Archives for July 2007

July 19, 2007 By Fausta

Yesterday’s explosion near Grand Central…

… took place just as I was finishing my shift. I posted immediately that at the time (7PM Estern), there were no injuries reported.

Unfortunately, this morning we know there was one death and 30 injuries, two of them critical. Considering the location – near 41st Street and Lexington Avenue – and the time of day, it is a miracle that it wasn’t worse.

CNN and the BBC have photo slide shows, and they are all too reminiscent of the 9/11 images that are so engraved in our minds.

Fortunately, the explosion was not caused by an act of terrorism but by a steam pipe explosion, which have occured before

Manhattan is home to the largest district steam system in the world, according to the Web site of the city’s Economic Development Corp. While most of the city’s buildings have on- site boilers to provide heat during the winter, the Con Edison Steam Business Unit heats 1,800 buildings, serving more than 100,000 commercial and residential customers through a series of underground pipes running from the Bowery in lower Manhattan to 96th Street.

Consolidated Edison’s steam network links many end-users to central power plants through a network of pipes carrying either steam or heated/cooled water under high pressure. The New York Steam Co. began providing such service in lower Manhattan in 1882.

In 2000, a steam pipe explosion near New York University’s Bobst Library on Washington Square blew a 15-foot crater into the street on Washington Square South, and spewed debris and traces of asbestos into the air. The 1989 blast that killed three sent debris several stories into the air.

The 83-year-old pipe exploded just before 6PM, right in the middle of rush hour, when cold water reached the hot steam pipe.

The WaPo has video of the scene.

Ed Driscoll and Dan Riehl have more.

July 19, 2007 By Fausta

Memes, women and terror

Jeremayakovka replied to last week’s tag before I asked, but today he has Eight Theses On Being Jeremayakovka

In terror, time and language collapse. What remains in the mind (if anything) is the will — yet even that is often displaced. Tossed in that surf, my body became a vivid, constricted concert of heart, lungs, throat, nostrils, a concert bellowing in stunning, perfect pitch: Confront terror with every fiber of your being. If you don’t, it will seize you and make off with you. Fight it NOW or succumb forever.

Go read the rest.

Obi’s Sister makes her own jewlery, Alice the Camel listens to my podcasts (Thank You, Alice!!), Spanish Pundit loves tea, and Lady Godiva (in Spanish) likes people who don’t talk a lot, tell the truth and don’t beat around the bush.

July 18, 2007 By Fausta

Great news: Media Mythbusters Wiki Page!

Media Mythbusters Blog has inagurated their Media Mythbusters Wiki Page

This is great news, and I’ll be visiting often.

July 18, 2007 By Fausta

The holy all-nighter

First we have the pompous picture of Harry achieving Nirvana:

which topped the Reuters story Democrats start all-night push for change in Iraq

Then there’s The Secret Senator Mindmeld, and all those Dems, grumpy from staying up late, telling each other scary stories at the sleepover

So what did this accomplish? Nothing.

Darleen has the picture of what the Dems want.

I wonder what Harry’s looking like just now.

Update
Meanwhile, over in Iraq, look whose gig is up…

Share on Facebook
Yes, I added that photo at Pajamas Media, and am very pleased to announce I’m one of their editors

July 18, 2007 By Fausta

Preventing the West from Understanding Jihad

Walid Phares writes about those who are Preventing the West from Understanding Jihad

In the 1990’s, apologist literature attempted to convince readers and audiences in the West that Jihad was a “spiritual experience only, and not a menace.” [1] That explanation has now been shattered by Bin Laden and Ahmedinijad. So in the post-9/11 age, a second strategy to delay public understanding of Jihadism and thereby gain time for its adherents to achieve their goals has evolved. It might be called the “good cop, bad cop” strategy. Over the past few years, a new story began to make inroads in Washington and the rest of the national defense apparatus. A group of academics and interest groups are circulating the idea that in reality Jihad can develop in two forms: good Jihad and bad Jihad.

The practice of not using “Jihad” and “Jihadism” was lately defended by two academics at the National Defense University [2] who based their arguments on a study published by a Washington lobbyist, Jim Guirard.[3] On June 22, 2006, Jim Garamone, writing for the American Forces Press Service, published the study of Douglas Streusand and Harry Tunnel under the title “Loosely Interpreted Arabic terms can promote enemy ideology.” Streusand told CNN that “Jihad is a term of great and positive import in Islam. It is commonly defined as striving or struggle, and can mean an internal or external struggle for faith.” [4]

Read the rest.

