Moe Lane

Finally Saw Return of the King.

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What did I think of it? And in that very moment, away in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in … Read more

Weird Digital Pictures

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Either a very quirky digital camera, or a very pointless set of fakes. You make the call. (Via the Instadude) Moe PS: I sorta want to know why the camera did that, but not if the explanation requires too many polysyllabic words.

Amusing semi-evil thought.

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…sparked by something that Matt Stinson said in comments: if Bush seems like he’s going to win in a landslide, Republicans may sit on their hands come election day and cost the GOP several vital Senate and House seats You have to admit, that’d be an interesting strategy by the Democrats: nominate somebody who that … Read more

Potential confusion.

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The raid on the Baghdad mosque that netted “AK-47s, hand grenades and an anti-aircraft missile” (noted by Tim Blair) was the Ibn Taymiyah mosque. I note this because I’m pretty sure that Sasha Castel’s site is using pictures from the raid on the Umm al Tabul mosque instead (which was the one that netted “three packages of TNT, one case of blasting caps, three bags of gunpowder, eight improvised grenades, a roll of detonation cord, improvised explosive device materials such as 9-volt batteries and unidentified propellants, 11 AK-47 assault rifles and 20 AK-47 magazines”. Then again, the Reuters article that Major Sean Bannion links to in his post calls it the al-Tabool mosque and says that the items recovered were “several sticks of high explosives, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition”.

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dKos throws down on TNR

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In case you’ve been ignoring dKos lately, he’s called for a jihad/crusade* against The New Republic. Apparently, it’s not liberal enough for him: I imagine that Chait’s Dean-o-phobe blog is giving Kos fits, itches and the galloping staggers, too (although I’m surprised that he’d be down on &c, too, as it’s more likely to tell … Read more

Because Ricky had a point…

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Blogrolls get large, obviously; just as obviously, it can get easy to not read all of them on a regular basis. Which is a shame, because then you miss posts like this from debitage. It’s on religion – specifically, the difference between conservative/liberal perceptions of same – but in a way that doesn’t want me … Read more

Because the Blogroll wasn’t long enough…

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I’m adding two more (which, to be honest, is mostly so I’ll remember to check them more often). Outside the Beltway is a somewhat recent appreciation (this NYT Magazine article that James linked to about the Democrats and the war was most interesting, and should get further exposure) and I always meant to add Steve … Read more

Hey, I have a blog: the blog doesn’t have me

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Via Normblog we find this little quiz: Are you a Blogoholic? I scored a mere 52%. I can give this up any time that I want. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go work out ways to get twenty more people to add this site to their blogrolls, start a meme and work … Read more

Grist for the mill.

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Joe Katzman over at Winds of Change linked to this report on the Iraqi situation. He calls it not ‘completely comfortable reading for anybody’: I’d agree*. He also calls it ‘very much worth reading’: I’d agree on that, too. Obviously. And, on that note, I am officially now going back to bed: this cold I … Read more

Great. Googley. Moogley.

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Could it be? Could it really, truly be? Is Hollywood really beginning to make movies that are geared to my demographic? Because via Lileks I see that a film called Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is coming out, and by God this is the sort of film that I would pay primetime money … Read more

Ayup.

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Over at Tacitus there’s a pretty interesting debate going on about the ‘cowboy’ thing: Tac’s pretty much in that ‘this is an insult?’ camp of Righties that delights in complicating the lives of people who just wanted to use a nice, simple pejorative. For my part, that pretty much sums up this particular debate right … Read more

What Did I miss?

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I was fairly sick yesterday, to the point where I didn’t even go online for very long (I’m not exactly better, either: I’m blogging this early in the morning because I got slept out, but I still feel like death warmed over). Anything interesting happen?

If you don’t want to know the answer…

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… don’t ask the question. Generally speaking, I don’t overly concern myself with British gun policy, as American gun policy is sufficiently complicated enough that I don’t have much time to spare. But it’s hard not to snicker at least a little at the surprise and irritation engendered by some of the people involved, including … Read more

Quiet New Years Eve

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Aside from the cold, no worries. Watched a couple of movies, shouted huzzah five minutes late and drank some champagne. In other words, nothing like this, thank all gods past, present and future.

It’s 2004.

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Are you ready? Have you finished putting on your game face? Did you put your seat back and raised your tray into the full, upright position? Excellent. Then let’s get started, shall we?

This is insane, yes.

