Link to Basil
Background here.
Basil's brilliant.

The force of nature
I woke up last night in the middle of the night and watched TV reports about New Orleans Called 'Untenable' As Levees Fail. I remembered a nice trip my husband and I took years ago and what a great time we had, the wonderful food, and the beautiful places we visited. The hotel where we stayed is now a wreck.

The rescue workers have done huge acts of valor, and I am grateful that the people in the service of our country always come through. The TV channels are continously showing rescue after rescue done by the local police and firemen, the Coast Guard, National Guard, and the Army. Don't miss Mudville Gazzette's post on NORTHCOM.

The last thing I watched was a heartbreaking interview of a man whose wife was carried by the stream in front of him and their children.

I urge all visitors to this blog to donate to the American Red Cross 1-800-HELP-NOW, and The Salvation Army 1-800-SAL-ARMY. N. Z. Bear is organizing a blogbugst tomorrow.
Update Maria sent a link to The Humane Society rescue effort.
Update 2 Babalú Blog takes the initiative:

Therefore, Babalú will not offer any new posts, any new entries, any new writing, any new content whatsoever until these relief organizations have received at least 100 donations from Babalú readers.

Update 3: A quick reminder that the American Red Cross has nothing to do with the policies of the International Committee of the Red Cross and has in fact withheld funds from the ICRC to protest its blatantly biased agenda.

Foreign humanitarian aid?
(The remaining of this post might sound rather angry -- but not quite as angry as him -- so you might want to skip to the next post.)

Where is the foreign humanitarian aid, you may ask. Chrenkoff points out that about the only country offering help is Venezuela:

Chavez said fuel could be sent to the United States via a Citgo refinery that has not been affected by the hurricane. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

Maybe we should take him up on it. If it's handled well from a PR point of view, it could be a win-win situation. There's much to be said for the positive side of having the USA receiving help, not just giving it as it always does. At the same time, if we do take up Hugo on his offer, maybe we should also not be surprised if a few Venezuelans (and Cuban medics that might come along) might want to stay after their job is done. After all, as Val points out, there's a real-estate boom in Miami from Venezuelans buying property.
Update: Via Babalú commenter A.M. Mora y Leon, Venezuelan oil state firm Pdvsa's refining branch in the United States Citgo Wednesday offered a USD 1 million donation to contribute to rescue operations

Of course there's the blame game
At least Hugo has refrained (so far) from kicking the US while it's down, unlike Germany's environment minister who

hinted Tuesday that Americans were to blame for Hurricane Katrina due to the U.S. refusal to cut greenhouse gases which many experts say cause global warming.

Not to be outdone, Robert Kennedy Jr. blamed the GOP.

This is a variation of Castro's 45-yr-old approach to natural disasters. All my life I've been reading reports of hurricane after hurricane having been officially blamed by Castro on the Americans, and I'm old enough that I remember people in the 1970s wondering if there was another ice age coming. Global warming hadn't even been invented yet. Fidel must have been a man ahead of his time.

Rich Lowry writes about Katrina Conceit: Global warming and Mother Nature

Has global warming increased the frequency of hurricanes? One of the nation's foremost hurricane experts, William Gray, points out that if global warming is at work, cyclones should be increasing not just in the Atlantic but elsewhere, in the West Pacific, East Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. They aren't. The number of cyclones per year worldwide fluctuates pretty steadily between 80 and 100. There's actually been a small overall decline in tropical cyclones since 1995, and Atlantic hurricanes declined from 1970 to 1994, even as the globe was heating up.

It seems that Atlantic hurricanes come in spurts, or as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it in more technical language, "a quasi-cyclic multi-decade regime that alternates between active and quiet phases." The late 1920s through the 1960s were active; the 1970s to early 1990s quiet; and since 1995 — as anyone living in Florida or Gulfport, Miss., can tell you — seems to be another active phase.

But if hurricanes aren't more frequent, are they more powerful? Warm water fuels hurricanes, so the theory is that as the ocean's surface heats up, hurricanes will pack more punch. An article in Nature — after questionable jiggering with the historical wind data — argues that hurricanes have doubled in strength because of global warming. Climatologist Patrick Michaels counters that if hurricanes had doubled in their power it would be obvious to everyone and there would be no need to write controversial papers about it.

Indeed, if you adjust for population growth and skyrocketing property values, hurricanes don't appear to be any more destructive today. According to the work of Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado, of the top five most destructive storms this century, only one occurred after 1950 — Hurricane Andrew in 1992. An NOAA analysis says there have been fewer Category 4 storms throughout the past 35 years than would have been expected given 20th-century averages.

Maybe New Orleans will rebuild. All I know is that it's a lot more likely that New Orleans will rebuild than it is that some pseudo-environmentalists will, as Lowry said, give up their "conceit that is oddly comforting: that whatever is wrong with the world is caused by us and fixable by us. Alas, it's not so."

Also posted at Love America First
(technorati tags katrina)

The Cotillion was on, bad weather and all
so it's time to read!

Top 10 conspiracies at the NYSun
Top 10 Arab and Iranian Conspiracies, but, if you want the condensed version, everything "is all the fault of the Americans and the Joos".

Just yesterday Sigmund, Carl and Alfred discussed Democracy, Freedom, Events, and Experiences:

Contrast these ideas with totalitarian regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere. They are bogged down by the past, reminding us and themselves of former glories while they waste away their present and future, going nowhere. A recent UN report on the state of education in the world placed the Arab countries at the bottom of the list, only above sub Saharan Africa in terms of quality of education. Given that there aren't that many schools in sub Saharan Africa to begin with, the distinction of not being at the bottom of the list is moot. Did that result in any outrage in Arab society? Hardly. It was ignored.

In totalitarian regimes, life is an orchestrated event, scripted by a government- lived until the death of the leader and new script is handed down.


One pundit wrote something to the effect that Arabs feel humiliated. Not because they can't read, have real no real economies and have to send their kids to the west to get educated-- that was no cause for shame, mind you-- but because they see themselves as victims of a conspiracy by the west to hold them back.

The response? A few months ago, Syria came out with it's new Five Year Plan. Remember those?

Plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme. These regimes are incapable of dealing with reality.

These regimes never accept blame or accountability. Abu Ghraib was met with outrage at the same time far greater horrors occur everyday at home. It is lost on much of the Arab world that we deal with our problems-- and they don't.

Why is it so? Well, these regimes and societies, in their hubris, see the world in an 'us vs them' framework, as was mentioned earlier. They never make mistakes and thus are never responsible or accountable. We, who live in democracies and commit to and demand, an always better society, are looked down upon-- after all, it is only we who make and correct our mistakes.

Dr. Sanity looks at Delaying Tactics

When belief in any idea become a matter of faith--and one's own identity is defined by that faith--then the psyche will do anything necessary to distort or deny any truth that contradicts that belief.

On a related subject, don't miss Sigmund, Carl and Alfred's What it all means, Parenting and what it all means:

Survival in such a culture necessitates some numbing. But this psychological component might be insignificant relative to the neurobiological effects of being beaten and tortured in childhood. It was Harvard researchers who first revealed that stress hormones released when children experience physical and sexual abuse actually impede development of that part of the brain responsible for empathy and conscience.

