MORE NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN via InstaPundit’s Afghanistan correspondent, Boston University Professor John Robert Kelly:

BEER AND LOAFING IN AFGHANISTAN

It’’s a lonely and frustrating life for the western NGO and UN grief relief workers in Afghanistan. There are those hefty paychecks, often amounting to thousands of dollars——tax-free– a week, but no place to spend it. After all, how many carpets and antique swords can one collect? Then there’’s that pesky problem of the desultory hours surfing the net in air conditioned estates converted to office space, but nowhere else to travel, except back to the villa in new, chauffeured Landcruisers for an evening of the same old faces, same old conversations. Numerous fearful directives and warnings keep these NGO workers from hitting the street and meeting and mingling with the Afghan population. When these warnings are lifted, few wish to wander from their guarded compound. There’’s a very valid awareness that the NGO permanent party isn’’t well liked by the Kabulis. An elderly Hazara rug merchant whose business has been halved by the timidity of NGO shoppers snorts derisively in perfect English, ““Their feet never touch the ground in Kabul.”” And he’’s right. In a typical week, one sees just a few handfuls of westerners, mostly ISAF troops on holiday, even in the safest zones of the tourist traps and souvenir shops on Chicken Street, Kabul’’s answer to Rodeo Drive.

Many of the professional compassion corps are feeling restless and bored; they’’ve already been staff in Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan, and nowadays believe they belong in Iraq, that’’s where the real money is. In the status conscious pecking order of NGO hierarchies, Afghanistan is passe. Only the palpable danger of Iraq keeps down the flurry of resumes from Kabul to Baghdad. It’’s the rare NGO worker who applies for work before the shooting is over and the maximum salaries are fixed. The money has been spent in Afghanistan, the bank is closed. The UN has larded tens of millions of dollars on an enormous fleet of brand new top-of-the-line Toyota Landcruisers, many times that on inflated salaries, mansions and the luxurious perks of occupying pashas. The needy locals are not amused. The American citizens who’ve liberally financed this largesse would be appalled at the waste.

It’’s not all monotonous or pointless in Kabul; at one French NGO housed in a stunning antique-laden chalet, I’’ve devoured a seven-course meal prepared by a 4 star chef. Then there’’s always the sumptuous UN House, where one can take a dip, mingle poolside among scandalous bikinis and dowse dehydration with inspired cocktails fashioned by our languid Euro masters. Unfortunately, since “American UN employee” is an oxymoron, our one attempt to storm the formidable barricades is a spectacular failure. We’’re rudely turned away, despite flashing $20 bills to the Afghan UN security. My companion, a fierce Pushtoon-American licensed to pack a very visible Glock 19, glances back at the sunbathers as we’’re escorted out: ““We’’ve paid for all this with our taxes, you bastards!”” One of the Pushto guard’’s shrugs his shoulderssympathetically, muttering an apology that suggests ““someday this will all be ours again.”” For all the heroic American efforts in Afghanistan, truly and deeply appreciated by the indigenous population, we’’re still treated as unwanted nuisances by the predominantly European NGO residents.

For us hoi polloi, there was always the Irish Pub that opened on Saint Paddy’’s day to such fanfare in the western press——and with far greater gratitude in Kabul——but is now shuttered, a victim of its own success.

Sean McQuade’’s commercial instinct was impeccable: the creation of a stimulating oasis for thirsty westerners in one of the driest and most oppressively conservative cities in the Islamic world. The demand was high——a bit too high, according to some Afghans. In a city where getting stoned isn’’t an amusing colloquialism for intoxication but a literal description for the Taliban sport of getting smashed at the soccer stadium, Sean’’s otherwise laudable enterprise had a few defects in the business model, the most notable was that his public house had a mullah next door. McQuade had hoped for a lower profile for his tavern, but the spirited swarms of tipsy patrons pouring into their NGO SUVs in the late hours scandalized the neighborhood and not even the owner’’s gracious offer of baksheesh to rebuild local roads and schools could keep the speakeasy alive.

