About
Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral.
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The Crows Nest
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Hobbs Choice
Volunteer Voters is holding its annual "Best of Nashville" on-line polls, and one of the categories is for the best political writer. Our friend Bill Hobbs, now posting at Newsbusters, and he'd like his on-line fans to cast their votes. Drop by and put one in for Bill if you get a chance!
Murtha Getting Backlogged On Apologies
Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring sees another case collapsing on the Haditha charges. He's called for Murtha to apologize earlier, and adds another reason to the tally.
No Such Thing As 'Moderate' Islam?
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a television interviewer that he finds the label "moderate Islam" offensive. Shrink Wrapped has a lot more on this, but at least in the same interview Erdogan acknowledged that "radical Islam" exists, and that it's been a catastrophe. Be sure to read the whole post.
MS-NBC Gets Punk'd
Power Line has a great post on a lack of journalistic effort on the part of MS-NBC. In covering the Michael Vick story, they reported on what they thought was Al Sharpton's website proclaiming Vick's innocence. I guess Alex Johnson and two other MS-NBC reporters couldn't bother to read the title bar of the site, which proudly proclaims it as a "parody site".
New Instapundit Podcast On Pharmaceuticals
I just caught this e-mail from Glenn Reynolds about his new podcast with Richard Epstein, the author of Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the topic is important enough to make sure I carve out time for it tomorrow. Get their first and tell me what I'm missing ....
Fed Trying A 'Stealth Easing'?
The Federal Reserve seems to have conducted a quiet campaign to steady markets that started spinning out of control, according to King Banaian at SCSU Scholars. He thinks that the Fed has conducted a "stealth easing". Be sure to read his explanation and follow his lnks.
A Shameless Bit Of Sel-Promotion
Gateway Pundit and Val at Babalu Blog note a crass PR move by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has responded to Peru's eathquake disaster with food shipments -- and with Hugo's smiling picture on the cans. He also uses the tuna-can label to undermine President Garcia of Peru, who narrowly defeated Chavez' pal Ollanto Humalla, whom the labels extol for his "solidarity" with Chavez.
Tacky beyond belief.
Bush Going After Palestinian Terror Financing?
George Bush's new orders to USAID forces them to review the executive management of all NGOs to ensure that they have no terrorist connections. Carl in Jerusalem says at Israel Matzav that the order specifically intends to target Palestinian front groups for terrorists. Let's hope he's right.
Slow Start!
Yes, I'm off to a slow start today, thanks to some scripting issues, a bad back, and an alarm clock that needs replacing. Bear with me -- I'm ramping up, I promise...
And Now, In Little League Action Last Night ...
I once played in a Little League game where we lost, 30-1, obviously before mercy rules came into being. The only comfort during that shellacking was that 13-year-olds don't have to justify their salaries for being on the field. You have to wonder what the Baltimore Orioles have to feel without that caveat today, after losing 30-3 to the Texas Rangers. Sixteen of the runs came in the last two innings .... (via TMV)
Bush Speech On Iraq
I got a couple of e-mails wondering why I haven't linked to George Bush's speech today. I liked it; I just didn't have much to add. Rush Limbaugh covered it well on his site, and Power Line also links approvingly but has nothing much more to say. Michael Goldfarb notes that the Weekly Standard had made a similar argument regarding Vietnam a year ago.
Rove Fears Me -- No, Really!
Hot Air notes the latest fundraising letter from John Edwards. No longer content to indulge his paranoia when Ann Coulter mentions him, now he wants to indulge it when Karl Rove doesn't. Has any candidate seemed this desperate before now?
Racism Or Hard Truth?
Angela Winters looks at an editorial cartoon and the controvery it has caused in Jacksonville, Florida, especially in the black community. Truth or racism? When rap artists tell young listeners not to cooperate with the police, how much responsibility do they have for the victimization that follows? Read all of the essay at The Moderate Voice.
Support Citizen Journalism
Bill Ardolino at INDC Journal reminds us that there is a reporter shortage on the front lines. The best way to solve that problem? Donate to Public Multimedia, the citizen-journalist organization that supports Bill Roggio, Bill Ardolino, and others. (And a direct donation to Michael Yon would be much appreciated as well.)
Comments (6)
Posted by Mr Lynn | April 18, 2007 6:57 AM
Every week President Bush should go on television with a report on the Global War on Islamic Terrorism. He should emphasize the 'Islamic'. He can talk about progress and setbacks in Iraq, about bombings in Thailand, about Afghanistan, about Islamic attacks in (Moslem) Algeria, about the threat of civil war between Christians and Islamists in Nigeria, and so on, and so forth.
The American people, brainwashed into torpidity by the media, must be educated about the threat that worldwide radical Islamism presents.
And we must think about how to tackle the growing problem of Islamists in our midst. Radical Islam advocates the violent overthrow of the US Constitution and the creation of an Islamic theocracy. Does that not make its adherents candidates for careful scrutiny, expulsion from the country (if aliens), and prosecution (if citizens)?
But after a brief attempt at mentioning the enemy by name, President Bush has lapsed into silence, cowed apparently by the politically correct and the media.
Thailand, Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria. . . and then Spain? We too are on the list.
