REDUX

Couldn't Have Happened to a Nicer Guy

US troops 'made Aristide leave'

Next stop....Caracas!

Thoughts of the Day

"Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands."

Immanuel Kant

"When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."

George Bernard Shaw

Another Side of Donald Rumsfeld

"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty."

Donald Rumsfeld

"Rummy In Love" © mibi

You can find more from mibi here, here, and here.

Economics Primer

Thomas Sowell:

Those who complain loudly about how many jobs have been "exported" to other countries because of international free trade totally ignore the jobs that have been imported to the American economy because of that same free trade. Siemens alone employs tens of thousands of American, workers and Toyota has already produced its 10 millionth car in the U.S. Management guru Peter Drucker has said that this country imports far more jobs than it exports and no one has contradicted him. Indeed, those who are loudest in denouncing the exporting of jobs totally ignore the importing of jobs.

...

International trade has no monopoly on economic illiteracy. One of the apparently invincible fallacies of our times is the belief that President Reagan's tax cuts caused the federal budget deficits of the 1980s. In reality, the federal government collected more tax revenue in every year of the Reagan administration than had ever been collected in any year of any previous administration. But there is no amount of money that Congress cannot outspend. Here again, the confusion is due to a simple failure to define terms.

What Mr. Reagan's "tax cuts for the rich" actually cut were the tax rates per dollar of income. Out of rising incomes, the country as a whole--including the rich--paid more total taxes than ever before.

Read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: Outside the Beltway)

Wow, He Really Is a Babykiller!

While some, more respectful and noble souls give Mr. Theresa Hei-- I mean Sen. John Forbes Kerry some degree of deference for his war record, I am not one of them. Just because someone is a veteran doesn't place him beyond reproach or investigation for his war record, just as being a [insert name of identity politics group] doesn't really make you an expert on anything other than the use and abuse of the preposition "as". But let me be clear on this point: I don't mean to impugn veterans, veterans of foreign wars, Vietnam veterans, or even Vietnamese veterans, just Sen. Kerry. In fact, because so much of his war record strikes me as manufactured, false, and opportunistic, it seems to me that calling him a war hero seems to do a disservice to war heroes and opportunists everywhere.

The New York Sun ran an editorial by a Mr. Thomas Lipscomb, who seems to agree with me, insofar as "The Comeback Kerry's" tour of duty is concerned:

“[T]he fabled and distinguished chief of naval operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, told me — 30 years ago when he was still CNO —that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass, by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets. ‘We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,’ the admiral said. ‘Bud’ Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as having large ambitions — but promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were ever on the national stage.” And this statement was made despite the fact Zumwalt had personally pinned a Silver Star on Mr. Kerry.

Mr. Kerry was assigned to Swiftboat 44 on December 1, 1968. Within 24 hours, he had his first Purple Heart. Mr. Kerry accumulated three Purple Hearts in four months with not even a day of duty lost from wounds, according to his training officer. It’s a pity one cannot read his Purple Heart medical treatment reports which have been withheld from the public. The only person preventing their release is Mr. Kerry.

By his own admission during those four months, Mr. Kerry continually kept ramming his Swiftboat onto an enemy-held shore on assorted occasions alone and with a few men, killing civilians and even a wounded enemy soldier. One can begin to appreciate Zumwalt’s problem with Mr. Kerry as commander of an unarmored craft dependent upon speed of maneuver to keep it and its crew from being shot to pieces.

Mr. Kerry now refers to those civilian deaths as “accidents of war.” And within four days of his third Purple Heart, Mr. Kerry applied to take advantage of a technicality which allowed him to request immediate transfer to a stateside post.

Well ain't that an asschapper! Here I thought that Mr. Kerry was acting the fool by calling his Band-of-Brothers Vietnam Vets war criminals thusly:

[U.S. Servicemen] had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam...

While in fact, Mr. Kerry-Heinz was confessing his own culpability in war crimes-- er, "accidents of war". So he really is, by his own admission, "Babykiller" Kerry!

