Merkel: Iran As Bad As Nazis

From The Times:

“Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said, ‘It’s only rhetoric — don’t get excited’,” Merkel told an international security conference in Munich.

“There were times when people could have reacted differently and, in my view, Germany is obliged to do something at the early stages,” she added. “We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear programme.”

Merkel issued a blunt warning to Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

“Iran has blatantly crossed the red line,” she said. “I say it as a German chancellor. A president who questions Israel’s right to exist, a president who denies the Holocaust cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany.”

Well, yes. But I never thought I'd hear a European say it. Not a popularly elected European, at least. (via Islamophobic)

Bush Spied, Terrorists Died

That's Laer's entry in Bookworm's pithy conservative slogan contest. Check it out.

Republicans In Disarry Over Presidential Pick

LauraW pokes fun at the MSM's Bush obsession:

Buddy: "Was Chimpy McSmirkhitler picking his nose WITH GLEE because of the imminent Great Depression his tax cuts have brought upon the nation? We owe it to our readers to explore this possibility as thoroughly as the President explored his nostril..."

Laura: I don't think that would have been far from the truth...and then of course the inevitable Scientific Research about People Who Pick Their Noses

Buddy: "People who pick their noses are a lot like Hitler, study finds"

Mohammed in Pictures

Illustrations of Mohammed are popping up everywhere. Here's a Wikimedia page. Here's a Danish newspaper article which, besides printing a picture itself, links to Zombie's gallery of Mohammed images. Magazines in Germany, Iceland, and France have also printed the Danish cartoons.

(links via LGF commentors and No Pasaran)

Update: Only a matter of time until Cox and Forkum offered their take.

Diversity is the Spice of Life

So says the tag line on the Mizzou Engineer magazine that just arrived in the mail. It made me smile because, of the 8 people pictured on the cover, all were Asians. Four Chinese, 3 Indians and a Jordanian. Well, there's diversity among the Asians.

It's Not Just Me

Trying to keep up with the NSA spying story is frustrating. No one can be pinned down on what exactly we are talking about (except Bush, and everyone ignores him). Does anyone know any actual facts about this program? No, as it turns out:

From a press conference today:

QUESTION: I don't think I've heard any Democrats say that, though this program, in your view appears to be unconstitutional, maybe unlawful, why not say, Halt it now, and come to Congress and ask for the changes, but halt it now? I've not heard any Democrat say: Stop the program.

DURBIN: Well, I have to say, candidly, there are very few members of Congress who know exactly what this program's all about. Other than press descriptions, we don't honestly know what is being done in the name of this program.

I feel better, in that it's not just me. No one knows what's going on. I feel worse, in that elected official are calling for Bush's impeachment over a program they know nothing about. That's just sad.

Update: Upon reflection, it's a good thing that we don't know much. Given that this is a secret national security program, I'm glad no one knows what's what.

Brownback's Mistake

I just heard about the dust-up over Sam Brownback supposedly using an anti-gay slur. Sam Brownback's mistake wasn't that he called gay Swedes "fruit." He didn't. Here's the original quote:

“You look at the social impact of the countries that have engaged in homosexual marriage.” He shakes his head in sorrow, thinking of Sweden, which Christian conservatives believe has been made by “social engineering” into an outer ring of hell. “You’ll know ‘em by their fruits,” Brownback says. He pauses, and an awkward silence fills the room. He was citing scripture — Matthew 7:16 — but he just called gay Swedes “fruits.”

He didn't even mention Sweden. That was the reporter's pithy interpretation. Sam Brownback's mistake seems to be expecting any kind of biblical-literacy from a Rolling Stone reporter. The "fruit" analogy is a pretty common theme among Christians and this isn't the first time Brownback has used it. He recently displayed concern over the fruit being produced by the Republican Congress. I doubt he was referring to homosexuals.

Has this reporter graduated from junior high yet? Giggle, giggle: Sam said 'fruit'. Giggle, giggle.

I'm In The Mood For Cheese

A nice Danish Havarti perhaps. (via LGF)

According to the government of Denmark:

In the early 1970s, Denmark was totally dependent on imported fuel: 94% of the fuel consumption was oil. A mere 20 years later the country was a net exporter of oil and in 1997 the import of energy equalled its exports: Denmark had become self-sufficient in energy.

I wonder if that's why the Saudi's feel so free to target the Danes.

Update: Now Libya has withdrawn it's ambassador from Denmark. Saudia Arabia withdrew theirs last week. This article depicts the Danes patiently trying to explain freedom of speech, Danish law, etc to various Arab governments. Their efforts are wasted. It's not that these governments don't understand the concept of free speech. They just don't like it, and they're trying to bully Denmark into giving it up, too.

Google reveals that this isn't the first time Muslims have freaked out over a cartoon:

Would It Be Selfish To Pray For No War With Iran...

until after we sell our house? For various reasons, we're going to close on the new house before we've even put the old one on the market. Which is fine, as long as people are still buying houses in a few months. Well, if the economy goes to hell in a handbasket, I guess we could always become landlords:(

Google: Just Another Brick in the Firewall*

Don't miss Michelle Malkin's round-ups of the thorough spanking the blogosphere is giving to Google. Example:

Title inspired by Pajamahadin.

It's Davos Time

And you know what that means. Jay Nordlinger's writing his Impromtus from there. Being a non-wonk myself, I enjoy hearing all the quirky little things that go on there

Joel Stein: Wrong and Right

Joel Stein is wrong. It is theoretically possible to be against a war but support the troops. However, one must have supported the troops before the war to have any credibility on the issue. If, like most of the far left, you always thought any person who would wear the uniform of the United States military was either a psychotic baby-killer or an ignorant dupe, then the "but I support the troops" line falls flat. For that crowd, Joel Stein is absolutely correct. For Code Pink or International Answer, or anyone at the DU to claim to support the troops is rank hypocrisy.

"We'll Do Everything Bush Is Doing But We Won't Be Hitler"

A commentor at Ace of Spades suggests a new Democratic campaign slogan. Sounds about right:

So you think the invasion of Afghanistan was wrong?
Oh no, it was great, but...

So you want Saddam back in power?
On no, we're glad he's gone, but...

So you want to pull the troops out now?
Oh no, we want them to stay, but...

So you don't want to do surveillance of suspected terrorists?
On no, we do, but...

But, but... can't you see he's Hitler!?

Speaking of Moonbats...

Zombie's coverage of the Walk For Life is not to be missed. I'm a bit of an agnostic when it comes to abortion, but it's hard to see how the pro-choicers think they're helping their cause by behaving like thugs. (via Moonbattery)

This Made My Day

RedHunter has the story of how a persistant group of Freepers pulled the rug out from under those appalling Code Pinko's who protest in front of Walter Reed every Friday. (Via Ace)

And I also learned that there's a Tecnorati tag for "Moonbats." How about that?

Passports: Who needs 'em?

Emily at It Comes In Pints? is less than thrilled by Europeans who think they're all that because they can hop on a train and be in another country in 2 hours:

First of all, The United States is big. Really, really big. You can spend your whole life vacationing at points of interest and still not see it all. I've had it with snobbish fucks who romp through three European countries the size of postage stamps and congratulate themselves on their worldly sophistication when they haven't even covered an area one tenth of the size of the state that I live in.

