Monday, January 5, 2009
Old Warhorse’s 2008 Reads
My pal Larry Gwin, the literary combat vet who apparently uses his time a lot more wisely than I do, reads and recommends from a wide bookshelf. They weren’t all published in 2008, that’s just when he read them: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:33 am Comments (0)
Heil Hamas!
Gaza roundup kicks off with Nazis and Hamas, as Hitler scholar Ron Rosenbaum at PJM compares and contrasts. Hamas gets points for honesty. Meanwhile, the hated Zionist entity gets points for greater humanitarian concerns and practices than the WWII Allies. OK, news via JPost: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:44 am Comments (3)
20 Most Annoying Libs of 2008
It’s 7th annual roundup at Right Wing News. It’s a great list. I don’t think I’d order it exactly the same way he did, but it’s noteworthy that Obama doesn’t top the list. That campaign, the artful dodging, the race-baiting, the Messianicism not withstanding, he may have earned his way off the “Most Annoying” list in the last six weeks or so with his efforts to make the “Most Annoying To Libs” list in 2009. Meanwhile, I’m not sure I’d call Biden “annoying.” More like “entertaining.” Also, I thought Obama’s veep choice demonstrated how fundamentally gutless, uninspired and cravenly conventional the president-elect is, and I appreciated that.
Meanwhile, Malkin with some of the conservative blogosphere’s greatest hits of 2008.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:19 am Comments (0)
New Deal
It isn’t exactly change you can believe in, but here’s the deal. It’s new. Obama has advanced from trying to be like Bush to trying to outdo him. WSJ, $300 billion tax-cut plan: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:12 am Comments (1)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Roundup From The Ground Up
The great news arrived overnight, which is that Israel is (still) ignoring the handwringers (even more). What’s Hebrew for MYOB? I dunno, but “ground invasion” works. Washington Post kicks off the quick roundup with the first Israeli ground casualty, as the IDF moves in to bisect northern and southern Gaza and target missile launch sites. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:25 pm Comments (3)
Good Jobs At Good Wages
With a pay hike for the pols who helped bollix your economy. Barney Frank admits a twinge of guilt. About the raise, not helping to bollix your economy, that is. Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:23 pm Comments (1)
Right = Wrong
This year’s Great American Think-Off is looking for people to convincingly answer the question, “Is It Ever Wrong to Do the Right Thing?”
Diabolically clever, designed to spur debate of the Bush legacy, I’d guess. Though that question would properly be posed, “Is it is right to do the wrong thing?” My own quick answer to their question is, “Al Gore.” All he ever wanted to do was save the world, after all. But it’s wrong to do that as a means of self-aggrandizement, when the world doesn’t need saving, and your efforts to do so are idiotic and economically dangerous, serving mainly to further bad science, cynical activism and other political opportunism, and you manage to drag down the world’s most esteemed honors committee with you. But I digress.
Entry details:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:57 am Comments (0)
Friday, January 2, 2009
Save Us …
From those who would save us from ourselves! Connecticut lawmaker wants to bail out failing newspapers. Reuters: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:12 am Comments (6)
We Regret To Inform
The sheikh won’t be down for pita bread. JPost with the news, plus assorted product links of the hated Zionist entity: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:16 am Comments (2)
NK New Year
Kim Jong Il’s terror, extortion and subjugation apparatus sucks up to Obama. via Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:15 am Comments (1)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
About
New Year’s Day is a time for reflection, a time for charting new courses. I’ve advanced beyond weight-loss concerns … which is to say I’ve accepted a moderate middle-aged paunch and could give a damn. Like the gray beard, length of tooth and wrinkles, I’ve earned it. But I don’t know whether anyone entirely advances beyond self-image issues, and I’m thinking about my “About.”
As you may know, I’ve mocked Glenn Greenwald’s extensive, self-aggrandizing “About” once or twice. He’s published this, he’s been admired for that, he’s been extensively quoted here and there, blah blah blah. What does it really tell you about the man … or in his case, the mournful-looking Gumby-like figure? A fair amount, actually. Vain, vainglorious, pompous, self-important. But aside from that, what does it really tell you about the mournful Gumby-like figure?
I’m thinking now my own “About” is a little sparse. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:59 pm Comments (9)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year
2008 is coming to an end. A wretched year overall, but you know me, eternal optimist, glass half full, all that. I’m coming out of it feeling pretty good. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:33 am Comments (5)
Top Gun: Gay Epic
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Quentin Tarantino at YouTube explains all. Via Jonah Goldberg at The Corner. Looks like this thing’s been around for a while, and a co-worker now tells me SNL did a gay Top Gun skit with Val Kilmer, but it’s new to me. All this time I thought Top Gun was just a manly movie about men … manly men … wearing towels in locker rooms … flying around with large missiles strapped on … firing up their afterburners … and as Tarantino explains, a chick who dresses like a dude and tries to lure the hero away from the gay way.
