U.S. Envoy Presses Iraq To Ensure Equal Rights

I hope that the Iraqi council drafting the constitution change the current draft to protect the rights of women and minorities. The surest way allow the insurgency to continue is to oppress a section of the population, no matter how small.

Was Hiroshima hell or high-water mark?

In yesterday's USA Today, an article about the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The article starts innocently enough, bringing up the usual criticism, but has the conclusion that it was necessary to save the lives of U.S. soldiers. However, USA Today wasn't done. In the last paragraph, it lauds Truman as "the President who brought us both victory and peace in a war that was justified and necessary", while criticizing George Bush as a "self proclaimed 'War President'" and has "brought us neither victory nor peace in the Iraq war, which former President Jimmy Carter this week called 'unnecessary and unjust'."

Besides all the obviously flawed comparisons, is USA Today advocating dropping an atomic bomb on the Middle East to win us victory and peace?

Iran rejects Europe's nuclear deal

Hmmm...let's get this straight. Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium while negotiations proceeded with the EU-3, but are reportedly rejecting the proposed EU-3 deal because it doesn't include the right to enrich uranium? Huh? Are they even trying to negotiate in good faith?

I wouldn't be surprised if talks break down.

Best QB ever

Though I'm a Cowboys fan, and Troy Aikman is my favorite player, Brett Favre is the best QB I've ever seen play the game. He's the only player in the league who can say throwing for 64% completion, 4000+ yards, and 30TDs is a disappointing year. This guy is 35 years old but still plays like he's 25. He has a passion for the game that's palpable even through the TV. A true NFL football player.

Santorum doesn't believe in Creationism, heads explode

In a weird turn of events, Rick Santorum, darling of the religious right, made both conservative and liberal heads explode Thursday when he said that he's "not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom."

Whoa.

'Boys suffer a loss

Not good news for my Cowboys. Marcus Spears injured his knee, ankle, and groin in practice.

I hope that it's nothing serious. I'm excited about the potential for the 'Boys this season, but this is a big blow to the excitement.

Riiiiiiight

Logan Airport is fighting tenant Continental Airlines's free Wifi service for its valued customers by claiming that it is an "unacceptable risk" to security because it might interfere with law enforcement communications equipment.

Are they serious? I bet that they're hoping that the court system is composed of a bunch of ignoramus judges that can't realize that there is no difference between the Continental system and Logan's own WiFi service.

Actually there is a difference. Logan charges for it.

Galloway in Bizarroworld

Respect Party MP George Galloway's abhorrent interview on Syrian TV defies all bounds of rational thought. What's most disgusting? It's not that he supports the terrorists against his own countrymen, but that he calls those Iraqis killed by suicide bombers "collaborators". I guess he'd even lump in Iraqi children, too.

Over There

A powerful show. The best series on TV. Watch it.

Israel soldier lynched after killing four in Gaza pullout row

It goes to show how powerful the confluence of religion and land is to both sides when an Israeli soldier kills four Israeli Arabs because of Israel's upcoming withdrawal from Gaza. The difference between the Israelis and the Palestinians is that Israelis are not afraid to call Nathan Zaada a "terrorist".

What's laughable, though, is the Palestinian response calling for Israel to "collect the weapons of the settlers and take steps aginst the settler leaders because they endanger Palestinian civilians".

You've got to be kidding me.

John Roberts, gay-friendly?

I wonder how the conservatives and liberals are taking the news that John Roberts assisted gay rights activists with advice that helped them win a Supreme Court case in 1996 protecting people against sexual orientation discrimination. Will they switch their votes? What's more, George Bush must have known of this. What would prompt him to go against his supposed Christian conservative base?

A Catholic, gay-friendly Supreme Court nominee of George Bush. Will the wonders never cease?

Won't somebody think of the children?

If true, the New York Times better have a good explanation in investigating Supreme Court nominee John Roberts's children. Bill Borders, NYT's senior editor said that his reporters "made initial inquiries about the adoptions...understanding the sensitivity of the issue."

