Hi there, !
Today Thu 10/11/2007 Wed 10/10/2007 Tue 10/09/2007 Mon 10/08/2007 Sun 10/07/2007 Sat 10/06/2007 Fri 10/05/2007 Archives
Rantburg
533711 articles and 1862065 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 85 articles and 484 comments as of 16:49.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Local News       
Tehran University student protest -- 'Death to the dictator'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
2 00:00 DarthVader [1] 
2 00:00 Matt [2] 
1 00:00 Bobby [2] 
2 00:00 eLarson [1] 
3 00:00 gromky [2] 
8 00:00 DMFD [] 
12 00:00 FOTSGreg [1] 
6 00:00 USN, Ret. [] 
4 00:00 Zenster [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
14 00:00 Zenster [5]
0 [4]
0 [2]
0 []
0 [2]
16 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
29 00:00 John F. Kerry [4]
7 00:00 Thomas Woof [1]
0 [2]
1 00:00 Helmuth, Speaking for Phuger4908 [1]
9 00:00 Zenster [3]
0 [1]
6 00:00 Zenster [4]
2 00:00 M. Murcek [3]
0 [2]
3 00:00 Redneck Jim [7]
5 00:00 Pappy [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [3]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
0 [2]
1 00:00 Frank G [4]
7 00:00 Iblis [6]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [4]
4 00:00 Linker [3]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola []
9 00:00 Oztralian [1]
5 00:00 mcsegeek1 [1]
11 00:00 Unereque Platypus5520 [1]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
1 00:00 Chunky Thrinens5401 [3]
4 00:00 mcsegeek1 []
2 00:00 Zenster [3]
17 00:00 Zenster [1]
1 00:00 gromgoru [1]
0 [3]
6 00:00 JohnQC [2]
8 00:00 Glenmore [1]
3 00:00 Zenster [5]
2 00:00 doc [4]
0 [6]
4 00:00 lotp [3]
151 00:00 Zenster [2]
9 00:00 JohnQC []
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
4 00:00 trailing wife [3]
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
6 00:00 treo [1]
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
0 [2]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
4 00:00 Penguin []
15 00:00 whatadeal []
1 00:00 Glenmore [5]
0 [1]
0 [1]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
1 00:00 gromky [2]
0 [3]
0 [3]
0 []
1 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [1]
1 00:00 JFM [1]
11 00:00 Barbara Skolaut []
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
3 00:00 Glumble Bourbon1068 [2]
1 00:00 Nimble Spemble [1]
0 [1]
10 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
6 00:00 RWV []
0 [1]
6 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [2]
4 00:00 JohnQC []
0 [3]
2 00:00 JohnQC []
5 00:00 SteveS [1]
Europe
A Dutch Retreat on Speech?
Posted by: ryuge || 10/08/2007 08:09 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What do you mean retreat?
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/08/2007 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, I see aris is here---lets go have some fun.
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/08/2007 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't feed the trolls, or give them attention, such as calling them by name. It's what they crave.
Posted by: gromky || 10/08/2007 11:45 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
‘Journalists’ Tell Howard Kurtz Why Good News from Iraq Shouldn’t Get Reported (updated w/video)
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 10/08/2007 12:41 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So when the war is "over" and there are fewer troops in Iraq than in Germany, then you'll report the "trend"?

"Yes, folks, it seems that the trend really was positive way back there in 2007, but we couldn't say anything about it until 2012 so we could be sure the trend was positive. Lord knows, we wouldn't want to mislead you!"

My wife gets the Washington Post. I don't read it, and will not as long as Robin Wright and her ilk keep making judgements about what 'news' is fit to print.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/08/2007 15:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Democrats: A People of Deceit
Nothing frightens those who peddle lies than the cold hard light of truth. They react to exposure of their deceits the way vampires react to a having a crucifix held up in front of them.

Ever since the birth of conservative talk radio and the internet ended the liberals’ total monopoly over the news, the left has been simmering with impotence -- over the loss of their absolute control over what the Americans are allowed to see and hear, and their inability to do anything about it.