By the way, if you consider yourself to be a heterosexual male and enjoyed Top Gun, thinking you were watching a macho manly man movie about fighter pilots, and are now questioning your sexual orientation, here’s the Other McCain’s preference test.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:32 am Comments (0)
Early Non-Voter Turn-In High
BREAKING: The British are with us in this one. One of my closest allies, Theo Spark, assures me he won’t vote for this site and is counseling his readers not to do the same.* Thanks Theo! He’s the kind of guy you can count on when you need him, always with a cheery smile, we will fight them on the beaches, all that. (Speaking of fighting them on the beaches, he’s got your important news-related Australian topless beach totty.)
Meanwhile, in support of non-popularity, unrigged, rules-adherent contests, I might break my personal contest-participation ban and respond to John Hawkins’ invitation to join other conservative bloggers and vote in the 7th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards at Right Wing News. Especially now that I know I have a pal on the jury. No money in this thing? (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:09 am Comments (0)
French Humanitarianism
UPDATE: VOA now reporting: Ceasefire rejected. Allah be praised.
Israel has rejected an immediate 48-hour cease-fire with Hamas, saying it will push ahead with its military assault on the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense and foreign ministers made the decision after discussing the French-proposed truce during a meeting overnight.
Earlier:
Is there a reason why anyone would take this French idea of a 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire … or any French war advice whatsoever … seriously? Ha’aretz kicks off the news on the disturbing splits between PM Olmert and Defense Minister Barak, Barak and top Israeli command, and long-term ceasefire considerations: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:20 am Comments (3)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Boob Vs. Boobs
Shocking news of my ancestral island via Jawa. NSW MP Fred Nile wants to ban topless sunbathing on Sydney’s beaches to avoid offending Muslim men. It’s a blanket boob ban that would burkha the beaches Down Under. Sydney Morning Herald. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:48 pm Comments (1)
All The News That’s Fit To Sue
It would be pretty funny, I mean tragic, if this $27 million defamation suit by DC lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman, over the NY’s famously gutless insinuations of an affair with John McCain the newspaper didn’t have the facts to actually report … (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:20 pm Comments (1)
Best Individual Blog 2008 Finalist
Very flattering, and thanks are in order to those of you who kindly nominated this site. However …
(IMPORTANT NON-VOTE RUNNING TALLY BELOW)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:43 pm Comments (1)
Boneheaded New World
The modern battlespace is a trip. Roundup starts with important news of boneheaded meddlers, trying to run the blockade into Gaza, encountering difficulties. Atlanta Journal Constitution: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:05 pm Comments (2)
Righteous Noise Facilitation
If you’re interested in that kind of thing. Discussion of iPod listening options and hearing-loss issues starts with the Boston Herald’s recommendation of the Stillwater iKick iK500 as the booming best of the iPod speakers at $250: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:00 am Comments (1)
Wrongful Hurtfulness
Iowahawk, cruel bastard, mocks the poor semi-literate document-challenged Americans who toil earnestly to provide ease and comfort for the American icon also known as Caroline Kennedy. And you know what, I’m going to tell that cornshucking pig-feeder he should be ashamed of himself, once I stop laughing my ass off at his low-blow hayseed humor, Senora Kennedy Is Make Very Good Senator. Especially this part: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:51 am Comments (3)
Agincourt
Bernard Cornwell of Sharpe’s Rifles fame* tackles it. Jay Fitzgerald of Hubblog fame got the Herald’s review copy of Cornwell’s latest, Agincourt. Awaiting review. Meanwhile, here’s Henry V, via Shakespeare: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:20 am Comments (1)
Monday, December 29, 2008
So, What Next?
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants “war to the bitter end.” Hamas is on the run, its terrorist infrastructure and personnel being blown to bits as we speak. All good, but at the end of the day, all that gets you is a pile of rubble and a bunch of dead terrorists, international condemnation, and you start all over again.
So, what next? (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 pm Comments (2)
“War To The Bitter End”
Promises Israel’s defense minister re Gaza. I thought that was what Lebanon and prior incursions in Gaza were about. via Yahoo. In any case, the IDF is making it personal, taking out Hamas symbols of power.
Gateway rounds up the news with art, and adds this through-the-looking-glass news from Mosul: Israel blamed for suicide bmob at pro-Hamas rally.
Speaking of war to the bitter end, NYT examines Obama’s foreign policy, whatever that is. So far, the good news is he’s not only stopped bashing Bush’s, he’s adopted it. I like this part: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:58 am Comments (8)
Info Wars
Castle Argghhh!!! with a thoughtful post on how the battle goes in Afghanistan, what the Taliban doesn’t want you to know, true martyrdom and the soft underbelly of democracies in a long war.
