Saturday, 10 May, 2003NuqneH?Here's an interesting little tidbit from CNN: The Department of Human Services of Multnomah County in Oregon needs an interpreter who speaks Klingon. The department deals with mental health patients, some of whom refuse to speak anything but Klingon, and the department is obliged to provide information in all languages spoken by its clients. It's not quite as weird as it sounds; a lot of work went into developing Klingon into a complete language, and its existence is as legitimate as that of other "artificial" languages (insofar as any language can be said not to be artifical), such as Esperanto or Volapük. In fact, Klingon probably has more speakers than Esperanto and Volapük put together. And of course, we are talking about an institution that deals with mental health patients; refusing to communicate with your patients is bad start to helping them. posted 1701 Z-8 [link] Friday, 9 May, 2003StandardsLet me apologise in advance for participating in what is rapidly becoming a Blogoslavian circle-jerk. This one started off with an observation by Kevin "CalPundit" Drum on the 7th, which started off thus: Instapundit has a post up right now — I think it's about the 500th in a series — asking why "they" complain about Guantanamo but not about the much worse conditions of Saddam's prisons. I assume "they" refers to human rights organizations in particular and perhaps liberals in general, but either way this trope has gone way past tiresome.In response, Brett Cashman at Tabula Rasa offers some critique on Drum's observations; now, I tend to respect Brett's opinion even when I disagree with him (which is partly the result of my having in-laws with very similar political opinions), but in this case I feel compelled to add some comment of my own; not just regarding Brett's entry, but regarding the whole discussion. posted 0348 Z-8 [more..] Thursday, 8 May, 2003Absence of evidence? Well, noThere's a column in the WaPo by Jonathan Chait, a senior editor of The New Republic, titled "Blinded by Bush-Hatred" (link via both Jackie D and COINTELPRO Tool). The piece articulates a feeling I've had for a while, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, which is that a great deal of opposition to the war in Iraq was—and continues to be—based first and foremost on dislike of the Bush administration. posted 1447 Z-8 [more..] Wednesday, 7 May, 2003Another less-than-joyous anniversaryTomorrow, it will be a year since Jose "Pucho" Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL. Despite allegations that Padilla was a member of al-Qaeda, planning to assemble and detonate a "dirty bomb" in the United States, he has, to date, not been charged with any offence. Instead, he was initially classed a "material witness" to the 9/11 attacks, and when that didn't work (some annoying judge insisted he be charged or released), reclassed as an "enemy combatant" and transferred from the DoJ to the DoD. posted 2331 Z-8 [more..] Salam resurfaces, sort of You may be happy to hear Salam Pax, our man in Baghdad, has resurfaced! Admittedly by proxy, since connectivity in Iraq is evidently touch-and-go, but he's sent his collected observations to Diana Moon (formerly of "Letter from Gotham"), and she's posted them into his blog on his behalf. Incidentally, I don't buy into theories that Salam is a phony. I've corresponded with Diana a fair bit by now, and if Salam were fake, she would have to be as well. And if she were, she'd be going to an amount of trouble to convince me of her bona fides which, considering I'm a minor player in Blogoslavia at best, just wouldn't be worth the payoff. Additional, 1915Z-7: Salam's stuff is compelling reading. In any given war, in any given push into a large city, how often have you ever gotten a perspective of your average inhabitant of the city in question so soon? I just finished reading The Fall of Berlin 1945 (which includes excerpts from diaries written by inhabitants of the city) 58 years after the fact; now I'm reading The Fall of Baghdad 2003 a month after the fact. It almost gives me a sense of historic occasion. I say "almost" because I subscribe to the notion that most people tend to (severely) overestimate the historical importance of the time they live in; personally, I think that a hundred years from now this war will merit a brief mention at most in the history books, just a short flash in the much larger process of western involvement in the Middle East (though in fairness I should add that the significance to military historians will likely be much higher). But that doesn't alter the fact that it is of supreme interest of those of us living right now. So what are you waiting for? Go read Salam. (Oops; I just realised that when I redecorated this page, I forgot to stick up that "Support Democracy in Iraq" pic. Oversight corrected.) posted 1841 Z-8 [link] RIP Fortuyn+1 Yesterday was the anniversary of the assassination of Pim Fortuyn. The fact that I'm writing this entry a day late (two days counting time zone differences) should serve to indicate how important this event was to me. The website of Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep (the Dutch answer to BBC World Service) has an article on Fortuyn's legacy by the political editor, Rutger van Santen. However, despite the fact that