Time and again left-wing attempts to sell the nation their shoddy goods have been frustrated when talk-radio hosts have taken to the airwaves and warned their millions of listeners that they were about to be taken to the cleaners.

It was not until the administration’s fatally flawed immigration reform bill that seemed destined for passage was derailed by army of angry voters recruited by talk radio hosts and conservative internet websites that the left understood both the incredible power of the new media and their utter helplessness in the face of it.

Clearly something had do be done, they thought. So the left, led by the slimy Media Matters organization, began a counterattack using the liberals’ favorite weapon – the lie.

An innocuous remark by Fox’s Bill O’Reilly praising a famous Harlem restaurant was taken out of context by the liberal mainstream media which tried to ignite a firestorm, but the public wasn’t buying.

Then, when Rush Limbaugh spoke about men falsely claiming to be veterans of the Iraq war such as one, Jesse MacBeth, who told a pack of lies about his non-existent service in Iraq and whose deception had already been exposed days earlier by ABC's Charlie Gibson and Brian Ross, the left jumped on Rush falsely claiming that his attack on such phony soldiers was an attack on all Iraq war vets who criticize the war.

As Fox’s John Gibson said: “When MoveOn stepped on its own toes sliming Gen. Petraeus, [David] Brock of Media Matters swung into action looking for a conservative who would say something that could take the focus off MoveOn.

“Enter Rush Limbaugh and the ‘phony soldier’ discussion.” As Gibson noted, Media Matters was so anxious to get the stink off MoveOn they made up the Rush controversy.

It was a patently obvious lie – few Americans have been more supportive of the U.S. military than Rush Limbaugh – and, shamefully, Democrats such as Sen. Harry Reid who had to know how false the charge was, quickly bought into it.

The whole incident shows just how desperate the liberals have become. Without the new media to keep an eye on them, their failure to accomplish their stated goals since winning control of the Congress would have been covered up by the subservient mainstream media.

Those of us in talk radio and the internet are the left’s worst nightmare – our monitoring of their activities had been shining the light of truth on their attempts to deceive the nation, and their current assault on the new media is failing as a result.

Like all Marxists, the leftists won’t stop trying to lie their way into power. As a result, they won’t stop trying to destroy the new media. First it was Bill O’Reilly, then it was Rush Limbaugh and who knows who’ll be next – Laura Ingraham, Mike Savage, me?

You can be certain they’ll find a new target, and just as certain that they’ll keep pushing for a new “fairness doctrine” or some other way to silence the opposition. And you can be certain that whatever target they pick they’ll be lying through their teeth when they attack.

They can’t help themselves. The truth is not in them.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/08/2007 16:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oops! Sorry Fred. Should be under Opinion.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/08/2007 16:50 Comments || Top||

#2  The dhimocrats are Stalin's heirs.

'nuff said.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/08/2007 17:42 Comments || Top||


Is Hillary tough enough?
"Chicago Boyz"

Tom Smith is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of Hillary Clinton as president. I am not so optimistic.

Hillary is a person of bad character, and people of bad character tend to be unreliable. Being single-minded and vindictive toward domestic political adversaries who pose no physical threat is hardly the same thing as being bold and resolute toward ruthless external enemies who are killing Americans almost every day. She may be too risk-averse and unprincipled to stick to her guns. Bush has made many mistakes but he also has the strength of character and simple courage to pursue, against much opposition, the course that he thinks is correct. Does Hillary? I don't know. I suspect that she does not, at least not to the extent of some of the other candidates. I don't want to have to find out.

Leaders and voters in democratic countries are sometimes tempted to put unscrupulous people into positions of authority, under the belief that such people will not hesitate to do what has to be done in tough situations. But unscrupulous people, by definition, have their own agendas, and it is a delusion to believe that they will provide some kind of short cut around the hard work, hard choices and pain of winning a war. We are better off electing strong, forthright, principled people.
Posted by: Mike || 10/08/2007 06:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fox news ran a snippet this morning about Hillary being asked a question by someone at a forum in Iowa yesterday. Aparantly she didn't like the question as she blew up at the guy, raising her voice and giving him an ugly look. She is not fit to preside over this country.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/08/2007 7:38 Comments || Top||

