One man's life in Austin

Some new music for ya

2007-04-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the Chop's "New Music Tuesday" emails to both myself and T-Bone, I happened upon this band after listening to a cd that my friend Knut A. had sent me.

Of course the RZA new more about them than I did, but that is to be expected. Did you know she was voted the twelfth best radio DJ in Austin, while still at UT? I thought so. Anyways, I always feel like a child when talking music with my friend Knut. He just has this incredible breadth and width (girth?) of music knowledge. So does the Chop and RZA, but they live here for goodness' sake. Whatever....I'm stoney, and I'm outta heeeeeeeeerrreee.........

Recruiting video for the Japanese Defense Force

2007-04-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

And you thought American recruiting videos were bad?.

You ain't seen nothing yet, baby.....

Now go check out the recruiting video"For Country", from our outstanding USMC. Gives me chills every time.

Hat Tip Blackfive

American Idols and the Mull of Kintyre

2007-03-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Paul McCartney did this song back when he was (in) Wings.

Check out the flash video, courtesy of Sgt Hook.

Hat tip Opfor.

"I'm an Englishman in New York"

2007-03-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Vanity Fair has an interesting story on British expats in New York.

They wear their blue jeans like their school shorts—too high and too tight, leaving them with severe moose knuckle. They will occasionally wear items of indigenous clothing—a baseball cap, a plaid work shirt—just to show that they're not tourists. But they wear them with irony.

Via Tim Blair

The meaning of St Patrick's day

2007-03-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Jay Pinkerton is on the story, and its hysterical.

On the other 364 days the year, O'Malley's Pub is like any other bar in Brooklyn; a place to sit quietly in the dark, drink watery beer and possibly score some cocaine. But for pubs like O'Malley's, St. Patrick's Day is something akin to a Super Bowl. No expense has been spared tonight—whichever lights are still working have been turned on, every greasy surface has been festooned with cardboard shamrocks and the beer has been dyed a sickly neon green. Even the neighborhood cocaine salesman has caught the spirit, and sports a playful green felt top hat. It is perfect. For six hours now I have sat quietly in the dim light, drank green beer and observed St. Patrick's Day in action. I have also politely and repeatedly declined to buy drugs, on the grounds that I remembered to bring enough with me.

Courtesy of Treacher at Blowing Smoke.

Movie Review

2007-03-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

The best movie-review ever can be found here.

I can’t spoil the plot because THANK GOD THERE ISN’T ONE. Just ass kicking that kicks ass that, while said ass is getting kicked, is kicking yet more ass that’s hitting someone’s balls with a hammer made of ice but the ice is frozen whiskey.

Via Tim Blair.

A UPI reporter digs deep

2007-03-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Pamela Hess on what's really going on in Iraq.

The clip is only nine minutes long. Check it out.

Silversun Pickups

2007-03-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

Check out Silversun Pickups on youtube.

Pretty catchy. I like it.

Austin Bay on Iraq and property-rights

2007-03-04T11:01:00.000-08:00

“The Third World is not populated by proletariats, it’s populated by entrepreneurs– successful small business people.”

Check out Austin Bay's post on the subject.

It's pretty interesting, yet I think a little too hopeful about Iraqi courts' capability of upholding the rule of law. Courts can uphold laws all they want, but death-squads will still have the capability of enforcing their idea of "instant justice" (uhh, move out or we kill you).

Carl Levin getting tough

2007-02-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

Getting tough on Syria and Iran, that is. From Redstate, here you go.

I'm glad to see this. I've always believed Republicans lost control of Congress because of their failure to control spending, not because the American public ostensibly believes in pulling troops out of Iraq and funding universal health care.

Also, there are new Geico caveman commercials out there. No, I don't have the video. Quit being active and go watch some TV. Bitches.

Peter Bjorn & Jan

2007-02-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Some groovy tunes from Sweden:

Peter Bjorn & Jan - Young Folks.

Ahhh, sit back and enjoy the pop-goodness...

Sharon Stone is crazy

2007-02-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Not that people didn't already know that, but Jackie Danicki posts these videos to showcase her amazing....talents? Sssshhhh......Because Sharon said so. Bitches.

A little Johnnie Cash

2007-02-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I posted, so when I saw this I felt I had to share it:

From Bill INDC, a little music video created from footage in Iraq.

Some of that old magic

2006-12-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

Check out Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller on the Daily Show.

link here

Talk about chemistry. Like the blogpost says, how cool would it be if these guys had a cable show together. Somewhere the entertainment-powers that be are thinking...

