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December 31, 2003

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

 by Cara & Jeremy

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Posted by Cara & Jeremy at 11:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 30, 2003

He even has a little Spaniel

 by Jeremy

It would seem to me that Cara and I have said this to each other, in one way and another, for many months now, but Jeff Jarvis has distilled it down into a potent, crystalline nugget with a high lasting about five minutes. (Took the metaphor a tad far, sorry). Here?s what Jeff Jarvis (am I the only one who occasionally forgets that his name is not Buzz Aldrin? Let me know.) says about Howard Dean?s estimation that the Bush administration is the most dangerous administration in his lifetime:

?It sounds as if Dean is trying to revive the '60s (and turn Bush into Nixon).?

This seems to hit the nail on the head. Though I think it?s more that Dean supporters are trying to revive the 60s and Dean is simply capitalizing on that. I can speak from personal experience about a certain envy of the baby boomers having had the twin unifying wrongs of segregation and Viet Nam to fuel the formation of a grassroots movement (i.e. to very sloppily and temporarily putty over the bitter infighting and self-interest that normally characterize the left (and the right, and the middle...indeed any ?movement.?)) I used to feel as if the baby boomers had abandoned the ideals of the 60s instead of passing the movement on to my generation, but I now realize how stupid this conception is. I now see that the boomers never owned the movement to begin with, they were simply the unlikely recipients of certain gifts bestowed upon them by the vast machinations of history. And you can?t just invent that sort of phenomenon using the internet. Not even the blog revolution can buy us another shot at Valhalla.

But there are a whole lot of people who seem to think that we had another chance at paradise until it was stolen from us by the evil Mr. Bush. Or, as Mr. Aldrin posits, it may be more that a lot of people want to think that this is our shot at paradise, at a new movement (one that will last forever this time). The grassroots success of the Dean campaign fuels the impression that there?s a great rebirth of idealism, or something. There?s a kind of messianic wishful thinking going on (notice it in frowning deployers of the two-fingered peace sign. Their eyes never seem to convey the same optimism as their fingers.) They want Bush to be evil, they need this war to be a genocidal quagmire, they must have their candidate lose simply because he was the one person who might have been our savior and redeemer, who might have delivered us from evil.

I?m starting to think we should let them have their evil Bush, let them have their evil imperialist quagmire, let them have their martyred savior. If they ever become interested in rejoining history, the door?s wide open.

It will get rather surreal when the hero of the left in 2008 becomes former Republican and corporate lawyer, Hillary Clinton. (Hey, but maybe the defeat of Dean is necessary for the advent of the real savior of the left).

It would have been interesting to have seen what Gore would have done to minimize the suffering of poor people during these years of recession. I suspect, though he would not have thrown the life preserver to the rich at the expense of those who needed it, and to the detriment of the federal budget, that he would not have had some magic panacea to save the country from the ravages of a post internet-orgy economy.

But that kind of thinking is just no fun for us lefties.

The Smoking Gun:

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 03:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 29, 2003

Sick and Grateful

 by Jeremy

We're so sick and tired and grateful I can't tell you. Cara and I seem to have the flu, or at least bad colds. The blogging may continue to be light for a while because we are both feeling very low-energy. But I've been keeping track of our stats and I've found to my delight that several people took us up on our plea for linkage. These are the best Christmas and Hanukkah gifts we've gotten: thanks to all of you. One of the cool things is that we get to discover blogs of compatible spirit that we may not have known about before. So I will not only be adding the following blogs to our blogroll, I will be happily reading them from now on. Here's the list so far:

California Yankee

Insults Unpunished

Warble Augur

Brykmantra

Thank you friends! Have a Happy New Year!

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 28, 2003

One-Sided Wonder Gets New Home

 by Jeremy

Anne Cunningham at One-Sided Wonder has got a new home. If you haven't discovered her witty, well balanced and well-researched punditry, then you've been missing out (clue: she's not as one-sided as all that).

- Jeremy & Cara

Posted by Jeremy at 03:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 27, 2003

Iran disaster relief

 by Jeremy

The world is rushing to help the people of Iran (though shamefully, the Iranian government has refused Israel's offer of aid) but relief organizations will need all the help they can get for some time to come. Donations can be made via the following link. And see Jeff Jarvis for other links. And see Michael Totten for a taste of the cultural devastation that deepens the loss for the City of Bam.

UPDATE: California Yankee has a roundup of several blogs' recommendations on where and how to donate for Iraqi quake relief.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 03:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 26, 2003

Welcome, Benedict

 by Jeremy

There is a brand new blog, born on Christmas day, called "Benedict Baruch." What's it about? "Comments on the economics and politics of events, and my favorite hobby (addiction) golf" is the blog's tagline. But judging from the links so far, it looks like Benedict is someone whose blogging will be worth checking out.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Info about the earthquake in Iran

 by Jeremy

It's hard to know what to say about the immensely tragic earthquake in Iran. But Jeff Jarvis has some links to check out, including info about how we may be able to help make donations for disaster relief.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Give your friends the gift of linkage

 by Jeremy

Are you going just a little crazy with guilt and remorse because you never got around to getting a Christmas or Hanukkah gift for your friends at "Who Knew?" Well, calm down and stop beating yourself up, it's gonna be OK. Here's all we want for this holiday season (we've already asked Santa for world peace and democracy and stuff):

If you haven't already done so please add us to your blogroll. And why not ask your favorite bloggers to add us to theirs too. We will be searching over the next few days for people we've wrongly overlooked on our own blogroll -- no Iranian blogs? what's our problem? -- so our own blogroll will be growing. And please don't hesitate to ask us to add your link.

