I made and deleted a dozen lists of the best/worst of the year....finally it hit me.
My favorite moment of the year:
I would like to thank my readers and wish my fellow Blogosphereans a Happy New Year!
Australians are always there when needed...God Bless 'em.
Even tiny Tasmania with a population of 300,000 ponied up AUD$150,000 thus far.
Hell's Bells, Scott Ott's readers managed to find $3,081 in loose change.
We may be just a bunch of Crackers and Ockers, but we got heart. Snotty Eurotrash, pandering half-a-Commie Pols and their media toadies can kiss my uncouth ass.
DigitalGlobe has a stunning gallery of satellite images of the tsunami on Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka.
Living above the San Andreas fault and working a few blocks from the bay these images drive home the crap shoot I'm living. Break out the wallets folks, it could be any of us along the West Coast. Really.
The Command Post has an extensive link page of how you can help.
MeEsa, ZoZo 'n FeSte wiShes yOueS a MeRRy ChRIStMaS, wE dOeS...'n so dOEs ThE KarnIvAL KaTz
--moLLy
[catnip: last summer we promised a photo of Zak, this one seemed purrfect. --Zozo]
...a lot like a dog patiently waiting for a treat bribe and the humilation to end.
Okay. This is just wrong and disturbingly erotic.
(Thanks Jools, I needed a laugh after my previous post!)
You could this one coming a mile away too...via Hindrocket:
This press conference by Major General Stephen Speakes and several other officers, which took place on Wednesday, is worth reading in its entirety.Q On the 278th, can you repeat this? At the time the question was asked, the planted question, the unit had 784 of its 804 vehicles armored?
GEN. SPEAKES: Here is the overall solution that you see. And what we've had to do is -- the theater had to take care of 830 total vehicles. So this shows you the calculus that was used. Up north in Iraq, they drew 119 up-armored humvees from what we call stay-behind equipment. That is equipment from a force that was already up there. We went ahead and applied 38 add-on armor kits to piece of equipment they deployed over on a ship. They also had down in Kuwait 214 stay- behind equipment pieces that were add-on armor kits. And then over here they had 459 pieces of equipment that were given level-three protection. And so when you put all this together, that comes up with 830.
Q At the time of the question -- summarize this, now -- that unit that the kid was complaining about was mostly armored?
GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. In other words, we completed all the armoring within 24 hours of the time the question was asked.
Q If he hadn't asked that question, would the up-armoring have been accomplished within 24 hours?
GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. This was already an existing program.
This next exchange is illustrative of the media's ignorance.
Q I mean, this is a hypothetical -- but why not say if you want 8,000 vehicles this month and here's the money --
GEN. SORENSON: Well, sure, but as I mentioned earlier, I mean, this is not Wal-Mart. As we've gone through, this is a very detailed process in terms of trying to get this capability. Steel -- we had, in some cases, to ramp up -- I said it before. We had one steel producer; we had to go out and get two more. In some cases, the steel was 12 to 16 weeks. Ballistic glass. There are a lot of long lead parts.
One would think news organzations would assign journalists who had at least a working knowledge of the DOD.
It appears that another part of the media armor story isn't accurate either:
All Trucks in Iraq Have Some Form of Armor, General SaysBALAD, Iraq, Dec. 16, 2004 -- All of the medium and heavy trucks soldiers drive in Iraq have some form of armor on them, said the logistics boss in the country during an interview Dec. 14.
Army Brig. Gen. Yves J. Fontaine, the commander of the 1st Corps Support Command, spoke to reporters traveling with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers. The chairman was in the region to bring a United Service Organizations tour headlined by Robin Williams to entertain servicemembers in the region.
Fontaine said that soldiers have not waited for kits to arrive from the United States to add armor to heavy and medium trucks that are the logistical workhorses in Iraq.
As early as August 2003, soldiers took armor from Iraqi vehicles and began welding it into their vehicles. It is not level-one armor, which is the kind put onto the vehicles at the manufacturer, Fontaine said. But the steel used is the same as in the add-on kits that have been arriving in Iraq.
Isn't the point here that our military is adapting in the field as opearations evolve as it always has? My father went into battle in Germany without winter gear or boots and ran out of ammunition. I am sure the media could point to stocks of stockpiled surplus or left-behind materials in forward staging areas that proved to be unsuitable in the field. You may note that the up-armor kits were described as "left-behind". Anyone who has ever lived orworked on a forward staging base understands that logistics is not a science nor are shortages on the ground due to a lack of planning or careless leaders, it's the shifting nature of war on the ground and the old bugaboo of inventory, whatever you've got in stock, something you don't is always needed/wanted. Yesterday.
