Good Thing He Didn't Hit the Quickie Mart

Is there any indication that the dude needs to get a grip on reality? The King of Pop had better leave the shopping up to his minions. Shopping is ill advised wearing a ski mask.

Poetic Justice

Rent control is a bad idea. A few lucky folks will be able to live in very nice apartments until they die and not have to pay to up keep them. These few will also have the law on their side when the owner does not make improvements or repairs because he isn't able to afford or cost justify the expense. The law will force the owner to make the repairs/improvements and can cause the building to be forfeited if he fails to do so.

For the majority, all rent control does is lead to housing shortages (Santa Monica and New York City are two good examples) and a lack of new apartments from being built (who will build apartments if they are not able to make money?).

Berkeley is another city with a strict rent control law, and one of the biggest supporters and proponents is Michael Berkowitz. In a poetic twist of fate, he has been charged with taking over $100,000 from his tenants in illegal rent payments. He has to pay the city this money, which will put it in an escrow account and contact the current and former tenants to issue refunds. Of course Berkowitz is going to appeal saying his circumstances exempted him from the law (it may have), but I find it ironic that a person who was a champion of rent control is so angry when the law is applied to himself. The American Thinker has the story.

UCLA Alumni Roll: Swen Nater

Swen Nater runs Costco??? Bill Walton runs down Swen's biography. Great read.

CORRECTION: Swen doesn't run Costco, but is an executive there.

Now This is Corporate Governance

I'm tired of American CEOs making billions of dollars on marginal corporate performance without taking responsibility when the company performance is poor. This is why it is refreashing to hear that a Japanese CEO took a voluntary pay cut as an apology for customer information being leaked:

Softbank also said its Chief Executive Masayoshi Son will have his Softbank salary cut by 50 percent for six months to take responsibility for the incident. Two other executives as well as some other employees will also see salary cuts.

One Man's Response to The Passion of the Christ

Over at Joshua Claybourn's Domain, Clayborn's devotional on his reaction to viewing the Passion:

Out of this silent loneliness - an unfathomable loneliness - He cries, "Why? Why did you foresake me?". . .There's something very human about His cry. It's a constant reminder to me that God did not just take on human flesh for 33 years. Rather, Jesus was fully human, separated from the trinity and experiencing pain alone, abandoned. At some point we all cry out "Why God?" The answers will not always come when we want them, we may still hurt, we may still thirst. But Christ was also alone, and He too cried out. We are not alone. God understands.

More Pension Funds are withholding vote for Eisner

From the Associated Press: Now New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey have also said they will withhold voting for Eisner in his election. If this continues, Eisner will be out of a job and will not get a golden parachute since he wasn't forced out, he lost re-election.

Short Take 2

Sgt Hook: Roll Call

Quick Link

Lights, Camera, Action!

More on the FMA

To be honest, I don't often read Andrew Sullivan's blog, especially while he's on his high horse regarding same sex marriage. To be honest, he keeps repeating the same thing and I've heard his arguments and just don't agree with him so why bother.

However, I also have some thoughts on the issue. A friend of mine was asking why he couldn't marry his partner, and it is an honest question. My answer was no, I do not think granting same sex marriages was/is a good idea for reasons that have nothing to do with religion.

My primary issue with not granting same sex marriages is because it starts a slippery slope were I do not want to go.

If we allow same sex marriages, the next group will be asking why a brother and sister or cousins who live together cannot have the same benefits of marriage. Even if they are not engaged in a sexual relationship, they can claim they love each other and should be able to have all the benefits like two non related people have, what is the harm? Its a private affair and none of the business for the rest of us.

Likewise, once we allow additional forms of marriage, there will no longer be any defensible reason to not allow polygamy or bigamy. Again, consenting adults chose to be in that relationship, its a private affair and its none of our business.

And so on and so on. My friend's reply was we won't have the slope. Look at Canada and Netherlands where same sex marriages are legal, you don't see that there.

But my reply is simple, there isn't any reason to not allow it and someone will (remember in Islam, a man is allowed up to 4 wives, how long before a lawsuit will be filed to allow the practice to continue in the name of religious freedom).

