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3. mai 2005
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A letter that has been found by US troops (or which is a psyops trick; how can we know?) shows low morale among the jihadists in Iraq:
The letter -- which never refers to al-Zarqawi by name -- is written to Sheik Abu Ahmad, a name not known to be used by the militant leader or his followers. But supporters often call al-Zarqawi the Sheik or Sheik Abu Musab in letters and on Web sites.
"What has happened to myself and my brothers is an unforgivable crime, but God will punish the oppressor," the letter reads. "I swear by God that you will be asked about what happened to us because you have not asked about the situation of the migrants. Morale is down and there is fatigue among mujahedeen ranks.
"There is discrimination by some of the brethren emirs. God would not accept such actions, and a simple mistake delays victory, so what about big mistakes and gross guilts? Many underestimate them and are lenient toward them."
The letter is dated April 27, the military said.
The author of the letter also "admonishes 'the Sheik' for abandoning his followers" after last year's U.S. siege on Falluja, west of Baghdad. [...]
The author of the letter, the military said, is a member of the terrorist group known as al Qaeda in Iraq.
The author's name is Abu Asim al-Qusaymi al-Yemeni, the military statement said.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the letter reflects "a certain amount of proof that [al-Zarqawi's] influence and effectiveness is deteriorating."
Interesting. The previous such letter said the terrorists intended to spark a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Later events have proven it correct (if not genuine).
11:56:15 PM 
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Pajamas Media gets mainstream media coverage.
The idea of Pajamas Media is to use an extensive network of globally affiliated blogs to provide first-person, in-depth coverage of most major news events, including both camera and video footage, Roger Simon said.
Using as an example the tsunami that swept through parts of Asia and Africa in January, Mr. Simon said bloggers managed to post hundreds of updates, first-person accounts, and video clips, often before major press organizations could deploy their staffs. With 162 affiliate blogs in dozens of different countries, according to Mr. Simon, the new venture will have the ability to get "in the middle of stories" that major news organizations can't, "because our affiliates will have a physical proximity, language, and cultural knowledge that the Associated Press man will often lack." Mr. Simon is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and mystery novelist whose credits include the Woody Allen directed "Scenes From a Mall" and the Moses Wine detective series.
Roger L. Simon is mostly happy about the coverage, except "Paul Mazursky, not Woody Allen, directed Scenes from a Mall" (Woody Allen acted). A blogger might have made the same mistake, but then it would have been corrected.
6:57:02 PM
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Jefferson Morley in the Washington Post opines about the British election, now only two days away:
The drip drip drip of press leaks about Tony Blair's decision to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq is eroding the British prime minister's lead in public opinion polls heading into Thursday's election, according to British online commentators.
With Blair and the Labor Party holding only a three-point to eight-point lead in a three-way race with Conservative Party leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy, pundits say revelations about Blair's Iraq policy are threatening to alienate Labor voters.
What opinion polls? If you take a look at the BBC's handly poll tracker, you will see that Labour has been consistently ahead, and these "drips" simply don't register. The only exception, a late March Financial Times MORI poll which showed the Tories slightly ahead, is also the newest source which shows a quite dramatic jump for Labour, now ahead 39% against the Tories' 29%. The very trendy Liberal Democrats, the only party opposing the Iraq war, is stuck between 21 and 24% in all polls. Given the "winner takes it all" electoral system in the UK, such a result in the election could actually strengthen Tony Blair's Labour party. And it would certainly mean the sack for Michael Howard, and the Conservatives again scrambling for a new leader.
The newsmedia's obsession with the Iraq War as hurting Tony Blair is simply not supported in the opinion polls. In two days, we'll almost certainly see Labour cruising to a third consecutive electoral victory.
4:19:43 PM
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Kansas debates Adam vs Darwin, in the 21st century.
Evolution is going on trial in Kansas.
Eighty years after a famed courtroom battle in Tennessee pitted religious beliefs about the origins of life against the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin, Kansas is holding its own hearings on what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began.
The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin on Thursday in the capitol Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution.
Many prominent U.S. scientific groups have denounced the debate as founded on fallacy and have promised to boycott the hearings, which opponents say are part of a larger nationwide effort by religious interests to gain control over government.
"I feel like I'm in a time warp here," said Topeka attorney Pedro Irigonegaray who has agreed to defend evolution as valid science. "To debate evolution is similar to debating whether the Earth is round. It is an absurd proposition."
You got that right.
Irigonegaray's opponent will be attorney John Calvert, managing director of the Intelligent Design Network, a Kansas organization that argues the Earth was created through intentional design rather than random organism evolution.
Evolution certainly is not random. Natural selection is the very opposite of random. You'd think the cretinists would have learned that; after all Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859, and it should not be too short time for these people to actually learn what it says.
The group is one of many that have been formed over the last several years to challenge the validity of evolutionary concepts and seek to open the schoolroom door to ideas that humans and other living creatures are too intricately designed to have come about randomly.
See what I mean? They desperately need a good education about evolution. Nobody needs to learn what creationism says, it is just "God did it!" but with all this misinformation propagated by the cretinists and picked up by the media, there is a big gap in knowledge about real science. Would you accept evolution if you found out it had nothing to do with randomness? Well, there we go. Problem solved. Not?
PS: When I blog something like this, frequently somebody who has overdosed on creationist pamphlets will embarrass themselves by posting "evolution is just a theory" as if that was even a sane thing to say. Make no mistake about it. It is a fact, something that can't be seriously doubted at this time, that all organisms currently living on this planet shares common descent. Neither is there any doubt that the theory of evolution by natural selection played a significant role in how this came about. How large exactly is still a matter of debate, but this doesn't mean the fact of evolution is less certain than, say, a spherical earth.
Is it possible that God, Jaldabaoth or aliens have been playing with the DNA code somewhere along the line? Well, there is no evidence for such a thing, but it's hardly impossible. But that isn't precisely what "intelligent design" is really about, is it? It's all about finding gaps in which a tiny god can be squeezed in. It certainly isn't science. And it is hardly good theology.
12:46:00 PM
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We worried about the loonie left. The not-so-reverend Pat Robertson demonstrates the loonie right will not be outdone in idiocy:
Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday.
"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," Robertson said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
"I think we have controlled Al Qaeda," the 700 Club host said, but warned of "erosion at home" and said judges were creating a "tyranny of oligarchy."
Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War - Robertson didn't back down.
"Yes, I really believe that," he said. "I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together."
God, save me from your followers!
11:59:58 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.06.2005; 06:44:02.
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