Duck Season

Mickey Kaus quotes this from an issue of Newsweek last month:

"We can take Howard Dean out whenever we want to," said one Kerry adviser. "Why do it now?"

When I read it, it brought up an image of a editorial cartoon with a bunch of missiles aimed at a Saddam saying, "We got them right where we want them ..."

"But honey, I can quit any time. ANY TIME. Honest ..."

There will be no new Nick content for a few days, i'm on vacation on Martha's Vineyard until Sunday. Enjoy your labor day weekend everybody!

Gregg Easterbrook talks about the Third World vs. First World in his essay "Environmental Doomsday - Bad News Good, Good News Bad":

Gross air pollution from unregulated industry, from cars and trucks without Western tailpipe controls, from dirty gasoline and diesel fuels, and worst of all from indoor smoke—more than a billion people worldwide heat and cook with indoor fires—make air pollution in Lagos, Delhi, and many other developing-world cities worse than anything in the West since London in the 1950s. For a third of the world's population, safe drinking water is a rarity—or an expensive luxury. In Indonesia, for example, the poor spend a significant fraction of their income to buy a few liters of safe water from vendors; here, we pay pennies per thousand gallons. Wastewater treatment is often unknown: I've seen boys in Pakistan swimming in open sewage canals that run down city boulevards. All told, the number of children under the age of five who die each year in the developing world from gross air pollution and unsafe drinking water—two causes of death essentially eliminated in the West—is larger than the number of deaths at all ages from all causes each year in the United States and the European Union combined.

One reason Americans and Europeans need to shed the instant-doomsday misperception of their own environment is so that they can turn their attention to the genuine environmental troubles of the developing world. Americans and Europeans won't support environmental aid to the developing world if they falsely believe their own air and water imperiled. But both citizenries are generous and might back international environmental initiatives if they understood, first, that their own environments are being protected and, second, the degree of human suffering caused by ecological problems in the impoverished world.

Read the whole thing here.

Here's a nugget which deserves more attention:

Just this last April, the emeritus professor at Berkeley Jack Hollander published The Real Environmental Crisis: How Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment's Number One Enemy, published, as Lomborg's book was, by a distinguished academic press. The book shifts the terms of debate over environmental health and stewardship, pointing out that the extreme pessimism of green groups and the environmental movement is simply not supported by the available science.

The Western world pollutes far less than the Eastern world. Why? Because *well-developed* socities develop pollution solutions, while under-developed countries are far less able/willing to enact environmental controls. Economic development, modernation, westernization, are the keys to a happy earth. That's a tough pill for some to swallow.

The establishment again tries to silence the leading critic of the environmentalist orthodoxy.

(Via Instapundit).

He was born July 11, 2003 to Abdul Kader Faris Abed El-Hussein and his wife Nadia Jergis Mohammed.

Iraqi couple names their newborn son after George Bush:

"He saved us from Saddam and that's why we named our son after him," the baby's mother, Nadia Jergis Mohammed, told the Associated Press Television News. "It was George Bush who liberated us; without him it wouldn't have happened."

(Link via K.Lo in The Corner)

French politicians volunteer to participate in Reality TV show.

Actually, not at all. Those wacky Kurds, Turks and Arabs in northern Iraq have instead decided to resolve two days of violence by signing a peace agreement guaranteeing the right of all to "live in peace and in a brotherly manner."

How come the Kurds never got Saddam to sign one of those?

The French aren't ready to fight terrorists:

There was no indication the EU is ready to put Hamas on its list of terrorist groups. Its members have long been divided on that. France says that blacklisting Hamas will only make negotiations with the group impossible.

Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terror organizations. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gourdault-Montagne. "However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position."

The debate appears to be over the alleged non-military wings of Hamas. Hamas is a vast organization which provides many social services to the Palestinian people. But if you give food, clothing, money and shelter to a criminal, aren't you guilty of aiding and abetting? Guilt by association may be a somewhat sophmoric legal concept, but we're dealing with very elementary concepts of right and wrong here. If you aide a terrorist you're just as guilty for their crimes, if you reject terrorism then you aren't. How hard is that?

