Ok, I finally moved over to Wordpress. The blogroll and other stuff will be updated soon -

From the Guardian:

A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism.

In an interview with the Guardian, Stella Rimington calls al-Qaida's attack on the US "another terrorist incident" but not qualitatively different from any others.

"That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life and this was as far as I was concerned another one," she says.

This kind of statement is nothing new. The Brits (and the Guardian) have been saying this kind of thing for years.

Although some blame Britain's decline on multiculturalism and the Left, the Conservatives and Labour both support the British government's efforts to cash in on the Islamic banking bubble. Catering to the demands of Saudi and Emirate princes is part of that deal.

The British government has also been making an effort to kiss up to the Russians (and, by default, to Russia's allies in Iran). Vlad "polonium 210" Putin has been bullying the British government for years, and the British government has been reacting the way they usually do - with craven appeasement.

The Russians effectively won this little war over British Petroleum.

Most of the anti-Americanism in Europe can be traced to Euro-British efforts to appease oil producers and wealthy Gulf-state troglodytes. The French, the Russians and the Germans can also never forgive us for attacking their best friend in the Middle East, Saddam Hussein.

One British commenter noted this about the American election:

The UK politicians Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat are praying that Obama wins because then the US will pull out of Iraq and Afganistan and also have an appeasment policy towards Jihadists within the US and be strongly pro-Palestine. The US will become less internationalist.

The British are also as we say 'sweating cobbs' (a form of round and processed coal or a very hard bread roll) that if McCain gets in then the UK will have a choice either have the embarrassment of publically splitting with the US in relation to the US's War on Terror, rumblings are that this is because some high value British business contracts in the Middle East hang on the ability of the UK to pull out of Iraq.

Well, both parties have an appeasement policy towards Jihadists. John Kerry wasn't the one hugging and kissing Saudi King Abdullah in Crawford. But the idea is that if Obama is elected, the Brits can continue to pretend to be allied with us. If McCain is elected, they'll have to be more upfront about their true alliances.

Either way, the British people are still stuck with their Hobson's choice. If they don't start standing up to their government, if they don't use what still remains of their democracy and their freedom of speech to tell Brown et. all that they're mad as hell and not going to take it any more, then they can say goodbye to their way of life. And their pubs.

..well, not always. Al-Qaida denies Web attack, but its sites struggle

Want to know how to overlay sectional aeronautical charts in Google Earth, change the oil and filter on a 2001 Beetle TDI using an oil extractor, go from being an introvert to being an extrovert, make a beaded lizard, write a PHP script and be a great wife?

Go to Wiki How

..up on Flickr

Amity Shlaes, economist and author of The Forgotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression tells us how to avoid a sequel

Public displays of affection are illegal in "Western friendly" Dubai, but (until the French government intervened) the gang-rape of a teenage boy was not.

..many apologies. I'm on the road and can't fix it now but I'll try to repair (or move) the blog soon

Here in the French Quarter, the city looks to be in good shape. There are some damaged buildings, but the restaurants and shops I remember from 2004 are still here and still doing well.

Wedding Beignets

Saturday afternoon downtown

Bourbon Street is still Bourbon Street...

Yesterday, with Habitat for Humanity and about 250 of Bruce's co-workers, I helped fix up a local elementary school.

The school, and the surrounding neighborhood, were damaged by the floods. They're coming back, slowly.

With Symantec employees and a bunch of students, I helped paint a playground mural of the USA, with all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Our mural may not have been the most artistic piece in the playground, but it was the most commented-on. People wondered why we didn't paint it according to red state-blue state voting records, people wondered why the lakes and borders in their state were misshapen, they wondered why we included Puerto Rico but forgot Guam.

We were just following the teacher's drawing, but we did choose the colors. As for the color scheme, the lack of political affiliations and the misshapen lakes, it's to ponder.It is an artist's job to make people think. Hopefully, this work will inspire thought for generations.

If I can find a cheap enough rental car, I'll be driving out to visit friends in Kenner. Hope to post some pictures showing how the city is recovering.

If you have any travel or picture suggestions, comment or FB!

Gas2 "digs into the viscous world of biofuels and the fast-paced transit arena, exploring the technologies and substances that will power our transportation future."

Michael Totten describes a "frozen conflict":

Immediately following Russia's invasion of Georgia and its de-facto annexation of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the phrase “frozen conflicts” was bandied about so often among the world’s foreign policy commentariat that it briefly became a cliché. Yet there is another frozen conflict in the South Caucasus that few have even heard of, fewer know much about, and even fewer have thought to include in any analysis. This war, the forgotten war of Nagorno (or “Mountainous”) Karabakh, has so far racked up a much higher body count – tens of thousands – than any in Georgia lately. Many more people – more than a million – were displaced. An uneasy ceasefire holds most of the time, but the conflict itself is not even close to being resolved. It’s a Mideast- and Balkan-style ethnic bomb that could easily blow up the region again and tempt Russia with another imperialist adventure in its “near abroad.”

Because he says things like this:

I will pull the lever for McCain/Palin in November. I will do so without the slightest hesitation or regret.

