June 30, 2006

Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one - Part 403012

Just in time for Fourth of July fireworks, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. - the 'heir dysfunctional' of the Sulzberger family who is currently running the NYT into the ground - is engaged in a cat fight with the opinion section of the WSJ. The intellectual bankruptcy of Sulzberger rivals only what he seems to be doing to his company.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:42 PM
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Every cloud has a silver lining?

The WSJ's Daniel Henninger concludes his thought-provoking piece today "Bin Laden as Patrick Henry? Confusion reigns five years after September 11.":

It is possible to sharpen the focus of this matter further. The critics of the anti-terror surveillance programs such as the NSA's warrantless wiretaps give the impression that these efforts somehow violate principles laid down at the ratification of the Bill of Rights. The legal arguments, however, revolve around the requirements of Title III (establishing probable cause for electronic surveillance) and the FISA statute. Both laws, from the 1960s and '70s, in part were a reaction to government wiretapping of individuals involved in the civil-rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests.

Many of those in the opposition on these surveillance issues--in Congress, the legal community and the press--are people whose personal and intellectual formation is rooted in the events of that era. This is the prism through which they transmute any political event; does it pass or fail the commandments carved in the '70s? But this is 2006, not 1974. Islamic jihad and al Qaeda are not the Montgomery marchers or Kent State, and our debate and laws should reflect that. Applying transaction analytics to telephone traffic is not the same as two cops with headphones in a hotel listening to the people in the next room.

Perhaps there's a silver lining. The public demonizing of Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Gonzales as ruthless tramplers of civil liberties is a throwback to the anti-LBJ, anti-Nixon style of Vietnam-era protests. This has been catastrophic for shaping public policy around this issue. But if the bad guys go slow because they think that George Bush and Dick Cheney are RoboCops willing to do what they gotta do track, trap and catch them, hey, maybe our crackpot "system" works after all.

Maybe. But the RoboCops are only in office until 2008 and the bad guys are operating on a time scheme very different from ours. I'm not so sanguine as Mr. Henninger (and I wonder if he's so sanguine himself).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:13 AM
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Washington Post in need of coaching

Soccer Dad steps in at the last minute.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:07 AM
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June 29, 2006

Hobson's Choice?

The Israelis have now arrested sixty-some Hamas officials and threaten to try them for terrorism. No doubt many of them could be convicted, but the obvious intention here is to put pressure to obtain the release of Gilad Shalit, the kidnapped soldier. The problem with the Israeli strategy is this: Maybe the officials won't want to go home. Where would you prefer to spend the rest of your life - Gaza or an Israeli prison? (I report; you decide.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:33 AM
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Better living through chemistry

Is this what Howard Dean means when he says the "sixties are back"?

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades sources claimed Thursday they fired a rocket with a chemical warhead at Israel. The IDF said they did not identify an impact of any such rocket nor was there even evidence of a launch.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:09 AM
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The Google Universe - it keeps on growing

Since Google now wants take all our identification numbers to " Speed the Online Checkout Line," why not go the natural extra step - develop the "Google Family Plot" so that, upon our deaths, we can be immediately uploaded to our final resting places in cyberspace? It's quick and easy - and think of the ecological benefits. And then of course there's the "Google Birth." Why even bother with a body?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:51 AM
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June 28, 2006

Bin Laden has ANOTHER new audio tape

Why doesn't someone just give him a show? [Maybe you could use him at Pajamas Media with one of your podcasts.-ed. Yes, we are planning on expanding those. I'll think about it. Who's his agent? Maybe he'd like to be on the Glenn and Helen Show.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:30 PM
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Buzz job

Whoo-hoo... The Israeli's have buzzed the home of the ophthalmologist.

Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad early Wednesday, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said on condition of anonymity that the fighter jets flew over Assad's palace in a low-altitude overnight raid near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved, and Assad was home at the time

Did his glasses fall off?

UPDATE: Dept. of Yeah, Right - Syrians claim they drove the Israelis off.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:13 AM
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The sports model continues

If there's one thing I loathe in most American political discourse, it's the sports page mentality dividing right and left. Everyone must be either for the Lakers or Celtics do or die - an analogy that dates me, I'm afraid - when in the political realm - most of us are simply basketball fans. We just want things to go well.

Mainstream media - probably because of its finanical disarray - more than ever seems to have a vested interest in this dichotomy. "Our team is red hot; your team is diddly-squat," as I said on another occasion. It's all a form of short hand, but it is dim-witted short hand.

Howard Kurtz - generally a thoughtful sort - engages in it today by seeing the New York Times controversy in terms of deeply old fashioned political alignments, when the true progessive (not the fuddy-duddy progressive of the mainstream media) wants to see those alignments smashed and consigned to the dustbin. What people like Kurtz can't seem to grasp - don't want to grasp, I think - is that there are many people who may be far to the left of him (excuse the use of the fusty term) on many issues and far to the right of him (again excuse the rubric) on others.

Which leads me to the New York Times. I don't regard it as a left-wing newspaper or even, in any significant way, particularly liberal. I regard it as outright stodgy, rarely able to see outside the box of the "Zabar's Zeitgeist." That "zeitgeist" is essentially a culture of self-interest which creates a progressive veneer to preserve itself, making it, in some sense, if you think about it, ultra-conservative - a preservationist cult. In another way, it can be seen as an "as if" culture, erecting an alternative self for the public in order to enhance its primary interests - financial gain and power (not doing well on either of these at the moment). In this way, the NYT is not unlike other many other social and political institutions in all countries, which are in fact the mirrors of themselves.

This not to say, however, that the NYT is on the way out. Those of us working in the world of new media have a long way to go to seriously compete with its power - a very long way to go. Don't look for the NYT to immolate soon. And I will continue to read it, teeth-ganshing though the experience may be, as long as it continues to publish journalism on the level of the Chris Caldwell article mentioned below.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:56 AM
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June 27, 2006

Spotting the idiots

James Taranto has it exactly right on the grand-standing pols trying to enact a flag-desecration amendment: Burning the flag is a stupid and ugly act, but there is something lovely and enlightened about a regime that tolerates it in the name of freedom. And of course it has the added benefit of making it easier to spot the idiots. (via Glenn)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:10 PM
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Israel in Gaza?

Vital Perspectives is live-blogging the Israeli incursion into Gaza (assuming that's happening) to bring back kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:37 PM
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Letters, we get (other people's) letters...

Like this one at Pajamas Media.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:34 PM
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Passive heroes - the mythology of the scoop

In all the brouhaha over the New York Times' publishing top secret information on financial surveillance, one thing amuses me in a dark comic way: from my point of view the Big Scoop is one of the great myths of our post-Watergate times. Almost always it is simply handed to you. It takes no guts whatsoever or even, in many cases, much legwork.

