The Lasso of Truth

Handwringing

To kill or capture?  To publish the death shots or not to publish?  Jeepers.  I even hear it took the supposed leader of the free world 17 hours to decide if he even wanted them to go in at all!

But now that the deed is done, I've been hard pressed to find an opinion on the whole brouhaha that sounds right to me.  Until now.

It started last night, when I heard one of the administration apparatchiks detailing the information that was being gathered from the site, and the various agencies sifting through it, and how much of the information was useful, etc.  I though to myself, if I was in charge, I'd probably want to keep the enemy guessing about whether I got anything useful, and how much of it there was.  Make them have to scramble and worry.

This morning though, that instinct went one step further when as a rare treat I heard Oliver North on my daily morning show, opining that the best approach would have been to keep the whole business under wraps.  And he's right.

Keeping the enemy in the dark that their leader is dead, even holing up in his safe house for a few days, to gather more information from live sources (possibly) would have been a much better strategy.

Unfortunately, that is not how Obama and his pep squad roll.  Oliver North was right about that too...this president is all about the victory laps.

Whole interview here...

11_0506_oliver_north

 

Festivus comes early!

The next time one of your public-service-working neighbours complains about layoffs and contract cutbacks, I suggest you remind them that it's all in the name of "human rights"...

Representatives from 47 nations are set to gather Friday in Geneva for a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council with plans to address the human rights abuses of one country in particular: the United States of America.  Joining in the airing of grievances against the U.S. are various left-wing interest groups and American labor unions.

On the agenda for Friday’s gathering are the testimonials of select organizations and individuals who, for the first time ever, plan to claim the U.S. is violating global human rights — including allegations of discrimination against Muslims, police brutality and wrongful detention of certain political prisoners. The exercise comes as part of the UN’s “Universal Periodic Review” (UPR), a rotating periodic examination of various countries‘ human rights records by the council’s members — a council which includes such countries as China, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

On the streets of Canada's most "tolerant" city

While I spent the weekend on kiddies' birthday parties and answering the call of the wild, better bloggers than me were hanging around with a whole different breed of baboons.

Good Question

The Chile earthquake, 8.8 on the Richter scale, was by far the largest. But a little noticed 7.0 quake struck near Japan's Ryukyu islands just a few hours earlier, triggering its own tsunami warnings.

The Jan. 12 temblor in Haiti was also 7.0, about 500 times less powerful than the Chile quake, though it appears to have killed many more people. That prompts yet another question: Why did a much larger quake cause much less destruction?

Not as hard to answer, as one might think...

What makes modern quakes particularly devastating are megacities located near seismically active zones. "Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings kill people," says David Wald of the National Earthquake Information Center of the USGS.

That is especially true in poorer countries where many buildings are shoddily designed and constructed from weak materials, or they simply fail to meet basic building standards. That was the case in Haiti, where the death toll is estimated to exceed 220,000—much greater than what is thought to have occurred in Chile, even though the Haiti quake was far less powerful. Chile enforces strict building codes, partly because it has endured several major temblors, including the highest magnitude quake on record, 9.5, in 1960.

You mean stacking cardboard houses like milk crates doesn't cut it, when the Earth starts shaking?  But much like building New Orleans in a bowl, Port-au-Prince will be rebuilt and it's surviving residents will pay only a passing interest to safety and building standards, because it's too much work to build it right.

Calling for an occupation

From quarters where the hue and cry would be deafening, should imperialist westerners dare occupy, to civilize, violent cesspools like Afghanistan or Palestine -- we have the call to send in the Marines..!

Canada, the U.S., France and other nations are rushing aid to Haiti. Food and medical help are essential, but Haiti also must have an effective government that cares for its desperate people. A small UN contingent has achieved little. What Haiti really needs is to be again administered by the U.S. Marine Corps.