So Nancy, remind me again why it's stupid to be angry at the French?

(Link also via Think-About-It)

Mohamed ElBaradei calls for the nuclear disarmament of the Western world:

"In truth there are no good or bad nuclear weapons. If we do not stop applying double standards we will end up with more nuclear weapons. We are at a turning point," ElBaradei told Stern [A German weekly, not Howard] in the interview released ahead of publication.

The IAEA director, who has overseen inspections of nuclear sites in Iraq (news - web sites), North Korea (news - web sites) and Iran over the past year for half a decade said the world's five original nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China -- should send a clear message to the world that they were disarming.

"Otherwise, we must live with the consequences. At the moment we are, at best acting, like the fire brigade. Today Iraq, tomorrow North Korea, the day after Iran. And then?" ElBaradei said.

What a lucky coincidence, Nuclear proliferation amongst the axis of evil is the fault of the United States! Now that we've got that figured out we know who to press sanctions against.

Give me a friggin' break. Earth to ElBaradei, you are a moron.

There really are "good" and "bad" nuclear weapons. The "bad" weapons belong to those who would use the weapons to blackmail their neighbors, or sell the technology to terror groups. The "good" weapons are found in the Arsenal of Democracy, and were used to prevent the Soviets from wiping out every last damn Kraut that you had the priviledge of pandering to. And while i'm greatly in favor in a reduction of the number nuclear warheads in the United States asenal in order to secure the reduction of waheads under Russian control (if only "control" were a word I felt comfortable using), shouldn't ElBaradei be able to recognize the very real difference between the trust-worthy United States, a transparent open society with leaders who are accountable to the world, and Iran and North Korea, society's where Human Rights aren't respected, and where there's no transparency and no one in the world has any clue what our "Dear Leader" may do next.

And I thought there was no nuclear threat in Iraq?

(Link via Think-About-It)

Have you ever seen Eric Cartman and Mars in the same room at the same time?

Democrats say the Taco Bell poll is rigged:

Taco Bell announced the first installment of its Taco Poll results yesterday, in which 54 percent of the votes went to Schwarzenegger and his crunchy beef taco, and just three percent of the votes went to Davis and his chicken soft taco. All other candidates received 43 percent of votes through purchases of the chain’s Grilled Stuft Burrito.

Unhappy with the mock poll results, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, former state Sen. Art Torres said yesterday that “Taco Bell should stick to making tacos, not rigging elections.”

In a press statement released yesterday, Torres said beef tacos always outsell chicken tacos, which cost twice as much at the restaurant chain. In Sacramento, Torres said, Taco Bell sells beef tacos for 74 cents and chicken tacos for $1.50.

Bob Mulholland, campaign advisor for the California Democratic Party, says the Taco Poll is also “an investment scam to benefit Schwarzenegger.” He pointed to the actor’s ownership of about $1 million of stock in Pepsico Inc. The company is the former owner of Taco Bell and is still its exclusive soft drink supplier, Mulholland says.

Meanwhile, Taco Bell announced yesterday that after an overwhelming response from consumers to include Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the Taco Poll, patrons can now “vote” for Bustamante by purchasing a Chalupa.

This poll confirms what I have thought for a long time: the chicken soft taco at Taco Bell is vastly overpriced. The Taco Bell at Boston University charges 79 cents for a crunchy beef taco and $1.79 for a chicken soft taco. That's more than twice as much. By contrast, other items with chicken cost only a little more than the same item with beef; for example, the grilled stuft burrito costs only 50 cents more with chicken than with beef (not 100% sure about this). Maybe they would sell more chicken soft tacos if they lower the price to a reasonable level. Or maybe they like the idea of pairing a product that costs way too much with the governor of a state that spent way too much.

