Department of Coincidences
The four teams reprising their playoff appearance from last year are AFC and NFC teams that lost the conference championship last playoffs (Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles), and AFC and NFC teams that were eliminated in the wild-card round (Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts). Symmetry baby, symmetry!
Monday, December 29, 2003
NFL Playoffs Watch
A Len Pasquarelli column on the awesome set of playoff teams. He predicts the Patriots will win the Super Bowl because
A Len Pasquarelli column on the awesome set of playoff teams. He predicts the Patriots will win the Super Bowl because
It will be precisely 729 days between the time Patriots coach Bill Belichick traveled back to Boston with the franchise's first Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand and the second time he gets to hold the prized hardware aloft on a riser in Reliant Stadium. OK, now, here's the spooky part: In the two seasons since the Pats last captured the NFL title, they have scored -- drum roll, here, please -- 729 points.
Anti-Israelism as a cover for Antisemitism
Pragmatic Antisemitism, but still Antisemitism. (Kudos to LGF for picking up this story)
Actually, Abu Shanab was a pragmatic terrorist and Antisemite as well. It didn't change the fact that he was a murderer and a lesson in how not to chart a "moderate" course in Palestine.
Pragmatic Antisemitism, but still Antisemitism. (Kudos to LGF for picking up this story)
Actually, Abu Shanab was a pragmatic terrorist and Antisemite as well. It didn't change the fact that he was a murderer and a lesson in how not to chart a "moderate" course in Palestine.
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Meryl Yourish has a java script counter counting down the time until Syria leaves the Security Council. Thank god.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Bush knows the score
From The Australian:
From The Australian:
When US President George W. Bush visited Canberra in October, he told his friend John Howard that the Democratic candidate who, if he won the primaries, would be his most formidable opponent in the 2004 presidential election was Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Saddam Hussein is caught
Once a feared tyrant, now a laughable hobo:
I realize now that the best way to take in Saddam was alive. You can't make a martyr out of someone who spent his last months free hiding in a hole, and then quickly surrendered to the Army. No one (with the possible exception of Sunni terrorists) is going to use Saddam's execution for propaganda purposes if it is done at the hands of the people he dictated for the last decades. The U.S. does need to make sure that the trial of Saddam is conducted in a fair manner, probably with the Nuremburg Tribunals as a model.
A joke.
Lieberman has released a statement on Saddam's capture:
Also, see Meryl Yourish's "The Saddam Interrogation Transcripts." Quoth Monte Python, "And there was much rejoicing."
Once a feared tyrant, now a laughable hobo:
I realize now that the best way to take in Saddam was alive. You can't make a martyr out of someone who spent his last months free hiding in a hole, and then quickly surrendered to the Army. No one (with the possible exception of Sunni terrorists) is going to use Saddam's execution for propaganda purposes if it is done at the hands of the people he dictated for the last decades. The U.S. does need to make sure that the trial of Saddam is conducted in a fair manner, probably with the Nuremburg Tribunals as a model.
A joke.
Lieberman has released a statement on Saddam's capture:
Hallelujah, praise the Lord. This is something that I have been advocating and praying for for more than twelve years, since the Gulf War of 1991. Saddam Hussein was a homicidal maniac, a brutal dictator, who wanted to dominate the Arab world and was supporting terrorists...
...This news also makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.
Also, see Meryl Yourish's "The Saddam Interrogation Transcripts." Quoth Monte Python, "And there was much rejoicing."
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
The Most Universal Argument Against Dean
Even if Dean shares your goals, ask yourself, will he share them tomorrow? David Brooks gives the most pragmatic and nonpartisan rejection of Dean as a candidate I have ever read.
See this Kausfiles post as well (scroll down to "Hello! Opposition Researchers!"). This confirms my opinion that aside from being wrong, Dean is a dangerous demagogue who will say anything to gain power. Hopefully his supporters will wake up to this sooner than later, because this will sink Dean one way or another.
Fortune cookie fortune of the day: "You get not what you deserve, but what you negotiate."