Brain scans of those who suffered through events common in the childhood of Palestinian children reveal an underdeveloped hippocampus and vermis. Among the behaviors associated with this sort of brain damage: impulsivity, sadism, and suicide. It is almost too frightening to consider that Israel today faces a population many of whom are hardwired for the sort of violence we have been witnessing.

More terrifying is the long-term prognosis for Palestinian society. Martin Teicher, a lead researcher in the Harvard study, reports that sadistic parents neurobiologically infect their children with the same trait: Society reaps what it sows in the way it nurtures its children.

Read it all.

Irán a Irán [*]
Via Paxety, IRAN WILLING TO EXPAND TIES WITH CUBA

Lauding the resistance of the Cuban nation to the hegemonic policies of the US, Rafsanjani said President Fidel Castro is regarded as an impressive character in contemporary history and his presence on the political scene has left a double impacts on the anti-imperialism spirit of the Cuban nation.

(If only the mullahs would hire a better translator. But I digress.) Some of that "anti-imperialism spirit of the Cuban nation" might be looking at Iran's promising nuclear future,

Iran has made a new breakthrough in its controversial nuclear program, successfully using biotechnology to extract larger and cheaper quantities of uranium concentrate from its mines, state television reported

which involves Venezuela, at least as long as Hugo coughs up the dough for all.

The Iranian president gives a sign: Iran's President Reappoints Nuclear Chief

Iran's president reinstated Gholamreza Aghazadeh as head of Iran's nuclear program on Monday, a clear sign to the Europeans and Washington not to expect a change of course under the country's new leadership.
. . .
Iran renewed its uranium reprocessing activities at a plant in central city of Isfahan earlier this month after rejecting a European proposal to give up its uranium enrichment program in return for economic incentives. Aghazadeh called the offer a ``joke.''

Just the same day as the Cuban ambassador to Tehran was meeting with the Iranian Chairman of the Expediency (what does a Chairman of the Expediency do?) Chirac says Iran must halt nuclear activities, or he'll taunt them a second time.

Back in our hemisphere, the Boston Globe touts wonders of Cuba's "free universal healthcare" (via Babalu in an article written by Indira Lakshmanan. Maybe the Globe should send Ms Lakshmanan to South Africa to interview some of the students who came back from Cuba (emphasis mine):

Spokesperson Mpho Gabashane said the programme wasn't always financially viable and that only 12 of the 23 students sent to Cuba in 1997 and 1998 were working at state hospitals in the province.
. . .
The feast was a real treat for the students, who have lived on mainly vegetarian fare for the past three years.

"In Cuba we always eat rice and beans, no meat," said Africa Manzini.

He said the students had spent the holiday trying to catch up with all the new developments in South Africa, especially the technological advances like those in the cellphone industry.

South Africa has been spending R35,000/year/student ($5,421.99). A Cuban doctor makes $20/month.

I wonder how much moolah all these mullah meetings are costing.

[*] Indulging in my love of puns, this means "to Iran they'll go".

The Port of Southern Louisiana
TigerHawk has a post on Katrina: The geopolitical significance of the Port of Southern Louisiana

The Port of Southern Louisiana is the fifth-largest port in the world in terms of tonnage, and the largest port in the United States. The only global ports larger are Singapore, Rotterdam, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is bigger than Houston, Chiba and Nagoya, Antwerp and New York/New Jersey. It is a key link in U.S. imports and exports and critical to the global economy.

Read it all.

Bad news from Norway
Mountain romance a pain: In Norway the "peaks in autumn have become the country's hottest meeting place for those looking to find a partner"

Half-drunk men dropping sexual hints and resorting to vulgar body language often ruin the pastoral calm at hotels nestled in the mountains.
. . .
Young boys most also tolerate unwanted sexual attention, especially from middle-aged women.

Maybe it's the sweaters.

In more serious matters, Arhtur's got Good news from Iraq, part 34

Luskin has no mercy
again, and again (Just that day I was linking to a study that said that the Norwegians, despite their beautiful natural surroundings, oil fortune and having the country ranked as the best place in the world to live, are the saddest people in the Nordic region.)

International pictures
The Zimbawean Pundit writes about The (re)colonization of Zimbabwe, and Death (of a nation) by constitution. While I disagree with Zimpundit's position that "colonialism is a failure proof way to economic success", since colonialism failed not only Spain, the land of my ancestors, but basically every European colonial power, Zimpundit's shedding some light on China's interest in African mining, and the fact is that the proposed constitutional ammendment -- which will effectively eradicate property rights -- has been ignored by the international press.

Protests in Venezuela turned nasty -- and Aleksander Boyd asks Are foreign journalists on the take?. But not to worry, [Jesse] Jackson tries to soothe Venezuela leader by visiting Chavez's weekly TV program. China's been busy in Venezuela, too, with an oil deal. Property rights in Venezuela are soon becoming a thing of the past.

Maybe it all comes down to Global Strategic Positioning, or GSP.

One Free Korea's hosting today's Carnival of the Revolutions, with lots more on China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and the rest of the world.

No Bad Hair Blog international news list would be complete without an item on France in general and Sarkozy in particular, so here you have it: The photographer, the minister, his wife and her 'lover'. Mrs. Sarko and her boyfriend were featured on the cover of Paris Match but the cover photo is decorous and avoids a Fergie-toe moment. The Telegraph, however, points out the rather obvious,

publication of the photographs has raised suspicions of a political dirty tricks campaign

You don't say.

Also in Paris Match, a lengthy and rather complaisant (read: dhimmi) article announces Pas de Fatwa pour les transsexuels [No fatwa against transsexuals], featuring the lovely Athena, who recently completed her sex change. To me, the most telling phrase of the article is Athena's father saying

"C’était inacceptable pour moi, mon seul fils ! Je l’ai battu jusqu’au jour où il a tenté de se suicider. Ensuite, il a fallu que les médecins m’expliquent qu’il n’était pas homosexuel pour que j’accepte l’opération."
(my translation:)
"It was unacceptable to me, my only son! I beat him every day until he tried to commit suicide. Then, it was necessary that the doctors explain to me that he wasn't homosexual so I could accept the operation"

My heart goes out to Athena, and I pray her decision was the right one.

A war to be proud of
While today will probably be all-hurricane, all the time, Mr. Snitch! examines censorship, general ridicule, poor choice of administrators, allegations that republicans created the war, and some other matters brought up by the Bad press for the President.

Mark Steyn ponders hurricane coverage:

Iraqi nation-building coverage is like one almighty cable-news Hurricane Ahmed. The network correspondents climb into their oilskins and waders and wrap themselves round a lamppost on the boardwalk and insist that civil war's about to make landfall any minute now, devastating the handover/elections/constitution. But it never does. Hurricane Ahmed is simply the breezy back and forth of healthy politicking.

