Opening a Window on North Korea's Horrors (washingtonpost.com)

North Korea: a horror show. Read the whole thing. (via Instapundit)

Bum-Rushed

I've been trying to link to an excellent column at ESPN.com by Ralph Wiley on Rush Limbaugh's exit. Unfortunately, their pop-up ad from Orbitz keeps screwing up my browser -- I wind up having to shut all my browser windows down to make it stop. However, I was still able to read the column, and I think he's spot-on.

Repayment? Non!

I report, you decide ... but this just feels right to me. (Winds of Change)

Head size and mental ability

I would just like to let y'all know that I wear a 7 5/8 hat size. (via Gweilo Diaries, who has something in common with me)

Third-year slump

I'm not sure if Hindrocket over at Power Line has had a chance to read this Fred Barnes article at OpinionJournal, but maybe it would make him feel a little bit better. The impression I get so far is that the Democrats are doing all the talking, and that's accounting for the slipping numbers. As Barnes points out, that's natural; it's Presidential election season, with the first round of the primaries coming up in three or four months. When Dubya has a chance to focus on the election, the numbers will move back, probably significantly, unless something goes disastrously wrong in the war.

Alex Kingston -- Airhead

I don't know who the hell Alex Kingston is, but she gets a royal Fisking over at Give War A Chance. Kingston is apparently one of those spoiled Hollywood brats who think that the First Amendment provides freedom of criticism, or in other words, free speech for me but not for thee. What a joke. I'm glad Emily had the time for this. Nice job.

U.S. diabetes rate continues to rise

This is beginning to sound like a broken record, but at some point we need to take some action to reverse this trend. The problem, as I found out three years ago when I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, is the high carb count in American diets (hell, the high everything count). Carbs convert to glucose quickly in the bloodstream, and the body responds by producing insulin. But if you do that too often, the body starts becoming resistant to the insulin, just like with most other chemicals. That is the leading cause of Type II -- weight-influenced insulin resistance. The only fix is to either supplement the insulin or to lose the weight. I was fortunate; I was able to lose the weight, but that diagnosis is the only reason why I did. I lost over 100 pounds, and have kept it off almost a year, and I no longer track my blood sugars. I did that by getting regular exercise, cutting back on the portions, and ruthlessly reducing the amount of non-vegetable carbs I take in, especially starches.

This is a fixable problem, and we need to start by not bombarding our children with a galaxy of sugar-drenched foods.

The Franco-American War, part II

Paris awards honorary citizenship to activist on death row in US : HindustanTimes.com

There isn't much to say about this (I got it from Merde in France), other than to point out the disgusting spectacle of the French demonstrating on behalf of a man who murdered a policeman, lionizing him and celebrating him, as an excuse to demonstrate against the "imperialist" Americans, who just liberated over 20 million Iraqis from one of the worst dictatorships in recent memory. Of course, the dictator in question was a French arms client, so you can understand the anger.

Demonstrating against the death penalty is a noble thing to do if you believe it to be wrong; I don't support it either. But lionizing murderers is despicable, and now you can see why the French favor Arafat and his gang.

Just the facts, ma'am

Oh, yeah ... it's back!!

I was a big fan of the original (through reruns, naturally, when I was a kid ... no, seriously), but even though this is quite different, I think it's captured the original's spirit. It's one of the few episodic shows I consider must-see on TV, and it has a high-priority setting on the TiVo.

Did he sell Gray Davis a brain?

Okay, this is just a bit grim, don't you think? I'd hate to think where all these parts eventually ended up. I do think it's interesting that this guy was sentenced to a lot more prison time for selling dead body parts than most drunk drivers get sentenced for vehicular homicide -- in fact, about six times more.

Oman stages first free elections - Oct. 4, 2003

This is more good news, and a good indicator that our campaign is bearing fruit in other areas. The only way we will ever be safe is to transform dictatorships and creaky monarchies into liberal democracies...

