September 03, 2004
1984
ESPN's Bill Simmons says it was the greatest year ever. (Well, the greatest year of the past 25 years, anyway.) He makes a pretty good case.
Carnage in Russia
AP says 150 people may be dead:
Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding hundreds of hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. Ninety-five bodies have been identified, but one official said the death toll could far exceed 150.
The hostage-takers, who had been been demanding independence for Chechnya, fled the assault, took refuge in a nearby house and a basement in the school compound and traded fire with security forces. After about 12 hours, the Russian government said resistance had ended, though four others were still being sought. Twenty militants were killed, including 10 Arabs, officials said.
[...]
Officials at the crisis headquarters said 95 victims have been identified so far, and Valery Andreyev, the regional Federal Security Service chief, said 556 people were hospitalized, including 332 children. Emergency Situations Ministry officials put the number of hospitalized at 646 - 227 of them children.
Officials said security forces had not planned to assault the school, where the militants had been holding hostages - up to 1,500 of them, according to one freed captive - in the gymnasium since Wednesday morning. But the troops' hand was forced when the militants set off explosions and began shooting Friday afternoon, officials said.
I've read a lot these past few days about how the Chechens have been forced into terrorist attacks by Russia's scorched-earth policy in Chechnya. Chechens aren't Arabs. If there were ten Arabs among the "militants", how were they provoked into this?
Clinton admitted to hospital
Bill Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery:
Former President Bill Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath, his office said Friday.
Clinton, 58, was being admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital, a statement said. He had seen a doctor first on Thursday, and additional tests Friday revealed the need for the surgery, it said.
A source confirmed that Clinton was admitted after encountering a blockage in his arteries.
A family friend close to the former president told FOX News that Clinton experienced chest pains a few days ago while at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., and was taken to a local hospital.
The sources said that Clinton had angioplasty done in the last day or two, but the results showed the problem was more serious than first anticipated.
My feelings about the man and his Presidency are mixed, but I sincerely hope he comes out of this okay.
We're back
Well, more accurately, I'm back. There was some technical problems with the site earlier today (after it was moved to a new server), but hopefully everything will be fine now.
While this blog was out of commission, I wrote some new posts on the Russian hostage situation at The Shotgun. If a suspiciously long time passes without any new material on this site, that's the best place to look for me.
September 02, 2004
Three cheers for Kilgour, none for the Arab League
I don't praise Liberal backbenchers very often, especially not Liberal backbenchers who used to be Tories. But I salute Edmonton MP David Kilgour for chiding his government's mealy-mouthed response to the Darfur crisis:
A Liberal backbencher has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin accusing the federal government of responding to genocide in Sudan with nothing but humanitarian aid.
David Kilgour, a former cabinet minister who once handled Asia-Pacific, Latin America and African issues for the Liberal government, is comparing Africa's latest bloody civil war in Sudan's Darfur region to the genocide in Rwanda of a decade earlier.
"Ten years ago, Canada, along with the United Nations Security Council and dozens of other countries, shamefully apologized for allowing one million Rwandans to die under our watch and we promised not to do it again — but isn't that what we've done so far?" wrote Kilgour, an Edmonton MP and one of only two Liberals elected in Alberta.
"Has humanitarian aid become Canada and the UN's response to genocide?"
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said the UN Security Council is getting a report on the Sudanese situation on Thursday.
"We certainly share everyone's concern with the grave humanitarian crisis in Sudan," said Sebastien Theberge.
While Canada, the United States and Europe dither and stall while black Muslims are killed by the thousands, the Arab world has sprung into action:
Last week UPI reported that the Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had told journalists in Cairo that his government possessed "information that confirms media reports of Israeli support (for the rebels in Darfur)." He added that he was "sure the next few days will reveal a lot of Israeli contacts with the rebels."
[...]