But if that evening, or the next morning, we learn that Barack Obama has won the Presidency, I will not lose not a wink of sleep. I will feel quite secure in the knowledge that the American people and the American system of government–which have always been flawed and imperfect and always will be–will continue to survive and thrive in the long run, even if we have tough times ahead. Because we always have tough times ahead, but this is the greatest country the world has ever known, and despite its many flaws our system of government works the way it’s supposed to, and in general works very well indeed.

Welcome to democracy, and the American way of life. Ain’t it grand?

..and this:

I’m not sure whether to have jitters about the market anyway. If I had any savings left (they’re already depleted) I’d do my best to be steely-eyed and refuse to pull any of my money out of the stock market, or to panic and try to shift everything to “safe” stocks or mutual funds. If you want to ride the stock train, even just mutual funds, you have to be prepared for a bumpy ride, even very scary bumps.

Well said, Dean!

There are Giant Mutant Flesh-Eating Killer Fish on the loose!

It's called a Goonch

Fortunately, Goonch attacks have nothing to do with poisonous 'Greater Weever' fish, which are suddenly appearing in British waters:

The greater weever fish, whose venomous spines can cause victims weeks of intense pain, was found in a stretch of the Thames estuary.

Despite the danger, delighted environmentalists say it is a clear sign that the river is recovered from the heavy pollution which once slashed fish numbers.

Nature. Gotta love it.

[link to the Giant Mutant Flesh-Eating Killer Fish story thanks to Omri]

In response to Ian Buruma's Europe's far-right revival isn't Nazism:

The test of whether a political group is worth supporting shouldn't rely on whether they're 'right' or 'left', pro-Islam or anti Islam.

If the political party or group:

1. Alarms local Jews

2. Alarms the Israeli government

3. Opposes sanctions against and seeks to ally with Islamist regimes like Iran.

4. Seeks to deport or restrict the rights of citizens based, not on the crimes they may have committed or on their alliances with terrorist regimes, but instead based on race, sex, religion or ideological purity...

..then they are probably not worth supporting. The Austrian FPO fits 1-3.

Richard Ivory's excellent blog, Hip Hop Republican: - Young, Black and Republican in New York, Blogging Against the Tide

Missing Americans held in Syria over visas:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two Americans reported missing by the U.S. embassy in Lebanon are being held in Syria for entering the neighboring country without visas, Arab media reported on Thursday.

Doha-based Al Jazeera television said Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, were in good health. Lebanese station LBC carried a similar report. Officials at the U.S. embassies in Damascus and Beirut said they could not immediately confirm the reports.

..without the karate and stuff. Tony vs. Paul:

Thanks to Photojojo, here's how to do stop-motion animation using iMovie.

Via CNN: Two U.S. journalists missing in Lebanon

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is asking for assistance in locating two missing American journalists who were on vacation in Lebanon and have not been heard from since they left the Lebanese capital last week.

Holli Chmela, 27, and her male companion, Taylor Luck, 23, arrived in Lebanon on September 29 from Amman, Jordan, the embassy said.

They left Beirut on October 1, telling friends they were headed for the northern Lebanese cities of Byblos and Tripoli that day.

No one has reported any contact with them since then, the embassy said.

"They were then to cross by land to Syria before returning to Jordan," the embassy said. "Chmela and Luck were due to report to work in Jordan on October 4."

Luck is an editor with The Jordan Times in Amman, and Chmela had been working as a freelancer for the newspaper, said Sameer Barhoum, the paper's editor.

I thought this idea was cool when news about it came out last year.

Now the creators of green jellyfish protein have won a Nobel Prize. Congratulations Osamu Shimomura of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego,

Why did dot com venture capitalists invest money in companies that had no clear plans to make a profit? Why did banks and homebuyers assume that real estate prices would continue to increase ad infinitum? Why do people believe that you can lose weight without eating less or exercising? Why do fools rush in where angels fear to tread?

Megan McArdle explains it all..

That PowwerBlogs gremlin showed up again. Yes, I'm still looking at MT and WordPress..

We went down to Asbury Park yesterday to see the newly refurbished boardwalk. I miss the old Criterion Chocolates, but some of the arty shops, like Hot Sand, where you can blow your own glass, and LaPlaca Pottery, where you can throw whatever potters throw, looked like fun.

On our way back, heading to dinner at the yummy Bistro Ole we were surprised to see hordes of hungry, brain eating zombies headed our way. No, it wasn't the mystery virus that infected London. We'd stumbled on the First Annual Asbury Park Zombie Walk! Hundreds of bloodied corpses, some with brains or fingers in their mouths, some wielding dismembered arms, some in bloodied wedding dresses, stumbled down the boardwalk.

One little girl who had been crying over some spilled ice cream or something brightened up when she saw them. Zombies! she smiled.

My parents, who kind of missed the whole zombies-as-cultural-icons development weren't sure how to react to this. They figured it was an early Halloween thing and played along.

But Zombie walks aren't just for Halloween season, they're an all-year round phenomenon. They may be coming to your town!

True Blood

Jace Everett's song is wicked..

