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19. september 2004
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Iran refuses to halt enrichment
The IAEA has called on Iran to stop all uranium enrichment activities.
Iran has responded, essentially, "stuff it."
If the case is sent to the Security Council, which can invoke sanctions, Iran further threatens to withdraw from the non-proliferation treaty altogether, and go ahead with its plans.
As expected, Iran is calling the west's bluff. And once the country goes nuclear, as can happen next summer, the Iranians are convinced they can poke their noses at everyone.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is probably the most dangerous development in the world right now.
11:14:35 PM 
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Jimmy Swaggart hates gays
A complaint has been filed to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for hateful remarks American evangelist Jimmy Swaggart made that were televised in Canada.
According to a transcript of the program, Mr. Swaggart said: "I'm trying to find the correct name for it ... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. ... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."
Asinine comments from a pathetic bigot.
10:51:02 PM
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Subway attack
Show tunes are a welcome antidote to nutcase fundie preachers. This is just too funny.
5:36:22 PM
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Rather revealing
Mark Steyn digs into Dan Rather, again. As always, it is a very entertaining read, and it asks some uncomfortable questions, too.
So the question now is why won't Dan and Co. just admit their docs are crocks and let it go? On Wednesday, CBS News head honcho Andrew Heyward, in a slippery statement, announced that ''we established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate.'' Note that word: not ''genuine'' but ''accurate'' -- i.e., if Lt. Col. Killian had had one of those IBM Model Ds and been willing to remove the carriage return and replace it with a rubber stopper on the front index scale while turning the crank, etc., these are the memos he would have written. Rather and Heyward are adopting the rogue-cop defense: The evidence is planted, but the guy's still guilty. Or as the New York Times' headline put it: ''Memos On Bush Are Fake But Accurate.''
Why has CBS News decided it would rather debauch its brand and treat its audience like morons than simply admit their hoax? For Dan Rather? I doubt it. Hurricane Dan looks like he's been hit by one. He's still standing, just about, but, like a battered double-wide, more and more panels are falling off every day. No one would destroy three-quarters of a century of audience trust and goodwill for one shattered anachronism of an anchorman, would they?
As the network put it last week, ''In accordance with longstanding journalistic ethics, CBS News is not prepared to reveal its confidential sources or the method by which '60 Minutes' Wednesday received the documents.'' But, once they admit the documents are fake, they can no longer claim ''journalistic ethics'' as an excuse to protect their source. There's no legal or First Amendment protection afforded to a man who peddles a fraud. You'd think CBS would be mad as hell to find whoever it was who stitched them up and made them look idiots.
So why aren't they? The only reasonable conclusion is that the source -- or trail of sources -- is even more incriminating than the fake documents. Why else would Heyward and Rather allow the CBS news division to commit slow, public suicide?
Many of us have asked the same question.
3:34:04 PM
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Don't trust, and verify
An AP article quoted one Ahmad Majied expressing reservations about President Bush, and identified him as having been a SEAL in Vietnam. Here's how one blogger went about investigating the claim, finding that others were swarming all over, and finding out the truth about the matter.
AP has now issued a correction.
Which is more than a certain other news organisation has done, I may add.
1:02:50 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2004; 07:26:47.
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