boat.
Frankly, anybody who goes onto the same boat with a giant rodent is begging for the plague.

2002-11-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

Christopher Hitchens wrote a lette explaining why he left The Nation. In the letter, he illustrates what is wrong with much of the left today.
At public forums in the past several months, debating with Oliver Stone in one case and with Michael Moore in another, and with several others in between, I have heard witless applause for fatuous debating points and for fatal casuistry, and have realized that I am hearing the magazine's propaganda and attitude being played back to me. It may now seem trite to say that September 11 and other confrontations "changed everything." For me, it didn't so much change everything as reinforce something. I am against aggressive totalitarian states and I am resolutely opposed to religious fanaticism. I am also sickened by any attempt to call these hideous things by other names. Most especially in its horrible elicitation of readers' letters on the anniversary of September 11, The Nation joined the amoral side. It's the customers I want to demoralize, not just the poor editors. I say that they stand for neutralism where no such thing is possible or desirable, and I say the hell with it.
Powerful stuff.

2002-11-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

Observant folks might be able to tell that I have changed my title. Tell me what you think of it.

2002-11-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

Nearly three million dollars worth of equipment has gone missing from Los Alamos National Labratory.
Gee, if they keep this up, they might be half as bad as the EU when it comes to keeping track of money.

2002-11-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

Oh, this makes me soooo confident in the inspectors abilites.
Inexperience marks team of inspectors
As the first UN inspectors land in Baghdad and resume work halted in 1998, they will have newer technology and a no-holds-barred mandate. But they will be lacking in one crucial area: experience.
Seventy-five percent of the roughly 270 UN inspectors from 48 countries will be visiting Iraq for the first time.
"It can be very disorienting to be in Iraq, and almost everything we saw was ambiguous," says Jonathan Tucker, a former UN bioweapons inspector. An inspector "may go into a facility and feel something is not quite right.... There can be very subtle clues of illicit weapons production. It's a very challenging task, especially if Iraq plans to conceal things."
75% percent of the inspectors have never been in Iraq? I wouldn't accept that figure for a group of tour guides, much less an inspection force pitted against the Iraqi army.

2002-11-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

A senior Al-Queda member has been arested in Yemen.
Suck it, Osama!

2002-11-17T11:56:00.000-08:00

President Bush: "I loathe Kim Jong II. — I've got a visceral reaction to this guy because he is starving his people. It appalls me. — I feel passionate about this. — They tell me, well we may not need to move too fast, because the financial burdens on people will be so immense if this guy were to topple. — I just don't buy that."
Interesting.
(I got the quote here.)

2002-11-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

The Iranian government blinked first.

2002-11-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

Sucks to be Gore!
Only 1/3 of the Democratic party thinks that Gore should run again for President.

2002-11-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Abba Eban, Israel's most eloquent diplomat, has died at the ripe old age of 87. Abba Eban was an enourmously gifted speaker and writer who was invaluable in making the case for Israel. He was by all accounts, an extrodinary man. Say the kaddish for him if you can.

2002-11-13T19:04:00.001-08:00

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2002-11-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

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2002-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

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2002-11-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

Bush has asked Congress to shift $49 million dollars away from the INS and give it to a new task force that would track immigrants with potential ties to terrorism.
Hopefully, this is the start of the complete replacement of the current INS with an agency that can at least grant visas to suspected terrorists in a timely manner.

2002-11-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

This takes the cake:
The government of Zimbabwe demands that England should compensate the white farmers whose land has been seized, despite the fact that it was the Zimbabwean government that stole the land in the first place.

2002-11-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Thousands of Iranian University students have protested the death sentence of a professor who questioned Islam.
I have said before, and I will say it again. When thousands are protesting against the current government in a totalitarian regime, you know that the writing is on the wall for the said regime. The government of Iran will be overthrown shortly after the invasion of Iraq. You can quote me on this.

2002-11-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

A Palestinian terrorist snuck into a kibbutz and murdered 5 people. One of them was a mother reading to her two sons.

2002-11-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

A British study has just come out with a report that says that smoking marijuana is even worse than smoking tobacco.
Observation:
Personally, I'm for the legalisation of marijuana, and the end of the drug war. But doesn't this study harm many anti-drug war protesters rhetoric about how marijuana should not be illegal because it is not dangerous? Does it harm the argument against the drug war?

