The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler alerts me to the fact that Mark Steyn finally has all his writing at one convenient location. Hurrah.
# Posted 1:46 PM by Karol

Ted Nugent says America rocks and I believe him:

Having met tens of thousands of Americans in my music and hunting travels over the past 40 years, I'm buoyed and thankful that the American spirit still soars high on the wings of an eagle. From cops to priests to firemen to guitar players, the rugged, defiant American spirit that has built and nurtured America is alive, prospering and kicking. I remain convinced America is the land of hard working, caring, law abiding people who go about their daily lives trying to provide a better life for their families, which, in the final analysis, leads to a more vibrant America overall. Rush hour and traffic jams are beautiful things. They prove we rock.


America isn't at a social or political crossroads as some will try to tell us. Those who believe that would have told you 500 years ago that the earth was flat. Thirty years ago they would have been stoned on LSD, drooling and dancing naked at a Grateful Dead concert. My advice is to avoid these people. They will always gravitate towards the negative. Take it from an old, cocky rock 'n' roll guitar player whose God-given senses remain finely tuned: America's best days are in front of us.
# Posted 1:06 PM by Karol

Happy Thanksgiving.
# Posted 10:45 PM by Karol

I got ambitious the other day and played with the template of this site. To make a long story short, errors were made and I have had blogger issues ever since (at the moment it appears that my counters and my 'Home' button at the bottom of the page are the only things still hurting). I'm steadily getting it back to normal but if you experience any problems with my site (not ideological ones smartass) please let me know at the email address handily provided on the left side of your screen. Thanks, K

Update: I seem to have fixed most of the problems. My counter is being restarted at zero so come visit often so my ego doesn't suffer. Also, another unrelated problem I found was that some of the earlier posts on the page (such as George W. carrying cedar) say that there are no comments when indeed comments are there. I will try to fix this problem though I must admit that my reluctance to ever touch the HTML of this page again is great.
# Posted 1:55 PM by Karol

America an imperialist state? Not so, says Victor Davis Hanson. An excerpt:

Should the Greeks tell us to leave Crete — promises, promises — we would be more likely to count the money saved than the influence lost. Take away all our troops from Germany and polls would show relief, not anger, among Americans. Isolationism, parochialism, and self-absorption are far stronger in the American character than desire for overseas adventurism. Our critics may slur us for "overreaching," but our elites in the military and government worry that they have to coax a reluctant populace, not constrain a blood-drunk rabble......

America spends less of its GNP on defense than it did during the last five decades. And most of our military outlays go to training, salaries, and retirements — moneys that support, educate, and help people rather than simply stockpile weapons and hone killers. The eerie thing is not that we have 13 massive $5 billion carriers, but that we could easily produce and maintain 20 more.


I know I often say 'read the whole thing'. This time I really, really mean it. A must read.
# Posted 1:41 PM by Karol

Some pissed off Europeans coming up.....
# Posted 11:33 AM by Karol

Lileks on Jews. A very, very good read.
# Posted 11:30 AM by Karol

File under 'Give me a fucking break':

But Mr. Gore has a bone to pick with his critics: namely, he says, that a systematically orchestrated bias in the media makes it impossible for him and his fellow Democrats to get a fair shake.
# Posted 10:47 AM by Karol

I'm still having computer issues so for now here is a quick post of something from Friday's BOTW:

'The Same Mentality as bin Laden'

Ibrahim Hooper, who heads the Council on American Islamic Relations, says American evangelical Christians who've criticized Islam "have the same mentality as bin Laden." In an interview with radio host Steve Malzberg, Hooper accused Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham of trying to incite an "unending civilizational conflict." And there's more:


When Mr. Malzberg asked whether the Christian leaders would kill Muslims as bin Laden urges Muslims to kill Jews and Christians, Mr. Hooper said: "Given the right circumstance, these guys would do the same in the opposite direction."


Sure, and if pigs had wings, Islamic fanatics would fly them into buildings.
# Posted 2:28 PM by Karol

I've been having blogger/general computer problems today and it doesn't look like it will improve until Wednesday. Posting will be sporadic until my computer feels better.
# Posted 3:33 PM by Karol

A little over a year after the 9/11 attacks that 'changed everything', we have anti-war protests without there being a war, we're still discussing root causes and Islam still means peace. Mark Steyn puts it best:

You can't even identify your enemy without being accused of bigotry and intolerance. What we still can only guess at is the overlap between the ideology and the religion. It seems unlikely that many Muslims in, say, Newark or Calgary or Singapore would wish to be suicide bombers themselves, but what seems clear is that in these and other places there is -- to put it at its most delicate -- a widespread lack of revulsion at the things done in Islam's name. On the one hand, Muslims deny it's anything to do with them: A year ago, in The Ottawa Citizen's coast-to-coast survey of Canadian imams, all but two refused to accept Muslims had been involved in the September 11th attacks. On the other hand, even though it's nothing to do with them, they party: In Copenhagen as in Ramallah, Muslims cheered 9/11; in Keighley, Yorkshire, you couldn't get a taxi that night because the drivers were whooping it up.

