HOMELAND SECURITY: Still a joke.
Archive for 2007
July 22, 2007
IS TURKEY ISLAMIFYING? Not so much, according to InstaPundit’s Istanbul correspondent, Claire Berlinski, who writes:
Hi Glenn,
Does this look like Iran to you? David took these a few hours ago at the AKP headquarters in Istanbul. Lots of women in headscarves were dancing arm-in-arm with women who looked like this, lots of women were dancing arm-in-arm with men, and lots of people — of all ages and both sexes and in various degrees of undress — were dancing, period, which is hardly an activity commonly associated with Islamist tyranny. I felt completely welcome and comfortable even though I was wearing the shortest skirt in my wardrobe. I don’t at all dismiss concerns about the AKP, and I think my credentials as someone who takes the rise of Islamic extremism seriously are well-established, but what I saw tonight was utterly benign. Here’s a short video. It won’t win any cinematography awards (I took it with my digital camera and the light wasn’t good) but you can definitely see that this looks nothing like Iran. Again: This is the AKP headquarters.
The images do look pretty non-Iran-like to me.
LETTING SAILORS BE SAILORS: Plus, saying goodbye to the Ghost Fleet.
ADVICE TO POLITICAL STRATEGISTS: (Especially Republican) — You might want to get this book into the hands of your guys ASAP, just in case. Looks like the authors are following their own advice already: “Kerr Fuffle”?
AP out-APs the AP. Plus, a deteriorating situation. Well, for somebody, that’s for sure.
FAKING AUDIENCE PHONE CALLS at the BBC.
IS GIULIANI getting organized?
KEEPING THE FLYING IMAMS airborne. I really don’t understand what the Democrats think they’re going to accomplish here. It certainly suggests that they don’t think major terrorist attacks are imminent, since if that happens and it turns out someone didn’t report something, the blowback will be fierce. In that regard, at least, I hope they’re right.
WILL TURKEY “ISLAMIFY?” A report on the Turkish elections.
UPDATE: InstaPundit’s Istanbul correspondent, Claire Berlinski, says fears of islamification are exaggerated. Stay tuned for a report later this evening.
FRANCE WILL NEVER FORGET. Thanks!
Omaha Beach video here.
BUSINESS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES: “The public editor at the New York Times on Sunday castigated the newspaper for not writing enough about its owner — the Ochs-Sulzberger family — and whether it will succumb to the same pressure that forced The Wall Street Journal into the grasp of Rupert Murdoch.”
Hmm. The Sulzbergers have already politicized the NYT to a fare-thee-well. At least a Murdoch-type might figure out how to keep it profitable.
WELL, THIS IS A SHOCK: “U.N. suspends peacekeepers amid sex abuse charges.”
OIL REFINERY PROBLEMS: “Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.”
So it would probably be a good idea if we had more of them, right? And yet. . . .
A LOOK AT bloggers, journalism, and newspapers.
OVER AT THE BOOKS FOR KIDS BLOG, a full-length Harry Potter review.
UPDATE: My best concert ever? Seeing Steve Earle and The Rainmakers at the 930 Club in Washington DC — for five bucks. I forget who opened for who; it was just before both hit it big. I found out a couple of years ago that Mickey Kaus was at the same show, though I didn’t know him then. But given the small size of the 930 Club in those days, that means that at least one percent of the crowd was made up of future bloggers. . . .
SOME PRESS CRITICISM from Cassandra.
AN ARMY OF GEORGE GALLOWAYS.
KNOXVILLE: The number three town for boat owners. And yet I don’t own one. What’s wrong with me?
DIGGING THROUGH THE GIULIANI ARCHIVES.
AN INSTINCT FOR THE CAPILLARY: “The LAT finally puts out another Villaraigosa-Salinas story–which focuses like a laser on the least interesting aspect of the scandal, the journalistic conflict of interest! Yes, that’s why Angelenos are upset–because a Telemundo reporter might have compromised her objectivity. Someone call CJR!”
AS I SAID, SPACE IS GETTING MORE COMMERCIAL:
Northrop Grumman Corp. agreed July 5 to increase its stake in Scaled Composites – the builder of the Ansari X-Prize Cup-winning SpaceShipOne and a host of record-breaking aircraft – from 40 percent to 100 percent, Northrop Grumman spokesman Dan McClain confirmed July 20.
McClain, who declined to disclose the value of the deal, said the company expects it to close in August pending regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Scaled Composites currently is working with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture on a vehicle designated for now as SpaceShipTwo, which would carry two pilots and six paying passengers into suborbital space for a few minutes of weightlessness. The company also is building a new carrier aircraft, dubbed WhiteKnight2, that will carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 15 kilometers before releasing it to soar to suborbital space.
It seems that the big money wants a piece of the small-space action. Is that good, or bad? We’ll see. More here.
UPDATE: Here’s somebody who thinks it’s bad.
ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts on the takeover from Rand Simberg and Jon Goff.
And this bit from Rand has to be right: “The fact that such acquisitions are now occurring is to me a sign of the transition of the old age to the new.”
“IGNORE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY.“