Catching my eye: morning A through Z

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

  • Chirol at Coming Anarchy has a fascinating suggestion: counter the Saudi spreading of their brand of Islam by subsidizing the Turks to spread theirs.
  • The third edition of Dear VK is up at Wizbang. Got a problem? Ask Venomous Kate! You may end up with two problems.
  • Even the Reds over at Harry’s Place think that the modern crop of Stalin apologists are dopes.
  • Was there a second shooter in that “hunting accident” down there in Texas? INDC Journal has the scoop!
  • Mark Kleiman’s take on what to do about Iran is worth taking a look at.
  • Pakistani cleric put $1M bounty on head of Danish cartoonist. That will definitely go a long way towards convincing the non-Muslim world of the good intentions of the Muslim world.
  • Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House salutes Hubert Humphrey and takes the opportunity to take a swipe at the Democratic Farm Labor Party, which Humphrey helped to found. Humphrey’s defeat by Nixon in 1968 is the only instance I can think of in which the candidate with the more positive vision of America lost a presidential election. Shows you what defending an unpopular administration can do for you.
  • Scrappleface has more on the pastry name-changing in Iran. It’s worse than you thought.
  • Does anybody (other than President Bush, that is) think that outsourcing the operation of U. S. ports to a Dubai-based company is a good idea? I’m sincere about this. I haven’t found anyone who’s crazy about the idea.

That’s the lot.

10 comments… add one
  • We have to make a choice, on a sliding scale, of how isolated we want Muslims to be. Clearly, we want to isolate, even kill, the jihadis. Clearly, most of us want to engage the moderate and liberal elements (small though they are) within the Muslim community. The questions are where to draw the line and where this company fits in relation to that line.

    I personally think that the administration has drawn the line too far towards accommodation, and in particular I think that allowing Arab companies to own or manage critical security and economic facilities under government contract is a very bad idea. That said, this is what they got elected to do, and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

    But it’s funny, my confidence in the administration’s ability to manage these issues — and by extension in the Republican Party’s ability to do so — has been shrinking over the last two years as they’ve made numerous boneheaded decisions. Yet I still have more confidence in the Republicans than in the Democrats, who have been losing ground at the same or faster rate in my opinion. At this point, there is not a single organized party I am aware of that I have more than a small bit of confidence in to lead us in the war.

    And that scares me more than anything.

  • Have you seen this bit of gross counter-payback?!

  • Re the Paki imam: with friends like this, my amigos hardly need enemies.

    Re Metcalf’s absurd comment:
    We have to make a choice, on a sliding scale, of how isolated we want Muslims to be. Clearly, we want to isolate, even kill, the jihadis. Clearly, most of us want to engage the moderate and liberal elements (small though they are) within the Muslim community.

    The liberals are small. The moderates are not. They are the absolute majority.

    I personally think that the administration has drawn the line too far towards accommodation, and in particular I think that allowing Arab companies to own or manage critical security and economic facilities under government contract is a very bad idea. That said, this is what they got elected to do, and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

    Queer, when did that happen?

    But then you no doubt are making an ignorant ref to the DPW takeover of P&O, the UK firm. And as is so frequent, are commenting in utter lack of knowledge about the same.

    Of course DPW is buying a private UK firm, that has private assets, including management of some US assets. No government contracts.

    Never mind the sheer uninformed prejudice involved in getting one’s diapers in a knot over DPW, simply due to the ethnicity of the owners.

    Yet I still have more confidence in the Republicans than in the Democrats, who have been losing ground at the same or faster rate in my opinion.
    Partisan party politics. Such a very tediously predictable game.

  • As to your question:
    Does anybody (other than President Bush, that is) think that outsourcing the operation of U. S. ports to a Dubai-based company is a good idea? I’m sincere about this. I haven’t found anyone who’s crazy about the idea.

    Well, here, right here.

    DPW is a respected international ports operator, has an excellent operational track record, and most of all, the bloody transaction is a private one for private assets.

    Free market and all that. The other bidder for P&O has Commie China connexions.

    I bloody well wish before the much vaunted blogosphere went off on issues that people might bother to do some fact checking.

  • Thanks, col. I appreciate the feedback since, as I noted, I was sincere in my question. Unlike some in the blogosphere when I ask a question it’s generally because I want an answer.

    I know nothing whatever about port operations and, in particular, I know absolutely nothing about the interaction between port operations and port security (although I would think there would at least be some).

    I also know very little about DPW. I know that they’re a major player in an area in which U. S. companies are pretty small potatoes. I also know that people come from all over the Middle East to work in Dubai which makes sense if they’re hiring. And that there are some people in the Middle East who would do us harm.

    And I also know that we’ve painted a target on our backs. If it had left up to me that wouldn’t have happened (at least not quite so much), but it wasn’t and it has. So I think it’s reasonable to raise security concerns.

    I have a few regular readers who are knowledgeable in these areas (at least a lot more than I am) and I’m hoping to start a dialogue.

  • Dave
    Yes, I know. Which is why I restrained myself. An honest interlocutor is a rare thing in the land of blogs. You asked rather than fulminating, I read a lot of hysterical anti-Arab knee jerking.

    We at Aqoul (meaning not just me) are working on this, right up our alley as it were.

    As to the substance this is faily innocous. But what a reward for the moderate, business-minded free market and the like Muslim working with DPW. A mini Jihad among American politicians.

  • The amazing part is that when I ask questions and listen to answers I actually learn something!

    I’ve concluded that other bloggers must already know what there is to know.

  • “I’ve concluded that other bloggers must already know what there is to know.”
    Not all of us. Thanks to collounsbury – I also know nothing of port operations – now I know just a little bit more.
    And, unlike many bloggers, I do know moderate muslims. And the risks they face from the zealots… so I sincerely hope collounsbury is correct.

  • I live and work in the region. And not for some wooley headed NGO. Nothing in the past decade has indicated to me the murder-minded are anything but a minority.

    That of course is not the same thing as saying moderates, meaning in my sense the pious believing majority, like the US or perhaps even Western secularism. Thus our concern in over at Aqoul re thinking seriously about boosting what is at present a real lack of dialogue.

  • I should note between Aqoul and Lounsbury – Aqoul myself and my colleagues have pulled together quite a bit of background information which should give you much material for reflexion. I am presently trying to create a coherent orientation.

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