BlodgettMusings on science, art and societyTalking About Road Kill- April 17, 2003 From AP. Hilarious, were it not so pathetic ... Just what we need: "White Stix" Blix and His Blixstone Kops, back in the spotlight. One good thing though: if he's sure that the Syrians are innocent, then they're as guilty as hell... BERLIN - The chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq urged the U.S.-led coalition to allow his team back into the country to look for weapons of mass destruction, saying that would increase the credibility of any discoveries, a magazine reported Thursday. Hans Blix,...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/17.html#a548 Legal Wranglings- April 16, 2003 So, the Palestinians think that Abu Abbas -- the known killer of Leo Klinghoffer -- should be exempt under the Oslo Treaty. The what How good has their compliance with this treaty been And the Italians want to put him on trial for his part in the Achille Lauro hijacking. So they can give him a five-year sentence Since this guy is in the hands of the US military, simpler solutions come to mind. We could even try him ourselves, could we nothttp://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/16.html#a547 Stand-Up Comedy- April 16, 2003 An amusing little piece from the BBC today ... (excerpt) The notorious Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf may no longer be making his daily TV appearance but his memory lives on. A website called We Love the Iraqi Information Minister, carrying soundbites about the Iraq war, has become an internet phenomenon. The website was set up by a group of New York friends, who found that the only thing they could agree on about the war in Iraq was that they liked Mr Sahhaf. "We would..http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/16.html#a546 Babes, Babes, Babes: 18- April 16, 2003 Oh, enough liberal-bashing for a while. We moderates have to give them a break: they're almost an extinct species except among the young and misguided ... Instead, let's give a hand to Dorothea Roschmann, a German soprano of great skill. A bit under-recorded, IMO. And certainly much better looking than this bw handout pic from her agents andor the website for the Bach Cantatas she participated in ...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/16.html#a545 You Could Also Call Them Whiners & Losers- April 16, 2003 Nice editorial from the WSJ today, under the heading 'Pessimistic Liberalism' ... some selected excerpts... "With the Pentagon declaring the end of "major combat" in Iraq, most Americans are responding with relief and pride. Our troops have performed with skill, courage and even honorable restraint in deposing a dictator half a world away in less than a month. The puzzle is why some Americans, especially media and liberal elites, continue to wallow in pessimism about this...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/16.html#a544 Dont Stop Now- April 15, 2003 So, one reads that a lot of the Iraqi leadership and goons are indeed popping up in Syria ... Mrs Saddam Hussein in in Latakia. I can find it on a map, how about the USAF and Navy And how difficult would it be to inject some special ops troops into this militarily feeble, full-of-itself little fascist country, to take care of unfinished business Don't repeat the mistakes of 1991!http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/15.html#a543 Pretty Remarkable- April 15, 2003 Don't you think it's pretty remarkable that two research groups managed to unravel the genome of the SARS coronavirus in just a few weeks Considering that this is supposedly an unknown organism, crossed over from some unspecified animal (my bet: domestic pigs in rural China) it's quite amazing how quickly the technology bashed its way through the sequencing. Now, of course, biologists have to sift through the code and figure out which elements there open themselves to some kind of attack.http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/15.html#a542 Trojan Horses- April 15, 2003 I often get criticized, or at least old-fashioned 'PC' looks, when I point out that some expatriate Arab communities are a hotbed of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and fanaticism ... some chunky excerpts from a piece in today's WSJ that go to prove the case a little ... and tell us something about 'our friends', the Saudis A Saudi Group Spreads ExtremismIn 'Law' Seminars, Taught in Dutch IAN JOHNSON and DAVID CRAWFORD Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EINDHOVEN,...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/15.html#a541 Regime Change Candidates- April 15, 2003 So, who else needs a 'regime change' A partial list ... North Korea Syria Iran Libya China Venezuela Cuba Saudi Arabia Myanmar Zimbabwe Malawi Russia France Germany Canada Mexico Belgium Turkey Egypt Malaysia ... and a few more pisspot little countries whose governments haven't quite been sufficiently annoying enough. Yet. Ideally, the 'people' should take care of these themselves ... but ...http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/15.html#a540 Humor From The Inbox: 9- April 15, 2003 Could be urban legend here, but it's amusing enough.... "The Washington Post publishes a yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for various words. The following were some of this year's winning entries: Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. Esplanade (v.),! to attempt an explanation while drunk. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.http://blogs.salon.com/0001802/2003/04/15.html#a539 |