Afghan City, Free of Taliban, Returns to Rule of the Thieves

("The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" is already available.") Think they have it on DVD?

You can wipe out crime, using the Taliban method, if you so desire. I don't think anybody around here would want that. Given the choice of some corruption -- and when the city is in chaos, the black market is going to come to the fore -- and Holy Fascism, I'll bet I'm not the only one who says "bring in the crooks". The author of this story seems to think that this is exclusively an Afghan thing, and that only the Taliban's iron fist kept it in check. I doubt it. Everything I've ever read (but thankfully never experienced) says that this is what a war zone is like. If the new government is strong -- but not totalitarian -- then Afghanistan will eventually become a normal country, no more or less corrupt than its neighbors.

The Sacramento Bee -- Officials say some California rescue workers at WTC have strange cough

Hardly surprising, considering what was in the air. Similar but worse symptoms have been reported by NYC firefighters.

The Sacramento Bee -- Comedy writer looks for humor in congressional group house

Al Franken is the writer in question. Now, I like Franken, but this is gonna suck. All Washington sitcoms suck.

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | MTV wants you!

Salon just gets worse. I'm not sure how, but somehow it does. Anyway, I'm no fan of MTV, but if they want to give the USAF a boost, more power to them.

Scientists claim to grow artificial eye

Well, an artificial frog eye. I'm not sure that there's much call for frog eye implants, but you never know.

Seriously, if you could grow human eyes -- and if they didn't age rapidly -- it might be useful, but attaching them to the optic nerve... that seems like it would be difficult. Not to mention that rejection would be very messy.

Calendar Live - Woodrow Wilson and the Current W

Democrat or no, give me the current W anytime. I've never understood why the historians were high on Wilson. This column mentions his opposition to integration (Wilson might be the only president of the last century who was racist even by the standards of his own time) and to women's suffrage. Personally, I think he deserves a lot of blame for the Versailles Treaty as well; he was completely unable to restrain Lloyd George and Clemenceau. The Second World War was only the greatest of the disasters that could have been averted by a better treaty at the end of the First. There's hardly a crisis in this world since 1920 -- including the current one -- which can't somehow be traced to Versailles.

Big babies at Harvard

If you're one of the eight Salon Premium readers, you can read this. I'm not, but when even Salon is picking on MC Cornel West, he's in trouble. I'll bet Ken Layne ripped him better, though.

Terror Suspect Wants Live TV Trial Coverage (washingtonpost.com)

Oh, this should be fun.

A lot of people have gotten really nervous about the idea of a public trial for these guys. I don't really understand why. "Oh, he'll hire Johnny Cochran and get off." No, he won't. I'll repeat myself: There’s not a jury in this country that would let Zacarias Moussaoui off, much less Osama. There's not a jury that would let him off if he were innocent. A Moussaoui trial would take one of two shapes. Either it would be a farce in which he spends all his time trying to justify his actions, or a serious attempt to avoid getting a needle stuck in his arm. If he doesn't plea out, he'll go down hard.

I want a public trial. I want these guys to be shown for the petty little weasels they are. I want them to be utterly humiliated. Killing them isn't that much of a deterrent, really. We already know that hundreds or thousands of people are willing to die for the cause of holy fascism. For me, the best deterrent would be to take away their honor. Make them into laughingstocks. Nobody was ever inspired to sacrifice their life for a clown.

Afghan Officials Say Mullah Omar Has Escaped

For instance, I don't particularly care about Mullah Omar. He's a nonentity. There are political reasons to make sure he's punished -- we want other leaders to see what happens when they don't cooperate -- but I don't feel any particular animus towards him. He's a bad guy, I know, but he's not our villain. As it is, he's already rather pathetic, and maybe a pathetic Omar is what we need.

U.S. Captures a Top Trainer for Al Qaeda

You know, this is great and all, but it's hard to be excited. In my head, I know this isn't all about the Notorious ObL, but he's the one I want in chains. I think most people probably agree. Osama without al-Qaeda is nothing; al-Qaeda without Osama is still very dangerous. They need to be broken; if he escapes (either by just avoiding capture, or by going to meet Allah before we find him) but the organization is no more, we've won. I guess we need to take that into account, but that's just the way I think. The way I feel is that I want the bastard to face our justice.

Said trainer is a Libyan. Come on, let's pay a visit with Moammar, just for old times' sake.

