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November 30, 2004
Two Things Dubious Yet Hopeful
by JeremyFile these under things we'd like to believe but are reluctant to, though it is nevertheless a hopeful sign that the words are even being spoken (you'll have to write small to fit this on the file tab):
The first dubious yet refreshing thing:
The UN should be reformed to make intervention in failing states easier, a commission is set to recommend.[...]
A year ago, in the wake of the international divisions over Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the UN was at a "fork in the road".
He said the organisation had to review its fundamental policies in order to address the increasing threats of global terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear proliferation.
He asked a panel of 16 veteran diplomats and politicians, chaired by former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, to examine ways the UN should be reformed.
The route the panel is set to advocate is much more interventionist, moving away from the UN's traditional emphasis that it cannot meddle in the internal affairs of a member state.
[...]
The panel wants member states to accept a new obligation - a "responsibility to protect" their own citizens.
If they failed to do so, then intervention by the Security Council would be much more likely than under current UN procedures.
The second item, which I would like to think is more reflective of reality (via Harry's Place):
The Palestinian Authority leadership has ordered PA-controlled media to stop all incitement against Israel and Jews, the London-based Arabic daily A-Shark Al-Awsat reported Monday.The order also pertains to video clips, songs and music videos which call for the continuation of the armed intifada, the paper reported.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:20 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 29, 2004
A Laudable Use of Scare Quotes
by JeremyIt's good to see this self-effacing tactic -- in which a headline declares something while gently shaking its head lest you allow yourself to believe it -- being used defensibly. Tell me what you think, but for me the truth of this story is well served, for a change, by the scare quotes in the CNN headline:
Iran confirms 'final' uranium deal TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Avoiding a date with the U.N. Security Council, Iran has reached an agreement with three European powers to fully suspend its uranium enrichment activities, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiatior said.
"We have reached a final agreement with the three European powers," Hussein Moussavian told Iranian state-run television, referring to the 11th-hour understanding with Britain, France and Germany in Vienna on Sunday evening.
The deal enables Iran to avoid possible U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program.
But this time it's double secret extra final. Sounds good to me.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 28, 2004
Keeping Warm In Washington Heights
by Jeremy
This little guy is doing his best to keep warm while waiting for his people to come out of a gourmet coffee spot in Manhattan:
Posted by Jeremy at 12:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 26, 2004
Anti-Globalism
by Jeremy
We're on location here in New York City to report first hand on the huge protest at the UN headquarters in Manhattan over the General Assembly's killing of resolutions condemming human rights abuses in both Zimbabwe and Sudan for "coming too near the level of taking sides in the war of Weltanschauungs between the so-called 'democratic' West and the more equally valid cultural traditions of these too often maligned nations."
Well, for anti-Globalization anarchists in the greater New York area, it would seem, that decision was just about the last straw in their ongoing campagin against what they see as an effort to put the greed for wealth and influence of corrupt international power brokers above the basic human rights of people in the third world.
In a purely spontaneous showing of public outrage, the pee-shooters have been turned on the windowless UN tower with a ferocity that has seldom been seen before. Thousands of young White males with intentionally messy hair and some sort of quasi beardlike fuzz on peculiar parts of their heads have been running around and squealing like stuck pigs.
I was able to grab one of the anarchists for a quick comment and, though out of breath and impatient to break away and throw a roll of toilet paper at a passing Limousine with the telltale red-white-and-blue license plates denoting UN affiliation, he offered this crucial insight: "Plastic Turkey, Halliburton, hegemony, empire, Chimp, illegal and unjust war...increasingly invalid international body who now seems to be doing more to make apologies for genocide than actually contributing to solutions for world peace."
A familiar littany of well reasoned complaints, to sure, but one that seems lately to have grown. It would be a mistake, one can clearly see, to underestimate the intellectual spirit of the young American anarchist on a day off from school.
Reporting from New York City, this has been Who knew? reporter, Jeremy Brown.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 25, 2004
Happy Thanksgiving!
by JeremyCara and I are headed down to NYC today. We'll be blogging at Michael Totten and, just maybe, here to.
Have a great Turkey (and/or Tofurkey) Day!
Posted by Jeremy at 09:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ukraine Reading
by JeremyI admit I don't know much about what's going on in Ukraine. As I read up on it I'll post some links that seem useful. Here are a few to start with:
A fistful of Euros has numerous links for more information.
Pora, a student pro-democracy organization in Ukraine has a website with frequently updated information (via Harry's Place who also have a number of posts to scroll through)
Instapundit is a good place to scroll through in search of links to people blogging this story.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2004
Well Deserved
by JeremyI am quite certain I know exactly how intense his pain was since I've experienced it myself (not recently, I'm happy to say, and not because I swallowed my own hair). There's no gritting your teeth and bearing it like a man. It doesn't build character. It makes you feel very small and powerless. It's gratifying to know that Josef Mengele died feeling this way.
Posted by Jeremy at 03:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2004
Bloggin' Fool
by JeremyHere's a list of my posts so far over at Michael Totten's blog (where I'm guest blogging while he's in Libya for ten days):
In the ever-popular reverse-chronological order:
Ali entertainingly fact-checks Juan Cole
Holocaust Museum opens searchable web database of Jewish victims
Zeyad reports on the fighting in Baghdad
Anti-Semitic art, terror, and moral relativism
I will continue to blog here too. I can do it, I swear. Or at least I think I can (I think I can I think I can...)
Posted by Jeremy at 02:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2004
Waiting Dogs #1
by Jeremy
Posted by Jeremy at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Lake
by JeremyI was unaware of the fact, until I read it in The New York Times today, that Massachusetts is home, not terribly far from the "Who Knew?" home office, to a lake with the longest name of any in the country.
I thought I was used to funky sounding Native American place names in New England New York and New Jersey (and of course there are countless others all over the country) -- chappaquiddick, Hackensack, Swampscott, Weehawken, Hohokus, Mashpee, Nantucket, Chicopee...just to name a few -- but this one takes the cake (and I thought you'd appreciate seeing it on a full page of google search results).
Oh, and here's the NYT article.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Buh Bye
by JeremyThis seems like progress to me (via Let's Try Freedom):
WashingtonPost.com is no longer running the cartoons of hard-hitting liberal Ted Rall.Rall said he thinks the site dropped his work because of a Nov. 4 cartoon he did showing a drooling, mentally handicapped student taking over a classroom. "The idea was to draw an analogy to the electorate -- in essence, the idiots are now running the country," he told E&P.
"That cartoon certainly drew a significant amount of negative comment from our users," said WashingtonPost.com Executive Editor Doug Feaver when contacted by E&P. But he added that the decision to drop Rall was a "cumulative" one that had been building for a while.
Censorship is wrong, yes I know, dear imaginary contrarian reader. Firing someone because you're sick and tired of the shit work they've been contributing, on the other hand, is not a violation of either the letter or spirit of any portion of the Bill of Rights.
Here's a remark from Rall that should make you squirm as you read it. I had to read this four times before I could believe this was Rall talking about himself:
Rall -- who said WashingtonPost.com kept running him after his controversial cartoons about Pat Tillman (earlier this year) and "terror widows" -- hopes the site will reconsider "depriving readers of one of the most stridently liberal voices in the media at a time when liberal values are under ferocious attack."
Oy fucking vey.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 20, 2004
Janis Joplin
by JeremyI'm pleased to know that I'm not the only person in the world who thinks Janis Joplin is overrated (last item on the list). I would agree with one of the commenters at the blog linked to in that link that she probably offered the world something meaningful in the context of the time, something that sounded new and liberating and all that. And I'd agree with Norm that she had moments.
A contemporary singer who reminds me of her in a certain sense is Maria McKee (who I think is better, more accomplished) in that she has a tendency to over-sing, and there are only a few songs of hers that I find listenable all the way through ('Nobody's Child' is the only one I can think of by name), but there will be ten seconds in a song here, maybe a few measures of a song there, where you'd swear she was the best singer on the planet and then she'll sing something that goes so wrong you have to quickly turn it off. But you have to figure that most people never have those dozen or so interludes of greatness in their artistic careers, and fewer still manage to capture them on tape (but don't ask me for more specifics because I can't really remember the tracks).
Posted by Jeremy at 11:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2004
Spinning Those Plates, Leapfrogging Those Cars
by JeremyIt's a pleasant kind of madness trying to blog in two places at once. And Michael's readers have much in common with this blog's readers (speaking qualitatively not quantitatively). There probably aren't many who read "Who Knew?" but not Michael. So do I post everything here that I post there? I don't know. Maybe I'll just post links here to what I write there. That's what I'll do.
Just a little while ago I was scrolling through my Bloglines news/blog aggregator and I said to myself, "Hey, there's a new post by Michael Totten!" but of course it was me. I fear for my sanity after ten days of this, but I am in no way complaining; it's a great opportunity that I am thoroughly enjoying.