Even if Dean shares your goals, ask yourself, will he share them tomorrow? David Brooks gives the most pragmatic and nonpartisan rejection of Dean as a candidate I have ever read.
But the liberated Dean is beyond categories like liberal and centrist because he is beyond coherence. He'll make a string of outspoken comments over a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage — but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there.
For example, asked how we should proceed in Iraq, he says hawkishly, "We can't pull out responsibly." Then on another occasion he says dovishly, "Our troops need to come home," and explains, fantastically, that we need to recruit 110,000 foreign troops to take the place of our reserves. Then he says we should not be spending billions more dollars there. Then he says again that we have to stay and finish the job.
See this Kausfiles post as well (scroll down to "Hello! Opposition Researchers!"). This confirms my opinion that aside from being wrong, Dean is a dangerous demagogue who will say anything to gain power. Hopefully his supporters will wake up to this sooner than later, because this will sink Dean one way or another.
Fortune cookie fortune of the day: "You get not what you deserve, but what you negotiate."
Monday, December 08, 2003
Meryl Yourish: "The world is tough enough on Jews. Unfunny parodies that echo the Jew hatred already extant throughout the world are not high on my list of things to like."
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Light at the end of the tunnel for the New York Times?
Thursday, December 04, 2003
NFL Watch
Don't count the Jets out yet: If the Jets win four straight against Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Miami, New England (two easy teams an two playoff contenders) and the Miami Dolphins also lose to Philadelphia and the Patriots, as well as Cincinnati or Baltimore losing two out of four games, and Denver loses to Kansas and Indianapolis (likely), the Jets take the second wild card spot in the playoffs.
Remember, Miami has tended to fade in Decmber over the last several seasons, and that while the Ravens have easy games left after the Bengals game, the Bengals face the Rams week 16. The Broncos also have significant injuries. It is improbable that events will coincide favorably to the Jets, but it is certainly possible, and the four straight looks more likely given the their fantastic win against the Titans.
More to come...
Don't count the Jets out yet: If the Jets win four straight against Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Miami, New England (two easy teams an two playoff contenders) and the Miami Dolphins also lose to Philadelphia and the Patriots, as well as Cincinnati or Baltimore losing two out of four games, and Denver loses to Kansas and Indianapolis (likely), the Jets take the second wild card spot in the playoffs.
Remember, Miami has tended to fade in Decmber over the last several seasons, and that while the Ravens have easy games left after the Bengals game, the Bengals face the Rams week 16. The Broncos also have significant injuries. It is improbable that events will coincide favorably to the Jets, but it is certainly possible, and the four straight looks more likely given the their fantastic win against the Titans.
More to come...
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Quote of Note
"The decline and fall of everything is our daily dread, we are agitated in private life and tormented by public questions."
-Saul Bellow, 1976, Nobel Prize Lecture.
"The decline and fall of everything is our daily dread, we are agitated in private life and tormented by public questions."
-Saul Bellow, 1976, Nobel Prize Lecture.
Monday, December 01, 2003
Around the Internet
Mutants in X-Men are the Jews of the comic book world. (Meryl Yourish)
A profile of Bill Watterson, artist/author of Calvin & Hobbes, one of the greatest comics ever. (Clevescene.com)
The same paper that headlined an article about terrorist weapon smuggling tunnels, "Palestinians Tunnel to Freedom," and has a columnist who has publicly stated that he refuses to read letters by people who have Jewish names, has published an op/ed titled, "Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism." Quoth Meryl Yourish: "Pigs must be flying again. But this is a wonderful, wonderful column."
That's all for now. Check back after MNF for the premiere of NFL Watch.
Pertinent thought: Has anything been more revolutionary to weblogs than permalinks?
Mutants in X-Men are the Jews of the comic book world. (Meryl Yourish)
A profile of Bill Watterson, artist/author of Calvin & Hobbes, one of the greatest comics ever. (Clevescene.com)
The same paper that headlined an article about terrorist weapon smuggling tunnels, "Palestinians Tunnel to Freedom," and has a columnist who has publicly stated that he refuses to read letters by people who have Jewish names, has published an op/ed titled, "Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism." Quoth Meryl Yourish: "Pigs must be flying again. But this is a wonderful, wonderful column."
