March 31, 2003
France's Newest Action Figure
Although I personally prefer Astérix the Gaul (certainly one of my Breton ancestors) and the Belgian Tin-Tin, I can see the attraction of this new French comic book star.
To see the whole comic book cover, just cliquez ici.
March 28, 2003
Fact Checking the "Moderate Muslim" Meme
The meme of the moment is the Moderate Muslims who have turned on the US because of the Iraq invasion.
Here is the original source, published in the LA Times, reprinted in Australia:
"Osama must be laughing."
Fawaz Gerges points to a few representative "moderates" who have been shocked into opposition:
The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - a mainstream Islamist organisation with membership numbers in the millions - called on his followers everywhere to join in jihad in defence of Iraq.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, whose organisation had been moving away from militancy in recent years...
Gerges himself was on CNN Friday morning promoting the meme.
And in today's New York Times, Nicolas Kristof picks up the meme, but coyly eliminates the credentials of the "Muslim figures", Perhaps because the readers of the Times are too squeamish to know precisely with whom they are agreeing. "Hearts and Minds."
So who are these moderates?
Tantawi:
-- issued fatwas supporting suicide bombers in Israel.
-- issued fatwas for a jihad to oppose the "judaization" of Jerusalem
-- issued a fatwa against a Cairo University professor, putting his life at risk. The professor's crime: " Hanafi expounds a secular-humanist philosophy in the vein of Nietzsche or John Stuart Mill. He explains that paradise is a state of human bliss and that God is simply a focus of positive natural energy."
-- has supported genital mutilation for women, in his own words: "Cutting a little, but not exaggerating in cutting [the genitals] is better for appearances and more pleasing to the husband." He has modified this position, but it is unclear where he stands on this issue.
-- condemned a new marriage contract that would inform brides-to-be of their rights according to Egyptian law.
-- feels the "hijab" is obligatory for Muslim women.
-- refused to issue a fatwa lifting the condemnation of Salman Rushdie.
-- calls for the closing of alcohol distilleries.
The Muslim Brotherhood:
-- 4 members assassinated Anwar Sadat, former leader of Egypt.
-- banned by the Egyptian government because they are attempting to overthrow the government to establish an Islamic state.
Hezbollah:
-- In December 2002, called for suicide bombings worldwide.
-- has conducted many suicide attacks in Israel and Lebanon.
-- is held responsible for the US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, 241 Marines died.
-- is held responsible for the bombing at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, 19 US servicemen died.
-- at least one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists is a senior Hezbollah member.
March 27, 2003
The Left's infantile paralysis
Daniel Pipes makes good observations about the many failings of the left in considering Saddam.
Much as I admire Pipe's argument, I feel that he has painted the Left as a single entity who believe in this way. The Straw Man argument. Luckily, not everyone is reading from the same playbook, viz Christopher Hitchens.
I count myself on the leftish side of things, despiser of most things Bush and the Republicans are in favor of.
But I was shocked not too long ago when an acquaintance, an otherwise reasonably intelligent guy, started to speak respectfully about Venezuela's resident thug Chavez. When I looked shocked, he backed way off with the weaselly "well, I know he's probably not a very good guy ..."
That's when I knew. For a certain loonitarian segment of the Left, it isn't about what is right, what is wrong, what is progressive, what is humanitarian. No, it's about who is standing up to the US, pure and simple. If someone stands up and proclaims his anti-American bona fides, it doesn't matter what kind of hood he is, he gets an automatic bust in the Pantheon of the Left.
It isn't socialism, as Pipes would have it, it's hate.
That's why the endless canonization of Fidel. He sure puts it to "the man", doesn't he? Bah. I used to know people who positively worshipped Enver Hoxha and Kim il Sung. Sad the state of anti-Americanism that we now have such heroes as Saddam, Osama, Chavez, Mugabe, Milosevic and Dear Leader.
But I guess the anti-Americans can have Chirac. The man last spring was voted for "avec les gants" (with rubber gloves) by the French Left. But he stands up to the Unilateral Hegemon (I like that, sounds like a villain in a comic), so "what a guy!"
We would have Schroeder — a man of the left — but he has about zero chance of surviving much longer.
Until the left gets past this infantile Manicheanism that everything US is evil and everything that opposes the US is good, they are doomed to the inconsequentiality that befell the Marxist movements.
