United Nations declares utopian ideal in Sudan

"It is safe to say that those living in the Darfur region of Sudan are living in a golden age of joy and peace as soft and inviting as whipped cream floating on cocoa," the UN's Chief, Kofi Anan announced today as the UN released its long-awaited official report on Sudan.

"We appreciate that the United Nations has taken official notice of what the Sharia council had declared years ago," Sudanese foreign minister Moonba Agogo enthusiastically agreed. "We have known for years that all is lollipops and puppy dogs for the Christians of the South, and now, thanks to the United Nations the world knows it as well."

Up to 2 million enslaved, murdered, and displaced southern tribespeople did not immediately return calls from this paper to their offices.

For the rest of the story, click here.

The Day After Headline Roundup

The day after the historic elections, let's run the bases once and look at the headlines.

MSNBC: "Shadow war: The elections won't stop the bombers", and "Iraq Election: The Cities Were Not Bathed in Blood" (is that a bad thing?) In fairness, this is MSNBC previewing Newseek, a print publication. The rest of the MSNBC headlines are a little more optomistic (that is, reflcting the reality that a good thing had happened). That distinction in itself is important; the print medium had the story ready to go before the story happened, and of course it was a story of American pain and impending American defeat and Iraqi failure. The electronic side, MSNBC, at least is learning to adjust so as not to look completely ridiculous in a "Dewey Wins!" sort of way after actual events help to shed some light on how to report them.

Associated Press: "Leaders Praise Iraq Voting; Urge Caution"

The New York Times deserves its due when deserved. The headline is "Defying Threats, Millions of Iraqis Flock to Polls." Hey, not bad. But it's our old friend, Dexter Filkins, so we'd better read further. "Defying death threats, mortars and suicide bombers, Iraqis turned out in great numbers on Sunday to vote in this country's first free elections in 50 years, offering a powerful, if uneven, endorsement of democratic rule 22 months after Saddam Hussein was overthrown." Dex, what does "uneven" mean in that context? Is it like, "well, the fact that we're voting might seem to endorse, well, having a vote, you know, democracy, but it is uneven. Uneven, I tell ya. It's tilted, you see, so you can't say that my voting has much to do with a desire to vote..." Go, Dexter Filkins, go. It's good to see you again.

ABCNews goes with "Iraqis Await Elections Results". Wow, that really grabbed me. Then it goes into headlines about Michael Jackson trial.

CBSNews follows the ABC trend of "no, really, you don't say" headlining, with "Iraq Ballot Count Begins". Thanks for that.

CNN breaks out of the mold with the punchy and upbeat "Allawi: Terrorists were Defeated." I'm pleasantly surprised. I might actually read that article.

For the reflections of the average university professor or Democrat Senator, see The World Socialist: "Iraq Elections Set Stage for Deeper Crisis of US Occupation Regime".

This is just funny

Thanks to the Corner:

A close watcher catches a CNN blooper: At 8 am, Jane Arraf reports a "nightmare" situation at school polling station in Baquba, Sunni area. No Iraqi election commission workers had shown up. But, at 9:15, viewers learn Arraf had just shown up at the wrong school, which was not a polling site. The real polling site was actually open. At 9:30, Arraf reports that she is "now at 'another' polling site. No mea culpa/recognition of previous mistake. Her new polling station is crowded and jubilant.

How I can tell that the Iraqi elections were a historic success

Wow. Turnout high, vigorous and peaceful, and relatively little insurgency violence. Success! I'm really astonished at how, well, quietly, this has happened.

Do you want to know how I really, truly, know that a great and victorious thing for America (and Iraq, of course) has happened today?

I can be certain of it because Senator Kerry today, angry-faced, made the statement that "these elections are not the REAL test of success in Iraq"

His response is how I know something amazing and historic has happened.

He goes on to say that there is absolutely NO way that Iraq can make it without a "political reconciliation of the international community" or something like that...Gee, thanks coach..

