Let’s roll the videotape
: Zacarias “The Incompetent Terrorist” Moussaoui wants his trial to be televised. I say, wheel in the cameras and turn on the lights and let’s roll! Oh, I know we’ll hear that this why he should be tried by a military tribunal, because in a civilian trial, he’ll only get a platform to speak. But we don’t fear that. He will spout his fundamenalist bile and stupidity and the world will see, all the better, all the clearer what hateful, evil people these are. That is assuming, of course, that he’s guilty….
Separated at plastic surgery
: A great visual gag on Photodude. I won’t ruin it. Just go there.
What he says
: Last night, I whined about the effete PBS post-9/11 poetry special (below). Will Vehrs explains why it bothered me better than I did — more poetically, even: “Sometimes poets are best at creating images for us, or putting events in a context we can understand. Other times, they are irrelevant. It seems to me that 9/11 was a tragedy that plain, ordinary people who experienced it are best at capturing its images and feelings.”
Howard speaks the truth
: Howard Stern on the American Airlines pilot who kept an armed, Arab-American, suspicious Secret Service doofus off his plane: “I say thank God… He did the right thing. I applaud him.”
: Charles Johnson speaks the truth, too: “And the Secret Service agent! Hereís a guy who has a sacred duty to protect the life of the President, a guy who should put national security ahead of everything else (especially now!), a guy whoís in a SERVICE thatís supposed to be SECRET, for Godís sakeóand he calls in the lawyers and CAIR for something like this? Itís outrageous. Shame on George W. Bush for going for the cheap political hit, instead of disciplining this agent as he deserves.”
Send this man a Former Pacifist T-shirt
: Salon’s David Talbot confesses — as I did a couple of months ago — that he’s a former pacifist. It’s such an important statement, he put it in the free part of Salon. There’s a lot of history here — and a Part II promised — but the gist is: When you’re right, you’re right and when you’re right you fight. [via Slotman]
David: I have a very nice Former Pacifist store offering T-shirts, mugs, and tote bags. Wear them proudly. But in San Fran, you might want to wear them over body armor.
WWW means Web, what Web?
: ABC News tells us that our nonspecific high alert has been extended to March 11. I go to various government sites trying to learn more about this. I find nothing. Tom Ridge’s White House Homeland Security site has not had anything new in a month! A month! Wake up, Tom! DItto the White House home page. The last thing on Ashcroft’s DOJ site is a Dec. 15 release regarding a meeting with the Italian foreign minister; yup, that’s helpful. Nothing on the FBI site. FEMA has a March 11 deadline for relief applications, nothing else. The most up-to-date effort is the State Department’s terror response page but, oddly, it’s mostly about Justice Department activities.
I’m amazed at this: The government could be using the Web to inform us all, easily, inexpensively, promptly. But they’re not. I see a lot of government traffic coming to my humble site: Spread the word, folks: Use the Web. It works.
Nelson Has-Been Mandela
: Muslimpundit piles on Nelson Mandela, the quisling of this war.
Oh, shut up
: The Chicago Sun-Times is taking a cue from Blogdom, delighting in ridiculing the anti-anti-war crowd under editorials headlined, “Oh, shut up.” The Reader reports that the S-T “advised that ‘we in the West’ shouldn’t squander ‘too much mental energy trying to persuade people who cannot be persuaded’ who the enemy is. Who are these unpersuadeables? The Sun-Times snickered in disgust at ‘those who hate America, whether in Bahrain or Berkeley,’ and ridiculed the unquenchable ‘demand for proof’ of Osama bin Laden’s culpability, whether it arose ‘from the Arab world, from NPR liberals in America or from cafe communists in Europe.’ ”