On July 29 Egypt's government newspaper, Al-Ahram, published an article entitled "The Key to the American Voting Booths Is in Darfur: The Plot which Is Called Oil." An English translation of the article can be found on the Middle East Media Research Institute's Web site at www.memri.org.
Al-Ahram is probably the most important newspaper in the most important and populous Arab country. The article is typical for the kind of hatred and paranoia that pervades much of the wider Arab Muslim world. Given the tight control the Egyptian state has over the media in general and Al-Ahram in particular, the paper's views must also be seen as reflecting the views of the country's ruling elite. "Bush is awaiting his fate in November and the U.S. is planning to make Darfur an easy path towards its major plan to transport the (Persian) Gulf Oil and the African oil to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, so that Washington can meet its needs in the next decade," the article said.
[...]
So last Sunday, foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League rejected "any threats of coercive military intervention in the region or imposing any sanctions on Sudan."
Darfur is not just a humanitarian disaster. Darfur shows once again, and more tragically than ever, that the Arab-Islamic world is a hostage of its own delusions and will not lift a finger to prevent the deaths of countless fellow Muslims.
Deja Vu
Yesterday, when news of the Russian school standoff broke, I wrote that to the best of my knowledge, even the Palestinians had never taken a school hostage.
I should have known better. The PFLP took over a school in Ma'alot, Israel, in 1975 - with tragic results.
The GOP is an inclusive party
Or this guy didn't put a lot of thought into the wording of his T-shirt. Your call.
Update: it's actually a gay Republican blogger, Boi From Troy.
HAIL ANTS
SETI researchers say they've picked up a mysterious radio signal which might - might - be evidence of extraterrestrial activity:
A radio signal picked up by a search for extraterrestrial intelligence marks the best candidate yet for "first contact" by aliens.
The signal was traced to a point between the constellations Pisces and Aires, according to New Scientist.
Astronomers who have been scanning the universe for years seeking contact with intelligent life said it stood out as being "unusual".
The signal has been observed for only about a minute, not long enough to allow astronomers to analyse it in detail.
It is unlikely to be the result of any obvious radio interference or noise, and does not bear the hallmark of any known astronomical object.
Although it is the best candidate yet for contact with an alien life form, the astronomers say that it may turn out to be an unknown astronomical phenomenon, or simply a blemish produced by the telescope.
I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords, and as a promient blogger I'd be willing to use my influence to help them find humans to toil in their sugar caves.
Update: the researchers are now saying there's nothing special about their discovery. Well, that's what they'd want you to think, isn't it?
In the meantime, this blogger would like to reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human Prime Minister. It may not be perfect, but it's still the best government we have. For now.
It's all the same war
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, in Newsweek, note the links between the Chechen "rebels" and Al-Qaida:
The new series of attacks—including the seizure of a school today by a team of more than a dozen suicide-belt-wearing terrorists near the Chechen border—also raises fresh questions about a relationship that for years has gotten little attention from U.S. intelligence officials: the links between Chechen militants and the broader international movement spearheaded by Al Qaeda.
Indeed, a close reading of the recent report by the September 11 commission reveals 27 different references to connections between Al Qaeda and the Chechen rebels. The Chechen conflict was such an important cause to Islamic militants throughout the Middle East and Western Europe during the 1990s that, according to the commission’s report, many of the 9/11 hijackers themselves originally intended to fight in Chechnya before migrating to Afghanistan.
[...]
But the larger question about links between Chechen rebels and the international jihadi movement is more troubling. There has been a history of such contacts going back more than a decade. Indeed, according to the September 11 commission report, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed—the mastermind of the terror attacks in New York and Washington—himself sought to join forces with the Chechen rebel leader known as Khattab. The report also states that, among other leaders of the attacks in the United States, Mohammed Atta, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah had all sought to enlist in the Chechen cause in 1999—and only ended up in Afghanistan because of a chance meeting with another jihadi on a train in Germany. There is also little doubt that Osama bin Laden used the Chechen cause—and the fierce Russian counterattacks to suppress it—to enlist new recruits. After the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000, the report states, bin Laden ordered his media committee to prepare a propaganda video that reenacted the attack on the Cole laced with images of Muslim suffering in Chechnya, Kashmir, Indonesia and among Palestinians.
