Weird thought

It’s late. Apologize in advance, but here’s a modest proposal:

In a war on radical islam, one tool we could invent that would absolutely destroy the backwards, 7th century jihadi nations would be a birth control pill that prevented conception of a female baby only. I dunno how it would work, maybe the guy takes it.

But give it a few years and there’d be no women at all in jihadi country. Unless such a pill was haram for some reason.

Sorry, it’s late. Comments welcome though.

Brokeback Madrassas?

Who knew?

Tamale link

Curse you, Elzbth. I was keeping the weight off, dammit!

Recipe link here.

Conger, does this look right?

On the Thailand Coup

Adventures of Chester points out something interesting:

News reports indicate that there were a number of reasons why Thailand’s military decided to overthrow Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last week, but the most interesting among them was a disappointment with his strategy toward the Muslim insurgency in the south.

Read the whole thing.

Russell Crowe to play Steve Irwin

I’m with Ace. I don’t see it. But, that is why they call it acting.

Anyone want to take bets that the trailer music will be Midnight Oil “Beds are Burning” or Big Country’s “In a Big Country”?

Senior Al-Qaida leader dead in Iraq

Thanks to Jawa Report.

Well, we might as well kill them. It’s not like we’re allowed to get any useful information out of them anymore. Thanks, Senator McCain.

Still, it’s good news. Mad props to the Brits.  Put the kalb in the dirt where he belongs.

Review – Heroes – NBC TV

Not bad, but it needs to pick up the pace. I could see myself getting sucked into this if and when it gets moving.

Premise – if you’ve missed the ad blitz surrounding the series – is that genetic mutation is occuring more and more rapidly around the world and some people have discovered that they have supernatural abilities. One man imagines he can fly. Another paints pictures which foretell the future. A Texas cheerleader is Unbreakable and a young Japanese salaryman can bend time and space. Oh, and an internet stripper can do strange and violent things through mirrors. A young Indian scientists is trying to track them all, certain that there’s a purpose behind this.  So far it’s superfriends meets Unbreakable, which is a nifty premise. We’ll see if they keep my attention.

And, hey, it beats the hell out of having to watch one more Law and Order franchise.

Movie Review – Brick – DVD

I forget where I read how good this little indie flick was, but it really is a gem. It feels very indie, but captures the noir feeling it’s going for very well. It’s The River meets The Big Sleep, in the seedy underworld of a high school where drugs and drama are in huge supply and even greater demand.

The dialogue is crisp, the story is solid, the acting is not bad at all. Moody without being over the top, and  nicely shot. Great ending line.

It’s not a happy story, but it’s not a bad watch at all.

Recommended.

Studio 60 – TV – Review

Ok, watched the second episode and I think I’m about done with this show. They get one more week from me.

I still remember the night I saw the DVD collection of Sports Night. I had my credit card out so fast  it wasn’t funny. Spent the weekend watching it. I’ve showed it to my parents, took up a weekend of their time too. It was clever and funny and an all-round great show.

I watched West Wing often enough to recognize the craft that went into it. If I turned on an episode, I knew I’d be watching the whole thing, even if I completely disagreed with the politics behind it.

Studio 60 is not on a par with either of those shows, despite the talent that’s been recruited for the effort. Maybe they’re just off to a rough start, so I’ll give them one more to be better.

I guess some Christian somewhere really burned Aaron Sorkin, or else he just really buys into the line that all Christians are power-mad, adverstising-blocking bigots. Either way, given recent events around the world it’s almost comical to watch someone “bravely” “taking a stand” against a group of people who will do nothing more than write some letters and maybe, if they have the time, calmy protest. You go, Aaron. You stand up to those scary Christians and their poison pens.
Sorkin has nothing yet to say about Theo Van Gogh, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Theo Van Gogh’s family, or a certain sixty five year old nun. Wonder why? I’m sure brave Sir Aaron isn’t valiantly running away. Maybe he’s saving that for a very special episode. Yeah, that’s it.