Twinks disappoint again

The Twins seem to have a problem hitting the ball, all of a sudden. Roger Clemens looked a bit shaky at first, but apart from a bases-empty homer, the Twins couldn't hold the Rocket down today and went down to defeat, 3-1. Now that the Twins have let the Yankees off the hook for losing home-field advantage, it doesn't look likely that they'll win the next two (one in New York) to advance this year. Lohse looked good today, but unfortunately not good enough.

Ah, well. Tomorrow the Vikings play against the Vick-less Falcons. We should be able to beat them to go to 5-0. If Gus Frerotte has another game like he did against the 49ers, we may have a minor QB controversy in the Twin Cities...

David Kay redux

A guest column by Andrew Apostalou puts it all into perspective. (Thanks to Roger Simon.)

From what I see, we may be the first nation to have such poisonous debate over a war we won, with minimal losses on both sides, and that resulted in liberating over 20 million people (not to mention removing a dangerous regional threat). Does anyone else find this as silly as I do? We knew he was a brutal dictator; we know now that he was actively avoiding compliance with UN resolutions and the terms of the truce that left him in power. At the same time, a significant amount of our overseas military was pinned down enforcing the terms of that truce, and our presence in Saudi Arabia was not helping matters. Eventually we would have to have left, with Saddam in power, which would only embolden other dictators and bin Laden wanna-bes.

The only option we had was to enforce the terms of the truce, regardless of what the UN Security Council says. In effect, we saved the UN from becoming the League of Nations, which also passed a lot of resolutions against dictators with absolutely no intention of enforcing them. In fact, the League's embarrassing response to Italy over the Ethiopian conquest convinced Hitler that the Western democracies would never actively fight against him. Is that what we want to do again?

Israel Sabotages Peace Again

Once again, those darn Israelis have sabotaged peace again by having the arrogance to die in large numbers when a Palestinian freedom fighter blows herself up in a Haifa restaurant.

You can check out the blogosphere reaction at Little Green Footballs (where it's about what you'd expect), Power Line, and Roger Simon.

Minnesota Politics: Down and Dirty

Hindrocket blasts off at Minnesota Democrats on the Powerline blog. It certainly looks like Mike Hatch is flailing at anything to ruin Pawlenty. Maybe he's a protege of Gray Davis.

Somalia Anniversary

Courtesy of Little Green Footballs -- today is the tenth anniversary of the battle in Mogadishu that became the focus of the film, Black Hawk Down. Particularly interesting are Osama bin Laden's comments from a 1997 interview with Robert Fisk.

Damage Control, etc II

Here's an AP update to all the Schwarzenonsense from the past 24 hours or so. According to an Austrian news source, California's leading candidate for Governer terminated a meeting of neo-Nazis when he was 17 years old, hunting them down and dispersing them. There's been five more women who've come forward with more groping stories, which Mickey Kaus covers in his latest entry.

Who says we ain't got couth?

President Bush surprises everyone with his deep, artistic side by writing poetry. This ought to silence those of his foes who dare to challenge his intellect, eh?

Requiem for a Dream (review w/spoilers)

I haven't absorbed the movie Requiem for a Dream in enough detail to give a thorough review, but I can give some impressions of it from two viewings. The primary feeling I got from the movie is hopelessness. There is no redemption in RFAD. From the first moments of the film, you know that the lives of its characters are sad and wretched, and the strong impression that they won't be going anywhere but down is quickly validated.

This is a terrific movie nonetheless, and I think if you can handle the subject material and some graphic scenes of violence and sex (especially towards the end), you can't help but carry this movie with you. Both Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly do great work, but Ellen Burstyn really walks off with this movie. Maybe it's because hers is the most sympathetic character and her destruction is so unbearably sad, but that's true because of Burstyn's brilliance. Marlon Wayans is also exceptional in a smaller role; he should do more dramatic work in the future.

This is ranked #46 on IMDB. Definitely deserves to be in that neighborhood, although some reviewers say it doesn't measure up to Trainspotting. I haven't seen that one yet, but Trainspotting would have to be almost unbelievable great to top this.

Oh, here come the protests

I can see PETA protesting this -- perhaps they'd prefer Cheney or Wolfowitz take a turn as a beefeater. Or, better yet, Bush could do the tasting to keep the mice safe.

