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.
Archives
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 |
Thursday, September 30, 2004
I'm not watching tonight's debate (why put quotes around the word when it magnificently represents the event) because I don't want to be incited into destroying the television. UPDATE: I gave in and watched. I'm glad I did because, when you get right down to it, 90 minutes of "I can fight a better 'war on terror'" is what life is about. I could say a lot, but what sticks out is that Bush actually said Negroponte plays a role in decision making for Iraq. I'm not shocked that this is the case, just that Bush said it. 10:56 p.m. 09/30/04 Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Via Oread Daily, here's an interesting collection of statements on the status of women in Afghanistan. *** *** Monday, September 27, 2004
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Michigan State 30 Indiana 20. Indiana was up 20-7 at halftime yesterday. The second half went better. *** I recently had a dream where I awoke up from sleep and was alarmed that Chris and Bubba, my beloved stuffed primates of over 20 years, weren't on my bed. I went looking for them and was relieved to find them sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me to pour cereal and milk for them. Saturday, September 25, 2004
Friday, September 24, 2004
"The death toll from flooding in north-western Haiti in the wake of tropical storm Jeanne has risen to more than 1,000, local and UN officials say," the BBC writes (September 23). Thursday, September 23, 2004
Laura Ingraham (townhall.com, September 22) on the evil of athletes who are cursed with not being from America being happy that their team won even if their opponent is from the U.S. of A! Ingraham's piece is the funniest thing produced this week that didn't come from someone who doesn't have the job of pretending to be in charge of a country. I mean what is it going to take to get these stupid non-Americans to recognize reality and hate themselves because they are not Americans. Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
President Bush's United Nation speech today was fine comedy: Since the last meeting of this General Assembly, the people of Iraq have regained sovereignty. Today, in this hall, the Prime Minister of Iraq and his delegation represent a country that has rejoined the community of nations.I wonder why they left. Also, saying Iraq is now sovereign is like saying Iraq was democratic under Saddam. Monday, September 20, 2004
CBS says it cannot verify the Bush National Guard documents. This doesn't speak well for journalism at CBS, but a far more damning fact about the entire joke of a mainstream news media is that this is a bigger story than the failure of any reporters at these institutions to question the claims from the Bush Administration that Saddam's regime posed a threat to the God's favorite country. Sunday, September 19, 2004
Notre Dame beat Michigan State, 31-24, yesterday. This was the fifth straight football game between these teams decided by 7 points or less. That said, Michigan State played an awful game, giving up six turnovers. Saturday, September 18, 2004
Lovely and happy Iraq needs a new national anthem Iraq is all smiles now and the future, according to a report in Friday's Guardian by Gary Younge, things have long been expected to just keep getting better and better: President George Bush was warned in July that Iraq could descend into all-out civil war, according to a classified estimate which summarised the views of a number of US intelligence agencies.Patrick Cockburn had this to say in today's Independent: Where freedom was promised, chaos and carnage now reign. A suicide bomber in a car blows himself up in the heart of Baghdad killing 13 people. Air raids by US near the city of Fallujah kill scores more. And so ends one of the bleakest weeks in Iraq's grim recent history.It is high time the Iraqis suck it up and get their act together by adopting Steve Earle's "Some Dreams" as their new national anthem, because Iraqis need to thinking along the lines of: 'Cause some dreams don't ever come trueThere you have it! Friday, September 17, 2004
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Monday, September 13, 2004
Alex and Emma (Meathead, 2003) isn't a great movie but the sequence towards the end where Emma (Kate Hudson) goes back to her dresser to get some additional undergarmets is wonderful. Sunday, September 12, 2004
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Your humble blogger obsserved a sign with the above statement less than nine hours ago in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Friday, September 10, 2004
the party party has Bush singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday." *** In an AP story from yesterday, Robert H. Reid writes: American warplanes struck militant positions in two insurgent-controlled cities Thursday and U.S. and Iraqi troops quietly took control of a third in a sweeping crackdown following a spike in attacks against U.S. forces.*** "US forces launched new attacks yesterday in the towns of Fallujah and Tal Afar, which they say are havens for foreign militant fighters, killing at least 30 Iraqis, according to doctors," Luke Baker writes in today's The Age. "Doctors in Fallujah said at least eight people were killed and 16 wounded. Doctor Rafi Hayad said half of those killed and injured were children. In Tal Afar, a town west of Mosul, which the US says is a haven for foreign militants crossing from Syria, doctors said at least 17 people were killed and 51 wounded in heavy fighting." *** " A senior U.S. Army general who investigated the abusive treatment of prisoners in Iraq said yesterday that the CIA may have avoided registering up to 100 detainees in U.S. military facilities, a number far higher than the eight cases that Army officials had previously cited," Bradley Graham and Josh White write in today's Washington Post. "The disclosure by Gen. Paul J. Kern at a Senate hearing stunned lawmakers, who grew more aggravated as they heard Kern and another general involved in the probe describe their own unsuccessful efforts to obtain documents from the CIA about the unregistered prisoners, known as 'ghost detainees.' The Geneva Conventions generally require countries to register prisoners so their treatment can be monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross." Thursday, September 09, 2004
