Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
Warner Brothers has just issued a press release stating that Heath Ledger will be playing the Clown Prince of Crime in the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins. As a follow up to last year’s blockbuster Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan is set to direct Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight, written by Jonathan Nolan, based on [...]
As OTB’s roving correspondent for New Orleans, I’ve had the chance to actually see the National Guardsmen and state troopers running around the city in the evenings. Naturally, it’s feels better than before, but it’s a stark reminder of how violent this city is. It’s genuinely amazing. I don’t see how people can have so [...]
Via Reuters: Cuban President Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery on Monday and delegated government functions provisionally to his younger brother Raul Castro, the government said in a televised statement signed by the Cuban leader. Castro, who turns 80 on August 13 and has led Cuba since a 1959 revolution, delegated his posts as first secretary [...]
Via Reuters: The U.N. Security Council on Monday demanded that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions, but Tehran denounced the move as illegal and vowed to press on. In a resolution passed by 14 to 1, the Security Council for the first time included legally binding demands [...]
Does Gibson’s publicist really think this utterly transperent PR stunt is really going to save Mel’s career? Last I heard, Betty Ford didn’t offer a 12-step program that cures Jew-hating. UPDATE: Mel’s mug shot is out and I think I’ve nailed who he looks like: It’s all in the eyes. ________ Previous: ADL Wants Mel [...]
Mark July 30th on your calenders, kids. Because that’s the day that Sen. Chuck Schumer declared that he has “no criticism of the President…because I think he is doing the right thing.” Vis-a-vis the current situation in the Middle East, that is. But still, baby steps are good. Here’s the video: All joking aside though, [...]
Well given this post, this news that the FDA is may loosen up the restrictions on the morning-after-pill, and allow non-prescription sale to women 18 years old or older seems worthy of note. Although, the whole thing could simply be political manuevering. WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) – Non-prescription sales of a “morning-after” contraceptive could be [...]
Sometimes one can find libertarians making the argument that the FDA (may) cause more harm than good. The argument runs as follows: The FDA has a mandate to make sure that drugs coming to market are safe. They don’t have a mandate to make sure that people get new and possibly helpful drugs quickly. As [...]
According to The Israel Insider, evidence is mounting that indicates that the collapse of the building in Qana and subsequent deaths of women and children were all staged by Hezbollah. Here’s are the facts as The Insider presents them: On the morning of July 30, according to the IDF, the air force came in three [...]
Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic tirade over the weekend has yielded an even more bizarre response: The Anti-Defamation League is calling for hate crimes charges to be brought. JEWISH groups have demanded Mel Gibson be investigated for hate crimes after the Hollywood star allegedly made anti-Semitic comments to US police officers when he was stopped on [...]
Israel’s 48 hour halt to air strikes lasted about 8 hours. The Israeli air force carried out strikes Monday in southern Lebanon despite an agreement to halt raids for 48 hours after nearly 60 Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing, the army said.The airstrikes near the village of Taibe were meant to protect [...]
Mark Steyn defends Kathryn Jean Lopez’ honor from a letter writer who took issue with her use of the sentence “It’s about why we fight” despite the fact that she is not, never has been, and likely never will be a member of the United States armed forces. Steyn argues that, [T]he notion that “fighting” [...]
I generally think Wolf is pretty good, but today on Late Edition he allowed Syrian Cabinet Minister Bouthaina Shaaban to get away with rhetorical murder without ever bothering to challenge her B.S. After warning Wolf that the world needs to stop Israel now before it takes this conflict beyond the Middle East, Shaaban tells Wolf [...]
Via Breitbart/AP: Israel has agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity in south Lebanon while it investigates an attack on a Lebanese village that killed a number of children, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Sunday. The airstrike killed at least 56 Lebanese, mostly women and children, when it leveled a building where [...]
Via Reuters/The Washington Post: Palestinian protesters stormed the U.N. compound in Gaza City on Sunday during a protest against Israel’s bombing of a building in southern Lebanon that killed around 60 people, witnesses and U.N. staff said. Hundreds of members of Islamic Jihad militant group, some throwing stones and others firing rounds from assault rifles, [...]
It happened today in the southern Lebanon village of Qana: Israeli missiles hit several buildings in a southern Lebanon village as people slept Sunday, killing at least 56, most of them children, in the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed “great sorrow” for the airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah [...]
Wizbang’s Paul has hung it up, I think for good this time, saying “It just ain’t fun anymore.” The last straw was a recent flamewar he got into with Ace but he’s been tired of the trevails of blogging for quite some time. Coincidentally, his colleague, Jay Tea, is taking a hiatus having just helped [...]
