micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links

Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm.

Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net.

Holmquist's full archives are listed here.

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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)

Aljazeera.Net English
AlterNet (War on Iraq)
Alternative Press Review
Always Low Prices -- Always
Another Irani online
antiwar.com (blog)
Asia Times Online
Axis of Logic
Baghdad Burning (riverbend)
BBC News
blogdex.net ("track this weblog")
bobanddavid.com
BuzzFlash
The Christian Science Monitor (Daily Update)
Common Dreams
Cryptome
Cursor
Daily Rotten
DefenseLINK
Democracy Now
The Drudge Report
Eat the Press (Harry Shearer, The Huffington Post)
Empire Notes (Rahul Mahajan)
frontpagemag.com (HorowitzWatch)
globalsecurity.org
greenandwhite.com
Guardian Unlimited
Haaretz
The Independent
Information Clearing House
Informed Comment (Juan Cole)
Iranians for Peace

Iraq Dispatches (Dahr Jamail)
Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation
Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report (Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice)
MetaFilter
MLive
Mr. Show and Other Comedy
The Narco News Bulletin (blog)
NEWSMAKINGNEWS
The New York Times
Occupation Watch
Political Theory Daily Review
Press Action
Project Syndicate
Raed in the Middle (Raed Jarrar)
random-abstract.com
Reuters
Salon
The Simpsons Archive
Simpsons Collector Sector
Slate
Sploid
Technorati ("search for mth.blogspot.com")
thi3rdeye
United States Central Command
U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq
venezuelanalysis.com
War Report (Project on Defense Alternatives)
The Washington Post
Wildfire (Jo Wilding)
wood s lot
www.mnftiu.cc (David Rees)

Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development)

Thivai Abhor
As'ad AbuKhalil
Ken Adrian
Christopher Allbritton
Alli
Douglas Anders
Mark W. Anderson
Aziz Ansari
Atomic Archive
Bagatellen
James Benjamin
Elton Beard
Charlie Bertsch
alister black
Blame India Watch
Blixa
Blog Left: Critical Interventions Warblog / war blog
Igor Boog
Martin Butler
Chris Campbell
James M. Capozzola
Avedon Carol
Elaine Cassel
cats blog
Jeff Chang
Margaret Cho
Citizens Of Upright Moral Character
Louis CK
Les Dabney
Dack
Natalie Davis
Scoobie Davis
The Day Job
Jodi Dean
Dominic Duval
Steve Earle
Eli
Daniel Ellsberg
Tom Engelhardt
Lisa English
Faramin
Barbara Flaska
Brian Flemming
Joe Foster
Yoshie Furuhashi
Al Giordano
Glovefox
Rob Goodspeed
Grand Puba
Guardian Unlimited Weblog
Pete Guither
The Hairy Eyeball
Ray Hanania
Mark Hand
harveypekar.com
Hector Rottweiller Jr's Web Log Jim Henley Arvin Hill Hit & Run (Reason) Hugo Clark Humphrey Indri The Iraqi Agora Dru Oja Jay Jeff Lynne d Johnson Dallas Jones Julia Kane Blues Benjamin Kepple Ken Layne Phil Leggiere Brian Linse Adam Magazine Majority Report Radio Marc Maron Josh Marshall Jeralyn Merritt J.R. Mooneyham Michael Scott Moore Bob Morris Bob Mould Mr. Show and Tell Muslims For Nader/Camejo David Neiwert NewPages Weblog Aimee Nezhukumatathil Sean O'Brien Patton Oswalt The Panda's Thumb Randy Paul Rodger A. Payne Ian Penman politx Neal Pollack Greg Proops Pro-War.com Pure Polemics Seyed Razavi Rayne Simon Reynolds richardpryor.com Clay Richards Mike Rogers Yuval Rubinstein
Steven Rubio
Saragon Noah Shachtman Court Schuett The Simpsons Archive Amardeep Singh Sam Smith Soundbitten Jack Sparks Ian Spiers Morgan Spurlock Stand Down: The Left-Right Blog Opposing an Invasion of Iraq Aaron Stark Morgaine Swann Tapped (The American Prospect) tex Matthew Tobey Annie Tomlin Tom Tomorrow The University Without Condition Jesse Walker Warblogger Watch Diane Warth The Watchful Babbler The Weblog we have brains Matt Welch
Alex Whalen
Jon Wiener
Lizz Winstead
James Wolcott
Wooster Collective
Mickey Z

Friday, October 17, 2003
 
On Monday U.S. President George W. Bush said:
...for the contribution the Italian Americans have made to America, I say, thank you, we are grateful. But most of all, I ask God's blessings, not only of those of Italian descent, but ask God's blessings for all of us who are fortunate enough to live in the United States of America.
Damn those coalition partners to hell! Damn them to hell!

UPDATE: And while we're at, how about the Army? 10:19 p.m. 10/17/03

UPDATE #2: Three more things that amuse and/or enrage me...

1) In an American Forces Press Service story from Tuesday filed from Bagram, Afghanistan, Kelly Hunt writes:

In the hidden back trails of Bagram Air Base stands an Afghan compound, made by hand out of mud by local citizens -- a training site used by Bagram troops to prepare for urban combat.

Faced with the Army's need for soldiers to train even when in a remote area such as Afghanistan, the Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation joined forces with Anteon Inc. and developed a plan for MOUT -- Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain -- training facilities...

