WhatsAPundit

Rudy, because he gets it

2006-11-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Somebody out there gets it.

First, an example of one of the people who doesn't get it:

South Carolina Republicans love Rudy Giuliani.

But will they go so far as to vote for him for president?

Probably not.

Why?

Because the former New York City mayor is a moderate Republican who supports gun control, same-sex civil unions, embryonic stem-cell research and abortion rights — stands that put him at odds with the majority of the GOP’s conservative base.

--Lee Bandy, The State (Hat tip: Rich Lowry.)

Ah, but Chuck Todd gets it, and Rich Lowry noticed that too:

Both Romney and Giuliani sense a chance at beating McCain on the right. The mainstream media mistakenly views Giuliani as another centrist, going after the same portion of the GOP electorate that McCain attracts. That's just not correct. Giuliani's strength in Republican polls is with conservatives, or more specifically, with those Republicans who have stayed the most supportive of Bush. The Diageo/Hotline poll showed evidence of this phenomenon last spring.

What's most fascinating about Giuliani's popularity with the GOP base is that his liberal stances on social issues like gay rights, abortion and guns, run diametric to the conservative rank and file. The media seem to believe these folks don't know Giuliani's stances, but that once they do they'll reject him. I'm hesitant to assume voters don't know these things about him; I think they do but are so consumed with fear for national security that they are willing to give him a pass.

(Apologies for not linking to the original source; the National Journal article will turn into a firewall-protected pumpkin at some point, and I don't link that way.)

Personally, I think the phrase "consumed with fear" is perjorative, and worse, inaccurate. (People who take the threats emmanating from Radical Islam seriously are not, generally speaking, quivering, panic-striken victim-cultists.) Rather, I think they're serious people who have seriosly assessed the current national and international situation, and decided that the threat to the country from Radical Islam is greater than the threat to the country from the NARAL.

For these voters, it won't matter how thick the southern accent, how sincere the religious beliefs, or how closely the candidate hews to the NRA position papers; anyone who doesn't have credibility on the "War on Terror" question can just skip most of Red State America.

(As to gun control, all Rudy has to do is a minor juke to the Right ("No law-abiding citizen should be denied a gun; no criminal should have access to one") to calm those potential rough waters).

The bottom line is, Rudy has a reputation of bringing law and order to the most lawless and chaotic city in America. That earned Rudy a nearly bottomless resevoir of respect. And then his actions and demeanor on and after 9/11 etched a picture of a man who had seen the enemy and learned exactly what is at stake.

People who have supported Bush through thick and thin have one thing in common, I think. They (and let me be honest, "We") believe we're in a war unlike any other in history, and that it is far from over. We could tuck tail and accept defeat in Iraq, and the War would not be over. This war came to us, and declaring it over won't keep it from coming back again.

We have the impression that Rudy gets that.

Anyone who wants to get past Rudy had better damn well start "getting that" or forget about being the 44th President.

Even if Rudy decides to give his Nomination Acceptance speech in drag.

We Willnae Be Fooled Again!*

2006-11-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

From today's Opinion Journal:

Melanie Sloan, the liberal head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was cheered on by Democrats six weeks ago when she helped reveal the Mark Foley scandal. Now she says that "Ms. Pelosi"s endorsement of Rep. Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, show that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption." [Emphasis added.]

I for one am shocked!, shocked!, by this turn of events.

* The Nac Mac Feegle view on the role of the State looks better and better every day.

Just like old times....

2006-11-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ah, I remember the heady blogging days of 2004, when John Kerry provided WhatsAPundit with so much material....

So, ust when it looks like the Republicans are stuck with talking about Republican problems (which pretty much ensured their majority status in both houses would go down in flames) John Kerry commits the cardinal sin of modern politics.

He says what he really means.

Compare and contrast:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you dont, you get stuck in Iraq.

--What Kerry said.

I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.

--What Kerry supposedly meant to say.

Let's disregard for a moment the Kerry v Bush educational comparison (which makes the putatively prepared joke very much a pot v. kettle proposition). Instead, let's examine why Kerry might have mangled the joke in the very particular way he did.

Kerry became famous after his tour in Viet Nam for speaking out against the actions of his fellow servicemen.
During the 80s, Kerry saw clear parallels between U.S. policy toward Nicaragua and U.S. policies toward the Vietnamese conflict.
Opposed the first Gulf War because he felt we were in a "rush to war" that was not in our "vital interest".
Recently accused troops of terrorizing children in Iraq as a matter of routine operations.

This is not a man who trusts the United States military, from the Commander in Chief down to the privates on patrol, to be anything other than a stupid, malicious force for evil. For Kerry, the military will always be the military as imagined by anti-Vietnam protesters, dead-end draftees led by sadistic officers led by a corrupt oligarchic power structure.

That Kerry should slip up in his delivery, going from a calculatedly specific target to what he believed to be a valid generalization, really wouldn't be a surprise.

As an aside:It's actually funny to see how indignant John Derbyshire is that the anti-troops interpretation is the one most of us came to. My only conclusion is that Derb has read the quote totally out of the greater context, and is damned proud of his ability to focus on the tree, and forget about the forrest. (BTW, I love it that Kerry is claiming people are reading his quote out of context. It's exactly his well-documented context he should be hoping people ignore....)

266-15=251 Days to Go

2006-10-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Houston, we have a countdown!

Looks like at least one of the seamonkeys has decided to settle in and make a go of it.

Is now the time to start being scared stiff?

Game Over, Congressional GOP Majority

2006-10-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

Congressional stupidity gets worse:

US Congress steps into cyberspace

The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress has announced it is investigating the amount of commerce taking place in virtual game worlds.

...snip...

Although an economic value can be put on this trade because in-game currencies do have an equivalent real world value, committee chairman Jim Saxton said its investigation was not being carried out with a view to slapping taxes on this trade.

"There is a concern that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) might step forward with regulations that start taxing transactions that occur within virtual economies," said Mr Saxton. "This, I believe, would be a mistake."

Instead, he said, the investigation wanted to get a better understanding of where the line falls between taxable and non-taxable trade. Studies of game activity suggest the time and effort put into these online worlds has an economic impact equivalent to the GDP of Namibia.

First they came for poker players, but I was not a poker player...

"This was strange, even for New Orleans"

2006-10-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

From Editor & Publisher:

In one of the most bizarre stories published anywhere this year, the Times-Picayune related today the story of the tragic end of a young couple in New Orleans: the man jumped off a hotel roof in the French Quarter to his death – after killing and dismembering, then cooking, his girlfriend. This was strange, even for New Orleans, and the newspaper noted that it reminded some of the city’s "macabre" past.

What are they talking about, "past"?

D'oh!

2006-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

U.S. casino magnate gives Picasso's dream the elbow

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Picasso's famed "Dream" painting turned into a nightmare for Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion dollar canvas an elbow.

Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called "Le Reve" (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful Losers

2006-10-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with the Left, in a nutshell:

Ned Lamont's Concession Speech (A Speech I Never Want to Hear)

Yesterday, I asked for your help in writing a speech I never want to hear: Ned Lamont's concession speech. The response was tremendous; we received all kinds of great ideas, many of which I've used in crafting the speech below.

Far too often politicians don't speak from the heart until it's too late.

