Choo Choo

I am so annoyed at the Democratic party in NY. For the second mayoral election in a row, I was planning to go into the voting booth and vote third party. And, for the second mayoral election in a row (scroll down for details and also to see me say that Bloomberg, who at the time had a 30 or so percent approval rating, should not be counted out in '05), the Democrat is forcing me to go vote for Mike Bloomberg. Just when I thought I'd reached a decision to vote the Libertarian candidate Audrey Silk, I discover this ad by Freddy Ferrer trying to tie Bloomberg to Bush. Now, anyone with any honesty knows that Bloomberg has near zero in common with Bush. But the reminder that Bloomberg has been good to Republicans makes me want to reward him with my vote. Damn you, Freddy, damn you.

Update: Whoa, dude. Via Politicker.

Um, scary

Brooklyn Brewery founder recounts his first run-in with union thugs

It's that time again

My ad bar is once again empty so the first 3 people to comment can get a free ad for one week for their business or blog.

That's true. You know what's not very punk-rock? Being Madonna.

Madonna: 'It's actually very punk-rock to not watch TV'...

Ouchy

Also via Instapundit:

Kathryn Jean Lopez: "I just got the White House talking points on Alito. Nowhere in them does it say that he is one of the best male lawyers in New Jersey."

Don't tell Chuck Schumer

Instapundit:

WHO'S GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR GASOLINE DOLLARS? TaxProf reports: "Since 1977, governments collected more than $1.34 trillion, after adjusting for inflation, in gasoline tax revenues—more than twice the amount of domestic profits earned by major U.S. oil companies during the same period."

That's better

Bush nominates Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor

Because clearly you tune in to Alarming News for hip-hop info

This is old: Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy, a mash-up of Notorious B.I.G and Frank Sinatra is really good. Much better than the Bob Marley/B.I.G mash I noted recently. You can listen to Juicy/New York New York here. It's interesting, but not even one of the best songs on the mix.

This is new: Jay-Z, Nas bury the hatchet at N.Y. show

Don't blame feminism.

Maureen Dowd has a loooooong piece, adapted from her upcoming book "Are Men Necessary: When Sexes Collide," (no, I'm not kidding) essentially wondering why she's unmarried. She guesses she's too powerful, she guesses she's too smart, she thinks she's too independent but she never seems to guess that it's because she's sort of crazy and erratic and people tend to run screaming from her uninformed snark.

I've mentioned it before but I'm going to get serious about writing a relationship-y book. If Maureen Dowd can pretend that girl-boy relationships are any different now than ever before in history, I'm sure I can write a best-seller about respecting and worshipping yourself and getting any man you want because of it.

Keeping the people stupid

I'm so proud this guy is my senator:

Reminds me of a telling little incident at a parade in Queens a couple of years ago. A man on the sideline complains about the price of gasoline. Mike [Bloomberg] says something apologetic about supply and demand. Chuck Schumer, nearby, calls the guy over, and explains that "these guys" in Washington, the ones running the company, own oil companies, and that they're making money off the high gas prices. That's what's really going on, he says. The guy walks away confident that Chuck has given him a secret little nugget of truth. It's a kind of politics Mike will never be good at.

Are album sales down?

Rapper 'The Game' arrested at NC mall.

Ah yes, the 'new voters will turn up to vote for our guy' strategy

There's a reason why it's #1 in my lessons for elections.

NY Times:

Bill Lynch, a Democratic political strategist working as an informal adviser to Mr. Ferrer, said that he believed polls were overstating Mr. Bloomberg's support among black and Latino New Yorkers, and underestimating that of Mr. Ferrer.

Mr. Lynch said he believed pollsters were certainly missing the 166,000 poor and minority voters he helped register to vote as part of a multimillion-dollar voter registration drive in the city for last year's presidential election.

By the way, the tag in the html for the Times piece is 'paranoia'. Is the Times' computer guy making a statement?

Damn you Daylight Savings Time

When I saw that it's 4:23am, I thought 'oh, it's actually only 3:23am, not so bad at all'. But then I realized the computer automatically adjusts the time and it's more like 5:23am but actually 4:23am. I liked the first way so much better.

