tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57079212011-04-21T11:11:29.019-07:00G. A. Cerny"historical, FYI, trivia-for-the-hell-of-it backfill"Georgenoreply@blogger.comBlogger7081100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1097967374395748122004-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:002004-10-16T15:56:14.396-07:00A minor error, pointed out and corrected:
Czech Republic never posed threat to Muslims
We are referring to "Security Council seat would be a blessing" by MF Mahamed (Letters, October 8).
The following reference is made in connection with the positive role the UN has played in world peace: (The UN) lead(ing) the ceasefire agreement in Bosnia that prevented the massacre of Muslims by the Czech Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1092956786816573192004-08-19T16:06:00.000-07:002004-08-19T16:06:26.816-07:00Cabaniss Speaks:
If anyone should wonder why Americans should care about the Czech Republic, Bill Cabaniss can give them some reasons.
The former state legislator and Birmingham industrialist has been U.S. ambassador to the landlocked central European nation for the past seven months.
We have over $3.5-$4 billion (that) American businesses and investors have in the Czech Republic, have a lot Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1092956321495507072004-08-19T15:58:00.000-07:002004-08-19T15:58:41.496-07:00Ogden Nash, Baltimore's own master of verse, was born 102 years ago today.
A sample:
Some people's money is merited,
And other people's is inherited,
But wherever it comes from,
They talk about it as if it were something you got pink gums from.
Perhaps indeed the possession of wealth is constantly distressing,
But I should be quite willing to assume every curse of wealth if I could at the Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091752390932362102004-08-05T17:26:00.000-07:002004-08-05T17:33:10.933-07:00Light blogging this week, as though you didn't already know from the lack of posts. I'm starting a new job, celebrating my girlfriend's birthday, and working on a few long, but hopefully not dull, posts.
In a side point, for some reason, far beyond my grasp, I haven't been able to post in my own comments section. Other people can, and are encouraged to do so, but I can't until I figure out whatGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091561846257843722004-08-03T12:05:00.000-07:002004-08-03T16:52:25.346-07:00A whole new level of desperation
The Republicans, in need of a Senate candidate in Illinois to oppose rising star Barack Obama after their nominee was forced to withdraw over a sex scandal, are meeting today in Chicago to make their pick.
Among the possibles is Maryland's own Alan Keyes.
As Josh Marshall puts it:
It certainly doesn't seem like there's much time to make a drama out of the Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091558450316582662004-08-03T11:28:00.000-07:002004-08-03T14:10:39.996-07:00Dear Mrs. Rowling,
Thank you for your interest in these problems and for your contribution to our domestic discussion on this topic.
Yours Sincerely,
Vaclav Klaus
Nothing says "fuck off" like the very sincere thanks of President Klaus.
Best line:
I agree with you that protection of seriously handicapped patients, especially children, has to be a priority, because they cannot defend themselves. IGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091550762899868432004-08-03T09:32:00.000-07:002004-08-03T12:48:43.333-07:00Conet
A great read in today's Washington Post by David Segal, "The Shortwave And the Calling." It tells the story of Akin Fernandez who became obsessed by the mysterious shortwave transmissions from "numbers stations" when he began to pick up these bizarre signals one night while fooling around with his own shortwave set:
No context, no comment, no station identification. Nothing but numbers, Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091465189045413432004-08-02T09:26:00.000-07:002004-08-02T09:46:29.046-07:00Andrew Sullivan linked Friday, before retiring to his hammock, to a piece that, in Sullivan's words, "decries the assertion by the Kerry campaign that somehow having been in combat makes you better suited to be a war-president."
The usual points-- look at FDR!-- are made, but a key concept is overlooked. Paul Fussell, in his famous and controversial essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," wrote Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091216649864644732004-07-30T12:44:00.000-07:002004-07-30T12:44:09.863-07:00Let them eat Prozac.`Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091216311805012622004-07-30T12:38:00.000-07:002004-07-30T12:38:31.806-07:00If you can resist the temptation to click on the link to a story headlined "Seattle's own "Czech Karaoke King" booty-slaps his way to world championships," you're a better man than I am.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091211005997726452004-07-30T11:07:00.000-07:002004-07-30T11:10:05.996-07:00Oh...My...God.
A red-letter day for Czech feminists. So to speak.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091210366322410722004-07-30T10:45:00.000-07:002004-07-30T11:33:53.363-07:00Dignity, always dignity
That's a maxim that the Bush team has a hard time grasping. You might recall the minor story of a New York fundraiser for John Kerry last month. Celebs cracked jokes, some a bit ribald, at Bush's expense, Kerry called the assembly "the heart and soul of America," Whoopi Goldberg got fired by Slimfast, and so on.
