Chris At Home

Robert C. Miller Jr. was the husband of Mitoko Miller.

Born on Feb. 21, 1946, in East Stroudsburg, he was the son of the late Robert C. and Ethel (Smickle) Miller of Belvidere, N.J.
A former resident of Belvidere, N.J., he graduated from Belvidere High School. He also graduated from Ohio State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.
He worked for Aon Corporation at Two World Trade Center as a vice president in the Marine Department. He also was an executive committee member of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, he served in U.S. Army Intelligence as a lieutenant, and received a Bronze Star.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Lisa of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., and Machi Iwaki of Hackensack, N.J.; two brothers, James R. Miller of Belvidere, N.J., and Terry Miller of East Stroudsburg; two nephews; one niece; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at United Presbyterian Church, Belvidere, N.J.
Memorial donations may be made in Robert's name to the Sept. 11, 2001 Commemorated Scholarship Fund, with checks made payable to Soka University, 1 University Drive, Alisa Viejo, CA 92656

Robert C. Miller was murdered impersonally. His killers did not know him, had never heard his name and would not have recognized him on the street. They killed him simply because their strategy demanded death. They saw his death as a number, a statistic, a way to advance their cause.

Robert was a war hero.
Robert was a husband.
Robert was a father.
Robert was a successful man nearing retirement.

He had friends and acquaintances and plans and dreams and problems and to-do lists, like you do. He went to sleep, he had meetings, he kissed his wife, he ate lunch, he brushed his teeth, like you do. He was human, someone you might see walking down the street.

His wife was left a widow and his children left without a father on September 11th.

Lives are not statistics or number or facts. This man died because the terrorists did not recognize the humanity of Robert or the other victims. They did not care about his wife, his kids, his friends, or the hole that would be created in so many lives by the death of one man. When you think of 9/11 remember the humanity of each victim. Remember the relationships broken, the pain inflicted on so many by heartless fanatics. Remember that we can not treat death as cavalierly as our foes.

There is nothing I can write that will do justice to Robert's life or death. My only point is to remind you of the trauma and loss of that day in New York. My condolences to all of Robert's friends and family.

For those of you living under repressive regimes (i.e., China, most of the Middle East, those with real jobs), here is something for you:

Try it: http://www.phpproxy.com/

What is PHProxy?
PHProxy is a web HTTP (for now; FTP is not supprted yet) proxy programmed in PHP designed to bypass firewalls and other proxy restrictions through a web interface very similar to the popular CGIProxy. School/country/company blocked your favorite website? Look no further!

The server that this script runs on simply acts as a medium that retrives resources for you. The only IP address shown will be the server's IP address. So basically, it is indirect browsing. The only catch being that the server has to have access to those otherwise inaccessible resources.

Or even better, get a buddy with a server install the script for you so those IT guys can't just block the above site.

I can't access some US sites from the Phils...such as the GOP.

You guys are all asleep so you won't notice I am late today.

• Fox news crew expected to be released earlier, still captive. And they were forced to convert to Islam.
  

  They were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading a statement which Fox said was an announcement that they had converted to Islam. At times in the video they were wearing long Muslim robes.
  
  Wiig called on leaders of the West to stop "hiding behind the 'I don't negotiate with terrorists' myth." He then read some words in Arabic.
  
  "The issue of the two kidnapped journalists is on the way to being resolved," Seyam told Reuters. "Efforts are under way with several parties to secure their release within the coming hours."

  
  Update: Good news: they have been released.
  

  The two Fox News journalists kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 14 were released Sunday afternoon.

  
  
• Israel returns media attacks Israel accidently strikes reporter's SUV. The fact that a Reuters reporter was inside was conincidental.
  

  Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.
  
  The Israeli army said it did not realize the car's passengers were journalists and only attacked because the vehicle was driving in a suspicious manner near Israeli troops in the middle of a combat zone.

  
  
• Egypt says Israel is negotiating a prisoner swap. They could have had that deal without the defeat in Lebanon.
  

