The nuttiest 1 percent of the American electorate is going to number around 1 million voters. Gather those people in one place, let them talk to each other and cheer each other on, and they are going to begin to assume that their 1 percent is much more numerous than it is, much more powerful, much more authentic than the 99 percent not at the rally.
This appears to be happening among the Deaniacs. They believe themselves to be far more numerous than they are, and to think that their self-referential assurances of virtue and victory carry weight beyond their chat rooms.
Someone over at Free Republic commented that the Dean campaign is just “one extended flash mob.” I think that’s a good characterization.
Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that there are a lot of old scores to pay. It happened in Europe after the end of the Nazis, and it’s been delayed in Iraq by fear of the return of Saddam, but it may be beginning now. The most challenging period may lie immediately ahead, in the struggle to prevent a full-fledged civil war, and keeping the whole country from being thrown out with the Ba’ath water.
Nima said the assassinations have centered on Hussein followers implicated in violence, not all former party members. The murders seem meticulously planned, and the perpetrators leave behind no clues, he said. With few leads, detectives have made little progress in figuring out who is killing the Baathists, but Nima said this does not trouble him.
“There’s only a limited number of them. Once they’re all dead, this will have to end,” he said.
Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that there are a lot of old scores to pay. It happened in Europe after the end of the Nazis, and it’s been delayed in Iraq by fear of the return of Saddam, but it may be beginning now. The most challenging period may lie immediately ahead, in the struggle to prevent a full-fledged civil war, and keeping the whole country from being thrown out with the Ba’ath water.
Nima said the assassinations have centered on Hussein followers implicated in violence, not all former party members. The murders seem meticulously planned, and the perpetrators leave behind no clues, he said. With few leads, detectives have made little progress in figuring out who is killing the Baathists, but Nima said this does not trouble him.
“There’s only a limited number of them. Once they’re all dead, this will have to end,” he said.
Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that there are a lot of old scores to pay. It happened in Europe after the end of the Nazis, and it’s been delayed in Iraq by fear of the return of Saddam, but it may be beginning now. The most challenging period may lie immediately ahead, in the struggle to prevent a full-fledged civil war, and keeping the whole country from being thrown out with the Ba’ath water.
Nima said the assassinations have centered on Hussein followers implicated in violence, not all former party members. The murders seem meticulously planned, and the perpetrators leave behind no clues, he said. With few leads, detectives have made little progress in figuring out who is killing the Baathists, but Nima said this does not trouble him.
“There’s only a limited number of them. Once they’re all dead, this will have to end,” he said.
On this anniversary, half a million people will be in the air in this country alone at any given moment.
For comparison, on the fortieth anniversary (12 April 2001) of the first manned space flight — a period of breakneck technological and economic advances — there were exactly three human beings in space, the Expedition Two crew of Usachyov, Voss and Helms aboard the International Space Station.
Michael McNeil says that the BBC chose today to clumsily, in fact mindlessly attempt to throw cold water on the notion that the Wrights were first. What a shocker.
As not totally unexpected, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Wrights’ first flight, SpaceShipOne lit its hybrid rocket engine in flight for the first time and busted the mythical sound barrier today. A friend of mine, Brian Binnie, was the pilot, and I’m glad to see that he’s finally getting a chance to fly a rocketplane.
It’s a significant event, though it would have been better had they been able to go into space. It will be interesting to see if mainstream media picks up on it.
[Update before bed]
CBS covered it, but there was no tie-in to the Wright anniversary, and much focus on the landing-gear problem.