It will be interesting to see how the Dems remove their feet from Senator Durbin's mouth, perhaps they'll finally choke on the rank opportunism they've employed since 9/11...oh, they did so last month, didn't they?
ThE wEEk beFOrE ChRiSTmaZ an ShaRp aZ a mARblE'z KarNIvAl of tHE Katz mAKeZ SuM PeoPLe cRAzY.
To wIt: tHe AnTLeRs of ShAMe:
ZozO to hER crEDiT wUz hAVinG nONe oF It. EyEs iZ bLoGGinG fRoM tHe LaPtOP iN a SEcrET LoCATiOn sO's MeEZa dOEsN't bECoMe FeSte's nEXt pHoTo viCTim!
--moLLy
[catnip: I am far more appalled that Feste actually bought this piece of crap, but Harley being a dog 'n all will prolly love it. --Zozo]
(An Elf's hat tip to Lair & Nardo for the inspiration -Feste)
I saw this one coming...
| You Are a Fruitcake! |
|
The one present Roy Collette wasn't looking forward to getting for Christmas 1988 was those damned pants.
A hat tip to Paul at Sanity's Edge...his retelling of Christmas past will bring tears to your eyes...in particular The Scalding of My Testicles.
Fa la la la la, la la la la!
...about an innocent little symbol. One cannot imagine the thought, angst and hubris that have gone into the tilde's inclusion on the keyboard and use.
(A hat tip to ~Fred at Fragments who asks the most amazing questions!)
Since I'm wearing my Amazon hat today, I would be remiss if I didn't share this gem with you. I know most of you think of westerns when you hear "Zane Grey" and glaze over with a silent "puleeze", but his real love was the sea and fishing, spending 300 days a year on his boat.
A friend and fishing enthustiast with a restored Portuguese fishing boat recommended Grey's fishing books and I just finished his "Tales of The Angler's El Dorado, New Zealand" published in 1953, it's a keeper. In all fairness I must disclose that I become violently sea-sick on the open ocean in small boats and do not share Grey's zeal for standing hip-deep in ice cold streams either, but thoroughly enjoyed his pursuits from my warm and cosy armchair.
Peter Jackson put New Zealand on everyone's short must-visit list, but New Zealand's clear, cold streams have long been known to fly fishing enthusiasts, Grey among them. Zane Grey conjures up an adventure story and a fishing story at once in his pursuit of trout and swordfish. Fishermen will be as happy as a box of budgies with the full-page monochrome photos and Grey's fishing tales will leave all wanting more.
Anyone else notice the disconnect between Amazon Editors/Critic's Top Three Picks of 2004 and their customers?
I really wanted to like "Translation" but fell alseep twice...prolly a generational thang...but I thought it a bore. Fatso's anti-Bush screed is #14 in the Customer's top 100, guess Amazon's customer base is more Red State than Blue.
Heh.
Today is the last day of the Friends of Iraq Blogger's Challenge.
So far, the Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge has raised $89375.00. That is awesome! Thank you!
Looks like the North Alliance will win the challenage, but there are no losers in this endeavour, take the quiz, mail the html code to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com and help us win hearts and minds:
Foolsblog would like to thank all who played along and has donated $75 to date, a dollar for each reader who hit the quiz and emailed a copy of their HTML results to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com.
Today Foolsblog will donate $5 for each of you clever folk who take the quiz and email the results html to soa(at)foolsblog(dot)com.
How about How about making a donation right now! Any amount is greatly appreciated and it's tax-deductible!
I was fruitlessly casting around for a holiday metaphor when it arrived on my doorstep with a thud.
Aha!
The Bonfire is to Blogosphere carnivals as the Fruitcake is to Christmas.
Fruitcake presents itself as a mass of rum-soaked Sultanas, nuts du jour, coma-inducing glace fruit, glow-in-the-dark Dye #6 red cherries and chewy sour citron bits bound together with a substance that definitely isn't cake. One isn't quite sure what to do with it when it arrives and as the Bonfire re-gifting lives on in browser caches, Aunt Tillie's fruitcake, circa 1946, lurks in your mother's pantry, awaiting it's next destination.
Also like the Bonfire, fruitcake has it it own Festival in Manitou Springs, CO, origins in many cultures, a clever branding campaign at the prestigious FPI and the entire enterprise of consuming one is vastly improved with a wee dram or two of whiskey on the side.
That said, shall we throw a pint or two of 151-proof Bloggy Bilge Water on the Bonfire?
Sneakeasy the Mad Macedonian's "He Coulda Been a Contendah" has a point in there somewhere.
The Unrepentant Leftist writes that his days of florescent orange hair are gone. Say it ain't so, Rob.
