Unretracted

And what's been taking over the lefty blogs

2006-06-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

WOOO the Dixie Chicks! They said things about Bush we like, so. . .buy their albums?

I recall a Slate article deriding the "Stalinite aesthetic" of the National Review's art criticism, whereby the quality of any given film or work of fiction is judged simply as aggregate of its political message and the political orientations of those involved in its production. Such an apt description, and so sad to see it becoming a universal feature of the blogosphere.

Who told them?

2006-06-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

More from those peerless intellectuals at The Corner

"It's way too cute and conspiratorial, but it ain't altogether crazy either. From a reader:"

Wanted to propose a theory about Al Gore and other global warming alarmists. Maybe others have reached this conclusion, but I haven't seen it.

Was just reading an article [which] starts out profiling Bill Gray, the preeminent hurricane guy. Talks about how he is a global warming skeptic and how he's pissed at how he's being treated in the scientific community. Etc.

But then I read this sentence, "In just three, five, maybe eight years, he [Gray] says, the world will begin to cool again." and it hit me...Holy cow. The global warming alarmists KNOW the earth is going to begin cooling in a few years - and their alarm is that they have to have Kyoto-like programs in place that they can point to as the cause of the cooling.

If they can succeed at this - they effectively control the world. In a few decades they can revive the "earth is cooling and there's an ice age coming" alarmism - and prescribe policies that ensure they have the power they want to manage that impending climate disaster.

Left unanswered is why liberals want to impose great costs on society in order to mitigate our harmless friends, the greenhouse gasses. Let me refer you to the CEI's courageous stand for CO2: "They call it pollution, we call it life."

And we all know what liberals think about life.

Happy Memorial Day

2006-05-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

War Veteran John Kerry is a goddamned traitor

Remember veterans: we value* your service!

*Value of service not valid if a democrat. Value not valid with run for office. Any medals earned not valid unless certified by approved list of bloggers who have never faced anything more dangerous than improperly washed silverware. All valid service valuation subject to review. All acts of violence in combat zones subject to indeffinite review (hereafter known as the 'Kerry clause'). Noncombat actions bear risk of validity refutation (hereafter known as the 'Gore clause'). All validity subject to reversal if veteran looks silly in turtleneck shirt (hereafter known as the 'Clark clause'). All validity regarding "value of service" subject to immediate refutation, without appeal or further justification, should veteran be in close race against a republican (hereafter known as the 'Cleland clause').

Comments are enabled

2006-05-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

By The Editor

Comments. Are. Enabled.

Good to know the WaPo is on board with the war effort

2006-05-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

There's a lot of talk about how the media is losing our war for us, and a lot of that talk makes sense. But the Washington Post knows how to show the good things happening in Iraq. None of this "it's all going to hell in a handbasket" with these fine Americans.

Iraq Is The Republic of Fear

Okay, pardon the title. The editors wrote that. The editors are part of the MSM (and are therefore bad). Let's just get down to brass tacks here:

Every morning the streets of Baghdad are littered with dozens of bodies, bruised, torn, mutilated, executed only because they are Sunni or because they are Shiite. Power drills are an especially popular torture device.

I have spent nearly two of the three years since Baghdad fell in Iraq. On my last trip, a few weeks back, I flew out of the city overcome with fatalism. Over the course of six weeks, I worked with three different drivers; at various times each had to take a day off because a neighbor or relative had been killed. One morning 14 bodies were found, all with ID cards in their front pockets, all called Omar. Omar is a Sunni name. In Baghdad these days, nobody is more insecure than men called Omar. On another day a group of bodies was found with hands folded on their abdomens, right hand over left, the way Sunnis pray. It was a message. These days many Sunnis are obtaining false papers with neutral names. Sunni militias are retaliating, stopping buses and demanding the jinsiya , or ID cards, of all passengers. Individuals belonging to Shiite tribes are executed.

Um, I don't know how that got in there. Um.

Ummmmmm.