  The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram said Sunday morning that according to high-ranking Egyptian sources, an exchange deal is set to take place between Israel and Hizbullah within the next two or three weeks, Israel Radio reported.
  
  The first stage of the agreement would be the release of the two soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last month, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the report said.
  
  The next stage, the sources said, would be Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners a day or two after the soldiers are returned.

  
  
• A rather bad editorial in the JPost argues that American Jews might drop support for Israel because the Israeli image as a winner has been tarnished, Americans don't like losers. I think it is a wrong-headed opinion.
  

  Americans like victims, but they don't tend to have much affection for losers. Even more to the point, as much as it is a truism that Israeli triumphs have boasted the self-esteem of Diaspora Jews, be they Zionist or non-Zionist (think of the impact of the Six-Day War on the birth of the Soviet Jewry movement, both in Russia and the United States), so, too, have public-relations debacles for Israel diminished Jewish support.
  
  While some of us react to the notion of Israel as the bad guy - be it as winner or loser - with anger and resentment, others respond by internalizing the criticism and wrongly turning our anger on the Israelis rather than their critics. If there has been any group in the United States among whom support for Israel has diminished during the course of more than two decades of media Israel-bashing, it is the Jews - not our non-Jewish neighbors.
  
  Seen in this light, defeat is not likely to increase the quotient of Diaspora identification with Israe

  
  
• Head to Iraq, it is good for your lifespan:
  

  Between March 21, 2003, when the first military death was recorded in Iraq, and March 31, 2006, there were 2,321 deaths among American troops in Iraq. Seventy-nine percent were a result of action by hostile forces. Troops spent a total of 592,002 "person-years" in Iraq during this period. The ratio of deaths to person-years, .00392, or 3.92 deaths per 1,000 person-years, is the death rate of military personnel in Iraq.
  
  How does this rate compare with that in other groups? One meaningful comparison is to the civilian population of the United States. That rate was 8.42 per 1,000 in 2003, more than twice that for military personnel in Iraq.

  
  After allowing for age and gender, the death rate in the US is lower, of course. However, black military-age males in Philadelphia do have a higher death rate than soldiers in Iraq. Philly is a quagmire! Get the black guys out!
  

  Nevertheless, all attempts we have made to reconcile the two systems reach the same conclusion: Hispanics have a death risk about 20 percent higher than non-Hispanics, and blacks have a death risk about 30 to 40 percent lower than that of non-blacks.

  
  
• A serious load of BS from Iran: Nasr-Allah is the Victory of Allah...Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbullah, as forecast in the Koran. Except it is not in the Koran. Isn't it a beheading offense to fake quotes in Islam?
  
  
• Krauthammer explains all. I think he is right.
  

  Realistically speaking, the point of this multilateral exercise cannot be to stop Iran's nuclear program by diplomacy. That has always been a fantasy. It will take military means. There would be terrible consequences from an attack. These must be weighed against the terrible consequences of allowing an openly apocalyptic Iranian leadership to acquire weapons of genocide.
  
  The point of the current elaborate exercise in multilateral diplomacy is to slightly alter that future calculation. By demonstrating extraordinary forbearance and accommodation, perhaps we will have purchased the acquiescence of our closest allies -- Britain, Germany and, yes, France -- to a military strike on that fateful day when diplomacy has run its course.

  
  
• Destroying the myth of a peaceful Iranian nuclear program:
  

  Iran does not have any working nuclear power plant and thus has no immediate need of enriched uranium even as fuel. The only Iranian nuclear power plant under construction in Hellieh on the Bushehr Peninsula is not scheduled to come on stream before next spring. And, when it does, it will have enough fuel for the first 10 years of its operation. Russia, which is building the station, has offered to provide all the needed fuel for its entire lifespan of 37 years.
  
  To sum up: Iran does not need any enriched uranium at least until next March. After next March, it would still need not produce any enriched uranium until the year 2017. Even after 2017, Iran would still have no need of domestic uranium enrichment for the Hellieh plant until 2044.
  
