March 31, 2006

The (John) Dean's December ... I mean March...

In any case, having met John Dean on a couple of occasions (he and Mo liked to hang around Hollywood back in the day) I doubt he's up to speed on his Saul Bellow. What I don't doubt is his pathetic need to cling desperately to the public eye, which in part must have motivated his dopey grandstanding in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Comparing Watergate to the NSA controversy is so absurd it's almost silly. The former was about a domestic political break-in, the latter about national defense in a time of war. But I guess some people, like the junior Senator from my state Ms. Boxer, prefer to skip over such niceties. She's one of the two Senators, the other being Harkin the corrupt, who are backing Feingold's even more grandstanding censure gambit. That was the empty charade behind the empty Dean testimony. [[I'm not going to tell the people you voted for Boxer once upon a time.-ed. More than once.]

UPDATE: I see the Dean is having more "influence" than I thought.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:45 PM
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Back in the Sea-ttle Again....!

Blogging will be low hereabouts because I'm up in Seattle/Bainbridge Island again for the weekend (blogging from the terrific Bainbridge Island ferry free WiFi), but I notice that Condi Rice has "admitted" lots of mistakes in Iraq (although she still thinks over-throwing Saddam was the right thing to do). These days, she is to me the most interesting person in public life. Probably the smartest too. More Condi, please.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:32 AM
Comments (1)

March 30, 2006

Another opening of another (Toyota) hybrid

This one is not for Hollywood - it's for the people. And it seems like a pretty good deal - a Camry that does (according to the latest figures) 40 city/ 38 highway Not bad and an okay price too. Meanwhile, asleep at the wheel and lagging behind are the folks in Detroit. They used to innovate back in the old days and I'm rooting for them to do it again. [Why not get the Pistons involved? They're winners.-ed. Rasheed???... I was thinking more Steve Jobs.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:07 PM
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Calling PEN

As a former President of the PEN Center USA (western US branch of PEN), I am calling for that organization to stand up against Borders/Waldenbooks. The chain has "chosen not to carry the April-May issue of the magazine Free Inquiry due to the Muhammad cartoons contained therein." As the leading writers' organization involved in the defense of free expression (cf. Salman Rushdie), PEN should be in the forefront of the fight against this kind of de facto censorship by bookstore chains.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:19 AM
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The Security Council weighs in

Does the watered-down Security Council pronouncement on Iran mean anything? Would have it meant anything if it hadn't been watered-down?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:10 AM
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Attention, Hollywood!

Your new status symbol is here - a $55,000 hybrid that does 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds. [Hey, but you get a tax credit for energy efficiency.-ed. Right. I forgot.]

UPDATE: Were keys to this car here? If so, someone got a deal.

MORE: "Bobos in Priuses" by Judd Magilnick. [Talk is cheap. I bet your next car is a hybrid.-ed. You're probably right.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:40 AM
Comments (9)

March 29, 2006

The latest French events

Despite all my visits to France and my past, er, personal connections with French people, I had no idea, until these recent demonstrations, that their first jobs out of school came with a no-firing clause. We competitive, voracious Anglo-Saxons just wouldn't dream of such a thing. It wouldn't cross our minds. So I was thinking this morning, while reading the NYT coverage, just how alien the French view is from ours. Take a look at this employment issue from another angle: Can you imagine wanting or even considering keeping your first job out of college for life? How extraordinarily dull. How fundamentally, well, conservative in a social sense. Most of us automatically view our first jobs as stepping stones (to a variety of destinations). But this is what all those kids and trade unionists are demonstrating about. For all their Bohemian bravura, the French are often the most conventional of people in their lifestyles and aspirations. Some people brand this a form of socialism, but I believe there is something more psychologically traditionalist or conformist in this. The socialism emerges from this essential conservatism, not the other way around. But having read this conclusion of the NYT's article, I should shut up:

On Sunday, the defense minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, blamed the English-language press for being anti-French. "We have to get out of this situation," she told French journalists. "This is bad for France, its economy. People who don't like us, particularly the Anglo-Saxon newspapers, are using this to denigrate our image."

Not to mention Anglo-Saxon blogs.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:09 AM
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Know the new Israeli Prime Minister

Maybe you already do, because Ehud Olmert's family sounds weirdly like my family - and a lot of others I know in NY and California. Newsday gave us the gossip yesterday, which Allison Kaplan Sommer says nobody seems to make a big deal about in Israel:

Olmert's wife, Aliza, is a well-known artist and screenwriter. She supports Peace Now, a group that fiercely opposes Israel's security barrier and Kadima's [Olmert's party] plans to complete it. It also promotes the division of Jerusalem for a Palestinian state and Israel's withdrawal to its 1967 borders.

The Olmerts' daughter Danna is a university lecturer of literature and a self-professed lesbian who lives openly with her partner in Tel Aviv. She is a member of Machsom Watch, a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints for human rights abuses and often confront Israeli soldiers on behalf of Palestinians. Her older sister, Michal, holds a master's degree in psychology and runs creative thinking workshops. Married, she lives in Tel Aviv and is known to share her siblings' leftist political leanings, but is not as outspoken.

The Olmerts' son Shaul completed his military service, signed a petition of Yesh G'vul, a group of Israeli Defense Force soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, and now lives in New York.

Their younger son, Ariel, dodged military service altogether and is studying French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. Both sons have retained their Israeli citizenship and are eligible to vote.

So how did they vote? With their politics or with pop? And more importantly, is the younger son demonstrating in Paris? (just kidding - but who knows?) Olmert himself, however, seems to have a relatively sanguine attitude toward the whole thing:"

There is a complex and, I think, fascinating dialogue between my children and me," he said in a recent interview with the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "They have influenced me, and I am proud of it. I would like to think that I have also influenced them."

Hmmm....seems like a potential Simpsons episode there.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:39 AM
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March 28, 2006

Predictions abound

I see some are predicting a weak Israeli government and new elections in 2006. I am not. We'll see who is right soon enough. The rest is the blablabla of pundits. [Who? Me?-ed. No. Me.]

MEANWHILE: Joel Greenburg of the Chicago Tribune wrote the following: The outcome stood in contrast to recent Palestinian elections in which the militant group Hamas, which refuses to recognize or negotiate with Israel, won a landslide victory. Hello, Joel. It was not a landslide victory at all, as most commentators now realize. Hamas was able to capitalize on a split in Fatah. Please read the papers.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:04 PM
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The problem with Drudge ...

... as it is with most forms of yellow or yellowish journalism (yes, I read it all the time anyway ) is that their headlines mislead. Tonight's, on the Israeli election, reads: Israel's Olmert declares election victory; plans 'final borders'... But the article says: Olmert said that he hoped that it would still be possible to set a border through negotiations with the Palestinians, but that Israel would act alone if peace efforts remained stalled.

"We are ready to compromise, to give up parts of the beloved Land of Israel ... and evacuate, under great pain, Jews living there, in order to create the conditions that will enable you to fulfil your dream and live alongside us," he said in words addressed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In other words, Olmert reached out to Abbas on Kadima's victory. How the Palestinians respond remains to be seen.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:13 PM
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Good move

According to the AP:

An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.

Second good move:

Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man's behalf.

And then there's this:

Deputy Attorney-General Mohammed Eshak Aloko said prosecutors had issued a letter calling for Rahman's release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." He also said he did not know where Rahman had gone after being released.

He said Rahman may be sent overseas for medical treatment.

"It is so if you think so," said Luigi Pirandello. Hey, come to think of it, Rahman may be headed for Italy - the land of the great Pirandello himself.

