To young women? Travolta's PR people immediately began making calls to get this assessment out there.

(No, no, no. Not gay. He's married to Kelly Preston. I mean, for God's sake, I hope he's not gay and just wasting some top-shelf pooter like that.)

Anyway:

According to the London Telegraph, Hamza stomped all over the actor's sexy stepping, claiming exposure to Travolta's flicks would corrupt female minds and lead them astray from Islamic principles.

"This brother he's a mujahid [freedom fighter] and she looks at him and says, 'Oh look, his forehead is black, probably he's praying'. She likes John Travolta, who is dancing and moving his stomach as quick as the – as I don't know what – and she likes that because if he was wearing the proper dress which has been imposed on him by Muslims, she wouldn't even think about him," Hamza said in a taped address.

The former radical imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in north London also said girls would learn new words at school and would look their fathers in the eye and say: "I don't care a tin monkey about you, father."

Certainly no father ever wants to hear "I don't give a tin monkey about you" from his children.

I shit you not. We should not be attempting "public diplomacy" in the Muslim world. We should be paying millions of dollars to get broadband internet there and all the free porn we can.

This entire psychotic cult is based on a fear of sexuality of even the most minor kind.

Posted by: Ace at 03:18 PM | Comments (37)
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Can bribery be evidence of a "culture of corruption" if Republicans aren't involved?:

The man Pfeffer bribed is referred to only as "Representative A" in court papers. But law enforcement sources and documents make clear the politician is the defendant's former employer, Jefferson, who has not been charged in the case.

Pfeffer recounted in court how his former Capitol Hill boss, in exchange for using his congressional influence in Africa, demanded a 5 to 7 percent stake in one of two new companies Pfeffer's firm was investing in. The companies were to provide high-speed Internet and cable TV service in Ghana and Nigeria.

Pfeffer said the congressman also demanded that two relatives be put on the businesses' payrolls.

Pfeffer told his boss at the investment firm, a 41-year-old woman referred to as "CW" in court papers, that such was the cost of doing business with the congressman, a court document said.

That's from this past Thursday. It was published on page 5.

Posted by: Ace at 02:13 PM | Comments (11)
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"I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "This might be a man I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

A double victory. One, we get Alito, two, the Democratic crazy-base gets further incensed at the Democrats.

More Democratic malaise:

Disheartened by the administration's success with the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., Democratic leaders say that President Bush is putting an enduring conservative ideological imprint on the nation's judiciary, and that they see little hope of holding off the tide without winning back control of the Senate or the White House.

In interviews, Democrats said the lesson of the Alito hearings was that this White House could put on the bench almost any qualified candidate, even one whom Democrats consider to be ideologically out of step with the country.

That conclusion amounts to a repudiation of a central part of a strategy Senate Democrats settled on years ago in a private retreat where they discussed how to fight a Bush White House effort to recast the judiciary: to argue against otherwise qualified candidates by saying they would take the courts too far to the right.

Even though Democrats thought from the beginning that they had little hope of defeating the nomination, they were dismayed that a nominee with such clear conservative views - in particular a written record of opposition to abortion rights - appeared to be stirring little opposition.

...

Now, several Democrats said, even at a time when many of his other initiatives seem in doubt, and though he was forced by conservatives to withdraw his first choice for the seat, Mr. Bush appears on the verge of achieving what he had set as a primary goal of his presidency: a fundamental reshaping of the federal judiciary along more conservative lines.

I'd give it a solid B+.

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (31)
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Iran frets destablization of Syria; FM to meet with Assad; Israelis ready for strike; Evan Bayh says strike could significantly delay Iran's nukes.

Posted by: Ace at 01:01 PM | Comments (3)
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Always take DEBKAfile with a big grain of salt, but, whether intentional or not, Al Qaeda seems to have gained from our missed strike on Al-Zawahiri.

According to DEBKA, they baited us to hit the target, feeding us false information about Zawahiri's presence there:

1. To confuse the commanders of the American forces hunting for bin Laden and Mullah Omar and expose their failure to penetrate al QaedaÂ’s top ranks.

2. To expose US pursuit tactics and uncover any American collaborators in their midst.

How about a third goal? To anger the Pakistani government (or at least get them to claim they're angry), and thus reduce Pakistani cooperation in future strikes.

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (12)
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24 debuts tonight, and the American Thinker has thoughts on the show's enduring popularity. Remember when no one thought you could repeat the same formula twice?

The question of how far we should allow those entrusted with protecting us from terror to go has been discussed, polled, and argued to the point where virtually everyone is aware that it is important. To all those who raise such questions, Jack Bauer, the hero of 24 provides an unequivocal answer: whatever it takes.

...

The ancient Greeks developed a term for what Jack Bauer supplies us. It is the narcotic of catharsis. We live in a perpetual, usually conscious, state of anxiety over what will become of us in the face of terrorists who do not hesitate to inflict mass casualties of the most horrible order. Many of us are also genuinely troubled by the potential loss of freedom if our civil liberties are infringed. As a result, we live with tension, the release of which generates pleasing endorphins in our brains.

And Jack Bauer does provide release. He Does What Needs to be Done. No worrying over constitutional protections, or even fear for the legal and personal costs when responsibility is put on his shoulders. Torture the suspect (or last season, violate the diplomatic immunity of a Chinese consulate), and protect America.