It was, as I said, a month ago. Yesterday I got this email:
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091043444752813432004-07-28T12:24:00.000-07:002004-07-28T12:37:24.753-07:00Shorter Will Saletan (on Barack Obama's keynote)
Barack Obama isn't really black.
If you don't uncritically support free trade, you're a racist.
If you point out that your opponents are being divisive to the detriment of the country, you're being divisive.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091041724158469692004-07-28T11:38:00.000-07:002004-07-28T12:08:44.156-07:00"The prince of Prague"
That's the headline to a story posted on Salon (and, I gather, in tomorrow's Guardian) about the rise of Gross. It gets worse:
A new breed of dynamic young leader is on the rise in Eastern Europe, and youngest of all is the new premier of the Czech Republic, a 34-year-old former train driver.
[...]
The former high-speed train driver on the fast track to the top is renownedGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1091039451766433172004-07-28T11:30:00.000-07:002004-07-28T11:30:51.766-07:00Czech police collar 10 drunk bus drivers:
A police crackdown on bus traffic in the Czech capital caught 10 drunk bus drivers in a single day, police said Wednesday.
The action Tuesday - the first of its kind here - targeted public transportation, tourist and long-distance buses. Besides catching the 10 drunk drivers, police fined 256 bus drivers for speeding and nine who were unable to present a Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090974509777894712004-07-27T17:21:00.000-07:002004-07-27T17:33:16.833-07:00Acorns don't fall far from the Bush
Attacking a politician's family is just wrong. And I'm not attacking the twin daughters of G.W. Bush, Jenna and Barbara.
But I will point out this highlight from their recent online-chat, "Speaking Out for Dad":
Andrea Toth from Canoga Park CA wrote: What foreign leaders or diginitaries have you met?
Barbara and Jenna Bush answered: Yes, Andrea, and thatGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090963656240384012004-07-27T14:18:00.000-07:002004-07-27T14:27:36.240-07:00Bust of Benes busted
The plaque, anyway.
The ongoing story of this minor controversy captures, in some way, the whole continuing fight between the Czechs and the German expellees. It is at once ridiculous, inconsequential, and yet also, somehow, painful. And it won't go away.
(via The Monitor)Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090962863630627362004-07-27T14:09:00.000-07:002004-07-27T14:14:23.630-07:00This is the revolution?
It's a cliche, one of the oldest: a journo interviews the cab driver who picked him up at the airport.
Now a blogger does it. Ho-fucking-hum.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090954344498499802004-07-27T09:17:00.000-07:002004-07-27T14:52:30.836-07:00Most journalism about presidential elections sucks. Damn near all of it, in fact.
That's true this year, it was true four years ago, it will be true four years from now. The daily reports in the papers can at least be used to wrap fish; the stuff on the web doesn't even have that much going for it.
Most of it is devoted to the strategy of electoral politics, or how the candidates and theirGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090943781523686262004-07-27T08:54:00.000-07:002004-07-27T11:55:43.530-07:00No, please, no, make this image go away!
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090860238034717182004-07-26T09:43:00.000-07:002004-07-26T09:43:58.033-07:00Give the Waynesboro Record Herald some credit.They got that it's no longer Czechoslovakia in their story on Lutheran missionaries, "Couple feel call to serve people in Czech Republic."
Unfortunately, the headline writer wasn't able to make the distinction on exactly where they were called to serve.
Andrea Lindgren spent much of her senior year in college surrounded by a culture that was straight Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090614969186700102004-07-23T13:32:00.000-07:002004-07-23T13:47:10.673-07:00He said it
We've worked hard to make opportunity available and prosperity real and justice not a word. And I'm here to tell you, we're making good progress.
That's from the White House transcript of President Bush's address to the National Urban League this morning in Detroit.
Bush began his speech by praising his hosts:
... the people involved in the Urban League are dignified, decent Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090614312352629712004-07-23T13:25:00.000-07:002004-07-23T13:25:12.353-07:00How are Prague and Calcutta alike?