Karl Pfeifer discusses the Austrian election at Harry's Place

In 2004, Mr. Ibrahim Sargin wrote this letter in 2004 to the London Times describing why their efforts to prevent crime and terrorism by "reaching out" to the Muslim community would fail. Apparently, the British government was reaching out to the worst, most hyper-radical groups. Sargin said:

Sir:

The problem with organizations such as the Muslim Association of Britain, the Muslim Parliament and the Muslim Council of Britain is that they portray themselves as one-stop representatives of Muslims on all religious, political and racial matters. This is enhanced by the fact that the Government and other political entities wish to “consult” with ethnic and religious communities.

I choose to define my community as the people with whom I interact and choose to be represented by the political party for which I vote. Why should I, in community terms, have more in common with a Muslim from Bradford than with a Jew from Tonttenham or a Christian from Ramsgate? ..

One need only walk down a main street in this part of London to see that there are many Muslims who do not necessarily define themselves primarily by their religion. We do not all subscribe to the same way of being a Muslim, neither do we push our religious beliefs into the civic and political sphere.

Sadly the public does not always get our point of view, because the only Muslims who are consulted are those who choose to drag Islam into the political sphere and relate it to issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Our civic duty, like that of any other Briton, consists of abiding by the law of the land and our civic right is to be represented through the ballot box, not by organizations that are vested with an authority they do not deserve.

Mr. Sargin isn’t suggesting that Britain’s leaders should reach out to him specifically. He’s arguing against the idea of reaching out specifically to Muslims. When he says “I choose to define my community as the people with whom I interact and choose to be represented by the political party for which I vote. Why should I, in community terms, have more in common with a Muslim from Bradford than with a Jew from Tonttenham or a Christian from Ramsgate? ..” he’s arguing against playing the identity politics game.

He's suggesting that we should rely, instead, on democracy and equal rights, giving equal weight to the opinions of all citizens.

The members of the British Government, who believe that Gulf State princes with fat bellies and fatter pockets are more equal than all others, did not agree. Most Muslim special interest groups are supported, not by local people, but by foreign funds. Most of that money comes from extremist Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia. 80% of American mosques are funded in some way by the Saudis. CAIR, an organization that is supposed to represent American muslims, is also funded almost entirely by Saudi money. Most of the American members of the organization quit after 9/11.

These high-status people don’t represent the majority. They represent their donors.

This is the result of their long standing policy of talking to jihad-supported leaders.

U.K.: Jihadist threat "approaching critical" level

..when did we kick Hezobllah out of Lebanon?

Michael Totten writes in Commentary:

Senator Barack Obama said something at the presidential debate last week that almost perfectly encapsulates the difference between his foreign policy and his opponent’s: “Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself acknowledges the war on terrorism started in Afghanistan and it needs to end there.” I don’t know if Obama paraphrased Gates correctly, but if so, they’re both wrong.

If Afghanistan were miraculously transformed into the Switzerland of Central Asia, every last one of the Middle East’s rogues gallery of terrorist groups would still exist. The ideology that spawned them would endure. Their grievances, such as they are, would not be salved. The political culture that produced them, and continues to produce more just like them, would hardly be scathed. Al Qaedism is the most radical wing of an extreme movement which was born in the Middle East and exists now in many parts of the world. Afghanistan is not the root or the source.

Naturally the war against them began in Afghanistan. Plans for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were hatched in Afghanistan. But the temporary location of the plotters of that strike means little in the wide view of a long struggle. Osama bin Laden and his leadership just as easily could have planned the attacks from Saudi Arabia before they were exiled, or from their refuge in Sudan in the mid 1990s. Theoretically they could have even planned the attacks from an off-the-radar “safe house” in a place like France or even Nebraska had they managed to sneak themselves in. The physical location of the planning headquarters wasn’t irrelevant, but in the long run the ideology that motivates them is what must be defeated. Perhaps the point would be more obvious if the attacks were in fact planned in a place like France instead of a failed state like Afghanistan.

More....

I could survive for 1 minute, 9 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

It's hard to get a good score when they left out the best solutions:

1. Give the Velociraptor her eggs back

2. cover yourself in poo

3. call the neighborhood T. Rex for help

[link thanks to Alan Sullivan and Primordial Slack]

My article on Heinz Christian Strache's Freedom Party is up at Pajamas Media:

In Austria’s recent national elections, voters gave significant support to a party that seeks to bring back Nazi symbols and salutes. The anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPO), headed by Heinz-Christian Strache, former dental assistant and representative of Europe’s Cities Against Islamisation group, won 18 percent of the vote.

Another anti-immigrant party, the Alliance for Austria’s Future, led by Jörg Haider, a former Freedom Party leader who broke away and formed a new party in 2005, got 11 percent of the vote. Together, these allied parties won almost a third of the vote, giving them huge gains over the traditional leading parties, the center-left Social Democrats and the conservative Austrian People’s Party.

According to AFP, “the exact distribution of the 183 parliamentary seats will only be officially announced on October 6, 2008. But the combined score of the far-right parties would put them in second place ahead of the conservatives.”

More...