Andrew Thomson: The War Against America
From The Weekly Standard, a cogent article on Anti-Americanism by Andrew Thomson, a former government minister under John Howard in Australia:
I think Thomson puts the date of the first manifestation as way too late.
I think there is a seamless line from the anti-Pershing missile campaigns of the 1980s, most of which were being prodded and funded by the old KGB and Stasi, through the anti-globalization riots and demonstrations of the 90s to the Islamist attacks.
Generally, it follows a similar pattern of grievance and the embodiment of the grievance in one symbolic monster: the United States. The grievance may be rooted in realities of poverty, but that hardly matters. It's more important that the grievance be seen as a chance to slap at the US.
It's like that old Abbott and Costello routine where Abbott gets the big guy angry at Costello by slapping him and saying that is what Costello wants to do.
My new slogan, swiped and modified from a skateboarder's t-shirt:
You say Unilateral Hegemon like it's a bad thing.
The Design Police are never around when you need them.
This is disturbing. UPS has gone over to the dark side with their new logo, dumping the classic by Paul Rand.
The original:
The tarted-up, by Futurebrand of New York:
The first comment I've gotten: "It looks like a gas station."
So here we have the design cliché of the 90s — the swoop — mixed with the metal shine cliché. I give it 5 years.
March 20, 2003
The Second Front: Hollywood
Apparently, it is all about ... Oscar. The buzz coming from the Pentagon is that the real "shock and awe" will come in 2-3 days. At the outside date that puts the campaign on Oscar day.
Obviously, this date has been carefully orchestrated to "shock and awe" the antiwar forces in Hollywood. It's a twofer. The Pentagon gets to pound Iraq and simultaneously pound its enemies in the entertainment industry.
Special effects are impressive, but for real spectacle, it is hard to beat real missiles, real tanks and real men and women doing a real job. The self-puffing, script-reading troops of Tinseltown wouldn't last 30 seconds in a war zone.
PsyOps (psychological operations) is about demoralizing, dispersing and disabling your foe -- rendering them incapable of effective opposition. Look out, Oscar, GI Joe and GI Jane are coming after you.
March 19, 2003
Hysteria Deranges Antiwar Movement
A sense of the hysteria of some on the antiwar left can be sensed at the (nicely designed) truthout website. For a particularly wacky example that is being circulated amongst the loonerati, check out the dark vision in William Rivers Pitt's editorial "Into the Darkness." Key graf about the results in the US of the "inevitable" terrorist attack:
I thought it was only people over on the right who had delusions of black helicopters.
Moderate Alcohol Use Fights Dementia
An article in the JAMA reveals health benefits to the elderly from moderate drinking:
People who abstained from alcohol and those who consumed between seven and 13 drinks a week were at about equal risk of developing dementia, while those who drank more than 13 drinks a week had a significant 22 percent higher risk.
The reason: better blood flow through reduced hardening of the arteries.
One other interesting fact: "People who had a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease and who drank heavily were at triple the risk" of developing dementia.
For those keeping score: that is from 1 to less than 2 drinks per day.
March 17, 2003
Ecstasy and Depression
Club drug ecstasy has been linked to depression, according to researchers at a London University.
According to the researcher, even a half tablet led to a depressed condition. But you can get to some very serious depression with larger amounts.
...She suggested the results tied into previous studies which have indicated that ecstasy can affect key brain chemicals.
"There is a lot of data in animals showing that ecstasy damages the neurotransmitter for serotonin, which is known to be involved in depression."
Serotonin also plays an important role in regulating memory and behaviour. The researchers are now looking to see if these are also impaired on people who take ecstasy.
Next up I guess: Ecstasy and Prozac cocktails.
Updated: Removed the reference to the number of ecstasy pills. Pointed out by Bill Stewart in comments. Checked original and BBC had removed the reference to the number in the article.
March 13, 2003
I never quite "got" Deepak Chopra, but I hear he's some kind of spiritual money machine. He's got big plans for fixing things in the Mideast, though.
When I was looking at his 10 suggestions (which are supposedly being published in Europe this week), I got the funny feeling that many of them were already underway.
