Logic & Sanity

House of Saddam

Just caught House of Saddam, a 4 hour miniseries produced by HBO and BBC, and I must say - what a sweet and touching soap opera! Saddam is this cuddly Iraqi patriot who was abused by his father and thus felt guilty when he smacked his son around in one of the scenes. Unfortunately, same emotions were not experienced by him while he was killing people. Anyway, towards the end of it all, I half expected to either see Saddam walk down the whatever the hill he was on with the 10 comandments, or to be fighting gladiators in the colliseum. When he was on the run, recording his speeches, my soviet education (all 4 grades of it!) kicked in reminding me about Lenin penning his revolutionary letters while in exile. The smuggling of the tape of Saddam's speeches evoked images of the French underground, and Saddam hiding in the hole with a lighter? Well, I almost cried thinking of how similar his plight was to that of Anne Frank.

Great job HBO/BBC! Now I am just waiting for Michael Moore producing Saddam's biographical epic.

"Well, you know when it's time to go."

Aw, Rosie finally got challenged on her views and now she's hurt. From her blog:

When one fan wrote, "Work isn't worth that battle," Rosie replied, "Agreed." Another wrote, "Please walk away. It's not worth it." Rosie replied, "Well, you know when it's time to go."

Yep, and that's how easy it is to put Rosie beyond her depth. She just folded.

Where's the outcry? Where are the human shields?

Lebanese tanks and artillery pounded a Palestinian refugee camp in this northern Lebanese city for the second straight day on Monday, trying to trap members of a radical Islamist group and raising concerns for thousands of Palestinians inside the camp.

Government officials said at least 60 people had been killed — 30 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians — in the fighting that began when a police raid on bank robbery suspects early Sunday escalated into one of Lebanon's most significant security crises since the end of the civil war.

Tanks and artillery pounding a palestinian "refugee camp"? Whoa! Not even precision weapons! There's probably a huge outcry amongst human rights groups and quickness to condemn Lebanon... Then again, probably not. The roads to the airports are probably clogged as western "human shields" are hurrying themselves off to Lebanon... Then again, probably not. There are palestinian kids throwing stones at armed, arab soldiers... Then again, probably not. Unlike the Israeli soldiers, these will shoot back.

Check out the video. No kids with stones in sight.

Jumping ship?

Republicans defect to the Obama camp states the Times Online headline. Tom Bernstein is mentioned as one of the examples of this phenomena.

Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. This year he is switching his support to Obama. He is one of many former Bush admirers who find the Democrat newcomer appealing.

So, who's Tom Bernstein? From the Wikipedia:

Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in 2005 against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. Human Rights First that filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit.

Make sure to read up on his proposed International Freedom Center (as part of the WTC memorial). The IFC planning sessions made no mention of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Afghanistan. It's as if it was a memorial for tornado victims! What's real shocking here, is that the same year (2004) his Al Qaeda agnostic "memorial" center was proposed, Tom Bernstein was donating $50k to the RNC.

A rather unprincipled fellow he is.

Check out this crafty

Check out this crafty reporting from the Associated Press.

Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel on Tuesday and said they considered a five-month truce with Israel to have ended.

Funny that! Palestinians elected a government by the name of Hamas. Members of Hamas shoot guns/rockets and blow up bombs on a daily basis with the backing of the Palestinian government. Why are they not being referred to as soldiers? Seems to me like the Associate Press is trying to absolve the Palestinians of any responsiblity, because, you see, it's not the Palestinian army fighting Israel, it's merely militants...

When will the Associated Press refer to the Israeli soldiers as Israeli militants? They seem to fit the criteria applied here - they shoot guns and they have the backing of the government.