Related, Dilegge at Small Wars Journal with All Counterinsurgency is Local.
SWJ also points to what looks like an interesting milblog, Building Peace, and this thoughtful rave recommendation of a post on Nagl’s Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:40 am Comments (0)
10,000 Geeks
Are the key to the GOP’s future. That’s techno-geeks, willing to learn politics, not politico-nerds, of which there is never any shortage. Mark Tapscott at the DC Examiner channels Red State’s Erickson and The Next Right’s Ruffini on the importance of techies to political movements: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 am Comments (2)
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Earnestly Wrung Hands
Glenn Greenwald: Killing people is wrong, and it is reprehensible that anyone would blindly support Israel’s efforts to get Hamas to stop doing it. Israelis out of Israel now! At least I think that’s what he’s saying.
American media opinionator Greg Mitchell at HuffPo, silent on missiles coming out of Gaza, decries American media opinion silence on missiles going back into Gaza. Mitchell praises the fact that Israel has a robust free press, which examines and criticizes its government’s actions. Unlike Gaza, where critics are thrown off rooftops. Mitchell fails to note any opinion supporting government.
This one might be the best. Steve Clemons at the Washington Note on this early test of the Obama administration: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 4:12 pm Comments (9)
Gotcha
Fooling Hamas … how hard could it possibly be? That was “Beat the stuff out of Hamas,” not “eat lots of stuff with hummus.”
OK, OK, killing terrorists is serious business. News and commentary roundup starts with Ha’aretz on the careful planning and critical deception campaign that reportedly preceded the current operation, with the desired effect of catching a lot of them right where they wanted them. No “How many Palestinian terrorists does it take to get blown up by the IDF” jokes please: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:51 am Comments (7)
It’s A Jerry Springer Christmas!
“Heath Blom wanted a remote-controlled airplane for Christmas, and not the Wii,” said (Portsmouth, N.H. Police) Sgt. Kuffer Kaltenborn.
Words led to blows. Mutual assault charges on Mr. Blom and his beloved, Ms. Randi Young, ensued. Boston Herald.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:50 am Comments (1)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Fifth Estate
Reynolds, lacking fire, has a typically dispassionate sneaker party all over a Star-Ledger scribbler who can’t tell punditry from reporting and apparently isn’t aware how indispensible Internet freelancers have become to people who actually want to know what is happening in war zones. For example. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:14 pm Comments (5)
Amazon Bestseller
The 2009 Sarah Palin Calendar. As seen on Instapundit! Get yours here.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 2:31 pm Comments (0)
George Bush, Liberator
Considering that it’s published in the UK, the Telegraph is a great American newspaper. Today, hosting Nile Gardiner on the vision and action of the much-reviled George Bush, champion of western values: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:16 am Comments (12)
Tragedy
There’s a lot of it raining down on Gaza, as the Palestinian experiment in democracy continues. Yesterday, the news was two Palestinian schoolgirls killed, when missiles intended for Israeli schoolchildren fell short. The lede on the Globe and Mail’s wire rewrite says it all:
JERUSALEM — Two Palestinian girls were killed yesterday by Palestinian rockets intended for Israel that fell short of their target as Israel eased the blockade of Gaza to allow essential aid to enter.
Today, reports of Palestinian dead are up to 155 as Israel retaliates, via FOX. No word on who they voted for, but read on and you’ll see Israel appears to be carefully targeting Hamas voters … ward bosses, get-out-the-vote thugs, party appartachiks, the Provisional wing or Waffen Hamas, if you will. NYT’s eerily familiar art suggests it’s only a matter of time before the green helmet guy or one of his colleagues shows up with war crimes evidence: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:29 am Comments (13)
Work Twice As Hard
That’s Caroline’s promise, if “selected.”
“Anybody who knows me knows I haven’t really lived that way. And I think that in my family, I come into this thinking I have to work twice as hard as anybody else. Nobody’s entitled to anything, certainly not me.”
My first thought was, twice as hard as other Kennedys? They do work hard, when they work. Not necessarily to good ends. Twice as hard as other hack pols? (Whose greatest effort generally goes into fundraising, not exactly a problem for her. More time for troublemaking*) Or twice as hard as the rest of us peasants? Don’t be ridiculous. What I liked best about the AP interview was that it was conducted at a common eatery, where Caroline dined upon a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, with a big pile of fries in front of her, much as any Jerry Springer viewer might. Deliciously fattening symbolism, the wedding of tabloidism and lefty political hackery. Anyway, here’s Howie Carr, cruelly: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 am Comments (1)
Friday, December 26, 2008
Top Story of 2009
Now taking predictions. My own favorite is: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:55 am Comments (5)
Top Stories of 2008
Here’s the Associated Press list, from its poll of U.S. news editors: Obama; Economic Meltdown; Oil Prices; Iraq; Beijing Olympics; Chinese Olympics; Sarah Palin; Mumbai Terrorism; Hillary Clinton; Russia-Georgia War.