#2  When I hear or read about Hillary's gaining ground, I always think that someone in her campaign has the responsibility to boost her ratings. This person prolly calls the polster and offers bribe money for Hillary gains. In other words, the bitch forces her people to cheat to keep her off their backs.
Her natural personality would be better suited for dictator or mafia don, or some other ring kissing position.
Posted by: wxjames || 10/08/2007 8:04 Comments || Top||

#3  If only it were that simple, wxjames. You know, I used to read quite a lot on late Roman empire, and I used to think "How could they be so dumb?".
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/08/2007 8:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I can't do 4 years of that Wicked Witch of the West screeching, reeking of phoniness cackle.
I'd rather take an ice pick in the eye...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/08/2007 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Big Sister is only tough on her enemies [Republicans, Independents, non neo-marxists, etc*]. There is but one true faith and that is hers, all others are heretical. Internal enemies are dealt with harsher because external [international] enemies can't directly undermine Big Sister's power.


*etc = "vast right wing conspiracy" [And Big Sister can prove through geometric logic that there were another set of keys to the strawberry locker.]
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/08/2007 10:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe she needs a catchphrase.

Like "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 10/08/2007 11:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Tough does not equal bitchy.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/08/2007 16:11 Comments || Top||

#8  The Clintons regard terrorism as a law enforcement problem. That didn't work when Bill was president and ultimately led to 9/11.
Posted by: DMFD || 10/08/2007 19:31 Comments || Top||


Craig's stance untenable
Sen. Larry Craig would like to rewind the tape of the past several months, and respond differently to the embarrassing events that threaten his political career. But a Minnesota judge has shot down the Idaho Republican's only chance for a do-over, ruling that Craig can't retract the guilty plea he entered in August to a charge of disorderly conduct. Craig can't change the past - which means he has no future in the Senate.

Craig insists he's the victim of a misunderstanding at best, or entrapment at worst. If he's sincere about that, he has made the wrong moves at every turn. He should have objected strongly to his arrest in June, when he was accused of soliciting sex in a restroom at the Minneapolis airport. He should have fought a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, rather than pleading guilty in August. He should have insisted on his fitness to serve in the Senate, rather than saying he would resign if his attempt to overturn his guilty plea was denied.

Craig did not begin acting like the victim of an injustice until no other option remained. Instead, he has given the appearance of a man who is always looking for the easy way out: not standing up to a criminal charge he now claims was unfair, entering a plea he now says was false, hoping the whole episode would never come to light and then, at last, posing as the party who has been wronged. Now Craig says he will stay in the Senate, both to clear his name and to represent the people of Idaho.

It's not clear how Craig can do either. The disorderly conduct rap remains on Craig's record, and his chances of having it expunged are dim - his first attempt has now been rebuffed, and Craig signed documents indicating that he understood what he was doing when he entered his plea of guilty. Craig's Republican colleagues have stripped him of his leadership positions in the Senate, markedly reducing his opportunities to influence legislation on his constituents' behalf. The embarrassment for Craig, his party, his state and the Senate won't subside any time soon, because the Ethics Committee is conducting a preliminary inquiry that will keep the story alive.
Posted by: Fred || 10/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Entrapment isn't illegal, as long as the targets are persons with a clear intent on law-breaking. The police unit whose member arrested Craig, acted on public complaints of serial offenses in the location they chose to work. If there is something wrong with a cop doing his job, then there is something wrong with a society where a majority that thinks that way.
Posted by: McZoid || 10/08/2007 4:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Craig can't change the past - which means he has no future in the Senate.

Which is good news! How quickly can we chuck the remaining 99 into the dustbin of history?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/08/2007 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Craig's stance untenable

I thought it was wide?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/08/2007 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Posted by: Senator Teddy Kennedy || 10/08/2007 10:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Welcome to the Burg, Teddy. Would you like a drink?
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/08/2007 12:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Word is that today it was announced that Craig is going into Idado's Hall of Fame. No word if the walls extend to the floor.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/08/2007 14:19 Comments || Top||


Iraq
DEFEND OUR MARINES
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 10/08/2007 16:23 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Truth is hardly ever as interesting as fiction. That's why the MSM never looks back.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/08/2007 17:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Al Qaeda Guy 1: "OK, Omar, I understand the plan: we're going to make it look like a massacre and then give the story to the infidel reporters. But lemme ask you this: suppose we go to all this trouble - how do we know the infidel reporters are going to make a big deal over it?"

