In the months prior to GWII I wrote an entry that suggested that Iran not Iraq was a better candidate for regime change.
Central to that thesis was the my contention that Iraq hasn't evolved through its Islamic fundamentalist stage and as long as the Shia majority in Iraq had a powerful local supporter in the Iranian theocracy it would spell trouble for post war Iraq.
"The freedoms of Iraqi women are already being curtailed under the Coalition Provisional Authority's watch in response to Islamist pressure. In certain sections of Baghdad, the CPA is paying religious guards to protect secular, public schools, and these guards are reportedly forcing girls to wear headscarves. In some city councils, women have been forbidden from running for office, and the CPA has looked the other way.
Also disturbing are reliable reports that such terrorist organizations as Hezbollah and Hamas have been opening up shop in southern Iraq. Travelers to the south have noted a growing Iranian presence – in newspapers, on the radio and even through the direct financing of political parties. In such cities as Amarah, Basra and Nasiriyah, the Badr Corps, SCIRI's Iranian-funded militias, have established offices that openly display such slogans as "Death to America," "The Qur'an is our Constitution” and "No to America, No to Israel, No to Occupation."
I've said all along that Iran would readily adopt democracy because the people there are already sick of 20 years of mullah rule and a strong democracy in Iran would have made for a much easier time in Iraq.
Getting rid of Saddam Hussein and the Iranian mullahs is a necessary step to peace and stability in the Middle East. Too bad we did it backwards.
If you want to read my original piece, it is here.
When I have a mission, it consumes me; I will not be satisfied until the job is done. I have a strong sense of duty, and a strong sense of direction. Changes in the tide don't phase me - I always know which way the wind blows, and I know how to compensate for it. I get on poorly with people like myself. What Video Game Character Are You?
Ok everyone and his dog has been linking to Mark Steyn's comments on Dean's freakout in Iowa and I am as lazy as the next blogger so here is the money quote:
"The governor forgot he was on TV; he was playing to the young college kids in the hall, the ‘Deaniacs’ that he’d energised on the Internet and whose ‘intense’ ‘passion’ would, according to Dick Morris, drive them to the polls, transforming American politics for ever. Well, they didn’t show up. Maybe they misunderstood and thought they could email their votes in, or leave them in the Comments section on Dean’s blog. Or maybe, like me when I’m trawling for kinky cyber-sex, they just said they’re 19 and mega-hip and they’re really 57 and 400 lbs. "
See, I think like that but I don't write like that. Guess the fact that he gets paid for this and I don't is a good example of the efficiency of the market.
Dominating the political scene in Canada lately has been the entry of Magana heiress Belinda Stronach into the race to lead Canada's right of center Conservative Party ( recently created by the merger of the older Progressive Conservative party and the upstart Alliance).
Stronach, daughter of billionaire Frank Stronach is no Paris Hilton. She worked in her father's operation for many years, rising to the title of President - and Magna has done well under her tenure.
However Stronach's success as a politician is no sure bet. Even though Magna has been successful while she served as its president it is not necessarily an indication of her ability. We don't know how much of that success was hers. She could have been merely a figure head while the real business of running the company was left to those with abilities beyond sharing DNA with the company's founder.
Even if Belinda was the driving force behind Magna's performance recently it still doesnt' guarantee her success as a politician. One of the hardest things for CEO's and business leaders to get used to if they get into politics is the amount of criticism (fair and unfair) that they will encounter.
Face it most companies are not democracies but are often fiefdoms with a King (CEO) surrounded by yes men. Even healthy companies with strong leadership might tolerate a certain amount of dissent but at the end of the day what the boss says goes.
This is the exact opposite of politics and campaigning in particluar. I remember seeing Ross Perrot on TV taking questions from a hostile audience during his first presidential campaign. You could see in his face that he wasn't prepared for the type of ad-hominum attacks and spiteful mean spirited comments that are part of politics. In short he as a little too thin skinned for the business.
Stronach as far as I know has no experience to compare to the trial by fire she is now about to enter. The only thing that comes close in business is commission sales and I don't think Magna has that type of sales department.
She is not only going to have to contend with the attacks of rivals but also the media who are at this point treating her as a novelty but are circling like sharks waiting for the first sign of weakness. Then they will pounce and trust me it wont be pretty.
Prediction: Her campaign will be as successful as her rich Daddy's attempt to win a federal seat as a Liberal some years ago.
Also even though she is a woman Sheila Copps will not utter a peep of sympathy when she goes down in flames - even though Copps says that women are being unfairly pushed out of Canadian politics.
A Zionist right wing radio broadcaster and a former Palestinian terrorist ( now a Christian and supporter of Israel) are appearing tonight at a Canadian University to broadcast a radio show.
My head is spinning from the implications of a Canadian University actually having someone other than radical leftist screechers and protestors on campus but maybe the University of Toronto is a little more enlightened than York or Concordia.
I won't be able to attend but you can listen to the Tovia Singers radio shows here. I don't know if it will be broadcast live but most certainly will be archived.