U.S. intelligence officials say that so far there is little evidence to suggest that Al Qaeda’s central command is directly involved in the current wave of attacks inside Russia. But as with so much in the murky world of international terror, nobody is ruling anything out.
During the Cold War, the United States and its allies had little choice but to team up with and support some pretty vile regimes in the fight against Soviet totalitarianism. In the new war against Islamofascism, the West may have to hold its nose and fight alongside Putin's Russia.
The Russian government is bad. An Islamist regime in Chechnya would be catastrophic.
Quote of the Day
"Ask people about God nowadays and they usually reply, 'I'm not religious, but deep down, I'm a very spiritual person.' What this phrase really means is: 'I'm afraid of dying, but I can't be arsed going to church.'"
- via Stephen Pollard
Pray for the children
The Russian school hostage crisis continues. A Russian interior ministry official says the terrorists have threatened to kill 50 children for every Chechen fighter killed.
I've been worried about the Russian government's increasingly authoritarian tendencies for quite some time, and some of their actions in Chechnya have been absolutely brutal. Neither side in this dispute has clean hands. But it's also increasingly clear that the Chechen cause has been co-opted by militant Islamists - and God only knows what kind of society they'd create in Chechnya should the Russians abandon it.
Update: AP reports that two explosions have come from the vicinity of the school.
September 01, 2004
How to criticize American foreign policy
This handy guide covers pretty much every situation. Michael Moore and Ted Rall probably have copies taped up next to their computers.
A few small changes
1. I've given up on Hotmail (though I still use MSN messenger quite a bit, so I'll still be checking the account) and gotten one of them fancy-pants Gmail accounts. The new e-mail address is damianpennyNOSPAM -at- gmail.com.
2. I replaced the Bravenet counter with one from Site Meter, which will hopefully take care of the annoying pop-up ads which have infested the site lately. (Mind you, I'm resigned to the fact that Site Meter may come with its own ads.)
3. I've updated the blogroll, changing the URLs for some sites and de-linking some blogs which appear to have gone dormant. If I deleted your site but you haven't given up on it, let me know.
The IOC: ignorant, or something much worse?
Just days after Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was quoted making insanely, blatantly antisemitic statements in Ha'aretz, the International Olympic Committee responded by...giving him an award:
At the proposal of its Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, the IOC has awarded the Olympiart prize to Mikis Theodorakis. This Prize was established in 1992 to recognise artists who contribute through their work to the promotion of sport, young people and peace. It was presented at the close of the 116th IOC Session in Athens.
[...]
In his tribute, the Chairman of the Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, Zhenliang He, presented Mikis Theodorakis as a man who symbolises the spirit of the country of origin of the Olympic Games, as a man of peace who has never ceased to fight for freedom, and as a man of culture who has brought Greek music to the stage of the entire world for four decades.
It's all happening again.
Update: I forgot to give credit to Harry's Place, rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs, for finding this one.
Alan Keyes is not making sense
America's most insane politician not named Lyndon or Cynthia is now going after Dick Cheney's daughter. (The Republicans must be wishing they'd gotten Alicia Keys to run against Obama.)
Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, said Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a "selfish hedonist" because she is a lesbian.
His comments came during an interview with SIRIUS satellite radio.
Keyes said: "The essence of ... family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism."
Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."
If Keyes had a chance at actually winning an election, I'd be scared. Fortunately, in the real world, I can just laugh at him.
Not the hair!
I'm sorry, but if you're not willing to get your head shaved for a chance at winning a million bucks, you should really be on Temptation Island instead, okay?
Red Rooney
Newcastle tried to get him, but he's signed with Man U. (Graffiti spotted in Liverpool: "Rooney could have been a God, but he chose to be a Devil.")
