WIRED magazine on why Special Forces had to land in person and not nail with a unmanned drone aircraft or just bomb the site from a distance.  The site is surrounded by all sorts of high-level Pakistani government / military sites, including their military academy, and drones or sloppy bombing could end up with worse problems than going in with a ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Is the controversy over building a mosque near ground zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery?

It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this controversy, now being used in various ways by grandstanding politicians? It looks to me like the ( Read more... )

America is not a “Christian” nation in the way we think of “Muslim” nations. If it were, birth certificates would automatically indicate “Christian” as the “faith of birth.” It would be illegal to convert to another faith. Jews, Native American religions, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons and atheists would be unwelcome. They would need to ( Read more... )

“When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race - out of every race. America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our ( Read more... )

I’m beginning to think that Dick Cheney and company can’t tell the difference between repeats of 24 and reality.  Of course, it’s coming to look a lot like he had the idea from the beginning that there had to be a pony at the bottom of that dungpile - er, that there  had to be a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam, and that nothing else made sense ( Read more... )

Some GIS professor thinks that by using his systems for tracking flora and fauna that he’s figured out where Osama bin Laden is.   I think it’s crap, but he might find the ghost of Marlon Perkins.

..of the Bush administration, a casualty of the war on terror, troubled and victimized soul that he is.

Guy in Florida decides to take out a billboard, showing the Twin Towers on fire and promoting his song “Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat” on it.  Photo of the billboard, some lyrics after the cut.

I’d take the stupid song apart with a cleaver, but after having to deal with that New Yorker cover, I want to Whack At Stupid all over the place with Mr ( Read more... )

Of course, I’m Mr. Provincial; I’ve only visited three countries in my life; the USA, Canada and China (when we went to get Meredith). And this hit other people far worse; my friend Adam, who lives in a suburb of Amsterdam, has been telling us for a long time about the crushing problem of being paid by his US freelance sites in US dollars and ( Read more... )