Saturday, April 29, 2006

"Hello America, I'm in JAIL. IN JAIL!" (not)


Hello dad, I'm in jail
Hi dad, I'm calling you from jail
Hi dad, happy birthday, I'm in jail
Jail, jail, hi dad

All those years, I'm in jail now
I'm in jail, I like it here
It's nice, I like it
Hello dad, I'm in jail
Hello, hello dad, hi, I'm in jail
Say hi to mom, from jail
I'm in jail, I'm gonna stay here
I like it here
I like it, yeah, throw away the key
I'm in jail


(Was/Not Was)



Of course, that isn't totally true.

He wasn't arrested- he was booked on one charge, namely fraud, which he pleaded not guilty to. Provided he walks the straight and narrow for 18 months, continues to see his doctor, and doesn't get off the wagon, that and 30,000 will see the charge dismissed.

One wonders why other people who suffer from drug addiction can't get similar, cushy deals instead of being slung bum-over-teakettle into the nearest prison cell.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Wichman speaks

The prof tried to defend himself, here:

My letter addressed the attempts of the MSA to suppress free speech regarding publishing the Muhammed cartoons. It was not intended to impugn the integrity and decency of all Muslims in the United States.

...

Finally, although I am outraged by the abuses committed in the name of Islam, I have only the deepest respect for the many fine Middle Easterners, whether practicing Muslims or not, whom I have come to know during my 20 years of service to MSU; as co-faculty; as undergraduate students; as graduate students; as postdocs; as coauthors on dozens of publications; and as friends.

My letter was in no way directed toward them or the many other law-abiding and decent Muslims both here and elsewhere.


Okay, let's look at that letter one more time.

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Ammendment--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans. Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Call me persnickity, but I'm having a real hard problem synching what he's saying up above with what he wrote to the MSU Moslem Students Association. I think this is a rather sad attempt to cover his ass now that he's been revealed as the Poop Bandit.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

MSU State News, others on Wichman / Conspiracy-Theory Rock

Shame on you, Indrek Wichman.

Come on, you didn't really send an offensive e-mail to a prominent student organization with the notion that it was going to be kept private — did you?

Well, you're saying you did, but that was a pretty irresponsible move for an MSU professor.

Seriously.


The MSU State News op-ed goes on to admonish him for a letter he wrote to them, and says that he's "lucky": Even if most people don't agree with your statements, the university can't and shouldn't punish you for exercising your freedom of speech.

Is it really free speech if he's using a university's email account and saying he speaks for "many, many, many" colleagues in the Mechanical Engineering deptartment?

There's some more details in this article from the Detroit News.

Wichman received a letter from MSU Provost Kim Wilcox informing him that the opinions he expressed were against the values of the university and that if he expresses similar views again, he must make clear that they are entirely his own, said Terry Denbow, the vice president for university relations.

Again: I think that if a professor had sent a similarly nasty letter off to a black student organization, he'd have been fired, not privately "served" via a letter from the university. (A pity my alternate time generator went on the fritz at the start of Plame-gate or I'd have better proof...)

Meanwhile, op-ed roundup:

* The Detroit Free Press completely misses the point of his letter.

* The Lansing State News drops the ball as well, getting an underhanded dig on the MSA in the process

* The American Daily doesn't miss the point, and agrees completely with its spirit and tone.



Also, from Crooks and Liars, we have this amusing cartoon. remember Schoolhouse Rock? This is Conspiracy Theory Rock.

(And since it has been edited out of re-runs of that episode of Saturday Night Live, it would seem it ain't just a cartoon...)

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

MSU prof shoots self, department in foot - MSU don't care

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Ammendment--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans. Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

You can read that and more here, but prepare to be shocked - MSU thinks this sort of email, sent to the Muslim Student Association at MSU, does not violate university policy

That Wichman has a right to speak his mind goes without saying - so do Michigan Nazis. But students also have a right to be treated fairly and professionally by any university employee they encounter. This right goes beyond classroom interaction: they shouldn’t be hassled on campus or getting bigoted emails from them, either.