More HERE. (ht: markus)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:08 AM
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Israeli Election Surprise

No, I'm not talking about the low turnout so far. That was predicted. I'm talking about the Guardian Newsblog where Lisa Goldman is blogging about the election (and the country) in a remarkably sympathetic manner for the British newspaper whose opinons about the Jewish state are often... well, the less said the better. The Guardian is the last place I would have looked for coverage of the Israeli election had it not been for Pajamas' own Allison.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:53 AM
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March 27, 2006

Two cheers for unilateralism

The Israeli election is upon us with the supposed insiders and the real insiders all reporting a blasé attitude from the electorate with the lowest turnout ever predicted (sixty percent - still wildly high by US standards, of course). My view from far-off LA is somewhat different. As a long time follower of Israeli politics - yes, I am one of the thirty or so people who used to watch the Knesset on CSPAN - I think this is one of the more significant Israeli elections. Looking back, it now appears that all the many elections about how much to give the Palestinians in negotiation or whether to negotiate with them at all were meaningless. There was never anyone with whom to negotiate in the first place. Arafat simply walked away from the table when negotiations got serious and now, not that many years later, we have Hamas, who has no interest in going to the table at all.

So enough already. Unilateralism, while not wonderful, is the only sensible answer. The Israelis have no one to negotiate with but themselves and they might as well get it over with. Kadima, Sharon's old-new party, appears to have the best plan. I hope they win big.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:34 PM
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Scenes from the Class Struggle

It's a little amusing when a blogger at the Huffington Post (with a Russian name, no less) doesn't fully recognize the class struggle when she sees it. But it's hard to get upset with Larisa Alexandrovna for being gentle with the Associated Press when she writes of their response to her allegation that they have plagiarized one of her posts:

We do not credit blogs!

Never mind that plenty of journalists have blogs or that Raw Story is not a blog, or that the mainstream will cite blogs such as the Huffington Post while inexplicably not cite smaller blogs that have become heroic in the world of journalism for what they have uncovered. I have a nagging feeling that this random sourcing is less about freelance journalists or blogs or any other label de jour, but rather, it has everything to do with who can afford to take legal action. Clearly, they have pegged me correctly as not in any position to take on a major news organization.

But this is more than picking on the small fry. This is fear of the small fry - the media class struggle in its MSM vs. blogs essence. Don't credit blogs unless you have to - a policy followed by the blog (competition) phobic including not only the AP, but Bill O'Reilly and Matt Drudge as well - a group that may cross ideological, but certainly not class, lines. For all of them, this is not about the search for truth. It's about the search for bucks.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:02 PM
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Global warming - real or Memorex - continued

The latest poll from Time Mag is interesting in that it tells us that the majority of Americans think it's real but the majority of Republicans don't. To me this is disconcerting on both ends. The is a scientific issue, not a political one. Energy independence is a different story - that's scientific and political. I'm agnostic on global warming but not on energy independence. We have to move forward on the latter now - and vigorously.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:58 AM
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It's about women

Some say the current struggle is about oil. But I say it's about women - their role in society. Conventional "liberals" miss this,or ignore it, and that, more than any other reason, is why I have left the fold. Unfortunately, our government often misses this too as Malalai Joya points out.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 AM
Comments (3)

March 26, 2006

Drive an old car if you want ...

... but who in his right mind would fly economy on long flights if he had a choice?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:36 PM
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Dorian Greyhound: A Novel (new press coverage)

The New York Post this morning has great coverage of my wife Sheryl Longin's novel. From the Post: The book conjures elements of three canine-lit classics: Virginia Woolf's "Flush," J.R. Ackerley's "My Dog Tulip," and John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:24 AM
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WMDs (what again?)

The release of the Saddam documents has made me think (alas, again) about the WMD issue, which we could call the "Great Gotcha" of the Iraq War. It's all about politics and little about itself, about reality. In other words, leaving aside partisan gain, ask yourself to what extent would Saddam eventually have had significant WMDs and should we have been worried about that? The documents are showing us many things related to this issue so far, but two appear to be particularly important: 1. Saddam's willingness to work with and encourage terror organizations when he felt like it. (See Stephen Hayes' Camp Saddam) 2. His continued interest in WMDs via Russian and Turkish scientists, who were - if the documents are to be believed and let's assume for the moment they are - working in Iraq right under the noses of the UN inspectors.

Now with all due respect to the Turks, I'm not especially sure of their level of scientific competence, but the Russians? The second country to have the atom and hydrogen bombs, a country we now know was willing to share at least some secrets with the Saddam regime? If we think through this with any honesty, that is a far scarier revelation in the long term than the discovery of a few suitcases of anthrax. There is an argument to be made that left to their own devices the Russians would have eventually turned Saddam into a full-blown nuclear powerwith Uday and Qusay as heir apparents. It's Dr. Strangelove times four, Slim Pickens. Think about that one when you wonder whether the war was a good idea.

It will be interesting to see if our mainstream media, when it starts to digest this material, reacts with any thoughtfulness.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:15 AM
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March 25, 2006

Old statues never die

It was in the fall of 1991 that Russian citizens, in the joy ofnew found democracy, knocked over the statue of Comrade Felix Dzerzhinsky, the godfather of the Cheka and attendant vicious organs of Soviet intelligence. Apparently this wasn't enough. That massively self-destructive and paranoid streak in the Russian culture, unbroken since the Tsars, lives on. Today the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has dismissed claims that they gave confidential information on US forces to Saddam's thugs: "Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made more than once," agency spokesman Boris Labusov said. "We don't consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications."

Thank you, Comrade Labusov, you lying sack of @#@&! Meanwhile, in the same AP report:

Yevgenia Albats, a Moscow-based journalist who specializes in intelligence matters, said she suspected there was "at least a certain truth reflected in the Pentagon report," considering Russia's close relationship with the ousted Iraqi leader.

But she cautioned that didn't necessarily mean the Kremlin was involved.

"It is sometimes difficult to figure out whether certain steps were undertaken with the knowledge of top Russian authorities or whether those were steps undertaken by certain intelligence officers on their own," Albats told The Associated Press.

What Albats is describing, however, is in many ways a distinction without a difference. On my visits to the Soviet Union I was endlessly tracked by intelligence agents masking as translators and journalists anxious to probe my thinking and in two cases even to recruit me. It was almost a national sport or employment agency. Sometimes it was funny in a macabre sort of way, other times frightening. But looked at from even the slightest distance, self-destructive in the extreme. If you think the world is a conspiracy, indeed it is. Unfortunately, on a more recent trip to the Russian Republic, the atmosphere did not feel radically different. There were just more SUVs.

But the real question, no matter how you fall out on the above, is how we could be trusting the Russians on the Iran issue. [Perhaps the release of all this information right now has something to do with that, you birdbrain.-ed. Watch it, pal. Who's paying whom around here?]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:16 PM
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March 24, 2006

Europe may be in (severe) decline...

But the Brussels Journal may be the finest blog on the planet. [Doesn't it make you want to get on the plane for a plate of moules frites?-ed. No kidding, especially if I could meet those guys.]

UPDATE: Related must-read post here. It contains this sentence: Like the Arabs, the French were once the leaders of European and global culture (from the 11th to the mid-19th centuries); and like the Arabs, they have a deep sense of grievance at "history gone wrong."

APROPOS: In terms of opera bouffe, what could be more comical than than Chirac's walkout over a Frenchman speaking English? Meanwhile: The Financial Times says English is becoming the lingua franca in French boardrooms anyway.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:33 PM
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Best news I've had all day (or night)

Good news for insomniacs:

A six-year study Kripke headed up of more than a million adults ages 30 to 102 showed that people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate than those who get 8 hours of sleep.

But what about those of us who sleep about 5 hours a night (you know, bloggers)?

The Cancer Prevention Study II even showed that people with serious insomnia or who only get 3.5 hours of sleep per night, live longer than people who get more than 7.5 hours.

Aw-riiiight! Good-bye Ambien, hello happiness! (Just don't ring my phone after ten, okay?)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:09 PM
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The Big Melt

Conservatives like to debunk global warming fears and they may have a point - but then they may not. The issue, of course, is not Al Gore's pomposity vs. Michael Crichton's brilliance, just as the war against Islamofascism is not about George Bush, despite what some liberals might think. In the case of global warming, it should be about a search for scientific fact. Science is evidently reporting this month tremendous increases in polar meltdown with an attendant rapid rise in sea levels. One of the spokespeople warning usof an impending disaster from all this is Jonathan Overpeck, an earth scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who co-authored the studies for Science. Overpeck says the seas could be a meter higher by the end of this century, which I imagine would make the recent New Orleans contretemps rather small change. Is Overpeck right? Probably not. But if he's half right maybe we should pay attention. This National Geographic article has some of the details.