Did anyone ever tell you a story about how they transported two cars twenty miles by leap frogging and walking back the entire distance? I've never tried it. But there's something similar about this. I feel as if I'm driving my Saturn and a fancy tour Bus all the way from here to November 29th, and all from the comfort of my own home. Thanks for coming along for the ride and walking the distances back with me.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Shake Up in North Korea
by JeremyBig Changes Afoot in North Korea: The News in Brief
Rumors of a ratcheting down of rhetoric in North Korea have been insubstantial these past few days, though undeniably of interest to watchers of Kim Jong Il. Reports from a growing number of sources are that images of the mass murdering chia-dictator have been removed from public buildings, evidently by official decree, and there is even some indication that the pint-sized Stalinist may be amenable to a reduction in his nuclear arsenal.
Who Knew? has received a report from an unassailable authority who wishes to remain fictional, that though the overwhelming influence that has brought Kim Jong Il to his knees -- admittedly a short journey -- may indeed be China, the irresistible force responsible for shifting China to exert this pressure on North Korea has been China's chief trading partner, Wal-Mart, long concerned that a war between China and the U.S. could cause prices of such Chinese made money makers as the highly popular "Patriotic Red State Ken and Barbie" -- a product whose name, our source tells us, Chinese authorities may be misinterpreting -- to plummet beyond control.
There is one thing Wal-Mart has agreed to do, for its part, to appease the North Korean dictator, our source informs us. It seems that Kim Jong Il has an unused stockpile of the posters of himself that are no longer to be used in his own country and he would like Wal-Mart to sell these in their stores throughout the United States as part of an effort to build good will between himself and the American people. Wal-Mart will begin selling this poster of Kim Jong Il in its stores, we are told, just in time for the holidays.
Posted by Jeremy at 04:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bon Voyage, Michael
by JeremyWell it's Thanksgiving, a time when tens of millions of American tourists will be shlepping over to Libya with their families for yet another cookie cutter holiday festival.
Well, maybe it's not as common as all that.
No, Michael is not exactly hewing to the Ugly American party line on this particular jaunt; he'll be doing some serious traveling. I'm looking forward to the stories and pictures he'll be bringing back from Libya, where he'll be for a week and a half starting Friday morning.
But here's where I come in: Michael has magnanimously asked me to guest blog over at his place for the next ten days. This is a good gig. I will try not to screw anything up there. Is it going to my head? Well, I just greeted Cara with an all purpose despotic wave (you know: arm extended straight upward, hand gently cupped and facing back, arm slowly gyrating from the elbow.)
Seriously, have a great trip Michael. Don't take any wooden nickels from crazy dictators in fancy pajamas. And thanks for tossing me the keys to your blog. And a sincere welcome to any new readers that may being peeking in; please make yourself at home.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2004
True Crime Blog
by JeremyI stumbled across a fascinating new blog today by a guy who used to be a 'professional' casino cheater. He's plugging his recent book on his exploits, but the blog looks interesting in other ways:
I will also provide updates from my former colleagues who are still "working" the world's casinos. To my knowledge, such an expose of actual contemporary crimes is the first of its kind, a groundbreaking feature, whose existence is only possible in the blogosphere. I'm excited to bring it to you. I am sure you will enjoy reading these UPDATES FROM THE CHEATER?S WORLD as much as I used to enjoy living similar adventures.
My first impression was that this guy is pulling our legs, and I guess he gets a lot of that and he provides some bona fides. And the tone of some of his writing gives me a feeling I'm being conned, but then he's telling us he's a casino cheater, so he's probably the kind of person who comes across as though he's conning you, whether he's being straight with you or not.
Seems like interesting reading material for someone like James Hamilton if you ask me. An interesting look at a certain mode of human behavior.
Here's an interesting example:
Bad things can happen when two meticulously choreographed cheating teams run into one another. The teams' rhythms can get side tracked, setting off casino ?steam? (unwanted negative attention from casino surveillance). When a team attracts its own steam, it is usually not too difficult to detect and deal with. But, when unwanted attention develops because of someone else's actions, matters are much more dangerous. Sometimes a mad dash out of the casino floor is the only way out. Whenever two teams are working in close proximity to one another, it is always a good idea for them to give each other a wide berth. There are enough casinos to go around. Bats wisely respected this unwritten rule of respect among worthy thieves.
Posted by Jeremy at 05:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Is Kim Jong Il Worried?
by JeremyWhich scares Kim Jong Il more, do you think: visions of a Ceausescu farewell? Or are those images of Saddam in the spider hole more apt to make his hair stand on end? Perhaps its the synergism of both of these menacing prospects acting together that is likely to make him feel, at least, a bit claustrophobic.
So is he feeling the strain or isn't he?
Roger Simon posts some encouraging reports from one of his readers:
It's Thursday in Japan and I have received email from Kyoto from Mongai Kome, frequent commenter on this blog. His morning paper (Sankei Shinbun) is reporting anti-regime flyers being posted in over fifty places in North Korea.
He quotes this reader as follows:
The most prevalent flyer is called the "sixteen lies" of tyrant Kim and his tyrant father and it takes apart the fundamental myths and propaganda regarding the cult of the Kims and outlines the failings of the regime. Another flyer is based on the thesis that Kim Jong-il killed his father (perhaps some propaganda in and of itself but a brilliant move given the traditions of the Korean culture.)
This prompts me to click over to "North Korea Zone" where I find they have been blogging numerous reports that portraits of Kim Jon Il are being removed from public places in North Korea:
Reuters reports from Beijing that portraits of Kim Jong-Il have been removed from some public meeting halls in Pyongyang. The agency earlier relayed an Itar-Tass story reporting their removal and later followed up with its own report based on comments from a diplomat based in Pyongyang.[...]
The news follows an earlier report in The Australian newspaper, relayed here by our own Barry Briggs, that Kim has "retreated into virtual seclusion" after the death of his favorite wife and Bush's reelection in the U.S.
There are numerous updates, follow-ups and posts that build a growing picture that this all means...something; so this might be a good occasion to add North Korea Zone to the old blog aggregator.
Posted by Jeremy at 07:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Big Oops
by JeremyI post now about the Big Dig. A decade of tunneling under Boston at a cost of enough billions to make a Halliburton executive utter a Lileksian phrase like 'sweet smokin' Judas' but at least, we all figured as our Western Massachusetts lifeblood got sucked away into that financial black hole out East, we'd one day be able to drive into Boston without cursing the day we were born (due to the hellish traffic).
Well, we will have to keep dreaming. It now appears you need to bring along a raincoat and, maybe, a snorkel (I quote from the Guardian because I hope it underscores how Massachusetts is now officially an international embarrassment):
A report released Wednesday by the state inspector general said the state has spent at least an additional $35 million trying to repair leaks. Based on a preliminary review, contractors filed about 150 leak-related changes to original contracts, the report said.The contracts include the portion of the project where an 8-inch leak in September sent water pouring onto the roadway, causing massive traffic backups.
[...]
The leaks are the latest embarrassing chapter for the Big Dig, the costliest highway project in U.S. history. The $14.6 billion project was designed to ease traffic congestion in Boston with a system of underground tunnels, but it was five years late and billions of dollars over cost and plagued by allegations of fraud, waste and mismanagement. The last major leg of the project was finished last year.
[...]
Project officials have acknowledged that as early as 1999 contractors knew that serious construction flaws existed in the walls of the tunnels, which sit almost entirely within the salty water table underlying downtown Boston.
I'll grant you that if I were to build a papier mache tunnel underneath sea water, it would probably leak. But that's why I didn't bid for the contract. I don't think there's any excuse for this. I would venture to say we would have been better off if Halliburton had built this thing.
Oops.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Jeff Jarvis on Aaron Brown
by JeremyI know -- it's his second home. But I got screen captures. Here's a shot of him during a spirited debate with a woman from the Heritage Foundation on the FCC, censorship, and public morality. I won't summarize (I'd rather look for his post on it UPDATE: here), but he's getting smoother on TV. I think the guy's got a future on the little screen.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mid Life Crisis in the Bizarro World
by JeremyDavid Lee Roth, who spent the first few decades of his life having an outlandish, juvenile-onset midlife crisis, is now training in earnest to be an EMT in New York City:
Roth, 50, has been riding for several weeks with a New York ambulance crew in training to become a paramedic, The New York Post reported Tuesday."I have been on over 200 individual rides now," said Roth.
"Not once has anyone recognized me, which is perfect for me."
The singer, who spent a decade with Van Halen before embarking on a solo career, except a collaboration with the band for two new songs on a greatest hits album, has been riding along with crews in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn several nights a week.
His training seems to be going well.
Several weeks ago, Roth saved the life of a heart attack victim in the Bronx by using a defibrillator on her."
I kid, but I'm actually very impressed with this and think it's an inspiring example of how even a baby boomer can actually contribute to society in a genuinely meaningful way.
Posted by Jeremy at 07:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
Mr. Brain's Science Curriculum
by JeremyThat's what they might call it if this multi-cultural, P.C. creation science makes it into American schools...