Argentina Plans To Devalue Peso; Anxiety Mounts (washingtonpost.com)

This is going to cause a lot of pain. It has to be done, but there's no way that it won't cause short-term grief.

As the article says, Argentina is devaluing at pretty much the worst possible time. It's an agricultural nation in a time when agricultural prices are depressed, and the entire world is in an economic slump. The pain is going to be magnified in comparison to what took place when Argentina's neighbors devalued, because that was a few years ago when the world economy was in better shape.

Israel Says It Seized Ship Carrying Arms to Palestinians, Who Deny It

And the Palestinians have such a great track record of honesty, don't they?

Meanwhile, General Zinni is back in the country, and back looking silly and irrelevant. Why do we bother anymore? Maybe we aren't, and he's just there to pretend and take the pressure off from the Arabs.

Bush's Portrait Unveiled in Texas Capitol (washingtonpost.com)

I won't criticize the President on the war -- not because I believe such things aren't Done, but because I think he's doing a great job. But I reserve the right to make obvious jokes on his other policies. And Texas makes it so easy.

The portrait shows Bush in a dark business suit with a sky-blue tie, crossing his hands and smiling as he sits against a smoke-gray background.

"A smoke-gray background." You know, like the atmosphere in Houston.

Warlords Steal Food Shipments, Hampering Efforts to Relieve Famine

We're going to get blame anytime something goes wrong, so let me try to head this off:

Afghanistan is in terrible shape. It was in terrible shape before we bombed it. We are trying to make things better. The simple fact is that while this hurts, things are already better. Not only are people -- undeniably, unless you live on Earth-Fisk -- more free, they're going to be better fed. If the US had never gotten involved in Afghanistan, many more people would have gone hungry. Many more people would have been killed. People who think:

A) Things are bad
B) The US is involved
C) Therefore, the US makes things bad

are out of their minds.

Fly the unfriendly skies / Profiling does more harm than good when airlines start expelling elected officials and Secret Service agents

Okay... Nobody should be expelled from a plane for the way they look. That's way over the line. But while the whole racial profiling thing makes me very uncomfortable, and the use of it against African Americans has been way over the line, I can't blame anybody who gets nervous flying next to an Arab-American.

I honestly don't know how I feel about airline profiling. I know that there have been abuses. I also know that there have been times when profiling has saved lives.

US Serviceman Killed in Gun Battle

Damn. I mean, I know this sort of thing happens, but... This is the first American killed in combat by the enemy in the campaign.

Daschle: Bush's Tax Cut to Blame for Vanishing Surplus (washingtonpost.com)

Ah, politics.

Speaking as a Democrat... Well, the leader of my party is lying. The largest part of the missing surplus is the economic slowdown -- which predates Sept. 11 and would have happened no matter who the President was. The tax cut exacerbated the condition but was by no means the most important factor.

I strongly disagreed with the Bush tax cut. It was a bad idea and gave almost all of its benefits to the rich. If you really want to stimulate the economy and give tax relief to those who need it, do something about FICA. I don't think lying to make the tax cut see worse is warranted, though.

TNR Online | Friends by the Editors

TNR goes into details about the links between the United States and India. Joshua Marshall adds more, including language -- many Indians, after all, speak English. We should back India. Not only do they share our values to a far greater degree than other countries in the region, they're in the right. It's just that right now is a really bad time for it.

I wonder if part of the message we've sent to India in recent weeks isn't just that. Maybe we've given them a tacit go-ahead to settle things with Pakistan if they'll wait a few months. Or maybe we've told Musharraf that we'll back India if he doesn't do something about ISI.

Allies Step Up Somalia Watch (washingtonpost.com)

It's looking like Somalia is next, and that the Iraq doves have won for now. I remain convinced that Saddam will eventually be toppled, but Somalia is a major al-Qaeda center. Somalia is an Islamic country, so we still look like we're picking on Muslims to those who think that way, but at least they're not Arab. You take what you can get.

India's Leader Rejects Pakistan Talks (washingtonpost.com)

Mixed messages, much? He's "making all efforts" to avoid a war, but won't sit down and talk to Musharraf. Some people think he's only being bellicose for local political reasons. I hope so, but it's very easy for that sort of thing to take on a life of its own.

Most Americans believe in the existence of angels, according to survey

Excuse me, I'm just going to bang my head on the desk for awhile.

