Grasshoppa

Flatulent Fido

Apparently, this book has sold 500,000 copies. Don't be surprised if your children put this on their Xmas wishlists...

Shana Tova

I'm off to Montreal for Rosh Hashana, so I just want to wish all my Jewish readers a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

Made: Arafat

The description by the former chief of Romanian intelligence of how Arafat was a creation of the KGB is fascinating. I was particularly struck by this:

In 1972, the Kremlin put Arafat and his terror networks high on all Soviet bloc intelligence services' priority list, including mine. Bucharest's role was to ingratiate him with the White House. We were the bloc experts at this. We'd already had great success in making Washington -- as well as most of the fashionable left-leaning American academics of the day -- believe that Nicolae Ceausescu was, like Josip Broz Tito, an "independent" Communist with a "moderate" streak.

KGB chairman Yuri Andropov in February 1972 laughed to me about the Yankee gullibility for celebrities. We'd outgrown Stalinist cults of personality, but those crazy Americans were still naïve enough to revere national leaders. We would make Arafat into just such a figurehead and gradually move the PLO closer to power and statehood. Andropov thought that Vietnam-weary Americans would snatch at the smallest sign of conciliation to promote Arafat from terrorist to statesman in their hopes for peace.

30 years later, it would seem that nothing has changed.

Caption time

This photo is just begging for a funny caption:

Maybe something like "Have you noogied your race-baiting James Brown wannabe today?"

Hit me with your suggestions.

Queer eye for the Clark guy

Actually, I didn't watch the debate? Why, you ask? Is it because I'm one of those apathetic Gen X'ers who doesn't care? No, it's because some brilliant planners decided to schedule the debate during the work day, when most people don't have access to TV (or a radio for that matter). So, since I've yet to read a transcript (and probably won't) I cannot enlighten you with my brilliant analysis of the debate. I will, however, offer this:

Wesley Clark needs to fire whoever tells him how to dress, because it truly takes a special degree of incompetence to make a 4 star general look like a dork:

Black pinstriped suit with a white shirt and a red patterned tie? Ugh. I know he wants to stand out, but it shouldn't be because he's fashionably challeneged.

Actually, while I'm at it, I have an idea: Queer eye for the political guy. Have the candidates under go a make over c/o the 5 Queer guys. Just seeing what they'd do to Sharpton alone would make it all worth it.

Right Said Dead

Edward Said is dead. I won't take any pleasure in his death but you can bet I'll be shedding no tears.

Ring ring

Turn off your ringers folks, the telemarketers are coming back.

Fleeced

We don't negotiation terrorists except when we do. So 400 living Arab prisoners released for 3 dead kidnapped soldiers, 1 Israeli businessmen and info on the whereabouts of an IAF pilot who has been missing for years. Who the hell negotiated for the Israelis, Mike Milbury?

Sullivan Smear

Quoth Andrew Sullivan:

To my mind, the most important thing about Clark is that he was a Rhodes Scholar. Almost to a man and woman, they are mega-losers, curriculum-vitae fetishists, with huge ambition and no concept of what to do with it.

I wonder what the folks at Oxblog would have to say about that.

Oh Cana-duh.

Two things occur to me after reading Boston College are far too low. That Prof. Lewis is the chair of the English department only bolsters my assertion.

Believing that Canada is the utopian paradise of the western hemisphere, Professor Lewis claims that pain felt by good American liberals due to the state of affairs in America can easily be salved by the blue states (i.e. the ones that went to Al Gore in the 2000 election) seceding from the Union and joining Canada. According to Lewis, this can be done in a "peaceful and democratic", seemingly forgetting that the South peacefully and democratically seceded some 140+ years ago. That didn't seem to placate the Federal government at the time and somehow I don't see it placating the current warmongering neo-con administration either.

Of course, upon joining with Canada, the newly minted Canadian citizens will receive the following: "universal health care; good and affordable colleges and universities; good mass transit in major cities; lower rates of violent crime and pollution; affordable prescription drugs; and enhanced respect for the civil rights of all people, including gays and lesbians." True that health care, cheaper drugs are federally mandated in Canada (I believe) but I'd like to see how a change of national government will miraculously reduce crime rates in say Detroit to Torontonian levels (although slapping a crime ridden area with Canadian gun control laws might make for an interesting experiment), install mass transit systems in Seattle, Detroit and Los Angeles (where will the money come from?) and decreaes pollution levels (California and the Northeast already have auto emissions standards that are at least as stringent as any of those found in Canada). The enhanced civil rights claim is partially true, but the Candian recognition gay marriange is a very recent development and the fight here in American is still going on. The claim about affordable universities is ironic coming from a professor who teaches at a college that costs $37,000 anually to attend (including room and board).