That was certainly true in my case. This blog had a small scoop on the UN oil-for-food program. It was the first to announce that lead investigator Robert Parton had withdrawn from the Volcker Commission. How did I get that "scoop"? Someone emailed it to me. Of course, I checked it out. But was it particularly hard work or brave in any way? Don't be silly. [Well, you did have to get up early for a call from Paris once.-ed. That's true.]

Now my best guess is this new scoop from the NYT arrived in a similar manner, especially since three papers ended up with the story. This means the leaker or leakers simply wanted to make these media conduits for their ideas. Okay. No big deal. This has been SOP for years (although it shouldn't be). But does this make the publishers, editors and reporters courageous figures suited to be portrayed by Redford and Hoffman in the movies? ... Well, I take that back. Maybe it does these days. But it wouldn't end up an heroic film, even if its authors intended it to be. It would be a morass of moral confusion and self-deception. If it were properly made, however, it would end up something like Evelyn Waugh's immortal satire Scoop.

So why am I writing all this? Only to point out that people who are publishing this material are driven by a self-aggrandizing myth that is not only outdated - it is wrong.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:34 AM
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Hold your breath - good news from Iraq

al-Sabah is reporting that seven of the Sunni militant groups are talking peace with the Iraqi government. Translation is on Iraq the Model where it is assumed that some of this was worked out before the amnesty plan was made public. Meanwhile, our mainstream media is barely covering this. It's not even on the front page of Google News at this hour and buried below the fold at the NYT.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:27 AM
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June 26, 2006

In old headline speak....

Barone to Times: Drop Dead!

UPDATE: Snow addresses Keller

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:31 AM
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Caldwell behind the (yawn) NYT Select Firewall

Christopher Caldwell's NYT Magazine cover story of this Sunday - "After Londonistan" - is definitely worth searching out. The writer tells us there are now one million Muslims in London, half of them under twenty-five. Will there "always been an England"? Of one sort or the other, I suppose.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:57 AM
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June 25, 2006

Why Did the Congressman Jump the Shark - a Just-So Story

To be perfectly honest, up to a few months ago I never paid any attention at all to Cong. John Murtha, D-PA. He was just another back-bencher to me, if I even recognized his name, which I doubt. And I assume this was the case for most people. Now he seems to be all over us like the proverbial cheap suit - he just won't go away. This weekend we find the gentleman opining once again: "American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon."

Well, okay, John, "it is so, if you think so," as Pirandello once said [hint to Murtha: that's a deceased Italian playwright]. But reading the Congressman's latest made me wonder why he would say something so obviously asinine. Does he actually believe it? More likely he has convinced himself of his great profundity because he is getting his fifteen minutes and then some. The minute Murtha starts sounding like a reasonable fellow he will disappear into the anonymity he has always had and so richly deserves. So my suggestion is we start to ignore Mr. Murtha. He will do either of two things: 1. Go away. 2. Become even more outrageous to get our attention and get voted out of office in the process. Failing these, we can always "fix an ass's head" on him like Lysander (scratch that - Bottom) in A Midsummer Night's Dream. As the cliché goes - it's all good!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:29 PM
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Peace would make them crazy

I am afraid the Palestinians have lived so long in a state of rage and paranoia that peace would give them a nervous breakdown. Imagine what would happen in the highly unlikely possibility that their leadership said let's forget Israel and concentrate on building a successful society of our own. Very few people would know what to do. Their entire culture has been constructed around blaming the other. Witness the pure insanity of yesterday's incursion north of Gaza. According to Haaretz, Mahmoud Abbas has washed his hands of the whole affair and told the Hamas leadership they will have to deal with their own lunatics who have decided this was the time to kidnap an Israeli soldier (for the sake of what?). The Hamas leaders' response, according to the same article, is to go into hiding, fearing for their lives (they should). What the Palestinians need more than anything is an influx of about 100,000 psychotherapists. And they better be good ones. [Maybe that's something Europe could donate.-ed. I don't think they could spare them.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 AM
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June 24, 2006

Leaking the obvious

We are in the era of what we could call the "non-leak leak". It is a new form of a propaganda in which the obvious is repackaged as a leak in order to influence opinion or bash the opposition. Our major newspapers practice this form with such regularity it is difficult to know whether they are conscious of what they are doing, although that doesn't matter - the effect is the same.

A recent example of this form is the New York Times "revelation" that the US has been monitoring SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I assumed that such things were monitored in the post 9-11 era. How else could the financing of terrorism be interdicted? Indeed, it's quite obvious that Al Qaeda has, literally for years, been making the same assumptions (that we were scrutinizing these transactions) and made adjustments in order to avoid detection. And even given that, now the Counterrorism Blog details the specifics of this same SWIFT monitoring, telling us they have been public since 2002!

So what's the story here? Exactly none.... Well, not none. The real story is that the NYT has published yet another anonymous leaker to support its narrative. Of course this is not surprising. This contemptible form of journalism has been with us for some time now. All we can do is continue fighting back and do our best not to ape their insidious, reactionary methods.

UPDATE: Patterico has canceled his LAT subsrciption over this brouhaha. [He'll be saving himself a dollar a week?-ed. Is that what you pay for you LAT subscription? Pretty soon they'll be giving them away with with LA Weekly.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:54 AM
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June 22, 2006

Sarin under her sink

You know it's election time when Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif), who is normally fairly level-headed about War on Terror matters, asserted on Fox News today the newly-reported chemical weapons discovered in Iraq were old and therefore no more dangerous than aging items one might find "under the kitchen sink." Leaving aside whether Harman (a lawyer by training) has any serious background in chemistry and is even remotely qualified to opine on such technical-scientific matters, I would bet my house that if the Congresswoman found any twenty year old sarin under her kitchen sink, she would get the Hell out of the bulding and call the police and anyone else should could think of as quickly as possible. She may be accusing Santorum and Hoekstra of political posturing, but she's doing some pretty obvious posturing of her own. Let's hope if she get reelected, she'll come back to her more rational positions the second week in November.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 PM
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Mystery (sort of) resolved - a Pajamas Media non-exclusive

On the Bainbridge Ferry again. For those of you who may be interested - the ticket seller had more to say of yesterday's mystery. The dead guy whose floating corpse disrupted Puget Sound ferry service had just been charged with drugs.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:09 AM
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The Democratic Republic of Sony

Once pacifist Japan may be doing some old-fashioned saber rattling off the coast of North Korea by dispatching ships and planes to monitor the possible long-range missile launch from Comrade Kim's Paradise of Paranoia and Starvation. Reassuringly, according to the AP:

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said, however, that Japan had "encountered no information" indicating North Korea had the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.