Freed from their consultants, they finally summon the passion and purpose that drove them into politics in the first place -- ironically turning into the candidates they should have been all along.

I don't know, maybe looking into your hearts and trying to find something that resonates with America might be a start, and if you don't find anything, then maybe thinking about what you're carrying around in your heart might not be such a bad thing to do.

I'm not saying the crowd is always right. Far from it. But I am saying that if you're not connecting, you have a responsibility to figure out why.

Are you being stupid? Then figure out how you're being stupid.

Is the crowd being stupid?

The bloody well figure out how to make them smarter!

Because, well, just telling them they're stupid won't cut it.

And if you think it will, revisit the question of whether you're stupid.

But hey, that's real politics, and too much of the Left would prefer to be Beautiful Losers than to stoop to that.

The Things We Do For Love

2006-10-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

Regarding the upcoming Pundit-and-Wife attempt to become test tube parents:

[13:22] whatsapundit: I think I may cry today too; I just read that description of the TESE
[13:24] whatsapundit: my feet, they have gotten very cold
[13:24] whatsapundit: and my testicles are trying to move in with my kidneys

Mules

2006-10-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

"There is nothing in Internet gambling that adds to the G.D.P. or makes America more competitive in the world," Mr. Leach said. "Everyone loses if this industry continues its remarkable growth trends."New York Times, Oct. 3, 2006.

So sayeth Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa.

Of course, nothing about my willingness to shell out too much money for years on booze has made me more competitive, and now I'm really sorry my preference has always been for domestic products. By all means, in honor of Mr. Leach and Senator Frist, (Republican from Tennessee), I will endeavor at all times to buy foreign goods, just because.

More Scotch! More Tequilla!

Note to you jerks in Congress; you work for the American people. We do not work, or play, or do anything at all, for you. You are our bitches, do you understand? Just because you've rigged the system so that getting you unelected is harder than do-it-yourself wisdom tooth extraction, don't think that it can't be done.

I like playing on-line poker. God help me, I like doing it with fake money. Meaning, it costs me squat. Meaning the Almighty U.S. Government isn't losing any tax revenue. (And don't get me started on how reamed I feel by my current tax burden....)

It is not my duty as a citizen to maximize the GDP or make the United States "more competitive", whatever the hell that means.

What's next, you outlaw masturbation because it decreases the incentives to date, resulting is less tax revenues generated through retail and service industries? (Oh, that's right, the government heavily persecutes the Adult Entertainment industry already, I forgot. Not being a customer of said industry, of course. Never mind.)

And Frist, you sorry excuse for a man, sneaking the legislation through as a last-minute rider on a must-sign bill, why don't you try the same trick next time with a measure to outlaw College Football? After all, every year far more people are killed or seriously injured on college football fields than are injured playing online poker. (Damn that carpal tunnel syndrome....) And god knows millions, nay billions, of dollars change hands every year through gambling on college football. That's obviously money that isn't going through the taxable "engines of competitiveness", so....

Ban College Football! Make America Great Again!

See how THAT affects your hoped-for Presidential run. (Speaking of masturbation....)

I have always identified Libertarian, but the vast majority of my votes have gone to Republicans. No more. The Democrats are (as a group) blithering idiots when it comes to national security issues, but the Republicans have proven themselves to be blithering idiots everywhere else.

Hey, if the Republicans have decided the citizens of this country are supposed to be beasts of burden in the service of the Greater Economic -- and Moral -- Good, I might as well switch sides.

Better to be a Donkey than a mule.

Cross-posted at PhantomMut

What "Reality" Is That Community Based On, Exactly?

2006-09-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

From a spirited discussion over at Ishbadiddle:

As for the "Hole," it is what psychologists and psychiatrists a "presenting issue." It was a jumping point from which to talk about "impeachable offenses," the squandering of an overwhelming consensus of goodwill, the cynicism of the administration, and a strong rebuttal to the claim that dissent is treasonous, let alone Liberalism (see the aforementioned Ms. Coulter).

The "Hole" was a vehicle through which to make [Olbermann's] compelling arguments. IMHO, it was a "slam dunk."

(Direct comment link here.)

So, lets assume (though I think it's extremely farfetched) that Bush is at some point successfully impeached.

Liberals Win! Dick Cheney is President!

Hmmm. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time....

Seriously, as soon as the word "impeach" comes up my mind instantly goes into blah blah blah blah blah blah mode; serious discussion has effectively left the establishment in search of an environment with cleaner floors and less spittle in the air.

But moving on....

The excellent question "I wonder whether the general political discourse was ever any good" was raised, then effectively dropped in favor of more slings and arrows.

The answer I think is "probably not" but that raises the counter-question "so what?" It's exactly sites like Ishbadiddle (and hopefully to some degree this one) that can make the discourse better. And it irritates the hell out of me when people who I know are smart and sophisticated crawl down into the gutter to play the same games as the worst of both Left and Right and Beyond the Pale.

God I hope the Democrats can come up with a decent Presidential candidate in '08. What I hope more is that whoever wins then wins big.

This broad-spectrum embrace of the politics of destruction is really getting on my long-term nerves.

One Liberty Plaza, 9/11/2006

2006-09-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

I lost no one.

Acquaintances of mine lost people, but I didn't, and neither did anyone close to me. Lucky, considering where I live and work.

Still, it was a year before I could bring myself to walk past the site. When circumstance would bring me to lower Manhattan, I'd find a way not to be near it.

Things change. Today I (again) work within blocks. If the dot-com where I worked hadn't gone belly-up some months before, I would have been working across the street when the planes hit, in One Liberty Plaza. As it was, I watched it all happen from the 29th floor of a midtown office building. The view was fine from there.

Today I walked over to the site on my lunch break, just to look at the empty space. Bells were tolling, a haunting sound I thought produced by the wonderful old churches down here. I stood across the street, and watched tourists and office workers stream past on the other side. Few seemed to actually look into the void, although a number held camera phones high, pointing down.

After getting my fill of emptiness, I decided to go over to the benches in the small park beside One Liberty, to read a little or maybe just reflect.

The bells, it turns out, were four church bells hanging from frames standing alongside the park. I think it was the New York Fire Department who set them up. Anyone who wanted could ring a bell, as many times as they wanted.

There were no lines, no one rushing forward or anything, but no bell stood un-rung for any time. One ringer would pull once, or twice, softer or harder, and another would step up, take the rope, and pull.

A group of college-aged kids wearing "Investigate 9/11" tee-shirts wandered around, talking to no one but each other. A few had the grace to look sheepish. Mostly they were quiet.

No one seemed visibly upset; no histrionics, no performances other than a pretty-much obligatory mime doing something incomprehensible for spare change. Individual demeanors ranged from laughing to meditative. I felt distinctly out-of place, because I was upset, and afraid I'd start crying. Even though.

I wonder now how many there felt as I did. How may did what I did, even though.

It took me five minutes before I was sure I would retain my composure, but I stepped up and pulled.

An Example of Why Serena Really IS a Goddess

2006-09-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

From "The Brooklyn Days":

This book makes it clear, in the most compelling way I've ever encountered, that true peace can only be attained through truth, justice, clarity, and then an understanding and compassion that encompasses both the abused and the abuser. You do not obtain peace, or even a lasting social stability, by sweeping ugliness under the carpet. Neither do you obtain justice by signing up for a lasting inner rage which obviates trust, compassion, and redemption.

