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Saturday, June 28, 2003
posted by gbarto at 6:53 PM:
It sounds like the whispers about regime change in Iran have been having the desired effect:Report: Huge Al Qaeda Busts in Iran
Al-Zawahiri, Usama's son in custody
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posted by gbarto at 6:51 PM:
Today the TurkeyBlog suggests a click on the J-Log ad at right. It would help out this site and give you a look at a good blog on what's happening in the media.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:30 AM:
Here's Cicero on what the Supremes have been up to. As usual, I don't agree with a lot of what he has to say when he gets going on libertarians. But he raises some good points that need to be considered by the anything goes crowd. I'll try to address them when I'm awake enough to do so more coherently. For now, the TurkeyBlog is signing off for the night.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:01 AM:
Natalie Solent has a nice follow-up to her notes on Richard Dawkins and "brights" from the other day.* * *
Friday, June 27, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:55 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Hamas truce, Israeli Army Pullback.
Le Figaro: The Raffarin Plan for Attracting Foreign Brains. If the problem's been a brain drain, we guess this is a brain campaign.
Libé: The March to Come Against Homophobia. Will the government follow up Chirac's pledge to do more about homophobia or will the gay pride movement have to take measures to remind him and his prime minister that they're there?
Ouest-France: Actors want unemployment between shows. Three minor unions think they've got something worked out.
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posted by gbarto at 11:45 PM:
Report: Mideast Truce ReachedAgreement made on Gaza pullback
Tonight, we begin our new policy for commenting on Mid-East peace developments. The policy is that the following words shall serve as the only comment:
We'll see.
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posted by gbarto at 10:46 AM:
A few days old, but an absolutely delightful Christopher Hitchens piece on John Kerry's inability to lead his own mental life, never mind a country.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:55 AM:
Instapundit has a write-up on Sabine Herold, who has been leading counter-demonstrations against striking unions in France. Curiously, however, the story doesn't seem to be getting highlighted by the French media.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:35 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Corsica: Chirac calls for "yes" vote - on changing administrative structures and relationship with France.
Le Figaro: Reform of the C(ommon) A(gricultural) P(olicy), groans from the farmers.
Libé: Baudis as victim before the judge. He's in trouble in connection with the deaths of two prostitutes, but he's been allowed to directly challenge some key witnesses and accounts.
Ouest-France: Agriculture: An Agreement in Sorrow.
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posted by gbarto at 3:04 AM:
Strom Thurmond Dies at 100Thurmond was the nation's longest-serving senator in U.S. history and former 'Dixiecrat' candidate for the presidency
Sen. Lott was reportedly seen walking up and down Capitol corridors mumbling, "Now they're saying nice things about him, even Fritz Hollings, but when I say something nice..."
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Thursday, June 26, 2003
posted by gbarto at 10:31 AM:
Texas Gay Sex Ban Overturned6-3 ruling may have broad implications
I'm going to have to see more before I've got a solid read on this, but at first glance I think it's a good thing. Whatever your views on the morality of homosexuality, we really don't need a state or federal morals squad monitoring the conduct of consenting adults. If the Texas - or other - police really have time to enforce these things as serious laws, I see a really easy solution to freeing some money in the state budget.
Oh - and the story everyone's concerned about - the drunken, drugged out, man-dies-in-windshield was quite properly convicted.