Posted by Jeremy at 09:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iraqi Woman Murdered By 'Insurgents'
by JeremyNews and graphic footage of the cold blooded murder of Margaret Hassan was all over Al Jazeera...sorry, scratch that...was not mentioned anywhere on the Al Jazeera homepage today. Here a Reuters account, though:
A British-Iraqi woman kidnapped in Iraq has probably been killed by her captors, her family and diplomats said on Tuesday after a video tape surfaced apparently showing a hooded gunman shooting her in the head.
Will Al Jazeera show this brutal killing? If they do not, though they are certainly covering other shootings, it will tell you all you need to know about that particular 'news service'.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Yearly Stern
by JeremyI was listening to Howard Stern this morning while he was taking calls, and one of the callers sounded unmistakably familiar. It was Jeff Jarvis. A bit of a freakout. Stern seemed to know who he was from the days when Jeff wrote for TV Guide. Jeff plugged his blog, then Stern asked him to repeat the URL. Better than an Instalanche, perhaps, though you can't click over from inside the bread truck or limousine you're in.
Also, of course, the censorship is getting ridiculous and you should read about Jeff's latest Freedom of Information request. I think the FCC is going to blow itself out on this stuff, though one shouldn't ignore the harm that can be caused if this thing continues. If it spreads to the internet, for instance...
Posted by Jeremy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Q: How can thousands of people anonymously drive each other insane?
by JeremyA: This
Posted by Jeremy at 12:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dr. Rice it is
by JeremyI'm slightly surprised that Condoleezza Rice is going to be the New Secretary of State (I haven't researched this, but I'm guessing we've never before had a Secretary of State with two 'Z's in his or her surname. Not the mention the 'her' part).
At first I thought this wasn't the right job for a cerebral classical pianist from the halls of academe and the boardroom and that sort of thing. But of course she's been taking that hellish immersion course these past three years.
And there's something else. Condi, if we want to speak honestly, has all the sophistication, the high culture, the intelligence (and more) that people have associated with Mr. and Mrs. Kerry (though with far less evident pretension) so if these were the qualities that were meant to save our alliances with our European allies, then she ought to be all over that (though I have theorized that this plan will take care of itself).
Let's hear it for the busting open of doors. Even if the fact is unpopular to celebrate, we will have a female, African-American Secretary of State. Her childhood friends in Birmingham, Alabama back in the late 1950's, I'm guessing, would not have been able to conceive of such a thing. Just try to visualize that for a moment.
First, here's an explanation of her unusual given name:
Both her parents were university professors. Her name is a variation on the Italian musical term "con dolcezza" which is a direction to play "with sweetness."
And here is some context on why it will so infuriate me when many people on the anti-Bush left refuse to celebrate this as a huge landmark in American history:
She was born the same year as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Rice was nine when her schoolmate Denise McNair was killed in the bombing of the Black Sixteenth Street Baptist Church by white supremacists on September 15, 1963. Rice states her childhood during segregation taught her determination against adversity, and the need to be "twice as good" as non-minorities
And by the way, this is not a bad birthday gift for Dr. Rice (her birthday was Sunday).
Posted by Jeremy at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2004
Resignations
by JeremyColin Powell
Am I missing something about the Powell "resignation?" Is it just that it's referred to as a "Powell resignation", rather than as a "completely expected Powell decision not to continue for a second term?" I probably am missing something. There seems to be a lot of nodding and winking going on. It reminds me of when the grown ups in the room would spell certain words or say them in whispered Yiddish. But, until further notice, I'm not shocked or surprised.
William Safire
This surprises me more, though I always hated and shunned his column due to his right wing views (and he never made it into my post 9/11 rethink, so I'm still not certain whether that was a rational dismissal or just prejudice):
"The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The Times, said in the statement. "Bill's provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op-Ed Page in 1973. Reaching for his column became a critical and enjoyable part of the day for our readers across the country and around the world.
But this is the good news (because I always loved his language column, though Lefties were required to not advertise such a predilection):
Mr. Safire, 74, will continue to write his Sunday column, "On Language," which has appeared in The New York Times Magazine since 1979 and has led to the publication of 15 books on the English language.
So hooray for that last bit, anyway.
Posted by Jeremy at 04:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2004
Angels Divorcing on the Head of a Pin
by JeremyThere will, I'm sure, be no end to nuanced exegeses on the matter of the 'moral values' factor in this last presidential election, though very few of these underpowered laser beams will be focused on the question of whether there even is a 'moral values' factor worth wasting so much copy and so many (I'm assuming) foundation dollars on.
One such silly effort is an observation in today's New York Times that my home state of Massachusetts -- nyah, nyah! -- has a lower divorce rate than some of those 'moral values' states that the rest of y'all live in.
One of the experts quoted in this article is an Amherst (my neighbor town) resident, and yet I find myself unpersuaded by her argument here:
Ms. Whitehead, who lives in Amherst, Mass., said that New England is a region that has "more stability" than other regions. "People stay here, their families stay here, and there's more social and family support for people, a more communal versus individualistic culture in New England compared to the cowboy states."She said religion may underscore those regional differences.
"In states with lots of evangelicals, the more individualistic Protestant religious faiths may actually also encourage more go-it-alone attitudes than communal ones," Ms. Whitehead said. And these are also states where the culture encourages sexual abstinence before marriage, she said.
"If your family or religious culture urges you not to have sex before you get married," she said, "then one answer is to get married, and then you're more likely to divorce."
Now, I'm not calling Ms. Whitehead silly. This is probably a case of a person getting a phone call, shrugging, and saying, 'sure, I'll blue-sky a few thoughts on...what was the article about again?" But in the spirit of blue-skying, here's a thought I had:
isn't it possible, expanding on the premarital sex argument, which strikes me as having some hypothetical merit, that this could have more to do with climate and economics than anything else? Massachusetts is very cold in the Winter (and, by the way, the ground is now carpeted with our first snow of the year and it's very beautiful!) but we also are fortunate enough to have a wealth of shops selling many fine soaps and perfumes and deodorants -- something of a New England specialty (spices from the orient imported through Boston and New York, etc). We also have the right balance between population density (there are always people to date, though also much competition) and availability of parking in secluded lots (as opposed, for instance, to New York City). Thus, on a cold Massachusetts night, when all the goddamn stores, restaurants and bars have closed, you're cold, you're clean, you smell pretty, there are places you can park...it all adds up to the potential for easy premarital compatibility assessment. In the South, by contrast, your date is more likely to want to shower first. And call me lazy (I still haven't showered for the day as I write this) you might just as well get married.
And come election time, the impact of this sort of thing cannot be overstated.
Posted by Jeremy at 03:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Congratulations to Iraq the Model
by JeremyIraq the Model is one year old today, so congrats to them! The brothers, Omar, Mohammed, and Ali have posted their thoughts and feelings, each in their distinct way.
Mohammed shares his joy at being suddenly free to speak his mind and his gratitude for the international conversation that has resulted:
We have learned the meaning of being united together and we never felt alone in this; freedom lovers are everywhere. Reading your comments and e-mails made my cry many times and I wish I could remember all your names and I could feel everyone, even those who didn?t write to us. I wish I could embrace you all.
Ali describes his initial skepticism about the importance of blogging for them:
What?s a blog and who?s going to read it? And is it important what we have to say? Such questions were on my minds when Omar started our blog and I couldn?t find an answer that convince me to write. However, and after my brothers published their first posts, my questions were answered. ?So there are many people who actually read blogs, and it seems to be important what we write!?. after that I decided to join my brothers and post my thoughts and opinions.
...and acknowledges that their positive voices have been viewed cynically by some people:
These are the people who simply can?t understand our joy and enthusiasm, and the only logical explanation to them would be that we, and people like us are propaganda tool. We long for the day when these people can appreciate freedom, and then we will be brothers and sisters again.
But he is no less positive than his brothers:
This simple web page has come to be an important part of my life for reasons that are much more than just expressing my point of view in politics and the situation in Iraq. It is my window to the world through which I greet my friends every morning from Australia to the USA. It?s not a one way road, as I feel I know each one of our regular readers, I worry about you just as you worry about us and I miss you when you?re gone for any reason. I learned from you a lot and the most important things I?ve learned were actually things I thought I knew very well before! This has motivated me to look more into the ?facts? and ?basics? I believed were unquestionable.
And Omar, though hearing the call to party:
...it's a nice coincidence that today is also the 1st day of Al Fitr Eid! So there's more than one reason to party, and even if it's early for some of you, it is beer o'clock somewhere!
...also has moving words:
This is a big day for me but I don?t think I can express my feelings well as I?m overwhelmed with emotions. As a matter of fact, this occasion is more important to me than my own birthday. Thinking of what we?ve done together on this blog makes me feel proud and gives me hop for the future.Now we strongly believe that being optimistic in the darkest times is not something to be ashamed of. It can help us override the obstacles we?re facing no matter how huge they may seem and doesn?t mean that we?re dreamers because our optimism is based on beliefs and facts that do exist but are unfortunately not recognized by the MSM and many governments and parties that are either ignorant or have a similar agenda to that of the tyrant we lived under for decades.