"It requires tremendous technology to miniaturize an atomic weapon in order to load into a missile warhead," he said.

Now what country, I wonder, has that? [Maybe Kim should hire Sony. They're great at miniaturizing.-ed. Better yet, maybe Sony should buy North Korea.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:47 AM
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June 21, 2006

Not on their dance card

You will be tray shockay to learn that as of 9:30PM Pacific Wednesday neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post have deigned to report on the press conference called by Rick Santorum and Pete Hoekstra to discuss the newly-declassified report on chemical weapons in Iraq. It has been all over the blogosphere. [Newsprint shortage?-ed. No, it's those lay-offs. No staff.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:34 PM
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Murder in Paradise?

After meetings yesterday with Gerard Vanderleun, aka PJM in Seattle, I am once again riding the ferry to Bainbridge Island WA with Sheryl and Madeleine. But the ferry has been delayed - because a dead body was found in the Puget Sound! Good thing I am wearing my latest mystery writer hat - a newly-purchased summer Borsalino of Ecuadoran straw. Maybe I can get to the bottom of this! [You can't even get to the bottom of your latte.-ed. Who asked you?]

UPDATE: Nothing yet... As the ferry pulls into Bainbridge, waters still.... but wait....

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:00 AM
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June 20, 2006

Villaraigosa's School Days

My hometown of Los Angeles - that well-known epicenter of hypocrisy - is a place where the vast majority of its traditionally liberal upper middle class ritually supports the State Teachers Union at the polls, but wouldn't dream of sending their children to the public schools where its members teach. Everyone knows those schools (with a few exceptions) are wretched, yet hardly anyone seems willing to break with tradition, even though private school tuitions are rapidly heading north of thirty thousand per annum, leaving all but the extremely wealthy in their wakes. Soon enough the best schools will be havens of the mega-rich, with students in two hundred dollar designer jeans, arriving in Porsches, etc., leavened only by a handful of scholarship-students-of-color chosen, literally and figuratively, for face.

Shame on us - but that's the least of it. Shame on our country whose educational scores lag behind practically every industrialized nation in the Western and Eastern worlds.

Of course this is a situation that, like the weather, everybody talks about it but nobody does a thing about. So LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - once a member of the LA school board himself- is to be applauded for wanting to take on this problem. Or he was to be applauded - because, according to the LAT, he is now busy compromising with the very teachers union he was originally going to take on in serious battle. And this union, like so many bureaucracies, has become a serious part of the problem it was originally intended to solve. It is the kind of organization that complains - correctly or incorrectly... I am suspicious -- that the problem of our schools is too little money while spending an astonishing seventy million dollars (according to the same LAT article) between 2000 and 2004 to get its point across. How many classrooms could that have built?

But the problem is so much more than money and classrooms. At least in part it is the rise of a pseudo-professional class with entrenched values and needs straight out of Milovan Djilas. I wonder if in places like Singapore (where test scores dwarf ours) very much attention is paid to such matters as educational theories or whether there is a professional class of these "educators" replete with degrees from graduate departments of education. I rather doubt it. I strongly suspect they are too busy teaching particle physics and calculus for that.

I am not, however, implying we should turn into Singapore or anything like it. I am just saying it is time for all of us to look out of the educational box - way out. And that "all" includes the highly-paid union bureaucrats so loathe to give up power to elected officials.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:44 PM
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June 19, 2006

Father's Day (and birthday) update

To celebrate Madeleine's birthday, we went to our first Los Angeles Sparks game. It was a lot more fun than I had expected, the players were good (a woman on the Sparks from Zaire whose name is Maketa hit seven of nine three-pointers - a record) and the atmopshere more family and relaxed than the NBA. Cheaper too, of course. Because it was Father's Day, they invited father's and daughters (some sons) down on the field to welcome the Sparks with high-fives.

They also gave the kids basketballs. Here's Madeleine enjoying hers and the Sparks' victory over the Sacramento Monarchs, last year's WNBA champs.

Later she was able to get the ball signed by Sparks star Lisa Leslie, arguably the greatest woman player of all time. (She once scored 101 points in a game - take that, Kobe!) She and the other Sparks were very generous with the kids.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:21 PM
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Horowitz and Collier together again

For an excellent article defining the current situation: "For the first time in American history, a major political party wants America to run from a war we are winning."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:47 PM
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But will you respect your robot in the morning?

Remember the old line "No sex, please. We're British"? It's been replaced. The new mantra, it seems is "No sex, please. We're robots" if we are to believe Times Online on the growing problem of robot behavior as we move into an era of increasingly anthropomorphic designs:"Security, safety and sex are the big concerns," said Henrik Christensen, a member of the Euron ethics group. How far should robots be allowed to influence people's lives? How can accidents be avoided? Can deliberate harm be prevented? And what happens if robots turn out to be sexy?

I remember somewhere in my pre-pubescent youth reading something about robot sex in an (I think) Isaac Asimov novel. Well, sounds as if it's not science fiction anymore. A whole new Industry for the Valley may be forthcoming. [How about robots that only sleep with you after marriage?-ed. There's a thought.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:52 PM
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Attention, Kim Jong-Il

The USA already has an answer to your new North Korean ICBM .... and it is launching in approximately 8 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes. (scroll down for exact time)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:20 PM
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Mirthless Murtha, Sheehan and others

What's most repellent in the latest ... wasn't it always obvious?... display of Jack Murtha's ignorance is how the Mainstream Media barely called him on it. Instead, they exploit the dim bulb congressman in the same manner they exploited the equally dim Cindy Sheehan. I doubt Sheehan and Murtha realize even faintly how much contempt they are held in by their putative supporters. What we have is pseudo-progressives exploiting useful idiots - an intellectual tap dance not even Lenin could have conceived of. The result of this, of course, is that supposed "Left" escapes without having a real plan to deal with the actual War on Terror. Instead, they put up their dopey proxies and hide behind them until the proxies become so extreme and illogical they are no longer useful. That is what happened to Michael Moore, has more or less happened to Sheehan and will soon happen to Murtha. But no matter. Replacements will be found in this cynical, once-upon-a-time-leftist universe.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:22 AM
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They can delay a lot longer, if you ask me

The idea of actuallly riding in that "cattle car of cattle cars" the Airbus A380 Superjumbo is so unappealing I wish the company would just turn this delay into a cancellation.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:17 AM
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June 18, 2006

