"I Don't Care. Obama is Cool and Awesome. His Bracket Picks Were Outstanding Too."

Whatever Happened to the "Anti-War" Movement?

A good question.

A good answer:

. . . the antiwar movement is faltering because it was never an antiwar movement to begin with. It was an anti-Bush, anti-Republican movement, and now that neither of those entities is running things right now it is no longer necessary to keep it going.

Facts are Stubborn Things

From American Thinker: Iraq: The War That Broke Us -- Not

No Comment Necessary

Peace Prize Riddle

Ann Althouse asks: "Why didn't Barack Obama win the Nobel Prize for Literature?"

Good Question

Pretty Good Reflexes for an Old Man

Who knew Keith Olberman was in Baghdad?

Harry Lied, People Died

It's important to identify those of our political leaders who possess judgment and wisdom upon which we may rely. Thus, a stroll down memory lane, before this goes down the memory hole:

I'm Offended. Yup. Mighty Offended.

Surely the Secretary General will denounce this children's television program for being "offensively anti-American." What, no? Sorry, I forgot.

In the West, we are civilized, and held by the world to a high standard of morality and competence. Muslims, on the other hand, are like children, who must be protected and indulged until they can learn to behave like adults. Which might be never. Thus a cartoon excuses murderous rage, while murder of our people justifies nothing. Sorry. I forgot for a moment.

[How come Mr. Bush seems to be wearing boxing gloves? Is this some subtle message that's lost on infidels?]

Memri1
by luvnews

Because We Can

Unaccountably, we must credit Miss Eden, of all people.

These Are The Good Old Days

In less than 12 months, today will have receded into the warm, fuzzy past when life was simpler. See, for example, the news story that includes this quotation: "All of this is President George Bush’s fault anyway." While it's often hard to know, we're pretty sure they're serious.

The question is whether, immediately after President Obama is sworn into office, everything bad will become his fault. Somehow we suspect not: Springtime will be Barack's doing, while Winter will be the consequence of years of mismanagement.

And, yes: we just may adopt THIS for our theme song as the campaign wears on.

Monsters Among Us

"Answers are elusive, but the ever-increasing toll of violent crimes committed by journalists has led some experts to warn that without programs for intensive mental health care, the nation faces a potential bloodbath at the hands of psychopathic media vets."

Certainly you'd not want your daughter to marry one. More from Iowahawk.

The Twilight Zone

Apparently even the reality-challenged editors at the New York Times have begun to realize that we're now winning the war in Iraq. How can we tell? Because they're tacking to windward.

Instead of filling their front page with bad news, while hiding the good back with the truss ads, they are now publishing a series (no less) on troops returning home. Not troops who return from combat to open a daycare center; not veterans who run for office; not soldiers returning to their loved ones: but troops who return and commit murder:

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

The Times, you see, has uncovered a previously unknown fact -- veterans (unlike the rest of us) sometimes commit crimes, or engage in other dangerous behavior. Perhaps after this series, we will be favored with further revelatory tales documenting tax evasion, salad bar grazing, double parking and elevator flatulence.

There is, of course, no story at all if veterans, as a group, commit no greater number of crimes than a similar number of Americans of the same age. Thus, the lede should be something like, "Veterans Murder at Twice National Rate." But it's not, of course, and you'll strain your eyes in vain searching in the Times for any such statistical analysis. This fellow has taken a stab at it, but I'm not entirely sure that he's closed the deal.

Times story HERE.

[UPDATE] More comment HERE, HERE and HERE.

Mistakes Were Made

Regarding its most recent criminal conspiracy:

Catherine Mathis, vice president of corporate communications for The Times, said, “We made a mistake.”

No they didn't, they just got caught.

Were the shoe upon they other foot -- and this brouhaha instead involved the New York Post and veterans telling the truth about the mendacious John Kerry -- do you think that the New York Times editorial page would be thundering about conspiracies, and calling for a grand jury investigation, a special prosecutor, and hearings by the Federal Electoral Commission?

So do we.

O Lord! Giveth to us a Break!

Without comment, from Yeas & Nays:

According to Jeffrey Toobin’s new book on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter nearly resigned in the wake of Bush v. Gore, so distraught was he over the decision that effectively ended the Florida recount and installed George W. Bush as president.

