Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Nail House


I don’t normally read the International Socialist New York Times, but This peaked my attention. And we thought the U.S. had problems with Eminent Domain being used to hand property over to private business.
Update: This is a better story.

Photos posted direct in case you don't want to follow the link.

Credit: Ariana Lindquist, NYT







Credit: Lyn Jeffery


Update: Nails can be pulled

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Looking for Surge News from the Source

The surge in Iraq is well underway. Wonder where I can find some information on how it is going? Hm. New York Times? Nine stories on Scooter, one on how the Democrats want out of Iraq by the next Presidential Election Or Else, one on how we should be talking to terrorists instead of shooting them, two on how poor Valerie Phlame will be retiring from the CIA to live in poverty on the few pennies she will be making on her speaking tour of Democratic Fundraisers. Hm. TV is about as bad, the only reports from Iraq are from Fox News. CBS seems to be in shock that the hundred journalists covering the trial of Scooter will now be unemployed, Anna Smith is being buried, and where will they go?

Ah, here we go. Iraq the Model reports on the state of Iraq. From Iraq. In the Wall Street Journal.


(Begin Side Comment) And inside the WSJ Comment section is an amazing display of liberal cluelessness. First we have a very good sarcastic comment (no, it’s not mine, I’m just miffed that he beat me to it):

Haven't You Heard? We're Losing!
R. Young - Fort Wayne, Ind.
Have you not been listening to the anti-war leaders? Everything you said is just not true. I have a TV; I know what's going on. The American people have already spoken and the Democrats were voted in. So, don't tell me your first hand experiences cause their just talking points from the war supporters. Things are really, really bad and there's no way to win. Gee, this has already been decided. Get with the program!
----
And then just a little bit farther in, we have an amazingly clueless incoherent comment, the kind that should be framed for future generations:
---
In Time All Will Be Revealed
H.D. Schmidt - Loma Linda, Calif.
Open up liquor stores etc, in Baghdad, how great is that anyway? Maybe America should also introduce the American lottery and casinos, a la Las Vegas? Are these guys paid by someone to paint these rosy page, when just yesterday 10 American soldiers died plus over one hundred Iraqis?However, what might be true, time will in the end tell the truth, but nothing, but the truth!
----
Well, that was thoughtful. In a absence-of-thought kind of way. Here we have a couple of guys actually inside Iraq who have been blogging constantly for a long time in an exceedingly accurate manner, with actual on the site long-term reporting that does not match H.D. Schmidt’s world view, and his first thought is “Who’s paying them?”. Obviously the Bomb to Bomb coverage of the NY Times is the gospel truth, and the on-the-ground words of a citizen of the country in question is some sort of cooked up false front, right? Particularly when commented on by somebody on the Opposite Side of the Globe!
(End Side Comment)

Blogs like ITM disturb the High Towers of the Times (and other Lefties). When we have a choice where we go for news, we tend to go to sources we trust, and that actually have pertinent information. When a couple of guys running a website in the middle of a war zone can give more complete and less biased information than the entire news organization of the Newspaper Of Record, there is a problem (for the paper). Papers who actually care about the news publish stories about the actual events, even if they have to get them from people who do not work for their paper. Papers who don’t care about the news print whatever comes down the newswires (hence, a great number of easy stories about Scooter).

I have great deal of concern and worry about the way “Things” are going in Iraq. On one side they have people who want to kill, maim, and murder their way to dictatorial power. And on the other side they have the Ostriches (ignore it and it will go away), the Sheeple (Peace Goooood, War Baaaaad), and the Follow-The-Wind Airheads (Well, yes, I voted for the war, but if I knew now what I knew then… Besides, people are dying, we should run away before anybody else gets hurt). And in the middle are a great number of brave people, all of which have their own ideas on how to build a country, and who are building good things despite the attempts to destroy or dismantle them.

Keep up the good job ITM.