THIS MODERN WORLD

Thanks to the generous reader who sent ‘V for Vendetta’ off the wish list. And triple thanks to the insanely generous reader who sent three seasons of ‘Babylon 5.’ Appreciate both.

I just wanted to highlight one of the Amazon reviews for Bob’s book, because I think it sums it up pretty well:

As a former “Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” contestant, I was expecting Prisoner of Trebekistan to be a funny book about the whole Jeopardy! experience. It’s not.

It’s funny alright, and it will be of great help if you are preparing for one of these shows, or want to vicariously live the life of a game show contestant, or improve your memory, but that’s not what this book is about. It’s about life, the joy of living every day and the great joy that the pursuit of knowledge can add to every moment, every experience.

Even if you think game shows are inane and a waste of time, you’ll still enjoy this book as it takes a much meandering route through the life of a stand-up comic, humor writer, internet blogger, radio personality turned 13 time Jeopardy player, who has a surprisingly down to earth and just plain nice philosophy of life.

This probably isn’t the book you’re expecting. It’s not some sort of Jeopardy geek thing (although Jeopardy geeks will certainly enjoy it). It’s about much more than that.

And how convenient — here’s a link where you can buy it.

As noted above, somebody’s trying to scam my bidders. Here’s what makes it interesting: the individual doing so is using an AOL email address, which makes him or her potentially trackable. I’d like to pass the information along to someone who’s actually going to pay attention and do something about it. If you work at either of the companies noted above and can put me in touch with the right person, you’d be acting on the side of the angels.

An odd thing about the President’s recent speeches on 9/11 is how much he’s been quoting Osama Bin Laden. From today’s speech :

The fighting in Iraq has been difficult and it has been bloody, and some say that Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror. The terrorists disagree. Osama bin Laden has proclaimed that the “third world war is raging” in Iraq. Al Qaeda leaders have declared that Baghdad will be the capital of the new caliphate that they wish to establish across the broader Middle East. It’s hard to believe that extremists would make large journeys across dangerous borders to endure heavy fighting, and to blow themselves up on the streets of Baghdad for a so-called “diversion.” The terrorists know that the outcome in the war on terror will depend on the outcome in Iraq — and so to protect our own citizens, the free world must succeed in Iraq.

It’s weird enough to take the “if you don’t believe me, believe Osama” approach to tie the Iraq war with 9/11, but even stranger is this bit from a speech Bush gave two days ago wherein he cites Bin Laden’s strategy without realizing that he’s executing the al Qaeda plan for victory for them :

Bin Laden calls this his “bleed-until-bankruptcy plan.” And he cited the attacks of 9/11 as evidence that such a plan can succeed. With the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden says, “al Qaeda spent $500,000 on the event, while America… lost — according to the lowest estimate — $500 billion… Meaning that every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars” of America. Bin Laden concludes from this experience that “America is definitely a great power, with… unbelievable military strength and a vibrant economy, but all of these have been built on a very weak and hollow foundation.” He went on to say, “Therefore, it is very easy to target the flimsy base and concentrate on their weak points, and even if we’re able to target one-tenth of these weak points, we will be able [to] crush and destroy them.”

We’ve sunk untold billions of dollars into homeland security, pissed away even more in Iraq, driven the deficit to its extreme, lost jobs, watched wages sink, given away the treasury to wealthy individuals and corporations, and crawled out of a recession only to find ourselves on the verge of stagflation. Bleed until bankruptcy? Sounds about right to me. And Bin Laden should know. The Afghan mujahideen certainly didn’t help the Soviet Union.

And if watching the President foolishly play into terrorist hands isn’t frustrating enough, Bushie then has the gall to quote Bin Laden again to smear anyone who would question the government :

Secondly, along with this campaign of terror, the enemy has a propaganda strategy. Osama bin Laden laid out this strategy in a letter to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces uncovered in Afghanistan in 2002. In it, bin Laden says that al Qaeda intends to “[launch],” in his words, “a media campaign… to create a wedge between the American people and their government.” This media campaign, bin Laden says, will send the American people a number of messages, including “that their government [will] bring them more losses, in finances and casualties.”

Get the message? The President is saying that anyone with the temerity to question the government (which he’s been running for six years) is guilty of falling for terrorist propaganda. You’re either with Bush or with Bin Laden, who Bush has been quoting all week to support himself. Okay, now this is getting confusing…

WASHINGTON – A furious Bill Clinton is warning ABC that its mini-series “The Path to 9/11” grossly misrepresents his pursuit of Osama bin Laden – and he is demanding the network “pull the drama” if changes aren’t made.

Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post.

The former president also disputed the portrayal of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as having tipped off Pakistani officials that a strike was coming, giving bin Laden a chance to flee.

“The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has the duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely,” the four-page letter said.

Story here. More background at Think Progress, in case you haven’t been following this one. Just keep scrolling — note in particular ABC’s utter obsequiousness to right wing bloggers.

This is the same network that was going to let Mel Gibson helm a project about the Holocaust, until his anti-Semitism could no longer be politely overlooked. What the hell is going on over at ABC?