The lady's a genius, I tell you.

(The book she's talking about is Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found my Faith. It's now on my list.)

Trotsky, Klingons, and Bold Navel-Gazing

2006-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

"You may not be interested in the Borg, but the Borg is interested in you."

Or, a case-study in why we could go to the moon in the 60's, but can't reliably get a human in orbit at the beginning of the third millineum:

Thanks to a process of osmosis from perennial reruns, Star Trek has propagated the belief that it is proper to interfere in other societies, that it is America’s duty to assume the role of (inter-)world policeman, and to correct the errant ways of other cultures — for their own good. And Spock was to Kirk what Blair is to Bush, a lackey willing to assist his master in his curious mission that seemingly has no specific objective.

O-kay.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Trekdom.

Hat tip: The Geek in the Corner.

Why Rudy Wins in '08 (UPDATED)

2006-08-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

Conventional wisdom seems to be that while Rudy Giuliani would be a great Presidential candidate in the next general election, he doesn't have a chance in the primaries.

Bullshit.

Sure, Rudy won't be beloved by the people who voted for Pat Buchannon, but exactly how many people is that? The great myth among inside the beltway wonks is that rednecks are intolerant. And it seems that no matter how much the actual data flies in the face of the myth, the wonks refuse to abandon it.

Listen; John F. Kennedy supposedly couldn't win in the South because he was Catholic. Well, guess what? He won. Reagan's marital history was supposed to be a show stopper. Well, guess what? He won, too. Clinton's "bimbo problem" supposedly made him poison to religious voters. Well, guess what? He won anyway, the second time by a bigger margin than the first.

History shows the hicks aren't as puritanical/prudish/racist/whatever as the wonkers keep telling us they are.

And of course, every poll taken by every organization shows Rudy handily kicking the ass or any prospective alternative who doesn't happen to be an unmarried black woman.

Earth to wonks: this ain't your father's Redneck who's going to be deciding the next Republican Presidential contender. The Republican "base" is more interested in electing someone who can actually run the country than they are in electing a babysitter. Sure, Joe Bob and Mary Sue may not want Rudy dating their daughter, but I think that the man who made New York City a safe place for her to live is going to get some major respect.

Actually, I have a sneaking suspicion that the "electability" meme is half-consciously designed to keep the parties from fielding the best candidates. (Yes, I'm including potential Democratic candidates as well.) It's either that or it's some really annoying institutional bigotry against the residents of flyover country.

Run, Rudy. If you do, maybe I'll take some time off and stump for you down south. I've got the right accent, and I think the country is going to need you at the wheel in the coming years.

UPDATE: Ryan Sager provides some evidence supporting my thesis.

"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

2006-08-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Today is an easy day to be discouraged.

At least 21 (presumably) men from England were arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up a large number of planes carrying a very large number of people. Apparently these were all Muslims born in England. Early reports are that most if not all are children of Pakistani immigrants.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb in predicting that the average demographic will show them to be better educated than average, more prosperous than average, unmarried, and described by acquaintances as quiet, polite, and intense.

All will have attended the same two or three closely affiliated mosques with ties to Wahabi money.

Today we're already hearing that this is what Britain gets for being Bush's bitch. (Never mind that this plot was foiled, while that one manifestly was not. Or that logically, since these plotters came from England, we should in some way take pre-emptive measures against Britain, or at least British Muslims.) That three years into the Iraq Adventure, we're no safer today than we were on 9/10. The line will be that the British Muslims were enraged by the West's abuse of their co-religionists, and that their plan to kill thousands of civilians was just because of the disproportionate power wielded by the West.

The mad logic of that argument is that any rogue Christian militia would be justified in targeting any Muslim in a tit-for-tat escalation. After all, Christian governments are obviously ineffective in protecting their populations from the terror of Radical Islam. The danger of legitimizing asymmetric warfare is that once it's accepted, we might as well kiss our concepts of civilized disagreement goodbye. But that's the direction of thought for at least elements of the alienated West.

Of course, the pattern we're seeing in the 9/11, the 3/11, the 7/7, and (I'm assuming) the 8/10 suspects is one of alienation at the intersection of clashing cultures. Even the 9/11 bombers from the Gulf States were aliens within their home culture, being predominantly western-educated, well-traveled cosmopolitans. Frankly speaking, there was and is no place in the world where they fit. Combine alienation with indoctrination about the virtues of martyrdom, and you have a demographic ideally suited for the modern suicide jihadi.

Part of me wishes I weren't effectively an atheist, so I could thank God that Christianity has never glorified those who seek martyrdom. You get martyred, okay, assuming you weren't just stupid, but don't think it's anything special, dude. But Islam incentivizes martyrdom (at least as taught by those who can make use of it). Christianity's prime virtue is innocence, and its central neurosis is that no one is innocent. Therefore, the most virtuous act is to forgive and the most virtuous attitude is tolerance. From these seeds and some alchemy I do not understand has sprung an Enlightenment Culture which has made the vast majority of those living within it more wealthy, healthy, and free than any other culture in the history of humanity.

It also has the side effect of supporting a very high level of alienation within the confines of the greater culture.

Many of those alienated members see this as a good thing. No one minds being called a "free spirit", an "iconoclast", or even "totally out there, man". "Quirky" is not a pejorative. We celebrate the maverick, and we expect our heroes to have feet of clay. Misunderstood geniuses can at least take consolation in the idea that they are not inferior members of their cohort, but are the ultimate expression of the cultural ideal.

So the aliens walk and work among us, and we (correctly, I think) believe this to be a good thing. But for the angry and alienated young man who sees no good that can be done in this world that equals the good that can be done in embracing the next, it's obviously not such a good thing. For a fundamentally social being, with conflicting indoctrination on what it means to be social, facing a milieu that tolerates and even (to an extent) glorifies alienation, it must be a lonely, frightening, and demoralizing world. 72 virgins in this case probably is less about sexual reward than about finally finding empowerment and safety.

Of course, the memetic transfer that makes Islamic cultures so volatile today isn't one way; if you look, you can see apocalyptic thinking gaining ground in our proudly pro-alienation vanguard. Armed Liberal has a better written, but equally tortured, essay on what he calls "Bad Philosophy", asking what the linkages are between ideas and self- and societally-destructive behavior. He brings up the sad case of Deborah Frisch, Ph.D. in Psychology, who has apparently been in something of a death spiral for a while now, the latest manifestation of which seems to be an attempt to commit suicide by Wingnut. (She became an internet verb by making threatening and pedophilic threats toward Jeff Goldstein's family in the comments at Protein Wisdom, but more fascinating to me has been her attempts to taunt an ex-SEAL into some kind of physical confrontation.) She seems to be explicitly seeking some kind of martyrdom that will benefit what she sees as a cause greater than herself.

My name is Deborah Frisch. I live in Tucson, Arizona. I teach in the psychology department at the YOUkneeversity of AIRYzona.

You want to come find me, see that I'm real, hold a .357 magnum in my face, i say:

BRING IT ON.

It's hard not to see parallels in Frisch's self-destructive search for catharsis and the jihadi martyr's ecstatic embrace of murder/suicide.

