My inbox had an email from a colleague urging me to sign a petition from Moveon.org, which has this poster to describe their opinion of GWB. I think it’s been established that for Bush to have actually pulled off a deception in the manner being bandied about by lefties lately is to ascribe him with a remarkable persuasive capacity, since practically every major foreign government from Britain to France and Russia all agreed that Saddam did have illegal weapons programs. The issue was whether or not the US and any willing allies could invade the country to eliminate the government for failing to cooperate with U.N. inspections, a key term in the 1991 cease fire. Silent Running has a post and article link suggesting that WMD are about to be found, Iraqi scientists have been too afraid that supplying US intelligence with useful information would land them in war crimes tribunals, and that they are closely watching the way we treat Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, who had cooperated with the CIA and produced documents on weapons programs and parts for a gas centrifuge used to enrich uranium that he had been ordered to bury in his garden after the cease fire in the first Gulf War. The radio report I heard yesterday was that the plan was to hide the equipment until sanctions were lifted and inspections concluded so that the programs could be quickly reconstituted. Tom Paine at SR wants to know whether those same people who are complaining about the military not having found WMD yet will admit that their wrongheadedness when these scientists come out and all those claims made in MoveOn’s poster are shown to have been not lies, but accurate descriptions of the pre-bellum situation in Iraq (with the exception of the order to use chemical weapons in the war. Chalk that one up to fog of war or Deroy Murdock’s theory). The answer, of course, is not a snowman’s chance in hell. They didn’t acknowledge how wrong they were with the whole “Quagmire” and “another Vietnam” claims, instead they moved the goalposts and after the war said that “There was never any doubt that we could beat up a third world country if we wanted to.” And now we’re being accused of colonialism for helping rebuild the place and providing the security they’d asked for before. Was the Marshall Plan colonialism? I don’t recall anyone claiming before the war that Iraq had no banned weapons, only that he had no delivery system and no connection with terrorists to use as a poor man’s ICBM, and therefore presented no direct threat to us. Never mind that he’d pay what–$20,000–to suicide bombers in Israel. What would a Hamas splodeydope be worth in D.C. or NYC? I’ve gotten so fed up with the pedantry and lazy contrarianism of the Left lately. Bush is for freeing the children prisons, so I’m against it! Bush wants to send the Corps of Engineers over to build roads and schools, I’m against it! Bush wants to send specialists from gasp Ooooiiiillll companies like Brechtel and Halliburton to repair and modernize the Iraqi energy sector and get juice flowing to the hospitals and cites again, I’m against it!. These people are not thinking about how to improve the world, how to set up the conditions for people’s quality of life to flourish. I mean, check this out. That’s a lefty blogger musing on Iran, and her lack of interest in the nascent (and hopefully largley bloodless) revolution going on there. It’s such an embarrassing expression of apathy and egotism that I imagine she’ll erase it eventually, so I’ll quote the whole thing here:

Iran

I’m trying to figure out why I haven’t been particularly interested in the glorious demonstrations and pushes for democracy in Iran.

Part of it is merely that it’s recent and I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to Iran in general, other than holding my breath and waiting for them to start testing nukes.

In addition, I’m assuming that they’ll end up a lot like Tienamen Square, except not as successful. From what I’m reading, this is a student-only thing, and the Iranian government is going to just shut it down one of these nights.

I have to admit, though, that part of it has to do with the Administration’s support for the protestors. Given the loathing which this President and his advisors have shown for democracy, human rights, and dissent, any political action they endorse is automatically tainted. Further, the wording used by the US has made it seem as though we are sponsors of the protest, which is incredibly stupid. But then, what do you expect from the coiners of the phrase “axis of evil”?

But let us not be blinded. Something wonderful, something we’ve been waiting for for a long time is happening in Iran. Let us hope for their pursuit of freedom, even as we continue to pursue ours.