This is the real war aim -- or it should be, if we're to have any chance of winning this thing: We have to change the hearts and minds of millions of Muslims, too many of whom are at best indifferent to great evil. "Changing" isn't the same as "winning the hearts and minds," which is multiculti codespeak for pre-emptively surrendering and agreeing not to disagree with them. For over a year now, nothing has been asked of Muslims, at home or abroad: you can be equivocal about bin Laden and an apologist for suicide bombers, and still get a photo-op with Dubya; you can be a member of a regime whose state TV stations and government-owned newspapers call for Muslims to kill all Jews and Christians, and you'll still get to kick your shoes off with George and Laura at the Crawford ranch.

This is not just wrong but self-defeating. As long as Dubya and Colin Powell and the rest are willing to prance around doing a month-long Islamic minstrel-show routine for the amusement of the A-list Arabs, Muslims will rightly see it for what it is: a sign of profound cultural weakness. Healthy relationships require at least some token reciprocity -- I said as much during the Monica business, and it never occurred to me the same problem would rear its ugly head during this Administration. But, hosting an iftaar (the end-of-day break-of-fast) for hundreds of head honchos from Muslim lobby groups, Colin Powell felt obliged to announce yet another burst of Islamic outreach. According to the Associated Press, he told his audience that "he is trying to expand programs to bring educators, journalists and political and religious leaders from Islamic countries to the United States."


As always with Mr.Steyn, the whole thing is a necessary read.
# Posted 3:28 PM by Karol

I am 32% Internet Addict

Take the Internet Addict Test at fuali.com


If I'm just a 'slight' internet addict then I don't even want to know what a full-blown one is like.
# Posted 10:29 AM by Karol

A few days ago, a commenter on this site wrote 'don't deny us the crumbs' in reference to Republicans controlling the Presidency, the Senate and the House while the Democrats have full ownership over their 'Bush is stupid' jokes. Fair enough, you can keep your jokes while we hold the government. Sound like a fair trade?

It's similar to the ridiculous nonsense voiced by Tom Daschle about talk radio in general (and Rush Limbaugh in particular), and the media's outrage over a letter written by Fox News president Roger Ailes to the White House just after the 9/11 attacks.

The Daschle story seems to be that over a week after the election a scapegoat has yet to be found for the Democrats losses. Let's see.....can't be the tv or print media because they are almost entirely liberal, can't be academia because they too have only a token number of conservatives, let's see....what do the conservatives have control over....I've got it! Talk radio! Rush Limbaugh must be the cause of our defeat. But how can I spin this to not make me appear like a sore loser? Hmmm....yes! I will say that I get threats for being an obstructionist (though it is one of my favorite words to lob at my opponents, I do not take kindly to it being lobbed at me) and the threats must, MUST, come from the listeners of talk radio. Now all of our news shows are filled with liberals whining about the lack of liberal voices on the radio. Sheesh.

The second issue, that Roger Ailes wrote a letter to the White House offering advice after 9/11 is similarly ludicrous. All of the sudden, the separation of press from politics must be deep, wide and all encompassing. As today's Opinion Journal points out: 'We can't recall hearing similar press outrage, for example, when Rick Kaplan, former head of Fox News rival CNN, slept over at the White House.' Again the issue at hand seems to be jealousy more than anything else. Fox is considered an upstart compared to the established CNN and still it is beating CNN in ratings, despite the fact that CNN is shown in more markets.

Liberals have the New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC and a slew of other newspapers and television stations across the country. Conservatives have the Wall Street Journal, Fox (which I would actually argue isn't more than 60% conservative but the shock of hearing anything conservative on tv makes it seem like 100%) and talk radio. C'mon guys, leave us the crumbs.
# Posted 9:56 AM by Karol

Britain's Mirror gleefully reported that 80% of Americans aged 18-24 can't identify Iraq on a map. That's great. Well, a little under 1/5th of Britons of all ages can't name their own leader so I don't think we're doing too badly by comparison.
# Posted 8:08 PM by Karol

N. Korea says 1994 nuke accord is off

Gee, ya think? I can't imagine why....

North Korea said Thursday that a 1994 nuclear agreement with the United States collapsed because of the U.S.-led decision to suspend fuel oil deliveries to the communist country.

Ohhhhhh that's why. And here I thought it was because North Korea decided to reneg on their promise not to develop nukes. Silly, silly me.
# Posted 3:09 PM by Karol

Do you know what is going on in Iran? Pandavox has been all over it while the mainstream media focuses on more important things (like when J-Lo and Ben are tying the knot). Go read. It's encouraging.
# Posted 2:40 PM by Karol

Well, as long as they're 'very much in love', I guess pulling out your girlfriends teeth with pliers while high on GHB is ok.