[...]
I truly feel privileged by the enormous numbers of comments and e-mails we received from you and we benefitted from reading them all; the ones that supported our points of view encouraged us to work harder and keep defending our just cause while the ones that disagreed with our points of view taught us to look at different issues from different angles and broadened our horizons.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sick blog
by JeremyI've changed to requiring Typekey registration for comments on this blog. I've done so reluctantly. In some ways it's a case of the tail pretentiously wagging the dog since I don't get that many comments. It's not that I think I'm such a hot property that I've got to live in a gated community all of a sudden. But something's wrong with this blog (UPDATE: fixed now. It was happening because I was maxing out my allowed server space. Obnoxious. I'd be happy to get billed for overuse, but I don't like having my site's head chopped off!) causing it to rebuild with random errors every time a post or comment is added. And lately about 75% of the comments I get are spam comments on old posts. These past few days every time someone posts a comment it screws up the blog. I had thought that MT-Blacklist allowed blocking comments on old posts, but this feature seems not to work. So I've yanked MT-Blacklist and switched to Typekey.
If you're anti-Typekey, please feel free to email comments to me. But there's really no reason not to register.
And if you have any educated guesses as to what the hell's wrong with my blog -- when a monthly or "indexes only" rebuild happens, the main page and/or some of the monthly archive pages and/or some of the sidebar content gets cut off at the bottom -- then I'd welcome any educated guesses. It's like the rebuild of certain pages stops prematurely. Maybe it's just a server problem that will go away (?)
Yes, I have just recently installed my own blogroll building code. But I removed it for a while and the problem did not go away even then. I think there's either some bad html in a post, or I've corrupted one of the scripts or something. I'll keep twiddling with it. In the mean time, a lot of stuff is still there. You can read, like, most of the words and stuff, so that's better than having, like, leprosy.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2004
Blogs for Eight Hundred
by JeremyBlogging is now legit. We must have known this day would one day come. Oh, and also...it's like I've said before: doesn't Alex Trebek sound exactly like John Kerry? (click for audio)
(Via Thousand Robots)
Posted by Jeremy at 10:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Fallujah
by JeremyIt has been difficult to know what to write about what it going on in Fallujah these past few days since it is probably too soon to know with much precision what has been happening and what will come of it, but I'm confident that it is a necessary step toward the U.S. doing the unthinkable, namely following through on a commitment to liberating a country whose fascist regime it toppled.
This, after all, is what so many on the anti-war Left have criticized the Bush administration for failing to do in Afghanistan when it 'outsourced' the raid on Tora Bora to Afghan warlords, or whatever it is. So we should see unprecedented concord between pro and anti war opinion on this matter.
In the mean time, Baldilocks reminds us of the long and sordid history of this sort of thing being done by the Great American Satan; she recounts the imperial crusade of Harriet Tubman:
Yes, it was Harriet Tubman, who in June of 1863 guided three steam-powered Union gunboats as they churned 25 miles up the Combahee River in South Carolina during the Civil War. Tubman told the pilots of the boats how to avoid the mines Confederate forces had placed in the river.When Tubman and some 150 black soldiers of the Second South Carolina Regiment landed, they stole or destroyed thousands of dollars worth of crops and livestock, burned houses, barns and plantations and made off with 750 slaves who would no longer serve the Confederate war effort.
It's all very brutal and morally disquieting if you trouble yourself to think about it. And, of course, it's all very heroic and admirable if you trouble yourself to think about it.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 12, 2004
Checking in With Madonna
by JeremyMadonna on the Presidential Election, Terrorism, and World Peace
When asked recently for her views on the outcome of the presidential election in her nation of birth (contrary to popular belief, this pop diva is not Welsh or Icelandic, but was born and raised in the U.S.) Madonna had this to say:
?We have people who don?t want to think, and who just want to guard what is theirs, and they?re selfish and limited in their thinking and they?re very fearful in their choices.?
Citing important moral lessons learned through her study of the Kabbalah and through her experiences researching her role in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Weber's tale of the fascist love that was never meant to last, "Eva," this still blonde, 63 year old recently ordained rabbi turns pensive, almost sullen as she explains that her concept of 'peace' is one that is far more open and embracing of contradictions than, perhaps, that of the vast majority of people. So what would Madonna do if she were queen of the world (and we're not entirely, one hundred percent certain she understood that this was a hypothetical question)?
I would use my title to bring peace to all the people of the world...be they black, be they white, be they yellow, be they... whatever.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 11, 2004
Yiddish Lesson
by JeremyWant to see an extremely funny multimedia ad for the book Yiddish With Dick and Jane? Well, here it is; you should see it.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Vile Roots of the American-Style Harlotization of Iranian Women
by JeremyEvidence has been uncovered of the undoing of Iran's culture by Western-style decadence. It started earlier than we might have thought:
Archeological discoveries dating back to about 10 thousand years ago in several caves such as the Kamarband Cave, the Hooto Cave (in Mazandaran) and Behistun Cave in Kermanshah show that women and men used the bones and teeth of hunted animals and even colorful stones to beautify themselves. Thus, the remains of animal horns, colorful stones and the skins and shells of aquatic species such as bivalves point to the first human makeup material in Iran.
You can see why the Mullahs are defensive of their culture, now under assault by profane American commerce and entertainment. Here is what we have done to their daughters:
The Iranian women were so much in love with ornaments and makeup that they would not give up the alluring habit even after death, so that several decades after the advent of Islam many Iranian women were buried with their ornaments by imitating Sassanid customs. In the archaeological excavations at Tabark Graveyard, the Bibi Shahrbanoo hills at Rey city belonging to the third or fourth century after the birth of Islam it has been discovered that women were buried with their ornaments even then. During the excavations of one of the hills a pair of gold earrings adorned by emerald and agate and in the shape of peacock was discovered, which was no less skillful in production, polish and smithcraft than the jewelry and smith work belonging to the Sassanid period. ... And thus this is just the beginning...
Posted by Jeremy at 06:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I think They're Heroes
by JeremySome call them war criminals and worse, but then again some people are nuts. And some people are extremely unkind. I don't think the coalition troops fighting in Iraq are happy about the horrible work they have to do and I, for one, find my every thought haunted by the knowledge of the sacrifices and the suffering of the soldiers and civilians in Iraq who are struggling to beat back fascism and theocratic terrorism.
If this struggle were not going on I would be haunted by the knowledge of the violence being committed that we would then so easily wash our hands of.
Today, on Veterans' Day here in the U.S., I am acutely aware that no one gives a goddamn what I'm haunted by, nor should they. So that's a bit of humbling reality.
But equally true is the fact that there are a number of seemingly insignificant gestures we can make that can provide a truly significant boost to our friends and family fighting in Iraq. That's the other side of the coin.
The Art of the Blog, has a good sized list of things we can do to express our gratitude, our solidarity, our best wishes:
DO SOMETHING!
The list goes on, so read the rest here, and suggest your own ideas.
And if you don't agree that what the coalition troops are doing in Fallujah right now is a noble or good thing, you might consider a few words from Michael Bowen who compares Fallujah to Selma Alabama:
Look at Falluja as the heart of the Confederacy. Look at Al Sadr like the head of the KKK. And look at the international coalition in Iraq as you looked at all of the nations in the world who expressed concern at America's old Negro Problem.Clearly the severity of the oppression and the militance of the resistance in Iraq is much greater than ours was. But if you asked blackfolks in 50s Selma Alabama if they would mind thousands of soldiers rumbling through with tanks to crush the Klan, I think you know the answer.
And here is an illustration of how simply declining to act doesn't automatically provide moral cover:
According to [FDR's Secretary of War, John] McCloy, Roosevelt told him that bombing Auschwitz would be "provocative" to the Nazis and he wouldn't "have anything to do" with the idea. McCloy said that FDR warned him that Americans would be accused of "bombing these innocent people" at Auschwitz, adding, "We'll be accused of participating in this horrible business!"
And here are some opinions from people living in Iraq (via Marcus):
From BBCArabic.com: I am originally from Falluja. I support the government in its use of force to rid us from the terrorist gangs that have been wrecking havoc in my city and causing pain to my people. I say to Arabs outside Iraq: Please save us your comments because you don't know the crimes that have been committed by these gangs under the guise of religion and resistance. Ahlam Jamil, Iraq[...]
From BBCArabic.com: Some are shedding tears for Falluja and for the terrorists and murderers, but no-one seems to have spared a thought for the bereaved families who have lost loved ones because of the car bombs etc, manufactured by those criminals who call themselves part of the resistance. Allawi's decision is a sound one and should have been taken and implemented long before now. Iraq does not need criminals to defend it.
Wisam, Basra, Iraq[...]