By the way, I am an agnostic on this issue. But it may be one about which erring on the side of the environmentalists is less risky than erring on the side of their opponents.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:31 AM
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Bulldog shame

I thought I wouldn't do any more posting about the Hashemi/Yale/Taliban story but this brief note in the WSJ - Foreign Exchange/Why did Yale slam the door on Afghan women? - set my blood boiling all over again.

MEANWHILE: Of God, Maloney and Yale.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:42 AM
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Hamas efficiency expert

Not only is Hamas not foreswearing terror, they want to give it some structure. This via Allison Kaplan Sommer who also has a more fun link to a Tel Aviv travel site that makes me want to go there (it's been a dozen years or so since I've been in Israel).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:55 AM
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Oil-for-Food... why it was important

Anyone who doubts the importance of the Oil-for-Food Scandal should read this article from ABC News - Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan? Evidently he did and evidently the ambassador (Vladimir Teterenko) was bought and paid for by OFF (Thank you, Kofi). According to the documents upon which this article was based, the Saddamites had foreknowledge of much of what the US was up to, thanks to that collection of old KGB hacks. No surprise, really, and it also should be no surprise that there weren't a lot of WMDs lying around when our tanks rolled in (although it may yet prove out that there were more than we have been told so far), not to mention a lot of Iraqi troops. They knew to head for the hills.... or berms.

It's good, by the way, that ABC (despite their risible biases) is jumping to the fore on this whole skanky mess because they are, after all, a major network with tremendous reach. I applaud their journalistic honesty in this area. That king of fuddy-duddies, CBS, appears tohave been completely asleep on the release of the new Saddam materials. Wouldn't want to disrupt their world view.

UPDATE: Reader Marc Landers emails: There's another big story in the ABC report.

Sources at Centcom? Are we talking about an American spy or one of the
coalition partners?

More here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:31 AM
Comments (6)

March 23, 2006

Bravo, Gerard

Compare and contrast.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:40 PM
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The myth of impartiality

According to the Drudge Report, Good Morning America producer John Green is "mortified" that he was caught with his pants down in an email he wrote to others at ABC that President Bush made him want "to puke." Frankly, Green should not be so upset. This is his opinion and he's welcome to it in a free society. The idea that he would be impartial is simply a myth. Last I heard John Green was a human being. Only machines (so far) are impartial. In fact, it's good viewers of ABC are informed of the opinions of those producing the network's shows. It gives those viewers much more ability to evaluate what they are seeing. Thanks, Mr. Green!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:31 AM
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It's the endowment, stupid

According to Bill Roggio, the Taliban are making a comeback along the Pakistani border of Afghanistan. It would be interesting to know if anyone has asked Yale student Hashemi for his views on this resurgence. It seems Islamic terror leaders (former and otherwise) have become quite the fad in the Ivy League. Now Columbia has invited Qaddafi to speak by video at a conference his regime is sponsoring at the institution. (Columbia isn't answering questions about Libyan money, but then Harvard doesn't answer questions about Saudi money either.) But look at the bright side. At least Qaddafi isn't a pathological misogynist like the leaders of the Taliban. And, in other areas, Harvard appears to be getting nervous.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:58 AM
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Bad week for the cruise business

I stay away from cruises for two reasons: 1. Claustrophobia. 2. I have enough trouble staying on my diet as is. Now I have reasons 3. and 4.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:51 AM
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March 22, 2006

Avian flu relief

... or something... from the latest research which indicates that the transmission of the dreaded bird flu to humans will not be as easy as anticipated:

The avian influenza virus tends to penetrate so deeply in the respiratory tract it cannot be easily spread through coughing and sneezing, observations that may explain why there has been only negligible human-to-human spread, scientists report today.

To be easily spread from one person to another, the pathogen must first localize itself in the upper reaches of the "bronchial tree," where droplets can be propelled and sprayed.Virologist Yoshio Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin in Madison reports in the journal Nature today that only cells deep within the lungs possess the surface molecule -- the receptor -- to which the virus can dock and enter. Once inside the cell's inner labyrinths, the virus can commandeer cellular genes, using them to crank out scores of new viruses. While this scenario is potentially lethal, it is not ideal for disease transmission, Kawaoka said.

"We looked from the nasal mucosa all the way to the bottom of the lungs," Kawaoka said. "We examined eight people who had been infected with H5N1 and all of them had avian viral receptors in the lungs, but not in the upper portion of the lungs."

He said his findings provide a rationale for how H5N1 can replicate itself efficiently in the lungs, but rarely spread from one person to another.

Phew... Well,can we all relax now? [At least until the next study.-ed And what about mutation? I thought you were going to relax.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:00 PM
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How do you get the full story on Iraq? (Blogs?)

A fella named George Bush said today: I just got to keep talking and word of mouth, there's blogs, there's internet, theres all kinds of way to communicate which is literally changing the way people get their information and so if you're concerned I would suggest that you reach out to some of the groups that are supporting the troops, that got internet sites and just keep the word moving.

There's video at the link above.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:59 AM
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I've been reading...

Richard Lawrence Cohen's Only What Is. Most books composed of blog posts would not merit their hard (or in this case soft) cover. His does.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:38 AM
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Pas de iTunes, s'il vous plait.

A partially enacted French proposal to force private companies to share their online music technology is wrinkling a great many eyebrows at Apple:

Apple has sold more than a billion songs worldwide since launching the online service in 2003. But its songs are playable only on the ubiquitous iPod portable music player. Should the draft law ultimately be enacted and enforced, it could force Apple to make iTunes tracks available on other brands of players as well.

Apple is clearly the leader in the digital music business. But other companies including Sony and Microsoft could feel the effects of the French law as well. All three use proprietary technology for digital rights management, the protection of content against unlawful copying.

I'm not sure how I stand about this one. Enlighten me.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:07 AM
Comments (25)

March 21, 2006

The Associated Press comedy story on Iraq

I understand there are roughly two and half million untranslated documents in the archive of Saddam regime material currently being released by the Pentagon. (Yes, you read that correctly, two and a half million.) Nevertheless, AP Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley thinks he has the document story wrapped up:

Saddam's regime extensively videotaped and audiotaped meetings and other events, both public and confidential. The dozen transcribed discussions about weapons inspections largely dealt with Iraq's diplomatic strategies for getting the Security Council to confirm it had disarmed.

I see. Well, good.

Of course, I have no idea about Mr. Hanley's Arabic skills and whether his conclusions are confirmed by the two and a half million other documents and media. [Maybe he's a speed reader in Arabic.-ed. Been to Evelyn Woods, eh?] Meanwhile, I'm going to wait a bit and see how things go before drawing conclusions. I would remind Mr. Hanley how startled some people were when the actual KGB files on Alger Hiss, et al, were finally revealed decades after the fact. The egg on the face may not have as much time to settle this go round.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:00 PM
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What about daytime Internet?

It can't be as bad as this - or can it?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:39 PM
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World violence down ...

... except against women, of course. When I read the courageous Ayaan Hirsi Ali's depressing but, sadly, predictable blog post (didn't know she was blogging until I saw it on PJM) about "gendercide" against women, I was surprised by this paragraph:

But the world is not becoming more violent - at least, not for men. As the Economist points out, the world is in fact getting measurably more peaceful. The number of wars and civil wars around the globe dropped by 40% between 1992 and 2003. The worst conflicts - those which claim more than 1000 lives - went down by 80%. Between 1991 and 2004, 28 armed conflicts were ignited (or reignited), but 43 of such struggles have been contained or doused.

The worst conflicts went down by 80%? I didn't know this. I guess I still live in the world according to the New York Times.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:22 AM
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But don't we all know...

... the first rule of air travel: Always carry on.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:28 AM
Comments (0)

March 20, 2006

Silence at the Pentagon

UDATE: I was wrong. Mea culpa. A whole group of new documents seem to have been released. Many of the new documents are actually collections of photographs showing Saddam with various dignitaries. These photos may be in and of themselves revealing.