Well on to the good news:

The Mahdi militiamen were already back in force that morning, blocking off the roads and searching all who approached, wielding Iraqi police-issue Glock pistols and carrying Iraqi police-issue handcuffs. In Baghdad and most of Iraq, the police are the Mahdi Army and the Mahdi Army is the police. The same holds for the actual Iraqi army, posted throughout the country.

Church and state united, just like our own founding fathers intended.

Doctors and ministry staffers refer to the minister of health as imami, or "my imam," as though he were a cleric. I also saw walls adorned with Shiite posters -- including ones touting Sadr -- in the Ministry of Transportation.

Simple, humble faith and an identity with that faith aren't just allowed in public life, but are a celebrated, integral part of civil service. In some ways, these guys are years ahead of us.

And to those who say our efforts at forming a government in Iraq in our own image has "failed," what do you say to this?

Shiites with no apparent qualifications have filled the ranks. In one case in the transportation ministry, a Sunni chief engineer was fired and replaced with an unqualified Shiite who wore a cleric's turban to work.

BOO-YAKA-SHA, commies.

(sob)

Been a long time

2006-05-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

By The Editor

Our long absence
Is not due to assassins
Or to alien invasions from Mars

We weren't on a journey
We weren't on a gurney
We weren't hit by a series of cars

It was a technical error
TECHNICAL ERROR
COULD'T LOG IN
TECHNICAL ERROR

[solo]

TECHNICAL ERROR YEAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHh

Heh

2006-05-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

From Brad Delong

Jonah Goldberg has a request:

The Corner on National Review Online: NR Quotes [Jonah Goldberg]: Hello NR Readers (and people who buy NR for the pictures) -- Look over to your right. See that big quote by Rick Brookhiser? Well, we want to put up more quotes from the pages of NR, past, present and future there. We're gonna make it so that every time you refresh the page, a different quote appears from the pages of NR. We want to get so many of them that you could spend hours just hitting reload without ever seeing the same quote twice. But here's the thing: The quotations must be from the pages of NR, the magazine, not from NRO. So, if you ever read something in NR you think should be immortalized (and used as an advertising teaser), please pass it along. That goes for anything from the past as well as anything you might read in the future. Perhaps some day there will be enough to make a book of quotations or a quote-a-day calendar or something. Please send suggestions to Chaka.

I want to contribute! Here are some excellent possibilities:

It was the culmination of a weekend of demonstrations against the admission of a Negro.... [T]he nation cannot get away with feigning surprise at the fact that... the demonstration became ugly and uncontrolled. For in defiance of constitutional practice, with a total disregard of custom and tradition, the Supreme Court a year ago illegalized a whole set of deeply-rooted folkways and mores...

The statute... a law the Reconstruction Congress enacted in 1871.... [T]he President can send in troops... only when... the local authorities must have shown themselves either unable or unwilling to deal with the situation. Yet the authorities in Birmingham [police chief "Bull" Connor and Governor George Wallace] apparently did have the matter under control before Kennedy pushed the button...

why does fitzgerald hate america so much?

2005-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

by Max Hats

My head is not pointy enough to track all the Plame/Libby/Rove minutia. I don't know what's going to happen. I do know think anyone else does, either, outside the Special Prosecutors office, but I can't be sure. My head's not even pointy enough for that. But here is something I do know - here is something even little ol' me can be confident in: watching the unwashed republican masses try to frame the outing of a CIA agent to the press for vindictive reasons by their own guy in the usual TEH LEFT HATS AMERICA mindset is fucking hilarious.

From the comments on an astute article by the generally astuteJust One Minute:

If Rove can present a legal defense theory from the outset that would expose the CIA/DeMSM connection fully then he should definitely fight. A public declaration of intent to do so would garner all the money needed to assemble a legal team capable of shredding not just the government case but the CIA/Dem connection and the DeMSM propaganda organs which supported the central liar in this case, his covert/non-covert wife and the press cocktail suckups who carried the ball for them.

The case would also allow for some 527 action hanging the "effectively anti-democratic and objectively pro-Islamofascist tag" on the Copperhead party and its propaganda organs.

Where do I send a check?