'Alarming News' is in a New York state of mind

Hot campaign staffs, the Human Life Foundation event, the Wellington Mara funeral, the Maple syrup saga, the wacky mayoral election, a fight at a synagogue, the NY Times endorsing a Republican for City Council ,the Big Apple Blog Carnival, running into William F. Buckley and discovering a cool campaign slogan in a City Council race in Brooklyn, this blog has had a very NY-centered week.

Here's some more interesting tidbits from this one-of-a-kind city:

***“We've got the mayor just where we want him,” said Freddy Ferrer-supporter Charlie Rangel. It's true. Just about the worst place a candidate can be 9 days out is 30 points ahead with an unlimited budget.

***Though I've got plenty of people using my 'real Brooklyn'/'fake Brooklyn' terminology to describe the difference between the hipster northern end of Brooklyn and the down-to-earth southern side, it seems that 'old Brooklyn' (the south side, obviously) and 'new Brooklyn' is becoming the terminology of choice when sneering at the Nouveau Yorkers.

***Freddy Ferrer supporter Bill Clinton was photographed deep in friendly conversation with Mike Bloomberg. "The photo of a smiling Republican mayor joined by one of the most recognizable Democratic leaders in the world is a boost for Bloomberg in a city where Clinton is enormously popular." Freddy just can't catch a break.

***This one isn't specific to NY but it does involve a NY politician and a NY-based blog. How bad was my cell phone problem of the last month? It was so bad that NY Assemblyman Pat Manning, who is running for Governor, actually sent me an email offering to put me in touch with a reputable cell-phone seller in his area upstate. So, obviously, I'm now a huge fan of Pat Manning. Not only that, but Wonkster, Gotham Gazette's blog, blogrolled me and noted that this site 'often focuses on national rather than local issues (or sometimes just writes about the problems with her cell phone)'.

***I know I'm breaking the Reagan rule about speaking ill of a Republican, and I realize that he guest-blogs on Urban Elephants, a friend-site of 'Alarming News', but what is Barry Popik, candidate for Manhattan Borough President on exactly? My only time meeting him him was at the blogger party earlier this month. His fiance/campaign manager had an extremely bizarre interaction with Dawn Summers but, you know, I wasn't holding that against him and planned to go into the voting booth on the 8th and pull his lever. But then Peter pointed out his statement in the voter guide for NY and I just have to ask 'what the?' When asked what made him the best candidate for office, Popik's response, and this is the full un-edited version, was:

'I will never forget finally dedicating "Big Apple Corner," alone, in the rain, while my mother was dying. No one needs to question my dedication to New York. But you shouldn't vote for me for that, or because I found the first "beep" (borough president), or "hizzoner," or New York "Yankees" (they played in Manhattan as the "Highlanders"), or the Manhattan cocktail, or Manhattan clam chowder, or the origin of "the Great White Way." The difference is the qualities I've displayed to do all this. A past Manhattan Borough President had ignored the African American who called us "the Big Apple." I had asked for help from some of the city council members running for this very position, but I didn't get a response. And I guess a dead black man won't get you many votes. But I love New York, and I care, and that makes all the difference in the world.'

Now, I don't have to agree with the candidate on everything but I do have to know what the hell they're talking about, especially when asked a question as simple as why they're the best candidate for the job.

Has he met George "religion of peace, religion of peace, religion of peace" Bush?

Prince Charles to plead Islam's cause to Bush

The politics of attraction

I attended a debate of the City Council candidates in District 4 and 5 today. I'll leave it to someone else to write about the issues, the jabs, the snarks and the policies (maybe Jess at the Observer who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time today. I've already met the Politicker's ex-intern Azi and current intern David, so that just leaves the elusive Ben), I'm going to write about the cuties in the audience.

If you're thinking about getting involved in a local campaign on the east side of Manhattan during this last week, this is what you need to know:

Joel Zinberg has the cutest guys, mostly Jewish, wearing his prominent red buttons. Also, since he's a doctor and a lawyer, the men around him are probably not just good looking but also successful overachievers. Patrick Murphy has all the hot girls working for him (and no, here comes the disclosure, I'm not just saying that because I'm working for him). The girls on his campaign are all of far-above-average attractiveness. It's like they model, or something, but work on campaigns on the side. Being a Log Cabin Republican, he also boasts a strong contingency of gorgeous gay men. Dan Garodnick's team is the whitest white boys. If you like blonde guys with huge teeth, that is the campaign for you. Finally, Jessica Lappin. I always see her around older people, I assume Gifford Miller leftovers or her parent's friends or something. She did have a very young-looking (I doubt he's even old enough to vote) Romanian guy, with a good sense of humor, standing outside like a young soldier holding up her placard (while every other candidate just, you know, hung their signs up on a post and called it a day).

So, there you have it. If you're looking for hot straight guys, join the Joel Zinberg campaign. Want to meet gorgeous women and gay men? Patrick Murphy is for you. If you're all about the Abercrombie big teeth look, Dan Garodnick is your man. And if you're looking for a real mishmash of people old and extremely young, Jessica Lappin has got what you need.

(Just so there is no confusion, despite the disclosure in this post and also in the sidebar of my site: the opinions in this post, and all posts authored by me, are my own and have nothing to do with any of my clients.)

I must do the Christian Right's bidding

Via Englishman in New York, I've discovered this great post The American Expat about the BBC's obsession with the Christian right and its misrepresentation of its infuence:

Tonight on Newsnight, reporter Stephanie Flanders adopted the standard BBC/Guardian default position used as a stock explanation for virtally anything that happens on the political right in the US...it's all the work of the religious right.

Ostensibly, but falsely, explaining the demise of the Miers nomination, Flanders gives us a clip of a group of people kneeling, holding hands, and praying, as she serves up this:

But by far the harshest opposition has come from right wing faith groups...

As I've pointed out previously, this is complete and utter rubbish, and the fact that Flanders was able to track down a Christian who denounced Miers doesn't make it smell any better. The most immediate, powerful, and heated objections came from the likes of George Will, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, and the entire staff of National Review. These people are not voices of the Christian right. They are voices of intellectual, ideological, principled conservatism, and contrary to the BBC's warped reporting, these are the voices that influence and drive conservative policy in Washington, not Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition.

Now this reference to the religious right made up maybe 30 seconds of a 4 minute report. But these are precisely the types of small but constant characterizations that are incessantly dropped into BBC coverage of the US political scene, and which ultimately serve to give Britain a warped and ignorant view of American politics, particularly on the right. As the BBC's relentless (and wholly false) campaign to portray the American right as subservient to and driven by evangelist Christians continues unabated, you have to ask the question: Can BBC reporters themselves be so ignorant of reality, or are they deliberately misinforming the folks back home? Well, Jeremy Paxman may have quite a few unpleasant personality traits, but he's never struck me as stupid and uninformed. Which leaves me with only one conclusion to draw.

Quote of the Day

"Who is Scooter Libby? It sounds like they indicted a California skateboarder."

-Jake in Clarified's comment section.

Snitch

Eugene Volokh notes Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left discussing the idea that Karl Rove might’ve taken some kind of plea to give up information on himself, and others, in return for a lesser charge. Putting aside that, as of now, we have zero evidence that this actually happened (again, I love the blogosphere), I have to agree- gasp-with Jeralyn.

Eugene wonders what a Bush administration official is supposed to do. Well, I think he’s supposed to tell the entirety of the truth as it pertains to himself. It’s one thing to sing about your own deeds in return for a lesser sentence, quite another to take down someone else with you.

Eugene writes ‘Or is it damned if you do (covering up your colleagues' crimes; shameful!), damned if you don't ("singing" about your colleagues' crimes; shameful!)?’ Not exactly. I’m not saying that Rove should do any ‘covering up’ but for Rove to volunteer information on Libby in return for a lighter charge is unacceptable. As Jay-Z said in ‘A Week Ago’, ‘the labeling of a snitch is a lifetime scar, you’ll always be in jail, just minus the bars’. I see it as manning up to take responsibility for your own actions and not to bring anyone else down to save yourself. Maybe you can take the girl out of Brooklyn...