All is not lost for parched westerners in search of a public lager with good company, however, since other more discreet taps have opened throughout the city. At the Mustafa Hotel, long the favorite haven of adventuresome tourists and savvy international journalists, where last summer we diluted toxic contraband Tajik vodka (at $50 a liter) with Fanta, one can not only legally quaff a draught, but also surf the net or file a story at the same time…and not a mullah for a hundred meters.

Ah, the expat’s life — which seems to revolve around alcohol and jostling for status with other expats, regardless of location or nationality. (Earlier reports from Kelly can be found here and here).

OLIVER KAMM ON BIAS AT THE BBC:

The BBC does make pretence at balanced accuracy in its coverage of the issues he cites. That’s what’s so pernicious about its output.

Overt political bias can be anticipated and corrected for (though of course is still in breach of the BBC’s charter). The BBC, however, internalises a set of consistent, even monolithic, assumptions that it can’t correct because it can’t conceive of any other way of looking at the world. The BBC’s problem is not bias so much as an institutional incapacity for critical examination of the cliches that it dispenses. Whereas Lord Black believes the BBC ‘is a virulent culture of bias’, it’s more accurately a culture of obtuseness and intellectual idleness. BBC News is less like a virus than a soft cushion bearing the impress of whichever pressure group sat on it last; its correspondents, being mentally ill-equipped for the tasks of independent research and critical examination, instinctively and invariably reach for bromides in place of analysis.

Read the whole thing.

LT SMASH neglected to take a digital camera with him. But he still paints quite a picture of conditions in Iraq.

Also, here’s another letter from Iraq that’s worth reading.

MORE ON ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND FRAUD:

“What we know is that the machines can’t be trusted. It’s an unlocked bank vault …, a disaster waiting to happen,” said David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor who has prompted more than 110 fellow scientists to sign a petition calling for more accountability in voting technology.

The researchers fear that problems with software systems will result in hacking and voter fraud, allowing people to cast extra votes and poll workers to alter ballots undetected. . . .

“Why are we putting our democracy on computers that aren’t ready to go?” added Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor at Bryn Mawr College and an expert on electronic voting.

Election bureaucrats dismiss this as “paranoid,” but (1) I trust professors of computer science more than courthouse hacks; and (2) Even to the extent that’s true, a voting system that inspires paranoia is hardly a good thing.

I suspect that fraud is a big problem, and that the Florida election, because of its closeness, just revealed a problem that had been there all along. I also think that there’s not enough pressure to fix it because most of the fraud is in local elections, on behalf of the local political apparatus, and there’s nobody with both the power to fix it, and a sufficient incentive to do so. The only good thing is that the decentralization of electoral authority means that it’s not systemic at the national level. To the extent that there’s fraud in national elections, it probably tends to cancel out.

But this is a real issue, and it shouldn’t be dismissed as tinfoil-hat nonsense. (Via TalkLeft).

THE CALIFORNIA RECALL ISSUE is one that I’m not paying too much attention to. It’s important, but California politics isn’t something I know a lot about. Mickey Kaus — though he’s “maintaining his silence in the face of questions” about the RX-8 — is covering this issue. So are PrestoPundit and Justene Adamec. And, of course, there’s the Sacramento Bee blog, California Insider, by Daniel Weintraub. Go there if you want more, as my coverage is likely to be spotty.

[You’re doing it again! Sending people to other blogs! — Ed. Any progress on that dollar-per-pageview thing? No? Well, then.]

WINDS OF CHANGE has a roundup of news from Central Asia and Afghanistan.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES is up. If you tend just to read InstaPundit and a few other blogs, you should follow this link and check out the many other fine blogs listed there. You might find one you like better!

[Isn’t that bad marketing, sending people to other blogs? — Ed. When I start getting paid by the pageview, I’ll reconsider. And shouldn’t you be over at Kaus’s site? He got mad when I told him to quit obsessing over Arianna Huffington’s charms and focus on really important stuff, like the Mazda RX-8 question. — Ed. The philistine!]]

ALL SEXED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO: Is Paul Krugman really George Bush’s secret weapon?