Damage Control, etc

Mickey Kaus continues to have fun with this story. Unfortunately, he's probably right about the transient nature of the bounce; it's likely a result of Ah-nold trying to "terminate" the scandal with a quick mea culpa, as well as the high level of disgust at the LA Times for spending several weeks specifically to dredge up this kind of crap.

It's not that I don't think that the women are lying, although the fact that four of the six won't identify themselves, and all six never availed themselves of the legal system, does not give me confidence. Arnold himself acknowledged that he's done something, after all. And the incidents in the report are all ugly. But for crying out loud, after all the screeching the Times did over the Clinton sexual peccadiloes (that occured while he was in office, with staff underlings, on the public dime) being blown out of proportion and none of our business, what the hell were they doing spending all that money specifically to dig up this specific kind of dirt?

A long shot, if you'll pardon the pun

I doubt this will pan out for the sniper suspects, seeing as how the 9th Circuit won't have jurisdiction on appeal.

David Kay's report explained in better detail

Power Line's Big Trunk has posted an e-mail he received from author Dr. Laurie Mylroie that explains more about the David Kay report. Go now and read the entire message, and while you're at it check out all of Power Line. It's a great blog.

Also, they have an entry two posts below the Mylroie e-mail with a link to an article in the Sun, a British newspaper, on the Kay report.

Let's piss off Glenn Reynolds

Glenn's right -- we should all be reviewing actual news sources for our blogs. But let's all go to Instapundit first just to piss him off.

Defending the indefensible

Allen Barra defends Rush Limbaugh in his recent contretemps over Donovan McNabb. I think Barra is all wet on this one. McNabb may not have fulfilled his potential at Philadelphia, but he's hardly to blame for being the leading rusher on a team that can't run block or pass block worth a damn. Besides, the point isn't whether McNabb is overrated; he probably was, but expectations have come down quite a bit for him. However, Limbaugh's assertion that the media deliberately overrated him as a sort of affirmative action program is just too much to swallow. There is hardly a dearth of black quarterbacks in the NFL these days, and they don't need the press to make them feel good about their performances.

ESPN made a mistake in hiring Limbaugh, and Limbaugh made a mistake in taking the job. Normally I respect Limbaugh's intelligence even if I disagree with him, but in this case he was a fool. At least he seems to have wised up. I wonder how long it will be until Allen Barra does the same.

The Franco-American War

Here's another reason to hate the French, courtesy of Merde in France.

Does anyone still think that if we had just tried harder to woo the French, we could have gotten their support?

Damage control (cont)

The fallout continues, or sort of. Arnold's back on the campaign trail, being greeted by cheering fans -- er, voters -- but after his apology and non-acknowledgement of the Hitler reference (from almost 30 years ago!), he's keeping his mouth shut. As a strategy, this is probably as much of a winner that he'll come up with at this point of the campaign. I wonder, though, if a third shoe is being prepared for the Sunday edition...

Arnold may be under attack, but the LA Times appears to be suffering the damage . Susan Estrich gets her shots in from the editorial page of the LA Times itself:

So this is the October surprise? The Los Angeles Times headline that Arnold Schwarzenegger groped and humiliated women? ... But none of these women, as The Times emphasizes, ever came forward to complain. The newspaper went looking for them, and then waited until five days before the election to tell the fragments of the story. What this story accomplishes is less an attack on Schwarzenegger than a smear on the press. It reaffirms everything that's wrong with the political process. Anonymous charges from years ago made in the closing days of a campaign undermine fair politics.

Debra Saunders, the Chronicle columnist who is a rare conservative voice in San Francisco, responded in Howard Kurtz's Media Notes:

"[I]t makes our profession look horrible. To look at something that's 20, 30 years old, that's just not fair and not relevant," Saunders said. "If you have to go back to the '70s, '80s and '90s to make your point, maybe it's not a point."

