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.