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Saturday, June 15, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:02 PM:
Wallabies from Hell hit Henley.A day old, but it's got wallabies in the title, what's not to like? The link is to Natalie Solent who will give you appropriate directions.
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posted by gbarto at 9:59 PM:
How could you?via A Dog's Life
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posted by gbarto at 9:54 PM:
To answer Steve's last question, a well-meaning but misguided tyranny. I lived, once upon a time, in a French home where the mother worked for the Sécurité sociale (an agency that oversees everything from welfare to government run medicine to unemployment insurance). Though the French are given to discussing politics, she and I only rarely discussed the matter because our worldviews were so totally at odds. She honestly believed that the more government took charge of such matters, the better. When the proto-Chiraquiens swept the Assembly elections that year ('93) she was steadfastly convinced that she and her agency had to do everything they could to hold off whatever reforms the right offered - if the people voted to curtail her agency - in her view - they didn't realize what they were voting for. Now the family was a delight to live with and I hold them in the fondest regard, but as to ideology... Anyway, this is the mindset in the EU - the people only vote for the right because they don't know what they're doing. It's the EU's job to save them from themselves. To me, the mindset resembles that of the Southern apologists who try to contend that slavemasters were generally kind to slaves, that the blacks knew a better life in America as slaves than they would have known in Africa and a whole host of other repugnant nonsense that attempts to pretend that the enslavement of a people was something other than the primitive, barbaric and awful enslavement of a people who should have been free. But when one is the master, one likes to feel good about oneself and can invent all kinds of fanciful nonsense to justify limiting a person or people's freedom; the European ministers are the new masters of the continental European.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:37 PM:
French News:Says Le Monde, "Difficult Agenda awaits Raffarin". Working on the assumption that Raffarin's government will be confirmed with an absolute majority in the Assembly tomorrow, Le Monde looks ahead to the challenge of getting the country on track and implementing the Union for a Presidential Majority's agenda.
Le Monde also highlights the American Bishops Efforts to Find a Remedy (for the pedophilia problem).
Le Figaro leads with "The Battle of the Second Round" but to read the article, "rout" would be a better word. While a bit more cautious (or less resigned?) than Le Monde, Le Figaro's operating assumption is still that the UMP is headed for a resounding victory. As it's Saturday, there are no new print headlines because there's no new paper.
Libération also sees a rout for the right (the rising tide of blue). In World Cup Action, they're noting a new British Empire (Imperial England). But wait, there's more. We also have, "American clergy declare themselves sick over sex" and "Kylie Minogue, a little madonna"
Perhaps the most striking thing to note is that the French legislative elections are already being declared a done deal. There is no drama, no "what will happen?" Does this foreshadow a surprise? Probably not. As we said before, the left, still mindful of its May '68 past, gets involved in politics to change things. And they've given up on government getting anything done. The left is either contented (center left) or ticked with the rest of the left, which leaves little room for an activist resurgence. The right votes because, well, there's an election being held and you're supposed to go vote. It's what people do. Which means that right-leaning turnout will probably again be higher than left-wing turnout so that regardless of what the country feels, those who actually vote will give the impression that a Chiraquien regime, if not the greatest thing since sliced bread, is still pretty cool. Famous last words, I know. Tune in tomorrow when TurkeyBlog starts coverage, late afternoon to early evening between the end of voting and the putting to bed of the print newspapers.
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posted by gbarto at 7:44 PM:
No Charges for Russell YatesD.A.: No case against husband of woman who drowned children
This was the right decision; if Andrea Yates had little control over herself, he had even less control over her. Those on the outside have in some cases ranted and raved that he should have done something, but the big question is what? A few know-it-alls proclaim that he should have seen it coming, should have gotten her out of the house and a million other little scenarios. But when it's your own spouse, objectivity doesn't always work that well and the levels of denial one can attain are impressive. Worse, even those who do see what's going on, unable to help the loved one with his or her disease rarely are able to see how they can impact the situation if not at this most crucial point.
I haven't seen this widely discussed with respect to most mental illnesses, but there is one disease specifically related to trying to work with someone with a mental illness - the so-called non-Borderline Personality Disorder. Those with Borderline Personality Disorder regress at times to an emotional age of about four - things are black and white, good and evil, with nary a shade of gray. Some of this is talked about in the book, "I hate you, Don't leave me". Sufferers tend to either exhibit martyr complexes - every perceived slight is proof that no one loves them, no one cares, and they act like a four-year old who has not gotten his way. Especially insofar as they just as quickly become convinced that all is right with the world and everything can be perfect once they do get their way. Here's the curious thing: Children and long-term partners of those who suffer BP tend to exhibit the same symptoms - or mirroring symptoms, not because a mental illness affects their ability to process information rationally when they are excited but because after long-term exposure to this dynamic an important part of their world seems to function this way. They perceive themselves as either the bad person for not making the other person feel better or the knowing person who can put everything right when they succeed. Again, gray areas disappear and all is black and white.
The symptoms Andrea Yates exhibited were not Borderline Personality, but they were nonetheless pervasive symptoms with the power to make those in the household come to see them as just part of the way that sphere of life works. Under such circumstances, as things get more extreme, a person who doesn't snap and go into active rebellion is likely to over time let his or her own behavior patterns and emotional responses shift to accomodate the gradually worsening situation. This is not a matter of laziness or indifference; it's a matter of coping when things don't suddenly go awry - creating a shock - but gradually get off track, creating resignation and gradual adaptation. To charge Rusty Yates would have been to say that he - a struggling husband in a rough situation, whether he was a jerk or not - was supposed to know more about the ultimate nature of his wife's illness than the doctors and psychiatrists who sent her home.
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posted by gbarto at 7:23 PM:
Foxnews.com AttackedOther Web sites apparently hacked
- Denial of Service Attacks
They would have posted this sooner, but they couldn't get logged on.
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posted by gbarto at 7:44 AM:
Hezbollah Buildup in Lebanon CitedNew Weapons and Troops Stir Fears of Mideast 'Second Front'
The Iranian- and Syrian-backed group Hezbollah has built up forces along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, while humanitarian conditions inside Palestinian territories have deteriorated rapidly, diplomatic sources here said yesterday.Which is why those who are pushing rapprochement with Iran are fools. Syria and Iran are both our enemies; Syria needs to be reminded that it's part of the junior Axis of Evil and that Hafez' kid, if he doesn't change his tone, will see his father's empire rent asunder. Given the power of the US, the Arab world has always sought to be only half at odds with us. And the idiots in our State Department - the ones who also play nice with Saudi kidnappers - have always been so focused on avoiding conflict that they have preferred the embarrassment of American principles to America taking a stand at every turn. The President needs to realize - and to instruct the State Department - that our best hope for peace in the region is for the Arabs to be made to understand that an attack on Israel is no longer just an unsettling development but an attack on the United States and its interests. If we threaten to defend Israel - and show the slightest bit of will to actually do so - the Arabs will back down. If we imply that an attack on Israel gives Israel the right to respond by moving into Arab territory - and that the US will help - memories of '67 will temper Arab dreams of ruling Jerusalem.
While we shouldn't have the President making threats from the podium, we should see tensions being raised a notch by the US for a change; should see the Arab nations wondering where they stand and what will happen next. They've always felt they had the upper hand as initiators of force. World peace would be well-served if the administration found itself only half-heartedly denying the leaked statement that we had plans on the drawing board for attacking Iraq - from Syria.