MORE: Power Line spoke with Senator Rick Santorum today, who echoed some of my misgivings below. Perhaps pressure is helping force these documents out into the air. Let's keep it up.

DISREGARD THE FOLLOWING AS THE MAUNDERINGS OF A HYPER-NERVOUS BLOGGER:

The first release by the Pentagon of the myriad Saddam-era documents and media captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom seems to have ground to a halt as abruptly as it started. The last update of the Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center website was on the March 17. This suggests dissension within the government. Who are the likely culprits in this snafu? The CIA, always anxious to protect its interests, and overly-cautious lawyers come to mind, but there are undoubtedly others. Nevertheless, not to release these documents is ultimately self-destructive and actually naive. The Adminstration has already shown itself to be incompetent in the area of public relations and this only underscores that perception. The release of these documents could achieve tremendous things in changing public understanding of the Saddam regime, its ties to terrorism, its interest in WMDs and, ultimately, the public's feelings about the war itself and the salvation of Iraq. At the moment this appears to be being blocked by bureaucrats - the same ones, I wouldn't be surprised, who are likely to be whispering anonymously in the ears of our media. Let's hope the winds shift again toward full disclosure and that the rest of the documents be released for translation. We're ready.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:31 PM
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More Boola Baloney

John Fund continues his vendetta against my alma mater (grad schoo) for admitting a former Taliban spokeperson Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi to its hallowed halls in "Sayed and de Man at Yale." I'm with Fund on this one, especially since Rahmatullah has never fully condemned the Taliban, a movement that is far from extinguished:

Yale refuses to defend its position, but others are talking. Afghan exiles are appalled that Mr. Rahmatuallah was given a coveted place that could have gone to an Afghan man or woman who had been oppressed by the Taliban. Author Sebastian Junger reports from Afghanistan in the current Vanity Fair on the atrocities the Taliban are committing today. They include skinning a man alive and leaving him to die in the sun. Another man was forced to watch as his wife was gang-raped. Then his eyes were put out, so that the horrific crime would be the last image he would ever see. The relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan are likewise appalled. "It's not like the Taliban ever signed a peace treaty," Natalie Healy, the mother of a Navy SEAL killed by a Taliban rocket last year, told me. "They're still killing Americans."

Fund raises the spectre of Paul de Man, the famous leader of deconstructionism, who rose to prominence on the Ivy League faculty while hiding his Nazi past. Ironically, the cultural relativisim behind that theory is the very idea that has so permeated the academy that all world views, including the Taliban's extremist Islam, are welcome. Also ironic is the fact that in terms of sheer numbers of adherents extremist Islam is far more successful today than Nazism ever was.

UPDATE: More from Clinton Taylor who blogs on this issue.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:01 AM
Comments (19)

March 19, 2006

The Protocols of the Elders of Scion

According to CNN Money, three of the ten hottest selling cars in America are Scions. [You bought one of those, didn't you, you slavish follower of fashion.-ed. I stand chastised.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:18 PM
Comments (5)

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

I'm on Tammy's side.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:06 PM
Comments (1)

No more "newspapers of record"

I have written before that the editorial and financial decline of The New York Times is a good thing for American democracy. (I'm not trying to gloat about the latter- their business troubles- merely pointing to them as another indication of the former having been recognized by the public. ) Of course, that decline is not really a decline - the newspaper was always as it is, more or less - but rather a symptom of changing times and access. The Times is no longer able to function ex cathedra as it was during the era of Walter Duranty (1930s). Jayson Blair, whose fairy tales were far less significant than Duranty's, was discovered relatively quickly a few years ago and now their quasi-propagandistic alacrity has been unmasked within a day. History has been replayed as farce.

Some of this zeal is the obvious outgrowth of the desire to get a scoop in an increasingly competitive journalistic world. Some of it stems from normal human bias. It was this bias that the Times attempted to deny in successfully building its reputation as the "newspaper of record," a distortion that simply ignores the most basic aspects of our behavior. We are all biased to one extent or another from infancy. We can try to be impartial (sometimes with good intentions and sometimes not) but such a state is almost impossible to achieve short of the installation of rigid scientific systems. A newspaper article describing a highly-charged political situation rather quickly departs the realm of science. Virtually every front page article of every newspaper (and blog or aything else) is injected with some measure of opinion reflected in the writer's choice of style and content.

So I applaud the Times' relative demise. I say "relative" because the media, like virtually everyone else, are lazy. To abandon the NYT completely as the gold standard of how a story should be covered would require thinking for themselves and doing extra work. And it is also human behavior to admire and follow "stars" and the Times will remain one of those stars, albeit a tarnished one.

But speaking of "stars" and the Times, Pajamas Media's (then OSM's) keynote speaker Judith Miller is blaming the blogs for her problems. [Should we get our honorarium back?-ed. No. Be graceful. Anyway she's got big legal fees.]. According to Jack Shafer in Slate: In August, Bill Keller replaced Raines as executive editor, and according to Miller, he told her, "You are radioactive. ... You can see it in the blogs."

(Sounds more like what my hairdresser does with my thinning locks. But never mind.)

Note to Jack: mine are already too far gone for help.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:39 AM
Comments (23)

March 18, 2006

The Protocols of the Elders of Harvard

While (naturally) abjuring anti-Semitism, two Harvard professors are currently blaming the Israel lobby (AIPAC) for a lot of what ails America, specifically its foreign policy. (Their essay, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, is in pdf form here.) Frankly I have some sympathy for the professors because it's very hard for the secular mind - I know this well from my own experience - to identify with and understand societies deeply bound in faith and tradition. These societies' behavior must be explained by material conditions - and perhaps they can be, but not nearly as simply, and ultimately dismissively, as these professors do. The Harvard men do not really believe bin Laden and his cohorts when they talk about the Caliphate. It is to us secularists, after all, mythological. So when the Madrid Atocha Station is blown up - at the very heart of Al Andaluz - it must be as a result of the US Israeli policy and not the continuation of a war that has been going on for over a thousand years. Actions by Al Qaeda in Indonesia must be similarly reduced. We could call this reductionism a form of racism, but I think it's a kind of traditionalist marxism, revisionist or otherwise. After all, despite being a rather prolix book, Das Kapital did make the world simpler and in some ways more comforting to understand - it's the economic inequality, stupid. But is that true, in the final analysis?

The NYSun has more. (hat tip: Janet Levy)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:18 AM
Comments (37)

March 17, 2006

Dead birds make good neighbors

From the Timesonline: In an indication of the seriousness of the [avian flu] threat, Israeli scientists were also testing the bodies of birds found dead in the West Bank and Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. An Israeli agriculture minister told Reuters that the co-operation was likely to continue even when the Hamas-led government takes office.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:57 PM
Comments (12)

March 16, 2006

Does Pajamas Media deserve credit for the release of the Saddam Documents?

Maybe, maybe not, but I will allow you to decide. Back in mid-February Pajamas Media went to Washington to cover the Intelligence Summit and did video interviews with Congressman Hoekstra (chair of the House Intell Committee), former DCI Woolsey and Richard Perle, among others. In all those interviews we discussed our idea - new to all of them - that the myriad untranslated Saddam tapes and documents be released to the blogosphere for translation. The three men all, to one degree or another, liked the idea, although they were surprised by it. Today, it was announced that at the instigation of Hoekstra these documents have been released by the Pentagon for ... and this is how it was worded on the Brit Hume Show on Fox News ... for translation by the blogosphere.

UPDATE: One of the documents already translated by Iraq the Model here.

MORE: Thanks for your suggestions below, which have been noted. PJM will get involved in this.

FURTHER: Please send you translations and/our analyses to iraq dash-sign translations at-sign pajamasmedia dot-character com. A blog on the subject will be initated shortly to house the new translations and more.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:38 PM
Comments (27)

In the Hobbesian jungle

An interesting post from Kobayashi Maru.

MEAWNHILE: Bush has reaffirmed his "strike-first" policy. Does he have a choice? I wouldn't want to be in his shoes at this moment. He knows not to pay attention to the polls. But how could you not?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:11 AM
Comments (18)

March 15, 2006

How long is too long?

