Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Noteworthy 21-Dec-04

1. JK Rowling announced today that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released 16July05. Nice light, entertaining stuff, even for adults.

2. Cheeky bastard. UK radical in jail for incitement to murder infidels, not just Jews, is suing the UK government for back welfare benefits he's 'due' since his incarceration. Meanwhile his family gets 1000 gbp a week (that's about 50k a year and equivalent to nearly $100,000) in welfare benefits. HT to the Captain for picking up this nugget.

3. Washington gubernatorial recount update: Rossi (R) leads by 49 votes. Dem Christine Gregoire now 'challenging' Dino Rossi to accept the third recount results whatever they are. Nice offer since she refused to accept two earlier recount results and now trails by only 49 votes with only King County (900,000 and heavily Democratic) left to be recounted.

4. Moral relativism at its worst. LGF notes that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire on Sunday compared Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal to Hitler’s gas chambers.

“When I think about nuclear weapons, I’ve been to Auschwitz concentration camp,” Maguire said during a joint press conference with Vanunu in Jerusalem.

“Nuclear weapons are only gas chambers perfected... and for a people who know what gas chambers are, how can you even think of building perfect gas chambers?”


5. As Monk says I'm a big fan of Rumsfeld. I would compare him to a CEO like JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon. Tough, uncompromising, and demanding -- exactly what you need to lead a bureaucracy like the Pentagon. He's also smart and blunt -- all of the above hated in the Beltway. "You go to war with the army you have not the army you want." Perfectly sensible. Not personally signing condolence letters? Under these circumstances I think its a bit insensitive given the number of casualties. However, enough to sack him? Ridiculous.

No comments: