Here's

a little something that struck just right:

thirteen bagels --
we eschew
triskaidekaphobia

Thanks to david a. giacalone of: http://simplysenryu.blogspot.com/

Maybe Osama Should Be More Concerned!

Christopher Hitchens, in a wonderful piece just up at HuffPo, makes a particularly sagacious point:

"...The agencies entrusted with our protection have repeatedly been shown, before and after the fall of 2001, to be conspicuous for their incompetence and venality. No serious reform of these institutions has been undertaken or even proposed: Mr George Tenet (whose underlings have generated leaks designed to sabotage the Administration's own policy of regime-change in Iraq, and whose immense and unconstitutionally secret budget could not finance the infiltration of a group which John Walker Lindh could join with ease) was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom..."

Have we been seeing too many Terror Movies or tv episodes and had our brains fried with the incredible complexity of infiltrating Terror Groups and staying alive? Either it was ( and some folks might insist it was) dumb luck that John Walker Lindh made it into the inner circles of Terror, or, ( and I haven't a clue here) there are lots of Good Guys undercover doing the nasty to OBL and Co.

Boy, I'd love to know (of course so would OBL).

Eating Their Young. Part Deux - or - What The GOP Should Learn From The Left

Januarly 15, 2006 (No matter what the postdate says.)

Alger Hiss. The Rosenbergs. Tookie Williams. Sacco and Vanzetti.

Innocent victims of that crazy Right Wing Conspiracy. Accused spies. Darlings of the Left. Anarchist/murderers. Convicted. Harrassed. Executed. Innocent.

Once again we see that the Left doesn't care. Never cared. About the truth. We've learned that Hiss was guilty. The Rosenbergs were guilty. Williams was guilty. And, now, thanks to the muckraking leftist, Upton Sinclair, we learn that Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty.

Here's how it went...

" During his research for "Boston," Sinclair met with Fred Moore, the men's attorney, in a Denver motel room. Moore "sent me into a panic," Sinclair wrote.

"Alone in a hotel room with Fred, I begged him to tell me the full truth," Sinclair wrote... He then told me that the men were guilty, and he told me in every detail how he had framed a set of alibis for them...

"...My wife is absolutely certain that if I tell what I believe, I will be called a traitor to the movement and may not live to finish the book," Sinclair wrote Robert Minor, a confidant at the Socialist Daily Worker in New York, in 1927."

It's another example of the left eating their own. With the Left, the competition of ideas can be deadly. I've never subscribed to that old saw, "Better Dead than Red," for one thing I was a little busy watching Sky King and Pinky Lee, but, apparently, the Left was taking care of that problem all by themselves. Look at the attempt to discredit David Horowitz, an original Berkeley Free Speech New Leftist who had "Second Thoughts".

Once his path was clear, his books were no longer regularly reviewed by the New York Times or other MSM outlets. His struggle to emerge from the smears is the struggle Upton Sinclair refused to attempt. Sinclair had to know that while his cause was just, his movement was corrupt. Surely there are lessons we can all learn from this. Aren't we all watching the House GOP struggle with its identity? Many of us will be watching carefully.

Capitalism is for the Greedy!

Januarly 15, 2006 (No matter what the postdate says.)

So some kids were talking about their study hall teacher who was explaining the world to them... This is for her:

I understand that you teach that communism is for the needy and capitalism is for the greedy... I would review the history of communism and I don't just mean the old USSR... I mean the various failed communes throughout history in which the members starved or otherwise suffered until the system was ended.

Even today in China, the needy people have only received help since their totalitarian rulers began introducing capitalism to the economy... now look at their success.

When the UK ended national ownership of major industries in the last 25 years, they returned to prosperity for all the people.

France remains in love with socialism and has 11% - 15% unemployment, a failed medical system, old people dying in genocidal heat waves, and a sinking economy.

Same with Germany.

Business avoids these countries (as best they can) as there is no way to close a failing business there... once you employ people, even if you can't make a go of it, you have to take care of them... directed economies always make the people suffer... nobody opens business in these countries anymore because of the anti-capitalist trend... so nobody works in these countries...

The U.S., a rural, agrarian capitalist economy until the late 19th century, has among the lowest unemployment, highest per capita income, best medical care, most privately owned homes (80% ownership - that's really high) and greatest mobility between classes in one generation of any country on earth.

By the way, your argument that we have a poor infant mortality rate is due to the advanced medical service our families receive. The more technology we use, the more babies we save, the higher the rate of mortality among the ones we simply can't. Babies that would otherwise never have been born are delivered, sustained and then, sadly, some die. But, these were babies, most of whom would have never been delivered before. You see, we're actually attempting medicine that creates fuzzy statistics... Whereas in other countries, they can't even try to achieve our rates of success. Those stats were like bikinis... showing what you want, hiding what you want. Making things sexy for you, but, concealing a basic truth.