Other reactions: Rand Simberg thinks the Democrats are nuts, Spoons says Taco Bell is violating campaign finance laws, and Eric Lindholm thinks Taco Bell missed a great opportunity to run up sales on chicken soft tacos by assigning it to Arnold instead.

Daniel Weintraub mentions a Los Angeles Times poll on the recall that includes a side sample to 125 Latinos "for analysis". Ironically, the existence of such a sample contradicts the reason for creating such a sample. Presumably the Times wants to find out the opinions of Latinos on the recall because they think Latinos are an important group in the election. However, the reason why they had to create the sample was that unlike other racial groups, there were not enough Latinos in the main poll to produce a sample with a reasonable margin of error. So my question is, why are Latinos important in the recall election if there aren't that many of them voting?

Tyler Cowen links to a column by George Liebmann suggesting that the United States and other western democracies should allow Palestinians the chance of immigration to these countries. It's an intriguing idea as a theoretical, but has no chance of becoming policy. The best part of the post is this tongue-in-cheek line by Cowen:

And since the Western Europeans tend to be so pro-Palestinian, surely they would not mind taking in their fair share or perhaps the whole lot.

Andrew Stuttaford reports in The Corner that the German Parliment is considering a measure to give parents the right to cast additional votes for each of their children under the age of 18. He quotes a London Sunday Times interview with a German parliment member:

“This is no joke because there are millions of little people living in our society today who often have more informed political views than adults who are currently being discriminated against simply on account of their age.”

Each Wednesday, we monitor tradesports.com to see what degenerate gamblers think about upcoming elections. Last week's numbers in parentheses. Bold marks major movements. If you don't understand these numbers you can think of them percents (i.e. bettors think that Cruz Bustamente has a 35.0-35.6 percent chance of winning).

stock:high bid-low ask

Gray Davis to survive September: 89-95 (88-94)
survive December: 21-23 (17-24)
survive March: 18-28 (14-19)

Recall election winner
Cruz Bustamente 35.0-35.6 (31.0-34.5)
Arianna Huffington 0-0.5 (0-0.5)
Tom McClintock 0.5-1.2 (0.6-2.0)
Arnold Schwarzenegger 44.1-48.0 (47.0-49.0)
Bill Simon 0-0.4 (1.7-2.3)
Peter Ueberroth 1.0-1.6 (0.2-2.0)
FIELD 0.1-2.0 (13.8-15.9)
RECALL FAILS 19.0-20.0 (17.5-20.0)

Democratic primary
Hillary Clinton 6-7 (6-9)
Dean 31-34 (25-29)
Edwards 3-4 (4-5)
Gephardt 5-7 (5-7)
Kerry 28-30 (28-32)
Lieberman 12-13 (14-16)
FIELD 15-17 (10-14)

Bush reelection 64-65 (65-67)
Bush wins Massachusetts 20-25 (22-27)

Electoral votes if every state result was rightly predicted:
Bush 397, Democrat 141, Dem. states CA 55, CT 7, HI 4, MD 10, MA 12, NJ 15, NY 31, RI 4, VT 3 (Last week same)

According to a Peter Harris Research Group poll cited in Sports Illustrated last year, 83% of American Indians do not want professional sports teams to stop using Indian names, and only 31% specifically objected the Redskins (objections to all other Indian names were less). As always, it's the case of minority activists and liberals telling us what to be offended by and acting as if they represent the majority.

And speaking of activists, they think it's bad news that SAT scores went up, because scores for whites went up more than it did for minorities. No, you can't make this up.

Did you know John Kerry served in Vietnam?

Major developments in the California recall race: Candidates caught in lies!

In a piece about the growing popularity of Nascar, Dave Kansas reports the following over on OpinionJournal:

Rhys Williams, a professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati, sees Nascar's growth mirroring the movement of Southerners to other parts of the country over the past few decades. For example, as Southerners moved to California in great numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, the Southern Baptist Church was close behind. And the spread of Southern Baptists to California and elsewhere has contributed to a more conservative national religious culture, with a growing number of Americans describing themselves as evangelical. But, interestingly, the evangelical moniker has become more complex as groups have competed for congregants. Unlike the traditionally socially conservative version of Southern Baptists, self-described evangelicals sometimes drink, dance, smoke or even vote the liberal line.

