Thursday, March 31. 2005
Re Schiavo, by Dr. Bob Dr. Bob reluctantly offers a humble, Christian, medically-sophisticated essay on the case:
Click here: The Doctor Is In
Arafat
DEBKAfile, which may have sources deep in Isreali intelligence, has a fascinating article on the wealth shipped to Palestine by naive western countries and kept by Arafat. Gwynnie thinks it explains more about what is happening in Palestine today than anything else she has read. Americans Recover Arafat’s plundered hoard "A part of Yasser Arafat’s secret hoard - $4 bn - has been documented and accounted for in a painstaking project undertaken by Nigel Roberts, the World Bank’s country director for the West Bank, and Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayyad. They have obtained partial information about another $1-2bn and found a further three to four billion invested on Arafat’s behalf by two individuals, his chief financial adviser Mohammed Rashid, and Palestinian-born international tycoon Samer Khoury.
This was reported exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive sources for the first time in DNW Issue 197 on March 11.
”You can stop going around with your hat in your hand,” a stern US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at the London conference on Palestinian reforms earlier this month. “You have all the money you need to transform the economic situation in the Palestinian Authority.”
She told Abbas to go back to Ramallah and assume immediate control of the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) where the bulk of Arafat’s money was stashed, or forget about receiving a single aid dollar from international donors.
. . . . Abu Mazen was sent off from London to start selling off these assets to finance urgent projects for his impoverished people. He was warned that the $350 million pledged the Palestinians would be transferred only when it was matched by income from the sale of PIF properties – a dollar-for-dollar deal. The World Bank has projects ready to go. Roberts cited a $1bn plan to create 50,000 jobs in the Gaza Strip.
Back in Ramallah, Abu Mazen ran into his first major obstruction to divestment: Prime minister Ahmed Quriea (Abu Ala), who by withholding his signature has the power to block any Palestinian Authority measure, accused Abbas of surrendering to US-British dictates and opening the door for them to take over Palestinian funds. Then, most of the 11 PIF board members resigned or are about to do so, further disabling the fund’s operations.
. . . . Abu Mazen’s close allies warn him, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Palestinian sources, that without control of the PIF, he will never be more than a figurehead. His rivals have come to the same conclusion and are all now chasing after the billion-dollar fund hoping to lay hands on the wherewithal for buying a following. They are racing all the harder with the approach of the next Palestinian ballots – the April 28 municipal election and the July 17 parliamentary vote. A hefty cash campaign chest can promise victory. It can also buy the undying loyalty of all or some of the endemically corrupt Palestinian security and intelligence services. Conversely, candidates strapped for funds may as well give up.
Control of the PIF will also buy political control within Abu Mazen’s unruly and divided Fatah party. At the same time, some central party figures warn that the gold rush could destroy the Fatah from within." To read the whole piece, click here: http://www.debka.org/article.php?aid=1002
Books, plus Robert Lowell This is a great site and a fabulous source for commentary, book reviews and the like. There is a great column on Robert Lowell and his letters. However they only make a few of the articles available online. The Art Forum is equally chock-full of interesting stuff. Paul Mariani wrote the book Lost Puritan: the Life of Robert Lowell and states "If Lowell as historian was our Gibbon and our younger Pound, he was also our wild Shelley, and Hart Crane, and -- at the last--our Lear: grizzled, fallen, and -- in that wounded state -- most noble and most heartbreaking
Well done, Blogosphere Investor's Business Daily Headline yesterday "Campaign for Campaign Finance Reform was a Fraud." With enough blog buzz, the truth finally enters the MSM, and the job is done. See prior postings on Pewgate. Don't wait for the NYT, tho. They're still waiting for the triumph of international socialism, via the UN, or whatever their dream is. Anti-missile systems on commercial jets Am I in denial because I am not afraid? Maybe it's Bush that makes me comfortable these days...."While there can be no doubt that portable SAMs represent a very real threat to civilian aircraft and that the cited solutions would all be more or less effective counters, JREW believes that the current drive towards wide-scale use of such equipment may falter in the face of cost and infrastructure considerations." Click here: Executive Overview: Jane's Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems The Pope's Tube "Pope getting nutrition from tube in nose." Here we go again? I think not. He has been a wonderful Pope. Click here: My Way News Starvation Can't believe I lost the link, but I somehow did. About how Nazi war criminals were convicted of the war crime of starving prisoners in the concentration camps. Starvation was the main cause of death in the camps. Guess it's OK to do now? What am I missing? Terroir A very funny and pointed discussion of wine and wine snobbery - Caleefornia vs. Islamic Republic of France. Caleefornia apparently ain't got no terroir: Click here: Reason: Critique of Pure Riesling: Wine snobbery in the age of globalization Harvard Can you say "schadenfreude" ? "For the second straight year, New York University (NYU) topped Harvard as the number one “dream college,” according to the Princeton Review’s annual “College Hopes & Worries Survey,” released on Wednesday. " Click here: The Harvard Crimson Online :: News But why not...NYC is the best. Cambridge is podunk.
