If it ticked off the NYT this much...

It might just be good.

The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'State of Fear': Not So Hot

Guess who's the substitute teacher?

Marion Barry teaches chemistry::

"With bachelor's and master's degrees and some doctoral credit in chemistry, Barry clearly has the science chops to teach the class. "

Now I ask you, would you want Marion "bitch set me up" Barry to teach your children chemistry? "Hey, kids. Is that a bunsun burner? Anyone got a spoon?"

Sigh. Why is it that this guy is the grand old man of local DC politics? I understand that he knows something about chemistry (and not only about smoking crack in hotel rooms with prostitutes and then lying about it), but for the love of our future, is he really the best role model we have? Really? No wonder DC is screwed up.

It's Logical

If Reuters can do it...

[Italy's] Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the decision gave him the shivers. Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said the judgement was incredible.

Yet it happened: five Islamic extremists were released by an Italian judge who ruled that they are resistance fighters and not terrorists, so cannot be held liable for recruiting fighters to go to Iraq to fight against the coalition there.

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

This little news item wasn't front page, second page or even tertiary page filler, but it is interesting, nevertheless. Everytime some calamity strikes an infidel nation (such as when the space shuttle broke apart over the US, with pieces coming down in Palestine, Texas), the Musilim media attempt to pole-vault over each ever-more-radical cleric to see god's hand in the disaster. Yet, when, on the last day of Hajj, the holiest activity that a Musilm can undertake, the rains become so great that a flood forms and takes the lives of 29 members of the faithful, well, we hear precisely...nothing. No Hand of God. No Spiteful Wrath. It was just a flood, they say. Did anyone tell the Commanders of the Faithful in Aceh that sometimes floods happen?

Another thing that has been on my mind recently is directly relevant to my own experience as an alumnus of the Big H. When the President of the Big H said that maybe women were underrepresented in the sciences because of biological differences, it created a firestorm (but you knew that). Some women were so angry that they left his off the record presentation (but you knew that too). What you might not have known is how pervasive this attitude is at Harvard. The motto could become "ridicule first, understand later" -- but only for perceived threats to the status quo. It's interesting that at Harvard, history is alive in a way that it is not in the wider culture. In a way, the place is almost the logical (bastard) extension of the claim that to forget history is to repeat it. There, history is constantly thrown against present reality to justify speech codes, tolerance codes, informal clique affiliations. I don't know if people there really fear a return of slavery or Joe McCarthy, but I know that they do fear a return of the 50's. Maybe that's the real reason that women were so scared of Summer's remarks, they fear that under Bush the country may once again become a place right out of Leave it to Beaver.

I don't believe it, but they do.

Saudi Suicide Bomber Claims Zarqawi was Captured, Then Released

Damn.

I don't know if I want this to be true. Remember, he was also imprisoned by the Ethiopians. This latest release would be numero deux [mixed language intentional, ed].

Looks like I choose a good week to start blogging

Spies! Say the word and watch the reaction among America's newspapers. In this case, the question is whether the Pentagon ought to have their own cadre of men in grey. The principle argument against Pentaspooks is that they are not subject to the same oversight rules that limit the CIA's covert activities.

Exactly -- but that is a suitable justification when oversight all too often means rejection of anything remotely risky. The CIA is in its current state because people like Nancy Pelosi hold their moral values above the safety and security of America (remember her plan to let Iran essentially take over Iraq's election by blocking any covert assistance to pro-US Iraqi candidates? Still think every hostile intelligence service in the world wasn't sending her flowers for taking away US influence there?)

The real lesson here is that spying is sometimes not a pleasant business. Since the Church commission threw a wet blanket on the company's operations, they have operated bravely with one arm tied behind their back. Let Rumsfeld free the spies if only to show what he can do, unemcumbered. If he fails to show any benefit from unrestricted spying without the oversight that Congress requires of CIA, then I will stand corrected. If, however, he shows that war (and by extension, the art of tasking agents) is a game that favours the bold, I hope to hear calls in Congress for a new relationship with our intelligence services, one built on respect and trust.

Stoning Bush at the Hajj

According to Reuters, some muslims are using the stoning of the devil ritual of the annual Hajj as a means of stoning Bush, Sharon and Blair (as proxies of the Dark Lord, apparently).

After reading that, I began to wonder if we played Bush's inauguration speech backwards, would it sound just like Slayer? I wonder then if being a righty is some form of twisted Satanism? And how does that square with the Christian righties? Is it a causus belli for religious war?

Sometimes I think too much.

Oh, and my #%^$^%$^& project is finished. After decompression (read: a couple of lager-type refreshments), I should right back to bloggin' the night away.

The Return

I'm almost done with this #$%#%&^ project. Friday is the day of blessed freedom. I'll give you all the lowdown on the last two weeks of life on a project in a Fortune 20.

Oh, and watch this video for comic relief.

Jib Jab's Second Term

Stupid

Fear Factor sued.

What stupidity. The plaintiff should be forced to watch the episode 100 times more to learn that he has the power to change the channel.

Grow up, dude. Oh, and I doubt that this complaint is about morals (see his comment below).

Aitken said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation."

In Angry Waves, the Devout See an Angry God

I said this last week. Now it is coming to pass. Everytime a calamity strikes, it is interpreted by the faithful as an assault on their religiosity. Why, I wonder, was the most thoroughly Muslim area in Indonesia hit by a tsunami, but the most godless, Jakarta, escaped the destruction entirely? Is the logical interpretation that the Muslims in Aceh were being punished because they were not Islamic enough -- or because they were too Islamic? O, Members of the Faithful, what is most likely?

"'God is angry with Aceh people, because most of them do not do what is written in the Koran and the Hadith,' the collected sayings and actions of the prophet Muhammad, explained Cut Bukhaini, 35, an imam. 'I hope this will lead all Muslims in Aceh to do what is in the Koran and its teachings. If we do so, God will be merciful and compassionate.'"