The challenge is to truthfully back up a biased statement denigrating capitalism, which is the private ownership of the means of production and the promotion of a free marketplace in the face of the exisiting statistical comparisons which prove the opposite.

I know it's kinda cute to use such easy rhymes to help kids learn civics, but, really, you can hate who and what built this country, you can hope that more people will earn a good living and you can wish for greater benefits for those in need - still... you can't find a place where you have the combination of economic advancement, intellectual freedom and in spite of some truely left/right wing nuts, more civil rights than anywhere else in the world. Due in part to the inherent nature of capitalism.

As to social justice... just look at France today. In most of Europe you aren't accepted unless your family has been there since the glaciers melted. While we are still struggling to become a more homogenious culture, the rest of the world thinks we are a mongrel state with no racial identity...

Even Oprah Winfrey can't get the French to kiss her ass and she's a billionaire.

By the way... where are all of the "non-french" but native born billionaires in France? Or Germany? Non-Anglo/europeans get rich in the U.S. in a way nobody does anywhere else.

Of course, you think that's just the greedy taking what rightfully belongs to the helpless.

We think it's going to be more jobs for everyone. C'est la vie.

Thank Hashem for Joe Lieberman.

Thank Hashem for Joe Lieberman. He's back from Iraq and has written a major piece published in the Wall Street Journal with his observations. Essentially, he's convinced that President Bush's policy in Iraq is a success! Finally, there's a liberal politician honest enough to visit the scene in Iraq and come home with the truth. He's also leveling a warning directly at the blame Bush and run crowd...

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

He's seen enough to insist that we're in the winning stretch of this struggle in Iraq against terror, chaos and defeat...

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.

Why are we not reading more about this breathtaking eyewitness report by a respected Senator? Could it be that it doesn't fit into the coming election strategy of defeatist Democrats? A crowd willing to lie to the public in order to advance their bankrupt agenda of defeat and appeasement? Maybe we should return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when we only did what the French approved of. No damned way.

It takes a subscription to read the whole thing, but, surely you can find a link to the article somewhere.

Hey! Maybe everyone got it wrong. Again.

It's amazing how quickly Liberal Media circle the wagons and start eating their own to protect another fantasy idea... Bush/Hitler and company must survive as a political weapon or there's no there, there for the Dems...

Now that Bob Woodward has been interviewed and his statement made public, there's more doubt about the Libby/Plame business than ever. If Libby wasn't the first Administration official to mention the Plame/Wilson connection and other current staffers have been eliminated by Woodward, then who is the unnamed former official Woodward was talking about?

And if Libby isn't the one, then why is he the only one being indicted? And where is the comment from Fitzgerald regarding this revelation? What was the reason for the Plame exposure? Was it even intended as a political hit by the Administration?

All is in doubt now.

And should be...

As I said before... "I have all the conjecture, I just don't have all the facts."

Also, see here and here for more comments.

From The Office Of The Supreme Being

Pearl Swine has been busy... stop by for a serving of wit and wisdom...

Dear Good Citizens of Dover, PA:

God here. I thought I should reach out to you personally in light of Pat Robertson's remarks yesterday that in voting out of office those school board members who supported '"intelligence design", you had in essence "voted God out of your city" and that if disaster were to befall you in the future and you should turn to Me for help that I "might not be there."

I'm here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is, Mr. Robertson doesn't speak for Me. I didn't die and appoint him Me. However, he is right about one thing. You, in fact, did vote me out of your city and to that point I have only one thing to say: I hear you.

Always to the point and funny...

Setting the Record Straight: White House Speaks Out Again...

Correcting the record as distorted by the Washington Post - A sample:

The Washington Post Implies That The Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) Was Superior To The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) Given To Congress. "But Bush does not share his most sensitive intelligence, such as the President's Daily Brief, with lawmakers. Also, the National Intelligence Estimate summarizing the intelligence community's views about the threat from Iraq was given to Congress just days before the vote to authorize the use of force in that country." (Dana Milbank And Walter Pincus, "Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument," The Washington Post, 11/12/05)

But The PDB Was The Focus Of Intelligence Reform And Was More "Problematic" Than The NIE Given To Congress.


