] A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that a lot of people
] seemed to be pretty unhappy with the BBC's coverage of
] the war, and I linked the BBC's attitudes - odd, I
] thought, for the national network of a nation at war - to
] the shared prejudices of the "New Class" of
] state-supported bureaucrats and their ilk.
]
]
] Since then, things have only gotten worse for the Beeb.
] Andrew Sullivan has kept up the pressure. The BBC has
] even been forced to respond, taking the absurd position
] that:
]
]
] The BBC is not state-funded. We are publicly funded
] through a license fee paid by every household in the
] United Kingdom. The British public, not the government of
] the day, owns the BBC, and it is to the British public we
] are accountable.
]
]
] Get that? They're not state-funded, they're just paid for
] by a mandatory tax that the government collects, and
] about which the taxpayers have no choice. Now if the
] British television viewers got to choose whether their
] "license fee" went to the BBC, or to some competing
] service, things might be different - and so might the
] BBC. But that's not how it works, and quite a few people
] - by no means all of them on the right - are unhappy with
] the BBC's slant....

TCS: Tech - New Class Crackup

] BEIRUT (Reuters) - Salaam went to Iraq to do battle with
] Americans and die a martyr. He returned home with
] shrapnel wounds and tales of fighting U.S. military might
] with a rifle.
]
] From a Baghdad hotel he moved to a training camp where
] volunteers practiced shooting and trench warfare. Then
] Salaam, 24 years old and unemployed, was sent to war.
]
] "I was sleeping behind mounds of sand and firing from
] Kalashnikovs on helicopters. It was craziness," he said.
]
] "We stayed at the front five days and we didn't eat
] anything. I saw two dead bodies shot in the head."
]
] Thousands of volunteers from across the Arab world are
] thought to be in Iraq to fight advancing U.S. and British
] forces. On Wednesday, jubilant Iraqis welcomed U.S.
] troops in Baghdad.
]
] Salaam, a Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim, said he was unprepared
] for the hostility of some Iraqis to volunteers like
] himself.
]
] "I went there to be a martyr, not to be murdered by a
] brother," he told Reuters. "We went there to help them
] liberate their country, and all they did was shoot us in
] the back."
]
] "I am not afraid of the Americans. On the contrary I want
] to fight them. But I was scared of the Iraqis,
] specifically those who call themselves the Iraqi
] opposition," he said.

I love how he says he went to Iraq for jihad and then later he says he's not normally religious.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

] At Macworld, out-of-work dot-commers pose as marauding
] clowns. The authorities are not amused.

Salon.com Technology | Send in the iKlowns

] A U.S. airstrike on Monday targeted a building in Baghdad
] that time-sensitive intelligence suggested senior Iraqi
] leaders, including Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his
] sons, were meeting there.
]
] How is intelligence like that gathered and how reliable
] is it?

Finally, something about the real bad asses in this conflict. Special Forces.

Ex-SAS commando discusses covert operations

Bob Barr states:
] Some of you may think that I have always been in
] politics, but I haven't. There was a time in the
] distant past, in a land far, far ago, where I actually
] worked as a professional. Came to a job every day. Was
] held to certain standards, where I had actual job
] evaluations and had to get raises and so forth, and I
] actually enjoyed it. It was at the CIA. I spent close to
] eight years at the Agency back in the 1970's. Having
] the opportunity this weekend to visit with Jim Woolsey
] and have the honor of introducing him here today really
] is wonderful.

World War IV

] BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than 100 children held in a prison
] celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into
] northeast Baghdad amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians
] loot weapons from an army compound, a US officer said.
]
] Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the
] gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle
] approached, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP
] correspondent travelling with the Marines 5th Regiment.
]
] "Hundreds of kids were swarming us and kissing us,"
] Padilla said.
]
] "There were parents running up, so happy to have their
] kids back."
]
] "The children had been imprisoned because they had not
] joined the youth branch of the Baath party," he alleged.
] "Some of these kids had been in there for five years."

Interesting to see stories such as this coming from the French press.

Yahoo! News - Jailed Iraqi children run free as marines roll into Baghdad suburbs

] The large arms deal Syria recently made on behalf of the
] regime in Baghdad (thus provoking rage in Washington)
] involved the acquisition from Russia of 500 laser-guided
] anti-tank missiles and their transfer to the Iraqis.
]
]
] U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in
] Washington some five days ago that Syria was continuing
] to transfer military items to the Iraqis, referring to
] arms and military equipment deals Syrians made before the
] outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. These deals, going back
] to 2001, initially focused on East European states that
] manufacture Russian weapons systems such as tanks,
] artillery cannons, and engines for tanks and MiG fighter
] jets.

Article Static

] Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) is at this very moment
] attempting to sneak the RAVE Act into conference
] committee on the National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2003
] (S151). S151 is a popular bill about child abduction and
] has nothing to do with drug issues. S151 has already been
] passed by the Senate and House and is now in Conference.
] In contrast, the RAVE Act has not passed even one single
] committee this year. It did pass a committee last year,
] but was so controversial two Senators withdrew their
] sponsorship after the vote.
]
] This means that if the RAVE Act passes the conference
] committee, it is likely to become law without ever having
] a hearing, a debate or a vote. Drug Policy Alliance has
] been told that Senator Biden has told other conference
] committee members, incorrectly, that the ACLU is no
] longer in opposition to the action. He also has told
] conferees that nightclub owners now support him (on the
] basis of one group that switched sides). If the act makes
] it into the conference language it is likely to become
] law. It must be stopped now.

TalkLeft: Joe Biden Trying To Sneak Rave Act Past Congress NOW

as a fan of the Mcrib Sandwich, I am shocked and amazed by the following:

quoted:
===

Natick, Mass. -- Despite military chow's lousy reputation, many products that Northern California grocery shoppers buy every day have come from innovations created for the battlefield.

M&Ms were invented so World War II fighters could enjoy chocolate that didn't melt in the heat of the Pacific. Similarly, tins of processed Velveeta cheese and Spam became prominent parts of the American diet after thousands of World War II soldiers survived on the processed food.

Freeze-dried coffee and soup mixes, chopped and formed meat and lightweight backpacker entrees all have come from military needs. So did something called "retort packaging," a heat and water process much like canning that keeps plastic pouches of food shelf-stable for years. Even McDonald's boneless McRib sandwich came from technology developed by the Department of Defense's Combat Feeding Directorate.

Right at home in the market / How M&Ms, Spam and Velveeta made it to the table

] Handmade Star Trek TOILET SEAT! To BOLDLY GO!

Boldly go where no ARSE has gone before!