MORE CHEATING AT THE BBC? A reader sends this:

You tell me.

I ran across this on an Afghan website I frequent. Specific URL of
forum thread is —
Link

Link to BBC story (Afghans ‘live in climate of fear’)

…NOTE THE PICTURE with this story…

Link to story

HOWEVER….

Yahoo says….”Afghan women and girls watch the arrival of Afghan
President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan”

Yahoo link

SAME PICTURE? Uncropped.

See the smiles they had to crop out to put it in the BBC piece?

Is this common practice?

At the BBC? It’s starting to look that way. The cropping certainly makes the photo fit the headline better, doesn’t it? (If you’ll follow the Yahoo! link you’ll see that they’re actually craning for a better view of Hamid Karzai; the actual story hook is a $1 billion aid package for Afghanistan, which doesn’t seem especially worrisome.) I’d call this a minor example of the BBC’s tendency toward spin, but it’s more evidence of just how pervasive that is.

UPDATE: Quite a few readers think that the difference between the photos isn’t as big as this post makes it sound. To me, the difference is noticeable, though as I say above, this is a fairly minor example. But you can follow the links and decide for yourself.

PRAISE FOR GREENPEACE on nanotechnology: No, really. My TechCentralStation column has quite a few good things to say about Greenpeace’s new report on the subject.

UPDATE: Here’s a story from the U.S. News website on the same topic. (Via NanoDot).

INTERESTED IN NANOTECHNOLOGY? You might want to consider the Foresight Institute’s 11th Annual Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology. You can get a discount if you sign up by August 1.

SALAM PAX WRITES ON THE HUSSEIN BROTHERS’ DEATH:

The question in Aujah now is how the family is going to get the bodies back “to bury them properly”. Someone in Baghdad later told me that proper burial for these two is to dig a hole somewhere in the desert and have the family look for them for years. How can they expect a proper burial for people who have denied it for hundreds of thousands?

Read the whole thing.

THE IDIOTS WIN A ROUND: Faced with know-nothing criticism from members of Congress, the Pentagon has abandoned its plans for a “futures market” to predict terror.

How dumb is this? Virginia Postrel points to this column on the use of “idea futures” markets to predict events, and to this collection of papers on the topic.

Did the Congressional critics know about any of this stuff? Fat chance. Do they care that they were responding lamely and out of ignorance? Nope. Does it matter that this sends exactly the wrong signal to the Pentagon about the consequences of efforts to find original ways to fight the terror war? Yes. Will the members of Congress take any responsibility for that? Nope.

UPDATE: The good news, reported by Tom Maguire, is that the private sector is already running with this ball.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ron Bailey has a long and thoughtful piece on why the futures idea was actually a good one. Bailey’s conclusion:

In the end, a promising research program that might have enhanced U.S. intelligence gathering was killed off by cheap moral posturing on the part of a couple of U.S. Senators. Who’s incredibly stupid now?

Who, indeed?

UPDATE: Hmm. All kinds of people think this was a good idea. Maybe the Pentagon folded too soon.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Colby Cosh sees an upside:

Speaking of poor decision-making, the outcry against DARPA’s geopolitical-event futures market will give Americans a useful chance to identify dangerously stupid politicians who believe emotional grandstanding is more important than the national security. (Surprise! It turns out to be pretty much all of them.) . . .

I suggest using the affair as a litmus test for newspaper columnists and editorial boards, too.

Pretty much all of them, too. . . .

FROM THE “WELL, DUH!” DEPARTMENT:

TEHRAN, July 30 — Iran’s Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said on Wednesday Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody in Iran this month, was probably murdered.

Then there’s this:

The burial of Kazemi, a Montreal-based photojournalist of Iranian descent, has caused a diplomatic storm between Tehran and Ottawa, which wanted her body returned to Canada.

Shouldn’t the murder have caused the “diplomatic storm?”

Then again, the Canadians aren’t exactly taking a firm line against terror.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ANTI-SANCTIONS ACTIVIST: Damian Penny points to this piece:

What did we know about Iraq? Hardly anything. Stephen Zunes, a “progressive” activist academic, once acknowledged that “peace activists largely share with most Americans a profound ignorance of the Middle East, Islam, and the Arab world.”[6] This was certainly true for our group, but we didn’t give it much thought. We saw ourselves as people of action, not reflection. Did we really need to learn the intricacies of Iraqi history and politics and plumb the broader political and economic issues? Who wanted to sit in the library when there were prayer vigils to organize? We opted to march, fast, and hold our signs. Here was a new cause, in need of champions, and that’s just what we were. Iraqi sanctions had to go! . . .

To be perfectly frank, we were less concerned with the suffering of the Iraqi people than we were in maintaining our moral challenge to U.S. foreign policy. We did not agitate for an end to sanctions for purely humanitarian reasons; it was more important to us to maintain our moral challenge to “violent” U.S. foreign policy, regardless of what happened in Iraq. For example, had we been truly interested in alleviating the suffering in Iraq, we might have considered pushing for an expanded Oil-for-Food program. Nothing could have interested us less. Indeed, we even regarded the paltry amounts of aid that we did bring to Iraq as a logistical hassle. When it suited us, we portrayed ourselves as a humanitarian nongovernmental organization and at other times as a political group lobbying for a policy change. In our attempt to have it both ways, we failed in both of these missions. . . .

I had also expected a deeper concern for the people of Iraq. But Voices would have nothing to do with the U.N. humanitarian effort. The closest it got to U.N. headquarters in New York was the sidewalk across the street. There, Voices’ activists, bellowing at the top of their lungs, preached against the American-induced apocalypse in Iraq. It was a mystery to me how such soapbox sermons, often quoting scripture, could possibly help the people of Iraq.

Indeed. Read this, too.

CHIEF WIGGLES has added a co-blogger, who’s got a lot to say.

JOHN KERRY MAY HAVE SERVED IN VIETNAM, but he’s afraid of a blogger:

WHAT’S ALL the fuss about the blond guy? I ask Kerry’s Iowa press secretary, Laura Capps. “He takes pictures of himself with the candidates and posts nasty comments about them,” she says. I’m not sure, but this may be a historic moment for the Iowa caucuses: The Kerry campaign is terrified of how their candidate will be portrayed by a blogger.

Later, I sidle up next to the man to ask about his Web site, which turns out to be ninedwarfs.com. (Next to a man who’s probably 6 feet 5 inches tall, the nine Democratic contenders look dwarfish.) So far, he’s snapped pictures of himself with six candidates. This is easy to do in Iowa, where campaign events usually end with a ritual that resembles Picture Day at a Major League Baseball game, as voters line up to take snapshots of themselves and their children with the candidate du jour. The ninedwarfs.com blogger needs shots of Kerry, Carol Moseley Braun, and Bob Graham to complete his collection, but he fails in his mission at the Kerry barbecue. Instead, the next day he adds a picture of Kerry’s head on the body of a chicken to the top of his site.

Trifle with the blogosphere at your peril, Senator Kerry. (Here’s a link to the page, including the chicken photo and a blogged account of the event.) I’ll bet Howard Dean wouldn’t be afraid of a blogger. But then, Howard Dean is a blogger, of sorts.

UPDATE: Josh Fielek thinks that this picture of Kerry on a Harley will do him more harm than the one with the chicken. (“John, you may just have had your Dukakis moment. It’s the hair and the high-waters and the black socks. I do appreciate that you at least made the effort to get on the bike, but please, please, please put on some appropriate riding gear.”)

I think that when people are debating questions like that one, you need to work on buffing up the campaign.

STEVEN DEN BESTE responds to his critics.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BLOGGER: It’s “Pledge Week” over at Bill Quick’s.

I certainly appreciate his getting rid of the popup ads, so I guess I’ll donate.

MALARIA IN FLORIDA? Not actually a big story in itself, but a good indication of why this sort of public-health vigilance can never let up.

NOW WE’VE GOT BLOGGING WITNESSES. Why not?