I would propose that the government get out of the marriage business all together. Let the government setup a civil agency like they have now and the joining of two people would be a contract like any other. For folks who are religious, they can still have a religious ceremony but the religious person would not be authorized to marry people in a legal sense, only in a religious sense. Then the Church could get tough on premarital counseling and on what marriage means. It would put a lot of drive through chapels out of business but then that is no loss and people could still have a ceremony there it just wouldn't have any legal standing.

So get rid of the filing status in the tax code, no single, married filing join, head of household or married filing separate, everyone has the same filing status (single), people who are legally married would combine their tax and withholding and pay it.

I'll say it again, get the government out of the marriage business and end the favoritism given to married couples and the whole issue goes away. Like my friend says, he wants the same benefits that I have, and I can understand that.

(ed: earlier Carpetblogger post here)

The boss isn't alone on Disney

The boss of this blog (who just promised to double my salary too 2 x zero) earlier commented that he had voted against the entire board of Disney.

According to the Assoc Press, CalPers is joining the effort. They will not vote for Eisner's re-election. That's 9.9 million votes that Eisner lost and it is conceivable he could lose re-election and thus out of the board. Of course the downside is Disney could become more vulnerable to a take over while a new Chairman is selected and settled in.

Reactions on an FMA

After reading some email responses on Andrew Sullivan's blog, I cannot understand why President Bush has come out and stated his support of the FMA.

To be sure, I firmly believe that as much as adultery is sinful, the practice of homosexuality is sinful. But, contrary to my beliefs 15 years ago, I am of the conviction that legislating morality is a tricky and difficult task--a task that sometimes ought not be done.

And it ought not be done in this case.

The FMA should not be simply because those who support the FMA do so from within a particular theological context, a context that is not shared by all. That context--that Christian context that I share--is the truth. It is absolute. It does not change. Say it with me: Rob is not a relativist. But it is unconstructive to attempt to force that context upon those who will refuse it.

Perhaps President Bush felt that his hand has been forced because of the various gay marriages that have been all the vogue recently. But to respond through a Constitutional admendment, that is going too far. Perhaps a good litmus test would be to know that "your rights end where my nose begins" Referencing the idea that your freedoms are limited only when your freedom impinges upon mine (or others).

In any event, FMA or not FMA, the issue of homosexual marriage has taken on proportions and a life that goes beyond the importance that it really should have. In other words, people on BOTH sides of the issue have blown this thing way out of proportion (contrary to how Sullivan, Gary Bauer or Chuck Dobson would have to you believe). A homosexual marriage in San Francisco, outside of the grief I sense that such a thing could occur, does not affect my life.

Are or were there POW's left behind in Vietnam???

Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, there were a number of movies and books written about how many Americans who were POW's in the Vietnam war were left behind after the war ended.

In the early 1990s, the Senate set up a committee chaired by John Kerry to look into the matter. The conclusion the Kerry committee came up with is there was no basis to the charges that POW's were left behind.

Sydney H. Schanberg at the Village Voice is taking issue on this and is damning Kerry for his conclusions and the way Schanberg says the committee operated. Schanberg is claiming Kerry lied and colluded with the Executive Branch to suppress the truth. Schanberg, obviously, did and still believes the US left people behind and some could still be alive.

It's surprising to me that the Village Voice is aiming its guns at Kerry like this. Will be interesting to see if anyone else picks up the story, although personally I am inclined to discount the Schanberg's view at this time.

The Canadian Military

At The American Thinker, they have an article about the state of the military in Canada. Basically, the Canadian government is under funding their already small military by about C$500,000,000 this year alone.

That means they are going to have to decommission ships, ground planes and disband troop. This also means Canada will not be able to fufill its treat obligations to NATO and will not be able to patrol its own fishing grounds to keep other countries from stealing Canadian fish.

That the Canadian people feel they no longer need a military is their choice, after all they live in a democracy. However, they may want to look at history and see what happens when countries who are prosperous and do not bother to defend themselves. Not that Canada needs a huge military, but they need one big enough to guard its borders.