Posted by: Rick Ballard | October 23, 2005 at 02:13 AM

I interrupt the format and theme of this website to bring you this:

2005-09-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

******

When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman. The Press Complaints Commission's code of practice permits subterfuge if there is no other means of investigating a matter of public interest.

The agent told the researcher: "A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted foetus." This material, he said, was being bought from "bio tech" companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and was being developed elsewhere in China.

He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from executed prisoners was not uncommon. "In China it is considered very normal and I was very shocked that western countries can make such a big fuss about this," he said. Speaking from his office in northern China, he added: "The government has put some pressure on all the medical facilities to keep this type of work in low profile."

The agent said his company exported to the west via Hong Kong."We are still in the early days of selling these products, and clients from abroad are quite surprised that China can manufacture the same human collagen for less than 5% of what it costs in the west." Skin from prisoners used to be even less expensive, he said. "Nowadays there is a certain fee that has to be paid to the court."

Holy.

Holy shit.

REDSTATE 4 EVA!

2005-09-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

It's like freep, if freepers knew how to use thesauruses.

I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms. You just have to read it for a while to really understand.

From today's frontpage:

The Times Sat. editorial: Abu-Ghraib-gate (!)

There were some sick guards at Abu Ghraib, granted, but that does not turn the entire prison into a house of mayhem. In fact, it was the Bush policies which solved the problem.

Well, that one hell of an FYI. Just one question, smart guy: why does President Bush love Osama?

"Deadly Bureaucracy"

Congressman Bobby Jindal from Louisiana blows the lid off the claim that larger government will be able to ameliorate the effects of natural or man-made disaster. After reading about the bureaucracy in action, one will wonder at those who actually wish to make it bigger and more active:

I. . .uh. . .wow.

Hurricane Katrina: Not Helpful

We've said in this space before that natural disasters of the kind we've seen this past week bring out the best and the worst in people. Luckily for civilization, the good far outnumber the bad, but those helping hands are interspersed with looters and thugs. On the political level, for all the dedicated federal employees and volunteers, you have second-guessers, folks intent on assessing blame and the Bobby Kennedy Jr's, sons of privilege who prefer to carp from the sidelines.

We noted below so many manufacturers and others who have stepped up to the plate and been enormously helpful in beginning the rebuilding process and helping those in need. However, there are the intellectual and political looters still on the loose out there.

Feel free to take guesses on who the "looters" are. Just don't expect anyone to take bets.

The comments section under that story must be seen to be believed.

A BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO

2005-09-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

Just Curious
By: John Cole September 7, 2005 at 4:52 pm

Is that what you want? I can keep this up for a while. I mean, I could discuss the events of the last few weeks rationally with you, but every time I do that, you just call me an apologist, throw shit in my face, and all sorts of other bullshit. I spend an hour writing a post documenting charges that have been made that have turned out to be false, and you accuse me of spin and throw up 50 other charges that are thinly sourced. Either that, or you ignore what I have said, and simply repeat the same damned thing I have proven within a reasonable degree of certainty to be false.

So, it is up to you. I can go the way of Rush Limbaugh spouting all sorts of stuff I only sort of believe (and in many cases don’t at all), but shading it in the most irksome way possible, and I will, JUST TO PISS YOU GUYS OFF, if everyone of you in the comments continues to act like Sidney Blumenthal on meth.

So it is up to you. We can continue on, throwing barbs at each other, or we can try to piece together what has happened fairly, accurately, and honestly. When there is demonstrable proof of wrong-doings and failures, I have no desire to pretend they do not exist. Unfortunately, many of you can’t find it in yourself to concede when you don’t know something or when you are wrong. There are plenty of mistakes that have been made, and plenty of things have and will continue to go wrong, but if you want to keep trying to put this all off on only one side of the political spectrum, then I will just keep on a keeping on. And don’t bitch at me for my change in tone- you earned it.

Again, it is up to you.

Filed under: Site Maintenance |

A BLOO BLOO BLOO

I never knew vaginas could cry.

I think I'm falling for her

2005-07-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

Check it out. She has a sense of humor!

