The Rev. Markle dissects the CNN/rifle debacle.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
Great Gonzo
If you have never read him and wondered why people love Hunter S. Thompson, here is a glimpse why:
Weird behavior is natural in smart children, just as curiosity is to a kitten. I was no stranger to it myself, as a youth growing up in Kentucky. I had a keen appetite for adventure, which soon led me into a maze of complex behavioral experiments that my parents found hard to explain. I was a popular boy, with acceptable grades & a vaguely promising future, but I was cursed with a dark sense of humor that made many adults afraid of me, for reasons they couldn’t quite put their fingers on…
But I was a juvenile delinquent. I was Billy the Kid of Louisville. I was a “criminal”: I stole things, destroyed things, drank. That’s all you have to do if you’re a criminal. In the sixth grade I was voted head of the Safety Patrol – the kids who wear the badges and stop traffic during recesses and patrol. It was a very big position, and the principal hated that I was voted to it. She said, “This is horrible. We can’t have Hunter doing anything. He’s a Little Hitler.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I think it meant I had a natural sway over many students. And that I should probably be lobotomized for the good of the society.
and this:
That story has no moral – at least not for smart people – but it taught me many useful things that shaped my life in many fateful ways. One of them was knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho.
(Via Tim Blair)
Rosenthal
Everytime I read about the Rosenthal case, I get pissed off.
Congratulations are In Order
The Dailypundit, aka Bill Quick, announces that he has passed his California real estate exam. Head over there, say congrats, and hit his tip jar so he can have a little time to make that first sale.
More Madness
Robert Scheer seems to be claiming that he is an idiot, a liar, and now a victim:
It is one thing when the talk-show bullies who shamelessly smeared the last president, even as he attacked the training camps of Al Qaeda, now term it anti-American or even treasonous to dare criticize the Bush administration. When our Pentagon, however
This is No Good
This is not good at all:
Partly in response to the disorder in Baghdad since Saddam Hussein’s government collapsed April 9, partly in response to a vision of a more religious Muslim society, the Shiite clergy — perhaps the best-organized force in the unsettled capital besides the U.S. occupation — have moved deftly to create de facto institutions of justice, ruling on cases from divorce to property disputes. At the same time, they have begun enforcing their version of Islamic law, warning shops not to sell alcoholic beverages and theaters not to show risque movies.
A senior U.S. official here acknowledged concern about the clergy’s influence in handing down justice. But U.S. occupation officials, struggling to restore basic civil institutions, said a new legal code to replace law decreed under Hussein would likely wait until a temporary Iraqi authority is put into place.
Time is not on our side, and the Opinion Journal weighs in on an aggressive mideast policy.
Congo Update
Via Matt Yglesias, we see that the Congo might be receiving what Matt calls a ‘modest peacekeeping force:’
France has introduced a resolution seeking United Nations authorisation to deploy an international force to lawless north-eastern Congo.
France