AJ Strata emails: [Patrick] Fitzgerald’s investigation appears to have learned two things: (1) somebody outside the WH and under SC protection leaked Plame’s name to the press, and (2) there is a mound of evidence there was no effort to attack the Wilsons by outing Plame. So why is this man still around distracting the nation? AJ draws on the latest filing by team Libby, which appears to single out

From Reason‘s “Brickbats” (June 2006): Uzbekistan has banned fur-lined underwear.  Sales had been climbing during the cold winter months, but the government says teh undies lead to “unbridled fantasies.” Uh, “unbridled fantasies”?  Of what, pray tell?—riding bareback on the mane of a male lion?  Getting a naked piggyback ride from Art Garfunkle?  Humping Star Jones’ hair extensions? Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in a pair of fur-lined panties (boxers? 

So.  It seems that not everyone was happy with my post yesterday about knowing the enemy, which used new revelations about the murder of Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat to highlight the barbarism of those we are fighting against (who have used the same ritualistic methods of murder in the past, videotaped those exercises in inhumanity, and released them to the press or hosted them on Islamic web sites). Let’s take

…like, for instance, the New York Times, who finds it rather gauche when thuggish jarheads and Aqua Velva-slathered Army officers—pumped up killbots, the lot of ‘em, who have the luxury of advanced training and national wealth—decide to pick on a less fortunate (but no-less hard-working), self-made Other—particularly one so clearly accomplished in slaughtering innocents as dedicated super terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.Zarqawi: The release of the captured video reflected the dueling

Me: “What really irks me— and what should piss off anybody who believes in like, egalitarianism and human rights—is that they have a Nobel Prize for literature, but they don’t have one for achievement in the culinary arts.” Terry the bar band roadie:  “They don’t?” Me: “Nada, man.  And that’s a freakin’ travesty, too.  Because let’s face it:  these chili cheese fries are, like, so totally superior to anything Nadine

Via Tigerhawk, who wants us to spread the word: Egypt has apparently arrested, Alaa, one of its most prominent Arabic bloggers, in connection with the ongoing struggle in that country over the independence of the judiciary. Haitham Sabbah has the story and the context, and the Sandmonkey has more, with a picture of Alaa. The contact information for the Egyptian embassy is below: The Embassy of the Arab Republic of

The Volokh Conspiracy’s Jim Lindgren quotes John Kerry, who, in the course of a speech yesterday at Grinnell College in Iowa, managed to cram a number of dubious assertions into an admirably compact soundbite—presumably as a way to reinforce the ignorance of the student activist class that the Democratic left so relies upon for vocal outrage: Dismissing dissent is not only wrong, but dangerous when America’s leadership is unwilling to

Jimmy Carter must certainly feel conflicted about this.  From the Times UK: A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence. Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said. Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority last year after the death of Yasser Arafat, was

In “The Killing of Atwar Bahjat”, Greyhawk points us to a graphic [warning: not for the week of stomach] Times UK account of the murder of Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat. What one is left with, after reading the piece, is twofold, I think:  first, the unquestionable brutality and arrogant ideological certainty of our enemies, whose mindset is borne in some cases of odious fundamentalist religious “convictions”, but in other cases

The other day I linked one of the critics of my academic work.  Today, he sent me the following email—perhaps the most ironically stupid thing I have ever read.  And when I say that, remember that I spent years grading student papers. I’m reprinting it in full, because it simply must be seen to be believed.  In fact, I relish the goddamn thing.  Behold! Just read through your college notes