Ask Czech students studying Bengali:
“The Metro and the tram remind us of Prague…Also the fact that on Sunday most shops remain closed.”Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090610184027255562004-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:002004-07-23T12:16:24.026-07:00Blogging among the Czech Republic's Roma
Stacy Kosko, an American grad student, is doing an internship with the Dzeno Association, a Roma media access group. And she's keeping a blog while she's doing it.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090599646067288412004-07-23T09:20:00.000-07:002004-07-23T09:20:46.066-07:00God Bless the FOIA
And may He confound its enemies! A great piece by Matt Welch on the Freedom of Information Act, and two ambitious advisers to Gerald Ford, whose names you will recognize, who succeeded in limiting its scope.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090597806534874382004-07-23T08:42:00.000-07:002004-07-23T08:50:06.533-07:00This is not a post about the 9/11 Commission's Report
I haven't read it yet, though I intend to this weekend; maybe I'll post something then. (BTW, how can Sullivan say what's the best "instant summary" of a report that he hasn't read?)
But there is one thing that everybody should remember about this commission and its report: the White House actively opposed a full public investigation of the Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090525030534111672004-07-22T12:34:00.000-07:002004-07-22T12:37:10.533-07:00The last word on the Berger affair comes from Matt Welch.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090519622366564672004-07-22T10:59:00.000-07:002004-07-22T11:07:02.366-07:00The Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Glory of Carniola has wonderful links on the subject, occasioned by the news that they might have claimed yet another victim.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090517400134787022004-07-22T10:25:00.000-07:002004-07-22T10:30:00.133-07:00Toe-sucker says what?
What fucked-up planet do you live on if you think that it's a compliment that what you write can be mistaken for the work of Dick Morris?
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090509031422047302004-07-22T07:39:00.000-07:002004-07-22T08:57:32.086-07:00Kaplan on Berger
The best, most thoughtful piece that I've seen so far. I don't agree with all of it:
Breuer's explanation—that the documents got "enmeshed" in his private papers—isn't entirely implausible; certainly it falls within the shadow of a reasonable doubt.
That's a stretch; if not entirely implausible, it's close enough for (non-classified) government work. But the rest of his Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090506887392387052004-07-22T07:18:00.000-07:002004-07-23T06:25:02.260-07:00Failing upwards
Vladimir Spidla is going to Bussels. Levy was wrong, that's the real second chance city. Or maybe it's the last chance city.
Isn't that where they wanted to ship Jim Hacker?
In other news, The Prague Monitor links to this story on a poll claiming that Czechs consider the European Parliament elections in June the most important recent event. One half of those surveyed Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090445353921317112004-07-21T14:26:00.000-07:002004-07-21T14:29:13.923-07:00What did the English language do to them?
I'm not aware of any one in the White House who is aware of anyone who's aware that the President ever was aware of having made such a comment.
The man who said that is payed money by the American people.
(via Atrios)
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090443436113350722004-07-21T13:49:00.000-07:002004-07-21T13:57:16.113-07:00Apologies...
...for the length of the previous post on Berger; I actually know something about reserch at the National Archives, and this is one of the few times that it's relevant to something happening in Greater Blogistan.
For all I know, this whole thing will be little remembred even a month from now. God knows, I sympathize who doesn't feel like following it. I wish to assure my handful Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-109044286838001942004-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:002004-07-21T13:47:48.380-07:00More Berger
I don't want to keep kicking this, but his defenders, or in this case, his lawyer, make it worse everytime they open their mouths.
This is from a CNN interview with Sandy Berger's attorney, Lanny Breuer (via Josh Marshall; you'll have to scroll through the transcript to get to the interview).
Blitzer: But Sandy Berger knew the rules when he went there. He's not just anyone. He's not Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090428134289599842004-07-21T09:30:00.000-07:002004-07-21T09:42:14.290-07:00General Ripper, you're being paged
Could there be a better name for a Pentagon flack explaining conditions at Gitmo than Mike Kafka? (Particularly since Foster Payne is already taken.)
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090354398462171072004-07-20T13:09:00.000-07:002004-07-20T13:13:18.463-07:00"As the saying goes: Fool me once... uh... shame on you. Fool me twice...uh... um... DON'T FOOL ME AGAIN!"
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090339804351830972004-07-20T09:10:00.000-07:002004-07-20T13:08:05.783-07:00Sandy Berger, criminal
There is, quite simply, no other way to describe the actions of the former Clinton aide in removing documents from the National Archives:
A national security adviser to former US President Bill Clinton is being investigated for removing classified documents from the National Archives.
Samuel Berger has admitted inadvertently taking copies of a classified memo while Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090264226312613592004-07-19T11:56:00.000-07:002004-07-19T12:18:34.196-07:00What will Bush do if he wins?
A good question:
As he campaigned around the country last week, President Bush asked voters to give him another four years to make the nation "safer and stronger and better." But with the election less than four months away, one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the president's campaign is what he would actually do if he wins a second term.
