Oh, shit...
An explosion has partially collapsed an eight story building in New York. Information can be found here and here. So far, it looks like an industrial accident, but I think everyone will forgive me if I'm still a little high-strung.
Welcome Back!
Lake Effect is finally back online, after a three month hiatus. Good to see you, Dan!
Whither Palestine?
MuslimPundit has an excellent article on the fate of the Palestinian people. Far too good to excerpt. Must read.
Translates Slogans to English, while you wait!
Over at Protein Wisdom, there's a list of slogans that were observed at the Washington anti-globo protest. Jeff has translated these to english, and they're friggin' hilarious. My favorites?
All Our Leaders Are Corporate WhoresAnd they just get better.
Down With Capitalism (But Up My Allowance, Mom and Dad)I am a refugee from Jaffa & Demand Return
I'm Irish & Demand a PintNew INS Restrictions are Unjust
Dude. You deported my dealer.
Speaking Truth To Morons
From Middle East Realities
Speech from the former U.S. Air Force ACC commander (now retired and not restricted to being politically correct), General Hawley.What he said.Since the attack, I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've heard them too. Here they are:
1) "We're not good; they're not evil; everything is relative." Listen carefully: We're good; they're evil; nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying, "We're good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be, the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see "The Producers."
2) "Violence only leads to more violence." This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League University to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already:
Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully-thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-... Well, you get the idea.3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community has failed us." For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late seventies, under Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to gather international intelligence was to use spy satellites. "After all," they reasoned, "you can see a license plate from 200 miles away." This is very helpful if you've been attacked by a license plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not possible with satellites. You have to use other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all our humans, and here's the really stupid part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst places of the world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee shop in Kabul and say, "Hiya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet that bin Laden fella." Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years.
4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're angry at us." Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head collection was just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you see, are the villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in power. Mohamed Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered those planes into the killing grounds (I'm sorry, one of the "alleged hijackers," according to CNN-they stopped using the word "terrorist," you know), was the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too. In the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching against the war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they could think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time drinking. At least, that was my excuse. It's the same today. Take the Anti-Global-Warming (or is it World Trade? Oh-who-knows-what-the-hell-they-want?) demonstrators. They all charged their black outfits and plane tickets on dad's credit card(!) before driving to the airport in their SUVs.
5) "Any profiling is racial profiling." Who's killing us here, the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an article saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin Laden family living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a huff, never to return to studying at Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I'm crushed. I think we're all crushed. Please come back. With a cherry on top? Why don't they just change their names, anyway? It's happened in the past. Think about it. How many Adolfs do you run into these days? Shortly after that, I remember watching TV with my jaw on the floor as a government official actually said, "That little old grandmother from Sioux City could be carrying something." Okay, how about this: No, she couldn't. It would never be the grandmother from Sioux City. Is it even possible? What are the odds? Winning a hundred Powerball lotteries in a row? A thousand? A million? And now a Secret Service guy has been tossed off a plane and we're all supposed to cry about it because he's an Arab? Didn't it have the tiniest bit to do with the fact that he filled out his forms incorrectly ---three times? And then left an Arab history book on his seat as he strolled off the plane? And came back? Armed? Let's please all stop singing "We Are the World" for a minute and think practically. I don't want to be sitting on the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from hitting Mt. Rushmore and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say, "Well, at least we didn't offend them."
SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year:
Never to forget our murdered brothers and sisters.
Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas?" I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."
Peaceful?
Evidently, a bunch of Puerto Ricans attacked U.S. Marines in civilian clothes outside the San Juan Hard Rock Cafe, leading to a brawl in the street out front. Other Marines came to their buddies aid, and a general melee broke out. Tensions have been running fairly high there, but the best part of this article is the last paragraph:
Protesters regularly break into the bombing range to delay exercises. The Navy says that during the latest round of maneuvers, which ended last week, protesters threw rocks and other objects at military personnel. The protesters say their demonstrations are peaceful.Peaceful. Right.
[Emphasis mine]
Life Intrudes
Unfortunately, I'm right in the middle of a Windows 2000 migration, and haven't got time for anything. Maybe later. Sorry
Tali-boy, the delicate flower
I was going to post this at Scott Rubush's site. However, it got too long, and the comment section puked. So, here it is. If you wish to see the original quotes, go here.
Ok, I've got a few bones to pick.
It is a tragedy that many countries such as China, Saudia Arabia, and other middle eastern countries do not respect the rights of their prisoners, POWS or otherwise.
No, it is a tragedy that these countries do not respect the civil rights of their citizens, let alone their prisoners! I think that most prisoners in those dictatorships would count themselves lucky to be treated as humanely as Walker.
However, If America starts treating people like John Walker the way he depicted in the picture, than we become worse than those other countries, because we know better.
"We become worse." What a leap that is. Please, read up on the conditions of prisons in the countries you listed at the top. Like I said, John Walker got off very mild.
Did you stop to think about the reason for his being transported in that condition? Maybe because his friends vowed to kill Americans anywhere they found them, and have a penchant for insane suicide attacks? As much as it's been bandied about, I don't buy the theory that he was kept like that to humilliate him. A simpler explanation is that he was kept that way to protect the American soldiers from him. Remember the Taliban troops that started the prison riot and tore Mike Spann limb from limb, even biting him? That is why John Walker, and a significant percentage of the people who were transported with him, were stripped, blindfolded, and bound securely. The safety of American soldiers is more important than Walker's "dignity."
Why do you insist on making these countries unaccountable for their actions? "We know better?" Are you suggesting that only Americans understand the concept of right and wrong? That residents of the middle east are either too stupid or too infantile to understand that torture and murder are bad? The lowest form of apologist is the one who insists that "they just don't know any better." Come off it.
Our soilders fought and died so that we can enjoy those civil rights, you so carelessly take away.
Like I said before, the safety of our soldiers trumps the civil rights of a traitor. Where are we when we allow the civil rights of our enemies to endanger the lives of our soldiers?
To play devil's advocate, if he "effectively" renounced his citizenship, shouldn't he just be deported, rather than tried for treason?
If you were to deport him, where would he go? Back to the Northern Alliance? He would be summarily executed. Is this better than humiliation? I would agree that it is no more than he deserves.
Further, "civil rights" are guaranteed to every citizen (and mostly, to every resident) of this country, regardless of their beliefs. It is wrong, quite simply, to argue that they can be taken away because of a man (or woman's) opinions, even if those beliefs are antithetical to the precepts being exercised.
When did this become a matter of beliefs? He was an armed combatant who was captured in battle against American and allied soldiers. He was an enemy soldier. That's enough to hang him for treason. This has nothing whatsoever to do with beliefs.
Saudi Arabia doesn't give the "lawless and the violent" civil rights, and just look how well that country turned out.
As I stated in the first response, Saudi Arabia does not give ANYONE their civil rights. That's a better explanation of why that country is the way it is.
Let me clarify my position. I don't like the picture. I don't like looking at it, and I don't like knowing that things like that happen. However, I would rather see a thousand pictures like that than one obituary of a soldier who died because we didn't take every possible precaution.
Wow. That was long. Sorry to ramble on, but ya'll just pushed so many buttons I couldn't help myself.