P.S. Iraq is no longer occupied and neither are Germany, South Korea or the Philippines.

posted by Judith

The Iraqi people are totally in control of their own destiny. TOTALLY! You'd have to be KEEERRR-AZY to think otherwise.

Oh man, where did Mr. Sullivan find this chick?

I fixed it. I fixed the problem everybody. Look.

2005-07-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

By The Editor

OOOOOH LOOOK AT ME I'M FORMATTED CORRECTLY IN A READABLE MANNER.

ha ha ha ha ha ha

God, I'm awesome.

Next they'll cite the Onion

2005-07-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

Powerline:

They Were Already Beneath Contempt...

...but now some Democrats have sunk lower. They are hinting that John Roberts is a homosexual because he was once photographed--more than thirty years ago--wearing plaid pants. You think I'm making this up? Charmaine Yoest has the story. If you think that's contemptible, consider this: some on the Left have also suggested that Roberts' four year old son is "gay."

Throughout American history, until now, there have been limits. There have been depths beneath which Americans would not sink for the sake of partisan advantage. Even during the Civil War, when the Democrats were fighting to preserve slavery, limits were observed. Now, all civility is gone. There is no depth to which some Democrats will not sink. Hold your nose. Things are only going to get worse. With MoveOn and the Daily Dose dominating Democratic politics, all constraints are gone.

UPDATE: On a related note, Michelle Malkin notes that the Washington Post thinks the Roberts family is too well-dressed. Unbelievable.

Citing Reasoned Audacity:

It started with Manhattan Offender in a post yesterday asking "How Gay is This Guy?" and then he quoted Wikipedia's entry for Judge Roberts. He zeroed in on some really damning evidence from Roberts' youthful past: the all-male boarding school, studying French and Latin (gasp!), being a wrestler and, oh the horror, participating in choir and drama.

So, it was only one silly post. Today, however, Wonkette picked up the ball and ran with it. . .

Yes, you read that correctly. The source of this leftist homophobia is two, uh, well I'll just out and say it: two jokes. Wonkette and Manhattan Offender make jokes, people. That's what they do. The "Roberts is gay" thing is a joke. Now, I know there aren't any republicans reading this because they'd be too busy getting SHOCKED and OFFENDED to actually read (plus this blog doesn't actually have readers) but if by some strange chance one does please humbly note that WONKETTE IS NOT A BASTION OF SOBER LEFTIST STRATEGY BUT RATHER A HUMOR SITE PROPRIETOR ("HUMORIST" IF YOU WILL) and JOKES ARE NOT REAL. THEY REALLY AREN'T.

I am saying this with EMPHASIS because Michelle Malkin is on this already, which means this is just hours away from talk radio and thereafter becoming conventional wisdom. "The left has sunk to accusing Roberts of being gay [because Wonkette said so]" is destined to become another institutionalized absurdity. People will vote because of it. Oh fuck here comes that headache again.

HEADSHOTZ HEADSHOTZ

2005-07-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

We're in the business of taking on some staff, and it's important the help feel some sense of individuality to dull their proletarian class conciousness. To that end, each poster will now have their posts distinguished from each other by a pic and a "by" field. For example, should you be unfortunate enough to be reading a Max Hats post, the start of the post will be this:

by MAX HATS

We call it a "bi field" and snicker. Oh, how we snicker.

Also apparently the latest trend in graphic user interface design (GUID) is to not have html that fucks up post formatting. We are still working on GUID compliance at this time. Thus, the weird indent.

Please bear with us, we're reading online html tutorials just as fast as we can.

SPEILBERG HATS AMERICA

2005-07-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

It's sort of like the time he sympathised with the raptors in Jurassic Park III.

FROM THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER TO "MUNICH":Finally, I am far from reassured by Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy's
assertion that "While people think this (the movie about terror in the 1972 Munich Olympics ) is based on 'Vengeance,' I'm telling you that there were also memoirs from involved parties from both sides." Given my name (my husband is a distant relative of Leon Klinghoffer), I cannot but remember the sympathetic and understanding treatment with which opera treated the Palestinian terrorists who threw an old man in a wheel chair into the sea.

