Sunday linkfest

1. Things are actually getting better: the libertarian perspective.

2. Aspen bomber. "1:26 a.m. Suspect is spotted driving green Jeep Cherokee with a spare tire on the roof." You should definitely be suspicious of a guy driving a Jeep on the roof. Bonus: Commenters blame Bush.

3. France, land of brie, wine, and car torchings. I omitted "body odor," because that's understood. (via Ace)

4. This Israeli video for HDTV is old but quite wonderful. Translation is available at the site. (Warning: video starts automatically.)

5. Among the "related" videos was this dumb Jewish "wazzup" commercial. (Same warning.)

Click here to read more . . .

Responding to Mumbai?

This video from Aish HaTorah made it into my in box today. It's called "Responding to Mumbai."

I actually find it quite alarming. If you don't feel like viewing it, let me give you the gist: We need to respond to evil by doing good.

"When catastrophe happens," it begins, and after some images, it continues, "the Jewish response to evil is to put good into the world." It cites the Talmud for this proposition and suggests several ways to do good. Later, it says, "If 10 people can perpetrate so much evil, imagine what 100,000 can accomplish for the good." At the end, it lists many ways in which we can do good, and I endorse pretty much every one.

So why am I alarmed? Two reasons. First, the terrorism in Mumbai was evil, not a "catastrophe." A flood is a catastrophe. An earthquake is a catastrophe. A plane crash is a catastrophe. Terrorism is an evil. The video does say evil, but it starts by speaking of catastrophe, which suggests a force beyond our control.

Second, when terrorists commit evil acts as they did in Mumbai, it is actually wrong for us to think that doing good is the antidote. There's a time and place for good, but the first thing we need to do is to take strong action to fight the terrorists and their allies. And as long as we're thinking about Jewish law, perhaps we ought to keep in mind the directive that if someone comes to kill you, you must rise up and kill him first.

I see this video as reflecting a medieval diaspora mentality, in which we lack control over our destiny, flee in the face of cruelty, and survive solely through faith in God. At a minimum, the idea of doing good in response to evil has a religious, even messianic, component. (In America, we would say, "Kumbaya.") But let's be practical first. If Israel had followed this dictum of doing good in response to evil, without also taking steps to protect itself, there would be no Israel any more. Self-protection comes first, before anything else, including acts of kindness.

So let's all support tough measures against the terrorists and their allies. Fight evil today. Tomorrow we can talk about doing good.

UPDATE: The commenter who thinks I'm "a jerk" arrived here through a Google search for the phrase "the Jewish response to evil is to put good into the world." Google apparently doubted that this was the correct search. You can't make this stuff up.

UPDATE (12/7): Included in Haveil Havalim #194 at Shiloh Musings, where there are links to others who have written about Mumbai (and other topics).

Click here to read more . . .

Linking the Jews with the Indians

The alliance between Jews and Indians has become closer as we've watched the face of evil in Mumbai this past week.

In its modest way, the [Indo-Jewish] coalition attests to the deepening bonds between Jews and Indians, whether in Israel, India or the United States; and this week’s events demonstrate perhaps the most visceral and grisly element of connection, though far from the only one.

“I am seeing that there is some natural affinity being developed between India and Israel and Jewish people,” said Mr. Anighotri, 48, who owns technology and consulting companies. “Because both these countries and people have been affected by this kind of terror — killing of civilians, something despicable that is happening year after year.”

Cedric Suzman, who until recently was co-chairman of the Atlanta group, echoed the sentiment. “In times like this, you suddenly realize that you’ve built bridges,” Mr. Suzman said in a telephone interview. “So instead of recrimination and accusation, you have a huge coming together of sympathy and understanding.”

The affinity of which both men spoke extends well beyond the shared experience of being the target of Islamist terrorism, or the resulting military and security ties between India and Israel. The softer tissue of human experience — culture, religion, values — also binds Indians and Jews.