A very, very happy day for the Washington Post

I admit that the Vice-President looked out of uniform and a bit silly at the Auschwitz memorial event. One can safely assume that this was the result of a screwup by someone on the protocol staff and certainly wasn't planned that way. But I'll give the news people their due and agree that he looked out of place in an air force parka. Good for you, Washington Post. Congatulations. It is so, so, so marvelous to see you just enjoy writing and reporting the news as much as is obvious in this peace. A member of the administration was photographed looking silly. Oh, the joy, the rapture. Thank you for bringing this to us. Thank you for devoting so many words to describing how silly he looked, how silly the words on his air force parka are, how silly his thoughts must have been, and on and on. Good for you, Washington Post. Really. You deserve it.

It is a little odd, though, that a story about the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Russian Army mentions nothing about the fact that scores of Russian parliament members have this past week signed a letter calling, essentially, for the outlawing of Jews, or at least Jewish organizations and interests. But hey, Washington Post, why would the world's Jews or anyone of good conscience want to learn about that when they can pay you to ridicule the Vice President of the United States for his choice of outergarments in a snow storm. Kristalnacht Part 2 is being planned and scheduled, it seems, but its future victims can read abou that here, so what do they need you to do serious news for anyway?

Keep up the good work.

You know, just between you and me, I would have just let the whole thing slide. After all, his staff did screw up the wardrobe, I guess some ribbing is deserved, but then you go and write this

he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood. It is embroidered with his name. It reminded one of the way in which children's clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp

OK, mi amigos, this is where you lose the good-natured among us. First of all, it is an Air Force Parka. They tend to have names on them. When you see a fighter jet with the pilot's name stenciled on the side, does it remind you of the way in which children's toys are marked with their names before they are sent to day care? Oh, and the Vice President WAS being sent away to camp. It was a ceremony at a camp. A death camp. Poor choice of words.

But you did make your point. Good for you! Add 1,000 points to your official bankroll of leftwing bona fides.

PiratePundit goes legit (temporarily)

The tragic and maddening story of Terri Schiavo needs to be told in every forum possible. Yours truly has had the opportunity to do that at CourtZero and now has a new article at FreeMarketNews. If you take the time to read it; thank you.

Iraqi Elections

History is about to be made. Significant history. Big turning points in global directions kind of history. You won't here much about it on the nightly news or in your newspapers, but hopefully you can learn some about it here.

It's a big deal to the Iraqis, who are overcoming fear and registering to vote and volunteering to monitor elections. It is also a big deal to bin Laden and al Zarqawi, who have literally and in no uncertain terms declared war on freedom and democracy. It turns out that they hate us for our freedom after all.

I hope this thread becomes a celebration of the success of America's bold and costly risk in the hopes of securing our own security and bettering the oppressed. I'll be passing on some links to commentary by people on the ground, and will start with this one:

www.friendsofdemocracy.info/

American Idol

My habit with the American Idol shows is that I watch the audition shows then ignore the rest, except perhaps for the final show. I just watched an overweight, perhaps less than glamorous contestant get the nod to go on "to Hollywood", that is, to go on to the next rounds.

I don't know why, but something about that was just marvelous. She has a great voice, but not the typical star body. I'm happy for her, and it is further evidence to me that there is a merciful God.

Zarqawi aide, responsible for 75% of bombings, is captured

Quote:

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Iraq announced the capture of a senior aide to leading militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Monday, hours after Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing near the offices of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

---

Quote:

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"Kurdi has confessed to some 75 percent of the car bombs that were used for attacks in Baghdad since March 2003 and to making the explosives used in the attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Aug. 2003," government spokesman Thair al-Naqib said.

---

www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=12065

Is this orthodox?

MENA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Haj pilgrims pelted stones at symbols of the devil on Friday, with many saying they were targeting President Bush and other world leaders seen as oppressing Muslims.

Does the Koran say that "the devil" doesn't exist, or wouldn't exist, until being born in Texas, USA, in the middle of the 20th century? Is that muslim orthodoxy? I just want to know. I mean, does this stoning of the devil thing during haj have some religous purpose or not? If you can substitute "George Bush" for the supernatural entity formerly known as satan at will, then aren't the rituals and observances of your faith just kind of random and silly? I just want to know.