The Fight for Ramadi

2006-11-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

From Times Online comes a story about the fight for Ramadi. I don't know if we'll see this in the national media. Maybe we'll see more positive spin with the democrats in Congress. I don't know on this one.

The Run-Down on Paris Hilton

2006-11-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

So I was browsing online, and I happened upon this post from cityrag, where Tina Fey bags on Paris Hilton while on the Howard Stern's show.

Which took me to this post which pretty much runs down Paris Hilton's flaws. My favorites are "Paris Hilton looks like an Emu" and "Paris Hilton is a prissy bird".

I love the interent.

Via Treacher.

John Kerry gets funny.

2006-11-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

Cracked has the scoop.

Via Treacher.

The next war in Lebanon

2006-11-14T04:41:00.000-08:00

Is coming pretty soon, according to Michael Totten.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Going forward in Iraq

2006-11-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

Check out this article from the Weekly Standard's Bill Stuntz.

War is not poker; the stakes in Iraq are much higher than a little money or a few chips. But war's psychology bears some resemblance to a well-played game of cards. The only way Americans lose this war is to fold. That seems likely to be the next move, but it is the last thing we should do. Far better to call and raise. Our cards are better than theirs, if only we have the nerve to play them.

Hat tip Instapundit.

The national political races

2006-11-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago the buzz in the news was the democratic tsunami that was going to retake Congress.

Now, there seemed to have been some tightening of the leads.

Tom Elia of The New Editor seems to think the republicans will retain control.

Link to poll courtesy of The New Editor.

No Nukes!! Attack Iraq, No?

2006-11-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

So the Iraqis had a nuke program? And they were going to reconstitute it? No way!

I'm shocked, shocked....

Hitchens on Kerry

2006-11-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

Oh, you know what I'm talking about!

On Wednesday evening, on Hugh Hewitt's high-octane radio show, I accepted his challenge and gave out my private email. I had said that my emails from soldiers in Iraq were generally relaxed about the Kerry flap: He wanted me to hear different.

I have since had the chance to read about 500 or 600 messages. Almost all of them politely phrased (I exempt one from "the Riordan family" who evidently have not forgiven the long history of British depredation in Ireland) and almost all of them appending the list of college degrees as well as of medals and citations held, these letters show a very deep and interesting rift in which Mr. Kerry plays only a secondary part. Many of my respondents agreed that his words may not have meant or intended quite what they first seemed to mean, but they also felt that the klutziness was Freudian, so to speak, in that the senator's patrician contempt for grunts and dogfaces was bound to come out sooner or later.

One thing I already knew is confirmed--there is a very great deal of class resentment in these United States. Another thing I wasn't so sure of is also confirmed--James Webb in Virginia is right to stress the huge rage felt by those of Scots-Irish provenance who feel that they have born the heat and burden of the day in America's wars, and been rewarded with disdain.

Check our the whole thing. If just for the reference to Kerry as "the fresh prince of Massachussettes".

Edited to add hat-tip to The New Editor.

This is what Victory in Iraq looks like

2006-11-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

Right here. We did what we said we would do: Remove Saddam Hussein from power, and change the regime.

I think alot of talking heads are missing that part of the story.

Kid Rock loves America

2006-11-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Mary Katherine Ham told me, so it has to be true.

Right-wing nutjobs respond to Kerry

2006-11-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

These guys are definitely wingnutters.

Via Instapundit

You don't say?

2006-11-01T02:51:00.000-08:00

Kerry steps on his crank. I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked at how the rightwingers are twisting his nuanced words:

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."

Marie Antoinette trailer

2006-10-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

I always had a thing for movie trailers. This is probably one of the coolest ones I've seen. Shameless pandering to the 80s will get you everywhere with GenX.

Victor Davis Hanson on the Korea debacle

2006-10-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

V. D. Hanson always has a really interesting point of view on issues.

Here he goes again:

There are some things to remember about North Korea’s nuclear acquisition in the context of this wider war against Islamism. This week an Al-Qaeda operative boasted that he would take the war to the White House, with nuclear weapons if he could. And where would they come from?

Either North Korea or Iran most likely— the latter watching closely the international consequences, if any, that will follow from the supposed Korean detonation. The extremely low yield of the purported explosion is some ways is even more worrisome, if it indicates ongoing research toward a small (and miniaturized) weapon that would be terrorist-portable.

Read it all.

Via Instapundit.

The New Pamphleteers

2006-10-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

From Michael Totten comes a pretty interesting project, The New Pamphleteers.

Check it out.

An American Traitor

2006-09-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Looks pretty much like this. And when we catch him, I want the interogators to fill him full of sodium pentathol until he spills all his beans, and then when he's all used up and wrung like a dishrag, dispose of the mothereffer.

