Obviously, this report is very uncomfortable for those “cycle of violence” types who insist on finding moral equivalence in the Palestinian/Israeli violence. It’s also another unpleasant slice of reality for supporters of democratizing the Middle East to observe, yet again, that the Palestinians have freely chosen a government of incorrigible murderers (to replace the last bunch of incorrigible murderers). But it is what it is
Jonah Goldberg has a good essay on the nonsense that is populism:
It should be no surprise by now that populism has always been a fundamentally left-wing phenomena. Indeed, just looking around the world to see which countries call themselves
Al Qaeda knows, and admits, that they’re losing the war. They do think they’ve had some success on one front, though:
The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center. Other word, the significance of the strategy of their work is to show in the media that the American and the government do not control the situation and there is resistance against them. This policy dragged us to the type of operations that are attracted to the media, and we go to the streets from time to time for more possible noisy operations which follow the same direction.
This direction has large positive effects; however, being preoccupied with it alone delays more important operations such as taking control of some areas, preserving it and assuming power in Baghdad (for example, taking control of a university, a hospital, or a Sunni religious site).
Don’t expect to read about this aspect in the New York Times.
I’m posting this a little after midnight, but May 5th was the forty-fifth anniversary of Alan Shepard’s historic flight. And I have to get to bed for about four hours sleep so I can catch a 6 AM flight to Detroit, where my niece is having her first communion this weekend. Blogging will be light. Thoughts about the conference upon return.
As a non-coffee drinker who makes the coffee for Her, she objects to me performing initial preparation the night before, because the grounds aren’t fresh. I have to get up before her, and make a latte on a little two-cup Krups (model 872-42), complete with milk steamer, which has worked fine except the plastic cover over the carafe broke off the little tabs that clip it on within a few months of purchase (it’s about a year and a half old now), and requires careful cleaning of the little pinhole at the end of the steam nozzle with a safety pin (or if one is more bold, a straight one), lest one end up with naught but unfoamy warm mammary juice into which to lovingly pour the sacred sludge.
Lest one think me a true hero of domesticity, let it be known that I work at home while she has an often-ugly commute.
Dale wants me to comment on yesterday’s entertaining but unconstructive rant from the sage of Mojave. I know it will sound like heresy to some, but the post title is all I have to say at this time, for those commenters at his post who seem to think the opposite. He won the X-Prize because he got funded, not because he’s the only person who could do it, or even had the best way to do it. The fact that he doesn’t know how to get to orbit means nothing, except that he doesn’t know how to get to orbit. There are smart people who do, given sufficient funds, and there is more than one way to do it.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I just noticed that Sam had some other thoughts on one of Burt’s other unuseful and illogical comments.
“Perhaps the only way for draconian drug laws to change,” says Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann, “is for people like Limbaugh to join other nonviolent drug offenders behind bars.”
One of those nonviolent drug offenders is Richard Paey, who faced allegations remarkably similar to those against Limbaugh. Both men suffered severe back pain for which they underwent unsuccessful surgery, and both were accused of fraudulently obtaining more narcotics than they really needed. But while Limbaugh remains a free man and will not even face criminal charges if he continues to attend drug treatment for the next 18 months (something he was planning to do anyway), Paey is serving a 25-year sentence in a Florida prison.
I’m not blogging the conference–I’m too busy schmoozing, and I’m not staying at the conference hotel, so it’s a PITA to haul a laptop around there. But Clark Lindsey has already built a page of links to his and others’ comments so far. I may have some thoughts on the conference early next week, after things have calmed down and I’ve had some time to gather some. Anyway, there are three days remaining (though I will only be attending today).
), complete with milk steamer, which has worked fine except the plastic cover over the carafe broke off the little tabs that clip it on within a few months of purchase (it’s about a year and a half old now), and requires careful cleaning of the little pinhole at the end of the steam nozzle with a safety pin (or if one is more bold, a straight one), lest one end up with naught but unfoamy warm mammary juice into which to lovingly pour the sacred sludge.