The Robb-Silberman Commission Found The PDB To Contain Similar Intelligence In "More Alarmist" And "Less Nuanced" Language. "As problematic as the October 2002 NIE was, it was not the Community's biggest analytic failure on Iraq. Even more misleading was the river of intelligence that flowed from the CIA to top policymakers over long periods of time--in the President's Daily Brief (PDB) and in its more widely distributed companion, the Senior Executive Intelligence Brief (SEIB). These daily reports were, if anything, more alarmist and less nuanced than the NIE." (Charles S. Robb And Laurence H. Silberman, The Commission On The Intelligence Capabilities Of The United States Regarding Weapons Of Mass Destruction, 3/31/05, Pg. 14)
The Robb-Silberman Commission Reported That The Intelligence In The PDB Was Not "Markedly Different" Than The Intelligence Given To Congress In The NIE. "It was not that the intelligence was markedly different. Rather, it was that the PDBs and SEIBs, with their attention-grabbing headlines and drumbeat of repetition, left an impression of many corroborating reports where in fact there were very few sources. And in other instances, intelligence suggesting the existence of weapons programs was conveyed to senior policymakers, but later information casting doubt upon the validity of that intelligence was not." (Charles S. Robb And Laurence H. Silberman, The Commission On The Intelligence Capabilities Of The United States Regarding Weapons Of Mass Destruction, 3/31/05, Pg. 14)

There's more at the link.

Democratic Amnesia Won't Work...

Update - After reading about how President Bush is finally responding to his lying critics, scroll to the bottom of this post for a link leading to a description of a recent debate loaded with Leftist America Bashing... it's lying American political opponents of President Bush who ultimately make this sort of attack so easy for others to believe...

The Whitehouse is starting to respond to the politically motivated anti-war smears of Democrats...

Looks like President Bush isn't going to let this Democrat tactic of lying about their war record and votes fade. Finally!

"It is regrettable that Senator Kennedy has chosen Veteran's Day to continue leveling baseless and false attacks that send the wrong signal to our troops and our enemy during a time of war. It is also regrettable that Senator Kennedy has found more time to say negative things about President Bush then he ever did about Saddam Hussein. If America were to follow Senator Kennedy's foreign policy, Saddam Hussein would not only still be in power, he would be oppressing and occupying Kuwait."

- Scott McClellan, White House Press Secretary

Read the whole thing...

Here's the update link to the debate at Trinity College in Dublin...

Also, visit Gateway Pundit for more on the Bush Pushback...

Global Warming or a Repeating Cycle?

Welcome HuffPo readers! Scroll down for the post on "The Bush Defense". And take a look around with your usual openminded perspective...

For counterpoint to some extreme environmental views, an occasional visit to Patrick Moore's website is a brisk refreshment. Moore was a founder of Greenpeace and has a lot to say.

And here's a great piece on Julian Simon, who, though mocked by experts, repeatedly had the last laugh... Remember his 10 year bet with Paul Erlich? Simon won.

Also, scroll down to an informative post on Michael Crichton... is he a scary guy?

I've got a real case sending me mail today...

Anonymous said...

Actually, they don't want the Iraqi oil, yet.

The Saudis and their Houston brothtren did cartwheels when the Uberidiot was conned into the invasion of Iraq.

They knew, as anybody with half a brain knew, that the probable outcome would be an indeterminable period of lack of Iraq deliveries.

That meant, now watch close cause this is confusing, that oil that could be brought to market would go up in price.

You did notice that didn't you?

Now we're dealing with conspiracies... you are the living end...

Oil is, adjusted for inflation, cheaper now than in 1979... see InflationData.com

"...In other words, Oil would have to average $98.49 for the entire month to be as high as the price we saw in December of 1979. But we are "only" paying about 2/3rds of that amount.

Another factor that makes the Oil price worse in 1979 is the fact that back in '79 interest rates were two to three times higher than they are now, peaking in the high teens. Combine lower mortgage rates with lower taxes and the modern household actually has about $500 extra cash available each month... which will buy a lot of gasoline. But with interest rates rising and inflation climbing we are rapidly approaching 1979 levels..."

So, in the short term, they still aren't getting as much money for their oil as they did nearly 30 years ago. In the long term, of course, it will flow with the stable world price... so what the hell are you talking about? Now go away. But, first, remember, Bush did better in school than Gore AND Kerry [See, I can be asinine, too.].

We get mail...

Anonymous said...

"...Can anyone be so blind, deaf and dumb as to believe that the administration was speaking the whole truth when it claimed it had definitive proof of WMDs in Iraq? Of course Iraq had WMDs. It had the ones we sold them and the ones they developed but Iraq had nothing of consequence when Bush ordered the war to start. Worse yet, the administration knew that. Why else would it guard only the agency that dealt with oil while ignoring everything else in the country? It kept an eye on the prize, the prize it came to get..."

Well, I guess you didn't read the Podhoretz essay.

So, in brief, EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WAS AS BLIND, DEAF AND DUMB AS TO BELIEVE THAT IRAQ HAD WMD AND THAT INCLUDES BILL CLINTON, FRANCE, GERMANY, UK, JOHN KERRY, AL GORE, THE UN, etc.

As for BLOOD FOR OIL, if all we wanted was oil, all we needed to do was [now try to absorb this, please]:

PAY FOR IT ON THE WORLD MARKET.

Just like we're doing now and will do forever.

WE DON'T OWN THE IRAQ OIL.