Reviews of 'The Passion'

A selection, courtesy of FOXNews.com. There is also Fox News Roger Friedman's take. Some of the more interesting comments:

So here's the problem. Since we don't know who Jesus was before the day of his death, and since all we see are rabid packs of Jews in shawls who want him dead, followed by the long merciless death itself, what is Gibson's point? That Christ died for our sins? Or that he was murdered by crazy, vicious mobs who didn't understand him? -- Roger Friedman

If an age produces the renditions of classic stories that reflect those times, then 'The Passion of the Christ,' which is violent, contentious, emotional, extreme and highly proficient, must be the Jesus movie for this era. -- Todd McCarthy, Variety

Frankly, I'm not sure I want to see the movie if it simply focuses on the torture and death of Jesus without further context. IF the reviews are to be believed, then we have the "how", but not the "why" nor the "so what".

UPDATE: Over at RottenTomatoes.com, there are a whole passel of reviews

Mickey "Atta" Mouse

Apparently, a Scottish art student depicts Mickey flying the plane into the WTC towers.



Apparently, the sculpture is made of foam and felt.

Apparently the buildings have a surprised look.

Apparently, art is in the eye of the beholder.

(hat tip to Allah)

Front line look at the Gulf War 2

Brian Taylor at OpionionJournal.com, was a Marine who took part in the Iraqi war. He kept a journal which was posted in 5 installments at OpionionJournal. All tend to be long, but well worth reading.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Comanche Downed

The Army is cancelling the Comanche helicopter program, the RAH-66 was to be a recon/attack helo that would support the Apache and replace the aging Kiowas and Cobras.

The Congressional Research Service report on the Commanche (served by the FAS) says:

Critics of the Comanche program argue that there is no need for a highly sophisticated, very low observable armed reconnaissance helicopter in today’s threat environment. They contend that Comanche’s capabilities and mission requirements were developed in response to a Cold War threat environment that no longer exists.

A GAO report concludes:

First, the Army does not yet know and it will not know until well after its low- rate initial production decision whether certain technologies being developed will fit on the helicopter and function as expected...

Second, as discussed earlier the Army does not yet know and may not know until well after the start of low- rate initial production, whether performance requirements can be met...

Third, as noted earlier, it is still uncertain whether the Comanche can be developed within cost and scheduling estimates...more experience and data is available, there is not a high level of confidence in the Army's production cost estimate

And here is the Army's page on the Commanche.

A shealthy helicoptor would be a great asset, no doubt. However, it would seem that our current threat environment is biased towards low tech, low intensity conflicts. Large scale conflicts at the Gulf War I and II levels demonstrate that America's armed forces are still extremely capable. The need for the Commanche, conceived in the Cold War year 1983, is not quite proven to me. The technologies developed are not lost to us, we can still apply them to other projects.

Site of the Moment

In case you didn't get enough of the F-16 pilot ejecting from his plane, surf The Ejection Site.

Can someone please explain this to me

The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer reports the story of a Quaker who was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and when they were scheduled to be sent to Iraq, deserted to Canada.

Jeremy Hinzman joined the Army in January 2001, and although he did not like the idea he might have to shoot somebody (he did join the Army, that is what Armies generally do, kill the enemy) but he did like the benefits he received in the Army. As the story says:

"The socialist structure of the military appealed to him, he said. He liked the subsidized housing and groceries and, at the end of his service, the money for college."

He did serve in Afghanistan in a non combat role and did apply for a discharge as a conscientious objector, but that application was still pending when he went AWOL.

Now if anyone could please explain the following to me, I would really appreciate it.
1. If a person does not think killing another person is ever a good idea, WHY WOULD THAT PERSON ENLIST IN THE ARMY?? If there was a draft on, I might be more understanding, but he JOINED the Army.
2. Why was it OK for Hinzman to enlist, accept the benefits of military service, but when called upon to do what he signed up for it was suddenly ok to run away?

Personally, I hope Canada does grant Hinzman refugee status and hope the US will strip him of his citizenship. He joined the Army looking for freebees and ran when the Army asked him to do what it spent time and money training him to do. May Hinzman enjoy a long life outside the US and may he never be allowed to come back.

And some people will still screw it up

The Tallahassee Democrat (its the name of the newspaper, its not part of the political party) has an interesting article on how the State of Florida is trying to educate the voters in the upcoming election.

The best line of the article I think sums up the entire voting problem.