Do you see how asinine this foolish child is? George W. Bush wants there to be democratic institutions in Iran, so I’m against it. Tiannamen Square, go Commies! Put down the democratic movement! And the ending… Holy Shit. To equate your “struggle,” living in a free, wealthy society with a political philosophy composed only of opposing and hating Republican positions to the incredible courage of these Iranians to speak out at penalty of death against a theocratic government that dictates almost every aspect of their personal lives, having to endure beatings, the disappearance of their friends, and the mutilation of their fellow dissidents. There aren’t words descriptive enough, and I don’t have the time to string enough epiphets together to get across the contempt that I feel for this individual, and the millions or so who inhabit the world. I don’t want to talk about it, and I don’t want to write about it. I want nothing to do with these idiots. Notice how most of the crap I’ve written lately is like “Cardinals are in first place!” (But only for a few more hours until Houston takes on the pitiful Rangers). I’ve lost my patience for anything more and have a lot of work to do besides. In other words, I won’t be posting much in the next few weeks. Free time will be spent out of doors basking in the glow of Yellow Face. And if you see me around, don’t piss me off. I’ve had enough.

Update, Few minutes later: Just read VDH’s new column. Chilled a bit.

This gal has gone to trial now, remember her? She hit a homeless guy with her car, drove home with him stuck in her windshield, and then left him in the garage for days to die. The trial is on Court TV. Back when it happened, as they are wont to do, The Smoking Gun published the police reports.

I saw an ad on TV yesterday for adult ADD that had me falling out of my chair. Go take their quiz. If you answer sometimes to all the questions, you still have symptoms consistent with adult ADD. That’s a bit extreme. Some of us are just lazy or uninterested in a lot of the mundane shit we have to do. That doesn’t make us diseased. Don’t get me wrong, I know quite a few people who are medicated for ADHD and for whom the diagnosis has significantly improved their lives, but (I’ve heard) there are lots of people out there taking drugs they don’t need. That kind of catch-all solution to problems spooks me, but not as much as this lady, who thinks that all human suffering is caused by worms, from depression to cancer with this thing. Crazy. Spooky. Wrong-o.

I just saw on tv that one of my favorite shows, Mail Call, will be beginning its second season in two weeks, live from “the Gulf.”

Blogger’s been pretty haywire the past few days, that’s my excuse for lack of posting. I had something to say about the article about how Americans really, really are NAZIs. I’ll say something about that tomorrow when taking a break from writing about Pennsylvanian German in the afternoon, after a grand morning of brake pad changing with my new floorjack and jackstands. I also wanted to point out the hilarity of James Lileks’ photoshop contest, in which he requested people to photoshop his picture to put on his columns. I personally think that RW’s Lileks as Gollum is the best. Since I missed out on all that good stuff, I’ll just say that I dug a hole this weekend.

A previous owner of my crib had the ingenious idea to pour a concrete floor into one of the window wells protecting the basement windows from being swamped. There’s little doubt in my mind that the perpetrator of this foolishness did it without malice, but the net result is that in the event of rain, the well fills up with water and doesn’t drain at all. Hard rains caused the water to pool up over the window and leak through into the basement, which pissed me off a whole lot. I have spots of my yard where I have just a few too many rocks and other spots where I have a few too little dirt. So I smashed up the concrete with a sledge hammer, careful not to break the window or the hammer on the well liner and dug a couple feet below the bunker wall, moved the dirt to the spots in my yard thirsting for more soil, and then filled up the hole with loose rocks and gravel, ensuring proper drainage away from the crib. Haven’t had a good rain yet, but I hosed the well down for a while and checked inside. All looked shipshape.

I missed it over the weekend, but the Blues traded away Nasher and Cory Stillman on Saturday. In the first round, we drafted Shawn Belle, a 220 lb-er from that hockey hotbed of Barbados. For Stillman we got a late 2nd round pick, David Backes, who sounds like a big, tough, fundamentally well-rounded right winger. Our third pick was the backup goaltender for the winning 2003 Russian team at the World Junior Championships. Here‘s the details on the second day of the draft. All in all, it sounds to me like we made some solid picks and have some mature, hard working guys to look forward to seeing.