That's not why we are there. It's cheaper and easier to just buy oil. Believe me, that's all we have to do... there's plenty out there to buy without lobbing bombs and deposing dictators to get it... buy it, use it, look the other way at the genocide.

I guess that's okay with you.

So maybe the President really wanted to do something about terrorism and democracy. Maybe the facts on the ground were wrong. But they were wrong for everyone. Everyone believed the same thing... Read Podhoretz... start over. Thank you.

I wish you people would get it straight.

Oy, vey! Barbra... Enough already, Darling...

Raise your hand if you want her to read the Podhoretz post?

Have you seen what she's saying now?

Finally! The Bush Defense!

UPDATE: 11/11/05 - President Bush has responded to his critics with a strong statement against their revisionist histrionics... Here's where it all began - The Podhoretz essay:

Yes, it's WMD time again... and this time...

It's POLITICS!

And as ususal, it stinks. Norman Podhoretz has analyzed the statements by eveyone involved, reviewed the timeline and has come to the following conclusion. EVERYONE who is smearing Bush today was WITH Bush in the runup to the Iraq War. His thesis:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what

Nevertheless, I want to take one more shot at exposing it for the lie that it itself really is. Although doing so will require going over ground that I and many others have covered before, I hope that revisiting this well-trodden terrain may also serve to refresh memories that have grown dim, to clarify thoughts that have grown confused, and to revive outrage that has grown commensurately dulled.

Here's a mild sample, referencing Joe Wilson...

...The liar here, then, was not Bush but Wilson. And Wilson also lied when he told the Washington Post that he had unmasked as forgeries certain documents given to American intelligence (by whom it is not yet clear) that supposedly contained additional evidence of Saddam's efforts to buy uranium from Niger...

...To top all this off, just as Cheney had nothing to do with the choice of Wilson for the mission to Niger, neither was it true that, as Wilson "confirmed" for a credulous New Republic reporter, "the CIA circulated [his] report to the Vice President's office, "thereby supposedly proving that Cheney and his staff "knew the Niger story was a flatout lie."

Yet - the mind reels - if Cheney had actually been briefed on Wilson's oral report to the CIA (which he was not), he would, like the CIA itself, have been more inclined to believe that Saddam had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

So much for the author of the best-selling and much acclaimed book whose title alone - The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity - has set a new record for chutzpah...

"WHO IS LYING ABOUT IRAQ?" Read the whole thing...

No Justice, No Peace

Welcome HuffPo readers... start here and scroll down for the piece on Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson...

Chirac Attacked Over Handling of Crisis

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer

PARIS

French President Jacques Chirac's political rivals criticized his decision Tuesday to declare a state of emergency as ill-suited to quelling rioting. Others faulted Chirac for not taking a more prominent public role in managing the crisis.

Let's not forget: http://intomywoods.blogspot.com/2005/11/maidez-al-sharpton-maidez-jesse.html

UPDATE

Muslims more integrated in US than France

"...To identify as French you have to renounce your faith and have to renounce your previous identity as though your previous self didn't exist. In the US you don't have to," she said.... Arab Americans and Muslims are better educated and have a higher income than the national average, said Edina Lekovic, communications director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council."

"There's no clear connection between the European and the American Muslim experience," she said, explaining that Muslims in the United States are less isolated and homogeneous than their European counterpart..."

Looks like the sarcasm from The Seine is going to lighten up for a while... No more "America is a Third World Country" from the vast, left wing, racist, unemployed people of the Birthplace of Human Rights, eh?

Another Update

Victor Davis Hanson is commenting on the uprising in France...

"...VDH: Well, there's two messages. One, that we in America can see where an unassimilated un-integrated a population goes, and where that leads to, it leads to a sort of an apartheid. And two, we can see what happens with an EU that can't create real economic growth, and has high stagnant unemployment of 10%. And three, this is I think a little bit more controversial, that we can see what happens to a society that doesn't ask the immigrant to integrate, and the immigrant doesn't feel that he has to integrate, or to learn the language, or learn the traditions of the West. So you have this Orwellian situation when thousands of people are rioting, you want to say let me get this straight. You do not want to go back to the country, an hour or two away by air, that you praise in the abstract, but you surely want to stay in a country that you want to burn down to the concrete. It doesn't make any sense, other than this strong, psychological urges of envy, jealousy, wanting something you can't have. Then, besides all that landscape, you get the impression there's something very wrong in Europe that has high unemployement and generous joblessness benefits, so that it allows people not really to have to go look for a job, because there isn't any, but to stay home and sort of nurse these wounds, with enough money to survive..."

Read the whole thing

This is scary...

There's this woman. She says she wants to get married. She's selling her house and taking bids from potential suitors. She's got a publicist for TV appearances and as you can see... headshots.

Here's what she has to say:

The idea of "House With Bride" began while I was contemplating selling my house in Denver, Colorado. Although my company is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a few years ago I bought a house in Denver. My life in Albuquerque had solely revolved around my work, and I felt that I needed to make some changes to improve my social life and hopefully meet my "soul mate".

