The History Channel is concerned about its low viewership and is considering adding some MTVesque style to their programming in order to attract younger viewers. As I think it's a noble goal to get the youth of America to learn some history, I propose the following new shows:
Real World: Tenochtitlan. The true story of seven strangers, picked to live as future sacrifices to the god Quetzalcoatl, find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
Road Rules: Appian Way. Follow the adventures of six 20somethings as they face the challenges of exploring the Roman Empire. See the Roadies train as Praetorian guards, race chariots in the Circus Maximus, and subdue marauding Visigoths.
Punk'd: History. Ashton Kutcher dresses as Gavrilo Princip and pretends to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Will Austria-Hungary declare war on Serbia?
Cribs: Old School. Join the History channel as history's rich and famous show off their modest dwellings. The first episode features Louis XIV's Versailles, Kubla Kahn's Xanadu and Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.
Becoming Historical. We'll take ordinary historians and transform them into their favorite historical figrues such as Jean D'Arc, Caligula, Raamses II, and of course, Che Guevara. Our "historical giants" will get every bit of the power, fame or ignominy afforded the historical figures themselves, and to top it off, they'll even recreate a historical scene featuring their historical idols.
Dismissed. Watch as Julius Caesar and Marc Antony attempt to woo Cleopatra. Which of these Roman generals becomes Cleo's sugar Pharaoh and which one becomes history.
So it seems that Sultaana Freeman, the woman suing the state of Florida over having her liscense revoked because she refuses to be photographed without her head covering, plead guilty to aggravated battery for beating a foster child. While I don't believe her criminal history shouldn't affect the merits (or lack thereof) of her case, I do feel that if she can remove her headdress for her mug shot, she can do the same for her liscense photo.
Oliver Willis once claimed that Al-Jazeera was the Arab world's answer to FoxNews. Given these developments, I wonder what he'd say now. After all, as much as I can't stomach FoxNews, I haven't seen anything about their personnel being on the payroll of the FBI or CIA. It seems to me that if anything, al-Jazeera is the Arab world's equivalent to CNN
While visting Israel (and Ariel Sharon), Whitney Houston was quoted as saying: "It's home. It's a friendship I've never had with any other country." Ugh.
Norway just can't understand why they'd be on al-Qaeda's target list. I guess the city Oslo, as in the Oslo accords doesn't ring a bell with them.
(Story via Tacitus)
Israeli naval commandos captured an Egyptian fishing boad that was attempting to smuggle arms from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Gaza strip. I guess LGF was right after all. Who knew?
I suspect that there will be few consquences from this find. The Arabs will claim that it's merely and Israeli ruse but if it wasn't the arms weren't headed to Gaza anyway. The EU will keep its head buried in the sand and the US will throw out a few pithy condemnations and continue to plow down the roadmap to so-called peace.
Leave it to the Nation to defend Indymedia against being de-listed from Google news. The kicker is the last sentence:
.Will Google News now steer clear of every Middle Eastern publication to have ever given voice to an anti-Semitic remark?
I hold no brief for a large section of the Middle Eastern media but one would assume that the Nation could distinguish between a formal news outlet from what is nothing but a extensive collective blog. I guess being fluffers of the anti-Semitic left tends to skew their point of view.
Vandalized scrawled graffitti on Herzliah High School yesterday. Among the messages written were "Free Palestine" and "Die Sharon." I'm of course angry, but hardly surprised. After all, this isn't the first time type of thing has happened in Canada or any other place with a population sympathetic to the Palestinians. Assuming this was perpetuated by Arabs, this act is doubly sad, because according to the story, a similar incident happened at a Muslim school.
Oh, and this school was my girlfriend's high school, so on her behalf, I'd like to give these cowards a hearty fuck you.
"Jean D'Arc" story in the Observer which alleges that US Marines sprayed graffiti on the ancient remnants of Ur. It's quite possible that our marines committed such vandalism, but one of the graffiti was written as "SEMPER FE." So either this was committed by a Marine who can't spell, or it was done by someone else.
After negotiatoins between the Indonesian government and Aceh rebels collapsed, Indonesia's president, Megawati Sukarnoputri ordered as massive invasion of Aceh province, aiming to destroy the rebels. General Endriartono Sutarto ordered 400 officers to "Hunt them down and exterminate them."
Mark those words, "hunt then down and exterminate them." Notice the lack of international outcry. Notice that Aceh has some of Indonesia's largest natural gas field, yet there are no chants of "No Blood for Gas." Nothing. Just another day in the third world.
As a side note, how can you not love the name "Megawati?" With a name like that, you know she has to wield some power.
Things are not looking good in post-war Iraq. I realize that the war ended relatively recently, but we have to get a handle on the rampant crime that appears to be occuring all over Iraq.
The multiple suicide bombings in Morocco and the terrorist attacks in Israel made for a bloody and depressing weekend. While it's obvious that the attacks in Morocco (as well as those in Riyadh) were messages from al-Qaeda, Ze'ev Schiff explains the meaning of the recent spate of Hamas attacks.
One part of Schiff's analysis which struck me is this:
So far, Sharon has made do with 'positive statements' about the posts filled by Abu Mazen and Dahlan. In practice, Israel has not taken one substantial step to make their appointments more smooth. Sharon is being driven by his desire to buy time, and to avoid a situation in which he is pressured to remove illegal outposts. Sharon agrees with his defense minister Shaul Mofaz, (who claims that the road map is in Israel's best interests) but does not want to halt the fruitless talks with Abu Mazen.
