The Ministry of Minor Perfidy

Ministers

We'll see how funny it is when the robots come

VP of Pillaging, Viking Industries

As far as he's concerned, Occam's Razor is just a cheap disposable

Second Cousin Once Removed of Soul

Zombie killing, with flair and flourish

Tastes better than he looks

Minister Emeritus

Windy City Mike
social democrat, ca. 1930 trade-unionist, and professor of alleged history

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Friday, January 30, 2004

So it was about the oil…

ABC is reporting on the list of people and organizations who supported Saddam Hussein’s regime and were given oil contracts as a result. All of the contracts were under the UN administered Oil for Food program, and were awarded between 1997 and the start of the war. The list was discovered in the files of the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Investigators say none of the people involved would have actually taken possession of oil, but rather just the right to buy the oil at a discounted price, which could be resold to a legitimate broker or oil company, at an average profit of about 50 cents a barrel. ...

According to the document, France was the second-largest beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of French President Jacques Chirac.

Maugein, individually and through companies connected to him, received contracts for some 36 million barrels. Chirac’s office said it was unaware of Maugein’s deals, which Maugein told ABCNEWS are perfectly legal.

The single biggest set of contracts were given to the Russian government and Russian political figures, more than 1.3 billion barrels in all — including 92 million barrels to individual officials in the office of President Vladimir Putin.

George Galloway, British MP and vocal critic of the war, was on the list for 19 million barrels, though he denies any involvement. Most disturbing to me was the presence on the list of the Russian Orthodox Church. I wonder what defense they are offering.

I don’t think anyone should be surprised about the French involvement.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/30/04 at 09:56 PM
Filthy Lucre • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink

The Magical Interweb

Steve at Begging to Differ has found a wonderful, addictive internet timewaster:

Hit the Penguin

You are a Yeti. Your job is to whack the penguin as far as you can. The key is to get some air under him, but not too much. You need to skip him like a flat stone on a creek. So far, the record is 323.4 by Fred. Mine is 322.6

There is another version of the game, Yeti on ‘roids. Records there are 593.5, and 499.7 on the fly - both by BTD Steve. (I’ve gotten 591.3 and 498.1. So close, but yet so far away. As Vince Lombardi once said, second place is the first loser.)

[wik]And, while we’re at it, here’s another fun game: Moonlander, which is reminiscent of one of my favorite old school arcade games. If I could have any three classic arcade games, they would be Asteroids, Moonlander and Centipede.

[also wik] My wife informs me that there i also a super-steroid version.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/30/04 at 09:42 PM
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Civilization and its Enemies

On the recommendation of Trent Telenko and Tom Holsinger, commenters over at Winds of Change, I went out and got a copy of Lee Harris’ book Civilization and its Enemies, The Next Stage of History. Over lunch, I got about 30 pages in, and I can tell you that it is an amazing book. I’ll report back on this when I’ve absorbed a bit more, but I suggest you run to your local book purveyor and get yourself a copy.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/30/04 at 08:52 PM
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A Small Notice

In case anyone was wondering, the trackback function for Perfidy posts is now working. A small matter of configuration, and no HTML Gnomes were killed or injured in the effort to provide you with the highest quality perfidious service. (Several were subjected to vicious haranguing, and as a result had their feelings hurt.) Link on!

Posted by Buckethead on 01/30/04 at 08:50 PM
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Insults Collected

A vigorous exchange on Winds of Change left me wondering...exactly how many insults were thrown in my direction? I should, of course, count the insults I hurled in return as well. I might have been pre-emptive once or twice as well.

“full of ‘understanding’ for the suicide bombers”
“bleeding-heart liberal”
“an enabler” (for terrorism)
“I fear the evils of our Islamo-facist enemies less than I fear what fools like Ross may make both inevitable and necessary”
“People like Ross are delaying the American quest for victory”
“secular-left apologist of suicide bombing”
“completely disassociated”
“you are not a serious person”

And here are my uber-insults:

“sanctimonious ass”
“frothing extremists”
“two-tone mental stance”
“As for my conjuration of smart remarks: Someone has to, and you’re not holding up your end.”
“save your “9/11 means nothing” bullshit for a little rally of like-minded jackboot-steppers”
“Make sure nobody gives Telenko the controls for the spaceship”

fuck it, I don’t come out looking too good in the insult count. I believe I have hurled more than I have received, and that is piss-poor news for my purported civility.

I feel bad about the “frothing extremist” thing. That was totally unnecessary. Sorry Mary! Heat of the moment, Lord of the Flies, and all that.

