Monday, July 01, 2002

Afghans Say U.S. Attacked Wedding. U.S. helicopter gunships and jets attacked a house Monday while a wedding was under way, killing and injuring scores, witnesses and hospital officials said. U.S. officials said an AC-130 fixed-wing plane and a B-52 launched an attack after American forces came under fire. [AP World News] This looks bad. It's clear from the article that nobody knows for sure yet, but it sure sounds like some American helicopter happened to fly nearby and mistook celebratory gunfire for an attack. While "shoot first, ask questions later" is a reasonable response for an occupying army, it also makes it that much more likely that the next helicopter passing over that area will really be fired on. comment () trackback ()  12:16:53 PM     I wuz robbed. Today I was in a hurry, walking down to my local subway station, the 16th and Mission BART, and, as usual when I'm too late to take Valencia, this took me past the cluster of drug-dealers who hang out on my corner, in the north Mission. I was wearing the groovy MiG goggles I'd bought last month in London at the Camden Market and have been using as shades, and this big drug dealer cornered me and started harassing me to try them on. Then he started rambling about what he does for a living, just talking a load of really boring rounder horseshit that probably sounds good and Elmore Leonardy when you say it to yourself in your head but just sounds banal and incoherent when you're standing on a corner. He's a big guy and so I "let" him try on my shades. Then it transpires that he wants me to buy drugs from him in exchange for my goggles. I explain that I'm not in the market for drugs, but he won't give back my shades and he's talking more bullshit. Finally I say, "So, you're robbing me, right?" and more bullshit ensues. I repeat the question a couple times, then walk off. [Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things] The author of that weblog is Cory Doctorow, about whom I know nothing. San Francisco, however, is famous as the most liberal city in the country. It's hardly surprising that the affects of liberal policies would be so apparent there. I would suggest that Mr. Doctorow start carrying a pistol, but I suspect from his story that he would probably end up giving it away to the first street person who asked for it. comment () trackback ()  10:24:02 AM     U.S. Doctor Killed in Zimbabwe. A retired doctor from West Virginia has been killed in an apparent carjacking in Zimbabwe, local residents said Monday. [AP World News] After retiring about 10 years ago, Raub bought a home in Bulawayo and a 30,000-acre game hunting ranch near Hwange National Park. He was apparently killed a few miles from his ranch. The headline and summary make it sound like he was a tourist, but apparently this is really part of Mugabe's ongoing campaign to kill or drive off all the productive citizens of Zimbabwe. comment () trackback ()  6:20:08 AM

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