EVOLUTION IN REVERSE

(via LGF) Just stop to think about this for a moment.

When he fell to the ground, the gunman shot him twice more with a pistol while shouting “God is Greatest.”

I consider this to be evidence that the 'god' they refer to doesn't exist.

And I'd pay good money to be able to travel to Iraq and piss on his grave someday.

Update: indeed.

HEH

Congrats.

FUDGE OFF, FRENCHIE

The french are fargin' iceholes.

"It looks like France is blocking an alliance consensus," said one diplomat at the 26-nation alliance's headquarters.

"There are 20-plus countries in favor of beginning the training mission inside Iraq next week, two or three are undecided — and there's one country blocking, that's France."

Diplomats said Paris is determined not to hand President Bush a show of international support for his Iraq policy before the Republican Party's pre-election convention, which opens at the end of August.

EXACTLY

(via Instapundit) Saying it like it is:

There is a school of thought that argues that by the time the United Nations Security Council applies its attention to a crisis anywhere in the world, that crisis will already be out of hand, or the moment to intervene effectively will have passed. That is an argument that is particularly apposite in relation to what is going on in Darfur. The same school of thought also contends that when the UN does finally accept that something must be done, it will do the wrong thing, and do it so slowly that it merely compounds an already hopeless situation. And here we have Darfur again. Given the opportunity to act firmly and decisively, for once to present a united front to face down an aggressor and to protect those who cannot defend themselves, the UN has chosen the path of least resistance. It has shied away from using its power for good in favour of mealy-mouthed attitudes and toothless threats of some future, ill-defined, approbation.

GET A ROOM

Fejeebus Christ. It's been over two months and the BBC still pumps out new stories on Fahrenheit 9/11 and Michael Moore at regular intervals so there's always atleast one story in the Entertainment section.

Here's some statistics:

"Michael Moore" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 856
"John Edwards" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 720
"Al Sharpton" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 647
"Howard Dean" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 613
"Dennis Kucinich" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 576
"Joe Lieberman" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 527
"Wesley Clark" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 502
"Dick Gephardt" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 290
"Bob Graham" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 226
"Carol Moseley Braun" count on news.bbc.co.uk: 76

EGADS, HE'S BACK!

Hide your women and your sheep! A certain individual (nudge-nudge) has returned!

HEY, JIMMY CARTER!

(via RNS) Fuck you.

CARTER: Absolutely. We've had such a confused foreign policy with demands on other nations. We've alienated almost everyone who offered their support after 9/11, and now we have just a handful of little tiny countries supposedly helping us in Iraq. We need to marginally combine the effort of major allies and minor countries as well in combating terrorism around the world.

LIKE WTF

First Iraq, now Sudan. How on Earth can anyone criticize the US for exactly the things that France, Russia and China are doing unbelievably blatantly? What the hell is going on? Has the whole world gone mad?

A VOICE FROM IRAQ

Read.

Can you answer the question what will be the response of Iraqis towards these horrible attacks? I’ll help you; These victims came to volunteer to serve their country as IP members and this is not the 1st time this happens and the response of Iraqis to such attacks was always more volunteers and longer lines. What does that tell you Philippine and Spanish government? If this is bravery and wisdom, then how should your actions be labeled? Maybe it’s not your business? That would’ve been a more honest answer had you said it, but you’re not just cowards or stupid, you’re also hypocrites. This include all the "anti-war" crowd with all the clowns there such as Michael Moore and George Galloway and their likes. You make me SICK when you support the "Iraqi resistance" and call these killers a revolutionists. Did you watch your "resistance" today? This is what you support and this is how history will view you; supporters of murderers and criminals, and for what? Fame and money! Enjoy it. It won’t last, as the truth will soon be revealed and you'll be exposed to all as the disgusting parasites you are.

PURE GENIUS

How the hell does he come up with stuff like this?

President George Bush today threatened to destroy the Democrat party with "endless waves of exploding Republican martyrs in order to cleanse the earth of the poisonous evil of liberalism."

The statement from the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign confirmed what Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, told delegates last night at the Democrat convention in Boston: "The only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush."

"There is no greater terrorist in this world," said Mr. Kennedy, "than the fundamentalist religious zealot who has hijacked the White House and would welcome even death if it resulted in the obliteration of our Democrat way of life."

The senior senator from Massachusetts said the Bush threat should make Democrats ponder the question, "Why do they hate us?"

"If we retaliate against George Bush, we'll only help his recruiting," said Mr. Kennedy. "But if we, with the United Nations, begin to give the GOP everything it wants, its members will stop being angry at us and the threat will cease."

LILEKS

James Lileks:

As Teddy Kennedy said in his convention speech: “The only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush.” It’s really quite simple, isn’t it? We live in a manufactured climate of fear ginned up by war-crazed neocon overlords. There is no threat. The only thing we have to fear is Bush, who sits as we speak in the Oval Office sucking the marrow from Whoopi’s shin-bones.

If so, I wonder why anyone agreed to the stringent security policies that characterize this year’s conventions. Why the bomb-sniffing dogs? Why the snipers? Why the metal detectors, the invasive inspection of bags? Is it all an elaborate defense against Bush crashing the party and setting off a bomb belt, shouting God is Great, y’all!

No, they’re fearful of something else.

Damned if I know what, though. Damned if I know.