There is no alternative to what the US Army is doing in Falluja. The city must be pacified. For months now those murderers and terrorist operating out of that cursed city have been kidnapping bombing and killing thousands of innocent ordinary Iraqis. It is surprising how people in the West have such a narrow viewpoint on this matter. These murderers bomb our schools and kill our innocent children, whilst the coalition is trying its best to build and help us move forward. It is not the coalition to blame it is not they who plot and plan these attacks.
A A Ali, Baghdad, Iraq
If we want our troops in Iraq to know that some of us think the horrible work they are tasked with is heroic, we should take this day as a reminder that there are ways we can communicate this to them.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Man of Many Hobbies
by JeremyI'm thinking of running a contest. It would go roughly as follows:
Which will Damian Counsell, aka Pootergeek, achieve first: cure cancer, land contract with major label, get column in major newspaper, eat Stilton again?
Contest ends 2010 or thereabouts.
By the way, I think Damian, a distant comrade with whom I overwhelmingly agree on matters of international import, should probably collaborate with this local comrade of mine, with whom I completely disagree on every conceivable matter of international import. At least to cut a track or two together.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 10, 2004
A. Roy, Oy Vey
by JeremyArundhati Roy finally says something that rings true to me:
"I am not very well educated."
You know, there's formal school education, and then there's the kind of education you can only get through experience. I think she could use a lot more of one, the other, or both.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What the Dutch Are Being Forced to Learn
by JeremyI was going to post on the disturbing anti-Muslim reprisals we've been hearing about in Amsterdam following the murder of Theo Van Gogh. It was going to be a long, profound post. But I'm grateful to not have to reinvent the wheel. Glenn Reynolds has a post on this subject that I don't think is in need of embellishment (though I probably will anyway).
First Glenn quotes Bjorn Staerk:
When the US was attacked on 9/11, it struck many of us how few reprisals there were against American Muslims. There were some attacks, but for a country of 300 million, who had just experienced the largest terrorist attack in history, the display of restraint was encouraging.I'm correspondingly discouraged by how the people of Holland have dealt with Theo van Gogh's murder - one death in a country of 16 million. There's been vandalism and arson, pig heads nailed to doors, the bombing of an Islamic school.
Then Glenn's conclusion, which I have decided I could not have said better myself:
Nothing breeds that sort of freelance violence like the perception that the duly constituted authorities aren't willing to protect the citizenry. People in the United States didn't doubt that; people in the Netherlands have had reason to.
I think it's important to point out that this shouldn't be construed as making excuses for such horrors as burning down an Islamic school or mosque, but understanding this dynamic might just deter that kind of atrocious act. The bottom line is that if the state sends a message that violent acts of bigotry will not be tolerated, such acts are somewhat less likely to happen. Much is lost when distinctions are made between one form of fascist atrocity and another. I wouldn't like to see the Netherlands, or any other nation, fall into the hands of fascists regardless of what race, culture, class, or religion they claim to represent (this all shouldn't be necessary to say, but I've found it very often is).
Posted by Jeremy at 05:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2004
Our Objectively Secular President
by JeremyHitchens pounds one out of the park on the matter of the war between secular democracy and theocratic fascism and just exactly who has done how much for the cause of secularism:
From the first day of the immolation of the World Trade Center, right down to the present moment, a gallery of pseudointellectuals has been willing to represent the worst face of Islam as the voice of the oppressed. How can these people bear to reread their own propaganda? Suicide murderers in Palestine?disowned and denounced by the new leader of the PLO?described as the victims of "despair." The forces of al-Qaida and the Taliban represented as misguided spokespeople for antiglobalization. The blood-maddened thugs in Iraq, who would rather bring down the roof on a suffering people than allow them to vote, pictured prettily as "insurgents" or even, by Michael Moore, as the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers. If this is liberal secularism, I'll take a modest, God-fearing, deer-hunting Baptist from Kentucky every time, as long as he didn't want to impose his principles on me (which our Constitution forbids him to do).[...]
George Bush may subjectively be a Christian, but he?and the U.S. armed forces?have objectively done more for secularism than the whole of the American agnostic community combined and doubled. The demolition of the Taliban, the huge damage inflicted on the al-Qaida network, and the confrontation with theocratic saboteurs in Iraq represent huge advances for the non-fundamentalist forces in many countries. The "antiwar" faction even recognizes this achievement, if only indirectly, by complaining about the way in which it has infuriated the Islamic religious extremists around the world. But does it accept the apparent corollary?that we should have been pursuing a policy to which the fanatics had no objection?
Secularism is not just a smug attitude. It is a possible way of democratic and pluralistic life that only became thinkable after several wars and revolutions had ruthlessly smashed the hold of the clergy on the state. We are now in the middle of another such war and revolution, and the liberals have gone AWOL.
Michael, though agreeing with Hitchens' basic point, feels that Hitchens is painting with too broad a brush here with respect to 'liberals' and that is certainly the case. Hitchens is a polemicist (in a good way; like a preacher -- again, in a good way) and I would say that he is leaving to his readers the task of defining exactly who it is he's talking about. I would say that if you are liberal, religious, or both, and see Islamist terror as a greater threat to freedom than is Bush, Hitchens is speaking for you, not against you.
Posted by Jeremy at 06:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Artists and Solidarity: Compare and Contrast
by JeremyConsider:
A number of bloggers have pointed out that there does not seem to have been any public statement of outrage, sympathy nor any declaration of solidarity against the brutal murder of Theo Van Gogh at the hands of terrorists. Roger Simon (novelist, screenwriter, blogger) has unsurprisingly been speaking out about Van Gogh's murder and wonders why more aren't doing so:
It's stunning how silent the American artistic community, Hollywood in particular, has been about the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam. Do they even know what happened to one of their own? Have they even heard of him? Do they care someone was killed for making a film which protested violent abuse against women? Are they even interested? So far nothing from Hollywood. Not a word that I've heard anyway.
Where, for instance, is fellow controversial filmmaker, Michael Moore? I'm not aware of even a perfunctory statement acknowledging that this was a dangerous attack on free speech. I'd like to think that prominent artists and filmmakers of any political stripe would not hesitate to condemn an act of violence against Moore. While Theo Van Gogh is not known in the U.S., Moore, at least by now, is certainly familiar with him and with the circumstances of his death.
Now, Compare and Contrast:
Christopher Reeve's fight for stem cell research can certainly be termed heroic. though some cynics might argue that there was, after all, a self-serving aspect to it all.But Reeve was, indeed, a real hero. And a brave one. Those of us involved with Chile learned that almost 20 years ago.
In 1987 when 77 Chilean actors were threatened with execution by the Pinochet dictatorship, Reeve courageously swooped into Santiago and placed himself at the head of a defiant protest march.
These were perilous times in Chile, a moment when rule of law was unknown and when the bloody secret (and not so secret) police ran amok.
It was a magnificent moment to see Superman himself defy The Dictator. Reeve, for his part, was always modest about his dramatic gesture, saying he was only doing his job as an elected leader of the Screen Actors Guild showing some solidarity for his Chilean counter-parts.
Recalling his Chilean experience he said that seeing the Chilean situation and the bravery of the protestors it changed the whole perspective of his profession, ?I never again accepted censorship, I?ve since done what I wanted and said what I?ve felt?. (via Marc Cooper)
I'm certainly not saying we should expect someone like Michael Moore to put his life on the line defying terrorists; I'm not doing that and don't expect him to. But a simple expression of outrage and solidarity, I need not tell Moore, can provide real support and contribute toward a modicum of security to filmmakers, artists, writers, politicians, who would dare speak out against any form of violent oppression.
There are conflicting accounts of the Left's reaction to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, but I remember many members of the celebrity Left voicing their outrage against this silencing of a novelist, and I remember an other wave of outrage against Cat Stevens for specifically declining to denounce this contract being put on a writer's head for having expressed his ideas.
I also remember hearing outrage over Danny Glover's loss of a lucrative advertising contract with MCI and over one or two gigs lost by Tim Robbins, due to their political views. I don't have to point out that Van Gogh's fate was worse. It's important for artists whose voices are heard to speak up, and it is painfully disappointing and shamefully neglectful of their principles that they have not done so.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 08, 2004
Karl Hits the Nail on the Head
by JeremyThe one great benefit to being a bad scholar is that there seems to be an endless supply of amazing stuff that everybody else assumed you'd already known but that you actually never got around to reading.
Earning his place at the top of our blog (and I'm not sure Nostradamus has done anything much to earn his lately) Karl Marx has this to say about the London press and the Civil War (the American one, that is). Tell me if this doesn't seem extremely topical:
"For months the leading weekly and daily papers of the London press have been reiterating the same litany on the American Civil War. While they insult the free states of the North, they anxiously defend themselves against the suspicion of sympathising with the slave states of the South. In fact, they continually write two articles: one article, in which they attack the North, and another article, in which they excuse their attacks on the North.?-Karl Marx, The North American Civil War
(Taken from this by a person named Sphinx, via Socialism in an Age of Waiting)
Disclosure: I have not read Sphinx's entire article; I plan to, but, as I've said, I'm a crappy scholar. I won't be able to read that article until Friday when I've got the day off. I know there are bloggers out there who can read things like that with one eye while teaching college courses or writing screenplays or giving TV interviews with the other, and posting with the third. I, on the other hand, am pretty impressed with myself when I can listen to the radio while keeping my car more or less in one lane (especially when it's the correct lane).