Ghost of a Flea manages to work Martin Amis and a semi-nude photo of Farah Fawcett into the same post. Howzah!
In the ever helpful This Blog is Full of Crap, Lair offers advice on powdering one's nose at the table...of course he doesn't address passing the straw to the right or the left.
Chainik Hocker posts the only thing worse than a bad post is the post that COULD HAVE achieved greatness.
Spirit Fingers claims If you look like a stud, you feel like a stud. Dammit!
Shall we pause to consider that?
Ferdinand the Conservative Cat offers helpful advice in The Tongue Incident. Ouch!
I'm shocked, shocked! The American Mind points out Bill Clinton's new twist on accoona matata.
Rick at Right Wingnuthouse claims there is such a thing as using the word "moonbat" too many times in a post. I think not.
VH1 Reinforces My Pet Jawa's homophobia and all this time I thought Jawas were bi-mu.nuvian.
Andrew Ian Dodge lists New PC terms. As an Owner Operator, I'll drink to that!
Opinionated Bastard says Nice Guys Finish First, oh fine, now he tells me.
"Probably my dumbest post ever." We'll be the judge of that, Lair.
The fantasy football season is almost over and Josh at D-42 is feeling dirty for starting the archenemy's defense.
Interested-Participant sends word that Cherrypicker kills banana farmer. Police are investigating. No film at 11?
Joe's Blog posts the mother-of-all reminders that these people are not our friends. [Warning Severe Eye Damage May Ensue]
Classical Values opines that James Wolcott can't drive a semi without a colon in Divinely Discontented Drippings of Deliverance.
Mad Anthony complains about poorly written help files in modern computer software. Yabbut can you complain in Hindi?
Espresso Sarcasm had a slow posting day and sends along the lamest excuse yet "it's not really even a post, just a comment I left on another blog." Kudos Norman!
PoliARt asks the final burning question of BOTV Numero 76: Girls in Tube Tops or Christians?
My entry is the sorriest idea of the year.
Cheers! We're Done!
However, if you should get your hands on one of these babies, then a good Bourbon will be called for in copious quantities.
Next week's Bonfire will be held at The Zero Boss
Thanks for participating, let me know if I karked up your link or missed a Haloscan trackback.
Spirit of America's Jim Hake sends email about his meeting last Thursday with President Bush.
Yes, it's true - along with Omar and Mohammed from Iraq the Model and
Friends of Democracy - we met with him for 30 minutes in the Oval Office.VISIT WITH PRESIDENT BUSH
On Thursday, Omar and Mohammed from Iraq the Model and Friends of Democracy, Kerry Dupont from SoA and I met with President Bush in the Oval Office. It was a half-hour meeting with the President. Paul Wolfowitz was also there. I'll be posting more information in the next two days but here are two items.
About half way into the meeting the President said to Omar and Mohammed, "I want you two to know that we are going to stay until the job is done. It doesn't matter what the rest of the world says. It doesn't matter what the UN says. We are going to stay until the job is done. It's important that your country knows that." It was a powerful and moving moment.
After talking about Spirit of America, Pres. Bush turned to Omar and
Mohammed and said, " You see gentlemen, that is the beauty of America. I never met this man before but he's out there helping to win this war on terror just as much as Wolfie here. That's what I believe in." He went on to talk about the importance of private-sector, grass roots initiatives like SoA.
Wolfie?
BUWAHAHAHAHA! Wait a minute...wolves live in the woods don't they?
Close enough.
Ta Da!
Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.
Send your entries in for Bonfire of the Vanities Week #76 to bonfire(at)foolsblog(dot)com by Midnight PST tonight...that gives East Coast slackers an extra three hours.
Okay...upgrade done with barely a burp. Kudos to Six Apart.
BTW-TypeKey comment registration is turned on, don't have a TypeKey account? Go here.
Bear-ly? The secret word!
Ta Da!
Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.
I'll have some of whatever Moyers' is smoking.
Bill Moyers Retiring From TV Journalism"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."
The Right has one cable network outlet and a handful of talk radio shows, a few crazy aunts in the basement tapping out cranky screeds for print and a portion of the blogosphere and suddenly (heh) the media is skewed right and the journalistic sky is falling.
I posit that it is Moyers and his ilk who have done the most damage to their own cause, not right-wingers. Many Americans who are not especially religious, idealogically driven and socially-moderate/liberal are simply tired of the MSM's rentless pursuit of secularism and knee-jerk hatred for the Judeo-Christian values that are the bedrock of the country.
To put it in Moyer's native idiom: That dog won't hunt.