Posted by Ross on 01/30/04 at 05:21 AM
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The Rodney King Card

As Johno has noted, Ross is in a pissing match with the good people over at Winds of Change. I wish there was some way to say, “Why can’t we all just get along?” without sounding like a complete sap. Ross, Trent, and others have moved past the ability (at least in this exchange) to see the valid points in the other’s comments. While I definitely trend toward Trent, Tom, Joe and the others in my assessment of the situation with the War on Terror (as my previous post should make obvious) I haven’t felt the need to call Ross a fool, or an idiotarian. Yet.

Trent and the others are a little too eager to cast Ross and others into the outer darkness because of his liberal views, rather than argue. Ross is of course a little too eager to turn up the invective as well. Reasoned debate is a good thing; but it’s a lot easier to get in person, with a beer in hand. (We’ve seen that before right here on this very blog, haven’t we?)

Posted by Buckethead on 01/30/04 at 12:47 AM
Lead Pipe Cruelty • Permalink

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Deployment Humor

Blackfive has some extensive notes on how to prepare for a deployment in Iraq.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/29/04 at 11:46 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

Al Qaida in Iraq

James, of the indispensable Outside the Beltway, links to a New York Times/AP report that a high-ranking Al Qaida officer has been captured in Iraq by US and Kurdish forces.

Osama bin Laden’s terror network is seeking a foothold in Iraq as evidenced by the recent arrest of a top al-Qaida operative trying to enter northern Iraq, the commander of coalition forces said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez cited the capture of Hassan Ghul by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces as evidence of al-Qaida’s interest in establishing operations in this country. Officials in Washington reported Ghul’s arrest Saturday, describing him as a senior recruiter and facilitator for al-Qaida who reported directly to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the architects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks who was captured in March near Islamabad, Pakistan.

“The capture of Ghul is pretty strong proof that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold here to continue their murderous campaigns,’’ Sanchez said. “Ghul’s capture is great news for both the Iraqis, the coalition and the international community’s war against terrorism.’’

US officials have said that most of the attacks against coalition forces have come from the remnants of Saddam’s Baathist regime. But recently, military officials have noted the use of “al-Qaida-like tactics,” including suicide attacks.

Before the war, I heard many people argue that the religious fanatic al Qaida would never work with the secular Baathist. They denied any connection between Saddam’s regime and al Qaida. This was obviously untrue at the time, and has become even less true over the last year. Even if the two groups absolutely hated each other, they would still have the common interest of defeating or at least attacking the US. And it is after all an Arab proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” For decades, there has been a terrorist network. The IRA trained in Libya. Then the IRA trained Columbian drug cartels. The various Marxist or pseudo Marxist terror groups exchanged numbers while training in the USSR, or at Soviet sponsored training camps in the Middle East. Whether the terror groups were Marxist, Religious, Nationalist or just bugfuck, they all have each other’s numbers in the Rolodex.

More Perfidious Goodness...

And this network was in communication with the intelligence agencies of the nations that are or were state supporters of terror. We know that al Qaida met in the Czech Republic with mid level officers in Saddam’s intelligence apparatus. We know that Ansar Al-Islam has been operating in Iraq, and had training camps there. The capture of a ranking member of al Qaida is just one more piece of evidence.

We have been told to be careful in our denunciations of Islam. It’s only a few isolated, hateful wackos who are attacking us. We have also been told by some that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with and in fact was a distraction from the war on terror.

But the more I read, the more I believe that the problem is not so small. There is a continuum of Islamic terror that stretches from the terrorists themselves at one end; through the Imams who preach hatred for the west in particular and everything that isn’t Islam in general (witness my recent post on the murders of the Buddhist monks, and the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhist statues); through the nominally secular Arab governments that support the terrorists with money and sanctuary, and whose media spread anti-semitism and hatred for America; to the ‘Arab Street’ that openly and loudly celebrates things like 9/11 or the Columbia accident; and on to the mass of the Islamic population that never says a word and thus gives tacit support for all the evil that is done in their name.

It is not enough to hunt down individual terrorists and their cells, destroy their training camps and cut off their funding. We might manage that, sometimes with and sometimes without the cooperation of the governments in the region. But that doesn’t end our problem. They still hate us, not just a few, but majorities in the polls I’ve seen. Granted, they’re being lied to by the official media and their religious leaders. But so were the Germans.

Trent Telenko and Wretchard are right when they fear that a successful large scale attack on the United States could cause widespread devastation in the Middle East. We have been restrained up til now, but there is little hope that we would be if we lost a city to a terrorist nuke. And that possibility is still very real. Libya’s nuclear program was shockingly far advanced, and we knew nothing of it.