2002-11-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Iraqi parliament has reccomended the rejection of the U.N. resolution.
Now who was surprised by this? Anybody? Anybody at all?

2002-11-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

After much bitching, and whining, and moaning, and groaning, the French have accepted the U.S.'s Iraq resolution.

2002-11-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Fresh from his victory, Bush will ask for a vote on the Iraqi resolution tommorow. Frankly, I'm very impressed with Bush. Bush took a huge risk by traveling across the country to support the Republcians. Had he failed, he would have lost a lot of credibilty and power. But, his gamble paid off. Big time. With the extra points awarded for having humiliated the Democrats in their efforts to win Florida. This has resulted in the Democrats losing a huge amount of morale and spirit. Most of the serious left now has to admit that Bush had outmanuevered them, after years of deriding his competence and intelligence.

On a slightly related note, I wonder what Maureen Dowd will say about how her "boy emperor" totally decimated the Democratic effort. Will she retract her earlier columns about how Bush is stupid?

2002-11-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

Oh, I almost forgot. REPUBLICANS WON THE SENATE! WOOT!
Okay, I'm done with my gloating.

2002-11-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article on how the original inspections of Iraq were undermined by the Iraqi government.

2002-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

I just found this horribly frightening article about the social troubles in France. The scary part is that every bit of the article is consistent with what I have read about France in the past year. Is France going to explode into anarchy?

2002-11-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

The army has just shot down an artillery shell using a chemical laser in a test.

2002-11-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

This is cool.

Which Founding Father Are You?

2002-11-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

Now this is interesting. The president of Nigeria is advocating the creation of a group of African nations that would monitor each others conduct in order to promote democracy and economic development. I'm a little skeptical of the proposal because there is the possibility that the countries won't stick to the proposed agreement. On the other hand, there is no possible way for the situation in Africa to get any worse, so, hopefully, this could only help matters.

2002-11-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

Don't Blame Columbus, folks. Them folks were already sick.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The health of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere was on a downward trajectory long before Columbus set foot in the Americas, researchers say.
The rise of agriculture is partly to blame, said Richard Steckel, a professor of economics and anthropology at Ohio State University. The demands of tending domestic crops encouraged people to settle in larger communities, where disease was more easily spread.
The rise of towns and cities during industrialization took a serious toll on health, but new evidence establishes a very long trail of poor health that followed the collective pre-Columbian efforts in creating modern civilization, Steckel said. He co-edited a book that looks at health trends in the Western Hemisphere throughout the last seven millennia.
According to some archeologists, the urban revolution began long before Europeans settled the Americas. Sophisticated cities flourished and expanded throughout North and South America once people mastered agriculture. Researchers believe that indigenous people began domesticating crops more than 5,000 years ago.
The current research suggests that the overall health of the average person declined with the development of agriculture, government and urbanization.

2002-11-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Now this is cool, part two

Scientists have managed to photograph the movement of electrons around atoms
Using a form of ultrafast flash photography, scientists have for the first time tracked the motion of electrons deep within atoms.

The experiment enables a deeper look at the fundamental building blocks of matter, resolving the swirling blur of electrons into a stop-action movie. Scientists hope that directly studying the electronic behavior of atoms could lead to compact and efficient X-ray lasers.

2002-11-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Now this is cool.

Scientists have discovered a bacteria that actually eats a certain chemical that pollutes groundwater.

2002-11-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

This article by Samizdata is really scary. Read it right away.

2002-11-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

Saudi Arabia refuses to help with any U.S. strike against Iraq

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. regional ally, said on Sunday it would not allow the United States to use its facilities for any attack against neighboring Iraq even if a strike was sanctioned by the United Nations.

"We will abide by the decision of the United Nations Security Council and we will cooperate with the Security Council. But as to entering the conflict or using facilities... that is something else," Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told CNN.
Not that we really need the Saudi's for this. Kuwait, Turkey, and other arab countries have already agreed to help us.