"Nacho Libre" - bastante buen

I didn't think I was going to like "Nacho Libre" - the new Jack Black flick about a Mexican monastery cook who aspires to be a pro wrestler - as much as I did. I don't tend to laugh at sight gags of leftover frijoles splattered on people's faces. But - in the increasingly mundane world of today's Hollywood - this movie won me over almost on its weird and original subject matter alone. Beyond that, I was especially impressed with the casting - a great mix of those Latino faces I used to see on fight nights down at LA's Olympic Auditorium. The set design was also good - catching that amalgamation of the beautiful and the horrible that is the Mexico we love. And, yes, Jack Black is the new Belushi. He can obviously open a movie and probably will for some time to come. (Okay, the story is predictable, but it's serviceable.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:29 AM
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Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

My daughter Madeleine is eight today (shown here a few months ago when she was "head of school" for a day - although the real head forgot to sign her certificate!). I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have Madeleine in my life at my (increasingly) advanced age. She keeps me young and she takes my heart, even though, pretty soon, I'll be catching up to this guy who also has his birthday today. Our plans for the day are to go to a Sparks game to celebrate Madeleine's cumpleanos and Father's Day - definitely in that order. (Oh, yes, Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there too. )

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:35 AM
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June 17, 2006

The best defense is a demented offense

I was trying to be hopeful, but, for the moment at least, it doesn't look as if the massive security campaign in Baghdad is being successful. What do you do to defend against suicide bombers? Islamic fascism is a more terrifiying enemy (vastly, to me) than communism because it never can be proven wrong. Communism advertised itself as an economic system and was subject to judgment in that regard. Islamism is divine truth. Only when people can be interviewed from beyond the grave will it really be subject to review by its adherents. Chilling. And with this war being fought first and foremost in the court of public opinion, it only takes a few of these lunatics to disrupt the image of progress.

UPDATE: It is interesting that the number killed has been reduced for the moment to 17 (from 21) earlier. As Charlie (Colorado) notes below, the Associated Press has consistently sided with the enemy and are not to be trusted.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:17 AM
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June 16, 2006

Why didn't somebody tell my mother?

She obviously didn't know about the "Hygiene Hypothesis" when she would be angry at me for tracking in half the mud holes from Van Cortlandt Park:

Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.

The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by disease and dirt early in life, so the body's natural defenses overreact to small irritants such as pollen.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:51 PM
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Pajamas Media in Iraq

Has the shoe bombing of a Shia Mosque derailed the security lock down? Wretchard interviews Omar of the Iraq the Model in this up-to-the-minute podcast from Baghdad. (We'll be staying in touch with Omar as much as possible.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:04 PM
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An author's query

Can someone please explain to me why people actually spend twenty bucks to buy books by Ann Coulter or Al Franken. You could get a couple of pieces of sushi for that.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:52 AM
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"All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey"

... on Pajamas Media.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:32 AM
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June 15, 2006

Not your grandfather's Oscar Wilde

I always say - if you're going to insult people, at least be witty. [He's only a sports writer.-ed. So was Ring Lardner.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:40 PM
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Bush has apologized to a reporter....

... but it is the White House press corps that owes the public an apology for their consistently brain dead, contentless questions to Bush, which are only slightly better than the "When did you stop beating your wife?" variety. If the press could say they were doing this to sell newspapers, that might be at least a weak excuse, but given their increasingly pathetic subscription stats, that doesn't seem to be remotely the case.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:17 AM
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Information... disinformation ... who knows? (UPDATE: looks real)

... but this short quotation from the recently confiscated Al Qaeda documents is interesting:While the coalition was continuing to suffer human losses, "time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance," the document said.

UPDATE: The information looks to be real: When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said "there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:55 AM
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June 14, 2006

Do I hear fifteen dollars?

The Los Angeles Times may be up for sale - again. [But Peter Ueberroth says it's a name brand.-ed. Like the Edsel.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:49 PM
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Solution for MSNBC...

Spruce up their deadly dull network with a catfight.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:11 PM
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Security operations in Iraq

Pajamas is following.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:59 PM
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Joe-mentum takes a turn

Joe Lieberman is evidently thinking of running as an Independent. I hope he does it and I hope it's a trend. The way our parties are currently set up the extremes have way too much power.

UPDATE: Of course the Conventional Wisdom (something I loathe with a passion because it is so boring and so stultifying to the mind and the imagination) is that third-party candidates cannot win. But imagine if this guy were running for president as an Independent. Who would beat him? At this moment, the only people who can defeat him are the reactionary ideologues of his own party.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:32 PM
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Incompetent Propagandists at the New York Times

Just today, the NYT has seen fit to give one of its op-ed spaces to Mourad Benchellali who writes of Guantanamo Prison in "Detainees in Despair". Says Mr. Benchellali of his fate: In the early summer of 2001, when I was 19, I made the mistake of listening to my older brother and going to Afghanistan on what I thought was a dream vacation. He also tells us: I was seized by the Pakistani Army while having tea at a mosque shortly after I managed to cross the border. A few days later I was delivered to the United States Army: although I didn't know it at the time, I was now labeled an "enemy combatant." It did not matter that I was no one's enemy and had never been on a battlefield, let alone fought or aimed a weapon at anyone. Later he writes: I was eventually released and I will go on trial next month in Paris to face charges that I've never denied, that I spent two months in the Qaeda camp.

Oh, really? Those were the charges? Did the Times' vaunted fact-checkers bother to check or were they too mired in their reactionary world view to investigate. Unfortunately for them, by a strange quirk of fate, Mr. Benchellali and his beloved family - the ones who invited him on his "dream vcation" - were sentenced yesterday in France. From the AP:

The court convicted 24 defendants of criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge used by France to sweep wide in bringing terror suspects to justice. One other was convicted of using false papers.

The Benchellali family was at the center of the case, with Menad's mother, Hafsa, and brother, Hafed, also on trial for roles in the plot to carry out an attack in France.

The network was dismantled in two waves, the first in December 2002 as investigators stormed two houses in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve and the nearby town of Romainville. They found gas canisters, fuses, chemicals and a suit to protect against chemical attacks.

During a second wave of arrests, in January 2004 in Venissieux, in southeast France, investigators found chemical products, including ricin, and definitively broke up the network.

BTW, in his op-ed, Benchellali informs us he is a "quiet Muslim". [big hat tip: Ed Holston who describes the two articles linked here as "res ipsa loquitor" - the thing speaks for itself.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:07 AM
Comments (12)

Al - still boring after all these years

I am one of those who worries about global warming, but I am not a scientist. In fact, many of those who worry about global warming are not scientists. And those scientists who often worry most about global warming are not really scientists either - they are in something called "environmental studies" or the like. (No, I am not going to rehearse the Woody Allen joke abut teaching gym.)