Once again thanks to the crack research staff for coming up with this one.
NDP leader Jack Layton continues in his fossil hunt as news reaches us of former NDP leader Ed Broadbent's return to federal politics.
Layton must be pleased to have the man who was so good that he led the NDP to a string of third place finishes (this when there were only three parties) on board.
Broadbent wasted no time giving us the type of class warfare politics that the NDP is famous for when he said that Paul Martin is turning rich against poor in this country. He left out the last part of that sentance: "and that's the NDP's job".
The NDP has lived of the myths of rich vs poor for its entire existance. They routinely inflate the numbers of supposed poor in this country and are largely responsible for the "every child in Canada lives in poverty" factoids that so easily make the news, yet are so easily discounted.
For Broadbent to accuse the Liberals of doing what the NDP does best shows that he hasn't lost his touch. One of the easiest ways to succeed in Canadian politics is to accuse your enemy of doing what you do. Dalton McGuinty has proved this quite handily in Ontario.
Buried in the news of Laytons "coup" is word that his spouse Olivia Chow plans to run federally. This is of no surprise to anyone who lives in Toronto or to anyone who reads this blog. Anywhere Jack goes Olivia is sure to follow. Both ran unsucessfully for federal seats in 1996. If she wins look for her to take a key role in the federal NDP which will cause friction and division among party stalwarts.
I am adding two more blogs to the ever growing blog roll.
Classical Values has added me to his huge blogroll and also commented on my excellent dog post. He has bred and owned pit bulls for years and agrees with me that dogs aren't the problem, owners are.
For years Holland was seen as a glowing example of multi-ethnic tolerance, making huge efforts to make immigrants feel at home. Funding was provided for ethnic diversity projects...
Sure sounds like our great and wonderful happy country to me. So where will this lead us? Well according to the Dutch example:
Holland's 30-year experiment in trying to create a tolerant, multicultural society has failed and led to ethnic ghettos and sink schools, according to an official parliamentary report.
Between 70 and 80 per cent of Dutch-born members of immigrant families import their spouse from their "home" country, mostly Turkey or Morocco, perpetuating a fast-growing Muslim subculture in large cities.
The worst mistake was to encourage children to speak Turkish, Arabic or Berber in primary schools rather than Dutch. The report concluded that Holland's 850,000 Muslims must become Dutch if the country was to hold together.
Rotterdam has announced measures to deter more poor immigrants and is closing its gates to new asylum seekers for four years.
Canada hasn't gotten near that bad obviously but the signs are there. There is nothing wrong with diversity but our country's values of tolerance are rooted in, and possible because we are a democratic Western society. If people like Canada so much that they want to live here we should expect them to at least adopt some of the ways of our society. I'm not saying they have to drink beer and watch hockey (well actually that would be the ultimate) but they should be willing to leave their old customs and prejudices at home.
And if they can't fine but we don't have to subsidize it with our own tax dollars. I have no problem with people holding on to the ethnic identity that defines them but this silly idea that people from foreign lands have the right to have their children educated in their own language at our expense has to stop.
Now I know that this makes some Canadians feel "uncomfortable" because we are so scared of being called racists that we will do anything to the point of our own cultural suicide.
More to the point our natural governing party has made it a point to encourage the entrenchment of ethnic divisions in order to create voting blocs. The Liberals through their state sponsored mouthpiece do not hesitate to paint the Tories and Alliance as racist for even the mildest suggestion that our immigration policy be reviewed. The message to the voting blocs is clear: We brought you here, support us.
Think I am just come cranky white male? Look at Holland and remember you reap what you sow.
Well maybe not a first but I am actually throwing a link to Instapundit. Not because he needs it but because I think his little wrap up of comments from other “alpha bloggers” on the Iowa primary is worth reading.
My favorite:
Jeff Jarvis: "Did blogging hurt Dean? . . . Did it become so loud inside that room that it became hard to hear the noise outside, where the voters were?"
This is an interesting point. I was discussing blogging with a friend yesterday and opining that the problem with blogging is that we have to a degree cocooned ourselves from the outside world. We have our own little blog society. We are great observers and commentators on world events and work ourselves into rages over things that we see on a daily basis but it doesn't really go beyond that.
Many times we see great "fiskings" from bloggers on newspaper columns or stories. Blogging is the greatest and the only real media watchdog out there. Yet how many newspaper editors are aware of the fact that their content is being savaged on line?
If we are confident in our convictions why not send a the editor of the newspaper in question a link to the blog entry. You could merely say " I disagreed with that article and here's why".
Or if we hear of some outrage being perpetrated why not email bomb the perpetrators? Have any of you sent letters of condemnation to the Australian National University for this?.
I haven't. But I should, and you know what I think I will.
Maybe you should too. Let's stop navel gazing. Let's get out there. Let's get going.
Lydon will take part in "I'm a celebrity get me out of here". The show takes fallen idols and wannabe "C list" celebs and puts them in a series of uncomfortable situations until one by one they bug out.
The show originated in the UK but ABC has its own version with an equally depressing group of "stars" such as Stuttering John and Melissa Richards.