RNW operates in six different languages, they've only run the article in Dutch. So, in something of a No Cameras exclusive, I've provided a translation. posted 1758 Z-8 [more..] Tuesday, 6 May, 2003L'ennui du fin-de-guerre, darlingWhether one is member of the armed forces, the press, or any number of other professions, after the urgency of war, the cessation of hostilities inevitably leads to a lessened sense of purpose, and warbloggers are now falling prey to this as well. Well, I am anyway. Of course, there are plenty of things happening around the world worthy of comment—reconstruction in Iraq, tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Israel-Palestine "Road Map," SARS, you name it—but they're not fast-paced, fluid situations which change by the hour, or even by the day, and you feel less pressure to comment now. posted 2325 Z-8 [more..] Typical UN? Or just typical? Since I've cast myself in the role of an informed commentator on UN-related matters, I suppose I'd better comment on this incident last week at UNHQ, in which a wildcat strike by the food workers union resulted in staff members helping themselves to lunch in what—not entirely unfairly—has been described as "looting." The story ran in Time and on NewsMax.com (it's essentially the same story, written by the same guy, Stewart Stogel). posted 2007 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 5 May, 2003Birdwatching from one's deskA couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of the Sibley Guide to Birds, which I've been using to identify some of the avians which have been messing around our back garden. I spotted something a few weeks back which I subsequently identified as a Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). Nothing special there, but just now I spotted a pair of what appear to be Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica), specifically the Pacific subpopulation. Sibley writes: Pacific birds are generally bold and conspicuous;Yep, that's appropriate. Interestingly, they don't normally seem to range this far north, according to the guide. That is actually one of the fun things of moving to a new country: being confronted on an almost daily basis with flora and fauna that's alien to you. Hey, at least somebody's happy to see a pack of raccoons patrolling the neighbourhood, or a possum scurrying along the back fence. (Note to self: learn how to identify poison ivy before you learn the hard way.) posted 1500 Z-8 [link] Liberation Day May 5th marks the anniversary of the surrender of all remaining German troops in the Netherlands in 1945; thus, it's Liberation Day in my home country. So I'd like to thank the members of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces and the 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force, the 1st Allied Airborne Army, the US 1st and 9th Armies, the British 2nd Army, and especially the Canadian 1st Army for liberating my country. Your efforts and sacrifices are not, and will not be, forgotten. Thank you all. (A special thought goes to my friend Mark's late grandfather, who jumped into Arnhem in September 1944 as a medic with the British 1st Airborne Division; he also jumped into Algeria and Normandy, and was a hero several times over. If there's a heaven, he deserves a good spot in it. Alternatively, if there's a place for warriors in Valhalla, the warriors had better have insisted the medics be allowed in as well.) posted 0421 Z-8 [link] "Cheese-eating," granted... In a recent article in The Economist ("Blame, aim, fire"), one line in particular caught my attention, especially the bit in parentheses: Military ties and defence contracts [between the US and France] will also suffer (which in one way is unfair, as France's military men disagreed with Mr Chirac's Iraq policy, and would have been keen to join America in the fight).Now, I have my issues with the French government (oh, do I ever), and it'll take a lot to change that, but even in the run-up to this war I found the popular American characterisation of the French—and the French soldier in particular—as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to be not only unfair, but also indicative of an ignorance of history which is beyond risible. Let's take a look at French military history over the past two centuries. posted 0414 Z-8 [more..] Sunday, 4 May, 2003What does morality have to do with it?Spinsanity ran a piece about a week ago regarding misrepresentations of comments made by Senator Rick Santorum, in which Santorum's position was summed up as follows: Santorum is clearly stating his opposition to constitutional protection for what he calls "homosexual acts" earlier in the interview. In mentioning polygamy, bigamy, incest, and adultery, however, he did not state that they are morally equivalent to homosexual acts. Instead, he made the legal argument that if the Supreme Court overturns Texas's sodomy laws prohibiting anal and oral sex amongst homosexuals, those other acts would have to be legalized by the same principle of a constitutional right to privacy.Kudos to Spinsanity for accurately pointing out the distinction. However, this doesn't make Santorum's position any less incorrect; it's just incorrect for different reasons. posted 2204 Z-8 [more..] |
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