It makes a certain Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090262019144682042004-07-19T11:29:00.000-07:002004-07-19T11:33:39.143-07:00Another legal victory for trademarked horse-piss
A European Union office has rejected Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar's efforts to block Anheuser-Busch's registration for "Bud" in entertainment and marketing services, A-B said Monday.
[...]
If upheld on appeal, the company would get registration for "Bud" for all marketing services in the European Union, it said.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090259824269615722004-07-19T10:45:00.000-07:002004-07-19T10:57:04.270-07:00"Mr. President has purposefully decided to sleep particularly in this hotel."
The "Mr. President" is, of course, Vaclav Klaus, and the hotel is, of course, the one that put a bust of Benes in its lobby.
I don't know how I feel about Benes, or the expulsions. Or, to be more precise, I have many conflicting feelings on those subjects. But I do know that Czech politcal leadership should mean Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090257743824104872004-07-19T09:17:00.000-07:002004-07-19T10:31:38.233-07:00Al Hawza, the newspaper of Muqtada al-Sadr the occupation authority banned by in March, has been allowed to start publishing again by the new Iraqi government.
I was skeptical at the time; in retrospect, it seems much worse. Just a waste.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1090252860777485542004-07-19T08:37:00.000-07:002004-07-23T08:34:33.793-07:00In this corner...
Micky Kaus and Andrew Sullivan. And in the other corner, the challengers, Sebastian and Steve Smith! (cheers)
The issue is whether the Democrats got a bounce from the addition of Edwards to the ticket. Guess who wins?
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089986675243389262004-07-16T06:57:00.000-07:002004-07-19T11:24:55.823-07:00Bobby Fischer is being detained in Japan, and apparently faces extraditon to the US to face criminal charges for violating the embargo on Serbia. Read this lengthy piece on Fischer's "pathetic endgame" for more.
UPDATE: Colby Cosh has more, including a link to Fischer's own website.
(via Hit&Run)
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089985420605524902004-07-16T06:34:00.000-07:002004-07-16T06:43:40.606-07:00Third Party Infantilism, cont'd
This time from the Libertarians at their nominating convention. Gee, I hope the Leftorium has enough space to hold everybody.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089934468152563412004-07-15T16:34:00.000-07:002004-07-15T16:34:28.153-07:00Bush on the stump
It's rather long,and there's absolutely nothing new in it, but take a minute to read this transcript of Bush in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. It'll give you some idea of what Bush is like on the campaign trail in front of his crowd, in a way that excerpts and his television appearances don't.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089923102235837682004-07-15T13:25:00.000-07:002004-07-15T13:55:30.806-07:00Pig in a trunk
A woman in Florida faces charges for putting a pig in the trunk of her car when she rode to offer up the creature as bait to lure an escaped tiger.
I've always said Carl Hiaasen's books should be classified as non-fiction, but never mind that now.
Here's what happened. A former actor, Steve Sipek, who had fallen in love with big cats while starring as Tarzan in low-budget Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089897813953369062004-07-15T06:16:00.000-07:002004-07-15T06:23:33.953-07:00Son of Flypaper
According to Sadly, No!, former flypaperists now think Iraq is like one of those candles you light at picnics.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089895696210717552004-07-15T05:48:00.000-07:002004-07-15T06:03:43.130-07:00Andrew Sullivan pulls a Cheney:
ALLAWI ON SADDAM: He insists that the old dictator had contacts with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Someone tell the New York Times.
In the story he links to ("always click on the link" tm Sullywatch) Allawi stresses Hussein's involvement with Abu Nidal and, in a blast from the past, Carlos the Jackal; he gives no evidence. Someone tell Sullivan Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089833010214227722004-07-14T11:30:00.000-07:002004-07-14T13:52:09.466-07:00Happy Bastille Day!
While it may still be too soon to tell how the French Revolution actually came out, any excuse to drink good wine and toast our oldest ally is welcome, particularly in these times.
And, at the risk of being considered a Franco-basher, I might as well use this post to note that La Marseillaise has the most bloodthirsty lyrics of any national anthem:
Arise you children of our Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089825478630297042004-07-14T10:14:00.000-07:002004-07-14T10:17:58.630-07:00"Lots of sand"
Seb has early highlights of the Butler report on UK intelligence failures.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089824212549780172004-07-14T09:40:00.000-07:002004-07-14T09:56:52.550-07:00Klaus vs. Rowling
Even if the issue wasn't putting mental patients in cages, it would still be hard to side with him against the creator of Harry Potter.