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posted by gbarto at 7:29 AM:
Israel's Subs Can Fire NukesThe nation has the potential for land-, sea- and air-based nuclear weapons.
And we know why this info got out - So that the Arab nations know that even if they obliterate Israel, there will still be a final attack coming. Israel should announce here and now that they already have the coordinates preset for the Ka'bah at Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet at Medina. And that if an Arab invasion does not immediately leave Jerusalem upon the destruction of these two targets, the Dome of the Rock is next. Islamism has sought for years to obliterate both the Jews and all signs of their culture. Israel should make it clear that mutual spiritual security is at stake in this fight, that if the Jews are kept from the Promised Land, the Muslims will be denied the possibility of Hajj, the pilgrimage.
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posted by gbarto at 7:18 AM:
'Dirty Bomb' Suspect's Itinerant PastIn which the Washington Post expresses shock that none of the terrorists ran Fortune 500 companies.
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posted by gbarto at 7:16 AM:
Powell Details Terror PolicyPreemptive military strikes will only work if they're "decisive," he says.
– Glenn Kessler and Peter Slevin
But if they're decisive, then they're, well, decisive.
But military strikes, once ordered, must not be half-hearted measures, Powell said in an interview. "If you have a preemption option, a target, you should do it in a way that removes the threat, that is decisive," he said.Actually, I see nothing wrong with this thinking, but I think at the same time that like terrorism, quick and dirty military action may not necessarily have to cripple the enemy to have its effect. If a Delta-Force team went into a terrorist training camp, killed ten or fifteen terrorists and left, it would render a base unusable - what if they came back? - and eliminate a certain number of terrorists. But at the same time, even if such an action didn't result in the capture of the base or its leaders, the message would be sent that no country offered safety. This would have the effect of making terrorists have to spend valuable resources watching their backs, suspecting their colleagues of leaking their location, wondering where there vulnerabilities were, all hindrances to planning operations. In short, the degree of force and military objective should depend on the precise mission and its target; there might be places where a good exit strategy would do as much good as a solid plan of attack - so long as the mission was terrorizing and destabilizing the enemy, not liberating territory.
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posted by gbarto at 7:06 AM:
Despite Loss, U.S. in Round of 16Soccer fans in Arlington, Va., and elsewhere found themselves pulling for S. Korea so the U.S. could live to fight another day. (Reuters)
This has gotta be killing the French, America still in it and France out so early. But will we get soccer fever? Doubtful.
After all, it just can't match the excitement of, er, baseball (?).
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Friday, June 14, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:02 PM:
Mac has Moussaoui's odds. They aren't good.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:56 PM:
Fredrik Norman has the right reason to detest the IMF and World Bank.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:55 PM:
Dostoevksy, proto-blogger. So says Joanne Jacobs in the post just below this, the first of her perma-linked posts!* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:41 PM:
French news:Le Monde leads with a story we mentioned earlier - the high stakes of abstention for the Socialists, for whom things are not looking good. Secondary leads: the hell in N. Korea and the problems dealing with refugees, World Cup: Portugal out, S. Korea celebrates.
Le Figaro print headlines: Second Round Battles; Anti-American Bomb in Pakistan; Markets Panic
Libération: Serge July editorial says Chirac has lucked out with the chance to totally reform the French system if he so desires; other stories: Panic selling in the markets and the bombing in Karachi.
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posted by gbarto at 7:07 PM:
I see Virginia Postrel did a nice job for herself on Stossel's program, making her points and even getting a nice screenshot of her book.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:09 PM:
Start at the top and just read down. Little Green Footballs full of important stuff.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:06 PM:
Fox News saying blast at Karachi was aimed at Americans; Bush says it's something to see these people killing fellow Muslims. But could that have been the point? Muslims who help or are in contact with Americans are at risk? Getting the US to pull out its mission would be no big deal. Making Pakistanis afraid to work with us would. Make no mistake, these people shouldn't be tried for aiming for Americans and accidentally getting Americans. They should be charged on the grounds they killed fellow Muslims deliberately.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:01 PM:
Bret Michael Edmunds, wanted for questioning about Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, caught in Texas. But where is she? She's not with him and that makes me damn worried about what that means about where she is.Update: It wasn't him.
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posted by gbarto at 3:35 PM:
Mickey Kaus is unhappy with the Germanic overtones of "homeland". It could be worse: how about "fatherland". This is what the Russians and French have (don't know the Russian; the French is patrie). Mickey's right that we're not about land, we're about freedom. And the department's mission is to make it safe for us to go about our lives in the land of freedom. So how about the Department for Liberty Protection or better for the Preservation of Liberty/Freedom. I like it.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:21 PM:
A Dog's Life on the EU and musical arrangements.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:10 PM:
Following up on Den Beste from last night: He saysMathematics does exist independently of our ability to think about it, or our knowledge of it. We discover it rather than creating it.It occurred to me at some point today that while Kant provides the way of thinking about this, Plato provides the example. Kant says that mathematics is in a sense a priori knowledge and I would go from there to assert that whether Kant thought so or not, what this means is math is not so much a thing that is as a way that we delineate and differentiate sensory impressions. Color and hardness, to pick two physical properties, give us a way of organizing our sensory impressions by quality and quantity. Mathematics is the language that we use to parse precisely the impact of these sensory impressions and how they relate to one another. As a priori knowledge, we already know it; just not how to apply it.
For those who are curious, the place to follow this up is Plato's Meno, in which Socrates attempts to demonstrate that we cannot be taught what we do not already know. In the passage, he "teaches" a common slave a few principles about triangles by leading him through while the slave at each turn figures out the next truth from the information Socrates gives him - before Socrates enunciates the proposition explicitly. Socrates was attempting to demonstrate that people are resurrected shades, after a fashion, born with full souls that they have to develop to recover the information inherent therein (that's a very bad summary but it suits our purposes here). This looks to us a lot like Kant's a priori knowledge and suggests to us that the idea that mathematics is something we're born with is rather old. Indeed, the whole of the Meno, read through a Kantian lens, suggests that Socrates knew what Kant demonstrated and was just looking for a why a very long time ago. This all applies, of course, to mathematics, and further confirms that mathematics is not so much waiting to be discovered as waiting to be refined, as we improve our ability to build upon with reason what we know with some form of the same faculty that allows us to distinguish red and blue. So to answer Steve's question, do we create mathematics or discover it, the answer is neither. We have it but can use purely logical, as well as individual and cultural means to refine it, in the process discovering the ramifications of what we know.
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posted by gbarto at 2:45 PM:
Bad news for Arthur Andersen - a ruling on necessary grounds for a guilty verdict for the corporation limned such that one of the jury's major points of contention seems less important which points to a guilty verdict. And the government goes Thank God.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:42 PM:
Natalie Solent has an important post on the horror de la semaine from the Arab world and the question of how respectable Muslims can regain respectability in a post-9/11 world where Muslims are presumed guilty until proven innocent but political correctness prevents raising the issue so that the clear majority of Western Muslims are never given a chance to give the lie to the unspoken allegations.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:28 PM:
Le Monde says the only question for Sunday's legislative election in France is how big the right's victory will be. The left is still trying to rally those who abstained last week, but they've got three problems: strong factionalism in the left, general distrust of politicians and a climate where indifference rather than anger drives abstention. The left, associated with government action, needs people worked up to get out their most common voter; voters on the right (particularly the Chiraquian center-right) are more likely to show up at the polls out of a sense of civic duty, not because there's necessarily an issue they care about.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:16 PM:
Va. House Speaker QuitsWilkins succumbs to pressure within GOP over sex harassment claims.
