EdDriscoll.com

Posted 9/13/2002 06:30:29 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH YOU DIDN'T HEAR ON THURSDAY. Nick Schulz (who's also the chief editor at Tech Central Station, who we write for, from time to time) analyses the speech given by Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana), on the future of American foreign and energy policy in the Middle East:

Before a packed National Press Club audience in Washington — including reporters and cameras from Al Jazeera — Burns addressed several issues that President Bush could not in his speech before the United Nations. While President Bush was rightly focusing on Iraq as the next step in the war against terror, Burns was outlining a vision for changing the dynamic of world energy markets.

Most interesting was this paragraph in Schulz's article:

Most significant were Sen. Burns's comments about America's ally in the war on terrorism, Saudi Arabia. One informed source tells me that the Bush administration vetted Sen. Burns's speech and was pleased with the thrust of his arguments, and that his speech reflects the administration's views and ultimate aims. * * * Regime change in Iraq, as Bush advocated Thursday, could go a long way towards generating changes in the region that might one day bring about a free and democratic Saudi Arabia. Until that time, technological advances and increased supply hold the key to moving to the point where, as Burns put it, "we no longer need to kowtow to fanatics and anti-American regimes."

Read the whole thing--especially if you missed Burns' speech (as I did myself).

Posted 9/13/2002 06:21:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE NO FUN LEAGUE. I agree with a lot of the NFL's rules against player improvisation, especially when it comes to their uniforms. But this is a bit over the top: The NFL said no to Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning's request to wear black high-top shoes for Sunday's home game against the Miami Dolphins. AP says, "The league said in a statement Friday that no team other than the Baltimore Ravens will be allowed to wear a patch or armband on their uniforms during Sunday's games to honor Unitas." I don't see a problem with the QB of the Colts wearing black high-tops to honor the former Colt who made them his trademark.

Posted 9/13/2002 06:03:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANOTHER ARREST: Al Qaeda Cell Busted in Buffalo.

Posted 9/13/2002 05:58:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOOD POINT: "The history of this war, written ten years from now, is going to be very interesting to read", says Steven Den Beste, referring to the "truly masterful disinformation campaign" that was waged. The quotation marks are there because they're Den Beste's words, but we wholeheartedly agree.

Posted 9/13/2002 05:45:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
$31 MILLION: That's the size of the deal that tight end Tony Gonzalez signed with the Chiefs.

Posted 9/13/2002 05:21:04 PM by Edward Driscoll
YET ANOTHER REASON TO LOATHE SAN FRANCISCO, where cars with American flags are getting vandalized. Of course, they could simply be jealous that right-wingers have more fun!

Posted 9/13/2002 04:53:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
SUSPECTED 9/11 ORGANIZER CAPTURED: Ramzi Binalshibh, a suspected organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks was captured in Pakistan and in custody, U.S. officials said Friday. This AP article doesn't contain much more information than that, but we'll post more details as soon as we see them. UPDATE: The AP article has since been fleshed out with much more detail.

Posted 9/13/2002 04:49:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLORIDA TO RENO: DROP DEAD. OK, that's not quite what Jim Smith, the secretary of state said, but he did refuse Reno's recount request.

Posted 9/13/2002 04:00:22 PM by Edward Driscoll
RADIOACTIVE SHIP UPDATE: The radioactivity from the Liberian-flagged ship, which remained moored off the coast of New Jersey on Friday, apparently came from clay tiles among its cargo, a defense official said Friday. (Link found via Little Green Footballs.)

Posted 9/13/2002 03:38:04 PM by Edward Driscoll
POSSIBLE IRAQ-AL QAEDA LINK. Jim Robbins posts on National Review Online's The Corner Weblog:

AFP reports the arrest in the Netherlands of Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd leader suspected of being the go-between in the Saddam Hussein/Al Qaeda relationship. He was travelling from Iran to Norway and was picked up at Amsterdam airport. All those critics who said that the US cannot legitimately take action against Iraq until a link to 9/11 is proven are in for a big surprise one day soon.

Here's a Reuters article with more information.

