Healing Iraq has an important discussion of what the sudden stand-down with Muqtada as-Sadr may mean.
It is important to show that fighting us and our allies has consequences, especially when we split Iraq once (in 1991), after encouraging a Shi'i uprising, at an enormous cost in human lives, and our departure is just a matter of time.
In the long run it would have saved lives to have crushed Falluja. The same with Muqtada.
August 13, 2004
Design Review Among the Lagunatics
Laguna Beach planning is an insane maze, and everyone knows it. Here's a letter I wrote to the local weekly about the process. Click on Page 16 and you'll get a PDF file of the page. The letter's in the fourth column from the left, just below the smiling mortgage broker.
August 12, 2004
More Touchy-Feely Piffle
The usual suspects are expressing their admiration and understanding for a public servant who betrayed his trust by appointing his unqualified lover to an important public position.
Then he delays his resignation so the constitutional requirement for a special election can be avoided.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds, does it?
Then he delays his resignation so the constitutional requirement for a special election can be avoided.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds, does it?
The Inner Man
If Bill Clinton had said, "Ever since childhood, I've felt different, and now I'm in touch with my inner self, and now I know -- I really like to have it off with chubby interns," which is pretty much what Gov. McGreevy said, except he likes boys, oh how even the New York Times would have howled!
And if Clinton had given Monica a job she wasn't qualified for, just to shut her up while and after they were having it off, he would not be lionized for his sensitivity and self-knowledge.
I don't care what people do sexually, as long as they don't frighten the horses, but lying to your wife, and putting your lover in positions of responsibility (Homeland Security? Across the river from the WTC?) they aren't qualified for, ain't sensistivity and self-knowledge. It's a betrayal of the public trust.
And the wife is standing by him, even though he's about to be out of a job. What is SHE thinking?
And if Clinton had given Monica a job she wasn't qualified for, just to shut her up while and after they were having it off, he would not be lionized for his sensitivity and self-knowledge.
I don't care what people do sexually, as long as they don't frighten the horses, but lying to your wife, and putting your lover in positions of responsibility (Homeland Security? Across the river from the WTC?) they aren't qualified for, ain't sensistivity and self-knowledge. It's a betrayal of the public trust.
And the wife is standing by him, even though he's about to be out of a job. What is SHE thinking?
August 11, 2004
Back to Normalcy
Warren Harding, the most underrated President.
An interesting foil to Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned that he kept us out of war, then got us into an unnecessary one, and screwed up the peace.
Which one was the neocon?
An interesting foil to Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned that he kept us out of war, then got us into an unnecessary one, and screwed up the peace.
Which one was the neocon?
Another Take on Chalabi
The Wall St. Journal has a different take on the Chalabi affair:
"The only obvious winners here are the Baathists. One of Saddam's lawyers reacted to the news by calling it "a miracle from God to help Saddam Hussein."
"Both Chalabis have vigorously denied the charges and questioned the bona fides of the judge. Zuhair al Maliky is a former translator at the Coalition Provisional Authority who was elevated to his current position by the former U.S-appointed governor, L. Paul Bremer. In April Mr. Bremer amended his original order establishing Iraq's Central Criminal Court to eliminate a requirement that judges have five years of prior judicial experience; Mr. Maliky had none. The head of Iraq's union of judges has questioned the court's legitimacy."
Curiouser, as Lewis Carroll put it, and curiouser.
"The only obvious winners here are the Baathists. One of Saddam's lawyers reacted to the news by calling it "a miracle from God to help Saddam Hussein."
"Both Chalabis have vigorously denied the charges and questioned the bona fides of the judge. Zuhair al Maliky is a former translator at the Coalition Provisional Authority who was elevated to his current position by the former U.S-appointed governor, L. Paul Bremer. In April Mr. Bremer amended his original order establishing Iraq's Central Criminal Court to eliminate a requirement that judges have five years of prior judicial experience; Mr. Maliky had none. The head of Iraq's union of judges has questioned the court's legitimacy."
Curiouser, as Lewis Carroll put it, and curiouser.
August 10, 2004
Palaver Now, Pay Later?
Ralph Peters makes a point. It might have been wiser to crush Falluja and Moqtada as Sadr in the first place.
In the Middle East, the "Hama Rules" apply. More important to be feared, or at least respected, than loved.
Whatever the failings of the Bushies, though, Senator Nuance would be worse.