2002-11-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

A new book has just come out the proves that the Polish commited many war crimes against Jews during World War II. Of course, this type of thing isn't news to people who have read up on the history of Jews in Poland, as Poland is infamous for being the country in Europe that has had more massacres of Jews than any other country in Europe.

2002-11-02T22:16:00.000-08:00

The Saudi Prince calls for "moderate Muslims to shun extremism".
In other related news, the Bull Shit detector rose to a scorching 99 degrees today. Experts suggest reading this and this before subjecting themselves to the torrent streams of Bull Shit that is coming from the Saudi Prince.

2002-11-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Remember how the Soviet Union launched the first dog into space? Apparently, the Soviet Union lied about how long the dog survived.

The dog Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth, did not live nearly as long as Soviet officials led the world to believe.
The animal, launched on a one-way trip on board Sputnik 2 in November 1957, was said to have died painlessly in orbit about a week after blast-off.
Now, it has been revealed she died from overheating and panic just a few hours after the mission started.
Isn't it interesting how the Soviet technology is revealed to be crappier with each passing day?

2002-11-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

Oh man. This New Criterion article about Maureen Dowd is just brutal.

2002-11-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here is yet another article that traces the roots of the anti-war movement to a radical Socialist party. Only this time, its written by a leftist. The article is biased, but it is still worth your time.

2002-11-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

This is probably the only thing that Buchanan has ever said that I agree with:
Canada is a "whining" country that has been ``freeloading" off the U.S. defence budget for decades, outspoken American talk-show host Pat Buchanan said today.
And here's another beauty:
"For most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up."
Heh. Heh. Heh.

2002-11-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

Reuters has a great story on how the Iranian people actually like the U.S, and think that it's policies concerning Iran are "to some extent correct". The "Axis of Evil" speech that Bush made doesn't look nearly as dumb now, does it?

2002-11-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

James Lileks, the best writer on the internet, rips Walter Mondale a new one. I hope that I never get on James's bad side.

2002-11-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

I know I shouldn't gloat about the EU going down the tubes with its senseless, stupid, mindblowingly idiotic economic policies that were discredited when the Soviet Union collapsed, but I will any way.
Losers.

2002-10-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

North Korea justifies having nuclear weapons as a means of fighting "American Imperialism". My intelligent readers will no doubt remember that among the extreme left, the term "American Imperialism" is repeated quite often. I leave it to my readers to make the connection.

2002-10-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

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2002-10-30T08:44:00.000-08:00

Walter Williams discusses the principles of economics here.

2002-10-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

Glenn Reynolds has written an excellent article arguing that the general mass of people are much more resourceful than authority makes them out to be.

2002-10-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

Ariel Sharon's government might fall in a no-confidence vote on Monday. With the threat of the PLO, and the upcoming Iraqi war, this is certainly the worst timing imaginable for the Israel to change governments, in my opinion.

2002-10-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Flashbunny has a fantastic cartoon on those "dangerous nuts" who like guns.
Thanks to the Instapundit for the cartoon.

2002-10-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Little Green Footballs has found some really disturbing images from a Palestinian university. Don't click on this link if you are not feeling good today. I'm serious.

2002-10-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

The terrorists who have taken more than 1,000 people hostage in a Russian theather have killed one of the hostages.

2002-10-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

France was voted the world's weaseliest country in a Dilbert poll. No comment neccesary.

2002-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

A Yugoslavian arms dealer might have sold weapons to Saddam.

2002-10-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Saddam recently released all of his prisoners that were languishing in Iraqi prisons in an effort to try and gain some time pending the U.S. invasion. However, neither he, nor anybody else, was expecting to have Iraqi citizens openly protesting. What about? Why, the prisoners that were still missing! Frankly, I'm amazed that these Iraqi's had the guts to protest openly. But do you know what else it means? It means that Saddam's power in Iraq is not nearly as strong as was thought before. Interesting, no?

2002-10-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

According to this article, the sniper who has been terrorizing Washington D.C. might be French.

2002-10-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Peace Process philosophy is dead, according to the Weekly Standard.

2002-10-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

People, put your thinking caps on, and spare about 10 minutes of your time to read this fantastic essay that explains the Bush strategy.
Strategy. It's a good thing.

