Category — Uncategorized

Michael Bérubé took his son to see the new animated film, Happy Feet, because his son wanted to see the movie. His son gave it two stars, but Michael looks at the earlier writing on the movie and opines: “the right-wing pundits and bloggers who complained about the film are completely and fully batshit insane.”

After six years of the Shrubbery I can understand why some people are having a problem telling the difference between cartoons and reality.

If you are K. Daniel Glover and you are taking money to be the editor of National Journal‘s Technology Daily and the author of its Beltway Blogroll, isn’t it reasonable to assume that you know something about blogs and bloggers?

Apparently not. First, the Beltway Blogroll is, in fact, a blog, not a blogroll, and its content is essentially daily selections from the feed with minimal original content. The current post is “Danny” bemoaning the mean bloggers for “attacking” him over his piece in the New York Times. Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that he should have used more due diligence and fact checking before he impugned peoples’ ethics.

It may come as a surprise to “Danny”, but Google works on blogs, and if you have questions about what someone did or said, you can search through their archives to find out when they wrote about things, and whether they mentioned any outside interests. It’s really simple to do, even paid professionals can learn to use it.

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At 10PM CST it was 32°. This is much too early for a freezing temperature,

There’s a tent over the fish pond so the feral cats can get in out of the cold, and I have a lamp on the concrete slab out back for the less friendly cats.

Update: It dropped to 29° and established a new record low for the date.

Update2: Echidne of the Snakes earned the right to use all caps and the exclamation mark for BRRR!

John “the Walrus” Bolton admits he is unloved and goes home to yell at his family instead of the United Nations. The Shrubbery is annoyed that the minions are thwarting his imperial will.

Also Ellroon at Rants from the Rookery discovers a speech by Bill Moyers at West Point. Preach, Brother Moyers, preach!

Pat Lang of Sic Semper Tyrannis writes about Cheney being summoned to Saudi Arabia. Someone needs to explain to the Shrubbery that Sunni Arab governments can not and will not ignore a Shi’ia “ethnic cleansing” of the Sunni in Iraq. If things look bad for the Sunnis in Iraq, the war will widen.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Lieberman’s State of Denial-or-calling all arsonists…:

LIEBERMAN: I believe that America is a mighty enough nation that we should never fear to talk to anyone. But anyone who believes that Iran and Syria really want to help us to succeed in Iraq, I just is missing the reality. Asking Iran and Syria to help us succeed in Iraq is like your local fire department asking a couple of arsonists to help put out the fire. These people are flaming the fire. They are the extremists. They are supporting terrorists in Iraq, in Lebanon and of course in the Palestinian areas.

When I heard this on the radio, it crystallized for me how disconnected from reality Liebermann actually is. These are Likud talking points, not a sober assessment of the situation. Neither Iran nor Syria wants a failed state on their border, and both helped the United States after 9-11.

The worst thing that could happen to the current government in Syria would be for Israel to withdraw from the Golan. The Israeli occupation keeps the Ba’athists in power.

If you feel the need for a stainless steel colander™, but fear it will clash with your wardrobe, Jersey Cynic of Blonde Sense has found the answer: a collection of shielded clothing.

I have to wonder what this stuff will look like if you go through the new TSA x-ray scanner. I think you can expect to be added to the no fly list.

Dr. Cole looks at the Rumsfeld memo and is taken by the fact that Rumsfeld is more concerned with “the message” than the reality of Iraq.

Rumsfeld has always been more concerned with “marketing” than the product of the Defense Department. He has been running it like a failing corporation, slashing budgets and services while talking about “improved efficiencies”, rather than working to improve the capability of organization to provide what it is supposed to be providing: the defense of the United States.

The state of Nevada didn’t wait for the VA to make up its mind on the issue and went ahead and did the right thing.

According to the article on CBS, the state installed a marker in the Northern Nevada Veterans Cemetery that had the Wicca pentacle to honor the beliefs of a fallen soldier.

“Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle – a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle.”

The VA is still shuffling paperwork.

I would point out that a five-pointed star on a circle were the wing flashes for American aircraft during World War II.

I written about Generalissimo Aleksandr Suvorov before, as the greatest nearly unknown military commander in the world. Perhaps because he served during the reign of Ekatrina the Great, who was an overpowering presence, and her son, Pavel, who is best forgotten, only specialists are aware of his existence.

While Suvorov was never defeated in over six dozen major battles, the action for which he is most noted is the 1799 strategic retreat over the Alps. Understand that his ability to save his army from a battle he could not win after the Emperor of Austria withdrew the majority of his forces is considered his greatest feat. There is a monument to this feat in the Swiss Alps.

The reason I bring this up is that a strategic retreat is the most difficult military maneuver there is. The possibility of the retreat becoming an undisciplined rout with the army disappearing in a fog of fear sits right under the surface. The troops know they cannot possibly win, or they would be attacking, so every step is a step closer to safety.

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Minou of French Tidbits has found the formula for success in her IN box.

Today is Elaynes Riggs’ 49^th birthday, so head over to Pen-Elayne on the Web and wish her a happy one. It’s tough having a birthday within a month of the winter solstice as there is already overload.

DJHlights of Exit Stage Left is having to shut down his blog. He has been elected to a position with his union and wouldn’t be able to speak his mind without having it affect his position.

His articles on the famous and near famous who have played in the theater in Pittsburgh where he was the head electrician and lighting guy, as well as his views on labor issues will be missed. This is a drawback about not being anonymous when you blog.

CNN reports: Al-Sadr bloc talks of alliance with Sunnis, Christians.

Something that people miss is that unlike other Shi’ia blocs, the group around Moqtada al Sadr wants a unified Iraq and opposes breaking up the country into three loosely federated states. Al Sadr has maintained contacts with Sunni and Kurdish groups hoping to form a unity government that would govern the entire nation.

It is indeed ironic that the Shrubbery and Moqtada al Sadr are probably the only people left on the planet who believe this is possible.

Update: Pat Lang muses on the motives behind this.

Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery was the first place I saw this reference to Palestine, and then Juan Cole of Informed Comment had the bulk of the statement up yesterday: King Abdullah II: It’s Palestine, Stupid.

This meshed with a Jimmy Carter interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross promoting his new book, Palestine – Peace Not Apartheid.

Assassination and natural death has rendered Jimmy Carter the only major figure left among those who once saw how it was possible to achieve peace in the Middle East. Mr. Carter has the standing to push the issue if the current leaders would just call on him to do it. He knows the shape of the possible compromises and isn’t worried about anything except peace.

Abdullah is right, as long as the Palestinian situation continues to be unresolved; there is no hope for long-term peace in the region. It is the festering wound from which the infection spreads.