I can testify. Living here in Kansas City, smack-dab in the middle of the county, I can drive due east for 14 hours and still not reach the ocean. I know this, because I just tried it over the holidays.

More Stupid in America

Bookworm linked to this article by John Stossel where he says, among other things:

America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money. In 1985, some of them got their wish. Kansas City, Mo., judge Russell Clark said the city's predominately black schools were not "halfway decent," and he ordered the government to spend billions more. Did the billions improve test scores? Did they hire better teachers, provide better books? Did the students learn anything?

Well, they learned how to waste lots of money.

The bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, an Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium, and a wildlife sanctuary. They added intense instruction in foreign languages. They spent so much money that when they decided to bring more white kids to the city's schools, they didn't have to resort to busing. Instead, they paid for 120 taxis. Taxis!

What did spending billions more accomplish? The schools got worse. In 2000, five years and $2 billion later, the Kansas City school district failed 11 performance
standards and lost its academic accreditation for the first time in the district's history.

And they still haven't regained it. Living here in Kansas City, I have heard a thing or two about the way the district functions. Here's what I left in Bookworm's comments:

Let me tell you a tale of bureaucracy from the KC school district. I worked with a woman who had her kids in the French foreign language magnet. This is what she told me. The school was a success story. Happy families and high test scores. Well, around 2000, when the district, lost the desegregation money, the district had to reorganize. The administration would not commit to keeping that school open.

This presented the parents with a dilemma. Their kids had been learning French, not English. They would not be able to slip easily into another school. The parents pressed the district for a commitment, to no avail. Finally, they took the initiative and started a charter school.

Well, some administrators were livid. Of course, they kept the school open. It was one of their best. But, because they ignored the concerns of the parents, they lost
half their students and teachers to the charter school.

It didn't have to happen, but they showed no consideration for the parents, who had to think about their kids. Now Kansas City has two French schools.

But here's a little more. White kids from the suburbs were courted like they were star running backs. Instead of wine, women and song, they were plied with advanced placement classes that most natives of the district wouldn't test into. Meanwhile, black kids couldn't get into the school of their choice because that would upset "the balance." Black parents wanted more African-themed schools, but oops... "the balance" had to come first.

Yellowcake: New Goal Posts Established

I just heard an odd little interview on Talk of the Nation (which will be here this evening near the very end of the show). Another document has been released which indicates that Saddam did indeed seek uranium from Nigeria. But there was little likelihood that he would successfully obtain it. And there you have the new goal posts. Sure, Bush was 100% right about Saddam seeking uranium from Nigeria, BUT....

The interviewee did mention that the seeking itself was troubling, but he didn't say why and it wasn't pursued. The interview didn't touch on Bush's whole point, which was that the seeking showed clearly that Saddam had not given up his WMD programs and was, in fact, actively pursuing nuclear weapons.

Competition: You Gotta Love It

I was checking out the web site for our new town and discovered that they have two, TWO, cable providers to choose from. We only have one here on the Missouri side. I've checked then out a few times in the past, but always decided against it because to get Fox News you had to get the most expensive package. I don't know whether I'd even like Fox News, but I want to be the one to decide. I don't like being roped into things. I figured if they ever got around to offering me more choices, I'd consider their service.

Well, guess what? Not only does the second provider offer cheaper service, the first provider has lowered their prices and put Fox News on the standard tier of channels even on the Missouri side, where there is still no competition. I suppose there would be armed revolt if Kansans were offered a better deal than Missourians.

What you find in the rafters after 20 years.

We were pulling all the junk out of the rafters in the basement when we made an interesting discovery. Mostly, the previous owners had stuck old curtain rods up there. But, apparently, that's also where the man had stashed his girlie magazines. And yes, I checked the dates to make sure they weren't Brian's. They were 20 plus years old.

Go Organic?

Here's an article from Consumer Reports on which foods are worth buying organic and which are not. Mia is on a big apple jag right now, so I've been inspired to look for organic ones. Target sometimes carries them, but they didn't have any last time.

For the time impaired:

Worth It: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries.

Not Worth It: Asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples, and sweet peas.

(Via A Constrained Vision)

Stupid in America

I watched John Stossel's Stupid in America. Well, I live in Kansas City, so I wasn't surprised to hear that lots money doesn't help kids do better. The Kansas City school district, while improving, failed to regain its accreditation this year.

But socialist Europe has more school choice than we do? Really? Or is it just Belgium? If France does it, we should be able to get the Democrats on board.

"Fake But Accurate" Goes Mainstream

I never heard of James Frey or his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, before this flap about his "embellishment" of his life story. But yesterday's Talk of the Nation had an editor and an author on to discuss the story. Both guests panned Frey for betraying his readers' trust by, not to put too fine a point on it, lying. But most callers defended him. Well, it was a moving story. Well, it helped people see what addiction is all about. And so on. The guests politely tried pointing out that his story is not what addiction is all about, because it never happened. He made it up. That's great if you're writing a novel, but if you say "Hey this really happened to me" and it didn't, then that is a lie.

I thought this was especially interesting in light of neo-Neocon's recent post on lies. She says:

So the new definition of a lie has become: something that fooled me. Something that I heard and thought was true, and then discovered wasn't true. It made me angry to be jerked around like that. So it's a lie.

Such a listener lacks awareness of any need to ascertain the state of mind of the speaker in order to define an utterance as a lie--it is simply irrelevant; it does not compute in the equation. In fact, the so-called liar is actually often either mistaken, misinformed by others, in denial, or deluded. But that doesn't matter to a listener who hears everything only in terms of him/herself and how something makes him/her feel.

The Frey situation is the reverse. I liked the book, it was powerful, it helped me, I agree with it. Therefore it is not a lie. It could have happened. It's fake, but accurate

The Junk Man Cometh

We now have a 30 foot dumpster in the driveway. I was worried it wouldn't hold all our junk (we inherited quite a lot when we bought this place) but I think it will do the trick. The man who delivered it is even interested in buying our old car.

Ahh! We bought a house!

The two most indecisive people in the world bought a house in less than a week. Amazing. It took us months to find the house we are in now. I just figured we'd be looking all spring. But we had some very specific requirements and there just weren't too many houses that met them.

Varifrank reviews "State of War"

and isn't too impressed:

so far its a condensed cream of "East Coast Intellectual Bush Hatred" laid lightly across a bed of foreign service officer dissention, followed by a green-with-envy salad covered in a light vinagarette of Georgetown party circuit smarm.

His final review is here, including this stab at a psychological profile of the leaker:

Things are going along well until a colleague, an old timer who has been left out of the operation becomes aware of what’s been going on with your program. He cares not for the security of the nation, but for the size of the budget of his department and his career and since you and your team have been getting results, you are now also getting the budget, the attention and of course the recognition and promotions to go along with it.

After years of work, after all the "sucking up" to political appointees after every election, he’s about to be lapped by “the new kids” who are violating every rule you followed in the previous 10 years when you had the project. He decides he can’t compete with these rules and the culture that comes with it and the results that are expected, so he decides to even the game in the only way he can.

