Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Some mad McCainiac is going through the triumphs of the United States forces in Iraq. It is truly a “High Noon” moment right now, and I hope the Hadleyville citizens who kept the shutters closed — read that as, snarked away about who a fustercluck Iraq was becoming for these past four years or so — feel rightfully ashamed, although I have my doubts.
But whatever. Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper are climbing in the stagecoach, and Frank Miller is deader than Marie Antoinette.
First, the country will now have the time to establish itself. A year ago it seemed as if American forces would have been withdrawn in ignominious fashion either well before the end of the Bush Administration or, at best, days after the next president came to office. This will not now happen. The self-evident success of the surge has obliged the Democrats to start talking about almost anything else and the calls to cut and run have abated. If the US Army remains in Iraq in strength, continuing on its present path, then deals on a constitution and the division of oil revenues between provinces will be realised.
Secondly, the aspiration that Iraq could be some sort of “beacon” in the region is no longer ridiculous. It will never be Sweden with beards, but there has been the development of a vibrant capitalist class and a media of a diversity that is unique in the region. Were Iraq to emerge with a federal political structure, regular local and national elections and an economic dynamism in which the many, not the few, could share, then it would be a model.
Finally, Iraq in 2007 has illustrated that the words “intelligent American policy” are not an oxymoron. The tragedy is that the approach of General David Petraeus could and should have been adopted four years ago in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s enforced departure. One prominent American politician alone has spent that time publicly demanding the extra soldiers which, in 2007, have been Iraq’s salvation. That statesman is John McCain. Is it too much to hope (let alone predict) that he will reap his reward at the polls in 2008?
Yeah, I think it is. McCain, for all the respect that is ritually flung his way, with no small amount of justification for his ordeal nearly four decades ago, has acted more like a double-talking politician on a whole mess o’ campaign issues than most of the other candidates.
But the point is well-taken. Jobs, in general, don’t get done by means of a whole lot of creative rationalizing for staying away from them and not doing them. Carrying out the trash involves filling some sacks, making omelettes involves breaking eggs…and all that.
(H/T: Kate, who’s on fire lately.)
You want more? Fellow Webloggin contributer Bookworm reports that Iraq is producing a lot of oil…
Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at 2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year.
It puts the rise down to the improving security situation in Iraq, especially in the north of the country.
Typically, the IEA goes on to put a lot of negative spin on things, but the core news is good. Even better is that revenue from this oil, rather than going into the pockets of Hussein and his minions, or into the pockets of corrupt UN officials, will, at least in theory, benefit the Iraqi people.
Ideologically-motivated Iraq critics have an uneasy coupling with history right now. History will have to look at Iraq as it exists now, and then at the end of 2002. You can make up stories Micheal Moore style about flying kites and catching butterflies and drinking from sweet milk chocolate fountains in downtown Baghdad under Hussein’s old regime until you’re blue in your fat disheveled mustard-stained Michael Moore face…but the world community desperately needed this thing to happen, and now that it’s happened it is the very picture of success. All those explosions and stories of sectarian violence between the bookends, tragic as they may be, in the final analysis end up looking like what they are: Partisan propaganda.
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Sort of a digression, but has the number of newspaper endorsements McCain got over the past week surprised you as much as it’s surprised me? OK, maybe it was only two or three, but that’s a lot, considering one was the Des Moines paper (Register?) and the other was the Boston Globe. I think a third was in New Hampshire, but I’m not sure (and am too lazy to google).
- Buck | 12/19/2007 @ 15:48