David Adler
Gassing Muslims
From Kirk Semple’s March 18 report on al-Qaeda suicide bombings in Ramadi and Amiriya — not the first incidents in which the bombs were spiked with chlorine gas: Insurgents began combining explosives with chlorine gas and other chemicals in January in an effort to sow more fear and havoc among civilians, military officials say. Some local officials blamed militants linked
Remember Ward Connerly?
He made big headlines in the ’90s with his efforts to ban affirmative action, garnering high praise from Newt Gingrich and other rightists. Connerly is still at it — he was behind the deceptively named Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot proposal that passed in November 2006 but is now facing legal challenges. I’m late in noticing this, but it
The shooting
Excellent piece of reporting by Serge Kovaleski and Sarah Kershaw in this morning’s NYT, about David Garvin, the lunatic who went on a shooting rampage in the West Village last Wednesday night. I know the area around Houston and MacDougal very well, from my earliest days in New York in the late ’80s. I still find myself down there sometimes,
Quote for the day
“We are not afraid of being named terrorists … But I want to ask, is someone who detonates one kilogram a terrorist while someone who detonates tons in Arab and Islamic cities not a terrorist?”— Shakir al-Abssi, leader of the Lebanese-based Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaeda offshoot This is a standard trope not only of the Islamist far-right but also
On Pat Martino
I have a short feature on guitarist Pat Martino in the current edition of the Philadelphia Weekly.
Cheney at AIPAC
Dick Cheney has the unmitigated gall to accuse war opponents of “undermining” the troops, with the Walter Reed revelations still in the news. And after all Cheney and Bush have put these troops through. Even more ridiculous when you consider what Peter Pace has just said, not only about the gay men and women under his command, but also about
Choose a side
Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured at left), leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, has been savagely beaten by Robert Mugabe’s thugs; thankfully he is up and walking and was able to appear in court. His crime? Opposing a regime that has reduced Zimbabweans to hunting mice for food, and that has managed to halve the country’s average life expectancy since 1990.
Pace’s remarks
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is being called on to apologize for his public condemnation of homosexuality. Andrew Sullivan is raising a gratifying ruckus — here, here and here. My immediate reaction, aside from disgust at Pace’s remarks, is that he shouldn’t apologize. His view should be challenged and condemned on the merits. But the