Al Qaeda Guy No. 2: (rolls on floor in convulsive laughter)

Al Qaeda Guy No. 1: "Yeah, I know, sometimes I just crack myself up."
Posted by: Matt || 10/08/2007 18:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arab skepticism about "peace" conference rising
While certain Arab countries are preparing to attend the Middle East peace scheduled for November, the countries on the front line in the struggle against Israel are saying they doubt the conference will produce any positive results.
Naturally, this is the Teheran Times opinion. As usual, I'm struck by the fact that Iran and its puppet states — Syria, Hezbollah, and Paleostine — never actually evince any desire for peace (the quotes around the word are in the original headline). They'll reference the peace process or peace talks or what have you, but never peace itself. Notice also that giving in to their Just Demands™ and letting them exercise their Legitimate Rights™ still won't lead to peace. Negotiations, in this mind set, are merely a method of getting things, rather like raiding. Once the things are gotten, the "peace processor" can be fed some more demands. All parties concerned are quite aware of the cynicism of the process, with one side hoping that someday the other side will see the light, and the other side hoping that someday the other side drops dead and rots...
Palestine, the alleged focus of the Arab-Israeli peace talks, is experiencing very difficult times. With the Zionist army’s intensified assaults on unarmed civilians in Gaza and over 50,000 Palestinian fighters on alert to respond to Israeli attacks, the future of Palestine looks bleak.

The escalation of the conflict between the Fatah movement, led by Mahmoud Abbas, and the Hamas movement, led by Ismail Haniya, has divided Palestine into two rival blocs, which is one of the goals the Zionist regime has always pursued. Israel is making efforts to intensify the conflict in order to weaken the Hamas Islamic resistance movement and to bring about the physical and political elimination of Hamas at the hands of its rival, Fatah, with the long-term goal of removing from the scene all of Palestine’s dedicated Islamic-nationalist leaders in the political and military spheres.

Israel and the Fatah movement have imposed an economic embargo on Gaza, and this has divided Palestinian society into supporters and opponents of the Palestinian Authority. If it were not for the Hamas leaders’ vigilance and patience, a full-scale civil war would have already broken out in Palestine.

In such an atmosphere, the participation of Palestinians in the Middle East peace conference will not lead to the desired results. History has shown that every decision that would secure the Palestinians’ inalienable rights is always rejected by Israel. In addition, there is never any mechanism to enforce decisions made at such conferences.

In the 1993 Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians, it was agreed that Palestine would become an independent state in 2005, but the Zionist regime still refused to implement this article of the accord and a few others. Clearly, Israel will never give any concessions to the Arabs as long as the momentum of events in the region is not in favor of Arab countries.

Meanwhile, Syria has recently announced that it will not attend the Middle East conference if the occupation of the Golan Heights is not on the agenda. The Syrian leadership has also criticized international organizations, including the United Nations, for their silence in regard to the recent escalation of violence, saying it tacitly gives Israel a green light to continue its aggression against regional Arab countries.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has warned about Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the occupied territories, adding that lasting peace can never be established in the region as long as excavations in the environs of the Al-Aqsa Mosque continue.

Other Arab countries that have announced their intention to attend the conference only have secondary roles in the Arab-Israeli conflict. When important players like Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria are skeptical about the prospects for the conference, the participation of other Arab countries will not have much effect on the Middle East peace process.

In light of the fact that Israel has refused to implement over 180 UN Security Council resolutions about the situation in Palestine, it can be predicted that the Zionist regime will most likely refuse to accept the decisions made at the upcoming peace conference. Israel wants to establish diplomatic relations with Arab countries without giving them any concessions, and that is the real reason it is so keen to attend this so-called peace conference. And the U.S. neocons want to use the Middle East peace conference as a propaganda tool for the 2008 presidential election campaign.

