:: ::
:: MAX BLACK ::
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."--C.S. Lewis
"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian
"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James
:: Thursday, March 24, 2005 ::
No Way
Don't suppose this is somehow connected to this [so to speak], ya think? No way.
[Way!]
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:: Max 10:31 PM [+] ::
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Fox is in the Canadian henhouse and the media feathers are flying...
I don't know, maybe the Canuks will like Alan Colmes, he's such a hoser.
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:: Max 10:06 PM [+] ::
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Weblogs and Political Speech:: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 ::
This would be worrisome if I thought anybody in the blogosphere (or anywhere else for that matter) were to take it seriously. As far as this blog is concerned, the FEC can take this preposterous wad of arbitrary rules governing political speech and stuff it up their collective asses.
The whole enterprise would be laughable if our tax-dollars weren't lavishly funding the overpaid, beltway wonks who are cobbling it together. What a kick in the groin.
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:: Max 4:02 PM [+] ::
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New Blog Alert
MyFootYourAss blog is as irreverant as they come, specializing in goring the sacred cows of the blogosphere (did I just write that?) such as our favorite skanky-hoe Wonkette. But the anonymous host of MFYA, "Robinhood", smokes rightblogs like Hugh Hewitt and Powerline as well, proving Capt'n Ed's masthead homily that "...every blogger in his kind is bit by those who comes behind" a sentiment that makes Wonkette damp every time she reads it (although she's not exactly sure why--she just keeps clickin' on that hot "link").
Come to think of it, Capt'n Ed's masthead is a little kinky...
In anycase, if MFYA's "Mr. Hood" can keep up the equal opportunity blogbash, he's sure to claw his way to the top of TTLB Blogosphere Ecosysytem.
But watch your -- ahem -- backside Robinhood, this ain't your mother's blogosphere...
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:: Max 10:31 PM [+] ::
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Terri Schiavo...
...miraculously wakes up from her vegetative state and the first words out of her mouth are: "I don't want to live like this, I want to die--please--somebody help me die".
Hey Houston, we got us a problem -- get Kevorkian on the hotline stat! Huh, whaddaya mean he's in jail...
Florida Cracker has an interesting local view of the conundrum and CodeBlueBlog has a jillion authoratative medical links.
My take? They've been starving "terminal" patients for many years -- the Schiavo case has just brought this difficult ethical question to light. My guess is many hundreds if not thousands of people are undergoing this procedure at this very minute.
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:: Max 3:01 PM [+] ::
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I hate it when that happens...:: Monday, March 21, 2005 ::
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:: Max 1:03 PM [+] ::
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Tim Blair--Monday's Quick Link:: Sunday, March 20, 2005 ::
This just made me crack up--and I don't crack up easily--and here's yet another example of tawdry, blog-outed MSM reporting. Really, somebody should lose their job for this dispicable little fraud but I really don't think the editors of the "Times Herald-Record" probably give a damn--like most of the MSM, they're utterly clueless.
And by the way; where do they come up with these haughty names anyway--"The Times Herald-Record"-- what a crock. Make sure to hit Tim's link to the "Times Herald" just to snicker at the web-page design (ooo, it looks just like an electronic newspaper!).
[and reads like one too]
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:: Max 9:37 PM [+] ::
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This Just In
Judging by the size of thismassivesorta big"hey-lookit-me I'm a goofy moonbat"antiwar demonstration, gosh--there's maybe a couple-a-hundred of em--I sure wouldn't want to go up against this huge, angry mob! [might get trampled by Birkenstocks--my alltime worst nightmare].
Wonder if Reuters knows about this--geez--there's ajillionlot of em!
[Building a bridge to the 16th century....]
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:: Max 9:21 PM [+] ::
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Schroeder Searches for Scapegoat"For that we have Chancellor Schroeder to thank. As the German politician whose legacy will be the permanent poisoning of German-American relations, he used anti-Americanism to rescue a re-election that was in jeopardy. He announced it was the policy of his government to stop the U.S. from removing Saddam. Although the ploy narrowly won him re-election, it placed him squarely at odds with reality. He was committed to finding a way to stop a super power from pursuing its national security imperative.
