DONALD SENSING WRITES:
The terrorists will attack again, but nothing counts as terrorism!
On the one hand, we keep being told that new terrorist attacks are pretty much inevitable. On the other, when an Egyptian Muslim shot up an El Al ticket counter the FBI et. al. quickly claimed that there was no reason to believe it was terrorism.
Color me confused and losing confidence rapidly.
My FoxNews column for tomorrow will say something similar.
SOME LINKS to bizarre Rapatronic photos of nuclear detonations, courtesy of BrownPau.
The Rapatronic camera, by the way, was (natch) the invention of Harold “Doc” Edgerton, a minor hero of mine in my youth. Yeah, I was a geek. Still am.
“PSSST. HEY, BUDDY: I know where you can find some o’ them Ann Coulter pictures you been lookin’ for. But don’t tell nobody else.”
I MISSED THE WHOLE HARKEN FLAP last week, and I’m still not clear what it was about. But this post suggests why it’s already died down.
WHILE AIDS PROTESTERS ARE BOOING TOMMY THOMPSON, Brian Carnell notes that South African President Thabo Mbeki is still fighting to keep AIDS drugs out of the hands of pregnant women. Well, he was until South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled against him last week, anyway.
SKBUBBA DESCRIBES his money call from Tom Delay. It went badly.
REID STOTT has proof that he’s not a “right wing wacko war monger.” He’s a left wing wacko war monger.
So there.
I MENTIONED BLOGGER DIFFICULTIES BELOW. I should have mentioned that if you’re tired of Blogger, Stacy Tabb can set you up with a new, pretty site like this one.
And she’s cheap! reasonable!
UPDATE: Hey, check out the new, Sekimori-designed Andrew Olmsted site. Cool.
STILL MORE on the Arafat Baby-Wipe mystery. (Via LGF.) I think that Slate should do an “Explainer” column on this one.
BRAD DELONG says that Brink Lindsey’s book, Against the Dead Hand, is “brilliant.”
TAPPED SAYS THAT Jonah Goldberg was too easy on Stanley Fish. According to Tapped, Fish isn’t even good on Milton.
JUAN NON-VOLOKH takes on Sean Wilentz in a no-holds-barred assault.
WHY IS THE LEFT SUPPORTING OPPRESSION? Mangeclous wants to know. So do I.
Hey, linking to the Google translation actually works! If you want it in the original French go here.
DAMIAN PENNY finds a new low in anti-American hate speech.
DON’T FORGET IRAN: Joe Katzman has thoughts and links on the subject.
NICK DENTON CALLS IT WELL on the corporate-corruption front:
In criticising Bush administration economic and security policy, Democrats fear sounding anti-business, and anti-American. And they have only themselves to blame for that. The Democrats damn corrupt CEOs for impoverishing small investors, and putting their employees’ livelihoods at risk. And a few kneejerk liberals whine about mistreatment of Arabs, and a heavy-handed security policy.
These attacks may be just, and even popular, but they are small-minded. The real reason to attack corporate corruption, and to let the fatcats swing from the rafters, is to defend the system of American capitalism. The CEOs who inflated earnings, the investment bankers who encouraged them, and the accountants who turned a blind eye: they are not just white-collar criminals, they are traitors. They have done more to undermine the freewheeling culture of American business than any external enemy.
Yep.
MORE ON WHY THE SAUDIS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS: From Victor Davis Hanson.
BOGUS RACISM BULLSHIT ALERT: Eric Alterman smacks George Bush with the old “some of my best friends are Negroes” line.
The problem is, Alterman — like most who abuse this rhetorical trope — has it all wrong. The classic example was the white bigot who said he couldn’t be a racist because some of his best friends were black — only to have it turn out that those “friends” were his caddy and his shoeshine guy.
Bush, on the other hand, was referring to Colin Powell and Condi Rice, who he appointed to be Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. It’s not really the same thing.
Alterman may just not realize where this phrase came from, because it’s been morphed into an all-purpose way to ensure that white guys can’t bring up counterexamples when charged with racism. But he ought to know better. And so should everyone who thoughtlessly employs the “some of my best friends” line.
HONEY IS BAD, say vegans, because worker bees are oppressed. Well, naturally. And, of course, others say that the giving of flowers on Valentine’s Day is barbarous cruelty. To the flowers. Chortle.
UPDATE: Several readers sent this link, which is well worth checking out. “Carrot juice is murder. V8’s genocide.”
LOUIS FREEH is getting an undeserved pass on pre-9/11 incompetence, writes Josh Marshall, who adds that “Freeh’s chief accomplishment as FBI director was to oversee an almost endless litany of fiascos while successfully ducking responsibility for all of them.”
Unfortunately, addressing this would make both Democrats and Republicans look bad, so nobody’s talking about it. But what about those two fearless independents, Jim Jeffords and Bernie Sanders?