  Iran's plutonium project is even more interesting. Not only does the country not have any heavy water power plants that might need plutonium, it has no plans to build any either. In other words, Iran is spending cast sums of money on a project for which it has no obvious use. Unless, of course, the plutonium in question, as the enriched uranium discussed above, is meant for purposes other than producing electricity.

  
  
• Some think Iran is working on a megaton hydrogen bomb.
  
  
• UN won't stop the re-arming of Hezbullah. So much for Resolution 1701....
  

  United Nations peacekeepers will not be stationed along the Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah except at Beirut's request, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Friday during the press conference at which the European Union announced it would contribute around 7,000 soldiers to the multinational force in South Lebanon.
  
  According to Annan, Resolution 1701 does not require deploying the UN force to the border, unless the Lebanese government explicitly requests its help. Lebanon's interior minister declared yesterday that the Lebanese Army alone would patrol the border, but it could accept "technical assistance from UNIFIL."
  
  Annan's announcement followed Syrian threats last week that it would view UN troop deployment as "a hostile act" and seal the border with Lebanon, which is likely to have grave economic consequences for Lebanon. Israel continues to demand UNIFIL's deployment along the border, to cut off arms shipments from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem said yesterday that Israel would not lift the air blockade on Lebanon unless UNIFIL troops were deployed to monitor its borders.

  
  
• Gazans are nuts:
  

  In May, a 59-year-old man suffering from heart failure was brought into the Khan Yunis hospital’s emergency room. When informed of the man’s death, his family “went crazy and trashed the emergency room…. Anyone wearing a white coat was beaten,” said Dr. Nasser Azaar, the emergency room director.
  Three months later, Azaar remains shocked by the fact that several local doctors related to the man participated in the frenzied destruction.

  
  Read other examples.
  
  
• UNIFIL spies for Hezbullah:
  

  UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.
  
  Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.

  
  
• Fascism and loss of freedom....in Belgium.
  

  Take Belgian Socialists, Flemish or Walloon. The hallmark of nearly every European socialist party has long been hostility to religion. In recent years, Belgium's ruling Socialist-Liberal coalition has antagonized Catholics by legalizing gay marriage and euthanasia, banning crucifixes from government buildings, and abolishing the traditional Te Deum service previously held by the government to commemorate the inauguration of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians.
  
  But then the Socialists began taking note of Belgium's Muslim community, some 500,000 strong. In Brussels, notes Joël Rubinfeld of the Atlantis Institute think tank, half of the Socialist Party's 26-member slate in the city's 75-seat parliament is Muslim. In the commune of Molenbeek, longstanding Socialist mayor Philippe Moureaux has made halal meals standard in all schools; police officers are also barred from eating or drinking on the streets during Ramadan. The Socialist Party was also, improbably, the leading opponent of a bill that would have criminalized the denial of the Armenian genocide. This, too, is a product of burgeoning Muslim-Socialist alliance, as is the party's routine denunciations of Israel.

  
  
• What the Senate would look like if the Dems win control in 2006. It ain't pretty.
  

  Alcee finally appears in paragraph sixteen:
  
  

  Other positions are more problematic. At the Intelligence Committee, Representative Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, who was removed from the federal bench in the 1980’s, is in line to take over, although that decision would be the responsibility of Ms. Pelosi and could prove explosive.

  
  "Removed from the federal bench"? He was impeached by the House for corruption and perjury and "became only the sixth Judge in the history of impeachment in the United States to be removed from office by the United States Senate." However, the good people of the great state of Florida have sent him to Washington, so here we are.

  
  Corruption, perjury, Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Any question on who you should vote for?
  
  
• An interesting article which describes the media as the real Democratic party, or at least a 527 interest group which provides support for Democrats.
  

  The first ground truth is that the liberal media, not the Democrats, are the party standing in opposition to the Republicans. The Democrats ran out of ideas the night Bobby Kennedy died, and since then the media have become the primary source of Democrat ideas and policy.
  
