Grasshoppa

Deadline

There won't be much blogging from now until Friday because I'm under a deadline to get a paper in by Friday so that I can attend this conference.

Decision made

For those that were interested in my car quandry below, we made a decision, threw caution to the wind and ordered a Mini Cooper. To make the car even more impractical, we chose a white body with a black roof. There was just something about that combination that caught our eye so we went with it.

It's obviously not the most practical vehicle out there (except for being one of the easier cars to park in Boston) but we're only young once and this is the only time we're can actually consider a car like this, so we did it.

The car should arrive at the end of July.

Telegraph on a roll

With in the last week or so, we've learned the following from the Daily Telegraph:

1. UK Labor MP, George Galloway was in Saddam Hussein's pay.

2. Russian intelligence agents were assisting Saddam Hussein in dealing with the US.

3. The French helped Iraqi intelligence put the kibosh on a human rights conference aimed at highlighting Iraqi human rights abuses.

and

4. The Mukhabarat did have links to al-Qaeda.

Now either the Telegraph's reporters got extremely lucky and hit the motherlode of damning documents, someone planted all these documents there, or they're making this all up. As much as I'd like to believe all of this, it just sounds too good to be true. We shall see how this all pans out.

What they're really doing

Despite Aziz Poonwalla's asssertion that Israeli scientists "may" be developing a bioweapon that somehow only targets Arabs, they're actually doing nothing of the sort. Instead we find that they're actually working on treating a disease that affects Palestinian children. Unfortunately, being Israeli is so odious to certain European scientists that they won't even lend a hand:

Evelyne Zeira, who works in gene therapy at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center, asked Norwegian researcher Ingrid Harbitz, via e-mail, to provide material to be used to develop treatments for Palestinian victims of the blood disorder thalessemia. Harbitz's curt reply: "Due to the present situation in the Middle East, I will not deliver any material to an Israelitic [sic] university."

I suppose that dear Ingrid is cutting the Palestinian nose to spite the Israeli face.

On a different note, it's rather disheartening to see someone like Aziz, who has become the unofficial representative of rational moderate Muslims, to lend credance to such an absurd idea that Israel is developing some weapon that can distinguish between Arab and Jew. Perhaps he's read The White Plague one too many times, or perhaps his rather vague and unsupported claim that it can be done via mitrochondrial DNA manipulation was enough for him to think it plausible. In either case, it just looks like he's fallen victim to the disease that has stricken several other fellow Muslims: a disease that makes them believe that Jews are both supremely powerful and deviously evil. This disease causes Syrian defense ministers to validate the Damascus blood libel, highly educated Saudis to claim that Jews kill non Jewish children to use their blood to make Hamantashen, Arafat's wife to claim that Israel is poisoning Palestinian children, Palestinian officials to accuse Israel of infecting Palestinian children with HIV, and Egyptial "parliamentarians" to accuse Israel of smuggling gum thattransforms Arab girls into nymphomaniacs into Egypt.

It's important to keep in mind that all of these wild ideas and accusations have come from educated folk that nominally should know better: these are the educated, the elite. And if educated Muslims believe these claims, then you can bet that those who are less so believe them. After all, the Egyptian who shot up the El-Al terminal last year also believed that Israel was intentionally infecting Arabs with AIDS. It's unlikely he pulled this notion from out of thin air.

That's one.

Glad to see that Tacitus is back after a month long hiatus. Now all we need is for Diane to return.

Mazel Tov

No sooner do Abu Mazen and Yasser Arafat kiss and make up then does Arafat's Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades send them a present. Think Abu Mazen has any chance of reining in terror? Neither do I.

Decisions, decisions

With all that's going on in the world this is a pretty petty post but it's what's on my mind...

My girlfriend and I need to get a second car and we've narrowed it down to the Mini Cooper and the Acura RSX. We just can't decide which. There's nothing wrong with the RSX... it drives well, pretty roomy for a sport coupe and has reknown Acura reliability behind it. It's a decent looking car albeit somewhat ordinary. The Mini, on the other hand, is hip, different and fun to drive. But it's small (you can put about 3 grocery bags in the trunk w/o folding over the rear seats), has a small engine (which become noticeable when you turn on the AC), and has mirrors with limited visibility.

The head says RSX, the heart says Mini Cooper. What to do, what to do?

