Sunday, September 30, 2007
Connecting Columbia to Ahmadinejad
Iran has a smart little spider monkey look-alike.
As strange as it might sound coming from my mouth, the LA Times has a must-read column about how Iran struck another home run and used American academia to do it.
One of the world’s truly dangerous men, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left New York a clear winner this week, and he can thank the arrogance of the American academy and most of the U.S. news media’s studied indifference for his victory.
If the blood-drenched history of the century just past had taught American academics one thing, it should have been that the totalitarian impulse knows no accommodation with reason. You cannot change the totalitarian mind through dialogue or conversation, because totalitarianism—however ingenious the superstructure of faux ideas with which it surrounds itself—is a creature of the will and not the mind. That’s a large lesson, but what should have made Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University this week a wholly avoidable debacle was the school’s knowledge of its own, very specific history.
So there we go --- one of those rare admissions from the media that Iran is bad, academia knows better, and the invitation to speak was a good idea. But then comes the next blow, a history of Columbia University and how the people running it have a history of anti-Americanism.
In the 1930s, Columbia was run by Nicholas Murray Butler, to whose name a special sort of infamy attaches… Butler also was keen to establish connections with Nazi Germany and its universities. In 1933, he invited Hans Luther, Adolf Hitler’s ambassador to the United States, to lecture on the Columbia campus. Luther stressed Hitler’s “peaceful intentions” toward his European neighbors, and, afterward, Butler gave a reception in his honor. As the emissary of “a friendly people,” Luther was “entitled to be received with the greatest courtesy and respect,” the Columbia president said at the time.
It was such a transparently appalling performance all around that one of the anonymous authors of the New York Times’ “Topics of the Times” column put tongue in cheek and looked forward to the occasion when “the Nazi leaders will point out that they were all along opposed to any measures capable of being construed as unjust to any element in the German population or as a threat to peace in Europe.”
And it continues:
Three years later, Butler sent a delegation of Columbia dignitaries to participate in anniversary celebrations at the University of Heidelberg. That was after Heidelberg had purged all the Jewish professors from its faculty, reformed its curriculum according to Nazi educational theories and publicly burned the unapproved books in its libraries.
It would be interesting to know if any consideration of these events—and all that followed a decade of engagement and dialogue with fascism—occurred before Columbia extended a speaking invitation to a man who hopes to see Israel “wiped off the face of the Earth,” has denied the Holocaust and is defying the world community in pursuit of nuclear weapons. Perhaps they did and perhaps that’s part of what motivated Lee Bollinger, Columbia’s president now, to deliver his extraordinarily ill-advised welcoming remarks to Ahmadinejad.
There are some times in life when I need to go to the fridge, grab a beer, and think about what I just read. Here we have the LA Times, usually not a friend to the pro-USA contingent, calling Columbia University out to the mat. The situation where Ahmadinejad was invited to speak and cheered many times over might have serves as a turning point for Americans of all shapes and political strifes. Here we have a brutal dictator on our soil calling for our end and drinking a Diet Coke as he did it. It’s one of those times when you think “is this really happening?” sort of like the feeling we, as law enforcement officers, get when we kick open the door to a house and find an entire family dead with absolutely no idea of how it happened.
Believe it or not, there was a time when the LA Times was the paper to read in Los Angeles. In the early nineties when I was fresh out of college and pushing around a patrol car, my day usually began with a browse through the times. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still the paper of record for Los Angeles and the west coast, due to the fact that you’re not going to find an aggregation of news in any other paper (with the exception of the Los Angeles Daily News, if you can find it), but the political slant of it leaves much to be desired. But when a paper does digging, and comes through with a story like this, it gives you faith in the ancient printed news media once again.
Last warning
Less than 10 hours to go, folks. This will be my last entry until tomorrow morning’s 8:00 am post. I’m going to also make that one a sticky post until we either have identified the winner of all three categories or the morning of the 8th, whichever comes first.
Ready.....
Set....
SullyKids
Anyone got anything better?
In my usual way of coming up with trendy names for groups of people I dislike, I’ve decided to use the term “SullyKids” to describe the disciples of Andrew Sullivan. Is there another term someone has already come up with, or one that is in use? If not, please feel free to use it and abuse it to your liking.
Dish Ripoff
Here we go again...
A year ago I canceled my subscription with Charter because their cable costs were outrageous and signed up for DISH Network. Within the past year they have raised their rates so much that I went from saving $60 bucks a month to only saving $30 bucks. Now, it’s still less, but I’m left wondering if I’ll be back where I started a year from now.
Seriously, you can’t win at this game.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Ever seen a jet dance a ballet?
Except for the music, this video is as close as you’re gonna get to watching a heavier-than-air craft simply ignore gravity.
I’ve seen a shitload and a half of aircraft flying - fixed, variable and rotary wing, both visually and on radar - including being on the air search radar tracking the first Space Shuttle flight after the Challenger disaster as a part of the “safety net” procedures. But I’ve NEVER seen a plane move like the Raptor.