"Nothing Germany could do in the UN, NATO, or the other multilateral organizations founded to maintain the status quo would prevent Saddam's ouster. This presented German media elites with a dilemma. They might have to acknowledge Germany no longer had the ability to influence international affairs. It had lost its place at the center of the geo-strategic world with the end of the Cold War. It had lost its status as an economic super power after German unification. A shrinking population, collapsing welfare state, strangling tax burden, and Weimar Republic levels of unemployment were undeniable symptoms of fifty years of wrong choices. But rather than admit what every observer outside of Germany understands, the government and a willing media peddled an alternate version of reality. Everything was America's fault."
Interesting take on German-American relations; read the whole thing-David's Medienkritik [>]
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:: Max 5:59 PM [+] ::
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HELP!:: Saturday, March 19, 2005 ::
New Afghan blogger Waheed needs your help. He's looking for a digital camera, a laptop computer and a few people to hit the tip jar (it costs him $3.00/hour to access the internet--a huge sum of money for an Afgahni blogger). And if you're a blogger, please link to this item before it dissipates into the blogosphere archives forever. Let's try to keep this alive for awhile.
Here's Waheed [>]
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:: Max 10:14 AM [+] ::
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Oh Those Whacky Liberals!:: Friday, March 18, 2005 ::
This is rich:A white school girl is disallowed from wearing her hair in tight braids because, according to the girl's father, her teacher told her "it's not your culture". Wow, those whacky liberals! Always throwing knuckle balls! This one's a little hard to hit but I'll give it a shot.
It would appear this teacher is keeping track of...ahem...cultural traits of persons of African descent -- (and white cultural traits too I guess) but it's NOT really racial profiling because... It's more like politically correct, liberal-style racial profiling! Not that braided hair is a racial trait exactly -- it's a cultural trait -- but -- what about big blond braids and pigtails like Heidi style? Under this regime, would a black girl be allowed to dye her hair blond and wear pigtails? Wow, I'm getting dizzy; but what if the white girl was like 1/37th African descent, like Ward Churchill is 1/37th Native American (sort of). I guess then maybe tight braids would be allowed because she would then possess the right "bloodline" for her hair-style. But wait, that's kinda like eugenics -- you know, purity of race and so on -- like Hitler style. Whew--this is very complicated!
OK, I give up. This one's way too loony-liberal for me. Hop on over to Scott Burgess; he has a much better grasp on this counterintuitive level of utter "progressive" idiocy than I can possibly muster.
[now wait a minute professor, wouldn't it be more "liberal" to let the little girl wear her hair however in the f**k she wants to wear her hair?!
Umm -- heh, heh -- NO. That wouldn't be "progressive".
Oh, thanks for clearing that up for me--See, I knew there had to be a simple answer -- quite simple actually]
Related: an earlier post of mine covering similar material.
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:: Max 9:55 PM [+] ::
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"these idiots--these little French people just asking for it""Le Monde newspaper carried disturbing interviews with attackers and victims in last week's trouble - both sides agreeing that the violence was exclusively carried out on white boys and girls by black and Arab teenagers.
"If I went, it was not to demonstrate but to take telephones and beat people up. There were groups of people running about stirring things up, and in the middle these idiots--these little French people just asking for it," an 18-year-old of Tunisian origin called Heikel said.
"We came to demonstrate against inequalities and we got beaten up. It's as if they thought that we--the 'white Parisians'--had plenty of money, that we could buy a new mobile phone tomorrow," said Tristan Goldbronn, 16, who was badly hurt.
Can't we all just get along? No.
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:: Max 11:25 PM [+] ::
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Religion of Peace Update"If this was an Islamic state, this woman would be hanged, she would be killed, she would be diced into pieces."