"The impolite fact is that voting isn't all that hard if you pay even minimal attention and the county does its part. If the equipment doesn't work, or the poll workers can't answer easy questions and they run out of ballots, the voters have a right to be angry. Other than that, if you give voting the thought you'd give a new scratch-off lottery game, you ought to be able to figure it out."

It will be interesting to see how people can still mess up something that is not that difficult. And if people find it so difficult, are they competent to vote in the first place, or drive a car, or raise a child?

I'm Not a Criminal

And I don't want to be treated as such, ESPECIALLY every time I get into my car. New Mexico is close to requiring a breathalyzer in every car as an ignition interlock. Let's get this straight, because there are idiots who drive drunk, I have to be treated as an idiot AND pay for it? Let's get this straight, the auto manufacturers would pass the cost of installing this interlock on to the consumer. It should be required of any person convicted of drunk driving, not the average citizen.

Somewhere, the manufacturer of these interlocks must be smiling. I wonder if they are located in New Mexico.

Save Disney

I voted no to reelecting the entire board. Did you?

The lighter side

Here are some non political items that are just interesting.

1. Angle Decoys - Air Force anti-missile flares, very cool picture

2. On eBay, buy your own F-18, one that was used by the Blue Angles in the early 1990s. The DoD is still trying to find out how a civilian managed to acquire it, be a nice plane to own and fly.

3. A commercial from GE, featuring Lassie and Timmy. Very good, didn't know Lassie could move like that.

All are work safe and make a nice break from work.

This is sounding like a bad Mafia movie

The American Spectator has an interesting story on how Bill Clinton was at first pushing to have Clark as the VP nomination of the Democratic ticket and is now pushing to have Hillary Clinton in that position. Not sure I buy it but its a short entertaining read, especially if you like conspiracy stories.

More on Sadam's oil contracts

When an Iraqi paper said it had evidence that a large number of people in the West, Russia and elsewhere were given sweetheart deals for Iraqi oil, not much was made of the story in the US. Partly because no prominent US names were on the list and because those who were on the list (President of Indonesia and certain French politicians) denied everything. Well the Guardian, the Guardian of all papers (for those who don't know, the Guardian is a very left wing UK paper that makes the NY Times look down right conservative), is now expanding on the story.

Apparently, some of the money was going to support the demonstrations to lift the sanctions Iraq was under and to demand the end of the US and UK enforcement of the no fly zone in Northern and Southern Iraq. So basically Iraqi oil money was ending up financing the demonstration of people in the UK who were supporting Iraq and going to those in position of authority (read members of Parliament) who supported the ending of sanctions. That sounds like foreign interference in internal UK matters and hope the UK will investigate and force into the light all those who accepted the money so they can explain their actions to their fellow citizens.

Not sure what to make of this

I think there are too many lawsuits in this country, many of them frivolous. But according to the story, a waiter was kicked in the groin by a 9 year old boy. The jury agreed with the waiter and awarded him $15,000.00. If the kid did do the things alleged in the case, (threaten several members of the staff with a knife and kicking the waiter) the parents got off easy, only having to pay some money. The kids should be removed from the parents home until they can prove they will take care of their kids and that sometimes means disciplining them. Of course its easy for me to say, I don' t have kids and everyone is an expert in raising kids until they have some of their own.

I guess I'm taking the side of the waiter because of the parents response to the case, saying the kids were under proper supervision the whole time and were only engaged in normal behavior. Harming adults was never "normal" when I was growing up. But what do I know.

Telegraph | News | 'This won't go away. What happened is much nastier than is being reported'

Kerry is reported to have been involved for two years with an intern.

This is not going to go away," one American friend of Miss Polier [the former Kerry intern] said yesterday. "What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported.

What is interesting is that it is the British papers doing the reporting. Is this really such a small story that none of the American papers are picking it up?

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - All-American Boy Now a Terror Suspect

Ryan G. Anderson is being charged with aiding terrorism:

Anderson, it appears, then tried to tell the agents how they might be successful in attacking U.S. armor in Iraq and provided information about "vulnerabilities" of equipment the U.S. Army was using in Iraq or is about to ship over with newly deployed troops.

Pixar Picks Comcasts Pockets?