In the Middle East, the "Hama Rules" apply. More important to be feared, or at least respected, than loved.
Whatever the failings of the Bushies, though, Senator Nuance would be worse.
August 9, 2004
Plain Talk From a Swift Boat Vet
A blog, Mudville Gazette: The Swifts, tells it like it is about Senator Nuance.
Kerry started the Vietnam vet thing. Maybe he won't finish it.
Kerry started the Vietnam vet thing. Maybe he won't finish it.
August 8, 2004
This is Fascinating
This story will fascinate anyone who loves intrigue. How the mighty have fallen!
Where's Wolfowitz when you really need him?
And why is the Pentagon's favorite Iraqi politician hanging out in Iran?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Where's Wolfowitz when you really need him?
And why is the Pentagon's favorite Iraqi politician hanging out in Iran?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Sinking in Cambodia
There is a new Cambodia kerfuffle involving Sen. Nuance. If Kerry had not made such a much-of-a-muchness over his four months of Vietnam service, it's long enough ago that no one should care. After all, it's what he did since that counts.
But since the Dems put Kerry's Vietnam service on center stage, evidence that he has lied about it is NOT beyond the pale. The link above explains Sen. Nuance's prevarication.
'Nuff said.
But since the Dems put Kerry's Vietnam service on center stage, evidence that he has lied about it is NOT beyond the pale. The link above explains Sen. Nuance's prevarication.
'Nuff said.
Fortune-Telling Riposte
The blog of Eugene Volokh, a law professor at my alma mater, UCLA Law, The Volokh Conspiracy, is one of the more interesting and intellectual legal blogs out there. Here's a sample, on the lighter side:
"With the City of LA contemplating licensing and enacting a curfew for fortune tellers, this tidbit, quoting California Supreme Court Justice Mosk, is particularly apt:
"A small community in California passed a local ordinance prohibiting fortune telling within its city limits. A fortuneteller named Fatima Stevens brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction against enforcement of the ordinance. Obviously there were serious First Amendment problems with the ordinance, which was a total prohibition -- not a regulation or a licensing -- of the activity. However, the fortuneteller lost in the courts below, and our Supreme Court granted a hearing.
"As counsel for the fortuneteller rose for oral argument to present her case, Chief Justice Lucas said, 'Counsel, you have us at a disadvantage.'
The attorney was perplexed. 'Why, Your Honor?'
'''Well,' said the Chief Justice, 'hasn't your client told you how this case will ultimately turn out?'
"On its face this was an irrelevant joke; but it was, intentionally or not, sending a subtle message that fortune-telling is indeed bunk, and that even the lawyer can't be taking it seriously -- something that would have dovetailed well with the city's arguments that fortune-telling is fraudulent and should be banned. Dangerous stuff for the lawyer. Here's how Mosk describes the lawyer's artful dodge:
"I could not have conceived of an appropriate response to that judicial hand grenade. But this attorney was up to the challenge. 'No, Your Honor,' he replied. 'You must remember I did not consult my client for advice. She consulted me.'
"The fortune-teller won."
"With the City of LA contemplating licensing and enacting a curfew for fortune tellers, this tidbit, quoting California Supreme Court Justice Mosk, is particularly apt:
"A small community in California passed a local ordinance prohibiting fortune telling within its city limits. A fortuneteller named Fatima Stevens brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction against enforcement of the ordinance. Obviously there were serious First Amendment problems with the ordinance, which was a total prohibition -- not a regulation or a licensing -- of the activity. However, the fortuneteller lost in the courts below, and our Supreme Court granted a hearing.
"As counsel for the fortuneteller rose for oral argument to present her case, Chief Justice Lucas said, 'Counsel, you have us at a disadvantage.'
The attorney was perplexed. 'Why, Your Honor?'
'''Well,' said the Chief Justice, 'hasn't your client told you how this case will ultimately turn out?'
"On its face this was an irrelevant joke; but it was, intentionally or not, sending a subtle message that fortune-telling is indeed bunk, and that even the lawyer can't be taking it seriously -- something that would have dovetailed well with the city's arguments that fortune-telling is fraudulent and should be banned. Dangerous stuff for the lawyer. Here's how Mosk describes the lawyer's artful dodge:
"I could not have conceived of an appropriate response to that judicial hand grenade. But this attorney was up to the challenge. 'No, Your Honor,' he replied. 'You must remember I did not consult my client for advice. She consulted me.'
"The fortune-teller won."
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