Has Spielberg learned nothing yet?

posted by Judith.

link

In other news, Andrew Sullivan has been replaced for unknown reasons by some random freeper named "Judith." It is a sad note for all of us in the internet community who appreciated the neccessity of putting dongs in mouths.

RE: SPEILBERG HATS AMERICA

2005-07-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

by MAX HATS

Correction: In other news, Andrew Sullivan has been replaced for unknown reasons by ~~some random freeper named "Judith"~~ some random idiot blogger named:

Judith Apter Klinghoffer, a senior research associate in the department of Political Science at Rutgers University.

link

The unending, unbalanced and fundemantally un-American liberalism of academia continues.

Also: see the correction? See it?? We have an editor now. He edits things. Isn't that wonderful? (It is -- ed)

He also is a fucking tyrant around the office and makes twice my salary for doing NO FUCKING WORK and he took the good chair and I can't find the coffemaker and WHAT THE FUCK and WHY DID I SIGN A FUCKING ONE YEAR CONTRACT THIS IS BULLSHIT and no one on craigslist jobs ever responds to my emails / pleads and holy fuck I guess I'm stuck here under Mr. Hitler.

He was always so clean and thin

2005-07-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Brooks, yesterday.

Roberts nomination, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I don't know what I can possibly say about this. Really. I'm at a total loss.

Ladies and gentleman, if I may

2005-07-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

There has not been much content in the past week. There will not be much content in the next week or so.

And by "so" I mean the week after that.

So sorry.

Dude!

2005-07-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

by MECHAFRIEDMAN

Ten fingers ten toes. That's how many we have. Seems normal. Seems ordinary. But here's the thing: they're all connected. By your body! Yeah!

Everything is connected to everything else. And now we have airplanes. Yo man, flight to India! Flight to Bangkok! Yo don't mind me, I'm all on the turnstile. To London, dawg! Ha ha ha ha. Oh man it's great. Check out my latest book for more great insight!

Yo, speaking of flying: me.

Oh man check out Iraq. Oh man. What? No way man I never said that. No way. What you shoving this old paper on me for?

Oh man you're right, I did.

Is there just one Iraqi scientist or official who wants to see the freedom of his country so badly that he is ready to cooperate with the U.N. by submitting to an interview and exposing the regime's hidden weapons?

Oh fuck. Oh fuck, I didn't.

But there is a part of many young Arabs today that prays the U.S. will not only oust Saddam but all other Arab leaders as well.

Oh shit, this is like Christmas past all up in my face. Well, okay. Maybe they were praying? Or thinking it. Can't see in their heads, dude. Can't look there.

Shit man seriously, I don't even speak Arabic. What? Man I don't know. Man, the Times pays me by the word. I don't even remember what I wrote last week. For real.

Puff puff give bro.

Dude! Ha ha ha ha

Yo peace out dawgs. Haters gotta hate lovers gotta love. Yo everybody keep on rolling.

It's time to get hiiiiiiiiiiggghhaaaa

No one gives a damn about my opinion

2005-07-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

Nor should they.

And yet I am about to say it anyway, because I kind of sort of have to. For the past while I've been making fun of people for saying stupid shit about Rove, Plame, etc. For the next while I will continue. Therefore, it's incumbent upon me to actually say what I think, not so much because I want to be all "HEY LOOK HOW RIGHT I WAS" later but because I don't want folks going "LOOK HOW WRONG YOU WERE" when it turns out Rove didn't knowingly reveal the name of a covert agent.

There, I said it. I don't think Rove committed the crime. There's too many question about how secret she was when her name was revealed. More damning still is Rove's apparent complicity in the Special Prosecutor's investigation. The man is not the sort to hang himself.

Nonetheless, it is critical to separate what is not illegal from what is actually moral, and it is clear from all readings of the as-yet scarce facts that Rove was bandying about a CIA agent's identity for purely political ends. That is wrong. It's wrong if you give a damn about the morale and efficacy of the CIA. It's wrong if you give a damn about national security. It's wrong if the other guy's party does it, and it's wrong if your own party does it. And what sickens me most about this whole affair is how many Americans are so readily revealing their loyalty to party ahead of their loyalty to the national security of the United States.