This season, it's starting to look like Newcastle sold their souls to Satan to avoid relegation a few years ago, and now he's come back to collect.
Another Russian nightmare
Just a week after blowing up two Russian airliners, and a day after a suicide bombing in downtown Moscow, Chechen fighters have attacked a school and taken about 400 people - half of them children - as hostages:
Around 400 people, including 200 children are being held hostage in a sourthern Russian town bordering Chechnya after attackers, some wearing suicide-bomb belts, seized an elementary school Wednesday.
The attackers traded gunfire with police after the seizure of the school in Beslan in the North Ossetia. Three teachers and two police officers were wounded, a police spokesman said.
The hostage-takers, who drove up in a covered army transport truck, have warned they would blow up the school if police storm in. They have demanded talks with regional officials but their demands are not known. It is also not known who the assailants are.
There are reports that 50 children may have escaped.
The attack came after a ceremony to mark the start of classes on the first day of the Russian school year.
There are 17 attackers, male and female, according to the Interfax news agency, citing a spokesman for the Federal Security Service.
I don't think there's much doubt about what cause the hostage-takers are supporting. Recent days have seen a serious escalation in the Chechens' tactics, and as far as I know, even the Palestinians - though they've killed many children in cold blood - have never taken a childrens' school hostage.
It seems like the Chechens are determined to squander whatever legitimacy their cause once had - but then again, it seems like the Palestinians have gained support by using "desperate" tactics, and that may be what they're banking on.
Revenge of the Nerds
Don't make Al Franken angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.
August 31, 2004
Protest Warrior goes too far
I've always been a big fan of ProtestWarrior.com, and I know some of their counter-protest signs are deliberately provocative, not that it would take much to provoke the "Bush is Hitler!!!" crowd. But this one really crosses the line.
(via Matt Welch)
Update: people say I misunderstood the sign, and that like the other Protest Warrior signs, it's a parody of leftist thought. Maybe, but their design makes it unclear. Never mind the ANSWER crowd - I'm thinking this is the sort of thing the New York Times would pray for, to show that the Protest Warriors, like all conservatives, are eeeevil bigots.
Brave Sir Michael ran away
Michael Moore has made an entire career out of embarassing people in public, and his ideological allies are doing their best to harass (and, in some cases, attack) any RNC delegate who would dare to show his or her face in New York this week.
Last night, John McCain threw it all back in Moore's face, and now the brave, fearless filmmaker has taken his ball and sulked all the way home:
Following all the commotion last night, Michael Moore will not be returning to Madison Square Garden for the Republican National Convention, E&P; has learned. According to editors at USA Today, which is publishing his daily column this week, Moore told them that he was choosing not to return again.
However, they said he would continue to write his daily column and they stressed that in no way did they second-guess their decision to have him write the commentary.
[...]
After entering the Garden Monday night with USA Today credentials, Moore was criticized by Sen. John McCain in his speech, setting off prolonged boos and taunts in the arena.
"We had hoped we would be able to put Moore in place where he could actually listen to speeches and not disrupt anything," Ken Paulson, USA Today editor, told E&P; today. "The idea was not to put him in the line of sight while giving him the opportunity to observe. Now Moore doesn't plan to return to the convention. I think he saw the down side of his attending. We will have the four days of his column and I hope people will take time to read what he wrote.
It's going to be interesting, seeing Michael Moore try to cover the convention without, you know, actually attending the convention. Of course, chances are he's just makin' shit up anyway, so does it really matter?
My visit to Disco Hell
[originally posted to Blogcritics.org]
You think you're brave because you've seen movies which have won the Golden Raspberry Award for worst film? Feh. I just sat through the film which inspired the Golden Raspberry Awards, after their founder saw it on a double bill with Xanadu.
