From the Washington Post (and contra Scheuer's take on our nuclear bomb risk)
Bourgeois

Epic Devastation

Untold Numbers Are Missing in 6 Countries

This wave system would have been part of someone's religious mythology had it happened two thousand years ago. In its scope of destruction, it is almost without peer in history.

The earthquake, which measured 9.0 in magnitude, set off tsunamis that built up speeds of as much as 500 miles per hour, then crashed into coastal areas of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives and Malaysia as 40-foot-high walls of water, devouring everything and everyone in their paths.

Terrible. I've had bad dreams about just this kind of scenario.

Donate to the International Red Cross, if you are so inclined.

Merry Christmas!

Welcome to the official NORAD Tracks Santa Website (2004)

Tis the Season...

Cubans paint a special Christmas message to the US:

A two-storey high cartoon depicted the top US diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, as a huge Father Christmas - whose sack contains bombs, not presents.

Infection

Thai 'proof' of Malaysia camps

Once radical Islamic bases spring up, whose responsibility are they? The people whom they attack (Thailand); the people with whom they train (Malaysia); or those who give funds and spiritual support (Indonesia)?

It's curious that countries who have rejected Bush's talk of terrorism now find themselves face to face with terrorists fighting in the name of separatism and Islam. Do they consider this particular manifestation of Islamic protest (of probably Wahhabist origin) to be completely unrelated to, say, every other conflict in the world that involves Muslims and everyone else?

I could be wrong here, but isn't it odd that the most heavily subsidized and exported brand of Islam, Wahhabism and its offshoots, like the Deobandis, are at war with the wider world, while the traditionally locally dominant variants of the religion, like Sufi orders, the Shia (broadly) and most of the followers of the three other established interpretations of Islam, are not?

Still think there is no connection among the Muslim Wars, oh leaders of the faithful?

Torch Something

After reading this article about the 64 people who died in Iraq, I wonder if something big ought to be done about it.

First, the facts: 64 Shia dead in Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad -- most of them in the former two cities from car bomb explosions. Three of the total dead were election workers pulled from their cars and executed during morning rushhour in broad daylight on one of the busiest streets in Baghdad. These latter killers then reportedly walked away, weapons in full view. (Good analysis of the sectarian divide in Iraq here.)

Now I ask you for ideas, not necessarily daisy cutters -- though that may prove to be a message that terrorists understand -- about how to inflict pain and suffering on the Sunni, Wahhabist arses behind this terror campaign?

I'm open to dumping pig semen on every Sunni stronghold from Baghdad to Fallujah, if that will get the point across that we can strike at will in a manner that leaves them less holy (pig semen being presumably as haram as the pig from whence it came) than before. What do you recommend? Fear Factor-style punishment?

Sigh. I was planning to write about my weekend's sloth, the Will Smith movie, I, Robot (which also features a distopian future of high scientific achievement -- does some Hollywood screenwriters' clique hate technology, or what?) and DC's sickening weather (-7F with wind chill), but it doesn't fit my mood anymore.

One Tough Man

The dioxin used on Yushchenko was so toxic that no one planning the poisoning could have considered that he would live.

Initial tests had shown the level of poison in Mr Yushchenko's blood was more than 6,000 times higher than normal - the second highest level ever recorded in humans.

I don't know if he is a good Presidential candidate, but he is one tough man.

Why Yukos took a fall

This article is worth reading, if only for the prediction about next year's Russian story of the year.

Busted

Bugging device found in UN room

Oops.

Enough Already

The Kerik nomination seems to be a perverse fixation at the NYT. How did it happen? Why was he selected? How did they mess it up so badly? Who was at fault?

I have my own question: who cares?

Once his flawed background came to light, I had no qualms about dumping him. What's the obsession with page one stories about the process? Maybe as backpage filler it might be important, but front and center? This for a man who never even made it formal hearings? This for someone who did what exactly? Oh, right, he had an affair (I dare any lefty who supported Clinton to express indignation here) and hired an illegal nanny for whom he didn't pay taxes -- (shows his compassion, given NY taxes).

Frankly, if the caliber of people that attain Cabinet level status are as goody two shoes as that, they may not be worth the office. Can you imagine anyone (except Cicero) in the Roman Republic or the Empire arguing against someone else's honors on that basis? It just seems silly to keep harping on about something that was not special, unique, or even interesting: the worst crime of all for a newspaper.

Fresh Air for Palestine

"The Israeli monitoring groups say they are not sure whether the new, more moderate climate will last beyond the mourning period. Still, a survey of 1,200 Palestinians this month found that 52 percent opposed 'military operations' against Israel, believing that they were harmful to Palestinian interests.

That was nearly double the figure in June, 27 percent, according to the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, the Palestinian group that conducted the poll, and it was the first time in four years that a majority of Palestinians opposed attacks."

Turning Point?

How Much Does the New York Times Love Bush?