With all of the participants seeking their own interests, at the expense of the Palestinians, it seems that the front line Arab states’ skepticism about the conference is justified
Posted by: Fred || 10/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  D *** NG IT, Stwangez - apparently some SOKOR's have similar doubts/skepticism about the US-led reactor disablement deal wid NORTH KOREA. plus NK's intentions again as to SK-NK rapprochement and reunification.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/08/2007 3:01 Comments || Top||

#2  You mean members of that ethnicity of pathological liars and duplicitous back-stabbers, doesn't trust us?
Posted by: McZoid || 10/08/2007 3:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Arab peace conference = Hudna

Islamophobia = myth
Posted by: Thrusort Speaking for Boskone9814 || 10/08/2007 4:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Notice also that giving in to their Just Demands™ and letting them exercise their Legitimate Rights™ still won't lead to peace.

Nor will it ever and intentionally so for that matter. Peace and prosperity are the very last thing that Islamic leaders want. These two vital components of the civilized world are regarded as leading Muslims astray from the path of jihad by distracting them with such sinful worldly pleasures as contentment and a full stomach.

The West desperately needs to abandon all hope of Islam ever "seeing the light". A death cult has no such desire, not ever. Islam thrives upon darkness, lack of transparency, corruption and deceit. Wishing it were otherwise and even worse—leading by example—only reduces the chances of success. Islam and its succubus handmaiden—shari'a law—must be hammered into dust if the Western world wants to see even a vestige of civilization take root in the MME (Muslim Middle East).
Posted by: Zenster || 10/08/2007 12:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Jules Crittenden: Happy Columbus Day
James Carroll at Boston Globe, All glasses half full, all silver linings cloudy. Put another way:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
America sucks
And so do you.

Carroll's quick summage of American suckage through history -- actually relatively upbeat as Carroll's America takes go -- and in the GWOT leaves out a couple of factors that make this a happy holiday. . . .

Columbus Day celebrates the arrival of Europeans in the New World, which critics note marked the onset of a lot of death, power shifts, slavery and domination of the continent by new ethnic groups. Essentially, a continuation of history as usual as far as the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia were concerned, all of which had practiced those things repeatedly. Only in the Americas, an acceleration of history, something different.

From this complex, sometimes disturbing history of boldness, vision, determination, misery, blood and hope in the cauldron of New World, emerged the greatest nation history has seen, founded on noble ideas, some of which we are still finetuning. An example to the rest of the world, which is still having trouble with a lot of the basics. Happy Columbus Day.

Anyway, Carroll, if you believe the European occupation of North America was such a bad thing, I respect your views, but you really need to act on your convictions: Find a hole in the Auld Sod to crawl into and divorce yourself from oppressive institutions of the European occupation of North America such as the Boston Globe. It's the only moral choice.
Posted by: Mike || 10/08/2007 12:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  James Carroll is the guy the Globe keeps around to make Derrick Z. Jackson seem sane...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/08/2007 13:11 Comments || Top||

#2 
Anyway, Carroll, if you believe the European occupation of North America was such a bad thing, I respect your views, but you really need to act on your convictions: Find a hole in the Auld Sod to crawl into and divorce yourself from oppressive institutions of the European occupation of North America such as the Boston Globe. It's the only moral choice.
Having seen the likes of Carroll's mindset in action and having been able to ask other holders about it, I believe Carroll is doing this as a means of assuaging his own perceived culpability. Therefore it is positively necessary that he stay here. To move back to Ye Olde Country would be counterproductive to The Struggle, man.
Posted by: eLarson || 10/08/2007 14:20 Comments || Top||


Where can I take an ethical holiday?
How can you be sure your presence will make a difference? Check before you leave that the region is rich in beggars, and take plenty of small change.
Summer's upon us, and if you're anything like me, you're already dreaming of some ethical sun and sand. Which destinations are the top sustainable choices this year, and what's the most ethical way of getting there? My postbag bulges with enquiries from readers who don't want their annual getaway ruined by feelings of guilt.