Can't Stop the Music, a megabudget disco musical starring the Village People, is one of the worst-timed movies of all time. (Only Space Camp, in production when the Challenger went down, comes close.) Had it come out in 1978, it might have been a hit. It came out in 1980, and ended the careers of nearly everyone involved.
Of course, even if the film had been released when the Village People were still popular, this movie might have flopped anyway. It's not bad in the normal Joel Schumacher sense, but bad in an alternate-universe kind of way, as though it was produced on another planet where hamburgers eat humans and people wear their underwear on their heads. It's just wrong - so wrong that it's strangely fascinating and even entertaining, albeit in ways the producers never planned.
The plot is a fictionalized version of how the Village People became successful: Steve Guttenberg (yes, that Steve Guttenberg) quits his job at a record store, roller-skates down New York's busiest streets without getting his ass kicked, and gets his ex-supermodel roommate (Valerie Perrine) to use her record-company connections to put together a singing group to showcase his disco compositions. There's also an uptight record-company lawyer (Bruce Jenner - yes, the same Bruce Jenner who won a decathlon gold medal at the Montreal Olympics), introduced in one of the most awkward meet-cutes in cinematic history, who becomes Perrine's love interest. And Valerie Perrine's best friend, a dead ringer for Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. (Poor thing.)
The movie needs 123 minutes to tell this story, as you might expect when it's directed by a sitcom actress (Nancy Walker, from Rhoda) who had never directed a movie before. Along the way, we get some of the most poorly choreographed musical numbers ever filmed, lots of feeble slapstick and in-jokes about the recording industry, and plenty of scenes where the actors obviously blew their lines or dance moves, but no one could be bothered to shoot a second take. (Check out the construction worker's big number, in which one of his backup dancers knocks his hard hat over his eyes. You can tell it was unintentional, but they kept it anyway.)
And, of course, there are gay references. Lots and lots of gay references. People were more innocent in 1980, darn it, so they couldn't come out and say the Village People swung that way, but the subtext isn't exactly hard to figure out - especially during the infamous "YMCA" dance number, which shows naked men lathering each other down in the shower. (The Internet Movie Database says Bruce Vilanch wrote the first draft of the script, but he probably left the project because it was "too gay" for him.)
There are a lot of non-actors in the film, but their performances really aren't much worse than those of their "professional" co-stars. The Village Persons' performances range from competent (the cowboy) to hopeless (the Indian), but they have so little dialogue that it almost doesn't matter. Bruce Jenner, with his goofy, bug-eyed appearance, might have had a future in comedies had he chosen a better debut role. Perrine, on the other hand, looks embarassed, and all I can say for Guttenberg is that he had to make 5 Police Academy movies to regain his dignity after this one.
It's all bad. Real bad. So bad that I have genuine affection for the thing. Anyone can make a bad film, but it takes a kind of genius to make something like this. I didn't so much watch the movie as stare at it in (literally) slack-jawed amazement, but I was never bored.
Can't Stop the Music, available on DVD with fully remastered video and sound (but only a few extras, including a trailer and a candid text biography of the Village People), came out in 1980, but it's a 1970s project at its very core. There's no other decade in which anyone could have thought something like this was a good idea, and watching it will tell you more about the era than the most well-researched scholarly dissertation.
People say movies have gotten worse since the seventies, but I prefer to think they've just gotten more mediocre. Some classics of the era would probably never be made in 2004, but neither would something like Can't Stop the Music.
At least, I hope not. I haven't seen From Justin to Kelly yet.
Keep building
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Israeli buses today, killing at least 12 people:
Two buses exploded almost simultaneously in southern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 44, rescue officials said. It was the first major Palestinian attack inside Israel in nearly six months.
Israel's Channel Two television said the blasts were carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers, and a Palestinian group later claimed responsibility. TV reports said two mangled bodies were found - presumably those of the bombers.
The twin bus blasts came hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented to his Likud party the most detailed timetable yet for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and warned party rebels the plan "will be implemented, period."
