What Base10 is Up To
Base10 has been embroiled in a few projects of late and has been slacking on the blogging. He wants to write about a few topics this weekend, including:

• Some interesting developments with the Jets and elswhere in the National Football League.


• Base10's reaction to the recent ABC Primetime report on UFO's.


• A couple of really interesting science stories involving strange life forms, and.


• The usual political blather.

In the meantime, for dedicated followers of Base10, here are a few links:

In breaking news, a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv killed several people when he blew up an explosive vest near a crowd outside a nightclub threatening to shatter a recent truce. Israel stated immediately that this event would not derail the peace process, but this statement attributed to Mahmoud Abbas by the AP is telling,

The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage. We will follow and track down those responsible and they will be punished accordingly," Abbas said in a statement after an emergency meeting with his security chiefs.

"What happened tonight was an act of sabotage toward the peace process and an attempt to ruin the efforts to establish a state of calm."

Interesting choice of words. The bombers should be punished because the sabotaed the interests of the PA, not necessarily because they blew up a few innocent civilians. Well, at least it's a start. Base10 would like to think about this some more. Much evidence points to Hezbollah being the perpetrators, which is significant since they're probably losing their safe haven in Lebanon.

Meanwhile in Rome, the Pope is recovering from emergency surgery. He underwent an emergency tracheotomy on Thursday. According to doctors he is recovering, but the fragile state of his health is plain for all to see. Base10 wishes the Pontiff well. A friend at work remarked that John Paul II was elevated in 1979. So much has changed in the world since then. Could even the Pope have envisioned this back in 1979?

Finally, it's Friday, so that means there's a new column by Victor Davis Hanson. Hurrah! While Mr. Hanson's writing is invariably good, this particular piece is chock-full of good quotes. His main thesis is that American opposition parties (note that they are not always the left) often are the worst naysayers during formative world events. Hanson frames the problem thusly,

Some on the hard left sought to cite our support for Israel or general "American imperialism" in the Middle East as culpable for bin Laden's wrath on September 11. Past American efforts to save Muslims in Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Afghanistan counted for little. Even less thanks were earned by billions of dollars given to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. The Islamofascist vision of a Dark Age world run by unelected imams where women were in seclusion, homosexuals were killed, Jews were terrorized, Christians were routed, and freedom was squelched registered little, even though such visions were by definition at war with all that Western liberalism stands for.

But Hanson cites examples of the (mostly liberal) appologist for the Germans in WWI, again in WWII, Ho Chi Min, Mao, Castro, The Soviets, and finally Afghanistan and Iraq and describes how they were dead wrong. Hanson concludes,

But nor should we fall into pessimism, when in less than four years we have destroyed the two worst regimes in the Middle East, scattered al Qaeda, avoided another promised 9/11 at home, and sent shock waves of democracy throughout the Arab world so far at an aggregate cost of less than what was incurred on the first day of this unprovoked war. Car bombs are bad news, but in the shadows is the real story: The terrorists are losing, and radical reform, the likes of which millions have never seen, is right on the horizon. So this American gloominess is not new. Yet, if the past is any guide, our present lack of optimism in this struggle presages its ultimate success

As usual, it really is a great article. Read the whole thing.

Anyway, more tomorrow.
- posted by Base10 @ 9:50 PM