And no, he's not referring to Hirsi Ali.
But I'm pretty certain she's probably on his short list...
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:: Max 10:36 PM [+] ::
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"What's on your bookshelf?: 'Some Kerouac, a little Chomsky and Beckett, a jar with Che's dick in it and a bunch of fuzzy, indie shit-music that I have to pretend to like so the free-minded hipsters won't kick me out of the club. Oh yeah, and a stack of Archie comics for the kitschy irony.'"
Of all the jillions of blogs, few are smart enough to be really funny--Farm Accident Digest isn't not one of them.
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:: Max 10:24 PM [+] ::
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Apparently, we have another Theo Van Gogh style assasination in Amsterdam. This time though, the victim was just the old guy down the street.:: Thursday, March 17, 2005 ::
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:: Max 12:35 PM [+] ::
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"The Iraqi Citizens calls for President Bush to stop the terrorists"
Hammorabi and the Iraqi citizens have posted open request for POTUS to challenge the influx of terrorists from neighboring countries. But don't stop at the post; if you read between the lines and have an active imagination (like mine), the comments section has some rather curiously prescient feedback.
Hmmm, I wonder--suppose you-know-who is dropping in on Hammorabi? I'm just askin'--I mean, it really wouldn't be all that surprising now, would it?.
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:: Max 5:22 PM [+] ::
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Zacht Ei on an important distinction between (most) Christians and (most) Muslims (emphasis added):"...there's a bloke in the Bible who had a harem of 1,000 women (well, actually 700, plus 300 concubines), which is only slightly better than I do on most Saturday nights. Now, are all Christians proponents of polygyny or polyandry? (Well, I am, but I'm a heathen.)
"Nobody brings this up anymore because most Christians consider the Bible a metaphorical book. Most Muslims don't (yet). Still, I think it might be more worthwhile to discuss the (im)possibilities of integrating Islam into a democratic system, and not resort to namecalling about apocryphal religious texts which stem from times when it was also quite acceptable to double park your camel, or to stone gay people to death."
(im)possible? Hmmm...
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:: Max 7:52 AM [+] ::
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Somebody spill a Pepsi on the Blogger servers?:: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 ::
If you think my posting is a little sporadic, well it has been--but not due to lack of effort on my part. The Blogger servers have been totally jacked up for the last week and I'm really getting fed up. I'm seriously considering making the leap to Moveable Type; Blogger is becoming untenable. I don't know what the deal is but after I've spent 30 minutes on a post, I sure don't want an error message that states "Network Error Unable to read URL from host www.blogger.com: no response from server".
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:: Max 12:01 AM [+] ::
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This blogger is incredibly smart--she totally gets it."Don't let a dumb letter obscure the bigger issue: Thomas had no business saying or implying that these white kids were racists, and her passion for the "topic of diversity" is a poor excuse for this grown woman's behavior.
La Shawn Barber is a rare class act and if I could hug her I would. Thomas--a typical democrat hack--obviously brow-beat all these kids--black and white--and it has created an unfortunate rift that apparently did not exist before her appearance at the school. Makes my heart break for everyone involved--it's a really disheartening story.
Actually, bludgeoning young people with race racket reminds me of a similar experience at my high school. We were all buds until some "grown-up" told us we were different. The animosity sewn by this kind of thoughtless action can last a lifetime if one is not wise enough to dismiss it.
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:: Max 11:57 PM [+] ::
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Dear ole Mom
With Mother's Day fast approaching, it's time to think about a real gift; a gift that will bring tears of joy to her eyes for years to come...
"OK Mom, I guess if you really, really, really want it--but wait a sec -- are you like, really REALLY sure this is what you want? I got this like totally hand-made, ceramic ashtray over here that's pretty nice..."
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:: Max 9:40 PM [+] ::
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But no, now that you mention it, I can't get started!