The buses burst into flames in the centre of Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, some 40 kilometres west of Gaza City.
The security barrier has not been built in this part of Israel yet. But you know that after a token condemnation of this attack, people are going to say this "proves" the fence isn't working.
I say, keep building it. Faster. And let the world know it ain't coming down until the Palestinians stop this madness.
Rough life
Jay Leno just bought a Mercedes-Benz SLR, Ford GT and Porsche Carrera GT. At the same time.
I remain a die-hard Letterman fan (actually, I like Conan the best, but I'm talking about the 1AM-in-Newfoundland time slot here), but you have to love a guy who refused to buy a Ferrari Enzo because he doesn't like the F1-style paddle shifter. There's no substitute for a real manual. (So sayeth the blogger who drives a Mazda Protege with an automatic transmission.)
So if a wealthy, eccentric reader liked my site so much he offered to buy me one of these three cars, which would I choose? The Ford GT is really tempting, but I think I'd take the Merc. It seems like one of the few supercars which you can feasibly drive to work everyday - and, more importantly, which might survive Newfoundland roads.
But don't get me wrong: I'll take any one of them. (Or even a Subaru WRX, if you're a cheapskate.)
Nice folks
The ProtestWarrior.com guys showed up at the big "peace" march in NYC on Sunday, when they were assailed by a mob of tolerant, non-violent anarchists. Video here.
August 30, 2004
France's nightmare
Two French journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq, and their captors are threatening to kill them if France doesn't revoke its ban on the hijab in public schools:
TWO French journalists held hostage by militants in Iraq today said a French ban on Islamic headscarves in schools would cost them their lives.
The pair were shown in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera television urging the French Government to revoke the ban.
Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, of Le Figaro, also called on the French people to demonstrate against the ban on wearing the headscarves in state schools.
"I call on President (Jacques) Chirac and the French Government to show good will toward the Arab and Islamic worlds by revoking the ban on wearing the hijab immediately," said Mr Chesnot, speaking in English.
"I also urge all French citizens to demonstrate against this law and demand its annulment because it is unfair and wrong.
[...]
Al-Jazeera aired the video less than two hours after the expiry of a deadline set by the kidnappers, but reported that the captors were giving Paris another 24 hours.
The kidnap group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, has previously captured and killed an Italian journalist.
When it was introduced, I thought the headscarf ban was an injustifable infringement on religious freedom. It shouldn't have been introduced in the first place. But France will pay dearly if it's revoked now.
The French pointedly refused to support the Iraq war, and as a group, French journalists have not been particularly supportive of the U.S. occupation, to say the least. But Islamofascists have a way of finding something to get angry about.
Update: the BBC says the French are "baffled" about why their citizens have been kidnapped, since they opposed the war.
The Man comes down on NaziMedia
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the posting of RNC delegates' names and personal information on indymedia.org:
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and is demanding records regarding Internet postings by critics of the Bush administration that list the names of Republican delegates and urge protesters to give them an unwelcome reception in New York City.
Federal prosecutors said in a grand jury subpoena that the information was needed as part of an investigation into possible voter intimidation. Protesters and civil rights advocates argued that the Web postings were legitimate political dissent, not threats or intimidation.
[...]
The Indy Media site is run by the NYC Independent Media Center, which describes itself as a grass-roots group committed to using media tools "for promoting social and economic justice in the New York City area." The site includes several lists containing the names of many delegates to the Republican convention, along with e-mail addresses, phone numbers and the hotels where some were expected to stay, as well as links to a site called rncdelegates.com. Most of the lists were posted anonymously or by demonstrators calling themselves the RNC Delegates Working Group. One list includes more than 2,200 delegates, or nearly half the expected total. In publicizing the information, organizers said in a posting that they were trying to supply groups opposed to the Republican National Committee "with data on the delegates to use in whatever way they see fit."
