Wednesday, November 24, 2004

I enjoy the blessings of liberty and prosperity, and by "enjoy" I mean that I have fun with them as well as possessing them, and I am very aware of and thankful for what I've got. I'm thankful for the family that made me and the family I have helped make with my smart, sane, sexy wife. I'm thankful to have interesting work. I'm thankful for my readers and the community that exists around this weblog. On this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that my sister's idea of a family gathering includes dogs, and that my brother-in-law's people like to fry turkeys, and that they put a wireless network in at their house. I hope you have things to be thankful for this year, too. 2:16:14 PM    comment []

Juan Cole is being threatened with a lawsuit by a lobbying group. Cole: "I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at Informed Comment, reprinted at anti-war.com. This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US has apparently decided to try it out against people like me." More Cole:"(A) dispute over an organization's level of funding would be laughed out of court as a basis for a libel action. In fact, I am giggling as I write this." 9:05:14 AM    comment []

Hoggard: "Today, Jinni was having trouble making room for cancer on our calendar." 8:56:28 AM    comment []

Trump a chump, barks Mark. Mark Cuban trashes Donald Trump. Not that The Donald doesn't demand a little schadenfreude, but Cuban sounds bitter because his rich-guy reality show was a dud. 8:44:41 AM    comment []

"Tension steadily rose throughout Ukraine early Wednesday as hundreds of thousands awaited final results from a presidential vote many claim was rigged," says the Washington Times. Vaclav Havel to the people of Ukraine: "I wish you strength, perseverance, courage and good fortune with your decisions." NYT: "Not since NATO's war in Kosovo, or perhaps the cold war itself, have the political differences between Russia and the West appeared so starkly as they have in Ukraine's disputed presidential election. 8:33:10 AM    comment []