FIFO

Melanie Phillips relates the story of a British Liberal whose eyes are “ruthlessly descaled“, and offers an explaination for Britain’s descent into dhimmitude.

Is there any sight more affecting that that of the British liberal whose eyes have just been ruthlessly descaled? As has been said in another context, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Unfortunately large parts of Britain have long lost sight of rationality when it comes to the war against the free world. The fact that it has taken so long for someone of the calibre of David Goodhart finally to question what Ramadan is saying — and even now to plead with him for reassurance that the Guardian article was really just an aberration and that Goodhart can go back to believing in fairies — shows the extent of the problem.

Remember — Britain was, historically, first into the age of reason; and so often, first in is first out.

Don’t cry before you’re hurt

Good advice from Christopher Hitchens, who is really on his game about Islamic Rage Boy.

I wonder if the kid is kin to Green Helmet. Just two players in the Islamic Grievance Theatre troupe?

Drilling for Justice

Michael Yon has his latest dispatch up. Michael Ledeen thinks this is a tacit endorsement of Bloomberg by al Qaeda:

The AQI installed Sharia court had sanctioned the amputation of the two “smoking fingers” for those who violated anti-smoking laws.

And Instapundit had the same reaction.
The “Drilling” in the title refers to a favorite power tool technique used in al Qaeda torture chambers.

Oh, wait. I forgot. There is no al Qaeda in Iraq.

Ten Ways Hillary Can Be Bought

This is the kind of vital political research only the blogosphere can provide.

(Hat tip: Dr. Molpus.)

Fred’s Exes Exult

I don’t think I’ve ever read a story like this about anybody, much less a politician.

“It says a lot about his character that his ex-wife and ex-girlfriends think he is fabulous,” said Mosbacher. “Character is important in a president.”

Alzheimer’s Hope

Drudge linked to a story about a trial of a therapeutic vaccine.

Early tests showed the vaccine is highly effective at breaking up the sticky protein that clogs the brain in Alzheimer’s, destroying vital connections between brain cells.

When the jab was given to mice suffering from a disease similar to Alzheimer’s, 80 per cent of the patches of amyloid protein were broken up.

The vaccine is now being tried out on 60 elderly Swedish patients in the early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s. Half of the men and women are being given the vaccine while half are being given dummy jabs.

Although the year-long trial is designed to show that the treatment is safe, the researchers will also look at its effect on the patients’ symptoms.

While the results are not due until early next year, the initial findings are promising. Dr Renner told a Zurich conference earlier this week: “I am glad to report that the vaccine is very well tolerated.”

Novartis is apparently setting up a trial here. That must be the study behind the recruiting commercials I’ve heard on local radio.

I really hope it works. Alzheimer’s scares me more than cancer. I could face death if I could still be me.

This is the Enemy

What do the brave representatives of the Religion of Peace do in Afghanistan?

Gun down little school girls.

Next time some idiot lefty wants to use “brave” and “Islam” in the same sentence, just remind them of this.

Update:
They don’t do that to little boys, though. No, sir. The brave Jihadis turn little boys into suicide bombers.

I’m running out of invective.

Fred Gets Federalism

Every time I read something like this I get closer to pardoning him for his one anticonstitutional vote for McCain/Feingold. He writes of malpractice insurance reform in Texas, and concludes:

So many doctors have now requested Texas medical licenses that thousands are backlogged and an emergency appropriations was passed to help the Texas Medical Board speed up their processing. Now, other states are considering similar legislation to stop the loss of their own doctors to Texas. I consider this a small but important victory for the principles of Federalism.

No wonder Klo finds Fred Fever in Washington.

Arrowhead Ripper

The Pentagon has their own news feed. And Michael Yon reports that while local Iraqi leadership in Baqubah is a mess, and the military’s PAO (Public Affairs Office) might as well be run by local Iraqis, our guys are winning. Al Qaeda in Baqubah is being given two choices: Surrender, or die. Perhaps the most surprizing part of the report is that several MSM reporters are actually getting it right.

Sulzberger Math

“Full Page Ad” means full page ad, even if the page is shrinking.