Throw down, Boxer

As you know, Senator Barbara Boxer really made a spectacle of lighting into Condaleeza Rice at Dr. Rice's confirmation hearing for Sec. State. The posters at DU and al-jazeerah (which are indistinguishable) loved it.

From al-jazeerah: We applaud Senator Boxer for her courage, her honesty and her care for the safety of the American people. We also applaud her for trying to restore some integrity to our Congress and to our senate. We say, bravo and thank you to Senator Boxer.

Note to self: if you ever see that statement about yourself written on the al-jazeerah website, you just might not be a patriotic American after all.

So, What service did United States Senator Boxer provide to jazeerah's readers?

First this:

SEN. BOXER: Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that, you know, particular vote.

Freaking liar. Read it for yourself. Senator Boxer mischaracterizes her own Senate's document and counts on you not reading it again or remembering it. She points her finger, literally, at Dr. Rice and accusses her and the President of using WMD "scare tactics" to sell the Iraq battle in the GWOT and never gave any other reason for the invasion for the American people to contemplate.

Liar. Wow, it's maddening. Now, she is counting on the fact that you will not look up and read every single speech made by the President on the subject, but PiratePundit did look them up and read them. The myth that the Iraq War was justified solely on the WMD arguement is a collosal lie, and is so very maddening because we all just watched this whole thing play out only two years ago, and the source material is only a couple of mouse clicks away.

Senator Boxer, you are lying and you know it, scoring points with the Democratic Underground and with al-jazeerah. Throw down. Debate someone who has nothing to lose.

Need the info....Throw me a bone....

I'm happy to be among many who post about the old media, but really, I wonder what the point is sometimes.

In my own daily routine, I get the vast majority of my news from internet sources, googlenews chief among them so that I have a cross-section of reporting around the world, and don't run the risk of visiting only sites that have the same general point of view as myself.

But I do not check in with the MSM, the old media, the legacy media, or whatever you want to call them. I have not since 1997, and I am so much better informed now than I was before. Allow me to amend that statement. Now I am informed, at some level. Before, when I was fed by CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, the NYTimes and USAToday, I was simply not informed. Of anything. At all.

Since I was travelling the last several days, I didn't have my usual setup and routine. The hotel did not get FNC and I didn't have high-speed internet there. So, when I woke up I turned on the TV. What might I learn? How are things in Afghanistan? I haven't heard lately. What are the actual numbers of what I'd get if they reform social security? I haven't heard anyone report the numbers? What's up with the Saturn Cassini probe? Isn't something cool supposed to be happening? Nobody reports on that stuff. And so on. Fill in the blanks with something that might be remotely interesting to your mind and life. Did I get any of that when I flipped on the TV?

NBC morning news show: Katy Couric is talking about teen sex. She cites the notion that teen girls respond to a survey that they find happiness if they think they make their boyfriends happy. This makes Couric unhappy. Guest on the show goes into some detail, actually using the word "servicing" talking about the attitudes and activities of teens. It was not very news-like, and quite frankly, creepy.

It neither informed nor enlightened me.

CBS morning news show: Anchor (his name's Gibson, right?) is talking in scripted, glowing and superlative terms about something happening on a television show. I mean, he's into it, he's selling it. Oh yeah, he is selling it. It's a CBSNews story about a CBS television show called The Great Race or something like that. Wow. Changed my life.

It neither informed nor enlightened me.

ABC morning news show: A very serious and seemingly well-researched segment in which they report that men and women are different. Didn't Time magazine scoop this shocker a decade ago? They had focus groups on, and scientists, and it seems that some people believe that men are better at spatial orientation linear thought and women are better at vocabulary and expression. Wow. Changed my life. (Next week: We get to the bottom of rumors that ice is made of water).

It neither informed nor enlightened me.

CNN morning news show: Talking about tv show, Desparate Housewives. I turned it off after less than 4 seconds, which is a long time for me to watch CNN.