Geneva convention protections? Yeah, just like these guys. Back in the forties, during WWdeuce, German nazi-spies dressed up in American uniforms were pretty much shot when they were found out. Same should go for this guy. Scum.

How stuff is made

2006-09-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

From the National Association of Manufacturers comes this link with clips of how stuff is actually made. Pretty cool stuff. And I think the Discovery channel has a show on exactly this.

Hat tip Instapundit

"We told you so"

2006-09-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I don't think the Europeans had this in mind when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten came out with the Muhammed-cartoons.

Jyllands-Posten, on the other hand, couldn't be more on the mark:

"Here we go again. It's like deja vu...This is exactly the kind of self-censorship I and my newspaper have been warning against," said Flemming Rose, culture editor of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper, which met a storm of Muslim protest after publishing satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad last year.

He said bowing to fears of a violent Muslim reaction would only worsen the problem: "You play into the hands of the radicals. You are telling them: your tactics are working. This is a victory for the radicals. It's weakening the moderate Muslims who are our allies in this battle of ideas."

With the exceptions of a couple of countries over in Europe, I've come to expect nothing but cowardice from over yonder.

Hat tip Peaktalk

Where Porn and Art meets

2006-09-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting article in Slate called Dirty Pictures, about art-movie directors making explicit art-movies. The article itself is interesting, but the links in the article are NSFW.

The question: "Should Rumsfeld retire?"

2006-09-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

I think Redstate has the issue covered.

What is currently playing

2006-09-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of new additions to the music-collection, most notably The Sam Roberts Band. I heard these guys at ACL fest last weekend. Just about a fluke that I managed to catch them, but the discovery is definitely one I'm pretty happy about.

Also bought a record from What made Milwaukee famous, as well as a Saint Etienne compilation. All in all some good stuff.

Now, if I could only figure out where all the music I had stored on my computer went....

Lebanese rally against Hezb'allah

2006-09-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

From Gateway Pundit comes a nice post about ananti-Hezb'allah rally.

I wonder if the national media will pick this up? They seem to always know when some miscreants abroadd are burning American flags and effigies of the Pope.

hat tip insta-Glenn

Environmentalists' impact on poverty

2006-09-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Check out youtube for the trailer to Mine Your Own Business, a documentary about the environmental movement's negative impact on poverty reduction.

You can find more info at Mine Your Own Business' website.

The director states "[the movie] will make a lot of comfortable western people very uncomfortable indeed. It will show them the consequences of their blind faith in our new religion-the religion of environmentalism."

I'm going to have to disagree with him on that one: Comfortable westerners will ignore the movie, as it doesn't conform to most people's view or the accepted narrative.

Hat tip Austin Bay and Rocky Mountain News.

The Pope's speech

2006-09-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

So lately the Pope has caught a lot of flack for reading what a guy said a long time ago about Islam spreading nothing but violence.

Some said the Pope has already apologized. Jim Treacher has the real story. Pure comedic genius.

Just when you thought the internet couldn't get better

2006-09-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Hatemongers Quarterly comes along.

Via The Corner

ACL fest '06

2006-09-17T07:37:00.001-07:00

So I went to ACL yesterday, even though I had told myself I wouldn't go. I bought a two-day ticket for $70 from a scalper, and promptly went to check out the Shins. I'm not a huge fan, but I ended up being thoroughly impressed. Also saw a couple of songs from explosions in the sky and kings of leon, who tend to rock pretty hard. Also checked out the secret machines which were really impressive, and caught some of Calexico's set. Finished up with massive attack, which sounded pretty cool but at that time we were exhausted and decided to hop in barton springs (its free from 9-10pm: Spread the love).

The recent SIC findings

2006-09-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens takes the latest SIC findings regarding the Niger/Iraq/yellowcake controversy to task in this Weekly Standard article. I love Hitchens, if only for the fact that he was 100% for the removal of Saddam Hussein.

If you have time, you should also read a couple of pages of this report, which basically details the whole yellowcake-from-Niger issue in the president's state of the union address.

And lets not forget this CIA report on Iraq's nuclear weapons program. It supports the notion that Iraq would reconstiture its nuclear weapons program once UN sanctions were lifted.

The skinny? Joseph Wilson is a self-serving, self-aggrandizing chump.

Parking Perfection

2006-09-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Once in a while a beautiful little game comes along. This is no different.

Enjoy, droogies.

Hat tip Jonah G. at the corner.