That's all for now. Check back after MNF for the premiere of NFL Watch.
Pertinent thought: Has anything been more revolutionary to weblogs than permalinks?
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Battle of the sub-headlines: MSNBC v. Newsweek
"Eight plans released, initial reaction from families is positive" (MSNBC, AP article)
"Families of victims of the September 11 attacks say plans are beautiful but fall short" (Newsweek)
Next week: FoxNews.com v. Washington Times
"Eight plans released, initial reaction from families is positive" (MSNBC, AP article)
"Families of victims of the September 11 attacks say plans are beautiful but fall short" (Newsweek)
Next week: FoxNews.com v. Washington Times
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Rep. Jim "The Jews Control Everything" Moran endorses Dean at a Dean campaign event...
...Leading me to again urge people to not vote for Dean. Pay the Deandertals no heed. If Dean is elected president he will be a huge disaster in foreign policy.
...Leading me to again urge people to not vote for Dean. Pay the Deandertals no heed. If Dean is elected president he will be a huge disaster in foreign policy.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Why do people hate the Jews?
Because of a cycle. The early Christians rejected the Jews because they would not convert, so the Jews became less connected with the society of Christian nations. Because they were less connected, they would not be drawn into the demagoguery of the political and religious leaders. Because they did not buy into the demagoguery, their only use to those in power and the mob was as the scapegoat. Whenever there was religious extremism, the Jews refused to convert, and the mob and the church used them as scapegoats. Because they were used as scapegoats, they learned to distrust demagoguery and mob politics.
Because they had learned to distrust demagoguery and mob politics, they would always oppose it. Because they would always oppose it, the only recourse of the demagogues was to suppress their opinion. Because the only recourse was suppression, anti-Semitism became the last resort of dictators and despots. Because it was the only recourse, Hitler saw that even if he controlled all of Europe, the Jews would still dissent his rule unless he suppressed them all. Because he needed to suppress them all, he tried to kill them all.
He had succeeded at suppressing six million by the time he drank poison like a rat.
Because he had killed six million Jews across more than eight countries, the European Jews saw that they would not be safe as long as they had no power. Because they needed power to be safe, they argued for a Jewish state. That state could only be in the one place that held religious meaning to the Jews, the place they had come from nearly two millennia ago. The Jews began to go back to Israel.
Because the Jews went back to Israel, the Muslims saw a threat to their cultural hegemony over the Middle East. They saw a place where those they had persecuted in their own lands could go to for freedom. They saw a nation filled with people that would never accept being dhimmas to the Muslim world. Most of all, they saw a people who would not be ruled by nobles or imams, people who would show the Arab world that they were oppressed by their leaders, because they were not. They would make a nation that would show a tolerance of ideas and people that was anathema to the religious and political leaders of the Muslims. And so it was necessary to destroy them.
But that was not all that was necessary. They also had to slander every facet of their culture, lie that they were in conspiracy to destroy the Muslim people, lie that they were a satanic people who drank the blood of Muslims, a people who were the incarnation of evil. And only then would the Muslim people reject the Jews, and reject everything that was part of Israel.
But in 1948, they failed. Israel survived. And because it survived, the Arab leaders invented the Palestinians to criticize the Jews for surviving and cast the mere existence of a Jewish state as causing suffering. They brainwashed those who had left during the war and could not return to Israel to think that Israel was the root of their problems, and that if they could return to Israel and destroy the state they would no longer suffer. In fact, their suffering was due only to Arab despots who had exiled the Jews of their own nations, tried and failed to destroy Israel, and then refused to offer a single hand to those Arab "brothers" who could not return to Israel. Even today many Palestinian "refugees" cannot find good employment in the Arab world because they are not recognized as citizens or residents by their so-called brethren. Even thought they impugned Israel with accusations of causing a "diaspora," the Arabs would not lift one finger to help these "refugees." The best proof of this is that the PLO predates the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neither of which were independent states or the center of any nationalist Palestinian activity t the time.
