I grew up in the small town of White Salmon, Washington, in the Columbia River Gorge. Small, meaning about 2000 people in the town, and perhaps 10,000 in the entire mid-Columbia area. Not a town where you’d expect a brewpub to appear. Yet, it has. I’ve known about it for almost a year now, and they’ve been open for about half of that. I don’t live in the area, though, so I haven’t had a chance to check them out for myself as of yet. I was happy to see a review online in a fairly established Northwest beer blog. Pretty heartening. I can’t wait to try their own brews once they’re available (aren’t they pretty late already?).
Here I am blogging at Portland’s Beer and Blog meet up. Great stout!
I saw this headline pop up on Google News, and had to click through and read it. It’s from the English Al Jazeera:
Shaky truce holds in Gaza
So, from the headline, what can I infer?
- There’s a truce, likely between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza.
- That truce is holding, meaning that it’s not being broken.
- While the truce is holding and not being broken, it might break at any time.
Sound reasonable? Paragraph five, though, reads this:
The Israeli military said three rockets were launched into southern Israel since the Hamas-led truce announcement.
Huh. That would sure indicate to met that the truce is not holding. I don’t see how three rockets being fired into Israel could mean anything but the truce is not holding. Rockets are not like bullets from an AK-47 or some rocks: they always involve groups like Hamas, and/or countries like Syria or Iran. In other words, they count.
This is the stuff that just annoys me and confuses me to no end. I’m honestly mystified: why would the media say the truce is holding at the beginning, and then say it’s not — in so many words — paragraphs later? How am I supposed to interpret this in anything but cynical ways?
Michael Yon posted, in PDF form, a very cool photo essay from U.S. troops working in Afghanistan. It starts with photos of a huge hash bust, which the soldiers proceeded to burn. Amazing.
A VERY large hash find. Took a bunch of guys over an hour to shovel all of this hash . The ANP wanted to burn it in place but it might have burned down the neighbors house, so shovel we did.
Thank you for the head’s up, Michael. This is a bit tough to watch. Anyone that thinks that Israel is the main problem with the creation of the Palestinian state should watch this. Then explain how these people are ready to run their own affairs. They’re not. I’m not sure if the Palestinian story is the saddest in the world (I’m thinking certain places in Africa are right up there), but this is awfully close to the top.
I don’t think there’s any nice, easy solution to this whole problem, but people need to look at it with open eyes. The Palestinians are a tool used by the Arab states as a safer version of the wars they lost three times in the past. Human proxies for bullets.
So, this has been a recurring theme lately in the Windows world. Those users that dare not to update their Windows XP installations to Windows Vista. I mean, how dare they? A lot of people try to point to some not-so-great reviews for the reason (increased memory use, annoying notifications, etc.). I’m sure this is part of it, but I think a much bigger reason is the price, as well as all the versions available to choose from. Now the concerns are that Windows 7, due either at the end of this year or early the next, will have the same upgrade issues.
My prediction is that yes, it will. First, if they had only two versions: Home and Business, and if they matched Apple’s MacOS X price for a home version, they would sell like hot cakes (like upgrades to Mac OS X do). $129 for one computer, and $199 for up to five computers in a single household. Think they will? Unfortunately, I’d be shocked if they did. Here’s hoping, though. I can’t wait for their pricing/marketing plans to be announced.
Every time Israel gets involved in an armed conflict, the inevitable voices are raised complaining about “war crimes” they commit, and rarely do the same voices mention any problem with their enemies war making decisions. First of all, before attempting to speak authoritatively on the issue, at least skim the actual Geneva Conventions. If by “war crimes”, you mean “I wish people weren’t dying at all”, then you’re not actually talking about war crimes, OK?
The second point I wanted to make is this: there’s a reason why these conventions were agreed upon in the first place. It was to add a modicum of civilization to a very uncivilized part of the human experience. It comes down to this: if the actors in a war do not play by the rules (wear uniforms, make an effort not to put civilians in harm’s way, etc.), then those actors get certain rights, like being treated as an official POW, and not shot in due course. This is the important part of this: if you give all actors the same rights, regardless of their behavior, they will have less reason to play by the rules.
This is something that’s always bothered me. I really do not understand those commentators that believe that bad actors (most of Hamas, al Qaeda, etc.) should get full POW rights. They should not — they ignore pretty much every rule of war. By giving them these rights, you are making future wars more and more barbaric. I’ve have never heard a good explanation for these commentator’s stance on this issue. Again, “I don’t like war” does not count, and is not nuanced.
By the way, speaking of Israel, Michael Totten is breaking away from his normal programming on his blog and covering the Israel incursion into Gaza on a daily basis. Read it: it’s good stuff.
I was sad to see that Father Richard Neuhaus passed away this morning. I’ve read a lot of his writings on First Things ever since I came back to the Church in earnest years ago. He was definitely one of the more influential voices in the “conservative” Catholic world, and will be missed.
As an aside, I never liked the term conservative/liberal for the doctrinal differences within the Catholic Church. It makes it sound like it’s a political thing, and an easy template for Republican vs. Democrat, which it certainly is not. I prefer the term “traditionalists” for the movement that Father Neuhaus helped represent. The words may be similar, but it underlines that they are not the same thing. Many traditionalists will have voted for Barack Obama, and proud life long Democrats. At the same time, they bow to the Church and the Magisterium in humility. They should not — and are not — in conflict with each other.
I don’t have tons of free time, but I have a large appetite for information. Sound familiar? Yeah, I’m not alone on this one. So, there’s a high premium on good sources of both raw news and analysis. For foreign policy relating to the War on Terror, The Long War Journal is an especially good blog to read. Here’s their last update on Israel’s current battle in Gaza against Hamas. A little analysis, but mostly just the hard facts. The bias there is is the opposite of what you’d find in the AP or Reuters, which is a good thing.
Trusted sources of information are going to be more and more important as the old guards of mass media shatter, splinter, and are eclipsed by new media. This is happening now, and will continue in the future. While managing the consumption of those sources of information and analysis is awfully important, the first thing thing to worry about is finding the sources in the first place.