(Via Instapundit)

The policy of truth

It's pretty amazing how many people have been taken down in recent years because of their fibbing. Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Lil Kim, and now Scooter Libby, all were investigated for crimes and then charged with simple lying. Lesson? Lying liars will be punished.

Scooter, we hardly knew ye

Scooter Libby indicted. Karl Rove, not so much.

Last Night

I attended the Human Life Foundation’s ‘Defender of Life’ dinner last night in NYC. They honored Nat Hentoff, a writer for the Village Voice that I have been reading since I was in my teens.

There were some really amazing people in the audience. I saw Father Rutler, a priest so funny he makes me want to be a Catholic (but don’t get any ideas, Peter). I worked on an event for his church, the Church of Our Savior, last year and every time I spoke to him he’d make me giggle. There was a contingency of pro-life Democrats in the audience and Father Rutler acknowledged them with a ‘I don’t mind people being Democrats, as long as they don’t practice.’ I saw a man wearing a button that said ‘47% of Democrats can’t be wrong’ (I can’t really argue with that since the implication is that the majority of Democrats are wrong, which they obviously always are) and when I asked to take a picture of it, he took it off and gave it to me. He’s part of a NY chapter of Democrats for Life, based in Long Beach, NY.

I also ran into my friend Joe Skelly. I have written about him before, and he was featured in National Review’s The Corner when he won a bronze star for his bravery in Iraq. Check out some of his writing here. When I asked him ‘how’s it going over there’, he smiled big and said ‘we’re winning.’ And, you know, I trust Mr. Joe Skelly more than any media that had wanted us to lose since the beginning.

Nat Hentoff was introduced by this amazing speaker, Wesley Smith. His introduction was fiery and passionate and I look forward to reading his writing.

Nat Hentoff considers himself a Jewish, libertarian, atheist, leftwing pro-lifer. I love that. I’m a big fan of challenging the idea of identity and Nat Hentoff never backs down from what he believes is right. I met a nun in the bathroom who said she used to be a pro-choice feminist. Clearly, she was able to challenge that identity for herself.

I’ve been thinking lately that I don’t really understand political ‘sides’. Like, the general position of liberals will be pro-choice, for higher taxes and a larger government and supportive of a foreign policy that is big on talking and opposed to weapons build-up while the conservative position will be pro-life, lower taxes, smaller government and a strong defense. But what do any of these things have to do with each other? How does your position on abortion, or really any life or death decisions including euthanasia or the death penalty, affect how you will feel about taxes or defense? How does wanting a strong defense tie into how you feel about gay marriage?

As I’ve written before, I see parties as a means to vote for most of the issues that matter most to you. No party will fit you 100%, it’s just not possible. So, it’s important to know what matters to you, and how it fits in with the available parties and candidates. I’m not going to turn this into another post about being realistic about politics and expecting perfection, just that being at this event last night was such a good reminder that there are people who care deeply about issues and are outside of partisanship and the left-right divide. It was encouraging.

The Human Life Foundation is one that could really use your support so if you are pro-life and donate to groups that promote life, think about throwing them a donation.

More NY

If you're in NYC today, avoid the Rockefeller Center area. NYC Giants head Wellington Mara's funeral is today. He was a big supporter of conservative causes and I had the honor of meeting him once and his graciousness shone through him. Rest in peace you man of men.

Not the worst way to go

Last night, on the phone with Dawn Summers, who currently lives about 16 blocks away from me, she noted that there was a pungent smell of maple syrup in the air. ‘Huh’, I said. ‘That’s weird. I smell maple syrup too.’ We joked about her actually being in my closet and that being the reason why we were smelling the same thing. I thought I was imagining things and that she had put the idea in my head and now my nose was smelling things that weren't there.