Delegate's Daughter Gets 9 Years
The daughter of a leader in the Virginia House of Delegates was sentenced today to more than nine years in federal prison for her role in a gas-station robbery in Fairfax City.
Not a good day for the Old Dominion.
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posted by gbarto at 1:36 PM:
Wow! A Plane-Proof WTC?Architect on Fox News says he has a plan to build a bigger, better WTC that among other things will use high intensity sound and near-sound spectrum waves to create enough turbulence to buffet away a plane if another 9/11 style attack were undertaken. The guy may be nuts, but he talks a good game and says he could do it with private funds.
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posted by gbarto at 1:33 PM:
Blast Targets U.S. EmbassyExplosion kills 11 near consulate in Pakistan; no Americans dead
But a reminder that this war on terror is serious business and that knocking out the Taliban is not enough to declare victory and come home.
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posted by gbarto at 1:31 PM:
Man Sought in Kidnap Case on RunBret Michael Edmunds' car found in Texas, roadblocks set up in New Mexico, license plates found in Utah; no sign of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart
Not looking good, but it's hard to say whether this guy has anything to do with anything, or if his name just came up because of focus on the family.
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posted by gbarto at 9:47 AM:
Throwing Away the KeyAccused 'dirty bomber' Jose Padilla to be held indefinitely, sources say
I really don't like this; if there's a charge to be made, make it. If there's some other purpose to be served - that allows holding him - fine. But this business about declaring an American citizen an enemy combatant who gets neither the protections of the Geneva convention nor the protections of the US Constitution doesn't pass the smell test. If we really need to hold this guy, we should have some more solid law on the books about it - so the Supreme Court would have something to rule Constitutional or unConstitutional. It looks too much like Padilla's being held because he can be, without any recourse or the ability to appeal to any higher authority - not that he can talk to his lawyer about seeking any such process anyway. The bottom line is that terrorist or not, we can't let these scumbags mess up our Constitutional system, and further we haven't proven by any process that he is definitively a scumbag. Others are free to argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, but so long as we're talking about powers exercised by an office that people like William Jefferson Clinton can hold, I am profoundly uncomfortable with this.
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posted by gbarto at 9:40 AM:
'He Smacked My Daughter'NYC teacher accused of hitting 19 first-graders with broomstick
Oh no! They're gonna get sued!
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Thursday, June 13, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:25 PM:
French news:Le Monde: A New Head of State for Afghanistan, A Negative Assessment of the World Conference on Hunger, European Bank Pessimistic
A few Figaro print headlines: Right Still in the Lead; Atlantic Anti-Drug Operation; Threatened Resurgence of Inflation
Liberation leads with Juppé's move to run the UMP and the left is already saying watch out. The TurkeyBlog hopes he'll sit down and shut up. World Cup: Italy saves its hide. EU wants to police its borders - Interior ministers are meeting to build on Spain's plan for a unified crackdown on illegal immigration.
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posted by gbarto at 10:14 PM:
The anarchists are coming to Oslo and Bjørn has the scoop.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:47 PM:
Dig out your knee boots, pseudo-philosophizing below:* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:43 PM:
Den Beste is talking about whether mathematics is a creation or a discovery. He says it's a discovery and seems fairly certain that it exists as it is, irrespective even of God. I'm going to take a leap and suggest, however, that mathematics is something just a little bit different from what he sees. You'll forgive me for invoking Kant, but we're dealing with a guy who drags Hegel into girl-watching so I think I'm within my rights.Mathematics is an intellectual construct. A circle may be a circle may be a circle may be a circle - even if God would will otherwise - but this is because there is a (forgive me this) circular definition in play. Similarly, one apple plus one apple plus one apple may yield three apples, but both the naming of the numbers and the determination to use them rests not in some ineffable reality but in the fact that we have defined things such. This serves our purposes, and serves them well, and wired as we are, we're not likely to come up with something that better serves our purposes. But this doesn't prove much except that we have created a system that accurately (to us) reflects our perceptions.
Kant said that time and space are mere constructs that the limited human mind and senses use to organize our experiences. He said the same of cause and effect, half-accepting, half-turning on its head Hume's arguments about what our experiences could and couldn't show and what it meant. Hume, of course, didn't prove cause and effect didn't exist; he merely proved that we couldn't know. Kant argued there's an a priori set of expectations that helps us understand what our senses say; i.e. knowledge doesn't come purely from experience; experience is formed or understood through the lens of a priori knowledge about what our senses were sending in. Now then, what is mathematics? It is quite simply the way that we most precisely relate the degree of different perceptions to one another in space and time. To say that mathematics works is like saying that blue is blue; ultimately we are going in circles because it is ultimately about defining what we see as what we see. Math cannot actually tell us something outside our experience; at best it can only offer proportions beyond our experience of things that are nonetheless within our experience. To say that math always works then is simply to say that we see something with the precision with which we see it. Interesting? Yes. Useful? Certainly. But proof that an ultimate reality even exists, never mind being knowable? Of course not. That requires faith, be it the religious person's faith in the world as God's creations or this atheist's belief that he can truly believe what he see with his own two eyes.
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posted by gbarto at 8:13 PM:
Hmm, FoxNews.com seems not to be working again.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:11 PM:
Yay!Red Wings Win Stanley Cup
Detroit finishes Carolina with 3-1 triumph. – Associated Press
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posted by gbarto at 6:48 PM:
Some observations from Tony Pierce, perfectly stated.* * *
posted by gbarto at 6:35 PM:
Fatigues Fighting GreensU.S. military in prolonged battle with environmental groups
Let's hope for the greens' sake that their better fighters than the Taliban. Or is it that we've evoked a bit of war imagery where it really wasn't called for?
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posted by gbarto at 6:33 PM:
Crash Victims IdentifiedThree U.S. soldiers killed after plane goes down in Afghanistan
It's all a matter of perspective; yesterday the big news was that seven survived. Which strikes me, frankly, as really impressive. Remember when if a plane crashed, you counted the casualties by the length of the passenger and crew manifest? No wonder a risk-free world seems evermore like a realistic thing to demand, though of course it isn't.
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posted by gbarto at 6:29 PM:
Moussaoui Can Represent SelfSays Moussaoui, "If it's good enough for Trafficant, it's good enough for me."
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posted by gbarto at 6:28 PM:
Bishops Closer to Abuse PolicyAt least now they'll have some procedures for it. Actually, the summary says:
Catholic leaders decide to toughen stance on one-time molestersbut the headline is a little ambiguous.