He decides to have lunch with a friend; a friend who just happens to work for the New York Times.

Career Opportunity

Artist paints with her breasts:

The mother of two, from Tasmania, who is happy to describe herself as a big
woman, works at the kitchen table rather than at an easel, reports the Mercury
newspaper.

She said: "I either apply the paint to my breasts and lean on to
the canvas or apply the paint to the canvas and then lean into it to spread the
paint.

Sounds like the perfect job for a stay-at-home mom. Do you think there's a market for this in Kansas City? (Via Ex-DonkeyBlog)

Well, At Least He Has A Sense Of Humor

For all my dissing of Robert Reich, at least he doesn't take himself too seriously. I just saw the skit he did with Conan O'Brien. Pretty funny.

What a 10 foot snowfall looks like

Japan has already suffered 71 deaths from this storm.

House Hunting

That's what we've been up to recently. Yesterday we saw 7 houses. Our eyes were glazed over by the time we got to the last one, but we found a likely candidate. It's not in that snobby suburb I blogged about earlier. We couldn't quite afford the houses we liked there. But it is in the soccer-mom capital of the Kansas City metro in a neighborhood of moderate snobbiness.

What is it with liberals and dictatorship?

By happenstance, I often hear Robert Reich's NPR commentary while I'm in the car. I'm always a little surprised when the announcers mention at the end that he was Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor. He seems so impossibly wrong all the time. How did he get to be Secretary of Labor?

Yesterday, he talked about China and how fab it was that a country didn't have to be a democracy to have a successful capitalist economy. (Reich's commentaries are not available from NPR, but transcripts are eventually available on Reich's site. Yesterday's is not up as of this writing) It struck me as the height of foolishness when I heard it. Democracy may not be required for a thriving economy, but civil liberty, enforced by rule of law, is. And how many countries have leaderships that abide by the rule of law without at least a little democracy? I can't think of any dictatorships that aren't hopelessly corrupt. And the long-term economic performance of such countries isn't so hot either.

Of course, Reich knows this. Here's his commentary from 2 weeks ago:

Economic freedom and civil liberty -- the two are inseparable. And both are threatened by unaccountable power that refuses to be confined by the rule of law. As they did centuries ago when confronting monarchs who claimed unbridled power to rule as they wished, business leaders must come to the defense of liberty.

Oh, but wait. He was talking about the Bushitler regime in that commentary. Apparently, business needs to be rescued from the Bush monarchy, but is doing just fine in the Chinese Communists dictatorship. There are thousands of such examples of liberals making excuses for communist regimes, but I'm still surprised by them. How many times can a guy apparently as smart as Reich be fooled by the "OK, this time we've got it figured out" promises of communists? The number seems limitless.

What prompted this post was reading this (via Instapundit) by Rebecca MacKinnon:

It’s actually not uncommon in China for people in one company to actively “tattle” on their rivals and get them into political trouble in order to gain a competitive business advantage. I saw it happen several times in the media and entertainment worlds when I was living and working in Beijing. This is one reason the communist party will stick around longer than many outsiders think. Businesses get greedy and try to manipulate the authoritarian system to their advantage, rather than working together to make the whole thing more fair, accountable, and transparent.

You mean people might game the system to increase their competitive advantage? And an authoritarian system might be more interested in holding onto power than promoting competition? Don't tell Reich. He'll be so disappointed.

Update: More on China's faux capitalism here.

Successful Christmas Gifts

If you will be visiting a house full of nine-year-old boys and their fathers, consider bringing a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, I will tell you that one of the things Harry discovers in the wizard world is a jelly bean that can be any flavor, from spaghetti to dirt. While Harry has to pop one in his mouth to discover the flavor, the Jelly Belly Candy Company has helpfully labeled its beans.

From the not too terrible Ear Wax to the truly atrocious (so I'm told) Vomit, my male relatives could not wait to try the next disgusting flavor. We laughed ourselves silly for 15 minutes.
Definitely one of the most successful Christmas gifts ever.

Merry Christmas!

Mia just told us this was the best Christmas ever. Of course, her standards are pretty low. Every time we have pizza she says that was the best pizza ever. Hamburgers - same thing. But still, I think it went well. She's painting on her new easel right now.

This was the first Christmas that she could grasp the concept of Santa and I think we pulled it off. She was really excited when she went to bed last night.

Well, we still have lots of family to visit so I probably won't be blogging until after New Year's.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Manners

Since I explained to her that she gets presents from Santa and her family, Mia has been talking non-stop about who is giving her presents. Is oma? Yes. Is Aunt Kelley? Yes. Is Santa? Yes. Is Grandma? Yes.

Well, we're going to see grandma today, so I told her not to ask for a present right when we walk in the door:

Me: Grandma will give you a present. But don't ask for it.

Mia: Why?

Me: It's not polite to ask people for presents.

Mia: I asked Santa.

Me: Uh, yes, well, uh it's OK to ask Santa, but no one else.

Discrimination or Common Sense?

Seems that Qantas and Air New Zealand have caused quite a ruckus down-under. Both airlines have a policy of not seating an unaccompanied child next to an adult male. This strikes me as a common sense precaution. Some 95% of child molesters are male. If you're rolling the dice by sending a child on a long journey alone, why not up the odds of a safe arrival by seating the kid next to a woman?

But no. Mark Worsley was offended. Now right-wing politicians are up in arms about the "war on men" and left-wing politicians are in a tizzy about equal rights violations. Since this is one thing the two sides can agree on, odds are this policy has seen it's last days.

Sure, the vast majority of men aren't dangerous to children. Of course, it's even less likely that a man will blow up the airplane he's riding in, yet he still has to submit his shoes to a search. On the off chance. Can't be too careful. Better safe than sorry. And so forth. Was Mr. Worsley just as horrified that he was considered a potential terrorist?

Can't this guy just suck it up and switch seats? You know... for the children.

Oh, Fetus Tree, Oh Fetus Tree

Okay, is it stranger to decorate a Christmas tree with baby dolls representing 11-12 week old fetuses, or to be shocked and offended by said baby dolls? Perhaps the strangest thing of all is to run a new segment on the "Fetus Ornaments Controversy."

A Major, Major Turn

John Burns of the NY Times tells The Newshour:

They want an American military withdrawal, but as I heard it expressed today they don't want it to be precipitous, I'm talking about the Sunni Arabs now. They want it to be staged so that political stability here is created.

I said to one man, it sounds very much as though you have been listening to President Bush. And he laughed and he said, Bush's formula would be fine with us -- so a major, major turn here.

And this:

My reading amongst the mood of the Sunnis who voted was that what they want is well within the reach of what the American command here, the American diplomats, feel should be offered to them over the next several months as a new government is formed.

Does Carl "The Sunni's aren't on board" Levin know about this?

