Which, of course, is not really a “mystery” at all. In fact, if stories like this were any less surprising, then we’d have something to be surprised about. Of note: those most likely to believe these kinds of stories are those in the West who have little experience with firearms, but a whole lot of experience decrying their evils. Which is precisely at whom propaganda pieces like this are aimed

At least, so says Major Abed Alkariem Khalaf, speaking the Iraqi defense ministry, in this translated account from Buratha News: “Smuggling mobs from Alrumailah area have been arrested after they were spotted by these surveillance plans.” Khalaf added, “Alqaida elements have lost their offensive capabilities and have become defensive. This is because Alqaida in Iraq has lost over 75% of its civilian leadership due to daily attacks and ambushes carried

And Ray Robison, for one, is disgusted that a news service appears to be using their resources to cover for a Democratic presidential candidate who recently accused US forces in Afghanistan of indiscriminately bombing and killing civilians. — Mostly women and children, is my guess. Orphaned children. And their puppies. Who only have three legs. Because they lost one of their legs under the treads of a Bradley driven by

Interesting bit from LGF on efforts to edit Wikipedia anonymously — and the software developed by a Caltech grad designed to flag those anonymous edits and track them back to high profile IP sources, such as the NYT or al-Jazeera. See also, from Wired, “See Who’s Editing Wikipedia – Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign”. One of the struggles open-source reference sources will have to combat are concerted efforts to shade

Sadly, another “world’s oldest person” will just pop up to take this one’s place. They’re a lot like “the poor” that way: every time one person pulls out of that lowest 10% of earners, another person slips down to fill the void. We can only stand by and hope that a brave man — someone like John Edwards, for example — steps up to put an end to this kind

Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart, addressing a La Raza conference in South Florida last month, tells the radical separatist group, “It is important that we emphasize the Spanish language.” Because, you know, assimilation is a racist enterprise, and English is the language of the oppresser class. Diaz-Balart’s pro-business, free-market stance is laudable. But the irony of his railing against totalitarianism while addressing La Raza and promoting the kind of multiculturalist pap that,

Writing in Der Spiegel, here’s Ullrich Fichtner: Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq — it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq — not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers — are essentially pacified today. This is

A brief reply from an unreconstructed white supremacist to his (self-proclaimed) intellectual superior, over at the protein wisdom pub.

Garrett: “I don’t really follow baseball much anymore — though it seems like only yesterday I would spend three nights a week banging Cyndy Garvey in a hot tub while ex-hubby Steve was down San Diego way picking Graig Nettles throws out of the dirt. ” — Which, sorry, but it serves the bastard right for taking a gig with the Padres after all those years pretending to bleed Dodger