Thanks friends,

-Jeremy & Cara

Posted by Jeremy at 01:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 25, 2003

Happy Holidays

 by Cara & Jeremy
Click me

It seems Old Karl has gotten himself into the holiday spirit, so I guess the rest of us don't have any excuse to bah humbug the thing. To us it doesn't matter which holiday you celebrate this time of year, whether you're religious or not. The whole seasonal festival is an exciting time during which we remind each other that the days -- despite the worsening weather -- are getting longer and that there are more important things in this world than the petty and transient hoodoo we spend so much of our time fretting about ordinarily. This is a time to get lost in sentimental visions, to find each other in sappy gestures of love and friendship, and to realize that these things aren't as sappy and sentimental as we pretend they are. And, this year, it's a time to think about people like the soldiers who right now are stuck in a country thousands of miles from home, pretending the sand is snow, trying to ignore the danger that surrounds them. The best gift anyone in the world will have received this holiday season is the gift the Iraqi people have received from the soldiers who fought successfully to liberate them (I'm planning to get Cara a CD or two, maybe some books...I don't think it stacks up).

But the mission of this one big holiday, should we decide to accept it, is to see the value in ourselves, in others, in beautiful ideas and beautiful actions, to get over ourselves and to get back in ourselves, to not be embarrased over sloppy sentiment until at least January 1st (by then the page will have scrolled down past the horizon of the taskbar) and to try and hold on to enough of that childishly naive hope that we'll have the courage to act on it to make the world a better place.

So with that we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Happy New Year and a happy everything and anything else.

And thanks to all you who have read, enouraged, commented and linked to us -- you have given us a gift beyond anything we really ever expected.

Jeremy & Cara
2003

Posted by Cara & Jeremy at 01:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 24, 2003

Intentions & Words

 by Cara

I want to thank Jeremy, once again, for keeping the ?Who Knew? ball rolling this month with his excellent posts. It's been quite a month! The holidays (purchasing as well as making gifts, decorating, etc.), my perennial job search and more personal writing have kept me distracted from focusing enough to post properly. But of course I?m thrilled about this months amazing news: Sadaam?s capture, Gaddafi handing over WMDs, Lieberman (& other Dems) finally taking off their gloves regarding Howard Dean?s ramblings. I?ve had several ideas tugging at me; privacy and transparency issues (a theme Jeremy also blogged about a while ago) being one which I?m still working on (inspired by Jeff Jarvis?s recent post about the ?sacred cow? of privacy with regards to the nurse that admitted to killing over 30 of his patients) and the theme of ?intentions? is another recent blog meme that also struck several chords with me, Michael Totten recently had a post pointing to another on the subject by Norman Geras. Here?s some more thoughts on intentions and words.

Part of why Jeremy and I started this blog, as some of you may know, was to help us process the tremendous disillusionment we experienced post-9/11 with the ?Left? in general as well as to try to understand the disillusionment I felt, on multiple fronts, working in a worker-owned ?lefty? collective. And I guess part of why I go on about all this is the hope of getting some feedback, particularly from folks out there who, though they agree with us post-9/11, still call themselves socialists and why. I guess I?d like to know what experiences, if any, our socialist friends have with the nuts and bolts of actual collectives and their reflections on these experiences. I see this microcosm as invaluable to understanding the larger issues we?re having with the ?Left? in general. I see these general ?Lefty? failures as having informed the specific failures of the collective I had to leave.

Working at this collective though gave me the opportunity to see up close the peculiar set of collectivist dynamics that allowed, I came to realize, the worst to flourish and the best to deteriorate; dynamics that come from certain assumptions about the world and assumptions that form the basic foundations of general ?lefty? thought. Ironically, I think that both these effects, the worst flourishing with the best deteriorating, were caused by the collective ignoring of both. Awful things are allowed to happen when no one is accountable for their actions or non-actions, when competency is ignored (sometimes even belittled) not rewarded, when rules are seen as another form of tyranny and so are avoided, when bringing up problems is seen as betrayal or gossip, particularly with a group of people who think that their ?enlightened collective? puts them above judgment, and when moral relativity rationalizes hypocritical and even violent acts away. Subtle and not so subtle bullying and the enabling of bullying then become sanctioned under the politically correct groupthink of tolerance and good intentions; anything is justified for the fashionable ?cause? of the day, and words mean more than actions or truth. And I think, by the way, that was why we were discouraged from using too many of them, words that is, because they?re seen as more powerful than actions, like some kind of curse or magic spell that creates their own ?truth?, concrete evidence not withstanding.

It?s hard to describe the subtle insidiously manipulative atmosphere of this groupthink set in motion, consciously and/or unconsciously, by the group?s ?elites?, the un-elected and unaccountable dominant personalities that emerged to fill the vacuum of real leadership in this supposed non-hierarchical group. New members, still learning about the business and giddy with visions of solidarity, are eager to conform, and I think it?s really a couple of years before anyone (?elites? aside) feels informed enough about the business to speak up in any real way, if at all. It?s hardly surprising then that this lack of true critical thinking causes blatant hypocritical blind spots to develop. It was jarring to realize, one day as I watched a woman in a wheelchair roll into the newly built ?evil capitalist? Wal-Mart, that the ?progressive? collective still did not have a wheelchair accessible entrance years after the plans had been drawn up; something that was a constant source of embarrassment for me every time we had to take someone?s order outside, an embarrassment I?m sure I shared with others but were all discouraged from voicing.

In the fall of ?99, before I was made a full voting member, the group had, instead of immediately following through with the wheelchair ramp, voted to open another shop with the heady and more important mission of spreading the enlightened collective business model (the committee in charge of this ?vision? by the way was literally and ?jokingly? called the ?Rule the World Committee?). Some other ?cause? (spending money to send members to collective conventions out west or to Europe), or excuse (the finance committee, coincidentally these same ?elites?, deemed there wasn?t enough money, time and time again, even though we were often able to purchase upgraded equipment, or the evil landlord at lease re-newel time left out the bit saying he?d foot some of the cost of the ramp, which was ultimately the collective?s fault for not noticing) always seemed to get in the way of follow through. It was somehow okay though because... the collective always donated a percentage of profits to charities/causes (something most businesses do these days, by the way) and because of its good intentions within the larger cause of...(what exactly?), as though talking about a ramp was as good as actually building the ramp. And this was just one instance of many.