So I am one of those who tend to worry less about global warming when someone like, say, Al Gore tells me I should worry more about it. I want to hear from people who spent their lives in the lab, not people who spent their lives on campaign buses. Today we are hearing a bit more from the former. Apparently quite a number of them don't think much of the views expressed by the ex-veep in his movie. I don't plan on seeing the film. If I want to learn more about global warming I prefer to read scientific essays, rough going though they may be. Here's just one of the scientists:

Appearing before the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson testified, "There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years." Patterson asked the committee, "On the basis of this evidence, how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century's modest warming?"

Patterson concluded his testimony by explaining what his research and "hundreds of other studies" reveal: on all time scales, there is very good correlation between Earth's temperature and natural celestial phenomena such changes in the brightness of the Sun.

Do I know the truth of this? Absolutely not. Does Al Gore? Don't make me laugh. (And, yes, I still think we should conserve energy and look for alternative sources for two reasons - to stop being hostage to the Saudis, etc. and... just in case.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:20 AM
Comments (8)

June 13, 2006

Bad News for Tourists

As one of those who has always wanted to visit Bali and never had the chance, I find the release of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir personally disturbing in an admittedly selfish way. I won't be in a hurry to put that island paradise on my itinerary since the authorities there are... to put it mildly... somewhat ambivalent about terrorim. But it is vastly more disturbing to the good people of Bali themselves who rely on tourism for their livelihood. The freeing of the Islamist cleric after only 26 months is not going to encourage visitors to come back to Indonesia.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:06 PM
Comments (7)

Let's get back to the real (Plame) story

Now that the Big Game (Rove) has been taken off the table in the Beltway Night of the Long Knives, why don't we get back to the real mystery in the Plame Affair - just why did Joseph C. Wilson go to Niger? It doesn't take a rocket scientist - or even a crime writer - to see something fishy in sending the hubby of a hemi-semi-demi-out CIA agent for a week to drink tea in Africa to find out whether someone had been selling yellowcake to Saddam. And it doesn't take that same rocket scientist - or crime writer - to figure that the expected... and wanted... answer was "no." So what's the real crime here? Who sent Wilson and why? And who's the real Mr. Big?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:10 AM
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Iraq the Model in the Wall Street Journal

Congratulations to Pajamas Man (and my friend) Mohammed Fadhil for his article in today's WSJ: A Demon's Demise: Hamas mourns Zarqawi. In Iraq, the sane are celebrating.

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

Killing the Messenger

Claudia writes how Kofi and Company are trying to "pass the buck" for their own criminality on the U. S.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:15 AM
Comments (1)

The Big Lie - Mohammed Al Dura revisted

Only a few days ago, June 9, the Guardian's "reporter" (scare quotes quite deliberate) Chris McGreal began his article from Jerusalem as follows:

A barrage of Israeli artillery shells rained down on a busy Gaza beach yesterday, killing seven Palestinians, three of them children. The attack put further strain on the 16-month truce between Israel and the governing Hamas movement.

Witnesses described several explosions that also injured dozens of other people who lay on the beach, screaming and pleading for help. Some ran into the sea for fear of more shells hitting the sands at Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza strip.Among the dead were three children, aged one, three, and 10. Their sister was swimming and survived.

The beach was packed with picnicking families enjoying the Muslim day of rest, and the explosions landed among them, scattering body parts along the dunes. Television footage showed a woman and a child laying dead on the sand, and another child screaming in agony while a lifeless man was carried away by an ambulance crew.

Associated Press reported that a tearful man held the limp body of what appeared to be a girl or young woman. "Muslims, look at this," he shouted.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called the killings a "bloody massacre" and demanded international intervention.

Nowhere in the Guardian "report" - that includes a highly emotional photo of crying Palestinian children - is there the slightest indication that something other than Israeli artillery caused these deaths. The evidently all-too-eager McGreal swallowed whole earlier "reports" from the Associated Press with virtually no skepticism about suppopsed Israeli atrocities. Even the Israelis were temporarily cowed by this propaganda, as well they might be considering the outrageous bias of the press. Now we learn from CNN:

An explosion on a Gaza beach that killed seven people last week was caused by explosives planted there by Palestinian militants, not artillery fire from an Israeli navy gunboat, Israeli military sources said.

The Israeli investigation concluded that the possibility any of the six artillery shells fired from the gunboat last Friday could have landed on the beach was "almost nil," the sources said.

Ho-hum. Should anybody be surprised? Not really. I don't even think Mr. McGreal is. Surely he is aware of the controversy surrounding the Mohammed Al-Dura case, but apparently he pays such matters scant attention because it does not fit the narrative of his "progressive" publication. (What a comic use of the word progressive.)

Meanwhile, Palestinian rocket attacks have continued on Southern Israel and the Israelis have responded. What would you do if someone was firing rockets into your back yard?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:33 AM
Comments (4)

June 12, 2006

Palestinian Civil War?

Well, close enough:

Hundreds of Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas-led government Monday night, riddling the parliament and Cabinet buildings with bullets and setting them on fire in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen.

The security men shot out the windows of the parliament building before storming the two-building Cabinet complex, where they smashed furniture, destroyed computers and scattered documents. No casualties were reported.

The mob then set fire to one of the Cabinet buildings, gutting the building's fourth floor. When a fire engine approached the scene, one gunman lay on the road in front of it, preventing it from reaching the building.

If you were an Israeli, what would you do? .... Keep building that wall! (duh) UPDATE: According to the AP, Fatah gunmen have kidnapped a Hamas lawmaker. [No scare quotes around lawmaker?-ed. This is a high-toned blog.]

MEANWHILE: The psychopaths continue their idiocy and - according to some reports at least - Tony Blair seems ready to accept Olmert's plan for unilateral borders. Given current conditions, it's hard to imagine it will be otherwise.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:25 PM
Comments (8)

June 11, 2006

Frank D. Wuterich vs. Time Magazine

The Washington Post's Josh White begins his article on Haditha today:

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

"It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines," said Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich in the ongoing investigations into the incident. "He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians."

White goes on to call Wuterich's version "detailed." The sergeant was in the convoy that was hit by the roadside bomb that started the incident.

Reading through Wuterich's account, as written in the Post article, it is clear civilians were killed and, shall we say, rather assertive rules of engagement followed; but is also clear that this was no My Lai Massacre - despite what a fair percentage of the press would have us believe - not even close. These Marines were being fired on from inside a house just after one of them had been killed by an IED. They were acting from deeply within the fog of war, but criminally? I doubt it.