Okay, I'm back. The whole angel phenomenon drives me crazy. Leaving aside the irrationality of it all, it's bad theology.

Judge Rules Ex-Klansman Competent

Legally, that is; "competent" in terms of the Bedsheet Boys is a relative thing. This is about the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, and Cherry certainly was involved. He avoided prosecution until he was an old man, and then pretended to be a drooling idiot to avoid it awhile longer. No more. He's not getting one hundredth of the punishment he deserved, of course.

Afghan officials say negotiations for Omar surrender nearing breakthrough

No deal offered; it's basically, "Turn yourself over or get blown up." Not that I think Omar has any control over his own destiny at this point. If the guys sheltering him want him gone, he's gone.

Newfound camp reveals training materials, including graded exams, of al-Qaida terrorists

Graded exams? Was there an essay section?

And, by any chance, was Richard Reid in a remedial class?

Scientists Create Genetically Altered Pigs (washingtonpost.com)

I just love this stuff, really I do. I especially like the inevitable PETA reactions:

"Pigs are wonderfully inquisitive and naturally intelligent," said Mary Beth Sweetland, president for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Norfolk. "Yet people have no compunction about using these animals as though they were nothing but spare parts. I think it's very irresponsible to go forward with this work when there is so much to be done to improve human organ transplantation."

You know, like providing enough organs for everyone to use without the ghoulish procedure of hoping someone dies. ("Great news! An eight-year old kid in Ohio was killed when his dad ran off the road! Molly can have that liver transplant!") Oh, wait, that's not what she means.

I'm all for the ethical treatment of animals. Don't torture them; don't waste lives; do provide them with decent places to live. But people come first... I once took a medical ethics class in college. (Not sure why, I was an education major at the time.) When we broke up into groups to debate medical testing, my table became known as "The DeSade Group".

Dead agent Spann's 1st wife dies of cancer

She leaves behind two small children.

Two funds have been set up to help Spann's survivors.

One is The Michael Spann Memorial Trust Fund, c/o Citizens Bank of Winfield, P.O. Box 550, Winfield, Ala. 35594. The other, sponsored by the newly created CIA Officers Memorial Foundation, is The Mike Spann Fund, c/o Jeffrey H. Smith Esq., Arnold and Porter, 555 12th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20004. Richard Helms, a former CIA director, is the foundation's president.

Argentina Defaults on Debt

Formally... they had made it clear they would before Christmas. Ironically, the bond they defaulted on was for the Italian lira, which is being supplanted by the Euro and was never exactly a model of stability.

Argentina is also expected to devalue the peso to 1.3 or 1.4 to the dollar. I don't know if it will be enough, and the absolute worst thing that can happen is an insufficient devaluation.

India, Pakistan Won't Hold Talks at Asian Summit (washingtonpost.com)

I still think India wants a war, even if (as the story says) Vajpayee is downplaying the possibility. They would win, if the US and China don't get involved on Pakistan's side. The Indian army is something like twice the size of Pakistan's, and their air force is much stronger. Neither side could likely use their nukes other than tactically, but India's nuclear capability appears stronger. Pakistan's one advantage is that they have foreign-built (Chinese, I believe) missiles, while India builds its own.

Newly released files show Britain once favored carving up Afghanistan

This was in the 1950s; it would have been something like what happened to Poland in the nineteenth century, divided up among three neighbors (Pakistan, Iran, the USSR).

It should be pointed out that the various Afghan groups have ethnic cousins in those countries. I'd assume all the Pashtuns would have wound up in Pakistan, the Uzbeks and Tajiks in the USSR. Might have worked, but just as easily might have wound up with the whole country part of the Soviet Empire. At any rate, it's hard to see how things could have worked out worse.

Democrats Plan to Tie GOP to Deficits (washingtonpost.com)

In other news, Dog Bites Man and Fire Is Hot.

Saudi Newspaper Claims "Jews Are Taking Over The World"

Our allies, ladies and gentlemen!

Seriously, why does the US government continue to let this stuff slide? Yeah, yeah, "oil", but what are the Saudis going to do? They can't not sell oil, it's their whole economy.

CNN.com - First French troops in Kabul - January 2, 2002

Yup, the Taliban cleared out, it's safe for the French to come in.

New Argentine President Takes Office

He's called a "populist", one of the great catch-all terms in the world. In an earlier version of the story, he was called a "left-wing" senator.