2002-10-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

The ongoing war between Matt Drudge, internet reporter extraodinare, and Barbara Streisland, stupid singer, continues. This time, Barbara identifies Saddam Hussein as a Iranian dictator, when he is the dictator of Iraq. Drudge 3, Barbara -50.

2002-10-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

God damn. Kurt Waldheim, a former Secretary General of the U.N., used to be a Nazi officer during World War II. This was revealed by Jewish groups who investigated his history. Today, I find out that this same genocidal bastard who should burn in hell is in the process of receiving a pension to the tune of $2.3 million! Not only that, the U.S. pays 25% of the pension because the U.S. pays a lot of money to the U.N. for dues! I never had much respect for the U.N., but this erases any that might have been left, and replaces it with loathing. Any organization that does this kind of crap deserves to be burned to the ground, and have someone piss on the ashes. Fuckers.

2002-10-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

DUDE! Wallace and Gromit, the best claymated cartoon show ever, is back!

2002-10-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

President Bush, to his credit, has stated in no uncertain terms his support and condolences for the Australians and the Indonesians.

2002-10-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

Terrorism has hit Indonesia, with a huge bombing that has claimed over 58 lives. Say a prayer for the good Indonesians and Australians that were brutally murdered by scumbucket thugs.
Update: It's more than 187 people killed. Damn.

2002-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Among those who are geeky, MST3King is a long and honorable tradition. MST3King is basically making fun of a horribly bad movie while watching it. One intrepid blogger has applied this technique to Amir Bakara, the loony poet laurete of New Jersey who said that 4000 Israeli's stayed away from the World Trade Center the day of 9/11. For much sublime hilarity, go here.

2002-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I declare this week "Laugh at Jimmy Carter week".
Today, we look at Jimmy Carter, the only President to be attacked by a killer rabbit.
Today in Odd History, Jimmy Carter was attacked by a rabbit during a fishing trip in Plains, Georgia. The rabbit, which may have been fleeing a predator, swam toward his boat, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared." President Carter was forced to swat at the vicious beast with a canoe paddle, which apparently scared it off.
Heh. Heh. Heh. Stupid Carter.

2002-10-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Personally, I found this article to be funny as hell.
Former Iran Hostage-Taker Criticizes Carter Prize

A former ringleader of the U.S. embassy hostage drama in Tehran said on Saturday that Jimmy Carter, who was U.S. president at the time, did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
He would have deserved a peace prize today if he had taken serious steps toward peace during his presidency," said Abbas Abdi, one of the leaders of the student militants who seized the U.S. embassy in 1979.
The students, who were trying to force Washington to extradite the deposed Shah of Iran for trial, held 52 U.S. hostages at the embassy for 444 days.
During that time, Carter broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran and suffered the embarrassment of a botched attempt to rescue the hostages
In 1981, Carter was swept from office by Ronald Reagan, a humbling end to an optimistic presidency but the start of a high-profile semi-retirement.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited on Friday Carter's "vital contribution" to the peace accord between Israel and Egypt and his efforts in conflict resolution on several continents in giving him the $1 million prize.
"Those who award the prize have their own criteria which might be justifiable for them," said Abdi, who like many of the former hostage-takers, is now a leading voice for reform in Iran.
"We have never seen a U.S. president who prefers the interest of other countries to his country's national interest," he told Reuters.
Iran's government has given no reaction to Carter's award and officials could not be reached for comment.
Heh. Heh. Heh.

2002-10-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

The U.S. senate has just approved the resolution giving President Bush the power to wage war against Iraq. I would expect an invasion before the end of the year.

2002-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

George Will calmly dissects the claim that the economy is in one of the worst recession's since World War 2.

2002-10-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

The stock market rose 78 points after President Bush forced the docks to open again. Good job, Senor Bush!

2002-10-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

The Christian Science Monitor has a nice article that sums up the opinion of America concerning the upcoming war in Iraq. I like this section quite a bit:
"We Want Peace, Not War," said one placard. Nothing to disagree with there. Nobody wants war, but it may be forced upon us by circumstances. "Stop US Terrorism," shrilled another. Hmm. that's a bit far-fetched in a nation that little more than a year ago lost several thousand innocent people at the hands of non-US terrorism. Then a cry even shriller: "We Want a Regime Change in the US." Could this be motivated more by visceral partisan hostility to the Bush administration than humanitarian concern for the welfare of mankind?
Is the blogger tradition of "fisking" dumb people spreading?

