“Anonymous” over at Space Politics thinks so (see sixth comment):
You
Perspective
Today is the hundred and forty fourth anniversary of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the three bloody days of that battle, on the Union side alone, we had about as many casualties, killed and wounded as we’ve had in over four years in Iraq.
More Glove Prize Publicity
Here’s another story on Peter Homer, at the International Herald Tribune. Not much different than yesterday’s offerings, but it’s nice to see this getting so much play in the press.
“No Sign Of The Sacred”
Michael Yon has a gruesome report from Iraq, with graphic photos:
Soldiers from 5th IA said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.
This isn’t civil war. It’s a war on the Iraqi people, and on decency itself, by a mindless, butchering hateful ideology. And in their savagery, they use our own decency against us, booby trapping bodies because they know that we, unlike they, honor the dead.
“No Sign Of The Sacred”
Michael Yon has a gruesome report from Iraq, with graphic photos:
Soldiers from 5th IA said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.
This isn’t civil war. It’s a war on the Iraqi people, and on decency itself, by a mindless, butchering hateful ideology. And in their savagery, they use our own decency against us, booby trapping bodies because they know that we, unlike they, honor the dead.
“No Sign Of The Sacred”
Michael Yon has a gruesome report from Iraq, with graphic photos:
Soldiers from 5th IA said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.
This isn’t civil war. It’s a war on the Iraqi people, and on decency itself, by a mindless, butchering hateful ideology. And in their savagery, they use our own decency against us, booby trapping bodies because they know that we, unlike they, honor the dead.
California Election Reform
There was a discussion over on Usenet in which people were whining about how unfair it was that Gore didn’t win the presidency, even though he got a majority of the vote (he didn’t really–there’s no way to know that within the margin of error of vote counts, so close was the election), because of that anachronistic electoral college thingie. I pointed out that there’s nothing at all anachronistic about it, and that in fact it’s arguable that it’s needed more than ever, with modern media. If the president were directly elected, all a candidate would have to do is ad buys in the major media markets, and voters in places like Wyoming and Alaska would be effectively disenfranchised, since the candidates would have no need to pay any attention to them.
It occurs to me that, in fact, a lot of California’s mess could be alleviated by instituting an electoral college. As it is now, while there are legislators representing rural counties, they’re overwhelmed by those from the cities, and the entire state (most of which is in fact quite rural) is run by Sacramento.
I’m not sure exactly what the mechanism to restore some balance might be, but it would probably involve having electors proportional to state senator and representatives from some kind of new district analogous to states within the state, to at least insure that the governor was more broadly representative of all the state’s constituencies, rather than just LA, San Diego and the Bay Area. Of course, given the current political structure, implementing such a reform is probably a fantasy.
[Early afternoon update]
Just by coincidence, here’s an article by Henry Lamb defending the electoral college.
Understatement
Strategy Page says that Al Qaeda is on the run, though you wouldn’t know it from the press coverage:
Al Qaeda is eagerly recruiting other Islamic terrorist organizations, usually ones that have recently taken a big beating in their home country, to become part of al Qaeda. That’s about the only growth al Qaeda is experiencing. In Iraq, former Sunni Arab allies of al Qaeda have openly turned on the organization, and are eagerly hunting them down and killing them. Al Qaeda is fighting back, now sending death squads after Sunni Arab tribal chiefs. Does that sound like something a winner would be doing?
Al Qaeda is having some success in the Western media, and among Moslems living in Europe.
Emphasis mine.
Give Us Liberty From Incumbistan
Mark Steyn declares independence from bloviators like Trenthorn Lotthorn and his goats.
Counterfactual
What if we’d left Saddam in power?