In the jargon of strategic consulting, this sort of price increase, asset liquidation and quality cut is known as “milking a cash cow” and indicates that a company is “harvesting” a business – realizing that it has no growth prospects, and that its role is to provide cash to invest in other more promising ventures. How long the business will limp along is anyone’s guess. People still buy The Farmer’s Almanac today.

If this post had a music track, it would be played on the world’s smallest violin.

Indoctrinate U

I’ve blogged about this documentary before. Please take a minute to request a screening at a local theatre, and get a couple of other people to do it, too.

According to an email from the IU folks, reviews are very positive from their advance screenings. They just need to get a lot of names to dangle in front of distributors. This is not the sort of project Hollywood will support without prodding.

Senator Lott is ready for his close-up, Mr. DeMille

I didn’t think it was possible to go beyond being a parody of a stupid Senator. Lott has shown me the light.

Police need to remember who they work for

Namely, us. And we should be allowed to record them, audio and/or video, any time they are on duty.

There’s been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it’s a disturbing development. Last year, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly threatened Internet activist Mary T. Jean with arrest and felony prosecution for posting a video to her website of state police swarming a home and arresting a man without a warrant.

Arrowhead Ripper, Day 1

Michael Yon has a brief, but encouraging, dispatch.

The heat is intense for the enemy and for us. Soldiers, during any chance, would lay-down during the heat of day, and in complete body armor and helmets, fall asleep in the dirt. I took photos of course. Our guys are tough. The enemy in Baqubah is as good as any in Iraq, and better than most. That’s saying a lot. But our guys have been systematically trapping them, and have foiled some big traps set for our guys. I don’t want to say much more about that, but our guys are seriously outsmarting them. Big fights are ahead and we will take serious losses probably, but al Qaeda, unless they find a way to escape, are about to be slaughtered. Nobody is dropping leaflets asking them to surrender. Our guys want to kill them, and that’s the plan.

A positive indicator on the 19th and the 20th is that most local people apparently are happy that al Qaeda is being trapped and killed. Civilians are pointing out IEDs and enemy fighters, so that’s not working so well for al Qaeda. Clearly, I cannot do a census, but that says something about the locals.

Also, note the 30:1 kill ratio. That’s more like it. Go for 100, guys!

I knew the MSM would want to help the enemy

but I didn’t think they’d take such direct action.

Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: “Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below.”

The Battle of Iraq

Bill Roggio has details. The best news is that it seems we’re finally going to deal with that mutt Sadr.

The Iraqi government and Multinational Forces Iraq are sending a clear message to Sadr: when the fighting against al Qaeda is finished, the Iranian backed elements of the Mahdi Army are next on the list if they are not disbanded. Also, the Iraqi military and Multinational Forces Iraq possesses enough forces to take on Sadr’s militia if they attempt to interfere with current operations.

Wendy’s vs. Nurse Bloomberg

Lileks kills.

Global warming

Or Global cooling?

People who live here in the Bay Area figured out the solution years ago.

Dress in layers.

Compare and Contrast

Fred:

For years, CAIR has claimed to represent millions of American Muslims. In fact, they claim to represent more Muslim in American than … there are in America. This has alarmed Americans in general as the group often seems to be more aligned with our enemies than us — which isn’t surprising as it spun off from a group funded by Hamas. As you know, Hamas has been waging a terrorist war against Israel and calls for its total destruction. It also promises to see America destroyed. Nowadays, Hamas is busy murdering its Palestinian political rivals.

Bush:

The Bush administration is quietly weighing the prospect of reaching out to the party that founded modern political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood.

So not only is the Bush Doctrine dead, its putative author can’t even remember what it was for.

Saluting Bravery

We need more ex-Muslims like these.

The Chicken Little Agenda

I heard an interview with the author this morning on KSFO. The book sounds like it could be a handy resource for worry-worts. His story about how the “ozone hole” bugaboo got started was pretty funny.

Short version: An assistant to Jack Anderson didn’t understand that the McMurdoe scientists were pulling his leg.

First, God created idiots.

That was just for practice. Then he created school boards.