Why in the world would they even care about the origins or history of his kids other than they were adopted, they're 5 and 4, and their names are Josie and Jack?

There's probably nothing to it, but still, it doesn't sit right.

14 Marines, Interpreter Killed in Northwestern Iraq

From WaPo. All I can say is that we stike back against this heinous act.

The Tavern and Wish

After a long day at work (a stupid RAID array controller went down), I headed out to catch the Sox game at The Tavern and Wish in Central Square.

Great place. It had a lot of plasma TVs and Stone Ruination and Arrogant Bastard beer. Fantastic. If you haven't been there, you should check it out.

NY Legislation Would Allow Profiling Of Arabs

It's interesting when a Democrat introduces legislation allowing racial profiling of Arabs in New York during bag searches, and then have the police call it illegal, ineffective, and against police policy.

I generally don't believe in profiling. It's intellectually lazy and a poor substitute for observation and deduction. It may be reasonable to add it to the arsenal, but it should never be the ovverriding determinant on whom to search. But in real life, I'd check every bag that looked like it could have a bomb in it. Barring that, random searches of bags that look like they could have bombs in them.

UPDATE: Myopic Zeal (in the comments section) points out that profiling is simply using past data in making a general picture of a situation or type of person, and is the result of observation and deduction. True enough, but racial or ethnic characteristics shouldn't be the end all and be all. It should be on equal footing with any other tool at our disposal (that guy's sweating a lot and looking nervous) and cannot be the predominant one.

Iran Is Judged 10 Years From Nuclear Bomb

What to make of the Washington Post article that says that the National Intelligence Estimate believes that Iran is a decade away from nuclear capability? Well, it's not earth-shattering news, though Dafna Linzer would like you to believe that "Bush is lying!" about Iran's nuclear intentions, by writing that "Administration officials have asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal". However, the article contradicts itself two paragraphs later when a 'senior intelligence official' says that "it is the judgment of the intelligence community that...Iran is determined to build nuclear weapons." That, and the ever-present argument that why in the world would Iran even want nuclear energy if it's sitting on top of a huge motherload of oil??? Environmental concerns?

So, where are we? About 10 years away from Iran having enough fissile material to make a bomb, not counting whether it has the technical expertise or equipment to deliver said weapon (the article doesn't say directly, but it implies that the Iranians have redesigned existing missile technology to do so). It does give more leeway for the diplomats, but unless Iran goes through a regime change towards democracy in between now and then, we'll have to be prepared to use force.

Steroid apologist

Jayson Stark, an ESPN journalist, writes the most vacuous and morally bankrupt article that I've ever read, excusing Rafael Palmeiro's suspension for steroid use. He pretty much uses the excuse that if one cheater got in, then every cheater should get in, as long as it wasn't against the rules. That may be legitimate, but he takes himself out of the debate by going further by making the stupid argument that just because he doesn't know who cheated or what the standard is, he's just going to go with performance.

Yes, we all must have the presumption of innocence, but if you're caught, that pretty much means you're guilty, right? That's the standard in sports, just as it is in the real world. You're presumed innocent until proven guilty, and Rafael Palmeiro was proven guilty. Heck, I'm just going to into ad hominems here, because the article is just that bad. Stark gets even dumber by saying that everything is really copacetic anyway, because who knows how well a player would have done if he hadn't taken steroids! Amazing! So, let's recap:

1) As long as it's not against the rules, it's ok.
2) If it's against the rules, it's still ok to take steroids, as long as you're not caught.
3) You're innocent until proven guilty, and even then, you're innocent, because, in Stark's world, there's no standard for telling whether someone's used steroids or not.
4) There's no way to tell how steroids affects your game anyway, so it's ok.

Is this guy for real? As I said, morally bankrupt.

Waaaahh!

Good on Bush for recess-appointing John Bolton. It's amazing that the Democrats are playing games with Bush's nominees. Is this how they repay the overwhelming nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, when they could have scuttled her for any number of reasons.