Advice to interested parties: Stay away... you're gonna get punked.

M'aidez, Al Sharpton, M'aidez Jesse Jackson!

Welcome, HuffPo readers. Take a read below and afterwards, click around and get to know us... Thank god you're such an openminded lot.

Bookmark us here: http://intomywoods.blogspot.com/

The North Africans are being shot at, chased, electrocuted and ignored in Paris. There's an uprising of emense proportions and no Social Justice advocate seems to want to intervene on behalf of the oppressed French minority.

"...Rioting youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains. France's government faced growing pressure to curb the violence, fueled by anger over poor conditions in suburban Paris housing projects... The riots started last Thursday after the electrocution deaths of two teenagers hiding in a power station from police they believed were chasing them in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois... Rather than feeling embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs, housing and opportunities..."

Are we just going to stand by and watch as these helpless victims of French racism are herded into unvenitlated apartments and left to die the way the French let the elderly and the poor die these last few summers? Over 35,000 deaths that summer and not even a word from Sharpton or anyone else.

Rise up! Demand that the UN investigate these atrocities! Your voice must be heard!

N'oubliez pas... No Justice. No Peace.

Forget Politics for a minute... This is SERIOUS:

Page 6 of the NY Post brings us the apocalypse...

Send this to everyone you know. Shout it from the rooftops...

IF THIS KEEPS UP - WE'RE DOOMED.

"...November 2, 2005 -- PARIS Hilton plaything Stavros Niarchos III is some kind of class act. After he fueled up at L.A.'s Element club the other night, the Greek shipping heir and a posse of pals stopped at Burger King. "Stavros offered a homeless man outside $100 to dump a soda on himself," a source squealed to Us Weekly. The desperate bum took the payout "and everyone laughed," reports the source. This one's a keeper, Paris!..."

If Laurie David thought the flood was coming because we sinned against Mother Nature, then now we're due for the big asteroid collision.

These people must be shamed. By all of us. This isn't about politics... it's about human decency.

He said it on Porpoise

Pearl Swine
Bill Diamond is astute and funny... A rare combination in the blogosphere...

Check him out.

Shock and Awe - Joe Wilson's 2003 speech...

Welcome, Carol Platt Liebau readers and all you openminded folks at HuffPo... take a look at the Wilson post and then click around... have fun!
Bookmark us here: http://intomywoods.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Gateway Pundit...

Scroll to the bottom for the speech Joe Wilson made in 2003 BEFORE the Robert Novak article...

It's breathtaking...

Gateway Pundit says:

In this speech, Ambassador Joseph Wilson:

* describes himself as the investigator sent to Niger by the government

* details the African trip as only he is capable of

* says the government sent him there and not the CIA (a lie)

* says there was nothing to the uranium story (a lie)

* describes the US as "occupiers" of Iraq (a shocking statement at the time)

* describes a conspiracy to help Israel dominate the Palestinians

* calls the Administration warmongers and a--holes

* says Bush is in office for sex

You may need to Copy and paste the link to the Forum where he spoke:
http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=68&showlogin=1


You may need to Copy and paste the audio link:
http://next.epic-usa.org/epicdev2/_media/2003forumaudio/28-lecture-wilson-32.mp3

You won't believe it.

Everyone may be wrong... Bush is looking good...

Michael Barone thinks that in spite of recent setbacks, things are looking up for President Bush:

"...George W. Bush's administration has come through what many have been saying would be its worst week, and it has turned out to be -- well, if not one of the best, then one that is far more encouraging than most of the mainstream media expected."

Read the whole thing.

They say Michael Crichton is a scary guy...

Welcome, HuffPo readers... take a look at this post on Crichton and then, with your ususal openmindedness, explore the site...

He's somehow become a traitor to the Left. His book, State of Fear, has caused quite a stir in the environmental world. They don't call it Science Fiction for nothing, says the Natural Resource Defense Council. Oh, they're pretty angry.

Well, now he's recommended some reading for us and I hope you'll take a look...
The titles follow...

[the link to the Wall Street Journal may require a subscription...]

FIVE BEST

Green Gray Areas

Books that question the conventional wisdom on the environment.

BY MICHAEL CRICHTON Saturday, October 29, 2005 12:01 a.m.


1. "Playing God in Yellowstone" by Alston Chase (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).
2. "The Culture Cult" by Roger Sandall (Westview, 2001).
3. "Man and the Natural World" by Keith Thomas (Oxford, 1984).
4. "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjørn Lomborg (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
5. "The Logic of Failure" by Dietrich Dörner (Perseus, 1998).

Mr. Crichton is author of the novels "State of Fear" and "Jurassic Park," among many others, and creator of the television series "ER."

Read the whole thing...

It was Barzini all along...