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posted by gbarto at 6:22 PM:
Will Warren we ain't, but a thought came to TurkeyBlog while watching seagulls feast at the local McDonald's. Sometimes species are defined in part by where they live - two birds with nearly identical DNA might be considered somehow different because one has adapted to the forest, another to marshlands. We think that if the disappearance of the forest means that some subspecies of, say, the forest hootnanny owl is no more, then when human actions create a space to which animals adapt, a new species should be considered to have appeared. Hence this little doggerel, The Senior-Home Bluejay.The senior-home bluejay leads a terrible life
Full of hunger and filled with strife
He wakes every morning just after five
To do what he must just in order to survive
He flies from the garden up to the north wing
And perching at a window he begins to sing
When poor, old Mrs. Pearson hears him call
The sweet, kindly old lady starts to crawl
Out of bed and down the hall to get some seed
For senior-home bluejay has a family to feed
Oh life is rough for the senior-home bluejay,
Struggle just to make it just from day to day,
Just in finding food, there's never any rest
(though the truth be told, Tuesdays are the best -
For that's the day that Mr. Wakeley's grandkid comes,
Dropping donut pieces, or maybe cookie crumbs;
Or could it be on Thursdays? - dessert is always cake
And in the dumpster, after, our little bird can take
Lots of bits of leftovers for the little ones;
or maybe it's on Fridays - hamburger buns)
The senior-home bluejay uses yarn to build a nest -
When her sweater's done, Mrs. Poole throws out the rest
Sometimes he'll use packing twine in its place
The senior-home mail center tosses it by the case
And when it's time to build a nest he'll head for a nice tree
Planted in the middle-garden - guaranteed cat-free
When they built the senior-home, greens at the mouth did foam
That's a forest habitat, the birds will have no home
But wait a little while and things will come around
And when the day arrives where they go to tear it down
Then some new protesters will say you can't do that
It's the senior-home bluejay's special habitat.
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posted by gbarto at 6:18 PM:
Deport all Saudi males now
According to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, our State Department has been hemming and hawing on the point that American citizens, even if they're females in Saudi Arabia, are entitled to the rights and protections accorded all Americans. Further, a State Department spokesman testifying to Congressman Burton's committee dismissed the case of Pat Roush's daughters because they're adults. Was he ignorant of the fact they still cannot travel without the permission of a father or husband (said husband chosen by the father)? Or was he deliberately misleading the American people by pretending there was no issue where one clearly exists. Either way, it is now clear that the United States government in general, and the U.S. State Department in particular, are either unwilling or unable to assure that American females affiliated with Saudi males can be guaranteed the protections to which American citizens are entitled. This being the case, Saudi males constitute a clear and present danger to the liberty of better than one-half of all Americans. Until such time as the Saudi government is prepared to agree with the United States to uphold the rights of our citizens, we must therefore recall all Americans in Saudi Arabia and eject all Saudi males who are here, lest more Americans become enslaved in the Saudis' archaic barbarity.
We further would suggest that since American females are not protected in Saudi Arabia, it is no longer incumbent upon us to protect Saudi females here. Shall we deport them for their own protection?
The TurkeyBlog is, of course, engaging in hyperbole. But he's getting damn close to saying these things in all earnestness. More realistically, we should inform Saudi embassy personnel that they are no longer wanted here, that Prince Bandar can take his billions and get the hell out of here, and that Saudi Arabia can either work with us as a fellow grown-up nation - capable of observing civilized norms - or we'll have to pursue other options. We've gone a long way to try to gain Saudi cooperation for some of our overseas priorities. They've taken our offers then dropped the ball on their obligations time and time again. There is no longer any value to America in having the Saudis as allies because they don't behave as allies. Instead they sponsor radicals who kill our people and defend simple thugs who kidnap and hold them captive. As to the headline, here's the modification: Saudis - male and female - should be asked if they want to integrate into American society or remain Saudis. Those who wish to go the way of the kingdom should pursue their goals in that great big sandbox, devoid of universities and commerical opportunities though it may be. Those who join us in sensing that Saudi Arabia just ain't all that great should be welcomed to the land of liberty with the warning that if they tamper with it things will get ugly.
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posted by gbarto at 1:57 PM:
We report, you decide:Here are others' thoughts on Ayesha and Mohammed (see below):
Mohammad violated tenets of Islam
an anti-Islam round-up
Western cultural norms don't apply to Islam
some nine-year olds are of age
Ayesha wasn't really that young
The TurkeyBlog is not Muslim and does not intend to convert. He is, however, uncomfortable when the teachers of his own religion get overly focused on the motes in others' eyes without removing the beams from their own, for we are called not to judge, lest we be judged. God will presumably get the last word on all this, but since overzealous Christians are attacking with the anti-Muslim strawman, we'll just remind of one of the classic anti-Judeo-Christian strawmen and hope they have a good response at ready before they become too self-righteous in their condemnations. Here's a bit from Genesis 19:
1. And there came two angels to Sodom at even: and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
2. And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servan'ts house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
3. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
So far, so good; a gracious host.
4. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
5. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
6. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
7. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Defending his guests, hell of a guy. But:
8. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
The daughters would soon know man, of course. Sodom was soon destroyed, with this paragon and his two daughters - whom he had offered up to the crowds just before - the only people saved. The daughters then got the old man drunk and knew him, since there was no one else around. Out of these unions came the Moabites and the children of Ammon. This also provided the material for an Old English riddle which I would translate thusly:
A man sat down to dinner with his two wives, his two daughters, his two sons and his two grandsons and at the table were five. Who was he?
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posted by gbarto at 1:01 PM:
Baptist minister makes ass of self, insults Islam
Haven't gotten a name, but his comments were certainly something. Fox News is presenting it, but since their site seems to be down, I don't have a good link.
The toughest shot is that Mohammed was a pedophile; says Mohammed's last wife, Ayesha, was nine. I'm going to have to check on this since what little I've read of the life of Islam's prophet got all muddled after reading Satanic verses; all I can add on the point is that if so, it's peculiar that Rushdie sensualized her as a young woman much sought after reaching puberty, since he didn't seem to miss many other opportunities to kick Mohammed around.
I don't know much else except that the comments seemed designed to argue that not only is Islam not right because Christianity is, but that it is an unacceptable faith for worshipping pedophiles and sleazes. Oh, and Jerry Falwell has come to his defense, which is never a good sign.
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posted by gbarto at 12:54 PM:
Hmm. Fox News channel seems not to be working.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:48 PM:
Bush to 21st Century High Tech Forum: The government will spend $53 billion on technology so I'm appealing to you guys who make it. When we take it out of the boxes we'd appreciate it if it actually works.Bush also seeking trade promotion authority - which will help them sell their stuff; ditto high speed internet and technology in schools.
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posted by gbarto at 11:11 AM:
Hill Eyes Shifting Parts of FBI, CIAHomeland Security Department Would Get Own Operatives
Not a good idea; the whole point of keeping the CIA and FBI out was making sure we didn't create our own version of the KGB and most of the plans for homeland intelligence don't pass the Clinton-Nixon test: if you are a Democrat, would you be comfortable with a Nixon administration have these powers/if you are a Republican, would you be comfortable with a Clinton administration having these powers?
Security is important because it creates a safe space to exercise liberty; if the liberty is constrained, that goes out the window. Which is why in the end we're all going to have to keep our eyes open and accept that there's no such thing as a risk-free life.
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posted by gbarto at 11:07 AM:
Church Anticipated CrisisAntecedents of current sex-abuse scandal can be traced back to 1985.
What did the church know, and when did it know it? This doesn't look good.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:28 PM:
Lakers Complete the Three-PeatL.A. wins third straight NBA title, sweeping the New Jersey Nets
Layne pleased, of course.
But I'm waiting to see the Wings win it all.
* * *
posted by gbarto at 10:24 PM:
Hoo boy. Lileks in high gear.* * *
posted by gbarto at 10:06 PM:
Warning: Slightly Sullivanian post.One cheer for Hewlett-Packard.