Wednesday, March 30. 2005
Internet and the UN How would you like the UN to regulate and control the internet? "....The ITU, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current situation,..." What is wrong with "the current situation"? That it isn't "regulated" by an international body? It seems to be fairly wonderful now, and I would hate to see the great UN "improve" things. Thanks, Instapundit. Read piece: Click here: The U.N. thinks about tomorrow's cyberspace | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
Amazon.com: Books: Hedge Fund Mistress. Yes, that's right . The "Barbarians" are back. Check out the latest in the world of Big money. Must be a reason all of these books have titles like Liar's Poker, The Predators Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders, and Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle.
Deception and Self-Deception Robert Samuelson: "We are a nation of closet welfare junkies, which helps explain why we can't have an honest debate about Social Security. Social Security and Medicare are our biggest welfare programs, but because Americans regard "welfare" as shameful, we've found other labels for them. We call them "social insurance" or "entitlements." Anything but welfare. Democrats and Republicans alike embrace the deception. No one wants to upset older voters. Well, if you can't call something by its real name, you can't discuss it honestly." Read entire: Click here: Welfare Junkies (washingtonpost.com)
Misc. Buffet to testify in AIG mess: Click here: Buffett to face questions in AIG probe - report - Insurance - Financial Services - Earnings - SEC Liberman vs. Shays: New England elected reps disagree on feeding tube: Click here: NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story Kudlow: "Writing in the New York Sun last week, George Weigel tells us that "Embracing suffering is a concept alien to us. And yet suffering embraced in obedience to God's will is at the center of Christianity....The Christ of the Gospels reaches out and embraces suffering as his destiny, his vocation-- and is vindicated in that self-sacrifice on Easter." Click here: Kudlow's Money Politic$: Terri Schiavo's Easter
The Doctor on Easter: Click here: The Doctor Is In: Three Men on a Friday
Tuesday, March 29. 2005
The Monks I have been wondering who those monks were who have been on TV all week. Thanks, reader, for forwarding this to us. Monks are a good thing. Interesting story: Click here: Tampabay: Friars at Schindlers' side felt own loss
Blogs Rebecca MacKinnon on the new relationship between information and the public - she seems to be trying to explain the new reality to journalists. What many such articles underemphasize is that professional journalists provide most of the fodder on which blogs feed. Bloggers have day jobs. The big thing that is new is distribution and diversity of opinion, not fact-finding, except in exceptional cases (eg Rathergate, Pewgate, etc.) "....this has led to a loss of sovereignty in the press. What I mean by that is simply a loss of exclusive control. Areas that once were under the domain of the journalist are now not exclusively under the domain of the journalist. You are not the boss anymore. What you say is not the law." Click here: The Nation | Article | Blogging, Journalism and Credibility | Rebecca MacKinnon
Another view, from the Crimson: Thanks for the heads up, Powerline: "Besides being disabled, Schiavo and I have something important in common, that is, someone attempted to terminate my life by removing my endotracheal tube during resuscitation in my first hour of life. This was a quality-of-life decision: I was simply taking too long to breathe on my own, and the person who pulled the tube believed I would be severely disabled if I lived, since lack of oxygen causes cerebral palsy" Read: Click here: The Harvard Crimson Online :: Opinion More Lens Lice Show Up And now Jesse Jackson weighs in, urging saving Terri...how did it take him so long?: Click here: My Way News
The Euristan Press, Dem Dirty Trix, and other topics Nice review by Boyles on how the condescending Euristanians view us: "Practically speaking, modern secularism in Europe is forced de-Christianization in favor of humanism's new convictions" Click here: Denis Boyles on EuroPress on National Review Online From Hinderaker on those "talking point memos" about Schiavo: "What, then, was the evidence for the claim that it was created and distributed by Republicans? As far as the public record shows: There is none. On the contrary, the only published report identifying the purveyors of the memo on March 17 states that they were Democrats. The New York Times reported on March 22:
As tensions festered among Republicans, Democratic aides passed out an unsigned one-page memorandum that they said had been distributed to Senate Republicans. [emphasis added]