It's Hitchens, however, who brings light by noticing this is A War to Be Proud Of:

Just say plainly that we shall fight them everywhere they show themselves, and fight them on principle as well as in practice, and get ready to warn people that Nigeria is very probably the next target of the jihadists. The peaceniks love to ask: When and where will it all end? The answer is easy: It will end with the surrender or defeat of one of the contending parties. Should I add that I am certain which party that ought to be? Defeat is just about imaginable, though the mathematics and the algebra tell heavily against the holy warriors. Surrender to such a foe, after only four years of combat, is not even worthy of consideration.
. . .
In logic and morality, one must therefore compare the current state of the country with the likely or probable state of it had Saddam and his sons been allowed to go on ruling.

At once, one sees that all the alternatives would have been infinitely worse, and would most likely have led to an implosion--as well as opportunistic invasions from Iran and Turkey and Saudi Arabia, on behalf of their respective interests or confessional clienteles. This would in turn have necessitated a more costly and bloody intervention by some kind of coalition, much too late and on even worse terms and conditions. This is the lesson of Bosnia and Rwanda yesterday, and of Darfur today. When I have made this point in public, I have never had anyone offer an answer to it. A broken Iraq was in our future no matter what, and was a responsibility (somewhat conditioned by our past blunders) that no decent person could shirk. The only unthinkable policy was one of abstention.

Two pieces of good fortune still attend those of us who go out on the road for this urgent and worthy cause. The first is contingent: There are an astounding number of plain frauds and charlatans (to phrase it at its highest) in charge of the propaganda of the other side. Just to tell off the names is to frighten children more than Saki ever could: Michael Moore, George Galloway[*], Jacques Chirac, Tim Robbins, Richard Clarke, Joseph Wilson . . . a roster of gargoyles that would send Ripley himself into early retirement. Some of these characters are flippant, and make heavy jokes about Halliburton, and some disdain to conceal their sympathy for the opposite side. So that's easy enough.

The second bit of luck is a certain fiber displayed by a huge number of anonymous Americans. Faced with a constant drizzle of bad news and purposely demoralizing commentary, millions of people stick out their jaws and hang tight. I am no fan of populism, but I surmise that these citizens are clear on the main point: It is out of the question--plainly and absolutely out of the question--that we should surrender the keystone state of the Middle East to a rotten, murderous alliance between Baathists and bin Ladenists.
. . .
We need not argue about the failures and the mistakes and even the crimes, because these in some ways argue themselves. But a positive accounting could be offered without braggartry, and would include:

(1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.

(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.

(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)

(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.

(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region--the Kurds--and the spread of this example to other states.

(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.

(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.

(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.

Hitchens concludes with "If the great effort to remake Iraq as a demilitarized federal and secular democracy should fail or be defeated, I shall lose sleep for the rest of my life in reproaching myself for doing too little. But at least I shall have the comfort of not having offered, so far as I can recall, any word or deed that contributed to a defeat."

There's only one thing to keep in mind during any war: we must WIN.

[*] Via Commoner Sense, Wednesday, September 14, 7:00 pm, Baruch College Performing Arts Center: GEORGE GALLOWAY AND CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS DEBATE THE WAR IN IRAQ.

London Zoo's latest exhibitionists
New exhibit at London Zoo - humans

London Zoo unveiled a new exhibition -- eight humans prowling around wearing little more than fig leaves to cover their modesty.

The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human beings as they frolick throughout the August bank holiday weekend.

"We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," London Zoo said.

The volunteers mentioned in the article are aged 19 and 24, As you can see from the slide show, they're also nice-looking (and pale! Ever notice how Brits manage to remain pale all the time?)

I guess they didn't make it to Big Brother, so it was the Zoo for them.

Update TBHB's contact in London, Scott, has more serious matters to worry about, so I guess I won't find out if the Zoo's idea man for the exhibit(ionists) was Dr. Cornelius.
Update 2: Commoner Sense is right.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In other AP news, Man Launches Ice Cream Stick Viking Ship

Cool.

The Carnival in Paradise

If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawn mower is hosting Carnival #14, and we're in the map!

"Iraq wasn't created by God. It was created by Winston Churchill."
Read what David Brooks has to say on the Iraqi constitution.

Barcepundit links to Alenda Lux, who compares the Afghan Constitution with the Iraqi. Publius Pundit says IT ALL COMES DOWN TO FEDERALISM.

Here's the full text (pdf file) of the Draft Iraqi Constitution.

For real reporting form Iraq: Michael Yon's the man.

Update Victor Davis Hanson writes on The Paranoid Style and how incorrect are those who have directed their attacks at him personally. A must-read.

Australia gets tough
on values

Dr Nelson told ABC Radio that understanding, tolerance, inclusion and responsibility were founding values that all Australians regardless of their cultural heritage must accept if they want to live here.

"They are the values upon which our society has been built and it doesn't matter where people come from, if they accept the privilege and responsibilities of citizenship in our country, then they're the values essentially - which I might add under-ride the major religions of the world - which we embrace," Dr Nelson said.

"If people don't want to accept and embrace those values, then they ought to clear off, I don't care where they're from."

Other values he listed as essentially Australian were care, compassion, reaching out to others, doing your best, pursuing and protecting the common good, treating all people fairly, enterprise, respectfulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance.

Advertisement
Advertisement"We welcome people from all over the world, irrespective of their political affiliations, their religious views," he said.

"We want and demand in a way, that people embrace not only our constitutional arrangements, our laws, live by our laws, but also our values, the way we are, the way we relate to one another and see our place in the world. That's what defines our destiny.

The UK gets tough on Australians (h/t Samizdata).

Astrologers excited about the discovery of a possible new planet, but didn't see it coming
maybe because "Pluto is in Sagittarius right now". And here I thought Pluto was Mickey's dog.
Today's Horoscope: Now Unsure

If astrologers were able to detect the influences of planets on people's lives accurately, should they not have noticed the influence of a 10th planet long before astronomers detected it?

Duh.

Speaking of astrologers, Steve uses this guy's picture for Arianna's posts.

Father Eugene Patrick O'Grady
was the only Maryland National Guard chaplain to die on a European battlefield during World War II. Jonathan Pitts has A Final Salute (via The Anchoress)

Norway still best place to live,
says the U. N.

I haven't made it to Norway yet, but I expect it's a lovely place, so I hesitate in suggesting the U. N. leave NYC and move there. Maybe that'll cheer up the sad Norwegians. As for me, few things would cheer me more than closing up the UN altogether.

Hall of shame: Code Pink protesters, the Seattle soldier beatings
Juliette's Dissecting Code Pink/Walter Reed Protesters

Through this move, Code Pink has acted against George W. Bush via those who carry out his orders. Somehow, they believed--without thinking of human nature and without even the barest understanding of the mindset of those who implement the military objectives of this nation--that their actions would hurt the war effort. This is what passes for planning at Code Pink. They have, however, only served to hinder their own agenda by making themselves look like ghouls and like the types who would only be brave enough to take on soldiers when the latter are injured. I doubt that this was supposed to be part of "Stage Two."

Michelle Malkin follows up on the story of the Seattle soldier beatings.

Update: Don't miss Sigmund Carl and Alfred's epistole To Those Idiots Who Want Our Troops Out Of Iraq

George Bush didn’t lie to get us into this war. He relied on the intelligence that preceded him.- the UN, Russians, French and Brits all believed Saddam had WMD. The problem was that the intelligence was flawed. Bill Clinton was not responsible for the flawed intelligence- and that intelligence was gathered under his administration. That has been made clear. Grow up.

