The Media Are the Enemy

Via Winds of Change, we find that the NY Times has no qualms offering tactical data on CIA's extraction flights all over the world. They even provide the enemy with photos and tail numbers! Dear Lord! Which side are these guys on?!

Minuteman Protest Gets Ugly

Via Gateway Pundit:

The left had been promising the Minutemen Project would cause unnecessary violence and they were absolutely correct. But, it was the "Minutemen" and not the illegal aliens that were on the receiving end of that violence last night. Vicious protesters hurled bricks, rocks and unopened soda cans in the rally last night against the founder of the Minuteman in Pasadena, California.

Zarqawi an Ex-Terrorist?

Via LGF:

Hammorabi in Iraq is reporting a rumor that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has died. (Unverified, of course.)

Gateway Pundit has more.

Taranto Strikes Again

From today's Best of the Web:

What'll They Control Next?
It's a long-running joke, only now it's serious: The BBC reports that a British Medical Journal article argues "for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing":

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase--and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

One could argue that banning knives doesn't go far enough, for the world is filled with other dangerous items. Consider this report, from the Bellingham (Wash.) Herald:

Two Bellingham residents were killed when a tree fell on and crushed their SUV as they drove southbound on Lake Whatcom Boulevard Sunday.

Didn't Reagan warn us about trees? If we're going to control guns and knives, doesn't log-ic demand that we do something about these wooden weapons of mass destruction? Though of course the tree-huggers will object. We can just hear them now: "You can have my tree when you pry it from my cold, dead arms."

Voyager Exit Stage Left

Voyager I is officially exiting the solar system and being buffeted by the sudden slow down of solar winds crashing into inter-stellar gas. This is the stuff of science fiction, yet it's actually happening right now. Follow the link above for more detailed information and cool animations.

I wonder what the view is like out there.

Who Me? Couldn't Be!

The Washington Post reports North Korea's recent denial of their intentions to test a nuclear weapon.

Prediction: North Korea will test a nuclear weapon by the end of the summer.

Syria Observation

Tigerhawk has an interesting observation on Syria's latest antics.

If Syria has, in fact, been able to arrest more than a thousand insurgents in just the last few weeks, why hasn't it been doing that for the last two years? Syria, in its braggodocio, has implicitly confessed that it has been able to stop insurgents from crossing the border all along, and effectively admitted the charges against it.

Hat tip on WSJ's Best of the Web

I know this will reveal my true nerdy nature (*gasp!*) but I got a 'hat tip' from James Taranto on his daily opinion column, OpinionJournal's Best of the Web (which is really more like a blog via e-mail). In any case, to toot my own horn, this hasn't been the first time I got a hat tip, just the most recent.
[scroll to the bottom for the 'Thanks to...' section.]

"Eject!" Blog's Verbal Artistry

William Whittle at Eject! Eject! Eject! writes a two part article on Sanctuary. I have not read it all yet, but I highly recommend you do for the sheer simplicity and artistry with which he writes.
Part 1 | Part 2

Blogger aboard the Diverted Alitalia Flight

Blogger Nick Genes was aboad the Alitalia flight that was diverted from Boston's Logan Airport to Bangor, Maine. He writes about the interesting sequence of events and some interesting insights on the whole story as well as some questions for the authorities.

Two conclusions come to mind from this story -

1) The "watch-list" needs to be revamped or discarded for a better system.
2) The news is being increasingly reported by normal folk in their pajamas (a.k.a. bloggers).

Border Watch Near San Diego

The Minuteman project was highly successful in Arizona. Now they're taking their voluntary partrol to the sunny San Diego.

I am very supportive of what they do. They hold suspected illegal immigrants until the border patrol comes and takes them into custody.

What about racism? I will counter that these Minutemen (and women) will hold any race of illegal immigrant crossing the border, not just Hispanics.

What about equal opportunity? It's not their fault they were born into poverty. I would counter that an equal opportunity is present for legal residents of the United States. If you'd like to come, do so legally.

We can not hold the plight of those poor guys coming across the border to work above our own need for safety and security. We do need to help them, but not by opening the floodgates and letting anyone (including really bad guys) in to our country. Lets help them in other ways - outsource maufacturing and textile industry to Mexico. Increase the ease of obtaining work-permits. Do whatever you can to help the people of the world live a better life - but not at the expense of our own safety.