In 1967, Israel showed again that they would not be defeated by the Arab world, and suddenly the democratic and independent state clashed with European romanticization of the Arab world, and their "principles" of world peace through equilibrium and homogeneity. The same forces that led to the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia were at work again, prepared to sacrifice a "shitty little state" called Israel. They are the same forces that opposed the overthrow of the most brutal tyrant in this generation, loved only by the Arab mob and European elitist.
I don't pretend to understand why some European cultures have historically been craven about their own interests, while completely rejecting that others have any right to anything, or that others are capable of doing something that is just. I don't think that Sharansky is correct to characterize it as a merely left-wing problem, because he fails to explain how it became like that, and ignores the very relevant right-wing opponents of Israel, which include Chirac and his past extremist opponent le Pen, as well as Nazi remnants in eastern Europe.
So here we are today, and again anti-Semitism has become the last resort of despots in the Middle East. I honestly do not think Muslim society is perverted enough for someone as craven and manipulative as Yassir Arafat or as violent and hateful as the leaders of Hamas to rise to any role of importance and respect if they could not beset loose on Israel. Osama bin Laden is Churchill in comparison to the corrupt and useless leadership of Yasser Arafat, and at the very least the Arabs know exactly what they are getting into when they support him. Who knows how many people Yasser Arafat has betrayed and tricked to gain and hold onto power and wealth? (King Hussein, the leaders of Lebanon before the invasion, the UN, the UNRWA, the Israelis, Abu Mazen, Clinton, the Palestinians, the Palestinians...)
I see a gathering storm on the horizon. When the storm breaks, it will lead to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it can only end in the complete devastation of one of the sides. Significant anti-Semitism will only end when Israel and the world show that we will not tolerate persecution, will not tolerate oppression, will not tolerate genocidal hatred, and will not tolerate mass murder. At various points in the past and present the world has done very well at tolerating all of those.
Because of a cycle. The early Christians rejected the Jews because they would not convert, so the Jews became less connected with the society of Christian nations. Because they were less connected, they would not be drawn into the demagoguery of the political and religious leaders. Because they did not buy into the demagoguery, their only use to those in power and the mob was as the scapegoat. Whenever there was religious extremism, the Jews refused to convert, and the mob and the church used them as scapegoats. Because they were used as scapegoats, they learned to distrust demagoguery and mob politics.
Because they had learned to distrust demagoguery and mob politics, they would always oppose it. Because they would always oppose it, the only recourse of the demagogues was to suppress their opinion. Because the only recourse was suppression, anti-Semitism became the last resort of dictators and despots. Because it was the only recourse, Hitler saw that even if he controlled all of Europe, the Jews would still dissent his rule unless he suppressed them all. Because he needed to suppress them all, he tried to kill them all.
He had succeeded at suppressing six million by the time he drank poison like a rat.
Because he had killed six million Jews across more than eight countries, the European Jews saw that they would not be safe as long as they had no power. Because they needed power to be safe, they argued for a Jewish state. That state could only be in the one place that held religious meaning to the Jews, the place they had come from nearly two millennia ago. The Jews began to go back to Israel.
Because the Jews went back to Israel, the Muslims saw a threat to their cultural hegemony over the Middle East. They saw a place where those they had persecuted in their own lands could go to for freedom. They saw a nation filled with people that would never accept being dhimmas to the Muslim world. Most of all, they saw a people who would not be ruled by nobles or imams, people who would show the Arab world that they were oppressed by their leaders, because they were not. They would make a nation that would show a tolerance of ideas and people that was anathema to the religious and political leaders of the Muslims. And so it was necessary to destroy them.
But that was not all that was necessary. They also had to slander every facet of their culture, lie that they were in conspiracy to destroy the Muslim people, lie that they were a satanic people who drank the blood of Muslims, a people who were the incarnation of evil. And only then would the Muslim people reject the Jews, and reject everything that was part of Israel.