Interesting--no--confounding approach to the blogosphere. Maybe they're on to something [well, I bit but I'm a sucker for this sort of thing]. Here we go. All your hotels are belong to us:jw marriot hotel phuket To People Who Want To jw marriot hotel phuket - But Can't Get Started
issels pbase.com phuket tsunami To People Who Want To issels pbase.com phuket tsunami - But Can't Get Started
islandia resort phuket To People Who Want To islandia resort phuket - But Can't Get Started
islandia park resort phuket To People Who Want To islandia park resort phuket - But Can't Get Started
islandia park hotel phuket To People Who Want To islandia park hotel phuket - But Can't Get Started
islandia park To People Who Want To islandia park - But Can't Get Started
and on and on and on and on...
Oh, phuket.
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:: Max 9:14 PM [+] ::
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This Just In: Baghdad Bob sighted in Lebanon!
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:: Max 7:32 PM [+] ::
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Hey, what's race got to do with it? Can't we all just link along?
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:: Max 6:13 PM [+] ::
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WTF?
OK, we really are heading into unknown territory here--you got any Idea what this thing will be able to do in five-ten years?! Jeepers that's one helluva creeper.
VIA the Corner [>]
Update: I just visualized a swarm moving at a high rate of speed.
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:: Max 5:01 PM [+] ::
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"A more dishonest and demented person I have never met,"
Michael Moore update here [>]
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:: Max 4:27 PM [+] ::
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Iranians Erupt in Anger--Burn Flags!
You gotta go get this for yourself...but put down your coffee first.
Daily Briefing on Iran via LGF
Update: Apparently that's not all their burning:"It turns out that people across iran have been protesting like mad in small groups in localities for the past 36 hours. They have this Zoroastrian thing that they do at the New Year celebrations which officially start on 21 March, and it slightly pagan. It's always been criticized by the clergy. This year people are taking the impetus to protest. Women are burning headscarves, people are throwing pictures of clerics into these little symbolic fires they build. The idea is that they jump over the burning bush to start out the year purified."
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:: Max 4:06 PM [+] ::
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"Honor Killings"
Morely Safer's shoddy interview with Hirsi Ali utterly failed to properly frame the debate over women's rights under Islamic law. Instead of describing for viewers the primitive and cruel treatment of women in many Muslim communities--the kind of treatment Hirsi Ali is attempting to expose--Safer instead chose to portray Ali as politically incorrect and intolerant. Par for the course for the bumbling, anachronistic CBS News franchise. If you want the rest of the story, a good place to start would be this Fox News Report.
60 Minutes--what a crock.
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:: Max 12:36 PM [+] ::
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FCC Watch:: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 ::
Jeff Jarvis has positioned himself as the blogosphere's resident FCC watchdog and this morning he's got a jowl full of Sen. Ted Stevens ass. It's good to have someone of Jarvis' skill watching the Nannies who would, if given half a chance, pull the plug on the internet. I find it interesting that guys like Sen. Stevens would blush in horror at a four letter word uttered on a sit-com while signing on to the bankruptcy bill--an obscene piece of legislation that promises X-Rated profits for the credit card industry.
Ironic, in't it, that the whole structure of campaign finance is built on the foundation of the legalized graft that allows political "access" only to those who buy it in the form of "contributions"? Kinda like prostitution if you ask me.
Stevens and his hypocritical ilk would better serve their constituents were they to concentrate on cleaning up their own sordid house of ill repute for a change.
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:: Max 8:10 AM [+] ::
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Iraqis Erupt in Anger--Burn Flags!
Guess whose?
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:: Max 1:18 PM [+] ::
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:: Sunday, March 13, 2005 ::"Bahia Hariri, the ex-Premier's sister who is a member of parliament, stole the hearts of the Lebanese when she took the makeshift podium to address her slain brother at his nearby grave in the courtyard of Al-Amin's mosque.
"You have accomplished Lebanon's long-elusive miracle, the miracle of national unity, the miracle of Christian-Muslim unity that has been baptized by your blood,"...
