Category: Internet

The Epicurious web site has spawned a TV show, arguably the worst cooking show ever. In this week’s episode the bone-head chef made a so-called Philly cheese steak with Provolone instead of Cheez-Whiz and so-called Texas chili with water insead of beer.

The FCC should fine this program for indecent content.

This just in from Ananova:

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.

So there.

Tme Magazine’s not exactly a part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, but they’re not at all impressed with Richard Clarke’s increasingly shrill shilling for his book:

While Clarke claims that he is “an independent” not driven by partisan motives, it’s hard not to read some passages in his book as anything but shrill broadsides. In his descriptions of Bush aides, he discerns their true ideological beliefs not in their words but in their body language: “As I briefed Rice on al-Qaeda, her facial expression gave me the impression she had never heard the term before.” When the cabinet met to discuss al-Qaeda on Sept. 4, Rumsfeld “looked distracted throughout the session.” As for the President, Clarke doesn’t even try to read Bush’s body language; he just makes the encounters up. “I have a disturbing image of him sitting by a warm White House fireplace drawing a dozen red Xs on the faces of the former al-Qaeda corporate board…..while the new clones of al-Qaeda….are recruiting thousands whose names we will never know, whose faces will never be on President Bush’s little charts, not until it is again too late.” Clarke conjured up this chilling scene again on 60 Minutes. Only in this version he also manages to read Bush’s mind, and “he’s thinking that he’s got most of them and therefore he’s taken care of the problem.” The only things missing are the black winged chair and white cat.

Leaving aside the fact that Bush never fails to insist that the terror threat is as great today as it was on 9/11, these passages reveal the polemical, partisan mean-spiritedness that lies at the heart of Clarke’s book, and to an even greater degree, his television appearances flacking it.

The man obviously has an axe to grind, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that his main beef isn’t that the Admistration failed to take Osama seriously as much as they failed to take him — and his quirky obsession with cyber-terrorism — seriously and to treat him with the respect that he alone thought he deserved.

The Administration didn’t need yes-men after Sept. 11th, they needed serious policy advisers, and that’s the reason Clarke had to go.

Leave it to the brilliant Noam Chomsky to peer deep inside the brain of the Anglosphere and expose our fascist ways:

Political leaders in both Washington and London, which assisted in last year’s American-led invasion, insist that what they want to establish in Iraq is a government that answers to the wants, needs and goals of its own people.

Chomsky doesn’t believe it.

“Is there any evidence that the U.S. or Britain has tried to do that anywhere?” he asked.

“They’re imperial powers.”

So there, mes amis. And you know he’s right about the US and the UK’s historical failure to support even a single democratic state — if you ignore India, Canada, Mexico, all of South America, most of Africa, Europe, the rest of Asia, and Australia/New Zealand.

Who does this deranged bastard think he’s kidding?

If you haven’t seen Mark Steyn’s One Year On article, go check it out. He compares his predictions from a year ago with those of the Progressives, ending with this:

ONE YEAR ON: Iraq’s provisional constitution is the most progressive in the Arab world. Business is booming. Oil production is up. The historic marshlands of southern Iraq, environmentally devastated by Saddam, are being restored. In February, attacks on coalition forces fell to the lowest level since the liberation. Attacks on the oil pipelines have fallen by 75% since the autumn. In a BBC poll, some 60% of Iraqis say their lives are much better or somewhat better than a year ago; under 20% say they’re worse. Seventy per cent expect their lives to be better still a year from now, and only five per cent say worse. Eighty per cent of the country is pleasant and civilised, and the Sunni Triangle will follow. Not a bad year’s work.

That’s what we call a Happy Ending.

Tom Friedman gets Spain right in today’s column:

I understand that many Spanish voters felt lied to by their rightist government over who was responsible for the Madrid bombings, and therefore voted it out of office. But they should now follow that up by vowing to keep their troops in Iraq — to make clear that in cleaning up their own democracy, they do not want to subvert the Iraqis’ attempt to build one of their own. Otherwise, the Spanish vote will not be remembered as an act of cleansing, but of appeasement.

My dream is that the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Spain announce tomorrow that in response to the Madrid bombing, they are sending a new joint force of 5,000 troops to Iraq for the sole purpose of protecting the U.N.’s return to Baghdad to oversee Iraq’s first democratic election.

The notion that Spain can separate itself from Al Qaeda’s onslaught on Western civilization by pulling its troops from Iraq is a fantasy. Bin Laden has said that Spain was once Muslim and he wants it restored that way. As a friend in Cairo e-mailed me, a Spanish pullout from Iraq would only bring to mind Churchill’s remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Right on, dude.

While we’re all preoccupied with gay marriage and potty-mouthed radio shows, the Spaniards have had to confront terror attacks. Unfortunately, they failed to make a serious response, as you can see by reading Iberian Notes on Sunday’s election.

Don Quixote, your people need you.

Evidence points to Al Qaeda in addition to their claims of credit:

MADRID, Spain – The wave of bombings Thursday that killed at least 190 train commuters and injured 1,240 others could have been the work of Muslim extremists, Spanish officials said after finding a van carrying detonators and an Arabic-language tape containing verses from the Quran.

Spain has a long history of ETA terrorism, and a longer history of conflict with Islam, so the question is how much influence this tragedy will have by way of stiffening the Spaniards’ resolve to carry out the war to its conclusion. While PM Aznar has been a strong supporter of the Coalition in Afghanistan and Iraq, he’s not had much support from his people.

That may change now.

UPDATE: Tim Blair points to Iberian Notes, a leading Spanish blog.

Local burger chain Burgerville is switching to hippie meat:

In its ongoing commitment to using the highest quality ingredients available from the Northwest, Burgerville met with Oregon Country Beef four years ago about becoming its beef supplier. At the time, the small co-op of family ranches was unable to meet the volume required by the 39-unit Northwest fast-food chain. Today, Burgerville will become one of Oregon Country Beef’s largest customers purchasing more than 1.75 million pounds of beef each year. All of Burgerville’s burgers, from the signature Tillamook Cheeseburger and Pepper Bacon Burger to the regular hamburger, will feature the natural beef.

Cool.

The UK Sunday Express reported yesterday that coalition forces have got Osama and his bestest buddies boxed in on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, and his capture is nigh. Pakistan offers the kind of denials that go along with an ongoing military or police operation that’s close to completion:

When asked if 8,000 para-military troops were being sent to the tribal areas in addition to the 4,000 already stationed there on request from the political administration, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said requirements for operational deployment were determined by the military authorities and no such request had been received from the political administration of tribal areas.

This is a hot story overseas, but not so hot in the US, where CNN coverage is most prominent:

Government sources told CNN the Pakistani army is ready to conduct a big operation against al Qaeda and Taliban elements in the Wana area.

Cynical wags suggest that the Bush Administration doesn’t want to capture Osama until October, but just between you and me I don’t think the timing matters. The Kerry/Edwards/Clark argument against the Iraq operation was that it was a distraction from the hunt for Osama, whose capture would clearly put that saw to rest. The newly-cooperative attitude of the Pakistani intelligence service sprang from the same well as Libya, Syria, and Iran’s new-leafishness so one man’s distraction is another’s incentive.

Hat tip to Sitarama.