Monthly Archives: August 2006

Miss England Says: It’s Our Fault!

You may be unaware that the Miss World pageant is coming up next month. The finale will be in Poland at the end of September; the Miss World web site is taking shape. Normally, this would be a source of unalloyed pleasure. This year, though, politics has intruded. Last year’s Miss England, Hammasa Kohistan, the first Muslim to be so honored, has expressed herself on the subject of terrorism: “The »

Bush and Trotsky

President Bush delivered the first in a series of speeches advancing his war policies before an American Legion audience in Salt Lake City earlier today. The transcript is here. The subject of today’s speech was, in Bush’s words, “a critical aspect of this war: the struggle between freedom and terror in the Middle East, including the battle in Iraq, which is the central front in our fight against terrorism.” The »

No Bush-hater he

David Schraub posts the second part of his interview with Thomas Friedman. Friedman tells David that, unlike those whose views on terrorism-related issues are driven by hatred of President Bush, he puts his political views “on the shelf” when considering these matters. However, Friedman’s over-heated language during course of the interview casts doubt on this claim. For example, Friedman accuses the administration of “fraud” in conducting the war in Iraq »

The time is now

We’ve had a sneak peak at the IAEA’s six-page report on Iran’s nuclear program that has just been issued. Here are what appear to me to be key portions: 4. Iran has continued the testing of P-1 centrifuges in the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). Since 6 June 2006, centrifuges in the single machine test stand and in the 10-machine and 20-machine cascades have been run mostly under vacuum, but »

How Soon They Forget

From today’s New York Times Corrections section: An article on Sunday about New Yorkers who are being discussed as possible presidential candidates in 2008 misidentified the last New Yorker to be nominated for a major party’s national ticket. It was Jack Kemp, a former congressman from the Buffalo area who was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1996 — not Geraldine Ferraro, a former Democratic congresswoman from Queens, who was »

To hell and back

At Menorah, Jim has posted the link to an incredible 27-minute piece by an Israeli video journalist depicting Israel’s war against Hezbollah: “To hell and back.” Jim writes: Israeli video journalist Itai Anghel went into Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon with the Nahal Brigade and shot 25 minutes of riveting house-to-house combat footage with a night vision lens. The Hezbollah fighters wore Israeli uniforms. Jim instructs readers to paste this URL into their »

Turn it up!

Van Morrison — singer, songwriter and world class artist — celebrates his sixty-first birthday today. As a guy who has absorbed all the strains of American popular music and recapitulated them in his own unique blend and voice, Van stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats in my pantheon of popular music idols. I don’t think we have quite taken his measure. “Caravan” is one of the beautiful fantasy songs »

The guide of the perplexed

The Guide of the Perplexed is what the Jewish sage Maimonides titled his esoteric masterpiece. The State Department’s “Press Guidance” of this past Tuesday regarding former former Iran President Khatami’s visit to the United States anticipates perplexity, but it displays more perplexity than enlightenment: Q: Why have you issued a visa to Khatami and what are your views about his trip? Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami has requested a visa »

The Worst Thing that Ever Happened to the Economy…

…was when George W. Bush got elected. John Wixted at Back Talk has a great post titled Americans Hate Their Fabulous Economy. Wixted has plotted the Gallup Poll tracking Americans’ perceptions of the economy over the last decade: He then plots the objective data relating to GDP growth, unemployment and inflation. Suffice it to say that the data paint a very different picture from the polls. Why do you suppose »

Lots of Luck

Reuters reports on President Bush’s series of speeches on Iraq. The headline: “Bush launches new campaign to defend Iraq war.” The first paragraph: For the third time in less than a year and two months before crucial U.S. elections, President George W. Bush is launching a new campaign to counter opposition to the Iraq war with a series of speeches he insists are not political. No mystery about how we’re »

Bush to Renominate Judges

President Bush announced today that he will renominate five judges who have been prevented by the Democrats from receiving Senate votes. The five are Terrence W. Boyle, of North Carolina (Fourth Circuit), William James Haynes II, of Virginia (Fourth Circuit), William Gerry Myers III, of Idaho (Ninth Circuit), Norman Randy Smith, of Idaho (Ninth Circuit), Michael Brunson Wallace, of Mississippi (Fifth Circuit). Good. Paul has written extensively about William Haynes, »

Blog of the Week: Riehl World View

This week’s Blog of the Week-or-so is Riehl World View, authored by Dan Riehl. Dan is the marketing director for a software company; on the World View, he writes about politics, media and more. Currently, Dan is dissing Jimmy Carter, always a worthwhile occupation. Thanks to outgoing BOTW Blonde Sagacity. As Dan notes, we’ll miss both ALa’s commentary and her sidebar image. As always, Riehl World View will be featured »

Reuters Missile Attack: Manufacturers Weigh In

Confederate Yankee decided to get to the bottom of the controversy over Reuters’ claim that one of its armored vehicles was hit by an Israeli rocket or missile strike, injuring several of its employees, by sending photos of the vehicle to some people who should know how to interpret them: the manufacturers of such armored vehicles. Somewhat to my surprise, he got two responses to his emails. The first, from »

The news from Maryland

A new Maryland poll shows Republican Michael Steele running slightly ahead of one of his two possible Democratic opponent and slightly behind the other one. According to NRO’s Sixers, the poll by Maryland-based Gonzalez Research shows Steele ahead of Kweisi Mfume by a margin of 42-28, but trailing Benjamin Cardin by 44-39. I think that Cardin is generally regarded as the favorite in the upcoming primary. However, I’ve seen polls »

An inconvenient scientist or two

Considering the source and the subject, I’m declaring Alex Beam’s Boston Globe column on MIT professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen the best of the day: “MIT’s inconvient scientist.” Another inconvenient scientist in Professor Lindzen’s Cambridge neighborhood is physicist Russell Seitz. Seitz has now established Adamant, his own blog. Scrolling down through his first posts on the site, I see this: As summer sizzles on, pundits are warming to Al Gore’s »

The media war, cont’d

Aussie Andrew Bolt takes a look at “The holey ambulance — the backside covering begins.” Melanie Phillips meditates on “The media war against Israel.” Michelle Malkin prescribes “No more ambulances for terror.” And Secretary Rumsfeld also weighs in with “The will to win” (the Department of Defense has posted the complete text of the speech here): [W]e find ourselves in a strange time: * When a database search of America’s »

Sizing up Senator Frist

Below John reflects on his time with Senator Frist yesterday; I joined John for lunch at the Minneapolis Club before a small group convened by a supporter of Senator Frist. Senator Frist also stayed after lunch to make himself available for a half-hour discussion with Ed Morrissey, John and me. (Ed has posted a transcript of part of our half-hour meeting here and here.) I conclude from Senator Frist’s comments »