Via The Corner.
# Posted 12:57 PM by Karol

Donald Rumsfeld is one of the sexiest men alive, says People magazine.
# Posted 8:59 PM by Karol

It's not anti-semitism that caused 200 people to show up and interrupt the hugely dovish Ehud Barak speaking at Berkeley. No, of course not. It couldn't possibly be that. They just don't like all the concessions he tried to make for the Palestinians. Yes, that must be it. Phew. Glad I thought of an excuse.

Via BOTW.
# Posted 8:38 PM by Karol

Lileks has been my favorite daily read for awhile now and todays 'bleat' is exceptionally good. From the beachball at Wellstone's memorial to his hilarious comments on Michael Jackson, it has something for everyone.
# Posted 12:51 PM by Karol

Did you know that those 'desperate' Palestinians have kidnapped a Red Cross worker? Neither did I, but Michael Parker has the story and asks 'Why does anyone side with them?' I have no idea, Michael, though I'm sure the excuse makers will inform us.
# Posted 11:57 AM by Karol

Those crazy Brits:


I can't believe this.

I don't believe this.
# Posted 5:19 PM by Karol

What the hell is wrong with Michael Jackson? I mean, really.

Via Spot On reader Dawn Summers who no longer wants to marry the gloved one.
# Posted 4:43 PM by Karol

Take the Affliction Test Today!

# Posted 11:44 AM by Karol

More on what I see on that noisy, flashy box in my living room.

Why Donahue is being cancelled: Frank Gafney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense is explaining why we need to go into Iraq. He is paired with the more than just a little idiotic Arianna Huffington (and if I get even one email calling her a Republican, I will have to tell the emailer where to go). She calls the president 'simplistic'. Very original. He says that we have taken down the Taliban and now must go after other regimes that sponser terrorism. Donahue doesn't even pretend he is listening when Gafney starts speaking and gives the mic to an audience member (yes he is back in audience participation format as his last bit of CPR for his slowly dying show) who says 'well, I don't think we have taken down Al Qaeda or bin Laden...' (audience erupts into wild cheers), she continues, 'and that's why we're going into Iraq. And I have a problem with that.' More wild cheering ensues. Mr. Gafney then tries to explain that he said 'Taliban' and not 'Al Qaeda' but Donahue won't hear it and instead mocks the president for saying that we will win the war on terror, 'as if we'll have a parade down Fifth Avenue' says Donahue. Utter chaos and one-sidedness. And yes I do just watch it to piss myself off.
# Posted 8:23 PM by Karol

Memo to hijackers: El Al is not a possible target. They don't fuck around and in the best case scenario you will end up with your faced smashed into their lovely floor carpet wishing you had thought twice.
# Posted 12:09 AM by Karol

No way! The photos of Bush and the upside down book or closed binoculars were doctored! I can't believe this! If you can't trust the internet what can you trust?
# Posted 12:09 AM by Karol

How cool is murdering Jews? Oh so very. A prize winning art piece in Denver is a 4-foot-by-6-foot oil painting by Cong Lu, 24, depicting a young Asian man pulling up his shirt to reveal explosives strapped around his midsection. A pistol is tucked into his waistband. The piece is entitled, Self Portrait of a Martyr. As Lileks puts it: 'The main story, in my admittedly blinkered view, is that the school gave prize money and prominent placement to a painting that romanticizes the murder of Jews.'

Oh but let's not jump to conclusions, right? It's all just paranoia. It's self expression. We wouldn't want to stereotype the artist.
# Posted 12:04 AM by Karol

It has oft been mentioned by me that I am pretty new to having a television. Yes, yes I know, we Americans are supposedly addicted to our tv sets but I never was. I got most of my news from the internet (I now subscribe to two newspapers in paper form but it is a recent development) and really saw no need for tv. Two things changed my thinking: election 2000 and 9/11. On election night I had to take notes to make sense of what was happening. Florida, Gore. Florida, Bush. I wished then that I had tv commentators explaining to me what was happening. Then, 9/11, sitting on the floor of my new apartment hitting reload and wanting to know what was going on-I knew I needed to get the box. Now I appreciate it more than I thought. I know what our Vice President sounds like (I wouldn't have been able to pick out Gore's voice in an audio lineup for the life of me) and I get to see expressions attached to words that previously had none.

Anyway, two things on the boob tube tonight that I enjoyed:

1. Nancy Pelosi, incoming House minority leader, on Meet the Press. Tim Russert, the host, is questioning her on Iraq and she says she will always support whatever decision the president makes even if she may oppose it when she votes her conscience. Mr. Russert then quotes something she said a few months ago. She had said that we must ascertain how Iraq threatens the United States. She said today that what she meant was that though she was sure Saddam has biological and chemical weapons, she does not see him having the capability to get them to reach the U.S. Now, this got me thinking. If it was a Republican talking so callously of caring only when the threat is directed at us, not caring at all of our geographically closer to Saddam allies, there would be squeals of 'isolationist!' A Democrat though gets to be thought of as 'progressive' for their lack of caring.