Let us hope so. I've always thought that Jobs/Lassitar at Pixar would be a great combo to run Disney.

It Ain't Over Until the Intern Sings

I'm a conservative and I certainly wouldn't vote Dem, but I don't celebrate the fact that the Dems leading candidate can be crushed soon:

In an off-the-record conversation with a dozen reporters earlier this week, General Wesley Clark plainly stated: "Kerry will implode over an intern issue." [Three reporters in attendance confirm Clark made the startling comments.]

Prophetic? We will soon see. Check Drudge for the scoop.

But see that Clark will endorse Kerry soon so I don't know what that means.

C'MON GUYS, keep your hands to yourselves!

Harvesting Humans

They've cloned and harvested human embryos. My sister says, "Has NO ONE READ BRAVE NEW WORLD?"

If I had read Brave New World, maybe I would agree. It's a dark path, folks, a path that should not be taken lightly nor without thought.

If You're Conservative, You're Dumb

So says a philosophy professor at Duke:

"We try to hire the best, smartest people available," Brandon said of his philosophy hires. "If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire. Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too."

Disney Worker Crushed by Float at Magic Kingdom

Another tragedy at Disney where a worker is reportedly killed in a behind the scenes accident. Terrible. A different version is here.

When it rains it pours.

Old Time Kerry

From an interview in 1970:

Kerry said that the United Nations should have control over most of our foreign military operations. 'I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.'

I wonder if he still hold those views. The article is interesting enough for a read.

McDuck Capitalism

I just found this web page that does a good job explaining what the heart of capitalism is, its not money BTW.

John Derbyshire at NRO had the link to this page in his story. Both are worth looking at.

Mouse Trapped?

Comcast looking to buy Disney.

Damn you Eisner! Damn you!

UPDATE: It appears by a straw poll that 70% (as of 1:34 PM PST) don't want Comcast to buy out Disney.

Christians in Sports

In the wake of the recent Kurt Warner dustup ("I was benched because of my faith"), Robert Lipsyte at ESPN shares his observations of Christians in Sports. Key grafs:

Religious experience is so varied, it's hardly fair to stuff all publicly pious players into the same revival tent.

Stock car racers who have been raised evangelical Christians are suspicious of those expressive baseball and football players who they say are praying to "trinket Gods, false Gods," merely to bring them better luck.

Piety often does seem like just another performance enhancer. . .

I've almost always found that the ostentatiously religious athletes tended to be nicer, if not always more fun, than the party animals.

And then, of course, so many of the God Squadders turned out to be hypocrites, moaning in the chapel before the game, moaning in the lap-dance club afterward.

Don Feder at FrontPage Magazine has an interesting take on Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion".

Many people have denounced the movie if not anti-Semitic itself will give anti-Semitism legitimacy.

Feder's view is the Jewish community (who he is a member of) should not feel threatened by the movie. Christians are the natural allies of Jews and of Israel and while Jews and Christians differ on who Jesus is, we share a common moral code from Sinai. While the Christian Church in the Middle Ages did things to Jews which were not Christian in any manner, true Christians are the friends and allies of the Jewish people and common cause needs to be made before we are all destroyed by the common enemy, Islam as practiced in the Middle East.

Know When to Hold 'em. . .

. . .and know when to run.

Sullivan has an evaluation of Bush's hand for the upcoming elections: Nobody knows what Dub has in the (spider) hole card.

Lefty Media Bias

CNN spins a headline to read, "Report: Iraqis Want al-Qaida to Drive U.S. Out" but later changes it to "Operative Sought al-Qaida's Help in Iraq". Perhaps after somebody pointed out the bias.

Glenn Reynolds has the goods.

The Imminent Threat Canard

A liberal blog takes on the imminent threat canard:

But Bush did not claim that weapons of mass destruction had been identified – he actually said 'the Kay Report [issued by former Iraq Survey Group director David Kay] identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations" (emphasis ours). "Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities" are not "weapons of mass destruction." Indeed, the White House has recently backed away from the claim that weapons of mass destruction will eventually be found in Iraq.

This is from a LIBERAL, but open minded, blog.

(hat tip to Dean Esmay)

The Missing Link?

