Final Protective Fire

Monday, May 30, 2005

 

Explain to me, if you can, how this story in the NYT about CIA operations to transport terror detainees isn't treason.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Robin 11:51 PM

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In Flanders Fields

by Major John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Updated: Kent adds some more. And here is the story of a family dealing with their contemporary grief.

Robin 6:18 PM

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Sunday, May 29, 2005

 

After all that nonsense about how "unilateral" America is under the Bush administration, it was quite hilarious to see Jacques Chirac fail to get the obviously superior French to vote 'oui' on their new bloated constitution.

Evidently a GDP growth rate of barely more than 1% is so terrifying in its excitement, that the French voted 'non' in an effort to demand more socialist economic nonsense be buried in the EU Constitution.

Brilliant!

Robin 4:55 PM

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Friday, May 27, 2005

 

Kent discusses science textbooks with some apt observations.

Robin 3:35 PM

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Thursday, May 26, 2005

 

Belgravia Dispatch looks into the John Bolton / NSA intercepts issue being flogged now by Democrats and finds ... absolutely nothing. Not a smokescreen, not a trivial issue but literally nothing.

The Democrats have no shame at all, evidently. Goes nicely with the lack of integrity.

Robin 9:52 PM

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No matter how many times I read this, it sounds like a parody.

It has to be, right?

UPDATE: Clayton blogs the next step.

Robin 8:36 PM

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If you have been following the Oil-For-Food scandal, you may have noticed that earlier in the month, British MP George Galloway appeared before Norm Coleman's Senate committee to deny that he had benefitted from Saddam's schemes to parse out Oil-For-Food oil revenues. Galloway's appearance was heralded as a success by the media and various Bush administration opponents. They should have known better than to find themselves on the side of an odious character like Galloway.

This blogger shreds Galloway and sets up the evidence for perjury rather well.

One has to wonder at the stupidity of Galloway to think that he could just steamroller over a Senate committee. It may be that Galloway is ignorant of the fact that the US Congress has perfected the method of criminalizing policy disagreements using such testimony ever since the Reagan adminstration and the Iran-Contra scandal. The British Parliament is a forum more likely to be flummoxed by Galloway's act.

Robin 12:23 AM

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Friday, May 20, 2005

 

A good piece by Robert McHenry which explains why "Intelligent Design" is not science at all.

Robin 6:55 PM

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Thursday, May 19, 2005

 

I just watched Jerilyn Merritt of talkleft.com make a ridiculous claim on MSNBC. She stated that the Senate's role in judicial nominations is "advise and consent", and not a rubber stamp. Which is correct of course. She then said that when President Bush states that his judges ought to get an "up or down" vote, that he is saying that the Senate should rubber stamp his judicial nominations.

That's objectively false, Jerilyn, and you know it.

It is no longer funny watching Democrats invent these ludicrous ways of trying to claim that denying a full Senate vote on confirmations is itself "advise and consent". The dishonesty is palpable.

Robin 1:34 PM

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Wednesday, May 18, 2005

 

Huffington's Toast is a pretty clever parody of Arianna's celebrity blog. But this parody of Ward Churchill's incoherent ramblings in response to the accusations of his academic dishonesty and fraudulent claims of his own ethnicity is so hilarious that I may have hurt my ribs laughing.

Robin 9:52 PM

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Sunday, May 15, 2005

 

Sent to Newsweek's editors:

Newsweek's ethics - or more correctly lack of ethics, are on display this week. Newsweek gives us an anonymously sourced article alleging desecration of a Koran by Guantanamo Bay guards. A story of dubious provenance designed solely to satisfy Newsweek's editors' pathetic need to smear the Bush adminstration in every issue. It was a story that never made any sense.

A dozen or more people are killed in the rioting that ensues.

And what happens? It turns out that Newsweek's "anonymous source" can't even read accurately whatever gossip he/she was repeating.

If Newsweek's staff had any integrity, they would resign in shame. But of course, they don't and they didn't.

Thanks for confirming my opinion of the worthlessness of your publication.

Signed,
Robin Roberts
Final Protective Fire
http://robinroberts.blogspot.com/

Robin 8:34 PM

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

 

Its one thing to be a juvenile blogger, its another to be a juvenile blogger in front of the entire world. If I didn't know that Glenn and Robin Burk were there, I'd wonder if any adults were attending the Nashville blogger fest.

Robin 8:21 PM

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Monday, May 09, 2005

 

Thugs on the Internet

If you are not among the geekiest, you may not be aware of the lawsuit SCO v. IBM. The suit has long been the buzz of the Linux community. SCO is a company that purports to now hold the copyrights to AT&T's Unix operating system. Licensing that IP has been a sinking ship ever since Linux burst onto the IT world. So SCO's strategy seems to now be to try to leverage their IP into licensing payments by alleging that Linux infringes their copyrights. Only one problem, they can't find any infringment.

There has been a great website covering this lawsuit Groklaw.net run by Pamela Jones.

Meanwhile, there is a magazine called Linux Business News that has been regularly publishing the writings of a "reporter" called Maureen O'Gara. Many in the Linux community view O'Gara as a shill for SCO since her articles appear to be little more than ventriloquist acts from SCO's PR department. O'Gara has long had a feud with Pamela Jones over their different views of the case. That is to say, SCO has had a feud with PJ. In a recent conference call with analysts, the CEO of SCO made some vague comments about PJ's identity. Now we know the fruit of SCO's attempt at intimidation.

Finally, O'Gara has gone beyond merely discrediting herself as a shill but has entered the realm of 'Net Thug. O'Gara published today on the scurrilous Linux Business News website an article purporting to "out" Pamela Jones by publishing her purported home address, phone number and even publishing photos supposedly of her home.

Linux Business News is published by an entity called Sys Con. I hope you remember this when choosing technical magazines to patronize. Thugs must be fought.

Robin 4:11 PM

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