The impending collapse of North Korea

2006-09-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

Browsing The Corner this morning, I came across a blurb regarding the current situation in/regarding North Korea. The blurb pointed to this article, which basically makes the argument that North Korea is on a converging path with capitalism. The money, you ask?

As is often the case, technology has played a prominent role in fomenting this change. In the USSR and other countries of the former Communist bloc, the constructed vision of the world was largely supplied by short-wave radios; in North Korea this alternative vision has manifested itself through videotape. VCRs were present in the North beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but initially could only be bought in hard-currency shops for a price beyond the reach of even relatively affluent North Koreans
....
As a result of the spread of such technology, South Korean actors and actresses are now well known in North Korea, and Pyongyang youth eagerly imitate their hairstyles and fashions. There have been reports of competition between them to see who is able to reproduce the fashions and mannerisms from recent South Korean shows with greater precision.15 There have even been a few North Korean students who have begun to dye their hair in the style fashionable in Seoul currently.16 South Korean polite forms of address, once anathema, are also becoming widespread in the North, replacing the older Communist forms of address.17 As was once the case in the USSR, the more affluent, better-educated, and younger sections of the population are quicker to adopt such outside influences. The youth from the best universities, and raised in well-connected families, are the ones who now sport the most eccentric haircuts and outfits straight out of the Seoul television shows.

Once MTV starts being streamed in, the heat is on.

Iraqi links to international terrorism

2006-09-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

So after all the brouhaha over ABC's "The path to 9/11" on the five-year anniversary of that day, I came across a post onPierre Legrand's Pink Flamingo Bar, where he lays out what he sees as connections between Iraq and international terrorism.

Draw your own conclusions. I'm just glad we got rid of the guy.

Update: hat tip Fausta's blog.

Reporting from the (now quiet?) warzone

2006-08-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

Michael Totten, citizen-journo extraordinaire, has another fine blog-post with pictures. Go check out War warps the mind a little. Then go hit the tip-jar. He isn't funded by a big news-org.

So you like the golf, eh?

2006-08-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

Chris Onstad (of Achewood "fame") extolls on growing up golfing, in the masterpiece A brief statement on the position that golf occupies in my life.

If you like that, check out Yeah, I bought the biggest one. It's nice.

Via Tim Blair

The People's Cube

2006-08-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Go check out The People's Cube. News-satire through a prism of communism.

Canuck firefight in the 'stan

2006-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Canucks getting it on in Afghanistan.

Back when I was in the service, I had the opportunity of training with the Canadian Princess Patricia's Light Infantry. Good dudes all.

Hat tip INDC.

Bloc Party last night

2006-08-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

I saw BlocParty for the first time at ACL fest last year, and they were really good (heat notwithstanding). This year it was about as hot, and the band had another incredible performance. The thirty bucks was definitely worth it.

Michael Totten

2006-08-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

Michael Totten is back in Tel Aviv.

Colin Powell quote

2006-08-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell's thoughts on America being "The Great Satan":

"F]ar from being the Great Satan, I would say that we are the Great Protector. We have sent men and women from the armed forces of the United States to other parts of the world throughout the past century to put down oppression. We defeated Fascism. We defeated Communism. We saved Europe in World War I and World War II. We were willing to do it, glad to do it. We went to Korea. We went to Vietnam. All in the interest of preserving the rights of people.
And when all those conflicts were over, what did we do? Did we stay and conquer? Did we say, "Okay, we defeated Germany. Now Germany belongs to us? We defeated Japan, so Japan belongs to us"? No. What did we do? We built them up. We gave them democratic systems which they have embraced totally to their soul. And did we ask for any land? No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. And that is the kind of nation we are."

Thanks to Urban Legends.

Band of Brothers on History channel

2006-08-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

So here I am, watching Band of Brothers on the History Channel, and who do I see? Jimmy mothergrabbin' Fallon in a bit part as a lieutenant delivering ammo during the Battle of the Bulge.

Wonders never seize....

The Hezballah propaganda war

2006-08-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Instapundit linked to this video with "green helmet guy". Apparently he's using dead children for Hezballah propaganda videos.

Via Instapundit, Yourish.

Not Just Land

2006-08-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting take on failed Middle Eastern states here.

"The world prayed that after the unilateral departure of Israel from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, and the recent elections in Beirut and the West Bank , it was witnessing an incremental evolution toward a lasting peace between rational democratic states. Gradually, Israel was returning to its 1967 borders. In response, gradually, it was hoped, Israel 's Arab neighbors would vote into office reasonable statesmen who would renounce terror and get on with the business of crafting workable economies and governments. But all that optimism presupposed a radical change in the Middle Eastern mentality. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened."

