musing minds

Ed Driscoll‘s father died early this morning. He would have celebrated his 85^th birthday next Monday.

Ed, our prayers are with you and your family.

I was the first voter in my precinct this morning, my husband was the second. The third person in line was asked if she was a Republican or a Democrat. She said neither. They told her that she would only be able to vote on the referendum issue. Then she admitted that she was a Democrat…

I wonder if she was aware of the difference between a [tag]primary[/tag] and a general [tag]election[/tag]…

Liath hasn’t graced these pages before because it can be hard to get near her with a camera.

Liath means grey in Gaelic.

Liath has to share the house with several humans, two other cats and two dogs. She would be happiest if the other two cats and the two dogs would just disappear one day. Then she’d have the humans all to herself.

[tags]cats, catblogging, pets[/tags]

When the Iraq war began there were varying predictions about the outcome. In terms of U.S. casualties, most predicted that there would be thousands of American deaths, perhaps tens of thousands, not hundreds like the previous war. It was a pretty fair assessment considering the task at hand: not just driving an army across open desert, but actually fighting into and then occupying Iraqi cities. Saddam warned that Bagdad would be a “bloodbath” for the U.S. and nobody was laughing off his suggestion at the time.

On the humanitarian front, a crisis of epic proportions was certainly contemplated by many reasonable observers: the war would lead to complete economic and social collapse, which in turn would lead to a mass of refugees, famine, the spread of disease and all of the related social consequences that war often entails.

On the environment, many forecasted an expansion of the scorched earth policy employed by Saddam in the first Gulf War. We imagined a sea of burning oil wells and projected an incalculable level of damage to the ecosystem in the region. Again, this was not an unreasonable prediction, but rather a pretty safe bet given our recent experience.

And of course, there was the near certain civil war and the break-up of the country. Iraq was a country of three distinct cultures, held together by the firm grip of a dictator. Once Saddam was deposed, the Kurds would break away, resulting in a broader regional conflict with Turkey, and to a lesser extent, Iran, given the decades-long struggle both of those countries have had with their own Kurdish populations. To the south, the Shiites and the Sunnis would battle for control of the rest of the country. It was to be a religious war with significant economic overtones – the control of Iraq’s vast oil wealth.

Finally, we had the “Arab Street”: the Pan-Arab uprising that was to destabilize the entire region. We were told that the populations of neighboring countries simply wouldn’t tolerate an American invading force.

In the end, none of the above occurred. There was no bloodbath in the streets of Baghdad. No humanitarian crises. No scorched earth. Remarkably, there has been no civil war. Despite many attempts by insurgents to incite one, the most recent being the mosque bombings, the various factions have shown remarkable restraint. In the North, Kurdistan is becoming a model for Mideast social and economic development. In the South, the Shiites and the Sunnis have chosen the political process as a means of advocating the interests of their respective populations. There have been difficulties with that process to be sure, but nothing close to civil war. As for the Arab street? Oh there was an Arab street alright, but it was filled with people clamoring for democratic change, in places like Lebanon, and to a lesser extent Egypt.

It’s difficult to imagine that, before the war, one would describe the current situation as a “worst-case” scenario. To the contrary, if one were to suggest, before the war, that not one of the above mentioned scenarios would occur, and that elections would be held within two years (with a voter turnout that rivals election in the West), that every city, every enemy stronghold, such as Fallujah, would be free from enemy military control and that only a relatively small number of fighters (in the hundreds or thousands, but not tens of thousands) engaging in small level attacks would remain as the only military concern, he or she would have been considered a believer in fantasies.

Yet, just the other day, I heard an “expert” describe the situation in Iraq as going from “bad to worse with each passing day.” It is almost universally characterized by the mainstream press as an unmitigated disaster. While the reality is that with each passing day, another prediction that civil war is just around the corner becomes unfulfilled, you will never hear the words “the war is going better than expected” written or uttered in any major news outlet. Instead, the goal posts have been shifted, the successes ignored, entire regions of Iraq forgotten. Grasping on to their pre-determined narrative, the media reports every bombing, every killing, every kidnapping in isolation and absent the broader context.