These folks would rather feel comfortable (though I don?t know how comfortable denial of breathing in sand can be) in their collective rhetoric and illusion of egalitarianism than face the hard truths of human nature within their own camp and make the structural changes necessary to hold folks, all folks, accountable, terrible childhood or not. And because I tried my best to face this and voice my observations I became the scapegoat folks dissociated from, at best, and outright bullied, at worst. At the time, watching how all this paralleled almost exactly my experiences with and observations of the post-9/11 ?left? in general gave a surreal and suffocating dimension to the already eerie ?Body Snatchers?-like atmosphere I endured at work.

The ?Left? simply refuses, again and again, to see its own demons and obsessively projects them onto any convenient scapegoat; and so round and round we go on this cycle of rage/fear, distraction and denial fueled by post-modern/cold war assumptions they see as set in stone forever. It was really an uncanny sociological lesson, to directly witness the micro and macrocosm relationship at work and to realize how important structures, assumptions and intentions are in all of this. A person or group of people is ultimately judged by actions and not by words alone; and intentions, well they?re just that and no more if never acted upon. And ultimately, the truth of real world consequences of acting and not acting will come to everyone, left, right, center, or wherever, regardless of intentions.

So, please, I?ll reiterate my request to hear from as many folks as possible particularly those who have experiences working in socialist models, collectives, cooperatives, etc. and encourage them, and of course anyone else, to share their thoughts on the dynamics, structure, highs and lows of collective life and work.

- Cara

Posted by Cara at 04:04 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

For Those Who Would Build Rome in a Day

 by Jeremy

Score one very odd, unexpected but somehow completely on-target bonus point for Governor Pataki:

"The posthumous pardon of Lenny Bruce is a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment," Pataki said Tuesday. "I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve as we continue to wage the war on terror."

Of course the message to people in Iraq runs the risk of being "progress toward democracy is a never ending journey," but then I guess that may just be exactly the right message. Iraq has taken a quantum leap forward but their march toward democracy is only now beginning. And it's not hard to imagine an Iraqi Lenny Bruce rising out of the ashes of so many years during which free speech was altogether unthinkable. I envision him standing on an improvised stage in a dank coffee house in Baghdad, trying to remember that the unsmiling guy at the bar is not one of Saddam's Special Security officers planning to separate his head from his body. Not without fear, he will rip into the former Baathists and he will mock the American soldiers in the audience who by then will have begun to seem almost superfluous and less afraid for their own lives, and who will laugh along at their own expense. He will use words that will make pious clerics unhappy, testing the soundness, as Lenny Bruce once did, of his country?s freedom of speech.

Kitty Bruce, Bruce's 48-year-old daughter, said she was overwhelmed by the news. "I'm very rarely speechless," said Bruce. "But when I first heard he was pardoned I was speechless and then I began to cry."

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 05:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 20, 2003

Dare one imagine a freer world?

 by Jeremy

"Which do you want first," president Bush might well have said, "the good news or the bad news?" One doesn't like to hear the words 'Libya' and 'nuclear weapons' uttered in the same sentence by an American president, even if the next bit that follows is very reassuring.

Clearly it's too early to know what's really going to happen in Libya, but right now I'm feeling that this is another clue that some sort of wall has been broken down. The capture of Saddam was the final nail in the coffin. The corpse? American client-state imperialism. Half the planet may claim to fear and loath us, but the truth is that at the moment they can trust us, and that is something entirely new in many parts of the world. You may accuse Bush of bad diplomacy, but his follow-through in Iraq speaks volumes. When the United States says it will topple a fascist dictator, it will do so. When that crazy American president says the country will stick it through: it does, despite the tragic loss of American soldiers. I think this war in Iraq has been the "holy shit" moment for the Arab and Muslim world, a part of the human populace that has gotten used to being kicked back and forth between the cold war super powers and their own despotic rulers. This is the first time that a world super power can be expected to do what it says it's going to do and it is currently saying it will not tolerate terrorism and tyrannical rule in the Arab and Muslim world. This is scary news for those would once have joined a cold war America's stable of S.O.B.'s and empowering news for those people in this part of the world who had long since given up imagining a doorway through which they might enter the "first" world.

I may be having a day of dingbat optimism, but I strongly visualize some very good things coming out of the destruction of the too, too twentieth century horror that was Saddam. And if it took the threat of a tongue depressor and a flashlight to scare Gaddafi straight, then I dare say the ends justify the means. Let's hope this latest sign of hope is for real.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 02:12 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

December 19, 2003

Okrent on the Times' failure to cover Iraqi anti-terror protests

 by Jeremy

Cara is out shopping and I'm supposed to be doing other work here at home, so I'll keep this brief. Cara emailed the New York Times last week to express her unhappiness over the fact that they did not give adequate coverage to the December 10th anti-terrorism, pro-coalition demonstrations in Iraq. She just a few moments ago got this email back from Daniel Okrent, the times' new public editor:

Dear Ms. Remal,

I've been in touch with the Times's Baghdad bureau and the paper's foreign desk, who attribute the failure to cover the story in detail (a three-column picture did appear in the paper) to two things: The organizers of the demonstration failed to alert the Times in advance. And, more crucially, the responsible parties at the Times dropped the ball. As you might imagine, life can be difficult and work terribly complicated for journalists in a war zone. Still, the story should have received more thorough coverage.