Well, people, my first tip is: relax. Just the fact that you're thinking about the environmental impact of your actions means you're already more ethical than a person on a package flight to Dubai. I'm guessing that your new holiday wardrobe is 100% organic, your sun-cream's Fairtrade, and even your buckets and spades are vintage: well done.

Next question: Is it ethical to fly? Well, yes and no. There's no denying the 10 tonnes of CO2 your average family getaway will contribute to global warming. But, increasingly, responsible travellers are turning the question around and asking: is it ethical not to fly? Fact is, examined from a holistic perspective, there's no comparison between the amount of real good you can do in two weeks outside Falmouth, and the incredible impact that just a couple of days of your presence might have in a place like Burkina Faso.

In my view it's all too easy to holiday in this country - drive to Norfolk, show everyone how green you are - but much, much harder to fly some place where the economy would literally collapse without you. Last year, Rowan and I took the tough decision to take the kids to a remote atoll in the Indian Ocean, travelling for an arduous three days each way - but believe me, the knowledge that without us our cook and three maids would have been peeling yams for a living more than made up for the disapproving looks when our friends found out where we'd been. And here's another tip: if, like us, you've got talkative kids, why not just tell them the atoll's called Bournemouth?

How can you be sure your presence will make a difference? Check before you leave that the region is rich in beggars, and take plenty of small change. If orphans are plentiful, think of combining your sunshine or safari holiday with a fast-track adoption. Once you've completed the paperwork, you'll have the child as a permanent reminder of your break. Try Guatemala, or head for Madonna's favourite, sunny Mali.

Alternatively, you could leave a few hours of your trip free for some unpaid work as a goodwill ambassador. The high cost of insuring celebrities means that, increasingly, amateurs are volunteering to visit places that might never, otherwise, see a concerned westerner, let alone a Powerpoint presentation on climate change. Find an area where you can swim in the morning and visit people with malaria in the afternoon, and you may even, like us, pick up some sponsorship from your local school.

Even the most unethical-sounding holiday can be turned round with a bit of thought. Heading for China? Pack your suitcase with ready-sorted recyclables which would otherwise have travelled there by sea, then fill up with Fairtrade shopping for the return journey. Fancy New York? Manhattan's just the place to repatriate a North American crayfish.

Finally, if you want something closer to home, try Monte Carlo. With all amenities squeezed into a country not much bigger than Bath, trust me: you'll end up guzzling less petrol on an ethical gambling break than on shuttling between Southwold and Aldeburgh. Bon ethical voyage!
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/08/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll rent a Hummer and drive up for the Indy 500.

Gaia's my bitch!
Posted by: badanov || 10/08/2007 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Ethical holiday? If you are looking for a respite from ethics, Congress is hard to beat.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/08/2007 0:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Terrific parody. From the Guardian no less.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/08/2007 0:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Hummer uses less fuel.
Posted by: 3dc || 10/08/2007 2:00 Comments || Top||

#5  It'll be Walvis Bay for me.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/08/2007 7:37 Comments || Top||

#6  My vacation this year shall be an unethical vacation. Think Col. Kurtz' compound.....
Posted by: Mark E. || 10/08/2007 9:13 Comments || Top||

#7  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Modern_Parents
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/08/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||

#8  "Last year, Rowan and I took the tough decision to take the kids to a remote atoll in the Indian Ocean, travelling for an arduous three days each way - but believe me, the knowledge that without us our cook and three maids would have been peeling yams for a living more than made up for the disapproving looks when our friends found out where we'd been."

-there were so many money quotes to choose from, this just happened to be my particular favorite. I'd of sworn this was scrappleface or the onion.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 10/08/2007 11:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Here's an "ethical" holiday. Why not take your children on a tour of your own country and carefully instruct them about its history, the people who gave their lives to defend it and why living in a free nation is so damned important? Visit a few military cemeteries and pay your repects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for your liberty. Try instilling some pride of place and sense of history into your kids. Give them an understanding of why the fight against tyranny and despotism is so important. Make them proud of their heritage and give them the precious gift of historical perspective without which so much of critical analysis is near-impossible.

