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16. mars 2003
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The Onion for prophetic accuracy
I see references to this piece in the Onion is just now making its rounds in the blogsphere.
The article is from January 2001, and has President Bush promise that he would put an end to the Clinton era's "long national nightmare of peace and prosperity," spend the surplus, give tax benefits to the rich and widen the divide between rich and poor.
Even more astonishing, in this piece Bush promises that "the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years."
Secular Blasphemy blogged about this on February 5.
Positive spin: I'm ahead of the crowd. Negative spin: Nobody notices anyway.
11:45:20 PM 
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Blogging in Iraq
Journalist Christopher Allbritton has decided to become the first, and probably only, independent journalist covering this war on the spot. And what better place to do that than in blogspace? He has set up the blog Back to Iraq 2.0, where he reports as often as he can from Northern Iraq, where the Kurds have set up a de-facto independent democratic state.
10:11:09 PM
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Send in the pundits
Slate gives us a useful and sacrastic overview of the Iraq pundits that make the rounds in the US media, from the extreme right to the extreme left, and those in the middle.
8:11:38 PM
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Today's quote
"Americans will talk of praying as if it were the most normal, rational thing to do." (BBC's correspondent in Washington can't hide his astonishment at the superstitions of the natives)
5:50:18 PM
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Now that's a new one
I get the following error message when I upload new items:
Can't upstream because "The server, rcs.salon.com, returned error code 4: Can't find a sub-table named "item #1"."
The funny thing is that it is lying. It does upstream the new postings. It just refuses to tell my server that I have updated my blog, so nobody else will know. Grrr.
Well it's Sunday, and the Net always sucks on a Sunday. I see everybody on Salon blogs, except those who uses their own domains, have exactly the same problem.
1:52:47 PM
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The big mistake
Anne Applebaum writes in the Telegraph that the big humiliating mistake for the US and UK was to go through the UN in the first place. Bush should not have listened to Tony Blair. On the other hand, Bush can be blamed for not having consulted US allies, just presented them with what felt like an ultimatum which some of them chose to reject. Thus, through a number of tactical blunders, the US has succeeded in demolishing its network of allies over the Iraq question.
However, since everybody loves a winner, a swift, decisive victory in the Gulf after a minimum of casualties, followed by a reasonable smooth transition to Iraqi democracy, will be a full vindication for George Bush and Tony Blair. Any other outcome may well be disastrous politically for both of them.
1:48:01 PM
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Sterotype (sic)
Misspellings seem to be one way to make it to the top of the daypop bursts. Xtian at Radio Free Blogistan decided not to correct the misspelling, since by doing the same mistake as Instapundit, he made the burst.
Actually, the error was originally made by quizilla who everybody linked in the first place. Obviously, they are as clueless about spelling as they are about politics.
3:36:12 AM
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WHO issues rare virus warning
 A flu-like disease is spreading rapidly from the far east, and the World Health Organisation has issued a rare travel advisory about some far-east destinations.
The new disease, sometimes called a flu and sometimes compared to pneumonia, is called SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. WHO said 150 new cases were reported only last week.
The disease is moderately contagious, as most new cases appears to be family members or health workers. It originated in Hanoi two weeks ago, and has been spreading rapidly with travellers.
Experts say there is no reason to believe this has anything to do with bioterrorism.
3:18:50 AM
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Kiwi innings
This is the most bizarre sports report I have ever read, from New Zealand's innings in the one day WC cricket match against India.
Kiwis 146 all out.
India, who were already through, beat New Zealand by 7 wickets, sending them home.
2:53:51 AM
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"Ghasp! File sharing services contain porn!"
"The same technology used to download music from file-sharing sites makes it possible to trade pornography, tech experts testified at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday. " (CNN)
What really, really scares me is that this was news to US lawmakers. Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va) describes himself as "tech savvy" but yet he was "suprised" by hearing about this just now. What is his definition of "tech savvy"? Knowing where to find the power switch on his PC?
12:02:58 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:33:11.
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