A piece I'm sadly mostly in agreement with. It's not so much that Bush was too conservative, nor that he wasn't sufficiently conservative; the bad mojo is mainly due to him being ineffectual on whatever policy he pushed.

Domestically, a large range of conservatives will seem discredited by an American defeat in Iraq, which is why their liberal and radical opponents so quickly, and fecklessly, embraced the claim that Iraq is lost. On crime, abortion, education, government spending--the whole litany of domestic concerns--the American conservative movement may well find itself starting over, back once again where it was in 1974. The result will be perhaps most disheartening for social conservatives, as decades of intellectual and political gains against abortion are frustrated.

And the fact we must face is this: We have already been defeated in Iraq. Perhaps not in literal truth; a better policy, better implemented, might yet bring about a stable, democratic country. And certainly not in historical terms; Iraq is only an early chapter in what must be a long struggle against global jihadism. But, at the very least, the battle for perception of the Iraq War has gone entirely against the United States. In the eyes of both the American public and the Islamic world, we have lost--and lost badly.

The reason is President Bush. His administration has mishandled the logistics of the war and the politics of its perception in nearly equal measure, from Abu Ghraib to the execution of Saddam Hussein. Conservatives voted for George W. Bush in 2000 because they expected him to be the opposite of Bill Clinton--and so, unfortunately, he has proved. Where Mr. Clinton seemed a man of enormous political competence and no principle, Mr. Bush has been a man of principle and very little political competence. The security concerns after the attacks of September 11 and the general tide of American conservatism carried Republicans through the elections of 2002 and 2004. But by 2006 Bush had squandered his party's advantages, until even the specter of Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House was not enough to keep the Republicans in power.

To abandon Iraq now would be the height of irresponsibility. It would lock in place the perception of defeat, with all the predictable consequences, and it would abandon the Iraqis to whom we promised freedom and democracy. President Bush has clearly done the right thing in refusing retreat and pledging to stay the course in Iraq.

But hasn't that always been the problem? Again and again, he has done the right thing in the wrong way, until, at last, his wrongness has overwhelmed his rightness. How can conservatives continue to support this man in much of anything he tries to do? Iraq is not America's failure, and it is not conservatism's failure. We are where we are because of George W. Bush's failure.

All the 2008 Republican presidential candidates should understand the task they face over the next two years. George Bush's ideals have gotten him elected president twice, and his incompetence has finally delivered the Congress to his domestic opponents and empowered his nation's enemies abroad. Iraq needs an American president who embraces Bush's principles--and rejects his policies. The United States needs much the same thing.

Tomorrow the WSJ will run a companion piece, The Conservative Case For Bush. I'll make sure I check it out for balance.

Posted by: Ace at 03:33 PM | Comments (74)
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Given that this site is inhabited (and authored) by mouth-breathing morons, I have to point out when one of you knuckle-draggers elevates up to third-grade level.

Farmer Joe on the Mormon girl suspended for saying "It's so gay:"

Her defense should be that she wasn't saying "gay", she was saying "ghey", which, although it sounds exactly like "gay" is not actually "gay", it's a completely different word: "ghey". She should then accuse her accusers of being homophonophobes.

Related: General Peter Pace's head demanded on a platter by the hysterical left for calling homosexuality "immoral," like adultery.

Guys? You may disagree. Hell, I may disagree. (In fact, I do.)

But this, um, screeching sissymary act is sort of off-message, isn't it?

And Yet Again: Now Tony Dungy, who advanced race relations one hundred years by winning the Super Bowl (okay, maybe he didn't, but that's the way buffoons were talking), is derided as an "ANTI-GAY BIGOT" for daring to speak in front of an "anti-gay group."

The group was the Indiana Family Institute, whose website includes this nugget:

...[as members of the Indiana Family Institute] we have opposed all efforts to create or advance special civil or legal rights for homosexuals.

Again, a measured, manly response to this is probably the best course of action to take.

Posted by: Ace at 02:43 PM | Comments (54)
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Angry adulterer sets up former mistress to be kidnapped and raped:

A renowned hedge-fund honcho hatched a heinous revenge plot against his former mistress by posing as her on the Internet - saying she wanted to be kidnapped and raped as part of a sicko sex fantasy, officials said yesterday.

Albert Hsu, 43, a wealthy, married dad of two and former Cub Scout leader, posted his fiendish ad on a hardcore, S&M Web site, Connecticut authorities said.

He allegedly included the woman's name, photo, address, license-plate number, train schedule to and from work and even the rail car she usually sits in.