I'd like to see the show done in a more thematic fashion. If Johnny Lydon is willing to appear why not other former punk stars like Billy Idol, Mick Jones, etc.?
Or how about former stars who thought they were bigger than their show and left to pursue fame and fell flat on their face? Let's see David Duchovny, Luke Perry, you know what I mean.
I would love to start a betting pool as to which current star will fall from "A list" to "C list" and end up on a show like this first.
Britney, Christina, The Olsen Twins, Beyonce, who do you think would win the race to the bottom?
For me the early fave would be Britney ( a one hit wonder whose shelf life has been extended by ferocious marketing) although Beyonce could be the dark horse here.
Hat tip to my sister for drawing my attention to this one.
Why are Britney's album sales down? Well apparently she and other pop stars of her kind are "sexing up" their image too much in this post 9/11 world.
Many of music's reigning divas are partying like it's 1999, even though the world has become a darker, more uncertain and more anxious place since Sept. 11, 2001.
With the economy in a funk and record sales down for three years running, even established artists are sexing it up -- no doubt encouraged by edgy industry executives.
The problem is, the public just doesn't seem to be in the mood for it, and the recent mediocre album sales by Spears, Pink and similar artists may reflect a classic case of mismarketing.
"When social and economic times are more threatening and pessimistic, we actually prefer others with more mature facial, body and personality characteristics," says Terry Pettijohn, a Ph.D. social psychologist at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa.
Bullshit. Britney's sales are down because she hasn't done a single good song since her first hit "Baby One More Time". This is the same with other pop "Divas". The public will buy a song if it is catchy and memorable.
MC Hammer had a huge hit with "Can't Touch This" but the man was definitely punching above his weight and subsequent songs revealed how poor a songwriter he was.
Boy bands come and go because their fan base grows up. Boy Bands are definite creations that are assembled purely to appeal to a select teen and pre-teen female fan base. Their shelf life is predetermined and no one seems surprised wen "New Kids on the Block" or other similar bands disappear from view.
For some reason or other people think the formula doesn't apply to the female equivalent. Britney and her ilk appeal to a certain target audience. When that audience grows older and starts going to college they start listening to other more "mature" music.
Having "pop divas" "sex" it up smacks of desperation and isn't likely to work because your market has already left you and you have no credibility with the next group of teens coming up or those that are older and never listened to your stuff in the first place.
Britney and Christina should follow the Whalbergs example and get out of pop and try acting, or real work.
Virtually anyone with an e-mail address is bombarded daily with messages touting penis pills, herbal supplements and the latest rage, penis patches, all with the same inflated promise that they will enlarge a man's sexual organ
Yes we all have seen these emails. But I get just as many telling me that I can increase my bust size.
Can I get some kind of bulk discount if I get both??
Sometime this evening the hit counter rolled over 10,000. That's unique visits since I installed Sitemeter on the last week of August 2003. That it only took 5 months to hit that is impressive to me since I don't do a lot to advertise my blog. I don't do a lot of links like some bloggers. I don't have a big blogroll, in fact I tend not to frequent a lot of blogs since there are so many out there and because it takes away from my own originality (whatever that might be).
However most of my traffic does come from other bloggers so I should probably do more linking.
I don't know what the stats are for top referrers since September but I do have the stats for 2004. For the record this month/year (2004) the top ten referrers to my blog were as follows:
Relapsed Catholic: 145 hits (Kathy is the closest thing to an Instalanche that I get)
Daimnation: 114 hits ( I get regular visits daily from Damian's readers - glad I am on his blogroll)
Neale News: 82 Hits (Great source of news and for me a good source of traffic!)
Google Searches for Eropuri: 82 hits (Boy I wish I could point them to real sources of Eropuri; a lot of people are looking for this stuff - I did one post last year and I still get tons of hits daily of people hoping to find pictures of Japanese girls taking their clothes off in picture booths)
Ghost of a Flea: 44 Hits (He links to me - I get traffic. Hurrah!!)
Brian Noggle: 32 hits. A regular visitor and sometimes commentor. His wife doesn't stop by so much any more.
Marc Weissblott 23 hits (Glad I went to that Toronto Bloggers Bash because I get regular visits from his blog ever since)
Rocket Jones: 22 Hits ( Another regular reader and commentor. Plus he has a nifty blog of his own that you should check out).
Watcher of Weasels: 21 hits ( I was nominated for one of my posts last week - the one about my "Brush with Evil" ; personally I thought my "Dog Eat Dogma" Posts were much better. )
Popdex: 20 Hits ( I did the "Which X-Men are you quiz - now I get a few hits per day from someone checking its popdex rank)
Of course there are plenty of hits from regular readers that don't come from any of these sources. All of you motivate me to get off my ass and post everyday.
Now I have to figure out how to get more hits. I am conflicted on this. Part of me wishes the blog was more popular. Part of me likes the fact that a small number of people stop by every day to read and get enjoyment from it. Maybe I could be the cool blog that people who don't read the popular blogs read.
