Friday, February 06, 2004

In Search of Casus Belli Reaction was swift to David Kay's assertion that he believes weapons of mass destruction will never be found in Iraq. Bush, speaking in South Carolina: "We have not yet found the stockpiles that we thought were there." George Tenet, speaking at Georgetown University: "When the facts of Iraq are all in, we will be neither completely right nor completely wrong." Donald Rumsfeld, testifying before Congress: "It's too early to come to final conclusions, given the work still to be done." Q: So when will the facts of Iraq be all in and the final conclusions be reached about WMDs? A: The day after the presidential election. 6:17:24 PM

The Peanut Gallery Reciprocal endorsements were made today in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.  Dick Gephardt endorsed John Kerry's candidacy.  In return, Kerry endorsed  Gephardt in his quest to win the Howdy Doody Look-Alike Contest against Tom Ridge. 12:28:13 PM

It's Istanbul, not Constantinople Today, my local classical music radio station played a recording of Mozart's 11th piano sonata, performed by Christoph Eschenbach, the new conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This sonata, with its famous "Rondo alla Turca" final movement, is redolent of an era when the Ottoman Empire had been stopped at the gates of Vienna, and Europeans were fascinated by the exotic lure of Turkey in particular and the Muslim world in general.  Educated Europeans frequently traveled to the Middle East in search of romance and adventure. As they used to say in those Virginia Slims cigarette ads, we've come a long way, baby. 12:26:22 PM