September 30, 2004
Point fait
The Astute Blogger has some choice words for the condescending francais.
Meanwhile, I still think Quebec is great.
Posted by Matt at 11:16 PM
New feature
Starting right now, I'm going to keep everyone updated on the status of the many projects I'm working on.
Tonight's agenda: get the icomix.com database up again so that the site can be actually usable again!
Update forthcoming.
Posted by Matt at 9:30 PM
September 28, 2004
Agggggghhhh!
Baskin's back, and he's brought a mini-Baskin with him!!! Look ouuuuuuuttt!!!!
Incidentally, I don't know why this is only occuring to me now, but I wonder if Bryan's related to the 31 flavors guy.
Posted by Matt at 11:41 PM
September 27, 2004
Conan's movin' up!
He's replacing Jay Leno.
Posted by Matt at 4:18 PM
September 24, 2004
A good idea to support our troops
JunkYardBlog has a great idea to support the morale of our troops -- send them DVDs of Fahrenhype 911, the counter-piece to Michael Moore's piece of trash that is now circulating through the ranks and degrading our soldiers' morale.
I'll literally buy ten of these (at $14.99 a pop) for our troops if we can get a movement together. Would you consider buying one?
Posted by Matt at 1:29 AM
September 20, 2004
Generalissimo Bin Laden
Alex Knapp over at Heretical Ideas poses a good question: Is Bin Laden still alive?
I give it a 89% chance that he is dead. And if he isn't dead, he certainly isn't doing anything of any value to his organization.
The most telling sign is the fact that we haven't seen any video of the guy in almost three years. Before Tora Bora, Bin Laden was pretty keen on releasing a video to show that he was still fighting the good fight... but we don't even get those low-quality audiotapes from the guy any more.
But no. All we get is low-quality audiotapes from the "top lieutenant", Al-Zawahiri. Okay, Al-Zawahiri is still alive and kickin'. We got that. But with as much talking as the guy does, you'd almost think that he'd taken over the whole organization.
Sure. Bin Laden's been sighted from time to time. We get reports that the US military is "closing in" on him. The Pakistani military has surrounded a person "very high up" in the Al Qaeda leadership. But never any confirmation. I'm finding it increasingly hard to believe that Bin Laden's still alive -- three years after Tora Bora -- when we managed to get Hussein's sons and the man himself within nine months of invading Iraq.
Yes, yes, Iraq, Afghanistan; it's a different situation. But seriously: for all his symbolic value as a leader of the brave jihad against the United States and the West, you'd think that he'd at least release a still frame of him holding up a newspaper dated post-2001. Either, he can't, or he won't. If Al-Zawahiri can smuggle audiotapes from his hideout, surely Bin Laden could do something similar. And it's pretty unlikely that he wouldn't want to release something to let his troops know he's still leading the war.
If Bin Laden is alive, he's not doing much. He isn't coordinating anything. Could it be that Al-Zawahiri has taken over? It certainly wouldn't be in his interests to mention that Bin Laden is dead -- yes, yes, martyrdom is great for an old jihadi, but the only thing that's better to rally the troops is a defiant leader, bravely standing tall against the Goliath of the American military machine. (I mean, look at the way people have still rallied around Arafat vis-a-vis Israel.)
So I'm going with dead. Bin Laden was in pretty bad shape even before Tora Bora, and if you believe the rumors, probably got injured in the ensuing battle there. Without adequate medical treatment, depending on his wounds, it's not that hard to believe that he hung around for a few months, and then passed on quietly over the summer of 2002. That's my guess. But I seriously doubt we'll ever know the truth.
It's only in the last ten years or so that former Nazi guards and members of the Soviet Red Army have come out with the details of how they buried Hitler.
Posted by Matt at 1:08 PM