That is another truth you hate- and that is another reason you need this to be about George Bush.

Who is supporting Cindy Sheehan? The same people who can’t abide George Bush. The same people that refuse to accept the reality that he was elected into office- twice. It isn't about anti war sentiment- it's all about politics.

Fenton Communications, a long time liberal PR company, heads up the effort. Ben and Jerry’s Ben Cohen, of True Majority, an organization whose anti Bush stance is it’s raison d’etre, is front and center. MoveOn.org and Code Pink are sponsors, who came into being only because of George Bush- and the efforts to ‘get him’ at all costs.

Mostly, it's about your hatred of George Bush- and the truth that you don't care how many more Iraqis die. If they have to die to 'get' George Bush, it is a worthy sacrifice.

How 'progressive' of you.

Spot-on.

Update, August 27: Add two to the hall of shame: Al Sharpton and Neo-Nazis

The Pope pipes in on Venezuela
El Papa exige a Chávez libertad para la Iglesia {The Pope demands from Chávez freedom for the Church)

Papa Benedicto XVI pidió ayer más libertad para la Iglesia católica en Venezuela con el fin de que se ''disipen'' las dificultades actuales en las relaciones entre el gobierno de Hugo Chávez y las autoridades eclesiásticas.
(my translation:)
Pope Benedict XVI asked for more liberty for the Catholic Church in Venezuela so that the current strains in relations between the government of Hugo Chávez and the ecclesiastical authorities "would dissipate".

As I had mentioned earlier, retired Cardinal Rosalio Castillo, who called Chávez "a paranoid despot", had asked for an exorcism of Chávez and his regime. The Venezuelan bishops back [the] cardinal in [his] criticism of Chavez.

The Pope made his comments in an address accepting the credentials of Venezuela's new ambassador to the Vatican at a meeting at the papal summer residence south of Rome, and said said the Church would continue its mission to put "the good of all citizens before particular interests'".

Solidarity, anyone?

(technorati tags Pope Benedict XVI, Venezuela, Revolutions) (also posted at Love America First)

The economy: Summer of our his discontent, yet it's the truth that counts
While Krugman continues to moan (which caused VikingPundit to say Corrections? We don’t need no stinkin’ corrections), Donald Luskin unleashed the truth squad, and Larry Kudlow listens to The Silence of the Bush Boom

Meanwhile, a splendid group of economic data points show clearly the effectiveness of the president’s marginal tax-rate reductions of two years ago. The tax-cut package was in large part directed at stock market and business capital formation, both hard hit a few years back. This was the correct target. Share prices have recovered about 70 percent in recent years, with a number of widely tracked indexes, like the NYSE and the S&P small- and mid-cap indexes, now trading at all-time highs. The economy itself is growing at about 4 percent per annum since the tax cuts, with business investment leading the surge.

Breaking down the major components of the economy, business spending on equipment and software is now contributing close to 30 percent of the increase in gross domestic product. (Prior to the Bush tax cuts on capital gains, dividends, and personal incomes, cap-ex was a net drag on economic growth.) The business surge has caused industrial production to rise by nearly 9 percent in the past couple of years, or 4.1 percent annually.

As Kudlow says, "The president has a good story to tell, but he must tell it."

How would we do without the UN?
Probably a whole lot better.

From the NY Sun

The Commission on Human Rights' special investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, is threatening to expand his own brief and refer Britain to the United Nations General Assembly for human rights violations. This is because Britain is preparing plans to deport foreign citizens who engage in "unacceptable behavior" such as encouraging or glorifying terrorism.

Meanwhile, the UN finds global inequality rising. And, by golly, Kofi, his family, and his friends are doing their darnest. . . to keep their money.

Air America chairman missing
From the NY Sun:

The former chairman of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen - who former colleagues said engineered transfers of more than $800,000 to the liberal radio network from a boys and girls club in the Bronx - is missing, according to a lawyer who is trying to have him served with legal papers.

At least two people have said Mr. Cohen is in Hawaii.

Or elsewhere.

Don't miss the Sun's Special Report on Air America, and Michelle Malkin's and Brian Maloney's investigative report.

The Iraqi Constitution
brings up a question from Publius Pundit

In my post yesterday, Perspective on Islam in Iraq's constitution, I argued that Afghanistan has near similar wording in its own constitution and that the mainstream media didn’t harp on it in January 2004. Afghanistan has also not turned into a religious police state like Iran since then. So why is the media barking lunacy over the Iraqi constitution?

The WSJ says The constitution empowers legislators, not clerics

Reading this April 16, 2004 article makes me wonder if Dr. Krauthammer's psychic.

TV report on Chávez
Probably the one good thing about the controversy brought about by Pat Robertson's assinine remark -- which is clearly Pat Robertson's Gift to the Chavez Propagandists -- is that people are starting to notice what Chávez really stands for. Don't miss CBN's TV report, transcribed here.

Make no mistake, Chávez is moving right ahead in his project to enslave his country and as many Latin American countries as possible under the chain of communism. That's as undeniable as Pat Robertson's foolishness.

Latest posts on Venezuela:
August posts:
The oil crisis in Ecuador
Socialism made him feel better
The gaping hole of reality
Chávez's anti-Semitism
July posts:
Fidelugo-TV: Telesur signals to alliance with al-Jazeera
Why bother with literacy while implementing censorship?
Political weather update on "Hurracaine" Hugo in Cubazuela

(technorati tags: Fidelugo Venezuela)

Lifetime supply of soap
WILLisms asks,

Marginal Revolution blog points out an interesting tidbit:

In July the Spanish-language Univision was No.1 among all networks for 18 to 34 year olds, a critical demographic for advertisers. The station averaged 1.2 million nightly viewers from this age group; Fox was second.

WILLisms comments,

This likely has a lot to do with the proliferation of cable networks and will likely not continue into the Fall Season, but it is an eye-opening social marker and worth some discussion.

Let's take a look at what passes for programming at Univisión

• Monday: 8PM Apuesta por un amor [Wager of love](soap), 9PM La Madrastra [The Stepmother] (soap) 10PM Cristina (talk show)
• Tuesday: 8 & 9 see Monday, 10PM Casos de la vida real [True stories] (real-life dramas)
• Wednesday: 8 & 9 see Monday, 10PM Don Francisco presenta [Don Francisco presents] (celebrity interviews with Don Francisco)
• Thursday: 8 & 9 see Monday, 10PM Aquí y Ahora [Here and now] (news magazine)
• Friday: 8 & 9 same as Monday, 10PM Asi es . . . Gilberto Gless (celebrity bios) 10:30 Par de Ases [Pair of Aces] (comedy show)

Saturday evenings they have Sabado gigante, a weekly 4-hr variety show hosted in Miami by Don Francisco. Sunday evening they have 3 hours of comedy shows (3 1-hr long shows produced in Mexico).

I agree with WILLisms that it is a social marker. Univisión appeals to people who really are into their telenovelas -- the rest of us rent DVDs or watch a different number of cable TV stations, if we watch at all.

