Low Earth Orbit

Why stop hitting yourself with a foam bat if it means using a hammer instead?

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A LEADER of an Arab country wanted to bring over a tent and two camels should he attend the OIC(Organization of the Islamic Conference) summit in Putrajaya. He was unwilling to give up camel milk even for two mornings.

To go to the OIC meeting? Who would?

Incompetent journalist watch

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"I think Joe Stalin was a guy that was hugely misunderstood. And to this day, I don't think I have ever seen an adequate job done of telling the story of Joe Stalin, so I guess my answer would have to be Joe Stalin." - actor, Ed Asner, responding to the question, "If you had the chance to play the biographical story of a historical figure you respected most over your lifetime, who would it be?"

UPDATE: This story has been withdrawn, Asner was misquoted. I have to agree with "Instantman":http://www.instapundit.com/archives/012019.php that it's a _major_ misquote. Here's the "corrected version":http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35016:

McCullough: "If you could portray an historical biography and you had an unlimited budget, unlimited support cast and everything you could ask for, who would it be?" Asner: "Well, you know something, they've played Hitler, nobody has ever really touched Stalin, it just occurred to me. It's not because I am a liberal or anything like that. Stalin is one big damn mystery, I wonder why nobody has tried it? Many people, you know, speak of the fact that he killed more people than Hitler -- why does nobody touch him? It's strange. So, and he was about my size, my height -- with a wig I probably could do it."

Frankly I think Asner makes an excellent response. But I know the answer - the movie would have to either be a total whitewash inviting massive ridicule or openly admit what a mass murdering scum Stalin was. Neither of those is something that would warm the heart of Hollywood producer.

What I meant to say was …

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I watched Senator Jay Rockefeller on Fox News Sunday this morning - what amazing, I dunno, chutzpah, he displayed. He said that Iraq wasn't an imminent threat like the President said it was, and Tony Snow challenged him on that, saying the President never said it was. Snow also put up the Senator's own words from last October, where the Senator said Iraq was an imminent threat. And Rockefeller said that he said that because of the President's speech. Of course, the speech was made in January, after the Senator's comments.

Who writes this Senator's talking points? Why does he still have a job?

Carnival of the Capitalists - check it out

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is now operational. We'll definitely be deploying the orbital sensors on that.

Protecting the politicians from the public

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In the EU, that "strong but unpopular action that governments have to take" apparently extends to deciding on your behalf what constitutional entity you'll belong to. If you want the very opposite of the raw responsiveness of Californian democracy, it's the debate on the European Constitution. As noted over the page this week, the Brussels correspondent of the BBC worries that letting the voters express a view on their constitution risks undoing "two years of painstaking work by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing". Can't have that, can we?

Those voters! So impertinent!

FBI says: we're not that desperate

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Despite a shortage of Arabic translators, the FBI turned down applications for linguist jobs from nearly 100 Arabic-speaking Jews in New York following the World Trade Center attacks, WorldNetDaily has learned. […] not one of the more than 90 applicants was hired, even though some had helped translate Arabic for Israeli radio and TV news stations and the Israeli army before coming to America, the charity's director says.

Lots of other fun facts in the article concerning security breaches due to unreliable translators.