The new dispatch on longevity from Reuters - in which a Cambridge scientist asserts the first person to live to 1000 has already been born - certainly got my attention. The article also has some more mundane and predictable opinions:

Paul Hodge, director of the Harvard Generations Policy Program, said governments around the world -- struggling with pension crises, greying workforces and rising healthcare costs -- had to face up to the challenge now.

"Life expectancy is going to grow significantly, and current policies are going to be proven totally inadequate," he predicted.

Okay, what're we talking about here? 130-140 years? 230 years? Using the way-back machine, that would mean someone born around the time of the US Constitution. Maybe they could tell us if Jefferson really got it on with Sally Hemmings. As someone who has reached a "certain age," I have always labored under the assumption that I wanted to live as long as possible or until someone could prove to me incontrovertibly the existence of a benign afterlife (whichever came first). Now I'm not so sure. 112 years, say, of retirement doesn't sound exactly enthralling.That's a lot of checkers and parcheesi. One of the scientists interviewed in the article said people are living vigorous lives these days in their 70s. Ho-hum. What about in their 140s? Anybody for120 and over tennis?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:00 PM
Comments (32)

Why do we really know about Iran?

Michael Slackman has an interesting article in the NYT this morning (via PJ), detailing supposed dissension inside the Iranian regime. Daniel Drezner thinks this may be wishful thinking. I think it may be more than that. The problem is Slackman (as per the accepted method of his paper, despite their editorial denials) uses anonymous sources. This is particuarly troublesome with regards to Iran, a country known to have intelligence agents everywhere from Hong Kong to (especially) Los Angeles. Many of them talk to the press in different ways and from different "perspectives." It's impossible to know whom Slackman was really talking to, probably for the reporter hiimself as well. And what their agendas might be. What could just easily be going on here is that the mullahs want us to think there is dissension in their ranks when there is not. Or there might be some, but not as much as they wants us to think... or.... Does the New York Times know? Do you?

UPDATE: Much more real information here. (Apropos, isn't it interesting that the WaPo and the NYT are suddenly flogging basically the same view on something that they cannot really know about?)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:23 AM
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Election Calendars on Pajamas Media

We have put up some election calendars on PJM - World and US - to follow electoral contests globally. (US includes primaries and will eventually have more detail.). I haven't seen anything similar elsewhere. Let me know you if you have. Suggestions for additions welcome. Thanks.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:44 AM
Comments (1)

Call me "unforgiveable"

Not missing a beat to curry favor with his constituents, desperate politician Mahmoud Abbas has called the Israeli raid on the Jericho prison an "unforgivable crime." Hyperventilating a bit there, are we, Mahmoud? Now let's see... Hamas says they are about to free a group of terrorists from that prison, including Ahmed Saadat (secretary general of the notorious PFLP), then the British and American monitors leave the premises, fearing for their own safety, and the Israelis are supposed to do what? Sit on their rear ends? Negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas - a lame duck who was never more than a figurehead in the first place and is now a joke? Talk to Hamas who doesn't even recognize their existence and are terrorists themselves? Let's get serious. Even if this weren't in the midst of an Israeli electoral campaign, the result would be obvious. The people who should really be playing close attention to this are the Iranians - and I would imagine they are. Because it is an example of how the Israelis take action when their interests are threatened. They'll do it again.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:08 AM
Comments (6)

This man reflects ...

... how I often feel at demonstrations these days. Well said. (via PJM)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:56 AM
Comments (3)

March 14, 2006

Never complain, never explain

Novelist Annie Proulx is not distinguishing herself with her whining about Brokeback Mountain not receiving the Best Picture Academy Award this year, especially since she didn't even write the script, only a short story on which it was based. [Who was it who really said 'Never complain, never explain'?-ed. It's a toss up between Jennifer Jones and Disraeli. I thought it was Wallis Simpson.-ed How about Victor Lasky?]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 PM
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Annals of the K[ofi]GB

Sergey Lavrov isn't the only old apparatchik running around the UN these days. Remember Iqbal Riza, Kofi Annan's onetime chef de cabinet who retired "with very mixed emotions" after allegations, later substantiated by the Volcker commission, that he had shredded several years' worth of documents relating to the Oil-for-Food investigation?

Well, can you imagine my surprise to find that Riza is back, according to Claudia Rosett and George Russell, working for the United Nations in Kofi's new pet project the "Alliance for Civilizations" - read the link for what that piece of work is - this even though Riza seems yet more nefarious:

During the Oil-for-Food program itself, as Volcker reported in September, 2005, "Mr. Riza played a greater role than he was willing to state." According to Volcker, Riza dealt heavily with the graft-riddled program, meeting with Iraqi officials, and routinely handling important Oil-for-Food documents, some pertaining to corruption in the program. During at least the last two years of Oil-for-Food's seven years in operation, Volcker concluded, Riza - along with Annan and the now departing deputy secretary-general, Louise Frechette - was aware of both the smuggling and kickback schemes of Saddam, but withheld information from the U.N. Security Council.

And yet he's back! How could Kofi be so brazen? ... Well, you don't have to be a crime writer to figure that one out. Riza has more on Kofi than even Kojo has. Why would the old chef de cabinet not be back?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:28 PM
Comments (6)

The Show-off

I find Sen. Russ Feingold a rather peculiar fellow. I don't see him as being particularly left-wing, at least in any way I understand that term. And, yes, it's easiest to understand his views as those of one who wishes to run for the presidency, but what is he saying when he wants to have the President censured over the NSA controversy? Excuse me if I'm confused by this nonsense, but what did anyone think the NSA was doing anyway with all those satellites except listening into Al Qaeda conversations? That, one would assume, was their number one job for all those billions of dollars. And I bet almost any Congressperson - possibly including Feingold - would have agreed a year ago that the NSA should be doing this and also would have assumed they were monitoring Al Qaeda conversations into and out of the US. And that anything they discovered should be acted on as quickly as possible. How else could they possibly defend the country from attack in the modern era?

Leaving the politics aside - which seems impossible for Feingold - the issue here is not the presidency and its perks, but the NSA and hightech spying itself. If you can't react to information at the speed of a blog post, well, there's no point in going in that direction in the first place. You might as well save those billions - and, arguably, there is a better use for them. But, again, Feingold does not make that argument. He makes a pretense of being a great defender of our privacy rights without examining the premises at all. What does that make him? A progressive? A reactionary? No, a show-off.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
Comments (64)

Fun rumor of the day

I just posted the following over at PJM, but thought it worth putting here as well, in case people had an "inside" comments:

Palace Revolution at The Guardian

April Fools may be coming early this year at Adloyada, but the blog is reporting a virtual earthquake at England's most religiously leftwing of all its dailies - The Guardian. Today's paper publishes a column by self-described neocon Oliver Kamm. Adloyada says that's only the beginning with the likes of Melanie Phillips, Mark Steyn, Norm Geras, David Aronovitch and even David T. of Harry's Place beeing mooted as star columnists for the "Grauniad." We're skeptical but interested.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:04 AM
Comments (6)

March 13, 2006

Manute ...in the paint ... but not his family

A lot of people know I'm an NBA fan, but even if I wasn't this story of Sudanese baller Manute Bol on Daily Scorecard would have caught my attention.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:12 PM
Comments (5)

Cartoon protest spreads to Hollywood!

It's not just every imam from here to Lahore. Now soul idol Isaac Hayes has had enough! After nearly nine years playing the Chef on "South Park," he has said adios to the show because of that cartoon's disrespectful attitude toward organized religion. But this time it's not Islam. It's Hayes' own faith - Scientology!

I can see it now - thousands of demonstrators, led by Tom Cruise and John Travolta, massing in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, demanding that the world's media cease depicting graven images of L. Ron Hubbard - at least without his ascot. It all sounds like an episode of... "South Park." [Hey,maybe it's all just a promotional stunt.-ed. Maybe it is.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:57 PM
Comments (5)

Mine works

Motorola is having trouble with its "sexy" Razr phone on Cingular and T-Mobile (neither of which work in my neighborhood anyway, with any phone). I just bought one on the system that does work hereabouts,Verizon, and it's fine. I also got one of those Bluetooth dealies from Logitech to go with it and I walk around looking just like what we used to refer to as "Yuppie scum" ... well, aging yuppie scum in this case.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:36 PM
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Calling Mr. Holinshed

The suit by Baigent and Leigh against "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown is a threat to all novelists, screenwriters and playwrights. Basically, it would mean fiction writers would be in danger of suit every time they used historical research, especially if it advanced a particular theory, as a great percentage of histories do. Were Shakespeare alive, he would be open to suit by Holinshed. I hope the English court sends these greedy twits home without their carfare.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:50 PM
Comments (4)

First you say you do and then you don't ...

