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.
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 |
Friday, July 15, 2005
Today I finally got so frustrated with blogger that I went over to typepad. Why now after all this time? Well, the problem was nothing new. You can now find all of the thoughts and links and musings and notes you have come to love and need in order to make sense of the world at mth.typepad.com. I'll be updating that site as time permits and, as always, trying to get my life together. May God bless each and everyone of you. More importantly, God will bless America. Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Hang Agee I just can't bring myself to care about Karl Rove when there is important news in the world like yesterday when Bush said he won't wear a Speedo given to him by the Auburn men's swimming and diving team "in public." What an ungracious bastard! Or if that doesn't do it for you, how about a Pentagon report confirming abuse of prisoners at Gitmo (Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, July 13)? Or nine Iraqis merely suspected of terrorism suffocating in the heat door of hell they were left in, apparently by Iraqi security forces (BBC, July 11)? Or a Graduate Institute of International Studies concluding that 39,000 Iraqis have died as the result of Uncle Sam's invasion (Irwin Arieff, Reuters, July 11)? Nope, this stuff isn't worth talking about. I just hope that once we are done with Rove, we get to Philip Agee. Now there was a leaker one could really hate. Tuesday, July 12, 2005
You know, normally I would be all in favor of a plan to get the U.S. and Britain out of Iraq, but when, as Simon Walters reports in a July 10 story for The Mail, it is a secret plan drawn up by the British government (although one U.S. officials apparently have been allowed to comment on), I think maybe these British memos are all one big joke and the troops will soon be used to do something else terrible in the name of good. Monday, July 11, 2005
Stop talking about London Can we all stop talking about Thursday's bombings in London. The whole thing is way out or proportion. But Micah it was tragic event that reflects greatly on the future of society as we know it! Possibly, but I doubt it. Those who already thought we were in some great, glorious, gloriously great and greatly glorious war for freedom still think that. Same for those who believed Bush is a cowboy and/or dumb and the people, in numbers no less than one, who thought the "war on terror" is largely a con that manipulates legitimate fears, ignorance and a lack of critical thinking haven't changed their opinions either. And let's face it, it wasn't as terrible as some think it. People die every day and many times the deaths are premature. Well yeah, but this was intentional, it was the result of evil For the sake of the argument, I will accept this premise and then add, yeah, so why did virtually nobody care when the government of Uzbekistan murdered hundreds of civilians on May 13 of this year in response to a protest? This slaughter was the result of intentional malice on the part of humans, but news of it didn't take up the whole front page of my local paper the next day. And the undeniable truth that Uncle Sam supports the gov of Uzbekistan did not lead to any popular media fueled reflection on what it means for a country that loves to think of itself as promoting freedom to be supporting a brutal and repressive government by selling them weapons, training their troops and covering up their misdeeds. This isn't something than happened in the nineteenth century or the 1980s, it has happened this year and shows no signs of changing, unless of course Uzbekistan gets out of line - then, I've predicted, we will hear about how terrible the government is and how the only response is U.S. punishment. The funny thing is that Uzbekistan is a former Soviet Republic, so whenever someone says Reagan and U.S. of A. liberated people from Soviet domination, they are talking, in part, about how the people of Uzbekistan were freed. They were freed to be killed by their own good government, I guess. Unless I am crazy -I do regularly wonder- but the May 13 killings in Uzbekistan and the U.S. relationship to the government responsible should, by any reasonable standard, have generated a whole hell of a lot more soul searching and policy pondering than the July 7 bombings in London. More people died, the killings were intentional and the issues raised were not part of the usual dialogue. Ah yes, that last part probably explains it all. People in the U.S. would have to think of their country in a different manner if "May 13" was taken seriously. Nobody likes to do that, especially when we aren't the good guys. Saturday, July 09, 2005
Keeping in mind what is really important The most important lesson of 77, and one I deathly fear we are going to forget, is that our problems are more important than those of others. I don’t know a single person who has died of the African death disease and I don’t care to. On the other hand, I, a typical midwestern, know exactly 63 people who died on the worst day in human history. The worst day in British history was of course smaller –don’t fear, their best days can’t hold even a small candle to our average days- I only know one person, Bucky Downs, who died on Thursday simply for living as a person who was as free as a person can possibly be when not living in the greatest country God ever created. These people in Britain are very real to me. I can feel them and because of that, their lives matter. Now, if the talk radio callers I heard yesterday are right, and they most certainly are, we have a whole bunch of people in their countries to kill. Thursday, July 07, 2005