I like this:

The second option was to carry the fight to the enemy. We would take away their sanctuaries, force them to go deep underground, and hunt them to the ends of the Earth. We would undermine or overthrow governments that supported them. We would sever them from their networks of financial support, disrupt their planning, and arrest their leaders in the dark of night. We would humiliate and discredit them. Rather than wait for them to strike at our weak points, we would force them to confront our strength. We would draw them into battle, and slaughter them. We would sow discord and division amongst their ranks. Finally, we would bring the war to their homes, and kill them where they live.

You can guess what the first option is… but reading the whole thing is well worth your time.

Potentially, very good news. But I’m not getting my hopes up. I’m convinced there are a lot of people working very hard on making Sadaam worm food, and have a deep appreciation for their unseen labor.
Via U.S.S. Clueless.

Here‘s some advice from an Iranian blogger (one of 20,000 I’ve heard), urging caution about how a foreigner like myself can usefully support the soon to come revolution there. Iran doesn’t need foreign opposition groups, he says. I think we figured that out with Chalabi, and should have learned from the former Afghan king living in Italy.

It’s Friday, and that means a new VDH column. This one’s about our new and courageous role in this young post-bellum era.

Donald Sensing points out this essay arguing against teaching children to write in cursive. I agree completely. It was even worse for me when I was a kid because the school I went to tried to teach us to write with a goofy font called Denelian. I was a pretty crappy student when I was a kid, but that was the worst hour of the day. I knew how to print, and I knew the next year I’d learn cursive, so the idea of learning a semi-script made absolutely no sense to me. I never learned to do it. My handwriting is so bad, I can barely read it. And that’s the print. I don’t think I could even write in cursive anymore, having not used it for anything aside from signing my name in at least ten years. I remember writing a squishy letter to a girl a while back and started out in cursive, but eventually I had to make a capital G and couldn’t remember what it was supposed to look like. So I changed to print, making it a truly convincing love letter.

And I thought my life was rough. I don’t really, but I’m sure to have a nightmare tonight after reading that. Found it at Bill’s Place

NRO has a column written by one of the demonstrating students in Iran. Apparently Hezbollah is out in force against the students, and the article contains some truly horrific attacks against the students. Now THAT, you hippy dicklickers, is a terrorist police state.

I never really got the deal with Home Star Runner, although my homey Dave seems to think it’s hilarious. It’s worth admitting, I laughed quite a few times during this Trogdor the Burninator movie.

Update 3:48 — J-Skillet sent a link to the Trogdor Game, which is sure to provide hours of burninating enjoyment.

Read this. It’s a fantastic essay, although rather dated (pre-GW II).

Summer school started here yesterday. I’m wisely not taking any classes this term. The first in three years where I’m not taking a class. I’ll be plenty busy though, gotta finish up some extensions I’ve taken in past semesters. I found a general topic for the historical linguistics paper I need to write: Pennsylvania German. It’s the German spoken for ritual purposes in Amish communities throughout the Eastern half of the US. I’ve got a stack of journals to go through before I can narrow the topic down to something doable. That winnowing has to be done this week. Aside from the research, I’m working. Today and yesterday I’m covering for the secretary. I keep the door open so that I don’t go loopy with cabin fever, but occasionally it gets noisy this way. Earlier there was a class across the hall covering current events, a class of foreign students here to learn English. The teacher was mocking the Bush admin a bit, sarcastically asking “where are the WMD??” Those lying, racist Republicans! Blinding poor, gullible schlupps into supporting a war for oil! Finally my brave and unpopular anti-war stance is merited! Horseshit… CLICK
And make sure to check out the Chief Wiggles blog that he links to. CLICK

Azadi, Arak, Eshgh! I like that.

Michael Ledeen has a very optimistic column about the prospects for the Iranian demonstrators, soon to be revolutionaries. Is it possible that the Mullahs leaned too far into Iraq, trying to screw things up for us and now are finding that the people are toppling them the rest of the way out of the country. I sure hope so, because it means things will improve in both countries greatly and soon.

Here’s an article in Time about SF successes in Iraq.

I got the link from Anna, and the link that I speak of is to the Tard Blog. It’s an emotional trash heap filled by a special education teacher or two, and truly entertaining. I have a feeling a certain relative of mine might find it cathartic as she also works with children having severe behavior issues.