We are fighting evil. There should be no doubt about this. People who target civilians for purposes of terror are evil. People who give aid and comfort to them are evil. And the population of Islam is complicit in that evil, because they celebrate when it succeeds, and never utter a word of criticism. Even among the Muslims in this country, we hear very little in the way of condemnation for terror, and we know that their views are not being suppressed by authoritarian governments.

That’s what we’re up against. The third totalitarian movement we have faced in the last century. And they have clearly stated that we are their enemies. We need to take them at their word, and defeat them. If Hitler had been opposed in the twenties, or even in the mid thirties, millions of lives would have been saved. We waited. Communism was worse, and there were many in the west who defended it, excused it, and lied about it. Nevertheless, we opposed it. Right now, Islamic totalitarianism is weak. Now is the time to stamp it out, before it gains the capability do us serious harm.

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Buckethead on 01/29/04 at 11:40 PM
War • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink

Judson’s Law

My esteemed coblogger Ross has in the past dismissed the word “idiotarian” as trite, empty, and cheap, and rightly so in my opinion. As he is currently embroiled in a sharp exchange with some of the guys at Winds of Change that turns partially on that very matter, I hereby propose Judson’s Law:

As a weblog discussion on politics grows longer, the probability of a participant calling another an “idiotarian” approaches one.

This is of course supported by Judson’s Corollary:

In a weblog discussion, the first participant to call another an “idiotarian” automatically concedes defeat thereby.

[wik] Ok, ok ok. It was me who said that the word"idiotarian" was trite, empty and cheap. I editorialized a bit. Ross simply said it was meaningless and I ran with it. But, speaking as a historian, I can tell you the past is all in how you choose to remember it, and I like my version better. With apologies to Ross. I still owe you that twelvepack.

Posted by Johno on 01/29/04 at 11:22 PM
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More range than a rover

Rocket Jones is spreading the news about the Mars airplane that is under development by Aurora Flight Sciences:

An exploration vehicle like this would vastly expand our ability to explore Mars. Rather than being limited to a very small area near the landing site, we would be able to cover hundreds of square miles at close range. A very cool thing, indeed.

[wik] And yes, I was too lazy to make up my own clever title.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/29/04 at 10:34 PM
That Buck Rogers Stuff • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Everyone’s a Terrorist, Except Me (And People Who Think Exactly Like Me)

That’s true, apparently, if you’re Trent Telenko. I guess they’re everywhere. Here is my rambling response...lunchtime is limited today, and therefore so is my ability to polish the words.

Dear Trent: Good Lord. Where do you get the balls to tell me that I pretend 9/11 didn’t happen? I guess it’s simple enough if you just enjoy making it up as you go. Find me anything I’ve ever written that implies that. I live in Washington DC. I was here on that day. I spent a good-sized part of it terrified because the person I cared about more than anything in the world was in a State Department building, and rumors were floating around about another plane, and that a car bomb had gone off, destroying the building, and I didn’t know what had happened to her. So save your “9/11 means nothing” bullshit for a little rally of like-minded jackboot-steppers. It’s not applicable to me, and frankly it’s not generally applicable at all. You debase yourself every time you imply it about another person.

Ah, calm.

More Perfidious Goodness...

Perhaps you’re referring to the fact that my _reaction_ to 9/11 is different from yours. Once again, I’m not sure how you know, exactly, what my reaction is.

I don’t pretend that a death cult is not involved, because a death cult _is_ involved, plain as day. I don’t write that Arab culture isn’t sick, because I happen to think that in many ways, it is. Perhaps you are confusing what I have actually written with something else?

You and I differ on whether genocide and atrocities are necessary to remedy the situation. There is no simple outcome to this; there is no absolute “logical conclusion” to be had from the facts at hand (or at least those at my disposal). Good god, man, we’re dealing with social sciences and human beings, here. Nothing is predictable; nothing is certain.

Which side of the February 26, 1993 divide are you on? THAT was the wake up call, and there may have been earlier ones. That was when Islamic terrorism crossed the line in clear effort. They’ve had the will to do this for a very long time now. 9/11 was the first operation that accomplished its goals at scale.

You miss the point of this discussion in a spectacular way. Iraq is not the issue, and never has been. The issue is resource allocation and effective means of defense against the super-empowered angry man, and states who defend him. If we set aside all other issues, I could certainly support military intervention in Iraq, for simple “it’s the right thing to do” reasons.