Frisch is an outlier, but I'm afraid she's not an actual island. Through all the craziness, she's had her defenders. And her rants (when she's not threatening 2 year olds or taunting SEALS to violence) seem right at home on sites like Democratic Underground, where honest disagreement on how to cope with threats to our society is not conceivable. You either agree with the community consensus or you are evil.

Pardon me if this looks like the first step toward a consensual madness that is uncomfortably analogous to the consensual madness taught at the terror madrasses.

As I said, while it's definitely good news that the multi-plane plot in England was foiled, the framework for the story is very discouraging. Someone once said something like "even if you're not interested in War, War is interested in you." To the horror of certain friends, I actually had (and still harbor) hope that the Bush Doctrine might work, and that liberalism could be liberated and cultivated in the Middle East. I've always assumed it would take years. I have always assumed that the gestalt of this country would keep faith with the idea that we, as a nation, are the good guys, and that good guys have a responsibility to try to spread the good, or at the very least to confront the evil.

Today, with recent political posturing and in the face of the obvious threats, I don't know that the West has the faith that the West, as a gestalt, is an inherently good thing. I'm starting to worry that we really may be entering a post-Enlightenment world.

Let me be clear; a lot of people I read think we're sliding toward dhimmitude. I think that's simply ridiculous on the face. What I fear is much worse; that some awful set of events will change us in such a way that it becomes a virtue to react to horror with horror, that we lose faith in our gloriously neurotic and successful celebration of the alien. We leave the world to its fate at our peril, because the world outside will not simply leave us to ours. That's quite demonstrably not how the world works.

What we may look like after the world comes to us and works its sea change is hideous to contemplate.

About the Mumbai Bombings

2006-07-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ennis wrote a very interesting post the other day, wondering at the relative quietude in Western blogs about the Mumbai Train Massacre.

Ishbadiddle did write a moving post about it, tying it into his experience of 9/11, and into his fears for the future his children will inherit.

Ennis' question has a three primary answers, each of which I think contribute to the relative silence of that group of habitually-unsilent people known as political bloggers. Because I've been in corporate America too long, I'll make a list:

Massive ignorance about all things sub-Continental.

There is a huge ex-patriot Indian population in the West, but I don't think that most of us not from the region have a clue about how things work in India or Pakistan. (This is in stark contrast to the West's experience of the various East Asian cultures. Yes, I know that the West's "understanding" of these cultures is largely illusory, but it's an illusion that allows us to feel emotionally connected with the region. I think this lack of connection is also what allows the West to blithely ignore the regularly scheduled atrocities happening in Africa.) A huge component of blogging is the pleasure for the writer of demonstrating supreme cleverness, and anything about India is just too complex to allow most writers to fake it comfortably. So Indian issues (no matter how important they may be, and Ennis does a good job describing why they're important) get very short shrift.

Been there, done that, smelled the burning wreckage.

So, after 9/11, we've seen Bali, Madrid, Beslan, and London. (Ish and I and lots o' others did, in fact, get to live with the stench from the ruins of the WTC for weeks afterwards. For everyone else, the headline is more metaphorical.) Saddly, the threshold for outrage may just be higher now than it used to be. This has disturbing implications that I'll come back to.

Is this good or bad for Bush?

A lot of the most popular weblogs obsess on United States politics. A lot of those can't seem to look at anything beyond whether it hurts or helps Bush in the polls. (I just loved all the screams that Bush should DO SOMETHING following the Christmas Tsunami. Never mind the U.S. Navy was steaming to the region within hours to provide logistical support to the countries hit. I guess Bush should have put on his cape, flown into orbit, circled the earth at supraluminal speeds to turn back time, then used his laser vision to seal the fault that ruptured causing the original earthquake. Geez.) Anyway, through the lens of domestic U.S. politics, the Mumbai Bombings are pretty much invisible. If anything, the bombings suggest that a "policing" policy toward global terrorism isn't likely to be effective, which presumably supports Administration doctrine. Hence some of the commenters' observations that Conservative blogs tended to write more about the bombings than Progressives did.

Of course, this illustrates the stupidity of Personality Politics. If India and Pakistan get into a real war, chances are it will be the second nuclear one, and we're all going to be dealing with the literal fallout from it. But unfortunately, the chatterers are too wrapped up in keeping score of the political game to see the dangers lurking out there way beyond the beltway.

Implications? We don't need no stinking implications!

Well, yes we do. I don't know what the most effective way to counter Terrorism might be, but I do know the best way to anti-counter it.

Complacency will in the end kill us, if anything does.

A wise man once wrote that no man is an island, and three centuries later he would be shocked at how much more true that has become. Bombs in Mumbai are an attack on Indianapolis, on Amsterdam, on Bangkok, on Dubai, and on everyone in every city and town and country who believes that a human being is more than an animal that can be slaughtered for some utopian greater good.

So be outraged. Be vigilant. Choose a course of action, a way of living, that stands in opposition to the culture of terror that has taken root in the world. Do not accept it, do not deny that it exists, do not surrender to it. (I believe ignoring it is not a valid option; terror demands attention, and while ignoring it might be textbook negative reinforcement, it is also incentive to more spectacular terror. Sadly and inevitably, spectacular is something that is getting easier and easier with time.)

And ensure your kids read John Donne when they're old enough; the man had it down.

Random status post

2006-06-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

Recent events:

I just ate of the flesh of a large bouncy marsupial. (Guess where I am.)

I missed the Pokerstars Blogger tourney. Start time for me would have been at 6:00 on a Monday morning.

On the other hand, I'm abandoning play money Sit 'N Go tourneys for "cash" games. I went from treading water at about 80K to 550K over a couple of evenings.

At one million play dollars, I plan to buy in for cash games and start at the micro stakes table. (Still way too much "it's only play money" jackassery even at the big stakes play money games.)

Miss my wife. Miss my dog. Miss my lord-and-master cats. Miss Brooklyn.

Don't miss the office. IHadOuts linked to a post from Lady Poker that was indirectly about workplace quality:

I know the precise moment I fell out of love with the game. It was last month when I was walking along the boardwalk in Atlantic City with my west coast friend, DC. We were talking about what it took to be a winning poker player and DC summed it up as follows, "To be a winning player, you have to surround yourself with losers."
Is that how I want to spend my free time?

I read that and thought that that's not how I want to spend any of my time, but it is how I'm spending far too large a percentage of my daytime hours.

Harsh, but I've got the data to back it up.

Change has to happen, and it has to happen soon. I will miss the international travel (I love seeing new places and wandering through new cultures) but I'm working in a stagnant company serving a shrinking market, where the average age of a programmer is about 50. One of the best I have to walk through the intricacies of Microsoft Excel. Another of the good ones can't understand why our imaging software should support annotations. (Bear in mind our core business is built around document checking processes, and our clients are screaming for a paperless distributed solution.) The head of this programmer's area has claimed for years no one can do non-destructive annotations. And because he's part of the group that speaks the Mother Tongue, us young upstarts (and I'm 42, and I'm a young upstart) can't convince mother tongue-speaking management that their staffs' skeelz are woefully outdated and the middle managers are blowing smoke.