Russia says Nuclear Talks with Iran to Resume This Week.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:01 AM
Comments (3)

The folks at Jyllands-Posten ...

... really do believe in a free press. (No, I don't agree the Koran should be banned - but it should be open to criticism just as everything else is.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:28 AM
Comments (2)

Is he lying or is he an idiot?

Yale fundraiser Alexis Suvorov says he was "only vaguely aware of Taliban practices."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:05 AM
Comments (15)

March 12, 2006

Iran - The Hitch Hitch

I have hesitated to comment on Christopher Hitchens' much discussed approach to the Iran problem because, uncharacteristically for me, I was mulling it over. Basically it's "Nixon in China" revisited and depends on the premise that the mullahs are just corrupt, not crazy (so that the US President can go to Tehran and actually
strike a deal with the Ayatollah). I wonder how Hitchens knows this. They are certainly corrupt, profiteering off everything from pistachios to oil, but I'm more than a little suspicious that a fair proportion of them take this Sharia stuff (and attendant apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo) more seriously than Hitchens wants to believe. It's hard for us more secular Westerners to wrap our minds around that kind of faith, especially since our friends in Isfahan seem relatively modern beneath their veils and we ourselves know what it's like to "believe" in Trotsky. But the latter comparison is inaccurate. Although Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung thought had it's religious component to be sure, its basis was "scientific socialism." It wasn't meant to be accepted as blind faith, but to be proven. Islam, as practiced by the mullahs and their adherents, is toute autre chose.

When you examine the mullahs' erratic behavior around the nuclear issue, you see this irrational "faith" component at work. Today they have rejected the Russian plan; yesterday it was another thing. Of course this could be regarded as simply stalling. And to a great extent it must be. But why would a merely corrupt regime get in such flamboyant controversies with their opponents? Why not just quietly go about building the bomb like so many other countries have done? In fact, for a "rationally corrupt" state, you would think that would be standard operating procedure. Instead, the Iranians have elected/installed mad Ahmadinejad and set him loose to make all sorts of pronouncements, only some of which can be excused as catering to the masses. Hitchens - in a manner that borders on the ultra-naive (or self-immolating) - dismisses Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial and bellicosity as mere "bullshit." But as we have learned from psychological studies, the people who most often talk about extreme gestures (like suicide) are actually the people most likely to act upon them. I'm far from convinced Hitchens has the right approach here. But I wish I knew what was.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:23 PM
Comments (28)

March 11, 2006

Dr. Wafa Sultan - more dangerous than the cartoons

People ask where are the moderate Muslims. Given the response to the appearance of Dr. Wafa Sultan on Al Jazeera - the myriad death threats on her answering machine, etc. - it is not hard to imagine why most of them remain silent. Very few of any religion or nationality have anywhere near the courage this woman has. Reading the NYT article linked above, I felt bad the author even noted the suburb in which she lived. If I had been writing the piece, I would have left that out.

Dr. Sultan's interview should be distributed as widely as possible and I applaud MEMRI for putting her interview online. (If you have not seen it, click here.) Medieval though he may be, the Syrian cleric who, according to the NYT, called this interview more dangerous to Islam than the Danish cartoons was, of course, correct. This is an intelligent woman speaking the truth without mockery in front of millions of people. Long may she thrive.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:03 AM
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Not your father's "Stamboul Train"

I received in email the following photographs of one of the Danish cartoon demonstrations last month. Where did it take place? Tehran? Riyadh?... No, Instanbul - the great romantic city of Graham Greene and flagship of secular Islam via Ataturk. How representative are these pictures of even a small portion of Turkish opinion? I certainly don't know, but they are not reassuring.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:33 AM
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Milosevic Dies

By now most of you must know that the brutal dictator Slobodan Milosevic is dead.

It is worth noting at this time that that mass murderer died in his cell because of American power, initiated by President Bill Clinton. Clinton followed a policy of attacking fascism at its roots which President Bush has expanded. From the perspective of history it will seem that both men had substantially the same idealistic foreign policy views. Present day critics who are enraged at the two presidents from both sides will seem almost silly in their partisan inability to take the larger view.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:30 AM
Comments (20)

March 10, 2006

And they said Paris was burning...

First it was the New York Times that cut its staff; now it's the Washington Post:

The Washington Post Co. yesterday announced plans to eliminate the equivalent of 80 newsroom positions over the next year by offering an early retirement plan to eligible employees and through attrition of full- and part-time workers. The Post said it has no plans to lay off any of its more than 800 newsroom employees.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:42 PM
Comments (8)

A new, aptly-named blog

The Land of Sad Oranges is the blog of Fayrouz Shaqrawi, a Palestinian woman who writes well in English. From Farouz: This blog is my attempt to clutch to sanity, and give another voice from Palestine. Good luck. We'll be watching. (via AKS)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:59 PM
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It's the media, stupid (it always is, isn't it?)

Bush made the speech he should have made two or three weeks ago to the National Newspaper Association today, not that it necessarily would have mattered, considering the perfect storm around the Dubai ports controversy. The media, in its almost ritualized desire to get Bush on every occasion, piled on the late-blooming story with such alacrity that the public immediately made it difficult for our spineless politicians to examine the matter in anything resembling a dispassionate manner. As I noted yesterday, I had not made up my mind on this subject, and still haven't. But I do know the decision-making process was a disgrace. Since how we interface with the Islamic world is by far the most important issue we face today, if it turns out Bush was right on this one, as he may have been, then our media and politicians have, once again, a lot to answer for.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:37 AM
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Who's on life support?

From the Timesonline:

The leader of Hamas has reacted with fury to the plans outlined by Israel's acting prime minister to unilaterally redraw Israel's borders on the West Bank by 2010.

Khaled Mashal described the ideas for an imposed solution in the occupied territories with no negotiation with the Palestinians as tantamount to a "declaration of war".

I don't know why Mr. Mashal is so upset. This is nothing new. He's been at war with the "Zionist entity" since the founding of his organization. Of course most of this is the usual posturing, but part of it must be the increasing realization that his own election has been horrible for his cause. As long as Hamas remains Hamas, he gives Israel license to draw its own borders - which they were almost certainly going to do anyway. He has put his own people in a wretched bargaining position unless he suddenly says "Okay, I recognize Israel. Let's talk." Not bloody likely.

So where to go for Mr. Mashal? Renewed terror is one gambit, but likely to put him and many of his friends at the short end of a helicopter missile attack. (And I can promise you one thing - some of them have their doubts about that virgins fairy tale.) A serious escalation of terror (if they are capable of it) would probably result in worse, since with Hamas running the government their actions would be state actions and dealt with accordingly. Mashal could run to the Western Europeans and the Russians for support - and he already has - but with his ally Iran parading their nuclear ambitions and acting like international lunatics his leverage with them will be less. So, for the moment, Hamas seems not to have many options. They have been checkmated for the nonce by someone on life support.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:11 AM
Comments (18)

March 9, 2006

Book Review not by me

By Seneca the Younger who likes the new self-published fiction of Richard Lawrence Cohen. I'll be getting a copy soon. Self-publishing used to be something of an eye-roller, but the way publishing and the Internet are converging, those days will soon be over, I suspect.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:10 PM
Comments (2)

Only in Los Angeles

This about breaks the bank for multiculturalism in its more amusing and positive sense.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:23 PM
Comments (3)

Lemmings of Capitol Hill

Let me say straight out that I have very little knowledge about what was behind the Dubai ports (DP World) contract and therefore had no firm opinon about it. I could see pros and cons but wanted to hear more. In that way, however, I am completely unlike the vast majority of our Congress and a substantial portion of the punditocracy. For a variety of reasons ranging from rank political advantage to outright panic, they ran from this contract like lemmings off a cliff. Of course this isn't total suicide because, as the Urban Legends reference page notes: Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers.