There. It's done. I said it.

Now, on with the regularly scheduled programming.

You know Marxism is truly gone forever

2005-07-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

When left-wingers on left-wing blogs focused on left-wing commentary with a left-wing persective say this:

Bernie Ebbers: 25 Years, a Life Sentence

WorldCom former exec Bernie Ebbers, 63 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. (Note: CNBC which first reported the sentence said 30 years, but later articles are saying 25, so I've changed it.)

This is a ridiculous sentence for a non-violent crime. The judge may have well as imposed the 85 years sought by the government - both are an effective life sentence.

. . .America, prison nation.

About a CEO who bilked his workers.

PHI KAPPA MU FOREVER!

2005-07-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Gitmo: The Horror Continues

In some New York clubs, people pay big money to be treated like this: Guantanamo inmate forced to wear bra, act like a dog: report. (Hat tip: Scaramouche.)

. . .presumably including the author. HAT TIP: HARD_MAN_1963

I am beginning to understand the figurative hard-on some have for violating laws of war.

I am beginning to understand the hard-on is not figurative at all.

Trash on the Corner

2005-07-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

In what will undoubtedly become a recurring segment on this fine blog, it's time for a lowdown on exceptionally stupid shit published this week on NRO's little soapbox, The Corner.

This edition: some dude named "Podhoretz" has a very lucid and not-at-all insane theory that the actual target of the leak investigation is Judith Miller.

The verbatim phrase "what if" comes up in the reasoning 7 times, by my count. Fucking water-tight, man.

THE PASSIVE KARL ROVE AND THE ACTIVE JUDITH MILLER [John Podhoretz]
Byron York has a vital detail in his must-read piece right now on the main part of the NRO website. Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, tells Byron that Time's Matt Cooper called Rove to talk about something else and that only secondarily did the subject of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame come up.

This is important, because it suggests Rove wasn't "retailing" the information about Wilson and Plame -- wasn't reporter-shopping to drop a dirty dime on those involved -- but was rather a passive source, answering a phone call at the reporter's behest and presumably changing topics to the sexier one at issue at the reporter's behest as well.

Since Rove-centric psychos can devise any scenario whereby he manipulates people into doing everything he wants, I doubt this detail will change any minds in Daily Kos-ville. But it offers an important and nagging clue to the continuing antics of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. What do I mean?

. . .What if -- and here's where it gets really interesting -- what if the real object of interest where Fitzgerald's investigation is concerned is now none other than the jailed Judith Miller of the New York Times? What if she let it all slip and in the giant game of telephone around the nation's capital, Miller was the original source of the "Plame's in the CIA" info? What if Fitzgerald needs her notes to discern whether Miller knew or didn't know of Plame's supposedly covert status?

"Rove-centric psychos" indeed.

Trash on the Corner part II

2005-07-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

This one's sort of a stealth what-the-fuck. It seems so strangely reasonable at first.

MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN [Stanley Kurtz]

Events in Britain, it seems to me, are epochal. On the one hand, we have the finding that the suicide bombers were young, British-born Muslims. This is sure to bring into question, not only immigration policy and EU expansion, but the fundamental rationale of multiculturalism itself. On the other hand, we have plans by British Muslims to stage a massive demonstration designed to send out the message that Muslims will not tolerate terrorists in their midst. There is potential here for a fundamental shift of British society toward an ethic of assimilation, and the creation of a genuinely moderate, liberal, anti-terrorist form of Islam. I don't know which of these contradictory movements will win out. Maybe both will gain strength simultaneously. Or maybe the movement toward Muslim moderation will misfire. No doubt that's all too possible.

Hmmm. Interesting. Decent post, decent thoughts, intellectually honest and logically consistent. And then:

Yet it's striking that each potential cultural shift, in its own way, rejects multiculturalism and upends the terror-promoting status quo. Maybe something good can come out of this tragedy after all. There's nothing remotely close to a guarantee here. Still, you can feel the cultural tectonic plates getting ready to shift.

