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Saturday, August 02, 2003 |
Debunking political correctness
It may be not be harmonic convergence exactly, but the coincidence is still worth flagging: Last week, just about the time a Senate committee was failing to muster the quorum necessary to vote on Islamic terrorism expert Daniel Pipes' nomination to the U.S. Institute of Peace —thrilling the Islamic groups that apologize for such terrorism — the Pew Research Center was releasing a new poll finding that 44 percent of Americans now believe that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers. This number is up sharply from the 22 percent who in March 2002 had begun to notice jihadis in Sudan and Nigeria and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the Philippines and the Palestinian Authority and Malaysia (and ? Italy, France and Lackawanna) poking out from behind the smoother ranks of the "Islam is peace" PR professionals. (danielpipes.org)
8:16:17 PM 
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CIA Adviser Kay Amasses Evidence of Saddam’s WMD (DEBKAfile)
US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard are preparing a rejoinder to quell the domestic credibility crises Iraqi WMD skeptics have whipped up in their countries, with the help of anti-American, anti-war factions in politics and foreign intelligence services – particularly in some parts of Europe, such as Russia, Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark and even the UK.
That rejoinder will draw on the paper and on-the-ground evidence amassed day by day by a new coalition intelligence research project launched a month ago under Dr. David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector, to winkle out hard evidence of Saddam Hussein’s proscribed weapons programs.
8:03:59 PM
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Rebuilding Iraq (snopes.com)
This is an open letter from U.S. Army Maj. Eric Rydbom in Iraq to the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shoreline, Wash. Rydbom is Deputy Division Engineer of the 4th Infantry Division.
4:37:04 PM
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The New Republic says that the redacted pages of the September 11 report provide evidence of direct links between the hijackers and the highest levels of the Saudi royal family: 28 Pages.
1:33:25 PM
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Kenyan Muslims Seethe, Whine (from: little green footballs)
Yesterday Kenyan police arrested an Arab in an anti-terror raid; moments after the arrest he set off a hand grenade in a police car, killing himself and a policeman. Today Kenyan Muslims are whining about the injustice of it all: Kenya Arabs say anti-terror probe hurts Muslims.
MOMBASA, Kenya, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Anxious Kenyan Arabs are bracing for renewed scrutiny in the war on terror after a police raid on suspected militants ended bloodily in Mombasa, scene of attacks on Israeli targets in November.
Sipping tea in Tasneem Cafe near the city's Old Town, students Khaled, Abdullah and Hussein predicted on Saturday that a grenade explosion that killed two people would lead to more of what they called police harassment for their Muslim community.
"You can be arrested just for wearing a bushy beard or a kanzu (Arab robe)," said Hussein, 20, sitting in the kerbside cafe 30 metres (yards) from the scene of Friday's blast.
Or maybe for carrying a hand grenade? Ya think?
1:23:24 PM
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Commuting
Driving to the office this morning on the Interstate, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Mustang doing 65 miles per hour with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.
I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don't scare easily, but she scared me so much I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand.
In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed and burned "Big John and the Twins," ruined the damn phone, soaked my trousers, and disconnected an important call.
Damn women drivers!!
12:49:14 PM
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Teamsters: Do you suppose that now that the Teamsters....have endorsed Richard Gephardt for President, the Bush Administration might, just possibly, conceivably, stop adopting protectionist policies in order to curry favor with them and win their endorsement?
I suppose that it's possible the union will make a fresh endorsement after Gephardt loses the Democratic nomination, and that the administration still holds out hope of snagging their blessing at that time. Sigh.
But still, it must be good news that this happened so early. Now the administration won't spend all fall trying to out-protectionist Mr. Former Minority Leader.
Of course, if I thought that the endorsement was actually going to help make Gephardt president, or even make him the Democratic nominee, then that would be my primary concern, and I'd think it very bad news indeed. But, as I've written before, I have considerable faith in Gephardt's complete inability to connect with voters; I saw it up close and personal in New Hampshire in '88. Fifteen years later, he's the same guy, plus all those added years of experience of failing to become Speaker of the House. His candidacy is going nowhere fast, for which I am profoundly grateful. Compared with Gephardt, one at least gets the feeling that the Bush crowd knows what they're doing is wrong when they throw tariffs and quotas around. Gephardt would do it in good conscience and enthusiastically.
[The Volokh Conspiracy]
7:13:40 AM
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Syria aiming VX missiles at Israel
Syria is aiming at least 100 long-range ballistic missiles equipped with VX – the most lethal nerve gas – at central Israel, according to a senior Israeli defense source.
If their dumb enough to use them against Israel you can kiss Syria goodbye!
12:31:16 AM
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© Copyright 2003 John Gist.
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Love, American People.