She then raised her right arm and urged the crowds to do the same, vowing "we pledge to be loyal to Lebanon, your Lebanon which you rebuild from the rubble of civil warfare. We pledge to you that Lebanon would never be torn by civil warfare again under any circumstance," she said.
Bahia is being suggested as the next Premier of Lebanon. Two years ago even the thought of a woman premier in the Middle East was simply unimaginable. Extraordinary.
Publius Pundit has more [>]
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:: Max 12:43 PM [+] ::
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What's wrong with big-time journalism? I think this is probably the most egregious--and habitual--sin of the likes of Rather, CNN and the New York Times:"While an alert person could wade through opinions or even lies it is much harder to detect omissions..."
That's exactly right. For anyone who has ever had the unfortunate experience of having his or her house burglarized, this phenomenon becomes exceedingly apparent and frustrating because, beyond obvious violations such as the blank space on the wall where your 42" plasma screen used to be, you cannot tell investigators exactly what has been taken because you cannot instantly recall or locate everything that you own.
The press leverages this subtle agitprop device routinely and it's as transparent and obnoxious as it is dishonest. I witnessed such a deliberate act of ommission tonight on the 60 Minutes' piece on Hirsi Ali. Morley Safer proved to be an archtypal CBS cowardly hack,--in the vein of Rather's ass-licking interview with Saddam Hussein--apologist and shill for the ignorant luddites who assassinated Theo van Gogh. All that I can say is that watching the flailing CBS news machine implode is one of the grandest events of my entire lifetime.
Now it wouldn't suprise me if you missed this "report" because CBS is losing viewership at an astonishing pace--they've hit rock bottom and they're bangin' on the bedrock with their pick-axes. I've written my local affiliate (who I happen to like) swearing off the network in it's entirety until the whole CBS enterprise has melted into a steaming, black, waxy pool of smoldering slime like the Wicked Witch of the West. Dan Rather's retention in the 60 Minutes product can only hasten its long overdue and rapid disintigration. Oh joy.
Update: In rereading this post in the cold hard light of a Monday morning, I wouldn't change much but would add this final observation. It was a graphic contrast in character--Hirsi Ali, the unbelievably courageous black, female, ex-muslim dissident risking her life for exposing the dark side of Islam against a petty, tendentious, overpaid, washed-up, little tyrant. Thankfully, pretentious phonies like Rather and Safer are going the way of the rotary dial telephone. AMF.
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:: Max 8:41 PM [+] ::
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"Ten Questions which would instill terror in a French history teacher" [And probably a lot of American history teachers too]
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:: Max 9:57 AM [+] ::
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Roger Simon has a couple of great posts. First, a sharp critique of the practice by old-school media of blatantly planting politically charged stories and a heads-up on Hirsi Ali's appearance on 60 Minutes tonight. Check it out.:: Saturday, March 12, 2005 ::
Hmmm...I might actually watch 60 Minutes tonight, something I haven't done in very long time.
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:: Max 9:33 AM [+] ::
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"Since only thugs and murders flourish in times of trouble, I wonder, what's a heretic to do? Commit "death by media?" And what about his family? What about his commitment to them? Where does a dreamer 's commitment to his madness end and his commitment to his loved ones begin? How does this manifest itself? How can he control himself? How/when can he stop being what he is and start being what the people around him want and need him to be? And why can't he be both? Or can he? Or am I blind? Or am I just a fool? Just another hapless fortune's fool?
"I am not of this world. I am not of this world."
Amarji the writer's writer and the martyr's martyr...
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:: Max 10:24 AM [+] ::
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EU Constitution Update:: Friday, March 11, 2005 ::
Dutch Report wryly suggests nobody has even read the new, 262 page EU Constitution and calls it "a bureaucrat's power manual". The Report has some good advice:"Never vote in favor for something that is going to change a lot of things, but which nobody can explain to you."