2002-10-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

This article reveals the roots of the "Not in Our Name" anti-war campaign. A lot of the founders of the group come from Communist, Socialist, and marxist groups, hardly trustworthy voices.

2002-10-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

A Tech Station Central article talks about Internet2. In case you don't know, Internet2 is supposed to be the next generation of the Internet technology.

2002-10-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Two Kuwaiti gunmen attacked and killed a U.S. Marine.

2002-10-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

Former Democratic candidate endorses the current Republican governer instead of the man who won the democratic primary
Ouch! Right in the party loyalty!

2002-10-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

The New York Times lied about how Americans feel about the war in Iraq in its recent poll. It was once a fine paper, but it has gone the way of the British papers now.

2002-10-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

According to this New York Sun article, the anti-war protests in New York had quite a bit of anti-semitic content in it.
Link via Little Green Footballs.

2002-10-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Russia calls Israeli response in Gaza "disproportionate".
Oh, we all know how the Russians are so very gentle in Checnya, and how they would never, ever commit any war crimes.

2002-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Bush is going to be giving a speech tonight making his case for deposing Saddam. I'm going to be taping it, because I'll be busy during that time.

2002-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

The CIA has a report about Iraq's weapon capabilities right here. Note the thousands of casualties from Iraq's chemicals. Also, take a gander at this sentence:
UNSCOM discovered a document at Iraqi Air Force headquarters in July 1998 showing that Iraq overstated by at least 6,000 the number of chemical bombs it told the UN it had used during the Iran-Iraq War—bombs that remain are unaccounted for.
Take a look at these footnotes defining what the gases Iraq has:

[1] Mustard is a blister agent that causes medical casualties by blistering or burning exposed skin, eyes, lungs, and mucus membranes within hours of exposure. It is a persistent agent that can remain a hazard for days.

[2] Sarin, cyclosarin, and tabun are G-series nerve agents that can act within seconds of absorption through the skin or inhalation. These agents overstimulate muscles or glands with messages transmitted from nerves, causing convulsions and loss of consciousness. Tabun is persistent and can remain a hazard for days. Sarin and cyclosarin are not persistent and pose more of an inhalation hazard than a skin hazard.

[3] VX is a V-series nerve agent that is similar to but more advanced than G-series nerve agents in that it causes the same medical effects but is more toxic and much more persistent. Thus, it poses a far greater skin hazard than G-series agents. VX could be used for long-term contamination of territory.

[4] See footnote 5.

[5] Bacillus subtilis is commonly used as a simulant for B. anthracis.

[6] An infectious dose of anthrax is about 8,000 spores, or less than one-millionth of a gram in a non immuno-compromised person. Inhalation anthrax historically has been 100 percent fatal within five to seven days, although in recent cases aggressive medical treatment has reduced the fatality rate.

[7] Ricin can cause multiple organ failure within one or two days after inhalation.
Frightening, no? Especially when you consider the mindset of Saddam, summarized here.

2002-10-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

The author of Black Hawk Down writes a portrait of Saddam Hussein that casts serious doubts about Saddam's sanity. After reading this article, I think that it is no longer possible to believe that Saddam can be deterred.

2002-10-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

Barbara Streisland has been accusing the Bush administration of catering to "big business". The Drudge Report took a look at her financies, and found out that she bought stock in Halliburton, one of the companies she insults, while Dick Cheney was president of it! We have met stupid people, and one of them is Barbara Streisland.

2002-10-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

News:
Glenn Reynolds is just as cool as a ninja with a jetpack, because he linked to me again! To all of those people coming from Glenn's site, welcome to my humble abode.

2002-10-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

Warning, Geeky nitpicking follows:
The Captain is disturbed by a picture of a Spanish sailing ship in space. He thinks the ships sails shouldn't be billowing. However, he forgot about solar wind, which would be capable of propelling a ship like that.