Lastly, if I were a Mexican looking to feed my family, I'd probably jump the border, too.

"24" Blog

Oh, my. I think I have just hit blog heaven. I have found a 24 blog. For those of you who haven't left the cellar since the cold war ended, 24 is the best show on television starring Kiefer Sutherland and is about terrorists and the good guys who stop them. The catch to the show is that it is in 'real-time', meaning that one hour of TV time equals one hour of the story's time. So each season has twenty-four episodes spanning the 24 hours of a particular day (hence the title - get it? /sarcasm).

I have yet to delve into the depths of the 24 Blog, but I am excited about a forum to post my thoughts on the show. (My thoughts in a nutshell - great action and screenwriting until they try to cram some romance in for perticular market segments. They are horrible at writing romance. They are also horrible about writing in apoligetic justifications for using Muslums as terrorists. Summary: the plot is good, the action is great and Kiefer is the perfect actor for this role. Many other actors were also properly cast, both good guys and bad).

Tragic Slaughter of Peaceful Demonstrators in Uzbekistan

Proponents of Democracy and freedom were peacefully protesting outside goverment buildings on May 13th in Andijan, Uzbekistan. The governemt ruthlessly suppressed the demonstrations by shooting into the crowds. They killed over 500 men, women, and children. According to Gateway Pundit, there has not been such a murderous suppression of a peaceful demonstration since Tianmen Square in 1989. Read Gateway Pundit's post for more information as well as disturbing eyewitness testimony.

The Winds of Change are blowing. But they can be very painful.

Update: Karinov, the PM of Usbekistan is an 'ally' of the US in the war for terror. He is a ruthless dictator and should be thrown out on his petunia. Come on Condi! Let 'im have it! Dress him down for killing his own people. *sigh*

Newsweek Journalistic Standards

Newsweek on Monday retracted a story alleging interrogators at Guantanamo flushed the Koran down a toilet in front of detainees.

"Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay," editor Mark Whitaker (search) said in statement released Monday evening.

The only thing favorable I can say about this whole debacle is that Newsweek is coming out and admitting that they were wrong. Stonewalling does nobody any good, as Dan Rather and CBS can attest. Sixteen people died in Afghanistan during the riots sparked by the false claim of Koran-flushing. The people were egged on to riot, but the article gave the 'eggers' a spark to kindle the flames of hatred.

Let's move on from the MSM, and all join and read Pajamas Media.

NoKo Nuke Try Now?

North Korea Hints That Testing
Of Atomic Bomb May Occur Soon

By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH in Seoul, SOUTH KOREA and GINNY PARKER in Tokyo
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 10, 2005 4:15 a.m.; Page A15

A North Korean official told a visiting Japanese scholar last week that Pyongyang would need to test an atomic bomb to prove it has successfully built nuclear weapons and hinted that such a step could be taken shortly, the scholar said.

"You will know soon" whether a nuclear test will be conducted, said Pak Hyon Jae, deputy director of a North Korean Foreign Ministry think tank, according to Yasuhiko Yoshida, a professor at Japan's Osaka University of Economics and Law.

The World Has Spoken

A reader of Instapundit emailed Professor Reynolds:

The world (English speaking world at least) has spoken:

John Howard

George Bush

Tony Blair

Seems to me those that oppose Iraq are in the clear minority, at least on the one particular topic of the war in Iraq.

Congratulations Prime Minister Blair. The people have spoken.

Pajama Party!

The big boys and girls of the blogosphere are pushing back against the MSM (mainstream media) with a blog-consolidation venture called Pajamas Media. Roger L. Simon has the latest update and the New York Sun has a good article about it.

HA! The First-Comic

The First Lady is really the First Comic! Laura Bush brought down the house this past Saturday night. She was really funny! It sounded more like a Jay Leno monologue than a political speech. I liked it. It really takes confidence to stand up and poke some fun at yourself (and your husband, and your husband's family, and the vice-president...)

The Washington Times has a good summary of the speech, but the USA Today has a transcript of the whole thing.

Maybe that's why Laura was on the Leno show last week - she was honing her skills!

Remember Afghanistan?

In any case, the mainstream media definitely has stopped reporting about Afghanistan. Why? Because there is nothing but good news coming from the infant country.

Update: Something bad has just happened today. The media has remembered Afghanistan again.