Can any Muslim student, from this point on, expect to be treated in a fair, professional manner by Professor Wichman, or his “many” colleagues in the Mechanical Engineering Department? If the answer is no, as I suspect it is, then Wichman should be publicly reprimanded, if not shown to the door.

Put it another way: if a professor had written a letter to one of the African-American student organizations around Martin Luther King Day – a letter “protesting” bad things that happen in Africa, and then telling those students to please move back there – would the university say that letter didn’t violate MSU policy? Or would they throw that professor off campus faster than you could say “Jesse Jackson’s on line one”?

That was, of course, a rhetorical question. The real question is why Professor Wichman still has his job.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated...?(#2836)

According to Drumheller, CIA Director George Tenet delivered the news about the Iraqi foreign minister at a high-level meeting at the White House, including the president, the vice president and Secretary of State Rice.

At that meeting, Drumheller says, "They were enthusiastic because they said, they were excited that we had a high-level penetration of Iraqis."

What did this high-level source tell him?

"He told us that they had no active weapons of mass destruction program," says Drumheller.

"So in the fall of 2002, before going to war, we had it on good authority from a source within Saddam's inner circle that he didn't have an active program for weapons of mass destruction?" Bradley asked.

"Yes," Drumheller replied. He says there was doubt in his mind at all.

"It directly contradicts, though, what the president and his staff were telling us," Bradley remarked.

"The policy was set," Drumheller says. "The war in Iraq was coming. And they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."


Another piece of evidence to suggest that yes, Virginia, we got lied to.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Sex in the Moonie Set / Momma Don't Allow no Pets


Rev Moon and "special friend" Jerry Falwell
Where are their holy handkerchiefs...?


This look at prescribed sex practices in Rev Moon's Unification Church must be read to be believed

Moon's warning to America is that we must have sex the way he entreats us, in the positions he has designated, or else forfeit our "love organs," as he dubs them, to the dark lord Satan.

...

"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."

...

"Satan," the Times publisher said in 2004, "is clinging to our sexual organs." Women are a "line of prostitutes," who should be punished for selfishness. "The concave organ [vagina] should be sealed with concrete."

"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004. "Women who don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."

"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."



Oh yeah - I suddenly have an irresistable urge to marry a complete stranger in a football stadium... lemme tell ya...

It's a pity this report, complete with connections between Rev Moon and conservative power blocs, will not make it any further than alternet.

Or will it...?

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Death-Eaters Amok in Georgia


Death Eaters on the March... or book-banners on the rampage?



This current episode of Hating Potter is really nothing new, but it's still too sad for words

Laura Mallory wants to put an Avada Kedavra curse on the Harry Potter book series. ... The working mother of four admits she's never read any of the six books published thus far in the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling. The books are "too long" (book five alone was 870 pages) and she works a part-time job, Mallory writes on her "appeal form for instructional materials." She hasn't read them, yet she wants them off the shelves of the Gwinnett County Public School system libraries.

...

We find it interesting that while she's wild about Harry, she suggests replacing the Potter books with the "Left Behind" series. Her appeal form doesn't indicate whether she's read those publications.


(Item: according to this article,, she actually wanted the "Left Behind: for Kids" series, instead. I don't know which scares me more: the suggestion, or that there's a kids' version of those books.)

The hearing was held:

Harry Potter teaches children and adults that witchcraft is OK for children," said Laura Mallory, a Loganville mother whose complaint led to the hearing.

But Lisa Eickholdt, a reading specialist at Freeman's Mill Elementary, said the books encouraged many children --- especially those who struggle in school --- to read. Children enjoy the books' themes of friendship, courage and good fighting evil, she said.

"The Harry Potter series of books are not the kinds of books that need to be removed," Eickholdt said. "If anything, they are the kinds of books we need more of."