"The delegates should know not only what people think of the platform that they will ratify, but that they are not welcome in New York City," organizers said in a posting.
"This upcoming mobilization in New York is not about the delegates, it's about who and what is going to be affected by the Republican Party platform that these delegates will proudly put their name to and will ratify," the message continued. "It goes beyond that, as we raise our voices and fists and proclaim that this rotten system of capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination must be swept away.''
The site doesn't actually say its supporters should harass and attack convention delegates, but something tells me your average NaziMidiot isn't going to invite them out for pizza.
The ACLU opposes the investigation, and I was going to write something snarky about how they'd have no problem with prosecuting anti-abortion activists who post the names and addresses of abortion doctors on the internet. But to its credit, during the "Nuremberg Files" case a few years ago, the group did file a legal brief supporting the pro-lifers' First Amendment rights. This article explains that (still unresolved) case, and the relevant issues could arise here.
The law, so far, seems to be on the side of the NaziMidiots. But no reasonable person can dispute the real reason why the names and addresses have been posted - or who the real "digital brownshirts" are.
A celebrity for Bush
The 2004 version of Elton John is against Bush, but it looks like 1974 Elton John is a die-hard Republican. (Maybe he came through the same time-travel portal as Lewis Lapham.)
Sir Bobby's gone
The Mags have released Sir Bobby Robson.
Newcastle hasn't won a match so far this season (they even blew a 2-0 lead against promoted Norwich last week), so it was probably inevitable. But it's a shame to see him go.
Remember Atefeh Rajabi
Never heard of her? Rajabi was a 16 year-old girl in Iran who was hauled before a "court" for allegedly having sex with an older man. The man got 100 lashes. The girl was publicly hanged for her "sharp tongue".
Atefeh Rajabi appears to have been a fairly normal 16-year-old: sulky, disobedient, and eager to have sex. In London, those attributes earn lectures from parents and teachers on the importance of acting responsibly and not being offensive. In the city of Neka in Iran, where Atefeh Rajabi comes from, they get you hauled up in front of a judge.
Atefeh's typical teenage behaviour meant that she was charged and found guilty of "acts incompatible with chastity". The judge in the Islamic court ruled that the appropriate penalty was death. That's right: death. Her sentence was confirmed by Iran's Supreme Court.
Two weeks ago, on August 15, the 16-year-old girl was hung from a crane in the main square of Neka, in full public view, in order to keep "society safe from acts against public morality".
[...]
So what was the judge (one Haji Rezaie) doing sentencing an "unchaste" 16-year-old to hang? He said that she had a "sharp tongue" and had "undressed in court".
It seems that all she did was to take off her headscarf and insist that she was the victim of an older man's advances: but even if she had stripped naked and called the judge a fat ignorant bastard, those actions would hardly merit death, even under Islamic law. Nevertheless, the judge was so outraged that he decided he would personally put the noose round the child's neck.
It's always worth remembering stories like this, when you hear people talking about how we should try to "build bridges" with Iran. Alas, it's up to us to keep the story alive, since you know the "Free Mumia" crowd won't have a damn thing to say about it.
August 29, 2004
I knew I'd seen him before
The jackass who disrupted the Olympic marathon today - taking Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima out the lead - is the same guy who ran onto the track at the British Grand Prix last year. I think he even wore the same outfit.
That's the second time some idiot jumped out of the crowd and messed up an event during this year's Olympics. Then again, we were all expecting much worse, weren't we?
Simply vile
All I'm going to say is, the NaziMidiots who created this image should be pretty friggin' thankful America is not the fascist police state they think it is.
Words fail me. There's a fine line between being a legitimate critic of the Bush Administration's foreign policy and being a barking, paranoid, hatemongering moonbat, and these guys are about 50 miles beyond that line.
Make that 500 miles. Or even 5,000.