A while back, I thought it would be neat to see how the .NET architecture worked and besides I wanted a decent system for learning php if I ever get around to it. So I split my HP into an ME system (for all the gizmos that only have drivers for 98/ME) and Win2K for the other stuff, then discovered that even the crappy modem/sound card on my system wouldn't behave correctly. Go to the HP website and what do they tell you? Hewlett-Packard does not support Win2K on this system. I'd noticed. My gripe is hardly one that hasn't been offered a hundred thousand times before, but still it seems to me that a big company like HP, which doesn't exactly sell its systems at e-machine prices, could offer something more for a modem and soundcard than a crappy combo that is barely supported by either HP, Conexant - which makes the chipset - or the actual manufacturer, which is either Conexant or some godforsaken outfit that at least has the discretion to keep its name from becoming associated with the product. I finally gave up and got a modem to add, and was again impressed at how HP works to make it a pain in the a-- to deal with their systems; after taking apart the case and rearranging some of the innards I did manage to install my new modem. But I can't help but wonder why it was a less involved operation to put a second parallel port in my Packard Bell four computers ago than to do a simple upgrade on one of the leading PC makers. Guess this is why they had to merge with CPQ to make it.
Anyway, the TurkeyBlog is happy again, coasting along on the Win2K side while enjoying the Eroica Trio's Baroque, highly recommended for their arrangments of the Chaconne from Bach's Partita in Dmin (for violin; the best straight violin presentations - in my own humble view - are Lara St. John's frenzied version and Hilary Hahn's slightly less crazy reading) and their rearrangement of Giazotto's arrangement of Albinoni's Adagio in Gmin. And now back to our regular ranting and commentary (A Dog's Life writes about this stuff all the time, by the way, so I thought I'd throw in my thoughts).
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posted by gbarto at 9:46 PM:
The Rabbit says she's posting every hour on the hour today; better hurry over before the fun ends.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:04 PM:
Libération: For the Socialist Party, "The Day is not lost!" So say DSK (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) and Alain Richard, who are trying to rally those who abstained in the first round.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:00 PM:
French news:Le Monde lead with "A Day against Child Labor"; the day is organized by the Organisation internationale du travail (International Work Organization), which says it seeks to raise awareness about the plight of the 211 million child-laborers in the world. Also, the FN and MNR (two far-right parties) upset the applecart, specifically messing up the center-right's strategizing in a few elections.
Le Figaro leads with "Blues on the Way Home" (after their defeat at the World Cup).
Le Figaro print headlines: Bac: the stress test; the anti-pedophile plan for the American church; Juppé wants to lead the UMP
The first refers to the baccalauréat exam, required to officially complete high school and gain admittance to the university. This is a big deal in France because almost all the universities are state run and free - but only if you pass the bac with a high enough score. In France, the education system, publicly funded, is directed to public purposes more than the interests of the students. If they think you're not college material, you get sent to a non-college track after junior high - and the government makes the call. The bac is the next big hurdle; finish high school without passing the bac and you'll get a job, but not a good one. Want to go to college? You have to do well on the bac. Which means a lot of French students (or should we say lycéens) are getting nervous. As to the Juppé item, it could pose trouble as it would leave current PM Raffarin and Juppé facing off over who gets to call the shots in the party. In my own view, Juppé has already had a few shots at glory and didn't take the world by storm; he should let Raffarin have his moment in the sun. If he burns, Juppé can move in, but if he doesn't, Juppé should leave the stage to Raffarin, who has done a masterful job of improving the right's image and positioning the party.
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posted by gbarto at 7:39 PM:
Says this Fox News column summary:Bureaucratic SecurityThat's not very encouraging. But it may well be accurate.
New gov't office only sure to be time-consuming, large and costly
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posted by gbarto at 7:38 PM:
Three Adults, Six Children Wounded in Memphis ShootingThis after a drug deal went bad, apparently.
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posted by gbarto at 2:09 PM:
Hear, hear! Natalie Solent explains the real meaning of casualty figures in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:57 PM:
Bloomberg Wrests Control of Public School SystemOn the one hand, it's a shame to see people losing local control over their schools. On the other hand, it's damn unlikely they had it. Between state and federal regulations, local school boards are typically left to nibble at the margins, responsible for the most fractious issues of policy, personnel, finance and discipline while government mandates eat into their budgets and authority to the point where there are neither the resources nor the powers necessary to deal with those issues. In heavily regulated New York, I imagine it's even more of a mess than in Michigan. Perhaps as a high-ranking pol with a bigger profile, Bloomberg - with his team - will be able to wrest the sort of concessions from government and unions to reform education in the Big Apple. Even as the educrats scream. Here's a thought: Why not give school boards the same degree of control over finance and policy that the takeover teams get and see what they could do?
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posted by gbarto at 1:46 PM:
Second 'Dirty Bomb' Plotter HeldJose Padilla associate questioned
And the French have five people linked to "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid in custody. It won't solve everything, but it is progress, and further a few high profile arrests have the effect of making the bad guys retreat further into the shadows - which makes them harder to catch but also less dangerous as their room to maneuver is restricted.
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posted by gbarto at 1:42 PM:
Ten U.S. Soldiers Feared Killed in CrashU.S. MC-130 special forces plane goes down on takeoff in Afghanistan; no indication enemy fire was involved
Update: FNC now says there were at least a few survivors
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posted by gbarto at 6:57 AM:
Potassium Iodide a Hot SellerCheap tablet protects thyroid gland from one type of radioactive fallout
Remember, you don't take them every day; you just take a big dose if radiation has been released but hasn't gotten to you yet (btw, taking lots doesn't make you more immune but less so. So read and follow the directions.
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posted by gbarto at 6:55 AM:
Mideast Violence Kills 12 PeopleEleven Palestinians and an Israeli die in several incidents
Follow-up to yesterday's violence. Most disturbing detail:
A 15-year old girl died of her wounds a few hours after the blast, and eight other bystanders were hurt. Blood was splattered on the front of a food counter after the restaurant's glass doors shattered, spraying broken glass in all directions.It's good to at least finally see the PA catching on - and conceding that killing Israelis really does make things worse because it allows people to see where Israel's coming from. Too bad Arafat and Co. didn't realize five years ago. Though Arafat still probably couldn't have done anything - at least not worked toward peace without being discouraged by Hezbollah and others. Perhaps discouraged the way Rabin was. What a mess! And I fear that only new leadership will truly be able to help.
Hours later, half-eaten falafel sandwiches in pita bread still lay on the ground where victims dropped them.
The Palestinian leadership issued a statement denouncing the attack and saying that ``it gives Israel a reason to attack the Palestinian people.''
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posted by gbarto at 6:46 AM:
Bad day for Sam Waksal, former prez of IMClone, who has been arrested this AM for insider trading. CNBC's David Faber broke the story. Waksal was supposed to testify in Washington tomorrow before the House committee on Oversight and Investigation. In a CNBC interview, that committee's chairman, Jim Greenwood (R, Penn) joked that maybe they'd have to move the meeting to the pokey, then said that Waksal was expected to take the fifth anyway but that his arrest made the same point.Greenwood made one important point about the government's role in the capitalist economy: it's not the government's job to run markets or protect against every danger, but it is the government's role in promoting economic efficiency to set standards such that investors can reasonably believe the statements of a company and its leadership. In this, he's right on the mark. When the government takes on firms that have lied to shareholders, it's not being officious but fighting fraud. Some in business are trying to promote the notion that government never should have anything to say about what business does; I'd avoid investing in firms that make that argument because the efficient market hypothesis is based on the ability of markets to process information; when those with the highest perceived knowledge about a situation lie, they aren't only subverting the law; they're subverting capitalism.
