Month: June 2006

Happy Birthday Suu Kyi

In days ahead think of her as well; when you see moonbats demonstrating over minor things, when you see politicians screeching hyperbolic and meaningless rants, think of Suu Kyi, and what real leadership, courage, and persistence is.

aung San Suu Kyi protest.jpg

By Now you have probably tired of reading about the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, however in a few hours it will be her 61st birthday. Suu Kyi’s tale is one of bravery, persistence, and unwavering loyalty to the cause of Freedom for the people of Burma (aka Myanmar in military junta-speak.)

Her tale is also a sad one, but wholly inspirational. For ten of the past seventeen years the miltary junta has either kept her imprisoned or under house arrest. She is alone but for two maids (minders for the junta,) and gets one visit from a doctor per month.

When her husband, dieing of cancer, tried to visit her they would not grant him a visit, and he died without seeing her again. They have taken the passports of her sons, and denied them visas. So Suu Kyi will be alone on her birthday again.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday Suu Kyi”

Democratic Strategy Underwhelmingly Embarrassing

So it’s quite telling that the Democratic Leadership dropped their election strategy for ’06 late on a Friday afternoon at the beginning of silly season.

We are about to start into silly season — in traditional news days, this was the season when there wasn’t much going on. This is because across America folks are out of school, on vacation, bar-b-queing, and planning weddings. Americans aren’t paying much attention to the news, and shortly there isn’t going to be a lot of news to report – Congress will be out of session, and politicos will be on vacation as well. 

 In times now gone forever, the hot, lazy days of summer were for stories on UFO investigations, top reporters interviewing psychics, and the yellow press resorting to headlines like this:

“Boy Trapped in Freezer Eats Own Foot to Survive!”

 Another news tradition of the beltway crowd is to dump bad or embarrassing news late on a Friday afternoon, in the hopes that something will overwhelm it before Monday. Besides that, American’s don’t much watch the news on weekends – it’s a way of downplaying bad things.

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Newt takes on Greenpeace and Global Warming

Newt Gingrich exposes Greenpeace anti-nuclear energy demagogery in this soundbite. Next he takes on global warming here.

winning the future.jpgNewt Gingrich exposes Greenpeace anti-nuclear energy demagogery in this soundbite. In the sidebar at Newt’s site are more audio commentaries, try the one on global warming as well. From the Greenpeace memo:

 “Fill in alarmist and armageddonist factoid here”

Pirate Face

Reminder: when someone’s taking your picture, every third shot is an opportunity for your PIRATE FACE….as my brother demonstrates to the left.

pirateface.gifReminder: when someone’s taking your picture, every third shot is an opportunity for your PIRATE FACE….as my brother demonstrates to the left.

Tips for Pirate Face newbies:

  • It’s not a pirate face if you aren’t growling “ARRRRRRRRGHH!”
  • You don’t need a patch, peg leg, or hook
  • One eye squinched closed, the other wide open
  • Practice your sneer in the mirror until you perfect it
  • When taking group pirate face photos, the photographer should yell “PIRATE FACE!” two seconds before the shot.
  • if it doesn’t scare small children, it’s not a pirate face

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

lorelei.jpg

Annabel Lee 

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Continue reading “Annabel Lee”

Nobel Laureates express solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi

“The political and physical freedom of our colleague, Madame Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, must be guaranteed,” he said. “We stand alongside Madame Aung San Suu Kyi, who is struggling for the development of democracy in her homeland.”

ap99_burma_aung_san_suu_kyi_may02file_may06_0.jpgNobel Laureates meeting in South Korea to discuss prospects for global peace were missing a member: Aung San Suu Kyi, kept under house arrest by the military junta in Burma / Myanmar. Below from a Voice of America News story, quoting Former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung:

Mr. Kim called for Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom, and expressed the hope that more global attention would be called to her plight.

The gathering went even further in acknowledging the Burmese activist, by drafting a formal declaration of solidarity with her. It was read aloud by Jonathan Granoff, of the Nobel-winning International Peace Bureau.

“The political and physical freedom of our colleague, Madame Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, must be guaranteed,” he said. “We stand alongside Madame Aung San Suu Kyi, who is struggling for the development of democracy in her homeland.”

For more information see the previous article here.

EU in shambles

Meanwhile, one fifth of the poultry in the EU is determined to have salmonella, and the against this backdrop Europeans are flocking (pun intended) to organic food. Please, if salmonella and bird flu are rampant, give me the chicken that has the anti-biotic upbringing and preservatives added.

News from the EU summit paints a picture of dissolution and strife. They now have an action plan to revisit the constitution that failed to pass in two years, perhaps hoping for a better reception with voters at that point. Meanwhile they are beset with voter dissatisfaction over corruption at Airbus, and meet with silence the voters concern with the second home for the EU at Strasborg.

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US Led Mountain Thrust continues to roll up Taliban

Continuing their offensive operations in the South East of Afghanistan, Operation Moutain Thrust continues to crush the Taliban

afghanistan_mountain_thrust.jpgContinuing their offensive operations in the South East of Afghanistan, Operation Moutain Thrust continues to crush the Taliban as forty five more terrorists allied with al-qaida were killed. Details at Yahoo news. As an update to an earlier post please note that VOA had an article up regarding the capture of a high profile Al-Quaida operative active in the shia south. The VOA article appears to have now dropped reference to this incident, and a search on “sheik akeel” turns up some interesting links. I did find the original text of the article here.

To the south, in Karbala, local officials say U.S. troops have arrested the sheikh Akeel al-Zubaidi who heads Karbala’s provincial council, a mainly Shi’ite group. There has been no report on the incident by U.S. military officials.

In a further update to a previous post where I speculated on use of Alexander the Great’s strategy for Afghanistan, Bill Roggio reports of a major Taliban defection, it appears that things are moving in a very positive direction in the Southeast of Afghanistan.

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Nepal Update — Promising news

In a development bright with promise the CPN/Maoists and Seven Party Alliance in Nepal have reached historic agreement. The outcome is the 8 point agreement, under which the two old governments will be dissolved and a new democratic government formed.

In a development bright with promise the CPN/Maoists and Seven Party Alliance in Nepal have reached historic agreement. The outcome is the 8 point agreement, under which the two old governments will be dissolved and a new democratic government formed. Prachandra appears to be cooperating and sincerely seeking peace and prosperity for the country.

Continue reading “Nepal Update — Promising news”

Today’s Quotes

“The principle feature of contemporary American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things — War and hunger and date rape — liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things.

“The methods of the liberals were aptly and graphically hit off by the Trudikov Sedelnikov at a meeting on May 9th in the Pannina Palace. When a liberal is abused, he says “Thank God they didn’t beat me.” When he is beaten, he thanks God they didn’t kill him. When he is killed he will thank God that his immortal soul has been delivered from it’s mortal clay.”

— Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

 

 Before Ann Coulter there was PJ O’Rourke:

“The principle feature of contemporary American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things – War and hunger and date rape — liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. People who care a lot are naturally superior to we who don’t care any more than we have to. By virtue of this superiority the caring have a moral right to lead the nation. It’s kind of a natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong, or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal. Kidnapping the moral high ground also serves to inflate liberal ranks. People who are, in fact, just kindhearted are told that because they care, they must be liberals too.”  

— PJ O’Rourke, from the introduction of “Give War a Chance.” 

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