2. Senior Bush advisor, Karl Rove, spoke to the University of Utah on Wednesday and CSPAN showed it tonight. I tuned into it during the Q+A at the end of the speech. A few questions in, a woman gets up in a 'NO WAR' t-shirt. She says that there are 200,000 people showing up to anti-war protests and she wants to know what she and others could do to get the President's ear. Rove is flawless in his answer. He advises her to write to her local elected officials, explains the threats from terrorism that our country is facing and why this war is necessary, says to her 'we need to see the world as it is, not how we would desire it to be' and ends by saying that while 200,000 people is a lot, his concern lies with the 3000 people that died on 9/11.


Just thought I'd share my discovery of the wonders of television with you, that's all.
# Posted 11:28 PM by Karol

I'm going to be in Washington D.C tomorrow so there will be no posting. Feel free to visit the comment sections.
# Posted 5:01 PM by Karol

Bluestar Blog says that his linking to this article was inspired by Spot On. I don't see a connection but it's a cute piece. Oh! Maybe that's what he meant....we're cute...the article is cute. I see now. Thanks Scot! :-)
# Posted 1:12 PM by Karol

Lileks on bin Laden:


Bin Laden needs to do something big, something bold. I think he should go to Cuba. Set himself up as Fidel's successor. Shouldn't be hard; they both have famous beards; they both hate America; they both hate gays - Osama would have them stoned, Fidel puts the AIDS-infected gays in barbed-wire camps. Give bin Laden ten years, and there will be NYT stories about how time has 'mellowed' him, how his 'fiery rhetoric' has been undimmed but his regime has 'relaxed' its grip. Give him 20 years, and Steven Spielberg will go lick his boots as well. Sure, Osama's a trifle intense, but you cannot deny the man's convictions. Or his charisma.


Welcome back, Binny! Keep talking. Keep talking about how your cause is bound up with an attack on Iraq - your timing could not be better.
# Posted 12:36 PM by Karol

There are libertarians in Scotland! Who knew?

Here's one. And here's another.
# Posted 11:44 AM by Karol

Is a Senate race lost by 524 votes deservant of a recount? Not if the Democrat won, silly. Then you won't even hear about it.
# Posted 11:36 AM by Karol

So my brother is writing a paper for college on the subject of political apathy. We're discussing it on my couch and I ask him: 'why do you think most people don't vote?' My brother, who is named after Ronald Reagan for cryin' out loud, says 'because it only matters to rich, white men?' I almost choke on my iced tea. I glare. He knows he has said something wrong but isn't sure what the problem is. I ask him why he thinks that. He tells me his Political Science teacher told him that and then says 'why, isn't that true?' with the most innocent, 'isn't it obvious?' expression I've ever seen. I give him 5 million reasons as to why its not true, why it matters more to poor black women and poor white men, but I don't think he's really listening and I'm angry that I have to even explain something like this. I know our colleges are cesspools of liberal moronology that hate this demon 'rich white man' but for my brother, the first natural born American in my family, taught the value of a voice by parents who never had one, a teenager of the Giuliani era where a visible difference was actually made by a politician, to think it doesn't matter who is in charge, that really frightens me and makes me sad. He isn't the kind of kid to be gullible, he puts up an argument, he isn't a follower. So what is going on here? What is wrong with this teacher? And what do I do about?
# Posted 12:12 AM by Karol

I have been loving David Frum lately and now that he is doing a blog-like diary for National Review, I can love him every day. I just read, in Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus, something classic that he said. As Jay puts it:

As usual, David Frum said something delicious, and irresistibly quotable. You recall that our forces zapped those guys in Yemen, and one of them turned out to be an American citizen. A lot of hand-wringers (as Bob Novak would say) said, “This raises some serious questions.” Said David, “Yeah, like: Who let this guy be a citizen?”

Exactly.
# Posted 6:23 PM by Karol

Jonah asks, quite rightly, why the approval of the UN resolution should be something to be happy about. He writes:

By pleading for U.N. approval, the no-blood-for-oil crowd increased the international trade in both blood and oil. In order to get the votes of Russia and China we had to give those countries a free pass at killing their Muslim Chechen and Uighur populations, respectively. We also had to promise the continuity of France's oil contracts, and of Russia's too. Whether these countries think we're right about toppling or containing Saddam is something of a mystery; what we do know is that they don't think our case is compelling enough to trump their own narrow self-interests. If it were, we wouldn't have had to spend the last couple of months haggling over what happens to Iraq's debt to Russia or France's oil contracts. Right? I mean, if the U.N. were half the thing it ought to be, our U.N. partners would have dropped those concerns the way Cincinnatus laid down his plow. And if the United States is as wrong and selfish as the anti-war crowd says, then the rest of the Security Council are just a bunch of whores willing to do the wrong thing if we pay them enough.
# Posted 5:58 PM by Karol

And another thing......

"If you are determined to become a complete Islamic radical and are ready to undergo circumcision, then I invite you to Moscow. We are multi-confessional. We have experts in this sphere as well. I will recommend to conduct the operation so that nothing on you will grow again."-President Vladimir Putin

I love this man. And it's not just his steely eyes.
# Posted 8:54 AM by Karol

Talk? I don't think so, says Putin

'Russian President Vladimir Putin has brushed aside European calls for a peaceful solution to the Chechen conflict, saying it had to be solved by the Russian and Chechen people alone.'