I am sending a copy of this explanation to newsroom management.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Okrent
Public Editor

Both Cara and I find this extremely impressive and surprisingly heartening. It reflects quite well on Okrent and also on those at the Times who concede that they "dropped the ball." It's far more than the sorry-you're-angry letter one might have expected. Will the Times take Okrent's conclusions seriously? Let's hope so. If this is a sign that the paper is willing to listen to its readers and acknowledge its lapses, then that is good news for the Times and for cautiously faithful readers such as myself .

UPDATE: Scooped by Instapundit again. One of his readers finds the above Okrent response less than exciting. Roger Simon agrees and makes some good points. I will continue to indulge in the luxury of naive optimism. The proof of the pudding is, however, in the eating and, with watchdogs like Simon, Jarvis, Reynolds, Sullivan and the rest, you can be sure the truth will out (note: two dated cliches in one sentence).

UPDATE #2: I've got a special dispensation to read Cara's email leading up to the holidays (so I can call her on her cell phone and relay holiday-related correspondences from her family: her brother-in-law needs guitar strings...). When I told her about the Okrent email, she was in a department store listening on her Nokia and I think she said "hmm...wow" and then "what kind of guitar strings?" But it seems her full reaction would probably have been a bit more reserved and less celebratory than I may have led you all to believe in my post: she tends to be more grounded about such things (where is she lately? taking a break from blogging to plan some holiday splendor for ourselves and our families while I've been interviewing electricians for an article in a trade journal. She's a truly wonderful person who has already made the holidays very special!). Jeff Jarvis (as if there's anyone who reads us but not him) is extremely skeptical as well (about the Okrent email, not about the guitar strings).

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 06:09 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 18, 2003

This week in proto-blog history

 by Jeremy

Because I?m currently working on an article with a deadline of Monday (nothing exciting) I am finding myself remembering all kinds of small tasks around the house I?ve been meaning to get to. One thing I recently vowed was to start reading my local paper every week, so of course I made this a priority. One of my favorite features is the half page of excerpts from the newspaper?s past. I read this while sitting out on the stoop smoking a lovely cigar (and damn near freezing my fingers off). A letter to the editor dated December 22, 1933 made me realize that bloggers have always existed but simply never had the tools to do it with the outrageous rapidity of bloggers today (I?ve made this hackneyed observation elsewhere). Professor Jarvis has told us that news is a conversation; I guess it always was, but it used to be a damned slow one. Here?s the letter:

?In the conservative Springfield Republican recently appear no fewer than thirteen advertisements for Scotch Whiskey! Prohibition seems truly to be definitely over -- now what?

Incidentally, I could think of poses more suitable for our political leaders to assume before the news camera than that of sipping newly-legalized liquor. After all, why advertise the accumulated thirst!?

Indeed!
(Read the whole thi...oh, wait).

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 09:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Welcome Home

 by Cara & Jeremy

Roger Simon has returned...

Posted by Cara & Jeremy at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2003

Computers reuniting Holocaust survivors: a challenge to IBM

 by Jeremy

Leon Schipper hugs Michael Hartogs after the two Holocaust survivors were reunited at the Los Angeles International Airport December 9, 2003.

Technology is not inherently evil, nor inherently good; it is an infinitely powerful tool whose uses are equally unlimited.

It was good to see this story about a Red Cross program that leverages the power of the internet (among other things) to reunite families separated by the holocaust. And the technological spin of this piece made me reflect, by way of bitter contrast, on the shameful role that computer technology at its inception -- at the hands of IBM?s founder, Thomas Watson -- played in enabling the holocaust. This is a horrible legacy for IBM to bear, but I would suggest that there are ways for the company to prove that it?s not the same beast it was then.

As Iraq begins its own endless journey to come to terms with the immense task of rebuilding families from the remains of their own slow holocaust, I propose that the current management of IBM search for an opportunity to atone for the crimes of its founder. They could start humbly by supplying internet and multimedia journalism technology to people like Zeyad to help them give voice to their people in a way that the world press seems uninterested in doing. An equally paltry investment could set up a program comparable to the Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center in Iraq to help reunite Iraqi families and reveal the crimes of the Baathist regime.

My challenge to IBM: show that your hearts are as solidly built as your Thinkpads.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 03:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

commande de rotation?

 by Jeremy

Ok, I'm sorry, I don't speak French. But "commande de rotation" is what Google's translation tool spits out when you type in "spin control" and click "English to French." Translate the French into German and then back into English and you get "Order for revolution." Make of that what you will. In any event, this is what France is now saying about it's anti-Semitism problem:

Paris Official Rejects Anti-Semitism News

The French domestic intelligence chief, Yves Bertrand, on Tuesday disputed recent reports of rising anti-Semitic attacks in France, arguing that statistics showed a sharp drop in such incidents.

"I see a surge in anti-Semitism which is above all very widely reported by the media, which means that people are talking about it a lot, but statistically there are not many more cases than in previous years," Mr. Bertrand told a French radio station, according to Reuters.

France registered 109 anti-Semitic acts and 392 threats in the first 11 months of 2003, a drop of 43 percent for acts and 45 percent for threats from 2002, according to government figures cited by Reuters.

Yes well, frankly I'll put more credence in what Roger Simon has to say upon his return from Paris this week.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 01:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 16, 2003

France Acknowledges Rise of "New Anti-Semitism"

 by Jeremy

The toppling of the Baathist menace in Iraq seems to be having the expected salutory effect, encouraging tolerance and openness in other beleaguered nations. And one may suppose that France is only the beginning of this domino effect:

Israel has welcomed the European Union?s decision to express "deep concern at the increase in instances of anti-Semitic intolerance" in its concluding remarks at the end of the European Council meeting Saturday in Brussels.

An official French government commission concluded Thursday that there was a rise in the so-called "new anti-Semitism," relating to a surge in attacks on European Jews since the start of the intifada in 2000.

"This anti-Semitism is real in our country," commission secretary Remy Schwartz said. "We found children have to leave public schools in some areas because they are not physically secure." France?s 5 million-strong Muslim community and its 600,000 Jews are both the largest minorities of their kind in Europe.