(Via Tim Blair)

Participatory Dictatorship

From Jay Nordlinger:

Okay, I’m holding in my hands a new book, about East Germany. The author is Mary Fulbrook, a history professor at University College London. The book is called The People’s State: East Germany from Hitler to Honecker. (So far, so unpromising.) And here’s how the text on the jacket ends: “Replacing the simplistic black-and-white concept of ‘totalitarianism’ by the notion of a ‘participatory dictatorship’, this book seeks to reinstate the East German people as actors in their own history.”

We like to say that Reagan won, but did he? In the universities, never! “Participatory dictatorship”! The cake is taken. Congratulations, Professor Fulbrook. Comrade Honecker would be so pleased.

I used to think communists and their fellow traveler's felt that they just needed one more chance (and one more, and one more) to get communism right. Apparently, many of them thought they had it right all along. (Via Betsy's Page)

Bush on the latest breach of national security

(Via LGF) Byron York posts the text of Bush's radio address in The Corner:

This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security. Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends and allies. Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk. Revealing classified information is illegal, alerts our enemies, and endangers our country.

I must say that whenever I bother to check into one of these "disturbing allegations", it turns out there's no there there. Turns out the "hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States" being surveiled are those with "known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations". And it turns out that our rouge president and his NSA have briefed Congressional leaders "more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it".

Munich

Jason at Libertas has a post about Spielberg's latest. He includes the full text of David Brooks' op-ed on the movie:

This is a new kind of antiwar movie for a new kind of war, and in so many ways it is innovative, sophisticated and intelligent.

But when it is political, Spielberg has to distort reality to fit his preconceptions. In the first place, by choosing a story set in 1972, Spielberg allows himself to ignore the core poison that permeates the Middle East, Islamic radicalism. In Spielberg’s Middle East, there is no Hamas or Islamic Jihad. There are no passionate anti-Semites, no Holocaust deniers like the current president of Iran, no zealots who want to exterminate Israelis.

There is, above all, no evil. And that is the core of Spielberg’s fable. In his depiction of reality there are no people so committed to a murderous ideology that they are impervious to the sort of compromise and dialogue Spielberg puts such great faith in.

Which is odd, since those murderous fanatics work so hard to get noticed. Yet, so many in the West work over-time to excuse or ignore them.

Yet more sickness

My Mia, not Ahmadinejad. I'm trying not to turn this into the Vomit Blog, but... I lost my second bedspread in a week last night at midnight. So, today has been all laundry, no bloggy.

We know that Bush is extending his fascist empire

across the globe through the use of America's Imperial War Machine. So, why can't anyone seem to get a decent picture of American soldiers? According to John Kerry, any Iraqi child could snap a picture of one, what with them constantly rampaging through Iraqi houses.

Update: Great comment at Medienkritik: "Spiegel's mistake is certainly understandable. The United States takes all its actions unilaterally. Therefore every soldier you see in a picture by definition has to be American."

analogy with the word woo

That's what someone from Poland was Googling when they found my blog. Somehow, I don't think they found satisfaction.

But on the bright side: Someone from Poland visited my blog. Cool.

Viva La Merchandise...

To rip off a great T-shirt slogan. I get why Che sells T-shirts. Most kids wearing the shirts are way too young to remember his crimes and way too vacuous to care. Long wavy hair. Stickin' it to the man. What more can you ask for in teenage rebellion-wear?

But Erich Honecker? Selling shower gel?














Yeah, that was gonna work.

(Via Observing Hermann, great German culture blog)

Charles Crawford: Closet Anti-Idiotarian

Charles Crawford, British Ambassador to Poland, was exposed, through a leaked e-mail, as an intelligent man with a good sense of humor. He calls the Common Agricultural Policy:

...a programme which uses inefficient transfers of taxpayers money to bloat rich French landowners and so pump up food prices in Europe, thereby creating poverty in Africa, which we then fail to solve through inefficient but expensive aid programmes. The most stupid, immoral state-subsidised policy in human history, give or take Communism.

Ouch. (via The Corner)

Perry DeHavilland is outraged: "Yes, this guy should indeed be fired from his job as an ambassador... he belongs in 10 Downing Street doing Tony Blair's job!"

Nick Schultz to Jonah Goldberg: "There’s a lot of blame to go around in the trade game (and developing countries have their own harmful protectionist policies). But France is risking scuttling the entire poverty-alleviating global trade system to protect 1% of its total wealth. It is one of the most evil government policies known in the history of man. Your ambassador friend is right." More on that 1% figure here.

German-American Relations

The Carnival of German-American Relations is up and it's full of good stuff.

Priorities

I like this from Ace:

Bush demands objective goals be met, and then he hopes for a fairly quick withdrawal. While the Democrats demand a fairly quick withdrawal, and hope that objective military goals will be achieved by the Iraqis.

That seems accurate, at least as it describes the Dean-Murtha-Pelosi-Kerry contingent. Even though the Dem leadership claims their position isn't that different from Bush's every time they're called on it, this seems like a pretty big difference to me.

Making Children's Lit Safe For Children

We've all heard about HarperCollins airbrushing the cigarette from the phots of the illustrator in a new edition of Goodnight Moon. Karen Karbo suggests ways to make this classic even safer for the kiddos.

(Via Joanne Jacobs)

I thought It Was Just Me...

who was unimpressed by the new pseudoephedrine-free decongestants. But Rob at Fortress of Solitude has a low opinion of the new NyQuil. (Via The Consumerist)

The other day, I got carded at Wal-Mart buying cold medicine for Mia. The computer made the cashier verify that I was over 18. What? From what I pick up watching the news, most meth makers are well over 18. And don't they just steal the stuff anyway? Keeping it in the pharmacy at least makes sense as a theft control measure.

I've posted before on the silliness of these laws that only inconvenience the law-abiding. Criminals are all about ignoring the law, after all.

Update: Stephen Green, also not happy to loose Nyquil.

Snow Day!

There's at least a foot of snow out there. And let me tell you, snow is much more beautiful when you don't have to drive anywhere in it. Mia's home from school today because of the weather. That's no surprise. They close the schools around here for a few inches of snow. The big news is that the university is closed. When I worked there, we joked that they only closed up when the chancellor couldn't make it to campus. (The chancellor lives on campus.)

The Perfect Democrat Movie

Jason at Libertas fisks a review of the Showtime movie Homecoming, where the dead rise to vote Democrat. No, really.

Joe Leiberman keeps reminding my why I left the Democrats

By that I mean that every time he speaks, like in his recent WSJ editorial, he reminds me of what I thought the Democrats were, back when I considered myself one. And then via Instapundit, I see that the arbiter of all things leftist thinks Lieberman is "corrossive to Democratic unity" and can't wait to rid the Democratic party of him.

And that is when I switched sides. When I realized that Joe Lieberman was the only person in the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic party. That the party base actively wants to get rid of him tells me I was right. He's waaaay in the minority over there.

Update: As if on cue, here comes Chairman of the DNC, Howard Dean, saying we cannot win in Iraq. Of course, it's all about Vietnam. Then he gets clever:

He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.

Redeployment to where? Seems he didn't say. I thought Murtha was just confused when I heard him with Katie Couric this morning. For awhile, I thought Katie had him on the ropes, but now I suspect that his argument is so weak that Katie couldn't help but poke holes in it. He seems to be saying "There's lots of trouble in Iraq. We should move our boys out of the way, to a neighboring country. Then they could go back in if there were trouble." Umm, the kind of trouble you want to run from now, or some other kind of trouble that would be worth fighting.