Posted by Jeremy at 09:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More from the NYT in favor of not moving to Canada
by JeremyFollowing along the line of thought of my previous post, this Op-Ed from the New York Times observes that Bush is not quite overlord of the universe:
While President Bush would like to think that the voters gave him a mandate last Tuesday to push his "compassionate conservative" agenda through Congress, the wish may well be father to the thought.[...]
With Mr. Daschle gone and with the addition of four Republican senators giving the party a 10-vote margin in the Senate, Mr. Bush will probably no longer have to contend with Democratic filibusters preventing the Senate from voting on his judicial appointees.
Though, as we've seen, Democrats would certainly have that power if especially egregious nomimees were floated.
This is especially significant because during the next four years many expect three or perhaps four Supreme Court vacancies. It is a stretch, however, to think that the Senate will view the election results as a mandate for Mr. Bush to appoint whomever he wants to the courts. For one thing, the new Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will be the liberal and unpredictable Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. And while some may think that Senator Daschle's loss will serve as a warning to Democrats hoping to defy the president, it seems clear that he lost not because of his record of opposition but because he lost touch with his constituents.[...]
...the president's major successes may amount to little more than getting a permanent extension on his tax cuts and making progress toward modernizing Social Security.
This is a long way from an across-the-board mandate.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Where Arlen Specter Gets Off
by JeremyThe simple arithmetic behind the popular wisdom that the Supreme Court will not get stacked with anti Roe v. Wade zealots (and similar, otherwise reasonable fears):
The president declared that he had "earned capital in the campaign, political capital," which he would spend on an agenda that includes overhauling Social Security and the tax code. Republican leaders seemed determined to carry it out.But in the convoluted political atmosphere of the Capitol, where every lawmaker must worry about something that no longer concerns the president - re-election - it may not be so easy for the Republicans to steamroller the Democrats.
That is especially true in the Senate, where the new majority is composed of 55 Republicans, four more than before but five fewer than needed to break a Democratic filibuster. As Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican whip, said in an interview, "Fifty-five is better than 51, but it's not 60."
So while Democrats may be forced to cave on some Bush priorities, like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or capping jury awards in medical malpractice cases, they may be unyielding on others, like supplanting the traditional Social Security retirement system with private investment accounts. And they may get help from Republicans, particularly those up for re-election in 2006, who cannot afford to anger constituents by pursuing too radical an agenda.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
Oops
by JeremyAs a reminder that I'm just a lowly weekend PHP hacker, not a real programmer, that little blogroll builder I bragged about in my previous post just caused this blog to turn comletely blank for a few minutes. Probably I should figure out how to prevent that from happening before I let anyone download the thing (it creates a blogroll file to be used as an include, and I think if that file is written improperly for whatever reason, it freaks out the whole blog page, which you don't have to tell me is not a good thing for it to do.) Maybe you should give me four to six weeks before I share it with anybody. Or maybe never.
Posted by Jeremy at 07:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Blog to Check Out
by JeremyBurning off some unclaimed spare time like so much yard waste, this weekend I slapped together a fairly nifty one-click blogroll manager for my Movable Type installation. I need to clean up a couple of rough edges and make it more user friendly before I offer it for free download, but I will soon (give me a couple of weeks).
But that wasn't really my point. My point was that I was delighted to be able to use my new blogroll-building machine to add a blog by a (guy I think) going by the name Quantum. The name of the blog is "The Quantum Reality" and it bears the, I think, semi-ironic subtitle: "Marvel as Gay Jewish Liberal Turns Neo-Conservative Warmonger! Typical days include BBC-Bashing, Israel-defending, Kerry-hating. Also, thoughts on cosmology and quantum mechanics are encouraged."
Here's a glimpse of the Quantum theory that liberals are the new gays:
Well, let me continue with my liberals are the new gays meme. Back in the early 90s, when I was a long-haired radical gay activist going to "Queer Nation" meetings in college and then retreating to San Francisco to join ACT UP, we got to create lots of Reagan-hating agit-prop. We got to march in anger and feel the thrill of being a RADICAL. But not all gays were "radicals". Some were "assimilationists". Today, we forget this dichotomy, because the entire gay world has been taken up by the tender hug of Ikea, Details, and other market-capitalist forces. The gays have moved to the suburbs and have become just normal folks that want to raise kids who are a little bit more stylish than everybody else.[...]
So too the libs and the left must make their choice. What is it to be? To retreat to a cocooned commune of Amerika hatred? Or to surrender to the general goodness of America and assimilate?
And it's always helpful to read another fellow liberal's account of that familiar 9/11 turmoil that many of us on the left were sent into by the insane reactions of the blame-America-always camp:
It really was the post-9/11 reaction by the Left which I found so disturbing, so pathologically delusional in their refusal to deal with the existance of evil, so desperate to link all bad acts in the world to America, that pushed me away from the left.[...]
That first week, trying to find my poise, trying to make sense of the world after the attacks, I saw very clearly that some on the Left were, well, pretty happy about the whole thing. Not overjoyed, but they found the attack useful. America was the problem, you see, and this might just wake us up! They were using the mass murder of 9/11 to score points for "their team"
It's a pleasure to welcome you to the cabal of well-meaning pajama-wearing satanists, Quantum!
Posted by Jeremy at 06:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2004
Hoder threatened
by JeremyThis causes fear, but it's not coming from Karl Rove; it's going to shut down free speech but it has nothing to do with John Ashcroft. Hoder (the Iranian blogger living in Canada) has received death threats that he can no longer laugh off (via Jeff Jarvis):
U.S. election aside, hot topic of the last couple of weeks in Persian blogosphere has been a blog called "Islamic Army" in which its anonymous author has threaten a big list of Iranian blogger for their "insults" to Allah, Prophet Mohammad and other Shia Imams.[...]
They now have picked particular posts from my Persian blog, in which they think I've insulted the God, and other sacred concepts of Islam and therefore, quoting from a Quranic verse, I deserve to be killed.
[...]
It seems they have a serious message this time, and when I add this to the recent mentions of my name in the radical Islamic newspapers such as Jomhouri-e Eslami and Kayhan, it doesn't look very good.
So, even though it still may be only a childish game, I guess I have to inform Canadian police and contact Google to see whether they can trace them...
...What do you think?
The first commenter says, "nice, i got my first islamic death threat a couple of days ago too."
Jeff has his own sobering comments:
I will admit that this is chilling. Who's going to go express the full extent of his or her disdain for these criminals with a fear that it could mean attack? I've seen what these people can do, first-hand. I saw them murder 3,000 that day. We've seen them murder Theo Van Gogh because of his words. We've seen so many crimes. I won't list the American writers and even webloggers who could be at risk. But I fear for them.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How Bush Did it
by JeremyI think the dirty trick that finally tipped it was when Karl Rove got Howard Dean in on that crazy ploy to portray Kerry as a (put down your drink) 'flip-flopper':
Howard Dean supporters give John Kerry flip-flops as Christmas giftDES MOINES -- Howard Dean supporters gave John Kerry a peculiar Christmas gift -- flip-flop sandals.
Iowans for Dean delivered the "present" to the Massachusetts senator's Iowa campaign headquarters on Wednesday. Both Dean and Kerry are among nine candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
"Sen. Kerry has been flip-flopping on issues throughout his career and campaign, and we thought we could make things a little more comfortable for him," said Dean spokeswoman Sarah Leonard.
They will stop at nothing. Expect this sort of thing to continue for the next four years.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 05, 2004
How to Drive the Last Nail in the Democratic Coffin
by JeremyAdvice to the Democratic party: don't take advice from the Daily Kos:
...the biggest silver lining of this election is how the GOP's victory is thus far being claimed, framed and explained. To that I say, "Let us join that chorus." And we should do so now, because there is immediacy in the post-election window of opportunity.Marching order #1, therefore, is this: No matter whom you talk to outside our circles, begin to perpetuate the (false, exaggerated) notion that George Bush's victory was built not merely on values issues, but gay marriage specifically. If you feel a need to broaden it slightly, try depicting the GOP as a majority party synonymous with gay-haters, warmongers and country-clubbers. Because I, for one, am tired of hearing whiny complaints from conservatives that, not only do I not have values, but that I fail to properly respect the values of people who are all too happy to buy into, no less perpetuate, inaccurate caricatures of the 54+ million Americans who voted Tuesday for John Kerry.