Happy Passover

Off to see the family for a few days. Happy Passover to those who celebrate.

Shades not required

According to Benny Morris, the future of peace between Israelis and Palestinians is none too bright. Nevertheless it's an excellent article - so good, in fact, that it may be the set of plyers that helps remove Eric Alterman's head from his ass. It should be noted that said head is rather large so this will be a slow and painful process.

Anyhow, I hope to use this article in the very near future in a longer analysis of the situation. Stay tuned.

If big media covered Passover.

I got the following in my inbox today. It's only funny because it's not so far off from the truth:

Subject: If the Passover Story Were Reported by The NY Times or CNN

The cycle of violence between the Jews and the Egyptians continues with
no end in sight in Egypt. After eight previous plagues that have
destroyed the Egyptian infrastructure and disrupted the lives of
ordinary Egyptian citizens, the Jews launched a new offensive this week
in the form of the plague of darkness.

Western journalists were particularly enraged by this plague. "It is
simply impossible to report when you can't see an inch in front of you,"
complained a frustrated Andrea Koppel of CNN. "I have heard from my
reliable Egyptian contacts that in the midst of the blanket of
blackness, the Jews were annihilating thousands of Egyptians. Their word
is solid enough evidence for me."

While the Jews contend that the plagues are justified given the harsh
slavery imposed upon them by the Egyptians, Pharaoh, the Egyptian
leader, rebuts this claim. "If only the plagues would let up, there
would be no slavery. We just want to live plague-free. It is the right
of every society."

Saeb Erekat, an Egyptian spokesperson, complains that slavery is
justifiable given the Jews' superior weaponry supplied to them by the
superpower God.

The Europeans are particularly enraged by the latest Jewish offensive.
"The Jewish aggression must cease if there is to be peace in the region.
The Jews should go back to slavery for the good of the rest of the
world," stated an angry French President Jacques Chirac.

Even several Jews agree. Adam Shapiro, a Jew, has barricaded himself
within Pharaoh's chambers to protect Pharaoh from what is feared will be
the next plague, the death of the firstborn. Mr. Shapiro claims that
while slavery is not necessarily a good thing, it is the product of the
plagues and when the plagues end, so will the slavery. "The Jews have
gone too far with plagues such as locusts and epidemic which have
virtually destroyed the Egyptian economy," Mr. Shapiro laments.

The United States is demanding that Moses and Aaron, the Jewish
leaders, continue to negotiate with Pharaoh. While Moses points out that
Pharaoh had made promise after promise to free the Jewish people only to
immediately break them and thereafter impose harsher and harsher
slavery, Richard Boucher of the State Department assails the latest
offensive. "Pharaoh is not in complete control of the taskmasters," Mr.
Boucher states. "The Jews must return to the negotiating table and will
accomplish nothing through these plagues."

The latest round of violence comes in the face of a bold new Saudi
peace overture. If only the Jews will give up their language, change
their names to Egyptian names and cease having male children, the Arab
nations will incline toward peace with them, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah
declared.

He's not alone

Before we get too overheated about this photo, let's not forget about this one:

Oh and don't forget that Blair arranged an audience with Queen Elizabeth for boy Assad.

Jewish clothes

Just in time for Passover comes this line of clothing. While the Kosher for Pesach shirts are timely, I am particularly amused by the O-U thong and t-shirt. The "Nice Jewish Boy...a cut above the rest" is also pretty funny.

(No, I don't make any money off of these. I'm just passing along the info because it amuses me.)

Friday with Haggai

On Friday evening my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of eating dinner with Haggai who happened to be in town for a quiz bowl competition. All three of us enjoyed a fine diner and had an interesting conversation that spanned quite a bit of topics.

Haggai should definitely try doing one of those audio blog things (ablogs are they called?) because he has a great voice for radio. If he ever gets tired of math, he can always try the radio thing.

A Psalm in Jenin

This is a a book I'd like to read. The Israeli version of what happened in Jenin has been buried from day 1 under Palestinian claims of a massacre. Perhaps this book will help clear the air.

To a hammer, everything is a nail.

