Mean people suck
Jim Treacher has a wonderful story with a message for us all:

I've been pretty mean to Michael Moore lately, but I think he's finally changed my mind:

"Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, and I hope he’s removed as soon as possible. But nonviolently."

Good idea! First we'll coax Saddam out of his bunker with a trail of delicious candy. Then, once his belly is full and he's all sleepy and happy, we'll calmly explain that we don't approve of what he's been doing and it's not very nice and we wish he'd stop. And he'll be like, "Whoa, I never thought of it that way...

Follow the link for the rest. I especially like the part with the unicorn.

The British must have infinite patience
Ian Kirby in News of the World - A teenage girl waved at our troops... she was hanged within the hour:

A smiling teenage girl who waved at patrolling British soldiers and accepted a big-hearted squaddie's gift of chocolate was HANGED by agents of Saddam.

The butchers of the dictator's corrupt Ba'ath party had spied on the Muslim youngster from an alleyway in Az Zubayr near Basra.

Battle-hardened troops of the 1st Batallion, The Royal Irish Regiment choked back tears when they later saw her limp beaten body swaying from a lamp-post in the ramshackle south Iraq town held by Allies.

And yesterday their grim-faced commander, Lt Colonel Tim Collins chewed on a cigar and confirmed:

"A teenage girl who waved at my troops was hanged within the hour.
...
" We came into this area hard and at no little risk. We've had great success in cutting off the Ba'ath Party here.

" Its chief who was Lord God On High in these parts is currently considering his options in a Prisoner of War cage.

" I'd reserved judgment on him?and then I found the knuckleduster in his drawer.

" One of the few good things I can say about the party is that they keep meticulous records.

" We established all the names of local members. We knew they were threatening people co-operating with us, so we paid some of them a visit overnight.

" It's not straightforward but it works. One man found a shot through his kitchen floor helped him remember where his weapon was hidden."

How about some Ba'athists on the lamp posts? That might have a clarifying effect as well.

His Fat is His Fortune
Pop by the Sunday Telegraph to read Mark Steyn's profile of the pretentious shitsack himself, Michael Moore:

He was greeted with a few cheers and more boos, but took both as evidence of his popularity. After all, most of the booers were only booing the other booers. As he explained afterwards, "The booing that started was way up in the balcony" - that is the nobodies in the cheap seats - "and then the people supporting what I was saying started booing them." If memory serves, that's what Elena Ceausescu told Nicolae as they came in through the French windows.
...
Yet somehow the notion persists that an Upper West Sider adored on the Cote d'Azur is the authentic voice of blue-collar America. The vast bulk of his credibility in this regard derives from his vast bulk. Less of Moore would be a career disaster; he would be just another cadaverous limousine liberal nibbling on his curly endive.

Even in Flint, he was never a regular workin' stiff. He lasted one day on the assembly line. Other than that, he worked his way up through alternative radio shows and progressive magazines.

The voice of the working man fer sure.

Frontline Action Alert!
Media Set Back in Coverage of Setback:

As we roll along, I reflect that it's already been a long war for those of us in action, a harsh life, deprived of many of the most ordinary comforts. For many, it's been at least three hours since the last taste of biscotti and cappuccino macchiato. There is little to protect us from the brutal weather or road conditions, except a well-sealed vehicle with a soft suspension and air conditioning. We have scant access to information about anything outside of our immediate area, other than twenty-four hour cable news, a satellite dish, cell phones, and the internet.

Since the war broke out, just a couple days after my interview with "Commandante Howell," I've been embedded in a front-line reportorial unit--the Chicken Little Company, of the Eeyore 5th Battalion, part of the Fourth Division, proudly named for decades the "Whining Weasels."

It's Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings.

Monica alert!
Kieran Murray's report for Reuters that Hundreds of Iraqis killed in four-day battle for Kifl has one particularly astonishing sentence:

The officers said the tank unit fired two 120 mm high velocity depleted uranium rounds straight down the main road, creating a powerful vacuum that literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they were shot down by small arms fire or run over by the tanks.

Sounds like the troops were having Kieran on, but I enjoy a heartwarming tale. Read the whole article for a snapshot of fighting Saddam's "guerrillas".

One big scary, dysfunctional family
Ed Johnson at the AP reports Saddam Sacks Commander of Air Defenses:

Saddam Hussein has fired his commander of air defenses as U.S.-led forces claimed control of 95 percent of Iraq's sky, the British government said Saturday.

Prime Minister Tony Blair official spokesman said Saddam had sacked his cousin, Musahim Saab al-Tikriti, and replaced him with Gen. Shahin Yasin Muhammad al-Tikriti.

No word on whether the sack was a body bag.

Poor Bobby
Tom Paine at Silent Running amuses with Little Bobby Fisk:

Anyway, a couple of afternoons after this excitement, this patrol which my mate is in charge of (he's an old fella these days, but he was pretty young back then) is manning a roadblock. Up comes Bobby Fisk in his Mini, and they stop him. He packs a big sad, and starts yelling the place down about how he's an important journalist and this is British Army harrasment, and he's on first name terms with the Chief Constable and he'll have my mate's pips for this, just basically carrying on like the giant penis he's always been.