Hooooooo-leeeeee shit 
40 hours to go
It is now 4 pm on the West Coast, no matter what the clock readout on the entry says, so pay attention to the clocks in your own time zone, not the one listed in the server for this site. (I haven’t been able to figure out how to get the server to “Spring Forward”, and we’re too close to “Fall(ing) Back” to worry about it at this point.)
Set your alarms, folks. The download links will be posted at precisely 8 am Pacific Time on Monday morning.
I’m uploading the third of the three “rar” files as I type this, just to make sure that I wouldn’t forget and have to rush.
Those lurkers out there who want to join in order to play need to get off the dime, because I might miss a few last minute entrants. It’s free, and I don’t sell your info.
Clock’s ticking…
Friday, September 28, 2007
Religion of Piss
This year Islam and Judaism’s holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days. Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries during this time… while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize.
If anyone out there is still trying to argue that “Islam” means “Peace”, they need to check out this site. (Hint: it actually means “Submission”.)
Translation Needed
It’s for an ARG.
I’m still playing that ARG for 1-18-08 despite the fact that the rest of the gamers piss me off to no end. A new clue came about, and it’s in Japanese. If you can read Japanese, can you give me an idea of what the text under the jump says?
You guys are awesome.
Free Speech at Columbia
They would probably throw me out for sneezing.
I know that most of you hate her, but I love it when Ann Coulter opens her yap and starts talking a boatload of crap. As with many of her columns, I agree with this one.
Columbia’s “tradition” is to shut down any speakers who fall outside the teeny, tiny seditious perspective of its professors.
When Minutemen leader Jim Gilchrist and his black colleague Marvin Stewart were invited by the College Republicans to speak at Columbia last year, the tolerant, free-speech-loving Columbia students violently attacked them, shutting down the speech.
Imbued with Bollinger’s commitment to free speech, Columbia junior Ryan Fukumori said of the Minutemen: “They have no right to be able to speak here.”
Needless to say—unlike Ahmadinejad—the university had not invited the Minutemen. Most colleges and universities wouldn’t buy a cup of coffee for a conservative speaker.
Fees for speakers who do not hate America are raised from College Republican fundraisers and contributions from patriotic alumni and locals who think students ought to hear at least one alternative viewpoint in four years of college.
And then college administrators turn a blind eye when liberal apple-polishers and suck-ups shut down the speech or physically attack the speaker.
Bollinger refused to punish the students who stormed the stage and violently ended the Minutemen’s speech.
So the one thing we know absolutely is that Bollinger did not allow Ahmadinejad to speak out of respect for “free speech” because Bollinger does not respect free speech.
Only because normal, patriotic Americans were appalled by Columbia’s invitation of Ahmadinejad to speak was Bollinger forced into the ridiculous position of denouncing Ahmadinejad when introducing him.
Then why did you invite him?
And by the way, I’ll take a denunciation if college presidents would show up at my speeches and drone on for 10 minutes about “free speech” before I begin.
At Syracuse University last year, when liberal hecklers tried to shut down a speech by a popular conservative author of (almost!) six books, College Republicans began to remove the hecklers. But Dean of Students Roy Baker blocked them from removing students disrupting the speech on the grounds that removing students screaming during a speech would violate the hecklers’ “free speech.” They had a “free speech” right to prevent anyone from hearing a conservative’s free speech.
That’s what colleges mean by “free speech.” (And by the way, my fingers are getting exhausted from making air quotes every time I use the expression “free speech” in relation to a college campus.)
“Tolerance of opposing views” means we have to listen to their anti-American views, but they don’t have to hear our pro-American views. (In Washington, they call this “the Fairness Doctrine.")
Liberals are never called upon to tolerate anything they don’t already adore, such as treason, pornography and heresy. In fact, those will often get you course credit.
At Ahmadinejad’s speech, every vicious anti-Western civilization remark was cheered wildly. It was like watching an episode of HBO’S “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
Ahmadinejad complained that the U.S. and a few other “monopolistic powers, selfish powers” were trying to deny Iranians their “right” to develop nukes.
Wild applause.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly refused to answer whether he seeks the destruction of the state of Israel.
Wild applause.
He accused the U.S. of supporting terrorism.
Wild applause.
Only when Ahmadinejad failed to endorse sodomy did he receive the single incident of booing throughout his speech.
It’s funny because it’s true. Even the rantings of a mad woman hold water these days.
The Streets of Myanmar
It’s still not as bad as Compton.
Maybe the United Nations will write them a letter and the whole thing will end in the blink of an eye.
Soldiers and police took control of the streets Friday, firing warning shots and tear gas to scatter the few pro-democracy protesters who ventured out as Myanmar’s military junta sealed off Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access.
On the third day of a harsh government crackdown, the streets were empty of the mass gatherings that had peacefully challenged the regime daily for nearly two weeks, leaving only small groups of activists to be chased around by security forces.
“Bloodbath again! Bloodbath again!” a Yangon resident yelled while watching soldiers break up one march by shooting into air, firing tear gas and beating people with clubs.
Thousands of monks had provided the backbone of the protests, but they were besieged in their monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the compounds in the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. Troops stood guard outside and blocked nearby roads to keep the clergymen isolated.
