Fran O’Brien’s Update

Here's a sourced update on the Fran O'Brien steakhouse and the Friday night dinners.

Casting America

As the bad guy.

Michael Kinsley has it all worked out. All of the blunders in foreign policy concerning the Middle East in the last 50 years all wrapped and packaged and put into a neat little box. Put a label on it saying, "America Bad" and the whole project is complete. The way Kinsley tells it, there's one disastrous bit of Republican meddling after another. It's just plain damning.

A few things are missing, though. Like the names Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter or Clinton. Who also pursued policies that didn't work out so well in the Middle East. Or the little thing that happened to be going on through the bulk of the fifty years Kinsley talks about. A little non-event sometimes referred to as the "Cold War".

Mr. Kinsley talks about Mohammad Mosaddeq, and says all he wanted to do was nationalize the oil companies. No big deal, right? He doesn't mention that Mohammad Mosaddeq also tried to dissolve the majlis himself. He doesn't mention that Mohammad Mosaddeq was strongly supported by the Iraqi Communist party.

Rather than belabor the point, I'll just leave it that Mr. Kinsley is misleading by omission here. This is a totally one-sided hit piece where only the names of Republicans are mentioned, as if no Democrat even existed during that 50 year span. It also leaves out a lot of crucial details about his heroic protagonists and does not even attempt to put the entire Middle East into context of the larger picture of the Cold War.

In other words, Mr. Kinsley, this is an extremely shoddy and extremely partisan column - and I think you know it, sir.

One Of The Nice Things About Blogging

Is that you get to meet (at least in a virtual sense, I suppose) some interesting people. One I've met recently is Chez Diva. She has a blog I've linked to. She's also got a newly identified disease. All of us here in the blogosphere are familiar with the Bush Derangement Syndrome or BDS. It's a well documented problem. Chez Diva has heard the rantings of "Bush Lied - Eggplants died" once too often. (Well, OK, I made that one up, but it's only a matter of time). At any rate, Chez Diva recently was diagnosed with a severe reaction to BDS, tentatively identified as Bush Lied Fatigue. In her words, repeated in the National Journal Blogometer:

chez Diva: “I honestly can report that every time I hear, read or see anything related to ‘Bush Lied’ I get physically ill and feel an overwhelming since [sic] of exhaustion. I think I have a name for my sickness, it’s called Bush Lied Fatigue (BLF).”

(She's a bit embarrassed by the typo)

She's come up with a BLF logo she plans to put on some items to raise money for Operation AC/Adopt a Soldier. A worthy cause, I think. Here's the new logo she designed:

I think we have a new winner in the acronym department. (Logo used by permission)

Suppressing Free Speech

Another example of what academics these days are teaching about free speech.

A librarian who recommended four conservative books be added to a reading curriculum is being hit with "sexual orientation harassment" charges by two other faculty members. The books were brought up during a committee meeting and no direct reference was made to either of the complaining faculty members. The University is conducting an investigation.

Why is it academics have such a poor grasp of this concept we know as free speech?

Patterico Vs Hiltzik - The Rematch

Patterico enters the ring against Michael Hiltzik in the second of the pair's world champion title bouts. Patterico once again thumps heck out of Hiltzik. Patterico should feel somewhat ashamed of himself - after all, he's engaging in a battle of wits against a completely unarmed man.

I followed the first bout - it was highly amusing.

How To Treat The Wounded

The Capitol Hilton really should take a hard look at their practices in light of this article.

United Airlines will donate more than 123 million frequent flyer miles to the Hero Miles program, which supplies free flights to wounded service members and their families.

Nearly 90 percent of the donation comes from United customers who turned over their accumulated frequent flyer bonuses to the military charity. Altogether, the donation will mean nearly 5,000 more free flights for the program’s participants.

Now, 90% came from customer donations, but United administered the whole thing and did donate miles as well.

Currently the Hero Miles program, run by the Fisher House Foundation, offers flights on 10 major airlines. To date the program has supplied more than 5,000 round-trip tickets to wounded troops and their families, worth more than $6.5 million.

The program is open to troops injured in combat operations overseas and their families.

There are a lot of good people in this country.

Reenlistments

Despite the way the media tries to spin things, reenlistments are about 15% higher than expected in the US Army. Strategy Page has a good article up on this and what it means for the future of the Army.

All this is extremely important, especially when there is a war going on. Experience saves lives in combat, and more of the most experienced troops are staying in. This means that, a decade from now, the army will have a large and experienced corps of senior NCOs. That, in turn, means the younger troops are likely to well trained and led. 

Sounds about right.

Now It’s Time To Really Get Angry

Hilton Hotels has responded about the Fran O'Brien's ouster. Take out all the flowery legalese stuff and it boils down to two words:

Go away

Time to get angry now folks.

Previous entries here and here.

UPDATE: Direct link (even though one of my cmmenters doesn't much car for the source).

It’s Safe To Drink In A Texas Bar Again

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has suspended a program that was arresting intoxicated people inside bars. The program may be reinstated since the TABC thinks it was worthwhile.