Such a diamond in the rough there. I've been playing games in my mind with this all morning, trying to solve for the definition of multiculturalism as used by the esteemed Stanley Kurtz.

Now, we know it can't possibly mean what it's supposed to mean. Muslims saying "they will not tolerate terrorists in their midst" does not "reject" the idea of Muslims living in London along side other cultures, aka "multiculturalism." So I had to put on my mouthbreather hat.

My first newly behatted thought was that "multiculturalism," as used by the clear-headed and very brilliant Kurtz, is synonymous with "terrorism." Such an explanation works perfectly well with both usages within the article. Britons (of the presumably white variety) are starting to come around to being against terrorism, which they as Europeans previously loved to coddle and hold. Muslims (who do not seem to qualify as Britons) are also turning against terrorism, which before they were all totally in favor of. Note the consistency with well-established mouthbreather lines of thought: Europeans traditionally coddle terrorists, Muslims are entirely separate from larger society, and Muslims, all Muslims, love terrorism. I'm left with a theory so elegant and consistent, Cantor might approve.

But with apologies to Occam, I think I may have a more interesting hypothesis: "multiculturalism" DOES mean exactly what the dictionary says it means, but the cultures in question here are not Muslims and Westerners. Instead, the cultural mélange is only two: the Culture of Death (democrats, Muslims, commies) and the Culture of Life (the good people of the world). By being against terrorism, both Britons and now Muslims are seeking to extinguish The Culture of Death, leading to only one remaining culture: The Culture of Life. Intriguing, no? To test this theory I am e-mailing Kurtz to inform him that the consensus in Britain is for legalized abortion. Confirmation or denial of this theory will be based on whether or not his head explodes.

Karl Rove, the sinless

2005-07-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Rounding up today's Trash on the Corner segment:

ROVE [Cliff May]
Two possibilities and a world of difference between them:

1) Rove knowingly exposed a covert CIA agent as a way to “punish” Joe Wilson.

2) Rove was asked why the Bush administration would send someone like Joe Wilson to Africa on a secret mission for the CIA. Rove answered: “We didn’t. His wife works at the CIA. She got him the assignment.”

If it’s (1) Rove did wrong and probably deserves to be prosecuted.

If it’s (2) Rove was merely telling the truth to a reporter about a curious situation -- unusual perhaps, but hardly criminal or even scandalous.

I know which I think is more likely. I’m not sure that will matter much to the MSM which smells blood in the water.

Bonus points for mention of the MSM. (Which the National Review totally isn't part of.) And:

KERRY ON ROVE [K. J. Lopez]

What does this mean? "It's remarkable that the presidential aide who should be packing his bags is instead sitting in White House meetings about stacking the Supreme Court with rigid ideologues. The last thing America needs -- and the last thing we will tolerate -- is Rove-style tactics in the critical decisions our nation is about to make about the shape of the Supreme Court." Translation? Something like: We hate Rove. Doesn't matter if he did anything wrong. Get him outta there. And replace him with Harry Reid.

So what Karl Rove did may or may not be illegal. Hear that? "May not." Therefore it is not, and what is legal is also de facto moral. Can't keep up with the fucking proto-logic here? You're probably a LIBERAL then. Oh wait, sorry. I misspelled LIEBERAL.

Yes indeed, these are the sort of bright (and might I add, patriotic!) bulbs who count as, I shit you not, "intellectuals" amongst the folks currently running the country.

Which leads naturally to. . .

2005-07-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Karl Rove the Hero.

From the Patriotic boys and girls at the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

Karl Rove, Whistleblower
He told the truth about Joe Wilson.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize--perhaps the next iteration of the "Truth-Telling" award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.

See, if you point out that Joe Wilson said mean things* about the administration over and over, it becomes Just and Patriotic and Right to, uh, expose a CIA agent.

I still don't quite get why exposing CIA agents is an okay thing to do, but hey, who the hell am I to judge the mighty brains of the Wall Street Journal editorial page? It MUST be okay to expose CIA agents if they happen to be married to people who say things you don't like. I guess.