Annoying as attempts to explain politicians by referencing pop-culture are, doesn't Klaus strike you as a Death Eater?
Nicmoc has more.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089736247744092672004-07-13T09:00:00.000-07:002004-07-13T09:32:27.633-07:00Off to O-strava, Czechoslovakia
As regular visitors to this site may know, it's something of a hobby of mine to find truly awful American journalism about the Czech Republic. Or, as it's sometimes still referred to in the worst examples, Czechoslovakia.
This one goes into the Hall of Fame. The Henderson, Kentucky Gleaner has a story on a local young woman going to Czechia to teach English (Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089733194634239712004-07-13T08:34:00.000-07:002004-07-13T09:00:47.023-07:00CLARIFICATION: It has come to the editor's attention that the [Lexington, Kentucky] Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission.
A Southern newspaper looks at how it reported, or failed to, a profound change in America. Quite worth a look.
(via Amy Langfield)Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089725892148547692004-07-13T06:33:00.000-07:002004-07-13T06:38:12.146-07:00Pimp My (Eastern European, Communist-era) RideGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089665253122997322004-07-12T13:23:00.000-07:002004-07-12T14:25:42.466-07:00"An infantile disorder"
That's what Brad DeLong called the leftism of Barbara Ehrenreich for, among other things, supporting Nader in 2000. A post at Crooked Timber makes an eloquent defense of third-parties and angrily denies the infantilism charge.
Allow me to say, "Is too!"
Just one question for third-party activists, whose ranks include some of my closest friends: Who has more influence, Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089656377290344882004-07-12T11:05:00.000-07:002004-07-12T11:29:51.930-07:00Remember Makiya?
If Kundera was right when he wrote that, "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting," what are we to make of the struggle of Kanan Makiya to build an archive documenting Saddam Hussein's crimes? Modeled on the Russian group, Memorial, the US government was supportive. At first.
(via Hit&Run)Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089652845590940312004-07-12T10:01:00.000-07:002004-07-12T10:20:45.590-07:00Hayes grasps at straws
How would the leading proponent of "the connection" between Iraq and Al Qaeda deal with the report from the Senate Intelligence committee that, again, found no connection?
We didn't have long to wait. Hayes lays into statements by the committee that are "not merely hypocritical--they're inaccurate."
What does Hayes consider an inaccurate statement? This:
Not until Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089648007251264562004-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:002004-07-15T07:27:47.440-07:00Klaus, film critic
I've avoided posting about Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 because everyone else has; my own decidedly mixed two-bits worth of opinions on it aren't worth two-bits. But I can't resist pointing to the views of the esteemed Vaclav Klaus, the only president the Czech Republic has:
The message of this film is very weak and propagandistic," Klaus said. "We were used to such Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089647102526945612004-07-12T08:45:00.000-07:002004-07-12T11:34:31.916-07:00If the WMD aren't in Iraq...
Most of the world-- including the Bush administration, the US Senate, hell, even Andrew Sullivan-- has taken the absence of chemical weapons or the means to produce them in Iraq as an indication that the pre-war intelligence was a little off. Michael Ledeen is made of sterner stuff. I won't deal with all of his treatise, leaving that to others, but one of his Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089489620441187532004-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:002004-07-10T13:52:05.543-07:00Microfilm sucks
If the Bush administration said the dog had eaten their homework, you'd be right to wonder if they had a dog. So it's not surprising that "Rose Mary Woods" was the first name to spring to some discerning minds when it was revealed that payroll records that could confirm Bush's National Guard service have gone missing.
I am not able to provide complete copies of President Bush's Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089482391370594692004-07-10T10:36:00.000-07:002004-07-10T11:36:58.213-07:00Simone Ledeen's resume
Paul Krugman wrote in his NY Times column a while back
If the occupiers often seemed oblivious to reality, one reason was that many jobs at the C.P.A. went to people whose qualifications seemed to lie mainly in their personal and political connections — people like Simone Ledeen...
Roger Simon went, it's fair to say, a little crazy, calling Krugman's questioning of her Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089333854752458072004-07-08T17:22:00.000-07:002004-07-08T17:44:14.753-07:00Greg Easterbrook isn't always wrong. It's just that when he's right, it tends to be really obvious:
There may be a simple, overlooked, and incredibly basic reason why the fighting in Iraq refuses to end: Namely, there was never a surrender. Saddam Hussein's government never formally capitulated. Individual Iraqi leaders such as Tariq Aziz turned themselves over to United States forces, but the Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089332115772310802004-07-08T17:15:00.000-07:002004-07-08T17:15:15.773-07:00Really? You mean it? The Iraqi insurgency is larger than we thought?