But apparently this is Democratic foreign policy. Dean again:

And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion.

So, it's all our fault that Zarqawi is in Iraq, so we need to move our troops out of Iraq...to fight Zarqawi.

And then they wonder why no one takes them seriously.

(Via Ace)

What is it about Asian Women...

that drives lefties nuts? From Derbyshire:

Since one of the lefty bloggers posted that picture of my wife & I on our wedding day -- Rosie at that point a 23-yr-old working professional woman with a university degree -- you'd be surprised how many mocking, scornful, and downright rude e-mails I have had from sensitive lefty feminist anti-racist souls. Keywords: "mail-order bride," "jailbait," "cradle robber," etc. etc.

The Holiday Tree

Bookworm makes a good point about the concept of a "Holdiay" Tree:

What I also found entirely silly is the ignorance behind the holiday tree. No other winter religious celebration (Hannukah, Kwanzaa) has a tree as its centerpiece. The only one that does is Christmas, which celebrates, yes, Christ's birth. That is, it's a Christian holiday. To take a tree whose only symbolism is manifestly Christian, and to pretend it's just a holiday tree when no other holidays include the tree is so ill-informed.

Is this like what the early Catholic Church did when they co-opted pagan customs and mixed them in with Christian celebrations? Have we gone from "See, you can have all your old pagan fun and still be Christians" to "See you can still have all you Christian imagery without all that pesky religion?"

That Didn't Take Long

Peace group blames U.S., U.K. for Iraq hostages:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A peace group blamed the United States and Britain for the abduction of four activists shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq.

Well, of course. It couldn't have anything to do with these "peace" activists wandering into a dangerous situation armed only with their ideology. And Lord knows it couldn't be the fault of the head-choppers with guns. If it can't be traced back to the Great Satan, it just isn't worth talking about.

The Stepford School

Yes, a school can be too perfect.

I've been checking out schools trying to help us decide where to move. I found the web page of one that claimed to have a modified Montessori program. It's located in a place we call Corporate Woods, a fancy office park filled with law firms. I guess that should have been my first clue. "The Most Academic Curriculum For Your Child" should have been clue #2.

But still I persist, because Montessori elementary programs are few and far between around here. Extra-curricular activities. Full-time registered nurse. F-3 Tornado Shelter. Closed-circuit TV to observe the classrooms. Key card entry. But I finally picked up the undeniable scary-perfection vibe when I read that the playgrounds "...are surfaced in the synthetic “field turf” found in professional football stadiums. Our playgrounds are green in January, produce no grass stains, and are never muddy! "

Plastic grass? Hmmm. I find grass stains as annoying as the next mother, but that doesn't mean I want to ban grass. Maybe I really don't belong in the snobby suburbs.

Technorati Tag: kansas city

Why Teaching Religion in School is a Bad Idea, Part 312

Here's the story of a little dust-up at the University of Kansas over a professor apparently designing a course to mock conservative Christians. The course was originally called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationisms and other Religious Mythologies," later changed to "Intelligent Design and Creationism." The controversy erupted when an e-mail from the professor to the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, a student organization for which he serves as faculty adviser, was made public. In it he "called supporters of the teaching of intelligent design and creationism religious "fundies" and said it would be a "nice slap in their big fat face" to teach the subjects as mythology".

I don't know whether this guy is a righteous advocate of science or a big jerk. But my point is that conservative Christians seem to think the local pastor will be teaching the Bible class at the local high school, when, in fact, it will be taught by guys like this.

Finally Learned Something On The Morning Shows

No, it wasn't insightful commentary on world events, but it was useful. When you are ordering on-line, if there is a box for a coupon code when you check out, then there is a coupon somewhere and if you google the store name and "coupon code", you'll find it. That little trick just saved me $8.00.

Thanksgiving: A Smashing Success

Granted, my standards for success are pretty low. I only had 6 adults plus Mia, but all the food was warm and on the table at approximately the same time and within 15 minutes of the appointed hour. A low-stress holiday with the family. I really can't ask for more than that.

Chopped Liver

That's what they call me when Grandma is around. Mia actually tries to lure Grandma to her room and shut the door to keep me out. My mom and I chatter on endlessly when we get together, so I guess Mia realizes that she will not have Grandma's undivided attention if I'm around. And there is nothing she loves more than undivided attention.

This shunning might make some mother's sad, but not me. Mia is very much a momma's girl, so it's nice to see that she can get along without me for awhile.

Snobby Suburbs

The Kansas City Star recently did a series on the best KC suburbs. As we are currently looking for a suburb to move to, I read the series with great interest. Leawood, Kansas, one of the suburbs we are particularly interested in was ranked number two largely because of the very low crime rate:

South of the Missouri River in Kansas City, violent and major property crimes occur so often that a resident will be victimized, on average, once a decade. Just across the state line into suburban Leawood, however, that threat nearly disappears. [snip]

Why is Leawood so safe? A big part of it is that Leawood simply does more police patrolling than other cities do.

And what do these patrols do, besides making frequent appearances on every street in Leawood? Crack down on moving violations:

Indeed, Leawood’s police have a long-standing reputation for stopping cars coming through town. It even dates back decades to when Police Chief Sid Mitchell was growing up in south Kansas City and attending Center High School.

“I was scared to death to come across the state line because you’d get stopped for going a mile over the speed limit,” Mitchell says. And all these years later, he insists one thing hasn’t changed: “We’re tough on traffic.”

So you get a reputation for being tough on traffic and suddenly, people who have no particular business in your town start to avoid it. Criminals go where they are less likely to encounter police. Sounds like a pretty good idea, right? But no:

...the city has been seen by some as insensitive toward minorities and even as holding a “keep out” attitude toward outsiders.

More derision is heaped on Leawood for traffic control measures it has taken in the past even though they are no longer in effect.

This is one of those things we don't like to talk about. When a town does snobby things like having few large roads connecting to other cites (or particular cities), having fewer and smaller parks to avoid attracting outsiders, and having lots of police poking around... well, then the residents are accused of being snobs, of thinking their town is better than the others. Snobbishness is bad. Snobby people are mean and stupid. Of course.

One inconvienent fact remains. According to The Star's search for the best places to live in the KC Metro, Leawood ranked #2 of 40 suburbs surveyed. Number one was the snobby city just south of Leawood. Number 4, #7 and #8: Snobby. And the rest are too far flung to worry much about criminals driving out from the city (no public transport to speak of here in KC) So presumably, these places are better. They are undeniably better in terms of low crime and good schools, which are the 2 most important thing for people with kids (along with price).

So we laud a city for having low crime and good schools, but we deride a city for doing what it takes to get low crime and good schools.

Technorati Tag: kansas city

Is this a good idea?

One of Merkel's first moves as Chancellor:

In order to fill budget holes, Merkel and her new government also announced a rise in sales tax by three percentage points to 19 percent in 2007.