Iraqi Insurgent Sought Al Qaeda's Help to incite a religious war:

"It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. . .If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis who are fearful of destruction and death at the hands" of Shiites

I Represent That Remark

While reading an excerpt of recollections of Ronald Reagan, I ran across this comment by "chris" (emphasis mine):

with clinton, we got NAFTA and thousands, literally thousands of jobs got shipped out of the country. not only that, he signed the law which permitted an additional 100,000 professional asians a year to come into the u.s. to take jobs which we needed.

Couldn't the remark have read "he signed the law which permitted an additional 100,000 professionals a year. . ." Why doesn't "chris" mention the nationalities and races of any of the other H-1 visa holders? What about Philippinos? Indians? Pakistanis? Britains? Danes? Germans? (I've known at least one of each)

And, hello, I am a professional Asian and I hold a job in the U.S. Does "chris" have an axe to grind with Asians? Does he also imply that I took a job from a real American whereas Germans, Britains or Danes do not?

I hesitate to answer these and speculate further.

All Hands, ABANDON SHIP

Union that endorsed Dean will withdraw support

More on what search engines can do

The Washington Post has a good article by Yuki Noguchi on what Google and other search engines can find and how insecure many sites that hold personal or financial information are.

This may not be news to those who dream in 1's and 0's, however, it is surprising to me how bad security is and how much information is on line.

That's what I do with prepaid envelopes

I like what Colin McNickle at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review does when he receives junk mail (especially political junk mail) that arrives with a postage paid envelope. Now if its a party or organization I normally support, I'll toss it in the trash. But if I get on a party or organizations I oppose, all the paper they sent me goes back in their envelope to them. After a few months of this, I stop receiving mail from groups I don't support, they don't like having to pay for envelopes that contain their own literature and no money. Too bad I can't just tape the postage paid envelope to a brick or block of iron and send that. Oh well.

Pilot Wants to Share Faith. . .

. . .with passangers and crew. I wonder how he said it.

Now that's pretty bold! I hope that he doesn't lose his job.

Short Takes

U.S. soccer team hears Osama chants in Mexico. What nice people.

"Kerry Wins Poll in Match-Up With Bush (50% To 45%)". The press release does not talks about national defense or homeland security; spends all its time on homosexual marriage.

Clarett is in. I'd watch out, Maurice; make sure your pads are thick. The big boys may want to take a crack at you.

Will the parents please GROW UP?

The New York Times Magazine has a chilling article about the virus writers underground. In a number of cases, its bored teenagers who are writing these and their parents know they are doing it but instead of tossing the computer if necessary they whine "we don't support him doing that".

Would these parents please grow up and be PARENTS to their kids? If they don't the State may eventually send the tikes to jail for their hobbies. The parents choice.

Why are they swiping my drivers license?

Wired News has an interesting article on an exhibit Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, they swipe your drivers license and print out everything on the magnetic media strip.

Now more and more bars are doing the same and taking the data and using it for marketing purposes per the article. Very good read the amount of data we are carrying with us.

No, please tell us how you really feel

At PowerLine blog, one Vietnam veteran has a few comments about John Kerry and his service there. No, he's not someone Kerry will ask to stand with him on stage while he recalls his time in Vietnam.

Hat tip Hugh Hewitt

Late Night Surfing

Dumb Celebs

Comments on Flypaper

Since the comment section is limited in space, I'll enter some comments in a new entry.

While I agree with the statement President Bush has taken the fight to the enemy, Joe was being very selective in his remembrance in his comparisons of terrorism.

In the Carter administration, there was only ONE domestic action that could be called a terrorist attack. That was in 78 or 79 when a domestic radical group took over the top floors of 3 Washington DC office buildings and held people for some type of ransom. I don't remember the group's name or what their demands were, but do remember it lasted less then a month. Now terrorist attacks against Americans outside the US is a different matter. Iran Hostage Crisis is one, and a number of Americans were kidnapped and some killed in Europe and in Lebanon in the late 1970s. I agree that in Carter's case, he did not respond forcefully to the attacks on Americans outside the US during his presidency.