Update: A possible change in how the West views Arab grievances?

Hat tip to Protein Wisdom for update.

UN getting feisty

2006-07-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

"If you don't stop enriching uranium, we'll get really, really mad. And then we'll pass a resolution with really, really strong language. Don't make us get the heavy paperwork out..."

Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener

2006-07-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

He was a Canadian military officer, working for the UN.

He gave his life fighting for something I can only guess he believed strongly in.

Of course the international community was outraged.

Hezbollah using civilians as shields

2006-07-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

From The Ouwet Front comes a video showing a Hezbollah rocket battery hiding in what is supposedly a residence.

Will the world notice? Apparently not.....

Again, keep checking out Michael Totten for Lebanon-analyzes.

Courtesy of Michael Totten and The Ouwet Front.

MT's Middle East Journal

2006-07-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Michael Totten is back. And apparently, people really want him to write about the current Lebanese-Israeli conflict. I guess when you travel to another country/region you really love and write thoughtful and insightful posts, all on your own dime, that is to be expected.

Plan of Attack

2006-07-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack", about the lead-up to war in the Bush White House. Really interesting, I would definitely recommend it.

I'm also trying to finish up "John Adams" by David McCoullough. He also wrote "1776", a bestseller in the audio-book arena (if Porkchop and The RZA is to be believed).

Standing on the backs of giants

2006-07-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Bill Whittle from Eject!Eject!Eject! has an awesome post regarding society and civilization as we know it today. Go check out Web of Trust, apparently from a new book he's writing.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Tony Snow / Ron Burgundy?

2006-07-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

So I'm checking out Bill's INDCJournal, and what do I come across? A link to Tony Snow busting out with some mean jazz flute! The jazz flute bit coupled with his sparring with Helen Thomas during press briefings make me like this guy more and more.

Hat tip INDC, Vista

Beautiful Beirut revisited

2006-07-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Dammit, now I'll have to wait another 30 years...

Showdown at Protein Wisdom

2006-07-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out Jeff Goldstein's blog Protein Wisdom on Friday, and I was having problems pulling it up. You might not be able to pull up his page, since he's under a couple of DoS attacks (liberal free speech issues?) When I did manage to pull it up, I read a post about how a certain professor at U of A by the name of Debbie Frisch had posted some unsavory comments, and was also trading shots with some of Jeff's regulars (you can sample the comments here).

I remember noticing that Jeff had commented that when he was finished with Debbie, her name would become a blogospheric term (much like fisking, derived from the intrepid Robert Fisk). It seems he made true on his promise.

via Blackfive and Instapundit. And of course Protein Wisdom.

Beautiful Beirut

2006-05-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Mihcael Totten posts some beautiful pictures from Beirut here and here.

Like Porkchop said, I wanna go.

New Vetiver Album

2006-05-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Just bought it at End of an Ear, down on South First St (South Austin; they're there because they're not all there...).

Can't wait to put it into rotation, I'm a huge Vetiver fan.

Update: I forgot to add, I chatted with one of the owners, he said his partner owned the old 33 degrees store up in Hyde Park, but because of some friction with his partner at 33 deg. they closed up. By the way, I want to own a record store.

Some notes on Houston

2006-05-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

Check out "Houston, we don't have a problem for a unique take on what is by many considered a soul-less city. The money?

"Certain parts of Houston remind me of the laid-back streets of Austin, with its bohemian establishments and its heterogeneous assortment of buildings along the street. Yet Houston, by its large size and international significance, is far more ethnically mixed than Austin could ever be (which for all of its liberal pretense is probably the most segregated city in the state)."

A different description of the immigration issue

2006-05-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

From Chicagoboyz, a different description of the immigration issue.

Sun Tzu vs. Iran

2006-05-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

From Opfor blog, Sun Tzu vs. Iran, an optional engagement strategy for "the Iranian troubles".

Having read it, I'm most struck by the map of what could have been Kurdistan if Europe hadn't messed up drawing the lines back in the day.

Hat tip Instapundit

One day

2006-05-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

I remember talking to my buddy Porkchop about how we would love to one day be able to travel to the Middle East and visit Lebanon. After all, Beirut was once known as "The Paris of the Middle East".

Michael Totten posted this comment from a Lebanese blogger, and called it "How beautiful the Middle East...Could be". Indeed.

The curse is over!

2006-05-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, Finland wins the Eurovision song contest. Has Norway ever won, perchance you may ask? Why of course!

You can listen here.

Via Metafilter

Michael Totten in the ME

2006-05-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

Check out his latest post The other side of the Green Line, where he travels to Ramallah to speak with Palestinians about the current political situation.