That link can only be stronger after the news that the terrorists attacked specifically Jewish targets and tortured their Israeli victims before killing them.

It's certainly time to work together for the future. As a friend of mine says, "A billion Indians and Israelis can't be stopped."

But first, we have to lay the responsibility where it belongs, to use appropriate language in speaking of this atrocity, and to reject the pernicious idea that it's our own fault.

Click here to read more . . .

Sarah Palin is evil

Now that morons like John Kerry are comparing Sarah Palin to Dick Cheney (via HotAir), someone had to do this, and why not me? (with apologies to Bert is Evil)




UPDATE: Getting quite a few hits for "Sarah Palin is an idiot" and similar searches. To those of you who have arrived here that way, you'll really hate some of my previous political stuff: my Obama posts, my Hillary posts, and my Bill Clinton posts. Here's one post that knocks McCain. Not exactly equal opportunity, but there you go.

UPDATE (9/3): Up to nearly 300 hits. So I'll give you more evidence Sarah Palin is evil.





UPDATE (9/9): Well, we're approaching 1,000 search visitors now, nearly half of whom were searching for "Sarah Palin is evil" or a variant.

UPDATE (9/17): We get comments.

Click here to read more . . .

Al Qaeda imitates Woody Allen's "Bananas"

Remember the scene in Bananas where the successful guerrilla leader addresses the people and announces his new edicts?

From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now 16 years old.

According to this article, Al Qaeda really ticked off the Iraqis by imposing similar edicts.

Besides the terrible killings inflicted by the fanatics on those who refuse to pledge allegiance to them, Al-Qa'eda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life.

They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar.

Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: "They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram.

"They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men."

Well, I guess if you had to choose the quintessential male and female vegetable, they chose the right ones. Cucumbers are obviously male; tomatoes are obviously female.

In fact, to quote Woody Allen again, the queen in a sketch in Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask is shocked when the Woody Allen jester character touches her on the breasts. Woody Allen denies it, saying he would never lay his hands on "the royal tomatoes."

(hat tip: Soccer Dad, who writes, "Who knew that Al Qaeda operated in Montgomery County?")

Click here to read more . . .

Amnesty International imitates Code Pink

Taking a page from the old Code Pink wacko book, Amnesty International has beclowned itself by setting up a see-it-for-yourself fake model of a Guantanamo cell. And where did this occur? Why, naturally, on the National Mall in Washington.

From the article in the Washington Post:

Amnesty International USA, the human rights group, set up the cell to dramatize its opposition to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where since 2002 the United States has kept hundreds of prisoners, many of them terror suspects. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this month that Guantanamo prisoners have the right to go to federal court to challenge their detention.

Amnesty International has taken the cell on the road, displaying it in Miami, Philadelphia and Portland, Maine, to educate Americans about what it contends are human rights violations that the United States is committing at Guantanamo.

And if you think I'm joking about Code Pink, check this out: "Dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, Amnesty International staff members such as Jason Disterhoft, 32, posed for photographs inside the cell, apparently not minding the temperature, which approached 90 degrees."

Compare and contrast. Here is Amnesty International:




Here is Code Pink, last month:




And by the way, do you know what else in on Amnesty's plate these days? The answer is: Decrying the execution of a Virginia man for murdering and nearly beheading a convenience store clerk. That's right; they're once again on the side of the murderers.

Key paragraph: "Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of Amnesty International USA's campaign to abolish the death penalty, said Yarbrough's execution 'marks a grim milestone for the state of Virginia. As evidence mounts that this country's death penalty system is flawed beyond repair, Virginia has become a virtual racetrack for capital punishment.'"

Click here to read more . . .

Barack Obama's newest text on national security

"Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security."

Richard Danzig, national security advisor to Barack Obama

. . . and for Danzig's next selection on national security:

Click here to read more . . .

Anniversary of a bombing

Via Ace, there's a very good post at Something...and Half of Something about today's 38th anniversary of the Weather Underground bombing at the Greenwich Village townhouse in 1970. The members accidentally blew themselves up instead of soldiers at Fort Dix.

Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, two members who weren't at the house at the time, seem to be thriving today. And even possibly caught up in the audacity of hope.

Click here to read more . . .

Wednesday linkfest

I've been pretty busy, so the best I can do for you is another linkfest. I would apologize, but that would presume there's anyone actually reading this to whom I can express my regrets.

That said now, let me catch you up on some interesting articles. There are a bunch of unrelated topics here, so stay with me until the end.

1. The science is settled, but the facts are apparently unaware what the science is. "All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously." Supposedly, the one-year temperature drop has nearly wiped out the past century of temperature increase. Look, I'm not a scientist; I don't even play one on TV. And maybe this is a temporary drop in a long-term rise. At the very least, though, it tells us we shouldn't be as certain as we seem to be.

2. If the fourteen Starbuckses on your block were all closed at the same time last night, that was deliberate. Memo to Starbucks: The word "re-education" has some horrible connotations. And it wasn't a coincidence that a billion newspapers used the term; check this from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. In case you missed the three-hour closing yesterday, I hope these two old posts will make up for it: Mr. Smith goes to Starbucks (photo comic); O.J. Simpson goes to Starbucks.

3. An article (via MetsBlog) discusses great brawls in Mets history, including my all-time favorite, a duel between Ray Knight of the Mets and Eric Davis of Cincinnati in 1986. There were so many ejections that when the game went deep into extra innings, the Mets had to use one of their relief pitchers in the outfield -- well, actually, two of them. Relievers Jesse Orosco (a lefty) and Roger McDowell (a righty) alternated on the mound, depending on whether the batter was righty or lefty. The pitcher who wasn't on the mound would then take his position in the outfield, in the position opposite from the batter's side, to reduce the chances he'd somehow have to field a ball that was hit out there. So Orosco and McDowell kept trotting back and forth from the mound to the outfield. It doesn't get any better than that. (Note: The article says that Cinci manager Pete Rose "furiously tried to find a rule that prevented the Mets from rotating pitchers, to no avail. The Mets won the five-hour, 14-inning marathon on a three-run Howard Johnson bomb.")

4. Scary toilet alert: "Don't Sit on That Toilet!" (via BOTWT) "An employee of an Auburn nursing home called firefighters for help on Tuesday because the toilets were exploding with steam." A boiler explosion set off a sprinkler system, which led to flooding of the nursing home.

5. Always looking for ways to support this country, Hollywood has developed (with the able help of the ACLU) the orange ribbon and wristband, to protest our treatment of Al Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. See this, too. (both via HotAir) And if that were not enough, we get the "Torture Playlist" of music allegedly used by the military "to induce sleep deprivation, 'prolong capture shock,' disorient detainees during interrogations—and also drown out screams." (via BOTWT) I'm sure I'd confess to anything if I had to listen to that dreck.

6. While Hollywood is blaming us for detaining Al Qaeda members and fellow travelers, the British are showing us what happens when you follow Hollywood's advice: "Terror trial exposes network of terror camps in picturesque rural England." (via LGF) The trial described in this article "exposed a network of alleged British terrorism training camps with a serious intent to prepare recruits for mass murder."

Click here to read more . . .

Monday evening linkfest

I've been collecting items that don't necessarily warrant their own post, and I'm going to dump them all here. Don't thank me. It's for your own good.

1. Have you ever thought to yourself, "Sure, Barack Obama is a well groomed and articulate young Negro, but what has the gentleman done for me?" Think no longer. Barack Obama is your new bicycle. Don't forget to keep clicking once you get there. (via Ace)

2. I'll tell you, though, what Barack Obama's done for a little townhouse in Greenwich Village that disappeared one day in 1970. Undoubtedly out of compassion for their loss, Obama has befriended some of the folks in the Weathermen unit with the guys who blew it up.