Posted 9/13/2002 03:25:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BUSH/U.N./GODFATHER/GODZILLA CONNECTION, as found by Jonah Goldberg:

It is entirely possible that George W. Bush will go down in history as the savior of the United Nations, and as much as I dislike the U.N., I salute him for it. The brilliance of Bush's speech, and of the maneuvering that led to it, is still sinking in around Washington. Somehow, Bush managed, once again, to do exactly what his critics wanted him to and defeat them entirely in the process. It's sort of like a Godzilla movie where the little Japanese scientists scream "Over here! Come here!" and when Godzilla finally does exactly what they want him to do, he squishes them between his toes and keeps moving. The "international community" banged their collective spoons on their U.N. highchairs, demanding that the United States work with and through them. Bush ignored their pleadings even as the din of their tantrums became near-deafening. Then, slowly, he turned to the U.N. and squished it. Kofi Annan's speech might as well have been the plaintive "Noooooooooooooo!" one hears right before Godzilla's foot muffles it out of existence.

For the Godfather analogy, read the rest of Jonah's essay.

Posted 9/13/2002 03:11:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
DEMOCRATS FOR REGIME CHANGE:

The president asks the nation to consider this question: What if Saddam Hussein "fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction." The president's warnings are firm. "If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." The stakes, he says, could not be higher. "Some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal."

These are the words not of President George W. Bush in September 2002 but of President Bill Clinton on February 18, 1998. (Found on American RealPolitik.)

Posted 9/13/2002 02:40:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
ORGANIC OREOS: Perfect for the Granola Conservatives that Rod Dreher has written about recently, found in a local supermarket's flyer that we received at chez EdDriscoll.com yesterday, and absolutely ridiculous.

Posted 9/13/2002 02:22:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
SCOTT RITTER GETS FISKED: Here's a transcript of his interview with David Asman of Fox News.

Posted 9/13/2002 12:22:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
WORDS MEAN THINGS: That was a mantra of Rush Limbaugh (I know, I know) years before Clinton's "I depends on what the meaning of is, is" debacle. Here's Part I of "Words Mean Things": Jonah Goldberg's syndicated column on Susan Sontag and Paul Krugman, titled, "Nixing metaphors: war on terrorism real" Here's Part II: The three fellows thought to be Florida terrorists "were playing a stupid joke on another restaurant patron who gave them a suspicious look" Words mean things--especially during a time of war.

Posted 9/13/2002 02:33:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
THIS IS PATHETIC: The Dallas Cowboys' offensive line needs to get into shape.

Posted 9/13/2002 02:25:50 AM by Edward Driscoll
LILEKS CHANNELS BRUCE LEE:

I’ve been reading reactions to the President’s UN speech, and I’m amused at how people don’t seem to get it. Oh, now he’s being a multilateralist? Now he believes in the UN? No. That speech was the equivalent of that fabled kung-fu move that removes your opponent's heart and shows it to you, just before you crumple. It’s of a piece with the administration’s behavior since 9/11: Let all the carpers and obstructionists gather on the tip of the thinnest branch, then show up with a saw and announce they have five minutes to come hug the trunk, which incidentally is covered with sap and stinging ants. It was sheer malicious brilliance to cast the entire case in terms of UN resolutions, because it mean the UN had to chose: either those resolutions mean something, or the UN means nothing. Why, it's almost as if the UN painted itself into a corner - and woke up to find this rude simple cowboy holding the brush. How the hell did he do that?

Posted 9/13/2002 02:17:20 AM by Edward Driscoll
JUST SWELL: Possible Terrorist Plot Against South Florida.

Posted 9/13/2002 12:52:59 AM by Edward Driscoll
SEPTEMBER 11 SATELLITE PHOTO: I have no idea if this is legit, but scroll down to see a photo apparently taken by a satellite that shows that the destruction of the WTC was visible from Earth orbit.

Posted 9/12/2002 07:38:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOOGLE IS NOW AVAILABLE AGAIN IN CHINA. As Nick Denton says, score one for the Internet. Astonishingly, despite our best efforts, we're still available in China as well. We'll keep trying, though.

Posted 9/12/2002 05:10:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
MAKE 'EM AN OFFER THEY CAN'T ACCEPT: Steven Den Beste does an excellent job of laying out President Bush's strategy with the UN, using a proven technique:

About a year ago, he presented the Taliban with an ultimatum: Turn bin Laden over to us; shut down all al Qaeda facilities; eject all forces associated with al Qaeda from your country. Otherwise you'll face the consequences. Since bin Laden effectively was the ruler of Afghanistan at the time, and since al Qaeda forces represented the most trustworthy core of the Taliban field army fighting against the Northern Alliance, this was something that the Taliban couldn't do. So what appeared to be a reasonable offer was in fact couched in terms which could not be accepted. He did it again a few months ago, to the Palestinians. In the most significant change of American policy toward the Palestinians in decades, he declared that the US would no longer seriously negotiate with them until they implemented serious political reforms, including removing Arafat from power. (And he was roundly condemned for it. And it seems to be working.) Now he's doing it again, only this time with the UN.