  The second truth is that the media are more than just the Dems' think tank. In fact, some of the biggest media outlets are the source of thinly veiled attack ads aimed at your candidates just like the so-called "527 Groups," those huge soft-money peddlers supposedly independent of the candidates they support. Think of what George Soros could do if he had a global news network that could produce multi-million dollar attack ads every day, and then you'll know what some mainstream media outlets have become. Rightly or wrongly, given their history with CBS, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and lately, AP, some conservatives classify them among the worst offenders.
  ...
  Americans knew they'd heard something important last year when Washington Post editor Marie Arana said, "The elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness ... If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I've been in communal gatherings at the Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democratic candidates." Tell America that it's a media culture, not a conspiracy.

  
  I don't like to believe the media is intentionally biased and I wait for them to realize they have gone off track and stop being an unbiased information converyor. Yet, the longer I wait, the worse and more obviously partisan it becomes. Can you imagine the red "X" put over any VPs face before Cheney? Can you imagine the media using clownish photographs of any President before Bush in serious news stories? Sure, openly partisan newspapers in the 19th century went further...but the key words are "openly partisan."
  

Heh:

(2006-08-26) — Just hours after Iran opened a new plant capable of making plutonium “for peaceful purposes”, U.S. President George Bush assured his Iranian counterpart that any B-2 bombers that appear over Tehran in the near future would also serve peaceful purposes.
...
“There’s nothing like the B-2 when it comes to giving peace a chance,” Mr. Bush added.

This one too. Scott has his groove back.

And Russell Shaw is back. You might remember his as the guy who hoped for another terror attack in the US to allow the Democrates to win the midterm elections. He is friggin' nuts.

From my emailer Craig, who spends some time on iffy sites... Thanks!!

Mickey Mouse is still angry. I overheard the words "sniper rifle", "Astronomical Union" and "this shall not stand." Pluto has not made a public statement at this time.

• Did you know it is difficult to buy a friggin' domain name with a US credit card while living outside the US? It is. Very. I might have a cavity, I need to go to the dentist. My wife bought a new pair of shorts yesterday. Blue denim. Did you see CSI last night? OMG!!! Boxers. I feel like chicken for dinner tonight.
  
  This post brought to you by the BBC. Because, you know, bloggers are all about personal diaries.
  
  
• A warning to Israel: learn how to fight groups like Hezbullah now, before Iran is the opponent. Propanda and public perceptions matter.
  

  On the Lebanese scene, through the careful manipulation of evidence, the theater of war has turned into a crime scene. Every action that Israel takes in Lebanon - with its densely populated villages that Israel must operate in because that's the only way that we can uproot the terrorists in them - creates an opportunity for the other side to use public diplomacy with global ramifications. Thus, instead of the war being about Israel's right of self-defense, Hizballah was able to turn it around so that the issue on the international agenda became Israel's destruction of Lebanon and Israel as the cause of world instability. The victim becomes the criminal.
  
  For example, Nasrallah ordered his men to remove their uniforms and blend in and continue to fight from within the civilian population. In this way, when Israel attacks Hizballah, the scene is one of Israel moving against what appears to be civilians, even though rockets fired from these villages are striking Israel. Attacks on what looks like civilian targets can then be called "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes." In addition, by blending in with civilians, it's easier to fight the Israelis who exercise self-restraint when fighting near civilians.
  ...
  Lebanon is a testing ground - like Spain in 1936 - for weapons, tactics, and doctrine of how Iran is going to fight the war when it comes to confront the West. We have to alert people not only to the fact that there are 13,000 missiles threatening Israel's very existence, but that these missiles do not belong to a terrorist organization - this is a front-line position of Iran. Not surprisingly, the head of Hizballah, Hassan Nasrallah, reportedly found refuge in the Iranian embassy in Beirut when his underground headquarters came under Israel Air Force bombardment.