Did I mention that he was in Vietnam?

(Hat tip: The Oracle of Knoxville)

Get In Where You Can Fit In Dept.

This arrived in my inbox today:

Recently a "Husband Super Store" opened where women could go to choose a husband from among many men. It was laid out in five floors, with the men increasing in positive attributes as you ascended. The only rule was, once you opened the door to any floor, you HAD to choose a man from that floor; if you went up a floor, you couldn't go back down except to leave the place, never to return.

A couple of girlfriends went to the shopping centre to find some husbands...

First floor The door had a sign saying, "These men have jobs and love kids." The women read the sign and said, "Well, that's better than not having a job or not loving kids, but I wonder what's further up?" So up they went.

Second floor The sign read, "These men have high paying jobs, love kids, and are extremely good looking." "Hmmm," said the ladies, "But, I wonder what's further up?"

Third floor this sign read, "These men have high paying jobs, are extremely good looking, love kids and help with the housework."

"Wow," said the women, "Very tempting." But there was another floor, so further up they went.

Fourth floor This door had a sign saying "These men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic streak." "Oh, mercy me," they cried, "Just think what must be awaiting us further on! So up to the fifth floor they went.

Fifth floor The sign on that door said, "This floor is empty and exists only to prove that women are [email protected] impossible to please. The exit is to your left, we hope you fall down the stairs."

Beautiful Day II

Kinda reminds me of that Orb song...

Osama Capture?

Iranian radio recently announced on one of its Pastho-language broadasts that Osama bin-Laden was captured quite some time ago by the U.S., and is being held to maximize the returns such a capture would net the Bush Administration, reports Sunday's The Australian.

The U.S. Government's response:

A Pentagon Central Command spokesman in Tampa, Florida, said: "I have no reports on us capturing OBL, Osama bin Laden. We don't have anything on that."

While the Australian calls this a "denial", what's interesting here is the CentCom spokesman's choice of words: He's neither confirming nor denying any such capture. What he is asserting is that he does not have in his possession, nor does his office have in its posession, of any such report on that subject. Pretty slick, huh?

If it's true, this news item does raise some serious problems.

1) Why is Iran trying to report this story at this time? We do know that many times the capture of a terrorist is not reported, so that the counter-terrorist agency can continue to recieve intel and steadily capture the entire terror apparatus. Additionally, any backers or state-sponsors would not be aware of this capture, any the Coalition folks would then gain a strategic edge. Assuming OBL is captured, and his network compromised, why would Iran attempt to interfere with our counter-intelligence operation? More to the point, is it in their self-interest to do this?

2) Will the attempt to manipulate OBL's gain help or hurt the Administration? At first glance, a win is a win, and everybody loves a winner. However it seems to me that any such attempt to keep things quiet would backfire on the Bushies. Many in the ABB crowd have suggested that Bush has a credibility gap *cough* *Time Magazine* *cough*, and the GOP party line up to this point is that the Jackass party has consistently placed partisan politics ahead of national secruity needs. Furthermore, wouldn't the capture of OBL signify the end of the need for waging a Global War on Terrorism? Couldn't it be used to emphasize the point that, "Now is the time to return to social-democrat domestic issues, such as..."? And, for this to be a winning strategy, wouldn't they have to wait for Thrusday, October 28th?

3) Or, would they parade OBL out in chains at the G.O.P. national convention? Or better yet, during the inaguration? The American transformation in Rome would be complete: Bush would have a Triumph!

Beautiful Day

Eidos of the Day

"The photo -- I have in mind an everyday, banal photo -- simultaneously reveals singularity, banality, and our curiosity about one another. The principle of indiscernability here becomes decisive. Not only are all people different but they are also all different from one another. They do not differ from an archetype or generality. The typical traits (ethnic, cultural, social, generational, and so forth), whose particular patterns constitute another level of singularity, do not abolish singular differences; instead they bring them into relief."
Jean-Luc Nancy

Photo: © Nancy Gupton