In “The Nine,” which goes on sale Sept. 18, Toobin writes that while the other justices tried to put the case behind them, “David Souter alone was shattered,” at times weeping when he thought of the case. “For many months, it was not at all clear whether he would remain as a justice,” Toobin continues. “That the Court met in a city he loathed made the decision even harder. At the urging of a handful of close friends, he decided to stay on, but his attitude toward the Court was never the same.”

No Comment

Let's assume, just for purposes of argument -- hypothetically speaking -- that you're an elderly Congressman of always limited intelligence, whose career has been based entirely upon fleecing the taxpayers of other districts in order to pay off your constituents to vote for you. Let's assume further that, in your declining years, you decide to cap your sleazy tenure in office by taking a stab at "relevance" by having a go at the latest Democrat slander du jour. Let's say you decide to grab some headlines by accusing some Marines of being murderers, and implying that your grim assessment is based on inside information, since you're an important Congressman and, besides, you were yourself once a jarhead, back before treason and being a part of the kleptocracy become more profitable for you.

What do you do when a thorough investigation of the facts reveals that there was no wrongdoing at all?

Well, if you're Jack Murtha, Porker King, then you have NO COMMENT. Can't be running off at the mouth when there's one of them-there "ongoing investigations," don't you know.

It's Quiz Time Again!

Our last quiz, regarding the names of the physicians arrested in connection with the most recent British airport bomb plots, was so popular that we provide herewith yet another.

Who said, respecting the 9/11 attacks:

It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader of that country [Adolph Hitler, on the chance you attended public school] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.

But in today's overheated political climate we know this might be a difficult question, so we provide multiple choice answers.

The speaker was:

A. A Roman Catholic, who harbors the odd belief that he adheres to the one true church;

B. A Jew, who harbors the odd belief that he has been chosen by the Creator of the Universe;

C. A Fundamentalist Protestant Christian, who harbors odd beliefs without number;

D. A follower of Mohammed, founder of Islam, the Religion of Peace.

Please give yourself 60 seconds to settle on your answer, and then go HERE for the definitive word.

We Missed This Alternative

Jonah Goldberg:

On the merits I think Bush probably got it about right. On the politics, I think Bush would have been smarter to give Libby an outright pardon. But, having just watched Joe Wilson sputter in pompous rage on the Today Show, I'm tempted to argue that Bush should have used eminent domain to take Wilson's convertible Jaguar and give it to Scooter Libby.

This Should Be Good

Like many large organizations, the New York Times has an "ombudsman," the fellow to whom customers are supposed to complain about the product. Of course, since the Times isn't really a business -- but instead constitutes a religious calling with Constitutional overtones -- it has a "Public Editor."

[Would it be mere snarky-ness to ask whether or not all the editors a the Times don't think they are doing the public's business? Are they "private" editors, devoted to a not-so-secret agenda? Hmmmmm . . .]

And now they have a new one:

The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain’s coverage that questioned the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war.

[snip]

Mr. Hoyt said that he could not predict what subjects he might focus on. “They are likely to be driven by what readers care about and complain about,” he said.

But over the last year, he has spoken publicly about his concerns about the future of the newspaper industry, arguing that weakening finances, a toxic partisan atmosphere and coziness with government officials threaten to undermine journalistic courage and integrity.

Yes, well: Certainly we can all agree that the primary problem with reporting in the New York Times can be traced to excessive "coziness" with Bush Administration officials. Fix that, and there's no telling where it might lead. And clearly the hiring of a person whose most important qualification is early infection with Bush Derangement Syndrome won't do anything to contribute to "a toxic partisan atmosphere." Nosiree.

Old Dead Trees Smackdown

Don Surber:

The 1,363rd most visited Web site in the world tried to diss the president of the United States as not being among the world’s 100 most influential people.

The AP reported that No. 1363 thinks that the lives of the people of Afghanistan are more influenced by an heiress who starred in Blue Movies (OK, peagreen) than they are by the president of the United States.

No. 1363 also asserted that an actress in an American sitcom about an American TV show that is not shown outside the United States is more influential than the leader of the world.

No. 1363 also said a woman best known for her feud with a billionaire landlord who has bad hair is more influential on the lives of Africans than the man who had Congress appropriate more money to fight AIDS on that continent.

Apparently, this is No. 1363’s entire world: