Archive for April, 2007

McQueen Style

Posted by: Ion | April 30th, 2007 · 11:20 PM

Apparently Steve McQueen’s custom 250GT Lusso, is coming up for auction at Christie’s. Gorgeous machine.

The car was custom ordered by McQueen in 1963 with a special metallic brown exterior and a beige interior, he used the car regularly for the next ten years. The Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso (The road legal and more luxurious version of the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta) is considered by many to be one of the greatest Ferrar’s ever made. The car is in perfect condition after having been restored in 1997 in a process which took nearly four thousand hours.
(Horisly)

Full Story & Photos>>>

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Truthers Dig Gravel

Posted by: Ion | · 2:01 PM

Why am I unsurprised?

The Winner by Default at the Democratic Debates
Submitted by Radical Priest on Thu, 2007-04-26 19:39. April 26, 2007Dear Senator,

You might as well have been there alone, because in my mind there was no one else there anyway.

You have the passion, the insight, the long reaching perception and the incisive awareness to hit the nail on the head without any shadow of a doubt.

Go Git’em

Radical Priest,
Reverend Michael Valentine Goldsun

[…]
9/11=PNAC Plot

(Mike Gravel)

PNAC is of course, Project for a New American Century.

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Political Demographics and the Moment of Betrayal

Posted by: Ion | · 1:20 PM

(photo: OB12)

One of the interesting things about the evolution of American party politics over time, is that there is always a backfire effect for whichever party leads an effort to involve a new demographic group in the political process. Such efforts are almost always undertaken by one party, in order to gain that elusive permanent electoral advantage over the other. Almost always, once involved in politics, the targeted group turns abruptly and irrevocably against the party that brought them into the process.

The list of examples of this effect is long. The most prominent example of course, is the abolitionist Republican Party’s efforts to enfranchise black Americans to defeat the slavery/segregation Democrats. The GOP thought it could break the Democratic stranglehold on the South by this course. Yet this group would one day turn against them more completely than any other. But also in a more damaging example, Republicans led the effort for women’s suffrage. During the suffrage movement, women were overwhelmingly Republican and it was assumed this would lock the GOP in power forever, if they could be given the vote. Now of course, women have political tendencies toward the Democrats.

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Olmert Resignation to Come?

Posted by: Ion | · 11:59 AM

Blake Hounshell thinks it’s just a matter of time following the findings of the report on the Lebanon war:

A government commission that probed Israel’s summer war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday of ‘’severe failure,'’ saying he hastily led the country into the conflict without a comprehensive plan.
(AP)

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The Passing of the Torch: We are no longer the king of Azeri sex appeal

Posted by: Ion | · 10:52 AM

Manny Lopez had a lovely little piece in the Sunday edition of The Detroit News, about his experiences with the blog world, following our interview on Venezuela. In the course of it, he paid a lovely tribute to PP and ASHC, which is very nice. Please check it out here.

But the best part is midway down. Manny says:

All that has happened without my having to mention “Azeri sex appeal,” which I’m told by Lee sends the traffic to his site from Azerbaijan into the stratosphere.
(The Detroit News)

You see, for a long while now, we’ve been privileged to receive a lot of traffic from Azerbaijan, over this post on the Roya Ayxan phenomenon. The piece is purely focused on international politics and examines the potential social implications of the decidedly libertine diva, on the large ethnic Azeri community in the Iranian theocracy. Azeris visit in significant numbers on this story. I’ve even received a couple of emails about it. But not speaking Azərbaycan Dili, I’ve been at an uncomfortable loss in how to reply.

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Departures

Posted by: Ion | April 29th, 2007 · 9:25 PM

Andrew Niccol plays Michael Nyman’s minimalist theme for Gattaca on piano. A few errors, but not enough to ruin a beautiful performance.

video (embed disabled)>>>

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The Altered State

Posted by: Ion | · 2:44 PM

(photo: Emma Campbell)

The post-9/11 attitudinal shift remains unperturbed. Thus a pronounced adjustment to the right, en route to the election, is inevitable for all of the viable Democratic candidates. Only Hillary understood this implicitly and immediately. While she sustained early damage from Obama and Edwards by remaining firm on a vigorous military and foreign policy (even her Iraq policy is a slight of hand to remain engaged there permanently), it has kept her viable in the general.

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The Unbearable Advocate

Posted by: Ion | · 12:56 PM

You may have heard, but a kerfuffle has arisen between noted critic of Islam, Robert Spencer, and noted apologist for Islam, Karen Armstrong. Armstrong apparently read Spencer’s The Truth About Muhammad recently. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a systematic condemnation of Muhammad’s entire life, legacy and theology. Karen takes virtually any criticism of Islam very personally and thus she wasn’t pleased. She published a furious rebuke of the book in the Financial Times, here.

Unfortunately, in her fury she made several significant errors of fact. Particularly with respect to Quranic citation. She also substantially misstated Spencer’s views in many respects. This is a curious approach to take, in that if you wish to establish that Spencer is hostile to Islam and thus religiously “bigoted” you really needn’t exaggerate or modify his remarks much. At any rate, Spencer quite rightly pounced on these faults, here.

Things look to get worse between the two, but my side was chosen in this fight before it even began.

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The Hazards of Zimbabwean Diplomacy

Posted by: Ion | · 7:43 AM

I’m not sure why this horrible story captured my interest. Perhaps it seems strangely befitting for that most hostile and unpredictable of countries: Zimbabwe.

27 year old Australian diplomat Gemma Huggins, had only been in Zimbabwe for a month on her first foreign assignment, when she was attacked and mauled by lions.

Her injuries were not life threatening, but far from pleasant:

Huggins was treated for severe injuries to her head, neck, torso and legs and had several skin grafts at the Unitas Hospital in Pretoria, it added.

Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade confirmed that a diplomat from the High Commission in Harare had been hospitalised after an incident at a wildlife park.
(News24)

Equally depressing, Zimbabwe’s lunatic autocrat Robert Mugabe, has declared war on charity work within his impoverished and collapsing country.

Zimbabwe announced new controls Saturday to clamp down on charities and other humanitarian organizations, including democracy and human rights groups that the government accuses of campaigning against it.
(AP)

As Peta Thornycroft at the Daily Telegraph asks, “When will it end?”

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Electoral Suicide Makes a Comeback

Posted by: Ion | · 7:22 AM

The Left has fallen in love all over again. Mike Gravel has the phraseology, the paranoia and the general ranting looniness. Traditionally, “military industrial complex” perfectly mixes all three and he uses it.

Excluding Dennis, Gravel has to be the most comprehensively unelectable candidate we’ve seen in some time. Watch this recap of his performance at the Dem debate:

2008 general election results:
Mike Gravel (D): 34%
A Bag of Rocks (R): 66%

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