3. Speaking of Obama, an Obama supporter was choking his Hillary-supporting brother-in-law, who responded by stabbing the Obama supporter. Did you understand that? No? Well, read this, then. (via JammieWearingFool, via HotAir) And here's the punch line from the article: "On a side note: Voter registration records reveal that Ortiz, who supports Clinton, is registered Republican." Although that doesn't mean a heck of a lot these days.

4. Nobody but nobody gives Governor O'Malley credit for dealing with the crime problem other than the superannuated WaPo columnist David Broder. Maryland Conservatarian has got the goods.

5. Martin Kramer has great news for you if you enjoy being majorly depressed about the state of academics at certain Ivy League universities located in Morningside Heights. Amnon Rubinstein, a visiting Israeli professor has written a column about his time at Columbia. In Kramer's words: "Rubinstein discovered that the only truly active friends of Israel on campus were orthodox Jewish students. For him, a self-avowed secular humanist, it came as crushing disappointment that like-minded Israelis weren't standing up." Disappointment, yes; surprise, no. As Kramer points out, a professorship of Israel studies was set up in 2005, but the search committee included two notoriously anti-Israel professors. The result is that an Israeli was hired who "isn't a hard-left post-Zionist, but [is] far enough left to have signed a May 2002 open letter by some Israeli faculty" supporting Israelis who refused to serve as soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza.

6. On the lighter side, if The Graduate were being produced today by the U.N., it would not be "plastic" but rather "bugs." The headline says it all: "U.N. Conference Promotes Insect-Eating for Everyone From Famine Victims to Astronauts." (via Fark)

7. For those of you who are afraid to undergo a colonoscopy, please read this important public service announcement. From Dave Barry. (also via Fark) This will ease the fear, or at least keep you laughing about it. Regarding the "prep" -- that stuff you're supposed to drink to clean out your colon -- Barry writes: "The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground."

8. How do you know if your newspaper is on life support? One answer is: The entire 8-page sports section has two quarter-page ads, and they're both for non-medical remedies for erectile dysfunction. And I use the word "remedies" loosely. (via Ace)

9. Related: How do you know if your country is on life support? Answer: Your hospitals buy unisex underwear for the patients: "Male and female patients admitted to Swedish hospitals will soon be required to wear the same underwear." But there's a silver lining to these underwear. Now, some moron on MTV can ask Hillary this question: "Boxers or briefs?"

Click here to read more . . .

Six years

Last year's thoughts here. Two years ago here.

We seem to be sick of it already. And, of course, some of the families of 9/11 victims are suing. Yeah, that'll help.

UPDATE: Allah at HotAir has a great video excerpt from the Naudet brothers filming in the lobby of WTC 1 when WTC 2 collapsed.

UPDATE: This page from the BBC explains to children why 9/11 happened. It is totally beyond belief. (via PowerLine) See also this about the BBC's explanation. -- UPDATE (9/12): Removed. (via HotAir)

UPDATE: If the attacks had been thwarted . . . (via HotAir)

UPDATE: More on 9/11 "fatigue" from OyVayBlog. (hat tip: Soccer Dad)

UPDATE: Almost forgot this one from last week. HotAir had a video collecting clips from morning news shows at 8:00 a.m. the morning of the attack. It's eerie looking back at it.

UPDATE (9/12): Jonah Goldberg weighs in on the "emotional half-life of 9/11." (via Ace, who notes how far Andrew Sullivan has fallen in six years)

Click here to read more . . .

Osama bin Toast -- Clinton commemorative edition

I'm a guy who, with no evidence whatsoever, has been insisting since I started this blog about three years ago that Osama is pushing daisies. Hence, Osama bin Toast.

The latest video from "Osama" has been cleared as legit by the same intelligence analysts who advised General Custer. He sounds a lot like the American Left.

Now, there's a lot of interesting discussion about the tape, and about apparent splicing of the tape. Via one of the HotAir commenters, here's the official Clinton commemorative edition of the Osama tape at The Bullwinkle Blog.