This smells. Read entire: Click here: Fake but Accurate Again? A wise piece from the Vatican a month ago, about the limits of Medicine: "VATICAN CITY - Vatican officials on Thursday decried what they called a "religion of health" in affluent societies and held out Roman Catholic Pope John Paul's stoic suffering as an antidote to the mentality that modern medicine must cure all. " Click here: Vatican Officials Decry 'Religion of Health' Steyn one year ago, prescient as ever: "Last year, I had a long talk with a ‘senior EU official’ and I was amazed at the way, quite unprompted, he used the phrase ‘Europe’s post-Christian future’, presuming that I would agree with him that this was a condition to aspire to. Europe’s quite post-Christian enough, and most of the horrors of our time came about through the most prominent expressions of its post-Christian state, Nazism and Communism. And yet faith in secularism is indestructible." Click here: Topical Take
Monday, March 28. 2005
Pewgate "The blogosphere is under attack. For three weeks, bloggers have battled the Federal Election Commission, seeking exemption from campaign finance laws that would effectively regulate political speech on the Web. How did it come to this?" Click here: FrontPage magazine.com :: Pewgate: The Battle of the Blogosphere by Richard Poe
 Powell's new book reveals shocking steroid use in White House:
"Top Cabinet officials are up in arms about the allegations of widespread steroid use made by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in his new political tell-all Pumped." Read entire:Click here: The Onion
Misc. I'm not surprised the authorities are having trouble finding Al Quaida's web sites and email arrangements. Heck, I still can't find even Maggie's Farm blog on Google. Hunt for Zarqawi's Webmasters Always tasteless and always funny: "At this very moment, the Christian right continues their relentless assault on Roe v. Wade by praying and singing their little Jesus songs outside brave Michael's home. The line between Christian and Islamic Fundamentalism has never been more blurred than it is right now." YES! Die with Dignity! DIE! DIE!!!! How are sex offenders different from other criminals, from the standpoint of recidivism? Are they really worse? I don't know. Why not track all felons? Better idea - let's track everyone. After all, most of us are unarrested felons. FEC and blogs: Regulation of free speech is bad enough, but possible regulation of speech in blogs would be totalitarian. Prof B is on the case: Click here: ProfessorBainbridge.com: The Business of Blogging
Microjets Microjets for the middle class - I need one or two of these: "Travel in "very small jets" operating outside traditional commercial airline rules is expected to explode in coming years and is already causing congestion at some small airports." Click here: MSNBC - Affordable personal jets closer than you think
Euthanasia, more Lucette Lugano re her mother's stroke: "That is when I realized that the stroke had not robbed Edith of her charm. Or her fundamental humanity. I glimpse the same charm and the same humanity in Terri Schiavo--though the advocates of the culture of death have sought to rob her of both." Read entire: Click here: OpinionJournal - Taste
Thursday, March 24. 2005
Insurgents Hey Main-Stream Media - I know you're listening out there - quit it with this "insurgents" word. You know as well as I do that these are 90% foreigners who snuck into Iraq to defeat freedom and to humiliate America. Only the MSM and Ward Churchill believe they are noble rebels. It's quite simple - the word is TERRORISTS. Or, if you prefer, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FOREIGN TERRORISTS. Got it?
Another fraudulent document? Power Line is tracking those "talking points" about the Schiavo case. If it's a trick - let's find out. Go Powerline ! Click here: Power Line: March 2005 Archives
Wednesday, March 23. 2005
More on Euristan I seem to be chasing our Barrister in posting on this issue today. Pete Du Pont here echoes what Steyn has been saying. Title says it all: Will EU chose collectivism over individualism? Will we? "But now (Czech) President Klaus sees an unsettling new challenge: the zeal of Old Europe--France, Germany, Brussels--to impose collective choices on New Europe--Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Ireland. "Ten years ago," Mr. Klaus writes, "the dominant slogan was: 'deregulate, liberalize, privatize.' Now the slogan is different; 'regulate . . . get rid of your sovereignty and put it in the hands of international institutions and organizations.' " Read entire: Click here: OpinionJournal - Outside the Box These folks will live to regret that they ever conceived of an EU.
Adventure Travel Adventure travel is all the rage, right? Here's the real thing. How about another tsunami in the Pacific and Indian Ocean? Click here: http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000033/003387-p.htm Or, if you prefer death by bullets instead of by water, terrorism in elegant Qatar: Click here: http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000033/003389-p.htm
In response to The Chairman's frustration expressed yesterday re illegal immigration, here is a somewhat calmer and maybe more realistic view. After all, those 10 million are not going to be bussed home: Click here: The Hedgehog Blog: Illegal Immigration: The Issue The GOP Simply Must Get Right
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