Thanks to 'Spot On' reader DTDT for the link.
# Posted 2:04 PM by Karol

Guy, what are you doing?

Just when you thought Mayor Bloomberg was winding down his campaign to get into the book of New York's worst mayors (trying for no smoking in bars, making meters active on Sundays), he gets his second wind and comes back with an act big enough to get him on the cover.

Now, you may have heard that last September New York had a little trouble of the planes flying into buildings variety. Though many people made excuses for the perpetrators, whether it be our overzealous support for Israel or our refusal to sign Kyoto, most people accepted the terrorists at their word when their leader said the point was to wipe out all infidels, ie: not Muslims.

Going on this information, you'd think that the natural choice for a spot on NYC's Human Rights Commission might not be someone that was General Counsel for CAIR, a group founded by people with links to Hamas and whose actions since 9/11 include questioning on their website 'Why have Muslim Arabs been implicated in this terrorism? And, who could ‘benefit’ from this horrific tragedy?' But see, if you agree with that then you are probably a logical person and if you disagree with that then you are probably Mayor Bloomberg who has appointed a member of the group to just such a post.
# Posted 1:30 PM by Karol

Uh-oh.
# Posted 12:25 AM by Karol

By far the most likely to be effective, scary campaign against drinking and driving I have seen.

Via The Corner.
# Posted 5:59 PM by Karol

Let's just keep pretending Al Qaeda has valid reasons for targetting us or else we may have to question why they would want to kill the pope. From BOTW:

Target: John Paul II
Al Qaeda planned to kill Pope John Paul II when he visited the Philippines, according to the Associated Press, which picks up a report from the Sunday Times of London (which no longer makes its articles available to most of us online). "Quoting documents from Philippines intelligence services, The Sunday Times said Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, planned on killing the pope with a pipe bomb planted in a park where John Paul was to speak, or if that failed, with high-velocity rifles equipped with laser scopes."


Is this because the Vatican is too pro-Israel, or because of the troops it stations in Saudi Arabia?
# Posted 5:33 PM by Karol

Why is it that when peace protesters do what they do best, as they did in Florence a few days ago, the shopkeepers board up their windows and police are afraid monuments will get vandalized? Isn't that weird for a so-called peace movement? Den Beste and Weekly James have more on the violent, anti-semitic movement that thinks it has anything to do with peace.
# Posted 4:14 PM by Karol

Today is Veteran's Day. Take two minutes and thank the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who secure your freedom every day.
# Posted 12:51 PM by Karol

Weren't you told not to do this as a child?

Via BOTW.
# Posted 12:04 AM by Karol

Larry Clark, director of the edgy flick 'Kids', risked his new films distribution in Britain by letting the Scotsman distributor understand, in no uncertain terms, that he wouldn't stand for his anti-American nonsense. Clark knocked his potential distributor out after he made comments that America deserved 9/11. While resorting to violence is never a good thing, it's nice to see a celebrity who not only doesn't think it's the coolest thing ever to bash America, but won't accept it happening in his company either.

Via No Replacement for Displacement.
# Posted 12:03 AM by Karol

I have heard of Linda Lingle, who just won the governership of Hawaii, only in the frame of the harassment she faced for being a -gasp- unmarried woman of a certain age. Her opponent's campaign alluded to the incorrect 'fact' that she may be a lesbian. As James Taranto wrote at the time: 'if they were Republicans, this would be hate speech.'

I was just reading Australian blogger Tim Blair's site and found out a very interesting thing about Ms. Lingle: she is the first Jewish female Republican governer in America. Best of luck to her.
# Posted 12:03 AM by Karol

It is done. We are all Multilateralists now.
# Posted 11:25 AM by Karol

If this was my party, I'd be pissed off.

Oh they just don't get it.

But instead of dumping McAuliffe, the Democratic rumor mill said some former Clinton White House aides like John Podesta might be recruited to bolster the DNC - strengthening rather than weakening Clinton's hold on the party apparatus.
# Posted 10:56 AM by Karol

What part of 'we will kill any terrorists we find' doesn't Adrian Hamilton, of Britain's Independent, understand? He writes this agonizing piece about America killing the known terrorist in Yemen and how it's so wrong to be judge, jury and executioner. What will it take for America to convince the world that WE ARE AT WAR. If you guys feel that you are not, that is YOUR issue. We will do what we have to do to survive. You can look on and tsk tsk but it isn't going to change a thing. Hamilton ends his piece with:

America under President George Bush has rejected such internationalism. It has turned its back on applying any of the normal rights given to a citizen within its own borders to those it counts as terrorists abroad.

Like Ariel Sharon, it believes that unlawful deeds exempt their perpetrators from the protection of the law, that in the "war against terror" any tactic is justified, whatever the "collateral" damage. If we say a man is a terrorist, then that is what he or she is. And if we get it wrong, that's simply a casualty of war.