BLEH

I've removed Andrew Sullivan from my blogroll. It's been almost painful to see him squirm the last few months. He made his mind up about voting for Kerry a long time ago and has been trying desperately to justify it as being a war-related decision.

Look, I don't know what it's like to be a gay man in America. If Bush's anti-gay attitude is important enough to you to make him lose your vote, so be it. I can respect that. But don't try to make it about something else.

Some criticism of Bush in conducting the War On Terror is justified, but there is absolutely nothing to suggest that Kerry would be an improvement. Nothing.

There is however ample evidence to suggest that Kerry would be an awful president (which even some democrats seem to be noticing). How Andrew can ignore this and hail Kerry as an improvement on Bush is beyond me.

If Andrew said he's not going to vote at all this election, I'd have alot more respect for him.

Update: not that I think Kerry has a shot at winning. I still don't.

Update: Andrew seems to think that if Kerry starts saying the right things starting tomorrow, that'll mean he's magically metamorphosized into president material. Does that make the last year go away? How could you honestly take another flip-flop from Kerry at face value? Kerry turns whichever way the wind is blowing, and Andrew is standing around, champagne in hand, waiting for the moment when Kerry turns the right way. But what happens when the wind changes direction again?

Andrew doesn't hesitate to criticize Bush for his 3 years in office, but he acts as if Kerry just magically appeared two days ago, and hasn't been blundering around for a year already.

Update: I just noticed that this post is almost a replica of a post from April. That's how long Andrew's been hoping Kerry would stop being Kerry.

Update: bwahahahahaha: Edwards salutes 'decisive' Kerry

Update via Silent Running: John Kerry's positions on the war. All of them.

A SHOCKING DISCOVERY

Spammers Sending Messages From the Future!

Also: MacGyver Foils Airport Security!

EXCUSE ME

Maybe I've asked this before, but refresh my memory: what makes people think Hillary is a sure-in for whenever she hypothetically would run for president?

SAY WHAT?

A one hour delay, a bench-clearing brawl, 5 ejections, a 6th inning lasting 67 minutes, and a blown save by Mariano Rivera on a come from behind, walk-off home run for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 9th.

MORE OF THE SAME

(via Instapundit) Here's a count of the stories on the Wilson affair. The first being the BUSH LIED!!! stories based on Wilson's 'intelligence-gathering' trip to Niger. The second is stories on the fact that Wilson turned out to be a lying hack.

TODAY, I'M ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY

In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

PATRIOT ACT

Hm. Well. I can't decide what cliche to use here.

CAN YOU SAY "BIAS"?

Sure you can.

HMM

(via Baltic Blog) Bjørn Stærk just visited Estonia, and has a post about it up at his blog. One thing caught my eye:

It's a funny word, occupation. Estonians mark their independence from 1920, when their war of independence against the Soviet Union ended, and consider their time under Russian rule since WW2 just a very long occupation. So in their view, Estonian has been independent for 84 years, much the same as Norway will have been independent for a century next year, despite the Nazi occupation. Which of course is entirely rational from a nationalist point of view, but I hadn't thought of it like that before. So easy to forget that the Soviet Union and the East Bloc was just another Russian empire.

BIAS

Orson Scott Card.

DUMB YANKS

This is almost as confusing as the metric system.

As confusing as the metric system?

Ehum. Metric:

1km = 1000m
1m = 100cm
1cm = 10mm

1t = 1000kg
1kg = 1000g

0° = water freezes
100° = water boils

1 mile = 1760 yards
1 yard = 3 feet
1 foot = 12 inches

1 pound = 16 ounces
1 stone = 14 pounds
1 ton = 2000 pounds

32° = water freezes
212° = water boils

Everything divides/multiplies by 10. You know how to use this system. You use it with currency. If you are confused about the metric system, how do you manage to convert between cents and dollars?

Dumbass.

REUTERS

(via LGF) Read about Reuters and spin.

ENVIRONMENT STUFF

Since I started reading blogs, I have been educated on a variety of subjects, and have been persuaded to change my mind by the new facts and opinions I read. But one theme that has consistently been handled poorly is the environment.

Yes, I have discovered the idiocy of the Kyoto Protocol. I have found out how dishonestly the "eco-warriors" spread their message and how they ignore any science that questions their message of impending doom.

But sometimes you run across some really stupid statements:

In common with every other 'opinion former', the author draws on what he regards as an unarguably correct and obvious equation: if some species of fish are dying out it can only be because we greedy, selfish humans are eating too many of them. Not once does it seem to occur to the author that if that equation were true then we surely would have chomped cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens into extinction long ago.

How can you compare fish to cattle and domesticated animals that we are basically mass-producing in controlled environments? If David has any other explanation to give for the decline in fish stocks, please do so. Oh wait:

Apart from some nationalised coastal waters, fishermen are pretty much at liberty to trawl for as much fish as they can lay their hands on anywhere they please, anyhow they please and as often as they like. There is simply nothing to stop them.

One other thing that gets my goat. People saying global warming isn't happening just because somewhere it was a cold summer that year. Or that the theory that Europe's climate could get colder if the oceanic conveyer-belt stopped (that is still a fairly strong scientific theory, no matter how horribly The Day After Tomorrow mangled it) cannot possibly be because of global warming, because how can it get colder if it's global warming, duh.

Note that I'm not attributing any cause to global warming, just saying that it's happening.