We’re in the middle of a spending several hundred billion dollars to effect change in Iraq. We don’t really know how that’s going to turn out—it’s a risk, right now. The benefits are highly nebulous and off in the future. Kay’s testimony and report shows that the country did not have significant WMD (or any at all, for that matter). Alarmingly, though, he found that there are some pretty “smart” guys running around in the middle east who might be able to create certain kinds of WMD, whose talents are for sale. What could they build? Low-tech nuclear, possibly biological, certainly chemical. Where will they go now? They will go places where we do not have monitoring.

Each of these capabilities will, over the next century, become progressively more available to smaller and smaller groups. I conclude that we _will_ suffer from this form of terrorism; and there is no way to stop it.

We can delay, perhaps. A massive onslaught of violence and posturing against Middle Eastern culture will achieve some delay. Arab culture and radical Islam seem to be the primary generators of violence on the face of the planet, at the moment. Religious intolerance is stunning difficult to root out and eliminate. We must find a way to generate massive intolerance _within_ Arab culture to the cancer in its midst, to create the ultimate solution. That is an open problem.

The singular focal point of _secular_ Middle Eastern anger at America involves Israel. Given the resources we are expending and have expended on Iraq, can we find a better use? I believe we can. Invading Iraq to provide an example of how an Arab state _could_ be is POINTLESS without some benign resolution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. You can set up any democracy you want in Iraq, and anything you do of merit will be poisoned by that fundamental conflict. Note that I do NOT advocate a particular solution to that conflict, at this point—I advocate a specific OUTCOME. Anything that achieves an outcome of stability, separation, and relative peace is acceptable.

Longer term, I view decentralization as the only defense against the progressive danger of WMD. I conclude that over the long run, free cities cannot be defended from the terrorism of the super-empowered angry man. We must study our infrastructure and create many points of strength, where we currently have single points of weakness. We must, by government intervention if necessary, decentralize our financial and political systems.

We live on a vast continent, and it’s time we took advantage of that.

A couple of random notes:

WMD are either state-sponsored or not. Tens of thousands of Russian nuclear missiles aimed at the US are a civilization-ending threat (not to mention life-on-the-planet-ending). One nuclear weapon, detonated in a city, is an immeasurable tragedy and horror, but not a civilization ending event. Eliminating state-sponsored terrorism is a critical goal. Clearly, military operations in Afghanistan accomplished this goal. Just as clearly, the massive expenditures in Iraq are not justified with a corresponding reduction in terrorist capabilities or potential.

When I look at the list you use to “qualify” Iraq for invasion, what strikes me is how precisely Saudi Arabia maps into it. I find it very hard to believe that somewhere in SA, we would not find a rich man, funding a clever man, to build a horror. Certainly, SA is a primary source of funding for the “death cult” that is attempting to propagate itself around the globe.

The easiest form of terrorism is to simply fill a van with explosives, drive it next to a building, and detonate it. This technique could easily be used to kill tens of thousands of people in America. It wouldn’t necessarily kill them all at once, but if a series of bombings were to take place, the effect might be even stronger. Why have we not seen this form of attack? Don’t tell me it’s because the INS is doing its job. That’s a joke. I’m really not sure why we haven’t see more domestic terrorism, but I think the answer is twofold: First, there just really aren’t all that many of these suicidal nutjobs. Second, when said carefully trained nutjobs arrive in America, blend in, and possibly make friends, quite a large number of them realize that they’ve been living a lie, and fade away.

My basic, but uninformed solution for the Israeli/Palestinian crisis: Build the wall. Put it on the green line. Evict or imprison Arafat and his cronies. PAY for the relocation of Israeli settlers back into Israel proper. PAY to establish an economy in Palestine. With some meaningful self-direction, a decent economy, and secular causes _removed_, the radicals will find themselves on the receiving end of massive internal hostility. Inform Israel that their military aid is contingent upon acceptance (at no cost) of this offer. Inform the new Palestine (or whatever the hell they call themselves), that _any_ spending on a formal military will be met with an increase in military aid to Israel double the expenditure, and a cessation of any economic aid whatsoever. Create “truth” commissions on both sides, offering amnesty for detailed information, cessation of activites, and surrender of all war materiel. Place Jerusalem under UN authority, making it an independent “sub-state”, with its own elected council, evenly divided along religious lines. The oath of office is a binding oath to preach non-violence and tolerance. Build desalination plants on the coast and convey the water to the new palestine. Create a UN-sponsored, secular education system in the new palestine. Fund it so no family will ever need to send a child to a religious school again. Do I want to reward terrorism by just _giving_ people all this? Hell, no. But I want more terrorism even less. And for my global strategy, I need Israel and suroundings to be peaceful and prosperous, on both sides.