So why the Rush to Judgment on our men? Time Magazine has been blindly milking the situation much in the way Newsweek jumped at the bogus Koran/toilet story that resulted in deaths world wide. And before then there have been numerous instances of the press believing the most propagandistic versions of the truth - perhaps most notoriously the fake Mohammed Al-Dura photo that helped instigate Intifada II. Of course that was promulgated by France 2, not the US press (though hardly ever contradicted by it), but everybody seems to have bought into this supposed act of cruelty without questioning - and it was only a couple of days ago.

So what is the explanation for this knee-jerk anti-military behavior? Is it treason? That I also doubt. No class has more to gain in power and money by the continued success of American society than the men and women in our media. For the most part, they live extraordinarily cushy lives of glamour and comfort without even having to face the electoral judgment that politicians do. No, we are in the realm where psychology (narcissism) meets finance (material advancement). For people to change their minds, to open up to the reality that we are no longer in the world of 1968, takes considerable strength of character, as Neo-neocon has shown us. But it takes even more strength when your check is being paid by multi-millionaire ownership so deeply mired in that world view that not even a lifetime in an Iranian prison could alter it.

UPDATE: Hewitt on Murtha's role.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:56 AM
Comments (24)

June 10, 2006

Mr. Murtha's ambitions

The motivation for the behavior of Congressman John Murtha - leaking information about the actions of Marines in Haditha before the servicemen had a chance to defend themselves or before anyone knows what really happened - has now become painfully obvious.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:27 AM
Comments (7)

June 9, 2006

Zarqawi in his Pajamas

Pajamas Media is continuing its extensive Zarqawi coverage here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:22 AM
Comments (0)

June 8, 2006

A Modest Proposal for Secretary General of the United Nations

I know many are bandying about our ex-president Bill C. for the top spot at the UN when it comes open at the end of the year. And with all those nice-looking translators sashaying around the Economic and Social Council in their sarongs, he does seem a logical choice. But realizing now the United Nations has no real intention of making any serious reforms and having read Kofi Annan's defense of his deputy Malloch Brown, I humbly submit a candidate for Secretary General of the United Nations who would fit in better at Turtle Bay than anyone I could think of, who may be perfect for the job - Jack Abramoff. Now I know Mr. Abramoff has some strikes against him, but perhaps we could get him some diplomatic immunity. And if anyone could finally figure out what happened with Oil-for-Food, it's Jack.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:49 PM
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Hamas HEARTS Zarqawi

From Reuters:

Hamas had distanced itself in the past from violence abroad blamed on al Qaeda, but in a statement faxed to Reuters after Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on Wednesday,it said it mourned the Jordanian-born insurgent as a "martyr of the (Muslim Arab) nation".

"With hearts full of faith, Hamas commends brother-fighter Abu Musab ... who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq," the statement said.

Well, now we now. [Didn't we always?-ed. Yes, we did.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:17 PM
Comments (7)

Zarkawi is dead - goodbye, good riddance, you human nightmare!

Pajamas has a great wrap-up of blog opinion. Already included - a podcast from Baghdad of Omar of Iraq the Model interviewed by our Richard Fernandez (Wretchard)! Do not miss. To be noted: the Iraqi parliament, on hearing the news, immediately filled those three missing cabinet posts. What a day!

AND THIS:

This is a great day for supporters of the War on Terror (really Islamism) but, as everyone knows, a bad day is right around the corner. Still surveying people's reactions to this event is instructive. When the story of these incredible times is finally written (if it ever is), the more distant view will contain many surprises - about who was really liberal and who conservative and what (if anything) those terms have come to mean anyway, about who really cared about the Iraqis and who cared more for themselves and their own advancement or the advancement of their team, about democracy (its uses and, alas, limitations), but finally about whom you can trust in a foxhole. War cannot be pretty and many retreat at the first (or second) sign of blood. Increasingly, we know who they are.

AND ONE OTHER THING: If I were Bin Laden and Zawahiri, I'd be tightening up my already draconian security. One leader being ratted out could start a stampede.

AN EXAMPLE of what I mean about foxholes is here. It's clear that not-so-deep-down Tim Russert doesn't want us to succeed in Iraq. Reason: it wasn't his team that advocated it. How completely pathetic is that!

MORE: I have been watching the White House press conference with Tony Snow and am more convinced than ever that Snow may be Bush's best (and most important) appointment. Snow is superb at handling his media colleagues (suggesting his IQ is a bit higher). Good thing too. Given that the War on Terror exists more than anywhere in the realm of propaganda, the role of the Press Secretary is almost as crucial as the Defense Secretary.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:20 AM
Comments (35)

June 7, 2006

Live in New York... It's the Drudge Report

One of the more dryly funny lines of the year - or at least the week - appears on Drudge today in response to the removal by Paramount Studios of Al Gore's name from the poster and credits of the global warming doc An Inconveninent Truth:

"A rival studio executive claims marketing research showed little audience interest in a movie starring Al Gore."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:09 AM
Comments (6)

California - the Celebrity State

The Republicans are trumpeting the victory of Brian Bilbray over Democrat Francine Busby in the CA-50th and have even arranged a conference call this morning for sympathetic bloggers with RNC chief Ken Mehlman. I don't think it's such a big deal. Bilbray won by only 4.2 percent over Ms. Busby who made an unusually dumb campaign gaffe, implying you didn't have to be a citizen to vote or some such. In these times that should put you in the political Dempsey Dumpster for life, but she still managed to eke out slightly more votes than Kerry in her district, according to the email from the Repubs, who somehow think this is something to brag about. That's party politics, I suppose.

Of course, the LATimes (zzzz....) tilts it in the opposite direction:

The first wave of returns for the special election showed Republican Brian Bilbray holding a single-digit lead over Democrat Francine Busby in what would have been a romp for the GOP candidate in most years.

Still, the big winner in this election was a Republican (of the extra-centrist sort)... LAT nemesis El Arnold who gets Phil "Who?" Angelides for an opponent in November. Now who are the citizens of California going to vote for - The Terminator or a faceless land developer (actually a terminator of another sort, but you know what I mean)? Please, Louise. And yet, eighty million or so is rumored to be spent by each side in the coming general election. Think how many schools or hospitals (or even freeways) that could build. Well, at today's prices, maybe not so many but more than this campaign is going to be worth by a lot.

