AMF: Just the Facts, Ma'am
Just the news this morning. I want to get to work early today.
The BBC has another "audio slideshow", this time about a Babylon exhibit at the British Museum.
Three stories out of Afghanistan. First, Afghan women from around the country have spoken up against negotiating with the Taliban - and if you'll remember how women were treated by the Taliban, and how they're treated in Taliban-controlled areas, you can't blame them. With all of this talk of negotiations with the Taliban, the Pentagon has made it clear that one Taliban leader they won't negotiate with is Mullah Omar, who headed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan prior to the 2001 coalition campaign that ended that entity's existence - wow, that was some nice alliteration. There's also a Taliban tribe in Pakistan that has pledged to stop fighting - though it's worth pointing out that we've heard this before and it didn't exactly work out.
The BBC also has an article about a journalist's eco-tourism hike through Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Considering that the Bekaa Valley is Hezbollah Central, something tells me that it's not quite the eco-tourism that Saif al Qaddhafi is developing in Libya.
I've talked several times about the use of shipping containers for various purposes. It looks like they've found more military applications for them, and that's a great thing.
Is it just me, or do Libyan press releases/articles read like spam E-Mails? I was actually pretty interested in the substance of that article, but I can't even figure out what most of it means, let alone the part at the end about the Prime Minister of Malta, Dom Perignon.
A couple of quick politics articles, and then I'm done. First, and from an exceptionally unlikely source, there's an op-ed in the Times that dropped my jaw: a London Times writer tears Barack Obama a new one while analyzing Wednesday's "I enjoy frivolously spending campaign money" infomercial. People were saying that the ads were extravagant, but that they were probably going to be effective. I think Senator McCain likely hit the nail on the head with his jovial response:
My guess is that the infomercials probably cost Obama some votes. This morning, I spent the first twenty minutes (of about twenty-five) of my drive to work listening to Surat Luqman. When it was over, I turned on the radio, and in five minutes or less I had to change the radio station no less than five times because every station had either an Obama commercial, or people talking about him. Now, I'm an admitted partisan, but I can't be the only person who's sick of hearing this guy's voice, or people talking about him, or the media fawning over him. A half hour "closing argument" infomercial that delayed the final game of the World Series? Come on. There also have to be a number of different kinds of voters out there who are saying, "Do I really want to hear that voice for the next four years?"
On the lighter side, the Onion has an article that really made me smile: Obama: "I would make a bad president.". They also have a fairly entertaining video lampooning Obama's inexperience. The media wants Obama to win, eight out of nine Americans polled think the media wants Obama to win, and as far as many people are concerned, the election is over. Because of that, the media is going to try to drag this thing out by adopting a veneer of fairness in the final days, trying to make it appear to be a more competitive race than they believe that it actually is. The surprise for them is that it actually is more competitive than they've been making it. One way or another, next week is going to be interesting.
I'm swamped this weekend, folks. Enjoy it, try to avoid the television and the radio. Pick up a book - maybe even something light that will make you feel good when you finish it.
The BBC has another "audio slideshow", this time about a Babylon exhibit at the British Museum.
Three stories out of Afghanistan. First, Afghan women from around the country have spoken up against negotiating with the Taliban - and if you'll remember how women were treated by the Taliban, and how they're treated in Taliban-controlled areas, you can't blame them. With all of this talk of negotiations with the Taliban, the Pentagon has made it clear that one Taliban leader they won't negotiate with is Mullah Omar, who headed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan prior to the 2001 coalition campaign that ended that entity's existence - wow, that was some nice alliteration. There's also a Taliban tribe in Pakistan that has pledged to stop fighting - though it's worth pointing out that we've heard this before and it didn't exactly work out.
The BBC also has an article about a journalist's eco-tourism hike through Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Considering that the Bekaa Valley is Hezbollah Central, something tells me that it's not quite the eco-tourism that Saif al Qaddhafi is developing in Libya.
I've talked several times about the use of shipping containers for various purposes. It looks like they've found more military applications for them, and that's a great thing.
Is it just me, or do Libyan press releases/articles read like spam E-Mails? I was actually pretty interested in the substance of that article, but I can't even figure out what most of it means, let alone the part at the end about the Prime Minister of Malta, Dom Perignon.
A couple of quick politics articles, and then I'm done. First, and from an exceptionally unlikely source, there's an op-ed in the Times that dropped my jaw: a London Times writer tears Barack Obama a new one while analyzing Wednesday's "I enjoy frivolously spending campaign money" infomercial. People were saying that the ads were extravagant, but that they were probably going to be effective. I think Senator McCain likely hit the nail on the head with his jovial response:
"No one will delay the World Series game with an infomercial when I'm president!"
My guess is that the infomercials probably cost Obama some votes. This morning, I spent the first twenty minutes (of about twenty-five) of my drive to work listening to Surat Luqman. When it was over, I turned on the radio, and in five minutes or less I had to change the radio station no less than five times because every station had either an Obama commercial, or people talking about him. Now, I'm an admitted partisan, but I can't be the only person who's sick of hearing this guy's voice, or people talking about him, or the media fawning over him. A half hour "closing argument" infomercial that delayed the final game of the World Series? Come on. There also have to be a number of different kinds of voters out there who are saying, "Do I really want to hear that voice for the next four years?"
On the lighter side, the Onion has an article that really made me smile: Obama: "I would make a bad president.". They also have a fairly entertaining video lampooning Obama's inexperience. The media wants Obama to win, eight out of nine Americans polled think the media wants Obama to win, and as far as many people are concerned, the election is over. Because of that, the media is going to try to drag this thing out by adopting a veneer of fairness in the final days, trying to make it appear to be a more competitive race than they believe that it actually is. The surprise for them is that it actually is more competitive than they've been making it. One way or another, next week is going to be interesting.
I'm swamped this weekend, folks. Enjoy it, try to avoid the television and the radio. Pick up a book - maybe even something light that will make you feel good when you finish it.
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