I have been thinking about something that I know is controversial, and I struggle with it. It is a formal policy of assassination. Essentially, any _public_ religious figure who _publicly_ advocates “death to america (or another western country)” AND demonstrably and provably supports terrorism, through guidance or resources or some such, without repudiation of those statements, is subject to this policy. Anywhere in the world, any time. The uttering of “death to america” puts us on notice of intent to kill our citizens, from a particular individual. It may be necessary to generate an equal and opposite reaction.

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Ross on 01/29/04 at 08:34 PM
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Supervised Evilry

Minister GeekLethal handcrafts some authentic evil with the assistance of his faithful minion, the demon whose name is Baphmotep Lingurian but on our plane of existence is known as Miss Cutiepie Fuzzle Kitty:

Posted by on 01/29/04 at 07:42 PM
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Surprise!

The prescription drug benefit will cost $540 billion instead of the $400 billion we were promised. I didn’t see that coming.

Posted by Buckethead on 01/29/04 at 07:41 PM
Filthy Lucre • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Solipsism

I will interrupt my self-imposed blogging hiatus to ask an important question:

I just received a spam to my personal account with the subject line, “glory dental shakespearian phosphate.” Just what is the pitch here, and what could they possibly be selling (purple monkey dishwasher)?

[wik] Another one… from an entity calling itself “Rosanna Betts” with the subject line “altar shannon orville widgeon .” Sure! I’ll buy one!

[also wik] Yet another… from someone called “Dr. Howard Dean, M.D.”... it sez “Two days left - rally with Governor Dean.” What the hell is that all about?

[also also wik] Via rocketjones I find this post from plasticbag.org, in which our hero takes spam literally at its word and busts out the photoshop to show the world. Witness!

Hi-larious!!

[wi not trei a holiday in Sweden this year?] The foregoing was merely an attempt to make perfidy.org load even slower.

Posted by Johno on 01/29/04 at 06:34 PM
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Notable Electronica

I wouldn’t even think of trying to compete in music writing with Johno, but as a long-time (suffering) fan of electronic music, I thought I might put together a list of notable stuff...you can’t really go wrong with any of this.

1. Orbital - “Orbital 2”. The “brown” CD. Classic mid-nineties, easily the most polished effort of its time, and therefore somewhat timeless. “there is a twist in space”

2. Tangerine Dream - “Poland”. Get the import, 2 CD version. An absolute classic; a landmark political and musical event. One of the finest long-form electronic concerts ever.

3. Underworld - “dubnobasswithmyheadman”. Spooky, weird, depressing, and brilliant. Later Underworld is more polished and even better, but this is a key recording and lead-in to what they became.

4. LFO - “Advance”. Brilliant early, experimental recording. Ridiculously difficult to find, and proportionally fantastic. Found this when it was attached to the computer game “Hardwar”; it was one of the first games to have “serious” music with it.

5. Junkie XL - “Big Sounds of the Drags”. One of the grooviest “dance” CDs ever. It’s a bit of a bridge between listening music and dance, though—tracks are danceable but just plain fantastic listening. Brilliant production.

6. Assemblage 23 - “Defiance”. Good late-model melodic industrial...showing you where that genre has gone. Doesn’t really stand up with the rest of this list, but is useful as a touchstone for this style.

7. Aphex Twin - “Selected Ambient Works 85-92”. Xtal, oh xtal. Singular, beautiful, ethereal...and really the last thing by Richard James I actually liked. A landmark.

8. Alpinestars - “B.A.S.I.C.”. The best new “retro” electronic out there...along with its followup “White Noise”. Brand new music that has groovy analog shit in it.

9. Sasha - “Airdrawndagger”. Hated it the first time I heard it, as I was expecting something different. Picked it up again 6 months later because I couuld still remember some of it, and I’ve loved it ever since. This is one of my highest recommendations on the list, and the first “DJ” CD I’ve really respected. Unless you count Tom Holkenberg (Junkie XL) as a DJ.

10. Morel - “Queen of the Highway”. Enveloping, dark, groovy, and local. Just what the doctor ordered. Morel worked with Deep Dish, and the searing, unstoppable beat of this CD smooths out the harshness (in meaning, not tone) of the lyrics.

That’ll get you started. Every CD on this list is utterly different from the others; they are all good representatives of their sub-genres...so buy, damn you!

Posted by Ross on 01/29/04 at 03:25 PM
Music Wonkery • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

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