MuD & PHuD

Fiddlin' With The Polls

Media bias? What media bias? Captain's Quarters has some good analysis of a recent CBS poll that used some underhanded tactics to skew their poll results (hat tip NE Republican):

The CBS poll, on the other hand, uses only 1113 registered voters, broken down in an unusual manner: 346 Republicans, 390 Democrats, and 377 independents. Since when are there that many more Democrats than Republicans? The poll then shows its "weighting" (although it doesn't explain what it means), and the numbers get even worse: 330-R, 401-D, 381-I. According to the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, Republicans accounted for 32.5% of the registered electorate, while Democrats accounted for 33.7%. In a sample of 1113 voters, you would then expect to see 361-R, 375-D, 376-I. The result of CBS's sample is to throw off representation for Republicans by 8.6%, while bolstering Democrats by 7% and independents by 1.3%, using CBS' weighting.

Hum. Surprised? I'm not. This sort of thing has been going on for years. The Left's problem now is that they don't have a monopoly on information anymore. Unfortunately, while blogs are great at pointing this sort of thing out, they simply don't have the readership that major media outlets do. I don't expect that will change any time soon, but I hope we can each do our own small part to keep spreading the truth to combat the never-ending lies out there.
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I'm Back, And I'm Disgusted

Baseball was great this weekend. It's always nice to get unplugged from the world for a while and just sit in the sun and watch the greatest sport on Earth.

Unfortunately, I got plugged back in today and found Drudge posting a very disturbing story about children being killed because they are considered less-than-perfect. This is really terrible and you should read the whole thing. Here are a few tid bits:

There were more babies with Down's aborted than born with the condition in 2002, with 372 terminations compared with 329 births.

...more...

The charity LIFE said it fears women may come under increased pressure if their unborn babies are judged to have special needs.

Trustee Nuala Scarisbrick said: 'This is straightforward eugenics. The message is being sent out to disabled people that they should not have been born. It is appalling and abhorrent.'

...more...

Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said techniques to detect foetal abnormalities have become very sophisticated, giving women more information on which to base decisions.

'Ending a wanted pregnancy because of serious foetal abnormality is a difficult decision for the woman,' she added. 'It is vital she receives support and guidance to make the right decision for her and her family.'

I see, so Anne thinks that we should "base decisions" about whether or not to kill an unborn child on the presence or absence of a cleft lip? I'm sure she would say no...but I don't care. The fact is she supports these horrible actions by condoning abortion in the first place.

As a term I think Eugenics has lost some of its original meaning. It seems that people can read this article, see the word 'eugenics' (and the actual practice thereof) and not be absolutely horrified. I say this because if people were to take a strong (and correct) stand against eugenics there would be absolutely no one out there defending anything even resembling the despicable practice of abortion-on-demand.

I am constantly astounded by the anti-life's stances on all of this. They say that a woman needs to choose and make the "right decision for her and her family." Of course, that decision cannot be anything even close "right" since she is, in fact, killing a member of her family. Do you disagree? Let me know. I'd love to hear why.
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Gore Honored

Al (Qaida) Gore has been honored at Junk Yard Blog. Check it out. I think you'll agree that he deserves all rights and privileges associated with this highly (un)sought after award.
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Karyn Huges

Karyn has written a very nice article at Useless Knowledge on her feelings as her daughter is about to become "deployable" in the US Armed Forces. Give it a read.
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Ann Coulter's New Column

Ann's newest column is up on her website. She has a certain way with words:

We have liberated the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator who gassed his own people, had weapons of mass destruction, invaded his neighbors, harbored terrorists, funded terrorists and had reached out to Osama bin Laden. Liberals may see Saddam's mass graves in Iraq as half-full, but I prefer to see them as half-empty.

Read the whole thing.
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Right To Die In Oregon

The AP reports the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that;

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft overstepped his authority when he ordered Oregon doctors to ignore a state law that allowed them to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients who wished to die.

Ok, I’ll admit that I have a hard time with this issue. I think that it has huge potential for abuse as well has honest mistakes. We have to decide, as a society, whether or not someone who wants to die is, by definition, crazy. While there are a lot of issues, some of them are addressed by the fact that, under the Oregon law:

…terminally ill patients must get certification from two doctors stating they are of sound mind and have less than six months to live. A prescription for lethal drugs is written by the doctor and administered by the patients themselves.

This removes some of the potential for abuse and relieves doctors of being in the position of 'Causing Harm'. However, there is something I think everyone should recognize about how this court’s decision was made. This is the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and they are famous for their nutjob rulings. Please note:

"The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law," the court said in a 2-1 opinion. (emphasis added)

This is yet another 2-1 ruling by the 9th Circus Court. It seems to this non-law-professional-observer that the 9th Circuit makes it a habit to hand down a 3-judge ruling (often a split one, at that) only to be promptly overruled either by the next court or by a larger subset of the Court.

The unfortunate thing here, in my view, is that they might actually be right. It might just be that American's think the terminally ill should have a right to die, and that they should be allowed to get at least passive assistance from a physician. However, I just wish that these fine judges would take the time to get a few more of their colleagues together before handing down these controversial rulings. In the end, it would save us all a bunch of time, money and headaches.
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Democratic Fairness

Well, it looks like Kerry is going to be accepting the nomination in Boston after all. Hum, the nominee accepting the nomination at the Convention...strange. Here's a bit from the Bloomberg article:

``We believe it is right to start the general election on the same day as our opponents, and we will continue to explore every way possible to level the playing field against the Republicans' five-week advantage,'' Kerry said in an e-mailed statement.

Here is yet another example of Democrats ignoring laws and quoting fairness when the law is inconvenient. Somehow I doubt they would have a huge problem with timing if their Convention were second.

This is the background provided by Bloomberg:

The finance rules have been in place since the 1976 presidential election. As a condition of receiving federal funding for the general election campaign, candidates cannot raise or spend any additional money. The Democratic and Republican parties each may spend $16 million in a coordinated effort with their nominees during the period between the convention and the Nov. 2 vote.

So, these restrictions are a condition of receiving federal funding, huh? If this is such a huge problem, why not just forgo using our money for his campaign? Then he could spend all the money he wanted. Of course such an action would be hypocritical (but who's counting, I ran out of fingers a while back) in that the Democrats generally supports the so-called Campaign Finance Reform BS (I added that last part).

So I suppose if he were to say he wanted to spend funds limited only by his ability to raise money it might be considered a waffle. This begs that the question be asked: Why has Kerry passed up such a wonderful waffling opportunity (a waffltunity, perhaps)? I think he might be a bit off his usual game. I hope he gets his waffling legs back soon. Otherwise he might actually have a shot in November.
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Baseball

I see some serious baseball watching in my very near future, so the blogging will be scarse to nonexistant for a few days. I trust my faithful readers will stay strong and watch for more dazzling commentary in the not too distant future =).
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Drudge Has It Right

Drudge has linked to the latest Algore BS with the phrase Gore Unhinged. Yep, that just about sums it up.

I haven't read the whole thing yet because I don't have a caffeine IV hookup available. Oral administration just doesn't get the job done. So far, I thought this was a great line, considering the source:

He [President Bush] promised to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.

This from the guy how played second fiddle to the biggest scumbag in recent memory. Amazing selective moral memory.

As for reading the rest of the speech I make no promises. I can endure only so much stupidity in a day and I'm almost at my limit now.

Update:

I couldn't help myself. Here's a good line:

There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation -- because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.

Did he just say righteous indignation? Are you kidding me? He just refered to Terrorists as RIGHTEOUS! That's it. I'm nonimating him for Junk Yard Blog's Golden Bombbelt Award right now.

Update 2:

One more reason that Algore deserves the JYB Golden Bombbelt Award, hands down. Rush as this to say about Al-Qaida Gore:

He has succeeded in giving our adversaries in Europe and our enemies in the caves of Afghanistan and the allies of Iraq a message that they'll take to heart, and that is that we are not a united nation, that we do not have the will to win this war, and that we are weak and indecisive. That's the message that Gore sends today, and it's the wrong message, because it's a lie, and beyond that it is an outrage.

Go to the C-SPAN homepage for the video feed (Notes: this link will most likely go bad eventually and the server is overloaded at this moment).

Also, the GOP has responded exactly as they should have (by which I mean they have not used polite political-speak):

Washington, DC—RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke issued the following statement today in response to a speech by former Vice President Al Gore attacking President Bush.

“Al Gore served as Vice President of this country for eight years. During that time, Osama Bin Laden declared war on the United States five times and terrorists killed US citizens on at least four different occasions including the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the attacks on Khobar Towers, our embassies in East Africa, and the USS Cole.”

“Al Gore’s attacks on the President today demonstrate that he either does not understand the threat of global terror, or he has amnesia.”

I'd put my money on, 'He's just a dumbarse.'

Update 3:

Protein Wisdom has a good one on Algore.

Update 4:

More on Algore's versions of waffling.

Update 5:

Ken over at Esoteric*Diatribe obviously has access to the IV caffeine that I lacked. Check out his extensive fisking of Gore's speech. Congrats Ken, you've got a stronger stomach than I do =).
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=)

This was too funny to not link. I'm still chuckling.
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Ideas That Stand The Test Of Time

I have added a new feature to the sidebar called Ideas That Stand The Test Of Time. I will be adding permanent links to this area as I come across writings that are universally true and give me hope for the future of the human race.

The first to recieve this honor is a post entitled Why I’m not an isolationist by Arthur at his blog Chrenkoff. Give it a read and I think you'll agree.
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Is Anyone Suprised?

We can thank the Spanish for this little gem:

That information dovetails with other intelligence "chatter" suggesting that al Qaeda operatives are pleased with the change in government resulting from the March 11 terrorist bombings in Spain and may want to affect elections in the United States and other countries.

There are a few things we must make Al Qaeda understand:

1) We will NOT react like Spain did to an attack before our elections.
2) We will hunt each and every one of them down like the dirty rotten snakes-in-the-grass they are.
3) When we find them, they will be put to death.

If we follow these three guidlines then the Terrorists don't stand a chance. I guess we'll see what Americans are made of come November. Please, make the right decision.

Update:

Chrenkoff has an amazing story about more attempts to undermine our efforts against Terror. What would we do without these artsy-fartsy types?
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Question

Does anyone still read the New York Times? If so, why?

I just don't understand how this pile of crap can still have a loyal following. People complain about Fox News, blah, blah, blah. Here's what Drudge has on his site as of now (there is no permanent link yet):

NYT EDITOR TO OFFER DEFENSE OF FLAWED IRAQ COVERAGE; REPORTER JUDITH MILLER OFF THE HOOK: 'Some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated. Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper'... Developing...

I see. So the problem was not a few rogue reporters, but rather was systematic and pervasive. Think there'll be a Congressional hearing on this matter?

Now I wonder to which side they erred. Just one example:

Three days after its first report on the D.C. antiwar protests, readers of the New York Times were treated to a much different account of the same event. On October 30, the Times reported that the October 26 protests "drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers', forming a two-mile wall of marchers around the White House. The turnout startled even organizers, who had taken out permits for 20,000 marchers."

This directly contradicted the Times' October 27 report, which noted that the "thousands" of demonstrators were "fewer people... than organizers had said they hoped for." The October 30 Times report also included much more information about similar protests around the country, and featured quotes from various antiwar activists...

As for the actual numbers:

...National Public Radio, another target of FAIR's action alert, has also offered a correction of its misleading coverage of the D.C. protest. The following message is now posted on NPR's website:

On Saturday, October 26, in a story on the protest in Washington, D.C. against a U.S. war with Iraq, we erroneously reported on All Things Considered that the size of the crowd was "fewer than 10,000." While Park Service employees gave no official estimate, it is clear that the crowd was substantially larger than that. On Sunday, October 27, we reported on Weekend Edition that the crowd estimated by protest organizers was 100,000. We apologize for the error.

Moral of the story? Read more blogs =).

Update:

Here is the full story from the NYT themselves. I applaud their candor here, but I wonder if it will change anything in the future. Somehow I doubt it.

Of course, the interesting thing here is that only one side of the equation is dealt with. I suppose they never erred in the other direction, huh?

Update 2:

Wizbang's all over this one:

The Times, like many in the media, made numerous mistakes in its coverage of Iraq. Perhaps the most (in)famous of all was the series of "Strategic Pause" stories. The stories, which ran only a few days after the start of the war, claimed that American forces were bogged down in Iraq and were forced to pause for a few weeks to regroup. "The war plan had failed" was a favorite quote of the day. Apparently the Pentagon missed the stories because just 2 weeks later, Iraqis were dancing in the streets and pulling down statues of Saddam as American tanks rolled thru Baghdad. The Times never did explain how it blew that story.

Read the rest. It's good.
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Sullivan Takes on Sontag

Andrew Sullivan does his usual great job of fisking the stupid...in this case Suzan Sontag. He does a good job of pointing out the proper perspective of Abu Ghraib and taking her to task for just skipping over any positives that have come from the liberations. Give it a read.
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What Al-Qaida Wants To Do To Us

Junk Yard Blog has a great post on what Al-Qaida wants to do to us.

Now that we know more about what President Bush wants to do in Iraq, it's worth examining what experts believe al Qaeda wants to do to us:

The United States remains al-Qaida's prime target, the report said. An al-Qaida leader has said 4 million Americans will have to be killed "as a prerequisite to any Islamic victory," the survey said.

Four million American dead. That's a little over half the population of New York City. Or four times the population of Rhode Island. Or slightly less than the entire population of Maryland.

Put another way, al Qaeda wants to kill eight times as many Americans as died in the entire Civil War, or 20 times the number we lost in World War II. In some ways those numbers are abstractions, so look at it this way: 9-11 was a drop in the bucket. If it had its way, al Qaeda would repeat that feat but magnify it by roughly 1,333 times. And we aren't talking combat deaths here. Al Qaeda wants to kill you while you cut your grass, sit at your desk, take your child to the zoo or fly across the country to visit your grandparents. And it wants to kill your family, your children, your friends and neighbors and everyone else it can kill as long as they are Americans. And they won't stop at four million like it's some kind of magic number or bright red line: Four million is the minimum they believe they need to kill in order to defeat us. The minimum. They'll kill ten million or a hundred million or a billion if they can.