DON CORLEONE

"Tattaglia is a pimp. He could never have outfought Santino. But I wasn't sure until this day. No, it was Barzini all along."

Unlike The Godfather, the truth beneath the Libby/Plame mystery only deepens. What are we hearing from our friends, day in and day out? Libby was too smart to have left notes in his file and then perjure himself with Fitzgerald... there's a deeper game here... It goes up the food chain.

Everyone believes that it was a hit job. An assassination from on high. Cheney did it. He leaked her name, and Libby is taking the blame. For the life of me, I can't understand how you jump to this conclusion.

One thing I've learned is that speculation is a game. It sells papers, ads and make people look smart. But, speculation is short term. Let's see how this plays out. I have all the conjecture, I just don't have all the facts.

Neither do you.

What I'm watching on TV...

Not a day goes by that I do not pass a billboard for Larry David's HBO show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I'm sure you've seen one, too. His show is perhaps the wildest comedic recording of truth in motion that's been on television in years. Maybe a little close to The Honeymooners, but, exposing the true heart of a brilliant mind excuses any overlap.

Victor Davis Hanson: Sleepwalking Through the Revolution

You can see the list of dead soldiers as compiled by The New York Times here. Not one of us can escape the heavy heart brought on by our brave fallen soldiers and their ultimate sacrifice for our country. In our deliberations on President Bush's call for Democracy in the Middle East, we can all bow our heads, respecting our fallen children... no matter where we stand in our Great Debate...

Victor Davis Hanson has written a passionate and thoughtful piece outlining his belief that now is the time for President Bush to assert himself and refresh the perception of what is being accomplished by our military in this harsh region of the world:

"...We have been sleepwalking through the greatest revolutionary movement in the history of the Middle East, as the U.S. military is quietly empowering the once-despised Kurds and Shiites - and along with them women and the other formerly dispossessed of Iraq. In short, the U.S. Marine Corps has done more for global freedom and social justice in two years than has every U.N. peacekeeping mission since the inception of that now-corrupt organization..."

"...The odd thing is that so far the conventional advice to the president - keep the discussion on Iraq only to U.S. national security, not the upheaval of the existing corrupt order; reach out to the Democratic Senate; curb your idealistic rhetoric with Syria or Iran; ignore shrill enemies; nominate someone that the opposition will not seriously object to - has only emboldened critics here and abroad. It is time to go back on the offensive, both for the idealistic legacy of the Bush presidency and the immediate future of his ideas in the upcoming 2006 elections. The American people, both pro and con, are more than ready for a great debate to settle these issues one way or another."

Powerful, thoughtful and passionate. Read the whole thing.

Hey, I'm sane, again... No, wait, I'm insane...

I get mail...

Anonymous said... "I just read your 'I seem sane' post, and find it fascinating how you fall into the same traps that you state your respondant fell into..."

Thanks for your comment... While I don't really want to respond to your remarks point by point I can't keep myself from jotting down a few off the cuff reactions...

I will say that the Left does a fine job of defining the Right as the FAR RIGHT. I don't think I have to regurgitate those differences for your benefit. By the way, my entire point is about imbalance in perception. My remarks regarding the Right were basically a couple or 3 examples of what Conservatives would like... de-fund the Left, impose balance on union political spending, and reduce Pork [at the word "PORK" I hyperlinked to this: http://truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php ]. They take on everybody there equally for PORK.

Conservatives dislike the bizarre spending of the Bush White House and Congress as you'll see if you take this next link to the National Review online blog... VERY annoyed with Bush over MANY things...some I agree with, others, I don't...just like a real person... http://corner.nationalreview.com/ READ them regularly for balance... I read plenty of so-called LEFT leaning sites... I similarly hyperlink to this: http://www.slate.com/?id=2126913&nav=tap2/ which I mention in passing since as you seem to have ignored my "not every Lefty is a LEFTIST" introduction, you may have skipped this link as well...

We all seem to know who the bogeymen from the RIGHT are... you need to see a few from the other neighborhood.

Finally, I think you are way too anxious to find fault with my remarks and have failed to review them as thoughtfully as you think you did. For example you quote me as saying that the Left is "spend, spend, spend... etc." when I say no such thing. Other than mentioning the Leftist penchant for supporting extremist groups without checking their backgrounds see this link again: http://www.slate.com/?id=2126913&nav=tap2/, my only specific remark about the Left is regarding the reaction to Katrina and the lack of horror at the 35,000 deaths [see this link: http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update29.htm] in one month from a European heatwave. I was in Europe at the time and recall the complete lack of concern for those deaths on either side of the Atlantic.

Which DO you remember, by the way, the hurricane hysteria or the genocidal heatwave?

Look again, check out the links and remember, it's my opinion of what I experience and that's all I'm writing about. Clearly, the extremes of all political stripes get way too much attention.