Also check out The Palestinians of 1948 for a brief look at Palestinians living inside of Israel.

Hit Michael's tipjar to support his writing. He travels to the ME on his own dime and is only able to afford it by contributions.

The shift of American geopolitics

2006-05-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Wretchard points to an interesting Foreign Policy list in his post "The New World".

Wretchard's point is that the US has shifted focus eastward, away from the "Soviet menace" towards Near and Far Asia. In his commentary he also points to the Democrats' "Real Security" foreign policy agenda (available PDF download here), and juxtaposes the similarity between President Bush's current initiatives and the Democrats' agenda.

Foreign Policy list can be found here.

Mayoral elections in NOLA

2006-05-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

Check out Bayou Buzz and NOLA.com for the latest on that.

My money is on Landrieu, even though Nagin got the most votes leading up to the run-off.

Update: This is why I'm not a betting man. Good luck to Mayor Nagin.

The new Iraqi government

2006-05-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

This seems like good news.

Hat tip Instapundit

The other side of the story

2006-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

From Foreign Policy online, an excellent article on the lead-up to the Iraqi war, as seen from the Iraqi point of view: Saddam's Delusions.

This first excerpt concerns Saddam's Fedayeen:

"According to Saddam Fedayeen planning documents captured by the coalition, the mission of this militia was to protect Iraq "from any threats inside and outside." Meticulous Saddam Fedayeen records list numerous operations conducted in the decade after the militia's creation: "extermination operations" against saboteurs in Muthanna, an operation to "ambush and arrest" car thieves in Anbar, the monitoring of Shiite civilians at the holy places of Karbala, and a plan to bomb a humanitarian-aid outpost in Erbil, which the Iraqi secret police suspected of being a Western intelligence operation.

The Saddam Fedayeen also took part in the regime's domestic terrorism operations and planned for attacks throughout Europe and the Middle East. In a document dated May 1999, Saddam's older son, Uday, ordered preparations for "special operations, assassinations, and bombings, for the centers and traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled areas [Kurdistan]." Preparations for "Blessed July," a regime-directed wave of "martyrdom" operations against targets in the West, were well under way at the time of the coalition invasion."

Italics by me.

Another excerpt, concerning speculation on Saddam's plan for post-invasion insurgency operations:

"Much of the debate on the origins of the postwar insurgency in Iraq has centered on the question of whether Saddam's regime placed munitions around the country to support a future guerrilla war against an external foe. There is no significant documentary evidence to suggest it did so. Rather, what is clear is that the regime ordered the distribution of ammunition in order to preserve it for a prolonged war with coalition forces.

As far as can be determined from the interviews and records reviewed so far, there was no national plan to embark on a guerrilla war in the event of a military defeat. Nor did the regime appear to cobble together such a plan as its world crumbled around it. Buoyed by his earlier conviction that the Americans would never dare enter Baghdad, Saddam hoped to the very last minute that he could stay in power. And his military and civilian bureaucrats went through their daily routines until the very end."

And finally, a footnote from the article regarding upper-echelon regime members own beliefs about Iraq's WMD inventories and capabilities:

"[Footnote #1] For many months after the fall of Baghdad, a number of senior Iraqi officials in coalition custody continued to believe it possible that Iraq still possessed a WMD capability hidden away somewhere (although they adamantly insisted that they had no direct knowledge of WMD programs). Coalition interviewers discovered that this belief was based on the fact that Iraq had possessed and used WMD in the past and might need them again; on the plausibility of secret, compartmentalized WMD programs existing given how the Iraqi regime worked; and on the fact that so many Western governments believed such programs existed."

Draw your own conclusions.

Via Foreign Policy

Growing Pains

2006-05-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

It's alive!!!

Courtesy Metafilter

Give til it hurts

2006-05-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I just hit the tip-jar at Protein Wisdom, and I feel really good about it. I finally figured I was consuming so much online content that it was time to pay up. And what better way than to financially support blogs you read on a weekly (if not daily) basis?

Next up? Michael Totten and Wretchard. Give til it hurts.

Now if I can just get off my ass and give to NPR and PBS....

Tire commercial

2006-05-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

John Malkovich exorcises a car possessed by...? Naomi Campbell. I am not kidding.

You can see it here.

Courtesy of Metafilter and Ad-age.

A perspective on Che Guevara's legacy

2006-05-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

From the Belmont Club comes a post on Che Guevara and myth-making.

If you enjoy Wretchard's writing, I would definitely recommend hitting the tip-jar.

First we fought 'em....