This column despises any form of imperial action as a grave violation of democratic and republican values. But the U.S. could do enormous good for Haiti, which needs a major rescue mission for a desperate people who have failed to govern themselves and have no other hope. Most Haitians, I think, would welcome U.S. humanitarian intervention.

It's heartening to see a member of the esteemed intelligentsia acknowledge that there are societies which cannot be relied up on to govern themselves, and require the hand of a functioning democracy, to establish working order.  One wonders though, what distinguishes Haitians from, say, Palestinians...I mean, other than skin color?

Just Imagine

...how the letter would read, if it were sent now...

We implore you to confirm these facts to your leaders, and to do your utmost to stop the destruction and waste of life which can only result in the total annihilation of all your cities, if continued. As scientists, we deplore the use to which a beautiful discovery has been put, but we can assure you that unless Japan surrenders at once, this rain of atomic bombs will increase manyfold in fury.

Steely resolve in war.  Now, more extinct than the dinosaurs.

h/t

Humbuggers

You thought the warmenists were all about the trees, but no..!

But Christmas is a religious holiday that has no place at a United Nations function, according to the Foreign Ministry’s Svend Olling, who is the head of practical planning for the climate summit.

‘We have to remember that this is a UN conference and, as the centre then becomes UN territory, there can be no Christmas trees in the decor, because the UN wishes to maintain neutrality,’ said Olling.

I guess they figured there were already plenty of Ho-Ho-Hos! to go around.

But sadly, they'll be at least one Ho short.

Nazdrave!

I know it sounds cynical, but from my extensive experience with Bulgarians, as well as the time I spent living there, I find it somewhat surprising that any politician would win on a platform of anti-corruption.

From my impression, it was considered to simply be the way of life there.  To a man, I've never met a single Bulgarian who wasn't on the take -- even with friends and family.  I had always considered it the result of being forced to live under the communist system, where lying and stealing was the only way to get ahead.

Maybe...just maybe...they're starting to learn their lesson.

But I still wouldn't go back.

Revisiting Ronald Reagan

A new book "The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan" ignites a flurry of discussion at Foreign Policy...

From the book:

It was Reagan's second-term policies, his decision to do business with Gorbachev, that set the course for the end of the Cold War. If Reagan had not been responsive, then events might have taken a different course during the crucial period from 1985 to 1989. Gorbachev's critics at home could have succeeded in resisting change by warning that American policy remained a continuing danger and that Gorbachev was failing to obtain any alteration of the Soviet Union's relationship with the United States.

Grover Norquist:

The bitter enders of the revisionist Left wisely skipped over the  economic history of the 1980s and 1990s (deciding to avoid embarrassing conversations about GDP, employment, inflation, growth rates) and on foreign policy credited Michael Gorbachev with agreeably ending the cold war and dismantling the Soviet Union on purpose. Reagan was just standing there when the nice Soviet Leader fixed the world.

Peter Baker:

Just how sharply Reagan tacked against the prevailing winds in Washington comes to life in Mann's account. In relentlessly pursuing accord with Gorbachev on arms control, Reagan the old Cold Warrior defied his conservative base, many in his own State Department and White House, and even Richard Nixon, the architect of détente. Although everyone told him that Gorbachev was faking his commitment to reform in order to strengthen the Soviet Union, Reagan believed his counterpart was the real deal.

William Inboden:

Mann makes a persuasive case for Reagan's singular vision and idiosyncratic genius in several ways. First, Reagan conceived of the Cold War as an ideological contest between two worldviews and values systems, one of which was superior and the other of which was destined to fail. The latter point is especially salient, as it rejected the prevailing consensus and put Reagan in an adversarial posture against the prominent "realists" in his own party -- such as Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and even at times his own Vice President George H.W. Bush. All of whom instead saw the Cold War as a static power contest between two rival states that was destined to continue in perpetuity and thus could only be managed, not won. As realism today seems to be enjoying a popular and not entirely unwarranted resurgence, Reagan's Cold War doctrine is also a helpful reminder of realism's limits and past errors.