Perhaps it's only lip service -- and the confession loses some of its force given that the French commision secretary quoted has a decidedly Jewish surname -- but it's something . [disclosure: My own surname sounds rather Christianized, but it was in fact only the spelling that was ethnically cleansed at Ellis Island, the origninal name having been some variant of Braun or Brun, A name which in Yiddish, as in German means...Brown. But I'm getting tangential now: I really shouldn't blog past midnight.]

- Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:53 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 15, 2003

Welcome Aboard, Hitch

 by Jeremy

It's good to have Christopher Hitchens at the podium, as it were:

HE had all his visitors body-searched and all his food tasted in advance. He was obsessed with hygiene and stray infections.

He wore a different uniform every day and built himself a vulgar palace in every city of his miserable country. Nice, then, to see him found like a rat in a hole, covered with grime, sprouting a dirty grey mane, and being shaven and combed for lice.

"He was in our minds at all times - and that was power, of a kind." These words, from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, convey a faint sense of the symbolic and practical importance of the fact that, today, we enter the post-Saddam epoch.

(Via the Christopher Hitchens Web)

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

French Lawyer Ready to Defend Saddam

 by Jeremy

If I had not read this story myself I'd have pegged it as a gag by, say, Tim Blair. But, come to think of it, Blair's comedic standards are too high to go for a goof this obvious. No, this little nugget is real:

A French lawyer [Jacques Verges] known for his notorious clients said on Monday he would be ready to defend Saddam Hussein and that the former Iraqi leader must be presumed innocent at any trial.

Among Verges' former clients: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie.

I honestly hope this does not happen. I dare say that decent French citizens have suffered enough embarrassment already without having to watch for months as one of their countrymen whispers sweet litigatory nothings in Saddam's ear on worldwide television.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 06:47 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Zeyad checks in

 by Jeremy

Zeyad finally gets to the web and two things are notable. The first is his painful honesty in relating his reactions to the images of Saddam Hussein's captured: it's a warts-and-all self analysis. The second puts into perspective how courageous Zeyad and his fellow Iraqi bloggers have been to be as honest and transparent as they have:

I went out again, the streets were empty now, everyone was at home watching the news. Celebratory gunfire continued for hours. In the evening, I went out to fond armed teenagers filling our street carrying Saddam's pictures. They were shouting the vilest things about Sistani, Hakim, and even Ali Bin Abi Talib. Some of the mob were dressed in Fedayeen clothes with grenades and explosives in their hands. I got foolish and tried to take photographs. They dragged me in their midst and I thought this was it. Some accused me of being a spy, and others shouted "Kill the bastard". My parents and some neighbours were all over me and convinced the kids to leave me alone. After that they blocked the street and started to threaten passing cars, all the while shooting in the air. 4 or 5 IP cars showed up and the crowd dissipated. Shops closed and the streets were empty again.

I went to Omar's and told him we'd better postpone our trip to Basrah because the situation didn't look very good. I didn't go out today. It was totally different in the rest of Iraq, people were happy and danced in the streets the whole day. There is a glimmer of hope for Iraqis that Saddam's ghost won't be stalking them anymore. Some people described yesterday as the best day since April 9.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mugabe not to be outdone by Iran in censoring the Internet

 by Jeremy

In Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, censoring the internet is only the tip of the iceberg. Why censor the product, after all, when you can police people's thought crimes right at the source -- their own desktops:

The Mirror, a Zimbabwean newspaper owned by a businessman with close links to the ruling party, reported last week that the department of information in Mugabe's office was planning to spend billions of Zimbabwe dollars to acquire sophisticated software that would enable it to hack into people's computer systems. A 24-hour monitoring team would be set up and overseen by intelligence officials, the paper said.

The Mirror said that this move, if successfully completed, meant that the government would be able to monitor individual information, messages and letters, leading to the arrest of all those involved in circulating information that the government held undermined the sovereignty of the country.

Fourteen people were arrested recently under harsh new state security laws for exchanging e-mail messages critical of Mugabe. State prosecutors claimed they were spreading "falsehoods" and organising illegal strikes.

Under Zimbabwe's draconian Public Order and Security Act, it is a crime to say things considered uncomplimentary to the head of state and even to gesture at his motorcade.

As I sit here in my living room writing whatever the hell I please on my laptop computer -- having spent much of the day reading and writing about the capture of Saddam Hussein -- I'm resolved never to go back to the days when I took my basic freedoms for granted.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 02:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 14, 2003

?He used all his French?

 by Jeremy

A group of governing council members including Chalabi visited Saddam Hussein in custody, partly to positively identify him, the New York Times reports. The meeting yielded some chillingly compelling moments:

"The world is crazy," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a Governing Council member in the room on Sunday after Mr. Hussein was captured near his hometown, Tikrit. "I was in his torture chamber in 1979, and now he was sitting there, powerless in front of me without anybody stopping me from doing anything to him. Just imagine. We were arguing, and he was using very foul language."

Chalabi states the irony more bluntly:

"The most important fact: Had the roles been reversed, he would have torn us apart and cut us into small pieces after torture," Mr. Chalabi said. "This contrast was paramount in my mind, how we treated him and how he would have treated us."

And there was a hint, as inferred by Chalabi, of Saddam?s taking credit for the violence against progress in Iraq:

"He was not remorseful at all," Mr. Chalabi said. "It was clear he was a complete narcissist who was incapable of showing remorse or sympathy to other human beings."

Mr. Chalabi said Mr. Hussein had also suggested that he was behind the recent wave of attacks against American soldiers in Iraq since his defeat.

"He said, `I gave a speech, and I said the Americans can come to Iraq but they can't occupy it and rule it,' " Mr. Chalabi said."He said, `I said I would fight them with pistols, and I have.'"

"He didn't say it directly, but he was trying to take credit for it," Mr. Chalabi said.

While there?s perhaps no point in attempting to wound the pride or scar the conscience of a man who has no soul, it?s pleasing to see that these representatives of a people that had suffered so much under Saddam?s monstrous regime for so many years, were able to face and confront the man who had turned their country into a living hell:

Mr. Rubaie said: "One thing which is very important is that this man had with him underground when they arrested him two AK-47's and did not shoot one bullet. I told him, `You keep on saying that you are a brave man and a proud Arab.' I said, `When they arrested you why didn't you shoot one bullet? You are a coward.'"

"And he started to use very colorful language," he said. "Basically he used all his French."

"I was so angry because this guy has caused so much damage," Mr. Rubaie added. "He has ruined the whole country. He has ruined 25 million people."

"And I have to confess that the last word was for me," he continued. "I was the last to leave the room and I said, `May God curse you. Tell me, when are you going to be accountable to God and the day of judgment? What are you going to tell him about Halabja and the mass graves, the Iran-Iraq war, thousands and thousands executed? What are you going to tell God?' He was exercising his French language."

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Sociological Field Study

 by Jeremy

Hippercritical has a round-up of first reactions from some anti-war bloggers to the Saddam capture. I suggest reading this sort of stuff with clinical curiosity -- don't let it get your goat.

UPDATE: Anne at One-Sided Wonder has a brief post on the French reaction and reverse engineers the following French policy directive:

I think all French pols are instructed to say "sovereignty" in any sentence in which they use the word "Iraq."

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 01:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A Great Day to Read the Iraqi Blogs

 by Jeremy

Here's a sampling:

Omar:

The big brother in a small hole
Horrraaaaa
It's the justice day.
I'm speechless.
I'm crying.
The tyrants' hour has finally came. I went down to the streets to share the joy with my brothers. This is our day, the day of all the oppressed and good people on earth.
Tears of joy filled the eyes of all the people.
Saddam, the coward, hides in a hole, shaking in fear from being captured.

Alaa:

The Ululation of Gunfire again; you should all be here now. What fireworks! You should be here. The Baghdadis are expressing what they really think again. Can you hide this now CNN & others? I don?t like swearing, but for those foul friends of the murderers, of all nationalities and kinds, it is like a spike has shot up their asholes to come out of their mouths. Just now the Miserables are beginning to bomb the streets, out of hatred and desperation. They will attack the people. I tell you, there should be no complacency. Unleash the people against them and NOW.

Salaam

Alaa

Ays:

A GREAT DAY...........
I don?t know what to say.. I am confused.. no ... I am very happy.. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy..
This is the end of tyranny.. congratulations .. a great day.. for Iraqi and all the good people.. share us our great day.. I can?t express my feelings.. thanks to the coalition forces and all the honest people who helped in that great operation....thank you thank you thousand times..
Huhhhhhuaaa... look at the monkey!!!

I can't wait unitl Zeyad and others can get to their internet connections.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 01:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What the Arab World is Seeing

 by Jeremy

Well, if you can judge by the home page of the Al Jazeera website, then it appears the Arab world is seeing this:

This would be a very humiliating image, I'm given to understand, from an Arab perspective. There's not a person on Earth who deserves humiliation more than Saddam Hussein. And yet the image also conveys a coalition doctor looking after the man's health. This strikes me as the perfect image for the world to see. As the doctor appears to examine Saddam's teeth, however, I can't help but wonder what a young Iraqi dentist named Zeyad might do if given that assignment ("Is it safe, Mr. Hussein?").

PRE-POST UPDATE: A murmuring voice on the television in the other room just said (and a murmuring Cara repeated to me while brushing her teeth) that the fact that Saddam Hussein did not go down fighting to the death sends an important message to loyalists: if he's not putting his life on the line why the hell should they?

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Hallelujah! Saddam Captured!!!

 by Jeremy

This is a tremendously joyous moment for Iraq -- it may just be the crucial lifeline to an entire people's future. Though the fascists may continue their murder and sabotage, they are now almost certain to fail. Break out the champagne folks; it's a day to celebrate!

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2003

Atta Trained in Baghdad! Smoking Gun of the Century...or A Humongous Hoax? (UPDATE: looks like the latter)

 by Jeremy

The Telegraph reports that the Iraqi coalition government claims to have documentary proof that Mohammed Atta received training in Iraq just prior to 9/11. This will either be the story that blows the lid way the hell off the Saddam/Al Qaeda question -- and then some -- or a trap that will make jackasses out of any who would prematurely trumpet it to the world.

You will plainly see that I'm crafting this post in such a way as to enable myself to make either claim. "Hell," I could say, "I was one of the first people, after Jeff Jarvis, that is, to take that story seriously." Or, alternatively, "You'll find that I was one of the first people, after Jeff Jarvis, that is, to point out that it was perhaps just a little too perfect to be true."

Either way, it's a provocative read to be sure. Don't pretend it doesn't give you chills, just don't tell anyone that yet:

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

Here's where it begins to sound a bit like a discarded first draft from Tom Clancy's waste paper basket:

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy"

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

I guess we're going to have to wait and see on this one. But I would love to know what the anti-war sloganeers would say if this turns out to be true.

UPDATE: It seems the helium is rapidly leaking from this toy balloon.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:27 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

What do you think of our new look?

 by Jeremy

We're kind of liking the way the site looks now, but we're more interested in what our visitors think, so please let us know.

-Cara and Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 10, 2003

Norm Geras Joins the Typepad Family

 by Jeremy

Become one of us -- you know you want to. Anyway, Norm has a brand new site...check it out.

Posted by Jeremy at 09:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another blogger defeated by his day job

 by Jeremy

Buck Hicks has been reclaimed by the real world. He blogged his last post this past Friday. I wish him the best. He's still got what looks to be an active site here, and you can find an email address there to send your regards if you wish.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 09:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mr. Totten is in Da House

 by Jeremy

Michael Totten is back! He's got lovely vacation pictures and is not lacking for things to say about the real world he's returning to. Check it out...