Criticizing the GOP ain't gonna build us a new national majority. But the process is brick by brick, or perhaps, brickbat by brickbat. We didn't decide the rules of engagement, but that's what they are and so we may as well start firing away.
If the Democratic party thinks the key to success in 2008 is either to appease the bigoted bogeymen that it has forgotten are largely the products of its own hick-baiting rhetoric, or to copy the dirty-pool political tricks that Democrats seem to think are the only rational explanation for the Bush victory, they are headed for another crack-up. If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic trump card, they are in huge trouble.
(via Instapundit)
Posted by Jeremy at 11:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
I'm OK with Silly Notes
by JeremyReally. I think these apology notes are silly and embarrassing (via Tim Blair), but I would gladly (well, perhaps resignedly) welcome these people into my home and share my Halloween candy with them. These are not bad people.
None of these people, I would venture a guess, would fasten their notes to the corpse of the person who they just shot, stabbed, and nearly decapitated, by staking it into the person's chest with a knife.
Pieter Dorsman has posted his translation of the letter to Ayaan Hirsi Ali that was attached to the body of her friend Theo Van Gogh. Not surprisingly, Jews find their way into the message:
?It?s a fact that Dutch politics is dominated by many Jews, themselves a product of Talmud institutions, the same applies to your party members??What do you think of the fact that the current mayor of Amsterdam adheres to an ideology that allows Jews to lie to non-Jews??
(editor note: Amsterdam?s current mayor, Job Cohen is Jewish)
?Your actions betray your cowardly courage that you use in getting attention for your struggle. You have the cowardly courage to ask Muslim children at a school to make a choice between their Creator and the constitution.?
Read the whole thing.
On second thought, this makes the apology notes above seem more disturbing rather than less.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Exodus of the Feeling Class
by JeremyRefugees from what was once called New York's 'Upper West Side', in a demonstration of their solidarity with the distasteful victims of the Rovian Hegemonic Order, have begun their exodus to Canada:
The most 'fired up' among them have opted to seek asylum in Europe:
Posted by Jeremy at 12:48 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 04, 2004
More on that Unmanned Plan
by JeremyThe plan that does not need a president is fueled in part by outrageous acts like the murder of Theo Van Gogh. Roger Simon (in case you forgot he's the maestro of the mystery novel) manages to squeeze this continent-sized reality into the following parenthetical observation:
What could be more symbolic of the clash of civilizations than an Islamist assassinating a "Van Gogh"?
Building alliances is not going to be a problem for much longer.
To anticipate the objections of some readers, the civilization we are clashing with is not Arab or Muslim civilization but the nightmare 'civilization' that Islamists are planning for Arabs, Muslims, and whomever else they can manage to subjugate through barbaric violence against innocent people and their culture. The horrors of such a 'civilization' would wipe the condescending smile off the faces of people who use the word 'hegemon.'
Posted by Jeremy at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pay no Attention to that 'Plan' Behind the Curtain
by JeremyI think the real secret behind Kerry's plan to rebuild alliances throughout the world has been that this would tend to happen out of mutual, collective necessity regardless of who became the next president. A piece by the AP seems to suggest this may indeed be the case (via Classical Values).
Posted by Jeremy at 03:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Worth Mentioning
by JeremyAlaa:
I shall withhold my real comments on the subject until the final outcome is established officially. It is worth mentioning something, though. One of the Arab networks was interviewing some American Arabs. One lady, who was probably of Syrian or Palestinian descent, was saying that most of the Arab Americans were going to vote for the Democratic candidate as kind of anti-Bush gesture. However, she added something very interesting. She said that however, amongst these, most of the Americans of Iraqi origin, were voting for President Bush. Now did you know that there is a considerable number of these, estimates range from half million to more than one million. I have the pleasure to know that our Iraqi compatriots in the U.S. may have made some real contribution towards the happy outcome we are awaiting with confidence ?Inshallah?.Salaam
Posted by Jeremy at 03:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Mesopotamian Anniversary
by JeremyCongratulations to Alaa on the first anniversary of The Mesopotamian!
Posted by Jeremy at 03:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Chicken, Egg, Insomnia
by JeremyI have been having trouble getting to sleep for the past several weeks because, right at the cusp between bliss and snoring, my heart suddenly starts palpitating, by head and chest start tingling, my stomach seems to be pulsating and I feel panicky. I know it sounds like an anxiety attack but I think it's the other way around; the anxiety is caused by the digestive disturbance.
Nerves? I'm thinking it's the Vagus nerve in particular. Anyone ever have this sort of problem? This woman seems to know exactly what I mean, but she's living back in 1999 (in a tin Ensure can orbiting a distant moon).
Anyway, goodnight.
Posted by Jeremy at 03:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 03, 2004
The Other Kerry
by JeremyI just watched Kerry's concession speech and I saw a man who I found to be far more likeable than that other John Kerry. I could vote for a man with that kind of humility, generosity of spirit, and vision. It reinforces the view of Kerry I have had for some time that he is one of those people who are made ugly by power. Another thing this drove home to me is that I have more respect for Kerry than do many of the people who voted for him.
And if you think Bush is the sort of person who is made ugly by power, watch over the next four years and compare what actually happens to what you now fear will happen. I don't think Bush is bullshitting when he says he feels a responsibility to Kerry supporters to try to earn their trust.
Bush will advance a conservative agenda, but will Roe v. Wade be overturned? I don't believe it. A constitutional ban on gay marriage? It's just not goint to happen. A radical assault on workers' right or organize? While I'm sure there will be losses on one or two small fronts, it's not going to be the beginning of the end of orgainzed labor (though we may see the rise of an historically important labor movement in Iraq and Afghanistan, for those keeping track). The Supreme Court? That's what bothers me the most about Bush's re-election, but I just don't think it's going to get stacked with radical Christian fundamentalists.
Well, in any event, we will see.
Posted by Jeremy at 06:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Cara's Back
by JeremyAt least for one notable post on the election. If you haven't seen it, then see it now. She likes to claim she's not the real writer at this blog, but this post reveals this claim to be complete B.S.
Posted by Jeremy at 05:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Accountability to viewers sucks
by JeremyHere's an actual TV exchange, with only a couple of phrases changed:
FAMOUS TALKING HEAD #1: One would expect that our damned viewership which the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign has used for any number of purposes over their four years will start now, if it hasn't started already, to say, listen, Kerry-Edwards, for the good of the country, need to concede.FAMOUS TALKING HEAD #2: I'm sure it's started already. If we bothered to listen to those knuckle draggers we'd see that people are already saying that now. That's certainly the drum the White House is beating.
See the actual (barely different) exchange via Roger.
Posted by Jeremy at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My Oath: Diogenes Light
by JeremyYes, I mean Diogenes' light. But I also do mean Diogenes-lite, as in tastes great, less filling. I mean the search, the skepticism, without all that cynicism to weigh me down. And screw the asceticism, while we're picking and choosing.
It looks like Bush will once again be president. But even if it's Kerry, I've got to devote a meaningful portion of my surplus energy advocating for the domestic policies that are important to me. I don't have to worry that gay couples will be decapitated in the public square, that women will be executed in stadiums for adultery...all taken care of under either candidate (here) and I thank them both for it.
But mild erosion of the separation between church and state, relatively minor weakening of the eternally tenuous separation between capitalism and democracy (a quixotic cleaving is that latter one, under either candidate's presidency; I wish myself luck on that one. Clinton destroyed my faith that politically minded Democrats like Kerry are much better in this area, especially when the next election is only four years away) are issues where another Bush presidency calls for the vigilance of liberals at home. However, absent gassings, mass graves, sharia law, a fascist police state (real rather than imagined) what Bush will do at home does not make it onto the same graph as what he has rid the world of abroad.
I feel very strongly that the importance of more sophisticated diplomacy, if Kerry would in fact have offered that, would have been outweighed by the fact that a new president would have introduced an opportunity for dangerous players throughout the world to test the limits of this new, unknown quantity. It was not time for a new president.
I would have voted for FDR (overlooking his tremendous human rights abuses, and the fact that he is dead) but even he would have brought with him the risk of this destabilizing influence of limit testing. Kerry (or FDR) would have had to show his colors early. But at every turn, the new president would have had to reinvent the wheel as far as demonstrating the same unprecedented unwillingness to appease the jihadists and Baath fascists. I'm glad that this wheel will likely not have to be reinvented. It's more realistic for Bush to allow his cabinet to orchestrate the rebuilding of alliances. That will happen because it has to happen, and because it's a need that will increasingly be reciprocated by allies like France and Russia. The converse would have been a lot harder -- for anyone -- to rebuild from scratch.
The majority of the country strongly wanting to put all our focus back on domestic issues and to get our troops out of Iraq sooner would not have made it any more possible to do so, but that mandate would have put a millstone around Kerry's neck.