So expose another one, Karl, for all of us.

Expose one for AMERICA!

*Of course the mean things he said happened to be, uh, true, but that leads to another whole leap of logic I am not smart enough to make. Correct intelligence analysis apparently has no place within government**, and anything*** is justified to discredit those who make any sort of correct intelligence analysis.

**Okay, so these folks hate accurate analysis of intelligence. But what makes them hate the CIA? [BA-DA-BING!] I'll be here all week, folks.

***Still not totally clear on why exposing his wife embarrassed him. Is this one of those "women shouldn't wear pants" things republicans occasionally go on (alt: get off) about? Maybe it's just the nepotism. Nepotism should not, does not and will not fly in the Bush administration. George W. Bush, we mean.

MISSION STATEMENT

2005-07-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

We here at Team Unretracted seek to document in part this great social experiment of internet blogging, where so many who know so little devote so much time to being so very, very wrong. Our contribution to this noble discourse will be to point, and, upon occassion, laugh.

Dear readers, forgive us, for there may be some periods of time without posting. If you read Hugh Hewitt, Power Line, Talk Left and The Corner every day, you'd get some bad headaches too.

XOXOXOXOXO

unretracted dot blogspot dot com

Hit us anytime (but not literally) at unretracteditem@gmail.com

Goddamned Mickey Kaus

2005-07-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

Blogwatch Watch: The eagerly-anticipated Blogometer is out of beta. It's all the blogwatching you need! But is it more than you need? Blogwatchers seem to have a choice of a) tracking the cries of blogswarm as if they were reporting on the reactions of, say, stock traders or the Arab Street or b) viewing the blogosphere as a symbiotic engine of truth and focusing mainly on those bloggers (especially those with specialized knowledge) who actually advance the ball by adding new facts and analysis. The Blogometer strikes a pretty even balance between (a) and (b). I'd go 85% (b). ... P.S.: There are now so many meta-blogs it's time for a blog to track them all. ... 7:22 P.M.

Uhhhh

Huh? GM's Australian branch just did develop the underpinnings of rear-drive cars to sell in the U.S.---the Zeta chassis--and GM s--tcanned it! Maybe it was a good Australian chassis they stupidly killed. Maybe it was a bad Australian chassis they smartly killed. But either way, doesn't its cancellation suggest some flaws in GM's smoothly integrated global design machine? Wouldn't you think Business Week would bring this up? ... P.S.: My pro-union friends who say GM's problems are not UAW's fault but GM designers' fault (because many of the company's cars are well-built-but-dull) might note that the two faults are not unrelated.

WHAT

More Storytellin! It's everywhere! (But not here.) ... Actually, 24 minutes of storytelling on CBS every night might be a good idea. 24 hours of storytelling on CNN seems like a torture technique. ...

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?

IS THAT TYPING?

ARE THOSE JOINED WORDS SUPPOSED TO HAVE SOME SORT OF MEANING?

IN MY COUNTRY WE SPEAK "ENGLISH."

YOU ARE FROM MY COUNTRY YOU SAY?

OH FUCK, SHUT IT DOWN. JUST SHUT IT DOWN. THE COUNTRY I MEAN.

Phases of phreeper

2005-07-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

To:
Arkie2
Was Rove "in the White House" at the time
of the leak? Didn't he get his job in the WH after the last election?
Well, Novak never said his source was "in the WH". But you're right, Rove
wasn't the source anyway.
71 posted on 07/02/2005 11:21:39 AM PDT by cyncooper

TIME PASSES.

IT IS NOW NINE DAYS LATER.

To: Brilliant
Um, the story started with Rove doing the (non) crime.
That is not new news.
70 posted on 07/11/2005 10:32:15 AM PDT by cyncooper

EPILOGUE:

To: quesney
Don't know about whether Rove's position passes the smell's test. Today's White House briefing certainly didn't. It was pretty ugly. Not lookin' good for Rove.
LOL
It's looking fine for Rove.

115 posted on 07/11/2005 2:51:48 PM PDT by cyncooper