Mickey Kaus has made a wonderful discovery about the joys of rear wheel drive. This is all well and good, and honestly, I don't know how true his claims are, but lets assume they are true. The problem starts when he decides that the joys of rear wheel drive can explain everything about cars:

Explaining SUVs: Now that the goo-goo bien pensant scales have fallen from my eyes, and I recognize the front-drive-for-the masses movement as the Carter-era energy crisis con it is, several previously-inexplicable things become explicable. Why did truck-based SUVs suddenly become popular just as Detroit shifted to front-wheel drive for its passenger cars? Was it (as anti-SUV activists claim) because the SUVs were exempt from various safety and economy standards -- or because the SUVs still had rear-wheel drive, with all its subtle satisfactions? Why do all BMWs (and virtually all Mercedes-Benzes) persist in using rear-wheel drive? Why do my friends, who aren't fast drivers, say that BMWs just feel better?

It's also now clear to me why Acura is in trouble (it only offers FWD sedans), why GM is busy working on a new "Tubular" rear-drive chassis, why the Infiniti G-35 and Lexus IS-300 (both rear drive) are so popular, and why the RWD Cadillac CTS and Lincoln LS are so refreshing to drive.

Putting aside the claims about the Cadillac CTS and Lincoln LS are refreshing to drive, (I've never driven either so I can't comment), most of the rest of these claims are just well... silly.

SUVs became popular because they maintained rear wheel drive? How about because they were large, gave you better a better view of the road, and came with 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive? Acura's problems could probably be better explained that save for the RSX, all of their models are boring. As for the popularity of the IS400 and the G35, perhaps their popularity can be explained by the fact that they're sharp looking cars. Audi A4s (even the non-quattro ones) are all over the place here and they're front wheel drive. What's Kaus' explanation for that?

Settle down Mickey... rear wheel drive may be fun, but it's not some grand unifying theory to explain automotive trends.

Tale of two tales

Both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post report about a British "peace activist" (of the same ISM group two which the (in)famous Rachel Corrie belonged) was shot in the head by the IDF. Both attibute the Associated Press for the story and both have the following quote:

The activist was standing in between Israeli troops and a group of Palestinian children when soldiers opened fire, said Khalil Abdullah who works with the Palestinian-backed peace group.

"A group of ISM people were trying to set up a small protest tent alongside a road used by the army. The soldiers opened fire," said Abdullah, who witnessed the shooting.

Paints a pretty damning picture of the IDF, doesn't it? But if you continue reading the Jpost, you find this:

The 24-year-old British activist was trying to help two children who were trapped in a crossfire when the Briton was shot in the head. Doctors at a hospital in Rafah where the activists were said he was declared brain dead.

While Haaretz has this:

The 24-year-old Briton was shot in the head and declared brain dead shortly after arriving at the hospital in Rafah, where the shooting occurred, according to Dr. Ali Musa.

The Jerusalem Post story at least explains why the IDF was shooting. Since there was a crossfire, there was obviously someone else shooting back. But Haaretz completely ignores this and does its best to paint the IDF as a bunch of trigger happy thugs that like to shoot at children.

Amazing how one sentence can change everything, isn't it?

Posted by geoff at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Question

Can anyone tell me why you can post comments to my posts when you click on the permalink? Any advice is much appreciated.

Punishment

The famed Plagiarist is working on getting a part time radio gig in South Texas (see Kelley's comment in the thread).

Do you think he'd be under consideration for such a job had he not received so much attention for his blogging plagiarism? Me neither.

Calculus

The past few days have seen a stream of good news photos, videos and stories flow from Iraq. Children have been released from prison, men freed from torture, and of course the mass celebrations in the streets of Baghdad and Basra.

While it is fine for those of us who supported going to war to gain some sense of satisfaction from these stories and photos, we should also keep in mind that all of this comes at a tremedous cost: a 12 year old child having his arms blown off, civilians blown to bits, etc. No doubt that it is scenes like this that much of the anti-war crowd warned us about. But to crow about civilian casualties while ignoring the freeing of a vast number of Iraqis, is as facile as its opposite.

Is the freeing of 150 children from prison worth the maiming of one? I tend to think so, but I'm not that maimed child. How about the death of 2 children? 10?

In short, is this:

worth this?

Not so simple is it?

In the end, I believe that the good of removing the yoke of tyranny from the Iraqis is worth more than the evil of some dead civilians, but this is an easy judgment for me to make since I'm not personally involved. I'm sure that many of those that were injured and the families of those killed will come to an opposite conclusion. After all, their lives have been shattered and they will never be the same. This is why the reconstruction of Iraq is done properly - so that all this suffering was not done in vain.