"These kinds of cultural interactions are never a one-way process," says Mr. Williams. "The reincorporation of the South into mainstream American culture is making us a bit more Southern. But at the same time, Southern traditions are having to adjust. For instance, while more people invoke God in terms of politics and policy, you see evangelicals and conservative Protestants spending less time focused on personal vices. In many places, including across the Bible Belt, it's a bigger sin to raise taxes than it is to put in a casino."

Unlike most sports, the culture of Nascar, perhaps even more than the racing itself, is elemental to its success. God and family values permeate. A calendar chock full of weekend races from February to November takes Mother's Day off. The race weekend is an event with the liturgical flavor of a tent revival meeting, with fans coming from great distances and many camping out in RVs.

What a bunch of nonsense. Respecting Mother's Day is really that wholesome a counterbalance to a sport which so obviously supports disgusting slothfulness? I've never been to a Nascar event, but I imagine that the "buzz" running through a crowd of RVs camped out is actuallly less comparible to a "tent revivial meeting" and more like the buzz of a bunch of yahoos working on their second 30-rack before 2pm. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's stories like the following one which remind us that, no matter how left the media appears to be, right-wing bias always outlaps the left on the way toward an extreme.

Local talk radio station WRKO finally fires host who called for the eradication of the Palestinian people.

She must work civil defense: Can blimps aid the war on terror?

ESPN Page 2's very own Tuesday Morning Quarterback, aka Gregg Easterbrook, links to a story in the Washington Post about the imminent demise of the team name "R*dsk*ns".

At issue is a 1946 law which prohibits the government from "registering a trademark that disparages any race, religion or other group." The plaintiffs argue that, since R*dsk*ns is an offensive term, this law should nullify Washington's trademark rights. Without trademark rights, anyone could print a Washington T-shirt or cap, and therefore the R*dsk*ns would lose all incentive for retaining this moniker because they wouldn't be the sole benefactor of the merchadising money.

The club is defending its name on multiple fronts:

[The teams] attorneys said yesterday that the "difficult relations" between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans were unfortunate. But, they argued, in the 21st century, the beloved hometown team has changed the connotation of the word "Redskins" to one that is "powerfully positive" -- associated more with touchdowns than tomahawks.

The owners' attorneys also argued that the Redskins' name is vitally important to the team's identity.

****

Team attorneys attacked the Native Americans' case and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision on multiple fronts. Attorney Robert Raskopf, of the New York firm White & Case, told the judge that few Native Americans are fighting the trademark and that their challenges have come too late. Seven Native Americans filed the first complaint.

****

"What is ridiculous is the claim that the Redskins' [trademark] ridicules anyone," Raskopf told the court. "Do some groups think that our famous football team's name is disparaging? Apparently. Fine. They're entitled to their opinion. . . . But it has to be a high level of Native Americans. It can't be 7, or 70, or even 1,000."

The team's attorney said that the trademark office did not use relevant information or scientific methods in making its decision and that canceling the trademark would violate the owners' right to free speech.

Easterbrook clarifies the difference between the Washingtons and the Kansas Cities:

Note that TMQ does not object to Chiefs or Braves as team names, since chief and brave are terms of respect. R*dsk*n is "offensive slang," according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

He also points out that this is basically an open and shut case, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has previously ruled against the NFL club, only a ruling on the clubs appeal, which expected to be handed down soon, delays the removal of this blight from the NFL.

Boomshock has an exclusive interview with Georgy Russell.

The Iowa Electronic Markets is opening a new market on the recall tomorrow.

Rachel Lucas isn't happy that the neteworks won't be commemorating 9/11 with special programming.

Dan Drezner thinks the democratic establishment isn't strong enough to coalesce around one presidential candidate.