Click here to read more . . .

Oy, another linkfest

I'm between two short vacation and things aren't allowing me to work on one longish post, so here's another linkfest. No, no, no. Don't thank me.

1. A man uses an internet florist to send his mistress some flowers and asks that the florist not to send him a receipt, which they do, and his wife sees it. (hat tip: fee simple) As they say over at Fark, hilarity ensues.

2. A followup on the story mentioned in yesterday's linkfest about an alliance between jihadis and Mexican drug gangs. (via HotAir)

3. Does the camera at the dressing room make my butt look fat? (via Mary Katharine Ham) Bonus: A video. Super-bonus: The key shot is here:


4. Tip to women from the NY Times: Eat red meat on your first date to make a good impression on your MAN. (via Alarming News) And fetch him a beer while you're at it. A commenter at Alarming News points out that Sloane Crosley, interviewed in the Times article, wrote a piece for the Village Voice that began, "White girls with big asses, man." Just sayin'.

5. Apparently, NASA has revised downward its temperature data, at least for the United States, because of a Y2K bug. Ace discusses. Also read the post at HotAir and the long post at Coyote Blog. What people naturally are puzzled about is why some of the scientists in this area won't release their data. From Ace: "The bug was discovered by someone who took the time to reverse-engineer Hansen's flawed algorithm...."

6. "Hashem saved me," says a former Yeshiva student in Minnesota who survived the bridge collapse. Dude, if I were you, I'd be asking myself why Hashem hurled me off the bridge in the first place.

Originally, I was sure this item was a hoax. The name of the young man is Roman Koyrakh. That's one external and one internal enemy of the Jews. Korach, who led the rebellion against Moses in the wilderness, died when God opened up the earth, which swallowed him up along with his followers. Hmmmm.

But I was wrong, I think. There is a guy named Roman Koyrakh in the Minneapolis area. (Check the middle photo on page 12 of this pdf.) Sure, he doesn't look like a yeshiva bachur there, but that's a 3-year-old photo, and maybe he's become frum.

Click here to read more . . .

Your Wednesday linkest

1. An amazing column about anti-American propaganda, written by Ion Mihai Pacepa, "the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc," in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

An excerpt:

During the Vietnam War we spread vitriolic stories around the world, pretending that America's presidents sent Genghis Khan-style barbarian soldiers to Vietnam who raped at random, taped electrical wires to human genitals, cut off limbs, blew up bodies and razed entire villages. Those weren't facts. They were our tales, but some seven million Americans ended up being convinced their own president, not communism, was the enemy. As Yuri Andropov, who conceived this dezinformatsiya war against the U.S., used to tell me, people are more willing to believe smut than holiness.

Of local interest, another excerpt:

Unfortunately, partisans today have taken a page from the old Soviet playbook. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, for example, Bush critics continued our mud-slinging at America's commander in chief. One speaker, Martin O'Malley, now governor of Maryland, had earlier in the summer stated he was more worried about the actions of the Bush administration than about al Qaeda.

2. Huge story at HotAir about jihadis linking up with Mexican drug gangs to finance terror. For those of us who are moderately pro-immigration, national security is the big elephant sitting in the corner. Unless you close down the borders to stop these people first, you can't be generous about immigration for the law-abiding.

3. Out: Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In: Make 'Em All Gay. The best comment there is "Armed and fabulous?"

Click here to read more . . .

Walt Whitman goes to Gitmo

So it turns out that the terrorists we're detaining at Guantanamo are not terrorists at all but merely poets:

I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.
But do you hear me, oh Judge, do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here, we've committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still
Justice and compassion remain in this world!

Excuse me while I throw up.

If this reminds you of the Eddie Murphy shtick as Tyrone Green reciting "Kill My Landlord" on Saturday Night Live, you're not alone.

Click here to read more . . .

Dealing with John Doe immunity -- UPDATED

UPDATED at bottom....

