Unqualified Offerings

Not Again - More boring “mostly law enforcement and intelligence stuff” this weekend:
LONDON (AP) - British Airways (BAB) and Air France on Saturday announced the cancellation of seven flights to and from the United States because of security concerns.
BA canceled four flights between Heathrow Airport and Washington on Sunday and Monday and one from Heathrow […]

Kerry, intended as criticisms of him:
o He’s been attacked by UO bete noires Max Boot and David Brooks
o He has “scant legislative achievements,” which is, frankly, the most a libertarian can hope for from a Democrat
o He told Tom Brokaw that
[t]he war on terror is less–it is occasionally military, and it will […]

Coming this Weekend - Watchmen-blogging roundup, including more e-mail and a Watchmen blogwatch. Consideration of this week’s Now They Tell Us - Reuel Marc Gerecht’s Weekly Standard article on Ayatollah Sistani and the caltrops strewn along the road to the democratic revolution. BruceR of Flit picks up on concerns that
a Sistani-blessed Iraqi state will likely […]

There have been some reports in the last week quoting US commanders as saying that they were close to “turning the corner” in defeating the resistance. These reports have recurred every couple of months since the summer. (Before that, you may recall, the story was that to call what was happening in Iraq a “resistance” […]

What the Future Holds - Thanks to the net.sorcery of Neilalien, you, yes you, can now divine the future via the legendary Orb of Aggamotto.

Annals of Overanalyzing - Is it just me, or is the CNN article on the newly-discovered Van Gogh condolence letter really jumping to conclusions? Here’s the situation:
Historians have long speculated that Van Gogh was a “replacement child” for his parents, who lost an infant boy at birth on March 30, 1852. They named the stillborn […]

More Devils in the Details - Couple of weeks ago I wrote about the surprisingly modest goals for the size of the new Iraqi military:
How is Iraq supposed to defend itself in that neighborhood with 40,000 soldiers and a bunch of guys with binoculars and jeeps? It’s not. The numbers indicate the plan, and the […]

I Wanna Hold Your Hand - Your one-note blog joke of the day. If the author can sustain it, it will be, in its way, an impressive feat.

Weapons of Some Destruction Redux - At first I wondered if there was an echo around here, but Independent Institute honcho David Theroux assures me that “We also have been talking about this for years.” Point of discussion? Ivan Eland’s latest column, with the catchy title, “Weapons of Mass Destruction Are Overrated as a Threat […]

It Takes a Comics Blogger - No less a personage than the legendary Neilalien has fixed this site’s problem with text selection in Internet Explorer for me. Neil: You. Da. Man. As of now, IE users can select as much or as little text as they want. The new problem introduced is that the two […]

Instant Blogwatch - Mr. Jimmy has posted the rare update to Objectionable Content, this one about David Kay, employed until recently by the US government. Traditionally, a new OC post is followed by six more weeks of winter.
Walter in Denver offers the Drug War Clock, where you can watch your tax dollars at work.
Gary Farber […]

Weird Science - Matthew Barganier offers a history in quotes of John Ashcroft’s repeated expressions of concern over “evil chemistry and evil biology.”

Your Surprisingly Work-Safe Link of the Day - http://www.cummingfirst.com/organ.html.
Via the Agitator.

Failing to Report the GOOD News from Iraq - Today’s culprits, Knight-Ridder reporters Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Whispers of “revolution” are growing louder in Baghdad this month at teahouses, public protests and tribal meetings as Iraqis point to the past as an omen for the future.
Iraqis remember 1920 as one of the […]

Mission Accomplished Just removed a bunch of typos and a few solecisms from the week’s posts. God I suck sometimes. Somewhat better now. Tomorrow: more stuff about stuff.

regarding the much-discussed conservative disenchantment with George W. Bush’s presidency.
The upshot is going to be a really ugly campaign, grounded more in efforts to motivate Republicans by fear and loathing of the opposition than admiration for the GOP. You see this a lot already in the rightwing press where the ratio of Democrat-bashing to Bush-praising […]

Who Watches the Watchmail? - It turns out that, after chili recipes and cover songs, Watchmen is one of the biggest mail-generatin’ topics out there. So here we go . . .
Justin Slotman writes
JIM!
I always thought the pirate comic was just an idea of what a comic book would look like in a world […]

D’Jyou Watch the Watchmen? Get it? D’jou Watch? Jew? - With sincere apologies to Alvie Singer. Reader Rich Puchalsky quickly picked up the baton I passed when I wrote
Walter “Rorschach” Kovacs, devotee of bigoted right-wing publications, is clearly Jewish. (So, less clearly, is Dan “NiteOwl” Dreiberg.) Discuss.
And discuss he did, but first. At one point, […]

Mailblog - Rather than update Unruled, Leonard Dickens spends his time e-mailing other bloggers. Hey, no biggie, I like Leonard and I like e-mail too. He writes about the weekend’s piece about the (possibly) Incredible Shrinking Terrorist Threat. First:
Actually I would say that both [sick Arab political culture and hatred of American foreign policy], along […]

Truth Commission - Democracy Now tangles with Wesley Clark over Kosovo and other matters. My affinity is with Democracy Now here, but Clark gives nearly as well as he gets. Until he gets to the commuter train incident. After that it’s all downhill.

my Supplanter address is the victim of sophisticated mail spoofing. I’m inclined toward the latter view right now, but, let me be clear:
I have not sent you an e-mail with no text, a vague subject header like “Hello” and an unsolicited attachment. If you get such an e-mail, nuke it.