Another big celebrity winner in this celebrity state was, of course, El Jerry, the only non-actor politician anybody's heard of out here anymore and he used to hang around with actors... or at least singers. But Brown's pillow talk with Ms. Ronstadt evidently did not rub off because La Linda is running around like a typical Tinseltown Bush Basher while Jerry himself has adopted, indeed always had to some extent, politics that are far more quirky and sophisticated than that. As noted in yesterday's post, I voted for him. I hardly voted for anything or anyone else, certainly not either of the Dem gubernatorial possibilities or Senator-for-Life Feinstein. These days term limits are beginning to look more and more attractive to me. If we have to endure all these corrupt, pork spewing hacks, at least we can have new ones every few years.

But speaking of Tinseltown Bush Bashers, one celeb was a big loser in yesterday's election - Rob Reiner whose early childhood education proposition went down. Can't say I'm disappointed. The thought of the politically-ambitious Reiner bloviating even more on the public stage sets my teeth on edge. At least next time he ought to learn a bit more about developmental psychology... oh never mind.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:47 AM
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June 6, 2006

1936 all over again

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is circulating a petition to German chancellor Angela Merkel to "keep the Holocaust-denying president of Iran out of Germany" for the World Cup. I signed, of course.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:29 PM
Comments (6)

Vote early and often - or, in my case, maybe

As a registered Democrat [Still?-ed. What can I say? Old habits die hard.], I have been wondering whether it was worth the effort to vote in the California Democratic Primary today. I favor the rare independent-minded sorts over traditional party hacks, which doesn't leave me with much to support on either side of the aisle. I was going to vote for newcomer Steve Westly - until he actually began running the usual dim-witted attack ads, which don't augur particularly well for his political independence. And his opponent Phil Angelides is one of those dreary pols who should have been term-limited out of everything two decades ago. So I don't have anyone to vote for for governor at this go around.

But I am going to the polls. Something about this guy always amuses me. At least, unlike ninety-percent of professional politicians, he occasionally says something surprising. He makes a zillion mistakes, but, hey, so do I. So I'm going to vote in the Attorney General's race and then go home. It won't take long.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:13 PM
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Vanderleun Interviews Cheney

Our man Gerard interviews Mary Cheney in an exclusive Pajamas Media Podcast and finds out where the Vice-Presiden'ts daughter was on 9/11 - underwater .... literally. Worth a listen.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:39 AM
Comments (1)

Want to see some video much more interesting than Spielberg et al's latest?

Try Pat Dollard - direct from Iraq. Pat explains what he's doing:

Welcome to the only thing sleazier than overbilling lawyers, overprescribing doctors shilling for pharamaceutical companies, greedy coporate executives, and used car salesmen: the American Journalist. Flawed and crooked and self-centered as the rest of us, but riding around on a high horse, pointing out everyone else's sins, but ignoring their own. This is the last great industry-wide scandal left uncovered in America. Because of course, they'd have to cover it themselves. And none of them have the bravery to take their own inventory, to list their own pathologically self-centered faults. They'd rather just go after yours. mine and those who disagree with them politically.

Do not miss this. (Warning: high raunch factor) (ht: Andrew Breitbart)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:50 AM
Comments (1)

June 5, 2006

Haditha - Rush to Judgment?

I don't know what happened in Haditha. How in the world could I?... And how in the world could the hundreds or thousands of columnists who have already written about the supposed killings of Iraqi civilians by Marines? But I do remember the rush to judgment about the supposed massacre in Jenin (for which almost no apologies appeared) and I wonder. With that in mind I would invite all to read this article in the Hawaii Reporter - Haditha: Reasonable Doubt. Who knows?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:03 PM
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What's It All About, Alfie?

Andrew C. McCarthy on The Elephant in the Room (in Toronto) :

Not only were all those arrested Muslims. The reported evidence against them fits to a tee the shopworn pattern of Islamic terrorism repeated for much of the last two decades. Young men were radicalized at the local mosque and its companion school by elders preaching from the Koran. They participated in paramilitary training in rural outposts. The training involved firearms and communications equipment. The plotters may have conducted surveillance on specific targets. And they ordered prodigious amounts of explosives components—in this case, tons of fertilizer in preparation for the construction of crude but deadly effective ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) bombs.

Nonetheless, the rigorous media practice in Phase One is to suppress any reference to Islam, the single thread that runs through virtually all modern terrorism—from New York, to Virginia, to Bali, the Djerba, to Baghdad, to Mombassa, to Tel Aviv, to Nairobi, to Dar es Salaam, to Ankara, to Paris, to Riyadh, to Amman, to Sharm el-Sheikh, to Aden, to London, to Madrid, and, now, to Toronto.

McCarthy explains Phase Two as well - the group hug. Worth a look.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:43 AM
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Barone vs. Beinart

There are political commentators in America today - and then there's Michael Barone. No one sees it more clearly:

The New Republic's Peter Beinart argues that Bush, unlike Truman, has shown no respect for international institutions. But the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were unilateral American initiatives, and Truman used the United Nations to respond in Korea only because the Soviets were then boycotting the Security Council. Otherwise, he would have gone to war, as Bill Clinton did in Kosovo, without U.N. approval. Bush did try to use the United Nations on Iraq, but was blocked by France and Russia, both stuffed with profits from the corrupt U.N. Oil for Food program.

Your turn, Mr. Beinart. (The Barone column is a must-read).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:25 AM
Comments (5)

Gay Marriage (yet again)

The Gay Marriage Amendment is rearing its (to me ugly) head again, trumpeting itself as the "protection" of marriage although anyone who lives in a major American city - even a red state one like Atlanta or Dallas - knows that gay marriage already exists in large measure. We have seen the ceremonies in public parks, churches and synagogues; know couples among our friends and family. We have for most or all of our adult lives. It is also here to stay in some form or other (since it has always been here anyway). But with all that, marriage itself does not appear in any particular jeopardy - at least no more than it always has been.

The other aspect of the "protection" argument - that we are on a slippery slope to all manner of marriage desecration like polygamy - strikes me as seriously disingenuous. All the gay marriages (or civil unions) I know have taken place between two consenting adults. With the exception of a handful of pathetic renegade Mormons, inherently unequal polygamy is not on anybody's immediate dance card, at least outside the Islamic world. So the beef against gay marriage is a stew of subconscious psychological forces that I won't name (because you already know what I think and I don't want to be rude), crass politics and traditional religious values. The latter deserve to be respected, but I would ask those religious people a simple question. This country was founded on a doctrine of toleration allowing oppressed faiths and minorities to live in peace and equality. Why do you not extend the same benevolence to your gay brother and sisters?

