micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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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 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 |
Friday, January 02, 2004
A real reason to hate Osama and other things While perhaps not as much fun as writing about "doing our best to make the Palestinians suffer," Glenn Reynolds talks about patriotism in this January 1 post: The CNN coverage was interesting, as the tone -- at least of the part I saw -- was quite unabashedly patriotic. They spent a good deal of time with a young man who was about to go off to Fort Benning, and many flags were in evidence. I noticed that the ceremonies seemed rather patriotic in tone, too, right down to the playing of "Proud to Be An American" just before midnight. You wouldn't have seen that a few years ago. . . .Now I have a legitimate reason to dislike like those motherfuckers in al Qaeda. I mean sure killing three thousand people isn't very nice but I didn't know any of them and probably wouldn't have gotten along with most. The fact that I have to deal with every idiot who's "proud to be an American" is personally distressing, on the other hand. So I say kill them all and let George C.W. Bush sort them out. *** There seems to always be a reason to laugh at Reynolds. Today he writes, "The quality is about like Super-8 -- not great, but not terrible." *** Pat "From Swinger to Saint" Robertson informed the audience of today's 700 Club that he recently had spent a great deal of time in prayer, which lead to the revelations that the presidential election in the United States will be a "blowout" this year because Bush is a "man of prayer" and that "God loves China." *** Pat on "the United States in end-times events." *** *** "Stop the Disease of Masturbation" *** In a December 31 AP story, Gavin Rabinowitz writes: Israel is looking for ways to gag a whistleblower who is due to be released from prison in the new year, fearing that he may have more nuclear secrets to disclose that will embarrass the government, officials said yesterday.I think we all know what would be said if this was being done by a country that Uncle Sam and/or God didn't care for. Bradley Burston of Haaretz reports on a new Israeli military refusals and raises my level of optimism slightly. *** *** "British troops will still be in Iraq on New Year's Day 2005, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said," BBC News writes. Hopefully nobody was expecting anything different. In a story from yesterday, Will Dunham of Reuters writes: The Pentagon is gearing up for a massive rotation of about a quarter million troops in and out of Iraq, a giant logistics chore complicated by concerns about opportunistic attacks targeting Americans as they arrive or depart.*** Helen Thomas on the assholes who run the U.S. more... *** Amos Harel and Arnon Regular of Haaretz write: A member of Sweden's parliament, arrested as he took part in a protest against the construction of the West Bank security barrier, is to be freed Thursday evening and fly home, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said.Although I'm opposed to both family and heritage, there are moments where I can say I take small amount of pride in my Swedish roots. *** Since Ralph Nader has said he won't run for president this year as the Green Party candidate, perhaps Dennis Kucinich should leave the Dems and carry that banner. It appears he would have some support. David Cobb, Paul Glover, Kent Mesplay, Carol Miller and Lorna Salzman have all announced they are seeking the nomination. *** Somebody has the right attitude.Robert Dreyfuss of The American Prospect on new para-military fun. *** Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" may be my favorite piece of writing ever. *** What was that shit about human rights and democracy and freedom? *** John Zarocostas of The Washington Times writes: Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, dismissing U.S. charges that Cuba is developing weapons of mass destruction as the words of a "liar," says Bush administration policies have made the risk of U.S. invasion "a real, present danger for us."Of course Castro's government has been saying this for a long time. More: Mr. Alarcon, a former foreign minister and one of the founders of the Cuban Revolution, took strong exception to remarks by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton.The similarity is probably lost on most. *** I suppose nobody wants to send me to "Three Minutes to Midnight: NPRI Symposium on the Impending Threat of Nuclear War." *** CBS News writes: The Energy Department is conducting a widespread review of security at America's nuclear weapons laboratories after reports of hundreds of missing keys, some of which could allow access to sensitive areas.Remember Bush had to invade Iraq to avoid a possible catastrophic attack on the U.S. and he is our president so he deserves respect. |