8. desember 2003

Chomsky caught lying Leftist icon Noam Chomsky predicted in October 2001 that the Afghanistan campaign would lead to a "silent genocide" of 3-4 million Afghans, and that this was totally intentional from the "elite" in the west. Of course, nothing even remotely like that happened. So what is Chomsky's excuse now? A flatout denial, as you can read on Daimnation. Via InstaPundit. 11:58:19 PM    comment []  trackback []

Are shoes made for feet, or the other way around? Ouch! This is just plain wrong. 10:40:33 PM    comment []  trackback []

NRA wants to become news outlet The National Rife Association is not happy about spending limits in the campaign finance law. Now it wants to get its own TV or Radio station before the presidential election and declare itself a news organisation, meaning it would be exempt from all spending limits. The NRA would then be free to say what it wanted about all candidates, and accept as much corporate sponsorship as it could for its issues. We're looking at bringing a court case that we're as legitimate a media outlet as Disney or Viacom or Time Warner," the NRA's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, said in an interview. "Why should they have an exclusive right to relay information to the public, and why should not NRA be considered as legitimate a news source as they are? That's never been explored legally," he said. Well, if this theory flies, and a one trick pony like the NRA can qualify as a news outlet, then the Republican or Democratic parties would be even more so, wouldn't they? In that case: so much for compaign finance reforms. 7:59:22 PM    comment []  trackback []

Selling your soul at a bargain Isolde at Felix online has found the perfect answer for annoying religionists out to convert her. And very little shuts up a public-spirited Mormon like the reply, “Yes, thank you, I have found religion – I’m a Satanist”. That'd sound very convincing if I said it, too. 7:01:11 PM    comment []  trackback []

NATO WMD response unit launched The first, and maybe most urgent, part of NATO's new rapid reaction force has now been unveiled, a WMD protection unit based upon Czech expertise and command. The Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defence Battalion contains 500 members, to be increased to 700, intending to be the first specialist units on the ground if the unthinkable happens. 4:07:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

Putin's support party wins Russian election The United Russia party has as expected won the parliamentary election in Russia, making it easier for president Vladimir Putin to push his desired reforms through the State Duma. United Russia looks set to win 37% of the vote, while the communists and the misnamed Liberal Democrats, extremist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party, is fighting for a second spot. The weakening of the communists will make Putin's job easier. The ultra-nationalists normaly vote with him. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which had around 400 observers in the election, notes gross deficiences in al election that falls far short of democratic standards. "Our main impression of the overall electoral process was... one of regression in the democratisation of this country," Bruce George, president of the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE, said. "In this election the enormous advantage of incumbency and access to state equipment, resources and buildings led to the election result being overwhelmingly distorted," Mr George said. "It's the shared and unanimous view that these deficiencies called into question Russia's willingness to move towards European and international standards for democratic elections," he added. But Putin is the right man to win, isn't he, so we don't complain too loudly, I guess. 3:05:12 PM    comment []  trackback []

Zimbabwe leaves commonwealth Robert Mugabe has announced that Zimbabwe will pull out of the Commonwealth, one of the world's largest international organisations, after the Commonwealth leaders decided to extend the country's suspension indefinately. This essentially means the leverage Britain and other Commonwealth countries had over Mugabe is gone. South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia are reportedly very unhappy with the situation, and would prefer Zimbabwe to be allowed back in without sanctions. South Africa's Mbeki has used what is called a "silent diplomacy" with Mugabe, which essentially means that he is silent in face of the regime's human rights abuses and destruction of Zimbabwe's democracy. 5:35:05 AM    comment []  trackback []

Gingrich breaks rank and criticises Iraq war conduct Newt Gingrich, ranking Republican, former House speaker and member of Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board, has issued surprisingly harsh criticism of the conduct of the war in Iraq. In a Newsweek interview, he even brings up the dreaded V-word. Gingrich argues that the administration has been putting far too much emphasis on a military solution and slighting the political element. “The real key here is not how many enemy do I kill. The real key is how many allies do I grow,” he says. “And that is a very important metric that they just don’t get.” He contends that the civilian-run CPA is fairly isolated and powerless, hunkered down inside its bunker in Baghdad. The military has the money and the daily contact with the locals. But it’s using the same tactics in a guerrilla struggle that led to defeat in Vietnam. “The Army’s reaction to Vietnam was not to think about it,” he says. Rather than absorb the lessons of counterinsurgency, Gingrich says, the Army adopted “a deliberate strategy of amnesia because people didn’t want to ever do it again.” The Army rebuilt a superb fighting force for waging a conventional war. “I am very proud of what [Operation Iraqi Freedom commander Gen.] Tommy Franks did—up to the moment of deciding how to transfer power to the Iraqis. Then,” said Gingrich, “we go off a cliff.” Gingrich strongly believes that the Iraqis should be implicated in winning the war faster, earlier and to a greater degree. Even a faulty Iraqi government is, he thinks, better than the US trying to do the job without local support. This echos the opinion of one anonymous special forces commander interviewed in the same article, who also brings up the ghost of Vietnam:  “This is what Westmoreland was doing in Vietnam,” says a top Special Forces commander, referring to the firepower-heavy tactics favored by the military’s senior commander in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, who lost sight of America’s essential mission in that lost war: winning the hearts and minds of the people. The problem with these historical lessons is that they are just as often a recipe for defeat as for victory. Sure, everybody brings up Vietnam because that war went badly. It is however worth noting that the Vietnam war was fought according to the script from the Malayan Emergency, the successful endavour of the British to defeat the communist guerillas between 1948 and 1960. This was indeed the only example of a western power conclusively defeating communist guerilla forces. The US did look carefully at the lessons from the Malaya civil war carefully and attempted to implement them in Vietnam. The real lesson to be learned is that every war and conflict is different, and that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for winning. 2:07:04 AM    comment []  trackback []

Australian Imam accused of inciting hatred towards gays Rexhep Idrizi, a leading Imam in Australia's Albanian Muslim community, is accused of inciting his followers to attack homosexuals. Worshippers heard him say that gays should have their head chopped off, and reported the incident. But worshipper Asip Demiri, who was at the service, told the Sunday Herald Sun that Imam Idrizi had verbally attacked homosexuals. "I couldn't believe it. I was sitting there with my son and he comes out with comments as if the Koran says it's OK to attack homosexuals," Mr Demiri said. "He told us they should have their heads chopped off. "My son asked me if what the Imam said was true and I said 'No, it's not'. Then, he wanted to know if the Imam was lying and I couldn't give him an answer that would make any sense. "We go there to pray, not to listen to that kind of rubbish. There were a lot of intelligent people there who were offended by it. He (Imam Idrizi) needs to be taken to task for it, because it gives Muslims a bad name." The Imam's son, Muhamed Idrizi, last year were jailed for being part for a gang having attacked a cyclist with a machete and for bashing and robbing two others. The court heard that the group had gone on what he called a "p--fter bashing" mission. The first victim was repeatedly kicked, punched and struck over the head with a machete in Alma Park, St Kilda. Predictably, the imam denies the charges and accuses his critics of attacking Islam. I am not optimistic that the authorites will see that this is not the occasion where a minority religion deserves any special leeway. 12:25:36 AM    comment []  trackback []

Cthulhu Jack Chick style So what if the fundie comic author Jack Chick did Cthulhu instead of some old Semitic tribal deity? Well, then it would probably look something like this. 12:17:03 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.01.2004; 02:46:29.