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posted by gbarto at 12:24 AM:
Visitors to the TurkeyBlog will notice the story at the top of the page. I'm planning on leaving it there at least a month because it's important. The TurkeyBlog is a (perhaps "the") freeblogger, and this is all about the freedom our country represents. When a U.S. government agency isn't merely incompetent but is outright solicitous of murderers, thugs and barbarians, it's an affront to what our country stands for. Every time I read about a U.S. embassy turning away refugees or the like, I cringe and hope the judgement call was rightly made. Unfortunately, I've no good way to tell myself the State Department was doing anything other than its usual sucking up to tyrants in this case, and that makes me wonder what the State Department is for. It should be to help us represent our interests abroad, but our interests are not served when everyone from the Saudis on down views us as suckers whose presidents talk big but whose functionaries make sure the talk is never translated into action. When George W talks about sending little Afghan girls to school, I smile not only at the marvel that our country made it possible but with delight at how many in the other Arabarbarian states must be wondering if they're the next country to be civilized and how many in the State Department must be having fits that an American President thinks our country stands for something. It does, and that's why this Saudi B.S. should not stand. If Foggy Bottom is so concerned that the Saudis be permitted their captives, perhaps they could swap a few of their own so Mrs. Roush could get her daughters back.Btw, LGF also picked up this story.
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posted by gbarto at 12:13 AM:
Arafat Bombs, Europe Pays
Stefan Sharkansky translates a Die Zeit story on how Europe passes out money to the Palestinians while knowing full well that some of it is earmarked - not just funneled to but earmarked - for terrorist activities. Link from Charles Johnson, whose own commentary on all things Israeli-Palestinian is always a must-read.
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posted by gbarto at 12:08 AM:
LGF has the Peaceful Religion Sweepstakes.* * *
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:46 PM:
French news:Here's a thousand words from Le Monde:
The headline reads: World Cup: France eliminated
In less important news, Afghanistan has chosen its leader, sort of. Karzai, who's been running the show, says he's the new PM but no one else has confirmed it. And in kettle - pot, pot - kettle news, Le Monde is smiling that The U.S. is being criticized for farm subsidies at the UN.
Le Figaro has Autopsy for a Defeat (postmortem sounds better but that's the literal translation). Le Figaro's second lead is the "Dirty Bomb" (bombe sale) story that has filled our airwaves.
Liberation leads with "Bush orders a manhunt" (to find Padilla's pals). And their world-cup headline is probably the best: Good-bye, thanks anyway.
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posted by gbarto at 6:51 PM:
Natalie's back! Go read about her adventures, including a bellicose Frenchman (?).* * *
posted by gbarto at 6:46 PM:
Here's FNC's write-up on Bush's speech.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:54 PM:
Bush gave a speech today in which he reiterated the theme that countries that weren't tolerant of others' faiths and respectful of the rights of women weren't on our side. Saudi Arabia?* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:43 PM:
Girl Killed in Israel BombingBlast in restaurant north of Tel Aviv
Also a roadside blast and an attack on a schoolbus as the Palestinian cause marches on.
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posted by gbarto at 12:09 PM:
Ken Layne's latest here: How to recognize a budding terrorist.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:08 PM:
See Ya, Have Fun Cleaning UpReport: Clinton staff vandalized White House to tune of $20,000
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posted by gbarto at 9:41 AM:
Some people get all the breaks. Most reporters are happy with one good interview a week but today Becky Quick got to interview Spiderman and Alf, both - along with a lot of ad execs. But she had to settle for a clip from Elmo. The story is about licensing of merchandise. Licensing trends are actually (can you believe it?) slightly to the down side; after the overdoing of Phantom Menace, everyone's watching to make sure they don't get overexposed.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:31 AM:
Denmark Eliminates FranceIt's first time in 36 years defending champion knocked out in first round.
Poor France, first a conservative takeover, now this.
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posted by gbarto at 9:27 AM:
Police Dog Accused of Racial ProfilingTuesday, June 11, 2002
McKEES ROCKS, Pa. — A Pennsylvania councilwoman has accused her borough's lone police dog of racial profiling, leading to calls that the canine be killed.
This whole thing seems pretty unlikely to me. Coming from Michigan, where we read about the Detroit city council in all the papers, I'm always leery (rightly or wrongly) when race charges get thrown around like this by a local government official. And I'm truly disturbed at this woman's misguided vitriol. Dogs don't come to such reactions entirely on their own. If, and that's a big if, the dog really does target blacks, it would be most likely on the basis of his training. Maybe the dog needs to go to a farm someplace - the K9 cop equivalent of a desk job - and the city needs to get a different trainer. But we're not talking about a dog that is inherently dangerous, that has killed or that randomly attacks; we're talking about a dog that attacked only on command as it was supposed to do, but with the wrong target. Putting it to sleep to satisfy a councilwoman would be awful.
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posted by gbarto at 9:14 AM:
Cops Search Kidnap Girl's HomeOne week later, few clues to 14-year-old's whereabouts
Maybe I'm being fussy, but it seems like that should be "kidnapped". And the police should have been checking out her home a week ago.
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posted by gbarto at 12:58 AM:
Organized anarchy? A Dog's Life has the story.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:53 AM:
The TurkeyBlog is a Den Bestian.* * *
Monday, June 10, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:47 PM:
If you think that Lucasfilm's dialogue was bad... (via Nonsensical)* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:30 PM:
40,000 May Have to Flee DenverWind-whipped wildfire in Pike National Forest, one of several burning out of control in Colorado, advances on Mile High City
Now we're moving up to 40,000 people for these forest fires. And where are they taking place? Surprise! It's national forest land again. While it's known to happen now and again, you don't hear alot about this sort of thing happening in forests maintained by Georgia-Pacific or any of the other big paper mills or forest product distributors. That's because they take care of their forests, clearing out underbrush and harvesting trees before they die and become fire hazards (which also allows younger trees to grow faster since the forest canopy doesn't block out as much light). On the other hand, there are some in the environmental movement who think letting these blazes go is a wonderful way to allow the natural cycle to unfold. So is skipping your immunizations but I haven't seen them denying their kids medical care to protect the lifecycle of the simple microbe... Maybe there are a few who have gone that far, but as we know, a certain contingent of the environmental movement is not so much concerned with protecting trees as shutting down development. And the previous administration followed their thinking right down the line, all the way to demanding cleaner power plants while putting the largest reserve of cleaner-burning coal off limits. If you're one of the people who's been ousted from your home, you have my sympathy, but I'd suggest you drop a thank you note to Al Gore.
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posted by gbarto at 9:20 PM:
French news:Le Monde: The left, beaten, tries to remobilize (for the second round); the right will get an absolute majority
Le Figaro: first a few AFP updates: Majority of French support voting reform; Extreme Right might not get any seats; French Communist Party fights to survive. Website headline: Hollande (head of Socialists) wants a "remobilization" of the Socialist electorate in order to "avoid a serious disequilibrium in our democracy" in favor of the right... Where was he when Mitterand and his several Socialist PMs gave France a dangerous left-leaning tilt?
