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 (9)
Posted by Tom Shipley | June 20, 2007 7:31 AM
They specifically asked for no beryllium.
Posted by rbj | June 20, 2007 8:06 AM
"Maybe the next time, Georgia could just confiscate the material instead"
Come now, Cap'n. That wouldn't be very sporting now would it. Gotta give them a few tries first.
Posted by feeblemind | June 20, 2007 8:40 AM
I wonder if the story is really true?
Posted by km | June 20, 2007 8:52 AM
I'm sure the noble poor oppressed Islamists have a perfectly good reason for obtaining the plutonium/beryllium mixture; it has so many peaceful uses ... Like ... Uh ... Well ... Let me think ... I'm sure there are thousands of good uses for it ... OK, hundreds ... Um, dozens ... At least one ... Hey, look over there, a zeppelin!
And it is time to focus on truly important things, like impeaching Chimpy McSmirk BusHilter and Cheney.
Posted by Georg Felis | June 20, 2007 10:30 AM
You must consider the border control agent's thoughts on mortality. "Will I get radioactive" and "Will somebody kill me because I stopped this shipment" Brings new meaning to the phrase "Hot potato".
Posted by justsalt | June 20, 2007 11:46 AM
From what I know of that part of the world the Georgian border official's reaction was probably more like: "This is really big time stuff and you are only offering me how much to let you across? Go back and raise some more bribe money, then try again. Remember I have to kick upstairs a large percentage of whatever you give me."
Posted by brooklyn | June 20, 2007 1:37 PM
yikes indeed.
Posted by edncda | June 20, 2007 2:49 PM
Are we to believe that no attempt was made to bribe the border guards? Either an amazing display of stupidity by the would-be 'smugglers' or else selfless dedication and integrity on the part of the border guards. Hmmm......
(Or maybe the smugglers arrived at the border before remembering that it would be a good idea to exchange their Iranian rials for US greenbacks...........)
(Or maybe it makes a good story to show that Georgia 'deserves' more financial incentives from the US for fighting the good fight against terrorism.......er, that would make it blackmail or extortion though...)
Posted by Joe Doe | June 20, 2007 5:13 PM
They realized it was sent to the wrong border - an enforced one - was re-routed to the proper one.
Berillium - very interesting, it is the material used for the nuclear detonator (has some sort of multiplying effect on the very initial fission phase). I wonder how did they determine it was Berillium - being just border agents, that is.