Day: July 11, 2002

Go to bed,

me in.

points us to a story on NPR attempting to remove-foot-from-mouth regarding a story it ran insinuating that the Traditional Values Coalition might be linked to last year’s anthrax attacks.
TVC’s director, Andrea Lafferty, is quoted by Variety in response to NPR’s apology as follows:
“A simple apology today is not enough. Eight million people heard this libelous, slanderous report,” … But Lafferty termed the correction “pathetic” and said all NPR staffers must have “graduated from the school of anti-Christian bigotry.”
Hmmm. Sounds like NPR screwed up bigtime on this one. But perhaps Ms. Lafferty’s lawyers might want to remind her that responding to slander with your own slander is not the best legal strategy in the world?

Hey. I missed one on Monday from GlobalNewsWatch (which if you’re not reading regularly, you should be):
Khilafah.com is reporting that 150 Palestinian intellectuals have signed a petition denouncing an earlier petition by other Palestinian intellectuals. The document condones suicide bombing and calls for the destruction of Israel.
See Howard’s site for the details. I’ve started to grow numb to this kind of murderously sucicidal stupidity from certain parts of the Palestinian world, but I try to remind myself to notice anyway, if only to do my small part to ensure that the rest of the planet has the opportunity to see reality as it is. I can take no responsibility for whether anyone accepts that reality or clings to convenient (and often more pleasant) delusions that all that is needed is more negotiation, more communication, and better understanding between peoples and it will All Be OK.
Would that it would be so…

I decided I’d better cash Salon check this week. It might not be good for much longer.
So if you see Salon suddenly file for bankruptcy this week because of an unexpected expense they thought had already been accounted for….er, sorry about that…

Pigs are flying, cats and dogs are living together, and International has published a report soundly condemning Palestinian violence against civilians.
It’s weak, it’s waffling, but it exists, and that’s something. Think of it as you would a talking dog: it’s not that he quotes Shakespeare, but simply that he speaks at all.

Hmmm. This one is going to take some digesting:
Drops Demand for War Court Immunity
UNITED NATIONS, July 10 — The Bush administration agreed today to drop its demand that the U.N. Security Council grant Americans serving in U.N. peacekeeping missions permanent immunity from the international war crimes tribunal.
U.S. officials said they are seeking a temporary exemption from prosecution that would buy the United States time to negotiate bilateral accords and military agreements barring individual governments from surrendering U.S. nationals to the International Criminal Court.
I’ve heard a lot of good arguments lately about why the ICC is unconstitutional… it’s unclear to me how this compromise changes that. Little help, Stephen?

The Iranian government is attempting to counter Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri’s resignation by telling newspapers they aren’t allowed to print anything about it.
isn’t working.
And that’s not even counting the impact all those Farsi weblogs might be having. (I don’t know whether the ‘net is proving an alternate comms channel as yet… but I’m working on finding out).