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Friday, July 14, 2006Whatever you think of Dave Weigel's write-up on Biden (and I don't think it's bad), he is to be lauded for his link to the "Jump the Shark/Ted McGinley" page. If only there were more web resources of equal value out there!For the record, I liked both of Marcy's husbands on Married, but preferred McGinley. Although I had a weak spot for David Garrison after the awful It's Your Move with Jason Bateman. 
posted by gbarto at 4:27 PM Thursday, July 13, 2006So Condoleeza Rice has called on Israel to exercise restraint in Lebanon.Since the Cedar Revolution revealed many worthy Lebanese ready for democracy, I would agree. Care should be taken to assure that these Lebanese recognize Hezbollah as the enemy and the Israelis as fellow democrats desiring liberation from the evils of Hezbollah. So, yes, Israel should exercise restraint in Lebanon. Now Syria and Iran...
posted by gbarto at 11:23 PM U.S. suspected Iran in TWA 800 explosionaccording to CNN.com. Key graf: Iran was the leading suspect because the intelligence community believed it was behind the deaths of 19 American military service members in a bomb attack on the Khobar Towers military housing complex in Saudi Arabia only three weeks earlier. Ultimately, the U.S. government said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was responsible for that attack.There was widespread comment vis-à-vis Iran and Khobar and the Clinton admin's lack of action last week. Not sure what it means that they bought the hypothesis enough that Iranian terrorism was their logical first concern about the TWA 800 blast, but it is a reminder that we have to be careful a) not to leap to conclusions about events there too quickly and b) not to sit on our hands, however, if we have pretty good info. Bottom line, had we bombed over TWA 800, we'd have been in a world of hurt. But considering today's news, one wonders how much of a world of hurt has come because we failed to bomb over the Khobar towers. Bush should be wary of pulling the trigger too quickly in reaction to events. But his finger should be on the trigger, lest we let pass a moment when resolute action on a smaller scale could prevent us from needing to take still greater action down the road. Glad I'm not in charge of any countries this morning.
posted by gbarto at 11:44 AM Tuesday, July 11, 2006Quick take: Error Theory is dubious about a "Crescent of Embrace" memorial for Flight 93.At first brush, I was pretty horrified by the design myself. But on second thought... if the purpose of a memorial is that it tell a story we not forget, the association of the crescent and the whole carnage wrought by Islamism sends exactly the signal I think should be sent. I just don't know how CAIR would feel about it.
posted by gbarto at 3:45 PM Sunday, July 09, 2006Youth Activists from Religion of Peace terminate Disturbed GirlIn other words, God be praised, Muslim thugs stoned a girl who dropped an apparently jumbled pamphlet in a mosque is Izom, Nigeria. It is not clear how many virgins you get in Paradise for being one of twenty or thirty men who together slaughter a 14 year-old girl. Though if her hair was exposed in the process of her stoning and the men were able to resist the temptation to force her to have sex with her, they should at least be in line for awards for uncommon valor, or whatever it is that the Muslims pass out to Muslim men who prove they are merely violent barbarians and not in rut to boot. To be fair, Christians of a certain stripe have done this sort of thing in the past. Today, of course, we put them in prison or an asylum when their godly passion boils at these temperatures, but as recently as 300 or so years ago our track record wasn't so good. You know, when we hadn't figured out cars, or toilets or enough genetics to know the real reason why buggering the ewes didn't yield half-men, half-sheep. The Muslims have thus far at least been able to import these little gems from the civilization that surpassed it sometime after the Renaissance, but, as 9/11 and the events in Nigeria show, they've still got a bit to learn. Let's hope they do, and soon. And for any Muslims offended by the above, please be assured that I've had a peak or two at the Koran and have known perfectly fine, decent and civilized Muslims. I hope you'll join me in condemning the barbarism and in realizing that I am not satirizing your religion, but rather those who think it appropriate to practice in the way these "youth" did. When, eg, a pastor and family smothered an epileptic to drive out his demons, I was equally repulsed by what still gets done in the name of Christianity these days, but fortunately far less often since we police our own, not hand them the keys to the rectory.
posted by gbarto at 5:03 PM |
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