So yes, be happy about jubilant Iraqis, but temper your happiness with the pain and suffering of the casualties of war.

Baghdad Falls

Such is the rather optimistic headline at the BBC. Reports coming in tell of massive looting, destruction of various Saddam icons and no sign of any Iraqi governmental control.

So much for the Stalingrad scenario, I suppose, but it does seem that Baghdad fell too easily. What happened to the vaunted Iraqi defenses? Did they all just melt away? How the next few days unfold will indeed be quite interesting.

Chicken little

I'm starting to think I was wrong about daily kos. Ever since Steve Gilliard started posting, it's become the Daily Chicken Little. Every time something doesn't go quite the Allies' way, it's a sign of impending doom for the US. Certainly this war hasn't been a bed of roses (and its aftermath won't be either) it hasn't been the complete failure that he's been so gleefully predicting. He may think of himself as a modern day Cassandra - but Cassandra was always right.

Sickening

A Jewish group called the "Revenge of the Infants" has claimed responsibility for planting a bomb in a Palestinian high school which has injured 15 Palestinian teenagers, 3 of the seriously. Fortunately, no one was killed, but this just sickens me. There's no excuse for this and I hope the Israelis hunt down these bastards and deal with them accordingly.

Shooting at MGH

A man and a woman were shot dead at Mass. General Hospital this morning. The victims were a male doctor and a female staff worker and it looks to be a murder-suicide.

Normally, I wouldn't give this more than a second thought, but since this occurred in the building right next to the one I work in, it's a bit scary.

Peace protestors uncut

The folks over a Protest Warrior have a video from the April 4th protest rally in San Francisco. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. (via Hootinan)

Just wondering

According to this site Iraq had 2600 tanks as of October 2002. What happened to all of them? Did we really destroy 2000 tanks? Are they hidden somewhere? Were the inital estimates overstated?

Agony sans ecstacy

Wired has a pretty damning article on the vaunted Agonist. I'm really not going to add onto the anti-Agonist pile-on here but I sure hope that as a grad student, Sean-Paul realizes that complaining about "time constraints" won't fly with his thesis committee.

Police brutality?

Oakland police dispersed a small anti-war protest. using bean-bag rounds, wooden dowels, “sting balls,” (which send out a spray of BB-sized rubber pellets) and a cloud of tear gas. They also managed to injure a few longshoremen who had nothing to do with the protest. Reading the accounts and then looking at the photo of the injured woman (see the link) it sure looks like the police overreacted. But then if you continute on, you find the following:

Some people were blocking port property and the port authorities asked us to move them off,” said Deputy Police Chief Patrick Haw. “Police moved aggressively against crowds because some people threw rocks and big iron bolts at officers.” (Emphasis mine).

It would see, that if the Deputy Police Chief is telling the truth, these "peaceniks" were a bit less than peaceful. If it turns out that the deputy is lying then I'll be at the front of the line to condemn the police. But if not, perhaps next time these so called peace protesters should learn not to throw harmful objects at police.

I guess they are dummer

The students who perpetrated this ought to be expelled, arrested and prosecuted accordingly. Assholes.

Water water everywhere

nor any drop to drink... unless you agree to baptized. How an Army chaplain gets away with this is beyond me. It's disgusting and loathsome. Unless there's more to this story than what's written here, this man should be court-marshalled and his commanding officer should have his/her ass handed to him/her.

Vindication (maybe)

Reuters is reporting that US Marines found Iraqi missles tipped with chemical weapons ready to fire.

While I do hope this story is true, it's important to note that we've heard variations on this song before. Let's see if this story holds up to further scrutiny.

Michael Kelly Dead

Washington Post columnist, Michael Kelly, died in a Humvee accident while traveling with the US 3rd Infintry Division in Iraq. A shame.

Memo to Arik

Shut up. No really, I mean it. The US isn't your attack dog and we have enough on our plate dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda. Besides, Iran is on a slow, winding path to democracy, Qaddafi is too busy designing rocket cars to be a major threat, and Bashar Assad will be sweating profusely knowing that his nation will be wedged between the American hammer and the Israeli anvil.

In the mean time, Arik, fix your country's economy, hunt down and destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and please get the damn settlers to cease building 2 man outputs that the IDF is forced to defend.

