Reliving 9/11

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I guess its fitting that today, as the 9/11 Commission begins hearings in NYC, my office building had a full evacuation rehearsal today. There was a time when such drills met choruses of groans and saw people hiding in conference rooms to avoid having to file down the staircases and out into the streets. Now, however, there’s a much less grudging compliance, accompanied by stories of friends and relatives who escaped one of the WTC towers and how these drills are not so bad after all.

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Bad Connection Politics Open Thread

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Intermittent connection problems all evening, and sleeping sounds good right now. So, here’s a couple of fresh threads to post to. I hope that they post…

Heavy Handed Headline

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It screams at you on the FoxNews.com site homepage: U.S. Confirms WMDs Found in Iraq But it’s not very likely the discovery that an IED exploded today contained sarin (and another was found to contain mustard gas) will justify that editorial choice. From MSNBC.com Two former weapons inspectors — Hans Blix and David Kay — … Read more

When you get right down to it…

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…this has got to be the best commentary of the blogosphere ever. (via Backward) UPDATE: Oh look, it kinda works for other sites too! sample 1 sample 2 Sorry…had a bit of a flashback to the second grade there for a moment.

A Unity Ticket

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Calpundit Guest blogger, commedian Jay Jaroch, offers a lighthearted look at some of the top news stories, including what’s perceived in some quarters as the Democrat’s inability to find a Kerry runningmate among themselves who’s half as appealing as John McCain. All this McCain talk sets too high a standard for a running mate. If … Read more

The Garage Is Open

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Why do we let Chalabi get away with this? Council member Ahmad Chalabi said terrorists are using the insurgent Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, where U.S. Marines stopped patrols last month and allowed an Iraqi security force to oversee security, to prepare car bombs like the one that killed Saleem. “The terrorists are free to roam … Read more

For the record, I don’t disapprove, either.

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Short Hope Unfiltered has an interesting anecdote up that might illuminate some hithero overlooked connections between Social Security, immigration and outsourcing one’s retirement. Or not. It may just be an anecdote about a guy with a pretty clever idea on how to stretch out his retirement income. I find that I am especially tired tonight, … Read more

Good news. Symbolic?

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It would appear that the American bald eagle will be taken off the threatened species list, thanks to a thirty year program of careful breeding, legal protection and the continuing nonusage of DDT. This is, of course, excellent news. The bald eagle will continue to enjoy federal protection, but apparently being taken off the list … Read more

Hey, does anybody here…

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…not spit at hearing the words “Agricultural Subsidies”? (pause) Thought so. This should be cheering news, then: In U.S., Cotton Cries Betrayal. Sumner, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Davis, played a key role in an international trade case that is shaping up as one of the most significant defeats the United … Read more

Piker.

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James Joyner let that pollster off the hook waaaaay too easily; in my house we treat one of their calls as an opportunity to practice our improv skills. In my day I’ve: *Start babbling mid-sentence, then just as stopped just as rapidly; * Randomly adjusted the volume control while talking; * pretended that the volume … Read more

I saw a cicada today.

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On our way back from IKEA (too hot and muggy for my dad to do the tourist thing; he decided to stay home and watch 3,000 Miles to Graceland in a nice, dark, air-conditioned room). It was on the sidewark to our house; it had the weird eyes and wings, so it was definitely a … Read more

ACLU and religious expression.

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The American Civil Liberties Union just won a Michigan court case involving religious expression in a school (in this case, a high school yearbook). At issue was whether a high school valedictorian would be allowed to use a Bible verse as a special quote for the yearbook (not the regular quote under her picture; one solicited by the school itself); the ACLU won an overwhelming victory. Quotes Kary Moss, ACLU head for Michigan:

“There are reasonable limits the schools can place, and potential for disruption is one reason a school might be able to limit certain speech,” Moss said.

Are my Righty colleagues annoyed, yet?

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Life, meet the Onion.

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The Onion: 34 Congressmen Arrested In D.C. Cockfighting Crackdown WASHINGTON, DC—Washington police seized 22 members of the House of Representatives, 12 members of the Senate, and more than 100 fighting cocks Monday night, in the latest crackdown on blood sports at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Life: Scorpion panic as Colombia election bill … Read more

Ye gods. Maybe trolls have uses after all.

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I have my parents visiting*, so posting may be light this weekend. If you haven’t checked out Kevin Drum’s analysis on the strengths of blogging, do so: it’s pretty comprehensive, although I think that he’s ignoring one in particular. Not fact-checking – he’s aware; he just doesn’t think that it’s all that important – but … Read more

And it keeps getting stranger

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Bizarre New Link In Berg Murder CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports U.S. officials say the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password Berg used in college turned up in the possession of Zacarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative arrested shortly before Sept. 11 for his suspicious activity at a flight … Read more

May 17th, 2004

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I’ve been scouring the news and comics all morning for something to shake this melancholy that’s got me in its grasp at the moment. Not sure if it’s my allergies, or the relentless barrage of images of horror, or just the drain of the current political climate, but give me a guitar and I’d make … Read more

Enlightenment is where you find it.

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It’s interesting how many stops on the blogosphere remind me of this passage from The Illuminatus! Trilogy:

…”As for the rest of you – who can tell me, without uttering a word, the fallacy of the Illuminati?”