Anyone who’s surprised might want to rethink his or her affiliation with the Democratic Party. Now, everyone quotes the old truism that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Well, it seems that there is a huge 20/200000 eyesight problem for some people looking back over the ‘previous’ administration. Fortunately, JYB has corrective 20/20 lenses in place when looking back:

Put another way, while we allowed their camps to exist in Afghanistan they trained 20,000 killers and sent them on their way. Nineteen of those killers hit their targets on 9-11, and we have killed or captured another 2,000 since then. But 18,000 of them remain at large. They would not be out there and would not have been trained had we taken out al Qaeda's camps during the 1990s. It's also likely that those terrorists would not be out there and trained had the previous administration made good in the war it declared on terrorism in 1998, or if it had accepted Osama bin Laden in any of the deals in which the Sudanese government offered him up. In the 1990s our government failed us, and we're facing a terrorist army today as a direct result of that failure.

Exactly. Now, I’m sure that causing Osama to assume cave temperature in 1998 (or even just tossing him in a little dark cell) would not have stopped terror. Only an idiot would claim that getting one guy would stop thousands. But how far back would his arrest (or death) have set Al-Qaida back? Months, years? Who knows? The point is that we (by which I mean some of us) recognize the importance of fighting Terror wherever we find it. I don’t care if each anti-terror action puts but a nick in their armor. The important thing is that we be more dedicated and stalwart than the scum who would kill our innocent.

This is not a fight we can afford to lose. We can't just turn tail and run has the 'peace activists' of the 60's made us do. If we do that the bad guys will not be content to just take over the equivalent of South Vietnam. No, today's bad guys will again bring the fight to us. They will kill us where we live. The only choice (and thank God that Bush understands this) is to kill them where they live.

Go read the rest of what he has to say. It’s a great post.
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Click It Or Ticket

There is a new ad campaign out there funded by your friendly local and federal governments aimed at letting the unwashed masses know that the police are going to start enforcing the law. As fate would have it, I've written a column for Useless Knowledge on this very topic. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Update:

I'm not alone! It's always nice to see someone who agrees with one my of my relatively lonely opinions =). Check out Wizbang's comments on seatbelt laws.
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Good News From Iraq

Not only that...but good news from Fallujah! (hat tip Backcountry Conservative)

Update:

Good news from an insider over at Chrenkoff. Gotta love it.
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These Poor Children

According to the Independent, UN troops in the Congo have been raping little girls (hat tip Instapundit (see also Stambord)). These scumbags have been forcing sex on girls at least as young as 13:

The Independent has found that mothers as young as 13 - the victims of multiple rape by militiamen - can only secure enough food to survive in the sprawling refugee camp by routinely sleeping with UN peace-keepers.

...more...

The trade, which according to one victim results in a banana or a cake to feed to her infant son, is taking place despite a pledge by the UN to adopt a "zero tolerance" attitude to cases of sexual misconduct by those representing the organization.

One girl, Faela, 13, whose son, Joseph, is not yet six months old, has described how the social stigma of her fatherless child, the result of repeated rape by militiamen in her village, mean she is treated like a pariah in the chaotic and violent Bunia camp, which is home to 15,000 people.

There are few things more repugnant than these acts. And who is committing these crimes? UN soldiers. This at a time when our troops are under Media fire for abusing prisoners and those same people want the UN to take over for us! Let's see...abusing prisoners (most of whom were guilty of crimes and/or of killing our soldiers) vs. soldiers forcing sex on young girls whom they are supposed to be protecting.

What the hell is going on here? Why is this not all over the front pages of the Major Media? Why did it take my perusing Instapundit to have the brought to my attention? We know that the Media, as a whole, is Anti-American (note difference in Berg vs. Abu Dhabi coverage)...but are they also racist? Do they simply not care about what's happening in the Congo because it's happening to little black girls? What, no evidence to support such a charge? Well, as the Princess of CA once said, it's the seriousness of the charge that's important. I think there should be a hearing on this.

All politics aside. What is happening to these poor little girls is absolutely horrifying and indefensible. There is no excuse for any of this. I think the UN should be deeply involved in the process of rooting out the guilty individuals and bringing them to justice. If they hope to keep any of the little credibility they still have, they damn well better be keeping the World informed of every inch of their progress as they go.

And finally, if other world events are to be any guide, we should be having a serious debate about whether or not Kofi Annan is to be held personally responsible for these soldiers’ transgressions.

Think any of this is likely? I don’t…but that doesn’t make me feel one bit better. And…more to the point…it certainly does nothing for those poor little girls being systematically raped in the Congo.

If only there were pictures and the Media hated the UN. Then maybe something might get done.

Update:

Random Nuclear Strikes also has some thoughts.

Update 2:

Chrenkoff has some thoughts.
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More on The Day After Tomorrow

Here is an informative article by Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute highlighting a few of the many absurdities in The Day After Tomorrow. One quick example:

Start with the Gulf Stream. Carl Wunsch, a professor of physical oceanography at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, knows more about ocean currents than most anyone. He thinks the nonsense in The Day After Tomorrow detracts from the seriousness of the global-warming issue. So he recently wrote in the prestigious science journal Nature that the scenario depicted in the movie requires one to "turn off the wind system, or to stop the Earth's rotation, or both."

Read the whole thing.

I only hope that people will listen to reason on this one and somehow (against historical trends) manage to keep fiction and reality seperate. Unfortunately, I hold very little hope this will actually happen.
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More Good News From Iraq

Again, Chrenkoff has the definitive summary of all things good happening in Iraq (for the first go 'round see here).In honor of his amazing service to the world I have added him to the Blogroll so you can always get the latest. Here's a teaser:

HUMANITARIAN EFFORT: Iraqi education system is being rebuilt - slowly: after years of neglect under Saddam and post-liberation looting, of "14,924 schools in Iraq... 80 percent of them (11,939) need some sort of repair following the looting when the former regime fell. Some 40 percent (5,970) need major rehabilitation and 9 percent (1,343) are in need of demolition or rebuilding." USAID has already spent $74 million through primary education activities and approximately $70 million through secondary education activities on its Year 1 Education Program.

Additionally, Arthur has a great bit on perspective in the Abu Ghraib prisoner situation:

"They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen."

Wonder what happened to Mr. al-Tikriti? How about his wife and unborn child? Go read the rest.

Visit his site and encourage him to keep up the great work!
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Any Questions?

So, is anyone unclear as to where President Bush stands?

Agree or disagree with him on any issue you like. Say what you will about his supposed lack of intellect and misunderestimate him if you like.

The one thing you cannot honestly do is to doubt his conviction. If ever we needed a stand-up, straight talkin' Texan that time is now. Thank God we've got him at the helm. He will see this country through these (relatively) dark days and history will judge him on what is accomplished.

Only time will tell for sure, but I think we will look back in 50 years and be proud of President Bush and the American People. And more to the point, I think that the Iraqi People will look back and consider themselves extremely fortunate that a country was willing to expend billions of dollars and the beyond-precious lives of their young men and women to free them from the bonds of tyranny.

Disagree if you will, but if you choose to do so promise me just one thing. Vow that you will be consistent over the next 3 decades. At that time, we'll talk again and honestly decide who was right. Can you do that?
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Technical Note

As I'm sure my faithful readers (and yes, there are a few =)) have noted, I have altered the title line of the posts. It recently dawned on me that Blogger was kind enough to have provided preset heading tags, so why not make use of them? I went back a day or so and changed headings...but that's as far back as I'm going to go. I hope you like the updated look.
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Lying Sacks Of Horse...

I am so sick of this crap from the media. Here's a line from an AP article published today:

Bush, who initially shunned the United Nations, is now relying heavily on the world body to set up the caretaker government, and expects U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to name the country's interim leaders within the month.

What freaking alternate universe are this idiots from? Have they been hiding under a rock for the past 1.5 years? Does anyone but me remember Bush going to the UN and saying, 'Get on board while you still can'...and could someone please explain to me how that is considered shunning?
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Stop The Press(es)!!

Amazing Pew poll results:

At national organizations (which includes print, TV and radio), the numbers break down like this: 34% liberal, 7% conservative. At local outlets: 23% liberal, 12% conservative. At Web sites: 27% call themselves liberals, 13% conservatives.

...more...

The survey also revealed what some are sure to label a "values" gap. According to Pew, about 60% of the general public believes it is necessary to believe in God to be a truly moral person. The new survey finds that less than 15% of those who work at news outlets believe that. About half the general public believes homosexuality should be accepted by society -- but about 80% of journalists feel that way.

Amazing. Who-a-thunk? The funniest paragraph of this story was the last one:

In an essay accompanying the survey, the directors of the sponsoring groups -- Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell --declare that broad conclusions about the political findings should be tempered by analyzing some of the details in the findings. For example, they identify strong "libertarian" leanings among journalists, including doubts about the role of "big government."

I find this very hard to believe given that liberals dominate. Now maybe there really is the silent majority of libertarians hiding out in the Media...actually, I pray that they are. I just don't believe it. But then I'm part of the VRWC (Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy)...so I wouldn't be expected to =).

Update:

Wizbang also has some comment on this poll.

Update 2:

Cold Fury also has some good insight into the meaning of this poll.
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Confessions of a Scumbag

Middle East Media Research Institute's News Ticker (hat tip Instapundit):

May 21, 2004
DIPLOMATIC SOURCES CONFIRM THE EXISTENCE OF 150 RECORDINGS OF SADDAM'S CONFESSIONS WHICH INCLUDE INFORMATION ON BRIBES PAID TO HEADS OF STATE AND POLITICAL LEADERS IN ARAB AND FOREIGN STATES. (AL-MU'TAMAR, IRAQ, 5/20/04)

I agree with Glenn: Interesting.

Update:

Instapundit has more good news from the Middle East. It's all very promising, but I'll believe it when I see it (I pray real progress is made on these issues in my lifetime).

Read both articles as they may not be as rosy as our friend Glenn makes them sound (unfortunately, the glass if often half-empty in the Middle East).
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Simpsons

Did anyone else catch tonight's Simpsons? Lisa started up her own newspaper to counter Burns buying up all the media outlets in Springfield. The upshot was that the whole town was inspired to publish their own newspapers. Homer made a (paraphrased) comment:

Now instead of having one idiot controlling all of the media, we have a thousand idiots spewing their useless opinions.

I'm more than happy to be one of the idiots spewing my useless opinions =).

--cue cheesy theme music--

So long as Media Tyranny rears its ugly head...
So long as Uniform Opinion dominates the evening news...
So long as Rehashed 24-Hour News Cycles bore us to tears...
There will be Bloggers to pick up the slack and find the truth!

--fading shot of Blogger riding into sunset--

Update:

Here's a real life example of a blog not only dispersing ideas, but also catapulting the blogger to new, exciting and unexpected heights. Oh, and also overcome the liberal academic elite.

In my case, I was able to formulate ideas and thoughts regarding a wide variety of issues, then get them out to a far wider and certainly much more diverse range of people. Ideas that gained readers in significant places, and brought a Kansas army brat to a major Washington think-tank. Is blogging a replacement for our current channels of public discourse? No. Still, I do think that by we have been more than able to ensure that ideas, concepts, and positions can no longer be shouted down or excluded the way that they once were.

Amen brother. Keep on puttin' those opinions out there!
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Kerry's A Jerk

I refrained from commenting on Kerry's little insult towards Bush the other day about the latter having fallen off his mountain bike. Here's what Kerry said after the Leader of the Free World took a tumble (according to Drudge):

'Did the training wheels fall off?'

Nice. Does anyone remember Bush having anything snide to say about Kerry after falling off his bike?

Amazing, I also did not hear any accounts of President Bush accusing his Secret Service agents for causing his fall. Does anyone remember Kerry calling a Secret Service agent (you know, the one who has sworn to take a bullet for him) a "Son of a Bitch"?

So why do I comment now? I ran across a defense of Kerry for his comment (hat tip Instapundit). Here's what he had to say:

OK, get past your first reaction, and open your mind to the possibility that this was a topical quip. Apparently, it was only yesterday that Bush was using a training wheel metaphor to describe Iraq:

"He talked about ‘time to take the training wheels off,"’ said Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio. "The Iraqi people have been in training, and now it’s time for them to take the bike and go forward."

That might have provided the inspiration for Kerry's attempt at humor; I suspect that will be the explanation, anyway.

BONUS: The straight news story has Kerry's approved reaction - ""I hope he's OK. I didn't know the president rode a bike."

Soo...Bush talked about training wheels in a relatively metaphorical sense regarding Iraqis taking over their own government (something they have literally never done) and that is supposed to explain/excuse this comment?

Let's be generous here and say it was just an unthinking little slip of the tongue. Fine. I also recognize that Kerry wished the President well. The only thing I expect is an apology for directly insulting (as I have already said) The Leader of the Free World.

Is that too much to ask?

Update:

Wash Times has now commented on Kerry's foot being in his off-the-record-mouth. Here's what his spokeswoman had to say:

Interviewed by The Washington Times yesterday, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter would say only that the words Mr. Drudge reported were "off the record."

Oh, so being a stupid arse off the record is ok. I see. Next time I stick my foot in my mouth in front of reporters I'll make sure they all understand it's off limits because I'm just dumb...but first I'll have to become a Democrat to get such a pass (as evidenced by a certain Republican Senator).

Update 2:

I realized that I failed to mention an important aspect to this story. Random Nuclear Strikes has done it for me. Not a bad blog, give it a read.

Update 3:

Oh, and he's an idiot too. I guess you just can't expect someone who's on every side of every issue to know anything about history (hat tip Instapundit).
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Darrell Scott Before Congress

Darrell Scott is the father of Rachel Scott, one of the students killed in the Columbine school shootings on April 20, 1999. I seem to recall hearing something about him going before Congress, but my memory is far from perfect. I received a forward this morning (as many of you probably have) with the text of his testimony before the US House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on May 27, 1999. The PDF can be found here, and other related links here (scroll down about half way). This is obviously ‘old news,’ but I think it is both important for its content and in that stands in stark contrast to something that has happened much more recently. Here is a bit of what Mr. Scott had to say:

"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart."