This morning I started the day as I tend to do: one cup of Sumatran goodness and a glance across the NYT's headlines. Here are the headline stories on the online edition (as of 7AM):

The Defense Department lies; they can't find Bin Laden; and Bush doesn't even like Giuliani -- take that, liberal Republicans!

And you wonder why righties get annoyed with the Times? Although I imagine that this kind of coverage must be good for sales in NYC among the great and the good. I can hear the conversation now about how "I just read that the President is lying to us. And the Defense Department. Can't even catch al-Qaeda. I'm telling you, that Bush is dangerous." Etc, ad nauseum.

Most Important Reading of the Morning

Muslim Scholars Increasingly Debate Unholy War. Haltingly.

The title is a bit of a misnomer because the scholars who are debating the meaning and use of Jihad for the faithful are not actually clergy. You know how hot the righties get with lefty actors or humanities professors when they issue judgements about social science (especially political) about which they seem to know little? I can't help but feeling that Islam's left may be looked at in much the same way by their right.

I support their lefties efforts to change the culture in which the Islamic religion is lived (and by extension, aspects of the entire religious praxis), but I doubt their near-term success.

Since I used to live in Egypt and have traveled around the Middle East fairly extensively, I feel a deep bond with the place -- probably the single largest reason why I didn't advocate daisy-cutting our way from Kuwait City to Baghdad. Yet, I have seen both sides: the young, rich and hip life of my friends from the American University in Cairo and the poor, religious men and women of the old quarter. While the rich may have the money, they don't (or didn't at that time) seem keen to do anything that would precipitate large-scale social change there. I'm just speculating, of course.

If we put things in perspective, then we could perhaps compare someone who lives in the Mid-Atlantic region with someone in northern Louisiana. Assume the same split as before: rich, probably only notionally religious mid-Atlanticer and poor, but relatively religious Louisianian. Do you think that someone from New Jersey coming to northern Louisiana is going to spark a wholesale cultural revolution? Possible, but doubtful (sorry, Jack!).

As an extension, has anyone ever argued with a serious Biblicist? The experience is very similar to arguing with a committed post-modernist. Both begin pleasantly, but then devolve quickly into accusations of godlessness from the Big-B Thumpers or some kind of -ist (racist, sexist, etc) from the followers of Foucault.

The entire Muslim world needs to have a conversation like that and then ask themselves what side of the debate they're on. We may not like the results.

Malaysian brothel unearthed in pigsty

This is just funny.

As a new Republican, I support legalization of the world's oldest female empowerment technique.

Any other supporters?

U.S. Combat Fatality Rate Lowest Ever

According to WaPo, the war in Iraq has the lowest ever casualty rate among American wars.

Ten percent of soldiers injured in Iraq have died from their war wounds, the lowest casualty fatality rate ever, thanks in large part to technological advances and the deployment of surgical SWAT teams at the front lines, an analysis to be published today has found.

Predictably, though, the article has to counter that piece of good news with something that should make every good and just citiizen think about the ravages of war.

But the remarkable lifesaving rate has come at the enormous cost of creating a generation of severely wounded young veterans and a severe shortage of military surgeons, wrote Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The takehome point here is that fighting in modern wars is not a death sentence in the way that nearly every movie portrays. While combat operations have not gotten any less dangerous (though their effectiveness has increased by various technological factors), the after combat care has become much better. That improvement must count for something, right? Depends on whom you ask, you say?

Rebels Aided By Allies in Syria, U.S. Says

Rebels Aided By Allies in Syria, U.S. Says, according to WaPo.

The Green Zone in central Baghdad, home of the U.S. Embassy and the offices of the interim Iraqi government, is especially "overrun with agents," said one Defense Department official who recently returned from Iraq. One activity that has been noticed is that when major convoys leave the zone, Iraqi cell phone calls from the zone seem to increase, he said. An additional concern is that the insurgency seems to be using some Iraqi companies to get into U.S. bases, he said.

Jeffrey White, a former Middle Eastern analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the Syrian role is part of what many intelligence officials believe are the increasingly organized attacks on U.S. forces. "In the last two months or so, this notion that this is a Baathist insurgency has gained dominance in the [intelligence] community," he said. Coupled with that, he said, "there is an increasing view that Syria is at the center of the problem."

Former mukhabarat (state security) may also be involved, given the sophisticated levels of cover that the spies are using.

Since the US is bound and determined to remain in Iraq until the end of the insurgency, what should next steps be? I am partial to a massive clandestine effort to hunt down the culprits in Syria, then take them out. But that might be because I watch too many movies that star incredibly good-looking people who make improbable speeches at odd times while chasing one-dimensonal bad-guys and all the while effortlessly tear through mom and pop armies like a kid and his presents on Christmas morning.

It might happen, though. If only Hollywood would stop opposing the war and just start selecting our clandestine teams, the conflict might be finished between one and a half and three hours later...

Saudi's Fundis

Gunmen Attack U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia

Guess the much lauded Saudi peace is not as thorough as the Saudis would have us believe. Attacking the US Embassy (ok, consulate) is no mean feat -- especially to get inside.

Inside job?