Posted by Jeremy at 09:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shirin Ebadi: a hero of human rights makes a dumb speech

 by Jeremy

This is not the first time that a champion of human rights has strained their credibility by joining the silly, bourgeois simulated-left chorus. Recall that Nelson Mandela -- whose achievements for humanity cannot be diminished one iota by a few asinine remarks -- made the embarassingly sophomoric remark last year that Bush and Blair were racist because they did not obey Kofi Anan?s wishes with respect to Iraq. Now it?s Shirin Ebadi?s turn to remind us that great things can be done by very ordinary people (or might it be the other way around?). Here?s how she chose to use the historically important visibility afforded her by the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony:

In her acceptance speech, Ms. Ebadi offered oblique criticism of Iran's conservative Islamic government, saying that "some Muslims, under the pretext that democracy and human rights are not compatible with Islamic teachings and the traditional structure of Islamic societies, have justified despotic governments." But she delivered a much sharper rebuke to the United States, declaring "some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of Sept. 11 and the war on international terrorism as a pretext."

"Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms, special bodies and extraordinary courts, which make fair adjudication difficult and at times impossible, have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of terrorism," she said, making a specific reference to the American military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of people suspected of being Al Qaeda members have been held for nearly two years.

She warned the governments of the United States and other Western nations that have "prescribed war and military intervention for this region" against meddling in Iran's affairs.

"If you consider international human rights laws, including a nation's right to determine its own destiny to be universal, and if you believe in the priority and superiority of parliamentary democracy over other political systems, then you cannot think only of your own security and comfort, selfishly and contemptuously," Ms. Ebadi said.

Ms. Ebadi also questioned why United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories have not be put into effect while those on Iraq have led to "attack, military assault, economic sanctions and, ultimately, military occupation."

If appearing to be more anti-Western than anti-theocratic will help her in her struggle to usher reform in Iran, then brats like me can endure such misplaced rhetoric as above. But frankly I?m disappointed.

The Nobel laureate that ate the canary

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 08:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Iraqi Demonstrations: "Terrorism is Humanity's Shame"

 by Jeremy

Zeyad not only reports good news about the Iraqi anti-terrorism protests today, but he has dozens of high resolution pictures (thanks to the camera that Jeff Jarvis sent him):

"The rallies today proved to be a major success. I didn't expect anything even close to this. It was probably the largest demonstration in Baghdad for months. It wasn't just against terrorism. It was against Arab media, against the interference of neighbouring countries, against dictatorships, against Wahhabism, against oppression, and of course against the Ba'ath and Saddam."

It seems tribal leaders, Communists, clerics, and average citizens in Iraq can be in harmony over the fact that anti-democratic terrorism is not resistance. The child's sign in the collage above reads (per Zeyad's translation) "No to terrorism." Here's another picture. The sign translates (per Zeyad): "Terrorism is humanity's shame"

As of this writing there was brief coverage of the protests on Fox TV News (ten seconds or so).

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2003

Support the Courageous Demonstrators in Iraq

 by Jeremy

It's no secret in the blog world that there will be anti-terror demonstrations in Iraq tomorrow, December 10th. But they may not get the news coverage they deserve. Zeyad suggests that we contact the media to urge them to cover this. He's right, the more we shout the more likely the story will be covered and the more support people in Iraq will feel for the courageous stand they're taking. Like the Freedom Rides during the American Civil Rights movement (and unlike some more recent demonstrations in the West), these demonstrations are not fun and games -- people are putting their lives on the line and, as with our soldiers, it will make a difference to them to know that the world is watching in solidarity.

Here is a somewhat scattershot list of email addresses I collected for various big media outfits. Not an exhaustive list, but if any one of them covers this, it would be a good thing. In my emails I chose to mention Zeyad with his blog, camera and connection to Jeff Jarvis, just in case the human interest angle intrigues them more than the hard story itself. But you should use your own instincts and, I would imagine, keep it brief...

ABC World News Tonight
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/WNT_newemail_form.html

CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

Hardball with Chris Matthews
hardball@msnbc.com

MSNBC
viewerservices@msnbc.com

NBC Nightly News
Nightly@NBC.com

New York Times
nytnews@nytimes.com

AP
info@ap.org

Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/help/feedback/

Washington Post
ombudsman@washpost.com

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 07:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 07, 2003

Anti-terrorism protest in Iraq (Update: December 10th)

 by Jeremy

UPDATE: The demonstration is December 10th! I am sorry, as I often am, for being a moron (I had previously misreported the date).

Zeyad tells us about another series of anti-terror demonstrations, this time with a picture from a newspaper:

Protestors carried signs and banners that said 'No to terrorism', 'Yes for peace', 'Iraqis stand united against terror and violence', 'Thanks to CPA soldiers', 'We thank the coalition for our FREEDOM'.

And he has these words for the Western press:

By the way, what the hell are news organizations trying to prove by putting terrorism between idiotic quotation marks like this? I've decided to put quotation marks myself on the following terms: 'news organizations', 'media', 'press', 'coverage, 'reporter', and 'journalist'. F*ing morons.

And he urges us to go here to get a banner like the one below and others to show our solidarity for these demonstrations -- it seems there will be a major demo happening on December 10th. Stay tuned to Healing Iraq to keep informed as things unfold.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 06, 2003

Catergate

 by Jeremy

As an American voter I am gravely concerned whenever a sitting president is accused of picking up a second job in the food service industry. Thankfully these allegations over the years have tended not to pan out. John Kerry, however, has photographic evidence:

"John Kerry is accusing President Bush of...catering"

Having said that, I have a few concerns that there may be a conflict of interest here, given Kerry's position with respect to the condiment industry (is it a coinidence that the typical Thanksgiving feast is notoriously absent of ketchup?)