A post before I resume my slacking with Jonah.

What's all this talk idiot children and failing schools in America? The AP is reporting that math SAT scores hit a 36-year high this year, while verbal scores are at a 16-year high.

Shank does it again it today's Globe:

Careful, Red Sox fans. I think a couple of you who were at Fenway Park yesterday did not get out of your seats and applaud when Pedro Martinez came off after his sixth and final inning of work. The little guy might think that's disrespectful. It might make him leave town after he collects his $17.5 million next year. And that would be the end of the baseball world as we know it.

Time for New England to cowboy up and make Pedro feel welcome. There's still time to make him like us. But it's going to take a concentrated effort.

****

And let the word go forth to the people at sports radio: No more hosts saying that Pedro should have pitched when he was sick. No more callers questioning Pedro's injuries or illnesses. Callers from now on will be screened to make sure they aren't going to say anything to offend the ace. We don't want Pedro to leave Boston, no sir.

****

Too bad something went wrong along the way. Too bad he got it in his head that we don't respect him. Too bad he wants to leave.

How dare anybody question Pedro Martinez's desire to pitch? Isn't it just rumoer-mongering to carry on a radio program which, without a single fact to back your theory, does nothing but speculate that maybe Pedro called in sick because he is PMS-ing because media won't let up that he missed the team photo? Of all the childish and ridiculous things that get said in the Boston Media, to suggest that Pedro was faking an illness to get the heat off of his back for missing the team photo was just asinine.

Pedro has every right to be pissed off at the culture of negativity in this town. Where else but Boston could the radio flapping-heads resolve themselves to hoping that Manny Ramirez's mother actually is very sick, so that we can be sure he isn't lying to the ballclub.

Hypnotisim isn't stage junk after all: Hypnotist thieves mesmerise Moscow

The French prove themselves hostile to outsiders, again, by blowing up dinner.

Why it's a good thing Jess never drinks: Experts believe that piping could be linked to alcoholism, it can give you a big bellly, and can significantly contribute to the breakdown of relationships. Well that explains a lot. (Not really says the BBC)

England is no slouch in the intolerance department either: Six tourists Brazilian tourists were denied entry into the UK because they could not answer trivia questions about The Beatles.

(All links via Dave Barry's Blog)

Steve at Begging to Differ links to a blog by Gray Davis's wife Sharon. Steve also posts some quotes that makes it obvious that, unlike the other famous wife Sharon, Mrs. Davis isn't the brains of the family. Fortunately there are so many dumb quotes that Steve didn't get to all of them, so here are some others:

He promoted the most aggressive energy conversation program in the country and consumers conserved enough power to equal three new power plants.

So Gray Davis spent state money so people across America can talk about electrical power? No, wait, he had an energy conservation program, not an energy conversation program.

In 1998, when Gray first ran for Governor, many of the “so-called” political experts said we would never win.

Why are "so-called" in quotes? If you want to imply that the political experts aren't really experts, you should put the quote marks around "political experts". Otherwise you're just questioning your own use of the words "so-called".

Like most guys, my husband loves sports. It is probably because he played every sport he could when he was growing up. He still plays golf and we try to play together whenever possible. He is actually pretty good, averaging about a 15 handicap - not bad for someone who only gets to play about 6 times a year (I should add he played golf for two years on the Stanford Golf Team and had a much lower handicap.). He watches a lot more ESPN than CNN, FOX or MSNBC.

Trumpeting what a big sports fan your husband is makes a lot of people think you're lying. When politicians talk about sports they often make a fool of themselves (i.e., Ted Kennedy mispronouncing Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as "Mike McGwire and Sammy Sousa").

Aside from the nearly constant media coverage, additional public appearances and seven-day-a-week schedule, our lives are going pretty much as normal – well, as normal as a political life can be…which is not very normal at all.

So which one is it, normal or not normal?

We focus on the positives.

This one fails the laugh test so much it could make George Costanza's mother laugh.