If it turns out that Kerry is the new president, all of the above still applies; just change all the tenses from the past conditional to the future, etc.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bush, Probably
by JeremyNBC is now projecting that Bush has won Ohio. If true, this means that it is virtually impossible for Kerry to win.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Florida, Ohio, Fuji
by JeremyI heard someone say a very wise thing on TV just now regarding how mangled Florida was in 2000 and whether Ohio will be as much of a mess if the vote is contested, recounted, appealed...
Apparently the Japanese have a saying that 'even Mt. Fuji looks ugly close up' and so will Ohio if we have to turn the microscope on the voting there. Or indeed anywhere else.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
W FLA
by JeremyLooks like Bush has won Florida. Also looks like Ohio is getting more close. More commenters are taking seriously the possibility of a tie. I still can't visualize that happening, but who the hell knows.
But you either know this as I write it or will know more than this by the time you do read it, so why do I waste my time? Anxiety control, I guess. I like the pocketa-pocketa-pocketa of the keys going.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Alaa on the U.S. Election
by JeremyFor us the Iraqis, naturally, there has never been an American election of greater interest and importance. Well, I think that I have made my own views quite clear, and I still think the same. I have nothing personally against either the Democrats or Senator Kerry...I am convinced that all pro-democracy forces in Iraq as well as all those defying murder and terror and bravely going on with their lives despite the nightmare; All these have quite a definite idea: It is better and more prudent that President Bush is re-elected. However, this is something which the American voter will soon decide. So whatever is the outcome, we wish the U.S. people well and hope that they decide wisely.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2004
Live Blog #2: Election Update
by JeremyIt's a close race. Still too soon to call. I'll have updates every 36 hours so keep refreshing.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Election Thoughts
by CaraHello folks. Yes, I?m lugging myself out of blogging moth balls to weigh in on this election.
First off, for what it?s worth, I?m voting for Bush and, pardon my impertinence, I think you should too. There, I?ve said it.
Now, onto why my blogging bus ran out of gas. Well, I guess I ran out of the energy necessary to keep finding new and creative ways of saying basically the same things I?d been saying since beginning this blogging experiment in August of 2003. I never thought of myself as a writer, per se, but as someone who had a lot to process since 9/11 and who wanted to connect with those who were also trying to make honest sense of things. Jeremy?s really the writer on this blog, and his intelligent unwavering consistency never ceases to amaze me. I guess I felt I?d said what I needed to say and I started to feel like it was getting repetitive. Besides, so many other talented folks, bloggers I?d come to depend on for their honesty, intelligence and craft, were saying what I?d wanted to say and doing it much better than I ever could.
I was also exhausted with anger, still am. Angry at the Islamist fascists, angry at the ?left? for forgetting what a real fascist looks like and angry at the fickle fair-weather hawks who evidently thought that this time the U.S could choose the hell of war away. I got so tired of trying to find the ?magic words? that would suddenly make everything clear, that would finally and magically bestow recognition and understanding to those who refuse to move beyond the post-modern limbo that has become the stagnant land of 9/10. God, really, if the unequalled eloquence of a Tony (energizer bunny) Blair, Victor Davis-Hanson, or Christopher Hitchens doesn?t do it, then the problem isn?t with the words folks. How does all this nuanced eloquence stand a chance when all the beautifully crafted prose don?t make it past the ideological Great Wall of Chomsky, that vast politically correct barricade of ideas that has surrounded, seeped into and become part of so many leftist and even mainstream thoughts, that, for all intents and purposes, it acts like a physical barrier to different ideas. A barrier they?ve come to lean on. Please, it?s time to tear down this wall. At least it would be a start to even acknowledge its existence.
And do they realize how they?ve walled themselves inside of it? It?s creepy, really, like they?re the trapped shadows of things past, the un-dead frozen in time. It?s like you can see right through them, the well intentioned ghost people from village 9/10, ready to board the ?peace train? as long as the track stays within the confines of the village wall, and as long as Anybody But Bush is doing the driving. They remain so indignantly confident that they know the real truth of who the really bad guys are. And their bad guys are always ultimately worse than the Islamist terrorists, really. Their sloganed ideas save them the trouble of ever having to do any more of that painful thinking through of the actual ramifications of their assumptions about the world.
Naively, I keep waiting for their Casablanca moment, the instant they finally, in utter disgust, throw away that dam bottle of Vichy Water, expiration date 9/11 2001, come to their senses and aim their angry cynicism at the real fascists, ready to rejoin the fight. This is the classic liberalism, the heroic liberalism, I?m hoping will return someday.
I?m still waiting. And while I do, maybe I?ll pop back more often, ?magic words? or not.
I?m voting for Bush because, despite my many disagreements with his social policies, three years ago he decided to just say no to his party?s particular brand of Vichy Water. And what I?m afraid of is that Kerry still has some of his own bottles ferreted away somewhere, out of sight for now, but saved for just the right nuanced diplomatic occasion.
Posted by Cara at 06:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Done. Now We Wait and Imbibe...
by Jeremy...Ok: pick a news channel, and every time they change their projected winner based on exit polling you have to take another swig of Maalox (no, it's not a drinking game, it's a prescription, though I am not a doctor).
Anyway, I have voted. It only took me ten minutes from entrance to exit. It wasn't as hard as I though it was going to be.
We know from what our friends and comrades tell us that the world will turn to shit if either candidate wins, and I think that either candidate is likely to. So who cares. Except I've laid down a Jackson on this puppy plus I tossed in my marker with the Bulawayo Bookmaker, so I kinda got a angle on this rig, if you catch my drift.
The other thing is that Democracy is an amazing thing that we completely take for granted most of the time. I would very much like many other nations to have this right and have the opportunity to take it for granted.
UPDATE: The Manchester Macher? Whichever you prefer.
Posted by Jeremy at 06:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Election Live Blog #1
by JeremyBlogging will revolutionize election day coverage! As an example, I give you my first election day post. Feel free to email this to all your friends. If you believe in Democracy, spread the Word!
Anyway, here's the current tally:
Wow, is this a close one!!! Stay tuned!
Posted by Jeremy at 01:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It is OK to Hate Osama
by JeremyIf you hate Bush more than Osama, then you are not facing reality. Being in denial or in shock doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, any more than being addicted to valium makes you a bad person, but it makes you a person who needs to do a lot of thinking before, for instance, putting on a puppet show for children (via Norm):
The finale to a children's pantomime of Aladdin at a New Zealand theatre was Osama bin Laden belting out the Frank Sinatra hit "New York, New York".At least one parent has lodged a complaint with Auckland's Southern Stars Charitable Trust, which commissioned the show, dubbing it "unbelievably offensive and inappropriate" and "a callous, calculated political statement", the New Zealand Herald reported.
He said the character later signed books with "Love Osama".
The show's director, David Coddington, said the finale was not intended to have relevance to the September 11 attacks on the US, adding: "If I have caused anyone offence I apologise, I'm sorry that's happened. It was very much tongue in cheek."
The show was held to raise money for Radio Lollipop, an in-house station at Auckland's children's hospital and other charities.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Voting
by JeremyThere has never been a presidential election in which my vote counted for anything other than for its symbolic or totemic value as a sort of dry run for the exercise of my will to power. This year will be no exception. But this year we can throw in a dash of taboo for extra seasoning.
My votes for local candidates might matter.
But when it comes to walking into that booth and voting for president, I'm reminded of the days when I studied Tai Chi (for the record: I'm still a novice). We were reminded once in a while that the slothlike mime we were doing was not just for relaxation and meditation. It was not just to get the blood moving and to circulate chi from the Tan Tien, up through our hearts and tongues and brains and back down to the ground, etc (though God knows it was for that too) it was also about fighting people to the death. Or at least pushing them thirty feet back to land in a heap against a Chinese pistachio tree.
For the solitary practice of Tai Chi Chuan to be something more than the merest exercise, one has to visualize an opponent (an admittedly slow goddamn opponent). When you lean forward, with seventy percent of the weight in your forwardmost leg, thirty percent in your rearmost leg, your beauteous hands arcing gently forward as your arms slowly outstretch, you visualize your opponent flying through the air behind him like the villain at the end of a Scooby Doo adventure.
That is what my vote means today.
Here is Grandmaster Cheng Man Ching giving some young student the big shove (actually, it looks like a mercifully little shove.)
UPDATE: Here's an online movie of Master Cheng giving someone a little shove (800k .mov file)
Posted by Jeremy at 07:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2004
Lancet Wager
by JeremyHow many days, weeks, months, or years after the U.S. presidential election will it take until the Lancet issues an apology for rushing the Johns Hopkins Iraq casualty study to print (and I mean rushing) like the apology it recently had to issue for the study it published linking measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccinations to childhood autism:
The medical journal that published a controversial study linking MMR to autism says, with hindsight, it would not have published the paper.Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet told the BBC the researchers had a "fatal conflict of interest".
Their apology over the MMR study was 4 years in coming, if that gives you any idea.
Moral of the story:
?Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after; so that when men come to be undeceived it is too late; the jest is over and the tale has had its effect.?
- Jonathan Swift
Posted by Jeremy at 12:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