Posted 9/12/2002 04:30:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
RADICAL MUSLIMS IN LONDON: Group Captain Mandrake is on the case with details.

Posted 9/12/2002 02:58:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
AND HE'S NOT EVEN ON THE 9TH CIRCUIT: Ohio judge orders estranged parents not to smoke around child.

Posted 9/12/2002 01:16:29 PM by Edward Driscoll
WARREN ZEVON HAS TERMINAL CANCER, according to Eric Olsen on Blogcritics.org.

Posted 9/12/2002 12:34:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
"EISENHOWER IN CLEATS": Great profile of the late Johnny U, quarterback with a crewcut.

Posted 9/12/2002 12:11:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
"GROWING IN OFFICE": Bernadette Malone in National Review Online says it doomed Bob Smith in his runoff against Rep. John Sununu in New Hampshire.

Posted 9/12/2002 12:03:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
BOXED IN: Have the Democrats boxed themselves into a corner with Iraq? Dick Morris seems to think so.

Posted 9/12/2002 10:53:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
SPEAKING OF OF GOING OUT FIGHTING: Nice to see a headline that says a 72 year old man "decks idiot"!

Posted 9/12/2002 10:50:34 AM by Edward Driscoll
JUDGE THROWS OUT VERDICT AGAINST BILL SIMON, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Unfortunately, I now tend to agree with Orrin Judd--Simon's campaign is doomed. But I hope he goes out fighting.

Posted 9/11/2002 11:54:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
A ROUND-UP OF THE DAY'S TERRORIST RELATED ACTIVITIES: Bill Gertz notes that six men suspected of terrorists were arrested in Baltimore, and a freighter emitting radiation was stopped in New Jersey.

Posted 9/11/2002 11:01:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
LILEKS: "I curse the terrorists for their horrible triumphs, but those bastards cannot even begin to count the ways in which they failed." I don't have to tell you to read the rest. Not to mention the most apropos quote by the handsome and stylish Benjamin J. Grimm.

Posted 9/11/2002 10:39:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
AL QAEDA=IMPERIAL JAPAN: Interesting post by "CPO Sparkey", a guest blogger on Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing.

Posted 9/11/2002 10:36:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
BODY COUNT: Daniel Pipes documents the number of Americans killed by Islamonazinutbarfacists, and says "In all, 800 persons lost their lives in the course of attacks by militant Islam on Americans before September 2001 - more than killed by any other enemy since the Vietnam War. (Further, this listing does not include the dozens more Americans in Israel killed by militant Islamic terrorists.)" Go check the list out, and where it all began.

Posted 9/11/2002 08:57:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
TOO WEIRD: "N.Y. Lottery Draws 9-1-1 on 9/11". UPDATE: As is this.

Posted 9/11/2002 08:25:50 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE IMPERIAL ERA BEGINS. Tony Blankley says:

And thus, the imperial period of our history starts. Great empires usually are not formed intentionally. From Russia to Rome, dangers at their borders compelled them to take the next bit of land. And so on they continued, until they collapsed. While we will not plant our flag on foreign lands, nor claim them for ourselves, we will insist on intruding and searching and managing. To do less would be criminal negligence on the part of our leaders. But in doing it we will be cursed, like the Flying Dutchman of legend, to wander the globe until the day of judgment.

I disagree only slightly. What Blankley describes as our "Imperial Period" began as a result of World War II. And while we've done a good job in some areas, we've dropped the ball in others. Let's hope we don't fumble this time around.

Posted 9/11/2002 06:12:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
HOW THE FENDER BASS CHANGED THE WORLD: Probably not the greatest day to post this (although there is the "but the Taliban hate American pop culture" argument), but my review of a recent book called How The Fender Bass Changed The World is online at Blogcritics.