Also in Media Notes, LA Times Editor John Carroll defends his decision to run the story, arguing in part that "We're in the business of publishing, not concealing. " Kurtz apparently didn't ask Carroll whether the Times is in the business of creating news, or why the Times never reported on the Gray Davis story in 1997. Isn't a candidate -- who at the time was a public office holder -- who physically attacks his staff worthy of some investigative reporting?

Back in the LA Times, Steve Lopez carries the home team's water with a funny but deceptive column:

"It doesn't matter," Beers said of the allegations. She said Arnold's misbehavior happened a long time ago. (Actually, the latest incident reported was in 2000.) Besides, she said, Clinton's scandal took place while he was in office. True, but Clinton also had a willing participant, unlike Arnold.

Lopez conveniently seems to forget about Kathleen Willey and Juanita Brodderick (thanks to Mickey Kaus and Mona Charen, respectively). But he does relate a funny story about Arnold's speeding and his Nissan Sentra that I can support, having owned a Sentra years ago.

UPDATE: Just perused Hugh Hewitt's blog and found this nugget:

Readers of the report on Arnold Schwarzenegger in this morning’s Los Angeles Times should ask themselves when did editorial standards change at the paper. In January 2001, the Los Angeles Times censored a George Will column because it contained a reference to Clinton victim Juanita Broadderick.

No permalink available for the post, but it was written 10/02 at 10:55 am.

Ah-nold: Damage control

I have to admit, as an ex-pat Californian, even I was surprised by the success of the recall campaign. California politics has long been under thrall to a single party, and the budget meltdown over the past two years (as well as Gray Davis' lying about it during the last gubernatorial race) seemed heaven-sent for California Republicans. After all, California was the laboratory for the more radicalized elements of the Democrats, and it was turning into a quagmire. All that the Republicans had to do was to stay out of the way, and they were assured of significant gains in the next couple of election cycles.

Well, as usual, California Republicans had to show that they are bested by no one in shooting themselves in the foot. After pushing through an almost-unprecedented recall of a governor, who incidentally is not accused of any special malfeasance except being an idiot and an incompetent (both true), the Republicans will now be held responsible for anything and everything that happens in the next couple of Legislative sessions due the disruption caused by the special election [and the several recounts and court challenges that will follow]. Oh, and not to forget, the Republicans didn't have anyone who had state-wide standing enough to win the second half of the ballot.

In rides Arnold Schwarzenegger to the rescue. Last seen stumping the state for a bonding bill for children's programs, and blowing away robots, cars, and buildings, Schwarznegger staked out the Riordan turf in the election, and proved to be a fairly viable candidate. He ducked debates and was vague on policy (at first), but his good-guy image and Horatio Alger life story rode him to the top of the polls. Until ...

Until the other shoe dropped, that is. As Mickey Kaus so accurately predicted, the LA Times decided to spend weeks researching Ah-nold's Roman hands and Russian fingers. Not long afterward, we were also treated to the second shoe -- a Hitler reference that even if true is almost 30 years old. And unlike the Times story, the ABC story has Gray Davis' fingerprints on it, according to LA Weekly's Bill Bradley. Of course, this dovetails nicely with another story just now resurfacing about Davis' physical tantrums, originally written in 1997 by Jill Stewart for the defunct New Times Los Angeles.

California politics .... ain't nuthin' like it. It's fun to follow as long as you don't have to live there.

Welcome to the Captain's Quarters!

So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas which on him prey
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
and so proceed ad infinitum.

Thus every poet, in his kind,
Is bit by him who comes behind.

-- Jonathan Swift

I love this quote, and I've had it memorized since I first read it in Tom Burnham's Dictionary of Misinformation. In fact, I think it explains blogs and their popularity, and in some degrees their incestuousness. Glenn Reynolds or Andrew Sullivan read a news story, and they post a commentary, and then other blogs post commentaries to their commentaries, and so proceed ad infinitum.

Don't get me wrong - I think that's terrific! We need an open market for political discussion. Hash things out to the nth degree. Argue, bicker, and scold. The trick is to keep your head, check your assumptions, and expose yourselves to differing points of view. That's what I will try to do here. I hope you enjoy the hell out of it.