Screw the idiocy of being crammed into cattle-car airliners and travelling thousands of miles so you can get the trots from unhygienic food and drink in some third world hellhole. Stop leaving thousands of dollars in some foreigner's pockets and, instead, direct that wealth back into the hands of your fellow nationals. I mean what's the point of being treated like sheep. What's the point of going abroad if you're just another tourist carted around in buses surrounded by sweaty mindless oafs from Kettering and Coventry in their cloth caps and their cardigans and their transistor radios and their Sunday Mirrors, complaining about the tea - "Oh they don't make it properly here, do they, not like at home" - and stopping at Majorcan bodegas selling fish and chips and Watney's Red Barrel and calamares and two veg and sitting in their cotton frocks squirting Timothy White's suncream all over their puffy raw swollen purulent flesh 'cos they "overdid it on the first day."

And being herded into endless Hotel Miramars and Bellvueses and Continentales with their modern international luxury roomettes and draught Red Barrel and swimming pools full of fat German businessmen pretending they're acrobats forming pyramids and frightening the children and barging into queues and if you're not at your table spot on seven you miss the bowl of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, the first item on the menu of International Cuisine, and every Thursday night the hotel has a bloody cabaret in the bar, featuring a tiny emaciated dago with nine-inch hips and some bloated fat tart with her hair brylcreemed down and a big arse presenting Flamenco for Foreigners.

And then some adenoidal typists from Birmingham with flabby white legs and diarrhoea trying to pick up hairy bandy-legged wop waiters called Manuel and once a week there's an excursion to the local Roman Remains to buy cherryade and melted ice cream and bleeding Watney's Red Barrel and one evening you visit the so called typical restaurant with local colour and atmosphere and you sit next to a party from Rhyl who keep singing "Torremolinos, torremolinos" and complaining about the food - "It's so greasy isn't it?" - and you get cornered by some drunken greengrocer from Luton with an Instamatic camera and Dr. Scholl sandals and last Tuesday's Daily Express and he drones on and on about how Mr. Smith should be running this country and how many languages Enoch Powell can speak and then he throws up over the Cuba Libres.

And sending tinted postcards of places they don't realise they haven't even visited to "All at number 22, weather wonderful, our room is marked with an 'X'. Food very greasy but we've found a charming little local place hidden away in the back streets where they serve Watney's Red Barrel and cheese and onion crisps and the accordionist plays 'Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner'." And spending four days on the tarmac at Luton airport on a five-day package tour with nothing to eat but dried BEA-type sandwiches and you can't even get a drink of Watney's Red Barrel because you're still in England and the bloody bar closes every time you're thirsty and there's nowhere to sleep and the kids are crying and vomiting and breaking the plastic ash-trays and they keep telling you it'll only be another hour although your plane is still in Iceland and has to take some Swedes to Yugoslavia before it can load you up at 3 a.m. in the bloody morning and you sit on the tarmac till six because of "unforeseen difficulties", i.e. the permanent strike of Air Traffic Control in Paris - and nobody can go to the lavatory until you take off at 8, and when you get to Malaga airport everybody's swallowing "enterovioform" and queuing for the toilets and queuing for the armed customs officers, and queuing for the bloody bus that isn't there to take you to the hotel that hasn't yet been finished. And when you finally get to the half-built Algerian ruin called the Hotel del Sol by paying half your holiday money to a licensed bandit in a taxi you find there's no water in the pool, there's no water in the taps, there's no water in the bog and there's only a bleeding lizard in the bidet. And half the rooms are double booked and you can't sleep anyway because of the permanent twenty-four-hour drilling of the foundations of the hotel next door - and you're plagues by appalling apprentice chemists from Ealing pretending to be hippies, and middle-class stockbrokers' wives busily buying identical holiday villas in suburban development plots just like Esher, in case the Labour government gets in again, and fat American matrons with sloppy-buttocks and Hawaiian-patterned ski pants looking for any mulatto male who can keep it up long enough when they finally let it all flop out. And the Spanish Tourist Board promises you that the raging cholera epidemic is merely a case of mild Spanish tummy, like the previous outbreak of Spanish tummy in 1660 which killed half London and decimated Europe - and meanwhile the bloody Guardia are busy arresting sixteen-year-olds for kissing in the streets and shooting anyone under nineteen who doesn't like Franco. And then on the last day in the airport lounge everyone's comparing sunburns, drinking Nasty Spumante, buying cartons of duty free "cigarillos" and using up their last pesetas on horrid dolls in Spanish National costume and awful straw donkeys and bullfight posters with your name on "Ordoney, El Cordobes and Brian Pules of Norwich" and 3-D pictures of the Pope and Kennedy and Franco, and everybody's talking about coming again next year and you swear you never will although there you are tumbling bleary-eyed out of a tourist-tight antique Iberian airplane ...