Unlike most people, I don't have anything profound or particularly interesting to say about the bombings in London, although there can be no doubt that this just proves what everyone has been saying since at least September 11, 2001. Also, if CNN was any indication this morning, al Qaeda is now a very top heavy group. My memory suggests that this changes at least every couple of months. In other news, there was clash between police and a thousand protesters, who took over a police station in Tikrit, Iraq yesterday, Reuters (July 7) reports. "The demonstrators demanded that the police chief and provincial governor step down, blaming their clan for killing the former official, Ali Ghalib al-Tikriti." I do not know much about the politics of all of this, but it is a very intriguing development. UPDATE: One more thing before I forget. Today on C-SPAN's Washington Journal a caller who said he has served in the military in Iraq for a year said matter of factly that the only solution to Iraq and terrorism is to destroy the countries that support terrorism. I expect to hear more and more of this as time ticks forward. Then again, I'm surprised I haven't heard more of it than I have by now. 10:20 AM EST 07/07/05 Wednesday, July 06, 2005
China, Russia and the rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization called yesterday for the U.S. to set a date for its forces to leave member states Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the AP reports today. I'm doubtful much will come of this, but if it does, expect to hear a lot about the awful things that the govs of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan do. There certainly is enough to go on and you know us Americans, we can't stand oppression when we are told not to. So to be ahead of the curve, let me just say, "I don't know how those liberals can sleep at night supporting those evil governments in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. There is right. There is wrong. There is good and evil, and America has always stood on the side of the good. The fight is difficult, and while people of goodwill may disagree about the need for war, but there is no doubt that if America backs down at this moment that it will be seen as a victory for the forces of evil. America must and will prevail." Monday, July 04, 2005
Iraqi government gets the goose of anti-Americans I bet the notoriously anti-American foreigners at The Observer were quite proud of the little stunt they pulled yesterday. Although it is one only day before America's birthday, they still published Peter Beaumont's account of brutality and torture by Iraqi security forces. There's no doubt that all throughout the liberal world, they squealed, "this proves it. Bush lied. People died. We never should have gone to war." What fools they are. First of all it is common for lamestream legacy media types to lie in order to further their Anti-American pro-terrorism agenda, so it can be assumed with 98% accuracy that Iraqi security forces kick ass. But let's just say that this is true. If so, who cares? I don't and I don't think any patriotic American does. We don't care about bad stuff in the world unless a good president tells us to. It is that simple. Saddam's forces torturing people was something that could not be tolerated. Whoever the hell is in charge of Iraq's forces torturing people can be tolerated. In fact, the fine government of Iraq deserves lots of credit for admitting that these fine security forces have engaged in torture (Mariam Karouny, Reuters, July 3). Now they can say with pride, "under Saddam, you wouldn't have know about it. This proves how great we are due to America." "Thank you, Iraqis," I reply. "Lots of people don't appreciate us, but you do and that is the greatest accomplishment of a country like yours. I will keep you in my prayers tonight as I watch fireworks, which I like to call Baghdad moments." Saturday, July 02, 2005
While there is important news in the world like Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaidaie, reportedly writing that marines from a certain country in the Americas killed his cousin last Saturday in an act he said was the "killing of an unarmed innocent civilian - a cold blood murder" (Edith M. Lederer, AP, July 2) and the shocking news that the president of these here United States said nice things about the U.S. military today, but I just feel like laughing at Russell Shaw who writes in a July 1 Huffington Post entry that his "sister, a Floridian who voted for Nader in 2000, was one of the 537 voters who caused Gore to come up short in that state, and for Bush to win." Talk about being weak at logic and math. Friday, July 01, 2005
Now that Sandra Day O'Connor wants to step down, America needs a another Supreme Court justice. We need one if we are to survive a free republic of people. I suggest Andy Griffith or Mark Fuhrman. |