During Clinton's administration, there were several terrorist attacks in the US, one by a foreign terrorist organization and the rest by domestic organizations.
The foreign attack was WTC 1 in 93. Clinton treated it as a law enforcement problem and so we caught the bad guys who did it but didn't notice they were part of a larger organization. Oklahoma City was a domestic organization and caused more damage and killed more people then WTC 1. The government came down hard on the domestic groups and they didn't do anything more after that. Most of the people who were part of the Militia groups most likely didn't approve of Oklahoma City either so left. I'm not sure how to classify Wacco and Ruby Ridge, that was where the Government took a VERY strong hand and as a result some people died who may not have needed to.

Bush has transferred the fight from the US (no more domestic attacks) to the Middle East and protecting Americans is his prime responsibility. So while I agree that Bush is doing a better job countering the terrorist threat then Carter or Clinton (or even Reagan to some extent) did, Joe's comments need to be corrected so we compare apples with apples.

Flypaper?

While following a thread on Indepundit, I ran across an interesting observation by a commentor named Joe:

How many terrorist attacks did the US suffer when Clinton and Carter were in office? At a minimum, hostage taking in Iran, hostage taking in Lebanon, WTC attack 1, USS Cole, various attacks on US Embassies and the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia. All resulted in little to no response and never stopped the tide. They hit us with W in office thinking things were the same. Found out otherwise and no one is raising their greasy little heads out of their holes to taunt us. I for one feel much safer.

Putting aside Joe's emotional tones, it's pretty clear to me that he makes a great point:

On U.S. soil, post-9/11 we have not suffered a terrorist attack*.

What's happening? I think that we as a nation are becoming more vigilent and we're also relearning how dangerous the world is. I also think that the terrorists are focused on other parts of the world: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey. I also think that terrorists are focusing on softer targets: Saudi residential compounds, Iraqi police stations, and British embassies.

But in the end, I see this: W has taken the fight to the enemy.

====

*The Ricin attacks in Washington, I think, smack of some sort of homegrown terrorist.

(oh, by the way, Joe's comment was part of a great conversation about Smash's statement, "It never ceases to amaze me how some people can claim to "oppose the war, but support the troops." )

Now this is a WOW photograph

From the Yahoo New Article (they say it better then I could)

"A file photo from September 14, 2003 showing United States Air Force Captain Christopher Stricklin as he ejects from the USAF Thunderbirds number six aircraft less than a second before it impacted the ground, at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho."

Where is the Man?

OK, so Janet Jackson is bounced from the Grammy's, that is not unexpected. But there is one BIG problem with it:

Why isn't Justin Timberlake also barred from the Grammy's?

The man who actually performed the act of ripping off a portion of her clothes is not being punished. That seemingly sends a message that it was the woman's fault; not the man's. I believe that Timberlake is as much to be blamed for the stunt/accident as Jackson.

Raising the Graf Spee

No, this is not a misspelling of Raising the Titanic, but rather a group is going to raise the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee.

Instead of retelling the story, go here for a web page on it and here for the news paper article. Very interesting. Just wish I could have gone diving on the site before they started their salvage work. Oh well.

What some people will do for attention

'Right Breast Stole My Thunder' Says Super Bowl Streaker

The title to the article says it all. And to think this guy's well placed plans were upstaged by an "accident" (which was about as accidental as his stunt (IMHO))

Ulanoff: MTV Remaking History

Lance Ulanoff, columnist with PC Magazine, takes MTV to task for removing from their website a pre-Super Bowl press release that promised "shocking moments" during the now infamous Janet Jackson halftime stunt. Old news, but this caught my eye:

The tools used to populate the Web with content afford us the ability to remake history on the fly. Whatever is posted is as ephemeral as the air around us. It can blow in and out and away with little notice. News stories published in traditional print media become public record unless someone can manage to, say, burn every copy of today's New York Times.

If the blogosphere or any online media is really to take its place next or supplant traditional news sources, a sense of permanance and accountability is required for them to earn the public trust.

French Manners

A French general gets a good lashing from a Lieutenant for belittling the U.S. Army during a hospitality tour.

Lady Bush Trashed

By a play. Reviewer Alex Beam:

I wish the Cambridge Forum and the ART much success in staging this wonderful work of hate. I am sure there are members of the Cambridge booboisie who will pay the top ticket price of $300 to finance more bile like this. I wish only that the sponsors wouldn't tout their production as "controversial." There is nothing controversial about pandering to an audience's bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

Lucky

Gambler's luck changes

Academic "Freedom". . .