(Btw, I am unimpressed with the state rights/federal rights/full faith and credit arguments on this issue. When it comes to marriage in our peripatetic society, we're all in this together, I'm afraid.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:43 AM
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Discreet Charm of the Punditocracy

Eric Umansky sends up a trial ballon today. Why didn't we do with Iran in private what we just did in public - quietly tell the mullahs we would negotiate with them directly (and give them lots of goodies) if they would just abandon nuclear enrichment? It's about "face," you see - those fragile Persian egos.

Well, maybe it is (and a lot of ther things too). But I would ask Eric a simple question - How the Hell does he know we didn't already do that a dozen times? Answer (I can give it for him): he doesn't ... and neither do I, although I imagine the Euros were authorized to say many things on our behalf . Obviously much has been going on behind the scenes we don't know about. We only see the surface and comments like Eric's are largely irrelevant blather. Call it the Discreet Charm of the Punditocracy, Senor Bunuel... I apologize to Eric for picking on him here. We all need to fill space. [So do you. That's why you're bringing this up.-ed. You're right. And it has the luxury of being brief. I have to get to the office.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:03 AM
Comments (1)

June 4, 2006

Don't miss the History News Network Blog

It has many interesting posts, including this one from Dr.Judith Klinghoffer of Rutgers - MSM Helps Iran Cover Up Growing Unrest.

MORE: And speaking of Iran, don't miss this report over on PJ.

ALSO there's this bad news for the Stock Market on Monday. My guess on this is counter-intuitive, however. This propagandistic public oil blather from Khamenei may actually be a signal the Mad Mullahs are about to talk (in private). For a while, anyway. We'll see.

The conventional wisdom is that the Iraq War has failed. Take a step backwards and you will see that from the Mullah's perspective it may actually be the reverse. Iraq has a very fledgling democracy after only three years (a mighty small timeframe to the Mullahs) and, worse yet, the US has a humungous air base minutes from their territory. Failure? (I know - the editorial board of the NYT would be shocked. But they have their own business interests to protect, just as the Mullahs do.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:14 AM
Comments (43)

June 3, 2006

Eight Paragraphs Down

I can't say I'm surprised it took eight paragraphs before the New York Times deigned to tell us what might be behind (have motivated) the arrest of 17 people in Ontario over the last couple of days. In fact it takes them six paragraphs before they even name any names. And of course they hasten first to make sure we know most of these men (not yet identified as Islamists) are "young people," shades of the French linguistic obsession with les jeunes, lest we might think them representative of a hostile ideology. This political bowdlerization is accomplished in paragraph four. Think for a moment how the Times would have constructed an article (has constructed many articles) about the malfeasance of US servicemen. They sure wouldn't bury the lede. They would scream "American failure" at the top of their semi-refined lungs in paragraph one. Oh, well,... why doI even bother? (Even CNN has in their lede that the terrorists were motivated by Al Qaeda ideology.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:30 PM
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Pajamas Media Tracking Toronto

Pajamas Media has a round-up of blog and MSM reaction to the terrorist arrests in Toronto.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:38 AM
Comments (2)

June 2, 2006

Escape from email no more

Those of us who fly frequently cherish that activity as a rare opportunity to escape - even for a few hours - the endless flow of email and instant messages that overwhelm our lives. We even have the chance to do something so exotic as read a book. No longer. The FCC has awarded wireless Internet of the skies to JetBlue. And worse luck, it sounds as if the company working with the carrier will be able to share this "blessing" with all the other airlines.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:40 PM
Comments (2)

Oriana in The New Yorker

I was going to comment on the Margot Talbot interview of Oriana Fallaci in The New Yorker, but Stephen @ Horsefeathers has said amost everything I thought and more. He has done a great job of deconstructing the puerile post-9/11 weltanschauung of the once-great magazine. Everything has shifted. Why not The New Yorker? But I will add this. I detected in the weakness of Talbot's arguments - and maybe this was projection - a distinct subtextual envy of Fallaci. And why not again? Oriana is everything today's New Yorker New Yorker isn't - determined, passionate, moral. Although I have never met her, when Fallaci dies, I will be in mourning.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 PM
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The Disgraceful Behavior of Shock Magazine

Michael Yon is suing the French magazine Shock for stealing his copyrighted photo for the cover of Shock's recent issue comparing Iraq to Vietnam. [Can't they think of something fresher than that?-ed. Evidently not.] This is, of course, nothing less than theft and I hope Yon succeeds in his suit. In fact, I hope this one goes to trial and Shock is put out of business as an example to other publications who would consider stealing someone's intellectual porperty. If I were Shock's owners - HFM, also the owners of American Photo, Boating, Car and Driver, Cycle World, ELLE and Metropolitan Home, among many other reputable publications - I would be very anxious to disassociate myself from these thugs at Shock. And as as a former president of the West Coast branch of PEN, I call upon the international writers' organization to support Yon in his suit. It affects us all.

UPDATE: HFM also owns Hachette Photos. In this case, sauce for the goose is obviously not sauce for the gander.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:44 AM
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New Blog Week in Review up

We're deliberately rotating the panelists on our weekly review podcast over at PJM. We'll try to have a new one every week or two. This week it's Amy Alkon, who is definitely amusing.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:21 AM
Comments (2)

June 1, 2006

Mr. Hastert, sit down

Back in the early eighties when I was working at Universal Studios, Ned Tanen, then head of production, used to tell the writers and directors on the lot regarding their work: "If one person tells you you're drunk, ignore him. If six people tell you you're drunk, sit down." Evidently a rather large percentage of Americans (86!) are telling Hastert and his Congressional cronies to "sit down" on the "Separation of Powers" issue and allow the FBI to get on with the business of investigating criminality in the House.

Some defenders of Hastert, et al, have asserted that we critics "don't understand" the "Separation of Powers." Oh, really? The US Constitution is a complex and remarkable document, but it is not Einstein's "unifed field theory" or the like and nowhere near as difficult to understand (and those hiding behind it at the moment are, I think it is safe to say, "no Einsteins"). We do get the principle of separation, its use - and misuse. We also get that the Constitution is a document written in 1789 when there were slaves in the country and women couldn't vote. Regarding it as holy writ is reactionary, just as running rough shod over its ideas is foolhardy and destructive.

But speaking of foolhardy, in the Abramoff Era [But it's always been the Abramoff Era.-ed. Yes it has - and that's the point], public disgust with elected officials is growing. And in this era of the Internet, we are watching more than ever. Public corruption cannot stand.

One other thing: I watched a smattering of Constitutional lawyers attacking the FBI in front of the House Judiciary Committee. One of them was the ubiquitous Jonathan Turley. He put me in mind of one of Woody Allen's better recent film jokes. In a mock contemporary version of Dante's Inferno, Woody consigns to one of the lowest rungs "lawyers who appear on television" .

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:42 AM
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