Soon™

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Iran: words vs actions

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, "interviewed" by Mike Wallace: "We are not looking for - working for the bomb. The problem that President Bush has that in his mind he wants to solve everything with bombs. The time of the bomb is in the past. It's behind us. Today is the era of thoughts, dialogue, and cultural exchanges."

vs.

Iran test fires long-range missile
August 27, 2006
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iran test fired a long-range, radar-evading missile on Sunday from a submarine in the Gulf as part of war games that began earlier this month, state television reported.
The missile was called Sagheb, which means Piercing, but the report did not give the missile's range.
"Minutes ago it was launched from a submarine in the Persian Gulf and it hit the target," television reported.
Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a standoff over the country's nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran says the program is only civilian.
Iran's military also held war games in the Gulf in April. Those exercises were interpreted by analysts as a thinly veiled threat that Iran could disrupt vital oil shipping lanes if pushed by an escalation in the nuclear dispute.

Which one are you going to believe? Our future depends on it.

only in morality politics is less more

We've all heard the hysteria:

Since Elvis and the Beatles, music has been a touchy issue between parents and kids. But today's lyrics are more graphic, more violent, and more sexual than ever. "Today" host Katie Couric reports on what your kids are listening to. - MSNBC

...and...

Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found. - also MSNBC

So you would naturally deduce that teens must be having more sex than ever, if the music they are listening to is more sexual than ever, and sexual lyrics lead to more and earlier sex. Right?

Fewer U.S. high school students are having sex, and the ones who do are less likely to have multiple partners, according to a report issued on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

*GASP* You mean the morality police and hysterical media got something wrong? Oh the huge mammaries!
One of these things just doesn't belong... So today's lyrics aren't more sexual than ever, but sexual lyrics are still enticing children to sex, but jut not as much. Or today's lyrics are more sexual than ever, but sexual lyrics don't lead to more teen sex, so there isn't more of it. Or lyrics are more sexual, and sexual lyrics do lead to more teen sex, but the CDC got it wrong and there actually is more teen sex now than before. One of the above must logically be true. I'm putting my money on the CDC.
So the next time some volunteer in the morality militia starts whining to you about how horrible today's music is and how it's polluting our children's minds and turning them into a generation of Paris Hilton clones, you can tell them to mind their own damn business. They're wrong.

Leibermensch

Lieberman set on independent Senate bid
Voters in Connecticut turned him down, rejecting three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman for a political newcomer in the nation's first major test of the depth of anger over the Iraq war.
But Lieberman, undaunted, vowed to run as an independent against fellow Democrat Ned Lamont. "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," he said of Tuesday's Democratic primary results.

First of all, good for Leiberman. He's one of the more sane members of the Democrat party. He would make a great independent Senator, and it could even set him up for a third party ticket in 2008. Who knows?
But on the story, notice how the AP calls Leiberman's primary defeat the "first major test of the depth of anger over the Iraq war." Is it just me or was there a presidential election two years ago? Thirty-three Senate elections two years ago? Four hundred thirty five House elections two years ago? Yeah, those don't count apparently. But once someone who supports the war looses, that counts as the first test of support for the war. What a bunch of ridiculous "journalists" over there at the AP...

embassile

Hezbollah leader said to be hiding in Iranian Embassy
Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
Israeli military and intelligence forces are continuing to hunt for Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary-general, who fled his headquarters in Beirut shortly before Israeli jets bombed the building last week.
"We think he is in an embassy," said one U.S. official with access to the intelligence reports, while Israeli intelligence speculates Sheik Nasrallah is hiding in the Iranian Embassy.
If confirmed, the reports could lead to an Israeli air strike on the embassy, possibly leading to a widening of the conflict, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Foreign embassies are sovereign territory and an attack on an embassy could be considered an act of war.

As an initial reaction, I have no problem with the IDF reducing any embassy harboring a terrorist leader to rubble, even our own. If some internationalist utopian is hiding Nasrallah in the US embassy, send a tactical team in to dispatch them both. And if he's in the Iranian embassy, flatten the whole block.
However, it might be prudent to have a few IDF snipers stationed on the buildings surrounding the Iranian embassy watching the windows. A quick shot at Nasrallah walking by an unobstructed window would be clean and less likely to lead to Iranian escalation. Not that I'm opposed to Iranian escalation. I'd just as soon have the whole region swept up into the war, make it official, and turn them all to glass. But there are practical considerations, of course.

healthy nuts

According to a New York Times article on a University of Chicago study, people are healthier than ever. Despite rampant obesity, smoking, drugs, and general bad behavior, people are living longer, and with less chronic illnesses than in any generation in human history. So the next time you hear some utopian whining about banning trans-fats, tobacco, sunbathing, wheat, or just plain fun, you can tell them to shut their unfortunately healthy mouths. Let freedom ring!

improperganda

Sometimes I need to be reminded why I no longer watch network news. Last night at my parents' house after the local news ended, they left on NBC Nightly News for a while (read: until I changed it). The first ten minutes were a summary of recent events in the current Israel-Hezbollah Front of WW3, except a large portion of it was dedicated to journalistic wailing and gnashing of teeth over the civilian casualties in Lebanon. They went the entire segment without putting this unfortunate toll in context - the context of Hezbollah storing and firing rockets at Israel from Lebanese homes and businesses. It's not Israel's fault that Lebanese homes are being destroyed and "innocent" people killed; maybe the Lebanese "civilians" shouldn't let Hezbollah fire rockets from their houses. Israel is only firing back at precise locations where rockets were fired from, so if that happens to be someone's house or business, then too fucking bad. It's Hezbollah's problem, not Israel's.
This type of context-free journalism is what disgusts me about network news and most other leftist media outlets. It leads people to conclusions about world and domestic events that are at best not the whole truth and at worst utter fabrications.