For a quick-and-easy guide to telenovelas, don't miss Jeff's BEAUTIFUL ATROCITIES GUIDE TO LATIN SOAPS. Jeff left out the only soap I've watched in the last 10 years, Pedro el escamoso, a Cinderella story starring a guy with a mullet.

It was a hoot, if only it had lasted only 3 episodes.

Soaps, however, are very influential in Latin America: Soap opera lures Brazilians to United States

Brazilians are illegally entering the United States in record numbers in hopes of finding jobs and better lives -- just like characters in a wildly popular Brazilian soap opera "America."
. . . "It shows most people in great difficulties, but the fact one or two do well creates the image people can make it," said Luis Bassegio, head of the Brazilian Catholic Church's migrant relief service.
. . . The difference is that in the soap, as in real life, they get jobs as maids and construction workers that pay in a couple of days what they get during a month in Brazil

And that's yet another social marker.

Dr. Sowell ponders oil
Maria sent this article, An oil 'crisis'?,

Today production is being held back, not by price controls, but by political hysteria whenever anyone suggests actually producing more oil ourselves.

Part 2 ponders costs,

Prices are what pay for costs. The government can impose price controls on gasoline or petroleum tomorrow but that will not have the slightest effect on the cost of oil exploration or the cost of extracting and processing the oil that is found.

When the costs are no longer being fully covered by prices, production is likely to be cut back, whether it is the production of oil or anything else. This is not speculation. This is what has been happening for literally thousands of years, going back to price controls in ancient Rome and Babylon.

Yet price controls have always been popular politically, despite being counterproductive economically. After all, how many votes do economists have and how many voters know economics?

Some people love to believe that prices should be kept down to a "reasonable" level, something that everyone can "afford." Yet the notion of "reasonable" prices is itself unreasonable. The costs of producing oil don't depend on what we can afford or consider "reasonable." Nor does the cost of anything else.

Not that the politicians would pay attention to that . . .

What comes next for Robertson and Chavez?
aks Sundries blog (via Babalu)

The important part is that Chavez is in the news, and that the US is seen in the worst possible international light. Again.

Robertson is a fool.

Publius Pundit has a round-up of PAT ROBERTSON, VIEWED BY VENEZUELA’S BLOGGERS

In the meantime, Hugo's partying in Havana with Fidel and Torrijos of Panama, but his auditors are raiding Chevron. Ecuador's getting to be expensive. The numbers in Venezuela are not good, either.

The fat of the land
AP story in the NY Sun: Obesity on the Increase Across Nation

"Bulging waistlines are growing, and it's going to cost taxpayers more dollars regardless of where you live," said Shelley Hearne, the organization's executive director

Why should it?

For starters, people are not going to get lean because the goverment is "trying to do something about it". To the contrary: A case could be made that once the government-approved "food pyramid" was shoved down people's consciousness, obesity rates in this country increased.

Then there's the scientific fact that, (via Samizdata) Life Expectancy in America Hits Record High, while the number of heart disease deaths has decreased. The average (fatter) American lives 77.6 years.

Not only that, the Center For Disease Control (CDC) had to revise its own figures just this year, not that that did anything to quell the hysteria:

One would be forgiven for thinking CDC stands for Center for Damage Control. Just a year after its widely-publicized and exceedingly controversial announcement that excess weight kills 400,000 Americans annually, the agency is rumbling, bumbling, stumbling toward an explanation for a new study that says the real figure is just 26,000.

In the past few years, the federal government has waged an all out war to scare Americans about our so-called "obesity epidemic." The Surgeon General says it's just as dangerous as the threat of terrorism. A leading Harvard expert compares obesity to a massive tsunami heading toward American shores. The director of the CDC called it worse than the Black Death.

Unfortunately, trial lawyers who see dollar signs where the rest of us see dinner have seized on the CDC's 400,000 deaths number to justify their frivolous crusades.

Now word comes from experts within the CDC that excess weight is about one-fifteenth as dangerous as previously thought, and has a lower death toll than diseases like septicemia and nephritis. Each death is of course tragic. But has anyone heard of the septicemia "epidemic" or the nephritis "tsunami"?

It turns out that the 70 million Americans who are technically “overweight” have no increased mortality risk.

Never mind that people who are modestly overweight have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight.

To answer my own question, then, the reason "it's going to cost taxpayers more dollars regardless of where you live," is that the goverment agencies will want to bloat their budgets even further and the trial lawyers are finding obesity a means to new-found riches.

The fact that responsibility for personal health lies within each person is, from the bureaucrats' point of view, a moot issue.

Update: Speaking of obesity, Iowahawk has Hello Blubbuh, Hello Flabbah.

Also posted at Blogger News Network.

The Manolo's back from vacation,
and he's got two items of interest:
The Greatest Living Male of the Species, with a list of Top 100 Hunks. That Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt (yeech!) are #1 & #2 respectively says a lot about the list. Of the top 40 I like #12, 16, 17, 40, and then would have placed #21 on the #1 spot, and #54 (54? What is wrong with them?) in second place. But that's just me.

Definitely NOT in the Top 100 Hunks is the subject of The Man(olo)'s post on Dead Flowers.

Update: "The oldest shoes in the world are about 9,000 years old, and they're from California"

Please, no Pat Robertson
Having read this, I agree with the Captain:

Having someone use their credentials as a Christian broadcaster to issue this kind of advice takes it past political insanity to a moral disgrace, one at which Robertson's viewers should be appalled.

Or, as Time Mag puts it, Hugo Chavez has a new best friend this morning: television evangelist Pat Robertson.

Democracy in Fallujah
Arthur explains

both the main Sunni insurgent group, Ansar Al Sunna, as well as Shia radical Muqtada al Sadr, have been calling on supporters to register to vote in the constitution referendum

In the meantime, the NYT remains resolutely on message.

Update On the subject on the NY Times, today's NY Sun editorial asks,

Why aren't the New York Review of Books and the New York Times-owned IHT disclosing that the man attacking Israel in their pages is being supported by European governments and non-American Arab businessmen? The Times itself has an integrity policy requiring freelance contributors to "avoid conflicts of interest, real or apparent," yet the Times ran an op-ed piece by Mr. Siegman in 2002 identifying him only as "a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations." If the publications had made the disclosure, their readers could draw their own conclusions.

The eiditorial also says "A spokeswoman for the Council says that there is no connection between funding sources and any scholar's opinions." Yeah, right.

Latest French hostage released
I posted that that Mohammed Ouathi, a soundman working for the French TV station France 3, was kidnapped in Gaza on August 14. He was freed yesterday. Of course, the kidnapping was blamed on the joos. The Jerusalem Post explains (emphasis mine):

Palestinian Authority security officials told The Jerusalem Post that Mohammad Ouathi, a soundman for France 3 television, had been kidnapped by members of the Popular Resistance Committees, an alliance of various armed militias.

Earlier this week, the group held a press conference in Gaza City in which its leaders announced that they had nothing to do with the abduction of Ouathi, a Frenchman of Algerian origin. The group even claimed that Israel was behind the kidnapping.

