"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
Okay, we haven’t gotten an entry for our caption contest for a few days now, so I’m going to do some unfair, unbalanced judging. (It’s for our fuzzy little mascot on the top left; I am not competent enough to re-post the full sized picture.)
The winner is….
1) Norm Geras from my blogroll has joined Typepad. He wanted people to know. 2) Michael Totten’s back. He wanted people to know. 3) I’ve added a Iraqi blogger Typelist, because, really, we should have had one from the start. 4) First full day without nicotine, and it seems to be going pretty smoothly; and … Read more
… all y’all futzing around with it do know that some of us, like, actually use Google to do our jobs, right? I mean, I don’t begrudge any of you your fun, but don’t break the nice indexing protocols, ‘kay?
… I just felt like rewriting the beginning of the Prologue to Richard III. Hey, at least I didn’t call it “A Canticle For Lieberman”…
Moe
PS: Don’t read too much into this one, guys. The link to the text I used to mutate this found here. Also, rilkefan gets a golf clap for tracking it down so quickly.
via Instapundit (I know, I know), we have a several-day-old-article about a new poll counting the number of Baghdad residents Saddam Hussein murdered. The estimate they come up with is 61,000, in Baghdad alone.
This was higher than previous estimates, but it does not really surprise me. I never doubted him to be a thug and a murderer and whatever invective I could come up with–though every time you’re confronted with the numbers again you wonder how the Iraqi people could possibly be worse off when all this is over, no matter how much we screw it up.
But what I’m really interested in, for the purposes of this post, is the methodology:
“The survey obtained Monday, which the polling firm planned to release on Tuesday, asked 1,178 Baghdad residents in August and September whether a member of their household had been executed by Saddam’s regime. According to Gallup, 6.6 percent said yes.
The polling firm took metropolitan Baghdad’s population — 6.39 million — and average household size — 6.9 people — to calculate that 61,000 people were executed during Saddam’s rule. Past estimates were in the low tens of thousands. Most are believed to have been buried in mass graves.”
I’ve never heard of this casualty-count-by-poll before. Do we have any statisticians or social scientists reading this? Is this a decent method of counting casualties? How does it differ from the use of press reports or anecdotal evidence, or mass graves, or the various other methods that are used?
I have no idea if it’s even remotely accurate. But if it is, we should consider using it to figure out how many civilians (or for that matter soldiers) were killed in the U.S. invasion, and its aftermath.
(continued, and please read the whole thing before commenting.)
Moe and I are apparently in good company.
Idea stolen from von. I had a hard time limiting it to 20, so I decided to just put in the extras. I think I may have too many opinions.
These are not in any sort of order.
Well, winter came early for poor ole Joey from the CT. Better pundits than I have already blogged his political death from both the left and the right, so let this instead be a commemorative open thread for the good Senator. Stop by, offer a consoling thought, and, well, move on. ‘Cause he’s totally, like, last year.
Or, keep on fighting over Dean: below, in inviso-text, I attempt to respond to Katherine ’s and Oberon’s comments regarding my post last night on the good doctor. (By the way, this pretty much sums up what I’m feeling right now.)
von
1). According to my esteemed coblogger Katherine, we are now #1 for Google searches for Obsidian Wings! Hurrah! And double hurrah that I’m not the only one who egogoogles this site! 2). Apparently, the interestingly odd site known as Fafblog has been taken over by one of its guest posters and is now claiming this … Read more
…for the last nicotine patch has fallen off, its body leeched of the hell’s brew that has kept me sane these last eight weeks. I can feel the last tendrils of it dissipating into fog, then mist, then vapors… and deep, deep below (where the gators of the id reside) sleeps a Thing uneasily. Fair … Read more
I do dislike “hey, look at me” posts, but, well, maybe we better. ‘Cause, we know Katherine leans left. And we know Moe Lane leans right. But how the heck do I lean?
Twenty things to know about von’s politics follows.
Am I the only person out there who will be happy to see: : Anakin Skywalker get tossed into an acid vat, or explosively decompressed, or exposed to plasma fire, or whatever it is that’ll turn him into Vader? : Obi-Wan Kenobi run like a scared little bunny? : The Jedi Order in general be … Read more
… to wit, if Howard Dean was looking for his version of a “Sister Souljah” moment, he could do worse than to condemn the Kuchinich ad. Not a retraction of his antiwar stance, mind you: just a rejection of the conspiracy theories – which he will eventually have to do anyway. Just saying, that’s all.
I really, really hate them. Left, Right, Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Single-Taxer, right down the list. Which is why I’m going to be mean to them now.
Yup, I’m going to be blatantly unfair and cruel to books based on their titles and authors and nothing else. So?
Yup, upon rereading the comments I was, like, totally ad-hom and stuff So?
Yup, I didn’t include ISBNs. So?
(pause)
OK, OK, I should have done that, but it’s too late now.
Moe
PS: I’ve probably missed a few: this list was originally taken from here, and there’s a definite Left-bias to the list. Believe me, I’m happy too that right-wing political hacks can’t make the NYT bestseller lists.
