The new new Iraqi flag: BAGHDAD, April 30 -- It was supposed to take care of problems raised by the first flag redesign: a figure of an Iraqi prisoner with a hood over his head, standing on a box and with wires connected to his hands, two light blue stripes representing broomsticks used to beat and sodomize captives, and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the urine that was directed at their heads.
But the newest national flag, presented Friday after an artistic competition at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, appears to have met with widespread public disapproval here.
posted by Quiddity at 5/01/2004 10:14:00 AM
This is all you need to know: (Okay, maybe that's hyperbole)
Liberal Oasis
comments on the recent CBS/NYTimes poll (pdf
here). The one thing that caught our attention was this:
q82 Do you think Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
Rep
Yes -- 52%
No -- 39%
Dem
Yes -- 28%
No -- 62%
Ind
Yes -- 38%
No -- 51%
Note that the question was: Do you think Saddam Hussein was
personally involved in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
posted by Quiddity at 4/29/2004 10:07:00 AM
"Virtually any" In a
Los Angeles Times story about outsourcing, they profile an Indian who is a big part of that process, Atul Vashistha of neoIT. He has some provocative things to say. For instance:
"If you're a Web programmer, I'm sorry, you have no right to think you can keep your job in the U.S. if you're using the same technology that existed four years ago," Vashistha says. "You've got to keep moving up. You've got to keep going back to schoolÂ…. If you're not going to do that, you're going to lose your job."
But then later in the story we read: (emphasis added)
Like it or not, Vashistha says, Americans are now part of a global competition for labor. With the advent of the Internet and high-speed telecommunications, virtually any job that can be done at a computer or over the phone can be moved to countries where wages are much lower. And U.S. companies that resist the trend, he says, will be swept away by rivals.
Ponder that. Virtually any. So why bother going back to school? Why keep up with things? Why even try to make a living with a job "that can be done at a computer"?
Another point. If, as seems likely, virtually any white-collar job can be moved overseas, then you're left with jobs that require the
physical presence of the worker. Like delivering things. Cutting hair. Sales. Construction.
Kind of makes a college education unnecessary.
posted by Quiddity at 4/27/2004 08:18:00 AM
Slumming: We're still in minimal blogging mode. That said, we recommend reading Liberal Oasis'
post on why Kerry's recent attack on Bush's National Guard service is good politics.
posted by Quiddity at 4/27/2004 07:15:00 AM
A public event: Heard on
Fox News Sunday's roundtable during a discussion about showing pictures of coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq:
JUAN WILLIAMS: But let me say this. I noticed you won't show pictures - don't want to show pictures of troops, people coming back dead from Iraq. But there doesn't seem to be any hesitency about using images of 9/11 and the World Trade Center. And we're going to see more of those images shortly in the course of the Republican convention. Why not use some restraint there, as opposed to where you have people ...
CHRIS WALLACE: Alright Fred, you get the last word.
FRED BARNES: Juan, 9/11 was a public event. And if anybody thinks ...
JUAN WILLIAMS: And what is war? What is war, Fred?
FRED BARNES: And if anybody thinks ... Well, the war is also a public event. But the coffins are not.
Low res (mono, 8-bit, 8KHz, 220k size) .wav file
here. Provided as an assurance the transcript above is accurate. File will probably be removed after one month due to storage limitations.
UPDATE: Just to be clear, it was Barnes' characterization of 9/11 as "a public event" - like it was a festival or something - that sounded peculiar.
posted by Quiddity at 4/25/2004 09:20:00 AM 
