A government-encouraged rally against the Italian embassy drew "many" students.

How many? Several dozen.

Embarassing, eh? So the government claimed...

...it had not given the green light for the manifestation to be held. This is a somewhat curious statement, given the rigid control imposed on any public meeting in Teheran, not to mention the presence of members of the forces of order, who did nothing to prevent the event.

And there's actually vocal internal dissent against this thug:

Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, two former reformist presidents, are openly critical of his policies. On Sunday, Mr Khatami accused the new leader of “using fascist values and principles in the name of Islam to criticise liberalism”. Mohammad Atrianfar, a close Rafsanjani ally, yesterday called the sackings a big diplomatic mistake. “The President does not understand that he should proceed with caution,” he said.

The tighter you clutch your grasp, Lord Vader, the more systems will slip through your fingers.

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 PM | Comments (2)
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Good stuff:

Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G): "It was very brave of MTV to start the show with a transvestite."

Ouch.

Robbie Williams: "I can't believe she's 89 and looks like that."

Super ouch. Cutting a little close to the bone there, ain't ya, Robbie?

Madonna presented an award to "Saint" Bob Geldof of Live Aid and Live 8 and, good for her!, she wasn't afraid to give credit where she thought credit was due.

MADONNA: "My hero is someone who has never been afraid to speak his mind, to ruffle feathers, to get the job done, to get down in the trenches and kick some ass.

"I know first hand it's not always considered fashionable to work hard to make the world a better place because I've taken some shit for that myself."

To help make the world a better place, she then stripped down to a thong and tassles and pantomimed oral sex on a cougar.

Every day I thank the Good Lord we have tireless samaritans like Madonna selflessly working to make the world just a little bit better.

Posted by: Ace at 08:45 PM | Comments (21)
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I'm serious!

At the start of his trial for the murder of German fashion maven Rudolph Moshammer, an Iraqi male prostitute admitted Wednesday to striking the television personality with an electrical flex.

Moshammer, who had been described as "the only genuine eccentric in Germany", was instantly recognizable to most Germans by his waxed moustache, black wig and the lap dog Daisy he carried everywhere.

Defendant A., who had entered Germany as a refugee, was arrested after traces of his DNA were found on the flex, prosecutors said.

Hmmm, David Hasselhoff as the German police chief, Andrew Sullivan as Moshammer, and Rob Schneider as the Iraqi male prostitute? Quick get me Hollywood on the line, I want to pitch CSI Fatherland!

Posted by: Tanker at 06:09 PM | Comments (7)
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I first read DalrympleÂ’s City Journal piece, Barbarians at the Gates of Paris back when it was originally published, late 2002.

ItÂ’s getting attention on the net today and I thought maybe IÂ’d work some of it into a long post on FranceÂ’s troubles. I decided otherwise.

The thing is so damn good, it defines the word ‘prescient’ in explaining how Paris got to where it is, why it’s in flames. And it does it so eloquently. Really, I can’t touch it. It deserves to stand on it’s own.

Do yourself a favor. Make some time, sit back, read it. YouÂ’ll be glad you did.

When youÂ’re done, proceed directly to his The Suicide Bombers Among Us and understand what England faces.

Dalrymple, for my money, is the best essayist working today.

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 06:06 PM | Comments (21)
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So they've ruled out surrenderez.

Trouble is, like the Eskimos having 40 words for "snow," the French language has over 600 close synonyms for "surrender," "roll over," "appease," or "jump on a table and shriek like a little girl having a conniption," so ruling out just one of those words really doesn't mean much.

Once upon a time Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle East.

Now Paris is Beirut on the Seine.

Posted by: Ace at 04:43 PM | Comments (19)
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It's not just Corporal Starr. They've had practice Dowdifying quotes.

Mudville Gazette makes this observation:

There are two types of Iraq war veterans that have a tremendous appeal to the anti-war crowd - the fictional and the dead. Both types have a common, irresistible trait -- others can claim to speak on their behalf.

Posted by: Ace at 04:36 PM | Comments (6)
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There just aren't enough good mummy's curse stories anymore:

A MUMMY's curse has cast its shadow over the death of a Brisbane scientist who worked to unlock the secrets of a 5300-year-old man frozen in the Italian Alps.

A memorial service will be held on Monday for molecular archaeologist Tom Loy, who was found dead in his home a fortnight ago as he finalised his book on the world's oldest mummy, dubbed Oetzi.

Dr Loy, 63, director of the Archaeological Sciences Laboratories at the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, became the seventh person to have died after coming into close contact with the iceman since his discovery in 1991.

