Hundreds of men lining up Tuesday to join the Iraqi Army in Basra. Apparently these guys didn't read enough American newspapers to realize that Sadr won.

(via comments at NY Sun columnist Nibras Kazimi's blog, which has an interesting take on the whole thing that you probably missed)

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:24 AM | Comments (29)
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So does this mean I have to cut smokers some slack?

"This is kind of a double whammy gene," said Christopher Amos, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and author of one of the studies. "It also makes you more likely to be dependent on smoking and less likely to quit smoking."

A smoker who inherits these genetic variations from both parents has an 80 percent greater chance of lung cancer than a smoker without the variants, the researchers reported. And that same smoker on average lights up two extra cigarettes a day and has a much harder time quitting than smokers who don't have these genetic differences.

The studies are giving researchers new ideas about treatment for smoking addiction.

LATER:In other health-related news, researchers say drinking eight glasses of water a day doesn't really do anything.

People in hot, dry climates and athletes have an increased need for water, and people with certain diseases do better with increased fluid intake, they found. But for average healthy people, more water does not seem to mean better health, they said.

Now they tell me. I've gotta go pee again, dammit.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:23 PM | Comments (32)
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Well, if you're a dog person, anyway.

A Dogue de Bordeaux (frickin' huge French Mastiff) battles a Jack Russell puppy.

Does the mastiff look to be the same breed as Hooch from the movie Turner & Hooch to you? Looks like it to me.

Posted by: LauraW at 03:13 PM | Comments (28)
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Jay Leno, on Hillary's comparison of herself to Rocky:

Didn't Rocky end up getting the crap beaten out of him? And then losing to the black guy?

Ummm... now that you mention it... yeah.

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (30)
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"Holy Brothel," from MichaelYonOnline.com. Pic republished here only to reduce bandwidth strain and not to claim ownership.

Contains a verb use I appreciate, "mulched."

The few remaining serious troublemakers are being hacked off and mulched in these incessant operations, which gives the enemy no rest (in the old days, when they were murdering Iraqis and Americans by the thousands, AQI used Tal Afar for training and R&R).

These types of terrorists used to lay up with prostitutes in downtown Tal Afar, which isn’t so uncommon – for years brothels have been an excellent source of information against al Qaeda from Mosul to Baghdad. The al Qaeda terrorists don’t save themselves for the seventy two virgins promised to suicide bombers. They love drugs, prostitutes, and the power of the gun.

The gay al Qaeda informant in Moment of Truth in Iraq is classic. Whenever his al Qaeda lovers abused him, he supplied American forces information to kill them.

Ohh, snap! Fuck me? No, fuck you.

Yon's book is set for release April 23rd.

PS, the writing on that guy's chest is a later photo enhancement, not by Yon's hand but earlier in the chain of custody, and is not a tattoo.

Thanks to UnMe.

Posted by: Ace at 01:18 PM | Comments (57)
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Talaq, talaq, talaq.

A Malaysian man divorced his two wives in three minutes, saying they had "collectively decided" to end their marriages to him and he had "never expected" such an outcome, reports said on Wednesday.

..

The 44-year old businessman told the daily that his wives, a housewife and a nurse who lived in the same house, had both wanted to divorce him.

"(My first and second wives) are like good friends but I never imagined that both of them had collectively decided to divorce me," he said. "I admit that my relationship with them had been strained over the past few months but I never expected our marriages to end in this manner."

Roslan married his first wife in 1986 and his second in 1995. He married a third time in 2001 but divorced shortly afterwards.

Asked if he would marry again, Roslan, who has eight children with the three women, said: "I will not put off marriage indefinitely, God willing."

You know how many times "talaq, talaq, talaq" must be said in the Islamic world?

If we had that -- say this three times and you're divorced -- honestly, how many arguments would end with one person saying "talaq, talaq, tala--" to get the other one to shut up?

Might As Well Put It Here: Jonah Goldberg on the strange rules of "tolerance" as apply to "Fitna:"

"Fitna" is certainly provocative, yet it has good reason to provoke. A cancer of violence, bigotry and cruelty is metastasizing within the Islamic world.

It's fine for Muslim moderates to say they aren't part of the cancer; and that some have, in response to the film, is a positive sign. But more often, diagnosing or even observing this cancer -- in film, book or cartoon -- is dubbed "intolerant" while calls for violence, censorship and even murder are treated as understandable, if regrettable, expressions of well-deserved anger.

