Britain's New Poet Laureate
Following Tim Blair's challenge, which asks if you can do better than the British Poet Laureate:
CAUSA BELLI by Andrew Motion
They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad:
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.
I say I can!
COARSE GRAINED BELLY, by Little-n-Motion
Poor Will's dead, so's Johnny Milton, and Shelley
No greater proof than Motion's Causa Belli
Short words, shallow thoughts, no nobility in't
Your Majesty, what a waste of a Poet Laureate.
OK, the last rhyme's bad, but so is "learn" and "rocket-burn."
Link
Naivete On Display
Holy mackerel! For once I agree with Tacitus. This comment, reported in the Washington Post, is just dumb: "'If the United States left, I wouldn't mind,' says Kim Young Ran, 29. 'If North Korea wants nuclear weapons, I think they should have them. The U.S. and so many other countries have them. There's no way North Korea will attack us with their nuclear weapons. I don't think so. We're the same country. You don't bomb and kill your family. We share the same blood.'"
The young Mr. Kim should read about what happened on June 25, 1950 before making such wild claims. Or for more recent events, what happened to Korean Airlines Flight 858, on November 28, 1988.
UPDATE: LGF finds this sort of naivete isn't confined to Korean youth. We got 'em too, unfortunately. Check this one out, it's a doozy.
Link
Collaborators in Horror
Always thoughtful Glenn comments on Korea: "I suspect that the reason why some South Korean politicians want to prop it up is that when it comes out just how bad things have been there, which looks to be Pol-Pot-bad -- and that they've known a lot more than they've let on while cozying up to and propping up the North -- they'll be seen as collaborators in horror."
Actually, while that's a thought-provoking idea, I don't think it's the case, really. In fact, I don't know of any South Korean that really wants to "prop up" the North -- the older generation having vivid memories of two successive Communist occupations of Seoul a half-century ago, what they're more concerned about now is a nuclear-armed million-man army sitting just thirty-five miles from the capital.
UPDATE: Sgt. Mom has a nice piece on her tour of duty in Korea.
Link
The Court of Appeals Denigrates American Citizenship
Washington Post: "The government can jail a U.S. citizen captured overseas indefinitely when the military declares him an 'enemy combatant,' a federal appeals court said yesterday, ruling that a Louisiana-born man has been held properly in a Navy brig without a lawyer or other constitutional rights."
This is a bad decision. First, there is no proof that Hamdi, the citizen in question, was an "enemy combatant," and his father has come forward to say that the younger Hamdi was, in fact, performing relief duties.
What little circumstantial evidence has been made public would lead one to believe that Hamdi may well have been a Taliban combatant, but again, we have no proof one way or the other. Is he a committed fundamentalist jihadi? Or a medic helping the wounded? Or just another dumb and misguided kid like John Walker Lindh?
Second, given that almost by definition a war on terrorism can never end -- it's not like we'll take their capital and they'll all surrender -- Hamdi could well be looking at life imprisonment without representation. (Incidentally, I'm surprised that no one's mentioned that there hasn't been a legal declaration of war which would ground the government's case.)
Third, and most importantly, being an American citizen ought to count for something in this world. Our citizens have rights; the duty and responsibility of our government is to protect those rights at all costs. So yes, Hamdi ought to be treated differently than other detainees.
Make no mistake: if Hamdi fired upon American troops, if he willingly and enthusiastically aided and abetted the Taliban and/or Al Qaeda, then he should be dealt with severely. But because he is an American citizen, he deserves his day in court.
Link
Your New Watch
Business Week, via POK: "Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III unveiled his new Dick Tracy-watch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 8. The new gizmo gives users personalized, up-to-the-minute information such as stock quotes, sports scores, local weather, news headlines, horoscopes, calendar info, and even one-way instant messages -- all on their wrist. The data will be beamed over FM radio airwaves to the gadgets, wherever they are. Consumers will pay $120 to $300 for the watches and perhaps $99 more a year for the data service."
Yeah...course it runs slow and crashes twice a day.
Link
Happy Birthday Julie!!!
Discuss