We don’t hear daily stories about the Iraqi electrical infrastructure anymore. The nightly blackouts became a symbol of a society in complete anomie. Today Iraq still has power grids, except they are being rebuilt and operating well above pre-war standards. When the subject of a story turns positive, it immediately loses its status as a story worthy of coverage. Remember Al Sadr? He was in the spotlight for weeks on end when he was leading a Shiite army against the U.S. Apparently the story of his capitulation and submission to the political process isn’t worth being told. When is the last time you heard the name Sadr city? While it was a ticking time bomb it was if it was at the center of the media universe. And who could forget the city of Fallujah, which occupied headlines for weeks while it was being controlled by foreign terrorists. Well, apparently the media did. After the U.S. forces routed the insurgents it disappeared from our consciousness. A new relatively peaceful city remains – a city with hundreds of stories of success. Stories that will never be told. Before the last bullet was fired the media had already moved onto its next example of Iraqi failure.

The reams of Iraq documents have finally been released, revealing some very interesting stuff, including documents supporting the link between Bin Laden and Saddam. And what does the media do? They basically tell us that they shouldn’t be believed.

Rather than simply reporting the facts and circumstances surrounding the source of the documents, and letting the reader decide how credible they are, ABC takes the remarkable step of adding a lengthy editorial note at the end of the story, discounting the veracity of the document.

Just to make sure the reader draws the “correct” conclusion about the legitimacy of the documents I guess.

Then again, at least ABC was kind enough to openly segregate the reporting with the editorializing this time.

yipee!

As a fan of the original series I am looking forward to this new BBC series of [tag]Dr. Who[/tag].

It starts tonight with two episodes on the [tag]SciFi Channel[/tag] at 9 EST.

It’s been on in England for a year, and seasons two and three have been ordered.

BBC Bad Wolf Site
BBC Site
IMDb

Duncan is one year old today.

12 weeks	One Year

Poor Duncan, he had lovely long whiskers until the 5-year-old got near him with scissors…

[tags]cats, pets, catblogging[/tags]

Liam was walking in the woods one day when he happened upon a napping Leprechaun, snuck up on him, and caught him.

Liam said, “Ah, I’ve got ye! Now ye’ve got to give me tree wishes!”

The Leprechaun said, “Aye, Liam. That ye have. But I must tell ye that whatever ye wish for, I will give Tom Flannery, who I know is yer worst enemy, double what you get.”

Liam thought about this a for a few minutes and said, “Okay Leprechaun, I’ve my tree wishes ready.
“For me first wish, I wish for a lovely ten room house.”

{poof!} there was a lovely ten room house. And {poof!} right next door, a lovely twenty room house with Tom on the front porch.

Tom said, “Ah Liam, me pal. I didn’t know you loved me so well!”

The leprechaun asked Liam what his second wish would be.

Liam said, “For me second wish, I wish for one of the most beautiful women in the world.”

{poof!} One of the most beautiful women in the world shows up next to Liam. {poof!poof!} Two of the most beautiful women in the world show up next to Tom.

Tom said, “Liam, whatever did I do to earn such wonderful gifts from you?”

The leprechaun said, “Well?”

Liam said, “For me third and final wish, I wish me desire for women cut by half.”

**Updates below**

Blogger’s been having some problems and somebody named Sam has stolen Betsy’s URL. There is a page there called Betsy Page with one post that doesn’t say anything and two comments, one spam and one from Betsy herself.

There were two posts earlier, but one is now gone.

Blogger people – Bring back Betsy’s real page!

Update:
Michelle’s posted on it too.

Update:
Thanks for linking Lorie!

Update:
A very kind person named Duane has saved a google cache of Betsy’s page at http://helpingbetsy.blogspot.com/. At least she’ll have her old posts available…

Update:
More comments over at “Betsy Page” – Betsy you have a lot of people who are on your side!

Update:
Glenn’s posted an email from Betsy…

Update: VERY humorous blog post from Political Humor. Great laugh!

[tags]Betsy’s Page, blogging, Blogger[/tags]