Posted 9/11/2002 05:17:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
JOHNNY UNITAS DIED TODAY AT AGE 69. Unitas was of course, one of the NFL's greatest QBs--and a superstar in the 1950s and '60s, despite (or perhaps because of) his hi-top black cleats and flattop haircut. The contrasting appearances of the conservative-appearing old veteran Unitas and the swinging mod young Joe Namath were part of the elements that made Super Bowl III so memorable. Oddly enough, prior to the announcement of Johnny U's death, I was reading this page earlier on the Dallas Morning News Web site, which said "Before Sept. 11 adopted a somber legacy, the date might have been known for its serious football coaching karma. Tom Landry would have been 78 on Wednesday. Bear Bryant would have been 89." And Unitas died today. Rest in peace, old Colt.

Posted 9/11/2002 03:31:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE GREAT ESCAPE: How the U.S. helped Osama's family leave the country after 9/11.

Posted 9/11/2002 03:05:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
"THE WORLD IS FULL OF 'EASTER CHRISTIANS', according to Steven Den Beste--and boy is he right. Also check out his post on Kofi Annan, master of weasel words.

Posted 9/11/2002 02:39:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
THEY CERTAINLY PICKED A GOOD DAY: " Arafat Cabinet Quits Under Pressure".

Posted 9/11/2002 02:34:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOTHING LIKE A GOOD SHAVE: AP reports that "an airliner was diverted to Fort Smith on Wednesday because four passengers [all Middle Eastern men] behaved strangely on the flight, including at least three who locked themselves in a restroom, possibly shaving their body hair." Naturally (since they were so spot-on in L.A. during the Fourth of July), "Federal officials, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said the incident was not believed to be related to terrorism."

However, KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, where Northwest Airlines is based, quoted an unidentified source as saying the men were "shaving themselves clean." A source speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that people aboard the airplane gave investigators similar accounts. After last year's terror attacks, documents found in the luggage of attack leader Mohamed Atta gave what appeared to be instructions for the suicide hijackers: "The previous night, shave the extra hair from the body (and) pray."

(Link spotted on Little Green Footballs.) UPDATE: The Las Vegas Sun has a few more details. MORE UPDATES, via the Houston Chronicle. Meanwhile, a scuffle broke out on another flight.

Posted 9/11/2002 01:41:22 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOMETIMES YOU FIND CATHARSIS IN THE STRANGEST PLACES. (Requires Macromedia Flash to view. Link found via The Corner on National Review Online.)

Posted 9/11/2002 01:25:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE SCENE, ONE YEAR LATER: As I've written before, Virginia Postrel's "The Scene" Weblog was a real lifeline for news and information on 9/11 for my wife and I. When the servers of traditional news sites (CNN/Fox/NYT/WP and even Drudge) were overloaded from hits, Postrel's Weblog stayed up, and she kept updating it like clockwork. Here's a link to her site's posts one year later. (In case you're wondering, on 9/11 of last year, I was aware of Glenn Reynolds, because about a week before, he happened to have linked to one of my articles from National Review Online, but I didn't yet have the "click on InstaPundit ever five minutes" habit that I'll bet you've since developed as well. And Postrel site, thanks to its link on the Reason magazine Web site, had been a regular stop for me since about '97 or '98. I had even interviewed her about The Future and its Enemies back in May of 2000.)

Posted 9/11/2002 01:01:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
PALESTINIAN SOUVENIRS: Found by Israeli customs when they intercepted a shipping container full of weapons headed for the Gaza Strip last June. They're souvenir cigarette lighters. Click over to Little Green Footballs to see the photo.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:51:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE DAY BLOGS CAME INTO THEIR OWN: Good essay and links from Eric Olsen. I couldn't agree more.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:44:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
HUMOR, POST 9/11: Jonah Goldberg wants to know "What’s So Funny about Peace, Love & Understanding?" Quite a bit, actually.

Posted 9/11/2002 11:59:24 AM by Edward Driscoll
WELL, WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE YOURS: "Iraq: Attacks Were a 'Punishment'".

Posted 9/11/2002 11:56:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS JUSTICE POSSIBLE? Not if the experience of Pan Am 103 is any indication, according to David Shukman, writing for National Review Online:

Even if [convicted terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, now serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison] is guilty, surely a middle-ranking Libyan intelligence officer would only act under orders? And those orders, presumably, would have to come from the top, from Khaddafi? Yet we see no desire to pursue this case any higher. By contrast, we see the urgent diplomatic desire for closure. In the same speech earlier this month in which he lined himself squarely beside George Bush on Iraq, Tony Blair talked of extending the "hand of friendship" to Libya, hoping it would come into "full community of international relations." A junior British minister was despatched to Tripoli in August. And what of the many other theories about who did it? Might the attack not have been ordered by Iran in revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian airbus by the USS Vincennes, and carried out, under Syria's guidance, by Assad's client terrorist group the PFLP-GC? Or might Atef Abu Bakr, once Abu Nidal's right-hand man, have told the truth to an Arabic newspaper recently when he recalled his master boasting that he was behind the attack?