You think?
The Iraq insurgency is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at its core, U.S. military officials say...
Why do they say that?
Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can call upon Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089316656953806382004-07-08T12:55:00.000-07:002004-07-08T12:57:36.953-07:00Mineralni voda
Radio Prague reports:
After a meeting with Mr Gross, the leader of the Communists, Miroslav Grebenicek, said his party would not be prepared to support the three-party coalition the acting chairman of the Social Democrats is hoping to put together. Mr Grebenicek said the only thing he had been offered during Thursday's meeting was mineral water.
Does anyone believe that?Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089311617546278042004-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:002004-07-08T11:33:37.546-07:00Matt Welch explains what he tried not to do in Bucharest
There are few terms in my profession more derisive than “parachute journalism,” as anyone who has worked in the local English-language press in the former East Bloc can tell you. There we’d be, toiling week after week for faraway newspapers with obscure names, only to watch in envious horror as expense-account reporters (like, oh, Jane Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089251810038459912004-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:002004-07-07T18:56:50.036-07:00Falluja: what now?
Hell if I know. This article by Dexter Filkins in the NY Times is the latest in the American press:
American and Iraqi officials say that a decision in April to pull back American forces from Falluja inadvertently created a safe haven for terrorists and insurgents there. But officials are reluctant to send American troops back into the city for fear of touching off another Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089250021667241802004-07-07T18:15:00.000-07:002004-07-07T18:27:01.666-07:00Anti-Slav bias through the ages
A taste of the shaky sources, and of the scepticism, of Western historians may be drawn from the following description of the Slavs, which was compiled, with some poetic license, "from the evidence of Procopius and of the Emperor Mauritius":
The Sclavonians used one common language (it was harsh and irregular) and were known by the resemblance of their form which Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089239449178261172004-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:002004-07-07T15:30:49.176-07:00That dry British wit: "Czech Republic - the facts" from Birmingham. Where, I understand, they still paint themselves blue.
Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089227285263539412004-07-07T11:57:00.000-07:002004-07-07T13:06:22.833-07:00Raze Pigtown?
Jesse Walker weighs in on a proposal to build a new racetrack near downtown Baltimore that would obliterate the neighborhood of Pigtown.
Pigtown's name, according to local lore, originated when pigs were led through its streets to Baltimore slaughterhouses. That no longer happens, but the neighborhood wouldn't be much worse if it did.
Still, the racetrack is, even by the Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089225737079830642004-07-07T11:29:00.000-07:002004-07-07T11:42:17.080-07:00Drowned in his own prose
A fountain was dedicated yesterday in London's Hyde Park to Princess Diana, seven years after she died in a car accident in Paris.
Now that's a simple sentence that tells you pretty much everything you need to know on the subject. The Baltimore Sun's Todd Richissin wasn't content to just write something like that. His lede:
Prince Charles was in Hyde Park yesterday, Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089224062229483262004-07-07T11:09:00.000-07:002004-07-07T11:14:22.230-07:00Cheney doesn't put up
The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said yesterday that it has had access to the same information on alleged ties between al Qaeda and Iraq as Vice President Cheney, who suggested last month that the panel may not have been privy to all available intelligence when it found limited links between the two.
[...]
"After examining available transcripts of Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089222962945580142004-07-07T10:08:00.000-07:002004-07-07T11:08:53.153-07:00"Careful what you wish for..."
is such a cliche that I'm hesitant to use it. Moreover, you'd think it unnecessary to have to remind sane people that death squads are not something to wish for.
Spencer Ackerman, who should know better, notes this report of shadowy militias threatening to kill terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and comments:
Normally I'm against militias. For Zarqawi, I'm happy to Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089220055170289912004-07-07T10:01:00.000-07:002004-07-07T10:07:35.170-07:00Two masked men robbed a famous five-star hotel in a western Czech spa resort early Wednesday, tying the receptionist to a table before they fled, police said.
The armed men stole more than $26,800 from the safe of the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary, 69 miles west of Prague, police spokesman Jiri Soukup said.
And Sherilyn Fenn didn't show.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089212043323314802004-07-07T07:54:00.000-07:002004-07-07T07:54:03.323-07:00Despicable:"Czech man's week in a cage"
"It is like a cage in a zoo. Like a small prison."
Thirty-year-old Michel Celetka described his week locked in a caged bed in a psychiatric clinic in Brno, his home town.