PPS: My girlfriend’s response to this entire post was to take a martial arts pose and intone “Fear the inexorable power of the three-toed sloth”. I’m not sure, but I think that this was a somewhat subtle critique of the general utility (more accurately, the lack of same) of this post. Either that, or she was mocking my Useless Forearm Tyrannosaurus Rex Kung Fu. Unfortunately, she’s asleep now, so I can’t ask her.
Howard Dean has a seven point plan on Iraq. It’s a tough-talker, Dean’s plan, the kind that should be popular among among lefty-blogohawks like myself. You’ve heard us pontificate before, haven’t you? We always want more — “more money, more troops, UN involvement” — and all that rot. Well, Dean’s plan is all that and … Read more
… got home from a nice evening out with friends, no hassles, good times all around. Then I saw this utter, unmitigated piece of garbage. (Via Balloon Juice) Now, I am aware that Dennis Kuchinich has been declared to be a nonserious candidate for President by most of the Democratic Party. I am aware that … Read more
I don’t do much writing about legal issues, I know. Winter term, when I am taking a class on Terrorism in The 21st Century (presumably focusing on the legalities), and spring term, when I am finally taking Constitutional Law, will probably give more opportunities. My subjects this term are of less general interest. Unless you … Read more
This isn’t cool. The Michigan Republican Party has asked its members to turn over holiday card lists — complete with their analysis of the political and religious affiliations of their friends and family and their positions on issues such as abortion and gun control. Didn’t phone companies used to ask you to do this? I … Read more
I already like this guy. This guy could not annoy me more if he tried.
And via another of my fellow guest commenters on Tacitus we see a link to this Nicholas D Kristof article. He’s taking the position that the result of a Dean nomination is going to be roughly equivalent to that of McGovern’s. This reminds me of something that I’ve noticed: nobody seems to be able to … Read more
Via one of my fellow guest posters at Tacitus I see that the “put Reagan on the dime” movement is going on, again. It’s Sunday morning and the commenters on that piece seem a tad grumpy, but Jesurgislac raises an interesting point: to wit, that FDR was on the dime in the first place because … Read more
The bad news: via Taranto we see that a self-described Democrat has written an opinion piece about Bush hatred, and how it won’t win an election. As opinion pieces go, it’s fairly good, especially as it does recognize the fact (often obscured by our own passions and hobbies) that most of the population does not … Read more
…but endearing. At least I think that it is. (pause) Hey, it’s Saturday and the calm before the primary storm. Gimme a break. (Via the blog attached to Fans!: this link will not work forever).
…actually, I have two now, Norm Geras being the other. But any Marxist site with the wit to link favorably to Tim Blair is all right in my book, dammit (why Tim wasn’t also in my blogroll already, the world may never know)*. This is still all part of the Insidious Plan, though. I swear … Read more
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I see that the title got your attention. This post doesn’t actually show any naked women, though. Sorry about that.
Oh, yeah, this is going to be like that Giant Puppets post. Go figure.
…obvious Photoshopping, sorry. From Cliche Kitty (I hope that’s enough, right? It’s, like, an open forum and stuff and I couldn’t find any kind of use restriction stuff).
Blogging of the President is having its first “Blog Burst” tomorrow, on the topic: “the Internet and Politics, what does it mean?‘ ” Here’s my contribution, one day early: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one” –A.J. Liebling Suddenly, all of us–or at least, many more of us–do own a … Read more
Via Matt Yglesias, I give you the surreal website of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani. Okay, fine it’s not quite a blog. It actually reminds me an awful lot of the site my old boss (the one who couldn’t use a mouse and thought google was run by tiny monsters living inside my computer) … Read more
… no, not what I’m naming any of my children. Now, I know that it’s become the style amongst many on the Left to not partake of the Instapundit, which is a crying shame, ‘cuz when you do you may end up missing stuff like this article about the role of blogs in the Trent … Read more
1). I personally feel that even by the low standards of crank calling, this is lame and geeky, and not in a good way. Via Balloon Juice. 2). Amazing how quickly Marxists can sound sensible when they’re saying the same things you were, huh? – only with a lot more spleen and righteous indignation. Surprised … Read more
As you may have noticed, the blogroll has been cut up – as near as I can tell and remember – into all of our particular choices. I’ve added another one which will be added to based on various suggestions that either I or one of the other bloggers agree upon.
Yeah, I know, that headline’s been done to death. But according to this Daily News article, New York is 49th in the country for per capita homeland security spending. (Wyoming comes in first.) Is this accurate? The Daily News is not exactly infallible, and I’m sure they’re relying heavily on NYC sources (especially the police … Read more
No, not Krugman. Kristof. He meanders for a few hundred words about the possible hereditary and environmental factors in homosexuality (including an aside about “lesbian seagulls”), and then he hits you with this: The bottom line is that same-sex love is a mystery far more subtle than just a matter of Biblical injunction — just … Read more