If you'll excuse me for trying to be serious for a change, I want to make a suggestion for dealing with the outcome of the provision recently agreed to for "John Doe" immunity.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain quickly. Some months back, six Muslim men alarmed passengers and crew on a Northwest Airlines flight with their behavior and were taken off the flight. The so-called "flying imams" promptly held a press conference to rail about anti-Muslim bigotry. Later, supported by CAIR, they brought suit against the airline and the "John Doe" passengers who reported the suspicious behavior. The House and Senate each passed a provision that would confer immunity on these and future "John Does" who reported suspicious activity. At the last minute, the Democrats in the House forced the provision out of the bill during a conference committee on the Homeland Security bill. And after an outcry by some House Republicans and a whole hell of a lot of bloggers, the House Democrats agreed to restore some language conferring immunity.

Via HotAir, here is the language they agreed to:

“Any person who, in good faith and based on objectively reasonable suspicion, makes or causes to be made, a voluntary report of covered activity to an authorized official shall be immune from civil liability under federal, state and local law for such report.”

Ace was discussing this immunity as a qualified one, which it is. But like every other federal government lawyer, I have a passing familiarity with a specific doctrine called "qualified immunity," which is sometimes available to government officials sued for damages in their individual capacities. So I began trying to see it in those terms. I posted a comment at Ace's, which he then pulled up into the text at the link above. (Amusingly, he concluded by saying, "Thanks to the law offices of Attila the Pillage Idiot.") What I wrote was my tentative conclusion:

One thing I find troubling is that in REAL qualified immunity for federal and state officials, it's an immunity from SUIT, not a defense to liability. The language here says "immune from liability" -- which sounds like a defense to liability. The significance of this is that in qualified immunity, the courts decide as early as possible whether the immunity applies, so they can spare the defendant the cost and burden of litigation. Here, at least the way it appears, the defendant may have to go well into the litigation, possibly to trial, before the "immunity from liability" can be determined.

I could be wrong in my reading of this, but let's just say, this will have to be litigated for years before the meaning is clear enough for it to be helpful to John Does.

I'm still not sure I'm right in my reading of the new language, but I do think I'm right that it's not clear enough to give comfort to potential John Does, who still have reason to fear lawsuits against them for reporting suspicious activity.

Today, I came up with what I think is the best way to handle this situation, given that the language is clearly not going to become any better than it is now.

It's time to put together an organization that will have a relationship with seasoned litigators willing to work pro bono on behalf of John Does. This organization would be like FIRE, the Center for Individual Rights, and others that I can come up with if I try.

Having an organization like this will mean that John Does can come forward without fear of having to bankrupt themselves in defending a suit brought by the likes of CAIR just to get to the point where they're entitled to immunity under what's likely to become the law. A ready supply of defense counsel will also force CAIR to watch its step in bringing these actions. The United States has a tremendous interest in encouraging citizens to come forward with information about potential terrorist acts, and it's extremely important to offset the disincentives created by the legislative compromise on immunity.

I think this is a pretty good idea, but it's not a job for me. I'm going to email a few people to see if I can stir up some interest in it. I'll let you know.

UPDATE (7/27): HotAir links to the text of the provision, section 1206 of the bill. The new section is somewhat better than I thought yesterday, based solely on the news reports available at the time, but it doesn't solve the problem. Section 1206(c) adds the following language providing for attorney's fees for successful John Doe defendants:

Any person or authorized official found to be immune from civil liability under this section shall be entitled to recover from the plaintiff all reasonable costs and attorney fees.

An attorney's fee provision certainly will act as a disincentive to suits against John Does, but when suits are nevertheless brought against them, the John Doe defendants, in order to obtain attorney's fees, will have to be "found to be immune from civil liability." They won't be "found" to be immune until they reach the same stage of litigation we were discussing yesterday. So, while section 1206(c) is a help, it doesn't avoid the need for a stable of litigators ready to defend John Does pro bono.

Click here to read more . . .