Thursday, 24 April, 2003New decorThere's been some redecorating over at The Illiterate; very pretty. So as a result, I decided to try a new look myself. Bear with me, folks; there's going to be some tweaking going on in the next few days. Of course, by the time I'm happy with it, I'll decide to switch to Movable Type or something, though maybe by then I'll understand something about CSS and all that. posted 1931 Z-8 [link] SFX I've been in a resident of Pugetopolis for six months (minus one day) by now, so I reckon I get to have an opinion on the "Experience Music Project" at Seattle Center, and the opinion, predictably, is "Damn, it's ugly!" But this kind of news makes me happy I moved here. posted 0412 Z-8 [link] Weekly World GRUs redux (reduxed to tears, maybe) Last week, Colby Cosh linked to an article by Daniel Forbes in the Progressive Review, titled "Did Russians use blog to aid Iraqis?" This refers, of course, to the putative GRU reports posted on Iraqwar.ru, by an author or group of authors operating under the pseudonym "Ramzaj." For ease of reference, I've downloaded the collected "Ramzaj" reports from Venik's Aviation and uploaded them in Rich Text Format. Time for a retrospective assessment. posted 0024 Z-8 [more..] Wednesday, 23 April, 2003Oil for Food; who's in charge?My bro-in-law Steve forwarded me an opinion piece from the New York Times, "Oil, Food and a Whole Lot of Questions" by Claudia Rosett, regarding the UN Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) "Oil-for-food" programme (unofficially abbreviated as "OFFP"). Upon a more than merely cursory inspection, the piece seems to be riddled with obfuscations and distortions, and it goes some way to explaining why any number of bloggers seem to think the UN is in the business of awarding contracts primarily to French and Russian companies. posted 1341 Z-8 [more..] Tuesday, 22 April, 2003Do you realise self-righteous ignorance has a half-life of over 4.5 billion years?With yet another US military action having taken place involving the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions, the scaremongering which has become commonplace every time these munitions are discussed (and I use the term very loosely) is once again in full swing. A prime example is an opinion piece in the Seattle Times, "Depleted-uranium weapons should be banned" by Glen Milner, a Seattle resident and a member of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (in Poulsbo, WA). It's the usual stuff. "Radioactive nightmare," "half-life of 4.5 billion years," thinly veiled implications that DU is responsible for every case of "Gulf War syndrome" and every case of leukemia between Venice and Istanbul, etc. It's become a veritable litany, to be mindlessly repeated every time the US deploys A-10 "Warthogs", M1 Abrams or any other weapon system that uses DU ammunition. Actually, to be repeated even when weapons are used which do not incorporate DU, which is one of the reasons the litany is mindless. posted 0440 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 21 April, 2003Global Reach IIIA few more tick marks on the list: my counters tell me I have visitors in Iceland, Qatar and Taiwan. Hi there. And I'm racking up quite a number of visitors at .mil locations as well. posted 1847 Z-8 [more..] ICC correspondence Regarding my recent post on the ICC, I received an e-mail from Brett Cashman, who writes the thought-provoking Tabula Rasa. His e-mail, and my response, are reproduced below (with some minor HTML editing). posted 1755 Z-8 [more..] Arrest of Sina Motallebi Jeff Jarvis has a lengthy post on BuzzMachine regarding the arrest of Iranian journalist and blogger Sina Motallebi, with some very informative links. Recommended reading. Bear in mind, however, that the Iranian government is not a monolithic entity; the secular part of the government, led by President Khatami, is democratically elected, and quite reform-minded. The more repressive part is the religious element, consisting of "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei, the Council of Guardians, and a less than independent judiciary. But you can read about that in the links Jarvis provides. PS. Jarvis has a follow-up. posted 1706 Z-8 [link] Sunday, 20 April, 2003The Can of Worms, or more likely not, IVAn article appeared in the Telegraph website, claiming "German spies offered help to Saddam in run-up to war"; various bloggers—ignorant American* ones in particular—have already taken it as gospel. posted 1610 Z-8 [more..] |
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