The Bagram site was finished in late September, said Staff Sgt. Jim Bagnell, 416th Engineer Command, Facility Engineer Team 28, who worked alongside Afghan workers to build the state-of-the-art compound. The training site resembles an Afghan village.

"It's unbelievable," said Bagnell. "The MOUT site looks like an Afghanistan compound. It offers the environment of Afghanistan." Adding to its sense of reality was the hands-on work of local craftsmen, he said.

2) The current issue of Imprimis reprints a speech entitled "What's Wrong with the CIA?" that Herbert E. Meyer gave last month as Hillsdale College. Meyer's answer is that the Central Intelligence Agency needs more people who read enough to think in the appropriate ways. Speaking about the C.I.A. analysts he worked with during his stints as the special assistant to the director of the C.I.A. and the vice chairman of the C.I.A.'s National Intelligence Council during about the Reagan Administration, Meyer says:
They read the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time or Newsweek, perhaps U.S. News & World Report, and occasionally the Economist. I rarely met anyone who read Commentary, National Review, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, or any other cutting-edge publication where the world’s leading thinkers expound their ideas and perceptions about the world.
3) Mike Szymanski of Zap2it.com says the new version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marcus Nispel) is better than the original, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), which is possible if unlikely since Hooper's picture wasn't all that good save for its unique look –something that is difficult to equal in a Hollywood production and context –something that can not be duplicated in 2003-, but Szymanski loses credibility by concluding with:
It's not for the squeamish, and it's not as bloody as "Kill Bill," but if you enjoyed that one, then go see one of the originals that inspired Quentin Tarantino and lots of other action and horror directors around today.
I'd say Szymanski probably also suggests seeing Battle Beyond the Stars (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980) to get a better understanding of the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960) but that makes a bit too much sense. 5:03 p.m. 10/18/03

UPDATE #3: One more...

In today's Guardian, Julie Burchill perhaps makes an argument of some kind in "White girl with attitude," but then again maybe she doesn't as I'm not sure what it was. Still there was this bit:

...any culture - be that gangsta rap or the Ku Klux Klan - that needs to use the word nigger fully to express itself is worthless. Lenny Bruce was the first alleged non-racist to insist that it was OK to use the word - his stand-up act in the 1950s featured a routine in which he repeated it over and over, in order to "remove" its power. I have always found this suspect, on many levels - first, the unbelievable arrogance of the man, believing that 15 minutes of drug-addled babble could wipe out centuries of pain; second, how many blacks were in his typical audience? Barely any, I'd wager, and the idea of a group of conceited, "cultured" whites tittering at this taboo-breaking is not an attractive one. Let's not forget, either, that Bruce was a total screw-up - he was a junkie, and I'd no more trust a junkie to make a reasonable judgment about what is appropriate than I would a slug.
Is it worth responding? No. 5:29 p.m. 10/18/03

UPDATE #4: Here are a few more...

Ungrateful ingrates!

***

Well at least he's honest.

***

"Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, commander of the Army's 3rd Corps, has told reporters American troops would be in Iraq for another troop rotation or even two. At the current pace of a turnover of troops every year, that could mean U.S. forces would be in Iraq until 2006," CBS News writes in a story from yesterday.

I have a hard time believing there are people who actually think the U.S. is going to leave on its own any time soon.

***

"Only those with beliefs can defeat those with beliefs," says Dennis Prager in an October 7 column. Seven days later Prager writes, "[W]e are... in the midst of the Second American Civil War."

***

Bush got into the following exchange on Thursday:

Q Yes. Indonesia is a moderate country, but the campaign against terrorism has invited much controversy between a small minority of militant groups and the more dominant militant groups -- moderate groups.

THE PRESIDENT: Moderate groups, yes.

Q The problem is that the militants have big opportunities to voice its interest, ideology and values, harming the process of (inaudible) and democratization in Indonesia. So what should be done?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it's very important for Indonesia to understand that -- first of all, to herald the nature of its moderate Islamic population, to make it clear to the world that, by far, the vast majority of the Muslims in that country value democracy and want to have a peaceful life. At the same time, it's very important not to allow a few killers to define Indonesia. And, therefore, there needs to be a focused, concerted effort to bring people to justice.

Now, one of the things I will thank the people from Thailand for, is we brought Hambali to justice. He's the guy that masterminded the Bali bombing. And by the way, Paul John, I was over in -- gosh, I can't even remember where it was, it was recently, where I met a mother and dad whose -- oh, this was in Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, when I was there to help this fellow running for governor, and a mom and dad came up to me, and said, we lost a twin daughter in the Bali bombing. This bombing struck a lot. It really hurt Australia. It hurts your own country.

And my point is, I'm going to continue to talk with Madam Megawati about this, that it is -- we cannot allow Indonesia to be defined by the hatred of a few. And that it's very important that we combine efforts, not just the United States with Indonesia, but all assets to help Ms. Megawatti bring the rest of the cells to justice, and prevent this from happening. It's unfortunate that a country have an attack. It should be viewed as an opportunity for people of goodwill to come together and prevent this from happening.

There is a -- Indonesia is a very important country. It's important because of its strategic location, it's important because of the nature of its population. It's important that this country succeed, and we look forward to working with Indonesia.

LOL 3:23 p.m. 10/19/03