Liberation: Left calls on abstainers.
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posted by gbarto at 2:43 PM:
Heather Nauert is telling us about the Jewish Defense League, a group joining to protect their neighborhoods. The police and others are having fits, but I think it might be a good idea.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:40 PM:
Howie Kurtz covers homeland security beautifully here.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:36 PM:
U.S. Citizen Detained In 'Dirty Bomb' PlotAttorney general says man planning attack has ties to al Qaeda and is being held as a military combatant.
I'll be curious to see where this goes. At the moment, it looks like they got one bad guy; will he lead them to others? And does holding him as a combatant give them better avenues for getting information? Mentionable ones?
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posted by gbarto at 2:22 PM:
Just saw Sen. Shelby on FNC. As Limbaugh pointed out this afternoon, he's been popping up everywhere lately. But Limbaugh had the salient point that we haven't heard enough about: Where was Shelby before 9/11? And where were the other senators and congresspeople who have maintained a Chinese wall between the FBI, the CIA and other surveillance agencies for more than 50 years? Bush recently said he wouldn't be comfortable having an agency as pervasive as the FBI folded into the Homeland Security Office because he didn't want to create a police state. Neither has Congress. Some in Congress have argued that there were grounds for the CIA contacting the FBI, etc. Apparently they haven't been to a government office lately. If they had, they'd know that when you give a bureaucrat a) some turf and b) a rulebook that says he can't do something except in certain circumstances, he won't a) talk to another agency because it threatens his turf and b) read beyond the "can't".Shelby and others need their heads knocked just as much as the different agencies because they created a system where the natural kinks in interbureaucracy efforts were combined with specific limitations on interbureaucracy interactions to create a culture inimical to the information sharing they now say should have taken place. There's a reason Congress is harping on specific memos while making a fuss about how eager it is to pass the president's plan: it doesn't want the spotlight turned on its own lapses.
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posted by gbarto at 7:11 AM:
Lobbyist List Spurs DebateThe bulky dossier being compiled by GOP insiders could be used to deny access to Democrats.
You mean politicians are playing hardball? I'll take an interest when GOPers have the Sergeant-at-Arms remove a Congressman from a meeting for a committee he's a member of (yes, it did happen in the mid-80s when the Dems ruled Congress as their personal fiefdom).
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posted by gbarto at 7:08 AM:
Air Cargo Feared Terror RiskSecurity focus has been on screening passengers and luggage, not freight.
Uh oh. You mean an airplane doesn't have to be filled with people to pose certain hazards? Who would have thought? I wonder just how carefully the freight terminals of airplanes are being watched - not very according to my last trip to an airport, though it didn't look like any 727s or anything were in evidence; just a few prop planes.
By the way, my last scuba theory is setting oneself off under an oil tanker in port or the Staten Island Ferry. If the Homeland Security Office is reading, they might want to investigate these. If they want more scenarios, my consultant fees are dirt cheap.
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posted by gbarto at 6:25 AM:
Fabius: A democratic equilibrium is necessaryFabius, of course, is Socialist. Some of this is legitimate questioning of what a victory means with 36% abstention, but hey, they didn't come out for the Socialists. If I'd taken this drubbing, I'd be looking for high-minded phrases too.
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posted by gbarto at 6:16 AM:
France: Markets react favorably to Legislative Elections - AFPAt least they get one vote of confidence.
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posted by gbarto at 6:13 AM:
Sharon Refuses to Budge on Cease-Fire or BordersThe Palestinians and most Arab countries want a timeline for negotiations and a pre-stated date for Palestinian statehood.And Sharon wants a timeline for the last Palestinian incursion. He ought to offer to trade - in noting that the timeline calls for a Palestinian state to be tried one year after the last Palestinian incursion. Whenever they go a year without a Palestinian incursion.
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posted by gbarto at 6:08 AM:
India Allows Pakistani OverflightsMove sign of decreasing tension between nuclear neighbors
If this goes well, it's a great start in defusing tensions. If it goes poorly...
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posted by gbarto at 6:07 AM:
Israeli Troops Enter RamallahTanks and troops surround Arafat's compound, arrest 20 suspected militants
Here we go again. Israelis launching a limited mission, but this time not actually hitting Arafat's place. And they're not impressed with some of Arafat's cabinet choices. Not sure where this will go (most likely nowhere) but I suppose they're doing what they feel they have to do.
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Sunday, June 09, 2002
posted by gbarto at 8:55 PM:
Granted, it's been more than a few hours, but when I checked at 8 there had been little change in anyone's leads. It's now 5:30 am in Paris and here's what people will see when they pick up the paper this morning:French news:
Le Monde leads with a Victory for the Right, downturn for FN, which is almost word for word the story two headlines down. Briefly updating, the right now has 380 to 440 seats and 43%; the left now has 132 to 191 seats and 36%; the extreme right has 0 to 4 seats and 13%.
Secondary stories are all election-related: Net Loss for Extreme Right, Stinging Defeat for the Chevenement's [centrist] party, and the further collapse of the extreme right (the actual headline includes the word "dust").
The Le Figaro lead (which is hours old at this point) tells us that the UMP (a party created especially for Chirac) got 34% of the vote and will easily control the Assembly (with perhaps a little help from other center-right parties) but that the lousy turnout casts a pall over their victory.
Print headlines from Le Figaro: First round goes the Right's Way; Signs of Detente between New Dehli and Islamabad; Paris and Berlin oppose one another on the PAC
Liberation leads with "The French promise a victory for Chirac"; they also note the response to the vote: No Triumphalism on the Right; Call for Mobilization on the Left (the left hoping to do better in the second round contests it managed to get into than it did in the first round).
Our brief wrap-up: History can repeat itself and it did in some measure as a splintered left continued to founder, seemingly unaware that the issue was not who would lead from the left but whether the left would have a place at all. The Chiraquiens learned though, and pushed the president's choices as necessary both to prevent divided government and to shut out the Lepenistes. The strategy worked. For this Raffarin is to be commended; he'll presumably be rewarded with a reappointment as prime minister by a president who in March was the lowest first-round vote-getter in 50 years to muster reelection and now is perhaps the most powerful president since DeGaulle, even surpassing Mitterand. On verra.
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posted by gbarto at 1:26 PM:
The new news on round 1 of the French legislatives seems to be drying up; we'll update again in a few hours. Enjoy the evening. For those who are curious, you can find our latest coverage one post down.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:23 PM:
A Dog's Life wonders whether we can truly refer to the Kennedys as suffering tragedies. He says no, because it's mostly self-inflicted. Alas, Greg has fallen prey to the American interpretation of this word and forgotten the noble dramatic tradition for tragedy.Tragedy is a funny word. Everyone from Oxford to American Heritage to Weekley agrees that it's Greek for goat-song, though none of them are quite sure why. My 1942 Webster's International speculates that the traveling singers who started the lyrical tradition might have worn goat skins (and that's the most convincing explanation I found!). Anyway, the -edy is the same as the -ody in melody is the same as an ode, a lyrical presentation.
The word in time came to refer to plays which emphasized the same themes as the lyric and led to the division that my masters in French literature taught me: Comedies end with a wedding, tragedies with a funeral. However, my own investigations took me one step further. At the root of most (not all) French drama there is a conflict between social norms and what would be best for the specific characters - or at least make them happiest. When the norms collapse - to maximize happiness - it's a comedy. When the norms hold and/or power trumps right (defined as the people you'd like to root for) it's a tradedy.