WHILE MICKEY KAUS CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN STUBBORN SILENCE on the vital RX-8 question, I have been tirelessly looking into the matter.

I was passing by the Knoxville Mazda dealership today and stopped in to drive one. The first thing I noticed was the low-pressure salesmanship. In sharp contrast to my unfortunate experience with the Nissan 350Z a while back, they were happy to let me drive a car, and exerted no pressure to buy one on the spot, as so many dealers do.

I liked the car very much. The styling is somewhat Batmobile-like, but that’s a good thing, I think. The interior is surprisingly roomy — I even fit in the coupe’s backseat, which is accessed via “suicide” reverse-opening half doors that make getting in and out easy. I wouldn’t want to sit there for a long trip, but you could easily put two full-sized adults in there when going out for lunch, and there’s plenty of room for one or two kids. The stereo was excellent — the only car stereo I’ve heard at any price that matches the quality of the one in my Passat wagon, which for some reason is exceptionally good.

The model that I drove was the top-of-the-line “Grand Touring” model with 18-inch wheels, DVD navigation, etc. Adjusting the seat position, etc., was easy and intuitive (then again, I’ve owned two Mazdas in the past, a 1980 RX-7 and a 1993 MX-6). I didn’t use the DVD navigation system (I don’t think I’d ever buy one of those, anyway) but the climate and radio controls were easy and featured big, tactile knobs. The seats, in Mazda tradition, were very comfortable.

Shifting was delightful — short throws, very precise, very positive. The engine was powerful, though not as powerful as, say, the Infiniti G35 coupe. But the Mazda felt better. Steering was extremely taut and responsive, and the weight distribution is just about perfectly 50-50. It shows in the handling. The rotary engine had a very pleasant sound, though it lacked the mild almost-backfiring on deceleration that earlier rotaries had. Overall, the feel was quite similar to my 1980 RX-7 at some subliminal level, even though the new version is much more refined and powerful. I liked it a lot.

Weirdly, a spare tire is optional — the car doesn’t come with one, just with a repair kit. In a way this makes sense. I haven’t had to change a tire in well over a decade, even though I’ve had major nail punctures. Today’s tires seal that sort of thing pretty well. But still. . . .

I was pretty impressed. So is reader John Brothers who emails:

I have had the good luck and foresight to own one of the very first RX-8s in Atlanta. It is an incredibly fun car – although the manual is somewhat cramped for people over 5’10 – Luckily I have an automatic (I’m 6’1). It is nimble and sleek, gets lots of double takes and is hands down the best car I’ve ever driven.

Plus, it looks like a 944, which was my dream car when I was a kid.

I didn’t find the interior cramped (I drove a manual), and I’m six-three. But what does Mickey think?

UPDATE: Reader Jon Foster emails these thoughts on successful car-sales techniques:

When we went to look at the Protege 5 for the wife, we were driving around in it before the salesman actually asked us for our names. Several months later when we wanted to buy, he got the sale. I am looking at a Mazda 6 for myself, and believe me, he will get the sale again.

Wish all dealerships had such nice salesmen!

Yeah.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

A federal air marshal was fired and faces a felony assault charge after a June 8 incident in which police say he pulled his service weapon on two civilians during a parking space dispute at JFK International Airport in New York. The incident comes amid reports that more than 100 marshals have either left their jobs or been pulled from flight status and placed on paid administrative leave due to problems with the background investigations needed for their top secret security clearances.

But meanwhile the Homeland Security folks are dragging their feet on arming pilots. . . .

COLBY COSH is hard on sentimentalists. As usual!

Make the case, if you can, that human beings are not entitled to greater moral consideration than dolphins solely by virtue of being more intelligent (on average). But why, then, crusade for dolphins while neglecting the moray eel, the grouper and the sponge? Because dolphins are more like — us? It seems there is a Great Chain of Being after all.

Especially where fundraising is concerned.

A RECENT BRADY CAMPAIGN STUDY on illegal guns sales that used ATF figures is “misleading” — according to the ATF.

This isn’t acknowledged on the Brady Campaign’s site.