Finally, exactly what do you think of Barbecue? Some folks think it's just Pork. Others include Beef, Poultry, Game and Vegetables. Where do you come out?

We love MEAT... BBQ'd MEAT...

The ribs, brisket, sides and pies at Phillip's Bar-B-Que at 4307 Leimert Blvd in Los Angeles are great.
I've been reading about Phillips for a long time. Not until last week was I remotely in the neighborhood. I went down, read the menu and wound up ordering babyback ribs, beef ribs and sliced brisket. Cole slaw, barbcued beans, peach cobblers, pecan pies and plenty of mixed sauce topped the take out package.
I made it home and suprised the family and some friends with an incredible feast. Don't judge this place by it's appearance. The people who run it are great and the food is out of this world.

I seem sane! Thanks!

I get mail.

This was an interesting comment:

Mr 'Woods'

Pretty funny little hot air story

Altho - I must point out the dem in the story didn't actually blame the rep - he merely made an observation

Pretty good blog! I'm a lefty, but you seem sane!

Good luck [Name withheld]

Okay. Thanks.

Thing is, and I'm sure the writer didn't intend anything more than a wry, backhanded compliment, this sort of flattery is annoying. Having views that don't conform to the Left of Center can be a real pain. For a Jew, you are pretty generous. For an African-American, you're not such a great dancer. For a WASP, you have a pretty good sense of humor. I appologize for any pain I may have inflicted by just trying to make my point.

For a lefty, you seem sane.

Right after 9/11, I was in a meeting with a diverse group of people. The first few minutes were about the events of the preceeding days. One woman, a very nice woman, said, "It's all the fault of the Right Wing Christians." She's Jewish by the way, as am I.

Following her remark were some subdued murmers. I knew for a fact that there were Christians [what political stripe I hadn't a clue] in the room.

I said, "There are a lot of people who think it's the fault of Left Wing Jews."

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "But, you're Jewish!"

"Yes," I said, "but I'm not a Left Wing Jew."

Things have never been the same in that little community group.

Not every Lefty is a Leftist. Not every post at HuffPo is going to support the North Koreans, but, a few groups regularly praised there are funded by the International Left. I don't automatically assume that anyone who voted for Al Gore is an enemy agent or revolutionary. I don't actually think about that at all.

I do tend to think my political choices will benefit our country and the world in the long term in spite of the alarmist rhetoric attached to the inevitable criticism. I know that my choices seem different to The Left than what HuffPo has to offer, but, that's because The Left skews the Right of Center's benchmark so drastically.

We're not insane. We're just not YOU.

One goal of The Right is to defund government financial and legislative support of The Left. Take away the government subsidies of litigous advocacy groups. Make unions transparently accountable to ALL the membership with regard to the allocation of dues for political support. Take the PORK out of Federal spending.

Look. While The Left was fanning the anti-American flames, goading our European neighbors to levy insults and accusations against our government during the Katrina crisis, it took weeks before the badly shaken Right of Center Media and bloggers began reminding the world that for the last couple of summers, in France alone, there have been upwards of 13,000 DEATHS due to the intense heatwaves. In 2003, the total was close to 35,000 for Europe. Compared to the relatively small number of tragic deaths in the Gulf States, that amounts to a European Genocide. The deaths took place during the traditional summer vacation.

Nobody home to save them. And they call us a Third World Nation.

Which do you remember?

The heatwave or the hysterical stories of mass murders and drownings?

I already know the answer.

And I seem sane.

Hey! You! YEAH, YOU! - THE UN IS CORRUPT!

The web is ablaze with Judy Miller/Oil For Food hype right now... I think it's time to remind everyone what this thing is about...

NOT JUDY MILLER!

See the Wall Street Journal:
[You may need a subscription.]

** In other words, Oil for Food is not about some isolated incidents of perceived or actual wrongdoing during the course of a seven-year effort to maintain sanctions on Iraq, monitor its oil flows and feed its people. Oil for Food is a story about what the U.N. is. And our conclusion from reading the 847-page report is that the U.N. is Oil for Food. **

Maxine Waters, Look Out!

There's a lot of talk today about U.S. soldiers back from Iraq and champing at the bit to run for elective office... here's where to find out about one you might not have heard of...

An excerpt:

** Keep your eye on this MilBlogger. He's going to go after Maxine Waters' seat in Congress when he gets home. **

Here's a bit of what Rusten Currie has to say for himself:

** Last night I went on a patrol with Civil Affairs, our mission was to see if everything was ready for today's vote. We drove around from site to site accessing the security of the polling sites, what we found was an Iraqi population that was calm and eagerly awaiting their chance to vote once again, and take part in their own destiny. The day passed virtually without incident, and once again the Iraqi people took a step towards complete independence. Today didn't belong to the insurgency, or the Coalition, it belonged to all of Iraq, and everyone in it. Again, I find it interesting to be here on the ground and witness to this historic event, for better or for worse we will say years from now, we walked the ground on that day. I was there. **

Worth a look.