It’s a good thing that every nation is taking action and doing what they can to bring this to a quick and easy end. Oh, wait a second…
Ahmadinejad & Chavez
The beginning of a beautiful relationship.
I wish I could attract beautiful women the same way that deranged dictators attract each other.
The leaders of Iran and Venezuela cemented an alliance aimed at countering the United States while the Iranian president reached out to a new ally in Bolivia and declared that together, “no one can defeat us.”
After being vilified during his U.N. visit this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled on to friendlier territory Thursday, first stopping in Bolivia where he pledged $1 billion in investment and then visiting Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chavez.
“Together we are surely growing stronger, and in truth no one can defeat us,” the Iranian leader said through an interpreter. Apparently referring to the U.S., he said, “Imperialism has no other option: Respect the peoples (of the world) or accept defeat.”
Chavez greeted the Iranian leader warmly on a red carpet in front of the presidential palace, where they both stood before microphones and let loose with rhetoric challenging Washington.
“We will continue resisting to the end in the face of imperialism,” Ahmadinejad said. “And the age of imperialism has ended.”
It must be nice to be so delusional. At least he has the support of liberals around the world. Columbia University will be there the next time either one of these guys needs a tea party thrown.
Dumbest statement I’ve heard in many moons
"Yeah, they’re here illegally, but they’re not out there committing crimes...”
This was the thought gem that dribbled from the lips of a man who claims that raiding and arresting illegal aliens is “racist”.
Look, Einstein, if they are here illegally, that means they are committing a continuing crime with every new breath. That is the definition of “illegally”. And they are not “undocumented”, they are ILLEGAL.
A little quiz to sharpen your mettle
Just as a kind of appetizer before the big contest starting on Monday.
Not for any prizes or anything, but just for the halibut. (Bonus points if you can identify that song!) Bragging rights, if nothing else.
Ready?
Come up with song titles - not lyrics, but the titles - that:
a) mentions one or more of the days of the week
b) mentions one or more numbers (cardinal numbers, not ordinal—e.g., “one, two, three”, not “first, second, third")
For a really tough one, try:
c) mentions a part of the body
Like I said, this is just to get your mind sharp(er). Some will be obvious, others not so much.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Defending Blackwater
Someone has to do it.
I’ll be the first to admit that I like Blackwater. I’ve met them and I got to train with them for one day and it was a ton of fun. I have nothing but positive things to say about them, which is why all of these stories in the news about them really bug me. I’ve been trying to put into words the difference between the military mission in Iraq and the contractor mission, and so far I have failed. A number of military members and experts have chimed in, backing my points in ways that I never could have. Here is another great article with a great quote that summarizes everything I’ve been trying to say.
The point here is not that all contractors are “cowboys,” “unprofessional,” or “killers,” as Blackwater and other contractors are often described. Rather, most are highly talented, ex-soldiers. However, their private mission is different from the overall public operation. Those, for example, doing escort duty are going to be judged by their bosses solely on whether they get their client from point A to B, not whether they win Iraqi hearts and minds along the way. Ann Exline Starr, a former Coalition Provisional Authority adviser, de- scribed the difference between when she traveled with a military escort and with guards from Blackwater and another State Department-contracted security firm, DynCorp. While the soldiers kept her safe, they also did such things as playing cards and drinking tea with local Iraqis. The contractors, by contrast, focused only on the contract. “What they told me was, ‘Our mission is to protect the principal at all costs. If that means pissing off the Iraqis, too bad.”
This protection first and last mentality has led to many common operating practices that clearly en- rage locals. In an effort to keep potential threats away, contractors drive convoys up the wrong side of the road, ram civilian vehicles, toss smoke bombs, and fire weaponry as warnings, all as standard practices. Journalist Robert Young Pelton described his month spent embedded with Blackwater contractors in Baghdad. “They’re famous for being very aggressive. They use their machine guns like car horns.”
The military has a mission, and the contractors have a mission. They both do their own respective missions very well, and it’s unfair that the media is targeting Blackwater for doing theirs. I guess they got tired of bashing the military on a daily basis and decided to turn their attention elsewhere.
Hot Like Fire
Oh c’mon...
There is nothing funny about this, but the irony makes this story worth posting.
Firefighter Brian Eargle is accustomed to waking up to fight fires.
But Tuesday night, Eargle said he was jerked from sleep by coughing and quickly ended up having to fight a blaze at his own fire station.
Eargle managed to escape the fire, call for help and drive two trucks away from the burning building. He then pulled a hose from a fire truck parked outside to fight the blaze for about 10 minutes until his fellow firefighters could arrive and get their equipment on.
The fire, which started in the lounge of the station, did about $30,000 in damage, Lee County Fire Chief Mike Bedenbaugh said.
But it could have been a lot worse. Bedenbaugh said he is glad Eargle wasn’t hurt or killed and that he managed to save the vehicles from the blaze.
“If this fire had happened at any of our other stations, then we would have lost vehicles and the entire building,” Bedenbaugh said. “This is the only station where we have someone on duty 24 hours a day.”
The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the fire.
I swear, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t come across something weird like this.