2002-10-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

There was a bombing right by a bar in the Philipines that is frequently used by U.S. military personnel. One American soldier was killed in the blast. Is the PLO strategy of bombing civilian places spreading?

2002-10-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

A General of the Palestinian Authority admits that they have the capability to fight Hamas, but they just aren't interested in doing anything.
Via Damian Penny.

2002-10-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

The U.N. inspector says that Iraq accepts all inspector's rights. Of course, he then mentions how "presidential sites" in Iraq are still off limits, thus leaving a huge amount of facilities for Iraq to hide weapons in, thus negating any value of weapon inspections.

2002-09-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Let me execute Bin Ladin, Giuliani asks.
Gladly.

2002-09-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, now its part two of my takedown of Ted Rall. This time, since we have already disproved what sources he has, we are going to take a look at the conclusions that he reaches. This essay will focus on the most stupid statements that he has made. Part three will be an opinionated deconstruction of his beliefs. Got your popcorn, kiddies? Good, let’s get started.
The Taliban, desperate to avoid the onslaught to come, offered to turn over bin Laden upon the presentation of evidence of 9-11 culpability, but the U.S. refused even to discuss extradition.
To believe that the Taliban was actually going to give Bin Ladin up is so stupid that it redefines the word stupid. First of all, it ignores the fact that the Taliban had been asked before 9-11 to give up Bin Ladin. It also ignores some recently uncovered information, namely that the Taliban relied on Bin Ladin's troops in order to maintain power, and that the Taliban was effectively governed by Bin Ladin. Because of this, the Taliban was obviously not going to turn over Bin Ladin. Also, how exactly is the Taliban more trustworthy than the American government? What makes Ted Rall think that the Taliban was earnest and forthright, while the U.S. is bad?
Why, then, had the United States targeted Afghanistan? If the war wasn't central to eliminating anti-American Islamist terrorist groups, if the perpetrators of 9-11 were several time zones away, if Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were allowed to slip away because their capture hadn't ever been a priority--then why?
Two ways to answer this question. One is the cloak and daggers explanation that Ted Rall takes, meaning that it must be a conspiracy. The other is that there were mistakes in an otherwise good plan. By using Occam's razor, we can see that it is far more likely that there were mistakes. But then, Ted Rall would not be able to blame the world’s misfortunes on capitalist oppressor pigs, now would he?
Why was it spending $1 billion per month on this operation? Why was it willing to put its young men and women in harm's way, much less drop so much ordnance that well over 3,000 Afghan civilians were killed in the process?
Ted Rall is asking a "Are you still beating your wife?” question here. The way he phrases his question is deliberately designed so that the U.S. looks bad either way, making the question a setup. He also lies like a dog about the statistic about how many Afghanistan civilians were killed, since there were not nearly so many killed, as proven before. Oh, and the "young men and women in harm" question? We did it because they are our military, and it's their job to be in harms way. We try not to put them in situations where they are definitely going to be killed, but it is a job where there is a certain amount of risk. That's why it's called the Army, son.
U.S. intervention in Somalia, for instance, had less to do with feeding hungry Africans than controlling the strategic Gulf of Aden, [13] through which oil tankers pass from the Indian Ocean en route to the Suez Canal via the Red Sea.
If that's true, than why was the U.S. so eager to bug out of there at the earliest possible moment?
While the Vietnam conflict is popularly believed to have stemmed from the Cold War-era "domino theory" obsession among U.S. officials, energy company interest in South Vietnamese natural gas reserves played at least as vital a role in American military intervention as anti-Communist ideology.
Ted Rall never cites any evidence to prove this. Besides, the natural gas wasn't discovered until after the Vietnam war, thus neatly poking a hole into Rall's theory.
And few doubt a relationship between the importance of Venezuela as the biggest producer of oil in the Western hemisphere and a botched Bush Administration coup attempt against its democratically-elected president, Hugo Chàvez.
I do. If Ted had been looking at the newspapers, he would have known that there was trouble in Venezuela for a long period of time. Hugo was (and still is) acting like a would-be dictator leftist, and that much of the opposition is home-grown. Besides, if the U.S. had acted in the coup, than why didn't it stick?
It was, conservative pundits claimed, only after the United States-backed Northern Alliance victory that thoughts turned to the possibility of building a potentially lucrative pipeline project across Afghanistan.
Rall cites this source to "prove" that conservative pundits claimed this. The only problem was that this particular person was writing for a site that has been praised as the most even-handed one one the internet, as said by both Conservatives and Liberals. Hardly a conservative bastion.