"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent."

…more…

…when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs - politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws.

"Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts. Political posturing and restrictive legislation are not the answers. The young people of our nation hold the key. There is a spiritual awakening taking place that will not be squelched! We do not need more religion. We do not need more gaudy television evangelists spewing out verbal religious garbage. We do not need more million dollar church buildings built while people with basic needs are being ignored. We DO need a change of heart and a humble acknowledgment that this nation was founded on the principle of simple trust in God!"

Here is a man who lost his daughter to absolutely senseless violence perpetrated by two very sick and confused teenagers. I cannot ever begin to imagine the pain of losing a child in any way…but to have lost your child like this must be unimaginably worse.

And yet, notice what he says. He lays the blame for this horrific act at the feet of the individuals who actually carried out this evil. Additionally, while he implicates the legislators by proxy, he does not call for their political heads on a platter. Rather, he challenges them to make things right.

Now, let’s compare Mr. Scott’s response to losing the most precious thing in his life to a more recent event. The beheading of Nick Berg caused both personal and national trauma. The response of his father has been nearly diametrically opposed to that of Mr. Scott, as I have mentioned previously. The Berg family claims (and are probably correct) that US forces held their son in Iraq causing him to be unable to leave before things went south, leading Mr. Berg to say:

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this,"

The equivalent would have been if Mr. Scott had gone before Congress and blamed the NRA for his daughter’s death. After all, the reasoning would go, without the NRA protecting the right of US citizens to own and carry guns, his daughter would still be alive.

The difference here, and the reason that I have immeasurable respect for Mr. Scott, is that Rachel Scott had no choice but to be in school and no reason to suspect that anything bad might happen to her. She was just going about her life like millions of other innocent kids in this country. To then be killed and have her father be man enough to stand up and lay blame where it belongs, namely at the feet of those who killed her, is amazing.

Mr. Berg’s response has been markedly different. He has laid the blame for his son’s brutal murder at the feet of President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Further, he has done so after his son was killed having been taken hostage in a war zone. His son was an adult who made a conscious decision to do good in the world while putting his own live in danger. That is a noble act and it should be applauded.

However, his father’s response has been a disgrace. I think the Berg family has the right to grieve however they see fit. The thing that concerns me (and should concern every American) is that Mr. Berg has used the death of his son, who supported President Bush’s decision to liberate Iraq, as an opportunity to undermine our efforts in that region. This action has put other sons and daughters still working for peace in Iraq in greater danger and is, therefore, both immoral and inexcusable.
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This Guy's Got Something

David Wong has written one of the funniest, and most true, commentaries on modern warfare. Here's a bit (hat tip Junk Yard Blog):

3. Every War Sim has a "Fog of War" that obscures the map in darkness until units scout the landscape. Well, I want a hazy, brown "Fog of Bullshit" layer below that. I want it to make a village of farmers look like a secret armed militia, I want it to show me a massive enemy fortress where there is actually an Aspirin factory. I want to never know for sure which it was, even after the game is over.

...more...

18. I want to be able to build a POW camp structure where enemy soldiers and suicide bombers are held should they somehow survive battle or should their suicide bombing only be half-successful. I want to right-click on the building and open an option that says "Interrogate Prisoners," which will make parts of the map open up and reveal enemy positions, saving my own units from ambushes.

Then, I want a little cutscene to pop up to announce that photos of my prisoner interrogations have emerged, sparking international outrage because several prisoners were upset and humiliated and some even physically harmed.

The whole world is shocked. Because people were physically harmed.

In a war.

Read the whole thing. He does a great job of mixing humor with stark, cold and undeniable truth. Many of the jokes will make you uncomfortable because he tells it (mostly) like it is. There is one point in particular that hits the whole thing right on the nose. Can you tell which?
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Roll The Media Bias Clip Please

I've been bitten by the Media Bias Bug even more than usual lately. So...let me alert you to this bit of (secondary) blog-reporting by a new blogger in Egypt that the media (Middle Eastern AND Western) are apparently not bothering with (hat tip New England Republican):

It seems that bad news only get the most coverage. Today something significant happened that received no coverage whatsoever from the 2 main Arab propaganda satellite channels. A group of senior clerics in Najaf sent a harsh worded letter to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the radical Lebanese Shia group Hizbollah, accusing him of telling half the truth when he accused only the US forces of desecrating the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala. The letter mentioned that Al Sadr’s militias fought from inside the shrines, it even went further to accuse Al Sadr’s men of shooting at the shrine’s doom and intimidating Sistani’s group by spraying his house with bullets.

To be cautious, this is a very new blog (i.e., just about as old as my own), and I have no independent confirmation that this person is who he says he is. So, take it with a grain of salt if you will.

Update:

NRO has a great piece on Media bias. Check it out.

Update 2:

The NYT has an article entitled Prison Interrogations in Iraq Seen as Yielding Little Data on Rebels. Here's a great example of the bias that the NYT continues to insert into their so-called reporting:

Many of the prisoners in that cellblock spent months in Abu Ghraib, and some became victims of horrific abuse at the hands of the military police.

Did they just refer to abuses at Abu Ghraib with the word horrific? If that term is to be applied to what was done by our soliders, how would the NYT describe what went on before the liberation? Saddam wasn't playing pattycake with (and this is important) innocent people. We all agree that what went on at Abu Ghraib was bad and should be punished, but I'm sick of the Liberal Media redefining our words for us.
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More on Media Bias and Iraq, etc.

New England Republican has some comment on a poll concerning the Media's handling of Iraq and Nick Berg (for my posts see h-e-r-e). I'm glad to see that I'm not alone on this issue. The Media has really done (and continues to do) us all a huge disservice.

I suppose it’s too much to hope that they’ll come around and actually start reporting news fairly. I think the best we can hope for is that the Alternative Media (that would be us bloggers) will expand their role by continuing to collectively sift through the news stories out there and piece together the truth. I hope that Blog readership continues to increase as people find there is more than one way to skin a day’s worth of news.

The development of the blogosphere is really an amazing thing to watch.

Update:

Here's a great memo on the abuse scandle. Check it out =).
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Blog Survey Results

The results of the Blogads survey are available. Make of it what you will. I was happy to see that only 21% of blog readers are bloggers themselves. If true it gives me hope that we're not just propping each other up and rehashing inbred opinions =). Check it out.
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Blacks and Private Schools

The NYT has a great article (yes even a blind pig) on the flight of black students to private schools (hat tip Volokh). This is an amazing, if not entirely surprising, trend...and I love it. Here is a group of parents that have decided public school sucks and their children deserve better, even if it means sacrificing:

Every month, she and her husband send the school a check for $900, the equivalent of almost two weeks' take-home pay from her job. They make the sacrifice because Trey Whitfield offers their children a demonstrably safer and better education than what is available at either P.S. 158 or their local school, Public School 149.

Now, regardless of what anyone might tell you, this is the reason people will put themselves under severe financial burden to send their kids to private school:

Like the Catholic schools favored by many black parents, the Whitfield School has stuck to instruction in basic skills. The other day, the blackboard in Louise Browne-Jackson's first-grade classroom was equally divided into sections about phonics (sh, en), grammar (contractions) and mathematics (place value in three-digit numbers). Classes routinely recite aloud. Every pupil in pre-kindergarten is required to learn to read.

Imagine that, a school with standards.

So here we have a bunch of people making difficult personal economic decisions that allow their children to attend decent schools. Still, I am sure there are some families that simply cannot afford any private school. Can you imagine what this country would look like if we overhauled public schools (or threw them out all together) and allowed people to actually choose where their children attend school? And…allowing them to do so without having to pay taxes to support failing public schools? I don’t have any expectation that it’ll happen in my lifetime…but maybe some day.
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Kerry's New Slogan

According to Drudge, Kerry is going to adopt a new campaign slogan: "Let America Be America Again". Sounds great, huh? Surely we can all relate to the idea that it certainly would be nice if we could just get back to that old America. You know the one, the America that existed when I was a kid. Soda shops, five and dimes, walking to school uphill both ways in shoulder deep snow with no shoes but all while just being grateful to be getting an education.

If that were are far as it went, I would just say that Kerry is be, well, stupid and pandering to people's unarticulated nostalgia. This slogan seems, however, to go quite a bit further off the deep end. Junk Yard Blog has a great (and extensive) post on this very topic and I don’t have much to add except to agree wholeheartedly. Here’s a bit:

So Kerry's new campaign theme is actually a backhanded slap at America disguised as patriotism. Fits nicely with his old theme, whatever that was. His new slogan may only be a call for a return to Clinton's unserious pre-9/11 America, but his unrepentant pro-Communist radical ideology and activism is a sign that he may have much more planned for a Kerry "regime."

Intrigued? Read it all.
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Berg Update

I appears that the four arrested in connection with the murder of Nick Berg may have been Fedayeen. I wouldn't be terribly surprised considering this.
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A Salute To The American Soldier In Iraq.

I first saw this posted on Healing Iraq a while back. The story behind it, as I recall, was that the artist had been forced to make statues of Saddam for many years. After the liberation he melted down some of those and made this. A touching tribute, to say the least. 
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First Attempt At Photoblogging

I've always liked this picture. I originally saw it posted on Healing Iraq.

Update:

I think I've got the hang of it now. Pretty cool.
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A Kerry Watch Blog

Catholic(?) Kerry Watch just popped up on my radar via Thrown Back and I have added it to my New On The Blogroll. If you want to effortlessly keep up to date on Kerry's copious waffles, this is the place.
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Has Andy Returned?

I saw something about this earlier today at Backcountry Conservative, but I just dismissed it out of hand. Now I'm not so sure as his apparent return to the world of the living has been posted as a press release.

Also, a blog has been started...apparently by Kaufman himself.

Now, I have to admit that I am still a bit skeptical. This is just the sort of thing he'd have instructed his friends to pull long after his death (if, indeed he died). On the other hand, from what I know of the guy I wouldn't put a 20-year-hiatus-just-for-kicks past him.

Humm...
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Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Here are two stories that I guarantee you will not see mentioned in the same breath anywhere else.

Berlusconi vows to stay 'to the very end' with US in Iraq, bashes opposition

and

HAMAS LEADER KILLED

That’s right folks, both Israel and Italy are on the right track. The former is still in the process of killing bad guys and the latter has reaffirmed their commitment to securing a former haven of terror and transforming it into a free and open society.

With any luck (and a whole lot of hard and sometimes distasteful work) we will succeed in shutting down Terror and sending the scum of the Earth who would kill the innocent to whatever awaits them after they have assumed room temperature (apologies to Rush).
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What Is The Catholic Church Supposed To Be?

It seems that a lot of pro-abortion Catholic Congresspeople don’t want there to be any problems with their public stances. These types tend to claim Separation of Church and State (a nonexistent concept) or that they have Freedom of Conscious to hold whatever opinion they want and still be in good standing with the Church.

So this raises the question: What is the Catholic Church supposed to be?

Is it: A) A fun little group whose only membership requirement is that a person claims to be Catholic, B) An entity that supplies moral direction as a mere suggestion, or is it C) An organized religion that fully expects its adherents to follow the teachings of Christ and its own interpretation thereof?

If you answered A or B, please readjust your thinking cap because it’s obviously falling off. The Catholic Church is all accepting. She will welcome any (and I mean any) person into the fold. There are only two fundamental requirements…you must be sorry for the bad things you have done in the past and be willing to try to do better in the future.

Since we, as human beings, cannot see into another’s soul, we have to go by what they say and do. If someone says they’re sorry and acts like it, then we believe them. If, on the other hand, that same person unabashedly supports something that is antithetical to the Church’s belief structure then the Church is under no obligation aside from trying to show that person the Light of Truth.

Say what you will. There is no requirement that you agree. There is also no requirement that a priest give you Communion if there is proof that you are in a state of sin. Since the act of abortion is one of the most fundamentally wrong acts by Church standards how can anyone expect that a supporter of that horrifying act be eligible to receive the Body and Blood of Christ?

To say this is a political issue is to completely miss the point. The fact is this is 100% a moral issue, and it is not one on which the Church can possibly compromise.

I have to believe that these Congresspeople are smart enough to have realized the truth of what I have just said (although not necessarily). Given that at least some of them have, then those individuals are guilty of attempting to pervert the Teachings of the Church for the their own political gain. So, who’s going to destroy the Church for the sake of politics, again? I must have missed it the first time around.

On a related topic…John Kerry apparently can’t decide which side to waffle to on this issue.

Update

Just to prove that I'm not completely crazy, check this out (hat tip Catholic(?) Kerry Watch). Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark wrote the following regarding pro-abortion 'Catholic' elected officials:

But with abortion (and for example slavery, racism, euthanasia and trafficking in human persons) there can be no legitimate diversity of opinion. The direct killing of the innocent is always a grave injustice. One should not permit unjust killing any more than one should permit slave-holding, racist actions, or other grave injustices. From the perspective of justice, to say "I am personally opposed to abortion but…" is like saying "I personally am against slavery, but I can not impose my personal beliefs on my neighbor." Obviously, recognizing the grave injustice of slavery requires one to ensure that no one suffers such degradation. Similarly recognizing that abortion is unjust killing requires one-in love and justice-to work to overcome the injustice.

This backs up my own thoughts and makes me a lot more comfortable with them, as a Catholic (also, as I have mentioned previously, Fr. Rob has commented on this extensively).
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Ann Keeps On After The Lefty Times

I love it:

This is the same L.A. Times that responded to the largest number of canceled subscriptions in the paper's history from readers enraged by the paper's liberal bias by putting Michael Kinsley, one of America's leading leftists, in charge of the editorial page.