"The defendant set the victim up to be abducted and raped by a complete stranger," prosecutor Ricki Goldstein said in Norwalk, Conn., Superior Court.

Hsu, who co-founded Anchor Point Capital in New York City after overseeing billions in investments for everyone from Xerox to Atlantic Philanthropies, meticulously planned the scheme down to the last detail, officials said.

Posing as his ex in the "ad," he allegedly begged anyone responding to not contact her or give her a head's-up before the attack because it "would ruin the fantasy" for her.

His motive appeared simply to be pure "hate," Goldstein said.

She said Hsu had already lined up one potential attacker and has confessed to the crime.

Gruesome gay lovers suicide pact thwarted, for lack of an extra arm:

Two Atlanta men survived an attempt to kill themselves Friday by cutting off their arms with a circular saw, according to Atlanta Police Major Lane Hagin.

The men managed to sever three of their arms about six inches above the wrist, he said.

The two men — ages 40 and 41 — left a suicide note with the manager of their Atlanta apartment building saying they were committing suicide because their business had failed and they were recently diagnosed with HIV, Hagin said.

After reading the note, the manager called police who found the two men in their apartment with "a lot of blood," the major said.

Their names were not released. Police spokesman Steve Coleman said both were in stable condition at Grady Memorial Hospital late Friday and will undergo psychiatric evaluation.

I'm just wondering if, when they hacked of the third (of their combined four arms), one of them turned to the other and said, "Wait -- shit. When we were planning this out the math all seemed to work out, but now..."

Thanks to Monica for the second story. Someone linked the first one in a post, but I'm not sure who.

Another: Diplomacy, AoS Lifestyle Edition: Before entering into complex international negotiations, always pick a "safe word:"

The Israeli ambassador to El Salvador has been recalled after he was found drunk, naked and bound in sexual bondage gear in his yard, an official said Monday.

Tsuriel Raphael has been removed from his post and the Foreign Ministry has begun searching for a replacement, said spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel.

Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found Raphael naked outside his residence, tied up, gagged and drunk, Israeli media reported. He was wearing several sex toys at the time, the media said. After he was untied, Raphael told police he was the ambassador of Israel, the reports said.

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that he could identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

Can anyone explain that rubber ball thing to me?

I mean -- besides WickedPinto?

Nevermind, don't bother. I'd rather just not know.

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (45)
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Some critic tagged 300 playfully as the movie that answers the question, "What would happen if all your heavy metal albums went to war with each other?"

That premise is made more literal here.

He also has a bit more on Fredmania.

Posted by: Ace at 01:33 PM | Comments (10)
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What the hell is this weird crap?

Hot ice

Hot ice is the name given to another surprising phenomenon in which water at room temperature can be turned into ice that remains at room temperature by supplying an electric field on the order of 10 [to the sixth power] volts per meter.

Thanks to Dave S for blowing my mind with that.

More: Ice Nine and weird water.

Thanks to gluphus.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (25)
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Well I'm glad to know they've settled every other important aspect of the law, and now they're moving on to third- or fourth-order considerations.

When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay."

Those three words landed the high school freshman in the principal's office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?

After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued, claiming officials at Santa Rosa's Maria Carillo High violated their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture," according to court documents.

...

"The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from harassment," the district's lawyers argued in a legal brief. "In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase 'That's so gay' ... was a reasonable regulation."

Superior Court Judge Elaine Rushing plans to issue a ruling in the non-jury trial after final written arguments are submitted in April. Her gag order prevents the two sides from discussing the case.

...

In recent years, gay rights advocates and educators have tried teaching students that it is hurtful to use the word "gay" as an all-purpose term for something disagreeable. At Berkeley High School, a gay student club passed out buttons with the words "That's so gay" crossed out to get their classmates to stop using them.

Note that there was no suspension, apparently, for razzing a Mormon kid about having "ten moms."

Gays are the new blacks? Hah. Blacks could only dream of having this kind of PR machine in their corner.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (51)
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Sweet, sweet. Google spent north of a billion to acquire YouTube. Now they're hit with a billion dollar lawsuit.

YouTube is nothing but infringement. Without infringement, there is no YouTube.

Allah makes good sense in explaining why YouTube is doomed -- content providers are finally making their clips available, even in that convenient embedded form, for people to post. If content providers do this, what need do people have of YouTube?

You can't make a lot of money on teenage lipsync videos (which, because they're played over unlicensed recordings, are themselves infringing anyway).