It really does look more like a burlap bag full of fish-hooks than a constitution--as Einstein once said, "if you can't explain it you don't understand it".
On a related and somewhat ironic note, Eurosoc reports the European Union has established a "taxpayer funded 'rapid rebuttle unit' to challenge inaccurate reporting of the EU constitution in the media." Given that so few seem to be able to decipher this onerous tome how is anyone able to rebut, rapidly or otherwise, inaccurate reporting? Maybe it's outlined in the prelude to the addendum to the appendix under section 4; paragraph 5, line 8: international media relations: implementation of rapid rebuttle task force and related funding mechanism.
But wait, there's more! EU Referendum Blog suggests the "fragrant Margot [Wollstrom], EU commissioner for truth and reconciliation" is either "lying through her teeth" or...ahem...doesn't understand Article I-41 7 of the constitution. The article in question implies the formation of a "European Army" (?!) in which all member states are, obligated to provide "aid and assistance by all means in their power" in the event of an armed attack on one of its members. Ms Wollstrom denies vehemently the EU constitution prescribes such a formation but the relevant article suggests otherwise:Article I-41 7:
If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it and obligation of aid and assistance by all means in their power...
"Quick, somebody get the Swiss ambassador on the phone! We're under attack!"
[whaddaya mean Chirac is out of town!...that sonofa...]
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:: Max 7:46 AM [+] ::
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German Blogger David's Medienkritik Forces Stern.de Correction:: Thursday, March 10, 2005 ::
David Kaspar, of David's Medienkritik posted an open letter to Stern.de editors demanding an immediate retraction of their use of the word "murdered" in relation to the death of Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who was tragically killed during the rescue of Sgrena Guiliani. Stern complied, retracting the statement and apologized for the sloppy editing. Here's David's open letter with the retraction and letter of apology from Stern.de [>]
Kudos David! It's refreshing to see MSM respond so quickly to a request for correction by a blogger. Wonder if the editors at the NYTs noticed...hmmmmm...naw.
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:: Max 10:02 PM [+] ::
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Late to the Party:: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 ::
For those who are interested in attempting to defeat the Bankruptcy Bill, the final Senate vote is expected to take place TODAY. Should you be so inclined to, here is a link for contacting your Senator: U.S. Senate
Given the some five-billion the credit card companies are expected to pocket on this deal, I think it's highly unlikely any Republicans will change their vote but I guess it's worth a try. Actually, the cascade may have already begun as I just tried to access the Congressional homepage (http://www.house.gov/) and it appears the House servers are busy.
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:: Max 7:54 AM [+] ::
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Sgrena's Selfish and Deadly Miscalculation
'You don't understand the situation. We are anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, communists,' they said. The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers, the enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.
{...}
"But they knew better. When we arrived at Baghdad Airport, I was waiting for a jeep from the American army to come pick me up. I saw one of the Italian women walking around crying. An Iraqi had stolen her computer and television equipment. They were standing outside shivering, waiting for a cab to take them to Baghdad.
{...}
"With her bias Sgrena did not only jeopardize herself, but due to her behavior a security officer is now dead, and the Italian government (prime minister Berlusconi included) has had to spend millions of euros to save her life. It is to be hoped that Sgrena will decide to have a career change. Propagandist or MP perhaps. But she should give up journalism immediately."
-Harald Doornbos; veteran war reporter
Touché
Link via Zacht Ei [>]
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:: Max 6:37 PM [+] ::
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Dutch politicians still in hiding
Here is an IHT interview with Dutch politicians Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders. Of course, these are the two politicians who have gone into hiding because of death-threats from the Islamofascist thugs who assassinated Theo van Gogh. Link via Eurosoc [>]
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:: Max 6:26 PM [+] ::
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"Talk about grief-stricken; he's griefier than a Hoboken mudcrab on Shrove Tuesday, as Dan himself might say."