Read the whole thing. She's right on.
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Prometheus

Prometheus is a great blog on Science Policy. Give it a read (new on the blogroll, of course. For related concent on MuD&PHuD see this post.
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Blaster's Blog

I've added Blaster to the blogroll because he's doing a great job keeping us up to date with the supposedly nonexistent WMDs in Iraq. Here is his latest.

Just a taste:

In short, this type of artillery shell is one that the Iraqis never declared, and the UN inspection teams on the ground never discovered. It introduces something entirely new into the WMD story of Iraq. Here is the nub - this type of weapon has never been found in or attributed to Iraq before, where did this one come from? This isn't quite an airplane in King Tut's tomb, but it is highly significant. Was it produced in Iraq right under the noses of the inspection regime? Was it purchased from outside in violation of UN sanctions? Did it come in from some outside country after the fall of Hussein? I don't know the answer to those questions, but whatever the answer, it changes the narrative of the WMD story in Iraq.
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Terminator or 1984?

Which will come first? That's usually the question that pops into my head when I read stories like this one. Check it out:

Although English teachers at Warren Central applaud the computer's ability to evaluate spelling, punctuation, grammar and organization, Richard Reed, the department chairman, made it clear that "we are not 100 percent sold on the computer's ability to grade content."

I'm actually a strange mix of impressed and scared that some people are just "not 100 percent sold" on the content issue. I'm telling you, when computers get better at parallel processing (as opposed to the traditional serial variety), we're not going to have too many advantages left. So, will it be Arnold or Orwell?
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Cosby Steps In A Steaming Pile of PC

It looks like Bill has made some people angry (second story on page). I guess the bright side of the story is that the NAACP and their buddies at Harvard have not given him a pass just because of his skin color...but then they never gave Clarence Thomas, Condi, etc. much of one either. I guess they mostly don't like successful, Conservative blacks. Humm...

Anyway, let's see what made them so hopin' mad:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he declared. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.' . . .

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," he exclaimed. "I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' . . . And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. . . . Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. . . . You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!"

Now I haven't found the complete transcript yet...but from what I've seen I can't seem to find any falsehoods in Mr. Cosby's statements. Did he go too far? Sure, in the sense that he obviously made liberals mad. But what did he say that was factually incorrect. And further what, among the things he pointed out, would not leave the black community in a better place if fixed? Are people really so attached to ebonics that they would insist on speaking that way even if it cost them a chance to make something of themselves?

I don't think that Bill was out to insult all black people...and I am obviously not. I don't care what color your skin is. All I ask is that people shut up, work hard ask for help only when they need it. The endless cycle caused by Welfare in this country hurts everyone. We need to do whatever we can to break people's dependency on the government while giving them a fighting chance (not a guarantee...just a fighting chance)…we do not need to be berating a guy who points out some of the root problems.

Update:

Ramblings' Journal has some comment.
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Michael, Partisan? Tell me Moore!

Michael Moore (as Evan has pointed out) has rejected the 'charge' that he is a partisan filmmaker. Right…and the CIA is listening to my thoughts right now.

So here is a story linked by Drudge informing us that Miramax has hired some Lefty Spinmisters to promote (and defend) Moore’s latest hack-job film:

Parachuting into France for the documentary's Cannes Film Festival launch, a Miramax rep told us, were Howard Wolfson, ex-campaign press secretary for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Michael Feldman, a top adviser on Al Gore's 2000 presidential race. (Feldman founded the Glover Park Group, a D.C. communications outfit, with ex-Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart.) Also providing PR expertise on the anti-Bush movie: former Clinton White House advisers Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane.

What a bunch of strange coincidences. Good thing Moore doesn’t take one side over the other. I certainly hope that he doesn't start down the now-well-trodden path towards the kingdom of waffler.

Update:

Perhaps you would like to see Moore crushed? Check out Right Side Redux (hat tip marcland).

Update 2:

Evan picks up on, and expands, the theme here. As usual, great analysis. Give it a read.

Update 3:

Here is a story about the Cannes Jury and their decision to award the top prize to Moore:

Moore's response, according to Tarantino, was "that means more to me than anything. If I wanted to make political statements, I would have run for office. I want to make movies".

This wasn't a political statement...just like his other 'films' haven't been. How stupid does he think we are?

Update 4:

And...Junk Yard Blog points out that he's also a liar (surprise, surprise...I know).

Update 5:

Moore Jumps the Shark at The Command Post.
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Do You Remember?

Of course you do. Who could forget? I just caught Hannity and Colmes on Fox talking with Mayor Giuliani about his testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Much of the discussion was about the general tendency to want to assign blame with 20/20 hindsight. Nothing bothers me more…and most especially where this horrible event is concerned.

The arrogance, well after the fact, of judging decisions made in the blinding dust of the moment is inexcusable. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to get caught up in the blame game. If you want to point fingers at the politicians, be my guest…just be fair. But the face of any belly-crawling-scum will certainly deserve to find my willing and able fist if it dare disparage the firefighters or policemen who risked and gave their lives in the service of others.

With all the noise being generated with this ‘independent’ commission, I think we all could use some clarity. So…

Let us set aside all the political bickering to reflect, for a brief moment, on that terrible day. My feeble attempt at expressing my true, visceral, feelings on that day is below. I know there is no way that mere words could possibly convey the enormity of that day and how it impacted me…and continues to. So my only hope is that my words will elicit in you your own very personal and unique feelings on 9/11/01. I know most of them were painful…especially for any who lost a loved one, friend, etc. I apologize in advance if I cause any pain. I only do this here because it saddens me greatly that so many seem to have forgotten.

-----

Do you remember?

All memories fade with time, some more than others. This one, however, will never leave me.

We were sitting in the 1st year medical lecture hall. Cell phones rang, irritating but nothing out of the ordinary. A few students listened to their phones after a second ring…and walked out of the room. As the 8am lecture was drawing to a close the always-gruff Dr. G walked to the front of the class. He took a second, looking at the podium. Then he looked out at the class. The words hit me as his look had its effect, “One of the World Trade Center towers in New York City is on fire. It appears to not be an accident. It appears that we have been attacked. Class is dismissed. Go home.”

I have no memory of the short drive to my friend’s apartment. We sat and watched. Absolute disbelief and stunned silence cast a pall over the room. With our over-connected, real-time, world…I saw with my own eyes…the second plane hit the Tower. With that, all suggestions of accident were abandoned and we knew…

We sat and watched. The towers, one and then the other, imploded and fell straight down to the ground. We saw tiny dots falling…people choosing to jump to their deaths rather than sit in a doomed building.

Scenes bounced up and down as cameramen risked their lives trying to capture and transmit images of firefighters and policemen risking their own lives while ensuring the survival of as many as possible.

I sat many miles from The City. Never before had I felt so useless. Never before had every ounce of my being wanted to reach out and help. Never before had I been so grateful to be safe, and to know that my family was also.

Yet somehow, in the midst of watching my Countrymen engulfed by such horror…

Never before had I wanted so badly be in The City, to be a part of that groundswell of NYC comradery…

Never before had I wanted so badly to be a New Yorker.

-----

Do You Remember?

Update:

Here's more on the Giuliani testimony (marcland).
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Dare We Hope?

Could Dashel be on his way out? A new poll linked by Daschle v Thune might suggest that he is (hat tip Power Line). Oh what a wonderful world it would be!
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The Brits

It's good to see the Brits still have it (hat tip Backcountry):

OUTNUMBERED British soldiers killed 35 Iraqi attackers in the Army’s first bayonet charge since the Falklands War 22 years ago.

...more...

After radioing for back-up, they fixed bayonets and charged at 100 rebels using tactics learned in drills.

When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway — and more were floating in a nearby river. Nine rebels were captured.

Notice the numbers (assuming they're correct):

100 bad guys + 1 charge - 9 captured = 91 dead bad guys

God Bless Her Majesty's Troops.

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Freedom, Anyone?

Volokh has a really disturbing story from Seattle involving the ACLU. The short story is that a printing business was sued because the owner refused to print wedding invitations for a gay couple getting married. The upshot is:

SEATTLE -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington today announced an agreement settling a discrimination complaint filed by a gay man against a local business that refused to print invitations to his wedding with his same-sex partner. Under the agreement, the business owner has apologized for her actions and agreed to abide by Seattle’s anti-discrimination law in the future.

Eugene's reaction to this mirrors mine closely:

One can imagine a libertarian regime in which gays enjoy freedom from government interference with their liberty, and enjoy equal access to government benefits, but those who disapprove of homosexuality enjoy equal freedom not to help with practices and rituals that they find abhorrent. But that doesn't seem to be how our legal system works these days. Greater legal acceptance of homosexuals' freedom from government intrusion and government discrimination has indeed been accompanied with greater constraints on private choices not to deal with homosexuals. There are many reasons for this (chiefly attitude-altering slippery slopes and multi-peaked preferences slippery slopes, under which some voters take the view that once certain sorts of behavior are recognized as legitimate they generally shouldn't form the basis of private discrimination as well as public discrimination, and also perhaps in some measure political momentum slippery slopes and political power slippery slopes); but whatever the reason, it does appear to be the case.

This is a truly disturbing development. I have no problem with the government being sued/pressured on the grounds of discrimination. The specifics of each case can be dealt with individually.

However, when the government steps in and tells a private citizen that he or she must deal with a given person against the former's will...that reeks of restrictions on individual freedom.

The elected officials in a Representative Republic are (in my ever-humble opinion) supposed to do a few things. They’re supposed to protect us from internal and external threats to our security. They’re supposed to ensure that the rights of minorities are not trampled by the majority. Oh, and I would add to the list that they’re supposed to make sure that the rights of the majority are not trampled (these days, by the courts).

So where is the outrage? The owner of a private company has just been forced against her will to do business with someone she does not wish to. Does no one else (aside from Eugene) see a huge freaking problem here?

This sort of thing scares me more than a lot of ‘little’ domestic issues. The reason is simple; the issue is ‘little.’ It’s just so easy for everyone to shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, what’s the big deal? We shouldn’t be discriminating against gay people.” I would counter that we shouldn’t be discriminating against anyone…including private business owners!

Update:

50minutehour also as an opinion on this. Also, take a look at the first comment to that post and my reply (#4). This is a very important distinction that far too many people confuse.
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Blogging In Real Time

Talk about turnaround in Blog-time! I have just been promoted to Real American Hero over at marcland. Now, I realize that I have met the one and only requirement...and I'm lovin' it. Blogfriends make me feel so warm and fuzzy. =)

All right, all right enough about me…what do you think about my new shoes?

Keep up the good work marc.
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I Thought I Smelled Something

I have received the nearly-penultimate honor of being added to marcland's New Blogs and I am apparently fresh. That would explain the smell =). So, in the spirit of reciprocal blogging (and because I like what I've seen so far) I've added to marcland to my blogroll (not to mention linking to marcland numerous times in a single post).

Movin' on up.
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In The Interest Of His Own Longevity...

...Castro's personal physician says the dictator can live until age 140. Yeah, sounds like he's doing great:

Castro led the march past the US diplomatic mission in Havana to protest US policy against the island's communist government for about 800 metres, walking slowly and with some difficulty.

Umm, sounds like he's doing what many 77-year olds are doing, except he also happens to be a really bad guy. Hey, at least his doctor is going to keep on living. I'd say a good way to get not living is to tell the world that your friendly neighborhood dictator is in bad shape.
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Oh The Great American Legal System

Here is a story that I find disturbing for a number of reasons (hat tip: Insults Unpunished). The short story is that John Rapanos decided to place sand on ground that the government says is a wetland. I'll just mention on of the the most bothering points here:

At the sentencing, Judge Zatkoff, who had just sentenced an illegal immigrant on narcotics charges, made clear his disgust with the Rapanos prosecution. "So here we have a person who comes to the United States and commits crimes of selling dope and the government asks me to put him in prison for 10 months," he said.

"And then we have an American citizen who buys land, pays for it with his own money, and he moves some sand from one end to the other and government wants me to give him 63 months in prison. Now, if that isn't our system gone crazy, I don't know what is. And I am not going to do it." A three-judge appellate panel unanimously reversed Judge Zatkoff and ordered him to sentence Mr. Rapanos to prison.

Totally aside from the fact that Mr. Rapanos (and many, many others) is being told what he can and cannot do with his private land, we've got a legal system that punishes his violation more harshly than some selling drugs. Amazing and sickening all at once.
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More Good News From Iraq

Another bit of good news from Iraq put together at Chrekoff (hat tip: Sullivan):

DEMOCRACY TAKES ROOT: Democracy is spreading - from the ground up, as it should: "In the province of Dhi Qar, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad and a backwater even by Iraq's standards, residents voting as families will have elected city councils in 16 of the 20 biggest cities by next month."

And in Baghdad, "American authorities created nine district councils... with representatives sent by 88 neighborhood advisory councils. The district councils, in turn, sent representatives to the Baghdad City Advisory Council to work with the American administration." "Every day the evidence is a little stronger that the council members understand the benefits of this system, and we even see signs out in the community of it catching on."

Meanwhile, a Western PR firm, with Arab partners, tackles the world's toughest ad campaign - selling democracy to Iraqis accustomed to life under a dictatorship.

Go see what else he has to say.

Update:

Good news keeps on a comin' in...as long as you listen to the people who are actually there! (hat tip Instapundit)
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The Catholic Church vs. Abortion

My latest is up at Useless Knowledge. I decided to again take on Andrew Sullivan over his position on the Catholic Church, Abortion and Communion. Here's a bit:

While it is impossible for one human being to see into another’s soul to judge whether an act of repentance is sincere, it is certainly possible (and quite easy, actually) to determine that John Kerry, for example, is an unrepentant supporter of abortion. Therefore, in the eyes of the Church, he is tantamount to an unrepentant supporter of murder (if not an actual murder himself). So, in that sense, the Church seems really to be under an obligation to refuse him Communion, given that he actively supports the worst sin imaginable.

Give it a read if you want. I'd love to know what you think.
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Absolutely Unhinged

All right. I’ve had just about enough of the Abu Ghraib nonsense. There were a lot of bad things that went on there. The people who did those bad things need to be punished. But this goes well beyond the pale:

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — On the eve of the first court-martial in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, relatives of those still held at Abu Ghraib prison (search) said Tuesday the only suitable punishment would be death -- illustrating the potential gap in expectations in the case.

