July 2006

apart from children's books, there's the Hippopotamus Defence (1.e4 Nh6 2.d4 g7) and Faunal Extinction in an Island Society: Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus

"Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators"

but I suspect they'll count any male Pathan carrying a gun as Taliban, in which case there are over 10 million of them...

"the myth of evil food subsidies draws credibility from a correct economic argument - the non-myth of evil cotton subsidies. The textile industry is very unlike the food industry"

"Nasrallah would never dare seal a parliamentary speech with a lengthy prayer, as Olmert did in his latest speech before the Knesset."

the Lebanese president: "Not only Hezbollah, many people are ready to die for their land. Wouldn't you do that if they go inside your country? You'd do the same. And the Lebanese army as well. We're not going to let anyone take our land."

"I can post, edit posts, publish posts--and then, whoosh, they disappear off my screen. People in India whose ISPs haven't blocked blogspot can read them. People elsewhere whose countries aren't stupid enough to block blogspot for no discernible reason can read them. But having written them, I can't read them"

"At least he's giving it a shot - better than the general tomblike silence coming out of Karen Hughes's public diplomacy office the last week."

the Afghan government tries to counter Taliban gains by establishing "a more conservative Islamic profile"

hundreds dead, thousands injured, billions of dollars of damage to power stations, roads, bridges, etc.

a graphic "porn" trilogy from Alan Moore - with a final scene set during the premiere of The Rite of Spring!

both books are available online (apparently published by opponents), so this ruling is presumably just to allow the bookshop to be (retrospectively) prosecuted for selling them

"The blame lies with modern-day climate scientists who either continue to promulgate the Gulf Stream-climate myth or who decline to clarify the relative roles of atmosphere and ocean in determining European climate."

"Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war. It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed.'"

"Rumsfeld will be pushed more and more in the direction of special operations, where he has direct authority and does not have to put up with the objections of the Chiefs"