The full story, the modern Wife of Bath, and today's other items

My friend Captain Ed posts on A Case Of Missing Context At The Gray Lady

Readers who want the whole story have to read the Los Angeles Times to find out what else Maliki said about the Iraqi position:

Maliki, a Shiite, put on a brave face in the wake of the rising demand in the U.S. among Democratic and Republican legislators for withdrawal from Iraq.
He pleaded for time, pledging to achieve the passage of legislation that Washington has demanded as a condition of its continuing support, including an oil revenue sharing law, a revised constitution and the easing of government work restrictions for former supporters of President Saddam Hussein, who was captured, tried and executed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Maliki also said that Iraqi security forces could use more training from U.S.-led forces and needed more weaponry.

You know the NYT's faltering when you get the full story from the LAT.

Also via Captain Ed, a terrific article by Rod Liddle, Having a torrid time at the BBC - Busy Blurting Confessions. Nobody lets it rip like the Brits, and Liddle's in fine form. Read it all, but here's a sample,

Then came the television news teams 'fessing up that they may have inadvertently misled the public over the single European currency, the inherent competence and decency of Hamas, Fatah and the Taliban, the desirability of unconstrained immigration and the notion that bunging loads of money in aid to Africa would solve that continent's problems. Oh, and a whole bunch of other stuff about the dangers of smoking and global warming and being fat. The BBC's "gypsy unit" turned up too, to confess that not everyone who had reservations about encroachment by Britain's traveller community were necessarily racist middle-class bigots. They were late, though, because their cars had been nicked.

Rod Liddle knows what he's talking about since,

Rod Liddle left his post as editor of the BBC's Today programme in 2002, after a row about impartiality in an article he wrote for The Guardian.

Rod, if you're reading this, email me when you come to Princeton and I'll buy you a beer.

Rod also writes about Jane Felix-Browne, a.k.a. Zaina Mohamad al-Sabah, the latest incarnation of the Wife of Bath who was fond of pilgrimage and fond of a much younger man. Jane/Zaina, like the Wife, has been married five times, is middle-aged (if people live to be 102, since she's 51), enjoys travel, and married a much younger man (a 26 yr-old).

There ends the resemblance to the WoB: the WoB might have been madly in love with her young husband but she wasn't crazy enough to marry the 1380s equivalent of Osama Bin-Laden's son and move to Saudi Arabia.

One must consider, however, that the WoB was a woman of the 14th Century, and Jane/Zaina's now the daughter-in-law of a guy that wants to send us back to the 10th Century, so it's all in the spirit of the times.

Time and time again I have seen many marriages fall apart where the age difference was >15 years (but never one where the husband already had another wife since I've never met any polygamists), but let's just say that'll be the least of Jane/Zaina's troubles.

Osama, or so they say, is praising the martyrdom of others:

"The happy (man) is the one that God has chosen him to be a martyr,"

says he, while depriving himself of that happiness. it's time to resurrect one of my old limericks from back in 2004:

There once was a boy named Osama
who never respected his mamma.
He blew up the World Trade
and is now in a cave,
hiding away, like Saddam-a

I realize that my limerick is a rerun, but so is Osama's video; that completes the trio.

Venezue-lan-born Vladimir Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal, sneers at Al-Qaeda's 'amateur' killers from his prison cell in France.

Not that that makes them less deadly.

On to unrelated stuff:
The French are a lot bigger optimists than I thought: Now they have free bicycles. Bon chance on that, mes amis!

Francis Porretto has a post on Fred Thompson which convinced me that the Dems must see Fred as the first viable Southern Presidential candidate since Bill Clinton - and they are scared.

Never mind men's neckties; how do you walk in these?

Should a country this crazy have nuclear weapons?
Speaking of insanities, Dr Sanity has the Carnival




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