No decision was made at the end of the hearing, which lasted a little more than an hour. The hearing officer, retired DeKalb County school administrator Su Ellen Bray, has five days to recommend to board members on whether to keep the Potter books on library shelves. The school board then will have 10 days to decide whether to remove the six Potter books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide.

A decision is expected no later than May 11, Associate Superintendent Cindy Loe said.


Courtesy of the YALSA Book List, I've heard from one of the media specialists in that school district. She says the head of media services is more annoyed than nervous, given that it's highly unlikely the books will be pulled from the shelves.

She also says - and I agree - that you shouldn't be able to bring forth a complaint about a book unless you've actually read the damn thing. The mother who brought the complaint said it would be "hypocritical" to do so, but I'm not buying that one. I think she just doesn't feel like confusing herself with the facts now that her mind's all made up.

Bloody Death-Eaters.

edit: Here's a hysterial essay about whether Harry Potter and D&D really teach kids magic. Thanks to Laura Cory for the link!

Friday, April 21, 2006

I Hate Michigan Nazis

So, in case you hadn't heard, the Nazis are coming to Lansing on August 22nd - Hitler's birthday. They're going to have a "rally" on the state capitol steps. Of course, the protest set is going to outnumber their slack-jawed asses by a ratio of 50 to 1, and all the uptown businesses have been asked by the police to shut down before the rally for their own safety. The downtown branch of CADL's going to comply, of course.

They have the right to march, organize and to speak and be heard. I'm not denying that. I'm also not denying the sane side of the argument has the right to show up and counter-protest. But I find that such counter-protests can turn into mindless violence and riots if people aren't careful. (I also suspect the violence is being sparked by people who want to see such gathrings turn into disturbances, but I'm not sure who would do it.)

The city has wisely decided to have a counter-event somewhere else - some diversity thing. The Nazis think the city is no longer being impartial, and has threatened to sue if they can, and maybe just show up and crash the diversity party. It seems the city cannot win when the Nazis want to march.

What to do...?

Well, I have to work that day, so I can't go. But in the name of sanity and public safety, I have a possible solution.

We all know that there are furries: people whose sexuality includes fantasizing about, or actually dressing up as, anthropomorphic animals. They often wind up being figures of fun for those of us who "don't get it," but it's hard for some of us - me included - to keep a straight face while imagining two people dressed up like cartoon dogs going at it with each other. It's like something out of a John Waters movie.

What we maybe didn't know is that there seems to be a subset of Furrydom that has a thing for Nazi fetish, too. So on top of the anthropomorphic animal stuff, they'll be wearing black leather Nazi gear.

Imagine Scooby Doo in a black leather trenchcoat with an SS officer's cap and a swastika armband. Now try not to laugh.

So what I'm wondering is... can we, in less than two days, get about 20 - 50 Nazi Furries to drop whatever plans they had, and come to Lansing, Michigan for the counter-protest?

They could hide in the swirling crowds of anti-racist types, and don their gear while no one's looking. And then, when the clowns on the other side of the barricades get up to the podium to talk about White Power, someone could whip out a boombox and play "YMCA" by the Village People. The furries could goose-step to the front of the barricade, turn around at strategic points to show off their armbands, and then do a dance routine to what is, perhaps, the most beloved of cheesy songs ever written.

If my plan works, the crowd will be stunned into amusement, and will spend the rest of the afternoon dancing and singing along with their new friends while the Nazis' heads explode, unable to process what they've just seen. On the other hand the nazi furries may be mistaken for actual nazis, themselves, and be beaten to a pulp as the eventual riot starts early, and this would be bad.

"I have a dream..."

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Sami, Sujiatun and "Sorry"

We now have information on what Sami al-Arian copped to: contributions

The former University of South Florida professor pleaded guilty to Count Four of the original indictment against him, which charged that he conspired to "make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad." The federal government designated that group a terrorist organization in 1995.