Stocked storehouse

American and British forces (I thought just the Brits were in Basra...) took control of a food distribution center in Basra that was chock full supplies including, "... vast amounts of food staples, tea, sugar, tires, car batteries and sewing machines in the warehouses." While the people of Basra starved, this complex used for the UN oil for food complex remained full. This raises two points:

1. It never ceases to amaze me how so many intelligent people put so much stock in the UN. How people expect a bureaucratic body comprised of representatives of corrupt governments (some much more than others) to be something more than a dysfunctional sink of corruption and ineptitude is beyond me.

2. Whenever people claim that draconican UN sanctions against Iraq have lead to starvation and countless deaths of children, remember to use this example to plunge a stake into the heart of that claim. The money was there - Saddam just preferred to starve his people to gain some good PR which people around the world lapped up.

Self-Fisking

Damian Penny provides us with a delicious self-Fisking:

Capture of Baghdad airport premature - Robert Fisk.

Allies seize most of Baghdad airport - Robert Fisk and Donald Macintyre.

Agony of Defeat

The British Royal Marines were routed at Umm Khayyal. . .

. . . in a game of soccer (football to the rest of you people).

@!#*@!^ Weather

Memo to Mother Nature: it's supposed to be SPRING!

Fisk and Arab News

Robert Fisk is surprisingly skeptical about Iraqi claims of American "crimes against humanity." However, what's more interesting is that Arab News only printed the first half of Fisk's piece which is, of course, carried in the Independent. (Compare and contrast the two stories yourself.)

The money paragraph, I found, is the final one:

Mr Ramadan repeated yet again Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and spent some time claiming the Americans and British might plant such weapons in Iraq to fool the world and justify their invasion. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, was Mr Ramadan's – and thus Saddam's – target. "He has offered advice – which is something he is in the habit of doing – and his advice is he would like to see our leader leave his post," Mr Ramadan thundered. "Let me tell this lackey, this stooge, this small entity – they know full well who his cousin is, the so-called Prince [Ambassador] Bandar in Washington, and who he works for. Let them [the Saudis] say to him: 'Go to hell. All we wish for is that you do not have an Arab name...' Let me tell you, you are too small, too much of a nothing, to say a word to the leader of Iraq. Those who give up will be swept away from the land of the Arabs." Which did little for Iraqi-Saudi relations.

Arab News is a Saudi media outlet and as such they wouldn't dare carry anything that was remotely criticial of the Saudi royal family. Par for the course to be sure.

But this raises another question. Why would Robert Fisk, who never hesitates to tout his journalistic integrity, allow his pieces to be butchered by Arab News? Surely he must know about this practice - after all, even I noticed it long before. Perhaps next time he's in town giving another lectuare on the evils of American and Israel, I'll be sure to ask him.

True patriots

Two members of the Washington state House of Representatives walked out of a Muslim prayer service. One of the lawmakers, Lois McMahan, claimed,

"It's an issue of patriotism... Even though the mainstream Islamic religion doesn't profess to hate America, nonetheless it spawns the groups that hate America."

Even though I tend to agree that Islam, or more accurately, militant Islam has produced such groups, one should expect that a person of authority would know how to distinguish between your average Muslim and those who are on the waiting list for a Semtex delivery.

Birds of a feather...

The Yahoo! caption reads as follows:

Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider, a vocal backer of Iraq against the U.S., offered asylum in his Alpine province to Iraq's foreign minister in an interview published on April 3, 2003. Haider, a long-time friend of Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was asked if Sabri could count on refuge in Carinthia, where Haider is governor, if the Iraqi leadership is forced to flee. 'There is always room in my home for a friend,' Haider told the Austrian magazine News. Haider is seen launching his book about his 2002 trip to Iraq and meeting with Saddam Hussein, in Vienna March 19. (Michael Leckel/Reuters)

I don't think any further comment is needed.

No great loss

I don't know why people are making such a big deal over Madonna pulling her new video. It's not like MTV shows videos anyway.

French Graffiti

It's becoming increasingly difficult to remain a francophile when the French do things like this:

Obviously the work of a few individuals shouldn't be used to smear an entire country, but when 30% of said country wants Saddam to win, one is tempted to think that this act is approved by a large percentage of the population.

Infidel(ity)

For some reason, this blog is ranked 7th by a Google search for infidelity. Fortunately, my girlfriend knows nothing about this.