It's hard to root for Viacom, but if it means destroying YouTube and Google, hey, for me, that's an easy call.

Posted by: Ace at 12:47 PM | Comments (17)
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Turn The Lights On, Asshole. Is there some protocol that forbids disturbing a crime scene with electromagnetic radiation? Apparently there is, because, especially on CSI, criminologists prefer stumbling around in the darkness to disturbing a simple light switch.

Even when a room actually has its lights on, for some reason it's so dark so permit flashlight-beams to be very visible as they slash across the room.

Oh, well. Flashlights in darkness look cool. But maybe they'd look cooler if they were only used once every three or four crime scenes instead of every damn show.

Worst offender: CSI.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:42 AM | Comments (93)
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This isn't an ideological thing. Just curious as to what exactly Newsweek found compelling or interesting in this piece comparing real-life criminal forensics to the forensics seen on TV crime shows like CSI.

We know we're in trouble early. The sub-hed:

America loves its crime dramas. But as our reporter found out, the reality of crime-scene investigation is often more gross than sexy.

Um, anyone watching CSI knows full well that forensics is much more gross than sexy. CSI, in particular, likes to feature a I-can't-believe-they're-showing-that-on-TV gross-out once every three or four episodes. Stuff you actually wince at.

Here's what she "learned" at a conference of forensics scientists. Tell me -- did you not know any of this?

On day 1, I learned that arterial spray is a complete misnomer unless you call what comes out of a fire hydrant spray. Day 2 brought hard proof in black and white of what a bullet actually does to the human head. I guess the reason we only see the entry wound on TV is because a big bullet takes most of the head with it on its way out.

How could she not have known that about exit wounds? Did she miss that whole "Kennedy Assassination" thing that was all the rage 30 years ago?

Now I sort of think this whole "Gee I was so naive but here's what I learned" framing device is just that, a device, an artifice, a lie used to give the story some sort of hook. Because I can't imagine anyone who's ever seen a crime show or read a true-crime book being surprised by any of this. And this woman claims to be a fan of the genre.

But even if we excuse that artistic license (or is it journalistic license? And are journalists supposed to have artistic license at all?), the simple fact is that this report tells us nothing we didn't already know. The fact is, the woman cadged travel expenses for this conference and one way or another she was going to get a story out of it-- and Newsweek thought so too.

What else could explain this?

Which bring me to my next point: forensic science is well, science. I went to the session on “Bones, Bugs, Trace and More” and could only understand every third word. At a minimum, you need a biology or chemistry degree, and every member of the Young Forensic Science Forum that I met was well on his or her way to an M.S. or an M.D. And it turns out; young CSIs populated the majority of the volunteer ranks.

I'd drop in a "to be fair" part here and note that she does mention that, for example, fingerprints are fairly rare -- but anyone who watches these shows knows that. Almost anyone in America who reads true-crime books or detective novels knows they're rare and that the conditions have to be just right to leave a liftable print.

And she makes much of the fact that DNA comparison tests are expensive and time-consuming-- well, yes, I knew both. Where is the actual news here? She devotes an entire paragraph to informing us that forensics science includes science.

A couple of other things are just laughable -- like telling us CSI labs don't have those super-duper miracle computers that plot out for you -- with 3-D models of the city -- precisely where a murder might have taken place if you just take the time to enter in the sort of mud that was found on the victim's shoe and what type of pollen was found trapped in his lapel. Everyone I know, certainly, giggles like crazy when the Super Duper Miracle Computer, better than even the Batman's Bat-Computer, makes its appearance. Honestly, dear, you're not telling anyone who watches these shows anything they don't know.

Well, maybe you're providing some information for those who watch CSI: Miami. They're retards.

Kind of a pointless post, I guess. Except to note, once again: The media 1) is stupid or 2) thinks you're stupid or most likely 3) is stupid and thinks you're even stupider than they.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (43)
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This is what animates conservative anger against liberals so much. Not mere policy differences. But policy differences which seem by and large contrived out of pure viciousness and hatred.

There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism. There is something profoundly wrong when there is so much distrust of our intelligence community that some Americans doubt the plain and ominous facts about the threat to us posed by Iran. And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and abandoning our friends and allies. Some of this wrong-headed thinking about the world is happening because we're in a political climate where, for many people, when George Bush says "yes," their reflex reaction is to say "no." That is unacceptable.

There is something profoundly disturbing during a period of war when half of one's countrymen are less interested in fighting the common enemy than fighting the other half of the country.

Posted by: Ace at 10:28 AM | Comments (132)
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