Wow, 16% is already high and they're going to 19%? Stores on the Missouri side of the state line advertise how much you'll save on sales tax because Missouri is in the mid-to-high 6% range while the Kansas rate is 7% to8%. I wouldn't buy anything more expensive than a pack of gum in Kansas if their tax rate was 19%.

If you want to know about Bush's trip to Mongolia...

you have to visit Gateway Pundit, because Good Morning America was all about Bush not being able to get some door open while trying to leave a press conference, which apparently symbolizes Bush's whole trip to Asia...or something. Thanks for reminding us what serious journalists you all are there at ABC.

Johnny Depp to Abandon France?

I thought it was Scrapple face:

Hollywood star Johnny Depp is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country.

Why didn't he just buy a "ranch" in Montana like the rest of Hollywood? Thought those sophisticated Europeans couldn't have any problems, I guess. (via LGF comments)

World Beard Championship

The World Beard and Moustache Championships were recently held in Germany. These fine fellows were the winners in the Goatees and Other Partial Beards - Freestyle category. There are 17 such categories. Who knew?

Iconoclasm 201

I'm finally listening to Treason, by Ann Coulter. I never picked it up because I thought it would be a silly screed. I thought I wouldn't enjoy listening to hours of angry diatribe, even if I agreed with the substance of the argument. Then I saw the documentary Is It True What They Say About Ann? I've read her columns, but I'd never seen her in action. I was surprised and impressed. She's not even a little bit angry. Even as she's saying the most outrageous things, she has a barely suppressed smile on her face. I suspect she's shockingly blunt and oh so clever as a way of drawing attention to her arguments.

But what made me run to the library for the audio version of Treason was a clip of her destroying Bill O'Reilly(?) by leading him to agree that McCarthy was horrible for instigating all that HUAC nastiness regarding Hollywood screenwriters and then casually pointing out that HUAC stands for The House UnAmerican Activities Committee, while McCarthy was generally referred to as Senator McCarthy, what with him being in the Senate and all. That's when I realized how precious little I knew about about the whole McCarthy era (if three years can be referred to as an era). And I'm not trusting George Clooney to enlighten me.

The McCarthy stuff is fascinating, but I already had a mini-epiphany on that during the controversy over awarding Elia Kazan an Oscar for Life-Time Achievement. That was the first time I ever heard anyone say that the people named before the committee really were communists. It is always implied, or said outright, that the committee was in the grip of anti-communist paranoia, searching relentlessly for enemies that weren't there and demanding that some sacrificial lamb be produced to satisfy there blood-lust. In fact, Hollywood was filled with communists working diligently for our implacable enemy. All Kazan had done was tell the truth under oath. And even that had nothing to do with McCarthy.

What's truly amazing is Coulter's attack on Truman's image as the first cold-warrior. I live 20 minutes from the Truman Library in Independence, MO and I have to wonder how popular Ann is around here anymore. We really love Harry in this neck of the woods. But I must admit that it never occurred to me that "containment" might not be an aggressive anti-communist stance (Ann: conservatives prefer victory to cowardly containment). I had no clue that the Army kept knowledge of the Venona Project to decode secret Soviet transmissions from Roosevelt and Truman because they couldn't be trusted not to leak to the Soviets that their code had been broken. How deeply embedded were Soviet spies in the US government? Well, let's just say that Stalin knew that we had the A-bomb before Truman did.

All that, and I'm only about half-way through.

Update: Bookworm links to this Coulter article on the George Clooney movie.

Brainwashing 201

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a review of Evan Maloney's Brainwashing 201: The Second Semester:

In a darkened theater, a married couple appears on the screen. "Laura and Roger Freberg seem like normal people," narrates a pleasant male voice. "She's a professor at Cal Poly, and he owns a local business. They've been married since 1972. They live in a beautiful town. And their daughter was recently awarded a Bronze Star for her service in Iraq. But they also have a horrible secret. And for seven years, it made their lives living hell."

"A lot of bad things happened," Mr. Freberg says. Someone tried to break into their house, a swastika was burned on their lawn, and he says, "some really nasty threats" were made against their children.

"Were they closet Nazis?" the narrator asks, to footage of two Nazi soldiers forcibly escorting a priest down the street.

"Did they have people buried in their backyard?" he asks, as viewers see a scene from Night of the Living Dead.

"No, it was something worse ... much worse," he says, dragging out every word. "They were ... Republicans!"

(Via Libertas)

Yep. It's Big

Don't miss The Big Ad. Very funny.

Great Alt. History Potential Here

On November 1, 1950, President Harry Truman was almost assassinated by Puerto Rican Nationalists. Apparently the incident was downplayed at the time, but was really quite a close call. America's Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman and the Shoot-Out that Stopped It is a new book out about the incident by Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr.

According to Hunter, if four other potential shooters hadn't have backed out (in other words, if there would have been 5 or 6 shooters instead of two)... welcome to the Alben Barkley era.

Listen to the the Hunter interview here (Nov. 14th edition)

Oddly enough, the two assassins weren't the poverty-stricken, oppressed, down-and-outers that you always here about (but somehow rarely see) carrying out these suicide missions. The ringleader was a middle-class family man who spoke English and put his kids in American schools. Hmmmm.

Fascist Propaganda Meets PBSKids

Okay, this National Front video is... well...just look and see.

(via No Pasaran commentor Lou Minatti, who compares it to a "Third Reich version of the Teletubbies," but I'm sure he means Boohbah)

Ideology Makes Bad Science

Dr. E.O. Wilson, expert on biodiversity, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author was on Up To Date today. The discussion was wide ranging, but it started with the doctor expressing concern about the Intelligent Design controversy in Kansas and later touched on his brush with the left in the early 70's.

He was called a Nazi and doused with water while giving a speech because he contended that there is a strong genetic tendency towards racism and war. The prevailing opinion on campuses at the time (and still in the humanities departments) was that humans were blank slates to be written upon by the enlightened left. That he had the temerity to suggest otherwise was intolerable.

Just another story to illustrate that fanaticism isn't found only (or even mainly) in church.

Leaks and the leaking leakers who leak them

Seems the CIA has sent a report to the Justice Department asking for the Post story on secret CIA prisons to be investigated as a possible leak of classified information. How do we know about this report? "The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity..."

(via Ace)

These Things Take Time

I'm amazed that France is only now imposing curfews after 12 days of rioting. Or as La Shawn Barber reader Myopic Zeal puts it:

I have come across this shocking bit of evidence that while France burns, Chirac has spent the last eleven days reading the French version of the much maligned children’s story “My Pet Goat.”

Really. Chirac is making FEMA look speedy.

Mark Steyn Gets Gloomy

Yikes:

... I noticed a few months ago that Telegraph readers had started closing their gloomier missives to me with the words, "Fortunately I won't live to see it" - a sign-off now so routine in my mailbag I assumed it was the British version of "Have a nice day". But that's a false consolation. As France this past fortnight reminds us, the changes in Europe are happening far faster than most people thought. That's the problem: unless you're planning on croaking imminently, you will live to see it.

Is the Pendulum Swinging?