Hugh Hewitt passes on an email
...from a naval officer I respect a great deal, an e-mail on how to aid wounded troops in the two weeks left before Christmas:"Yellow ribbons tied around trees and red, white and blue
stickers on the backs SUVs saying "Support our Troops"
are things that make civilians feel good but do nothing
for the men and women actually in uniform.So please consider the following:
The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards. The government doesn't pay long distance phone charges and these wounded soldiers are rationing their calls home.Many will be there throughout the holidays.
Really support our troops --Send phone cards of any amount to:
Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001They say they need an "endless" supply of these -- any amount even $5 is greatly appreciated.
Walmart has good prices on AT&T cards, Sams Club is even better, if you are a member.
I am sure you would feel better about doing this, than to buy something for a third cousin, that would find it on the closet shelf six months later, and wonder where it came from.
Please pass this portion on, copy and paste it into your e-mail."
I know we're always hitting you up for donations, but $5?! We can do this.
The MSM just doesn't get it. This guy thinks he scored a big win...no...he's handed our troops a morale defeat and our enemies within another propaganda advantage.
Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: StaffersSubject: RE: Way to go
I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.
So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.
The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.
The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.
Thanks,
Lee
Yeah Lee, it's all over the news that you're a self-serving scumbag driving an anti-military agenda under the guise of being their friend.
(Hat tip to Drudge)
Smash tells it like it is, one wonders where Paredes new friends will be in five years?
An Open Letter to Pablo Paredes
Check out Understanding Ukraine written by Smash's Ukrianian friend Eric...it's a great instant primer on the situation and debunks much of the mis-information the MSM is peddling. Pity the media doesn't find this story compelling, we haven't witnessed a real people's revolution since the Czechs or the Poles challenged the Soviet bear.
BEAR? The secret word!
Ta Da!
Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.
"The acorn of increased homeownership among minorities may one day grow into a mighty oak of Republican voters."
(via Instapundit)
From Jim Hake at Spirit of America:
Blogger Challenge
The "Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge" is in its last week. So far, 162 bloggers have raised more than $52,343 for Spirit of America projects. Whoa!
Thank you bloggers! Real-time results are at SOA/FOI. Here are the top 5 rankings:
TEAMS
Northern Alliance of Blogs
Castle Argghhh! Fighting Fusileers for Freedom
TTLB EcoTeam <----Go Bears!
Buzzmachine
A Mighty Wind
INDIVIDUAL BLOGGERS
Little Green Footballs
Roger L. Simon
Iraq the Model
The Adventures of Chester
Chrenkof
Okay...I have to call bullshit on this one. Big. Time.
"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have."
We went to war with Bush 41,Cheney, Powell, Cohen, Gingrich and Clinton's military. I recall that the Joint Chiefs lobbied against the massive drawn down at the time Powell outlined the realignment and SecDef Aspin's more radical plan was defeated. You may also recall that we ran low on Tomahawk missles during the Clinton administration, shortages are not a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but a decade long drawn down on men and material. The Navy doesn't have a full compliment of fighters and support aircraft either. None of this is news, although the MSM seems to have collective amnesia.
It looks as if critics of the win-hold-win scenario were correct in many of their predictions and assumptions. Michael O'Hanlon wote an excellent analysis after the 2000 QDR.
There is a final argument against the two war construct. Just as the capabilities of South Korean forces must not be ignored, one should not overlook the likely role that British forces would play in a conflict in the Persian Gulf. The United Kingdom deployed 30,000 troops during Desert Storm, was prepared to send 50,000 troops to fight against Serbia, and tends to be aligned with the United States on issues of war and peace in Southwest Asia.Without prejudging the prospects for an integrated European military force, or presuming full agreement between Washington and London in matters of defense and foreign policy, one can venture to say that Britain would probably provide a division and several fighter squadrons to any coalition led by the United States in a future conflict in the Persian Gulf. However, pessimistic American war plans do not now assume such contributions.
Some will see the similarity between this proposal and a plan put forth as a trial balloon by Secretary of Defense Les Aspin in 1993. Known as a win-hold-win strategy, it envisioned completing an all-out war in one theater while simply holding the line in another. Once the first war was won, forces would be redeployed for a counteroffensive to meet the other challenge. But the caricature of that approach understated its capabilities and doomed it to rejection. Derided as win-hold-oops because of its alleged risk to war plans, it never stood a chance bureaucratically or politically.
The important point is that a Desert Shield force, with its overwhelming airpower and other long-range strike systems, can do more than hold a defensive line despite the limited capabilities of such a force.
[...]
More dangerously, the military could continue to overuse and wear out its most precious asset its people. That would be a far greater risk than the remote possibility of two nearly simultaneous, all-out conflicts against both Iraq and North Korea.
