BlodgettMusings on science, art and societySpringtime In Maine: 3- April 23, 2003 Yes, the state with two megaseasons ... well, the arrival of spring has been much delayed. At least the daylight hours are longer, but it's stuck in the high 40s (unseasonably, I should add). And tonight, snow showers are forecast! Roll on summer (to be honest, we don't get a spring: it lasts about two days, years like this).http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a558 Kick The Scoundrel Out- April 23, 2003 Reading the NYT Op-Ed page is a depressing experience; especially on days when the moronic Maureen Dowd runs off at the mouth with her uninformed, unperceptive, kneejerk liberal horseshit. She's so convinced that she is 'witty.' Duh. But today, Thomas Friedman -- often not right, but never illiterate or trivial -- makes a good point about the thoroughly evil, two-bit gangster Yassur Arafat ... he wants Old Beaverchops Marrowfat gone too ... "There is a natural deal here among...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a557 Regime Change Update- April 23, 2003 Here's a couple more that really need it ... Tibet. No question about it. Palestine. Boot Arafat out, once and for all. The time is ripe.http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a556 All Change- April 23, 2003 Joe Queenan is a funny fellow, very non-PC, and in today's WSJ takes on the issue of Katy 'Insipid' Couric swapping jobs with Jay 'Humorless' Leno for a night ... he comes up with this little classic ... "Public television's Jim Lehrer hasn't been able to get a straight answer out of anyone in the State Department in years, so my vote for a one-night replacement is Tom Arnold from Fox Sports Network's "The Best Damn Sports Show, Period." Always ready to say the first thing that comes...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a555 Negotiating With North Korea- April 23, 2003 So, we're chatting with the Pyongyang gangsters in Beijing. Personally, I'd have picked some more hygienic place, in view of the SARS epidemic. Blodgett style diplomacy would say it all in two sentences: "Have you been watching CNN lately Well, you're next, if you don't cut this shit out."http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a554 They're Still Weasels- April 23, 2003 Another brief 'holiday' -- working -- for Blodgett, but I have the sense that nothing much has happened ... except, the 'return of the stooges': The WSJ got it right this morning ... "French audacity has it charms, but sometimes even they get carried away. Consider President Jacques Chirac's transparently self-interested generosity yesterday in suddenly proposing that U.N. sanctions against Iraq be "suspended." At least the French are figuring out that it doesn't look good for them to fight...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/23.html#a553 Fingering The Syrians & Saudis- April 18, 2003 Another perceptive piece from the WSJ today, by author Steven Emerson, also of the Investigative Project. Eighteen years after the execution of American Leon Klinghoffer on the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, the U.S. has demonstrated by the capture of Abu Abbas that it will not wipe the slate clean on international terrorism. For years, however, diplomatic niceties and misplaced State Department priorities subverted this principle, enabling purveyors of terrorism to literally...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/18.html#a552 See How They Run- April 17, 2003 There's a saying of criminals which is so true: "you can run, but you can't hide." And it seems to be working in Iraq, lately. First, Abu Abbas, a known Palestinian 'guerilla' -- read, an anti-semitic thug who shoots an unarmed, disabled old guy and pushes him off a ship in his wheelchair -- and now, another of Saddam Hussein's murderous family. I am relatively confident that, over a few months, we'll track down and find (or kill) a good few more of the Iraqi repressors. Yes,...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/17.html#a551 More Weaseling- April 17, 2003 Quite often, WSJ Europe thinkpieces don't show up here for a while (and not at all, if you don't pay for them!). Here's an excerpt from a piece by Jeffrey Grdmin, Aspen Institute Berlin. Which pins down why the Germans are feeling as foolish as the French ... what do I think Screw 'em, of course "BERLIN -- "There were no dead bodies lying on the ground nearby when we celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall," says Wolfgang Thierse, president of the German parliament. Donald Rumsfeld was...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/17.html#a550 You Have To Laugh, Really- April 17, 2003 So, the French try to be ever-so-politically-correct, then someone catches on that they too have a "Trojan Horse" (see Tuesday's blog on this) ... From Today's NYT ... of all places ... of course, you may ask, why do they need a 'national council of Muslims (sic)' PARIS, April 15 &151; France's interior minister threatened today to expel any Muslim religious leader considered extremist after a fundamentalist Muslim organization unexpectedly won a large number of seats in an election for..http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/17.html#a549 |