Musings from Brian J. Noggle

A Japanese “adventure traveller” is the latest hostage threatened with beheading in Iraq, according to this story:

Japan scrambled Wednesday to win the release a 24-year-old Japanese man taken hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq, dispatching high-level diplomats to the Middle East and launching an appeal for his freedom on Arabic television.

A man identified as Shosei Koda, an adventure traveler from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, was shown pleading for his life in a video released to a militant Islamic Web site Tuesday and broadcast on national TV early Wednesday in Japan. Under a sign bearing the name of the radical Muslim group led by Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, the hooded kidnappers threatened to behead Koda if Japan did not withdraw its 550 non-combat troops from Iraq within 48 hours. That demand was immediately rejected by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Unfortunately, it’s more of the same. Although this fellow’s impending beheading is barbaric and deplorable, I’d hate to think that foreign policy of any sovereign nation is beholden to the fate of people who foolishly put themselves in harm’s way for fun. I sympathize more with workers who put themselves in danger for money.

I’m saddened, too, with anyone who thinks that the foreign policy of a nation should change to spare the life of a single person. This thinking begets more kidnappings and more beheadings, but it elevates those who think it above those rabble in touch with reality; that is, those who recognize that uncivilized human nature is a dirty, base, and ultimately despicable thing in many, if not most, cases.

(Link seen on Outside the Beltway.)

I am a one issue voter.

This issue.

You can believe Kerry would prove better for domestic policy, and you can almost convince me. You cannot, cannot, convince me that his foreign policy will protect America better.

That’s the most important job of the president.

Bono, of the musical group U2, favors international debt forgiveness, which means he wants anyone who’s loaned money to a third world country to allow the loan recipients to not repay the money because that will let the corrupt little cesspools to grow into, well, corrupt little cesspools that can borrow money easier.

Meanwhile, on the U2 single “Vertigo”, Bono pays homage to and demonstrates his deep understanding of international finance by saying, “One, two, three, fourteen,” in Spanish.

It must just be harder to perform calculations and enumerations in other languages.

Hey, I know it’s a cheap shot, but I cannot afford an expensive one.

Anti-Bush violence in Oregon:

Someone smashed the windows of the Multnomah County Republican office in Southeast Portland on Thursday, perhaps the latest sign some Oregonians have tossed out civility in their zeal to put their man in the White House.

Civility? Civility? This is a little beyond using the improper fork for one’s salad or even boorishness. This is barbarism and a descent from civilization. How large a step is it from smashing windows to physical violence or killing Republicans? Not large enough for my taste.

Fortunately, the Democrats in the area have issued strong words:

“But the fact is that the reason the Republican Party is feigning righteous indignation is because they don’t want to talk about the 30,000 jobs lost and the 180,000 Oregonians who have lost health care,” said Neel Pender, executive director of the state Democratic Party.

Because Republicans embrace vandalism and property destruction on all other occasions, Neel Pender implies as he uses the question about actual physical violence and destruction to hit upon Democrat talking points and excuses the vandalism because some people in Oregon don’t have health care.

Unbelievable. No, I take that back. All-too-believable. This is the Teamster party, and this election’s more and more seeming like a strike with the Rebublicans playing the role of the despicable, greedy management against the rough-hewn authentic proletariat who just happen to bring molotov cocktails to the picket lines.

(Link seen on Powerline.)

Canada’s starting the tough talk that will lead to war over Great Lakes water rights.

Canada’s government has a large number of unemployed National Hockey League players and larger numbers of disgruntled fans and they have obviously need a foreign military adventure to divert attention. Invasion is imminent because they’ll want to act before faced with the brutal United States spring and summer.

George W. Bush should take preemptive action now. Send the nuclear subs to Hudson Bay! Ferment the Western Provinces Alliance’s rebellion! Before it’s too late!!!1!!!

A new story on the Internet indicates Bill Clinton wants to be U.N. Secretary General.

Oh, my, think how much more palatable bad UN policy would be if only an American with the misplaced charisma of Bill Clinton were selling it. The United States in the ICC. American military receiving orders from foreign leaders. Global taxes paid by U.S citizens for the benefit of the third world–and the Eurocrats who administer them.

Thanks, but I prefer not to contemplate the impact of an American secretary general on American elections, particularly 2008 when Hillary Clinton might run. I don’t want to think about Clinton and Clinton running the world.

I’ll personally spring for a copy of Civ III so Bill Clinton can build the UN and call for Secretary General elections any time he wants to without ruining the world for the rest of us along the way.

(Link seen on Outside the Beltway.)

By now, we’ve all heard about the survey that says Republicans have better sex than Democrats. Hidden within this story, we have another symptom, or perhaps a root cause:

Laura Bush will always be, in the public imagination, The Librarian. Even for Democrats, who like to fantasize that behind her smile lurks a curious, even progressive ally, their spy in the White House, reading with her Itty Bitty book light in bed late into the night.

Jeez, Louise, Democrats, fantasizing about Laura Bush in bed and she’s reading? That’s pathetic. What do you do when you get really wild? Laura, Jenna, and Barbara in bed reading?