Here's a phrase to scare conservatives with: "a better distribution of wealth". He really said that... Duhalde apparently is a leftist, whatever that means. At any rate, all the free-market reforms -- which aren't to blame in Argentina, not at all -- are out. The monetary policies are probably out as well, and those did need to go.

InstaPundit.Com

Professor Instapundit answers my question... Piracy!

From what I know, that makes sense. The only objection would be the way it looks. Pirates are, you know, Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. Not some guy in (landlocked) Afghanistan. But legally, it makes perfect sense.

Of course, I flunked out of law school.

India Calls Pakistan's Moves Against Islamic Groups Illusory

Reading this story, I wonder if there's something I'm missing -- or that the NYT is missing. Honestly, it looks like Pakistan is trying here. For whatever reason, it's not satisfying India, or at least not its defense minister. I think they want an open war. In which case we're all in trouble.

U.S. Expects Afghans to Turn Over Omar if He Is Captured

Well, that answers my question. Still out there is the other question: What would we charge him with? I don't see that he's done anything illegal, at least not involving US citizens.

Paul Krugman Column on Argentina

I've noticed a lot of people in the blogging community who don't like Krugman; I expect this has a lot to do with his statements on supply-side economics ("quackery" being about the kindest) but he's been pretty savage on what he considers the left fringe (e.g. Robert Reich) as well. Anyway, he's been predicting bad things for Argentina for some time, but not this bad. His basic case this time is less about Argentina itself and more about the repercussions on US foreign policy. That the US is identified with the old Argentine regime is true, but I don't know that it's going to be a problem. The Argentines themselves seem pretty insistent, from what I can tell, on blaming the problems on profiteering within the government.

Now, a lot of what happened can be blamed on us. And, yes, it was Clinton administration policies that should be questioned, though there's not much difference between Democratic and Republican policies in this area. But the real villains here are the IMF and the World Bank, who ask small countries to do things that are simply terrible, in the short term at least, for their own citizens. In the end, all it does is make economic liberalism look bad and the totalitarians on both ends (economically, there's not much difference between the socialist administration of Venezuela and the fascist Peronistas) look good in comparison. The question becomes to what degree the IMF and World Bank should be identified with the US.

Argentina Drifts, Leaderless, as Economic Collapse Looms

Generally, if nobody wants to run a country, it's a bad sign.

This thing scares me to death. You don't think about a Western Hemisphere nation breaking up into its constituent parts. (Well, maybe Quebec leaving Canada.) But that might be a danger here. Some of the regions of Argentina have apparently started to run independent economies, and nobody has any faith in the national government.

Would that be a bad thing? Argentina is a potentially rich nation but one that's been through decades of failure punctuated by violence. Maybe a breakup would provide everyone a new start. In the long term, it might be best. But in the short term, I don't see how it could happen without an amazing amount of human misery. Do we want a Western Hemisphere version of the Soviet breakup?

I honestly have no idea. Generally, if something is broken, I think you have to try to replace it with something new. But what if Argentina breaks up... and that spreads to other countries? Large portions of Peru, Colombia, and Mexico are basically independent already. I know we don't want Mexico to break up.
It comes down to two questions:

1) Should the US intervene to prop up the Argentine government and economy?
2) Can the US intervene?

We could probably keep their economy afloat, and it's not like we could make things worse than they already are. But if the faith in the government is as low as it seems, it might be a wasted effort.

Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution (washingtonpost.com)

On the west side of Anniston, the poor side of Anniston, the people ate dirt.

Yeah, they'd do that in Anniston... Anniston is a large town or small city, depending on your definition, about halfway between Birmingham and Atlanta. It's been having a rough time of it. The biggest employer in the area had been an Army base which has been slowly closing down over the last few years. That base's main claim to fame was that it was a storage facility for chemical weapons.

"We don't have horns coming out of our head," said David Cain, the current manager of the Solutia plant in Anniston. "We're not evil people."

Says David Cain! I mean, what a giveaway!

Alabama's state government, like a lot of southern governments, is mostly interested in the proverbial "healthy business environment". This is a major reason I'm not a libertarian, small or capital L. There are a lot of places where, I'm sure, the federal government does more harm than good. Going back fifty years, the feds have done wonders bringing this state into the present.