Anyhoo – it’s not as funny as Sports Night and not as compelling as the West Wing, so – I’ll give it one more week. Again, they could just be off to a rough start, trying to “speak truth to power” right off the bat.  But three hours is all the time I’m giving him to exorcise his demons, unless those demons get a lot funnier or develop better story lines.

Play it as it lies

Ronald Cass on Bill Clinton’s little outburst over the weekend.

Bill’s trying to protect his legacy. He’d be better off just saying that no-one saw 9/11 coming and that we thought we had nothing but time to get bin Laden. That whole “and I’d have gotten bin Laden too if it hadn’t been for those meddling Republicans” rings false and the whole “I’d have gotten him by now” does too.

I’ve met Bill Clinton – very, very briefly and a long time ago – and can report that the man is supremely likeable and charismatic. I’m not talking about his politics or his beliefs and certainly not about his wife; I’m talking about his impression, his personality. It doesn’t really come across the TV screen. And I’d bet that his anger didn’t truly transmit either. That must have been actually a little scary for Chris Wallace.

Clinton should have played to that first strength of his, get people to like him. I guess he was already on edge from the mini-series, though.  Too bad for him. He doesn’t do his legacy any good by angrily re-writing history.

Just leave it at the internet boom and a blue dress, smile and walk away.

More news – bad and good

First the bad:

Sunni Muslims detonate a car bomb in Sadr City, killing 34.  Militias continue killing innocent civilians in celebration of Ramadan. This will pretty much stop once all of Baghdad is secured by Iraqi forces, which is in process now, no word on when that will be accomplished. It’s great that Iraq has a democratically elected government and volunteer police and military, but until a government can enforce its laws and protect its people from predation and violence, it’s not worth much. The sad thing is that we’re getting used to seeing this kind of report. We’ll know things are getting better there when we get used to good news from Iraq.

The good news? They’re getting there:

From Rusty Shackleford: Head of Ansar al-Sunna captured.

Let’s hope this leads to more arrests and dead terrorists.

Also, found this at Gateway Pundit:

…The battle in Iraq today is not between the various communities. Their elected representatives have agreed on a government of national unity and on national reconciliation. Nor is it a battle between civilizations, as some have seen it.

It is a war “about civilization” as Prime Minister Tony Blair has phrased it so well – the conflict is between those who believe in having a civilization and those who don’t believe in having one at all. As you no doubt already understand, we are fighting a terribly difficult war in Iraq. We are doing everything within our power to protect our people from this clear form of fascism that seduces them into civil war.

The calculated crime of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his henchmen in bombing the Shrine of Samarra, one of Iraq’s religious and cultural treasures, is a prime example of their agenda. They wanted to slide the country into civil war.

Thanks to the presence of the U.S. forces in Iraq and the wisdom of my colleagues in the leadership of Iraq, that plan was thwarted and the short spate of violence was contained.

–Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq.

I’ve said it before and I’m not the first one to say so, but a free and prosperous Iraq is a greater threat to our enemies than any weapon in our arsenal.

Bin Laden Imitates Schrodinger’s Cat

Love this line -Experts confirm: Osama bin Laden is either dead or alive.

For the moment, he’s apparently both.
The Saudis think he’s dead. The French are saying it’s unconfirmed. I’m saying show us the body and I’ll believe it.

Thanks to Ace.

Someone you should meet

I could post a lot about this story, but I don’t need to add anything. The story says it all.

Ladies and gents, meet Akemi Takahashi. 5 years old and saving the world.

Abbas vows recognition of Israel

No, really.

Yeah. Start holding your breath.

Then again, Palestine really is hurting from all the welfare being cut off.

President Bush on Pakistan

If Osama pokes his head out, he’s ours no matter where.

And, what we said to Pakistan on September 12th a few years ago. It was pretty obvious that we were gonna bomb or invade someone 5 years ago. The big question was “who”? Musharraf made the right call in not opposing us in Afghanistan. It’s not so obvious now that we’re going to continue invading or bombing countries that sponsor terrorism. Which is too bad.

Of course, if we did bomb Pakistan back to the stone age, half the country wouldn’t actually notice a difference. Google up “Hudood” sometime. Or read all about it here.