Umm…I would certainly agree that there just might be a pit of a “potential gap in expectations” here. Jeeze. So far, even the Red Cross has labeled some of these acts as, "tantamount to torture.” Notice the first word, the definition of which is not actually.

Now, I understand this to some extent:

The U.S. military hopes the presence in the courtroom of such prominent Arab media as the Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera television networks will demonstrate American resolve to determine who was responsible for the abuse and punish the guilty.

However, Al-Jazeera is nothing more than an anti-American propaganda machine…and a pretty effective one at that. Does anyone honestly believe that the people running that station are going to just play representative segments of the trials? Humm, I’ll put my money on them cutting the living daylights out of the footage and then following it up with some nutjob ‘analyst’ who will ‘objectively’ point out that America is the Great Satan.

What a freaking mess.
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A New Low

Assuming this account is accurate, I would say that at least one member of the US Media has sunk to just below pond scum (hat tip: Evan):

A British reporter says a U.S. journalist in Baghdad told him she wants to see more Iraqis die so President Bush will be thrown out of office in November.

...more...

"Startled by her candor," said Herndon, "I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing."

The British journalist said, "She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go."

He then suggest to her that by this logic another Sept. 11 attack, on about Sept. 11, would be perfect for pushing up John Kerry's poll numbers.

"Well, that's different — that would be Americans," she said, haltingly, according to Harnden. "I guess I'm a bit of an isolationist."

This would be absolutely astounding if it weren't so obvious from what we read between the lines every day. Part of me hopes that this isn't true, or that it's at least an exaggeration. However, I tend to think that these views are most likely held close to the chest by many who simply hate President Bush. It's scary and quite disgusting.

I say turn away from the traditional Media as much as possible and check everything against as many sources as are available. More than ever it is up to individuals to actually think for themselves and try to distill the truth from the copious lies handed down from on-high every day.

Update:

Glenn has some great comments on a related topic. Here's a bit:

What's most bothersome to me is that the anti-Bush stance adopted by most media organizations makes their reporting less useful to those of us who are trying to figure out what's going on, and makes the Administration, and its supporters, tend to tune it all out, possibly causing them to miss important information. I don't know what to do about it, except to try to point out the stuff that it seems they're missing.

I agree. I tend to either ignore CNN or watch it incredulously until I see their opinions supported by copious data. I just don't feel like the Media can be trusted anymore (as if you couldn't guess from this, that, the other thing and even this, just to name a few =)). I suppose that they never could be trusted...it's just easier to see that now. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily easier to figure out what the heck is really going on.
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Berg Update

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Four people have been arrested over the beheading of US businessman Nicholas Berg, whose killing was shown earlier this month in a video on an Al-Qaeda linked website, a senior Iraqi source said.

Hopefully we're on the right track. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

Update (on the Update):

Yet another indicator that the Media has failed us:

Late last week, Web users became focused on seeking
out, finding, and watching the actual execution video and searches began
emerging for: find Nick Berg video, watch Nick Berg beheading, and Nick Berg
video link. Nick Berg-related searches are so prevalent that they dwarf all
other searches, including the consistent pop-culture leaders. Over the past
week, Nick Berg searches were 24 times higher than Britney Spears (#4), Paris
Hilton (#6), and Clay Aiken (#5).

This translated directly into the pummeling that a ton of blogs took. Although I'm more than happy to increase my readership (or it is bloggership?), I still say it stinks that the Media choose leave people uninformed. They failed this test terribly and the blogs filled in (esp, in my view, Wizbang and Backcountry Conservative).

Update 2:

More on the Media's serious shortcomings and biases over at Instapundit. I know I keep harping on this, but I think it's important and it will (by definition) never receive the sort of attention it deserves since the guilty parties aren't going to do it.

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The Sky Is Falling (Again)

Amazing, I had no idea that we were in such trouble because of the recent increase in gas prices. Here's what Kerry had to say:

"Yesterday, gas prices soared to more than $2 a gallon, but this administration still has not done anything to help" Kerry said. "Their inaction is costing working Americans their jobs, their savings and the opportunity to get ahead."

I hadn't realized it before, but he's right. I just dipped into my 401K early to pay for gas to get to work today. People must literally be unable to save money for the future because they no have to pay maybe an extra $40/month in gas ($0.50 * 80gallons/week). Ah, but...

Kerry said Oregon families had been particularly hard hit, paying $2.25 a gallon and adding $1,006 to their annual bills.

Right, if they had to pay $2.25/gallon for an entire year. But they haven't, and they most likely won't. Give me a break.

Here's Bush's stance on this issue:

Bush, a former Texas oilman, has adamantly refused to tap the stockpile. He contends the oil should be saved for possible supply disruptions, not to control prices. Kerry has not laid the specific conditions under which he would release oil from the SPR.

What an amazing idea. We should actually save our reserves for the most drastic of situations and not to implement some socialistic price-control scheme? Amazing. Sounds like someone has actually been involved in running a business while someone else has spent his entire life living off my taxes and his rich wives. Can you guess who is who?

Update:

Esoteric Diatribe has pointed out a Waffle on this very topic. Check it out.

Update 2:

AlphaPatroit also has some ideas on related topics.

Update 3:

Bush as made himself clear on this issue:

"We will not play politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," Bush told reporters after a meeting with his Cabinet.

"The idea of emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror," Bush said.

He's absolutely correct. The Strategic Oil Reserve is just that, a reserve for Strategic purposes...not including -whimper- high oil prices...but including an OIL EMBARGO. How short does Kerry think our memories are? I wasn't even born during the last embargo...but I listen, think and manage to see through his and other's BS.

Update 4:

Amazing, the NYT has actually ripped Kerry a new one for his stance on the Oil Reserved (hat tip Junk Yard Blog)...and (wonder of wonders) has backed Bush's decision and past actions. Somebody check their DNA, body-snatchers must have taken over!
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The Nutcase On The Waffler

It looks like Dr. Dean and I agree (via Drudge):

'He has this pattern,' Dr. Dean said, 'you saw it with No Child Left Behind, you saw it with the war, you see it with special interests, which I think is terribly damaging. It appears that his word is no good.'

I love the other party's primary races. They always provide such fun quotes.
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Ann Takes On The LA Times

Ann Coulter takes on John S. Carroll of the LA Times about his recent speech concerning the state of journalism in the country. John basically used his speech to take potshots at Fox News (surprise, surprise). The poll he refers to (as does Ann) was conducted by PIPA and essentially indicated that Fox News viewers are way more stupid than New York Times readers (as if we needed a poll =)).

You've got to love her cut-to-the-chase attitude:

The poll asked questions like this: "Is it your impression that the U.S. has or has not found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al-Qaida terrorist organization?" Sixty-seven percent of Fox News Channel viewers said the United States had found evidence of a link. Liberals view this as a "misperception."
Admittedly the evidence may not be as "clear" as the evidence proving a link between Osama bin Laden and Halliburton, but among other evidence connecting Iraq to al-Qaida, consider just these three items.

Last year papers were found in Iraqi intelligence headquarters documenting Saddam's feverish efforts to establish a working relationship with al-Qaida. In response to Iraq's generous invitation to pay all travel and hotel expenses, a top aide to Osama bin Laden visited Iraq in 1998, bearing a message from bin Laden. The meeting went so well that bin Laden's aide stayed for a week. Iraq intelligence officers sent a message back to bin Laden, the documents note, concerning "the future of our relationship."

In addition, according to Czech intelligence, a few months before the 9-11 attacks, Mohammed Atta met with Iraqi intelligence agents in Prague.

Finally, a Clinton-appointed federal judge, U.S. District Court judge Harold Baer, has made a legal finding that Iraq was behind the 9-11 attacks -- a ruling upheld by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals last October. When some judge discovers a right to gay marriage in a 200-year-old document written by John Adams, Americans are forced to treat the decision like the God-given truth. But when a federal judge issues a decision concluding that Iraq was behind the 9-11 attacks, it is a "misperception" being foisted on the nation by Fox New Channel.

Read the whole thing. She does a great job of pointing out what would be painfully obvious if either the Media did its job or if people had attention spans greater than the current 3.2 seconds.
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Decide For Yourself

I thought that since I had blogged quite a bit about the Nick Berg video I should alert you to this also. Apparently, some doctor in Mexico City has declared (originally in Spanish, I have not choice but to trust the translation) that:

...there is no way that the individual in the video was alive and his heart pumping while his neck was being cut. The doctor adds that in these cases, while the heart is pumping, cutting a person's artery in the neck, would cause copious amounts of blood to spurt all over the immediate environment. He says that in his opinion the video is a fraud.

Is it true? I don't know. I suppose the Black Helicopter crowd will tell you that the CIA was behind this. But then they'll also tell you that we never landed on the moon because there weren't any stars in the background of the moonscape pictures (proving once and for all some people's absolute stupidity).

I will admit 1) there did not seem to be much blood and 2) the video lost resolution as it appeared to zoom in too far just prior to the actual beheading leaving some room for manipulation. I still think the video is real, and it has been reported that his decapitated body was found in Iraq just before the video was posted. What do you think?

Update:

It seems that the plot thickens. I haven't had time to read too much on all this, but seems that Berg might have had some interesting connections. Let none of this distract from the absolute evil that was done to this guy...but the image of he might have left if only he hadn't been unfairly detained stuff we were hearing might be a bit misleading. Here's a bit:

Berg teamed up in Baghdad with an ex-Philadelphia man who led a controversial group of Iraqi expatriates encouraged by the U.S. government - even as he faced deportation for his role in Russian-emigre crime ring selling millions of vials used for crack.

I'm not trying to imply guilt by association...just to provide information. Read the article and let me know what you think.

Update 2:

Also check out CNN's story on Berg's run-in with Moussaoui. Weird to say the least. But then shark attacks only seem ubiquitous when the Media wants them to.

Update 3:

For more on this Black Helicopter's and Nick Berg check out The Moderate Voice (hat tip Wizbang).
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Chalk One Up For The Bad Guys

Junk Yard Blog has some commentary on the fallout of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Here's a bit:

Our troops probably have instructions to try and capture as many insurgents as possible so that we can learn about their support network, their funding, anything they may know that can help us put down these terrorist militias. But what good is catching these guys if you can't interrogate them in a way that puts pressure on them to talk? These terrorists don't fight according to the Geneva Conventions and are therefore not by law required to be held according to GC standards. We are allowed to interrogate them in ways outside the GC. That doesn't mean we should torture them--as I said, we shouldn't. But we should pressure them in harmless ways to get information from them.

He's probably right, technically, about the Geneva Convention issue...and he obviously doesn't support torture. The thing that JYD seems to leave out here is the pivotal role for the Media in all of this. Without the manufactured, prolonged and out of context outrage at the atrocities and torture, where would we be right now? I’d venture a guess that military justice would be moving forward and the guilty would be on their way towards punishment.

Unfortunately, since the Media has taken an active (and biased) role in blowing these pictures out of proportion we now have our military giving in to pressure and, as JYD rightly points out, placing our men and women in additional danger.

Those of you in the Media reading this should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Not only have you blown a story way out of context, actively ignored a far more important story (Nick Berg), but also that you’ve actually done everything in our power to give the bad guys the upper hand. You should absolutely know that you now must shoulder a portion of the blame when our soldiers die because they are unable to get necessary information out of the bad guys because we might -sniffle- make them uncomfortable!

I find it quite upsetting that the very people who once passionately opposed Vietnam because our soldiers were dying then are taking actions that will surely lead to soldiers deaths now. Truly unbelievable.
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Back At The Wheel

I'm back after spending a mostly beautiful weekend in Boston...the only catch being that I was inside attending a conference. Fortunately the meeting was great.

While I was gone I got an email from Evan Maloney (keeper of Brain-Terminal). He had written an article on the Media's treatment of Abu Ghraib prisoner pictures and the Nick Berg video. Apparently he got so many requests for the URL he finally linked to Wizbang. Here is his closing paragraph, which I think is right on and contains the sentiment that has been echoing around the US and the world ever since the video was released.

For us to achieve a just victory, it is important to hold ourselves to a higher morality. And when we fall short, the rest of the world should see that we can confront our own mistakes. If airing the Abu Ghraib prison pictures helps us do that, all the better. But we must not let terrorists take it as a sign that we don't have the stomach for war. That's why it's important to show the rest of the world that we're not afraid to kick some ass. And if seeing the gruesome images of Nick Berg's beheading gives us the mettle required to win this war, then he will not have died in vain.

Read the whole thing and check out his site. Agree with him or don't, but you've got to give him credit for the quality of both his written work and video productions.
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Weekend

I will most likely be unable to check my mail over the weekend so if you send a request for the Berg video link, be patient, I promise I will get back to you as soon as I'm able.

For now let me direct you to some thoughts from a Marine posted on Backcountry Conservative on what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison.
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Amazing...

The Blogosphere has been absolutely pummeled by people looking for the Nick Berg video. From everything I've seen, people are looking for this ghastly footage for the right reasons. I have offered the link by request (email) due to the alternate site's content, and thus far it seems people are interested in this video for honorable reasons.

To my knowledge Wizbang was the first to offer this video and the response has been absolutely astounding. Take a look at their most recent post on the number of hits coming over the past few days (my own numbers have jumped from 22 on 5/11 to 2,182 on 5/13 and 1,308 today).

I think this will send a message to the Media. However, I'm not sure what message they'll actually get. Will they see their own shortcomings and adjust their actions in the future? Or will they look down on the Bloggers as mercenaries out looking for shock value and lusting after hit totals?

Either way, the People have spoken. Given a choice, people have decided (each of his or her own free will) that they want to see the Truth...unfiltered and unedited. I, for one, am grateful for the efforts of all who have worked to keep their servers up and running...and who are currently footing the bandwidth bill.

So, thank you Wizbang and everyone else who has provided an invaluable service to all those seeking the Truth.