It seems to me that Israel can do two things at this point to assist Abu Mazen: halt the construction of settlements and ease up on travel restrictions for the Palestinians. Of the two the former is least likely to affect Israel's security and the only cost is ideological, not practical. In fact, from my vantage point, at least in terms of relations with the Palestinians and the rest of the word, halting settlement construction is all pro and no con. It's easy to implement, it gives Abu Mazen something to show for his efforts, and if there is no quid pro quo, the cessation can easily be rescinded. Somehow, Sharon and the hardliners in the Israeli government are going to have to see this if there's any chance progress can be made on the peace front.
Update: Yet another Hamas suicide bombing, this time killing 3 and injuring 18. Hamas needs to be liquidated.
According to the Daily Mirror the documents found in Iraq which demonstrated that British MP, George Galloway received millions of pounds from Saddam's government are fake:
But the documents, offered by former Republican Guard General Salah Abdel Rasool, contain obvious mistakes.
A scrawl claimed to be Mr Galloway's signature on "receipts" has no similarity to his real one.
The operation, revealed by the Mail on Sunday, also threw up glaring misspellings of Iraqi officers' names and mistakes in the title of Saddam's son Qusay, also said to have signed the document.
This story was part of a series of damning stories broken by the Daily Telegraph and as I said before, they seemed too good to be true. It's worth keeping an eye on this story. As much as I detest Galloway, using forged documents to bring him down isn't the way to do it.
The posts and comments over at Little Green Footballs often inspire a deep loathing in a number of people, but this has to be one of the most laughable accusations leveled against it. I had no idea that our propaganda arm was so effective! It even fooled me!
On a more serious note, something that occurred to me is how anti-Semitism differs from pretty much all other forms of bigotry and racism. Typically, the targets of racism are denigrated: blacks are stupid, Mexicans are lazy, Arabs are backwards murderers, etc. Conversely, anti-Semites tend to portray Jews as being all powerful: Jews control the American government, Jews control the British government, Jews control Hollywood and the media, Jews are using communism to take over the world, Jews are capitalist imperialists, etc. I suppose that we should be flattered that these people fear our alleged omnipotence, but I find that I'm unable to be so.
I only rarely read the Daily Kos mainly because I find it's shrill carping and incessent "the sky is falling" claims to be annoying. Case in point, would be today's post by Steve Gilliard who claims, among other things, that the recent terrorist attack in Saudia Arabia demonstrates that al-Qaeda is almost as strong as it was just prior to 9-11. In other words, because al-Qaeda was able to pull off this attack in what is basically their backyard, it shows that al-Qadea has so far emerged viturally unscathed in the "War on Terrorism" thus far.
Perhaps I'm naive, but the choice of this target indicates the opposite: that al-Qaeda can only organize themselves in a country where support for their cause reaches to some of the higher levels of the government. If and when they hit (God forbid) Europe or the US, then we can discuss if al-Qaeda's potency is as great as it used to be.
Salam Pax is back courtesy of some family and Diana Moon. There are 15 posts that written during the war but could only just be published which give an civilian's view of the war. I particularly recommend the post from April 17.
The schmucks that carried out this act would qualify for the epithet "Bush Fedayeen" more so than what the far-left usually yelps about. It's one thing to ridicule and boycott celebrities that make stupid anti-war/ anti-Bush remarks, but it's an entirely different matter to rearrange a director's face. And to think, this occurred in France of all places. I hope the police find these two and prosecute them accordingly.
Imshin and Allison provide some touching remarks on Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Memorial Day.
Or so said an Alitalia pilot after landing a plane in Tel Aviv. It was a particularly classy move considering it's Yom HaZikaron
Now that all the revelations about Bill Bennet's gambling habit have come to fore, I'm wonder if it was his idea to put all the wanted Iraqis on playing cards.
China may have infected the world with SARS, but America has taken its revenge by infecting China with... the dreaded mullet.
I'm about to jump into an area about which I know far too little: economics, specifially how government policies affect the economy. Daniel Gross of Slate, skewers Bush for destroying jobs during his presidency so far, citing how since Bush took office, 1.7 million jobs have been lost. I can't argue with Gross' figure so I'm going to assume it's true. But then Gross goes on to say this:
The seasonally adjusted figures for the past decade should jar the tax-cut supporters who insist marginal tax rate reductions create jobs. Orthodox economic theory holds that raising taxes kills jobs and cutting taxes creates them. But in the 16 months after the passage of the 1993 Clinton budget plan, which raised marginal income tax rates on the highest earners, payrolls rose from 110.96 million to 115.92 million. In other words, the biggest tax increase in American history "created" nearly 5 million jobs in less than a year and a half. In the 22 months since President Bush signed his tax cuts in June 2001, the number of payroll jobs has fallen from 132.11 million to 130.41 million in March 2003. In other words, the biggest tax cut in American history has so far "cost" us 1.7 million jobs and counting. (Bush supporters, with more passion than evidence, insist that job losses would have been worse had the tax cuts not been passed.)
No doubt these numbers put a wry smile on ardent Clinton supporters/Bush bashers, but was that job increase really due to the tax increase, or were they only loosely correlated. Similarly, has the American economy shed so many jobs because of the enacted Bush tax cut or in spite of it. Honestly, I can't comment on the economic conditions of '92-'93 since I was a poor college student whose only economic concern was how to live off a pittance in work-study earnings. However, it seems to me that right now the current economic situation is due more to a correction for the economic growth we all enjoyed that was fueled by, among other things, the dot com bubble, creative bookkeeping, and a good deal of over-optimistic stock recommendations than to Bush's fiscal policies.
Again, I could be wrong, but I'm inclined to believe that lag between government economic policy enactment and the effects thereof is often longer than a single presidential term, let alone a couple of years.