Which brings me to worst part of Lewis' essay (I'll neglect the other absurd suggestions): he, after a mere three years of the Bush administration, has given up. Ah yes, he's signed petitions, given money to progressive causes, and joined street protests but alas, to no avail. That's very nice (and Lewis deserves a pat on the head) but it's votes that count and up till now the Democratic party has been piss poor at getting any. Perhaps if he and his ilk spent more time presenting a viable alternative to Bush et al. and getting out the voters, things would be different. But I suppose it's just easier to bitch and moan.

It's true that American has problems on several levels, and I for one am less than thrilled with the state of affairs of this country. But I have no patience for those like Lewis, who after three years, want to just throw in the towel. So please, Professor Lewis, go move to Canada, because if you're the kind of person who so easily gives up, we don't need you.

(Via Damian Penny)

Mon Depardieu!

Ah filial love. I do admit I loved the line of Depardieu the elder being the only person who lies to his analyst.

China on the move?

Although China is denying it, the Globe and Mail is reporting that 150,000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army have been deployed along the North Korean border. Perhaps this is China's not so subtle message to Dear Leader to play nice.

And it just gets worse

The early reports of an attack on US troops today near Khladiyah do not look good. Nor does the accidental shooting of a 14 year old boy in a wedding party (read further in the article).

Now keep quiet

It should have never come to this, but the Sharon administration's big mouth somehow magically transformed Yasser Arafat from international pariah to sympathetic figure faster than you can say "Muqata." Of course the UNSC lining up to pass a resolution to protect him was pretty sickening, but not unexpected.

Now hear O' Israeli government: if you ever again have thoughts of eliminating Arafat either just do it, or keep your mouth shut.

Fcsanaiitng

I got tihs in an eamil:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amanpout

Poor Christiane Amanpour felt so intimidated by the American government and its "foot soldiers at Fox" that she couldn't "ask the right questions." One would think that a woman who is brave enough to report from from war zones such as Iraq and Bosnia would be able to standup to a bunch of obnoxious Fox reporters, but I suppose it's just easier to whine. Of course, she never made any comment about her parent company not asking the right questions about Iraq while it felated Saddam for a decade.

Finally

It's about time someone put them out of my misery.

What's in a name?

The folks over at LGF are getting their panties in a wad over this Howard Dean quote:

""There is a war going on in the Middle East, and members of Hamas are soldiers in that war"

I despise playing semantics but taking a gander over a dictionary.com, I find:

Soldier: 1. One who serves in an army. 2. An enlisted person or a noncommissioned officer. 3. An active, loyal, or militant follower of an organization.

I'd say definition #3 suits Hamasniks to a tee. Besides, look at the greater meaning of the sentence. Dean is actually acknowledging that there's a war going on in Israel and the territories, and by calling Hamasniks "soldiers," he's doing them no favors.

@!#%!@^&

This is not good, not good at all. In fact it downright sucks...sucks for the dead Iraqi policement and their families, it sucks for US military, and going to make things suck more for the Iraqi people.

Bad trip for Chong

I'm thrilled to see that our Justice Department has its priorities in order.

Assassination

I never liked Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Lindh, especially for her see no evil attitude towards the Palestinians, but her murder is nevertheless shocking and sad. I realize that emotions were running high over the impending Euro vote, but who would murder a politician over a currency?

Two years later

So today marks the 2nd anniversary of largest terror attack ever perpetrated on American soil, and perhaps anywhere. No doubt today will be filled with commemorations, rememberances, and personal narratives of what one was doing on that fateful day. I am reluctantly going to add to those personal narratives not because it will help me deal with what happened (fortunately I didn’t know anyone directly affected by the attack – just a couple of “there but for the grace of God” close calls) but to relay an interesting anecdote to make a point.

