Yesterday, I was told that George Washington was as much a terrorist as Arafat.

Huh?

I have compiled some information. Let's debate this thing. I get hammered EVERY time I suggest that Arafat is a terrorist thug and Palestine doesn't want to live side by side with Israel.

If I imply, that Palestine wants Israel driven to the sea, I'm being nasty and closed-minded.

Obviously, I just don't get it. I don't understand how blowing up a bus full of schoolchildren is resistance against an oppressive government. I mean are ten year olds running the show in Israel...

Let us examine the Rules of War and a few definitions and straighten this thing out.

I never again want to hear that the Father of Our Country is as much a thug as Arafat.

Let's Roll!

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Michael Gersh had some pretty thoughtful comments about the Ten Commandments controversy that had me saying "right on!" As a non-religious man, I'm bloody well sick of this obsessive intolerance toward traditions and history based in religion. (His link seems broken at the moment, so you'll have to go to his front page and search for "ten commandments" unless and until he fixes the direct link.)


But earlier, he had some things to say about Bush being a statist whose anti-liberty agenda is "heavy on prayer in schools, restricting a woman's freedom over her bodily functions, and military strength as a route to world domination," and how this would turn off most of the young people who voted for the Republicans this year. To which I can only say, "Oh, balls."

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MSNBC reports that Swiss researchers believe the recently-released bin Laden audio tape might be a fake. The Toronto Star carries the same report, but reports it as if the researchers are confident that it's probably a fake.

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Valued Dean's World's commentator Casey Tompkins is famous.

(Man, you are such a geek, Casey!)

One of the items of faith of Good Government types is that the FDA is an example of government protecting us. They usually point to the 40 year-old Thalidomide case as the ultimate example. Oddly enough, it's also the only example they ever seem to have. I often wonder if they've considered whether there were other ways to address that problem, and whether that one incident makes up for all the problems the FDA creates.

What problems? Every year some new scandal comes out regarding the FDA's foot-dragging on treatments that could save lives, cruel denials of treatments that might offer hope for the otherwise hopeless, taking treatments off the market because they're "too dangerous" instead of letting doctors and patients make free and informed choices, creating miles of red tape preventing doctors from doing their jobs, and generally raising the costs of medicine for everyone.

The Wall Street Journal has one such tale, from a woman who is dying of cancer. The FDA, in its mindless cruelty, is increasing her misery and shortening the time she has with her family. It's quite horrible, really. Read it, and you'll start to understand why at least some people often refer to it as the Federal Death Administration.

I'm thankful to be an American. I'm glad to live in one of the most kind, caring, tolerant, generous, and free nations in the world.

Lately, we've had a few messages that teased our neighbors in Canada, mostly out of frustration with some recent rude behavior by some in their government. Some Canadians seem to have taken it a little personally. We Americans tease Canadians sometimes, not realizing I suppose that sometimes that hurts. I hope they realize it's good-natured teasing, like with a sibling.

For really, if you're an American, how can you not love Canada?

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Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

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Bad movies. Military hardware. Unflinching political commentary. Bunny centerfolds. What's not to love? Anna's Belligerent Bunny is now on my permanent list of sites to visit. Maybe it should be on yours, too.

In other news, I'm busy today, but we're having a a highly stimulating discussion and debate about the Ku Klux Klan, the confederacy, and the former Soviet Union in the extended comments to the Sonny Perdue article. You may want to check it out, you might just learn something.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Oh, by the way: I would argue that this is what happens when one political party owns your vote. (Thanks to Robin Goodfellow for the link.)

Sonny Perdue, Racist? has been added to our Best Discussions archive.

The approach of Thanksgiving this week reminds me of what may be my favorite TV moment of the last decade.

A couple of months after the 9/11 disaster, the press had finished its non-stop coverage and had begun to revert to its usual self. Just before Thanksgiving, visiting a tailgate party at a football game, a certain well-known anchorman was trying to guage the "national mood." Thrusting the mic in a fan's face, he said, "The president's approval rating is high in his home state."

The fan looked at him and answered, "George Bush, so far, has done an unbelievable job."

The anchorman responded, "Many of us in the media don't get the same high marks. Can you tell me how the mood is...these days?"

"Nobody likes you," the fan answered.

Hi. My name is Kashmir. I'll be hurting you now.

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Let's start with my credentials as a Liberal and a Democrat.

1960: I'm fifteen years old, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy is my hero. I don't really understand the politics of the whole thing, but I've seen him speak, and heard people arguing about him and Nixon, and I think Kennedy is cool.

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Okay, features like this great Washington Post column by Bob Levey may be the kind of thing that fills up everyone's email box these days. But damn it, it's still funny. (Link first spotted by Media Minded.)

Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter is hawking a book on Bush's "phoney" war in Europe, and is being quoted in the European press calling Bush a fascist at home and an imperialist abroad. Bjørn Stærk has the story. (You'll have to scroll down to the second story, Bjørn's direct-links don't go straight to the story.)

Not long ago, I had an interesting conversation.

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It appears that Franklin Delano Roosevelt originally proposed the notion that, eventually, the Social Security system should be moved toward a completely self-supporting annunity plans--i.e. private accounts. He expected that to take a few generations--but only a few. Had we worked on and continued his vision, it all (or almost all) would have been in accounts controlled by individuals by now.

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I have been reading, on several different blogs, and in a few articles by hard-left commentators, that Sonny Purdue, the first Republican governor of Georgia in a century and a half, proudly gave his acceptance speech "with the confederate flag waving behind him." (Or, alternately, "above the scene.")

The clear implication: Sonny Purdue and his supporters are good-ol'-boy racists, (or the next best thing, which would be anybody who doesn't hate the old rebel St. Andrew's Cross).

Thing is, I remember seeing that victory rally on TV, and saw no confederate flags. I've searched vainly for any photo involving a confederate flag at the event, and can find none. Can anyone out there find any photographic evidence of a confederate flag triumphantly flying at Sonny Purdue's rally? I seriously want to know.

What's cool? How about two massive black holes at the center of another galaxy?

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I'm putting the finishing touches on a submission by a former McGovernite Democrat on what needs to be done with the Democratic Party. It may surprise a few people. It should be out on Monday. Stay tuned...

Interesting news broken on NRO today: a group of Muslims is attempting to punish Alan Dershowitz for controversial things he's said about how Israel should deal with terrorism.

I don't know exactly how I feel about Dershowitz's suggestions, but I do know how I feel about the twerps trying to harass him with frivolous legal complaints. This is known as barratry, and is against the law in many other countries. We ought to have such laws here. In any case, these jerkwads are doing their cause far more harm than good, wouldn't you say?

In a recent interview, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says that the "moment of truth" for Saddam Hussein will be December 8th, which is when he must give a full and complete accounting of his Weapons of Mass Destruction (or "WMD" for short). Now that is a very interesting date.

Ramadan ends on the evening of December 6th. The end of Ramadan kicks off the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, which is by far the biggest festival/celebration of the Muslim world. It goes on for three days, with the first day the most intense, since it starts at sundown on the last day of a month of fasting. Muslims throw huge parties, with feasting, dancing, exchanging gifts, people travelling cross-country to meet with family and friends, etc. Think of it as Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's Day all rolled into one 3-day party. It's a big deal.

That celebration ends at Sundown on the 9th. One day after Saddam's deadline. The Secretary made it clear that, if they find any discrepancies, and he's still hiding WMDs, all bets are off. Am I the only one who suspects that our governmenet has critical evidence that they aren't telling anyone about? That way, when Saddam claims not to have anything, they'll have him red-handed. Right as the winter is beginning, and the biggest Muslim festivals are behind us.

Eid Mubarak Ho, Saddam.

Rosemary is Type Eight: The Challenger

The powerful, aggressive type. Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive, but can also be ego-centric and domineering. Eights feel they must control their environment, especially people, sometimes becoming confrontational and intimidating. Eights typically have problems with their tempers and with allowing themselves to be vulnerable. At their Best: self-mastering, they use their strength to improve others' lives, becoming heroic, magnanimous, and inspiring.

Wanna know who you are?

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Poor Jim Jeffords. Gone will be chairman post on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. Gone will be the sympathetic ear of the majority party leaders. Gone will be his importance.

America's biggest loser is sniffing around the Republicans. I'm pretty sure that he won't find a warm welcome.

What goes around comes around. Although, I'm sure that there will be no retribution...

So Bush is a moron, Eh!?

Chief spokeswoman for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Francoise Ducros, was overheard by a reporter at the NATO summit in Prague calling President Bush a "moron" because she claimed he was using the summit to beat the war drums on Iraq.

It is the belief by some liberals, in Canada, that Bush is going after Saddam for cheap oil not weapons of mass destruction.

See what cheap Canadian beer can do to a person's perspective...

My answer to this dilemma.

LET'S INVADE CANADA!

There was another homicide bombing in Israel today.

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Over the summer, we were having a weird problem. People were leaving comments to messages that simply disappeared, or never got posted. I was hoping that when we upgraded to the latest version of Movable Type, that problem would disappear.

Has it? I haven't seen it, and no one's said anything to me. Has anyone noticed their messages disappearing, or did we stomp this bug out?