Jean Chretien seems to have taken the first point to heart, congratulating Bush on having "won" already:
Hey isn't Winnie Mandela trying for Number 2:
I think there are about 250,000 well-wishers about to do this one, including members of the 101st Airborne:
See item 3. And they're all volunteers:
Hmmm. What about a free TV? Anyway, I figure this is precisely what the people of Iraq most hope for:
Aren't these called refugees?:
I don't know. This seems like someone's idea of hell on earth. Maybe we merge this with number 2 and just have Ramsey Clark reporting on Iraqi TV every day. That would bring the country to its knees:
Well, I suspect that this is already well underway, except for the "pros" and the "nationalism" part. American nationalism bad! Other nationalism good!
Like UC Berkeley:
Hey, wait a minute! How do we do point 9 and point 1 at the same time. Oh, I get it, naked soldiers. How new age!
Free air at a place where fun and joy abide. Sounds like downtown Baghdad in about 6 weeks:
(Thanks to James Taranto for the tip)
Alma Mater Note
The ceremony took place in historic Redpath Hall, situated on McGill's downtown campus.
For more information, see: Historic event celebrates McGill's past and future.
I am particularly pleased that The Right Honourable Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, Former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh was attending and speaking. "Houndwood" — sounds like a noisy place.
March 12, 2003
New Definitions
From The Concordian, newspaper of Concordia University Montreal, scene of several recent anti-semitic, pro-Palestinian incidents:
I'm not sure which I find more puzzling:
A) that racism is redefined as failing to suppress any cultural practice (even as benign as drinking beer or wine) that could conceivably conflict with someone else's personal beliefs.
B) That they actually serve alcohol at Board of Governors meetings. They sure didn't when I was on the McGill University Senate in 1970.
March 10, 2003
Dumb-mobbing the Smart Mob
A big NY Times Magazine piece, Smart-Mobbing the War, on the Internet-driven mobilization for the (less-objectionable) sector of the antiwar campaign: moveon.org. It is particularly insightful on some of the new organizing techniques.
Good thing Lenin didn't have these techniques in 1917!
The piece is pretty objective given that the author is critical of the naivete of these people and their association with the Stalinist Ramsey Clark deviation. But the money quote comes near the end as the author characterizes the principal organizer's world view:
'Nuff said.
March 09, 2003
Department of Homeland Insecurity
The game is: Go to The Department of Homeland Security and download one of their many, many pictographs (like the ones in the seat pocket instructions for airliners).
Then add your own caption. The results are hilarious. {Link died. Ah well. Funny while it lasted.}
My own contribution:
The Roots of French Anti-Americanism
Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs reviews two popular French books that examine the roots of French Anti-Americanism. The two are: L'obsession anti-americaine: Son fonctionnement, ses causes, ses inconsequences. Jean-Francois Revel. L'ennemi americain: Genealogie de l'antiamericanisme francais. Philippe Roger.
Revel "finds anti-Americanism to be a product of French political and moral failures" rather than arising from any specific American policy. In short, they envy US and English success, in economic growth and in cultural achievement. This is the context in which Chirac is operating, and in which most French (and other nations') criticisms of US actions — economic, cultural, political and military — take place.
It ain't Iraq, it wasn't Clinton, it isn't Bush. These aren't the things that raise hackles. It's the very existence of the United States and its vigor in bringing technology and commerce (not to mention democratic ideals) to the rest of the world.
The Islamic fundamentalists are not alone in deciding that the true source of evil in the world is the US. That seems to be common fare in the more "modern" Europe (and in the US, itself). The roots of the Anti-War movement are almost 100% congruent with the anti-globalization movement. Left unchallenged, this easy anti-US sentiment will fester and cause vastly more problems down the road than the efforts of a few Muslim thugs.
(By the way, Roger cites one central reason: the antisemitism of the right wing L'action Francaise between the World Wars. They blamed the Jews around Roosevelt for much of Europe's ills. Now the world parrots the line that America's support for Israel causes so much dislike. As they say, plus ca change.)
(thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link)
March 08, 2003
More Math: How the French Value Peace
10,000 people marched in Paris on March 8 (International Women's Day) to protest the rapes, beatings and killings going on in the (primarily Muslim) banlieues — suburban housing estates.
Marching under the motto "Ni putes, ni soumises" (neither whores, nor submissives), the proximate cause was the murder of a teenager, but the long-term problem is the ongoing abuses inflicted on women in these near-lawless highrises.
10,000 is a great turnout. Let's see — 100,000 turned out in Paris a couple of weeks ago to support the continuation of Saddam in power. Saddam is reported to have rape camps and to have recently ordered the public beheading of women who are opposed to his regime.