Tim Blair of course [>]
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:: Max 8:00 AM [+] ::
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Personal best:4102250
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:: Max 7:52 AM [+] ::
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:: Monday, March 07, 2005 ::"Oh no,'...That won't happen. We are siding with the oppressed Iraqi people. No Iraqi would kidnap us."
-Guiliana Sgrena, kidnapped communist journalist
Somebody actually paid the kidnappersone - million - dollarssix - million - dollars for the return of this individual? And I thought I was stupid for falling for Popiels Pocket Fisherman.
The Big Pharaoh has some thoughts on the kidnapping and ransom of sleazeballs like Guiliana Sgrena.
Update 1: No Pasaran weighs in.
Update 2:"it is not the policy of the Italian government to pay ransom," but added that "it is possible that humanitarian aid was given to Sunni religious groups" in contact with the kidnappers.
-Italian Cabinet minister, Rocco Buttiglione
Boy, I'm glad that's all cleared-up; thank God they didn't pay the kidnapper's ransom!
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:: Max 7:20 AM [+] ::
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Sufferage? I got your Sufferage right here
As Dutch filmaker Theo Van Gogh, Hirsi Ali dared confront Islam's anachronistic misogynists and now has a giant target on her back. MS Ali has devoted a great deal of her life to secretly shielding muslim women who are attempting to escape the crushing, hyper-paternalism that allows Muslim males to indescriminatly murder female spouses, sisters and mothers for any number of arbitrary transgressions - a laundry list of taboos handed down by goat-bearded religious thugs of a bygone era. And it would appear the Dutch police and media are mostly disinterested in this reprehensible practice referred to as "honor killings". Curiously, it seems the great liberal bastions of feminism in the US, such as the New York Times and the National Organizations for Women, are equally silent. I have no explanation for their inattention to the matter except to say that many hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern women are now emboldened to protest for their basic civil rights because the Republican President George W. Bush instilled in them the "politically incorrect" courage to do it. No thanks to bourgeoise Western suffragettes.
I guess it's understandable, Western feminists and the Liberal Elite have their hands full right now taking down the President of Harvard for--ummm--speaking the truth.
From a contemporary and somewhat distanced perspective, it's easy to dismiss the significance and courage of Muslim women challenging the rigid, ignorant Mullahcracy but this blossoming of civil disobedience is no 1960s, bra-burning in Atlantic City. Many of these women risk severe beatings by their male spouses, brothers and fathers for having the temerity to demand a little equality. And for those women who tomorrow will undoubtedly feel the lash of the belt, or worse yet, lose their lives, this level of brutality is more akin to the lynchings of blacks in Mississippi 80 years ago. The hypocricy of the left in this country (although typical) is revealing--they apparently don't care. Never did.
I guess it takes real guts to be a woman in some parts these days.
(And ladies, don't expect girly-men like Koffi Annan or Michael Moore to come to your rescue either.)
NOW? Comment? Hellloooo...
Happy International Women's Day! Sheesh...
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:: Max 11:26 PM [+] ::
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France a Totalitarian Regime?
Keep your eye on Elvatoloko, a new blog published by a French national living in Manassas, Virginia. In this post, Elvatoloko describes the insideous, corrosive effects unbridled "liberalism" has had on the French economy and culture. For those of you who would have America go the way of the "liberal" European "elite", this is precisely what a top-heavy, lethargic, socialistic nanny-state looks like.
I've often wondered why French "culture" imploded. Elvatoloko seems to have it pretty well figured out--socialism killed it. Suppose the Freedom and Democracy wave toppling dictatorships throughout the Middle East might jar the despot Chirac loose? If the citizenry start carpetblogging the State dominated French media, there is real hope.
Elvatoloko link courtesy No Pasaran
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:: Max 7:10 PM [+] ::
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LGF catches the increasingly irrelevant MSM snoozing:
"Huge demonstrations against Syria continue in Lebanon while US media obsessively focuses on Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson."