It neither...CNN isn't even worth finishing the thought.

USAToday frontpage: an editorial pretending to be a news story, telling us what every story on every page tells us every page, that Bush and America suck and we the people alternate between being immoral and miserable. The details of the page A1 story is that a particular poll claims that when Bush was first inaugurated, 51% of America felt pretty good about their world, and that the number is not 46%. What I took from that, if the poll is to be taken at face value at all, is that after the only visibile and vocal leaders of a religion with over 1 billion devout adherents spread around the globe has vowed to kill all Americans (the women can be killed after a suitable period of sexual enslavement), and then started taking down global landmarks and lopping off heads to show that they mean it, and then we get four solid years of front page stories identical to this one, and......

The general feel-goodnedness factor is only down 5%. Wow!!! Bush must be one hell of a leader, healer, and uniter, because under those circumstances public confidence would be pretty close to zero if we were facing all that without a good leader.

So there you go. I had a rare face-to-face encounter with the MSM from the point of view of the average Joe news consumer. Scary.

I know blogs like this can't and won't change the behavior of the MSM, but I can at least tell them how truly disdained they have become, and point out how very little they do to "make a difference" when what they broadcast to us is either the intellectual equivalent of a looped dial-up modem tone, or just clumsy disinformation.

It's like Ramadan all year

Horrible, horrible news: On the plane up to New Jersey today I saw a news report about the Christian family who had been bound, gagged, and then had their throats cut.

Koranic moment: "A translation of passage 47:4 of the Quran reads in part: "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers [in fight], smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly [on them]."

It seems that a man angered at the murdered man's professions of Chritianity on an internet message board promised to, well, murder the murdered man.

I do note that the investigation is just getting underway and that none of us can no who did this thing or why, at this point.

But I can also note that neither Reverends Sharpton nor Jackson have made bold pronouncements of plans to march in the streets of Jersey City in solidarity with the frightened and threatened Christians there.

For those who think the title of this post is flippant, it is not. It is calculated, and if the person who appears to be the guilty party ends up being the guilty party, it is a fair title for the story, and does not take away from my sympathy and even my admiration for the victims of these horrible murders.

While I'm away

How about some multimedia?

Do you want to read the mysterious Quotable Karenga? Click here. Options come in two flavors, .pdf or html, but no vanilla.

Do you want to hear Michael Moore at his best? Click here.

Do you want to take the lawsuit defendant's view of the ACLU? Click here.

And finally, do you want to get up and dance over judicial activism? Click here for a brief word from www.CourtZero.org.

I am going to a funeral

Thanks to the new webstats thing I've placed on the blog, I know that a few people are checking in here, so I feel obligated to say that I will be out for a few days.

One of my grandmothers has died, and I'm going to a funeral a thousand miles and change away. That is not unusual; everyone has losses. As a matter of fact, I was never very close to my paternal grandmother, at least not since 1979 when we moved south and I stopped having regular contact. I am, however, close to her son, my father, and want to be with him at this time.

I'm lucky that I have a job such that I can ask the judges to cancel next week's trials and hearings, and they will do it for me.

I have one grandparent left. I never really had grandfathers at all, since one died early of alcoholism-related ailments, and the other shot himself on a commuter train one morning, both when I was very young. I have only a couple snapshot visual memories of those two men, and nothing very compelling. In reality, I don't think either were very good men, so I am all the more pleased that my own son has two interesting and lovign grandfathers in his life, though I still wonder what that is like. The grandmother I just lost I have not seen in years, but still there is loss to me because she was really my last link to an era of black and white photographs of the Irish immigrant side of my family. The generation before her got off the boats, and the generation after her fully assimiltated as Americans. It's her story I wish I'd gotten to know better.

This is why I hate that animal planet show

There's this show on animal planet that I never willingly and knowingly watch about humane society cops. They either don't or don't have badges and arrest powers. It's hard to tell. If you've ever seen it, you do get the impression they'd execute people on the spot if the cameras weren't rolling.

