Or is this just more rope-a-dope. Will the UN finally find some backbone, and did that "irrelevant" remark wake them up like a quick kick in the nuts? Only time will tell.
The knee jerk Bush bashing will continue. But I think the President (and his advisors) have played this masterfully.
6:27:15 PM
Military Blogging
I know I'm probably late in posting it, but here is a link to a blog maintained by US soldiers in Afghanistan. Stop by and see what's up!
5:59:42 PM
If they will kill a mother for collaborating
After torturing her own son to accuse her, what to you think Al Qaeda will do to a reporter they think turned in one of their own? Yeah, one is the PA and the other is Al Qaeda, but they are both Islamic fundamentalists. Daniel Pearl was killed because he was a Jew. Wonder what will happen to Fouda, an Egyptian Muslim, if he is ever caught by the bad guys?
And how about this little tidbit. If you're an American taxpayer, you're a target.
Binalshibh betrayed irritation with one question Fouda posed: whether it was right to kill civilians. "I think they saw on my face distaste for it. They tried their best to justify it. The targets were taxpayers, they work in a place that dominates the world. They said the Muslim victims were collateral damage and hoped God would consider them martyrs," Fouda said.
They kill innocent Muslims in a terror attack, and it's collateral damage. We capture the guys and hold them as enemy combatants, and we're war criminals. Pretty amazing, all in all. Perhaps we should justify any collateral in Afghanistan damage by "they breathe air, and live in a place that supports the wearing of funny hats" the next time some EuroWeenie starts screaming about American War Crimes.
5:35:16 PM
Good thing containment worked....
Or else Saddam might have had time to develop chemical and biologic weapons. But since the UN weapons inspectors did such a great job of finding and destroying all of Saddam's labs, and since the UN itself had such a forceful response when Saddam kicked the inspectors out 4 years ago, we really don't have anything to worry about now, do we?
And then we have this brilliant analysis by our former president, Slick Willy himself:
"If he's got these stocks of chemical and biological weapons and he knows he's toast, don't you think he'll use what he can and give away what he can't to people who will be using them against us for years to come so he can have the last laugh?" Clinton said.
Yeah, thanks for nothing, Bill. As I pointed out below, if Saddam has this stuff, we need to go in before he gets any stronger. If he doesn't have it, then we've prevented him from getting weapons that can kill thousands/tens of thousands. I just don't understand the prevarication and procrastination involved when it comes to Iraq. The guy is either clearly breaking the international rules on bioweapons (notice how nobody talks about the international court for Saddam), or he is trying to develop nuke capability. Neither of these things is good for anybody EXCEPT Saddam. But still some waffle and whine.
5:25:06 PM
And the noose tightens
All I want to know is, once there is incontrovertable proof that Saddam help Al Qaeda, with the left stop bleating? Smart money says no, but we can always hope. What do you want for Christmas?
5:02:52 PM
Not all campus protests
Have to be violent. Unlike the protest to stop Netanyahu from speaking, a few students at Michigan State University managed to protest the appearance of Jesse Jackson without needing riot police intervention. Interesting to know that Jackson is upset with the "strong-arm" tactics of Bush, since his coalition is accused of this kind of activity all of the time. The most worrysome bit of the event for Jackson?
The event here was poorly attended after student organizers predicted a crowd of 6,000. The group provided 2,000 free tickets to students and booked the arena area of the center, which has a capacity of 15,000.
Keep turning everything into a race issue, make yourself an irrelevant laughing stock. Maybe that "irrelevant" bit is really why Jackson is so upset about Bush's handling of the UN. He knows that all irrelevant entities need to stick together to keep from just fading away.
4:31:10 PM
This is wrong
Do I believe they made threatening statements? I don't know, but I guess in any he-said, she-said affair it is easy for both sides to call the other liars. Something upset the lady in Georgia, and the guys did run the toll boothe, calling more attention to themselves. But they were investigated, cleared of any wrongdoing, and set free. I can't imagine that Georgia can even pursue a case of making terroistic statements without corroboration. So, maybe they were really stupid, and said some things they shouldn't have (Their story has changed a couple of times, and the lawyer's statements about how they were talking about "bringing a car down" seems a bit contrived, but plausible). But they shouldn't lose their positions without corroborating evidence.
1:01:36 PM
This Explains a LOT
I really don't even know what to say about this website. Is it a spoof? I have no idea. And that's a real problem for the anti-war crowd, that people look at something like this and are unable to tell if it's real or not. Read the Haikus while you're there.
12:51:25 PM
Hate Speech?
In the same article quoted below, there is an item about Benjamin Netanyahu being silenced by a bunch of pro-palestinian protestors at Concordia University in Montreal. This has been well covered elsewhere. The reason I note it now is this quote from protester David Battistuzzi, only identified as a 24 year old "former Concordia Student". Not "Concordia Graduate", but "former student", wonder what that means, hmmmmmm. Well, once David speaks, we get some idea why he may not be able to be identified as a graduate:
"There's no free speech for hate speech".
Apparently it escapes David that free speech protections are in place EXACTLY for this reason. Unpopular speech needs protection, and here it is a small population of protestors deciding that Netanyahu should be silenced because they don't like the message. It's funny that the academic left is crying about the "stifling of dissent" when they take unpopular anti-American positions and average Americans get mad and let them know it. But here we have a small population of protestors stopping a speech, and there is nary a peep from the left. Suppose a bunch of "pro-Israel" former students stopped a speech by Arafat. Imagine the screams we would hear. Now, David is a Canadian citizen, so he doesn't cherish the first amendment BUT the ideal should be the same North of the border. But any academic institution that let this kind of thing happen should be ashamed.
12:44:29 PM
Religious Intolerance
Just another example of religious zeal run amuck. Here we have a minister who chose to make his Sunday message "There is one god, and his name is not Allah". Guess what, bone-head. That is exactly what the Muslims say about a Christian god.
Again, usual disclaimers about my non-religious perspective. And I typically hate all things politically correct. But this guy is a numbnut, and doing nothing to make things better. I believe that Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Druids, Whiccans, etc, all have the right to worhip whoever they want, as long as they don't hurt anybody (and leave me alone). But this "my god is better than your god" is exactly why we have this current state of affairs. The best quote from our religiously "tolerant" minister?
"It was a challenge to people's thinking and their faith," he said. "A lot of people in our society are so tolerant of other gods and they'll accept anything. As a Christian, I have to stand up for what I believe in."
Great, so are those people bombing abortion clinics and sending them anthrax hoaxes in the mail just "standing up for what the believe in"?
Update:
I've been (gently but firmly) taken to task for this post. And I've conceded a couple of points, including that I may be unfair in my protestations because Christians SHOULD obviously feel that Christ is the one true god (if they didn't, they wouldn't be, er, Christians). I guess my major problem is the wording: it seems more like a challenge to non-Christians than a reminder to Christians.
Also that I make a fairly dramatic and perhaps unfair jump from Sunday messages to abortion terrorists. I agree with both points, to a certain extent, but still have problems with the sign as it reads. Perhaps this is just my own non-religious slant. It's funny that I never really think of myself as an atheist, I just don't seem to feel like I need to believe in any god. Not sure if that means that I am really an agnostic, or that I just don't want to be called an atheist. I like Christmas, think of America as a country founded by Christians, and get pissed when people talk about stopping the pledge of Allegiance because it has the word "god" in it.
Whatever you decide to call me, this points out a major strength of the weblog: You don't post in a vacuum, and people can always disagree with you. Sometimes you may even change your mind (or at least soften your stance). I'm just glad to know that someone might read these musings.