Greg has fallen for the American idea that tragedies are blameless or near blameless. Certainly this is how a culture that has shucked all notions of responsibility would like to treat most tragedies, but even when blame isn't being assigned (as I think it shouldn't be for missing 9/11, for example), human frailty has its role to play. Consider our finest notions of tragedy: MacBeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Antigone, Phaedre. Are these filled with paragons of virtue? Are these tales of bad luck? Or tales of how human weakness and inflexibility - at the individual and societal levels - put people in bad places and they chose paths that only made things worse? The Kennedys are all about tragedy. Indeed, with that miserable old goat Teddy now heading the clan, the Kennedy's don't merely fit the mold for a tragedy; they finally make the etymology make sense.
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posted by gbarto at 12:44 PM:
Latest estimates (at 9pm) from Ipsos.The top 7 parties:
UMP (Chirac's party): 34.5%
PS-PRG-DVG (Socialists and a few coalition partners): 27.5%
FN (Le Pen's party): 11.3%
UDF (Center-right): 5.0%
DVD (Center-right parties): 4.3%
PC (Communists): 4.1%
Greens: 4.0%
DVG and DVD are "diverse left" and "diverse right". And if the top 7 seems excessive, there are still 8 more categories.
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posted by gbarto at 12:35 PM:
Large victoire de la droite, abstention recordLa droite obtiendrait de 387 à 446 sièges et donc la majorité absolue à l'Assemblée nationale, la gauche, de 127 à 192 sièges, l'extrême droite disposerait de 0 à 4 sièges et l'extrême gauche n'en aurait aucun, selon les projections des instituts de sondage Sofres, CSA et Ipsos concernant les résultats du premier tour des élections législatives de ce dimanche. La droite serait créditée de 43,9 % des suffrages, la gauche de 37,1 % des voix, l'extrême droite de 12,5 %, l'extrême gauche de 2,7 % et les partis "divers" de 3,8 %. Le taux d'abstention se situerait entre 35,5 % et 36 %.
Large victory for the right (in France), record rate of abstention
The right will obtain between 387 and 446 seats and thus an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the left between 127 and 192, the extreme right between 0 and 4, and the extreme left will receive none, according to the polling firms Sofres, CSA and Ipsos with respect to the results of the first round of the legislative elections Sunday. The right will be credited with 43.9% of the votes, the left 37.1%, the extreme right 12.5%, the extreme left 2.7% and "other" parties 3.8%. The rate of abstention will be between 35.5% and 36%.
-Le Monde
For those who are wondering why there are precise percentages for vote totals but extreme variation in the number of actual seats, France has a mucked up system with arcane rules for two-person and three-person run-offs and a million other geegaws designed to create supposedly proportional representation of ideas and peoples. The story here is that the system, created for and gamed by the left to give communists, greens and other hard leftists a place at the table at the expense of the right has suddenly been turned around as the hard left - long taking for granted its place at the table - has splintered and the hard right - too long (in their view) in the political wilderness - has pulled together to build effective coalitions. Santayana is smirking today: every lesson of the presidential elections of March seems to have gone unlearned as a left that briefly united - for Chirac ! - has returned to bickering and pissing contests over who has the highest score for ideological purity. Will the left learn? Santayana said that those who didn't learn from history would get the same lesson again; the more cynical Marx knew no one would ever learn, prompting his observation that history repeats itself, first tragedy, then farce. But looking at the self-destructive tendencies of the left, it looks more like farce repeating as farce.
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posted by gbarto at 12:04 PM:
Instapundit seems to be bothered by Arafat's speech, described here, as do many others. I've only heard about this in the link above and on television, so I don't know what language Arafat was speaking or how far his capacity for metaphor goes, since I interpreted it to mean (could we really say merely?) that he was threatening Intifada 3, the Intifada to end all Intifadas - i.e. an explosion of the Palestinian people with arms, suicide bombers etc, troubling to be sure but not apocalyptic (other than for the Palestinians at any rate).* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:39 AM:
FBI Left Out of New Security AgencyPresident Bush wants to avoid Soviet-style domestic intelligence department, chief of staff says
Not sure if this is the most effective way to organize the domestic war on terror, but it's probably the best one can do in a free republic. In principle, the FBI should be at the head of this fight because their long-term role as a law enforcement agency should mean that they would self-police against becoming an American KGB while other smaller agencies might be less sensitive to Consititutional concerns. However, from J. Edgar Hoover, forward, the FBI has shown itself to not always meet the standard and the other agencies will at least be smaller and more widely dispersed, hopefully forcing them to concentrate their resources on the war on terror. Of course I know I'm being highly unrealistic in thinking that any government agency would try to earn power and prestige by using its resources effectively to do its job well. Oh well, at least the smaller agencies won't have as many dollars or people to wreak bureaucratic havoc with.
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posted by gbarto at 11:30 AM:
Just a few headlines:India, Pakistan War Fears Lessen
Rhetoric toned down but shelling causes more damage in Kashmir
Philippine Troops Launch Attack
Forces aim to wipe out guerrillas who held U.S. couple hostage
Nerve Gas Found at U.S. Base
All American troops moved from contaminated areas in Uzbekistan
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posted by gbarto at 11:21 AM:
Estimated outcome at 8pm, Paris time (chart from Liberation)
According to the first estimates of Sofres at 8pm, the total votes for the left will be 36.1%, those of the right will be 43.8%. The extreme right wing FN and MNR will get 13% and others will get 7.1%. Abstention is at a record high, between 35 and 36% according to leading polling firms. According to the projections for seats won, the left will get between 135 and 175, the right between 380 and 420, the extreme right between 0 and 2.
- Liberation
First keep in mind this is just the first round; how things finally shake out will depend on how substantial the majorities or pluralities of the different parties are, as this determines who can actually participate in the second round. Things are still fluid.
That said, if things pan out the way Sofres predicts, Chirac will have his presidential majority, with the UMP (Union for a Presidential Majority) and a few other center-right parties holding between 65 and 73% of the seats. I don't have a good enough breakdown to know, but it may be that the UMP, created for the special purpose of letting Chirac be Chirac will muster a bare majority. Keeping in mind that John McCain and Joe Lieberman would be at the rightmost fringes of the respectable right in France, we are nonetheless looking at quite a shift. The next question is if the new government (should it actually align with the polling data) will be able to deliver, or if France will once again be held hostage by a left that can no longer win the people's hearts but is as capable as ever of clogging their streets and threatening the civil order - and once again be abandoned by a right that has a disturbing track record of putting a hundred thousand marchers in Paris ahead of the principles that caused tens of millions to vote for it.
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posted by gbarto at 10:59 AM:
Arafat has a new cabinet - AFPThere are now 21 members instead of 31 and they are supposed to be more restrained in their anti-Israeli sentiment and more committed to ending corruption and showing the world they can maintain order. We'll see.
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posted by gbarto at 10:54 AM:
Participation (in the Legislative Elections) at a Historic LowAccording to the polling, the rate of abstention for the first round of the legislative elections will be more than 35%. According to Ipsos, abstention will run at 35.5%; Sofres says 36.5%. Participation rates were established at 5pm at a historic low of 50.61% according to the Minister of the Interior. 41 million French citizens were eligible to vote in the first round of the legislative elections in order to choose 577 deputies and determine the political character of the next government.
-Le Monde
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