What's funny is my wonderful state's Senator Ted Kennedy's quote in the article, which has to be in the running for dumbest statement of the year:

"It's even worse for the administration to abuse the recess appointment power by making the appointment while Congress is in this five-week recess."

Huh?

Sure, we believe you, Palmeiro

I can't believe that Palmeiro lied before Congress when he said never took steroids.

He's done, and he should be banned from the Hall of Fame.

Keep the U.N.'s grubby hands off the Interweb

Senator Norm Coleman gives a blistering statement condemning the U.N.'s opinion that it should assume governance of the Internet, thereby taking it out of the successful hands of the United States, the creator of it all.

With it's track record, I wouldn't want the U.N. to even balance my checkbook.

Helen Thomas pissed

So what happens when the tables are turned and the reporter is now making the news about killing herself if Cheney runs and calling him 'one more liar'? Helen Thomas knows. She whines about it and says that "we all say stuff we don't want printed."

Awwww. This is me crying for her, the big baby. I'm sure Dick Cheney didn't want his 'a**hole' comment written about, either. Reporters are public figures, too.

RTFA and other acronyms

Apparently, Andrew Sullivan, who is a very smart man, has to go back to school and take some remedial reading comprehension. Sullivan misinterprets WaPo's editorial about the prisoner situation at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, although WaPo does a good job helping him along. I say 'prisoner situation' because, in my opinion, the only definition of torture is anything that causes physical suffering on the prisoner. Any sort of mental games, threats, and things to that effect would be completely allowed. Thus, using snarling dogs, for instance, would be perfectly acceptable to me, though, because physical suffering would be unacceptable, its efficacy would be called into question.

Anyway, back to the point. It seems like Sullivan's zeal in bringing down Rumsfeld is so great that he misreads the editorial. In it, WaPo claims that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller is potentially guilty of lying about what he did and when he did it and implies that Rumsfeld had a hand in Abu Ghraib, which Sullivan believes wholeheartedly. At the heart of it though, the only issue is that Miller may have lied about whether his team at Abu Ghraib in August 2003 recommended the actions that sent several low-level military personnel to jail after Rumsfeld had revised interrogation rules in April of the same year. Rumsfeld is, as of right now, still totally in the clear regarding Abu Ghraib, since he specifically disallowed such actions before Miller was sent to Abu Ghraib, a fact Sullivan willfully ignores.

Got that? And we still haven't determined whether the Rumsfeld-approved interrogation policies of December 2002 were illegal or not, even though Sullivan believes it as given.

Sundays

I'm blogging a little more today, because Sundays are usually very slow at the liquor store. There is generally very little business, which gives me time to surf the Interweb. Nice.

Aid to Africa blamed for famine

James Shikwati blames economic aid for Africa's famine. He claims that it causes governments in Africa to focus on how to get more aid instead of finding ways to feed their populations.

The gist: personal responsibility. And for that, I applaud him.

Iran making demands?

It seems like Iran is threatening to restart nuclear activites if the EU doesn't submit to their demands.

When Iran is making demands, it's time to threaten military action. Iran will never really stop seeking nuclear weapons and all negotiations without the threat of force will merely delay their progress and not stop it.

Sure, we believe you

Hussain Osman, a suspect in the July 21 failed bombing attempts in London claims that the second attempt is not connected with the July 7 terrorist attacks and was not meant to kill anyone.

I'm sure that the bombs were only meant to damage the seats.

Macross!

I'm getting this, and no one can stop me!

It's no Jetfire, but the Macross (Robotech) version is where Hasbro got the idea, anyway.

I want my porn tax-free!

Yes, that's right Senator Carper, taxing porn will really keep kids away from X-rated material. Ever heard of eMule, Tom?

He also wants pornographers to use age-verification software to keep kids away. How would this be different from what's going on now? Most online pornographers require a credit card for age verification already.

Not that I'd know or anything.