U.S. Forces Reportedly Sent To Capture Taliban Leader (washingtonpost.com)

I wonder if -- assuming we capture Mullah Omar -- we're going to keep him or turn him over to the new government. All we could try him on (that I can think of) is harboring a fugitive, and I don't know that you can try a head of state on that anyway. But would the Afghan government really put him on trial, or just lock him up somewhere.

I suppose we could turn him over to the UN and let them handle it. He's small potatoes, really, and it might let them feel included. Of course, they might think it's a precedent and want Osama -- or later, Saddam -- as well, and we won't do that.

Who needs Omar anyway? He doesn't have any popular support, from everything I've heard, and now he doesn't have a power base either. The guy sheltering him seems more of a problem.

Pakistani Army Shifts Focus From Afghan Border to India (washingtonpost.com)

I'm not really sure they were doing any good anyway. That border was getting pretty porous, and as noted in the article there aren't many al Qaeda fleeing to Pakistan now. I expect most are dead, captured, or gone.

The tensions between India and Pakistan might have eased some. I think they're going to get through this, and I wouldn't have said that 72 hours ago.

The Jewish Journal Of Greater Los Angeles

So supressing the Intifada = beating up the wise men. Yup, no anti-Semites here. No way.

I hate editorial cartoonists.

Pakistan Is Reported to Have Arrested Militant Leader

Again, good-faith efforts. This guy was the founder of the larger of the two main Islamist groups supporting the Kashmir rebellion... It does appear that India is more willing now to sit down and talk, but they aren't pulling any forces back from the border.

Massive Food Delivery Averts Afghan Famine (washingtonpost.com)

At the height of the bombing, "1.5 million Afghans were at risk of starvation, 6 million in dire need of food." This bombing campaign just saved countless lives, because this food never would have gotten in under the Taliban. I'm trying awfully hard to find a negative here, and I'm not finding anything.

Interim President Of Argentina Quits (washingtonpost.com)

"I didn't like it when he called all the mafiosos and thieves from the previous government," said one Argentine, but it appears that that was OK with the leading members of his party. What wasn't OK -- and let to his resignation -- was that he didn't consult with them before instituting major "reforms". In other words, he was acting like a President and not like the leading member of a committee. Senate head Ramon Puerta will be interim President again, for the second time this month.

I don't have any use for the Peronistas, but they might be the only thing standing between Argentina and anarchy right now. As it is, it was the lack of support from regional governors that brought down Rodriguez Saa, and Argentina is showing signs of breaking down -- informally, at least -- into smaller entities.

Blood Brothers
Now More Than Ever, India and Pakistan Must Remember All They Share (washingtonpost.com)

For instance, they hate each other. There's a start!

I'm pretty sure that India could exist more-or-less happily as a nation with a sizeable Muslim minority. If Gandhi had lived, maybe it would have. If the situation were reversed, I don't think Pakistan could exist with a sizeable Hindu (or other) minority. India is a geographical and (to a degree) ethnic expression. Pakistan only exists because of religion. Is pluralism possible in a state founded along religious lines, even if it's governed secularly?

Protecting Bin Laden's Secrets
Arabs in Pakistani Jail Defy U.S. Interrogators (washingtonpost.com)

I seriously doubt they know anything; these are front-line troops, not Binny's intimates, and they haven't been in contact with him in weeks. I can think of only one thing they might know. Someone might have actually seen OBL's corpse. If he escaped and is in hiding, they would have no idea where.

Saudi investigators were alarmed by testimony from some of the captives that an estimated 2,000 young Saudis have been through al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and are now back in Saudi Arabia, according to Pakistani officials informed about the interrogations.

Yeah, I'm sure they were alarmed. Only 2000?

India Vows to Keep Troops on Border With Pakistan (washingtonpost.com)

Vajpayee says "we don't want a war," but you could fool me. It looks like Pakistan is making good-faith efforts, under difficult conditions, to round up the radicals. (In stark contrast to the Taliban's stonewalling after Sept. 11.) India needs to back off a little and give them a chance.

India is also pretty much ignoring President Bush; I didn't vote for him, but ignoring the President of the United States is not done.

Officials said today that they were drawing up plans and requisitioning supplies, including large rolls of camouflage cloth, to shroud the Taj Mahal, a 17th-century mausoleum that is India's most famous monument.

I have no idea why camouflage cloth is useful in this situation. I don't think you can hide the Taj, it's pretty big.