Bashar looking more dangerous than ever

Syria's Bashar Assad as "Evil Moron"?

James Taranto, in his OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today column, notes that Slate calls Syria's dictator, Bashar Assad, an "evil moron".

Given that the left has called Bush an idiot more times than I can remember, yet he manages to defeat them in almost every arena, Slate's denunciation of Bashar Assad as an "evil moron" may actually make me more likely to worry about him rather than less.

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Remember - Don't ever defend yourself, even without a gun

Martial Artist On Trial for Self-Defense

As someone who believes strongly in each person's duty to learn how to defend themselves, something like this just turns my stomach. For more information on self-defense, click the link in the left-hand column for Marc MacYoung's excellent site.

NEWS.com.au | Trial for martial arts death (archived)

The court was told Johns had retreated with his palms up in the air when confronted by Linskens and two others in the carpark.

As Linskens prepared to strike him, Johns allegedly delivered the fatal kick to the right side of the jaw.

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A Lesson from Anti-War Protestors

So . . . if you don't agree with something the government does, you can opt out of payng taxes?

How many people out there would stop paying or reduce their payments based on government programs that fund abortions? Or tattoo removal for gang members? Or guns-are-evil education programs? Or giving condoms to school children?

Would the folks described in this article think that not paying taxes for those reasons is the right thing to do? Or would they consider that a breach of citizenly duty?

Newsday.com - Some Peace Activists Won't Pay Fed Taxes

Thousands of Americans chose not to pay their federal income tax this year as a political statement, many because they don't want their money supporting the U.S. military.

It's a form of civil disobediance some peace activists say is especially important this filing season because of the war in Iraq. But the tax man doesn't care what their reasons are.

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Castro News Network

CNN - Castro News Network

Thanks to Neal Boortz for the head's up on this.

Aiding freedom's enemies

Given the awfulness of the secrets we now know CNN was hiding for Saddam, it's fair to ask whether CNN is doing the same for Fidel.

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A Voice in the Wilderness

The Village Voice Reports on the NYT

The Village Voice, noted conservative news source for many years, writes about the carnage over at the paper of record.

'Republic of Fear' by Cynthia Cotts

There are many rooms in that palace and nobody sees the whole picture. But, says one source, "the old timers who lived through the worst of [former executive editor] Abe Rosenthal say they have never seen anyone be so arrogant, so petty, so mean. Vindictiveness is in." Another source says, "It's no longer about managing down. It's about paying obeisance to the king." Among cognoscenti, 43rd Street is now known as the "republic of fear."

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Rodney King Back in News

Return of the King

King recovering after slamming his vehicle into house

He was convicted of spouse abuse in 1999 in San Bernardino County and received 90 days in jail and four years on probation. Claremont police arrested King for being under the influence of PCP in August 2001, and a month later, Pomona police arrested him for being under the influence of PCP and indecent exposure after visitors at Ganesha Park complained about a man jumping on an ice chest.

King pleaded no contest to three counts of being under the influence of PCP and a count of indecent exposure in October 2001. A judge gave King a year in a drug treatment center even though a prosecutor argued King should spend a year in county jail.

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Whence Legislation?

Legislation: Through Congress or Through Courts?

GOP Senator Slams Lawsuit-Happy Culture -- 04/15/2003



Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - A U.S. senator is calling on Americans to reject the "culture of victimhood" and instead embrace "personal responsibility" in rejecting the trend toward class action lawsuits against politically unpopular companies like tobacco and gun manufacturers.

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A Tale of Two Tax Plans

In Honor of Tax Day

A tale of two tax plans -- The Washington Times

From the wonderful folks over at The Heritage Foundation

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AOL Troubles

AOL Still Worthless. Could This be Why?

USATODAY.com - AOL Time Warner execs accused of insider trading

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Two institutional shareholders said on Monday they filed suit against AOL Time Warner, accusing Chairman Steve Case and other top executives of insider trading while using "tricks, contrivances and bogus transactions" to inflate the company's share price.

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Should We Still Put Europe on a Pedastal When Evaluating Its Demands?

George F. Will: The decline of Europe

Americans who are apt to argue that U.S. foreign policy needs constant infusions of legitimacy from the approbation of European governments are also apt to deplore, in the domestic culture wars, Eurocentrism in academic curricula. Such Americans resist the cultural products of Europe's centuries of vitality, but defer to the politics of Europe in its decadence.



Why? Perhaps because yesterday's European culture helped make America what it is, and today's European politics expresses resentment and distrust of what America is. Both sensibilities arise from the distaste of some Americans for America.



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Franks Wants to Retire?

Great stuff from Scrappleface.com

ScrappleFace: Gen. Tommy Franks Can't Wait to Retire



(2003-04-13) -- U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks said today that he can't wait to retire so he'll have a better understanding of what's going on with U.S. military operations.



"Retired generals have better operational information than I do," said Gen. Franks. "When I give a news conference now, everything I say is doubted by the reporters. But when I'm retired, the big news media will hire me to talk about what's really going on in the theater of operations. I'm just not in the loop right now."



Gen. Franks said he often calls retired generals to gather intelligence about the movements of U.S. forces, and predictions about what will happen next.



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No WMD Found Yet

About Finding WMD in Iraq

James Taranto makes the following excellent point in his daily Best of the Web column on Monday (toward the bottom of the third item):

In the Independent, Andrew Gumbel offers another complaint: As far as we know, coalition forces haven't yet found any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "Many influential people . . . have begun to wonder aloud if the weapons exist at all."

This is just goofy. Saddam is known to have had such weapons in the 1990s, and U.N. resolutions obliged him to destroy them and account for their destruction. He never offered any such accounting. So in order to doubt that Iraq lacks weapons of mass destruction, you have to believe that Saddam destroyed them and then didn't bother to tell anyone about it.

Gumbel's impatience for weapons of mass destruction is downright infantile. He pounds the table and demands to know why the coalition hasn't found them and announced it publicly in three weeks--during which time the coalition has been busy waging a military campaign. Weren't we hearing just a few weeks back that the U.N. inspectors needed many more months to find these weapons?

End quote.

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