But in 1948, they failed. Israel survived. And because it survived, the Arab leaders invented the Palestinians to criticize the Jews for surviving and cast the mere existence of a Jewish state as causing suffering. They brainwashed those who had left during the war and could not return to Israel to think that Israel was the root of their problems, and that if they could return to Israel and destroy the state they would no longer suffer. In fact, their suffering was due only to Arab despots who had exiled the Jews of their own nations, tried and failed to destroy Israel, and then refused to offer a single hand to those Arab "brothers" who could not return to Israel. Even today many Palestinian "refugees" cannot find good employment in the Arab world because they are not recognized as citizens or residents by their so-called brethren. Even thought they impugned Israel with accusations of causing a "diaspora," the Arabs would not lift one finger to help these "refugees." The best proof of this is that the PLO predates the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neither of which were independent states or the center of any nationalist Palestinian activity t the time.
In 1967, Israel showed again that they would not be defeated by the Arab world, and suddenly the democratic and independent state clashed with European romanticization of the Arab world, and their "principles" of world peace through equilibrium and homogeneity. The same forces that led to the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia were at work again, prepared to sacrifice a "shitty little state" called Israel. They are the same forces that opposed the overthrow of the most brutal tyrant in this generation, loved only by the Arab mob and European elitist.
I don't pretend to understand why some European cultures have historically been craven about their own interests, while completely rejecting that others have any right to anything, or that others are capable of doing something that is just. I don't think that Sharansky is correct to characterize it as a merely left-wing problem, because he fails to explain how it became like that, and ignores the very relevant right-wing opponents of Israel, which include Chirac and his past extremist opponent le Pen, as well as Nazi remnants in eastern Europe.
So here we are today, and again anti-Semitism has become the last resort of despots in the Middle East. I honestly do not think Muslim society is perverted enough for someone as craven and manipulative as Yassir Arafat or as violent and hateful as the leaders of Hamas to rise to any role of importance and respect if they could not beset loose on Israel. Osama bin Laden is Churchill in comparison to the corrupt and useless leadership of Yasser Arafat, and at the very least the Arabs know exactly what they are getting into when they support him. Who knows how many people Yasser Arafat has betrayed and tricked to gain and hold onto power and wealth? (King Hussein, the leaders of Lebanon before the invasion, the UN, the UNRWA, the Israelis, Abu Mazen, Clinton, the Palestinians, the Palestinians...)
I see a gathering storm on the horizon. When the storm breaks, it will lead to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it can only end in the complete devastation of one of the sides. Significant anti-Semitism will only end when Israel and the world show that we will not tolerate persecution, will not tolerate oppression, will not tolerate genocidal hatred, and will not tolerate mass murder. At various points in the past and present the world has done very well at tolerating all of those.
Monday, November 10, 2003
"Yeetgadal v' yeetkadash sh'mey rabbah B'almah dee v'rah kheer'utey.
v' yamleekh malkhutei, b'chahyeykhohn, uv' yohmeykhohn, ba'agalah u'veez'man kareev, Amein.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach l'alam u'l'almey almahyah.
Yeet'barakh, v' yeesh'tabach, v' yeetpa'ar, v' yeetrohmam, v' yeet'nasei, v' yeet'hadar, v' yeet'aleh, v' yeet'halal sh'mey d'kudshah b'reekh hoo L'eylah meen kohl beerkhatah v'sheeratah, toosh'b'chatah v'nechematah, da'ameeran b'al'mah. Amein.
Y'hei shlamah rabbah meen sh'mahyah, v'chahyeem aleynu. Amein
Oseh shalom beem'roh'mahv, hoo ya'aseh shalom, aleynu. Amein"
(Mourner's Kaddish)
v' yamleekh malkhutei, b'chahyeykhohn, uv' yohmeykhohn, ba'agalah u'veez'man kareev, Amein.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach l'alam u'l'almey almahyah.
Yeet'barakh, v' yeesh'tabach, v' yeetpa'ar, v' yeetrohmam, v' yeet'nasei, v' yeet'hadar, v' yeet'aleh, v' yeet'halal sh'mey d'kudshah b'reekh hoo L'eylah meen kohl beerkhatah v'sheeratah, toosh'b'chatah v'nechematah, da'ameeran b'al'mah. Amein.