"He didn't believe in the curse," a colleague said yesterday. "It was just superstition. People die."

Now who's laughing.

I'm sure there's a rational explanation for the deaths of all seven people, like werewolves or voodoo or listening to Madonna read from the Torah in that ridiculous James Mason accent of hers.

Posted by: Ace at 04:23 PM | Comments (9)
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The International Community.
What an incestuous and corrupt thing it is.

FOX News discovered that Volcker, who spent 18 months investigating the oil for food scandal, was aware of the admissions by the Total executives, yet failed to issue an adverse finding against the company, as he did against many others accused of the same thing.

Earlier this year FOX News reported that Volcker is a friend of, and has been a paid advisor to Canadian businessman Paul Desmarais (search), whose Power Corporation (search) is one of the largest shareholders in Total oil. Volcker has not responded to repeated requests for an interview on this subject.

This story appears to be a FOX News exclusive.

Ace: FOX News Exclusive? Really? No other media outlets are assigning reporters to UN corruption & cover-up?

What a shock.

Posted by: LauraW. at 03:56 PM | Comments (60)
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So it would appear, despite his strong denials.

Update: I guess we should have seen this coming. It's as predictable as white people dynamiting levees to flood black neighborhoods. Like clockwork, in other words.

Thanks to John for that.

Correction! Professional-looking, but that Michael Moore Katrina: Wrath of Bush site seems to be a hoax. Thanks to Madne0 for doing some snooping and finding no references to it on MM's site or IMDB.

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Comments (12)
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I've said similar stuff before, but I'll post alex's musings on Excitable Boy:

I hate to think what Andrew Sullivan's exes must all have endured--the man simply has no 'lukewarm' valve--he's either scalding hot or freezing cold. There's just no getting out of a relationship with a man like that on a 'lets be friends' level--I suspect Sullivan's not on speaking terms with a single old boyfriend. And whether or not Sullivan ever decides to settle down for good with the current boyfriend (which, by MA law, he can do if he cares to), he's certainly not about to marry any particular idea and settle down with it any time soon, or accept responsibility for any idea after he's fallen out of love with it--the man's an intellectual Casanova.

It's one thing to be a genuine iconoclast like Sullivan's hero Orwell--that is, to have consistent, strong personal beliefs which simply don't fit neatly into any one prepackaged ideology. It's one thing to have one major life-changing 'conversion' experience a la Christopher Hitchens. It's another thing entirely to exist with one's beliefs in a constant, unexplained, unrestrained, and uninterrogated state of flux.

Sullivan's hardly politically consistent--he reliably self-defines as conservative, but seems to expect the term to bend to his own ever-changing definition--for Sullivan, 'conservative' (like 'Catholic') is defined as 'wherever and whatever Andrew Sullivan now is'.

Exactly. It's one thing to have a change of mind. But usually people who do are a bit apologetic, a bit embarassed, and have a bit of sympathy for their one-time allies who they've now left behind. Were I to suddenly decide Bush erred in going to war with Iraq, I would make my case, but I would certainly not be venomous to war-supporters, whose opinion I had shared just a few weeks before.

With Sullivan, it's unapologetic, unabased self-righteousness on every single idea that enters his brain, even regarding those upon which he had the precise opposite opinion a few months ago.

The man went from sarcastically mocking those concerned with abusing terrorists to screeching about the US being a "rogue state" without ever proceeding through even a "conflicted rumination" phase.

The man doesn't have a philosophy. He has a Tiger Beat What's Hot/What's Not list in his brain that changes as quickly as Madonna's costumes at a concert-slash-kabbalah-ceremony.

And the emotion...! My god, the emotion! I found it exhausting to even attempt parodying Sullivan's, let us say, rather passionate form of "analysis." Who the hell can be that outraged and/or exhilerated that many times a day? He's like a five-year-old kid whose every schoolday features three Christmasses and three trips to the dentist.

I suppose one could say he's being "honest," giving us the "unfiltered Sullivan," except 1) he's pretty dishonest (still making his mind up about Bush, $100,000 bandwidth costs, etc.) and 2) please, if I must have Sullivan at all, let me have a filter. A really, really strong one.

Only an absolute narcissist could be so in love with his own musings, and so convinced of the complete righteousness of crap he just thought up five seconds ago.

Andrew Sullivan is the high priest of his own personal Cult of Personality.

Posted by: Ace at 02:27 PM | Comments (21)
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