When my former roommate awoke not long after the second tower was it, I of course told him what happened. Once he recovered from the shock and disbelief, one of the first things he said to me, half jokingly, was something to the effect of “they’re going to be celebrating this as a great victory in the Middle East.” Then after CNN showed the video of the Palestinians dancing in the street, he shook his head and said, “see, I told you so.” Obviously this is an unremarkable exchange except for the fact that my old roommate is Palestinian-Jordanian. And so the point is that if he wasn’t surprised about the celebrations, neither should anyone else.

Social Justice

Sitting in an information session last night for a local Jewish organization, I came across a flyer for a discussion about the Patriot Act and how it affects Jews, immigrants and the country as a whole. No doubt a worthy discussion to be having, and it coincides with one of Jewish Interaction’s tenets of social justice. However, the internet blurb doesn’t mention that one of the two invited speakers is a member of the Arab-American Anti Discrimination Committee. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, but I found it remarkable that a Jewish organization is worried about the rights of Arabs despite the fact that their brethren are happily murdering Jews in Judaism’s holiest city. Moreover, they’ve invited a speaker of an organization that was notoriously silent during the two year reign of terror perpetrated by French Arabs upon French Jews. Try to imagine the AADC doing the same for the Jewish population if the situation were reversed. Yeah, I couldn’t do it either.

With friends like theses...

Remind me never to invite any Swedes to my bacherlor party.

Another bloody day

A suicide bomber killed 7 and injured at least 14 in an attack at bus stop near army base. Now another has hit a Jerusalem cafe killing several and wounding several more.

This was bound to happen and it makes last week's near miss even more bitter.

Gil, the Israeli Guy, is now the master of his own domain and has really fixed the place up. I'm thinking that I too need to hire a blog decorator as I have been rather unsuccessful making this one look any good.

Anyhow, go visit Gil.

Separated at Birth

Is it me, or does the Ahmed Korei, the new nominee to be Arafat's next pup, er PM look like a skinnier, balder version of Ariel Sharon?

Sovereignty in seven steps

L. Paul Bremmer informs us of how Iraqis will obtain sovereignty in seven easy steps, which I suppose is a reassuring in that at least the administration has some vague idea of a plan. Perhaps this was written to mollify the French, but frankly, it's not a very useful piece. The problem right now is not giving Iraqis sovereignty, but giving them some sense of security and normalcy; an Iraqi government that can't police the county and maintain its own borders is next to useless. What needs to be articualted is a plan for how the Iraqi infrastucture will be repaired and how an effective police force and Army will be created. Someone wake me up when that happens.

TMFT

It seems to me that postdocs at Udub have a bit too much free time. Instead of diligently working to progress the state of chemistry, I find that one such postdoc tries to salute his fantasy football team with this perversion of "Hail to the Redskins:"

Hail to the Graters! Hail victory! Blades on the warpath! Fight for old Jamesey!

Pass and Pass and score -- we want a lot more!
Slice'em dice'em We will grate-em big score!
Cut-em! Grate-em! Touchdown! -- we want Heap more!
Grate on! Grate on! Until you have won!
Sons of James Gib-son! Rah! Rah! Rah!

Hail to the Graters!
Hail victory!
Blades on the warpath!
Fight for old Jamesey!

Too bad the Cheese Graters are going to get rocked by Hasidic Speed Metal

Touchy touchy

Poor Bruce Ralston is upset about Gregg Easterbrook's "cheap shot" at Canada in his weekly TMQ column. That it was made in response to a cheap shot by the mayor of Toronto seems to have gone unnoticed. If you can dish it out, my Canadian friends, be prepared to take it.

Swiss missed

Last week I attended a conference on voice quality in Geneva. While I thoroughly enjoyed the conference (which is quite remarkable since I almost never like these sorts of things), Geneva, and Switzerland in general didn't really do much for me. In fact, my favorite part of the trip was my visit to Annecy in the French Savoy region. It was a charming, bustling town that sat on the clearest lake that I've ever seen. It's rather discouraging that I keep liking France no matter how much I try not to. Oy the guilt!

But, the trip was mostly in Switzerland, so allow me to share some thoughts:

1. For such an international city, I didn't find Geneva to be all that interesting. Aside from the UN and the Red Cross museum there wasn't much of interest.

2. Switzerland, and especially Geneva is ridiculously overpriced. $15 for a 1 mile cab ride (don't laugh we were exhausted and a bit lost)? $7.50 for a McDonald's value meal. Plus they charged us 0.5 SFr for extra ketchup! France was noticeably less expensive.