Peter King on Pedro: "It's times like these when I wish Pedro Martinez would just shut up, put cotton in his ears, not read the papers, and just pitch."

Peter, you're just so damn wrong about this one. I was listening to WEEI when it was announced that Pedro wasn't going to start on due to "flu-like symptoms", and Glenn Ordway ought to be ashamed of himself. For all the bitching and moaning about the Media in this town, never were the players more right than when Ordway, Shepperd and the rest of the dead weight that day were questioning Pedro's heart. Michael Felger, typically a strong Pedro supporter, must have gone temporarily insane to demand that Pedro 'show-up and pitch throught it.'

Of course, Shank Shaughnessy had the stupidest comments of all on his radio show:

The guy might have been sick, we have to take that on faith that he was sick, but there's certainly reason to be suspicious of some of these guys right now and he's one of them. He blows off the team picture, he's been hypersensitive this year, he's lugging around 9 wins on August 22nd which is hardly Cy Young caliber. I'm sick of him, you know? He's a great pitcher when he's on. He's become 3/4 of a pitcher that you cannot count on anymore. It's unfortunate that he got sick so we hope he gets well, how's that. But I think as many have said, you got to be near-death-bed to be not pitching that game last night under the circumstances.

Suspicious Shank? Suspicious of who? As Michael Felger normally would tell you, Pedro Martinez is the grittiest DirtDog of them all. No one has more desire to compete and perform than Pedro Martinez.

So Peter, when the media says stupid things like "Pedro is calling is sick because he's a-scared", and the fans totally forget what Pedro did for us by coming out of the bullpen with his arm falling off in Game 5 of the '99 ALDS and embarassing the Indians with junk, then he has every right to question the sanity of Beantown.

Kevin Drum cites a poll that Republicans are morely likely to vote in the recall election than democrats and states, "I think this is yet more evidence that anger is a very effective political tool, and one that Republicans use very effectively." Why is it that a high Republican turnout is attributed to anger and not to enthusiasm for the democratic process or something else? Were they not angry in 1992, very angry in 1994, not angry enough in 1996, sedated in 1998, kinda angry in 2000, and just angry enough in 2002? And what if the poll was wrong and Democrats turn out in high numbers? Does it mean they and not the Republicans are angry? Or will it be attributed to to some highfalutin reason, like "rejecting the monied interests that forced an anti-democratic recall"?

Lisa Kudrow's latest box office attempt, 'Marci X', was a complete and utter bomb.

Is this why, of the people I know, the men seem to enjoy board games employing strategy more than the women do?

In [Thursday's] New York Times economist economist Alan Krueger writes up a new book called Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, written by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, and forthcoming from Princeton University Press.

The bottom line of this book: women are less likely to negotiate than are men, and less likely to enjoy it. Krueger's summary notes: "Men see situations as adaptable; women see them as unchangeable. Men use metaphors like "winning a ballgame" to describe negotiations; women use metaphors like "going to the dentist." Women are "more likely than men to think that simply working hard and doing a good job will earn them success and advancement.""

Peter King says the preseason is too long and proposes a two-game schedule, but I don't see a difference between Mike Vick going down in game 2 of a 4-game schedule or a 2-game schedule. And it's not as if players don't get injured in the regular season; playing a 16-game schedule instead of 18 games probably keeps players fresher at the end of the year and decrease their chance of injury late in the season.

King also tells us who the first two choices were for the SI cover of the football preview issue. Now we know that the SI jinx works even before they get on the cover ...

UPDATE Chris Mortensen reports that a survey of head coaches two years ago shows that a majority was against reducing the preseason schedule.

Mark Steyn writing in the Daily Telegraph on the humanitarian problems of Iraq and France:

And where are the Red Cross and Oxfam and Human Rights Watch and all the other noisy humanitarians? If 10,000 Iraqis had died of dysentery on George W Bush's watch, you'd never hear the end of it. A few weeks back, with three fatal cases of cholera, the Humanitarian Lobby was already shrieking that we stood on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

France isn't on the edge, it's in the abyss. When I motored round Iraq a couple of months ago, the hospital wards were well below capacity. Yet in France the entire health system – or that percentage of it not spending August at the beach – is stretched beyond its limits (35 hours a week, 44 weeks a year). Why aren't Médecins Sans Frontières demanding to be allowed in to take over?

