Man, the world has changed: when I was a kid, if kids wrote to a soldier overseas it was to make them feel good. The teachers would read the letters to make sure they were at least understandable, and off they'd go. Even at the height of the bitter, highly politicized Vietnam War this was the norm. No more. This is an OUTRAGE: February 21, 2005 — An American soldier … [Read more...] about Inexplicable School Politicking

The Watcher of Weasels Council has just finished another one of its weekly contests. You don't have to be a member of the Council to submit a post you wrote or like to them, by the way. The winning council post was Bush-Jong II by Sundries Shack and winning noncouncil post, Victory Soap's Just. Shut. Up. Another one that got a lot of votes was Dr. Sanity's A Case Of … [Read more...] about Weasel Watchers’ Winners

Yet another piece of good news from the Middle East: JERUSALEM — Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture Monday and President Bush pledged to support efforts to resolve the conflict, saying peace based on a two-state solution was within reach. "Our greatest opportunity, and our immediate goal, is peace in the Middle East," Bush said in Brussels, … [Read more...] about More Goodwill Gestures In The Middle East

People in the U.S. and elsewhere take blogging for granted, and don't figure it'll get them thrown in jail. Not so in some countries such as Iran. And to show solidarity with two Iranian bloggers who have been locked up in jail, a committee set up to protect bloggers is asking blogs to declare Feb. 22 Free Mojtaba and Arash Day: The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' … [Read more...] about Bloggers Asked To Participate In Global Blogger Day To Help Free Iranian Bloggers

Paris Hilton's mobile phone contents have been posted on the Internet, revealing contact info that has reportedly be used already to contact her show biz friends. Hackers posted a copy of the hotel heiress's address book on a website, listing the numbers and email addresses of some 500 acquaintances including Eminem and Christina Aguilera. It is not known how the information … [Read more...] about KEWL! Now I Can Sign Victoria Gotti Up For Amway…

May I be allowed to say I was not surprised at all by the news that Hunter S. Thompson, who lives in the comic strip pages as Doonsbury's "Uncle Duke," killed himself? It's a Hemingwayesque ending for a writer who was to the mid-to-late 20th-century what Ernest Hemigway was to the early-to-mid 20th century. As a graduate student at Northwestern Medill's School of Journalism I … [Read more...] about Hunter Thompson, Quintessential “New Journalist” Commits Suicide

On their honeymoon they'll do to each other what they're already doing to the Middle East. … [Read more...] about Till Death Do They Part

Iran and Syria — considered by some to be Bobsy Twins of enabling and encouraging terrorism — have formalized the Axis of Evil with their announcement Thursday that they will form a "united front" to combat all threats. This is clearly aimed at the U.S., which due to recent events connected to both countries has sharpened expressions of displeasure with both … [Read more...] about Iran And Syria Confirm Axis Of Evil Is An Axis

We're Guest Blogging on Dean's World this weekend. If you're new to this site, this means we do all of our posting on Dean's World during this period. We do the same crappy insightful posts there that we do here. Dean Esmay has me back there very weekend, despite reader demands. Regular posts resume here no later than Monday morning, although we'll sometimes resume posts … [Read more...] about We’re Guest Blogging This Weekend

The Washington Post has an acid and devastatingly funny story here about a site we try oh-so-hard never to link to because we've been burned by some of its original reporting that is either overhyped or inaccurate (but if they make a mistake there's almost never an aknowledgement - the story just vanishes). Read it in full. But there is a serious issue. The underlying theme is … [Read more...] about The You-Know-Who-Report Gets You-Know-Whatted By The You-Know-What Post

We now have a bit of a problem. We just discovered our former blog at http://themoderatevoice.typepad.comhas all but vanished. NOTE: I've deleted most of this message because Jack was right: it was due to the default setting at Typepad and its back up. It wasn't taking my settings, for some reason, and Powerblogs' Chris Lansdown went in and did the republish from his end and … [Read more...] about NOTE TO READERS: Can You Do Us A Favor?

Jonathan, posting at The Noble Pundit (another blog at which I post on occasion), has some opinions about the effects that reactions to a series of bombings in the Phillipines are having in there on calls for a national ID system. Examples from other countries are being used to justify it. The debate is eerily similar to recent efforts in the United States to start some form … [Read more...] about A new form of globalization

From the Associated Press via MSNBC.com: GLENDALE, Calif. - A man accused of killing 11 people by parking his truck in a train's path intended to get his estranged wife's attention by causing "a horrific tragedy," not to kill himself as originally thought, police said. Authorities also said Juan Manuel Alvarez told them he had poured gasoline on the SUV before the Metrolink … [Read more...] about A new depth to human nature

Can we take the lessons from Iraq and apply them to Egypt? Maybe at a slower pace... … [Read more...] about Stage Two, Da Nile

For some reason the AP is playing up the new American citizenship of some obscure Canadian with weird hair (that narrows it down!). She's vaguely familiar from high school... … [Read more...] about I oughtta know, but…

Here's yet another one of many increasing signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is smack-dab on the other side of many U.S. concerns and policies. If Putin is an ally then perhaps we need a new definition of the word "ally." MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he was convinced Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon and that Russia would … [Read more...] about Putin Defends Iran And Opposes U.S. Stance

...exist that echo through centuries. … [Read more...] about Connections…

It sounds as if President George Bush is on real shaky ground now on his proposal to revamp Social Security — something that seemed to be shaping up as he skirted demands for details and has insisted on sticking to the large conceptual issue of what is wrong with the program. The LA Times reports this: President Bush's push to transform Social Security is in trouble, … [Read more...] about Bush And Social Security Issue: Is He Caught In A Pincer?

Has Warner Brothers given up on Bugs Bunny as an active cartoon franchise? This story from WPVI-TV 6 in Philadelphia suggests Warner Brothers plans to move on from the traditional Bugs Bunny and redesign him to be edgier and more in tune with what they perceive today's kids would want. The station's website reports: The old look of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny is saying … [Read more...] about Will Plans For A “New” Bugs Bunny Wind Up Like “The New Coke?”

The inimitable James Wolcott has this acid-laced take on it. (As usual, stimulating reading in terms of content and must reading in terms of his devastating writing style.) … [Read more...] about Million Dollar Baby VERSUS Michael Medved