I was talking with a friend the other day about critical thinking skills. He wondered aloud if it were possible to teach such a skill. To his surprise, I said "yes, certainly." Critical thinking is a philosophical discipline, a fairly well-defined one in fact, and well worth learning. Yes, you can be trained on it, although as with many things, you can never completely master it. It's a lifelong journey.

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Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: This is a fancy Latin term that, loosely translated, means "after this, therefore, because of it." You commit this logical fallacy whenever you put together two facts or events, and imply that they are related simply because the one happened after, or around the same time as, the other.

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The Democratic National Committee has been encouraging Democratic supporters to send email to the White House to protest "special interest" money in the Homeland Security bill. I've been getting email about this from friends and relatives, trying either to get my opinion or to persuade me that Bush is evil, evil, evil.

To be honest, I view this story with skepticism, but tinged with hope.

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Wow. New organs all over the country have been breaking a hot new story over the last 24 hours: President Kennedy had a some medical ailments, was prescribed some strong painkillers to help him function, and was given a few extra drugs to help prevent the painkillers from making him too groggy or moody.

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I'm not sure "smart" can be clearly defined. But I think we can say, rather definitively, what it is not: attempting to hijack an El-Al airliner with a penknife.

Am I the only one surprised this knucklehead is still breathing?

Some losses seem to augur endless night,
Years and years of darkness unrelieved.
Mourning knows no morning, nor does pain,
Peeling like a bell through windswept rain,
As those who grieve have cause to be aggrieved.
Take comfort, then, in hand-held candlelight,
However dim or distantly perceived,
Yet shining with what hope might hope regain.
--unknown--

Why does the death of someone we know or worse someone we love affect us so much? We all know that to live means we all die. Why then do we feel pain, anger, numbness or worse nothing? Why does feeling nothing make us feel worse?

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On May 10, 2002 a group of Cuban nationals presented their government with petitions requesting that the government hold a referendum on a number of key issues in Cuba. Article 88 of the Cuban constitution permits citizens to gather signatures and request a referendum on matters of national importance. The group gathered enough signatures to meet the Constitutional requirements for action.

Predictably, action on the petition has gone nowhere, but the petitioners have been harassed, some even jailed.

To learn more about this situation, and to express some form of support for these brave people, CLICK HERE!

My friend Joel Mann sent me an interesting link a few weeks ago. He said, "Reading the letter, I can't help but have some sympathy for a fellow human being getting the short end of the stick for long enough that he'd finally decided he's had it with our brand of society. Not defending the actions, just saying that I have a hunch this could have been several tragedies prevented.

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Last monday marked Veteran's day in the United States. On Veterans' Day, we are meant to reflect on the accomplishments and sacrifices of those who have fought for our country.

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Across the Blogosphere, the chant goes out: "Be Like Unto Dean!" In some circles, it's even, "WWDD?" (What Would Dean Do?)

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Do you remember a simpler time? A time, not long ago, when Al Gore skewered Bill Bradley over their competing Health Care Plans.

Bill Bradley wanted to create a Universal Health Plan, like Canada, that would cover about 95% of Americans but Gore ONLY wanted to cover children. He also said that Bradley's plan would "shred the social safety net" by using up all of the country's budget surplus.

Well, if your memory is fading, you can check out an old article from Drake University. It will remind you.

ABC News reports that Gore has changed his position, again. O Canada!

I'm SHOCKED! Are you SHOCKED? I can't believe he's changed his position...

Mickey Kaus says, "The truth remains, I think, that Bush doesn't have a scary, right-wing domestic agenda. He has closer to no domestic agenda, the major parts of his 2000 platform --education reform, tax cuts -- having already been enacted. That's why he's beatable in 2004."

So, he's beatable BECAUSE he kept his campaign promises...

So, that's how Clinton won re-election!

(link snitched from E Pluribus Unum)

One of the more interesting bloggers I've run across lately is Israeli Guy, an IDF reservist and a rationalist about the situation in the Levant. People on the hard left or far right will hate him. Everyone else (who isn't already living in Israel) will probably find him worth reading. You get an awfully different perspective when you're hearing from someone who's quite literally in the thick of things, yet still refuses to hate the Palestinians.

On some sites, you may occasionally see a weblogger publish an article called "100 things about a blogger," usually written about himself. That's not quite my style, but I've recently been thinking about an interesting alternative: 25 Strange Things I Believe. I've decided to write that about myself. Perhaps others will pick it up.

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While many political pundits suggest the reason Democrats did so poorly in the election is lack of a message or vision. The New Republic has a different take.

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In his typically understated style, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan has relieved any fears that going to war with Iraq would put the economy into the crapper:

“ I would be very doubtful if the impact on the economy is more than modest ”.

Then with a wave of his hand he ascended back to his palace on the moon, and the stock market went up ten thousand points.

