Weed or Wildflower?

Personally, I've always considered sunflowers big weeds. But then being a true Texan, I consider a double-wide trailer to be living large.

Kids, Ya' Gotta Luv 'Em

Three people, including the daughter of a Cowtown police officer, could face charges after they took the officer's patrol car for a joy ride.

Police Lt. Dean Sullivan said the 21-year-old girl and two other kids took the keys from the sleeping officer's gun belt and drove the car around the neighborhood, turning the lights and sirens on and off and at one point pulling over a motorist.

The police say that they haven't been able to clearly establish who was actually driving the car yet.

United We Stand

Christopher Hitchens sums up the events of five years ago and following the best in today's Wall Street Journal.

Solidarity
Our first duty is to stand together against bin Ladenism.

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
...The beginning of wisdom is to recognize that the United States was assaulted for what it really is, and what it understands as the center of modernity, and not for its unworldliness.

But here I am, writing that it was "the United States" that was assaulted. And there was the president, and most of the media, speaking about "an attack on America." True as this was and is, it is not quite the truth... It would have been far better if President Bush had characterized the atrocity as an attack on civilization itself, and it would be preferable if we observed the anniversary in the same spirit.

In the past five years, I have either registered or witnessed or protested at or simply "observed" the following:

(1) The reopening of a restaurant in Bali, where several dozen Australian holidaymakers and many Indonesian civilians had earlier been torn to shreds. (2) The explosion of a bomb at a Tube station in London which is regularly used by two of my children. (3) The murder of a senior Shiite cleric outside his place of worship in Iraq. (4) The attempt to destroy the Danish economy--and to torch Danish embassies and civilians--as a consequence of the publication of a few caricatures in the Danish press. (5) The murder of the U.N. envoy to Baghdad: a heroic Brazilian named Sergio Vieira de Mello, as vengeance (according to his murderers) for his role in shepherding East Timor to independence. (6) The near-successful attempt to blow up the Indian parliament in New Delhi, and two successful attempts to disrupt the commerce and society of Mumbai. (7) The destruction of the Golden Dome in Samara: a place of aesthetic as well as devotional importance. (8) The bombing of ancient synagogues in Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco. (9) The evisceration in the street of a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, and the lethal threats that drove his Somali-born colleague, a duly elected member of the Dutch parliament, into hiding and then exile. (10) The ritual slaughter on video of a Jewish reporter for this newspaper.

...This has not dimmed, for me, the importance of what happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania. But it has made me slightly bored with those who continue to wonder, fruitlessly so far, in what fashion "we" should commemorate it.

The time for commemoration lies very far in the future. War memorials are erected when the war is won... But to the bored, cynical neutrals, it also comes naturally to say that it is "the war" that has taken, and is taking, the lives of tens of thousands of other civilians. In other words, homicidal nihilism is produced only by the resistance to it! If these hacks were honest, and conceded the simple truth that it is the forces of the Taliban and of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia that are conducting a Saturnalia of murder and destruction, they would have to hide their faces and admit that they were not "antiwar" at all.

"We"--and our allies--simply have to become more ruthless and more experienced. An unspoken advantage of the current awful strife in Iraq and Afghanistan is that it is training tens of thousands of our young officers and soldiers to fight on the worst imaginable terrain, and gradually to learn how to confront, infiltrate, "turn," isolate and kill the worst imaginable enemy. These are faculties that we shall be needing in the future. It is a shame that we have to expend our talent in this way, but it was far worse five years and one day ago, when the enemy knew that there was a war in progress, and was giggling at how easy the attacks would be, and "we" did not even know that hostilities had commenced.

As usual, the talking heads on TV have it all wrong. The Bin Ladens of Islamic Facism don't hate us because of what we've done, or haven't done. They hate us because of who we are. This struggle isn't about WMD's, it's to determine whether a fanatical band of murderers will be allowed to plunge the world into another dark age.

Redneck Bottle Rocket Launcher

Okay, I'll admit it, I've become addicted to YouTube.

Get Out The Vote Spokesman Strikes Out

Secretary of State Roger Williams held a news conference today where he introduced University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido as spokesman for VOTEXAS, his program to get more people to the polls. After giving a speech in which he compared the democratic process to a game and called voting "the fundamentals" Coach Garrido revealed that he hasn't cast a single ballot in the last 10 years. "I am not a very political guy," the coach explained.

One might think that state officials would be troubled by such an admission. After all, you wouldn't take you car to a mechanic who didn't drive. However, Secretary of State Williams said that Coach Garrido's total lack of involvement in the political process made him the ideal spokesman to encourage people to get involved in the political process.

Who Can't Handle The Truth?

I had the day off, so I took the lovely Mrs. Smith to see World Trade Center. At the beginning of his movie, director Oliver Stone states that it is a true story. While overall the movie is pretty good, it's not the whole truth.

I'm specifically troubled by the sequence when the twin towers come crashing to the ground. Stone depicts people from all over the world sitting dumbfounded watching or listening to the news of the despicable attack. However, there is one place Stone's political sensitivities prevent him from going - the West bank and Gaza strip. I didn't see any depiction of jubilant Palestinians dancing in the streets at the horrific loss of American life. It might not be politically correct, but it is historically accurate and important to remember that.

When this country suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history, our friends in Israel wept. Cowardly terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah had a party.

Beauty And The Geek

A CT scan of Jessica Simpson would probably reveal that she has marshmallow where her brain should be. Fortunately for her, that void in her cranium comes wrapped in a rather attractive outer coat. Which is why geeks everywhere must be rejoicing at news that the blonde singer is dating John Mayer. That's right, John Mayer.

John Mayer may very well be the geekiest pop singer since John Denver sang about sunshine on his shoulder. It's like the homecoming queen went out with the winner of the science fair. So cheer up geeks everywhere. If someone as ugly as John Mayer can date a hottie like Jessica Simpson, there's hope for you too.

Never Mind

I rarely rail against the "liberal media", instead preferring to rail against the stupid media, of which, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply. However, an article in today's Washington Post about Wilson-Plame-Gate did catch my eye.

For those of you that attended public school, I've highlighted just a few examples of the Post's undying hypocrisy along with some commentary of my own.

WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story [Really? A couple of years ago when republicans said the same thing they were accused of a coverup] ... But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage. [Well, I for one, am surprised. I had been led to believe that poor Ms. Plame and Mr. Wilson were the victims of a devious plot to destroy them]

...Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey. [So? when White House staffmembers were accused of the same thing, there were widespread calls that they be tried for treason.]

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue...

... Mr. Libby and his boss, Mr. Cheney, were trying to discredit Mr. Wilson... [No, Mr. Wilson discredited himself with his lies. The White House was merely trying to get the truth out, something a good newspaper would try to do as well.] ...

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson.

I don't get the paper copy of the Post, so have no idea where it appeared in the paper. However, I rather doubt this article was given the widespread exposure given to the previous claims by Mr. Wilson. Claims that were totally baseless.