In addition, a large foreign--read, American--occupation force would be required for many years to enforce comparative law and order, and it remains to be seen whether the Bush Administration--much less future American presidents--will be inclined to devote substantial financial and military resources to the aftermath of our 2001 Afghan adventure. If pragmatism triumphs over ideology, it seems likely that the oil companies involved, reported to be led once again by the California-based Unocal Corporation [27], will reconsider their decision to bypass the shorter, cheaper and infinitely more workable Iranian proposal.
Hold it. We are supposed to believe the Bush administration started a long and heavy military campaign for an oil pipe that would have been not practical or profitable in the first place? Wouldn't that be extremely stupid of an administration of whom Ted Rall accuses of being a devious dictatorship? Where is the consistency here?
There is no smoking gun, no leaked White House memo, dated August 2001, signed by George W. Bush, that calls for invading Afghanistan on whatever pretext imaginable to secure it as a possible pipeline route.
So what are we talking about?
There is, however, a preponderance of evidence that the drive to establish an American-friendly regime in Kabul was undertaken not to protect American interests from the attacks of Islamist radicals, but to enter the "New Great Game" for Central Asian oil. This is certainly the accepted view among leaders and ordinary citizens of other Western nations, and it is one that is impossible to avoid after examining the published evidence.
Watch me not be convinced in the slightest.
The U.S. was so desperate to control a key exit route for landlocked Central Asian oil that it was willing to cause the deaths of thousands of innocent Afghan civilians and remove from power the first Afghan government in two decades to bring some measure of stability and order to the country.
"Yes, I know that they were ignorant, cruel, vicious, violently against women, supported terrorism, destabilized other countries, banned music, television, education, and other religions, but isn't stability the most important thing?"
Rather than take up the Iranian government on its recent overtures to thaw relations, the U.S. established a puppet regime on Iran's eastern border whose express purpose is to "freeze out" Iran. If Iran drifts away from Western-style reforms, if anti-Americanism sweeps the richest, most culturally and politically potent nation in the Middle East, the Bush Administration will certainly be to blame.
Since Iran is actually boiling towards a revolution for a western style government, doesn't Bush deserve some credit for this?
If we fail to secure the support of our allies when we genuinely need it, we may lose our status as a superpower--and this will be the Bush Administration responsibility. The geopolitical consequences of this breach are currently unknowable.
Why do we need Europe's help, especially when their military is so much worse than ours?
In April 2001, the United States approved a $43 million United Nations payment to the Taliban as a reward for curtailing opium cultivation, and extensive informal ties linked the two governments
The payment was not to the Taliban for curtailing opium. It was to feed hungry Afghanistan civilians, as you can see here.(Just scroll down a bit).
Along with fellow journalists I saw oil rigs lining the highway east of Taloqan in Takhar Province; they were functioning even during the November-December 2001 bombings. Russia's Rosneft states that, based on Soviet-era data collected during the 1980s, Afghanistan "has substantial reserves of light low-sulfur oil amounting to 95 million barrels and up to 5 trillion cubic feet of possible natural gas reserves worth around $22 billion."
We're supposed to take Rall's word for this, since he doesn't cite any other journalists that agree with him. Also, $22 billion isn't all that much in oil when we consider how big our government's budget is.
But the overall argument is well-taken: the idea of a trans-Afghan pipeline is ill-considered, absurdly premature and probably constitutes financial suicide. It's a big world--why would anyone sink hard-earned billions into Afghanistan?
Because, as The Guardian admits in the same article, the pipeline dream "is too good to resist."
I don't believe it, because companies are pragmatic, not stupid like Ted.
Although 15 of the 19 hijackers possessed Saudi passports, the common link between Mohammad Atta and his partners was their Egyptian ethnicity--and membership in Islamic Jihad--an Egyptian group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat and the Luxor Temple massacre. Islamic Jihad, based in Egypt, probably carried out 9-11.
That's a really large leap, considering that there have been no tapes that have linked Islamic Jihad yet. That doesn't make them good guys, but still.
During the Florida election crisis of 2000, for example, the fact that the presidential candidate's brother was that state's governor--and failed to recuse himself--raised more than a few eyebrows.
Jeb Bush did recuse himself. It was Katherine Harris who didn't. Get your facts right.
The point is that in all likelihood a president of the United States invaded a sovereign state for one cynical reason: to create a puppet state that might, with luck, serve as a conduit for oil to go into SUVs on American highways.
Considering the tone of the essay, Ted Rall has no right to accuse other people of being cynical. And again, the Taliban was never recognized by the U.N. as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