As part of the agreement, Al-Arian admitted to "filing for immigration benefits for individuals associated with PIJ, hiding the identities of individuals associated with the PIJ, and providing assistance for an individual associated with the PIJ in a United States Court proceeding."


So yeah, he says he's guilty of something the government tried to nail him on, and failed to. Maybe he copped to it just to avoid further legal shennanigans and get out of town, and maybe he really did do it after all. If the latter's the case, then good fucking riddance to terrorist-enabling rubbish.

(Now Robert Spencer wants an apology, too My earlier view stands, and he can apologize for the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, first.)

Meanwhile, The US State department says there is no evidence of a concentration camp for Falun Gong practicioners in Sujiatun district of Shenyang, in China.

Despite such a finding, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Friday that Washington has taken the Falun Gong's charges "seriously" and has urged the Chinese government to probe the claims.... McCormack added: "We remain concerned over China's repression of Falun Gong practitioners

So, yes, it appears the whole thing about the death camp may have been a load of bull. Either that or the Chinese did a remarkable job of cleaning up after themselves, which I tend to doubt.

In any case, serious questions concerning China's persecution of Falun Gong remain, and their abyssmal human rights record demands an answer. We're not likely to get it from them while Bush is in charge, though. Bush is "Sorry?" For what?

(And whatever did Bush whisper to Hu while the protest was happening...?)

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

"Unhinged," Indeed

From Ezra Klein's blog:

Right now, (Michelle Malkin) is happily wrapped in one of her typical controversies: a crew of students at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater, protested some military recruiters, and Malkin got hold of a press release with their personal contact information -- a poorly conceived inclusion on the students' part, but then, these are undergraduates, not trained media flacks. Rather than calling and speaking to them herself, which is what members of the press are supposed to use such releases for, Malkin published their personal information on her website, prompting her hordes of orcish mouth-breathers to brandish their pitchforks and inundate the unsuspecting students with death threats (some of which you can read here). When the students frantically called on Malkin to remove their numbers, she posted their contact information again.

I'm not saying that I agree with what I've heard of the Santa Cruz students' anti-war tactics. If people want to go and visit recruiters on campus, they should be allowed to do so without running a blockade or a picket line. Protests can happen close to the recruitment station, but reasonable access cannot be blocked.

But I think it's wrong to say these students did something "pooly conceived" by having their contact numbers available. That really is blaming the victim, here.

I was a member of the lefty protest set - and the non-denominational free speech advocacy set - back in my university days, and I can tell you that it's absolutely essential to have contact information in with your stuff. You want the press to call you up on their own time, rather than yours, and ask for interviews and soundbites. You want people who might not otherwise take part in that protest, itself, to call up and say "hey, I believe in what you're doing, how can I help?" or "I want to join. When's your next meeting?"

And of course these phone numbers are going to be personal numbers. Student organizations rarely have the funds to have a semi-professional office with its own telephone number, much less a dedicated phone line that's shared property (like an off-the-rack cell phone bought and maintained for that purpose alone). This is because student organizations tend to have only student funding available, if that.

It's perfectly normal to have numbers available for people to call - why else do we have phone books and public directories? What is abnormal, here, is that people are calling and leaving death threats. That is wrong, and we shouldn't be giving these creeps any slack by saying the students somehow asked for this to happen. No one asks to be harassed, demeaned or threatened anymore than they ask to be mugged, raped or murdered: if you leave yourself open to such an attack, the fault is not yours, but that of the person who harmed you.

As for Malkin, who had a hand in orchestrating this harm: she says she doesn't condone death threats or violence, but that seems a wimpy boilerplate at best. It's like stirring up the red ants and black ants and then saying "Play nice, guys?" in your best Kermit the Frog voice. If she didn't think these threats might happen, she's either willfully naive given what she's gotten in the past - part of the basis of "Unhinged" - or ignorant of the worst parts of human nature.