We're Shocked. Shocked...

Cronyism at Law and Journalism Schools?

** Journalists and legal scholars have been decrying "cronyism" and calling for "mainstream" values when picking a Supreme Court justice. But how do they go about picking the professors to train the next generation of journalists and lawyers?

The left has a lock on journalism and law schools. **

Boring, but, True

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about Plameaquidick...

An excerpt:

** It is certainly the case that the media narrative is much more sensational than the Senate report. A story about malfeasance is perhaps more interesting than a story about incompetence. A story about deliberate White House deception is perhaps more interesting than a story about bureaucratic miscommunication. A story about retaliation is perhaps more interesting than a story about clarification.

But sometimes the boring stories have an additional virtue. They're true. **

A detailed report by Stephen F. Hayes... Read the whole thing.

Let the trashing begin...

For a quick look at how the left develops an anti-Roberts meme, check out the HuffingtonPost's Peter Melhman who is writing, MAD MAGAZINE diary style about Chief Justice Robert's first 2 weeks on the job.

Here's a taste:

** What a couple of weeks. I know getting a job is better than actually performing it but still, you'd think the Supreme Court would be more fun than this.
First of all, as Chief Justice, I just assumed I was the boss and like all bosses, I could bring in my own people... **

Of course, this pissy little antic is designed to ignore the considerable experience Roberts brings to his job from his time as Chief Justice Rhenquist's clerk, and the numerous times he appeared before the Court arguing a case.

It ignores, as well, the nearly universal agreement among his supporters and critics that his intellect, enormous experience and scholarly demeaner will stand to enhance the Court, however they may feel about his judicial philosophy.

This is how the erosion begins... soon the MSM will refer to these quips as though they had some basis in fact. Some reporter some day will actually think he read leaked damning Roberts remarks about his first days at the Court and assume the Chief Justice is a dunce. Then the wolves will attempt to finish the job.

Memes are viral and this one is not as cute as it seems...

Libby/Miller: Leave the Gun - Keep the Cannoli

I keep coming back to this post by Mickey Kaus:

** The Aspens Sleep With the Fishes: Is it just me or is this sentence in Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby's letter to reporter Judith Miller regarding the Plame-leak case just a little too suggestive of how she might want to testify:

Because, as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.

(The suggestion, of course, would be that this is how Miller might also testify--e.g. no discussion of "Plame's name or identity"--unless she wants to stand out from the pack as someone who contradicts Libby's defense.) ... P.S.: Libby's letter ends, somewhat mysteriously, with this sentence:

Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them... **

Kaus suggests a veiled threat amidst the Aspens... Start here and scroll for more recent Kaus pearls..

Harry Shearer... To the Ash Grove... and Beyond!

Harry wrote:

"Excuse me? How does NYT reporter Judith Miller, who writes only about conversations with Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby, know what Mr. Cheney was aware of, and know it with monosyllabic certainty?"

He was questioning whether Miller could know what Cheney was aware of... his "Eat the Press" GOTCHA moment.

A look at his own post reveals his error:

"Before the grand jury, Mr. Fitzgerald asked me questions about Mr. Cheney. He asked, for example, if Mr. Libby ever indicated whether Mr. Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer was no."

What part of: "... He asked, for example, if Mr. Libby ever indicated whether Mr. Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer was no." suggests that she was claiming knowledge of what Cheney knew?

Harry, you're having a senior moment. A little flash back to the Ash Grove or something. It'll be okay.

[Credibility Gap update 10/17/05 - 9:22 AM]

Another late night...

I'm watching The Godfather and I can remember the first time I saw it. I thought I'd never see another film so perfectly constructed. I'd add Sideways to the list along with anything with Clint Eastwood especially if he's directing.

We know who you are...

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing his altitude, he spotted a woman on the ground below and asked for help. "Excuse me," he said when she was within earshot. "Can you help me? I don't know where I am and I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago."

The woman looked up at him and said, "Sure. You are in a hot air balloon, about thirty feet above the ground. Your location is between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

Hearing this, the man in the balloon became irritated. Looking down at her he asked, "Are you a Republican?"

"Yes," she replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," he snapped, "the information you've given me is probably technically correct, but I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with it. I'm still lost, my friend is still waiting for me, and frankly you haven't been any help at all."

"Are you a Democrat?" the woman asked.

"Yes," he said. "How did you know?"

"Easy," she answered. "You don't know where you are, and you don't know where you're going. You've risen to your present position on a large quantity of hot air, you've made promises you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. Moreover, you're in the same position as when we met, but you've found a way to blame your predicament on me."

Insomnia all over again...

I'm up late reading Richard Morgan's new book, Woken Furies and I'm having a hard time putting it down. Last time this happened it was Neal Stephenson and I must have read 3000 pages in a blink.