. . .applies only to liberal politics. Assistant professor, David Deming, wrote a letter in support of gun ownership that offended many of the opposite side--he used a rather controversial illustration. According to Deming, his boss, Dean John Snow,seems to be attempting to censor and suppress the professor. Ironic:

In April of 2001, OU President David Boren proclaimed that a policy of "complete free speech" applied to the entire OU campus, but Boren's policy is nothing but empty rhetoric and public relations.

A good portion of the article also demonstrates how Dean Snow does not tolerate dissidents:

Seven days before Christmas, I was summoned into the office of Dean John T. Snow. My tenure in the geology department was abrogated without due process. My geophysics class—for which I receive outstanding student evaluations—was taken from me without explanation. I was stripped of my right to supervise graduate students in geology and geophysics. I was evicted from my office and relegated to a small, dark room in a corner of the basement. No other faculty member in the entire College has office space assigned in the basement. Dean Snow glared at me and said that the fundamental problem was that I was not submissive to authority

In addition, censorship is appearing:

The archives for the campus newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, that published my original letter and articles on the resulting controversy, have been deleted from the Daily's website. The records for the months covered by the controversy, February, March, and April, of the year 2000 are conspicuous by their absence. Columnist Wendy McElroy wrote that this was one example of "a politically-correct pattern of purging conservative views from student newspapers [that] seems to be spreading across American campuses."

Folks "academic freedom" is a myth. Worse, "academic freedom" is a weapon to be used to bludgeon those who do not hold leftist views

The administration of the University of Oklahoma seems to want a generation of faculty that are servile, apathetic, and obsequious. No doubt that is what they will get.

Meanwhile, Back in Iran

Student protests over a particular political crisis are banned from the Tehran University. I wonder if they are allowed to protest in another location?

Coaches Gone Wild Dept.

Texas Tech suspends Knight for five days after a verbal altercation with the chancellor. Two thoughts:

1) It was only a matter of time.

2) WHAT WAS HE THINKING? Oh, I forgot, Bobby K. doesn't think--he reacts.

Short Takes

Dean is Done

Another Jackson Can't Keep Their Clothes On

Domestic Terrorism Roosts in the Capital

52 Most Dangerous Bloggers

Shaq: The Mouth that cost $295,000. (Has he learned nothing?)

Wes Clark Needs the Shaquille O'Neal Correspondence Course in Public Relations

Bobby Knight Needs to Chill Out

Finally, Sometimes the Penguin Gets You

Eisner's Report Card

Kevin Yee, a columnist at a website devoted to examining Disney, takes Eisner to task for his poor performance, especially for the Pixar fiasco:

The real story, in my opinion, is that relations were ever allowed to deteriorate so far. How did we get here? How did Disney, the number one movie studio for several years running, manage to ostracize Pixar, whose entire library of five movies never even risked box office disappointment? Somehow, the golden Pixar goose began to feel marginalized. This wasn’t just about money – it was about personalities. Roy Disney and Stan Gold have asserted that Eisner mismanaged Pixar, and they couldn’t be more right on this count. Pixar generated untold billions for Disney in theaters and through merchandising, yet Pixar came to the negotiating table unsatisfied with Disney’s treatment of them through the years.

Bush Getting Bashed

CNN reports on their own poll that Kerry leads Bush 53-46%.

I find this no surprise because of Bush's free spending ways are alienating fiscal conservatives. The margin come November can be much closer, as the publicity from the primaries tend to give Democrats a polling boost.

In any event, Bush is in trouble.

More on the debate on Gay marriages

Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online has a long article where he is answering some of Andrew Sullivan's reply to his prior article. IE the saga continue. Its a good article and worth reading.

2nd installment of the Iraq war

At Opinion Journal.com, Brian Taylor second installment from his journal from the Iraq war is published today. Its a multi-part story. Its told in simple language on what he and his comrades felt at the time. No Rambo's here, but men (and women) who are trying to do their job and then go home to their families. I think both qualify as must reads.

Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here