QandO

April 07, 2004

Blog Rolling
Posted by Jon Henke

* OxBlog....

As many of us know, 'Al Qaeda' means 'the base' or 'the foundation'. However, it does not just refer to physical objects, but also to concepts. Thus, the plural of Al Qaeda, 'Al Qawaid', means 'grammar'. Why? Because grammar is the foundations a language.

Now, it may just be a coincidence, but should we be surprised that George Bush is at war with grammar?

So far there appears no evidence whatsoever of the "tax cut for the rich" charge. Changing regulations have reduced the burden of each income quintile except that at the very top. From the standpoint of all federal taxes, 2001 represents increased income progressivity as compared with the previous decades.

* Wow....Barron's has one of the most damning - and authoritative - fact-checks of Paul Krugman I've ever seen.

* Steve Verdon, on the administration's "War on Porn"

Perhaps it is time for somebody to remind President Bush that 3,000 people died on September 11th, and that 3,000 people have not died watching Debbie Does Dallas.

Our soldiers are still fighting over there.

The least I can do to support our men and women and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan is to recommit myself to "pray without ceasing" for their safety, for wisdom, for success in completing their mission.

Please join me in fighting the spiritual battle. They need our prayers now more than ever.

* Henry Hanks reports that "Hans Blix isn't the only one making "at least the trains ran on time" statements".

* Moe Lane does a status check to make sure he's not dreaming, then...

I must therefore conclude, incredibly, that this Ted Rall blog post about Air America actually exists, regardless of the fact that it completely lacks frothing mad partisan attacks against the Right - indeed, Rall actually manages to type out 'Rush Limbaugh' without modifiers - and that it shows every sign of being written by a sane, fully sapient human being. I can only assume that this means that Ted Rall has been replaced by a pod person, a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers. To which I say, kudos to our Pod People visitors, and let me be the first to welcome you to the cool, green hills of Earth. You can convert Ann Coulter next, if you like.

No, really. Feel free.

Not that I've spent a great deal of time pondering the legacy of Kurt Cobain. It's kind of hard to claim someone as the voice of your generation when you could never understand what he was saying to begin with.

Surely you can see the genius now, right?

(full disclosure: I actually kinda liked Nirvana back when I could still tolerate music. That's all in the past now)

* Protein Wisdom...

Ted Kennedy calls Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam."

In other news, protein wisdom calls Ted Kennedy "John Kerry's Chappaquiddick."

So, let me see if I've got this straight...

Bush got us into Iraq. Iraq equals Vietnam. So I guess that would make Bush... John F. Kennedy!

But then, Ted also compares Bush to Richard Nixon, the President who got us out of Vietnam, due in part, at least, to political pressure caused by activists like... John Kerry.

So Ted says Bush is like Ted's brother, JFK, which is bad, because he got us into Vietnam. But he's also like Richard Nixon, which is also bad, even though he got us out of Vietnam. So Ted says we should vote for JFK 2.0, who by the way served in Vietnam, which is good, because he will get us out of Bush's Vietnam, which is also good.

My head hurts.

Marshall was one of the leading liberal voices that brought down Trent Lott a couple years back. Nevertheless, he hasn't managed to say a word about Chris Dodd, who did the exact same thing that Lott did. Preston wants to know why.

Here's why: Marshall has never deserved his (inexplicable) reputation as a "reasonable liberal." He's an unabashed and unprincipled partisan. His outrage at Lott was never motivated by true moral outrage at Lott's comments. It was motivated by true moral outrage at the (R) after Lott's name.

We should send troops into Fallujah and Ramadi to take any man, woman or child even suspected of resistance and simply shoot them in the street.
...
There are several villages in the Sunni Triangle that we'd do well to drop nerve gas on.

* Everybody point and laugh at the funny John Kerry picture.

* Blackfive...

I am not trying to say that Fallujah or Samarra are problem-free, but that the left-wing is trying to turn Iraq into Vietnam more than the Iraqis are...

PETA is an acronym that stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but, when wrapped around sliced roasted lamb, they're called GYRO, but I don't know what that stands for.
...
They claimed that Jesus was a vegetarian even though in the seventh station of the cross Jesus pauses to enjoy a hamburger.

This is a classic Realist argument and one I might have been sympathetic to under different circumstances. Indeed, had our stated objective merely been regime change with no talk of creating a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, this may well have been the course to take—a relatively quick strike to take out the enemy and then move on to objectives elsewhere in the war on terrorists. That wasn’t the case, however, and leaving the place in chaos would be a collosal failure. It would also send a signal that democratization in the Middle East, something clearly in our interest—to say nothing of the interest of the citizenry—is unachievable.

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