I think she had to have known what would happen when she gave that contact information to her fans, at her blog. And I think, when viewing the students' actions as sedition, she thought the best way to punish that sedition was to let slip her legion of flying monkeys.

I also think she owes them a great, big apology, regardless of what she thinks about what they may have done. I doubt we'll see it, but in its absence we have more proof of one of the central failings of her "Unhinged": an unwillingness to see that the right can be just as stupid, vicious and petty as the left when given a chance to anonymously drool venom over a communications network.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Sami al-Arian pleads guilty - but of what?

After a really embarassing trial, in which the government failed to nail him, Sami al-Arian has pled guilty to lesser charges to be deported, thus ending his incarceration

"My understanding was that he was to plead guilty" to conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, said William Moffitt, who represented Al-Arian until a judge allowed him to withdraw from the case last month. The deal calls for Al-Arian to receive a sentence roughly equal to the time he has served behind bars since he was arrested in February 2003, Moffitt said.

The remaining charges are to be dismissed. Moffitt said he and attorney Linda Moreno wrote the bulk of the agreement. "The vast majority of that deal was written on my desk," he said.

Ahmed Bedier, Tampa spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, said Moffitt was wrong about the Al-Arian plea. Al-Arian did not agree to admit to any charges associated with terrorism, Bedier said.

"He stayed true to his convictions - he stayed true he wasn't going to plead to those issues," Bedier said. "There is no conspiracy to support terrorism."


Interesting article, even if it is a little 'we said/they said.' It would appear that he's copped to something small so he can get out of jail now and go home, rather than go through trial after trial while the government tries to nail him on something - anything - rather than admit defeat and let him go. I might have copped to it, too, just to be done with it.

Over on Frontpage, David Horowitz wets himself demanding an apology from everyone who supported Al-Arian (I'm still awaiting an apology from Frontpage/DTN over the Schiavo affair, myself.) I'm not convinced they owe him, or anyone, an apology, unless they knew - or highly suspected - he was guilty of what he was charged of, and defended him anyway.

I also find it amusing that he was involved with Islamic Jihad before it was illegal. Sounds a little like Tom Delay's woes, to hear some say it.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Right Back at you, Bobby

It looks like we've got a real live one, here, folks. Sunday service in Xinzheng, otherwise known as "Bobby Fletcher" (the Serdar Agric of the Falun Gong concentration camp), responded in kind to my comments about him on this post, which I whoopsied on.

(He even did yet another single-issue blog about it after I nuked his post from Anne Coulter's entry, below)

Yes, my memories of what happened at Tiananmen are hazy, and needed a refresher course. But in the process of learning it again, I've come to see that Bobby, here, is either one scary apologist for official murder and coverup, or naive as all hell.

Here's my answer to him and his attempts to whitewash China's government's murderous actions in the name of searching for truth (or just being annoyed at Falun Gong posters in Chinatown)

I wonder if you have seen the recent Frontline segment titled "The Tank Man"?

The PBS documentary dispelled the myth that students were "massacred" on TAM square grounds. If you haven't seen this you should. The Frontline report interviewed journalists who were on the ground, as well as footage of thousands of students leaving the TAM square.


That's right. And you can read about it, and see it, here

And when we go there, what do we find...?

(June 3rd): "As word spreads that hundreds of thousands of troops are approaching from all four corners of the city, Beijingers flood the streets to block them, as they had done two weeks earlier. People set up barricades at every major interstion. At about 10:30 p.m., near the Muxidi apartment buildings -- home to high-level Party officials and their families -- the citizens become aggressive as the army tries to break through their barricades. They yell at the soldiers and some throw rocks; someone sets a bus on fire. The soldiers start firing on the unarmed civilians with AK-47s loaded with battlefield ammunition."