Update:

Backcountry Conservative also has a few links to the Berg video.
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Fr. Rob on Politicians and Abortion

Thrown Back has yet more discussion of abortion and Catholic politicians. He makes a number of points that echo my own thoughts. Here's a bit:

We all, in fact, recognize that "representing" the desires of his or her constituents is not the be-all and end-all of the legislator's responsibility. In fact, if we look at our own history, we can see instances in the not-too-distant past where politicians perpetrated monstrous injustices in the name of representing their constituents. Many Southern states enacted "Jim Crow" laws relegating African Americans to second-class citizen status. They no doubt did so with the support and at the behest of their constituents. In the late 19th century, the State of California enacted "Coolie" laws which placed Chinese immigrants under every manner of discriminatory burden. Those laws were wildly popular with the electorate. Now we look back at such measures with shame and disgust, and rightly so. The fact that the Jim Crow and Coolie laws were enacted by legislators representing the will of the people does not morally justify them.

Read the whole post, he's methodical and eloquent.
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Iraqis Looking For Democracy, Whatever That Is

Hey, I don't care if Iraqis know what Democracy looks like or not. At least they know they don't want theocracy. Now, as usual, the most important fact in the story is buried way down at the very end:

Iraqis have identified some successful areas in post-Saddam Iraq, the pollsters found.

"One of the things that comes up again and again as a success in the transition so far is education," Sahm said. He also mentioned increasing trust in the Iraqi police and the new Iraqi army.

"When we see the images of war and terror on the TV screen," Sahm said, "it's hard to believe that behind all of this, many Iraqis are leading normal lives and going about their business."

So, Iraqis want a Democracy fashioned after those of the West...and...good things are happening despite what you might think from watching the nightly misdirection, sometimes mistakenly referred to as 'news.'

Update:

More reasons at Power Line for why we fight.
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Hannity Comes Closest

Sean has apparently played the unedited audio of the Nick Berg video, and for the right reasons. Not only that, but he (as usual) has done so in the right way:

May 14, 2004 -- SEAN Hannity bucked the rest of the media yesterday and played the horrifying audio from the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg on his radio show.

...more...

"I think people need to know what we're dealing with - it's evil right before your eyes," said Hannity, the Fox News Channel personality whose syndicated radio show is based at WABC (770 AM).

"These people want to kill all Americans, not just this poor kid, Nick Berg," Hannity told The Post.

The high-rated talker said he gave listeners "ample time to tune out with a full and complete disclaimer.

"I counted down from 10 and said I didn't want to hear any complaints," he said.

Sean, thank you for doing the job of the Big Media Outlets...and for doing the job right.
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Feedback on the Nick Berg Video

Here is an email that I received on the video:

To answer the question of what I think ...

I think the very same thing I thought after I saw the video clip of the SUV burning in Fallujah on CNN. In that clip, I got a glimpse of a human being burning alive - the driver of the SUV. As he followed his human instinct, waving his arms to get out of the flames, a young Iraqi (guessing 20's) was poking a stick (or something similar), while he cheers, through the vehicle at this Americans burning body .

As I watched that clip of the contractors, I was paralyzed, both inside and out - for more than one reason. One reason is the obvious - to this day I do not understand how one human being watches another human being suffering and do nothing to help -- much less cheer at such a horrible death. The other reason, for me, was that, I knew the video clip I was watching was of an American contractor, but I didn't know who.

My boyfriend is an American contractor in Iraq - who tells me he usually drives when they are on missions... For a brief moment, I saw the driver of the SUV burning alive - knowing my boyfriend was a contractor and usually drove - no words I have can tell anyone what that feeling was like - But my heart aches for what the friends and family of the Berg's must be going through. For the longest time, even after I got word from him that he was okay, that image flashed through my mind over and over again and sometimes still does.

...more...

World Peace really does sound like a wonderful thing - but who the hell are we kidding? World Peace is fantasy - a form of denial to what is real - because just like this video of Nick Berg, the majority of human beings cannot fathom the thought of standing over another human being and cutting his head off just to prove a point or just because we can -- not even to mention doing it in God's name (no wonder so many of the people that don't know God don't like him!).

This isn't Superman or Isis... Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.
There is no "nice" way to rid the world of people like Bin Laden, Saddam, Zarqawi, just to name a few. I believe we (America) has all the information, power, and money we need to take these people out - But Americans will not tolerate the reality of what needs to be done - because as you know, those animals have rights too! Like Saddam, for instance. Why is he still using up the air we breathe? Because he has rights? Sorry, but in my book, he used his up a long, long time ago. Spending a dime on a next meal for any of them is too much... whoever finds them, pull the trigger and have us all out of our misery. While some may say that would be too easy for them, screw that, let's just do what is easiest and cheapest for US and have it done with so we can get on to other things.

...more...

People can blow all they want to about how this, that, and the other thing is Bush's fault or Rumsfeld's fault. BS! As far as I'm concerned, they have more guts than anyone in the Whitehouse I've ever seen and they are doing a damn fine job! America has no one to blame but themselves - for allowing the political stupidity of Democrat vs. Republican to be of greater importance than the lives of the people that are dying to give them something to fight over on capital hill... which has been proven with the deaths of those American contractors and Nick Berg. A bunch of naked Iraqis has gotten more of their attention than all 5 of OUR OWN put together!

As for Nick Berg - I will hear those screams for a long time to come. I can only hope that those on Capital Hill will hear those screams tonight as they sleep - and for many nights to come. I hope those screams will deliver a message that his brutal death represents what our children and grandchildren for generations to come, both Republican and Democrat, are sure to face if this job isn't finished - finished right and finished fast.
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Link Requests to Nick Berg

Requests for the link to the alternate video hosting site have been showing up in my inbox with increasing frequency over the past 24 hours. The sentiments expressed in these requests (and a few follow up reactions) give me hope. These people seem to have a genuine desire to face reality. I think that watching this horrifying video is the least we can do to honor Nick Berg personally and all others like him so that we truly Never Forget.

Feel free to try Wizbang's link, but if that is still swamped let me know and I'll send you to the alternate site.

Update:

Zeyad at Healing Iraq has posted on the Nick Berg video and that horrifying act's relationship to Islam. It's a definite must-read. Here's a sort exerpt:

So yes, Islam is the problem here. Poverty, economic conditions, abuse by so called colonialism, and political frustration are not. Similar conditions elsewhere in the world have not prompted non-Muslims to commit suicide bombings or fly planes into towers. Islam, along with favourable cultural, tribal, and social values existing in the Arab world has prompted that drive. Islam and the Quran alone are not the root cause.

Go see what he has to say.

Update 2:

One Hand Clapping has also provided a bit of evidence that Islam is not the religion of peace that many would have us believe.
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Media Boycott of Nick Berg

Much to their determent the big media outlets have abandoned any sense of honest reporting by dropping the story of Nick Berg like a hot rock. As usual, Glenn over at Instapundit has done a wonderfully link-rich job of doumenting this sadly predictable phenomenon.

I think Neil Boortz hits it on the head (via Instapundit):

This morning in most of the newspapers I scanned during my preparation for the show the top story was still the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. Nick Berg had already disappeared from many front pages, but the prison abuse stories remain. May I suggest to you that there is a reason for this? Maybe it's just this simple: The prison abuse scandal can damage Bush, the Nick Berg story can only help him. Given the choice many editors will chose the stories that serve their cause, getting Bush out of the White House, rather than one that hurts it.

Humm...who'd a thunk it? The Media might have an agenda? Get out!

Totally aside from the terrible disservice these elitists are doing all of us, they are perpetrating an even great injustice on Nick Berg himself. Here's a guy who put himself in a dangerous place. He didn't do it for the thrill, he didn't do it for the money. By all accounts he was a good-hearted guy who had been to many troubled places in the world and worked to bring impoverished people the benefits of technology.

The sad thing, to me, is now his family is blaming President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld for directly causing his sons death. I hesitate to make any judgments about what this family does right now. They have just had a video of their son being brutally executed transmitted around the world. I have absolutely not concept of what they must be going through. However, in the name of fairness and honesty, the accusation that Bush or Rummy had anything to do with their son's death is absolutely absurd.

Even if all their claims are true. Even if Nick Berg was held illegally by our forces, there is absolutely no proof I have seen supporting the idea that he would have immediately left the country. By all accounts, he had put himself into a dangerous situation and I see no indication that he was on his way out (as evidenced here). However, even if he would have left immediately, the idea that our forces (let alone Bush and Rummy) directly contributed (let alone directly caused) this poor guy’s death is absolutely absurd.

My heart goes out to the Berg family. I truly hope that they find peace in the midst of this awful, unspeakable evil. I also hope with all my heart that they find the strength to support the cause that there son supported and which unfairly took his life.

God bless the Nick Bergs of the world. May this man’s life reaffirm our faith in humanity and may his death steel our spines.

Update:

One Hand Clapping agrees. Give it a read.
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Leaders

Say what you will about Rumsfeld and call me niave, but this is exactly what a leader does. I’d a 1 ‘Merican-lovin’ Rummy over a thousand UN-appeasing Kerrys any day of the week.
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Ripples Turn Into Waves

The death of Nick Berg was awful, and it rightly demands our attention for his personal sake alone.

However, the media's refusal to show us the footage has had the amazing effect of bringing people to blogs who probably had never even known about them previously. I hesitated linking to this earlier because of the potential of being seen as a mercenary. I, however, do not advertise for my own financial benefit, so I hope that my motives will not be questioned. So take a look at what Paul at Wizbang has to say about the situation. I think he's got it mostly right.

Go see the effects that some of the world's worst and most violent events have had on where people get their news in the ever-developing internet age. Whether or not Big Media gets smart and decides to actually serve the interests of the public is yet to be seen. Regardless, Bloggers are here to pick up the slack and provide a forum that had previously not existed.
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As Usual, Evan Gets It Right

Evan Maloney hits the nail on the head with his most recent post on the Abu Ghraib pictures and Nick Berg. Money Quote:

For us to achieve a just victory, it is important to hold ourselves to a higher morality. And when we fall short, the rest of the world should see that we can confront our own mistakes. If airing the Abu Ghraib prison pictures helps us do that, all the better. But we must not let terrorists take it as a sign that we don't have the stomach for war. That's why it's important to show the rest of the world that we're not afraid to kick some ass. And if seeing the gruesome images of Nick Berg's beheading gives us the mettle required to win this war, then he will not have died in vain.

Exactly right. The world must understand that America has the guts to be absorbe losses and kick serious ass when push comes to shove. These animals truly want to kill each and every one of use with every ounce of their evil beings. They offer us absolutely no quarter, and they deseve none in return. We are undeniably in a struggle for our very existance, and never forget this:

We did not start this fight but we're sure as hell going to finish it.
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Media Bias or Stupidity?

Here is a story about Britain's chief scientist expressing the opinion that The Day After Tomorrow is "realistic". Now, one might make the absurd assumption that this means he thinks that an ice age with a 3-day (or so) onset is pretty reasonable. You'd be wrong. But...here's the opening paragraph:

The Hollywood blockbuster that depicts a sudden ice age brought about by climate change is "remarkably realistic" in parts, says the Government's chief scientist.

Wow, so we really could see an ice age developing over a few hours! Now I'm worried. Fortunately, I read on:

"The general interaction between the scientific community and political community is interestingly well portrayed," he said. "The opening scenes setting up the key scientific factors and introducing the viewer to the scientists and the scientific-political interface are in my view remarkably realistic. I think palaeoclimatologists can closely identify with the discussion. The skeptical reactions that the scientists received are also rather well depicted."

But what about the actual ice age?

"The current consensus is that climate change may result in a weakening of the Gulf Stream but not a complete halt," he said. "The cooling caused by a weakened Gulf Stream would not actually counteract the general warming caused by increased greenhouse gases. Northern Europe is more likely to get warmer than colder."

Humm, so whether or not this guy is right...it seems that the story is not at all "realistic" in the sense of, well, "realistic."

And finally, this scientist's opinion on the true impact of the movie:

Some critics of the film have suggested that its exaggerated storyline - showing tornadoes ripping through Los Angeles and snowstorms lashing Delhi - could dangerously mislead the public and cause them to become compacent about the real but not so dramatic dangers of climate change. "Will the public become inured? I think we're quite a long way from that. We're still in a situation where we need to engage the public more fully in the global warming debate," Sir David said.

Well, I certainly don't think that this movie is going to convince anyone that global warming --> ice age is less likely than they might already think. The problem is 1) people are way too influenced by movies/TV/fiction in general, 2) supposedly-reputable rags like the UK Independent run stories with misleading headlines and opening couple of paragraphs and 3) people only read the first three paragraphs of a story. That combination is a dangerous one. Unfortunately, there's not a lot any individual person can do to stem such a tide. Maybe if enough people actually talk about reality and put fiction in its rightful place we could do some good. Here's hoping.

Update:

Absolutely hilarious post on global warming over at Prometheus (hat tip Edge of England's Sword) =). Sad but true.

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Thank You Wizbang

I would like to share one last thought on the Nick Berg video. As I indicated earlier, I think that everyone should watch this horrifying footage for the simple reason that we should not hide from reality. I understand the desire to not be exposed to such images, but the fact remains that if these animals had their way my head would also be unceremoniously removed from my shoulders.

Obviously, this video has made it around the internet despite the best efforts of the Media to stop it. When reporting on this story, they have (with the amazing exception of NPR) not provided the name of the website that originally posted this video. To some extent, I can understand the decision to not actually show the video on TV, but the decision to not provide information that would allow individuals to make their own choice about viewing it is indefensible.

This only reinforces my opinion that the traditional Media thinks they’re better than the rest of us. Are they tougher that me? Do they have more of a right to see the world as it really is? Or, rather, do they have a responsibility to report to me the reality of the world?

If horrible things like this are going to happen in the world then I thank God for the medium that has given us all the ability to see beyond the namby-pamby filter that our Media places on topics of their choosing.