This morning, nutjob calls me at like 7am. She left me a message saying that it turns out, we weren’t imagining things. 311, New York’s public information hotline, and 911 were flooded with calls from people smelling the same thing as us. She said ‘the terrorists are coming to get us, armed with a stack of pancakes!’ Bizarre. But, Dawn, call me at 7am again and see if you don’t consistently get a prank call circa 4am every weeknight.

Update: Gothamist has the odd smell being noted in other boroughs as well.

If I could even do half that list....

Manhattan Transfer has 99 excellent tips for living.

I agree with all of them except the one about not spending very much money on sunglasses. It's one of the few luxury items I can't live without and contrary to his reason for avoiding them, they tend to last me a year or two (I wore those Dior mini motards for at least 2 1/2).

It must've been because of Germany's strong support for the war in Iraq

NY Times: A German court convicted three Middle Eastern men of belonging to a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda and of plotting to attack Jewish targets in Germany.

NY politics has gone totally bananas

I'm experiencing much the same as Ms. Summers. Two of the most conservative people I know are voting for Democrat Ferrer while plenty of my more liberal friends are going for Bloomberg. Me? If there's even a shot that Freddy will win, which it looks like there isn't, I'm voting for Bloomberg. Otherwise, it looks like a third party year.

Conservatives get results

Meirs out.

Treating black people like our pets

-Ace on ABC News reporter Michel Martin responding to Spike Lee's retelling of the 'blew up the levees' fable by calling the charge 'reasonable':

Pure racism.

No, I don't mean the anti-white bigotry of Spike Lee. Who gives a shit.

I mean the ineffable condescension and embarassing patronization of white people who hear a black person saying something so fucking jackass and feel the need to treat them as either children or retards by saying, "Why, yes, that's a cute little idea you have there, Scamp."

You have 6 new messages.

Rudy Giuliani and producer Harvey Weinstein left messages last night encouraging us to vote for Mike Bloomberg. Unrelated, I hope, we also got four prank messages of a guy cursing into our machine.

When is it ok to be racist?

When you're a liberal and the object of your racism is a Republican, of course!

How the Jews do

My friend MR had told me about a shooting that happened at a Florida synagogue during Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) so when I saw this headline today it caught my attention: Confrontation at synagogue turns ugly. Have the Jews suddenly become gangsta? Am I going to have to start carrying a glock to Purim services?

Police had to separate several hundred members of the factions inside and outside the synagogue at 152 Rodney St.

Oooh sounds exciting. But then, not so much:

Although no one was arrested, one person was treated at Long Island University Hospital for a slap to the face, said police. They added that seven security people aligned with a faction from the upstate community of Kiryas Joel were issued summonses for not having watchmen's licenses.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Just wondering

Walking by several newspaper boxes in NYC this morning, the headline on many of our papers was '2000 fallen heroes' commemorating the dead in Iraq.

Now, here's what I don't get. I have supported the war in Iraq since the beginning and I do so fully today, and so for me the men and women who gave their lives for what I consider a noble cause are heroes.

But most of these papers, are against the war, if not outright hostile to it. How can men die as heroes for a cause you consider ignoble? If we're there for oil, aren't these men thieves and murderers? Do we, or anyone short of neo-Nazis, remember fallen Nazi soldiers as heroes? Were the soldiers that died in Vietnam heroes (they are to me, but again, had I been alive, I would have supported that war)? Are all military personnel, everywhere, heroes? And if so, why is the left so against military recruiting on campus? They're just trying to make those students into heroes, aren't they?

I must do the NY Times' bidding

The City Council race in district 5 of NYC, my home district, is one of around four semi-competitive races in the 5 boroughs. The Republican running is Joel Zinberg, a man so overqualified that it boggles the mind that he'd waste his time on such an uphill race. He's both a doctor and a lawyer and generally just a nice guy. He also received something that few Republicans ever do- the endorsement of the NY Times.

Now, there's some speculation as to why he received the endorsement. The last time a Republican ran for this seat, on a rainy, freezing election day a few years back, Jennifer Arangio got something like 16% of the vote. The Times knows they're not going to make or break this election so why not throw out a token Republican endorsement. Now, again, Joel is super-qualified but we're talking about the Times here-- that kind of thing just doesn't matter when there's an (R) after his name.