  
  
• Israelis want new leaders:
  

  A poll published on Friday in the Yedioth Ahrnonoth daily shows that 63 percent of Israelis feel that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed in managing the war in Lebanon and should resign.
  
  Only 29 percent believe the prime minister is fit to continue leading the country.
  
  About 74 percent of those polled said Defense Minister Amir Peretz mishandled the war and should resign his post. A mere 20 percent said Peretz should keep his post.
  
  Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz faired slightly better than his superiors with 54 percent saying he should resign over the army's failure to knockout Hizbullah, while 38 percent said he should keep his post.
  
  Asked if Olmert and Netanyahu were the only two contestants in the election race, 45 percent said they'd vote for the latter and 24 percent for the former.
  
  The poll showed that if elections were held today Netanyahu would earn the support of 22 percent of voters, followed by Avigdor Lieberman with 18 percent and Shimon Peres with 12 percent
  

  
  
• The State Department, using UN data, is investigating Israel's use of cluster bombs and whether they were used in ways that break an agreement with the US. State Department and the UN. Ugh.
  

  It is generally accepted conventional wisdom that cluster munitions are acceptable area munitions against area targets such as troop and enemy vehicle or supply concentrations and certain kinds of entrenched positions. They are recognized as being dangerous to use in areas where civilians may fall victim to the immediate widespread blast pattern, or may return to encounter unexploded submunitions before engineering units can dispose of them. It is also not advisable to use cluster munitions in areas where you expect that your own troops may advance, as these same submunitions could cause casualties to friendly troops.

  
  Israel won't get its new submarines until at least 2010. Germany denies they will be used for nuclear missiles.
  
  
• Kofi is going to Iran and Syria to talk about a peace plan for Lebanon. Israel is not on his list of destinations.
  
  Meanwhile, Iran now has P-2 centrifuges which will speed up uranium enrichment significantly.
  

  "According to the information obtained by the Iranian Resistance at least 15 P-2 centrifuges have been assembled so far and are being tested," Mohammad Mohaddessin, director of international relations for the NCRI, told a news conference.
  
  "Our intelligence shows that in the next year they would have hundreds of P-2 centrifuges," he added.

  
  
• OpinionJournal looks at the status of missile defense systems.
  

  In his 1983 "Star Wars" speech, Ronald Reagan famously asked, "What if free people could live secure in the knowledge . . . that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil?"
  
  Fast forward to this summer. On July 4 North Korea test-fired a long-range ballistic missile believed capable of reaching the continental U.S. The launch was a flop--the Taepodong 2 fizzled before it got off the ground--but to echo Reagan's question, what if? What would have happened if Pyongyang's missile had been heading toward Los Angeles? Could we have shot it down? "I'm confident that we could have," states Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency. "If that missile had proceeded to threaten Hawaii or the continental United States, then we would have had the ability to shoot it down. I'm confident the system would have worked."

  
  
• Russia says no sanctions against Iran. US may go it alone.
  

  With increasing signs that several fellow Security Council members may stall a US push to sanction Iran for its nuclear enrichment program, administration officials indicated yesterday they are prepared to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade.
  
  The strategy, analysts say, reflects not only longstanding US frustration with the Security Council's inaction on Iran, but also the current weakness of Washington's position because of its controversial role in a series of conflicts in the Middle East, most recently in Lebanon.
  
  Despite assurances from Russia and China in July that they would support initial sanctions against Iran if it failed to suspend aspects of its nuclear program, Russia seemed to backtrack this week after Tehran agreed to continue talks, but refused to halt enrichment. A Security Council resolution gives the Islamic republic until Aug. 31 to stop uranium enrichment or face penalties.

  
  
• A quality attack on the UN and advocating for our withdrawal from the organization:
  

  The United Nations is not a serious place. It is a place where people pretend. It is a place where people pretend to address the serious issues of the day when they have no desire to do so nor seriously engage any process that would begin to solve them. It is a place where people pretend that what they do or say matters one whit to the gimlet eyed thugs whose murderous designs on the rest of humanity are downplayed and even rationalized. And it is a place where people pretend that all of this is so despite knowing full well that it is not.
  
