Bush Has A Better Plan

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

The scariest five words in the English language:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday that a U.S. military program to bolster Iraqi security forces in Baghdad will better address the violence there as he pledged to stand by Iraq’s new democratic government.

"Obviously the violence in Baghdad is still terrible," Bush said during a joint White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Bush had praised al-Maliki’s signature program to improve Baghdad security during their last meeting in Baghdad in June.

Wiat a sec.  Doesn’t all the violence mean that the insurgency is in its "last throes"?

Gas Prices At An All Time High

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & DeficitLeave a Comment

Just thought you should know:

Nationwide gas prices hit an all-time high in the last two weeks, rising nearly 2 cents to just over $3 per gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular stood at $3.0150 a gallon Friday, up 1.98 cents in the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The price exceed the previous high of $3.0117 set in September last year, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

Things I Did Know, But Not Completely

Ken AshfordHistoryLeave a Comment

Christopher Columbus was a real prick.

I mean, I knew about how he subjugated and mistreated all the local natives that he came across in the New World.

I’d even heard this story:

Between the evening of October 11 and the morning of October 12, a sailor on the Pinta named Juan Rodriguez Bermejo called out, "Land, land!" Isabella had offered a reward to the first person to sight land. However, Columbus said that he had seen a flickering light hours earlier, and he claimed the reward.

But new documents, recently discovered, show how terrible Columbus and his brothers were when they established their first colony in the New World:

We hear of a poor boy who was caught stealing wheat grain. They cut off his ears and nose and put shackles on him and made him a slave.

Columbus ran the colony with an iron fist. One woman happened to say Columbus came from a working-class family and that his father had been a weaver.

Columbus’s brother Bartholme had her tongue cut out. After parading her naked through the streets on a donkey, Christopher congratulated his brother on defending the family honour.

***

The 46-page document shows Columbus and his brothers, Bartholme and Diego, as tyrants who ruled through summary justice without bothering with trials.

They also failed to give out food and water. They also forbade natives to be baptized so that they could be used as slaves, according to witnesses claims.

And those slaves not only included the indiginous natives, but white Spaniards as well.

And we have a holiday for this asshole?

Things I Didn’t Know

Ken AshfordWomen's IssuesLeave a Comment

Part of a life-long series.

Today’s topic is abortion.  Specifically, parental notification laws.

Pro-lifers are in favor of such laws, which require that teenage girls seeking abortion must obtain parental permission (or a court order) before said abortion can be performed.  The pro-life lobby believes that parental notification laws will reduce the number of abortions, on the presumption that parents will encourage their daughters to carry the fetuses to term.

Not necessarily so, I learned today:

But some workers and doctors at abortion clinics said that the laws had little connection with the real lives of most teenagers, and that they more often saw parents pressing their daughters to have abortions than trying to stop them. And many teenagers say they never considered hiding their pregnancies or abortion plans from their mothers.

Still, even assuming these laws actually cut down on teen abortions, these laws should be opposed. And Matt Yglesius explained why:

The main effect of the laws is to intimidate such women out of getting abortions for fear of what their parents (most likely fathers) will do to them if they’re told. Now if you believe abortion is murder, this is a great deal. From within the relevant class of people, a certain number are successfully intimidated out of having abortions. A sub-set of these women probably wind up being subjected to physical abuse by their parents, but a few beatings is a small price to pay for cutting down on the number of baby killers. …Still, this stuff sucks.  The country does not need more teen mothers, does not need more child abuse, and doesn’t need bus drivers getting thrown in jail for letting pregnant women get on board. To be perfectly frank about it, women under 18 are the last group of people we should be subjecting to intense pressure to carry their pregnancies to term. Arguments that the aggregate impact of these laws will be less teen sex rather than more teen mothers are purely fatuous.

Hat tip: The Carpetbagger Report

Inside The Pod’s Mind

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Die-hard conservatives are absolutely blown away with praise for Oliver Stone’s new movie "World Trade Center", which tells the true story of two NYC policemen trapped in the rubble of WTC on 9/11.

Cal Thomas, for example, calls it one of the great Hollywood movies of all time, writing:

Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This is one of his best. It deserves an Oscar in so many categories. It also deserves the thanks of a grateful nation. Go and see it beginning Aug. 9 and make him a large profit so he might consider inspiring us again, as his predecessors so often did during Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Other praise from conservatives here and here.

Enter, the Corner’s John Podheretz, who reveals his true colors by saying:

Nonetheless, because "World Trade Center" tells a story of joyous survival rather than a story of death, it is a fundamental falsification of the meaning of 9/11 – even though the story it tells is true.

He adds:

…that is not what 9/11 was about – 9/11 was a day of barbaric mass murder, not a day of hope.

Ironically, in the same column, he heaps praise on the movie "United 93", which he casts as a tale about "survival".  Not death, but the opposite.