Having failed the old attitude test ...

You'll have to follow the link for the juicy details.

Why the surprise?
But a Marine Corps general says he was:

"What has surprised me most, quite honestly, is that in nearly six days of ground fighting that the forces that are loyal to Saddam Hussein have already committed so many war crimes," said Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace this week on CNN.

Just a couple of yesterday's lowlights:

Iraqi militia targets fleeing families

The crowd was halfway across the concrete and steel bridge when the mortar rounds started falling on the Basra side. Men, women and children screamed as they ran to escape Iraqi machine-gun fire.

A thousand people, maybe more, ran for their lives. A young woman fell, hit by shrapnel as a pick-up truck broke cover and charged forward, the machine-gun mounted on its roof spewing bullets at the crowd.

Signs of U.S. POWs found at hospital

U.S. Marines who secured a hospital that had been used by Iraqi forces later found several bloodied U.S. uniforms worn by female soldiers, NBC’s Kerry Sanders reported Friday from the hospital. The find suggested that Iraq had held several POWs at the hospital, which is in An Nasiriyah, a town where at least five Americans were taken prisoner in an attack that killed two other soldiers and left eight missing.

Sanders was shown where the uniforms were found - inside the bathroom of a larger room that had been padlocked. It was the same room where 3,000 nuclear, biological and chemical suits were found when the Marines moved in.

The uniforms, which had had their American flag patches and names ripped off, were found inside a bag.

In another room, Marines found a large battery next to a bed - leading them to suspect it was used as a torture device, Sanders reported.

By the way, here's a screen capture of the battery (via MikeWUSAF at Free Republic):

Susie loses a well paying gig
By now you may have seen the reports that the United Way of Tampa Bay canceled an appearance by Susan Sarandon arranged by her brother who works for a local paper. The United Way decided they didn't need the controversy, but naturally Susie is whining:

"Once again, the shortsightedness of the powerful will end up hurting those in need."

But digging a little deeper, we find courtesy of Steve Miller in the Washington Times:

Admission was to be $200 for the entire day or $75 to attend a lunch at which Miss Sarandon was to speak. Her speaking fee of $20,000 was to be paid by the St. Petersburg Times Fund with the proceeds going to the local United Way.

I guess Susie's in need. Who knew? I thought she had all that urinal cake revenue.

Beats the heck out of an X10
Paul Boutin in Slate reveals It's Easy Seein' Green - Night-vision scopes make your closet the color of Baghdad:

Of all the military gadgets on parade on television, there's one you can bring home without spooking the neighbors into thinking you've gone postal. Night-vision scopes, once available only at defense contractor prices, can be found nowadays at Wal-Mart for less than $100. The new consumer models are less powerful than the military versions, but they're more portable, too. They're also more stylish, so you won't look like that creep from Silence of the Lambs.

Technology has made huge leaps since the first Gulf War, but the grunts in the field still wear the same AN/PVS-7 headsets manufactured for Desert Storm by Northrop Grumman. U.S. civilians can buy the PVS-7 for themselves, but prices start at around $2,500 and can run to more than four grand for the model used in the gulf. A much more attractive option - literally - is the Night Owl Aero, a sleek, lightweight, sub-$200 unit designed to be held in one hand rather than strapped to your head cyborg-style.

(We won't tell Paul why strapping 'em to your head is damned convenient if you have to use 'em.)

First-time users inevitably gasp when they take the Aero into a darkened closet and press its illuminator button, which causes a small red bulb on the front of the unit to glow dimmer than a lighted cigarette. Looking into the eyepiece the first time is an oh-my-God moment. The illuminator emits infrared light (invisible to humans), and the Aero's circuits crank it up to a brilliant green, making the room bright enough to read the New York Times without squinting. Look away from the lens, and the room is pitch black. Brain to eyeballs: Does not compute.

But standing around in a closet isn't where it's at.

In urban tests, the Aero let me read the license plates of cars parked overnight on my block and watch local winos fumble with the contents of their brown paper bags at 4 a.m. Its super-sensitive vision could sometimes see through a slinky dress to reveal the outlines of underwear. But the more shocking discovery was that I wasn't alone in the dark. Through the Aero's eyepiece, normally invisible light sources shone as brightly as regular bulb. Motion detectors gleamed from doorways. Some downtown buildings sported infrared security cameras (why they don't just use a 1,000-watt floodlight, I don't know). Most surprising of all, other night-vision users were out and about. The insides of their scopes shone back at me like glowing green eyes whenever our gazes crossed paths. At an all-night outdoor rave, I spotted the local cops looking through second-generation police goggles from the darkened cab of their truck. Crime-spotting, or just girl watching?

Ruh Oh! I thought the boys were just buying 'em for deer hunting!