Lemme get this straight

Now, during the NFL Draft, we have a beer ad touting the "new" "feature" of being able to write on the beer bottle's label.

I think we have something that can do that already. It's called a "pen."

Godspeed, Ms. Logan

In today's New York Times, CBS News Reporter Lara Logan discusses her sexual assault at the hands of a mob in Cairo's Tahir Square the night Hosni Mubarak's government fell.

I'm not comfortable posting excerpts from the story concerning the details of assault itself.  Anyone who's interested can go read the Times' piece.  But I did want to point out a few things.

Dare we to dream?

Is the Iranian nuclear program having problems?

Contrary to the claims made by Gholam-Reza Jalali — director of the Iranian Center for Non-Military Preemptive Defense — regarding the nature of the virus and Iran’s capabilities in dealing with the fallout, Stuxnet has wreaked serious and perhaps fatal havoc on the foundations of energy structure and the operating systems of the Bushehr nuclear installation. According to the Green Liaison news group, over the past year and a half the Bushehr plant has incurred serious damage and has lost major capabilities.

Since it's obvious no one in Washington -- Democrat or Republican -- will stand up to the mullahs, Stuxnet may be our only hope.

Think Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims can't work together?

Brian Fairchild has some reality for you:

On April 15, 2011, a prominent news story described Iran’s support for Syria’s draconian crackdown on protestors. The story focused on Iran’s widespread meddling in the region, but it missed the key point: Shia Iran’s closest ally in the Middle East is Sunni Syria. Iran deals freely with Sunni Muslims and Sunni countries when it’s in its interest to do so.

Many folks can only see in black and white. As a result, contrary to a mountain of evidence, many policymakers, counterterror specialists, and citizens continue to believe that there is no cooperation between Sunni and Shia because of religious hatred.

Of wolves and "regulations"

Ever since I can remember, Republicans and businesses have been hammering away with the meme that the private sector is overregulated, and those regulations cost everyone in dollars wasted and lost jobs.  The latest hammer blow comes from Michael Swartz:

Yet we forget there’s a hidden tax which gnaws at our pocketbooks and the economy at large every day. It was pointed out by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in their “Ten Thousand Commandments” report, released on Tax Day.

Analysis on Syria and Iran

from Michael Ledeen.  Key grafs:

Can anyone detect a pattern here?  Mubarak must go.  Qadaffi must go.  But no diplomatic pressure on Assad, nor, aside from the occasional Obama video, any tough talk to the Iranians.

It’s an operational definition of appeasing your worst enemies and dissing friends and (what’s the best way to define Qadaffi?) a would-be or sometimes friend.  Which is a very masochistic foreign policy.  It’s what you get from a president who sees America as the root cause of mischief, and perhaps even evil, in the world, and is more concerned about punishing his own people than fighting our enemies.

Careful, Michael.  I said the same thing and was ripped for being "uncivil."

A true crime against humanity

This is an outrage:

Egypt’s antiquities ministry has released the final result of the post-revolution inventories, which reveal that 81 archaeological objects are missing from their collections. This includes 27 objects from theTel El-Faraein storehouse and 54 from the national museum in Cairo.

Egypt’s former antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, reached out to the international community and asked for help in recovering these objects, which are believed to have been stolen in the course of the riots and afterward.  UNESCO is responding by sending a delegation to assess the state to Egypt’s cultural heritage collection.

Considering Hawass was just sentenced to jail time in an unrelated case, I don't know that he is going to get right on that anytime soon.  But it's not his fault the artifacts are missing.

The siren cries "Wolf!"

Right now in Indianapolis we are in the midst of a thunderstorm with lots of rain and lightning. Not coincidentally, the National Weather Service just issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Marion County. Understandable, and working the way it's supposed to work. So far.

This severe thunderstorm warning is on top of a tornado watch already in effect for most of Central Indiana. Again, that's the way it's supposed to work, the way it has always worked.

Except the tornado sirens are going off.

A new time for the Last Supper?

I very much enjoy the Bible and science coming together:

Christians have long celebrated Jesus Christ's Last Supper on Maundy Thursday but new research released Monday claims to show it took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion.

Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, believes it is all due to a calendar mix-up -- and asserts his findings strengthen the case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter.

Think shar'ia law can't happen here?

Think again.  This is how it would happen:

Women who do not wear headscarves are being threatened with violence and even death by Islamic extremists intent on imposing sharia law on parts of Britain, it was claimed today.

Other targets of the 'Talibanesque thugs', being investigated by police in the Tower Hamlets area of London, include homosexuals.

Stickers have been plastered on public walls stating: 'Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment'.

A new ending to the Battle of the Java Sea

Military History Online has published my article A Turn Too Far: Reconstructing the End of the Battle of the Java Sea.

Is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps cracking?

Is the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran in Farsi) starting to turn against the mullah regime? There have been hints for some time; now comes another:

SPQR

I have returned from Rome.