I almost feel sorry for someone who is stuck on fear, tragedy, and sorrow.  9/11 was obviously a tragedy — but seriously, do we need a movie to remind us of that?  Just as the Holocaust contained stories like the one told in "Schindler’s List", 9/11 also exemplified what is good about America, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with a movie about that.  But if it were up to Pod, a 9/11 movie would be just about adversity (bodies jumping from skyscrapers), and not about triumph in spite of adversity (men surviving in the rubble).  Says something rather ugly about the man.

Gay Divorcees

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family Values1 Comment

The first same-sex marriage sanctioned by Massaschusetts is apparently over.  Watch how wingnuts will use this to argue that same-sex marriage is wrong and unnatural, while ignoring the fact that the divorce rate for heterosexual marriages is at an all-time high.

Lead Singer For Iron Maiden News

Ken AshfordMiddle East1 Comment

I’m no fan of Iron Maiden, but this is a pretty cool story:

He’s the frontman for one of the great metal bands of all-time. He was a world class fencer. Now, after helping to rescue scores of Britons from the fiery hell of war, he’s a national hero.

Bruce Dickinson, lead singer for Iron Maiden, gets bored pretty quickly. He keeps himself busy with many hobbies and art projects. Years ago he was trained as a commercial pilot by friend Captain Phil Dales of British Airways.

When Dickinson got word that his countrymen were stranded in Cyprus after having fled the war in Lebanon, he leaped at the chance to help.

"He was only too keen to get involved and help. He has a strong interest in the welfare of people caught up in international conflicts and cares about what is going on," said a colleague.

Dickinson piloted a Boeing 757 down to the tiny island nation to pick up 200 Britons and return them to the safety to Gatwick Airport in England.

Now Dickinson will return to hosting his weekly radio show on BBC 6Music and resume rehearsing for Iron Maiden’s fall tour opening at Budokan.

Friday iPod Random Ten

Ken AshfordPersonalLeave a Comment

  1. E5_2 Don’t You Want Me — Human League
  2. Principles Of Lust – Enigma
  3. Creeque Alley – The Mamas & The Papas
  4. Minnie and Alex’s Reel – Natalie MacMaster
  5. Taurus II– Mike Oldfield
  6. Children Children – Bat Boy: The Musical
  7. Rosalinda’s Eyes – Billy Joel
  8. O Superman – Laurie Anderson
  9. Runaway – Janet Jackson (or, in the alternative, if you are given to feelings indicating a modicum of overt or subtle nastiness, you may address her simply as "Miss Jackson")
  10. I’m A Believer – The Monkees

Blogrolling

Ken AshfordBlogging2 Comments

Gotta give a plug to Heather Hamby’s newly-redesigned website (now with working buttons) for anyone following the adventures of the Triad’s favorite beauty queen.  (Or at least, my favorite beauty queen).

And, as always, I recommend that you keep abreast of Emily Mark’s website, and in particular her blog, The Soap Box.  Funny stuff.  Emily has toned up like I-don’t-know-what for the "Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical" (I really should follow her lead), which means she won’t be using my new favorite word ("fatsnack") anymore . . . but she’s still a hoot to read.

Rapture Dreams

Ken AshfordGodstuff, Middle East5 Comments

Well, there’s a small segment of society who believe that the Middle East conflict is a good thing.  A REAL good thing.

Over at Rapture Ready/End Times Chat online bulletin board, some evangelical Christians are seeing recent events as a sure sign of the second coming of Christ.  Here are a few comments posted on the board:

Praise God! We are chosen to be in these times and also watch and spread the word. Something inside me is exploding to get out, and I don’t know what it is. Its kind of like I want to do cartwheels around the neighborhood.

* * *

A question just popped in my head. Do you think children of around say 7 or 8 (but before the age of accountability) that have been indoctrinated up until that time by their parents religious beliefs will be raptured? . . . For example, would a 7 year old muslim be raptured? I know G-d will do right but I was just wondering everyone’s thoughts. I hate to think of kids being left here.

* * *

Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me.

* * *

This is the busiest I’ve ever seen this website in a few years! I have been having rapture dreams and I can’t believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

Whoa! I can sure feel the glory bumps after reading this thread!

* * *

I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what’s going on in the M.E.!! And Watcherboy, you were so right when saying it was quite a day yesterday, in the world news, and I add in local news here in the Boston area!! Tunnel ceiling collapsed on a car and killed a woman of faith, and we had the most terrifying storms I have ever seen here!! But, yes, oh happy day, like in your screen name , it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited, right there with ya!!

* * *

I am excited beyond words that the struggle of this life may be over soon and I can finally be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

* * *

This is so exciting….I’m having a hard time believing this is ‘real’!

I’m not trying to put down anyone’s deeply-held religious convictions, but isn’t there something a little ooky about celebrating war, death, and destruction (not to mention the Big Dig fatality in Boston) in this way?

Jesus wept.

Courtesy of Harper’s Magazine