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He was the author of In the Red Zone, a book I didn't read, even when he offered to send me a copy. (The anonymity thing makes receiving books a pain in the ass.)

I heard about the death of Steven Vincent last night on FoxNews... I thought, "Wait, is that the guy I know?"

Turns out it was.

I met him on several occasions at New York City right wing gatherings. Every time I saw him, he was getting ready to go back to Iraq-- again. To tell the truth about Iraq.

He was shot to death in Basra.

I didn't know him well, but he seemed a terrific guy, smart and of course quite brave.

I'm sorry I didn't know him better.

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 AM | Comments (6)
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Radio Equalizer finds the MSM once again quite predictable as to what it regards as an "interesting" story.

The Air America scandal has only been mentioned by the usual conservative suspects-- Washington Times, New York Post, New York Sun. And the story is growing more, not less, scandalous. Quoting from Captain Ed's article in the Weekly Standard (link at Radio Equalizer):

One would expect that mainstream journalists would want to take advantage of this opportunity to cover this harmonic convergence: A greedy corporation had taken a half-million dollars of city grant money from two certifiably sympathetic and traditional victim groups in order to pay off its already-wealthy employees.

...

After speaking with the president of the charity's executive committee, Jeanette Graves, the Sun's David Lombino discovered that the CEO in question got the loans using rubber-stamp replicas of Ms. Graves's signature on documents never seen by her.

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, a pair of hip-hop DJ's have called, on the air, for attacking police, suggesting the best manner of doing so (step one: grab their radios so they can't call for back-up as you assault or kill them), and not a peep from anyone in the MSM.

Conservatives and liberals are each animated by different sorts of stories. We both are selectively interested in stories that reinforce our world-view, or underscore what we believe to be the pressing problems of the day. This is ordinary and human.

But liberals cannot continue maintaining they can pack their newsrooms with almost nothing but blue-state liberals and manage something even close to a balanced coverage of the news. Liberals' antennae naturally only twitter when they detect certain kinds of stories. That is, I guess, excusable, but what is not excusable is that they soon become aware of stories they missed for the first time as they weren't looking for that sort of story and yet continue to embargo them, knowing full well that at least half the country is interested in that story... or would be, were they to lower themselves to report on it.

They claim to have the mission of informing the public, but they only want to inform part of the public, and they only want to inform them of stories that seem to advance the liberal cause.

It's been said over and over, but once again, this time with feeling: There's nothing wrong with a partisan press. One could make the case that such a press is more vibrant and more engaged in the battle of ideas than our supposedly objective press.

But a partisan press masquerading as an objective one is simply a lie. And a lie that is hurting the political debate.

Posted by: Ace at 08:59 AM | Comments (11)
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The Connecticut Sun's (gee, do you think they're sponsored by the Mohegan Sun casino complex?) seven-foot-two-inch Margo Dydek, originally from Poland.

In case you're not sure, she's the taller one.

Not really sure what the news value of this is, except-- Boy, is she tall.

If her agent isn't working on getting her a bit part as an assassin in the next James Bond movie, he should be fired.

Thanks to LauraW.

Posted by: Ace at 08:33 AM | Comments (21)
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I'm beginning to see why they all think they can easily "win" in Iraq. Their standards for "winning" are, let us say, flexible.

To paraphrase the BBC announcer for the Twit of the Year contest: "They don't know when they're losing. They don't know when they're winning. They have no sort of working sensory appartus whatsoever."

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 AM | Comments (60)
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Why didn't I think of that?

But why would people pay to get an annoying poster un-banned? Seems to make more sense to ban someone only if everyone kicks in to the kitty.

At least it makes more sense from my selfish perspecive.

So, let's say I would ban some annoying poster -- I'm not thinking of anyone in particular, honest (fingers crossed) -- if I were paid a certain amount of money.

How much would the banning of this unnamed unknown annoyance be worth, collectively?

Hmmmm... Gotta say somewhere in the $5-10,000 neighborhood.

Posted by: Ace at 07:50 PM | Comments (52)
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Balloon Juice is hoppin' mad.

With apologies to the religious, Intelligent Design is not science. It's not science when you're basing your "theory" on thousand year old books, and there is no way you offer to falsify your claims, etc.

This is a difficult argument to make -- it makes sense in my head but I can never quite convey it in words -- but think of it like this: Even if the religious WERE right that God had just designed everything, that would still not be a valid scientific theory, as it includes, inavoidably, the supernatural, which cannot be further questioned or theorized about. Magic -- and that is what we're talking about -- simply is. Even ID proponents would surely concede they cannot quantify and specify the powers and workings of God Himself.