/Mr Lynn
Posted by lexhamfox | April 18, 2007 8:28 AM
Police violence and corruption are endemic in Nigeria and the divisions there are as much ethnic and economic as they are sectarian. There are Christian freaks like the Nigerian Dr King with his own brand of justice and I guess Christian massacres like the one in Plateau state would not rate a mention on this site. Christians gone wild? I don't think so. Indications are that the group that murdered the police in Kano were not even Nigerian according to Kano residents familiar with that particular militant group. They only number a few hundred in a community of millions of Muslim Fulani-Hausas
You seem to suggest that Nigeria's violence is sectarian but in the Southern Delta area youths who are fed up with federal and local corruption and abuse of power are also taking up arms and attacking police. Violence is taking place in areas with no Muslims whatsoever but Ed's rare post about Nigeria is about Islamic terror in Kano. Tell us Ed... were the police killed in Kano Muslims or Christians?
The little blurb you base this alarmist post on does not do the justice to the deep rooted chronic issues facing all Nigerians as they go to the polls.
Posted by docjim505 | April 18, 2007 9:25 AM
lexhamfox wrote (April 18, 2007 08:28 AM):
You [Cap'n Ed] seem to suggest that Nigeria's violence is sectarian but in the Southern Delta area youths who are fed up with federal and local corruption and abuse of power are also taking up arms and attacking police. Violence is taking place in areas with no Muslims whatsoever but Ed's rare post about Nigeria is about Islamic terror in Kano. Tell us Ed... were the police killed in Kano Muslims or Christians?
An excellent point. A couple of thoughts:
1. Many Americans are on a hair-trigger about Muslims, and automatically suspect (if not assume) that any horror such as the shooting at Virginia Tech or the OKC Bombing must be the work of islamofacists. I recall seeing the news about the OKC bombing break and everybody was speculating that it was Islamic terrorists; I don't think it crossed anybody's mind that the murderer was a white man.
2. While there are unquestionably "christofascists" out there, they are regarded rightly or wrongly as a disgusting minority. I'd wager that 99%+ of American Christians absolutely detest Fred Phelps, for instance.
In contrast, we hear all the time about ayatollahs and imams preaching hatred and murder and war in their mosques.
Christofascists seem an aberration. Islamosacists seem much more mainstream.
3. In contrast to the idea that people commit violent acts because they're islamofascists, I've seen others advance the idea that it's all about economics. IIRC, the State Department did a report about Muslim terrorists that left religion almost completely unmentioned. Honestly, had one changed a few names, it might have been a Cold War-era report about communist parties in Latin America: it was all about poverty and government corruption as motivators for terrorism.
The answer lies somewhere in the middle; we've all got to be careful about what pigeonholes we use.
Posted by jerry | April 18, 2007 1:44 PM
LF:
I have been pondering a response to your post today. I certainly agree that the African continent is rife with tribal strife and pure thuggery but there is a difference between the violence in the Christian South and the Muslim north. The Muslims are part of world wide pattern of Muslim violence against both the insufficiently Muslim and the non-Muslim while the thugs in the Christian south are just that …thugs with no particular agenda beyond their immediate surroundings. For the life of me I don’t understand this constant attempt to equate actions by Islamic radicals with other individuals, groups or nations.
Well, actually do and my question was rhetorical. Martin Heidegger started it all when asked if he now preferred liberal Western government to totalitarianism. He told his questioner that he saw no moral difference between the West and the Communists and given that he preferred the Communists. What he was saying was that if you there is not difference between the two, i.e., not good or evil, then there is nothing wrong with picking evil. Your inability to differentiate between a worldwide pattern of Muslim violence occurs whenever Muslims encounter the other either defensive actions by the victims or even random violence by others is sign of your post-modern moral blindness.
Posted by lexhamfox | April 18, 2007 9:23 PM
Jerry, I would agree with you in the case of the murder of the publishers in Turkey (today) but not the attack on the local authorities in Kano. Ther are material differences between the two in terms which you yourself highlight.
Also, I'm not sure if the Christian thugs are as vanilla as you suggest, In the Plateau massacre it was allegedly gangs working with the collusion if not outright support of local authorities committing the atrocities against the Muslim minority in a largely Christian state. Also, the Delta gangs target oil firms and especially the Westerners who work for them. The circumstances of both point to larger agendas and in the one case it is blatently sectarian.
Posted by jerry | April 18, 2007 9:56 PM
LF:
There you go again trying to balance and equate to groups so you can make excuses for Muslim violence.
There is basic difference in the way we view these conflicts. You tend to look at the local condition such as corruption in Nigeria; the refusal of the Jews to allow the Palestinians the unlimited right of return; the injustice of Hindu domination of Kashmir, the insults of Christians in the Philippines or East Timor; the refusal of black African Muslims to submit to their Arab masters in Darfur; the failure to address the grievances of the Muslims in Southern Thailand; or the failure of Swedes to honor the customs of Muslim immigrants in Malmo.
I other hand look at common element in the equation. Wherever Muslims come in contact with the other they seem to feel that they are the aggrieved party and require redress through violent means if necessary. Could it be that whatever the proximate local cause the underlying problem is found in the Muslim community and not victims of their anger? Could it be that the real underlying Muslim grievance is the failure of the other to acknowledge the superiority of Islam?
You appear to be a clever fellow so what prevents you from connecting these dots? It is not matter of finding what is different but what is the constant in the equation.
You remind me of Stavrogin in Dostoevsky’s “The Possessed.” He is a man who is incapable of moral discernment and is really the prototype for today’s “sophisticated” Post-Modern thinker.