Ugh. All that reading of Ted Rall's muck has made me very sick. Part three will come later.

2002-09-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

Turkish police capture more than 33 pounds of Uranium!

2002-09-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

For some more Rall action, go to this guy. The second part of my take down will be around very soon.

2002-09-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

My God. Instapundit, the biggest blog in the universe, has linked to me!

2002-09-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Test.

2002-09-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Just for you people, I trudged through the open, weeping sores that are Ted Rall's essay on Afghanistan and the message board where he tries to defend his piece. In case you don't know, Ted Rall is an idiot journalist that maintains that Bush invaded Afghanistan because of oil. The whole essay is little better than the rants of old confederate veterans on how Lincoln was the devil. There are a lot of things that are dead wrong in the essay, but let me point out a few:

Flaw 1: A huge amount of Rall's sources are very shady indeed.
A. He uses the now-debunked Marc Herold essay on civilian deaths in Afghanistan. The study is infamous for double-counting, simple lies, and trusting acceptance of Taliban news sources. For a complete debunking, go here.
B. About 5 different articles in the footnotescome from a man named Patrick Martin. The overreliance on one author would itself be shady, as no writer should use a source too many times. But this guy, Patrick Martin, writes for a website called World Socialist Web Site, which in its information page, talks about how it takes as its starting point the international character of the class struggle. Hardly what one would call a unbiased source about America and Afghanistan.
C. In 10 different footnotes, he doesn't cite any source besides himself. None. Zip. Zero.
D. He cites newspapers like Pravda, the former official newspaper of the U.S.S.R, and Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper that is owned by the Pakistani government, neither of which has a great reputation for quality, accuracy, or readability.
And I havn't even touched upon the conclusions that he reaches, his paranoid ideas, or his back round. Part Two will be here tomorrow.

UPDATE: Dawn is not owned by the Pakistani government. Sorry for the mistake.

2002-09-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens has just written an extremely well-written article that demands war with Iraq.

2002-09-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. A human interest story that actually is good, and meaningful.
Link via Vodkapundit.

2002-09-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens, one of my favorite "lefty" writers, is leaving The Nation, a very leftist magazine that has been publishing his column for a very long time.

2002-09-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

This article in Salon talks about how people are recording their own DVD commentaries makes me want to record DVD commentaries of my own. What do you guys think about me doing something like that?

2002-09-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

A article in Blogcritics examines (and destroy's) the marxist theory that true communism has never been tried.

2002-09-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Big News in Iran;
The president of Iran has introduced a bill that would give him the power to actually reform Iran. For the past year, the hardliners in Iran have been blocking attempts by "moderates" to reform the government. This has resulted in a feeling of anti-government feeling in Iran that has has not been seen since the first Iranian revolution. The situation can go down in one of several ways. First, the hardliners could let this bill go through, creating an oppurtunity for the government of Iran to reform in a orderly manner. I don't see that as very likely, because the priests and clerics in Iran have never allowed any power to flow before, and it would be surprising for them to start now. Second, the priests can shoot down this bill, or ignore it after it is passed. This will certainly result in a counter-revolution lead by the students in Iran. I think this option is more likely, because the level of tension in Iran right now is supposedly extremely high, and it will be let out sometime.

2002-09-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Steven Den Beste, retired engineer, examines alternative power sources here, and here. Myself, I would love for the U.S. to use nuclear power, but that won't fly politically, thanks to an enviromental movement that is ignorant about the benefits of nuclear power.