Thus, even if God DID intelligently design everything, it would be nonscientific theory. There would, in that case, be a disconnect between two things that we usually think move in tandem-- truth and science. The truth would be that God designed the universe, but science could not admit this, as such a truth is inherently anti-scientific.

Science deals in natural, not supernatural, forces. It cannot explain or analyze supernatural phenomena, even if such phemomena were proven to exist or have existed in the distant past.

Even if it were mighty Thor creating lightning bolts and shooting them across the sky, science would still have to propose an alternative, natural, and, under the hypothetical, wrong theory about lightning-bolt creation. Something involving mundane forces like friction and static and localized abundances and dearths of electrons.

Science could not simply say "Thor makes 'em," even if Thor really did make 'em.

Religion and science do not need to be in conflict. But if some of the religious continue insisting on pushing them into conflict, I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with science.

Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (374)
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This looks like something I've linked before, but it seems a little different. It's re-edited, and there are special effects in it, including, yes, a LIGHTNING BOLT! and what looks to be some sort of "curing spell."

And a beholder.

And crunchy heavy-metal music.

It's one thing to do this with your free time, but is really wise to keep videotaped evidence of these scandals?

Thanks to See Dubya.

And, since I'm relinking old stuff on the D&D tip that I think I linked a while ago, here's Patton Oswald in an episode of Reno 9-11 explaining why he shot his friend with an actual crossbow bolt while playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Okay, he says the arrow was "enchanted with a Magic Missile spell," which is a mistake, because Magic Missile just shoots a little blob of energy; you don't cast it on an arrow. I point this out not to say "Hah, hah, you got it wrong," but rather to suggest they knew this but deliberately got it wrong so they could pretend they don't know the game that well.

See, I sometimes do that too.

Thanks to Gregory for that.

One More Great Old One: A Jack Chick parody about Lord Cthulhu-- "Who Will Be Eatan First? (Zip file.)

Great Old One. Cthulhu. Come on, give it up. I'm a geek Oscar Wilde.

Thanks to Evan.

Posted by: Ace at 01:16 PM | Comments (21)
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Football Fans For Truth explains why. It's a funny takedown, even if you've never seen the show.

I think Jeff Larkin is on to something here. Any guy knows there's a certain number of shows you watch because your significant other does. So, basically you become an expert on a show you despise.

Larkin's rip on his wife's favorite show has the frisson of a great catharsis.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (24)
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Thinking a little about Sean Connery I began wondering what a list of the best all-time spy movies would look like. I sort of realized five minutes into the exercise I'd have to Google, because I was having trouble thinking of many good (or even passable) spy movies at all, apart from the Bond films, which, let's face it, are mostly not-so-good and are "spy movies" in the same sense that the Naked Gun movies are police procedurals.

Okay, before we get to the list:

Bear in mind I haven't seen many pre-1970 movies.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:38 AM | Comments (96)
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Truly we are doomed if our enemy is led by a real-life Superman such as this.

You want to know the sort of madhouse that is North Korea? Just read this nonsense, dutifully dissemenated by North Korea's state-operated press.

And this article doesn't even mention the fact that this lunatic actually kidnaps Japanese filmmakers and forces them to make giant-monster movies from the idiotic scripts he's written.

Oh, and did I mention he claims to have shot one round of golf finishing with the rather-good score of thirty-eight under par?

Time for a re-post.

Top Ten Lesser-Known Kim Jong-Il Accomplishments

10. Swam the English Channel in twelve minutes flat, using dolphin-flop swimming technique he taught Patrick Duffy when he starred in The Man From Atlantis

9. Noted weightlifter credited with numerous training innovations; believed to be the first man who ever spotted someone bench-pressing while screaming "You gotta WANT it! PUSH! PUSH IT!!!!" with his nards dangling in the other guy's face

8. Nailed Christina Aguilera, before she caught that bad case of the skankies-- you know, back when it meant something

7. World-renown philosopher most famous for sublime Buddhist aphorism, "Whoever smelt it, dealt it"

6. Powered the New York Mets to their 1986 World Series title under the alias "Mookie" Wilson

5. Innovator of new X-Game craze, Extreme Bowling

4. Gold Medalist and reigning champion in "North Korean Triathalon" (run 26.6 miles, bike 110 miles, kick 60 political prisoners in their faces)

3. Insists he could enter and win the Tour de France, "if he felt like it"

2. Briefly married to Juice "Playin' With the Queen of Hearts" Newton

...and the Number One Lesser-Known Kim Jong-Il Accomplishment...

1. According to official state bio, is a champion-level boxer; has defeated Muhammed Ali, Evander Holyfield, and "Thunderlips" from Rocky III

Posted by: Ace at 10:22 AM | Comments (21)
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