Alleged anchor allegedly says…
: FoxNews’ midday anchor, David Asman (I believe that’s the right Dave) was talking about the withdrawl of Israeli troops from Palestinian areas when he said that troops had just withdrawn from:
Bethlehem, where Jesus is alleged to have been born.
Now this will endear him to the Heartland.
I’m reminded of a character in Calvin Trillin’s Floater, about a writer at a Time-like magazine, who hated writing religion stories and got taken off the beat by always referring to “the alleged resurrection of Jesus.”
Yo momma wears burqas
: Another fabulous (I’m feeling positively presidential) story in the Washington Post on 9.11 teen argot:
: Their bedrooms are “ground zero.” Translation? A total mess.
: A mean teacher? He’s “such a terrorist.”
: A student is disciplined? “It was total jihad.”
: Petty concerns? “That’s so Sept. 10.”
: And out-of-style clothes? “Is that a burqa?”
: “It’s like ‘Osama Yo Mama’ as an insult.”
: “If you’re weird, people might call you ‘Taliban’ or ask if you have anthrax.”
: “My friends call me ‘terrorist’ or ‘fundamentalist,’ sometimes as a nickname,” said Nabeel Babaa, 17, who came to this country from Kuwait when he was 3 years old and is now a senior at Sherwood High School in Olney. “It’s not hurtful in the way we say it, ’cause we are kidding around with each other.”
: Teenagers breeze through such expressions as “He’s as hard to find as bin Laden,” or “emo” to describe people who are very emotional about Sept. 11.
: Girls might say a boy is “firefighter cute”
: ‘That’s some weapons-grade salsa.’
What a bad time to cancel The X-Files
: The BBC [via Shift] says sending anthrax through the mail may have started as a government program; your tax dollars at work:
Three weeks ago Dr Barbara Rosenberg – an acknowledged authority on US bio-defence – claimed the FBI is dragging its feet because an arrest would be embarrassing to the US authorities. Tonight on Newsnight, she goes further…suggesting there could have been a secret CIA field project to test the practicalities of sending anthrax through the mail – whose top scientist went badly off the rails…
Homeland insecurity
: A fabulous (as our president would say) cartoon this morning from Tom Tomorrow mocking the volunteer homeland security force being organized by our guvment. From FoxNews:
The USA Citizen Corps, established in January as a branch of the Freedom Corps, has already generated “an amazing response” among ordinary Americans, according to spokeswoman Cindy Ramsay. More than 22,000 people have registered to volunteer for Citizen Corps programs, and the www.citizencorps.gov Web site has registered more than a million hits.
I love the sound of F-16s in the morning
: New York officials are screeching about the Feds’ decision to stop F-16 patrols over everywhere… except Washington. Reports the Times:
New York’s senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, expressed dismay over the decision and urged the Bush administration not to go through with it.
“I am amazed that they would do that,” said Mr. Schumer, who sent a letter of protest today to Tom Ridge, the director of domestic security. “Everyone worried that we would let our guard down after Sept. 11. This, unfortunately, is a glaring example of letting our guard down.”
Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes ground zero, said that he, too, was troubled by the administration’s plan.
“If the level of emergency is such that they need combat air patrols over Washington, they should also have them over New York,” he said. “There is no intelligent rationale for this.”…
In his letter to Mr. Ridge, Mr. Schumer questioned whether security at airports was tight enough at this point to justify ending the patrols over New York.
“I understand that these patrols are expensive, but the price we paid on Sept. 11 was high as well, and the price we could pay if round-the-clock patrols cease could be far greater,” he said. “Based on the reasons given for ending the air patrols, it seems highly unlikely that this decision was made with the safety and security of New York’s citizens in mind.”
Y’know, Ridge is an idiot. He can’t do security well. He can’t do politics well. He can’t even do PR well.