In the meantime, CAIR has been busy lately:
CAIR Accuses Bush Office Of Being Anti-Muslim
The National Press Club allowed CAIR to to throw a reporter out of a press club.

July 17, 2007 By Fausta

Podcasting with Gerard and Siggy

In yesterday’s podcast, I had the distinct pleasure of talking to two of the best bloggers around, Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest and Siggy of Sigmund, Carl and Alfred. We talked about anti-Americanism, English cooking (including toast) and several other topics.

On the subject of education, we discussed a generation of students growing up without a real education on what it means to be an American:
Gerard:

Classical education’s being replaced by presentism and relativism

On middle class values and conditions:
Siggy:

When you are part of an economic group, you become an oppressor…. People are driven to hatred, and then to violence, when they realize they can not control others with their beliefs

Gerard:

Exactly; this is called the Vision of the Annointed, which is one of the best books I’ve ever read which outlines this mindset. The problem in America is that you have this great divide, and again, you have three generations of a certain elite leftist ideology that feeds upon itself that is driving the educational system, and not only that, is driving social services as well.

We also talked about commercialand, the pattycake war, the grains that bind, and Bill and Hillary.

The podcast is such fun, it might even be fattening.

All that, and Siggy and I discussed the necktie dilemma – Is Siggy a necktie guy?

Will Gerard and Siggy revoke my blogging license since I’m a morning blogger?

Listen to the podcast and find out!

Share on Facebook

July 17, 2007 By Fausta

The tall story

Yesterday Taranto (scroll down to Political Tall Tales h/t Larwyn) posted on the AP anti-American propaganda story that asserts,

just as it has in so many other arenas, America’s predominance in height has faded.

Like Taranto, I wondered,

What are the “so many other areas” in which “America’s predominance . . . has faded”? AP reporter Matt Crenson never gets around to telling us.

However, as Americans born and raised in Puerto Rico, my siblings and I have been doing our part towards “America’s predominance in height”: my brother is 6′, his daughters are 5’8′ and 5’9″, my sister and I are 5’10”, her husband (also born and raised in PR) is 6’4, their son is 6’6″, and their daughters are 5’7″ and 5’10”. The Husband and our son, born and raised in the continental US, are also over 6′.

Not only are we working towards continuing “America’s prominence in height”, we’re doing our share towards supporting all sorts of related industries, such as longer mattresses, cars with more leg room and head room, and longer skirts, trousers and shirts.

And when my siblings and I were growing up in PR, we didn’t have health insurance, either.

We are, however, fortunate to have been born from a long line of tall ancestors.

Crenson goes on to say,

Tall people are healthier, wealthier and live longer than short people.

I forget who it was that asked, If Michael Bloomberg was taller, would he be mayor of a better city?

On the other hand, the Indians (the ones from India, not the ones from Cleveland) are finding out that

Six feet is still a good height, it is still a respectable height, but it is no longer a commanding presence.

But I digress. As Taranto points out, Crenson’s ideology shines through and through.

The AP story ends in yet more propaganda:

“In some ways it gets to the fundamentals of the American society, namely what is the ideology of the American society and what are the shortcomings of that ideology,” Komlos said. “I would argue that to take good care of its children is not part of that ideology.”

Whether that’s true is debatable; the height gap doesn’t measure how much Americans love their children. But at a minimum it does indicate – in raw feet and inches – whether the nation is giving its youngsters what they need to reach their full biological potential, or selling them short.

What it doesn’t say is how tall is Matt Crenson, its author.

Share on Facebook

July 17, 2007 By Fausta

Iranian games

A brief round-up of Iranian news shows the games are on:

There’s the video game,:
Iran’s New Game: `Rescue Nuke Scientist’

An Iranian hard-line student group unveiled a new video game Monday that simulates an attempt to rescue two Iranian nuclear experts kidnapped by the U.S. military and held in Iraq and Israel.
…
“We tried to promote the idea of defense, sacrifice and martyrdom in this game,” Fakhrian said.

Does that means that you win if you blow yourself up at the end? And what about the 72?

The real-life nuclear game:
IAEA, Iran agree visit at disputed reactor site

The EU energy game:
US criticises Turkey-Iran gas deal

The American-hostages-on-TV game:
Iran Puts Detained Scholars Before TV Cameras