His opponent is a pleasant enough young lady, Jessica Lappin. Her major flaw is that she was on Gifford 'the annoying boy-man' Miller's staff. She also campaigns outside the Victoria's Secret on E.86th Street a lot, which I guess is less weird for her than if she was a man, but odd nevertheless. I've shaken her hand half a dozen times on my way home from the subway and now I've got this semi-evil impulse to tell her that I was going to vote for her but that I do whatever the NY Times tells me to do and I'm going to have to go for Joel.

Memed again

Also via Another Attempt, I'm tagged for a meme that goes something like this:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

Here's my line: 'Could this be a clever ploy by Arafat to deflect the blame of the fallen peace process onto Sharon?'

I tag the usual Dawn Summers and only Dawn Summers.

Ch-ching.

Via Another Attempt.

Hoist the Black Flag, 4pm EST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Our guest today is JP an Army National Guardsman who just returned from duty in Afghanistan and started Milblogging.com.

Call in at 1866-884-TALK.

Ok, Valerie Plame/Judith Miller/Uranium/Joseph Wilson/New York Times fiasco....

....you've got my attention.

Am I your mother?

The Commisar has a really cool post going about blog-parents and blog-children (my lord that was the dorkiest sentence ever). My story is that I had learned about blogs through James Taranto's Best of the Web and encouraged Peter to start one, which he did at Pandavox.blogspot.com (now defunct along with the million other blogs he started after that one). I had been sending political forwards to friends and it was easier just to have it all in one place.

I think I have mothered quite a few blogchildren but I'm not sure about all of them so if you want to help with my family tree, go over and mention your mama in the comment section.

Via Clarified.

Check out NY bloggers

The Big Apple Blog Carnival is up now at Mister Snitch. It was at Englishman in New York's site last week so be sure to check both out.

Pro-poor position: Poor people can't help but steal and shoot

Rapper Cam'ron was shot over the weekend when he wouldn't surrender his lamborghini in an attempted car-jacking. The Village Voice calls him 'one of the greatest rappers in the world' (whereas most people I know who are obsessed with rap have never heard of him) and then goes on to say that he should've thought about the effect his car would have had on people who have nothing. Yes, how dare he drive an expensive car! Shouldn't he know it's the natural reaction of poor people to try to steal it and, when unsuccessful, of course they would shoot him. And yet the Village Voice is considered somehow pro-poor. Maybe if they treated them like people and not like amoral animals, they could actually help the needy instead of just patronizing them.

Random Comment

Nobody, but nobody, makes me as tongue-tied as William F. Buckley. I met him at some point last year and managed to get out a request for him to take a photo with me. In it, I am grinning wildly but at least so was he (if I ever locate it, I'll post it even though I was really fat in it-which, of course, is why I haven't posted it until now-, having just done the whole back surgery thing). I saw him tonight and as I reached out to shake his hand I just froze. 'I'm uh, um, ah, a really big fan'. He smiled and held onto my hand and said thank you.

Great. He smiles. And listens!

"I treat 'em with respect," Richardson said. "Other Westerners always have a quid pro quo, always a condition. I reason with them. I smile at them. I listen."

-New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on his recent trip to North Korea.

Also via The Note.

Quote of the Day

"As for Republicans, any who vote for Miers will thereafter be ineligible to argue that it is important to elect Republicans because they are conscientious conservers of the judicial branch's invaluable dignity. Finally, any Republican senator who supinely acquiesces in President Bush's reckless abuse of presidential discretion — or who does not recognize the Miers nomination as such — can never be considered presidential material."

-George Will

Via The Note.