Anyway, via Boortz's radio show, I learned about the story of a woman cuffed, searched, printed, and booked in front of her crying children for the horrible (alleged) crime of not keeping an agreement with a member of the humane society. And there are other warrants out there as well.

According to Jerry Pedley, a board member with the humane society, the adoptive “parents” signed paperwork agreeing to have the animal spayed or neutered within a certain time frame (normally 30 days), but in these cases, his group never received verification that the procedure had taken place — a misdemeanor violation of Georgia law that is left to the counties to enforce.

(Note to Auggie, my brown dog: if there's a loud authoritative knock at the door, don't bark, run)

The lawyer in me doesn't buy the notion that there is actually a crime that consists of "failing to provide documentation of having kept a promise to an agent of the humane society". I'm betting that the animal planet-style pet adoption neuter-nazis (Stop Cramming Your Morality Down Our Throats!) just sort of assume that it must be a criminal offense, and the cops there don't know any better.

Thanks

Thanks to Ace of Spades and Dalek Weblog for linking to the "Global Yawn" story about the Sudan peace accord. If you haven't read it, it is just below, and worth knowing about.

Global Yawn

On Sunday, January 9, 2005, what is hailed as a comprehensive peace agreement was signed between the government of Sudan and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). For those who have been following the tragedy in Sudan for years (I first learned of the true horror of the civil war there in 1997), this at once seems out of the clear blue as well as being very good news. It's not exactly headline news, but if someone wants to take the time to search the wires and googlenews, the stories of the peace accord are out there on the 'net.

To grasp how big a story this should be, in the course of the civil war in Sudan at least two million people have died, and we're not talking about combat deaths of uniformed soldiers. Four million people have become refugees, 600,000 of which fled to other countries. And there is another statistic. According to the BBC, more than 11,000 civilians have been taken into slavery. What's happened to thousands of them once enslaved truly amounts to fates worse than death. The tales of rape, dismemberment and torture are horrific somehow pale in comparison to reading former slaves' descriptions of losing the ones they loved.

My point in writing this is that none of the news stories about the peace accord, and I mean none of the hundreds I've now scanned, having the browser automatically search for the word "slave", even mentions those thousands of slaves. Some stories go into detail about the terms of the peace accord (for instance, the government of the north must withdraw 91,000 soldiers from the south within two years, while the SPLM has eight months to withdraw all of its soldiers from the north), yet not one of them mentions the slaves. It would seem that the peace accord does nothing to address the future fates of those already enslaved in the north. Since none of the news sources sees fit to print the actual text of the treaty, I don't know if the disposition of slaves is not in the treat, or if the world's news organizations simply don't care to mention it.

The news stories, instead, center on the comments and mood of diplomats regarding the signing of the peace accord. I suggest that should not be the whole story. It stands to reason that one might wonder what shall happen to the victims of the war, but again, the news industry puts actual information last. Let me rephrase that. In this case, the news industry avoids the most important and relevant information as if it were battery acid dripping from the ceiling.

While we're on the topic, I need to stop to tie this story into another current event. In the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, many news outlets are running stories about the danger that children left orphaned will be taken into the underground sex trade. Thankfully, the world is at least pretending to care about the problem and I have even heard praise for charity workers who have worked to buy back abducted kids and redeem them from lives of forced sex slaves. It is twice the shame, therefore, that the world reacted so very differently to those trying to save the slaves in Sudan. One outfit -- Christian Solidarity International -- that was buying back Sudanese slaves (many of which were indeed children kept as sex slaves) was roundly criticized by American and other Western media, and was eventually punished by the United Nations by being stripped of its official NGO (non-governmental organization) status.

For what it's worth, let me be the first blogger to say that Christian Solidarity International is thus vindicated in every way.

a theological heavyweight

The people who feed us all the information we get throughout the day tend to be idiots. Hopefully, you know that already. The following speaks for itself:

"BBC executives are reportedly under guard after the controversial show Jerry Springer - The Opera was shown on BBC2.

The corporation said it had received threats from individuals who objected to the programme's "blasphemous" content."