Is anyone else proud that we are being compared to Israel in our efforts against terrorism? Israel is a country that 'gets it'. Most others, unfortunately, do not.
# Posted 12:07 AM by Karol

So I'm sitting on my friend SMFA's couch yesterday and he tells me a story about being in a cab home from work and the driver telling him about some people in New York having the Bubonic Plague. SMFA is not the friendliest person to strangers at the best of times and I am picturing him in the cab rolling his eyes and giving little 'mmhmms' while looking out the window and thinking 'pleeeeease leave me alone' and I'm giggling and he's laughing and then Laurie Dhue comes on the tv with a 'Special News Update' saying that there is a possible outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in New York. Um, what? Wasn't this disease taken care of a few hundred years ago? The doctors are positive the cases were 'of natural origin' but for some reason that doesn't make me feel much better.
# Posted 1:13 PM by Karol

Lest we forget, Jonah reminds us:

But — while gloating is only natural, and, of course, I would give anything to swivel and twirl around in an office chair singing, "…Nah, nah, nah nah, hey-ay-ay goodbye!" to Terry McAuliffe as he walks down that long, lonely cubicle-corridor at DNCHQ carrying his box of "McBride With Pride '02" coffee mugs and bumper stickers — there is still work to do......
George Bush has, at best, a year to topple Saddam Hussein and get some serious work done on the home front. For the last year Bush has been MIA on domestic policy, and if he doesn't get some big stuff accomplished, there's every reason to believe the GOP could lose the House, the Senate, and the presidency to Al Gore...
# Posted 12:29 PM by Karol

Is it wrong to think my president is a hottie?
# Posted 11:18 AM by Karol

I never thought I'd say these words but here goes: there is a really good piece in the Nation today. Written by David Corn, it runs through why the Democrats lost so big and the idea that 'regime change' is needed within the party. Corn writes:

Message matters. Bush had one: support me, the war, and tax cuts. That was pretty straightforward. The Democrats offered, we're not Bush and vote for us if you're anxious about the economy even though we don't have a comprehensive plan for dealing with it. Not much of a bumper sticker there. Besides, we're-not-Bush is not a great plan when the President is scoring approval ratings in the mid-60s. "Ultimately," Senator Patty Murray, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (who joined McAuliffe at the press conference), observed, "we could not compete with the bully pulpit and a wartime president." Now she tells us.

The problem with the left, or their problem that caused them to perform so poorly in this election anyway, is that they are so involved in their own opinions and ideas that they fail to see what is going on around them. Most left-wingers I know never read conservative news while most right-wingers I know read everything from the Village Voice to well, the Nation. Lefties believed that because they had not gotten over election 2000 that the rest of the country hadn't either. They always seem to think that their opinions are that of the majority.

Corn's issue is particularly with Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and his inability to understand the problems his party faces. Even after the election results were in, McAuliffe was in fantasyland saying that he had 'cost the Bush family a little money' and bragging that under his leadership the party 'spent three times as much as it ever has on midterm elections.' Someone needs to explain to ole Terry that these would be great talking points if his party had won.
# Posted 6:40 PM by Karol

James Taranto classifies this quote under 'Stupidity Watch' but I prefer to file it under 'Why you shouldn't use smack while writing'. From BOTW:

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an editorial in defense of Yaser Hamdi, the Baton Rouge, La.-born Saudi man captured as an enemy combatant in Afghanistan. "Hamdi's plight recalls the days of the Japanese internment camps--the shame of World War II," opines the Strib. "Back then, having the wrong ethnicity was enough to justify indefinite lockup. These days, it seems, being caught on the wrong battlefield is enough to scotch due process." You better believe it is.
# Posted 5:08 PM by Karol

For a first term president who didn't win a plurality to win in a mid-term election with a deeply troubled economy is, quite simply, an astonishing victory. I guess I'd been too busy telling others not to under-estimate Bush that I under-estimated him myself. Yes, local issues mattered. But the swing is too uniform to be interpreted solely by particulars. This was a vote for Bush, for prosecuting the war on terror, for the tax cut. More important, it was a vote against the hollow negativism, cowardice and mediocrity of the current Democratic Party. They have nothing to say; and that matters.-Andrew Sullivan.

I know that to hardcore Republican and Bush haters, this election will somehow not matter. They will find a state somewhere that disenfranchised three voters and say that the fix was in. To the rest of us, to watch the senate and governership results come in was too unreal for words. The most optimistic right-wingers thought that the Republicans would take both houses but surely by no more than one vote in the Senate. As for governer's races, you could nary find anyone that thought Republicans would do as well as they did.

