Month: December 2003

A bit more serious

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…(also via Norm) is this link to an Observer article on Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd (to be blunt, if you don’t know who she is, then you have absolutely no business discussing the humanitarian arguments re the Iraqi liberation). It would seem that she has a better working relationship with Tony Blair’s government these … Read more

Mostly for one line

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Norm Geras linked to this article, which is worth noting for this paragraph alone: Therefore a cat with chicken tikka masala on its back will be certain to hover in mid air, while there could be problems with buttered toast as the toast may fall off the cat, causing a terrible monorail crash resulting in … Read more

Taranto’s back…

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Yeah, I know, half of you probably can’t stand OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web. Alas, I have a considerable fondness for it, and it’s for links like this one: The scam that caused a painful sting in my mailbox.

Oh, dear, that’s not a very good title by Polly Toynbee, is it?

Funny, funny article, though – in that actually, we’re not really laughing with you sense. It seems that our heroine got a letter from a Nigerian schoolgirl asking for money. Seems that said schoolgirl needed 200 pounds to finish school, being an orphan and all, she gave references, which apparently checked out, Toynbee cut a check and – guess what? – yup, the writer’s bank account keeps getting raided for cash.

Big surprise, really. Cold call, no way to really check it out, the girl’s parents were supposedly victims of Ebola, for crying out loud: this is one reason why relief organizations exist (like this one), to make sure that money goes where it should. So, is it Toynbee’s fault?

Naah. Sure, she’s an idiot, but in the end she lays the blame on the good old US of A:

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A step beyond a step too far.

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Lawyers. I know: the word alone almost causes you to swoon with joy and thanksgving. Lovers, fighters, poets — there’s no evil that these paragons of truth and virtue cannot conquer, no danger that they will not face, no friend-in-need whose call they will not answer.

Yes, I am one of them. Save your applause, please, until the end — for there are heavy matters that we first must discuss.

Heavy matter numero uno: The speed with which politico-shtick and lawyer shtick are converging. The rush to apply the bare minimal standards of honesty that govern us law-folks to political rhetoric — the “if I say it this way it will just barely be truthful” test. You know what I mean: “no controlling legal authority”; “I never said Iraq had WMDs, I said it had WMD programs“; “I suppose it depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”

This one foot over the line, one foot behind is usually just fine. Sure, a partisan or two gets stirred up, but most people can distinguish between spin and lie. But, sometimes, in our eagerness to score rhetorical points, we take that step beyond a step too far . . . .

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Mildly-interesting Economics Open Thread

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The U.S. dollar hit an all-time low against the Euro today. This is mildly interesting, because the dollar should be strengthening as the Federal deficit increases: Higher deficits generally lead to increased foreign borrowing/investment,* which in turn leads to an increase in demand for dollars and hence a higher price for the same. Why that … Read more

Mad Cows and Canadians

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Well, now I’m back too. And annoyed. Item the first: CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 28 — President Bush’s stewardship of the nation’s food supply was attacked Sunday by Democratic presidential candidates who charged that the case of mad cow disease in a Washington state Holstein could have been discovered earlier if the administration had not coddled … Read more

Oh, My.

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Priorities and Frivolities points out this:

“I am disappointed but hardly surprised by the latest reports that the Bush Administration has withheld information regarding Senator Carper’s bill,” Dean stated. “What we need is openness in government, not secrecy. But this Administration doesn’t even want us to know who the Vice President met with when he was concocting their drill and burn energy plan.”

(Bold mine)

…in response to Pejman’s pointing out of this:

Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean has demanded release of secret deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. But as Vermont governor, Dean had an energy task force that met in secret and angered state lawmakers.

Dean’s group held one public hearing and after-the-fact volunteered the names of industry executives and liberal advocates it consulted in private, but the Vermont governor refused to open the task force’s closed-door deliberations.

In 1999, Dean offered the same argument the Bush administration uses today for keeping deliberations of a policy task force secret.

“The governor needs to receive advice from time to time in closed session. As every person in government knows, sometimes you get more open discussion when it’s not public,” Dean was quoted as saying. (Again, bold mine)

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Guest Blogging…

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Dan Drezner is guest blogging for Andrew Sullivan. I’ll repeat my advice (that he clearly put his name on each post he writes, because otherwise people will just assume that he’s Andrew Sullivan*) and my wishes of good luck here; I look forward to seeing the results on both your site and Andy’s. Moe *Happened … Read more

Blogiquette Question…

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…is that even a word? At any rate, I’ve noticed that Calpundit more or less owns our referrer logs today, thanks to the link he threw our way in this post. By the way, Kevin, sorry to hear that you aren’t feeling well; hope you feel better. So. What’s the proper response to somebody enabling … Read more

Well, we’re 1/3rd back…

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…well, I am, at least: back home, that is. Not as dramatic a return as it could have been – what with my remote blogging from my parents’ house and all – but so it goes. All in all, as Christmas trips to visit presumptive in-laws whose patriarch doesn’t quite believe even after seven years … Read more