Y'hei shlamah rabbah meen sh'mahyah, v'chahyeem aleynu. Amein
Oseh shalom beem'roh'mahv, hoo ya'aseh shalom, aleynu. Amein"
(Mourner's Kaddish)
Friday, November 07, 2003
The Kim du Toit post: Yeah, it's a caricature of itself. There's a joke I could make about his name and "essay" but that is just really stupid. And the absurd neo-antifeminist rant that it is isn't worth it. An ad hominem that is worth bringing up because he claims to be a "real man," is that in his bio he claims to have been married three times, and one wonders what degree of personal anger he is expressing in paragraph 23, in his Cheerios rant. Another thing is that he is obviously arguing to remove suffrage from women given that he says it is the root of the problem.
Kim, you're a whiner, a misogynist, and a hypochondriac. If you're so manly get off your ass and prove it by doing something useful.
If anyone thinks I'm being hypercritical, may I note that his only concrete insight into the state of men today is a Cheerios ad and an old comedy sitcom. That is just stupid, and is equivalent to saying that Fatal Attractions proved that independent working women were vilified in the '80s.
Kim, you're a whiner, a misogynist, and a hypochondriac. If you're so manly get off your ass and prove it by doing something useful.
If anyone thinks I'm being hypercritical, may I note that his only concrete insight into the state of men today is a Cheerios ad and an old comedy sitcom. That is just stupid, and is equivalent to saying that Fatal Attractions proved that independent working women were vilified in the '80s.
Monday, October 27, 2003
Lieberman Campaign: Right on Track
From Slate:
You'd grin too if things were going this well.
From Slate:
Unlike Gephardt, who tried to mute his difference with Kerry and John Edwards over the $87 billion for Iraq, Lieberman went after those two senators vociferously for flip-flopping on the vote. When Al Sharpton asked whether Lieberman would meet with Yasser Arafat, Lieberman made his case against such a meeting—a position obviously unpopular with the crowd—in such a forceful, well-argued way that the crowd ended up applauding him. Later, when he was asked about being "Bush lite," Lieberman replied, "I get angry when people say to me somehow that I'm not an authentic Democrat because I'm strong on defense, strong on values, and willing to talk about the role of faith in American life. I'm not going to yield that ground to the Republicans. I'm Joe Lieberman. I'm an independent-minded Democrat. And as president, I'm going to restore prosperity and security to the American people." The only flaw in his otherwise powerful delivery was a classic Liebermanism: a grin as he called himself angry.
You'd grin too if things were going this well.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Joke post of the month
(Thanks to Yourish for linking to it first)
Note: I have called November 29th for the Arafat Death Watch.
(Thanks to Yourish for linking to it first)
Note: I have called November 29th for the Arafat Death Watch.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
I know I'm late to post on this, but if you haven't read this, you should. This is probably the best example of what is wrong with the Muslim political world. Unitentionally insightful quote:
The scapegoatism that Jews are used for reinforces the idea that antisemitism is promoted by Muslim leaders to deflect blame for their complete negligence of the welfare of their people. Does any semi-sane person anywhere have an explanation for how 13 million Jews are "responsible" for the backwardness of 1.3 billion Muslims?
Next: A discussion of the Rumsfeld Memo, and why it is insignificant to the public at large.
There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people. They feel that they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse. The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews. They will forever be poor, backward and weak. Some believe, as I have said, this is the Will of Allah, that the proper state of the Muslims is to be poor and oppressed in this world.
But is it true that we should do and can do nothing for ourselves? Is it true that 1.3 billion people can exert no power to save themselves from the humiliation and oppression inflicted upon them by a much smaller enemy?
The scapegoatism that Jews are used for reinforces the idea that antisemitism is promoted by Muslim leaders to deflect blame for their complete negligence of the welfare of their people. Does any semi-sane person anywhere have an explanation for how 13 million Jews are "responsible" for the backwardness of 1.3 billion Muslims?
Next: A discussion of the Rumsfeld Memo, and why it is insignificant to the public at large.