However, members of the group, which is dominated by Fatah gunmen, dismissed claims that they had been holding the journalist, saying their members actually helped free him.

Ouathi was kidnapped on August 15 by three masked gunmen near his hotel in Gaza City. It was the latest in a series of kidnappings involving foreigners in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

Outahi was greeted by French diplomats upon his arrival at a PA security installation and appeared to be in good shape.
. . .
In another incident in the West Bank, arsonists set fire to the offices of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Hebron on Sunday night. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which is yet another sign of increased lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

France2 news last night showed (23 minutes into the program) the French Minister for Foreign Affairs saying "the kidnapping was due to a misunderstanding among Palestinian groups".

Some misunderstanding.

The same France2 news broadcast, while discussing security concerns regarding satellite photography broadcast on the internet, stated it is troublesome because "people with bad intentions" (personnes malintentionnés) might use it for nefarious purposes. Heaven forbid they use the word "terroristes".

The women are back, and they're in the Cotillion
which I'm proud to host this week, along with American Princess, Villanous Company, and Soldier's Angel - Holly Aho.

Dr Sanity’s SHAME, THE ARAB PSYCHE, AND ISLAM is a must-read.

MaxedOutMama explains Hamas To Different Audiences, since what Hamas says to different groups is very interesting. Reminds me of Arafat's speeches, during which he'd say one thing in English and one thing in Arabic.

A Mom and her blog thinks Cindy Should Indeed Meet the President, while Clarence Page's Feelings gave Cassandra grist for her blog.

Beth ponders what it means to Support the Troops.

Right Thinking Girl has The Rationale For War by Sean. Ilyka Damen fisks the statement that "All of the Answers So Far Have Been Lies"

Soldier’s Angel – Holly Aho One Heck of a Day at the Airport! where she met one soldier, and asks for our prayers.

The American Princess writes about The Man I Know, and The Chief Brody Slap.

Truth Has No Court at A Fistful of Fortnights.

Rightwingsparkle asks Who Cares What The World Thinks About America? I Care

Beth from yeah, right, whatever posts on Media Bias and Justice Sunday II, Protecting the Victims, and an upcoming comic book series This Is Going To Be Funny

An American Housewife posts on This from Christ-Haunted and World Youth Day.

Convenient? at e-Claire looks at last week’s court decision awarding $600,000 and a ranch to two illegal aliens. (Yes, here at Bad Hair Blog we talk about illegal aliens, not just indocumentados).

Sissy ponders Elvis: The most effective American anti-Communist ever?

Social Security Reform Lives Again at Townhall.com.

Merri Musings has a post on a subject close to my heart Finally! Someone in Robes Slapped Down the ACLU!.

Way Back Wednesday at Bobo Blogger remembers vacation.

Not A Desperate Housewife pulls up to the pump

Absinthe and Cookies wonders, Me,? Quirks?

So I’m in the Hot Tub, explains Little Miss Attila.

Very cool, if I may say so.

Many thanks to Beth for allowing me to co-host this Cotillion, and to all the contributors and visitors.

Update With apologies for the omission, Places Worth A Visit

Nameless mother supports the President? No, Deborah Johns supports the President
The Anchoress links to an article Enough is enough, say Bush supporters of Crawford protests, which mentions that

The event, called “You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy,” is being led by a mother who has a Marine son.

Note to the media: The woman has a name:

Deborah Johns of Marine Moms will lead the delegation from San Francisco. Her son, William, has served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and she appears in a television commercial produced by Move America Forward where she proclaims her support for our troops and their fight against terrorism.

Thank you, Ms Johns.

Now let's count the times Ms Johns's name pops up in the news . . .

(also posted at Love America First)

Niger's harvest last year was not so terrible. Why is the country now so hungry?
asks The Economist in its article Destitution not dearth:

If mass hunger were simply the result of there not being enough to eat, the remedy would be obvious: more food. The emergency rations now being shipped, flown and trucked into the Sahel are indeed necessary and urgent by the time hunger and destitution are acute and widespread. But if mass hunger begins with a collapse in purchasing power, rather than a shortage of food, it does not take an airlift to prevent it. What is needed is a way to restore lost purchasing power by, for example, offering employment, at a suitable wage, on public works. The market respects demand, not need. But give the needy enough pull in the market, and the market will do most of the rest.

May I also mention that good government would make a difference?

Islamic Fundraising Connection Illegal Immigrant Project in VA
from Gay Patriot

There seems to be a connection between Northern Virginia Islamic fundraising efforts and the day-laborer (ie - illegal immigrant) worksite pickup project in Herndon, VA.

GP asks,

Given the Al-Qaeda connections repeatedly found in Northern Virginia after 9/11, is anyone else but me disturbed and more than curious about this direct connection between Islamic fundraising and illegal immigration?

There's also the fact that one of the largest Latin American gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha (see another related post here), also known as the MS13, with its wide network and alleged connections to al-Qaeda (as reported in The Economist), has a stronghold in northern Virginia.

Don't miss this post from Mark in Mexico, where he explains,

Let me add one final note. The Muslims are here. They are up in the mountains converting one individual, one family, one village, one congregation at a time. They are in the poorest of the inner city ghettos, again converting one individual, one family, one congregation at a time. There are about 90 million Mexicans today. If the Muslims convert 10% of them, and can turn 1% of those converts into jihadists, that's 90,000 bloodthirsty jihadist killers clamoring at our back door. 90,000 potential murderers of our innocent men, women and children probing at our border defenses, such as they are, by land, air and sea, 24/7. Think about that a little before you dismiss the aforementioned too quickly.

Gay Patriot has good reasons to be asking his question.

The oil crisis in Ecuador
is being ignored totally by the MSM -- after all, there's all the anti-war sentiment keeping them busy. Fortunately, thanks to the internet one can actually read about the pressing issues of our time. A.M. Mora y Leon at Publius Pundit has an excellent ECUADOR NEWS ROUNDUP,

Strife has engulfed Ecuador again, with thousands of protestors in two northeastern provinces shutting down oil wells that supply 15% of Ecuador’s GDP, 33% of Ecuador’s tax base, and 2.3% of the U.S.’s energy. The protestors didn’t just block the pipelines - they blew them up with dynamite and committed other acts of vandalism, spilling oil and harming the environment. Initial demands were for more local jobs, more roads and infrastructure and more more environmental from the foreign oil companies with investments there. But now they are interested in rewriting contracts of at least three foreign oil companies operating there - Oxy Pete, EnCana and PetroBras.

Ecuador is the U.S.’ second-largest oil supplier[*] in the hemisphere. With both supply and refining capacity tight, that lost oil won’t be easily replaced. And because Ecuador is dollarized, the government cannot print money to finance itself. This makes the trouble there a huge crisis .

Additionally,

There’s turmoil in the government, with a weak president and a cabinet that cuts its own deals. Two malevolent players in this are deposed president Lucio Gutierrez who was ousted earlier this year, and Hugo Chavez, who has a couple of ministers apparently in his pocket - and they are all meeting in Havana as I write this.

[*] Ecuador is the 4th US oil supplier in the Americas.

For now, the protesters have agreed to a truce with the government.