Too nice a day to blog
Why no posts today? I slept in late, watched the second half of the F1 race when I got up (Schumacher didn't win, believe it or not, but his second-place finish behind Raikkonen clinched his sixth world championship), and then I went hiking at Barachois Pond Provincial Park this afternoon.
Barachois might not be as spectacular as Gros Morne (which I plan to hike next weekend), but it's quite stunning in its own right. I never took the camera today, but here are a couple of photos from last year:
Upon my return, I did write a fairly lengthy post about bloggers attending the GOP convention this weekend - and then I promptly hit the "back" button on my browser and lost the whole thing. Someone out there is telling me I'm just not meant to write anything significant today.
Correction: Schuey clinched his seventh world championship today, not his sixth.
Laura Branigan, R.I.P.
She died of a brain anuerysm Thursday night, at age 47. I don't think she ever recorded anything that changed the world, but there are worse things for which to be remembered than having sung one of the signature hits of the '80s.
(That was "Gloria", of course. Personally, I liked "Self Control" better.)
Update: Branigan's Daily Telegraph obituary can be found here. I always suspected that "Self Control", like "Gloria", was an English remake of an Italian pop song, and that was indeed the case.
August 28, 2004
To hell with Che, continued
Johann Hari doesn't think much of the Left's poster boy, either.
Most leftists, alas, are not as sensible as Hari - like these slopeydopes, for example. Their fellow Communists murdered 100 million people in the last century (and are still killing people in China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos)...but Colin Powell is the "arch-killer", of course.
Fuckers.
I can't cheer for Bnei Sakhnin
That Israeli football club, based in an Israeli Arab town and featuring both Arabs and Jews on its roster, has qualified for the UEFA Cup tournament.
In its own way, the team is a model for people in the Middle East working together. (To be blunt, there's no other nation in the region where you could see a religiously mixed team like this, except for "apartheid" Israel.) I'd love to see an Israeli club do well in Europe. So why can't I cheer for them?
Because they're playing Newcastle in the first round. Some things are sacred, folks.
On second thought, maybe we should keep the kids locked up 'til they're 18
Yes, it was terrorism
The most unsurprising story of the week: the simultaneous air crashes involving two Russian jets were indeed caused by terrorist attacks. A somewhat more surprising element to the story: the bombers may have been female:
WOMEN suicide bombers from Chechnya dubbed Black Widows emerged yesterday as the prime suspects behind the simultaneous downing of two Russian planes.
Officials said no relatives had come forward for information about a Chechen woman on each airliner.
Family or friends of all the other passengers and crew on board had contacted the authorities in Moscow. At least 89 people died when the jets crashed within four minutes of each other.
The Russians have also revealed that they found traces of explosive, of a kind used by Islamic fighters in Chechnya, in the wreckage of one of the planes.
Previously, rebels in the Muslim-dominated province have used women to help stage spectacular attacks in support of their battle for independence, leading to the tag Black Widows.
Cocaine for the conspirozoids
Just hours after I wrote a post thrashing the conspirofreaks for alleging that the Israelis control the American government, this story breaks:
US authorities are investigating an aide to a senior Pentagon official who allegedly passed classified White House policy documents on Iran to Israel, with the help of employees of a powerful pro-Israel lobby, a US official has confirmed.
The probe targets an individual in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, the third most senior official at the Pentagon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes the man received no money but acted out of ideological support for the Jewish state, the official said.
The aide is thought to have passed the information to Israel via at least one person affiliated with the influential lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the official said.
Israeli officials and an AIPAC spokesman denied the allegations.
We'll see what becomes of this. Personally, I would not be at all surprised to find out Israel is spying on the American government (or vice versa, for that matter). But if the spy exerted that much influence over the Pentagon, the Americans would have gone after Iran or Syria - generally considered greater threats to Israel - than Iraq.
For that matter, if Israel "controlled" the American government, why would they need spies? And how would CBS - which broke this story, I understand, and which is supposedly part of the fabled Jewish-controlled media - be allowed to reveal it in the first place?
