A new audio tape has shown up, late to the party, supposedly of bin Laden calling for martyrs to fight the US and the Arab nations that supported the deposing of Saddam.

This act is getting a little old.

Even Richard Cohen, in his own eulogy to Michael Kelly, has noticed the inexplicable love of thugs expressed by many of his compadres on the left.

[Update at 1:30 PM PDT]

Chuck Divine makes the following point in the comments section:

A lot of us know how major media companies screw over artists — just check out Instapundit’s reports on the topic.

Too many artists — good at music or acting or directing or writing or whatever — just see this aspect of capitalism. Not being very broad thinkers, they fall for any liar who attacks their enemy.

I respect and like artists — I’m a bit of one myself.

Perhaps we — meaning those of us who see Castro as the real villain he is and also see MPAA/RIAA for what they are — should actually talk patiently and friendlily with artists to get them to distance themselves from Castro and others of his ilk. And, hopefully, join us in our efforts to win freedom for all.

That’s an interesting point, Chuck.

Actually I’ve got a thesis (which I’ve put forth previously here) that the reason that so many Hollywood types (especially screenwriters) hate business and capitalism is that when they’re in between gigs, and have to get real jobs, they tend to work for ad agencies, which are managed by the scum of the earth (by many accounts). This belief is buttressed by the number of movies and television shows set in ad agencies, out of all proportion to the number of people who work at such places in real life.

People write what they know, and if I had to make a living in the advertising business, I might hate capitalism, too.

In response to a comment by “Judith” at this post and last week’s Fox column, I’ve registered the name “bunkumbuster.com.”

It’s for sale.

I hate to beg for contributions to the tip jar, though I could use them, but I’d like to auction this domain off, which is a great one for a blog (I like to offer more value for the donation than just my posts…). I’ve got no problem with doing so, because as far as I know, I coined the name, and no one else bothered to register it. Yes, I know, you can get “bunkumbuster.net,” or “bunkumbuster.org,” or several other variations, but this is probably the most valuable, and I’d like to sell it to a worthy blogger.

That’s right. I’m not going to the highest bidder (though, obviously, if someone offers me megabucks, or even kilobucks for it, I’ll take it–I’m crazy, but not stupid). I’d like it to go to a worthy contender.

Send me either URLs to blogs that you’ve already done, or if not a current blogger, examples of what you could do, to let me judge if you’re worthy of the name.

My decision will be based on a combination of blogworthiness and cash on the barrelhead, with the first having the highest priority. That is, all other things being equal, writing (and particularly bunkum-busting writing) will trump the money, barring an outrageously high-priced bid.

Decision will be made by tax day…

I have mixed feelings listening to the news that Saddam has been killed in tonight’s bombing.

I’m not unhappy he’s dead, but I think that it was much too easy, and ambiguous a death. Both to convince the Iraqis, and for reasons of basic justice, he should at a minimum have seen it coming, and suffered the public ignominy of Mussolini.

Scott Ott has an explanation for the Iraqi (dis)Information minister’s bizarre proclamations.

It’s a new word that I just coined, and that Matt Ridley describes well in this article from the Guardian.

As a change of pace, Brad DeLong has a simply stunning optical illusion. It demonstrates very clearly just how much vision is a cognitive process.

[via Brink Lindsey]

Here’s an interesting article for those who claim that Arafat had no control over terrorist acts.

So says Stephen Schwartz. He says that fellow-Muslim Kosovars may have some words of warning for newly-liberated Iraqis.

KOSOVARS can offer a valuable insight into the situation we expect to face in Iraq. The U.N., they point out, never supported the NATO bombing of Serbia in the first place, so why should U.N. functionaries care how they carry out a mandate given them for reconstruction? Americans were naive, say Kosovars, to believe that the U.N. would effectively fulfill the tasks ceded to it in Kosovo, after the international organization had opposed the intervention.

Many people seem to misunderstand what the U.N. is. They hear about potential United Nations involvement in Iraq, and believe that the peoples of the world will unite, through their U.N. ambassadors, to make Iraq whole after the war. But this perception is mistaken. The U.N. is not the nations of the world united. It is an enterprise located in a building in New York, with satellite operations around the world, employing a certain cadre of people of many nationalities, most of whom are time-servers and ideologues.

In my six years’ experience in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, I never met a U.N. representative who failed to conform to a certain professional profile. They call themselves “internationals,” and are generally young and inexperienced, although the heads of their missions tend to be old and uninterested. They have a strong prejudice against privatization, and too many of those chosen for economic responsibilities hail from Sweden and other countries where statist socialism remains the political religion.

Here’s the conclusion:

The United States must not permit the U.N., with its terrible record in the Balkans, among the Palestinians, in Africa, in Cambodia, and elsewhere, to inflict its incompetence and neuroses on the people of Iraq. Iraq is fighting for its freedom, after the long brutalization it has endured. America the liberator must prove that we meant what we said about the freedom and prosperity of the Iraqi people–while the U.N., the E.U., and their associates preferred the status quo. Iraq deserves better–and so do we, for the sacrifices we shall have borne. The first step is to recognize what not to do in postwar Iraq. And the name of that tragedy is Kosovo.

To quote someone else, read the whole thing.

…to con a publishing house.

Hillary’s book–you know, the one that she received a record multi-million advance for?–is overdue, according to Drudge. It’s supposed to come out in August, and the publisher hasn’t even seen a title, let alone a manuscript.

I’ve always thought that the advance was a bribe of some kind, albeit a legal one.