According to TMZ.com, when Mel Gibson was nabbed for a DUI in Malibu early Friday morning, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department “doctored” the initial police report so some choice comments made by Gibson about the “f***ing Jews” being “responsible for all the wars in the world” didn’t become public. Suffice it to say, they [...]
A mentally ill American Muslim shot six women yesterday afternoon at the Seattle Jewish Federation, killing one. A Muslim-American man angry with Israel barged into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle Friday afternoon and opened fire with a handgun, killing one woman and wounding five others before surrendering to police. Three of [...]
Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . . and now also Saturday Traffic Jam for those who wish to link. Rodney is looking for a good strong drink. Wizbang doesn’t really think chocolate and vanilla mix. The Right Place is busted. Willisms is taking Condi from a baby. The Man has found the cure. A Limey in [...]
Agreeing to pay $100 million in damages to Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Music Kazaa will now become a pay service for downloading films and songs. THE music industry hailed a victory in the battle against illegal downloading yesterday after forcing one of the world’s most prominent file-sharing sites to pay $100 million in [...]
GDP growth has slowed according to the advanced estimate just released by the BEA. Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2006, according to advance estimates released [...]
Some more interesting research from NBER, this time on the impact of Medicare on the health care industry. I’ve argued in the past that one of the effects of Medicare would have been to push up the price of health care not only for the elderly, but for everybody. This follows form the well known [...]
Some new research at the NBER points towards service offshoring having positive effect on U.S. manufacturing productivity. Amiti and Shang-Jin find that from 1992 to 2000, “service offshoring” accounted for around 11 percent of the productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing industries compared to the 3 to 6 percent gain attributable to imported material inputs.” Their [...]
As promised by Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah has launched missiles capable of moving this conflict beyond Haifa: Police officials said that on Friday noon Hizbullah fired at Israel, for the first time since the fighting in the north began, five long-range missiles carrying a greater amount of explosives than the Pajar rockets of the type that [...]
As I noted on Wednesday, FOX News reported that it was “widely believed” that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was operating from within the Iranian embassy in Beirut. Today, Bill Gertz reports that several U.S. and Israeli officials believe Nasrallah to be hiding in a foreign embassy in Beirut while some press reports speculate that Nasrallah [...]
Does the world support Israel’s bombing offensive in Lebanon? Or are they alienating even those inclined to support them? These dueling headlines renew that question: BBC: Israel says world backs offensive Israel says Wednesday’s decision by key world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light [...]
Steven Taylor has an idea for making al Qaeda more effective at maintaining their relevance while simultaneously being less destructive: They should be more like the Mormons. Imagine: “two guys from al Qaeda riding bikes around the neighborhood in white short-sleeved shirts and ties, turbans and long beards handing out brochures.” It’s easy if you [...]
This is more than a little distressing (WSJ, $): Time Inc. hired former Wonkette blogger Ana Marie Cox to be Washington editor of Time.com. In her new role, Ms. Cox will head the Web site’s political coverage and produce stories for the print and online editions of the magazine. Ms. Cox joined Time magazine as [...]
Or, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell–in Any Language.” AP has the story of Bleu Copas, a gay former soldier who was dismissed even though he seemingly complied with the terms of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” [...]
It was quickly revealed that the mystery person in Dana Milbank’s Washington Sketch column from earlier this week described only as a Republican Senate candidate “in one of the most competitive…races in the country” was none other than Lt. Governor of Maryland Michael Steele. Today, Steele appeared on the Laura Ingraham Show to talk about [...]
Healthalicious has responded to my post the other day about how we might be seeing the first steps towards a Republican shift towards universal health care. Steve Verdon at “Outside the Beltway” is misreading or misunderstanding my comment about moving away from an employment based health system. For now, I will give him the benefit [...]
Logan Ferree argues that the Republican Party has failed in its promises to libertarians for so long that it’s time to stop voting for them. While I disagree with the tone and even some of the particulars of the piece, his analysis is likely right. The GOP is dominated by its religious conservative wing (although, [...]
Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has failed his drug test. Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site. The statement came a day after cycling’s world governing body said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test [...]
The Sydney Morning Herald is guilty of it. Today the paper is running a piece with accusations from various doctors that Israel is using chemical weapons against Hezbollah in Lebanon: Lebanon is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never [...]
Patrick Frey has an incredibly long post, illustrated with actual puppets, dissecting every nook and cranny of the Glenn Greenwald sock puppertry blogstorm. All I know is that, were I a criminal, I would ply my trade outside his jurisdiction. If he can apply this much effort to ferreting out whether someone posted some blog [...]
Pamela Anderson is finally going to marry Bob “Kid Rock” Ritchie. At least four times, in fact. Pamela Anderson confirmed Wednesday she’s ready to tie the knot with Kid Rock in France. And California. And Michigan. And Tennessee. “I’m going to get married a few times this month to the same guy,” said the 39-year-old [...]