  Adults do not pretend. Adults deal with the world as it is not as they would like it to be. In this, the UN then has become a playground, a fantasyland for childish notions of “peace” and “stability.” It has become the number one enabler of genocidal maniacs, brutish aggressors, and fanatics with an eye on Armageddon. And since the consequences of facing down the evil is too painful, they pretend the evil doesn’t exist.
  ...
  We have reached a point where the UN no longer serves the interest of the United States in any meaningful way – at least not in any way that we would miss. If others wish to continue to play pretend with the fate of the planet, let them. For our part, we should withdraw from the United Nations unless and until they reform themselves so that they can seriously address the problems that now threaten our civilization.

  
  
• Terrorism is no worse peanut butter...don't worry about it! Of course, if you are allergic to peanut butter, you can choose not to eat it. Terrorists don't ask first.
  
  
• The Iranians now have a heavy water plant.
  

  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the heavy-water plant, which Tehran says will be used for peaceful purposes. But the United States and European allies fear the heavy-water production also could eventually be used to produce plutonium for a nuclear bomb.

  
  
• Norway: still plotting to take over Britain after 1200 years.
  

  Point 2 is that the King of Norway is 60th in line of succession. Now 60th is pretty far down, but Norway has been trying to take over England since the year 787! Is there a political thriller plot in there somewhere: The Lindisfarne Legacy? ... For Norway-like plots involving currently non-functioning thrones, the heir to the Romanian throne is at #82, the heir to the Serbian throne is at #89, and one pretender to the Russian throne is at #107.)

  
  
• More on Human Rights Watch:
  

  Over the course of several hours of discussions, touching on a variety of events over many decades, she made it extremely clear that a "human rights problem" (past or present) exists for her only if America can be blamed for it. Quite simply, she has no interest in it if she can't blame America for it -- whether plausibly or, in many cases, utterly implausibly. She blames America first, last, and always. Not exclusively though. She also loathes the state of Israel, and expressed disgust at the existence of a Jewish state -- in any borders.

  
  
• Pakistanis love their current rape laws: if she doesn't have 4 witnesses, then she wasn't raped. Blame Mohammed.
  
  
• If you want Shari'a, move to Saudi...says Muslim MP in UK.
  

  Last Tuesday, after a 90-minute meeting with John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, to discuss the challenges of extremism and foreign policy, I emerged and was immediately asked by the media whether I agreed that what British Muslims needed were Islamic holidays and sharia (Islamic law). I thought I had walked into some parallel universe.
  ...
  So too, unfortunately, did the comments of some of the “Muslim leaders” who demanded sharia for British Muslims rather than the existing legal system. The call for special public holidays for Muslims was unnecessary, impracticable and divisive. Most employers already allow their staff to take such days out of their annual leave. And what about special holidays for Sikhs, Hindus, Jews? If we amended our laws to accommodate all such requests, then all the king’s horses and all the king’s men wouldn’t be able to put our workplaces and communities back together again.
  
  When it comes to sharia, Muhammad ibn Adam, the respected Islamic scholar, says: “It is necessary by sharia to abide by the laws of the country one lives in, regardless of the nature of the law, as long as the law doesn’t demand something that is against Islam.” It is narrated in the Koran that the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “It is necessary upon a Muslim to listen to and obey the ruler, as long as one is not ordered to carry out a sin.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no 2796 & Sunan Tirmidhi).

  
  
• Lileks explains the artistic crowd:
  

  Folks in the '50s were paranoid for no reason, since Communism was later revealed as a practical joke played by mischievous Russians. So our current "concern" over "terrorists" who blow up "buildings" must likewise be a spasm of nervous Nellie panic brought on by regimes that seek to rule through fear.
  
  Of course, one could make the case that the greatest threats to the freedoms of the West are posed by the head-choppers, plane-exploders, their many merry supporters, and the nuke-seeking state that supports them.
  