A must-read

Mark Steyn has a devastating piece in the Spectator on the death of Russia and why it matters to America:

That’s the danger for America — that most of what Russia has to trade is likely to be damaging to US interests. In its death throes, it could bequeath the world several new Muslim nations, a nuclear Middle East and a stronger China. In theory, America could do a belated follow-up to the Alaska deal and put in a bid for Siberia. But Russia’s calculation is that sooner or later we’ll be back in a bipolar world and that, in almost any scenario, there’s more advantage in being part of the non-American pole. A Sino–Russian strategic partnership has a certain logic to it, and so, in a darker way, does a Russo–Muslim alliance of convenience. In 1989, with the Warsaw Pact crumbling before his eyes, poor old Mikhail Gorbachev received a helpful bit of advice from the cocky young upstart on the block, the Ayatollah Khomeini: ‘I strongly urge that in breaking down the walls of Marxist fantasies you do not fall into the prison of the West and the Great Satan,’ wrote the pioneer Islamist nutcase. ‘I openly announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the greatest and most powerful base of the Islamic world, can easily help fill up the ideological vacuum of your system.’

In an odd way, that’s what happened everywhere but the Kremlin. As communism retreated, radical Islam seeped into Afghanistan and Indonesia and the Balkans. Crazy guys holed up in Philippine jungles and the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay which would have been ‘Marxist fantasists’ a generation or two back are now Islamists: it’s the ideology du jour. Even the otherwise perplexing enthusiasm of the western Left for the jihad’s misogynist homophobe theocrats is best understood as a latterday variation on the Hitler/Stalin pact. And, despite Gorbachev turning down the offer, it will be Russia’s fate to have large chunks of its turf annexed by the Islamic world.

Via Allah.

Skip if poker talk makes you sleepy

I went out on pocket jacks at the blogger tournament today and promptly played another freeroll tourney on Party. This is one of the more exciting hands:

***** Hand History for Game 2921764149 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:16824350 Level:5 Blinds (50/100) - Sunday, October 23, 21:03:25 EDT 2005
Table $2,500 Players Club Freeroll(494611) Table #30 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 3: WELLS17 ( $345 )
Seat 6: kashei ( $7083 )
Seat 8: jerrydel1 ( $570 )
Seat 1: CATMANLOL ( $1791 )
Seat 2: mordain76 ( $3972 )
Seat 10: shki_1 ( $3025 )
Seat 7: terra451 ( $1155 )
Seat 9: Ameriprise ( $3230 )
Seat 5: teetee825 ( $1435 )
Trny:16824350 Level:5
Blinds (50/100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to kashei [ 3s As ]
Ameriprise calls [100].
shki_1 folds.
CATMANLOL folds.
mordain76 folds.
WELLS17 folds.
teetee825 folds.
kashei calls [100].
terra451 is all-In [1105]
jerrydel1 folds.
Ameriprise folds.
kashei calls [1055].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, 8s, Ad ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
terra451 shows [ Ts, Th ] a full house, Aces full of tens.
kashei shows [ 3s, As ] four of a kind, aces.
kashei wins 2510 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, aces.
Player terra451 finished in 792 place
terra451 has left the table.
The Small Blind left the table. The Dealer button remains in place.

How cool is that?

Via my friend Will who has volunteered on his campaign.

Me, me, me

Take the 'All about Karol quiz'

I'm not taggin anyone for this meme so go ahead and tag yourself, you know you want to. Leave your score in the comment section.

Parents win right for daughter to live

Jay-Z asked 'can I live?' Well, if he was a disabled baby in Britain, the answer would be 'hold on, we need to check with a consultant on that, but not if we can help it'.

In a ruling that represents a compromise between the doctors and the parents, Mr Justice Hedley said that all involved should work together to secure the best possible treatment for the child. He left the way open for doctors still to refuse to revive Charlotte if it was thought that artificial ventilation would cause extreme distress. But, because her condition had improved significantly, the doctors would have to justify their actions and not enjoy the protection of his previous judgment.

Is there a distress more extreme than death? Just wondering. And, of course, if it wasn't for her parents fighting to keep her alive, the doctors would have buried her and called it a day long ago.

How to spot a weirdo

He'll almost certainly have a column in the New York Times.

***Newsflash***

The cell phone saga is over. I got a great phone, with internet, same number, same everything. It only took 2 months. Impressive, no?