[Note the word blasphemous is put in quotes in the news story. Now why is that?]

[T]he opera features more than 8,000 swearwords and portrays Jesus in a nappy admitting he is "a bit gay".

[Oh, now I can see why the writer is so dumbfounded at someone calling that blasphemous that the word had to be "put" "in" "quotes"]

Here's the really good part. Are you ready for a true philosophical and theological heavyweight to set us all straight (so to speak)? You'd better be, because he decides what the BBC's viewers see -- and don't see:

But BBC director general Mark Thompson said that as a practising Christian he found nothing in the show that he believed to be blasphemous.

When you say that you are a practicing Christian, Mr. Thompson, you are strongly implying that you believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that you follow all He taught and teaches, yet you find nothing blasphemous about putting God in a diaper and having him endorse male on male sodomy? Would you like to stop and think about that quote again? Here are some other quotes for the next time you are interviewed:

"Actually, I'm a practicing Muslim who eats nothing but raw pork."
"Actually, I'm a card-carrying feminist who pays recently released convicts to kidnap and gang-rape anorexic teenage girls with low self-esteem"
or
"Actually, I'm a thoughtful and loving parent who allows my children to watch the BBC"

useless news story on cyber-bullying

Quote:

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We all know about high school bullying but have you heard of cyber-bullying? It's real and three Loranger High School students have been arrested for it. As WAFB's Marie Centanni reports, student bullying may have gone too far.

---

WAFB has drawn a conclusion there ("It's real") but never manages to tell its readers what "it" is.

Quote:

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Investigators with the Attorney General's High-Tech Crimes Unit say the situation started when a 15-year-old female student created a website called "Loranger's biggest queer.com." The website featured pictures of a 14-year-old male student. He responded with his own web site, which investigators say included a list of students he called "The Preps," and poems so graphically violent, investigators say "they crossed the line."

---

So what have we got so far? One teen calls another teen a name, but does so electronically. The one who got called a name responded, also electronically, and everyone involved gets arrested for bullying. What am I missing? The news story does nothing to enlighten; it never gives even on example, one "for instance" of the things posted on this kid's website.

So the whole story is included in the first two sentences. "It's real" is about all you're going to get. Without more details I don't know if this was a wise law enforcement decision or a horrible over-reactive adult response to what amounts to school-yard give and take between equals.

www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=2774728&ClientType=Printable

I'm glad it's now ok to rescue slaves

Watching the O'Reilly factor tonight, which was on as background noise, I heard the host, properly, praise a guest for heading an organization that goes into Southeast Asia and finds children taken into the pedophile sex trade and "buys" the kids, then turns them over to authorities.

I'm all for that; bravo. It's brave, direct, and needs to be done.

My frustration comes from hearing for years that groups like Christian Solidarity International are morally wrong, stupid, and destructive for their missions to "redeem" slaves in the Sudan. Those slaves come in both sexes and various ages, both children and adult, and CSI used to buy many away from their muslim captors and masters. CSI has been viciously maligned, the arguement being that to buy Christian slaves and free them in the Sudan "only encourages the slave trade."

I wonder what the difference is? Is it simply because Southeast Asia is in the news right now because of the tsunami? Is it that simple? If so, then I will await the media to start issuing apologies for criticizing slave-redemption in the Sudan for all these years.

Woman denied divorce; child/law ignored in press

First of all, O'Reilly is ignorant. Let me just get that out of the way. On his show tonight he's got a story about a woman who was denied a divorce (that's inaccurate, the final judgment of dissolution of marriage was rescinded pending further action), and O'Reilly was quick to call it "conservative judicial activism."

I'm searching for the text of the order to give you better information, but that may not be easy. The text of county and circuit court orders are not normally available online, and can take a while to show up even on Westlaw and Lexis.

In the meantime, don't panic. The pundits are calling this an egregious example of a judge trying to control women. The pundits are angry. They are steamed. They, true to form, are also completely ignoring the child.