  But don't expect the artists to make the case. They saw what happened to that Theo Van Gogh fellow. Pay no attention to that imam behind the curtain. Here's the ghost of Eisenhower. Booga-booga!
  
  The artists seem more concerned with a culture that won't let gays marry than one that won't let them live.

  
  Similar thoughts here.
  
  
• Moonbat at HuffPost hopes for terror attack to keep Republicans from winning 2006 elections. More abortions, restricting gun ownership, blocking Supreme Court nominees and mandating universal health care are worth you neighbors being murdered.
  

  And I know that when I weigh the possibility that such an attack- that might, say, kill 100- would prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from dying who otherwise would- I am exhibiting a calculating cold heart diametrically opposed to everything I stand for as a human being. A human being, who, just so you know, is opposed to most wars and to capital punishment.
  
  But in light of the very real potential of the next two American elections to solidify our growing American persona as a warlike, polluter-friendly nation with repressive domestic tendencies and inadequate health care for so many tens of millions, let me ask you this. Even if only from the standpoint of a purely intellectual exercise in alternative future history:
  
  If you knew us getting hit again would launch a chain of transformative, cascading events that would enable a better nation where millions who would have died will live longer, would such a calculus have any moral validity?

  
  It may be the sickest thing I have read, ever. And I am sure that the writer does not have the capacity to understand why.
  

LGF (that is 4 today).


What is funny right now. And it is.

Update: Check Jeff Goldstein's video. Almost as good as "All Your Fakes Belong To US."

Remember the Editor & Publisher piece I linked that slimed bloggers and defended false reporting from Lebanon? The author admits to faking articles, as well...or he did, before he started covering his tracks after bloggers found out.

CNN is putting together what can be expected to be a puff piece on Osama's life and tranformation into a terrorist. A prediction: the final 5 minutes will explain what the US did to Osama to turn him into a killer.

Wuzzadem catches stupidity and denial at CBS. Just read the article, it is amazing.

LGF expects them to edit out the Palestinian celebration footage. We can't remind the public of things like that; after all, everyone claims it never happened.

CNN will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by replaying on the Internet the cable network’s coverage of that day’s events.
Viewers can watch how events unfolded starting at 8:30 a.m., minutes before the first reports of an airplane hitting the World Trade Center. The feed will run in real time, as the network showed it five years ago, until midnight.

LGF also posts on the arrest of a NY man for providing access to terrorist television: Hezbullah's Al Manar broadcasts. The ACLU says terrorist propaganda is protected on Free Speech grounds, and is probably right.

LGF x3: Lithium battery = landmine at the BBC.

Who does Allah love more? Mary Katherine Ham or Kirsten Powers?

A piece on bloggers at the Beeb. We are so cute with our little diaries! And an article at The Economist that talks about newspapers problems with going online. (via Instapundit)

My view is that bloggers are not news creators except in exceptional circumstances (Rathergate and the fake Reuters photos, for example). Our role is to aggregate news and keep the media honest. If reporters and photographers worry about being beaten up by blogs for bias or faux news, and that makes for more accurate news, then we have done our job.

I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks on Japanese culture, which means I am as up to date as my grandmother is about American culture.

You know about gyaru? The overly tanned and buffed Japanese girls who were so stylish a few years ago? The gyaru virus has found its way to Korea.


The guys behind South Park are doing another movie: Giant Monsters Attack Japan! Think guys in rubber suits and more satire. Check out the toast vending machine, too.

And the flinch story of the week:

Japan is smitten, Cyzo (September) says, by the story of a man who underwent the samurai chop, so to speak, just because his girlfriend started to swing in the opposite direction.

"Harukarin Blog," the hot bestseller, tells the supposedly true story of Harukarin Nakagawa, a 23-year-old who claims to have undergone a sex change operation that made him a woman because his girlfriend of several years decided she was a lesbian and would prefer he was female.

Ouch.

This is Jewel, my first Thai if I remember correctly. She was sent by Mark by email.








Very cute uniform.