So, if you look around and pretty much everyone you see is a certifiable loser, time to find a mirror and see if you're starting to fit in. For me, I think it's hasta la vista time.

Surprise, surprise.

2006-06-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Canadian Terror Suspects Linked to International Groups

Not that you'd know that by watching the evening news, reading the New York Times, or reading progressive blogs (at least, as of this writing).

And not that I think there's a conspiracy or anything (and no, this isn't sarcasm).

The trouble is this story, the terror-cell rollup in England, the (probable) success of data traffic analysis, doesn't fit the preferred narrative within the chattering class.

9/11 was a one-off. 7/11 was a one-off. Bali was a one-off. The only systematic evil being done in the world is perpetrated from Washington. Everything else is noise, or at worst reaction to legitimate grievances.

Data points that don't fit that framework don't get talked about, because in a real sense they can't be talked about. Not in civil tones, at least, because civilized people believe the framework described above.

What Glen Reynolds probably isn't missing

2006-05-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

About Congress, and Congressional Republicans in particular:

1994. Again. Right? I mean, these guys were never rocket scientists, but when I see this many people acting this stupidly -- and in the face of lousy approval ratings that should be getting their attention -- I have to wonder what I'm missing.

Earmark protection, Abramoff, "outrage" over the search of "Cold Tinfoil" Jefferson's offices when said search was a political windfall for the GOP....

This ain't connect the dots, this is a freakin' five megapixel digital snapshot of how crooked our Congressional Representatives have become. I doubt Reynolds has missed this, he's just being responsible in his reporting.

Fortunately, I have no such professional obligation. Evidence suggests they're all crooks. How much does anyone want to bet Jefferson takes a whole mess o' colleagues down with him?

100% turnover. Do what you can.

One hundred percent turnover.

2006-05-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

That should be the public's goal for the House of Representatives this fall.
I'm serious. Every member of Congress who can be booted, should be booted. When both parties close ranks in support of a red-handed crook, the only assumption a person can make is they're all on the take and don't want the gravy train de-railed.

If your congressman faces a primary challenger, vote for the challenger. If he/she is unopposed in the primary, write someone in. In the general election, hold your nose and vote for the other party, if necessary. If he/she is unopposed in the general election, write in anyone who might be eligible to serve.

Hard living will do that.

2006-03-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

Kolkata tortoise, Clive's pet, dies at 250 years
Thu Mar 23, 9:00 AM ET

KOLKATA (Reuters) - A giant aldabra tortoise thought to be around 250 years old has died in the Kolkata zoo of liver failure, authorities said on Thursday.

Poor guy should have cut back on the rum....

"Appalling" Quotation Marks

2006-03-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

Not as appalling as the actual "events" "reported" in this "news" story. But still, what other word than "terrorist" would fit?

Series of 'Terrorist' Bombings in India Kill at Least 20, Injure Dozens

3/08/06 7:34AM GMT

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG , Associated Press Writer

A series of "terrorist" bombings rocked a packed railway station and crowded Hindu temple Tuesday in the holy city of Varanasi, officials said, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens in an attack that raised fears of communal violence.

What has happened to the press (or at least the Associated Press) that it can't report on the world without adding spin? Okay, if as a semi-cohesive entity the writers and editors decide that politicians are misusing the words "terrorism" and "terrorist", use quotes to indicate that the the word choice might be subjective, and might not be supported by consensus.

But you know, I bet in the bombings in India, "innocent" "bystanders" were "terrorized" and "brutalized", and you know, I'd also bet every single survivor and their friends, neighbors, and loved ones would be "pissed off" to see the "carnage" "trivialized" like that.

I know I am, and you can quote me.

WTTWAGI (First in a series)

2006-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

WTTWAGI = "Who Thought This Was A Good Idea"

In my mail:

Join GripNGrin on Wed Feb 22nd
at PREY this month to help
The National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

Could they have picked a venue with a more ironic/horrific name? I guess the "Dead Baby Bar" wasn't available....

Dog Tag

2006-01-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

TheMissus™ has tagged Maia in the latest internet meme. I'm acting as translator. So without further ado, Maia barks out!

Four Jobs I've Had:

Cat chaser

Bed Warmer

Exercise device (Tug! Tug!)

Rescue group mascot/donation generator

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Benji

Lady and the Tramp

Beethoven

Cujo

Four places I have lived:

My birth-mom's crib (wherever that was)

The Brooklyn Street

"Four and a Tail" kennels (that's the Rescue Group that saved me.)

With my new mom and dad

Four television shows I love to watch:

Animal Cops Detroit

Animal Cops Miami

Animal Cops Houston

Animal Precinct

Four places I have been on vacation:

Prospect Park

Eastern Parkway

...Did I say Prospect Park?

Four websites I visit daily:

Kitten Wars!

Puppy Wars!

Animal Planet

The Economist

Four places I would rather be right now:

Prospect Park

Out walking on Eastern Parkway

Chasing cats

Mom's side of the bed

Four bloggers I am tagging:

BrooklynDays
WhatsAPundit (Hi Dad!)

...wait, I can't count to four....

-- Maia

Do NOT be pissin' off da Judge

2006-01-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

2. Investment bank error in your favor. Collect an additional $1.43 billion.

The judge in billionaire Ronald Perelman's lawsuit against Morgan Stanley, exasperated by the latter's delays in handing over documents, instructs jurors to assume that the firm committed fraud. The bank insists it isn't stonewalling, just running into technology glitches. The jury awards Perelman -- who had sued Morgan over its role in his sale of Coleman to Sunbeam for stock that became worthless after an accounting scandal led to bankruptcy -- $1.45 billion in damages. Perelman had reportedly offered to settle for $20 million.

That'll sting.

Might be an object lesson for the Democratic/Liberal Establishment Leadership here, vis-à-vis a certain Supreme Court nominee....

via Ish.

Note to Self

2006-01-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Do not get on the wrong side of Jonah Goldberg.

Looks like the Democratic Leadership has struck again!

2005-12-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

President Bush Job Approval

Friday December 23, 2005--Fifty percent (50%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. That's up six points since the President's speech on Sunday night.

It's also the first time since July that the President's Job Approval has reached the 50% mark. He earns approval from 81% of Republicans, 23% of Democrats, and 42% of those not affiliated with either major political party.

I wonder if the Nattering Nabob Syndrome has anything to do with this...

Dissing the Apocalypse: How Science Fiction Lost Me

2005-12-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

John Scalzi, author of the many-blog-recommended Old Man's War, posted a challenge on his blog:

Having bloviated yesterday that current science fiction offers few "open doors" for non-Science Fiction readers to check out the genre, I want to offer interested parties an opportunity to prove me wrong, or at the very least, prove that I've wildly overstated the issue. So, consider this your opportunity to suggest Gateway Science Fiction -- Good, recent science fiction for people who don't read science fiction.

What I need to think about isn't "Gateway" Science Fiction; I want to figure out why SF lost me some years ago. I stopped visiting the SF shelves some time after the new titles stopped being compelling (maybe not coincidentally, around the mid-90's).

So now when I go to Barnes & Noble I check for Stephenson, I jones for new Gene Wolfe, and on recommendation I've started reading Stross....