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posted by gbarto at 10:26 AM:
William Saletan has a very sharp write-up on what's wrong with Howard Dean's foreign policy approach - its disdain for America and its conviction that Howard knows all. Saletan focuses on the problems of the second but I'd say the first is also pretty awful. Democrats like Dean - members of the Republic, Not an Empire set - have an awful lot in common with Pitchfork Pat, the first being severe delusion. US power is not going to evaporate, dissipate or cease to matter simply because someone doesn't want to use it. In a way, 9/11 was the wake-up call to Bush that his hope for US humility in foreign policy was misguided: It is the job of the big kids to look after the little kids, even the little snot-nosed Gallic ones, in just about every social arrangement to come down the pike, and we are quite properly stuck as leader of the free world and preeminent power in the world, a position that our basic humanity will only let us shirk so long, even without 9/11s. Dean's naïveté shows that as good as he sounds, he's not ready for prime time. Under our system, you can't become head of government without becoming head of state, and for a very essential state at that.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:18 AM:
Cicero has his own very nice summing up of the affirmative action decision.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:09 AM:
It's been noted before -Our [America's] democratic institutions' ages are measured in centuries, not decades. Our ideas about freedom have not of late known regular interruptions by absolute monarchs, emperors and dictators. We have not had dictatorships within living memories. The UK has the longest stop and start tradition of gradually increasing freedom in the world today. The US has the longest enduring written Constitution. France and Germany have governments built on the ashes of Hitler and Vichy.- but we can simply not fail to regulary remind Europe of its relative immaturity in the freedom and democracy biz if we wish to remain free of the delusion that cathedrals built with virtual slave labor give it civilizational superiority to the US. This time, Den Beste has a go, after the latest idiocies to issue forth from Romano Pradi.
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posted by gbarto at 2:36 AM:
Natalie Solent has a nice piece taking Richard Dawkins and all the others who associate atheism and intelligence down a needed peg. Too often, it seems, the atheists I meet somehow manage to believe there's still a Marxism out there somewhere that will work, that democratic capitalism is a blight on the earth and not their beloved evolutionary theory played out intra-societally and all sorts of other nonsense. While I respect atheists such as DenBeste, the Dawkins of the world, when they take this approach, remind me of nothing so much as the smug and self-serving Jerry Falwell, equally convinced of his own superiority.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:56 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: EU-US Summit: Appeasement and Disagreement. We seem to have agreed to disagree on just about everything except the need for Iran and N. Korea to not go nuclear.
Le Figaro: Consumption: The last growth engine stalls. The Minister of Commerce blames the strikes.
Libération: In Iraq, the post-war reversal - that has resulted in 56 US and 10 British deaths.
Ouest-France: Environmental Charter: Act I. Candidate Chirac's environmental reform has finally passed through the Council of Ministers. It sounds like another 10 years and it may get somewhere.
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posted by gbarto at 1:49 AM:
Hate to admit it, but the new blogger update system isn't half-bad. Haven't checked technical aspects, but the interface, at least, is nicer to work with than the old one.* * *
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:28 PM:
These are words one doesn't expect to see at the TurkeyBlog, so we'll see if the server can process them:Michael Kinsley's latest column really hits the mark. That column, on the Supreme Court's bizarre split-the-difference affirmative action decision, makes the point that too few seem to be making: The use of race in deciding college admissions - no matter the approach - will probably give some minorities admission at the expense of some white students. It doesn't matter whether you say, "Tony's got good marks, but Lester didn't do too badly and he's black so he's in," or "Tony's great, but there's something about Lester... he's just so darn ethnic." Either way, Lester gets a slot, Tony doesn't. And society is left with the question of whether this arrangement fulfills some higher purpose. Kinsley doesn't answer that question. He just leaves us with it, which is not unwise. After all, the mighty Supreme Court left us with it too. What the Supreme Court in effect said was, "We think affirmative action might be wrong but we're not sure so try not to be too obvious about it but keep at it in case it's okay." This puts the ball in the court of public opinion, to mix metaphors poorly.
If affirmative action serves a higher purpose, its proponents need to make the case for that higher purpose and loud and clear. If they're prepared to show Tony that having a black schoolmate will make his fellows so much better that he should take his losses for the good of society and that structural discrimination, lack thereof, etc, means he'll come out alright in the end, fine. If they wish to argue that Lester needs and deserves the break because of the wrong done him by society, fine. But to speak in fuzzy terms of diversity - as did the court - without really explaining how it justifies the harm to the Tonys of the world - is not acceptable, for it suggests that any public purpose, however nebulous, may ultimately serve as justificiation for individuals to lose their recognition as individuals. In their efforts to be tolerant but firm, the Supremes have been neither, instead setting the stage for a world that evermore resembles the one liberals so long deplored in which unexplained and inexplicable backroom decisions selectively included and excluded - and now the more inexplicable and unexplained, the better the issue of potential harm will be fuzzed. A bad day for the Supremes and an excellent demonstration by Kinsley of how much their decision did to skirt the fact it wasn't a decision at all.