Still, cyclical or constant, the folks in Dubai got the message. What remains is a great opportunity for investigative journalists - if such a breed still exists - or some blogger with real perspicacity to figure out what actually went down here. We can begin with the obvious - the Bush Administration and its minions were as usual nitwits at public relations not to have anticipated a firestorm over this and done something to diffuse it an advance. But that, as I said, is the obvious. Beneath the surface are all kinds of intelligence and military relationships that didn't seem to interest our Congress very much, especially in an election year. Yet another wild card is the Israel connection, but who knows how that cuts? On the surface, the UAE is supposed to be a supporter of the Israel boycott, but then some people say she does no such thing in real life. Who knows? Well, I guess again our Congress does. They almost seem to know as much as our media who seem equally braindead on the issue. Oh, well, what did Churchill say about democracy?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:51 PM
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Death Penalty in Iraq

As one who (for the most part) opposes the death penalty I found myself saying "right on" to the news from Iraq today:

Iraq hanged 13 insurgents Thursday, marking the first time militants have been executed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three years ago, the government said.

The Cabinet announcement listed the name of only one of those hanged, Shukair Farid, a former policeman in the northern city of Mosul, who allegedly confessed that he had worked with Syrian foreign fighters to enlist fellow Iraqis to carry out assassinations against police and civilians.

Who knows - maybe this will act as a deterrent to the collection of religious serial killers and unemployed fascist thugs still quaintly known as "insurgents" by the mainstream media. It's certainly worth a try.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:47 AM
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The blind leading the unsophisticated

I found my mind drifting away within thirty seconds while watching an interview by Sean Hannity of Howard Stern last night on Fox. The level of their conversation was just so dopey I couldn't pay attention and I started thinking of Evan Coyne Maloney's blog post of yesterday - Internet Tops TV in UK - which discusses (obviously enough from its title) the trend away from TV-watching to online surfing. I think this trend is moving faster than even we know and in relatively short order we will be getting all our choices online, so those who enjoy listening to Stern and Hannity debate like a pair of overgown sixth graders (and not particularly smart ones) can do so and others of us can look around for a bit more content. This will all be projected on giant screens from our computers. More intelligent talk than one gets on Hannity and Colmes, etc., will be readily available. The bad news is this will not do that much for the general passivity of our lives because most of us will be lying in bed with our laptops, as I was last night, surfing away, the popcorn bowl readily at hand.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:03 AM
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March 8, 2006

Fallaci the Fearless

I just read the first five pages or Oriana Fallaci's The Force of Reason (only just now translated into English) over on Tigerhawk. As some readers of this site will recall, I have long been a great fan of Fallaci's (A Man is an extraordinary political love stories) and it is clear from these five pages that, even wracked with cancer, she has not lost her ability to write with force. Of course she is hated by the very people who used to adore her. Once the heroine of the left who faced down dictators for an interview (a far more intelligent and far more beautiful Amanpour), she had the courage to question the orthodoxy of European pseudo-progressivism, became despised and continued on nevertheless through her illness to write more and say more. They think she has changed, but she is the one who has remained true to her ideals, to the Enlightenment. Her critics are the ones who have betrayed them. Those critics themselves have not so much changed as retreated in panic, hiding behind a masquerade of hypocritical belief, a cultural relativism of convenience that only encourages their self-immolation. Viva Fallaci.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:54 PM
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Frist defends the Internet

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist - who is often a bit much of a social conservative for my taste - has shown his freedom-loving side by co-sponsoring the Online Freedom of Speech Act as an amendment to the lobbying reform bill. Unfortunately, though the amendment is filed, there is no guarantee that Frist will be able to "call up" (bring to the floor for immediate consideration) the amendment (co-sponsor: Senator Coburn) and get a vote on it. But this is hugely important since a threat to Internet freedom is coming not just from the Chinese and the United Nations, but from our own federal judiciary. When Congress passed campaign finance reform in 2002, the legislation did not identify the Internet as a target of regulation, and rightly so. But a federal judge has ruled that the FEC's previous broad exemption of the Internet was impermissible, absent clear direction from Congress. More here. Also, it would be interesting to know where this campaign finance reformer stands on the issue.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:07 PM
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Today's Iran News... Ledeen in lede

My friend Michael is testifying today in front of the House International Relations Committee. The New York Sun has read the testimony in advance and has an editorial. I am publishing the editorial in its entirety although the Sun is behind a subscription firewall. I doubt they will be too upset.

Ledeen and Hyde

Our friend and an occasional contributor to these pages, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, is scheduled to testify in Washington this morning before the House International Relations Committee that is chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois. His prepared testimony, available this morning on our Web site at nysun.com, is one of the clearest and most persuasive statements we have read laying out both the threat posed by Iran and what America should do about it.
Among the most chilling sentences in Ledeen testimony: "once Iran manages to put nuclear warheads on their intermediate range missiles, they might even be able to direct them against American territory from one or more of the Latin American countries with which the mullahs are establishing strategic alliances. The mullahs make no secret of their strategy; just a couple of weeks ago, when the leader of Hamas was received in honor in Tehran, a photograph of the event was released, in which there was a colorful poster of President Ahmadi-Nezhad and Supreme Leader Khamenei along with Castro, Morales and Chavez. The mullahs would be pleased to nuke Israel, and they would be thrilled to kill millions of Americans."

Mr. Ledeen goes on to say that the Iranians are killing Americans even today even without nuclear weapons, through support for terrorist suicide bombers worldwide and improvised explosive devices in Iraq. What to do? Mr. Ledeen suggests seizing the overseas assets of Iranian leaders and imposing a travel ban on them while openly embracing support for nonviolent regime change in Tehran. That means providing a strike fund for workers; servers, laptops, satellite and cellphones and phone cards for dissidents; and broadcasting into Iran interviews with experts on nonviolent revolution. All points worth keeping in mind as Congress considers the Iran Freedom Support Act.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:19 AM
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Congratulations to Mohammed Fadhil ...

... whose exceptionally moving Iraq the Model blog post has been reprinted as an opinion piece by the Wall Street Journal today. Of course some people were two days ahead of the Journal on this one - but that's our job.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
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March 7, 2006

Google DDrive

It seems that some bloggers are suspcious about the latest Google rumor (mysteriously disappeared from the web) - that the Sililcon Valley behemoth is about to offer everyone free online storage for all their data on a (what else?) "GDrive." CNET reports demurrals from such blogging colleagues as Tech Crunch:

"Information was clearly purged from analyst materials (unless this is an elaborate hoax by Greg and his readers), meaning we have selective disclosure of this information. Some people received it but it is not generally available to the public. I don't like this. In fact, I think it's Gevil. Now that some people know about it, Google should put it (back) up on the Web. "

ValleyWag says:

"Any timeline is unclear. The internal notes say Google's 'store 100 percent' scenario would be made possible if Google had 'infinite storage'...Left out, I assume, is the revelation: 'Google's live-forever scenario would be made possible if not for the problem of death.'"

Ah, but that's where ValleyWag and I differ. I say if Google wants to take over all of life, why not death as well? Google should go the whole way. GDrive is fine, but what about a DDrive? As in life, so in death. We are all Google. Instead of being cremated, or even worse stashed in some crowded graveyard, we are simply uploaded. Think of the positive ecological implications.

UPDATE: More (with less sarcasm) here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:17 PM
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The sushi wars - is it really about sea turtles?

The recent report of high mercury levels in tuna sushi (promulgated on this blog and many other venues) may have a dubious provenance. As Japundit notes: Now I don't know about you, but I always smell something a bit fishy whenever I hear a story about the dangers of eating food that people have been eating for a long time. (read it all if you love toro)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:26 PM
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Just bookmarked

Good-bye to the cocktail recipe book. Hello to Extratasty.com. (via PJM)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:09 PM
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Iran admits their nuclear con (UPDATED)

The only thing surprising about Hassan Rowhani - the man who headed Iran's nuclear negotiations - boasting that he had gulled his European counterparts is that he said it in semi-public so quickly and so obviously and while "negotiations" are still going on. The only thing he didn't say is that the whore El Baradei (can the Nobel committee go any lower than that?) is directly in their pay. Well, maybe that's because money wasn't involved. Maybe the IAEA honcho was simply ideologically attuned with the Islamofascist mullahs.