Posted 9/11/2002 11:16:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
COMPARE AND CONTRAST PART II: InstaPundit has links illustrating the difference in opinion between Iranian students and their government.

Posted 9/11/2002 10:44:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
COMPARE AND CONTRAST: What was it like on December 7th, 1942?

Posted 9/11/2002 10:35:56 AM by Edward Driscoll
HIGH NOON. Orrin Judd thinks that Bush's UN speech tomorrow will be a bit like Gary Cooper in High Noon:

David Gregory, NBC's White House Correspondent, was on Imus in the Morning today and he was asked about George W. Bush's U.N. appearance tomorrow. He revealed that--with half the nation and most of the world expecting the President, like a dutiful and chastened schoolboy to present a kind of book report about Saddam trying to develop nuclear weapons, and then grovel for a UN mandate to do something about it--Mr. Bush is instead going to confront the member nations and the institution itself and ask: What more do you need? He'll discuss the many UN resolutions that Saddam has violated and ask what the purpose of the body is if they're unwilling to enforce their own diktats. He'll demand, though one assumes politely, that either the UN act immediately in accordance with its own previous decisions, or we'll act for them.

Good. Just like ol' Coop was, I like a man who's a straight talker and shooter.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:57:39 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOURSELF IF YOU COULD GO BACK A YEAR? That's the topic of this typically excellent James Lileks post.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:04:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE: My article on what it was like to be an employee of Moody's on 9/11, and how the financial firm, located about a block away from the WTC was able to do business even after their doors were closed for three months, is online at Tech Central Station.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:01:44 AM by Edward Driscoll
ONE YEAR AGO: While I didn't have a Weblog on 9/11, I was just transitioning from writing lots of material on dead tree, to beginning to also write material specifically for the Web. Here's an essay I wrote mostly to have a permanent record of what that day was like for my wife, my friends (one of whom works a block away from the WTC) and myself. Here's my Alvin Toffler interview from about a week later. It ran in early October in Catholic Exchange. Here's my essay from National Review Online on the stock market reopening. Here's my essay from Spintech on how Weblogs came of age on that terrible day. UPDATE: Here's a transcript of the phone call from Steve Bail that began our day one year ago. Much like the way another Steve, Stephen Green, began his.

Posted 9/11/2002 12:01:43 AM by Edward Driscoll
SIX MONTHS AGO: This Weblog didn't exist until March of this year. But for what it's worth, here's what was going on during the six month anniversary of 9/11, including links to material from a year ago. Start here, and then scroll down.

Posted 9/10/2002 09:41:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
"TRANSRACIAL" POP CULTURE: What is it? Eric Olsen has the scoop on Blogcritics.

Posted 9/10/2002 08:30:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
JOINING THE RAIDER NATION: It's 1977. How does it feel to go from the Dallas Cowboys to the winless Tampa Bay Bucs to the Oakland Raiders, who are coming off a Super Bowl championship? In the first of a multi-part series, Pat Toomay, arguably either the best football player to ever write or the best writer to have a pro football career, talks about going from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Posted 9/10/2002 08:06:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
BEAT THE PRESS: It's the movies' new refrain, according to the New York Daily News With the press's current dismal approval numbers, it's tough to blame Hollywood. At least it's a pleasant change from beating up on businessmen.

Posted 9/10/2002 07:20:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
PAT MOYNIHAN, CLASS ACT: Read this quote from Instapundit.com to find out why. And then go read "Defining Deviancy Down", one of Pat's signature essays.

Posted 9/10/2002 04:48:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
FOUL BALL: VodkaPundit and his readers perform a serious fisking on John McEnroe, whose verbal skills haven't improved since his days as a professional tennis player.

Posted 9/10/2002 04:15:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
RUNNING THE NUMBERS: Lori Anne Byrnes tallies up the staggering cost of September 11, in terms of death and its aftermath. (Link found via VodkaPundit.)

Posted 9/10/2002 03:28:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
"FUN" AT THE AIRPORT: Yesterday, September 9, 2002, a day before the US went into "Orange" alert, and two days before a pretty damn significant anniversary involving terrorists, airplanes and airports, my wife and I flew back to California from New York City. On her way to the ladies room, Nina noticed a very large hard-sided suitcase sitting on one of the "rent me for a dollar" luggage carts, outside the TGIF restaurant at JFK. Rushing past, she had a vague recollection that no one was sitting at any of the tables near the suitcase, where you would think someone would sit if they were leaving their bag, relatively unattended, in violation of all the admonitions we've gotten of late. As she describes it:

On my way back I looked more carefully, noticed that this bag was way too large for carry on, and yet was way beyond the point where luggage would be checked in. I also noticed for sure that no one was sitting in any of the nearby tables. Alarmed, I went to the security drone who looks to make sure that you have a ticket before you have the honor of having your laptop x-rayed. I told him about the unattended suitcase, and he informed me that basically, he couldn't care less and that "they" (apparently he spoke for all of the security checkers) were only interested in what went through the security checkpoint. Upon being told that I didn't think his supervisor would be very happy with that response, and that could he possibly call someone with a brain (I doubt those were my exact words, but I think it was close to that), a supervisor came over and immediately figured out that this was indeed one of those "unattended suitcases" that they really wanted to avoid. In response to being told that the little drone had basically said "not my job" she announced "Security is everyone's job now." The supervisor dashed over to the offending bag, shouted into the restaurant "does anyone own this bag" and was last seen interrogating the guy who was sitting at the far end of the TGIF bar who came forth to claim his unattended luggage. I guess this is basically the problem: you have people who know their jobs, do them well, respond to whatever is thrown their way, and don't worry about whether it's in front of, or behind the security checkpoint. And you have people who are paid not much more than minimum wage, who will never earn more because they just don't have a clue. I don't know how you teach common sense, mostly because I don't think you can. But perhaps you can buy it by not hiring from the very bottom of the barrel. I realize this is far from the worst offense at airports these days. (Of course, in the event it was a missed bomb that detonated, it would have been--Ed.) It's not as bad as letting guns get through the checkpoints. But it brought home to me just how dependant our security is on mindless drones.

Posted 9/10/2002 02:35:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANOTHER KIND OF TERRORISM: The Earth Liberation Front admits to arson.

Posted 9/10/2002 02:25:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE AL CAPONE STRATEGY: Human Events says it's winning on the home front.

Posted 9/10/2002 02:06:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
STATE OF RUIN: Little Green Footballs says that 98% of the known members of the military wing of Hamas have been arrested or killed in the past five months, leaving the terror gang in a state of ruin. LGF asks, presumably rhetorically, "An awful lot of people were warning that military force would never succeed against Palestinian terrorism; will they now publicly eat their words?"

Posted 9/10/2002 01:48:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
RELIGION OF PEACE, PART 2,672,927: A 30-year-old Nigerian housewife named Amina Lawal may very well get stoned to death in the not too distant future. The reason?

Lawal was arrested by police earlier this year after she gave birth out of wedlock. She confessed to having had extramarital sex and an Islamic court sentenced her to be stoned to death. As with the earlier case of Safiya Husseini, who was later cleared on appeal, Lawal's conviction outraged rights campaigners and embarrassed Nigeria's federal government. But Lawal's appeal was thrown out last month, and President Olusegun Obasanjo's regime said that while it considers Sharia criminal law unconstitutional it would not intervene.

UPDATE: And here's part 2,672,928.

Posted 9/10/2002 01:37:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE ANTI-AMERICAN ANCHOR: Brent Bozell runs roughshod over Peter Jennings, someone who certainly deserves it. Bozell writes:

In a recent appearance on the David Letterman show, the Canadian-born anchor said his mother "was pretty anti-American. And so I was, in some respects, raised with anti-Americanism in my blood or in my mother's milk at least." That attitude is not suppressed on the air. Jennings and his "Road to War?" series have provided a platform for war opponents, leaving out any of the policymakers outside the Bush team who favor American action -- including usual media favorites such as Joe Lieberman and John McCain. They find no public purpose in exploring the costs of U.S. inaction or the benefits of ousting Saddam Hussein. On August 20, Jennings wondered "whether or not the White House is losing control of the debate about war with Iraq." Network anchors like Jennings believe they should have rigid control over any political debate. Their tone suggests that foolish is the president who suggests to the all-powerful boob tube titans that they are not in command of indoctrinating the citizenry in what to believe.