I may be a bastard, but I'm not the type of bastard who thinks he's outgrown SF. Instead, I find that (with few exceptions) there's just not much new fiction I find interesting at all. The things I found missing from "straight" lit'ra'chure when I was younger is, if anything, more missing today.

I'll definitely read Scalzi's book at some point because it is generating a lot of buzz here in Web-space.

I think what happened in the 90's is that optimism became unfashionable in SF. I blame William Gibson and Greg Bear, I really do. Both fine writers, and I wouldn't want them to write any way other than how they do. But they set a tone for other writers in the genre, and I think it was a bad tone.

Maybe the nihilism is passing from SF now. I hope so. We get enough of that crap from everyplace else.

Can you say "Nattering Nabobs"?

2005-12-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

We find ourselves in the appalling situation where a large percentage of our mainstream political class has a vested interest in the United States failing in Iraq. John Kerry has proclaimed U.S. troops are housebreakers and terrorists; Howard Dean has declared Iraq lost.

WTF?

I don’t mind people who have said all along that invading Iraq was a bad idea; there are logically and morally consistent arguments from both sides (although I think moral cases against are inherently weaker.) What I can’t abide is the revisionism and the naked opportunism associated with the nouveau anti-War cabal. For one thing, hypocrisy is ugly even when it’s cunning. For another, it’s even less pretty when it's stupid. Finally, it's grotesque when it has potentially devastating long-term consequences for the country at large.

Point-by-point:

"Winning v. Losing" in war is the most trivial way of looking at things, and not a trap adults should fall into. For instance, everyone knows who won and who lost the Great War, and we all know how important that outcome was to a peaceful 20th century. Likewise, the United States won the Vietnam War; just read up on Henry Kissinger's Nobel Peace Prize if you don’t believe me. Never mind those photos of those helicopters being mobbed on the embassy roof. Declaring Iraq "Lost" might be a cunning way to hurt the Bush Party, but it’s simply applying a negative (and highly misleading) label to what should be a long-term operation.

Next, has anybody noticed Iraq has held elections, and will be voting again soon on a painfully-negotiated Constitution? Yes, people are dying in Iraq; we read about it every day. People were dying invisibly in Iraq every day before we invaded. Do Democrats really want to be the 21st century's "America First" party? To be the party that prefers the Gulag to open conflict with fascists and thugs? I don’t think the ghost of FDR would approve. (I’m not a big FDR fan for other reasons, but I’m just saying….) Certain Democrats are buying themselves some major negative image karma.

Finally, one of the purposes of the Second Iraq War (I think) was to demonstrate that the United States would not wait to be attacked before acting against avowed enemies. From that perspective, we most definitely "won the war" with amazingly little damage to ourselves and to Iraq’s civilian population. (Go ahead and argue with me on this; be prepared to pick up statistics from any previous war of conquest with this one. Hell, even if you buy the Lancet's laughably inflated numbers, the damage done was peanuts compared to what happened to Germany or Japan.) I think the Bush Administration deserves a lot of respect for not just kicking the crap out of Iraq, installing a new Shah or whatever you wanted to call the leader, and bugging out. Call me a neocon, but it strikes me that the model of rebuilding our former enemies after WWII paid off a lot better than the previous model (Treaty of Versailles) or subsequent ones (again, Viet Nam). But certain Democrats would leave the region to rot and tie the "loss" on the Republican Party, at the same time telling the world that contrary to the example Dubya attempted to set, we really won’t respond to threats, because you know, we might end up taking risks, and we’d just rather pretend that nothing bad will ever happen to us if we just sit behind our open border.

Feh. And just forget the implicit insults these Prophets of Doom toss toward our uniformed citizens; I think the Democratic leadership has largely written off the military vote, JFK 1.8’s flag-wrapped zombie career notwithstanding. But has it ever occurred to said Prophets that, in the long run, having a military dominated by one of the political parties might be, well, unhealthy?

The Republican Congress pretty much nauseates me. But God forbid the party of Dean taking leadership of this Country. We've got enough problems as it is.

Why I'm a Libertarian

2005-11-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin:

"You can always turn the television off and, of course, block the channels you don't want," Martin said, "but why should you have to?"

Via The Corner.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2005-11-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

42.

Doesn't seem right somehow.

I mean, 42 is a great number. And while I'm sure I thought 42 was old when I was 21, it seems right in the heart of useful adulthood from this perspective.

But I think it's time for some changes.

I can't become a biological father. Just won't happen without some kind of scientific miracle. (I'm not including cloning; nothing strikes me as less appealing than raising a copy of myself. Make of that what you will, hypothetical reader.) But if my new wife and I adopted a newborn today, I'd be 60 on the child's 18th birthday.

And with the way I'm taking care of my corporeal self, I don't think I'm going to make 60.

I didn't drink until I turned 27. There's alcoholism running through my family, and alcohol always scared me. But I found out about my infertility in the previous year, and I decided what the hell, that gene (assuming it's a genetic thing) wasn't going to be passed, and I'd see what the fuss was about. So on that birthday I had a margarita.

Well, it's 15 years later, and I drink too much. I like whiskey a lot; I like the taste, I like the effect. I don't like the next morning, and I don't like the feeling that I'm not as sharp, generally, as once I was.

So my present to myself this year is a wagon. Wish me luck with it.

Science education, and why we're all boned

2005-11-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

From George Will, today:

The storm-tossed and rudderless Republican Party should particularly ponder the vote last week in Dover, Pa., where all eight members of the school board seeking reelection were defeated. This expressed the community's wholesome exasperation with the board's campaign to insinuate religion, in the guise of "intelligent design" theory, into high school biology classes, beginning with a required proclamation that evolution "is not a fact."

But it is. [The rest deleted, but worth reading for other reasons than the rant I'm about to deliver.]

Okay, everyone say it with me now: Evolution is a theory. Theories are never true; theories are never "facts".

This does not mean that "intelligent design" is a true as evolution, any more than it means that ID is as blue as evolution.

Evolution, broadly speaking, is supported by an amazing amount of data, both observational and experimental. (Remember Medel? Peas?) Don't know much about Intelligent Design, except that it seems to be just a bunch of justifications for the strong anthropic principal, which isn't a theory, because it isn't testable.

So what I'm ticked off about here is that Mr. Will neglects the fundamental point. Start debating science and theology as if they're the same type of things, and you end up diminishing both.

"Have you stopped beating your wife" Journalism

2005-11-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

From the Associated Press:

Judges Attest to Alito's Conservativism

Nov 3, 11:43 AM (ET)

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not.

Five current or former judges on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals interviewed by The Associated Press described Alito as thoughtful, intelligent and fair. They said he has great respect for precedent-setting decisions and none of them offered that he would be likely to vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Now, paragraph (1) of the story seems custom-crafted to scare the hell out of anyone to the left of, say, William F. Buckley, Jr. And then, presumably out of a misguided fealty to something called "truth", paragraph (2) undercuts the basic message of paragraph (1).

Why did the writer or editor bother? Why act like they're not choosing sides and spinning hard? It's insulting to anyone paying attention, and unnecessary for anyone who isn't.

"Unhinged": Read the reviews and you don't need to read the book

2005-11-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild

Case in point:

Reviewer: Sgt. Keith Cooper (Richmond, VA.) - See all my reviews

More hate-filled rightwing propaganda from yet another shameless Republican hack.