Keep up the good, if distasteful, work Wizbang everyone else (Instapundit originally sent me to Wizbang) who has helped Americans and the rest of the world see the Truth.
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Nick Berg Video Viewing

I just now managed to see the video showing the beheading of Nick Berg. I don't know what to say except that this has only reinforced my conviction that we absolutely must win this war against Terror.

Failure is not an option.

We must never forget that these bastards want to do this to each and every one of us. They would literally cut the head off of me, you, your mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother...anyone! Not because we invaded Afghanistan. Not because we invaded Iraq. Not because McDonalds is expanding around the world. Not because we drive SUVs. Not because we're fat. They want to kill each and every one of us because they want to rule the world. In their view of the Islam there is no room for other religions and anyone who does not agree must be killed.

Go see the video. It will make you want to vomit, but go see it nonetheless. We must not shrink from the reality of the World. It’s easy to hide behind the apparent physical distance between us and them. The comfort of our daily lives makes these terrible truths seem only as real as a movie. This video will convince you otherwise.

The safety zone of living in America is an illusion that should have been forever shattered on 9/11/01. We always say Never Forget, yet we seem never to have known in the first place.

Update:

Wizbang's server has been inundated with traffic, making it difficult to view the entire video. If you wish to see the video but are unable to access it via their link, email me and I will provide you with an alternate link. I'm not publishing this particular link because of the contents of that website.
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Where's The Press On This One?

I suppose it's obvious that the Press carries almost zero good stories in the first place. Combine that with Iraq and you get, well, quite possibly zero on the nose. Well, let me do their job for them.

There is a great organization called Operation Iraqi Children dedicated to making school supplies avaliable to children in Iraq. Read all about them on their website and remember, good things are happening over there.

Update:

And here's the direct link to their Good News From Iraq section.
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Nick Berg

Wizbang has the video of Nick Berg being beheaded. I am currently experiencing technical difficulties in obtaining the file. Regardless...

Although I have no doubt that this video will prove to be quite disturbing, I think we should not shrink from seeing such images. They represent reality and we should know what sort of animals we're up against. How can we truly know our enemy if we are unwilling to see him for what he is?

It seems that our level of economic success in this country has allowed us to remove ourselves from reality in too many cases. Other people do our hunting for us. Other people farm for us. Other people even compete at sporting events for us. I’m as guilty as anyone in these respects; I don’t hunt, farm or play professional sports. I’m afraid, however, that too many people are either blind to this phenomenon or simply willing to accept it. In either case, we should not shy away from facing reality, even when it’s horribly ugly. When I am able, I fully intend to watch this video.

I hope that everyone will carefully consider their own choices and the reasons behind them. If you choose to not watch this video that is your right, but remember that you’re sacrificing as a result.
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Cats and Gore-bal Warming: The Connection

I'm glad to see that Algore isn't letting this one go. To his credit he is apparently making it clear that the movie doesn't represent reality. Still, "he hopes the film will get people to start talking about climate change."

Yeah, and I hope that the movie Cats & Dogs will get people talking about the serious and growing threat of Cats taking over the world. I think that Al said it best himself:

"It's an emergency that seems to be unfolding in slow motion, but it actually is occurring very swiftly — not as swiftly as the movie portrays, but swiftly in the context of human history,"

After all, they may have suffered a bit of a setback with the fall of the Egyptians, but think about it. Cats...taking over the world. Makes as much sense as Gore-bal Warming.

Update:

The WashPost has a story on The Day After Tomorrow. Give it a read. (Hat Tip: Volokh)
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This Is Our Enemy

This, my friends, is exactly the sort of evil we are fighting. We have seen what many are calling horrible pictures depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Now, al-Qaida has decided to get revenge by (apparently) beheading an American citizen in Iraq. The terrible images of naked, hooded Iraqis was so awful that these scum decided to record the beheading of an innocent civilian. These evil people need to be killed. There is no reconciling with anyone who would do this. There can be no compromise. If we find anyone to compromise with, those people must promise that scum like this caught on tape will be dealt with.

Here is the part of the story I'm sure we'll be hearing more about:

"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused."

So we were supposed to trade criminals for an innocent hostage? This is their idea of an even exchange? These are animals and they will be hunted down as such.

I hope that we Americans and the Iraqi people never forget that this innocent man, Nick Berg, along with his many coworkers put himself at risk for the sake of rebuilding Iraq after decades of neglect. Their sacrifices must be remembered alongside those of our soldiers.

Update:

More on Mr. Berg:

Berg had traveled several times to Third World countries to help spread technology, his family said. He had previously traveled to Kenya and Ghana, where they said he had purchased a $900 brick-making press for a poor village, the family said.

Berg's mother, Suzanne Berg, said her son was in Iraq to help rebuild communication antennas.

"He had this idea that he could help rebuild the infrastructure," she said.

Michael Berg described himself as fervently anti-war, but said his son disagreed with him.

"He was a Bush supporter," Berg said. "He looked at it as bringing democracy to a country that didn't have it."

Seems like maybe this is the real story, rather than the title it was given. Just a thought AP. It seems to me that this guy was doing what he believed in, and for the right reasons. I'm sure he understood the risks, and I am saddened to know that yet another stand-up, principled individual has been lost.
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Red Cross on Iraqi Prisoners

Here is a story on the Red Cross’ report on Iraqi prisoners. Perhaps they've got it all right, but I find it hard to believe that 90% of all detainees were arrested by accident. It also seems just a bit, shall we say, unfair to make this the 3rd paragraph of the story.

While many detainees were quickly released, high-ranking officials in Saddam Hussein's government, including those listed on the U.S. military's deck of cards, were held for months in solitary confinement.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't give a crap what is done Saddam's former high-ranking officials. I know, I know, we need to abide by the Geneva Convention. But if it were up to me…

Anyway, let's say this is true:

"These methods of physical and psychological coercion were used by the military intelligence in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and other forms of cooperation from persons who had been arrested in connection with suspected security offenses or deemed to have an 'intelligence value.'"

Let’s get one thing straight…we have men and women in harms way because there are still bad guys running around Iraq who were involved with Saddam's government. So what should our people do? Should they offer these individuals with intelligence value iced tea and a hammock on the shade? Perhaps then they'd give us info to save our soldiers lives.

The thing that's getting lost in all of this is simply that we need information from many of these people. Should we be humiliating them and taking pictures? Probably not. Should we be torturing them? No. But there is a fine line between interrogation and torture...and the perception of that line is markedly different between civilian and military points of view. It is entirely possible that bonefide torture has taken place. If so, we must deal with those responsible. However, I have yet to see any evidence of true torture. Humiliation galore...but nothing rising to the level of torture.

I think that it would behoove us all to bear in mind what our priorities are. My first priority is to keep our soldiers safe. Next in line are innocent Iraqis. Then stray Iraqi dogs, cats, sheep and finally Iraqi bad guys. But I guess that's just me.

Update:

Hey, I guess it's not just me. Maybe Sen. Inhofe is reading MuD&PHuD =). Or maybe not. Regardless, I agree completely. Money Quote:

"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

More...

"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations, while our troops, our heroes are fighting and dying," he said.

It's heartening to know that we've got a few sane people in Congress.
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Thank You Mr. Drudge

Where would we be without Matt Drudge? I hear it all the time from various traditional news outlets how the 'muckraking reporter' Drudge is biased, inaccurate, etc., etc. Well why then don't we see pictures like this next to those of prisoner abuse, Mr. Objective-Unbiased-Pure-Innocent-Godly Journalist? Where are the stories of soldiers individually, and the armed forces collectively, doing good? How about stories of improvements in the oil infrastructure? Why no in-depth accounts of this story? We see Ted Koppel reading a laundry list of soldiers who have died, but we get no comment on what they're fighting for. How about simple observations of what Iraqis themselves think of us? Try this and this on for size.

The list goes on and on, and obviously these stories are out there. But where? They're certainly not above the fold in the New York Times, Washington (com)Post, LA anything, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. When these fine 'news organizations' do carry positive stories, they're buried on page 8 or after the 3rd commerical break. They're barely even on Fox News with the exception of the amazing Ollie North. I will never forget an interview Ollie did during the invasion. He had a Private standing next to him and he asked this young man:

-Back home we've been hearing how you don't have the supplies or support you need. Do you need more water?
-No sir.
-Do you need more food?
-No sir.
-Do you need more ammo?
-No sir.
-What do you need?
-Just keep sending more enemy sir!

This young man will never forget, will you?
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Scary Outlook On Life

Here is a perfect example of a scary outlook on abortion and here is my response. It is this sort of argument that I find absolutely incomprehensible. How can anyone honestly take the position that:

…the fact that there are half a million children in the foster care system. a foster care system that is severely under-funded and overworked. even if we assume that the pregnancy is allowed to continue and the mother gives it up for adoption, the child isn't guaranteed a life full of sunshine and happiness.

Who among us is guaranteed a life full of sunshine and happiness? Anyone out there have a contract attached to their birth certificate entitling them to sunshine and happiness throughout life? No? I don’t seem to have one either.

Probably the most chilling paragraph of this comment was the closing one.

not that it will matter to anyone who is pro-life, but above everything else, any label i or anyone else attaches to me, i am a child advocate, both professionally and in my personal life. my calling, if i may use that word, is to look after the well-being of children. and sometimes, sadly, in this world we live in, the best thing that can happen in the life of a child, is for the mother to terminate the pregnancy.

This person may not be suicidal, but I would have to venture a guess that she is quite a pessimist. The idea that her unhappy outlook on life should be used as an excuse to condone and promote the brutal murder of the unborn is so amazingly wrong that I have no words to express my horror. Does anyone out there smell eugenics?
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Good Economic News

Here’s a story that we will not hear nearly enough about. Although I believe that presidents have minimal real impact on the economy, any effect of Bush’s tax cuts has, at the very least, not been negative. More optimistically, I would say that any time we roll back taxes on individuals and (perhaps even more significantly, in the big picture) businesses, we will see improvement. I know it’s a simplistic view, and certainly not necessarily true. However, it would seem that every time we decrease taxes we get improvements in the economy. Even a skeptic might eventually begin to see a connection.

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A View From Iraq

Healing Iraq was the first, and is still my favorite, Iraqi blog. Here is a closeup look at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Update:

Here is more on the Abu Ghraib prison from Iraq The Model (another of my favorite Iraqi bloggers)

And an insider's opinion on the new Iraqi Army.

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Stem Cells Across The Pond

Here's The Scientist's update on Spain's stem cell situation. It looks like they're on the way to full-blown, embryo-derived, stem cell research. More to follow, I'm sure.

Update

As pointed out in the Comments (jefe), Nancy Reagan has indeed come out in favor of stem cell research. She apparently takes this stand due to the purported potential to cure Alzheimer’s disease, which President Reagan suffers from.

Mrs. Reagan’s position on this issue highlights an important point. When it comes to ethics there is often a conflict between high-minded principles and personal beliefs. We see it all the time in medicine. For example, the price tag to keep a 24-week-old premature infant alive is staggering and these poor kids are guaranteed to have lung problems and almost certainly will have low IQs. From 24,000 feet, it seems that making these expenditures is unsupportable given the initial and lifetime price tag and the generally poor outcome. However, all such decisions (in our health care system, anyway) are made at a personal level. So we end up doing everything humanly possible for these babies because who can look at two parents and say, “We have the ability to save your child’s life, but it just doesn’t make sense economically.”? The fact is we don’t and so we spend huge sums to keep these innocent little ones breathing (which I think is the right thing to do by the way).

Stem cell research is similar in that one might argue it is immoral given that an embryo is destroyed in the process. However, one’s opinion might be very different if such research would save a loved one. The rub with this particular issue is that there is no guarantee any such advancements will come of this research. Rather, we have only hopes and expectations. Will they pan out? The fact is we don’t know, and so we have no choice but to weigh the potential gain with the moral problem raised by the fact that embryos are destroyed in the process of obtaining these stem cells.

Whether or not we allow stem cell research will depend on the outcome of this balancing act.
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Conflict Of Interest? What Conflict Of Interest

Seriously, between former Clinton JD people on the 9/11 Commission and this story about the UN Oil-For-Influence program I wonder if anyone cares about COI's at all anymore. Wait, maybe it's just liberal, multicultural, internationalists who don't care...as long as it serves their purposes.

Money Quote:

Both letters — as well as a third one made public earlier this week to Saybolt Corp. (search), an inspection agency hired by the United Nations to monitor the loading of Iraqi oil — remind the companies of their contractual confidentiality agreements. For example, the April 2 Cotecna letter says all documents and data "shall be the property of the United Nations, shall be treated as confidential and shall be delivered only to United Nations authorized officials."

All three of these letters came from Sevan, who ran the oil-for-food program and who is accused of personally profiting $3.5 million through alleged illegal oil transactions.

I rest my case.
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No More Needs Be Said

Just read this.
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Back to More Serious Topics

Warning: Some may find content to be offensive.

Drudge has reported more alleged cases of misconduct by military personnel with respect to Iraqi prisoners. I plan to go into this issue in depth for my next Useless Knowledge article (the editor is on vacation at the moment), so I’ll spare you the details here. Here's what Drudge had on the front page as of 11:15pm:

WASHINGTON POST PLANNING TO REPORT MORE PRISONER ABUSE PHOTOS, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE... DEVELOPING...

The pictures obtained by The Post include shots of soldiers simulating sexually explicit acts with one another and shots of a cow being skinned and gutted and soldiers posing with its severed head. There are also dozens of pictures of a cat's severed head....

Other photographs show wounded men and dead bodies. In one, a dead man is lying in the back of a truck, his shirt, face and left arm covered in blood. His right arm is missing. Another photograph shows a dead body, gray and decomposing. A young soldier is leaning over the corpse, smiling broadly and giving the "thumbs-up" sign.

And in another picture a young woman lifts her shirt, exposing her breasts. She is wearing a white band with numbers on her wrist, but it is unclear if she is a prisoner.

Another photograph of a naked man with a dark hood over his head, handcuffed to a cell door. And another of a naked man handcuffed to a bunk bed, his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched...