3. The Swiss aren't an especially warm or friendly people. Not that they were rude - they just weren't that friendly. Especially the fat prick at the airport cafe that tried to ridicule my girlfriend for no other reason that because he thought she was American.

4. The Swiss do dress better than Americans (not that it's a hard thing to accomplish).

5. Lausanne has a lot more charm than Geneva, even though my friend who lives there thinks it quite boring.

6. The pace of life is definitely slower in Switzerland, as evidenced by the 2 hours it took to eat dinner each night. It was a nice change of pace from the typical American ratrace.

7. The public transit system in Geneva is quite good. The trams and buses take you pretty much anywhere and seem to run on time.

8. The only thing worth buying in Switzerland was the chocolate, especially for Americans who cannot get a hold of a large selection of Nestle products.

9. Cruising on Lake Geneva is definitely a worthwhile experience, especially the part around Lausanne and Evian (yes that Evian).

10. Everything being closed on Sunday definitely puts a crimp in one's tourism plans.

Just play the game

Ah, so the 2003-2004 NFL season began last night with a gratifying victory of my Redskings over the J-E-T-S. Unfortunately, I was only able to watch up to the middle of the 3rd quarter because they started the game so damn late thanks to the ridiculous pre-game show, which was nothing short of an embarrassment. The poor servicemen and women trying to sound patriotic and get the crowd going and Britney Spears'* awful new song debut almost drove me to down the bottle of scotch my friends cracked open. Save the bonanza pre-game shows for the Superbowl.

*Were those shorts she was wearing, or just some oversized piece of electrical tape? End the pretence Britney, and just pose in Playboy already. And if you really want to boost sales, ask Christina Aguilera and Madonna to join you.

I have returned

As the few dedicated readers of this stie know, my blogging has been rather sparse. Blogging was competing with my dissertation for my attention and as you can imagine, the dissertation won. But now, having finished my Ph.D., started a new job, and moved to a new (and far nice apartment), I finally have the time to blog.

As you can see, I've redesigned the site, and although I'm not quite happy with it, I believe it looks better than it did. If any of you stylesheet gurus care to lend some expertise, however, I'd be most appreciative.

So, spread the word, I am back.

Medical Waste

I got this press release the other day in my email and I thought it was interesting. So Although I'd have to read the actual article myself before assessing the validity of its findings, it does paint a pretty damning picture. much for the private sector being more efficient than the public one.

New England Journal of Medicine Study Shows U.S. Health Care Paperwork Cost $294.3 Billion in 1999, Far More Than in Canada

Boston, MAŠ..A Special Article published in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine finds that health care bureaucracy cost Americans $294.3 billion in 1999. The $1,059 per capita spent on health care administration was more than three times the $307 per capita in paperwork costs under Canada's national health insurance system. Cutting U.S. health bureaucracy costs to the Canadian level would have saved $209 billion in 1999.

The study, the most comprehensive analysis to date of health administration spending, was carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canada's quasi-official health statistics agency. It was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The authors analyzed the administrative costs of health insurers, employers' health benefit programs, hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, physicians and other practitioners in the U.S. and Canada. They used data from regulatory agencies and surveys of doctors, and analyzed Census data and detailed cost reports filed by tens of thousands of health institutions in both nations.

The authors found that bureaucracy accounted for at least 31% of total U.S. health spending in 1999 vs. 16.7% in Canada. They also found that administration has grown far faster in the U.S. than in Canada.. Between 1969 and 1999, administrative and clerical personnel in the U.S. grew from 18.2% to 27.3% of the health work force. In contrast, the administrative/clerical share of Canada's health labor force rose modestly, from 16.0% in 1971 to 19.1% in 1996. These labor force figures exclude the 1.65 million employees at U.S. insurance companies and agencies, as well as the small number of private insurance employees in Canada.

Overhead in Canada's provincial insurance plans, which provide most coverage, averaged 1.3%. vs. 11.7% for private insurers in the U.S. and 3.6% for U.S. Medicare. Bureaucratic costs were also far higher for U.S. doctors and hospitals than for their Canadian counterparts.

Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, Harvard authors of the study, are both Associate Professors of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, a 10,000 member organization that advocates for Canadian-style national health insurance in the U.S.