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“One of the hardest tasks will be to determine who gets to be the hangman because so many people want revenge for the loss of their loved ones,” said Basam Ridha, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
Story here.(NY Times-rr)
Scott Adams of Dilbert Fame explains how and why al-Zarqawi's was "done in."
My friend Henry has an interesting theory about terrorist al-Zarqawi’s demise. Henry figures that since al-Zarqawi was a true believer, he asked one of his al-Kaida buddies to turn him in for the $25 million reward. That way al-Zarqawi becomes a martyr and the terrorist group al-Kuyaiiida gets enough funding to last them for years. Very clever.
Here's my take on U.S. intelligence, although I'm still not certain which is the case.
A former student invited me and my wife to a fundraiser for Congressman Joe Schwartz (R-MI), at which Senator John McCain would be present. McCain walked right by me, but I didn't get to meet him. It wouldn't have impressed me anyway. I did meet Joe Schwartz. Nice guy; didn't impress me to meet him.
But the politician I did get to meet and who impressed me greatly was Hillsdale Mayor, Michael Sessions. Mayor Sessions will be attending Hillsdale College in the fall, and when asked what is his intended major, he responded that he "didn't know; possibly policical science or political economy. I really don't know what I want to do; I'm just learning things as I go along."
Mayor Sessions (and I intend on referring to him as Mayor Sessions when he's a student) demonstrated a level of maturity that few eighteen-year-olds have. In addition, he has not been corrupted yet by the political process. My advice to him: Don't even think about politics and economics during your first two years of school. Take a sampling of other courses and see what trips your trigger. Who know, maybe he'll find that although the ride was fun, he's already sick of politics. And it would happen before politics has a chance to corrupt him.
One way to destroy a network or group is to destroy the trust within that network or group. Either U.S. intelligence has found a potentially effective ruse to destroy the trust within Iraq's jihadist network, or as Andy McCarthy alleges, they are totally incompetent.
Thanks yet again to people inside our intelligence community who don't know how to keep their mouths shut, one (or perhaps more) of the few valuable sources we have inside the jihadist network in Iraq is today no longer a valuable source — either (a) because enough information is now public that the bad guys can pretty easily figure out who among them is an informant and kill him (typically, in a grisly fashion to discourage others), or (b) because we have to extract the informant to avoid that fate.
. . . produce automobiles with lower value per dollar than then foreign owned competitors?
A letter writer in today's Wall Street Journal makes the following argument.
It's interesting that most of the comments about GM's travails reflect the same old tired reasons of years ago -- quality, paint, design, etc., for not buying an American vehicle. Those, to my mind, are just excuses for buying foreign cars. I would bet the GM-bashers haven't visited an American-make dealership in years, much less taken a test drive. As a result, they have deprived themselves of an overall better deal, a better price, lower repair costs, good gas mileage and an outstanding car.
If in years past a restaurant served up fare of inconsistent quality you can't blame consumers for abandoning this restaurant and not returning when subsequently promised that the restaurant fixed its problems. After two decades of cars like the Vega, Chevette, Omega, Fiero, Sunbird, Jimmy, S-10 pickup, and on, and on, and on, (and let's not forget Ford's flops such as the Pinto, Bronco and Bronco II, Explorer, Festiva, and on, and on, and on), why trust that the Big Two will produce anthing better today. American automobile consumers perceive that they will obtain more value per dollar by purchasing Honda Odysseys, Toyota Camrys, and BMW Z4 Roadsters than by purchasing Ford Freestars, Chevrolet Impalas, and Pontiac Solstices.
But are consumers' perceptions of the quality and reliability of Fords and GMs shortsighted? In a large consumer survey, Consumer Reports found that for 1998 to 2005 models, of the 31 deemed most reliable 29 were produced by Toyota (22) and Honda (7). Only the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the 2005 Mercury Mariner were brands produced by domestically owned companies rated most reliable. (The CR survey requires a paid subscription so here's a summary provided by Consumer Affairs.)
