Month: July 2006

Inspired, perhaps, by the recent prominence of North Korea in the news, over in the Land of the Neocons David Horowitz is doing his Kim il-Sung imitation. His “Center for the Study of Popular Culture” has been renamed: it is now the “David Horowitz Freedom Center.” The Glorious Leader imparts his name to everything. Of course, since the prime beneficiary of the CSPC/”David Horowitz Freedom Center” is David Horowitz, this makes sense. In any case, the heroic Stephen Kinsella of LewRockwell.com was kind enough to search out my take-down of Horowitz’s whiny memoir, Radical Son, which was originally published in the June 1997 issue of Chronicles magazine. I have to say, it’s quite funny: no wonder Horowitz and his minions have spent so much time and energy trying to smear me. So have a laugh, and go read [.pdf file].

Over at FrontPageMag, Andrew Walden reveals why Hawaii got nuked – or more precisely, wasn’t threatened at all – earlier this week:

A Tokyo-based newspaper reports in its Friday AM edition that North Korea’s failed Taepodong-2 missile was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii. (Here’s the story in Japanese.) The target should have been no surprise: the islands’ far-Left leadership has rendered Hawaii uniquely vulnerable to attack. …

In Hawaii, the two fronts of the War on America meet. In 2004, Hawaiian Democrats pledged one-third of their delegates to support Dennis Kucinich for president. Hawaii was the only state to give Kucinich significant support. Kucinich and many other leftist Democrats have opposed the development of missile defense technologies capable of knocking down incoming missiles. The University of Hawaii-Manoa was recently the scene of anti-American protests against military research on campus. [Emphasis mine.]

There you have it: if not for the Kucinich death-grip on Hawaiian politics (and don’t forget gay-marriage!), the land of leis would already have the same working missile defense system as Nebraska.

Via.

Iraqi journalist Alaa Hassan, who reported for the international news agency IPS (Inter Press Service) and whose work often appeared on Antiwar.com, was shot and killed in Baghdad.

Hassan was killed on June 28 by armed men as he drove to work. It appears he was not targeted, but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, part of the senseless violence engulfing Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Hassan was one of IPS’s contributors based in Iraq. With colleague Aaron Glantz, he covered the increasing violence and sectarian divisions swallowing up Basra in the south of Iraq; the untold stories of Haditha, raided by the U.S. Army last year; and the local reactions over the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Originally from Babylon, in central Iraq, Hassan was living in Baghdad, where he leaves behind a new wife who is pregnant with their first child.

Alaa Hassan’s death brings the total of reporters and media staff killed in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led war to 131, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

“The death of another Iraqi journalist fills us with sorrow and anger,” said IFJ general secretary Aidan White in a statement Wednesday.

The IFJ called on the Iraqi government to “act quickly to bring the killers to justice.”

(Inter Press Service)

David Beito reports on the latest in cutting-edge libertarian thought at the Volokh Conspiracy. While checking VC, I found a link to this priceless collection of original war poetry. (See especially this and this.)

Headline in the Washington Post: “Judge Blocks War Game, Cites Danger to Wildlife.” No word yet on actual war’s effects on not-so-wild life.

Future historians will find imperial America a strange and fascinating subject. Current Iraqis must find us a little deranged.

If you’ve ever wondered how intensely imbecilic Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, David Horowitz, and their Epsilon blogchildren can be, Glenn Greenwald has a nice summary here.

Via.