For a host of reasons, the Japanese use a lot of English. However, there are very few native speakers in Japan, so one tends to find a lot of examples of very funny English in Japan. You can find funny mangled English anywhere in the world of course, but the Japanese use English for so many things, there's just a superabundance of bad English over there.

Richard Barnett's Japanese Life is the funniest web site I've seen exploring the world of mangled Japanese English. A more famous, but to my tastes less funny, site is Engrish.com, which explores the same theme but seems less selective. Barnett has an eye for what's funny, as opposed to just strange or senseless.

(Link to the Japanese Life site nabbed from Paul Burgess.)

Osama Bin Laden has been heard from on Al-Jazeera television.

Not seen. Just heard.

The Pentagon is busy determining if the audio is Osama. Indications are that is him. He was praising all the recent terror attacks. He referred to Bali and the Chechens, so it is recent stuff.

But.

It is easier to fake audio than video, so I will remain skeptical.

Saddam Hussein has until November 15, 2002 to decide whether we get to shoot him now or shoot him later!

Uday Hussein, member of parliment and son of the butcher, made an appeal to Iraqi Parliment to allow the weapons inspections in the interest of peace.

The Iraqi Parliment rejected the plea of Uday and voted unanimously to not disarm. Ironic that it was a unanimous vote, I guess Uday changed his mind...

The tag line on the link on the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page said it all: "Do the Dems really want a San Francisco liberal as leader?"

Apparently they do, and so do the Republicans…

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We are big on free speech, but it's the soldier, and not the poet, who has given it to us. We love freedom of the press, but it's the soldier, and not the reporter, who has given us that gift. We like fair trials, but it's the soldier, and not the lawyer, who has preserved that heritage for us. We like freedom, but it's the soldier, and not the legislator, who has given that to us.
--Charles M. Province

Today is Veteran's Day. Click here.

Also, if you know a vet, give him a smile and say thanks.

For you vets reading this, consider it said.

you have an ominosity quotient of eight. you are more ominous than the creators of this quiz. good god. find out your ominosity quotient.

Mary Landrieu (D, LA) has to face a run-off election on Dec 7, 2002 for her Senate seat.

The Republicans that faced her on November 5, 2002 got more votes than she did. (Not individually - I mean the party as a total)

What does this mean? Besides the fact that African-American voters are turned off by her. Could it be another nail in the Democratic coffin?

What could seal her fate?

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The Paper of Record shows once again how richly it deserves its many Pulitzers: its coverage of the recent elections is unparalleled. The Gray Lady remains an inspiration to us all. (Stolen from TV's Henry)

I don't know about you but I, for one, am sick of hearing that whiny little sentence. There are a few other things that I'm sick of hearing and I'm gonna rant about them now and tell you why it's bullshit.

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One of the most visually breathtaking movie masterpieces of all time has been all but completely restored to its original glory: Fritz Lang's Metropolis. If you can, click on that link and go straight to the high-bandwidth preview. It's simply beautiful. Some of you may think you've seen Metropolis already, but one look at that preview and you'll know you're wrong.

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In separate interviews yesterday, both the White House Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State said that the U.S. will not feel constrained to wait on the U.N. if the monster in Bagdad gives the weapons inspectors any static. In fact, they implied a lot more, if you read the story carefully.

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What's the best way to show the world you really want peace? Attack news cameras, reporters, McDonald's, and other local businesses. Brilliant! Why didn't someone think of this sooner? (Link stolen from Anna's Belligerent Bunny.)

Comic from National Journal:

G.W. Bush (on the phone to Russia): "Mr. Putin, Chechen Rebels have invaded Iraq! They are holding Saddam Hussein, his family, his regime, and his military hostage!!!"

"Better send in the Russian Army with poison gas to rescue the hostages and take care of business at once!"

"Heh!, Heh!, Heh!"

Why didn't I think of this???

Check it out. Mark Morford over at SFGate has been reading the Secret Master Plan and has revealed other parts of the agenda I hadn't talked about. It turns out you aren't supposed to enjoy sex or read seditious books or have different ideas, for example. (Stolen from Andrea. Big shock, eh?)

I'm feeling sadistic. So I've decided to hurt you. All of you.

It's a simple spell, really. All you have to do is read the below incantation. You can avoid your fate, of course, by simply not looking. Just don't read through to the end of this article, and you'll be fine. But you won't be able to, will you? Ah, that's part of the curse. You will read it, and your fate will be sealed.

It won't end, either. Days later, after you think it's all over, the torment will return, at random moments when you don't even expect it. And you will curse my name. When you do, know that I glory in your suffering.

"Ha!" You say. "I am unafraid. Go ahead. Do your worst. Show me!" But are you sure? This is your last chance. Turn away now, fool.

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