Content, What Content?

Why would Base10 actually write an opinion if there was a perfectly good one over at Lileks today? Absolutely best answer to the Kerry terrorism-as-nuisance theme:

A nuisance? I don’t want the definition of success of terrorism to be “it isn’t on the rise.” I want the definition of success to be “free democratic states in the Middle East and the cessation of support of those governments and fascist states we haven’t gotten around to kicking in the ass yet.” I want the definition of success to mean a free Lebanon and free Iran and a Saudi Arabia that realizes there’s no point in funding the fundies. An Egypt that stops pouring out the Jew-hatred as a form of political novacaine to keep the citizens from turning their ire on their own government. I want the definition of success to mean that Europe takes a stand against the Islamicist radicals in their midst before the Wahabbi poison is the only acceptable strain on the continent. Mosquito bites are a nuisance. Cable outages are a nuisance. Someone shooting up a school in Montana or California or Maine on behalf of the brave martyrs of Fallujah isn't a nuisance. It's war.

You know, Base10 appreciates it when somebody makes perfect sense. Read the whole thing.

How about this from WSJ's Best of the Web. Taranto notes that the Times reported on the Bush "bulge" but not the Kerry "crib."

Meanwhile, how's this for political bias? Saturday's New York Times carried the following "report":

What was that bulge in the back of President Bush's suit jacket at the presidential debate in Miami last week? According to rumors racing across the Internet this week, the rectangular bulge visible between Mr. Bush's shoulder blades was a radio receiver, getting answers from an offstage counselor into a hidden presidential earpiece. The prime suspect was Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's powerful political adviser.

Earlier, "rumors racing across the Internet" had it that John Kerry brought cheat sheets to the first debate, but the Times, quite properly, did not see fit to report this. (Apparently Kerry was actually removing a pen from his jacket pocket--technically a violation of the debate rules, but a pretty picayune one.) It seems "rumors racing across the Internet" are sufficient basis for a "news" story in the Times--just so long as the rumors are anti-Bush.

Taranto seems surprised.

Finally, let's talk about the newest Nobel Peace Prize winner. Pictured here, her name is Wangari Maathai, Kenya's Assisant Minister for the Environment. She got the award for her activities as a conservationist. Laudable no doubt, but she also believes that AIDS was created as a means of biological warfare. "AIDS (is) not a curse from God to Africans or the black people," she said. "It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did [it]." Hmm, it's hard to believe the traditional headscarve that she's wearing in the photo is actually made of tin foil.


- posted by Base10 @ 4:45 PM