War Commentary

“Please Send Money”

Read about this letter from Al Zawahiri to Al Zarqawi:

Zawahiri also complains about Zarqawi’s all-out war against the Shiites of Iraq, saying the Arab man in the street doesn’t understand why suicide bombings are killing so many fellow Muslims.

The letter also indicates Zawahiri’s life in hiding has left him cut off from news and financial support. He asks Zarqawi to provide him more information about operations in Iraq, saying he should know at least as much as the enemy knows, and he even asks Zarqawi to send money.

Well, maybe Zarqawi is losing Zawahiri’s support, but he’s still got Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy in his camp…

I have to say, though, I don’t know what it is that CBS finds “chilling” about the letter.

Then read this (long but worthwhile) report from Mosul by Michael Yon, if you want to know who’s winning, and who’s losing, this war.

[Update on Friday morning]

Dan Darling has further thoughts.

War Commentary

“Please Send Money”

Read about this letter from Al Zawahiri to Al Zarqawi:

Zawahiri also complains about Zarqawi’s all-out war against the Shiites of Iraq, saying the Arab man in the street doesn’t understand why suicide bombings are killing so many fellow Muslims.

The letter also indicates Zawahiri’s life in hiding has left him cut off from news and financial support. He asks Zarqawi to provide him more information about operations in Iraq, saying he should know at least as much as the enemy knows, and he even asks Zarqawi to send money.

Well, maybe Zarqawi is losing Zawahiri’s support, but he’s still got Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy in his camp…

I have to say, though, I don’t know what it is that CBS finds “chilling” about the letter.

Then read this (long but worthwhile) report from Mosul by Michael Yon, if you want to know who’s winning, and who’s losing, this war.

[Update on Friday morning]

Dan Darling has further thoughts.

General Science

Tough Singles Scene

If you’re put off by dating, just be glad you’re not a male nursery spider:

Some male spiders pay the ultimate price for a few moments of pleasure when the female devours them after mating. Even worse, some males are eaten before they have the chance to mate.

To overcome this problem the nursery spider has devised a strategy of offering his thumbnail-sized mate a love-token, such as a dead insect.

But after presenting the gift the male immediately feigns death and collapses at her feet.

And as she becomes preoccupied with sinking her jaws into the insect treat, the male revives, creeps under her and begins copulating.

I think I’ll stick with flowers. Most of the women I know hate bugs.

Political Commentary

Surprise, Surprise

I know you’ll find this hard to imagine, but Louis Freeh says that the Clintons’ closets were full of skeletons. And in this case, it’s probably not just a figure of speech.

What do you do when you’re the FBI director for a president so corrupt? I would have stepped down, and said why. It certainly would have done the country a service to know at the time (of coure, much of it prefers to remain in denial now). It’s hard to work up much admiration for him at this point (particularly seeing what a mess he left the FBI in, including his aversion to computers and technology). But at least this might be one more wrench in the spokes of Hillary’s candidacy.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, I hadn’t read this part:

Freeh says he was determined to stay on as FBI director until President Clinton left office so that Clinton could not appoint his successor.

War Commentary

Straight Talk

For the first time in a long time, from the president about the war, and the enemy:

Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence — the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we’re not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We’re facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers — and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder.

Well, that’s not quite true. Maybe if we all converted and instituted Sharia, they might stop trying to murder us. At least not as quickly. Under those circumstances, of course, they could do it at their leisure, and whim.

Now if only the administration would stop calling it a War on “Terrorism,” and give it its true name.

[Update on a rainy south Florida afternoon]

A bleg: what did people, including the press, call World War II during World War II? Did they call it that? Or just “the war”? Or something else? I always thought that the terms World War I (the Great War) and World War II were terms that arose after the war, in the context of both of them. After all, it would have made no sense to call WW I WW I before WW II, because that would imply knowledge that there would be more to come (not necessarily a tough prediction, given world history, but still). And anyway, WW I was the “war to end all wars.” Woodrow Wilson said so himself…

But now, in the context of past century, why can’t we just call this one World War IV (and the third one straight against a form of totalitarianism)?

Political Commentary

He Must Have Been Thinking Of Bill Clinton

Did the head of the DNC really say this?

MATTHEWS: Do you believe that the president can claim executive privilege?

DEAN: Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can’t play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it’s called. He’s got to go out there and say something about this woman who’s going to a 20 or 30-year appointment, a 20 or 30-year appointment to influence America. We deserve to know something about her.

Emphasis mine.

Howard Dean. The gift that just keeps on giving.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!