These books are all the same: boring, badly written propaganda and filled with same LIES again and again. I'm a Marine Coprs vet (first Gulf War), and I'm sick of these rightwing traitors spreading un-American propaganda.

Malkin is a disgrace. Skip this vomitous book.

Semper Fi,

Keith Cooper

And Amazon -- stop deleting messages that criticize this book. What are you afraid of? Why are Malkin and her fellow rightwing nuts such cowards that they can't take criticism?

Well, I would guess that Amazon is deleting reviews that aren't reviews, but are instead ad hominem attacks on the author. If you can't tell the difference, Sgt. Cooper, you shouldn't be writing book reviews.

But back to the original point, I remember when I was just a young'un that Liberals prided themselves on superior reasoning as well as superior morality. The idea back then, as I recall, was that the former produced the latter.

There are negative reviews that argue that the examples Malkin cites in her book aren't representative of Liberal behavior; that's a rational argument that can be defended or attacked. Unfortunately, just from a count of negative reviews, the froth-at-the-mouth crowd seems to outnumber the rationalists by a good 10-to-1. (I'm including the people who gave the book five stars and then proceeded to equate Republicans to Nazis. So clever, that.)

(Also, it's interesting to note how few of the negative reviewers seem to have read anything other than evil Rethuglican books....)

Bottom line, I think it more than fair when "Liberals" take "Conservatives" to task for "our" looney anti-rationalists. But Liberal-folks, there are a lot of nuts to go around, and as long as "Fuck 'em" Kos is deep in the DNC's councils, you're not going to sell me on the superiority of either your intellects or your hearts.

Unexpected by whom?

2005-10-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

From the AP:

Miers' surprise withdrawal stunned Washington on a day when the capital was awaiting news on another front — the possible indictment of senior White House aides in the CIA leak case.

On the other hand, I really do expect surprises when Fitzgerald starts springing indictments. Yes, I think Libby will probably get smacked, and maybe Rove, but I think there's going to be collateral damage as well.

You read it here (except you probably won't have) first.

Can I Get a Witness

2005-10-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I fall out of the habit of reading James Lileks. And then I think to call up his site and he's written something like this:

Please do not tell me about electric shavers. I go electric every other year or so, and they do not agree with my chin, and I get that too-bad-about-the-smallpox-dude look from strangers.

And now I have to start reading backwards through his calendar...

Racing to Irrelevance

2005-10-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

Examine this screen capture from Yahoo! for irony:

So, according to the AFP, a majority of Americans now think the Iraq war was wrong. At the same time, a majority of Iraqis voted for a new Constitution.

What's wrong with this picture?

UPDATE 10/26: Okay, that was pretty obscure. The irrelevance race is between the Media and American public opinion's ability to make a difference in Iraq. Good first steps have been taken toward something like democracy there. They've got a long way to go before they're up to Brooklyn standards, let alone someplace civilized. But the more steps they take, the less difference it makes if the establishment Media would rather see Iraq fail than a U.S. Administration (particularly if it's Republican) succeed.

PokerStars: The PhantomMut Menace

2005-10-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

In about 30 minutes I'll be the PokerStars Blogger Championship. My goal is modest; I just want to make it to the first break. One hour of (free) poker.

I ask all my purely hypothetical readers to wish me luck....

UPDATE: Still in at 5:00, have $3,710 play dollars, and even better, some of it came from Wesley Crusher....

UPDATE: 6:00, 20K play money, 264 players left, current rank 32 (was as high as 30).

Wil Wheaton is done, and I wish I'd written down the name of the jerk from the first table who started berating me for driving him out of a hand....

UPDATE: 6:50, out in 121st position. Apparently I'm a pushy player...

Got sloppy toward the end. Last hand was indicative. Was down to 16K, tourney average was about 30, I think. Had A/3 of spades. I'm to the right of the button. Blinds are 1200. Guy across from me bets 3000, and I call. Flop is 3,4,5, no spades. I figure the guy across from me has two high cards, so I go All-in. He calls, the turn/river is K/8, my opponent flips A/K, and that's all she wrote.

So, no tee-shirt, IPod, or anything else. But with the field starting out at over 1400 participants, I'm okay with it.

Poker and Politics

2005-10-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

One of the things I remember in all the write-ups about Bush before the last two Presidential elections were all the quotes about how good a poker player he is. Well, I'm not much of one myself (I pretty much limit myself to play money) but I have learned a couple of rules-of-thumb. One of the best rules, I think, is to stop throwing money in the pot once you're pretty sure you have a losing hand.

I mean, bluffing is fine and all, but it only works if the other players believe you might have the winning hand.

No one who isn't named George W. Bush believes Harriet Miers is a winning hand.

Every day Miers is out there is another round of betting. Every day Bush is putting more credibility in the pot. Bush is going to lose this one. The question is whether at the end he's left with any credibility at all.

My friend Mike would say that Bush didn't have any credibility to start with, but that's a brand of wishful thinking. (Sorry Mike.) Bush won (and had coattails that increased Republican majorities in the House and Senate) because a majority of Americans trusted him more than they trusted Kerry. When Bush loses this fight, it's going to make the bad beat he took on Katrina look like a drop in the bucket.

Personally, I've pretty much reached the point where I no longer have a dog in this fight. The Republican Congress has shown itself to be more prone to fiscal idiocy than the Democrats. To give the Democrats credit, when they spend like drunken sailors they at least have high-minded principals to blame it on. When Republicans do it, they don't even have that fig leaf. I'm sorry, lowering taxes may in fact be a good thing (I think it is), but lowering taxes AND building "bridges to nowhere" looks at best corrupt, at worst corrupt and butt-stupid.

So yeah, if Bush squanders enough credibility to taint his entire party (not that they need much help) it certainly won't make me cry. In his first term he set some Foreign Policy precedents that needed to be set, and the recent election in Iraq (and the massive fall-off in violence during the election in comparison to the previous one) makes me more optimistic that the changes are going to stick. In other words, I'm ready to say that Bush did the job he needed to do, and now it's time to look to the future.

So right now my big complaint would be, can somebody show me a future?

Best case scenario: Bush comes to his senses, withdraws Miers, replaces her with somebody with an actual resume, and moves on. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans continue to self-destruct and the Democrats take over both the Senate and the House in '06. (Maybe then Bush can figure out that veto thing.) Sometime in the near future Cheney retires and Condi Rice becomes Vice President. And in '08 a sane and smart Republican (who is also hot! hot! hot!) runs against a sane and smart Democrat (read: not John Kerry or Howard Dean).

Can these things happen? I think so. It pains me to say it, but the least likely part of that little scenario might be getting the sane and smart Democratic Presidential candidate. The Democratic Primaries amplify all their worst habits of the Party, and the more ripe the Presidency is for plucking, the stronger the amplification. So they wound up last time with the worst possible candidate. And without an incumbent Republican next time, the Democrats will have a golden opportunity to do even worse. (Which, come to think of it, would be to give Kerry the nod again. Hat tip: Karol.)

So getting back to poker, the political scene in Washington resembles the low-stakes play money tables on PokerStars.net; lots of bad bets, lots of weird hands falling, lots of trash talking, and damned little sense. I'm hoping that the real players are just sitting back, waiting for the dust to settle, before getting on with the very important business of professional gambling, er, politcs. If not, I just hope the stakes don't go up.