So 1/10 as many people in France want to end the rape, abuse and killing in their own country as want to support the ongoing rape, abuse and killing in Iraq. Got it.
America Worst
In the run up to World War II, a motley collection of isolationists, appeasers and out-and-out sympathizers with Nazi Germany formed a pressure group called America First. Certainly the most visible member was mega-celebrity Charles Lindbergh.
This all sounds remarkably familiar, even more so when you read this speech by Lindbergh that was never delivered. It was scheduled for December 12, 1941, but cancelled after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Even the same true enemy is behind the whole war propaganda, by the way. To spare the suspense, it was the Jews. (Representative Moran, call your office.)
To give Lindbergh his due, he volunteered to fly for the US in the war, and did so as an observer on a dozen combat missions. I'm sure Martin Sheen won't show the same honor.
In a haunting historical footnote, Lindbergh's major speech to America First was on September 11, 1941.
America First was basically a jingoistic antiwar movement. The current dictator-friendly antiwar movement forms a bizarro mirror image, drawing for the most part on irrational anti-Americanism. I would call it America Worst. So for the new America Worst movement, I offer this handy logo based on their less than savory forebears:
March 07, 2003
Anti-War? Nah. Anti-USA.
Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at the origins and ideologies (and idiocies) of the "AntiWar" movement today. It is my thesis that the central organizing principle of that movement is not peace, but a profound antiAmericanism that was born in the Vietnam War era, came of age in the anti-globalization movement, and may be as threatening to democracy as any of the great ideological movements of the 20th Century.
As a starting point, I'd like to point to Todd Gitlin's incisive post-9/11 column for Mother Jones:
Some Basic Math
I'm having trouble figuring out the basic math of the AntiWar crowd:
There are 191 countries in the United Nations.
Of all of them, there are:
190 countries less dangerous to world order than the United States.
190 countries more committed to peace, progress and justice than the United States.
190 countries more free in speech, press, and religion than the United States.
190 countries more democratic than the United States.
190 leaders smarter, wiser and saner than President Bush.
190 leaders less bloodthirsty and violent than President Bush.
And among that 190 countries are: Iraq, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, Ukraine, Venezuela, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Serbia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar, Lebanon, Paraguay, Egypt, Yemen.
And those 190 leaders include: Saddam, Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il, Chavez, Mugabe, Assad, Castro, Khameini, Kuchma.
What am I missing in this calculation? Oh, right. Dunce cap for me. I forgot that there is one country even worse than the United States: Israel.
The Real Difference
Colin Powell asks the key question: "Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe?" Amitai Etzioni quotes Powell speaking to a truculent group at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The United States has sent its soldiers in the thousands to fight in Europe and Asia repeatedly over the past century, and "We have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in."
March 06, 2003
Current Reading: John McPhee
The Founding Fish by John McPhee. Alosa sapidissima, the shad. Favorite anecdote: In the Native American legend, the porcupine complains to Manitou that he is tired of being a porcupine. Manitou pulls him inside out and turns him into the shad.
Next: How Milton Works.
Some History
I have been blogging sporadically since 1998, when I first toyed with the technology for a web site called noresignation.com, which was used to tweak Republicans during the Clinton Impeachment boondoggle. Later, I used a similar technique in the 2002 post-election fracas on bananarepublican.net -- again to tweak Republicans (notice a pattern?).
The Republican-tweaking will be yielding for a time while I spank the Antiwar crowd, the vast array of my friends and enemies on the left who have signed on to the Pro-Saddam Campaign.
I'm sure that the GOP will eventually get around to annoying me again (like later today). I guess my ideal day would be to anger people on both Left and Right, kind of a triple-cushion shot.
I have imported some previous blog entries related to graphic design. This will be one common thread for Snoofmadrune. There are one or two other themes that will emerge in the fullness of time from the musty closet that is my brain.
Snoofmadrune goes live
This is the first post for the Snoofmadrune Weblog. A bit of explanation is in order. Snoofmadrune is the Scots word for a "lazy, inactive person", hence it is the ideal name for a weblog.
(Laziness per se is not a prized Scottish quality. For further elucidation, please refer to Larry Wall, the creator of Perl: "I possess a fortuitous surplus of the three chief virtues of a programmer: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris.")