A picture shows a soldier holding a leash tied around a naked man's neck in an Iraqi prison....

I caught some of Hannity’s show today while he was discussing this issue. He is of the opinion that although what these soldiers have done is obviously wrong and really quite disturbing, we need to keep it all in prespective. In principle, his is absolutely correct. Even the most disturbing pictures pale in comparison to what Saddam routinely did during this despotic reign. Hannity, I think rightly, points out that the US is being held to an infinitely higher standard than the rest of the world. Yes we are, and we should demand that we attain a high standard…although not necessarily one set by the world. We have such high expectations for our military that no outside force is necessary.

However, we should all note a few things. 1) We are much better in terms of human rights than most countries (although this may be a case of guilt by unhealthy comparison). 2) The acts carried out by these individuals absolutely does not amount to torture (humiliation, sure, but not torture per se). 3) The percentage of military personnel involved is insignificant in terms of numbers (100 would amount to 0.05% of our forces currently in Iraq). 4) These young men and women are being asked to do something that is relatively new in terms of warfare.

On that last one a quick point and then I’m done, promise. In the past, warfare was total. It was a tool to wipe out competition and take their stuff. Soldiers would literally burn, pillage and rape with impunity. They saw the enemy and that was the end of the story. Today’s US Armed Forces are being required to turn on the battle lust and kill as many of the enemy as possible (but only combatants…not civilians or you’re in trouble). Then, they’re asked to turn that off and treat the enemy kindly (who, by the way was just trying to kill them and probably managed to kill and wound their friends). None of this is meant to excuse the conduct in question…only to put it in prespective.

In the end the guilty individuals will be handled by court marshal and justice will be served. There will certainly be unpleasant short-term effects. Whether or not this has a lasting effect will depend a great deal on how we handle this over the next few days.

Update: Here's a quick story on the family of the now infamous Spc. Lynndie England. Apparently President Bush is not qualified to be disgusted by these pictures because he only served in the National Guard. Great point man.
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Baseball Advertising Gone Wild

With all the very serious and often terrible things going on in the world I almost hesitate to comment on this. However, baseball is hands down my favorite sport to watch…and it got Ralph Nader’s and Congress' attention, so it must be important.

Apparently, Major League Baseball has decided to sell some new advertising space…on the actual bases themselves. Specifically, they plan to advertise Spiderman II on the traditionally white bags.

I happen to be a hardcore free market type, but this goes too far. To be completely honest, I am being neither fair nor consistent here…but I just don’t give a good gard dang. It’s bad enough that I have to see Poweraide written on the dugout railings every time the camera tries to get a shot of some guy picking his nose. Now I’ve got to see Spiderman II while watching a base runner adjust some protective gear? This has simply gone too far as is beginning to distract from the important parts of the game.

I am under no illusions that MLB is a pure enterprise. As much as A-Rod might love the game…he’s making more money than all my friends life-earnings put together will likely add up to. But I’m still entitled to my fantasies that they’re all playing for the love of the game.

In the end I’m sure that the $$ will carry the day and I’ll shut up and watch the game in any case. I just hope that, with all the advertising, I can still concentrate on the gleam of spikes aimed at some innocent middle infielder trying to turn two.
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PC Gone Stupidly Wrong

I just couldn't make myself wait till this evening to comment on this dumb-arse article. The University of Iowa has decided to cancel a baseball game against Bradley University of Peoria (Ill.) because the latter's nickname is the Braves.

Oh boy. It's a good thing I'm typing this because I'm speechless. Political Correctness has just plain gone too far in this country. But as long as we're going off the deep end, I'd like to add my two cents.

I am of Irish-American descent and I find it highly offensive that Notre Dame uses the nickname Fighting Irish and has the image of a little man looking ready to fight, if a bit tipsy. Are they suggesting that all Irish are drunks, short and always looking for a fight? I'm very much hurt by this and ask, no I DEMAND that Notre Dame change it's mascot. If they refuse, then I DEMAND that all schools boycott any athletic competitions with the aforementioned institution until they realize that their insensitivity has hurt me personally and deeply.
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Measurable Effects of Abortion?

The ladies at After Abortion have linked to a study in the Southern Medical Journal (2002 v. 95(8) P. 834) entitled: Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women. It purports to provide evidence that women who have an abortion have a higher risk of death by various causes (natural, violent, suicide, etc.) than women who have not had an abortion but have delivered children.

While I want to believe this study, I must point out that although the authors state that their results are significant and provide acceptable p-values, their 95% confidence intervals don’t seem to agree. Maybe I’m missing something (probably the case), but I fail to see how or where. If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Update:

All right, all right...we're all entitled to our little mix-ups. I just realized that (brace yourselves =)) I was in error. Just to set the record straight, a 95% confidence interval indicates significance if it does not include '1'. I would like to thank Emily, of After Abortion fame, for getting back to me on this topic.

So, the upshot is that I find this study to be quite interesting. If this pans out, it would seem that pro-choicers will have to come to terms with this increased risk. Most likely they'll claim that counseling will take care of this, and they may be right. But I wonder if there are organic causes behind this increased risk. I'll have to look a little closer at the available data.
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What's This!?

Good news out of Iraq? Unbelievable. Must be the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
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Prices vs. Costs in Medicine

Thomas Sowell nails it hands down. Here’s a bit of insight:

The difference between prices and costs is not just a fine distinction made by economists. Prices are what pay for costs -- and if they do not pay enough to cover the costs, then centuries of history in countries around the world show that the supply is going to decline in quantity or quality, or both. In the case of medical care, the supply is a matter of life and death.

Simple enough. If you’re operating in the red you have two choices, decrease costs or go out of business (unless you’re the government, then just keep spending other people’s money with impunity). So what are the root causes of our current medical problems? Sowell offers a thought:

Many of the same politicians who are gung ho for imposing price controls on prescription drugs, or for importing Canadian price controls by importing American medicines from Canada, have not the slightest interest in stopping frivolous lawsuits against doctors, hospitals, or drug companies -- which are huge costs.

Tort Reform is no doubt badly needed to head off the crazy ambulance-chasing lawyers springing up like you-know-what telling people that they need to take their doctors for a ride no matter the ‘offense.’ However, Mr. Sowell also mentions one all too often overlooked factor that deserves more attention:

The average medical student graduates with a debt of more than $100,000.

…more…

If the bureaucratic hassles that doctors have to go through make their huge investment in time and money going to medical school not seem worthwhile, some can retire early and some can take jobs no longer involving treating patients. Either way, the supply of medical care can begin to decline, even in the short run.
In the long run, medical school may no longer look like such a good investment to many in the younger generation. Britain, which has had government-run medical care for more than half a century, has to import doctors from the Third World, where medical school standards are lower.
So long as there are warm bodies with "M.D." after their names, there is no decline in supply, as far as politicians are concerned. Only the patients will find out, the hard way, what declining quality means.

With two years of medical school experience behind me (and some vicarious third and forth year insight) I can tell you without fear of correction that medical school is an extremely serious commitment. No matter what anyone tells you about the altruistic reasons that intelligent, dedicated individuals decide to go into debt and spend 7+ years in training the economic influences cannot be ignored.

I also happen to think that the things a society is willing to pay for tells you something about people’s priorities. We will pay $30, $40, $50 and up to watch a professional sports game. Yet we complain when our copay doubles from $5 to $10. Or take for example what the general reaction is when, horror or horrors, a person has actually pay for a medication that will improve his or her life. It just seems like we have misplaced our priorities. I hope we get them back in shape soon, before we do any more damage to our health care system.

Draw what conclusions you will.
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Hummm...

Not to pile on Kerry...but I'm going to. Here's what NRO, and more importantly his doctor at the time, has to say about one of Kerry's Purple Heart.

Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate his service just as I do for all individuals who serve. The issue here is one of character. Interestingly, the issue of character now is different than during the Clinton (re)election years. Back then, it didn't matter because Clinton's character was nonexistent. Now, suddenly, it's important because the Left wants you to believe Kerry is of impeccable honor and character. Well, I've got to question that from this account and his never-ending waffles.

More...

Yet another account to counter the waffler (hat tip: Instapundit)

Update:

Insults unpunished highlights a disillusioned Democrat wishing their partyw would rethink the Kerry thing.

So far, the Kerry campaign has all the forward momentum of a Dukakis tank ride.

The perfect quote, true and funny at the same time.
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Kerry To Education's Rescue

I love these sorts of announcements. John Kerry promises (read: future waffles) to, “…push for 1 million more high school graduates within five years.” Thank God! Man, I feel better already. But Mr. Kerry, how will you do this?

Kerry said more students would graduate if the federal government encouraged smaller schools and required them to improve graduation rates. He proposed a national effort to align the standards of what students learn in school to what they're supposed to know when they get to college or work. And he backed laws already on the books in some parts of the country that allow states to withhold driver's licenses of those who drop out.

Oh, I see. So we should require schools to improve graduation rates. Sounds great. The problem is that there are two ways to accomplish this goal. 1) Do a better job educating students. 2) Lower the standards. #1 is difficult, expensive, time consuming and requires a long-term commitment. #2, on the other hand, is quite easy. So, all other things being equal I think it’s pretty obvious which would be more likely.

To address this problem Mr. Kerry proposes to teach kids in high school the things they need to know when they get to college or find a job. What a great idea. I can’t believe no one’s thought of this before. Get the Teachers’ Union on the horn, they’ve got to hear this.

As for the final part of Kerry’s far-reaching scheme, he wants to deny driver’s licenses to dropouts. Yeah, here’s a great idea. Let’s make it even more difficult for a high school dropout to hold down a job.

In the wider view of things, what have we come to in this country that we now require everyone to attend high school? I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I can find no reason to force kids to attend school. What do we get? We end up with unmotivated students who bring the level of learning down around them, hurting the kids who do want to be there. I say let anyone drop out of high school, so long as they know they’re going to have to make it on their own. No public handouts.

Well, I hope everyone has learned something from our esteemed presumptive nominee. Read up students, we should all get to know Mr. Kerry well before the election, so we’ll know a waffle when we see one.
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Thomas Jefferson, A Life

I just finished reading Thomas Jefferson, A Life by Willard Sterne Randall. What a great book. I will admit that it's a bit of a tome (595 pages) but it's most certainly worth reading. Mr. Randall paints Jefferson as a walking, talking, writing human being with all his virtues, vices and warts intact. I'll admit that he might be slightly biased in favor of Jefferson, but for anyone interested in some insight into an amazing and prolific life, pick up this book. You won't be disappointed.
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...And Gun Rights For All

Here's the perfect example of why all honest citizens should not only be allowed to carry guns, but should actually be doing so. Aside from the great story of self defense, here's the what the sister of the deceased had to say:

I'm not necessarily mad at her [the woman acting in self defense], but I don't know enough. Why unload the gun on him?

Huh? Let's recap. A bad guy with a gun forced his way into a house occupied by a woman and her 15 year old daughter. He got filled with lead. Except that you might actually get in trouble, I'd say empty all the clips you've got into the scumbag. You walk into someone's home with bad intentions, all bets are off. This guy got exactly what he deserved.

The Media needs to carry more stories like this one. We hear way too much about the dangers of guns...but almost nothing about the benefits.

Update...

Here's a great site documenting gun bias in the media (hat tip: Instapundit)
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Round and Round We Go...

For some more amazingly lacking and illogical arguments for the killing of the most innocent check out the comments at the bottom of this post (Warning: some explicit and otherwise offensive content). Weigh in and left the evil queen have it.
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After Abortion

With the recent march in Washington DC I have been giving the topic of abortion some thought. This issue has been hashed and rehashed here and elsewhere, and while there is very little new to say with regard to ethics and morals...there is quite a bit to say about the pratical side of abortion...and after. So, go visit Emily and Annie over at After Abortion. I think they do a wonderful job of considering the actual, personal effects of abortion, and in doing so provide a forum that you're unlikely to find many places. Give them a try.
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Thoughts on The Fallen

All too often, those who die in service of out country in the Armed Forces are reduced to mere numbers in the day-to-day reporting of war. While certainly this is not right, it is to some extent inevitable. Human beings have a finite capability to absorb information and a not unlimited ability to grieve. While I think all Americans share my desire to shed tears of appreciation and love for our soldiers, it is simply not possible to treat each and every death as we would that of a family member or close friend.

That being said, we must do whatever we can to honor and remember all soldiers and especially those who have died. Tonight’s Nightline broadcast probably came as close as possible to doing just that. The name, rank, age and photograph of each soldier put faces to the numbers that we hear about in the news every day.

Probably the most striking thing about the list as a whole was the absolute diversity of our men and women. I would be willing to bet that one would have a difficult time finding any country on the face of the earth that has as many people from different cultural backgrounds united, fighting and willing to risk life and limb for the same cause. If that doesn’t say something about our country, then I don’t know what does.

It’s hard for me to criticize right this second because of the feelings that this program elicited. However, I would like to comment on the actual format of the show.

I believe Ted Koppel when he says that the decision to do this was to raise our fallen above the politics of the day (paraphrase). I do, however, take serious issue with ABC’s apparent unwillingness to “raise our fallen” above financial interests. Would it have put the network out of business to broadcast this program without commercials? I find it in very poor taste to have the list of dead American soldiers interrupted by, for example, a commercial for a car dealership. Was there not one single company out there willing to put up the money to sponsor these 30 minutes? Failing that, was there not one ABC executive willing to take a hit one night for the sake of our Fallen?

In the end, I think the speculation that this would be an excuse to air antiwar propaganda was plain wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Each and every death is significant and horrible. However, war is a terrible thing and death is inevitable. The very idea that someone can speak the name of each fallen soldier in 30 minutes is a testament to just how successful we have been over the past year. As Mr. Koppel pointed out, we lost approximately 400,000 soldiers in WWII. That’s an average of close to 66,000 killed each year we were involved in the war. I think that we need to mange the difficult balancing act of honoring and appreciating each and every sacrifice of our soldiers while keeping in mind a reasonable notion of success.

It is because of men and women exactly like those we saw tonight that we will prevail.

God Bless Our Troops.
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