Sounds more or less OK on its face, but the devil as usual is in the details. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:14 am Comments (0)
Glum Season!
No holiday cheer for the commercialized Christmas sector. No worries, nothing a bailout can’t fix! WSJ first: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:41 am Comments (1)
Bad Dog!
… is good at what he does. Furry thief caught on surveillance vid entering a Utah supermarket, trotting straight to aisle 16 — Pets — and grabbing a rawhide bone. Brazen thief defied a store manager who ordered him to “drop it!” So how did the pooch know where the pet section was? Wouldn’t the meat section be a more logical draw? I guess all that pet food must put off a strong pong. Either that or this endearing tale is a setup. KSL-TV: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:24 am Comments (3)
Bearing Gifts
Bay State pols await the goods from the incoming Messiah admin. Three kings = Deval Patrick, Ted Kennedy and … John Kerry. The perennially dissed Kerry, poor little rich boy, in robes on a camel coming in with a load of myrrh? Maybe having a say who in gets local fed jobs is a consolation prize. Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:04 am Comments (1)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Alternative X’Mas!
Brit twits at Channel 4 give Ahmadinejad the alternative Christmas “seasonal goodwill” message. Art via Israel Matzav who notes “these multi-culti dhimmis just won’t get it until a nuclear missile hits them in their rear ends.” News starts with UK Telegraph: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 6:04 pm Comments (2)
Happy New Year?
Afghan counterinsurgency plans in the works. Dexter Filkins on plans to form local militias against the Taliban. NYT: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:58 am Comments (0)
And A Merrier Christmas To Some …
It’s a Christmas miracle for the Salvos! Because when the going gets tough, Americans get giving. Boston Herald: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:52 am Comments (2)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
We Wish You A Merry Christmas …
… And a HE New Year! Royal Marines got into the spirit of giving after their festive caroling was interrupted in Afghanistan last year. Daily Mail: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:42 pm Comments (1)
¡Ay Caramba!
Mexican beauty queen caught in an SUV full of suspected gangbangers, guns, ammo and cash. Senorita Sinaloa 2008, aka Miss Hispanoamerica 2008, thought she was going shopping. Latin American Herald Tribune: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:30 pm Comments (3)
More Myths & Facts
About the Bush era. Ed Gillespie at RCP. Raise your hand if you think history will ever get it right. Raise your other hand if you think the Democratic (re)adoption of Bush’s war strategy gets checked as a win in the Bush column or the Obama column.
Memo to Matthew Yglesias: being stupid and dishonest while accusing someone of being stupid and dishonest doesn’t advance your argument. I assume this message, being in safe Bush-bashing territory, is Think Progress-approved, by the way.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:38 am Comments (0)
Pect Diplomacy
Anyone think Obama doesn’t want the world to know he’s been doing pushups? Some crunches, too, by the look of it. Washington Post reports on the Secret Service’s failure to prevent this breach of national security. (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:52 am Comments (2)
Opinion Unfit To Print
Or honest narrative rejected? Bill Owens and Pajamas Media on NYT’s refusal to run an FBI undercover Weather Underground infiltrating agent’s response to Bill Ayers’ flaming NYT op-ed crock:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:07 am Comments (1)
War Is Hell
But stateside’s a mofo. Ancient jarhead wisdom echoed by one soldier’s gripe, “Typical — ya got to a war zone and all of a sudden a garrison breaks out …” I’ve got one. Sgt Maj. Oggs telling us to pick up our MRE trash in the desert when we emptied out the track during a midnight halt in a dayslong road march. I know you’re not supposed to leave traces for the enemy to find but that 10-mile-long armored column was kind of hard to miss. Then, there’s leaving only treadmarks, taking only lives … no, that’s not how that goes. Leaving Iraq a better place than we found it. Never mind, I don’t want to get into that again … anyway, Smitty and Baxter picked that crap up so we could throw it away later when Sgt. Maj Oggs wasn’t around.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:05 am Comments (0)
Kumbayah, My Whatever
I was getting ready to snark on this Melissa Etheridge post at Huffpo, as heartfelt celeb activist statements are eminently snarkable. But it actually seems to represent a sincere effort to bridge divides, understand others, and get away from labeling everyone a homophobe who doesn’t like the way a handful of judges are reordering society … to include some gays who feel like they are being dragged into a banzai charge they don’t agree with, up a hill they don’t particularly care about or intend to hold. All of those links worth the read. Now here’s the snark: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:44 am Comments (0)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sharia Fort Dix Verdict …
… al-Hijinks! Apparently the Crusader jury got it wrong when it found the Fort Dix Five guilty of conspiracy to murder American soldiers. AP helpfully plays “Ask the Imam.” via Newsday: (more…)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:46 pm Comments (2)