Let's stipulate as to some facts. One, the husband is said to have battered his wife. Two (based largely on fact one) the wife is, indeed, entitled to divorce her husband. Three, everyone seems to agree that the husband is not the father of the child.

However, there are two other important points. First, when one files a petition for dissolution of marriage, one signs it before a notary, making it a sworn pleading. If any significant fact is misrepresented (the significant facts tend to go to the state of the marriage, joint property, and the disposition of children), then the petition is a fraud upon the court. When the fraud is found out, the petition is invalid. Well, the court found out that the woman had withheld the fact that she was pregnant in her pleadings. Therefore, for the judge to grant the divorce on deficient pleadings would be activist, not the other way around.

Second, when a child is conceived while a mother is married, the law considers that child a child of the marriage, meaning that the husband is the "legal father." Even if he is not the biological father, the child automatically has a right to seek support from his or her legal father. That is the law. If you don't like it, change it, but it's the law the judge followed. It would have been contrary to law and irresponsible to legally bastardize (make illegitimate) the child, cutting of the child's opportunities to pursue its right to paternal support.

The judge did exactly the right thing; he followed the law. The divorce has to be rescinded, and go back into court to determine whether or not it is in the best interest of the child to identify a different father. We don't know the rest of the facts. The biological father might be a bigger monster than the legal father. The judge has to get more facts.

Yet the angry pundits are just screaming that a woman can't do whatever the hell she wants to do. Well, she can, of course, but she cannot lie under oath in order to hide the fact that there is a child who has rights separate from her rights and the rights of both legal and biological father.

So stand by and don't draw conclusions on this one just yet.

All the news that's fit to ignore

It's an ongoing theme here (it's pretty much an ongoing theme on about a million weblogs) that the established media would simply prefer to be kidnapped and beheaded if that's all it would take to avoid having to report any news from Iraq that might suggest something positive for the United States.

So I pulled up google news this morning and typed in the name al-Zarqawi. The results: about 65 stories about al-Zarqawi's group having assassinated the governor of Baghdad. I admit that would be news. The problem is that in each of the stories that I read, the only source for the news is al-Zarqawi's group itself, posting on an internet site. One might think that establishes a standard for what will be reported.

No, it does not. There are also a total of three stories about al-Zarqawi himself being captured, arrested, run down, caught, beaten, or defeated. Pick your own verb. One must admit that is news as well. The problem is that the news stories are from either Russia, China, or the United Arab Emirates, citing a Kurdish radio report. By the standard noted above, that should be enough to report it, right? Nope. Not one western source has picked the story up.

I don't know if it is true or not; of course I very much hope that it is. I also wish the MSM would pick a standard for what sources would be reported that is based on something other than an eagerness to hurt the interests of the United States. I suppose they'll never care that it is so transparent, and worse, boring.

To have loved and lost, to have blogged and bossed

A lightbulb went off over my head. Either one of two things has to happen in the world of the blogs. Well, let's call it one of three things. First, a blogger pretty much spends a lot of time writing to him or herself and a circle of friends, potentially forever, until and if something unexpected happens, like if he or she cracks the code to some big scandal. Fifteen minutes of fame ensue and lots of hits. It's attention, but is neither success nor ongoing influence.

Second, a blogger spends lots of time writing to himself and that special unexpected thing never happens and/or he just quits writing at some point.

Third, simpatico bloggers join together into group blogs that have someone with expertise in different subject matter. In other words, it is a military, diplomatic, and political blog all in one, with different contributors for each. Why, Matey, you say, you just described a traditional publication. Why yes I did. There is a reason that successful publications have followed the same models for ages. The real difference now is that it doesn't have to take a huge investment of money to start a digital publication and begin to reach an audience, and that is a significant and pretty cool difference.

To summarize, the options are: random good fortune, burn out and fade away, or consolidate and compete.

I still think that www.piratepundit.com is a pretty nifty name (thanks, Eric), so it's for sale. That doesn't mean I'm quitting posting, just that this whim, which is an offshoot of a hobby (CourtZero.org -- a hobby about which I'm very passionate) can go in any direction.