There are no winners in this dog fight, everyone pretty much got it wrong. Why/how we fumbled the country's defense for a more than a decade is the question and what are we doing to remedy the situation? So far, past and present administrations and Congress are doing little more than a PR circle-jerk.
Sorry I've been missing in action the past two weeks, but a brutal work load has made it impossible to keep up with the news cycle or the blogosphere. Looks like there's light at the end of the work tunnel this week, so please bear with me.
Bear? Yikes! that's the secret word!
Here's where l shamelessly beg for a donation: Spirit of America.
Have a looksee at a few of the Ecoteams excellent sites:
Depressing Demographics for Democrats is an interesting piece from Stand in the Trenches.
Attilla at the Pillage Idiot pens Requiem for Allah.
Chris at The Spoons experience has had a really full week. I too had a panic attack in the MRI resulting in months of nightmares involving small spaces. I hate small spaces. But then that's a whole blog unto itself, ain't it.
Cao's Blog pretty much sums up my feelings about the 9/11 recommendations and she has a bit of eye candy fer the wimmin folk...now that's a blog strategy I can get behind and you need to get behind Spirit of America.
We could see this one coming...according to The Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant on the Imus show this morning, the US is culpable in the oil-for-food scandal. He repeatedly asked "what's the charge?" (against Annan). Jeebus Tom, how about the hundreds of thousands of starved and/or slain Iraqis for starters.
Wretcherd at The Belmont Club takes on James Traub of the Los Angeles Times, who believes that the United States is out to lynch the UN using the Oil-for-Food scandal as a pretext.
In an article entitled Lynch Mob's Real Target Is the U.N., Not Annan, Traub argues that although Oil-for-Food was real, the actual criminal masterminds were certain members of the Security Council.The oil-for-food program was developed and directed not by U.N. civil servants but by the U.N. Security Council, as are all the organization's sanctions regimes. The diplomats who ran the program worked for the council's member states, including the United States and the four other permanent members. And they ran it according to the interests of those states, with the U.S. and Britain determined to prevent Iraq from importing items that could be used for military purposes and the French, Russians and Chinese equally determined to give the Iraqis the benefit of every doubt. Preventing theft was at the bottom of everyone's to-do list. The U.S. government had dozens of people monitoring the contracts but didn't hold back a single one on the grounds of corruption, price irregularities or kickbacks.
The secretariat deserves some portion of the blame, both for failing to sound the alarm over Iraqi swindling and for a slow and grudging reaction when the allegations first surfaced earlier this year. But the idea that this constitutes a firing offense for the secretary-general -- especially when the call is coming from the folks who rallied to Donald Rumsfeld's side after Abu Ghraib -- is hard to take seriously. I suspect that Annan's persecutors are after something else: not the man, but the institution itself.
The fundamental problem with Traub's argument is that Oil-For-Food existed for the purpose of enforcing sanctions imposed by the Security Council as a whole. It was not a program whose goals could be chosen according to taste, "with the U.S. and Britain determined to prevent Iraq from importing items that could be used for military purposes and the French, Russians and Chinese equally determined to give the Iraqis the benefit of every doubt." It had one purpose only. Oil-For-Food either existed expressly to prevent Saddam's rearmament or it was nothing at all. For that reason, the Secretary General's failure "to sound the alarm over Iraqi swindling and for a slow and grudging reaction when the allegations first surfaced earlier this year" is not primarily about thievery and corruption, although it is about that: it was mainly about flouting international law; it was about subverting the will of the Security Council. It was about Kofi Annan becoming a law unto himself.
As if we need a pretext. While you're there, scroll down to Nov 28th and read up...each post leads back to where the corruption began: France and the UN Security Council.
A very cool blog idea via BoingBoing
"Someone found a huge box of old postcards (1898-1922) in an antique shop. Not all that unusual, but what made them interesting was that they were all sent between members of the same (huge) family. Their finder is now scanning them in, transcribing them, and sticking them online.
It's the best of all possible things: you get to pry into the personal lives of strangers, see cool, old pictures (like a wall covered in skulls and London before the tourists arrived), as well as getting a rare glimpse into the past. As far as I can tell, these people used their postcards like we used email the post was so good the cards (and their reply) could arrive the same day."
Isobel...does anyone name children thusly nowadays? I hope so.
You'll get a giggle out of Xeni Jardin's test run at MSN's free hosted blogging platform, called "Spaces" and MSN's lame censorship heuristics.
Scroll down for an innovation the spammers might foist off on us next: ASCII text & images. Don't think it's possible? Have look at ASCII Babes.