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posted by gbarto at 2:31 AM:
Cicero is spot-on with his interpretation of events surrounding the woman who left a homeless man she'd hit stuck in her windshield until he died. Hitting him was an accident. Not getting him treatment was murder.I've been wondering, though. She had a friend come over who saw the situation and bailed, appalled at her friend's conduct - says she. Why didn't she call 911?
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posted by gbarto at 2:22 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Retirement: 4 articles adopted. As a result, those who began work before age 18 (in effect) will be able to retire before age 60.
Le Figaro: Israel Dragnet against Hamas in Hebron, where 150 Hamas supporters were rounded up.
Libération: Falling prices: The Killjoy Economists take all the fun out of sales, etc.
Ouest-France: Work longer? A real puzzle is getting the French to do so, their companies on board, etc., warns Ouest-France.
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posted by gbarto at 1:36 AM:
Father, Daughter Survive CapsizeMan evaluated after taking 11-year-old to sea to save her from 'poison gas'
And yes, he had gone off his medication. So again a reminder to all the folks who in one way or another have - or have a connection to someone with - mental illness. This is not a game. Pretending that ignoring it will make it go away, that difficult medicines need not be taken, that the person's "feeling fine" means treatment can be allowed to slip - all these hypocrisies, designed to help society engage in its own mental illness - massive self-delusion - carry consequences.
It is strange: We wouldn't tell a person with high blood pressure to eat fatty foods, stop exercising and quit taking their medication for the simple reason that doing so might kill them. Yet when it comes to mental illness, there's a crowd out there that thinks that it won't exist if they don't believe in it so they can fix it by cutting off treatment, taking away medication and telling people to just deal. Sadly, a certain number, already bothered by side effects of the drugs or anguish over what's coming out in therapy, decide to play along. A fair number of these kill themselves when it doesn't work. This is called moral weakness by those who so loved them that they "rescued" them from treatment.
Let's hope for a day when our backwardness about mental illness has receded enough that people show the same concern for the Benjamin DeLillas of the world and their treatment that they show for the colleague who just had heart surgery or radiation therapy. Left untreated, heart problems, cancer and mental illness all ultimately prove quite devastatingly fatal. In this case, the third almost proved fatal for two people, something the first two can't really pull off. So if this story becomes a topic of discussion, let's do something new and be grownups about it for a change. Pointing fingers, tut-tutting and being outraged at DeLilla's conduct makes for good tv but it does nothing to solve the central problem: How can we claim there's no excuse for his behavior while remaining silent as the no-such-thing-as-mental-illness fruitcakes give him and his lot every excuse in the book for not doing what really needs to be done to correct it?
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Tuesday, June 24, 2003
posted by gbarto at 3:28 AM:
French news top headlines:Le Monde: Israel: Arrests and Possible Retreat from Gaza.
Le Figaro: Mujaheddin: The Map of Paris that Intrigues Police and Justice. Specifically, they are intrigued as to why the map was in the midst of communications equipment and several million bucks if the group meant Paris no harm. Presumably, they weren't running a side operation coaching their brethren on avoiding Rivoli at peak times.
Libé: Extension of Domain of Criminality has some worried about where the government is headed.
Ouest-France: Now it's not breaking news anymore: Plane crash at Brest, 1 dead, 23 escaped.
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posted by gbarto at 3:12 AM:
Split Decision on Affirmative ActionUMich law school admissions upheld, undergraduate policy struck down
So diversity considerations are allowed, but not to the extent that any affirmative action process goes. It's been called a "balanced" ruling which means you know it's a mess. You can see which of your oxen got gored to determine what part is a mess and why. Something to displease everyone in its efforts to please everyone.
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posted by gbarto at 3:04 AM:
Blix Criticizes U.S. on Iraq's WMDSays U.S. rushed 'smoking gun' declarations, acted on shaky evidence
Says Blix, "What we determined is that there was no threat whatsoever except one just great enough to justify paying my full team full-time but certainly not one great enough to act on."
Or maybe I made that up.