Mark Twain saw our day.

Fred Spanks Harry

Firmly.

Partition Iraq?

Withdrawing now, and chopping it up into regions won’t end the war; it’ll create several new ones, according to Donald Horowitz.

It is of course still possible to argue that withdrawal is preferable to an open-ended involvement, on the grounds that the high costs to us of involvement exceed the high costs of withdrawal. But the opposite position–which happens to be mine–is also tenable: The consequences of withdrawal are worse than the costs of continuing involvement. That is where the debate should be joined, based on a careful assessment of the comparative advantages of each course and of middle courses, such as partial withdrawal. That would be a serious debate, rather than the vacuous one that Congress has so far engaged in. Is it too much to ask that Congress rise to the occasion, as it did during the Cold War, and get serious about assessing the interests of our country?

Too much to ask of this congress?

More on the offensive

A good post at Confederate Yankee warns

Once reality slowly dawns on the media that they are misunderestimating the scope and scale of the assault, steel yourself for a rush of inaccuracies as they seek to get something, anything published, much of it based upon rumor, some of it based upon outright propaganda and lies.

Good call. I think we can depend on a counter-assault from the MSM before AQ scores many kills.

Just when you thought the UN couldn’t get any lower

There are no words.

The Doctor Is In

Michael Yon has posted the first of his promised dispatches. Petraeus is the doctor, and major surgery is underway.

The enemy will try to herd us into their traps, and likely many of us will be killed before it ends. Already, they have been blowing up bridges, apparently to restrict our movements. Entire buildings are rigged with explosives. They have rockets, mortars, and bombs hidden in places they know we are likely to cross, or places we might seek cover. They will use human shields and force people to drive bombs at us. They will use cameras and make it look like we are ravaging the city and that they are defeating us. By the time you read this, we will be inside Baquba, and we will be killing them. No secrets are spilling here.

Our jets will drop bombs and we will use rockets. Helicopters will cover us, and medevac our wounded and killed. By the time you read this, our artillery will be firing, and our tanks moving in. And Humvees. And Strykers. And other vehicles. Our people will capture key terrain and cutoff escape routes. The idea this time is not to chase al Qaeda out, but to trap and kill them head-on, or in ambushes, or while they sleep. When they are wounded, they will be unable to go to hospitals without being captured, and so their wounds will fester and they will die painfully sometimes. It will be horrible for al Qaeda. Horror and terrorism is what they sow, and tonight they will reap their harvest. They will get no rest. They can only fight and die, or run and try to get away. Nobody is asking for surrender, but if they surrender, they will be taken.

We will go in on foot and fight from house to house if needed. We will shoot rockets into their hiding spaces, and our snipers will shoot them in their heads and chests. This is where all that talk of cancer and big ideas of what should be or could be done will smash head on against the searing reality of combat.

These words flow on the eve of a great battle, but are on hold until the attack is well underway. Nothing is certain. I am here and have been all year. We are in trouble, but we have a great General. The only one, I have long believed, who can lead the way out of this morass. Iraq is not hopeless. Iraq can stand again but first it must cast off these demons. And some of the demons must be killed.

Mock the Jihad

National Lampoon wants to know if they should make a movie called 72 Virgins.

(Warning: Some crude humor. But it’s all at the expense of the Jihadis, so there you go.)

A Load of Hooey

Science is science.

Consensus is politics.

Bryson is a scientist.

You do the math.

Reid Bryson, known as the father of scientific climatology, considers global warming a bunch of hooey.

The UW-Madison professor emeritus, who stands against the scientific consensus on this issue, is referred to as a global warming skeptic. But he is not skeptical that global warming exists, he is just doubtful that humans are the cause of it.

There is no question the earth has been warming. It is coming out of the “Little Ice Age,” he said in an interview this week.

“However, there is no credible evidence that it is due to mankind and carbon dioxide. We’ve been coming out of a Little Ice Age for 300 years. We have not been making very much carbon dioxide for 300 years. It’s been warming up for a long time,” Bryson said.

Military Motivator

Black Five (which turns four years old today – congrats!) found some really funny stuff.