Because Jack is a fantasy figure, a gritty version of James Bond, whose ammunition never runs out, who is never the one brought down in a hail of fire, and whom we know will go on to protect us again, all of this escapism works and works well. Even as we are caught-up in the dramatic tension, we know that it is “only” entertainment.

As the article alludes, the thuggish hero is hardly a new innovation. Some of the most enduring heroes of cinema and genre-literature are basically well-educated amoral, brutish anti-heroes, living according to a code that priorities on setting things right, not necessarily acting right. The Continental Op, Phillip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, Eastwoods' The Man With No Name (and the related re-writes High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider), James Bond, "Mad Max" Rockatansky -- in objective moral terms, they're evil men, at least in terms of their actions. The thrill is that these evil men visit evil upon men who are even more evil. They do the things we can't, not just because we're not omnicompetent as they are, but because we're limited by moral codes that are hardly an afterthought to them.

Half of short horror stories, especially in the Tales From the Crypt/EC Comics tradition, create pleasure by the same formula. Here are some bad people -- gangsters, wife-murderers, rapists, pedophiles, etc. They're evil. Now here, rising from the grave, is something even more spectacularly evil to deliver gory justice to them. The cosmic horror crawling out of the mausoleum becomes, in effect, an anti-hero, the undead abomination now the reader's rooting interest, the vicious vehicle of our desire for a true justice that usually eludes us in real life.

The article suggests that 24 thrills because we know it's all "fantasy." Well, perhaps. But maybe it's not complete fantasy -- I don't think that terrorist suspects delivered into the tender mercies of Egyptian prisons consider the Bauer code entirely fantasy. And many Americans are not particularly bothered by torture, because while we recognize the practice as evil in itself, we also recognize it as somethig else when visited upon monsters -- rough justice.

The thrill comes from the anticipation of the villain's realization: "I thought I was ruthless and vicious. But Lord have mercy on my soul, this guy who's after me can teach me whole lessons about ruthlessness and viciousness." Bush's public support for his handling of the War on Terror has certainly diminished, but what sustains him is not, I think, his successes (which are fewer than we'd all like), but the public's basic understanding that he's willing to do things his political opponents and would-be Presidents simply won't.

More... Another American Thinker article makes some of the same points I do above. It's by the proprietor of Right Wing Nuthouse.

Posted by: Ace at 11:44 AM | Comments (157)
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Pittsburgh looking good. Woot!

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (62)
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I thought they already had invented Val-U-Rite discount vodka, but shows what I know:

They have been testing a pill that, when given after a traumatic event like rape, may make the resulting memories less painful and intense.

...

Only 14 percent to 24 percent of trauma victims experience long-term [post-traumatic stress disorder], but sufferers have flashbacks and physical symptoms that make them feel as if they are reliving the trauma years after it occurred.

Scientists think it happens because the brain goes haywire during and right after a strongly emotional event, pouring out stress hormones that help store these memories in a different way than normal ones are preserved.

Taking a drug to tamp down these chemicals might blunt memory formation and prevent PTSD, they theorize.

Some doctors have an even more ambitious goal: trying to cure PTSD. They are deliberately triggering very old bad memories and then giving the pill to deep-six them.

I'm going to need a few of these. One for 1978, one for 1983, and a bunch for 1992-2005.

Posted by: Ace at 08:51 PM | Comments (48)
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Better than Jon Stewart, I suppose:

Finland's president finds her traditional support among women and the Social Democratic Party base, but lately to the surprise of many Finns _ and her opponents in Sunday's election _ she has gotten an endorsement of a different sort.

The redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has been promoting President Tarja Halonen's re-election bid as part of a long- running joke about their supposed physical similarities.

"Why do I support Tarja Halonen? Because she's got the total package: a dynamic personality, a quick mind, and most importantly _ my good looks," the comedian, whose show is broadcast on cable in Finland, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

...

"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" airs five days a week on SUBTV, a Finnish cable channel, with a few days' delay. Every time he mentions Finland or Halonen, local tabloids report it prominently.

The Halonen camp is laughing all the way to the polls.

"Of course, when she is mentioned so many times it's positive for our campaign," said Halonen's campaign manager, Markku Jaaskelainen.

...

Halonen's opponents are not amused.

"He's just making fun of the whole election," said Harri Jaskari, campaign manager for former Finance Minister Sauli Niinisto. "If this decides the election, then we're in trouble. It gives a very poor picture of Finnish democracy."

America

We used to interfere in countries' politics for oil, money, or power. Now we just do it for shits and giggles.

Posted by: Ace at 08:18 PM | Comments (33)
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They'll know it's time for action when Tel Aviv has been nuked:

France said on Friday that it favours a step-by-step approach over Iran's contested nuclear program and that any sanctions request at this stage would be premature.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei, said France's priority for now is convening a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

The Security Council could decide to sanction Iran. But Mattei did not prejudge what action the council might take.

He said France, Britain and Germany regard the issue of sanctions as being ``premature for the moment.''

``We'll see what happens at the Security Council,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``One step at a time.''

The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France said on Thursday that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme had reached a ``dead end'' and that Tehran should be referred to the Security Council.

Forward-Looking Update Through A Glass Darkly: The Great Gulf War of 2007-2011, and the nuclear fire that scorched the world.

The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.

Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration's original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran's nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened.

Posted by: Ace at 08:04 PM | Comments (34)
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