(June 4th): "At about 1:00 a.m., the People's Liberation Army finally reaches Tiananmen Square and waits for orders from the government. The soldiers have been told not to open fire, but they have also been told that they must clear the square by 6:00 a.m. -- with no exceptions or delays. They make a final offer of amnesty if the few thousand remaining students will leave. About 4:00 a.m., student leaders put the matter to a vote: Leave the square, or stay and face the consequences. ... The students vacate the square under the gaze of thousands of soldiers.

Later that morning, some people -- believed to be the parents of the student protestors -- try to re-enter Tiananmen Square via Chang'an Boulevard. The soldiers order them to leave, and when they don't, open fire, taking down dozens of people at a time. ... When rescue workers try to approach the street to remove the wounded, they, too, are shot.

No one knows for certain how many people died over the two days. The Chinese Red Cross initially reported 2,600, then quickly retracted that figure under intense pressure from the government. The official Chinese government figure is 241 dead, including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded."

So no, maybe no students were killed. But there was still a massacre there, that day.

Actually, I have read this from another source years ago, from Columbia Univ. School of Journalism:

http://archives.cjr.org/year/98/5/tiananmen.asp

"as far as can be determined from the available evidence, no one died that night in Tiananmen Square.

A few people may have been killed by random shooting on streets near the square, but all verified eyewitness accounts say that the students who remained in the square when troops arrived were allowed to leave peacefully.

Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under different circumstances."


Yes, that's right, too. And let's continue with what the article says, shall we?

"The problem is not so much putting the murders in the wrong place, but suggesting that most of the victims were students. Black and Munro say "what took place was the slaughter not of students but of ordinary workers and residents — precisely the target that the Chinese government had intended." They argue that the government was out to suppress a rebellion of workers, who were much more numerous and had much more to be angry about than the students. This was the larger story that most of us overlooked or underplayed.

...

Not only has the error made the American press's frequent pleas for the truth about Tiananmen seem shallow, but it has allowed the bloody-minded regime responsible for the June 4 murders to divert attention from what happened. There was a massacre that morning."

Again, I can't stress enough about critical examination. All this is public information.

Yes, and you are missing the forest for its trees.

Oh, BTW, me and my passport will be gald to meet you anywhere in Seattle, so I can put your fear of foreign agent in our land to rest. Let me know, I'd be glad to answer any of your questions.

I don't think it's needed. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can confirm your address and phone number. Like we say - "be seeing you."

Good luck with your journey for Truth, but please remember to look both ways.

This is so sickeningly hypocritical it isn't worth much of a retort.

I don't know what your problem is, or what your story is. Maybe Bob's right about you, maybe he isn't. All I know is that I was put on this planet to annoy people like you.

New Anne Coulter Book



It looks like we have the title, and cover, of Anne Coulter's new book

No wonder it's out on 6/6/06. What was that about the Devil citing scripture for his own needs?

Pardon me while I go be sick.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Sushi over the Moon

Did you know that Reverend Moon, founder of the Unification Church - and would-be messiah - has cornered one hellaciously big piece of the American sushi market?

(The original article's no longer available unless you log in to the Chi-Trib.)

Every time you bite into a maki, you could be funding the Washington Times - Food for thought!

(thanks to Wonkette for the link.)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

"And she doesn't give a fuck what you might say"

It's been brought to my attention, courtesy of a blogger who seems to have a thing for sticking up for the Chinese government under the guise of correcting misconceptions about what goes on there, that my earlier post about the falun gong camp might not be entirely accurate. There's some question as to whether something like that could be going on there at all, in that town, and a lack of corroborating sources makes it hard to take entirely seriously.

The matter is being investigated by various agencies as I type this. When I hear more, I'll either post a full retraction or shout the truth from the rooftops.

In the meanwhile, here's a rare piece of clear vision on the subject from National Review.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Merry Fitzmas, Yet Again

The net keeps getting drawn tighter to the top

As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.


Meanwhile, over at Denial Central, otherwise known as Frontpage Magazine, Ben Johnson refuses to assume the worst

This gets funnier and funnier all the time, but the sad thing is that - as always - the joke is on us.