They'll spend weeks yammering about Martha Stewart's friggin hairdoo or have "breaking news" if Michael Jackson sneezes but won't give 150,000 DEMONSTRATORS a column inch. It's scandlous really.
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:: Max 12:52 PM [+] ::
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Amazing new ME Blog:: Sunday, March 06, 2005 ::
Syrian writer/blogger Ammar Abdulhamid is literally risking his life to live-blog the violently unstable political situation in Syria. Mr. Abdulhamid has a nearly poetic writing style as he chronicles the unbearable tension of the impending collapse of the Syrian regime. Reading Amarji is like watching a slow-motion train wreck; you're horrified because there is nothing you can do to stop it. You pray that by some miraculous act of God, nobody gets hurt. Here's a little sample of Amarji's writing:Myths Victorious!
The myth-makers are having the final laugh after all. Their isms have failed in every possible respect, and they continue to fail. Still, and for the lack of easier alternatives, people continue to believe in them, and to be willingly deceived by them.
Indeed, if de-mythification is a difficult process in itself, its consequences are even harder to accept. The idols will forever fall, it seems, but people will never accept what their failure implies, and will rather set up new idols, different only in appearance, but not in significance - never in significance - than accept the implications of their idols' fall.
The people need to believe, it seems, inasmuch as they need to die. Indeed, faith is often a more subtle form of suicide. Though at times, such as these times, it's hardly subtle at all, but the faithful are simply unwilling to see. It's often easier to deny reality than to face the truth. This oft-expressed sentiment can never lose its relevance, it seems. Never.
Woe to the faithful. And more woe to the heretics.
This is the writing of a truly gifted individual. Godspeed Amarji-- Get the hell out of there before it's too late.
Note: I've added Amarji to the blogroll under the Middle East heading for quick reference.
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:: Max 12:00 PM [+] ::
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The Sky is Falling!:: Thursday, March 03, 2005 ::"If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000. ...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.
- Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)
Via NoPasaran [>]
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:: Max 4:46 PM [+] ::
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Personal best?6975 meters...
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:: Max 11:40 PM [+] ::
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Peeing in Pants Update:: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 ::
OK, I'm not making this up:
"Chemical Ali Refuses to Wear Diapers"
Baghdad Dweller via Iraq the Model [>]
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:: Max 12:07 PM [+] ::
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British to tax computers--BBC the beneficiary!
Thank God our forebearers thought to hold a little tea-party in Boston Harbor lest we be subjected to this idiodic brand of tyranny. I guess the Brits, having been nannied into perpetual servitude to the State are so conditioned that they'll simply bend over and accept yet another masochistic exercise in humiliation (I'm beginning to think they actually like it).
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:: Max 10:51 PM [+] ::
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Moveon.org "flameout"?
Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone:"Like so many other Internet start-ups, MoveOn has raised -- and burned through -- tens of millions of dollars, innovating without producing many concrete results. Any reasonable analysis shows its stock may be dangerously overvalued. Those banking on MoveOn had better hope it is more Google than Pets.com. Because should the group flame out, the Democrats could be in for a fall of Nasdaq proportions."
Can't we all just move along?
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:: Max 10:37 PM [+] ::
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May you live in interesting times:"Israeli, Palestinian and Arab writers from around the world will meet at the Sheikh Hussein Bridge on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 for a unique literary gathering. The Bridge, which is an international crossing point between Israel and Jordan, serves as a powerful symbol of hope, a link to understanding and a passageway over conflict."
" Samir el-Youssef, Palestinian writer attending from London, said, "Only by meeting each other can we, Palestinians and Israelis, truly know how close or distant we really are; how easy or difficult it will be to live together. We don't have the luxury of avoiding this encounter; it is the duty of Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals and writers to gain such knowledge and render the experience for our communities."
Extraordinary. Dove's Eye View has more [>]
NOTE: This link via the Lebanese Blogger Forum [>]
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:: Max 10:24 PM [+] ::
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