Michael Tomasky (who is happy to credit the fall of the Soviet Empire on anyone but the Americans):

Mann's Reagan is not an intellectual, but a person with pretty shrewd instincts. I decided at some point while reading this book that perhaps the way to describe Reagan is this: He knew what he didn't know. He hadn't read a lot of history or stacks of policy papers, and for the most part he wasn't going to be bothered. But at least, unlike a certain recent White House occupant, he understood that there were lots of things he didn't know and he seemed to try to keep that in mind and compensate for it. I say all this as one who was not and is not a fan of Reagan, especially on the domestic side, where I think his legacy is for the most part cankerous; and as a believer in the general principle that one ought to bother knowing.

All in all, it sounds like a good read.

Is all NOT lost, in England?

Rachel Lucas has hauled her gun-toting, God-fearing ass to England where she has made a few observations about where the Brits might be going wrong.  I think she may be on to something.  Could they just be too nice..?

I could be completely frakkingly wrong about all of this and I’m sure someone will tell me so. I’m a fetus as far as understanding this new culture’s subtle differences from my own. It just seems like such a soul-crushing shame that the very “niceness” of the Brits, which is so enjoyable and heartwarming to decent folk like me, is what the assholes of the world use against them. Those Muslim protestors, in my view, KNEW they’d get away with their idiotic shenanigans. I know we’ve all noticed they never pull that shit in the States.

Can you imagine? Seriously. Fathom a group of fanatic Muslims on an American street screaming at returning American soldiers and calling them baby-killers. Now imagine the denouement of that scene. The world may call us a bunch of redneck jackelopes but I’m starting to care even less than I did before. That’s not bravado or hillbilly-talk. There is nothing wrong with believing that the people who move to an established country should have some damn respect for the citizens of that country. You know, the ones who made it a place the immigrants spent so much energy and money to move to.

[..]

I think they simmer on this stuff a little longer than we would. You can say that’s a bad thing, and I might agree, but it’s not because they’re pussies or wimps (not necessarily; of course some are, just as some Americans are). It might simply be a manifestation of a certain patience; a this-too-shall-pass attitude, which may or may not destroy them eventually. Time will tell.

Maybe.  But any so-called civilization that cannot make a decent taco is doomed to fail, I'd say.  I know Mikey would agree.

A breath of fresh air

The new face of the EU...

He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an "apostle of arrogance" for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.

[..]

While even many of the world's most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.

I like this guy already.

h/t

Putting lipstick on the sow

Anyone who ever had any doubt that the original Olympic tradition of celebrating athletic achievement has been traded for the sham of a grotesque political sideshow, have only to refer to the fiasco that these most recent games have become...

A pretty girl who won national fame after singing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was only miming.

Wearing a red dress and pigtails, Lin Miaoke charmed a worldwide audience with a rendition of "Ode to the Motherland".

But the singer was Yang Peiyi, who was not allowed to appear because she is not as "flawless" as nine-year-old Lin.

The show's musical director said Lin was used because it was in the best interests of the country.

The revelation follows news that a fireworks display used during the opening ceremony was apparently faked.

Speaking on Beijing Radio station, musical director Chen Qigang said the organisers needed a girl with both a good image and a good voice.  Yang Peiyi had the perfect voice but apparently not the perfect face.

They faced a dilemma because although Lin was prettier, seven-year-old Yang had the better voice, Mr Chen said.

So, along with media censorship, mass evictions and arrests, smog and the occasional random murder of a tourist, we can add to the list of notable Olympic events, the degradation of the opening ceremonies to the status of a Brittany Spears-style lip-sync debacle.

Tell me again, why anyone continues to give a rat's ass about this stoogefest, anymore?

***Ed. note -- Before I get any angry emails about calling this little girl a sow...the sow in the title is meant to refer to the wretched Motherland that exploited this little girl in such a calous way.