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I mean, really, really insane. We’re talking transcendently insane: Bush/Clinton in 2004 (Clinton being, of course, Hillary). Isn’t that lunatic? I got the idea from a poster from this dKos thread about that popularity poll. dKos is especially amusing today, by the way: the post after that one is sort of about how Dean doesn’t … Read more

Proxy charity request

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Gary Farber of Amygdala is apparently in a bit of a hole financially and could use some help. He’s an all right guy (when he isn’t correcting our grammar) and it is the Christmas season… your call to make; I didn’t begrudge him a twenty. Moe

This entire contest meta-theme

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It’s interesting: we’ve had this blog up and running for just over a month, and already we’ve jumped into at least three contests. There was Wizbang’s 2003 Weblog Awards (it was a shame that our site was still jumping up and down the Ecosystem at the time, because I felt too weird about voting for … Read more

Obligatory Google Search String post.

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I’d just like to note for the record that we’re currently #2 for Google searches using naked women as the search string. #1 is a Salon article about Mr. Spock’s nudes. (pause) The Internet is weird, man. UPDATE: My smarter half has pointed out that we’re #12, not #2. Oh, well, something to aim for.

Thought-Resolution Experiment.

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Thanks to regular Tacitus poster Timmy the Wonder Dog I was alerted to this piece of Lileksian amusement. Amusing stuff… and, in the spirit of the holiday, we’re going to designate this as… THE NEW YEAR’S POLITICAL RESOLUTION THREAD!!!!! Right. Anyway, the rules are simple: 1) Come up with a political resolution that applies to … Read more

OK, maybe I’m just too tired

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…but this Dave Barry year in review thing got funnier the farther in I read. Equal-opportunity skewering galore. (via Peevish, which has also been belatedly blogrolled)

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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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

Excuse me, Glenn?

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Just so you don’t think that I worship the fellow, I’m going to have to say that the second paragraph of this particular post is out of line. The post (which started to be about improving Israeli/Indian relations, then segued into an odd – and to my mind, unsupported – allegation* that the Intifada is a ‘proxy war’ between the EU and the USA) ends with this:

I’ve thought for quite a while that “proxy war” was the appropriate characterization, and indeed I’ve used that term here before. Europeans should worry, though, about what will happen if Israel — or America — decides to return the favor. Providing financial aid to terrorists who target European civilians would be uncivilized — but, then, the Europeans are supposed to be the civilized ones, no?

Glenn Reynolds, I’m sure that you’ve used the phrase ‘proxy war’ before, although I can’t remember offhand the last time you’ve used it. However, those last two sentences are offensive. Europeans should not have to worry about us ‘returning the favor’, both because it’s not going to fragging happen and because the entire idea is not what this country is all about**. And I don’t buy this tit-for-tat bit, either – and I find that I don’t really like the tone of that last line, either. Too close to deniably advocating in the classic Henry II fashion.

Retract, please.

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Iranian Earthquake Post.

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It’s a hell of a way to start up after Christmas, but by now you’ve probably read about this. As of today, there are fears that the death toll could reach 40,000.

OK, three points to address here, one after the other. First, due to existing diplomatic complications, groups like Direct Relief may end up being the primary instruments of American aid. You can donate to them here. Any other groups that you guys hear of, feel free to add in comments and I’ll update where I can. It hardly needs to be said that I was saddened by the destruction and loss of life, and that I offer my hopes and prayers that the initial estimate of the loss of life turns out to be exaggerated.

It gets partisan from here, so you can ignore the rest if you like.

UPDATE: BuzzMachine’s got more links (via Instapundit).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Matt Stinson’s got an interesting suggestion involving UNESCO and the First Lady. Check it out. Pejman links to a site with several other relief groups. Check him out.

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It’s Christmas Eve Day…

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…which sounds kind of weird, but there you go. I’ll be running around a lot tomorrow and I’m about to go to sleep, so I’ll take the time now to wish everyone a happy holiday of the appropriate type, religious or secular; I’ll post in from time to time, but you know how it is. … Read more

I think that Katherine might have linked to this…

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… so I will. It’s from the Blogging of the President: 21st Century Participatory Democracy: A Perspective. In deference to her, I merely link to it without comment, analysis or uncontrollable fits of laughter. But do go out and vote next year, and every year. Vote for all the boring stuff, including municipal elections that … Read more

Mean? Yes. Accurate? Hmmm: could be…

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Where Mike of Cold Fury got these transcripts, we’ll never know… but don’t let the rough language and unfair accusations made against our good, dear friends Germany, France and Khofi Annan distract you from the point. Said point will no doubt be transmogrified* in a fit of heavy-handed sarcasm by somebody, but, hey, it’s almost … Read more