Hugh Hewitt has an interview with Victor David Hanson. VDH suggests Europe is ready to swing to the right:

So while the American people were apologizing for the Patriot Act, to their left-wing European friends, they have not a clue that the legislation a lot of European parliaments is so far to the right of anything that we could imagine, such as deporting a naturalized citizen, without a hearing...

and when the ideas of the far-left prove unworkable:

The idea that there will be somebody who will promise them to bring order, to bring back respect, to bring back reverence for tradition, and to get the economy, to get the society back on an even keel, in the European tradition. And that'll be quite unexpected by us, because we keep thinking that they're left-wing and post-modern, but we don't read their history.

(via Instapundit)

Female Bodyguards Have The Advantage

Here's an interesting blurb at Strategy Page about the use of women in security details. Seems men so under-estimate women that they don't even notice them, turning women into invisible bodyguards. Talk about playing to your strengths.

Night Nine...

of the Paris riots is underway according to No-Pasaran.

"...you know, we kept hearing all this stuff ever since September 11th, you know, the Muslim street is going to explode in anger. Well, it finally did, and it was in Paris, not in the Middle East." -- Mark Steyn

Speaking of Zombies...

as I was the other day, Gateway Pundit has a round-up of zombie sightings in polling places across America. The dead, it seems, vote Democrat.

Last Minute Costume Idea

Jonah Goldberg suggests Looting New Orleans Cop: Uniform plus DVD player or other pricey electronic equipment.

Update: I heard a story on the radio this morning about Halloween in New Orleans. They interviewed a man who went as a flooded house, complete with high-water mark and the symbol that indicates a house has been searched. People went as FEMA employees, relief workers and even as mold.

Happy Halloween

What Was I Thinking?

I decided to make a Halloween costume for Mia this year. It was going to be so easy. Needless to say, I spent the afternoon at my mother-in-law's watching her sew it. I did work the hot glue gun to make the tail (She's going as a dog). But it's cute and Mia is very excited about it.

My Kind of Zombie Movie

I saw a great Halloween movie last night. Billed as "a romantic comedy -- with zombies", Shaun of the Dead is very funny and not at all scary. Shaun is sleepwalking through his life. Same dull job every day, same dull pub every night. Combine that with a night of heavy drinking after his girlfriend dumps him, and it takes Shaun 24 hours to even notice there's a zombie invasion. Conservative angle: No guns in London, so they have to improvise with shovels, golfclubs and, of course, cricket bats. See the trailer here.

For another funny Halloween movie see The Nightmare before Christmas.

Can't Please the Pundits

...if you're a Republican, that is.

Tonight, discussion on the local pundit show turned to our Senator, Jim Talent. One of the pundits mentions that a bill he co-sponsored increasing funding for Sickle Cell anemia treatment passed. Then another pundit giggles"Wasn't he out front with a resolution to honor Rosa Parks?" The first pundit smirks "Transparent. Trying for the black vote." Then they all laugh at him. Ha. Silly Republican. Thinking black people would vote for him.

But, of course, back in June these same pundits were horrified by Gov. Matt Blunt's decision to allow the Confederate flag to fly over the cemetery at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville for one day (Confederate Memorial Day). The flag had been flown there until Gov. Bob Holden banned it in 2003. Arghhh! Think of the black people, said the pundits. I doubt many black families celebrate Confederate Memorial Day with a trip to the Confederate cemetery, but OK...let's think about them.

Are the pundits are suggesting we should take down the flag (on the one day that it's not already down) because that would be an act of authentic caring about black people, but let them die of Sickle Cell anemia, because, hey, that's just silly Republican pandering?

I'm no fan of the Confederate flag. It's just annoying that Talent gets knocked for pandering while Blunt (who probably can count the blacks who voted for him on his fingers and toes) gets knocked for not pandering.

Just in time for Halloween-

Frank Martin gets scary:

For those of you not familiar with the Mount Blanc, it was a cargo ship that was filled with ammunition and explosives that violently exploded after a collision with another ship in Halifax harbor. The effect of the explosion was staggering. Manhattan project scientists, to estimate the possible effects of the Atomic bomb used the explosion of the Mount Blanc as a model for the damage that might be caused by an atomic bomb. This explosion devastated the towns of Halifax and Dartmouth and was so strong that it generated a Tsunami wave that engulfed areas of the town that had just been leveled by the explosion.

And it was all accomplished with nothing more sophisticated than common turn of the century explosives and a simple maritime accident.

Underlining, once again, the fact that weapons of mass destruction don't have to be high-tech to be devestating.

The baseball equivalent of Nascar

That's how Cubs fans view the White Sox, according to Aaron Freeman. He says it's a class thing. I guess we North-siders are a bit snobish. If you're from Chicago, don't miss this commentary on his game attempt to root for the Wh- wh-white Sox.

Cool Geography Site

This site has map games from easy to advanced for every region of the world. It calls out a name and you click on the correct state or country. Or you can drag and drop states or countries into their correct location on a blank map. Or if you're really a glutton for punishment, you can try bodies of water or geographical regions. Hubby and I stayed up past our bedtime naming all the European capitals. Yes, we're nerds.

Quote of the Day

Regarding U.S. opposition to the UNESO treaty that allows nations "to control the import of entertainment from other countries," Lileks says:

Imagine that! The killjoy nation. Monarchy, Communism, Fascism, Socialism, now Tribalism – the US never quite joins in the fun. Everyone else jumps off the bridge, and we hang back, taking notes. Like we’re special or something.

You know you're bureaucratic regulations have gone too far...

when NPR starts mocking you. How Many Euros Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb? That's the title of Scott Simon's interview with a priest from Suffolk, England who had to pay £1300 instead of the former £150 to have 6 lightbulbs changed that hang about 40 feet up in this church. He used to hire a guy with a ladder to do it, but since the EU's "Working at Heights Directive" came out, they have to build scaffolding under each lightbulb. When Simon jokingly suggests the parish use candles, the priest replies that he'd than have to comply with the EU directives on heat and fire.

South Park takes on Katrina Coverage

Newsbusters has a film clip of South Park lampooning media coverage of hurrican Katrina. Here's a bit:

Mitch: “We’re not sure what’s exactly is going on inside the town of Beaverton, Tom, but we’re reporting that there’s looting, raping and, yes, even acts of cannibalism.”

Tom: “My God, you’ve actually seen people looting, raping and eating each other?!”

Mitch: “No, no we’ve haven’t actually seen it, Tom. We’re just reporting it.”

(via Ace)

Ashamed of my Senator

I'm watching Kit Bond (R-MO) trash Coburn: "These amendments won't save money." Really? Bond mentions that Coburn would be more credible if he had some amendments targeting Oklahoma spending. He's right, and Coburn has offered up some museum Bond mentioned.

Club For Growth has comments on C-Span's coverage here.

Update: Patty Murray (D-WA) just threatened every other senator that if they vote for Coburn's bill their own projects will be attacked, regardless of merit. Paraphrase: If you vote for this, you're project might be next. Nice.
Update: John Hinderaker noticed, too: "Nice state you got here, too bad if anything should happen to it"

Update: My other Senator, Jim Talent, voted NO on the motion to kill the smaller Coburn amendment. Yeah, Jim.

