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Never again

From Christopher Hitchens' 9/11 memorial:

Five years ago Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathisers were busily taking over Pakistan from within, and had even infiltrated its nuclear program. Five years ago, the A. Q. Khan black market in fissile material for dictatorial regimes had not been uncovered. Five years ago the secretary of state Colin Powell was giving grants to the Taliban for their co-operation in the "war on drugs". Five years ago billions of Saudi dollars were openly financing madrassas and training schools for Wahhabi ideology all around the world. Five years ago George Bush and Richard Cheney were discussing lifting the sanctions on Iraq and Libya (bad for business) and scorning the liberal illusion of using American troops for "humanitarian intervention". Five years ago Saddam Hussein was publicly boasting about the bounty his regime paid to Palestinian suicide bombers. So I can think we can safely say that, yes, the events of September 11 did indeed change the world considerably.
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9/11 Gallery

(c) Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos

Slate
has several striking pictures from 9/11.
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Sleaze

Arnold Schwarzenegger described his ambitions in the 1976 documentary

Schwarzenegger is sleazy. What a shock.
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Gingrich on Bush and Lincoln

Image


Newt Gingrich wrote a fantastic piece in the Wall Street Journal today, comparing the war on terror to the Civil War and Bush's dilemmas to those of Abraham Lincoln. I always love reading what Gingrich has to say. It's not because I agree with everything he says, but because he's no longer in political office and thus can speak with bluntness and clarity.

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Coming to terms with Asperger's

A new piece I wrote on living with Asperger's Syndrome.

In addition to the Asperger's article, I also contributed to several police reports.
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We haven't been attacked since 9/11. Are Bush's policies working?

Jacob Weisberg over at Slate asks whether or not the lack of terror attacks within the United States is a result of improved counterterrorism efforts by the Bush Administration, or if we are simply lucky. Weisberg, who's definitely not a conservative, concedes that the Bush Administration has done what needed to be done:

But any honest appraisal has to recognize that President Bush has indeed played a role in keeping the United States free from another attack. To say this is not to say that his policy choices have been wise or that they have truly made America safer over the long term, but simply that our avoidance of domestic terrorism over the past five years is not entirely coincidental.

...You can argue, as Lawrence Wright does in this week's New Yorker, that we are playing into al-Qaida's long-term plans. But it's pretty hard to deny that by turning al-Qaida from an organization able to commit terrorism into an organization capable only of inspiring terrorism, the Bush administration has diminished the risk of attacks against Americans over the past five years.

What a pleasant surprise. And here I was thinking that Christopher Hitchens was the only guy at that magazine willing to say anything good about the President.
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Movies on your iPod

Wall Street Journal has an article today on upcoming efforts by Amazon.com and Apple to sell movies that you can download and then watch on an iPod (or your laptop).
   
Movies on the small screen are about to receive a big boost as two high-profile companies -- Apple Computer Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. -- lift the curtain in the coming days on new movie-downloading services.

The services from the two companies are among the most widely anticipated efforts yet to get consumers to buy or rent videos over the Internet rather than trudging to the local Blockbuster store for a DVD or waiting for a Netflix envelope to arrive in the mail. Most legal movie downloading services haven't yet taken off. But within the high-tech and entertainment industries, there's a belief Apple and Amazon could help take the phenomenon mainstream thanks to their technology, marketing and retailing know-how.

What I'm wondering is if this will be an effort to replace the rental market or the sales market of DVDs. It appears now that Apple is going only down the sales route, selling downloads for between $9.99-14.99, but the WSJ article mentions Amazon pursuing a rental service.

How would that work?

When you download a television show on iTunes, you have the episode permanently and can watch anytime, just as if you had bought a copy of it. I've not sure if it's possible for someone to "rent" a download.
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Islamic fascists

It appears that there is alot of hullaballoo over the use of the term "Islamic fascist." Many don't like it.

If that one's off limits, then what term should we use?

One of my friends got angry with an article I wrote because I used the term "jihadist," insisting I must not know that jihad is the spiritual struggle within Islam, etc.

I see stickers on cars throughout Seattle that say "War IS Terrorism," so terrorism must be a no-no.

"Islamist" could be deemed offensive to Muslim that don't follow the ideology of those we are labelling "Islamists."

"Islamonazi," Michael Medved's phrase, is good because it taps into the legacy of the Muslim Brotherhood, who devoured the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a document touted by those claiming knowledge of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. But I'd be crazy to think that wouldn't be offensive to someone.

So what should I call the Muslims that fly planes into buildings, hack off heads, blow up embassies over a cartoon and force journalists to convert to their religion? Let's see if Michael Moore can describe them for us:

“The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win.” - Michael Moore, 4/14/2004

Ahhhhh.....that's it.
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Crikey!!

I was listening to the Dennis Prager show today, and Prager sited that only 17 people have been killed by stingrays since 1860. After checking up on Wikipedia, it appears Steve Irwin really was unique:

Fatal stings, such as that which killed Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin in 2006 (sting to the heart),[2] are extremely rare. As of 1996, worldwide known deaths from stingray barb injuries numbered 17.
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"Does Bush Want A Dem House?"

Does George Bush seem like he's putting his all into making sure his party retains control of the House of Representatives? If you think not, you may be intrigued by Mickey Kaus' analysis over at Slate. Kaus says that Bush may see a silver lining in Democratic control of the House, because it would mean that his agenda for immigration reform would finally come to fruition.

Interesting, but a Democratic House would also mean a Majority Leader Murtha and pushes for immediate withdrawl of all forces from Iraq, as well as possible attempts to impeach Bush for the Terrorist Surveillance Program. I don't think the guest worker program is more important to President Bush than winning the war on terror.
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Still a Michael Moore fan?

“The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win.” - Michael Moore, 4/14/2004

What happens when Moore's words are applied properly.
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South America: A new front in the war on terror?

The brilliant people over at Hot Air have posted a video documenting in detail the establishment of Hezbollah cells within Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Throughout are shown several Spanish websites preaching for jihad against American interests in the region, as well as many news sources documenting Hezbollah's role in drug smuggling in Latin America. (Despite the holier than thou talk, jihadists don't seem to have much guilt about using vice as a means for fundraising, as we've also seen with Taliban forces using opium as a moneymaker in Afghanistan.)



If you have any doubts, here is a story from China Daily about the partnership between Hugo Chavez and Hezbollah's monetary and weaponry providers in Iran:

The presidents of Iran and Venezuela, leading US critics, pledged Saturday to support one another in disputes with Washington, with the Iranian calling Hugo Chavez "a brother and trench mate."

Chavez pledged that his country would "stay by Iran at any time and under any condition."

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, said he saw in the Venezuelan president a kindred spirit. "I feel I have met a brother and trench mate after meeting Chavez," the state-run Iranian television quoted Ahmedinejad.


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Turning to the Right

For those who've come across this blog, I'm provided these articles to help you get a better idea of my viewpoint:

Backlash of the Left

Turning to the Right
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9/11 Report as Comic Book

In the run up to ABC's Path to 9/11 mini-series, Slate has provided a graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 Report.

As a lifelong comic book fan, I couldn't help but devour this. Politics + Comics = Happy.
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You gotta admit...

Getting killed by a stingray is a pretty badass way to go.

R.I.P. Crocodile Hunter
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