Additionally:
Of the 48 cars that are on Consumer Reports list of vehicles predicted to have the worst reliability, 22 carry domestic nameplates, 20 are European, four are from Japan, and two are from South Korea. The Japanese models are all from Nissan and its Infiniti division, specifically, Nissan's Quest, Armada, and Titan, and the Infiniti QX56. The two South Korean models on the list are the Hyundai Tucson and the Kia Sportage.
And what about SUVs and vans, the mainstay of the Big Two?
American SUVs continue to produce mixed results. (MS: Remember, uncertainty kills a business.) While the Mercury Mariner was the best of the domestic group of SUVs, the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, and Jeep Grand Cherokee were among the least reliable.
With the exception of the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban; the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL; and the Cadillac Escalade, large American SUVs have subpar reliability.
Among minivans, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan dropped to below average in reliability. The Toyota Sienna is the only minivan that rates better than average. GM's minivans-the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6, and Saturn Relay-joined the Nissan Quest at the bottom of CR's list.
Adding insult to injury, Automotive Lease Guide recently released its rankings of automotive brands with the greatest resale value, and which brands do you think came out on top and which came out on bottom? GMC was the only domestically owned brand ranked as above average in resale value, with Buick, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Mercury and Pontiac ranking below average. Just as in a home, higher resale value increases consumer demand for an automobile.
Yes, Ford and GM, they're that bad!
Addendum: I changed the headline to reflect a more accurate perspective of my argument.
Mattel uses Barbie to cheaply immitatie the American Girl experience. Here is Andrew Morriss' interesting take on the American Girl craze.
I agree with just about everything Krugman says here, except that everywhere he says "right" you could also substitute "left," everywhere he puts "Republican" you could substitute "Democrat." You get the point.
But his point is legitimate. The Republicans in Congress today are acting no differently than the Democrats of the 60s, 70s and 80s. They have become arrogant and dictatorial, with little concern for constitutional and legal limits. Here's his laugher:
But the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer.
And who perfected this trick to circumvent constitutional constraints, all because he considered himself on a mission to do what was "right"?
Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back -- more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a survey.
The results of the poll, published on Saturday, reflected die-hard animosities over high reunification costs lowering western standards of living and economic turmoil in the east.
Story here.
Why is it that blacks have been left out of the argument surrounding the comments made by Larry Summers? Certainly few blacks reach the upper echelons of academia, but I haven't yet heard an argument about it.
Deborah Tannen makes the following argument to explain why so few women make it to the top in academia and in the media.
Arguing ideas as a way to explore them is an adult version of these agonistic rituals. Because they're used to this agonistic way of exploring ideas — playing devil's advocate — many men find that their adrenaline gets going when someone challenges them, and it sharpens their minds: They think more clearly and get better ideas. But those who are not used to this mode of exploring ideas, including many women, react differently: They back off, feeling attacked, and they don't do their best thinking under those circumstances.
This is one reason many women who are talented and passionate lovers of science drop out of the profession. It's not that they're not fascinated by the science, don't have the talent to come up with new ideas or are not willing to put long hours into the lab, but that they're put off by the competitive, cutthroat culture of science.
The assumption that fighting is the only way to explore ideas is deeply rooted in Western civilization. It can be found in the militaristic roots of the Christian church and in our educational system, tracing back to all-male medieval universities where students learned by oral disputation.
It's a good argument. But then again, why so few black males?
Thanks to Carol for the link.
Update: I guess I'm being combative, aren't I?
Jack Whittaker of Hurricane, West Virginia won the $314 million PowerBall Lotto on Christmas of 2002. As much as you might be convinced that you wouldn't let something like this change you, the changes are often exogenous and unavoidable--everyone changes around you and treats you differently.
As this excellent article by April Witt explains, Jack Whittaker's life has changed in almost every way for the worst. Worse still, the lives of many people around Whittaker have been adversely affected, including the death of his granddaughter and of her former boyfriend, Jesse Joe Tribble. Tribble's family has now filed a wrongful death suit against Whittaker, taking him down one more notch. My understanding is that although he does have some investments, mostly in land, Whittaker has blown through most of his winnings.