Will see how all this plays into the Revolución Bolivariana. Hugo was in Havana just this weekend entertaining the TV audience.

Update: This is good news: CAFTA squeaks through

CAFTA is a modest agreement between a whale (the United States) and six minnows (five nations of Central America—Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica—plus the Dominican Republic). The whale already admits about 80% of the minnows' exports tariff-free, and the Central American countries have already cut their average tariffs from around 45% in 1985 to about 7%.

Though the economic stakes were low, the politics were intense. Turn your backs on this agreement, congressmen were warned, and your country's Central American allies might opt instead for the “Bolivarian alternative”. This rebel vision of a Latin America united against the gringos is named after Simón Bolívar, a 19th-century nation-builder, and espoused by Hugo Chávez, the leftist president of Venezuela.

The bad news being,

But Mr Chávez in Caracas frightens America's congressmen rather less than the sugar and textile lobbies at home. In the end, Mr Bush's team had to resort to pettier sorts of persuasion. They won over several Republicans by promising that the linings and pockets of any garment stitched in Central America would be made from American fabric. Other hard-to-get congressmen will be rewarded with roads and bridges for their districts, opponents of the bill allege.

But at least it's a start.

(technorati tags Ecuador, Oil, Revolución Bolivariana)

The reading life: Don Quijote
Don't miss the discussion at Well Educated Minds. Start with Diana's essay and scroll down.

If you haven't read Don Quijote in Spanish, I strongly recommend the definitive 400th Anniversary Edition.

Back when I was in high school I had a teacher who was obsessed with this novel. Unfortunately for her, she not only failed to convey the reasons for her enthusiasm but also neglected other literature and I thought the book was a thudding bore. Then some 10 years ago I was one of the readers at Recording For The Blind and Dyslexic. Reading the book out loud was a revelation.

So go ahead, read it aloud. If your near and dear think you're crazy, it makes it all the more Quixotic anyway.

Time for #14

The reading life: Camille Paglia, capitalist?
at The Morning News (emphasis mine)

Robert Birnbaum: I take it you agree with Thomas Frank’s [What’s the Matter With Kansas] notion of what he calls an “age of derangement,” that working people are voting against their interests?

Camille Paglia: I totally reject that formulation.

RB: Really?

CP: The idea that working people are voting against their interests seems to me—I’m sorry, I find that to be one of the most condescending, twisted things that has now taken root. It’s now in the media everywhere. That is twisted.

RB: OK.

CP: The people are voting against their interests? Who knows that? Tom Frank knows that? Tom Frank knows what is in the people’s best interest? It’s an outrage.

RB: Yes, he gets to say that. If people need health care and jobs and housing and he points out that in specific circumstances, such as in Topeka where the Republican administration granted huge concessions to Boeing and Boeing pulled out when they thought they had a better deal elsewhere, costing 4,000 jobs, that’s clearly not in the interest of working people.

CP: You can find a lot of local stories of misery—the mill towns outside of Boston and everywhere. But Frank’s animus is against capitalism. OK? And here’s my point—you can’t just go around—and I could make the same point about upstate New York, which has been declining. Carrier, IBM, the shoe factories that my family came to work in, closing. GE, all kinds of stories, but the point is the people are not voting against their interest. Their interest is capitalism. This is my objection. In my view, comparing the evidence of the 20th century, that socialism in a nation ultimately does lead to economic stagnation and eventually of the creative impulse, in terms of new technology and other things. And that capitalism, despite all its failures, despite the fact that it’s Darwinian, has indeed produced a high standard of living. And, here’s the big one for me, as a feminist: It is capitalism that has enabled the emergence of the modern independent woman, for the first time free from fathers and brothers and husbands—a woman who can be self-sustaining. Now, I do believe—I am a Democrat, I am not a Republican, I do believe that because capitalism is Darwinian that it requires a strong safety net, that the government needs to provide certain things. One of the things I hold against Hillary, even though I am back on the Hillary train, is that they muffed a tremendous chance for health-care reform at a moment when Republicans too were for it. The waste in our health-care system, we could go on [and on], the bankrupting of families to pay for it, and the bankrupting of families to pay for elite educations also, that’s another thing. So what I am saying is, how dare Thomas Frank decide what is—the people who are voting Republican believe that capitalism, despite the misery of individual places, they still believe that capitalism provides the best chance for small entrepreneurs to have an idea, put it into motion and eventually make a killing. Even if you are not rich you see other people getting rich and you want a system that can produce rich people.

RB: Sure, but it’s a chimera. They have been sold that bill of goods. They believe they can do that but they can’t—

CP: But—

RB: Hold on a second. Your point that a significant social security, as the consensus has produced in Europe and Scandinavia, leads to stagnation—

CP: Forty percent of a paycheck over there is taken by the government. The government does everything. People rely on the government to do everything. And I do believe there is a slow decline in creativity that is observable in Europe over the last 40 years.

Read it all.

I'll have to read what she has to say in her latest book, Break, Blow, Burn : Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems.

In other reading, I just picked up at the Public Library Gabo Y Fidel: El Paisaje De Una Amistad (Gabo [Gabriel García Marquez] and Fidel [Castro]: The Landscape of a Friendship). While I found the first chapter ridiculous, since the authors repeatedly refer to GGM and FC as "gods", chapters 2 and 3 explain in detail the falling out provoked by the caso Padilla, where the high-profile case of writer Heberto Padilla's repression brought about a letter condeming Castro's regime. The letter was signed by 50 European and Latin American writers, among them Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Italo Calvino, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Alberto Moravia, and Mario Vargas Llosa. I'm on page 62, where Sartre has been told that the Cuban Embassy in Paris was trying to spread the rumor that Sartre was a CIA agent. Some memes last forever.

Also in Spanish, a new-to-me website, Letras Libres, which I just bookmarked.

Saturday reads
Just Friends: There's something unserious about Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush's newfound affection

It is the suggestion, or the suspicion, that these men have grown close because they are not serious, were never quite serious, that grates.

Very serious is Iran the Model: Iran moves, we don’t, which looks at the Iranian Cabinet:

The seemingly inescapable fact is that Iran is waging war on us, we are well aware of it, and we are not responding, even though most Iranians are dreaming of the day that the United States supports them against the mullahs. Hardly a day goes by without anti-regime demonstrations in one Iranian city or another, involving students, workers, intellectuals, and even some very important clergymen. The number of Iranian dissidents on hunger strike is growing. Akbar Ganji hovers between life and death in a hospital in Tehran. Yet, aside from occasional statements of compassion, there is no hint of action from the Bush administration.

This inaction has recently been buttressed by two fanciful "estimates" from the intelligence community. The first reassuringly forecast that Iran is a good ten years away from nuclear weapons; the second insisted that no revolution is in the Iranian works.

American Digest contemplates The Sacrifice and the Reckoning: Sleepwalking.

The Religious Policeman is back, and he's on a roll. He even has a post on plastic wristbands, and he points out how Saudi got named, and that

there are many Irish in the Kingdom; indeed if they ever left, the major dairy in the Riyadh area, Almarai, would grind to a halt, and all the cows would burst.