2006-05-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

..And now we're training 'em. Pretty f'in cool. Give 'em hell, kid.

Courtesy WSTM.

USMC "For Country"

2006-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a recruiting video that appeared on TV and online for a while, I think it was called For Country.

Pretty motivational stuff. Leave it to the Marines to create an advertisement that pretty much says "we're sending you to war, and you know you want it".

Recruiting is up from a slight downtrend in FY05. More monetary incentives never hurt. I say good for the guys and gals joining up, because tuition is going nowhere but up.

Clip courtesy USMC and google video.

Senatorial voting-records on pork

2006-05-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Over at Porkbusters there is a scoring card on Senators' votes on three separate "porky" bills. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted to limit pork only once out of three times, and John Cornyn voted two out of three times to limit pork.

Tale of the tape? I think Kay Bailey is more interested in greasing political wheels in DC than she is in limiting government spending and looking out for the taxpayer. Unless she does something incredible from now until November I will be voting for anyone else that I believe might be able to save taxpayers.

Overall I think we need to clean house, so to speak. Republicans need to realize taxpayers are getting fed up with pork. When a republican congressman from Alaska wants to build a bridge to nowhere for a couple hundred million dollars, on land that belongs to either croonies or his own family, that disgusts me. Makes me embarrased to vote for a political party that has sold themselves as fiscal conservatives.

Porkbusters courtesy of Instapundit.

Iraqi Youth Soccer Team Is Smoking Hot in Dallas

2006-04-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Check out Gateway pundit: Iraqi Youth Soccer Team Is Smoking Hot in Dallas

Having spent some time playing soccer myself I love seeing stories like this.

So its finally done

2006-04-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

With my roomate Art's new TV, I finally bit the bullet and ordered digital cable with an HD package included. Final bill, including cable modem, came to about $130/month. I was paying $35 for just a cable modem connection, but I figure its worth it.

I've crossed to the dark side, snoochies!

A little right-wing Rocknroll

2006-04-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

From The Right Brothers, rocknroll for conservatives. I'm skeptical by nature, so I don't know if these guys are for real or if they're just playing a joke on red-staters.

You can check out their video here.

Courtesy of the NR Corner.

Saturday night live short

2006-03-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

Saw Natalie Portman's latest movie V for Vendetta, and it was entertaining. But not as entertaining as this digital short.

The Prez' spending woes?

2006-03-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

From Brothers Judd comes this gem, which puts the President's spending into perspective.

The Money:

At any rate, given that Ms Noonan believes, for some reason, that Ronald Reagan was a conservative and George W. Bush isn't, it's perhaps helpful to just compare the two: when Ronald Reagan left office in 1988 he was dunning us 18.1% of GDP to pay for a federal government that spent 21.2% of GDP. In 2004, the last year for which I could find numbers, George W. Bush had lowered our tax burden to 16.3% of GDP-- a level last reached in 1959--to pay for a government that spent 19.8 of GDP.

Hat-tip Instapundit.

The inequality of income

2006-03-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

Fromm CNNMoney comes this gem, a tender poke at the current leveling of income inequality.

The Money:

(The study) "shows modest but clear signs of incomes converging rather than diverging. Between 2001 and 2004 (the most recent year for which data are available), incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families increased while incomes of the richest 20 percent fell. Basically, the poorest families' share of total incomes grew, and the richest families' share shrank. Incomes became just a little less

unequal.

What could that trend reversal mean? The most obvious explanation seems highly counterintuitive: The skill premium, the extra value of higher education, must have declined after three decades of growing. The Fed researchers didn't pursue that line of thought, but economists Lawrence Mishel and Jared Bernstein at the Economic Policy Institute did, and they found supporting evidence in the new Economic Report of the President, issued within days of the new Fed survey. It cited Census Bureau data showing that the premium had indeed fallen sharply between 2000 and 2004. The real annual earnings of college graduates actually declined 5.2 percent, while those of high school graduates, strangely enough, rose 1.6 percent.

So if I'm reading behind (or between) the lines here I could make a strong assumption/hypothesis that the free market and our globalized economy did more to "converge" the income gap in a couple of years than all the social and educational programs combined in the last 30 years? That's fascinating, I can't wait for Krugmann to throw this idea out there in his NY Times column tomorrow!!

MSM addictions

2006-03-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

I think Mainstream media is addicted to talking about how bad Bush is polling.

I'm not kidding, I think I see one article every week on how "baaaaad" he's doing. It's like some blue-state journo loves throwing it in our faces, sneering at us, "look, you elected him, now everyone hates him! Thanks for nothing, republi-can't!!"

