Monday, December 27, 2004

Diary of a Soldier: "(I)t is the eve of my deployment, and my troops and I are ready." Good luck to one of Greensboro's own, and all those who go with him. 3:57:51 PM    comment []

Terry Heaton asked me some questions about what's going on in Greensboro, and here's what I told him. 3:52:41 PM    comment []

Be afraid. Be very afraid. This is one of the most influential blogs in the land: "The most general area of concern, I think, arises from the whole concept of separation of church and state. The Constitution refers to no such thing, of course, but merely prohibits the federal government (but not the states) from establishing an official religion." When he talks about "the left" in this context, I have to wonder: what the hell is he smoking? 'Cuz he's got some classic symptoms here, including fuzzy logic and paranoia. Y'all know I love me some Christmas. But I love my Constitution, too. When I read the Power Line piece I wonder, does he really believe that there is a concerted effort of any heft whatsoever to attack religion in this country? Does he really not recognize the difference between wanting a secular government, which a lot of religious people do, and which the founders of this country mandated, and wanting religious people to stop being religious? And does he recognize the dangerous forces he is playing with? 9:08:00 AM    comment []

I'll be on WUNC's State of Things program at noon today, talking politics with the roundtable crew, 91.5 FM, streamed and archived here. 8:53:19 AM    comment []

Jeff Jarvis has a round-up of tsunami/quake news. 8:45:02 AM    comment []

Two reports on Iraq from very different angles, neither very encouraging. This one, by Susan Watkins in something called the New Left Review, looks at the nature of the insurgency. Stripped of its cant about millionaires in the White House, it's still pretty depressing. And this, about the strategy for Iraq after military conquest: "There was no adequate operational plan for stability operations and support operations." Not enough troops, and a basic misunderstanding of the kind of war we're now fighting, also hinder US efforts. The author: Maj. Isaiah Wilson III, an official Army historian of the Iraq campaign and former war planner in Iraq. 8:31:32 AM    comment []

Stuffwriter: "Pimp My Ride, Cribs...MTV has just become HGTV for homies." 8:19:07 AM    comment []