It's not that secular progressives support Muslim religious fanatics, but they reserve their passion and scorn for religious Christians who are neither fanatical nor inclined to use violence.

I think that last bit crystalizes a lot of the frustration here. As children of the Enlightenment, we are taught to judge each person on their merits as individuals and reject tribal loyalties. We do not completely reject tribal loyalties, of course -- no one does -- but we strive to.

But Muslims are by and large not children of the Enlightenment, and do not reject tribal loyalty. In fact, even among otherwise moderate minded Muslims, loyalty to one's fellow Muslim, no matter how vicious he may be, seems often to trump most other considerations.

The good-faith judge-individuals-by-the-content-of-their-character ethic most of us try to extend to the Islamic world just doesn't seem very much reciprocated.

Which breeds resentment and, inevitably, hostility and a championing of one's own tribe -- if the other side's going to do it, why not us?

That's the visceral reaction. The higher-minded reaction might be "We believe in this ethic because it's right, not because we expect to gain anything in return for our belief in it," but the visceral often -- usually -- trumps the higher-mind.

I do want something in return for good behavior. I'm not a believer in the idea that goodness is its own reward. Goodness isn't really its own reward, at least not tangibly; metaphysically, maybe. But I, and I think most folks, choose to do the "good" thing in the expectation that others will do the good thing right back to us. And when that expectation is frustrated, belief in the "good" thing begins to seem like a chump's game.

Posted by: Ace at 12:45 PM | Comments (20)
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I think this kid pretty much serves as a determinative poll of one for the Democratic primary.

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (18)
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Via Richard Miniter at PJM. It seems not quite so clear-cut, but here's some good counterpunch to the NYT's and MSM's assessment that Sadr won by losing.

LetÂ’s round-up todayÂ’s events: far fewer rockets were lobbed into the Green Zone today because U.S. airstrikes have really frightened those launching them from Sadr City and elsewhere. ShuÂ’la, near Kadhimiyah, was quiet all day today, so was ShaÂ’ab City. Washash is an important enclave for the Sadrists in western Baghdad and it experienced 5 days of continued skirmishes with the Iraqi Army and police yet the Mahdi ArmyÂ’s 18 member leadership committee abandoned Washash in the early afternoon Baghdad time and opted to hide in other parts of the city. The 400-500 active militants in Washash are either back in their homes or have left along with the leadership.

All the places that erupted five days ago across southern Iraq were much calmer. ThereÂ’s a report that Shatra is under Sadrist control and it seems to be totally bogus, according to a source who spoke with acquaintances there today. Qurna, Ghammas, and Nassiriya have all witnessed the collapse of whatever resistance the Mahdi Army could muster in facing government troops.

The NYTimes reports that most of Basra—and by “most” they mean 50 to 70 percent of the city as claimed in today’s NYTimes print edition—is allegedly under Mahdi Army control. This is a complete fabrication. As of last night, the Iraqi Army began a systematic cleansing of downtown Basra and its southern suburbs, meeting minimal resistance.

Allah wrote, I think, that maybe this was analogous to the Israel-Hezballah war, where Hezballah had in fact been damaged and did in fact lose militarily but "won" in the sense it endured.

That may be true, but few battles are truly conclusive as in war-ending. At the end of the day, the JAM was enduring before this attack and they're enduring after; they controlled much of Basra before the attack and they control much of Basra after; they owned much of the police force before the attack and they'll continue doing so.

But the question seems to me to be "Where they strengthened or weakened by this?," and if the answer is the latter, as it does seem to be, then it also seems to me they lost. Enduring at a diminished capacity is a "victory" only if you're defining mere survival as a victory condition. Most wouldn't call that a victory; they'd call it a survivable setback.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (26)
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Okay, not zombies per se, but he does say, quite seriously, that almost all of us will die and those who remain will revert to cannibalism for lack of crops.

This guy can buy and sell you ten times over, by the way. At least.

Just helpful for us conservatives to note on occasion the hidden hand of the free marketplace works wonders, but is sometimes completely retarded.

More from Hot Air... if "too many people" are the problem, what's Ted's concrete solution, I wonder?

Thanks to Blacksheep.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:56 AM | Comments (58)
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Clarifying.

Just watch the comments, okay? I'm pissed off too.

Thanks to Demure Thoughts.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (102)
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