The cage was one and half metres high and two metres long; covered by dense netting attached to metal bars, and padlocked at the top on one side.
There's no excuse for this.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089210164638619742004-07-07T06:56:00.000-07:002004-07-07T07:22:44.640-07:00Kerry picked Edwards yesterday, as you might have heard. And I don't care.
The decision was made for the same reason that all decisions are made by a presidential campaign: to win. It's just that this decision isn't relevant to the outcome, as pretty much everybody knows.
Nobody in these United States not related by blood or marriage to the veep has ever voted for a ticket because of the name Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1089042964137482532004-07-05T08:56:00.000-07:002004-07-05T08:56:04.136-07:00"Bigwood helps Prague experience an American past time"
The sport of baseball has provided Clearview Regional High School graduate Mick Bigwood with many opportunites, one of which most recently sent him to Prague in the Czech Republic, an exotic country overflowing with history.
When he made the trip, it was with the American International Sports Tours, which sends teams from different sports Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088804897044451362004-07-02T14:44:00.000-07:002004-07-02T14:59:26.126-07:00Lame
Mr. Plotz, this is not, in fact, a good joke. It's not even close, not even by the standards of election horse-race journalism.
I've always been skeptical of Joshua Marshall's frequent complaint about the implicit view in political discussions that, as he puts it, "non-white voters somehow aren't quite real voters."
Plotz, in a piece that attempts to determine how Tennessee might vote Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088798553930208262004-07-02T12:59:00.000-07:002004-07-02T13:02:33.930-07:00Baltimore has its problems, but nobody here ever gets jacked by an elk. Not true everywhere.
(via Fistful of Euros)Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088797171937571762004-07-02T12:39:00.000-07:002004-07-02T12:44:00.950-07:00At some point, you have to decide which is more important-- your dignity or your job. Jon Ward went with the job. That money he blew on j-school went to good use.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088791726818572542004-07-02T11:08:00.000-07:002004-07-02T11:08:46.816-07:00A Reverse Potemkin:
After U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited one of the best-maintained refugee camps in this war-rattled region of western Sudan yesterday, he climbed back into a Land Cruiser and headed down a bumpy desert road.
He was scheduled to tour a scene of even greater desperation in what has been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, this time a camp that has not Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088787308200616462004-07-02T09:42:00.000-07:002004-07-02T09:55:08.200-07:00Benes on a pedestal
Great piece in the Prague Post on a hotel in Cesky Krumlov that placed a bust of Edvard Benes in its lobby, and got predictable, and not entirely unjustified, protests from Sudeten German groups.
The Czech view:
The owner of the five-star Ruze (Rose) Hotel, World War II veteran Jan Horal, 81, denies the monument is a nationalist gesture. He refuses to take down the bust, Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088782113928125262004-07-02T08:23:00.000-07:002004-07-02T09:36:18.016-07:00Point and, um, not quite counterpoint
Conservatives have long distrusted experts. But, inside the Bush administration, that distrust has grown into a war against scientists, economists, intelligence analysts--and the very idea of objective truth.
Franlin Foer, The New Republic
Trust the Experts - Your Neighbors
Subject line of an e-mail from BushCheney04@GeorgeWBush.comGeorgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088779827500877602004-07-02T07:28:00.000-07:002004-07-02T07:52:33.183-07:00Why doesn't he include the Mexican-American War?
Again, with the comparisons between Iraq and other wars. But, as I pointed out when Reynolds pulled the same stunt in April, comparing war casualties is a step back from when they were comparing post-war occupations.
And say happy birthday to Seb's blog.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088715835213300522004-07-01T13:58:00.000-07:002004-07-01T15:28:35.326-07:00Doperdele
Greece 1, Czech Republic, 0
Everyone in the Czech Republic, with the possible exception of Scott MacMillan, is now in mourning.
Swear in whatever language feels most comfortable.
Doper-fucking-dele.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088710271859711592004-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:002004-07-01T13:15:56.596-07:00O Glorius Day!
Sullivan writes, and my fingers tremble as I type this,
I should add, in self-flagellatory mode, that my quick post yesterday implying some kind of link between the Trib's actions and the fact that a relative of a Tribune board member lost in the primary was, in retrospect, stupid. There's no reason to believe the Trib was influenced in that way - they endorsed another candidate. Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088702992448606672004-07-01T10:28:00.000-07:002004-07-01T10:29:52.446-07:00And, in decidedly lighter news:
Bloopy recreates "The Trouble with Tribbles."Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088701036502439982004-07-01T09:57:00.000-07:002004-07-01T09:57:16.503-07:00Speaking of genocide:
The United Nations tribunal prosecuting key suspects in Rwanda's 1994 genocide says it is facing serious financial difficulties because U.N. member states are delaying the payment of their pledges.