Weird Old World

2005-10-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson Called for Jury Service

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) - Authorities want Michael Jackson back in court - this time as a juror. Jackson received a jury summons at his Neverland Valley Ranch, four months after he was acquitted of child molestation charges.

Scene from a Jury Selection: Opposing attorneys look at the prospective juror, look at each other, and in unison say "Excused!"

Random Depressed Thought

2005-10-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

Why don't the voices ever say things like "be nice to everyone you see today"?

Mother Accused of Tossing 3 Kids Into Bay

A woman who was hearing voices tossed her three young children off a pier into San Francisco Bay, authorities said. Rescuers had found one body, and the other two children were feared dead.

Via The Corner.

What a drag it is getting old

2005-10-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

Geezers still rocking the house!

For the biggest live acts, Bongiovanni says, a reputation for showmanship is the key selling point. "Neil Diamond's fans aren't coming to see him just because he may have a record coming out. They know that the guy's been around a long time, and he's always going to put on a good show. It's the same with Springsteen. Just because you've seen him before doesn't mean you don't want to see him again."

First off, I'm not sure how The Boss would feel about being lumped with Neil Diamond. Second, isn't there something a little sad about being content to relive past revelations all your life? Sure, seeing someone you saw years ago when you were young might be fun, but what if (as I suspect) the majority of those going to see Springsteen (or Diamond, for that matter) don't go out again to another concert until the next time Bruce or Neil come to the closest mega-Arena.

Maybe I'm just spoiled, and it's been at least a year since I've seen anyone perform, so I'm not one to talk. But it strikes me that there's a lot of talent out there getting oxygen deprived by acts that haven't had an original moment in 30 years.

Note to self: After the wedding, get back in the habbit of going out at least twice a month to hear some live music. Living in New York and not taking advantage of the music scene is, I think, somewhat retarded.

Condi is so hot!

2005-10-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Condoleezza Chases Down Dictator!

Hubba hubba.

Getting Close to God through National Misfortune

2005-10-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

(via Alarming News):

Karl Rove Is On The Roof

I'm not a religious guy, usually, but this stuff is almost restoring my faith in God. It's really all coming apart for the Rethuglicans. Many of the major figures of the party are under indictment, or soon will be. Iraq is a disaster. The economy is fucked. The conservative base is finally pissed about something (The Miers nomination). Bush is on his way to being the least popular president in history. What could possibly happen at this point to turn things around for him? I don't even think another terrorist attack could bring up his numbers at this point (although I'm sure it's something they're considering).

It's hard to know what to wish for. Do we impeach Bush? Then who would we end up with? Cheney? Condi? I think it's better that he finish out his term. Imagine the damage he can do to the Rethugs in 3 more years. He is destroying them, just like he's destroying the Army and the National Guard....

Fitting that Mr. Bedazzled brought up belief in God as a result of the warm-and-fuzzy he gets when contemplating the tribulations of the Administration. Reminds me of the truly loathsome variety of Narcissistic Believer who thinks that he's better because God loves him more than he loves you.

Don't know what that Higher Power behind the knee-jerk anti-Rethuglicans is (Mr. Bedazzled, I know you read Karol's post because you responded on your site) but it certainly seems able to move a certain type to moments of unpretty rapture.

For what it's worth, Mr. B., I'll give you an analogy with training wheels to support Karol's thesis, which obviously went over your head: If you claim to love the car but hate the driver, rooting for a car wreck makes you look like an idiot.

In the USSR, they called it a 9mm Aneurysm

2005-10-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

Syria: Interior Minister Commits Suicide

What's the over/under on the method of "suicide" being a bullet to the back of the head?

Sophisticated and Sensitive Political Leadership

2005-10-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Howard Dean to the Black community:

All your votes are belong to us.

Ken Melman to the Black community:

Are you gonna take that from a white boy?

The whole thing makes me wish I could dye my skin green....

If a suicide bomber blows up in Oklahoma, can the New York Times hear?

2005-10-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

I've written on this topic before (and once I get WhatsAPundit up and independent again I'll update this link) but the recent "stealth bombing" in Oklahoma illustrates again how selective the media can be in hyping a story.

20 year old rumors of slacking by a Texas Air National Guardsman? Front page for weeks, driving putatively sane newspeople into serious lapses, either of intelligence, ethics, or both.

A young man commits jihad-style suicide outside a college football game? Bury it on page 32.

Now, the facts on the ground are slim (but compelling) and the links to radical Islam are disputed (but if you were a member of a radical mosque, would you admit this guy was one of your own?). Neither is a justification for ignoring this story, which the mainstream outlets (for the most part) are doing. Hints and allegations are the precursors to investigation, and there are enough of both, I'd think, to send Pulitzer-hungry journos into a feeding-frenzy.

But somehow, this doesn't seem to be on any menus right now.

Let's flip this. Say that the young man had been sitting outside an abortion clinic, and that he had been attending a fundamentalist Baptist Church which had a previous member take a potshot at a doctor who performs abortions. (There's a point to this analogy; follow the links, as DeepThroat might say today.)

Do you think maybe The New York Times runs that front page above the fold? I thought you might.

What's the difference between the real world and my fantasy scenario? The real world evidence leads to a story a lot of people don't want to believe (namely, that radical Islam is a threat to United States, in the United States.) The fantasy scenario is one that a lot of people would believe immediately, because it fits an accepted world view.

This, friends, Romans, countrymen, illustrates bias. I don't for a minute believe (in most cases) that it's a conscious decision to help or hinder a particular politician or party. People (in most cases) aren't evil, and burying a story like the Oklahoma Jihad-style Suicide Bomber just to support a political agenda would be evil. After all, if radical Islam is reaching out to the potential nutcases in this country, let's face it; there is plenty of squirrel-bait to be found. This strikes me as a potential hazard.

The problem with bias isn't that it's an evil impulse; the problem is that it's a lazy one, and more disturbing, a fearful one. Let's face it; a mad anti-abortionist is less of a threat to most people (workers at Planned Parenthood excepted) than a random post-adolescent psycho who decides that 72 virgins (and a chance to get even with all those assholes) sounds like a good deal.

It's kind of axiomatic that terror thrives in societies that capitulate to fear.

Let's not be one of those. Let's kindly ask the press to do it's job, and go after this story. A healthy society really depends upon it.

Update: Here's another story you don't need to know about....

Poker!

2005-10-08T04:50:00.000-07:00

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 2243588

Give TheGirl™ Some Love

2005-10-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

TheGirl™ and I have been spending a lot of time on the cell phone between NYC and Amsterdam the last few days. The bonb scares have her a little edgy, and on my side it's always good to talk to her, even when she's planning for The End Of The World (and no, I'm not talking about TheWedding™).

If you love her (but you better not be lovin' her like I'm lovin' her!) give her a call. If she's got time, she'll talk your ear off. If she doesn't (and with TheWedding™ coming up, she may not) she'll let you know.

Return of WhatsAPundit

2005-10-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

WhatsAPundit has been down, but not out. My ISP went bankrupt, their support phone has been assigned to another company, and I can't get the registration moved. So for now, I'm a blogger baby.