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posted by gbarto at 3:01 AM:
I'm told an e-mail is making the rounds that claims to be from Best Buy and claims to need all your credit card information. If you get one of them, don't answer it. In fact, if you get an e-mail from anybody that asks for credit card info you'd best be on your guard. If you have questions, you can send details about your available credit to turkey@gbarto.com and I'll let you know if you're financially secure (joking and if you did you might not be!).* * *
Monday, June 23, 2003
posted by gbarto at 3:56 AM:
Choice piece by Natalie Solent on Britain's National Health Service. Plus the brightest thought I've heard in a long time about the Middle East peace process.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:50 AM:
Ouch! Pro-abortion activists are outraged that pro-lifers may have given a woman financial incentive to keep her baby. Marcus has the perfect rejoinder.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:45 AM:
A Dog's Life has the right take on Dems' decision to support affirmative action even if the Supreme Court rules against it.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:41 AM:
Four Palestinians Killed in GazaU.S., others warn Israel targeting militants could undermine 'road map'
Huh? I think it's the militants undermining the roadmap. And a Palestinian leadership that has screamed bloody murder about its authority but never exercised said authority to bring the militants under control. Israel's answer should be short and sweet: "We will not attack any of these men so long as they are in Palestinian prisons where they belong."
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posted by gbarto at 3:38 AM:
Hmm. So Baath is as noble as the Palestinians:U.S. Troops in Iraq Targeted in Ambush Involving 12-Year-Old Girl
She was carrying an assault rifle.
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posted by gbarto at 3:33 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Historic Visit of Indian Head of State to China. It's the first visit in ten years. On the menu: borders in dispute in the Himalayas.
Le Figaro: handing out error messages again
Libération: José Bové "Bastilled". The left is ticked; Chirac is supposed to decide on clemency soon. Bové leads a group of radical farmers that vandalizes and occasionally destroys sites such as McDonald's that his group deems inimical to their agenda. How this goes will be as symbolic as anything of whether nostalgia for May '68 means anything goes in the world of protest or whether law and order will prevail. As such, Chirac's decision should be a guide for the left as to whether to pick up the protests against his reforms or give up on it.
Ouest-France: Nantes-Brest flight crashes at midnight near Guipvas. Pilot killed, five of 24 on board injured. Fortunately a door popped open on impact and most got out before the plane caught fire.
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Sunday, June 22, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:32 AM:
Here come your French news headlines:Le Monde: Raffarin-Sarkozy: The Fiasco of the Corsica Effort. The two came to Corsica pushing a referendum but couldn't meet due to protests at airport.
Ouest-France: Raffarin and Sarkozy heckled in Corsica. Same deal.
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posted by gbarto at 2:23 AM:
Well, Blogger certainly looks different now, in the editing window. Whether it's good or bad is a trickier matter. In any case, we seem to be back in the world.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:21 AM:
Yesterday we wrote:posted by gbarto on Friday night, June 20-1, 2003
Oh, the joys of blogger! It's down at the moment. It says they're probably working on it when it says anything at all. Mayhap I shall have to fuss with the MT movement too. We shall see. In the meantime, here's tonight's content:
Item: Union Pacific shareholders are recommended to trim their holdings starting yesterday:
Lumber Train Derails Near L.A.
Thirteen people hurt, homes damaged after cars break loose in switching yard
Item: The US Forest Service has done its usual bang-up job. Homes burning left and right in forested mountains around Mount Lemmon. Hasn't anyone told them you're supposed to take out the dead wood?
Ariz. Fire May Take Weeks to Contain
Blaze roaring through town near Tucson burns 250 houses
And everybody's favorite - The French news headlines:
Le Monde: Powell calls on Hamas to put a stop to terrorism.
Le Figaro: Giscard's European Success. He just got a Constitution started and has been widely fêted. But he isn't going to Eurodisney.
Libération: Raffarin and Sarkozy Scramble For Yeses on the Sécurité Sociale reforms under consideration.
Ouest-France: The Giscard Constitution: A good foundation.
Incidentally, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was Président de la République française before Mitterand.
The red text should now be in the blogger system.
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