A young girl – she was no more than fifteen, George guessed, and the youngest member of the crew; he had heard she was a runaway from a fabulously rich Italian family in Rom – slowly raised her hand and clenched her fist.

Hagbard turned on her furiously. “How many times must I tell you people: no faking! You got that out of some cheap book on Zen that neither the author or you understood a damned word of. I hate to be dictatorial, but phony mysticism is the one thing Discordianism can’t survive. You’re on sh*twork, in the kitchen, for a week, you wise-ass brat.”

The girl remained immobile, in the same position, fist raised, and only slowly did George read the slight smile that curled her mouth. Then he started to smile himself.

(Pages 429 – 430)

No, I’m not going to tell you what post on what site sparked this observation, because it’s not going to make any real sense unless you understand what the above passage is driving at, and I have no intention of explaining what the above passage is driving at. You either get it, or you don’t – and as the Church of the Subgenius points out, when it comes to enlightenment… if you think that you got it, you didn’t really get it*.

Moe

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Silence and the Moderate Muslim (part 3): Resistance is Futile

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Andrew McCarthy’s essay on NRO reads like a summary of every argument I’ve had over the past two years about whether or not we’re in a religious war disguised as a “war on terror.” In general, he stops short of saying our enemy is “Islam” (he carefully uses “militant Islam”), and he clarifies that doesn’t mean a war against a religion, but rather against an ideology.

Given that his first clarification is something it normally takes me months to get from those I debate, I consider McCarthy’s point of view refreshing to some degree. But I was actually quite disturbed as I read through his argument when it was confirmed for me what this war is really about for some: assimilation. Now this had occurred to me before, but it wasn’t until someone as honest with himself as McCarthy outlined the ideas here that it became crystal clear.

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Sounds about right.

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I’ve been critical (oh, pardon the pun) of Josh Marshall on at least one occasion, so it’s only fair that I note that I would have made roughly the same reply to a criticism made by one of his readers. Said critique was the standard You Haven’t Written About This So I’m Going To Be … Read more

Serendipity.

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I was searching for what Senator Kerry actually said to have the AP claim that he called the war in Iraq a failure (I found the lack of direct quotes… well, ‘diagnostic’ works, huh?); I haven’t, yet, but I found this in the process: Nader Wins Endorsement from Reform Party. WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent Ralph … Read more

Should post something, huh?

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What with me home sick and everything. OTOH, I am actually home sick (though feeling much better), so I’m behind on the post-it notes. And Edward Underscore (guess we’ve got his superhero name, huh) just cut n’pasted that interesting hilzoy comment, so that’s out. (pause) Look! Monkeys! Moe

One note and then meeting hell

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I’m actually gonna have to earn my keep today, so my only contribution until I get out of meeting hell is going to be this thought from Thomas Friedman: It has always been more important for the Bush folks to defeat liberals at home than Baathists abroad.

Spanish Retreat from the War on Terrorism

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I was willing to give the Spanish a little bit of wiggle room on Zapatero’s implementation of the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq. I really tried, here and here. First I thought Zapatero was just fulfilling a campaign promise to withdraw troops from Iraq if there wasn’t a UN force there. I thought that he had … Read more

I’m always out of the loop.

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Especially on this entire lemur thing from Reuters: Lemurs Aren’t So Dumb After All, Study Finds. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lemurs, once believed to be cute but basically stupid, show startling intelligence when given a chance to win treats by playing a computer game, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. Heck, I wasn’t aware that their being … Read more

Cold thoughts for a warm night.

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When the Commissar states that one of the wars going on right now is the one “between our inner Thomas Jefferson and our inner Phil Sheridan“, he is being entirely correct.

When Donald Sensing warns about the consequences of making this war personal, he is being entirely correct.

And when Wretchard declares himself to be afraid what of what comes next*… a merciful God willing, we will not have to determine whether or not he is entirely correct as well.

Moe

UPDATE: Jeebus, you know that it’s been a bad week when Lileks is being grim:

The West doesn’t have the power to change Islam; it only has the power to destroy it. We have a lot of nukes. We could kill everyone. We could just take out a few troublesome nations, kill millions, and irradiate Mecca so that the Fifth Pillar is invalidated. The hajj would be impossible. Every pilgrim a martyr. I don’t think we’ll do either; God help us if we do, but inasmuch as we have the capability, it’s an option. But it would be a crime greater than the crime that provoked such an act, and in the end that would stay our hand. They know we won’t do it.

Strong horse, weak horse.

There is another path, of course. Simply put: if a US city is nuked, the US will have to nuke someone, or let it stand that the United States can lose a city without cost to the other side. Defining “the other side” would be difficult, of course – do you erase Tehran to punish the mullahs? Make a crater out of Riyahd? These are exactly the sort of decisions we never want to make. But let’s say it happens. Baltimore: fire and wind. Gone. That horrible day would clarify things once and for all. It’s one thing for someone in a distant city to cheer the fall of two skyscrapers: from a distance, it looks like a bloody nose. But erasing a city is a different matter.

Everyone will have to choose sides. That would be one possible beginning of the end of this war.

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Finally, Some Good News

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This is the purest good news I’ve heard in ages. Iraq Soccer Team Qualifies for Olympics Iraq’s soccer team qualified for the Athens Olympics on Wednesday, less than three months after the country was reinstated by the International Olympic Committee. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 3-1, and then clinched the third and final Asian qualifying spot … Read more