(hat tip: Tim Blair)

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 03:05 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

December 04, 2003

A Day of Juxtapositions: A New Tip Jar, A Marxist Blog

 by Jeremy

Juxtaposition #1:
Cara called a place of prospective employment for an update after not having heard back from them when expected. They told her she interviewed extremely well and that they all gave her "two thumbs up" as soon as she left. BUT...they decided they could not afford to create the position she would have been hired for. So she got the job, but the job got the axe.

Juxtaposition #2:
After having decided to add a tip jar to our site (see above for the thing that inspired this move) we decided to put up some links to a Marxist website. We now feature capital on the left and socialism (the all-but-forgotten sincere kind) on the right. How is a person supposed to interpret this kind of thing? See our smiling, shrugging Marx for a clue.

Anyway, check out a new blog run by a group of Marxist bloggers, the kind who agree with Tim blair (for example) on the liberation of Iraq and who say nice things about us (we would, and in fact did plug them anyway, I hasten to point out). Check out their other site too. It's very refreshing to see that there are still people on the socialist left who have refused the twin poisons of Stalinism and, a recent rarity, of fascism. I like it and I look forward to learning a thing or two from them.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 11:52 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Synchronicity, Nostalgia

 by Jeremy

While visiting my family in NYC for Thanksgiving, my brother shared tales of his 20th reunion at the high school he and I both attended (Stuyvesant). I felt something I vowed as a teenager I'd never feel toward that school -- nostalgia.

This prompted me, on Monday, to peruse the school's alumni website where I found a list of famous alums. In addition to such notables as Thelonious Monk(!), James Cagney(!) AND George Raft(!) I found one Tim Robbins. Yeah, I thought, I can picture a guy like that going to Stuy (ie: smart, talented, entertaining, spoiled, frequently annoying and infuriatingly clueless). But then, since the universe abhors a vaccum and thus seeks balance (can you tell I didn't study my physics much?) I also found another name among the list of those who'd gone before me: Ron Silver.

This is not the first time I've had a thought in my head and then seen it referenced on Roger Simon's blog within 48 hours. Honk if this has happened to you too. Some sort of writer's juju, I guess.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 12:35 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

December 03, 2003

Why Marx is Shrugging

 by Jeremy

A Marxist website in the UK explodes some left-wing myths with respect to Iraq. They also endeavor to set the record straight about the fact that ?left? and ?Marxist? actually used to mean something. I?ve maintained that the current anti-war crowd does not deserve to be called ?far left? or ?Marxist? (nor do fascists like Stalin and Mao and their followers) and these people lay out the argument rather nicely (via Tim Blair):

?But how is it possible for us to call ourselves Marxists and support a war waged by a coalition of rich western liberal democracies against the government of a poor ?Third World? country? We would turn the question round: how it is possible that Marxism has been so corrupted and distorted that ?Marxists? prefer to see thousands more Iraqis die in the torture chambers of the Ba?ath, and millions more suffer under the iniquities excused (not caused) by the UN sanctions, rather than admit that socialists not only can but must support even the worst bourgeois democracy against even the least bad tyranny? For the beginnings of an answer, let us consider just some of the transparent and disgusting lies generated and spread by the western ?left? before and during the war.?

From the concluding paragraph:

In wartime every individual must necessarily, and regardless of intentions, end up helping one side or the other. In the centuries-long conflict between enlightenment and barbarism, the possibility of progress and the certainty of reaction, of which the war in Iraq was just one more skirmish, the western ?left? has shown which side it is on. Just as Stalin?s ?Communist? dictatorship destroyed the lives and hopes of so many socialists of an earlier generation, the complicity of the ?left? in the growth of Ba?athism, ?Pan-Arabism?, Islamic fundamentalism, ?Third Worldism? and the other anti-democratic ideologies that have brought us to this point has helped to destroy all prospects of any advance beyond liberalism for another generation at least. We cannot forgive these charlatans and renegades their betrayal of the very tradition they pretend to uphold, and we are confident that the working class will go on seeing them for what they really are. Then again, given their remoteness from any contact with working-class people, their embedding in academia, journalism and other marginal outposts of the capitalist system, and their total incapacity to realise that they have made stupendous errors, let alone learn from them, it is already abundantly clear that the western ?left? no longer has anything in common with the working class -- and that, somewhere behind their smug masks, they know it.

It is so good to read this stuff: check out the whole thing.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 08:21 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

December 02, 2003

Spam Dada (swingable-freakish-asteroid-do-da-day)

 by Jeremy

It seems the spam world is having what wil one day be remembered as its golden age (before anti-spam legislation and/or filters begin to work). I have witnessed an intellectual and artistic flowering over which Salvador Dali would have drawn down his mustache and nodded approvingly. This is from a fairly representative one I received today:

Subject line: "praise the Hegemon!"

Body: "maximilian montrachet swingable polio trophic drab helsinki prussia difficulty apparel carne kurt noisy closet bowman they'll gallivant corrode fling languid spunk assailant...person pershing cumin hearth aerospace menzies bela sedulous baltic glutamic lateral battelle sportswriter blunt mattson perusal reticulate left cripple boorish hydrophobic caterpillar meliorate campfire facilitate eight snobbish asteroid representative freakish monoid"

Tell it, brother!

My suspicion that I'm living in a Vonnegut novel can be confirmed -- as if confirmation were necessary -- via the occurence of the name "Kurt" toward the beginning of the message.

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 05:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 01, 2003

"Caveat Emptor"

 by Jeremy

Who can forget that very special episode in which Kim teaches Saddam a valuable lesson about fair play.

"You wanted to live by exact words, you vile, murdering little scumbags." - Mike Brady.

(via InstaPundit)

-Jeremy

Posted by Jeremy at 08:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack