And I am not only referring to duyba but also to Michael Novak, a Scholar at Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new employer: the American Enterprise Institute

This scholar has published an article about The Bravest President. The main gist of his argument seems to be that dubya doesn't change his mind and continues on doggedly on the path taken. Perhaps that is brave but only if he makes to the end of the path..otherwise it is considered stupid and inflexible and not dealing with reality..not unlike the captain of the Titanic..(stephen Colbert, perhaps they are re-arranging the deckchairs on the titanic not the hindenburg..)

Michael Novak humbily admits that he is not capable enough to judge the correctness of the path taken, which is an odd statement for somebody working at a thinktank on public and goverment policy..(as a sidenote: the whole article seems to be at odds with the "non-partisan" goals of the institute..)

But what really stood out in this article was the attempt to downplay the violence in Iraq:

In Paris, France, more cars may have been set on fire this past year than car bombings in Baghdad. In the decade of the Algerian war some time ago there may have been more bombings in France per week than there are now in Iraq.

In Paris 8973 cars were burned with no fatalities...while there were 71 carbombs with 1649 deaths in Iraq since August 2003.. So I guess the positive point Micheal tries to make that only 71 cars were burned in Iraq. (btw in New York City there are 8700 car fires per year). The Cafe wars were a gang war between 2 Algerian political groups FLN MNA and resulted in 5000 deaths over a period of 8 years (625 deaths per year) The low estimated total of the civilian deaths in Iraq is 37848 (until Apr 2006) which comes to 946 deaths per month since Jan 2003. The suggestion that the situation in France may have been more violent than the current iraq situation is incorrect and not based on any facts. Note the use of the words "there may have been" (btw the number gang related deaths in LA County was 448 in 2000).

The scholar Michael Novak is free to declare Bush Jr the bravest President since Lincoln but misusing irrelevant and incorrect facts to support his argument and to distort the reality of the insurgence in Iraq is inexusable for an former US ambassador, associated with a influential organisation as the AEI. More than 20 AEI (former) associates, including Dick Cheney, (have) work(ed) for the Bush administration.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali will fit right in with the AEI; she doesn't worry about the truth of her facts either...

Bravest President or Biggest Idiot? as the scholar says time will tell but my money is on idiot. Is dubya on the right path? I think we shouldn't have been on this path in the first place but I don't see any exits either.

New Scientist Stealth sharks to patrol the high seas, rather scary

Engineers funded by the US military have created a neural implant designed to enable a shark's brain signals to be manipulated remotely, controlling the animal's movements, and perhaps even decoding what it is feeling.

No matter how often I see "friendly sharks" over at the Disco channel, as a kid of the 70ies I have seens Jaws and will never come close to anything shark alike.

Despite this limitation [it is very easy to exhaust them], though, remote controlled sharks do have advantages that robotic underwater surveillance vehicles just cannot match: they are silent, and they power themselves.

buy the shirt, become part of the revolution.

Truly amazing, this video exposes the government's obsession with spending huge amounts of money on technology made to kill and destroy. Rar footage of atomic boms explosions. Song by Fatboy Slim.