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Now they want us to interfere…

The title for the article pretty much says it all: CFR to Bush: Stop Israeli strike on Iran’s nuke sites.

A report by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations urged the Bush administration to stop any Israeli attempt to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. The council warned that such an Israeli attack would be blamed on the United States and hurt its interests in the region.

“Since Washington would be blamed for any unilateral Israeli military strike, the United States should, in any case, make it quite clear to Israel that U.S. interests would be adversely affected by such a move,” the report, entitled “Iran: Time for a New Approach,” said.

No mention is made in the article of the, shall we say, “terror-supporting” agenda of the CFR. They criticized us for “interfering” in Iraq and Afghanistan and now they want us to interfere with Israel. Gotta love the double standard.

As far astrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, either they will do it or we will do it. The mullahs in Iran will not give up an opportunity to equalize the power in the region, not with Russia and France still backing them. The only option we may have to avert nuclear war in the Middle East may be to take out the facilities before they become operational. That situation would be even worse than what we are dealing with in N. Korea.

A peripheral concern is that “many of Iran’s nuclear facilities have been located in or near urban centers.” And whose fault is that? Dumbasses.

The U.S. report, drafted by an independent task force sponsored by the council, said Washington should resolve concerns over Iran’s nuclear weapons program by coordinating with the European Union. But the council ruled out any military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Ruled out? Too bad they don’t have any legitmacy to say that, either in the military or political domains. I’ll laugh at them when their sponsors’ nuclear plant is a flaming pile of rubble.

Switching words

Over at NRO, one of my favorite authors is John Derbyshire. Derb’s latest has this quote from Newsday:

White teenage girls at high risk for contracting HIV were less likely to have unprotected sex after participating in an HIV prevention program emphasizing ethnic pride and communication skills, researchers reported. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and to be published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is to be presented today at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Integrating poetry written by white women with role-playing workshops on how to negotiate condom use, the prevention program encouraged the young women to use protection for the sake of the European-American community at large…

He changed three words in that quote. Now, this kind of exercise has been done before, but I don’t think we will ever see any kind of the critical thinking that is needed to absorb the lesson.

Monkey business

Found this picture on Drudge a few days ago, just never got around to posting it until now.

Terrorists? What terrorists?

My thought, in this post-9/11 environment, is that is how the entire Democratic party still wants to treat the threat of terrorism. It was a good model for the Clinton White House, and they still want to “Hear no terrorists, Speak not about terrorists, See no terrorists, HIDE THE FUCKING DOCUMENTS!!!!!”

Blogging the DNCC

I’ve tried watching the convention, but I can’t last 30 seconds before they distort something so bad, it turns into a f’n pretzel. Grrrrr politicians.

When will Wawa have a seizure?

Soon, if John Stossel keeps coming up with stories like his latest “Give Me a Break.” In it, he covers some of the unintended consequences that good ol’ boy John Edwards and his trial lawyer buddies have visited upon us.

In hospitals, the lawyers have bred so much fear that patients now suffer more pain, and may be less safe because doctors are concerned about being sued.

“That fear is always there,” said obstetrics professor Dr. Edgar Mandeville. “Everybody walks in mortal fear of being sued.”

The Department of Health and Human Services found doctors order painful tests they consider unnecessary, for fear of being sued. And the majority of doctors say they recommended invasive procedures more often than they believed were medically necessary in an effort to prevent potential litigation.

So, not only do I get poked and prodded more thanks to Edwards, I get to pay more for the privilege. Friggin’ wonderful. We need some tort reform soon, and having a trial lawyer anywhere near the Oval Office will set it back exponentially.

Star Wars III

I suppose with all the flack that was flying around after the announcement of the previous two titles (and that bitch Jar-Jar), Lucas decided to go with the tried and true.

starwars.com is pleased to announce that Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is the full title of the next Star Wars film, scheduled for release on May 19, 2005.

I do support it though, it is much better than “The Phantom Menace” or “Attack of the Clones,” which sound like they are Star Trek: Enterprise episodes.

Crossing to the Dark Side

I took the first step to the Light Side a couple of days ago when I down loaded and installed Firefox. I love that it loads in half the time and blocks 100% of the popups, even the sneaky ones from Drudge. I also like it for the tabbed browsing and the mouse gestures, I find myself waving the mouse all over the screen at school, where I am stuck with IE. It turns out that I am in good company since the Talkmaster also uses Firefox.

Now, I find myself planning on installing Linux on the oldest laptop since Windows is way too heavy for it. That’ll be it thought, Windows more than meets my needs for computers that I actually want to enjoy.

Wrong way

Look, it fine if people think that the war in Iraq is wrong. But, not participating in the National Anthem and “God Bless America” is just asinine. You can not believe in what your country is doing, but you still show your love for the country by respecting its flag and asking God’s blessing on it.

Fervently anti-war, Carlos Delgado quietly carried out his personal protest this season, refusing to stand when “God Bless America” was played at ballparks across the majors.

NBA guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Denver Nuggets (news) would not stand for the national anthem during the 1995-96 season, which led to an indefinite suspension that was lifted two days later.

Division III basketball player Toni Smith of the Manhattanville women’s team attracted attention for refusing to face the flag during the national anthem in the 2002-03 season.

These three need to go somewhere else.

First Command

One of the things that pissed Otter and I off to no end when we first got on active duty was the eager beavers at First Command. Apparently, they aren’t the only ones out there pushing military members into bad investments. It looks like even the New York Times can get a story right.

Insurance agents have made misleading pitches to “captive” audiences like the ones at Fort Benning. They have posed as counselors on veterans benefits and independent financial advisers. And they have solicited soldiers in their barracks or while they were on duty, violations of Defense Department regulations.

The Pentagon has been aware of practices like these since the Vietnam War; investigations have even cited specific companies and agents. But because of industry lobbying, Congressional pressure, weak enforcement and the Pentagon’s ineffective oversight, almost no action has been taken to sanction those responsible or to better protect those who are vulnerable, The Times has found.

And the problem has only intensified since the beginning of the Iraq war, say military employees who monitor insurance agents. With the death toll rising in Iraq, interest in insurance among the troops has surged, making the war a selling opportunity for many agents, they said.

Otter and I ran into our friendly First Command peeps in the first weeks of our time here. Once we got back from all the tech schools, they were even more all over us since they knew we would be here for a while. Fortunately, Otter and I are skeptical about different things. I was more inclined to go with their investments, and Otter was more inclined to go with the life insurance deals. So, we being us, we decided to skip the whole thing and get as many free dinners out of them as possible, which worked out pretty well. [Read more →]

Political jokes

I love political jokes, especially when they are impartial and whack both sides. That being said, I was ROFLMAO over this old song in its new form. Go, laugh, and enjoy the lampooning of both sides.