Visiting Dachau

PunditGuy visited Dachau concentration camp yesterday. He has pictures and thoughts here. (via The Anchoress)

I will only add this to his observations. One thing really shocked me when I visited five or six years ago. Just as you are entering the camp, there is a huge map on the outside wall of one of the buildings. It's a map of all the concentration and labor camps in greater Germany, circa 1944. I couldn't find that exact image, but it looked a lot like this (follow link or click picture to enlarge):

Note the box that says "Solid squares represent select camps. Because of the map scale, not all camps can be shown or labeled." The map at Dachau is about 10 x 15 feet, so all the sub-camps are shown. It's an amazing site. I had been under the impression that most camps were outside of Germany proper. But it was mainly the death camps that were outside the Reich. Germany was, in fact, covered with camps. A chilling reminder of what a real police state looks like.

It's Not Easy To Make Tom Delay a Sympathetic Character,

but Ronnie Earle is giving it his best shot. From the Media Blog:

"Astonishing, Astonishing" That's Tom DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin on the revelation that Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, pressed finally to show his evidence now that he has his indictments, does not have the document on which he rested his entire case against DeLay: a list of seven Texas House candidates, which DeLay's Texas PAC allegedly sent to the RNC with a check and instructions to divide it among the candidates' 2002 election campaigns.

I can't wait to hear the explanation for this.

If It Ain't Broke...

According to this IHT article, Iran is the standard-bearer of the movement to wrest supervision of internet from the United States. If that doesn't tell you it's a bad idea, know that Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Venezuela are also on board. I'm sure the dictators of those lovely countries have nothing but the best of intentions towards the information superhighway. And yet, the EU wonders, if it should side with that evil cowboy or those loveable mullahs? Guess which way it's leaning?

(via Cuanas)

Nutty Professors

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently ran an article (subscription only, reprinted in full here) on professors with Aspergers deciding whether or not to disclose their diagnosis. I like this part:

...academe is generally considered a more welcoming environment than most for people with autism. They get paid to talk at length about their area of interest in a realm where eccentricity and limited social skills are often seen as signs of genius rather than cause for scorn.

"Universities are probably the place where we get the kindest treatment, where we are respected and valued the most," says Mr. Perner.But, as quickly as the words come out of his mouth, he stops himself. "I tend to romanticize the university. There are definite challenges."

Since Mia started talking, she's been displaying an impressive vocabulary, even though mommy is the only one who understands most of it. As for her future prospects, lately I've been thinking less about WalMart greeter and more about quirky MIT student. Maybe she'll have a knack for the hard sciences (like her daddy). Afterall, as someone (can't recall who) once said "NASA is the world's largest sheltered workshop."

On the other hand, this professor from the Maryland Institute College of Art seems to think Autism is a catch-all term for every annoying personality trait and character flaw. She conflates autism with untreated mental illness and then suggest universities not give tenure to autistics (instead of not giving tenure to the untreated mentally ill):

Candidates' disabilities should not prevent them from getting hired. But, at the same time, we are all affected by our experiences. And if I am ever put in the position of casting my vote in the hiring of a midcareer candidate with no previous record of tenure -- especially if he or she seems ... well ... just a little bit odd -- I might, like Bartleby, prefer not to.

Perhaps she was one of the challenges to which the above referenced Mr. Perner was refering.

Mystery Illness #3342

Mia started running a high fever last Thursday. Knowing her class is taking a field trip to the pumpkin farm Monday, I rushed her to the doctor on Friday to get the antibiotics for the presumed ear infection so she would be well in time. Well, her ears were fine. After being scolded many times for waiting 5 days or more to bring her in (she never complained of ear pain), I have apparently become one of those mother's who rushes her child to the doctor for a cold. Sigh. Sure enough she was fine by Saturday afternoon. Of course, 30 minutes ago, in the car on the way to the store, she barfs. What the....?

So I wonder aloud if I should let her go to the pumpkin farm. She says "No Pumpkin Farm." What, don't you want to go to the pumpkin farm? "No!" It appears I am the only consumed by whether or not she will be on the field trip. She couldn't care less. So she stays home.

What You Really Learn If You Study Engineering in College

Kenneth DeRosa, at Kitchen Table Math, goes off on K-12 math education. Regarding the 2/3 of students who start, but don't finish, engineering programs, he says:

Eventually, it all ends in tears (or an extra year of college after you’ve transferred to a nice soft major like human resources, communications, women studies, etc). So you lash out and look for someone to blame...

7. Like your college engineering department. Wrong. The train was slipping off the tracks well before they came into the picture, most likely sometime in elementary school. Don’t blame them because the train finally derailed at their station. Don’t be like the drunk who’s looking for his lost keys under the streetlights because that’s where the most light is. A career in engineering or in one of the hard sciences was effectively foreclosed to you by the 8th grade,. Most likely, you would have been none the wiser had you stayed in the soft fuzzy land of almost every other undergraduate field of study. Everyone would have been happier too because, well, you don’t know what you don’t know. Anyway, you can at least find solace in the words of Homer Simpson when he said to Lisa and Bart after they failed: “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.” But why blame yourself when you can blame the real culprit...

8. Your rotten K-12 education.

Harsh, but it definately echoes my experience with math.

More Dumb Criminals

Here's a story to give you a warm fuzzy feeling. Seems some kid thought he'd knock over a cigarette store. I guess he didn't count on that reserve police officer being in there. See the amusing take-down here.

Saints and Soldiers

We saw a good war movie last night. Saints and Soldiers is about four American soldiers who escape the Malmedy Massacre during the Battle of the Bulge and are trapped behind enemy lines.

I was amazed to find out afterwards that it was shot for under a million dollars in less than a month. They used WWII re-enactors (who knew?) who came from all over the country at their own expense for the chance to run around in their uniforms and shoot at things. Lucky for film makers that people have such odd hobbies.

The main character is (presumably) a Mormon. Some Amazon commenters found this horrifying, as if a religious character means a "Bible Movie". But the character never really preaches to his commrades, except to insist that most Germans were just like them only in different uniforms. He keeps two of his buddies from executing a German soldier they capture, but shoots plenty of other Germans when he has to. I thought it added a bit of moral complexity to the movie.

Campus Bombers I Have Know

All the recent campus bombings reminded me of my own brush with the criminal element in college. Way back in '91, two guys I knew casually (friends of friends, we attended the same parties) figured they'd try their hand at building a pipe bomb. Having constructed one, they went out looking for a good spot to try it out. They decided on a campus police car. Bad choice. "Using explosives at an institution receiving federal funds" is a federal crime. The ringleader got 27 months, the follower got 21 months.

And, in a way, they were lucky. The campus police officer who found the bomb picked it up and moved it. It exploded shortly after he put it down. They'd have got closer to 27 years if he'd have been killed.

Woo Hoo

2 weeks and three-hundred dollars later, I'm back on-line. Turns out it was just a bad modem all along, but my hubby, who handles all things technical around the house, couldn't be bothered to look into it until last weekend. Afterall, he has high-speed internet at work, so what's the rush?