****

I don't know what M Chirac heard in the dépanneurs and resto-bars of Quebec this week, but what I heard south of the border was complete amazement at how a nominally First World country could be so insouciant about an entirely avoidable Third World death toll. President Bush and the entire Washington press corps are spending a month in heat equal to the brutal Parisian summer, and he's playing golf in it all day while they stand around watching; in Phoenix tomorrow and Monday, it will be an unremarkable 105. This isn't about the weather.

In Paris this spring, a government official explained to me how Europeans had created a more civilised society than America - socialised healthcare, shorter work weeks, more holidays. We've just seen where that leads: gran'ma turned away from the hospital to die in an airless apartment because junior's sur la plage. M Chirac's somewhat tetchy suggestion that his people should rethink their attitude to the elderly was well taken. But Big Government inevitably diminishes its citizens' capacity to take responsibility, to the point where even your dead mum is just one more inconvenience the state should do something about.

****

Meanwhile, Maggie Pernot wrote the other day to chide me for my continued defence of the Rumsfeld Death Camps at Guantanamo. The prisoners, she complains, are "kept in tiny, chainlink outdoor cages where they were likely to be rained upon". In fact, they have sloping roofs and cool concrete floors, perfect for the climate. If they had solid walls rather than airy wire mesh, they'd be Parisian sweatboxes and everyone would be dead. By contrast, if those thousands of French pensioners had been captured by the Marines and detained by Rummy in Cuba, they'd be alive today.

(Via The CounterRevolutionary)

K.Lo has an interesting transcript of John Aschcroft talking about the PATRIOT Act over in 'The Corner'.

Important things in the news today:

1) ABC has signaled its faith that the California recall will draw a TV audience by moving the premieres of two shows up a week to avoid an October 7 conflict.

2) Why Democracy Works/Doesn't Work: a Denver ballot initiative "would order city government to 'ensure public safety' by adopting and promoting 'stress-reducing techniques or programs.'" 2,458 signatures were required to qualify the question for the ballot. Supporters of the initiative were able to find 2,462.

3) Europe's recent heat wave has been nothing but good news for wine vineyards.

4) Iraq isn't all bad afterall says the New York Times:

"We like the Americans very much here," said Zainab Khaledy, 22, who received her medical degree last Sunday. "We feel better than under the old regime. We have problems, like security, but everything is getting better."

****

The atmosphere in Diwaniya is far different. The 2,300 marines based here move freely about the city, tossing candy to the children, waving back to the parents. Not a single marine in Diwaniya has been lost to hostile fire since their arrival in April, even though the marines mix with the population here more than their colleagues do in Baghdad. There is not even a curfew.

"This is not Baghdad," said Lt. Col. Patrick Malay, who commands a force of about 950 marines in Diwaniya. "The Iraqis love us here."

****

With hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring into the area, the city and its surrounding areas are rapidly being restored and in some cases improved.

Since April, groups of marines have been fanning out across Qadisiya Province to oversee an array of projects designed to revive the local economy, its government and education systems, while putting Iraqis back to work.

In interviews, Marine commanders rattled off a list of local projects: 86 schools renovated; the police station, courthouse and jail reopened and back in business. Some 2,500 police officers, many of them graduates of a crash, one-week human rights course, walking the streets. Hundreds of local men earning $15 a day clearing weeds from local irrigation canals.

Go read the whole thing. Now.

While the death toll was mounting in France because of the heat wave, Jacque Chirac was on vacation. Will those who decry the the fact that Americans work many more hours per year than Europeans, yet ridicule George Bush for taking a vacation in his Texas ranch, take Chirac to task for his not returning to work in a national emergency?