[...]
[Spokesman Roland] Amoussouga calls the delay in payments a habit of member countries that most U.N. offices have to contend with.
One of the 140 countries that hasn't Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088695588530256802004-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:002004-07-01T08:26:28.530-07:00Sudan: "What took so long?"Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088693634509674022004-07-01T07:53:00.000-07:002004-07-01T08:03:22.306-07:00Corruption, long a problem in Czech society, extends even to... stamp collectors:
The Union of Czech Philatelists' has taken decisive action against two of it’s senior members who have been involved in a recent counterfeit scandal.
Award-winning philatelist Ludvik Pytlicek and Pavel Pittermann have both been asked to resign from the Union following this latest episode in a story which began at Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088621339393880332004-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:002004-06-30T11:48:59.393-07:00Killing time...
All a publisher has to do is write cheques at intervals, while a lot of deserving and industrious chappies rally round and do the real work.
She was feeling like a mother who, in addition to notifying him that there is no candy, has been compelled to strike a loved child on the base of the skull with a stocking full of sand.
He moves from point to point with as little uproar Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088618456139819562004-06-30T10:58:00.000-07:002004-06-30T11:00:56.140-07:00Vaclav and the Wolf
The occupation’s flaws were many, and they all lead from Baghdad back to Washington. The heart of the problem has always been the Bush administration’s almost theological conviction that American power is by nature good and what follows in its wake will be freedom and democracy. This is sometimes called American exceptionalism, and it’s another idea that the Iraq war should Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088613490744197762004-06-30T09:22:00.000-07:002004-06-30T09:40:55.546-07:00Things found in books
This post by Old Hag reminded me of a Penguin paperback edition of The Odyssey that I picked up in Crete-- it's a law that every American tourist in Greece has to carry around, if not actually read, a copy of Homer.
The book was in English, of course, but trapped in its pages was a postcard in German. The postcard was of the cemetery where the remains of the German Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088612149157416252004-06-30T09:07:00.000-07:002004-06-30T12:41:23.203-07:00At first light on Sunday, three young women walked into a scrubby field just outside their refugee camp in West Darfur. They had gone out to collect straw for their family's donkeys. They recalled thinking that the Arab militiamen who were attacking African tribes at night would still be asleep. But six men grabbed them, yelling Arabic slurs such as "zurga" and "abid," meaning "black" and "slave.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088610431366212812004-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:002004-06-30T08:50:40.990-07:00Sullivan's annulment
Sullivan makes a stand for privacy, and accuses the Chicago Tribune of employing a double-standard:
If Jack Ryan's sealed divorce papers are legitimate objects for perusal (and you are prepared to force the issue in court), why not Kerry's? Can't you just wait for the Chicago Tribune to explain why they won't pursue the story?
[...]
Now tell me how that [the Trib's reasoning]Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088609441556408922004-06-30T08:28:00.000-07:002004-06-30T08:30:41.556-07:00Sadly, No! gets results!Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088608481118269862004-06-30T08:14:00.000-07:002004-06-30T08:14:41.116-07:00The Friends of Ralph Nader
AP reports:
A watchdog group says it will file a complaint with federal election officials, accusing two conservative organizations of illegally helping Ralph Nader's presidential campaign, possibly with support from President Bush's re-election campaign.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington planned to file its complaint Wednesday with the Federal Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088546443557768022004-06-29T14:57:00.000-07:002004-06-29T15:00:43.556-07:00A Dream Vacation
Doug Arellanes, where I stole the link, gives a translation.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088541926491112102004-06-29T13:42:00.000-07:002004-06-29T13:45:26.490-07:00Women leaders in Slovenia
According to a sociology course given at Brandeis, anyway.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088536581347337542004-06-29T12:10:00.000-07:002004-06-29T12:16:21.346-07:00The dangers of walking under the influence, while not as well-publicized as those of drunk driving, are considerable.
(via Idle Type)Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707921.post-1088530153626547832004-06-29T10:19:00.000-07:002004-06-29T10:29:13.626-07:00Fareed Zakaria
The Bush administration has never really understood the security problem in Iraq. To do so would require that it face up to its own mistakes. The original sin of U.S. postwar policy remains the decision to go into Iraq with too few troops. A larger presence would have intimidated and thus deterred some of the opposition and, in places such as Najaf and Karbala, forestalled the riseGeorgenoreply@blogger.com