On The Third Hand

Tuesday, 22 Jan 2002

If I were a Muslim

I would take very careful note of the fact that someone seems to be protecting this guy. The Kolkata Libertarian commented: "Does Hamid Karzai have the nine lives of a cat? If so, he's already used up most of them." I hope, considering the problems he may have, that he has the lives of nine times nine cats.

Victims

Think you've been victimized? Want to whine? Try reading this. The western victimization cult needs to quit bitching about how terribly oppressed they are and go do something about those who are truly oppressed.Would someone please buy me a ticket to Pakistan, and a few hundred rounds of ammo for a .357? Thanks...

• Andrew Hofer has an excellent discussion on the subject of US aid. He makes the point that those who criticise the US government for having a low percent of aid are missing the fact that individuals and corporations in the US also contribute a large amount.
• My favourite cartoonist just sent me an interesting comment: "... BBC radio poll gave 92% in favour of US treatment of prisoners! So our reporters don't necessarily represent us!!" (Charles at LGF and his readers have some interesting comments on this subject too)
• Yes, the links on the left in bold type are for blogs who link to me. One does have to offer some incentive for these little courtesies.
• Perhaps I could put up pictures of myself in a low-cut dress... I think that is called "whoring for hits"?
• Jonah Goldberg has it right except for his second to last sentence. "On this Martin Luther King Day, with the Left in complete denial over their abandonment of King's Dream, mainstream conservatives are the only ones left willing to argue resolutely for universal standards." Not so, sir. Mainstream moderates and those libertarians you so dislike also argue for universal standards, as do many liberals.

William Quick writes:

The ultimate balance in our system of checks and balances is the people themselves. This apparent desire on Bush's part to mask the workings of government from the people that our government represents is not simply an opportunistic political calculus. It is more dangerous than that, because it strikes at the foundations of the republic itself, just as much as the gross dishonesty of the previous administration. Somebody needs to tell him so. It might as well be you.

I have to agree. There is need for secrecy current in deployment of troops and in current spook operations, as well as a few past operations that might tend to reveal ongoing tactics and strategy. However, this administration has been showing a love for secrecy unseen since the Nixon administration. That is something which should make us all sit up and pay attention.

I've added some more blogs to my list on the left, moved the news links to my links page and moved my archives over to the right, under the tip jars. I've also put the whole blogosphere list in alpabetical order. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone too much!I'll probably be adding even more of these soon.

• WarLog: World War III by Jeff Jarvis. I don't have any idea why I kept forgetting to link this one.
• Ye Olde Blogge by Andrea Harris. Incisive commentary by another one of the Bellicose Women ™.
• Sgt. Stryker "Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing". News and info from an insightful member of the US military.
• Random Jottings by John Weidner. Another one I should have linked long since. This is the guy who came up with the excellent advice to "throw things".
• Dreaded Purple Master by Daniel Taylor. "A view from the center. Really.I think, therefore I...think some more."
• Next Right "Rants from libertarian and conservative african-americans." Presently run by Sean McCray who says, "My original intention was to build a site modeled on Samizdata, by having multiple bloggers." If you think you might be interested, drop by and drop him a line.
• Vodka Pundit by Stephen Green. "The news with a twist -- of lime." How could I resist linking this one? Good commentary, sometimes with tongue firmly in cheek -- or martini glass.
• Sneaking Suspicions by Fritz Schranck. "Commentary from a practical perspective" Yep.
• Lake Effect by Dan Hartung. This guy has been around the Internet as long as I have, and blogging much longer. It's a web log but seems to be more war blog lately.
• The Mountain's Crest by George Spencer. Mostly a web log, but he's very interesting when he gets into politics and war commentary.

Gunmen attack US centre in Calcutta. They killed five Indian policemen and security guards. They injured sixteen others, and escaped. No Americans were hurt in the attack.

I found something very interesting here. The story is the top headline on BBC news, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times. In the main American news sites: CNN has it in "Other Top News" -- not headlined, MSNBC has it in its top box -- but it is not a main headline, Fox has it in ""Latest Headlines" -- again not main story, ABC news has it in "Headlines" -- not main, and CBS has it in "World".

So, there is a terrorist attack, and not one of the major American news sources is reporting it as the top headline. All four UK sources do have it as the top headline. I'm beginning to wonder if the media here are following some sort of 'downplay it' order. Or do they just find Enron, Johnny Wanker and Gauntanamo more interesting than the fact that people are still trying to kill us?