The Economist says that some forecasters are now predicting that Germany, which has for so many years disappointed on the downside, could be about to surprise on the upside IF Merkel wins, corporate and income taxes are cut, the VAT is not increased, and "the politicians do not foul it up after next month's election". Can't say they left anything out.

Another article in The Economist, For jihadist, read anarchist, says "terrorism seldom achieves the ends desired of it" . . . "But terrorism is unlikely to be expunged." No surprises there. A much better article, The fall of the Workers' Party [PT] of Brazil, explains the curruption scandal toppled José Dirceu, president Lula's chief adviser, along with the PT's entire leadership. Dirceu

a former communist who trained as a guerrilla in Cuba, never lost his authoritarian habits. In the state of São Paulo, the PT's base, Mr Dirceu's disciples “profiled the members in every municipality,” assessing their loyalties and “intimidating those who were not in his circle,” says Rudá Ricci, a PT activist turned sociologist.

Others criticise Mr Dirceu's pragmatism. The drive to “win the election at all costs” and ally with parties of the right “dismantled the ethical and political patrimony of the PT,” claims Ivan Valente, one of 15 left-wing congressmen who this month formed a “free PT” faction, which rejects the party leadership. The party's former treasurer, Delúbio Soares, became known as the “suitcase man”, says Mr Ricci. Mr Dirceu denies knowing of illicit financing and insists that he democratised the party, but by most accounts he wielded near-absolute power over it.

The article concludes that "Brazil" (like most of Latin America) "will have to wait for a Workers' Party that is both pragmatic and clean".

Meanwhile, back in the USA, Krugman thinks (is that an oxymoron?) that Gore won the 2000 election (it is! it is an oxymoron!), while Brain-Terminal (via Samizdata) points to a National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago study that showed

that if the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed a statewide vote recount to proceed, Republican candidate George W. Bush would still have been elected president.

Mr. Krugman's employer, the NYT, was the first sponsor of the study. Maybe their fact-checker's at the shore this week.

Update I forgot to list Indifferent to Democracy: Why the Arab world roots for American failure in Iraq

How the U.S. adventure in Iraq ends is anybody's guess. However, its repercussions will be felt, first, by the Arabs themselves. By refusing to profit from the prospective democratic upheaval that Saddam's removal ushered in; by never looking beyond the American messenger in Iraq to the message itself; by lamenting external hegemony while doing nothing to render it pointless, Arabs merely affirmed their impotence. The self-pitying Arab reaction to the Iraq war showed the terrible sway of the status quo in the Middle East. An inability to marshal change for one's benefit is the stuff of captive minds.

It reminded me of this study

The barrier to better Arab performance is not a lack of resources, concludes the report, but the lamentable shortage of three essentials: freedom, knowledge and womanpower. Not having enough of these amounts to what the authors call the region's three “deficits”. It is these deficits, they argue, that hold the frustrated Arabs back from reaching their potential—and allow the rest of the world both to despise and to fear a deadly combination of wealth and backwardness.
. . .
...in the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, say the authors, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in one year.

Captive minds, for a long time.

Possibly Hell, but no Fest
It's a Weekend in Trenton for Stranded Punk Fans

Hellfest, a three-day punk music festival scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, had been canceled at the last minute - leaving dozens of fans all dressed up with a long weekend to kill in Trenton and no mosh pits to fling themselves into.

"Hellfest is over," but will they get a refund?

The Democrats’ 9/11 slush fund, continued
Following up on the story: Yesterday Gay Patriot got an installanche by predicting that the NJ State Attorney General "the AG will be accused of misappropriation of homeland security funds in a time of war". Well, state Assemblyman Sean Kean, R-Monmouth, is calling for the AG's impeachment.

As Rick Hepp of the Star Ledger explains in his August 14 article, federal Homeland Security grants moneys were distributed based on reward, not risk:

The federal money was handed out based on an assessment of risk, determined by New Jersey's own attorney general, as well as other federal, state and county officials.

The state money was controlled by the governor's office, often as a way to reward Democratic Party loyalists.
. . .
Nowhere was the difference in funding strategies more evident than in Atlantic County, where 34 million visitors travel each year to enjoy its casinos and beaches. Atlantic County got more than $3 million in federal money based on critical areas that need protection, such as the casinos and utility companies. But the Republican county got no money under the state grant program.

By comparison, Democratic stronghold Camden County got $3.48 million in state money -- more than any other county under the state program -- but it received less than Atlantic County in federal funding, the analysis shows.
. . .
The Attorney General's Office tried to use a similar approach to distribute state Homeland Security aid after the Statewide Local Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grants program was created by McGreevey and the Legislature in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. But the McGreevey administration rejected the idea.

Instead, McGreevey's office, and later Codey's, doled out the money as if it were "Christmas tree" funding -- a term long used in Trenton to describe grants given along party lines for use on pet projects in home districts, according to internal government documents and e-mails obtained by The Star-Ledger. A total of 93 percent of the aid has been sent to towns in Democratic legislative districts over three years.

Codey spokesman Sean Darcy declined to comment, but Codey's office has said the final decision on which towns received the grants rested with the attorney general, which distributed the funds. Harvey's spokesman acknowledged late last week that a list of towns that applied for grants was forwarded to the governor's office for guidance.

Yesterday The Prop commented here that

Actually, it turns out the AG's office DIDN'T parcel out the anti-terror funding. The Guv's Office claimed that at first, but when the finger got pointed the other way, it was revealed that the decisions were made at the very top, that is, the Guv's office.

and he's right, from what Rick Hepp's investigation has revealed. Not that the Attorney General's office is not under pressure in this case, and in others. In a different investigation, Hepp reports that

A state Superior Court judge intends to appoint a special "master" to determine whether the Attorney General's Office should release secret recordings from an aborted South Jersey public corruption investigation that is now the subject of a lawsuit.

You can tell you've been living in NJ for a while when you realize that such things have long ago lost their power to amaze.

Update: Welcome, Gay Patriot readers!

Air America investigative blog report
Part I: A Trail of Debts
Part II: Beyond Evan- More Shell Games?

Status update on yet another French kidnapped guy
Wednesday I mentioned that Mohammed Ouathi, a soundman working for the French TV station France 3, was kidnapped in Gaza on August 14, which was, as Haaretz reports, the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International explains,

The gunmen also tried to seize Mohammed al-Ouati's three colleagues, all French citizens and members of the France 3 team. They reported that the gunmen were not wearing masks.

The abduction of Mohammed al-Ouati is the latest in a series of kidnapping by Palestinian armed groups and gunmen in recent months. In the past two months alone at least a dozen people, most of them foreign nationals, have been abducted in the Gaza Strip. They were all released unharmed within hours of being seized. However, Mohammed al-Ouati, has now been held for three days, longer than any of those previously abducted.

Among those abducted in recent weeks in the Gaza Strip are several UN and other relief workers, both foreign nationals and Palestinians.

While Chirac asks Abbas to help free kidnapped journalist, Palestinian and foreign journalists and intellectuals staged a sit-in in Gaza Thursday to protest against the kidnapping, and the PA says Abducted French soundman to be released soon, I believe it all comes down to how much.