Posted by: Zenster || 10/08/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Ah, Zenster, another fan of Monty Python, I see!
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 10/08/2007 12:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Just the fact that you're thinking about the environmental impact of your actions means you're already more ethical than a person on a package flight to Dubai. I'm guessing that your new holiday wardrobe is 100% organic, your sun-cream's Fairtrade, and even your buckets and spades are vintage: well done.

Ah, the central argument of the enviro-wackos in a nutshell: "See, we're better than you!"
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/08/2007 12:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Every 10 years or so I get to take a vacation which I do driving across this wonderful, beautiful, enormous United States of America.

The last time I started out from Antioch, CA, drove up to Cheyenne, WY, dropped down to Denver, CO, went across to Colby, KS, then dropped down to Dodge City, KS, then on to Oklahoma City, OK and on up to St Louis, MO then on to Columbus, OH. Along that route I visited Dodge City and saw the show, found a place in Oklahoma I'd love to retire to on the banks of a little river, spent 2 days visiting the 1st Infantry Division Museum, and spent some quality time with some old friends in Ohio. On the way back I took a couple days and visited some friends at Fort Riley and the 1st Cavalry Museum (which they arranged to keep open for me after hours) before returning home. Round trip was 15 days and around 7 thousand miles.

I've previously visited Gettysburg, Stones River/Murfreesboro, the Cowboy Museum, the Barbed Wire Museum, been to the National Rodeo, Washington, D.C. (in my elementary school days), eaten the best chili I ever had at a little roadside rest about 20 miles west of Albuquerque, and made friends in a lot of little places across this country.

Eventually, I'd like to visit Belize and Japan, but for sheer enjoyment and refreshment of the knowledge of what this country is all about, nothing beats a driving vacation.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 10/08/2007 17:14 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
43[untagged]
7Global Jihad
5Govt of Iran
5Iraqi Insurgency
4Hamas
4Hezbollah
4Taliban
2Govt of Syria
2al-Qaeda
2Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Pakistan
1IRGC
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
1Palestinian Authority
1Fatah
1Thai Insurgency

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-10-08
  Tehran University student protest -- 'Death to the dictator'
Sun 2007-10-07
  Support network in Pakistan accused of helping Taliban, others sneak across border to attack U.S
Sat 2007-10-06
  Paleo arrestfest as Hamas, Fatah detain each other's cadres
Fri 2007-10-05
  Korean leaders agree to end war
Thu 2007-10-04
  US-led team to oversee N. Korea nuclear disablement
Wed 2007-10-03
  3 die in explosion at Hamas HQ
Tue 2007-10-02
  Bhutto may allow US military strike
Mon 2007-10-01
  Hamas renews call for cease-fire with Israel
Sun 2007-09-30
  Indian troops corner rebels in Kashmir mosque
Sat 2007-09-29
  Court Lets Perv Run for President
Fri 2007-09-28
  AQI #3 Abu Usama al Tunisi bites the dust
Thu 2007-09-27
  Over 100 Taliban killed in Afghanistan
Wed 2007-09-26
  NWFP govt calls for army's help
Tue 2007-09-25
  Hezbollah, Allies Scuttle Leb Presidential Vote
Mon 2007-09-24
  Pakistan police round up Musharraf opponents


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.138.105.124
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (17)    WoT Background (29)    Non-WoT (19)    Local News (11)    (0)