Rage, rage, rage

Yet more rage from Islamists. It's amazing how Mahathir Mohamad blames Muslims terrorizing Muslims in Iraq as somehow the fault of the U.S. Until Islamists can look themselves in the eye and realize that all their so-called "suffering" is due to their own stupidity and self-hatred, they'll always come in second.

More Outrage

Another article with Muslims outraged over our treatment of the Koran. Nothin' but rage, these guys.

What's next, SPORKS?

Hey, I'm not the biggest fan of guys wandering around with guns blowing people away, but this is ridiculous. I mean, banning long kitchen knives? These Euros have serious issues with Big Brother. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the Springfielders get rid of their weapons, have world peace, and get promptly invaded by Kang and Kodos, armed with planks.

It's all our fault

In spite of liberating millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, the relatively few human rights abuses apparently makes the U.S. to blame for human rights abuses around the world, like that wasn't already happening in countries like China, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Venezuela...the list goes on and on. It's this sort of political grandstanding that makes groups like Amnesty International basically irrelevant. Here we are, fighting a war, and still those living in the U.S. are among the most free people in the world.

I'm not saying that what happened in Abu Ghraib and the allegations in Guantanamo, etc., are nothing to sneeze at. We, as a nation, should strive to behave better than anyone else in the world and stamp out systemic abuse. However, we are still human, and therefore mistakes, errors in judgment, and just plain malice will always be present in this war.

Symbolic message

Yesterday marked a historic day where many Republicans joined with Democrats to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and I'm glad that it happened. It effectively embarassed the President with a large number of Republicans breaking party ranks and sending a message that Bush's shortsightedness is hurting our future, both in science and in public health. Bush's lame attempt at showing a whole 21 children born out of hundreds of thousands of scientifically useful embryos is destroying my support for his Presidency and my support for the Republican party in general. The Republicans are perceived more and more as a bunch of Bible-thumping nutjobs, and that perception wouldn't be wrong. I'm hoping that this break in party discipline will embolden more moderate Republicans to speak out against this lurch to the right.

In my heart of hearts, I'm a Republican, and I support George Bush on many issues, but his dangerously misguided views on morality and science are driving me away from the party.

Culture of victimhood

Jeff Jacoby gets it right in his column on the culture of victimhood.

I've always thought that my success or failure was the result of my own actions. I try to never make excuses about why I didn't succeed in my endeavors. I freely admit that I'm not as successful financially as I could be or whatever in life because I didn't make a strong enough effort, and I know that if I truly wanted something, I'd make it happen. It's a shame that so many choose to blame others for their failures in life.

Backwoods hicks and Islamists unite!

More proof that there are certain backwoods hicks that are veering towards their own form of extremism.

Though I, as an agnostic, don't give any religion special preference over another, I certainly don't go out of my way to disrespect them. They certainly have the right to express their thoughts, but I would hope that they wouldn't behave so moronically.

Score one for the Republicans

So it seems that the filibuster has been saved...for now. This one looks like a victory for the Republicans, though. They essentially get three guaranteed nominations into the judiciary out of five and pocket the nuclear option as political capital down the road, where before they would have gotten all five in exchange for looking like the bad guy and ending the filibuster for nominations to the judiciary, which would have had cost both sides down the road. All the Democrats get is the status quo and now have to walk a fine line between politics and honest opposition.

Also, in dropping the filibuster against Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, both judges supposedly so against Democratic values that they had to use the filibuster, it implies that the Democrats were doing nothing more than simply playing partisan politics with the two of them.

That's showing 'em!

The mighty U.N. has positively verified that all Syrian intelligence personnel have left Lebanon...except for those it hasn't found, yet. Pathetic. The U.N. even got shooed away by a Syrian guard when it tried to see if the Syrians had left Qoussaya. Could it get any easier to thumb one's nose at the U.N. these days?

Spoke too soon

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. There will be another season of 24. Looking forward to it, of course.

Another season over

Well, another season of 24 is over. All in all a really good season, though it had more than its share of loose ends. Does that mean that there will be a next season??? We'll find out, I guess.