Tom Daschle, leader of the Democrats, called this election a 'referendum on the war' and for once he and I agree. The public could not have spoken louder and if Bush does not act now, he will not be reelected in two years. He said that we will deal with Iraq with or without the UN and this is his chance to prove that. To anyone that said that Bush did not have a mandate to rule because of the closeness of the 2000 election, this is his mandate. This unbelievable victory is his hall pass. Americans knew what they were doing, knew what they were voting for and did it in droves. With a voice that clear it is near impossible for anyone to question the American peoples resolve or their loyalty to their president.
# Posted 3:24 PM by Karol

I am not gloating that my boyfriend voted mostly Republican and Libertarian. His explanation as to why he did (for the first time in his life) is excellent and should be read by all.
# Posted 11:00 AM by Karol

Ramesh Ponnuru on the New York Times shamelessness:

THE BEST THEY CAN DO
The New York Times on the election: "Our best hope, as this strange and messy year of decisions ends, is that the people who have won will always remember the large number of hands that were waving on the other side." No doubt they would have said the same thing after a clear Democratic victory.
# Posted 10:15 AM by Karol

Dan Rather asks on CBS: 'Is this the Bushification of America?' Let's have a look:

Jeb Bush, brother of President, wins.
Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State and scourge of the left during election 2000, wins.
Erskine Bowles, Clinton Chief of Staff, loses.
Janet Reno, Clinton Attorney General, not even close.

So yes Dan, I'd say we're all Bushified tonight, thanks for asking.

Feel free to add any missed Bush winners and Clinton losers in the comment section.
# Posted 11:07 PM by Karol

Happy Election Day.

You know what to do, right? It's really not hard (unless you live in Florida).

Any predictions? I think the Republicans are keeping the House (duh) and taking the Senate. I'm not particularly excited about them taking such a close Senate. Nothing will get done anyway because of the tightness in votes, and this way Republicans will get the undeserved blame. Still, I wouldn't mind us taking it just to gloat.....

If you live in New York and feel pretty confident that Pataki is going to win, I recommend a vote for Libertarian Scott Jeffrey. I myself will probably chicken out and not do it, unless I hear landslide numbers during the day, but don't let my inability to live with myself should McCall win influence you. The Libertarian party needs 50,000 votes to legitimize its presence in New York and make it easier for them to get candidates on the ballot. Jeffrey is for school choice, a position only the strongest of politicians dare touch (wouldn't want to upset the teachers' unions), and legalizing marijuana. Lastly, for you Brooklyn-ites reading: he went to Midwood High.
# Posted 12:13 AM by Karol

A balanced one, ok?

Stop what you are doing and go read David Frum's piece in Canada's National Post. He writes about a dispute, in which the U.S ultimately gave in, over Canadian travel rights to the States. He believes Canada was in the right but also discusses how Canada has gotten into the situation of not being trusted by the U.S. He writes:

In other words: the Americans have dropped the obnoxious procedures that reveal their mistrust of Canada's immigration and security procedures. But they have not ceased to feel mistrust.

And no wonder. On the very same day Graham announced his big diplomatic win, he informed the House foreign affairs committee that Canada would continue to permit the so-called political arm of Hezbollah to operate freely in Canada. He explained, "We don't believe it would be appropriate to label as terrorists innocent doctors, teachers and other people who are seeking to do charitable and other good works in their communities."

My first reaction to this statement was a kind of awe. How can anyone manage to be such a fool as that? OK, so maybe Graham doesn't listen to his intelligence briefings or look at the documents in his dispatch box. But does he not even read the newspapers? Is it possible to be the foreign minister of a country supposedly allied with the United States in the war on terror and not have the faintest understanding of how the world's second-deadliest terror organization does its murderous work?


He goes through the dispute over the travel restrictions and find fault with them, point by point. He writes:


I am sure that Canadian diplomats quietly raised these points a month ago. Nobody in Washington seems to have listened, because in Washington attention and respect are earned. What Jean Chrétien and Bill Graham have earned for Canada instead is suspicion and disregard.


Via Bluestarblog.
# Posted 12:03 AM by Karol

News from Bahrain is limited here, maybe because they don't have a coveted place in the axis of evil. Pandavox has some encouraging news from the country and also an interesting, but unrelated, post about Saddam 'coming out'.
# Posted 3:08 PM by Karol

Big welcome to readers of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler! It's an honor to be on Emperor Misha's blogroll and a pleasure to have you here.
# Posted 1:54 PM by Karol

Terrorism doesn't work, at least not in Russia:

'Mr Ivanov also said that previous plans to reduce the Russian military presence in Chechnya had been suspended.'

Via Cato the Youngest.
# Posted 9:58 AM by Karol

Oh that's gotta hurt:
New Zogby poll has Jeb Bush winning Florida by 15 points.
# Posted 9:41 AM by Karol

Jonah has one of his phenomenal pieces called 'Pigs, Jews & War', a must read in total. My favorite excerpt is below but again I stress reading the whole thing:

Jean Francois Revel wrote, "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself." Well, increasingly I can't help but think that the liberals of Europe and the leftists of America (there's still hope for our liberals) have lost the energy and the conviction to defend themselves. They cannot grasp that our enemies — especially those hailing from the Third World — cannot be reasoned with. It doesn't matter if we wronged them in the past. It doesn't matter if their historical grievances have weight. What matters, as a matter of pure survival and morality, is what they believe today and what they do because of those beliefs. Germany had any number of legitimate grievances about the Treaty of Versailles and its treatment at the hands of the victors in World War I. That doesn't justify Nazism.