"We understand that everything has room for improvement, this included," she (commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck) said.

She said most of those arrested in the sting operations had been "dangerously drunk" and might have tried to drive if TABC agents had not busted them.

Since the any of the members of the TABC might try to sexually assault a horse, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard demand their immediate arrest. In the interest of public safety, of course.

Reframe This

The lunatic in charge president of Iran has called (again) for Israel to be annihilated.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

Is this the strong, rational incentive these folks are referring to when they want to "reframe" the debate?

Keep fiddling.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like Reuters is following their instructions. This is from their propaganda release story on the Iranian president's speech:

But the tone of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech to a conference on the Palestinian issue was slightly more moderate than fiery rhetoric last year, when Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted him as telling a conference: "Israel must be wiped off the map."

How very moderate of them.

Another Retired General Speaks Out

(Photo from Brainster's Blog - stop by and visit him)

Fran O’Briens’s Update

Found this via Mudville Gazette, Cassandra has a very detailed piece up about the restaurant and it's Friday night dinners.

I have not been able to get any news from the owners as of yet.

This Is Revealing

A somewhat misleading way to present is to play up one part in the first few paragraphs, then bury the opposite points in the body of the story. That way, the reporter can't be accused of only presenting one side, even if the headline addresses only one part of the whole. Reporters and editors are familiar with reader's habits, though and know a lot of people don't actually finish an article. So it can be a sneaky way to slant a story. In fairness, sometimes the order a story is presented in is part of telling the story, the reporter may be looking at one aspect of an issue. Point of view, so to speak.

Richard Morin in today's Washington Post has a story where the headline is completely factual: "Whites Take Flight On Election Day". The first few paragraphs are specific to Republican voters and tell how a substantial percentage of voters cross over to the other party if the candidate of their own party happens to be black. Someone skimming the article would draw a negative conclusion about Republicans. But while that is disturbing, it's not exactly the biggest revelation in the article.

It seems that 25% of Republicans will do this crossover dance because of a black candidate. That number jumps to 38% among Democrats. I think that aspect is probably more deserving of the headline. I would have written the headline as: More Democrats than Republicans Refuse To Vote For a Black Candidate.

The editor would just say it was too long for a headline, though. 

This Sounds Promising

Are Iraq's neighbors trying to help avert a civil war? Strategy Page says they are:

April 13, 2006: The rising threat of a sectarian civil war appears to be helping to avert one. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and some other nations bordering Iraq are increasing measures to curb extremist support in Iraq, and are curbing assistance to groups responsible for actions that are feeding sectarian tensions. Apparently leaders in these countries have decided that an Iraqi civil war along sectarian lines will inevitably spill over onto their soil, as large numbers of refugees flee the fighting, while their own citizens become radicalized in support of co-religionists in Iraq, both events possibly fueling internal disorders. There are a lot of Shia Arabs in places like Saudi Arabia, Syria and Kuwait. Most of these Shia Arabs live near the Saudi and Kuwaiti oil fields. It has always been, at least since the oil was discovered, the policy of both nations, to keep their Shia happy, or at least quiet.  

Even more important:

One of the things that has been changed in Iraq is the way the economy is regulated. Since Saddam was tossed out in 2003, the economy has been governed by Western rules. As a result, GDP per capita doubled by the end of 2005, and the GDP is expected to grow another 49 percent by 2008. All this despite continued attacks by Sunni Arab rebels on oil facilities and other economic targets. It's much easier to start a business in Iraq now, even though there's still a lot of corruption. The big change is that now the corruption is illegal, and there is even progress in prosecuting the government officials who take bribes or try to shake down businessmen. Lebanon is the only other Arab state to run its economy in a Western fashion, and they have thrived. However, Lebanon also interrupted their success story with a fifteen year (1975-90) civil war. Iraqis are well aware of that, and have no illusions about what happens if everyone does not get along.

As one commenter pointed out on another post, democracy without certain standards of behavior such as respect for other's rights is mob rule. It sounds like the Iraqi's are starting to get it.

H/T Instapundit for the link.

I do not think it means what you think it means

No, I'm not channeling Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. I'm talking about the Northern Kentucky University professor who told her graduate students to exercise their "freedom-of-speech" by vandalizing a display of crosses. The crosses had been erected by an anti-abortion student group, with permission from the university.

"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said.

We begin to see the problem. Your right to free speech trumps everyone else's professor? Your right to free speech entitles you to destroy property that does not belong to you?

I think the good professor should be invited to don a set of handcuffs.

At least the president of NKU understands:

NKU President James Votruba said any evidence of criminal conduct in the incident will be turned over to prosecutors. He said he appreciated the emotional nature of the abortion debate and was glad that diverse viewpoints are represented at the school, but he condemned the destruction of the crosses.

"Freedom-of-speech rights end where you infringe on someone else's freedom of speech," Votruba said.

"I don't buy the claim that this is an act of freedom of speech, to destroy property."

He said he was gathering information about the extent of Jacobsen's participation.

Good for him.