USA!
My understanding is that Team USA breaks the exhibition game against China wide open down the road, but the first quarter, currently playing on my DVR, was really tight. The Chinese offense is oddly effective considering that the team doesn't do anything that looks like it would work or appear have any players capable of creating their own shots.
I also find it frightening and, frankly, a little sad to see Arenas trying to act like a real point guard and a good team player instead of unleashing the madness of Gilbertology on the poor Chi-coms (sure, sure, it's the right thing to do, but still).
A War Bleg
Here's a question. Does anyone have any idea how much money Israel is spending on its invasion of Lebanon? Quite a lot, I would imagine, but I can't seem to find anything on this. Hezbollah seems to be a rather cheap organization -- the highest estimate I can find is $400 million per year, about the cost of a single F/A-22 Raptor.
Who Rules
Since it was a day in Iraq, a whole bunch of people died yesterday in Iraq. More surprising is the second paragraph of the AP rundown of the latest violence: "The attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack on Sadr City, the area of Baghdad that's the stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia."
What's this all about? Is Maliki in charge of his country or not? Are we at war with Sadr's forces or is his political party represented in Maliki's cabinet? It's a both/and situation in both cases, it would seem, but it's hard to say what kind of sense that makes. It's also increasingly hard to say what the American strategy for Iraq is even supposed to be. Statements from the administration have become so incredibly nonsensical that you can't really peel beneath the propaganda and discern the core of what they're trying to say or do. Are our forces really going to be running around launching attacks against members of the Iraqi cabinet contrary to the wishes of the Prime Minister installed into office with our support? Jalal Talabini, Iraq's Kurdish President, also denounced the raid.
Cohen's Clarity
Richard Cohen has his good days and his bad ones, but bloggers tend to only quote him on the bad days. Today is a good one:
I share the concern of what would happen to Iraq if the United States pulled out precipitously. I share the concern over what will happen if the United States stays. I share the concern of those who say that no matter whether it stays or goes the outcome will be the same. I especially share the concern of those who say that the Bush administration does not have a plan to disengage and that rather than confront the immensity of its mistake -- I pity Donald Rumsfeld if he should ever lose the gift of denial -- it thinks that this or that adaptation to new conditions will somehow change the outcome. It will not. The end was set at the beginning. It is better that it come sooner rather than later.
It's tragically difficult to get even people who think the right things about this to remember from moment-to-moment that this tragic farce is playing out day-by-day and shows all signs of continuing indefinitely.
Dynamic Scoring
Scott Winship has more up on the Prospect website about the ideological proclivities of the netroots. It occurs to me reading his article that it's worth keeping in mind that what "the netroots" is is, at this point, almost certainly something of a moving target.
Continue reading "Dynamic Scoring" »
Fluid Dynamics
Call me crazy, but I don't see what kind of sense a ban on liquid travel on airplanes is. To be sure, letting people carry soda or shampoo onto an airplane could (apparently) allow them to conceal an explosive. And a bomb going off on an airplane would be a very bad thing. But by the same token, a bomb going off on a crowded Metro or Armtrak car would be quite bad. Hell, a bomb going off on a crowded airport security line snaking back and forth as everyone waits to have their bags searched for offending liquids woud be really point. At some point, common sense needs to kick in.
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Seriously Serious
The Poor Man gets serious about mocking getting serious on terrorism.
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