While the estimable EURSOC is one of the more useful websites on the web, I think they may have it wrong when they write about this episode:

For the Europeans, it's an embarrassing confirmation that their "Good Cop" policy has failed. The EU trio, for their own reasons, wanted to believe Iran, even if the evidence pointed towards the theocratic state's sinister intent. Britain's government fears another war; France supports a 'multi-polar' state, but has always mistrusted Iran; Germany wanted to polish its credentials as a global peace broker.

The Euros can't be that stupid. Call me cynical but I think they knew damn well the mullahs were lying and were willing to play along with the game for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that in this case it is about oil. Rowhani's braggadocio has now put them in an uncomfortable position. Not cricket, old chap.

UPDATE: You would think after all this there would be a rush to the Security Council. But no - the beat goes on. One thing you have to say for the Russians and the Chinese, they barely bother to pay lip service to the phony nonsense the Europeans engage in.

(via PJM)

SECOND UPDATE: Russia appears to be cooperating with the US so far, according to the AP:

The Bush administration told Iran on Tuesday that any enrichment of nuclear fuel on Iranian territory was unacceptable, as Russia appeared to close ranks with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:04 AM
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March 6, 2006

Traffic School for Mohammed

I read over at LGF that officials at the University of North Carolina are unsure whether the actions of Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, the 22-year old former student who did his best to poleax nine people with the snout of a rented SUV, should be called "terrorism." I can sympathize with their dilemma. After all, Taheri-azar could have been lying when he said he did what he did to "avenge the death of Muslims around the world" and it could just have been another whopper when added his intention was to "punish the government of the United States for their [global] actions." He also could have been pulling our legs when he said at a hearing today that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."

So, since we don't know any of this for sure, my suggestion is we give Mr. Taheri a second chance and let him go to traffic school. If he pays attention in class, next time he rents an SUV, he will be much more successful with his mission and possibly be able to knock off a couple of dozen people, meanwhile even drive straight into a football stadium in an Escalade.

Meanwhile, you will excuse me if I take the reaction of these UNC officials as yet another example of why non-scientific education at our more prominent institutions is rapidly turning into one of the biggest hustles since the Black Sox scandal. Can you imagine paying fifty thousand a year for your children to listen to instruction from puerile nincompoops like that? Well, Mr. and Ms. America, that's what you're doing.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:02 PM
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Cocaine, okay...

But I'm not going to give up this. [Of course it could explain your "temporary memory loss".-ed. Who?]

UPDATE: Another sushi victim?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:01 PM
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In my inbox today

A signed copy of An Army of Davids. [Why is the author smiling?-ed. He's up to #322 on Amazon... click here and raise it.]

UPDATE: If the popularity of Glenn's book continues to swell, he may need this.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:29 PM
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Welcome to the anglosphere

Australia may be selling uranium to India.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:22 AM
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Goodbye to the "Road Map"

Of course, that assumes anyone ever said hello. But it's all irrelevant now as Hamas acts like, well, Hamas:

The Hamas-controlled Palestinian parliament Monday canceled all decisions made during the last session of the outgoing legislature, including legislation giving additional powers to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The vote signaled that Hamas legislators will take a confrontational approach in dealing with the rival Fatah Party, which was defeated in January's parliamentary elections.

Fatah legislators walked out in protest before Monday's vote. Fatah lawmakers argued that Hamas was breaking the rules by holding the vote and that the last session of the Fatah-controlled parliament was legal.

What next? Hamas leadership has previously stated they weren't disturbed by Israel withdrawing a bit more and setting its own borders. I guess they weren't lying, because that looks like pretty much of a sure thing now - or as much of a sure thing as there is in the ME.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
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March 5, 2006

War of the Media Worlds

Glenn Reynolds gets a "Best of the Blogs" on PJM this morning for an important and lengthy (for him) post on the growing conflict between the administration and the press over security leaks. I couldn't be more with Glenn on this one when he writes: The tendency of the press to conflate its own desire for guild-like special privileges with the protections of the First Amendment is one of the reasons for its decline in trust and popularity.

It's no surprise the Fourth Estate elevates itself to a higher moral plane. We all do - or want to. And the government always makes a particularly good target. Power corrupts, etc., etc. Except that both the media and the government have the power in our society - and sometimes the media has more of it. Some of this has to do with platform, some to do with longevity. The satraps of the Fourth Estate linger on for decades while pols often disappear as quickly as you can say Tom DeLay. Which side deserves more protection? Well, neither do. Both should be subject to inspection, always mindful that the protection of society involves the existence of some kind of functioning intelligence service and that whistle-blowers have agendas of their own. The idea that the press should always be able to protect these sources depends on the mind-boggling premise that reporters will always be objective (who is?), not to mention the assumption that these same reporters and editors would always be able to evaluate accurately the motives of others (who can?). No, the views of mainstream media have become antediluvian on this one. Open up! Open up!

UPDATE: Byron York at the Corner, regarding leaks:

Too late, the Times and its allies realized that a terrible precedent had been set. Now some of them try to argue that the Wilson leak was an act of retribution, while the NSA and secret prisons leaks were the work of good-government whistleblowers, so one should be vigorously prosecuted while the others are ignored. It won't work. Leaks are leaks, and the NSA and secret prisons leaks were, by any estimation, far more damaging to national security than the Wilson leak. (In that case, the special prosecutor said in court recently that he did not intend to show that any damage occurred from the leak.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:07 AM
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March 4, 2006

Academy Awards? There goes the neighborhood!

Oscar time you don't want to live in my 'hood - a mile or so directly up hill of the Kodak Theatre where they give the Academy Awards. Normally a quiet family redoubt in the Hollywood Hills (okay, a bit on the showbiz side, but sedate nevertheless), it has been turned into ground zero for the tragically-hip-public-relations-party-on set replete with non-stop bands from country to alternative. My street, which normally gets about one car every five minutes, is in a permanent state of gridlock with parking valets frantically running up and down the sidewalk, dodging the stares of the traffic control police who are being constantly importuned by my neighbors (and me) to take this moving torture chamber and ship the whole crowd to the New Orleans coliseum. Two nights ago we were kept up until dawn by a non-stop party for Best Actor nominee Joaquin Phoenix - and he was in New York at the time. The following morning it was impossible to get to work because of the catering trucks blocking the road. And this hijinks is supposed to go on until Monday.

And for what reason have the good people of my street been singled out for this treatment? Some cash-rich lowlife - allegedly (though I am not certain) one of the contractors of that mega-boondoggle bordering on theft of public funds known as the LA Metro -for the last several years has been building the most hideous spec house this side of Riyadh about fifty yards up hill of me. If you were going to do a parody of a bad taste neo-Renaissance McMansion (up to the mammoth gaudy pseudo-Venetian chandeliers and the mosaic of Neptune and some sea nymphs at the bottom of the Olympic-sized pool), this would be the place. Upon completion, he put a price on it so steep not even David Geffen could move in. Naturally, the monstrosity didn't sell. So the guy had to rent it, first to porno filmmakers who were probably using it as a double for Hef's mansion. But that didn't last because next door neighbors complained that the nightly climax oohing and aahing was keeping their children up. (One woman told me she broke in on them en flagrante delicto and yelled at the crew to stop. They did.) The owner had to give up that rental. So now he is exacting retribution on all of us --seven days and seven nights of Oscar parties.

Actually there is something funny about us aging hipsters dodging empty boxes of Patron tequila (Hunter Thompson, where are you?) and complaining about the same things our parents did. Still, they didn't have porno rentals to worry about.

UPDATE: While on the subject of the awards, at least tangentially, I urge you to read Terry Teachout's analysis of Good Night, and Good Luck in Commentary. (via Powerline)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:44 PM
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