Saturday, August 19, 2006

Midnight News -- 8/19/06

The U.S. continues to suspect that North Korea will conduct an underground test of a nuclear weapon. South Korea continues to downplay U.S. suspicions. South Korea has a political and financial interest in protecting North Korea from the approbation of the world. The U.S does not. You can decide for yourself who is more credible.

Some Iraqi Shiites are able to see who their real enemies are. The problem is that Iranian-led terrorists don't much concern themselves with political pronouncements, so unless the denunciations from these Iraqis are backed up with firepower they won't come to much.

Israelis are coming to realize just how badly their military performed against Hezbollah. It doesn't appear the troops that made it into the field did badly, but rather that the generals used poor tactics and failed to supply their troops sufficiently. "'For four weeks we failed to defend ourselves against daily bombardments against our cities. This is a failure that never happened before,' said Yuval Steinitz, a Likud Party member and former chairman of parliament's defense committee." The IDF has limited time to right itself before Hezbollah launches its next attack. If the past is prelude, they have only as long as Iran allows.

For the third time this year, a letter has been sent to Indian authorities threatening to blow up the Taj Mahal. The letters have been in Hindi and are probably written by the same person.

The woman who disrupted a flight from London to Washington, D.C. -- yammering about al Qaeda and urinating in the aisle -- is a leftist writer who specializes in painting America as the root of all evil in the world in Pakistani newspapers. Is anyone really shocked at this?

My two favorite baseball teams lost so horribly today that I find it impossible to look beyond the final scores. See for yourself how bad it was, if you dare. On the plus side, the Kansas City Royals managed to sweep a double header against the AL West leading Oakland A's. I lived in KC when I was in high school, when they got their World Series win in 1985. I'll always have a soft spot for them.

One of America's foremost skanks is making news in Australia.

A group of young, adventurous Americans are planning to travel to Thailand to compete in Elephant Polo Championships. They have not yet actually ridden on any elephants, a fact I predict will doom the entire enterprise. I'm torn between crediting their daring and bemoaning their vanity. It's inspiring to see them make this effort, but is softball not good enough for them?

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