I don't think the world's entire Muslim population is akin to Nazis. I'm sure the vast majority are decent and honorable human beings. But they have in their midst a band of fanatics and murderers and it is indecent, dishonorable, and just plain stupid for them to support these fanatics. And, it is folly of a cataclysmic scale for us to think that we're too good to do what's necessary to destroy the evil we face.

It's an interesting intellectual exercise — ask yourself what an imaginary enemy would have to believe and do for you to think that he couldn't be reasoned with, and that therefore you had to do everything you could to defeat him, without regrets, up to and including wrapping his body in pigskin.

Would he have to murder women and children? Would he have to be willing to give his own life in the process? Would he have to believe that it wouldn't merely be good to round up and murder whole categories of people, but that God actually commands him to do it? Perhaps, if you're of a more liberal bent, you might think he'd need to believe that women should remain subservient and second-class. He'd have to be racist in some major way, to be sure. And, of course, you'd want our imaginary fanatic to believe that free expression was forbidden and that censorship was the responsibility of any legitimate state.
# Posted 9:30 AM by Karol

A few of the blogs I visit have added the Russian flag, alongside the American, Australian and Israeli flags on their sites, in a show of solidarity to these countries against the Islamofascists who threaten them. My favorite post of the Russian flag comes from Silent Running and is below. The words mean: Pandora's box has been opened.



Yashchik Pandory Otkryti!

# Posted 12:07 AM by Karol

Lileks on Mondale.

A perfect dissection of the former veeps positions or lack thereof. I couldn't agree more with his opening paragraph:

I want to begin by making myself clear. If the Minnesota Republican Party nominated some Buchananite isolationist for Senate, some nativist throwback who promised to push for a Mandatory Pinafore Act for women and vowed to convert all roads to private ownership, I’d kick him to the curb like a rotten pumpkin. If the Dems tossed up some fire-eyed sweaty-naped Huey Long retread who vowed to break up the Tin Trust BUT was unswerving in his dedication to fighting Islamic terror, I’d pull the lever for the Ds. No question. We can argue about the marginal tax rates after we’ve ensured that our civilization survives.

I used to be a Republican because I admired the values of independence, self determination and small government over the values of collectivism and encouraged government expansion. I find now that I'm a Republican because it is the party of those who realize we are at war, know there is a threat to us, and seem to want to do something about it. If a Democrat ran on the issue of dealing with our threats while the Republican was against defeating those who seek to harm us, party would cease to matter to me and I would vote for he who sought to protect me.
# Posted 12:06 AM by Karol

Just a great shot, that's all


# Posted 1:36 PM by Karol

From BOTW:

And Al Gore Invented the Internet
"Tolerance toward other faiths and races is an Islamic 'invention,' said a leading Bahraini scholar yesterday, criticising the Western media which associates the 'religion of mercy' with death and terror," the Dubai-based Gulf News reports from Bahrain.

The Associated Press reports from Afghanistan that "several schools with female students were attacked outside Kabul last week, with rockets fired at two schools and assailants barging into another and burning equipment." We're betting the assailants weren't Christians or Jews.
# Posted 12:43 PM by Karol

Hamas threatens strikes in the US.

I'm sure they're just angry about us not ratifying Kyoto and also probably have some issue about the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Otherwise, you'd think that they'd be smart enough to figure out that the US is the only thing holding Israel back from ending the war with the Palestinians in any way it can. As Seinfeld said last night 'it's not easy fighting with people this stupid.' More on their stupidity here.
# Posted 12:33 PM by Karol

Do you all know how much I love Jerry Seinfeld? Though I'm not a big tv fan, I try to watch his show, Seinfeld, every time it's on. Now it's on 4 times a day on two channels (two of the times opposite itself) and it's getting a little hectic. I just saw him on Letterman though, and was reminded of his spot on observations and his fearlessness is saying what others are thinking. I think it was the first time I heard any celebrity, comedian or not, refer to the terrorists we are at war with as 'mental defects.' Susan Sarandon is probably writing a letter to CBS now, not only in defense of actual mental defectives but of course in defense of the terrorists whose root causes we can't possibly understand.
# Posted 12:16 AM by Karol

Gun control doesn't work in England and it won't work here either, says Reason magazine. Shocker.

In reality, the English approach has not reduced violent crime. Instead it has left law-abiding citizens at the mercy of criminals who are confident that their victims have neither the means nor the legal right to resist them. Imitating this model would be a public safety disaster for the United States.

Via Ulmann.


Socialized medicine doesn't work in Britain and it won't work here either, says me, based on the statistic that 10% of patients who enter Britain's hospitals end up 'suffering measurable harm,' an amount three times more than in the US but comparable with some other European countires.

Via The Corner.
# Posted 12:12 AM by Karol