At least we are safe! "In the first attack late on Tuesday, US jets fired several missiles on Falluja, killing four people and wounding 11 others. A hospital spokesman said that a child and an elderly man were among the dead," Aljazeera.net writes today. In another story published today, the AP writes: While America mourns the deaths of more than 1,000 of its sons and daughters in the Iraq campaign, far more Iraqis have died since the United States invaded in March 2003. No official, reliable figures exist, but private estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 killed across the nation."Iraqi officials demanded to know yesterday why so little international attention was being given to their numerous dead as the US mourned the death of 1,000 soldiers since the invasion of Iraq," Patrick Cockburn writes in today's Independent. Wednesday, September 08, 2004
"The number of US military personnel killed in Iraq reached 1,000 yesterday," Luke Harding and Sophie Arie write in today's Guardian, but, according to AFP, Uncle Sam's finest aren't bothered by this number (September 7): "There's one word you have to push back at them. Gettsburg: 63,000 killed in a single day," said Sergeant Kimberly Snow, 35, from Ohio, refering to the US civil war battle.Yeah, if 63,000 people didn't die in a single day, it is NOT a tragedy. *** "A British soldier was charged yesterday with the murder of an Iraqi civilian, the first to appear before a criminal court since the invasion of the country," Richard Norton-Taylor writes in today's Guardian. "Kevin Lee Williams, 21, a trooper with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, appeared at Bow Street magistrates court in London, charged with the murder of Hassan Said on August 3 last year in Ad Dayr, southern Iraq." *** "A U.S. air strike on the city of Falluja late yesterday killed 17 civilians, including three children, and wounded six others, hospital officials said," The Star writes in a September 2 report, which was based on reports from the AP and Reuters. Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Mike Gaddis of THG News gives yet another reason to not have kids: A five-year study run by Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction proves what many in the scientific community have always suspected: having children significantly lowers the IQ of both male and female parents.I would say that kids also prevent a person from doing as much reading and critical thinking as they would before, but then the cynical realist in me kicks in. BTW, I do enjoy playing with the children that my cousins have, but I am more than happy that they are not mine whenever they have to be taken care of. Monday, September 06, 2004
"Three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the terrorist threat to the United States and its allies remains as serious as ever, despite an intense, multipronged assault on al-Qaida, according to senior U.S. officials, diplomats and counterterrorism experts," Warren P. Strobel of Knight Ridder Newspapers writes (September 3). Saturday, September 04, 2004
Friday, September 03, 2004
I was disappointed that I didn't see Lee Greenwood at the Republican National Convention. I do blame Bush, but then again Bush did inform me that Americans ended slavery: Americans... should never be surprised by the power of liberty to transform lives and nations. That power brought settlers on perilous journeys, inspired colonies to rebellion, ended the sin of slavery, and set our Nation against the tyrannies of the 20th century. We were honored to aid the rise of democracy in Germany and Japan and Nicaragua and Central Europe and the Baltics -- and that noble story goes on. I believe that America is called to lead the cause of freedom in a new century.As an act of protest even more powerful than what I did yesterday when I sang "Luka" during the big speech, I will refuse to give a reply to this statement. It doesn't deserve one and anybody who cheered or thought it made sense is an idiot and/or looking forward to the time in their life when they can take history classes. *** I don't know what exactly to say about the bumper sticker combination I saw today. One sticker said "Only Christ Is The Answer." Right below it, there was another bumper sticker featuring the U.S. Navy logo and "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of those who threaten them." *** Ralph Nader on "corporate socialism" (Washington Post, July 18, 2002) *** Thursday, September 02, 2004
Bush is set to give his big acceptance speech in less than 24 hours. I'd like for there to be some problems with the power. Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Michelle Garcia and Mary Fitzgerald write in today's Washington Post: Police repulsed anarchists, gay activists and other protesters across Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, arresting 560 people as they tried to block traffic and many as they simply walked on sidewalks. The action prevented what was to have been a major show of civil disobedience outside Madison Square Garden on the second night of the Republican convention.The United States of America in 2004. |