And MSM wonders why they lose circulation/viewers...No they don't. It's not that they're not as relevant, the reason is we're dumber, see? We just don't have the mental capacity we did back when uncle Walter fed us defeatism from Indochine.

You can check out Belmont Club any time you like

2006-03-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

Wretchard has a really good post on the idea of changing the perception of what is happening in Iraq in his post "You can check out any time you like".

There is too much goodness to quote from, so I'm not going to bother. I would recommend checking out pretty much everything he has posted in the last 48 hours. You know you want to.

Some great Sunday TV

2006-03-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't had cable for a couple of years, I've had "find the jewels in the wasteland", so to speak. This includes a brief hour of Frontline on PBS on Tuesdays, a solid hour of Cops on Saturdays, and Sunday nights dedicated to Family Guy and what has probably become my new favorite show, Free Ride (also on Fox).

HBO? That sh*&'s for the birds!

Hometown tradition

2006-03-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

In my hometown of Bergen in Norway, there are youth-organizations called "buekorps", or literally translated, "bow corps". The have a semi-militaristic bent, with heavy emphasis on marching with mock-rifles and playing snare-drums. I grew up about 20 minutes outside of town (which in Norway might as well be another country), so it wasn't really something that was part of our "local" upbringing. We were into soccer and sports, plus we had some prime nature in our literal backyard.

Carnival of the Capitalists

2006-03-10T04:37:00.000-08:00

Check out the carnival for some cool posts on everything from investment returns to the art of negotiation.

Hat tip Insta-Glenn.

The sign o' the times

2006-03-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

From ABC we learn of possible Iranian complicity in Iragi deployed IEDs.

And today Cheney and Madame Secretary Rice told Iran what's what and who's who.

We'll see if the the kid gets it.

This Charming Man

2006-03-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

From a 1982 promotional video for The Smith's "This Charming Man". Not to be confused with this charming man, Paul Gascoigne. "Gazza" was pretty much a legendary British baller, known for being a tough guy that would get into brawls on the field, similar to ice hockey enforcers.

Miracleworkers on ABC

2006-03-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

So ABC is launching a new show called Miracleworkers, and I'm wondering if we're seeing a new trend in America where media is waking up to the fact that socialist systems don't have a monopoly on compassion.

Could it be that in a country with as much disparity between "haves" and "have-nots" there exists within ordinary (and extraordinary) people a need to do good? That once people reach their professional zenith they want to reach for something higher? Something deeper? I love this country, and part of the reason is that "stupid" and "old" media companies like ABC can entertain me in a way that reaches so far into my soul that I want to cry. I knew I came to these shores for a reason. To become an American.

From the land of Howard Dean (no, not the DNC, the actual physical locale of VT)

2006-03-04T19:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this article from the NY Times, courtesy of NRO's the corner (yeah I know, the friggin' Times).

Are they really losing all their younguns, a la Europe? I've always heard VT is gorgeous. Could it be true that it sucks? Could it possibly be worse than West-Houston (or Katy, as the peeps call it)?

I'm asking Porkchop and T-bone. Porkchop knows a lot of shit, and T-bone is a bone-a-fide Houstonian.

On another note, if I pretend to dislike the regular media so much, why do I buy the Statesman on weekends (goes great with my eggs), and why do I link to Times articles to make a subliminal point about the alleged failure of Dean's homestate? More importantly, am I ever going to get laid?

Permalink

Viewpoint on Iraqi civil war

2006-03-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

Bill Roggio's The Fourth Rail looks at the possibility of Shiite v. Sunni violence might be fomented by Al-qaida.

An idea of what we're fighting:

Reuters reports an attack on a town outside of Baghdad called Al-Nahrawan, where 19 Shiites were killed, including “a six-year-old girl killed with a single bullet to her forehead.”

Savages.

Abortion ban in South Dakota

2006-03-03T16:49:00.000-08:00

Any thoughts on this? I don't know how I feel about that one. I'm listening to a Republican talk about when exceptions should be made, and he mentions a "deeply religious girl, saving herself from marriage".

I'm not a huge fan of late-term and partial birth abortions, but I think South Dakota lawmakers went a little too far on this one.

I guess this is being played up as a huge Supreme Court battle.

Newshour with Jim Lehrer

2006-03-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting here watching the newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, and David Brooks and another guy is discussing the recent negative polls on Bush. David Brooks is a pretty conservative guy, and his counterpart always has a fairly liberal slant. Do news-magazines think we don't hear enough about how much Bush is hated? "Hear ye Hear ye! America hates push, read all about it!" And some people wonder why the liberal radio station Air America can't make it in the market space...