Various & sundry

Nine Americans were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. Was it the Taliban or a man distraught over "financial troubles"? The L. A. Times:

Eight U.S. troops and an American contractor were killed early Wednesday when a veteran Afghan military pilot fired on trainers during a meeting in a military compound near Kabul International Airport. [. . .]

The pilot, identified as Ahmad Gul Sahebi, 48, was from the Tarakhail district of Kabul province and had served in the Afghan army for decades, according to a man who claimed to be his brother.

Dr. Hassan Sahebi, a Kabul neurologist, described his brother as a dedicated soldier who was not affiliated with the Taliban or other insurgents. He said in a telephone interview that his brother had been wounded four or five times in the line of duty, and once was so severely injured in a plane crash that he underwent 22 surgeries.

"My brother was a little depressed recently, but he had served with Afghanistan's national army for 20 years," Sahebi said. Earlier, in a television interview, Sahebi said his brother had recently been forced to sell his home.

"He loved his country and his people," he told The Times. "He was a good man."

A Taliban spokesman offered a different account. He said that the shooter, whom he called Azizullah, was an insurgent from the conservative Arzan Qimat neighborhood on Kabul's outskirts who succeeded in posing as a pilot with help from Afghan security forces.

Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Azizullah contacted Taliban leaders two years ago and had been feeding them information. He planned his attack for five months, but it wasn't approved until Tuesday because he was a valuable source.

Other items:

Betsy McCaughey on our real Medicare choices:

Will Americans now in their 40s and 50s choose to put their health care in the hands of this cost-cutting board, or pick their own health plan when they retire? Whatever decision the nation makes should not turn on the false claim that President Obama has protected Medicare.

Read the rest.

Paul Krugman, punchline:



Et tu, Superman? "Truth, justice, and the American way -- it's not enough anymore.  (Hat tip: HotAir)

At long last, renegade Chicago priest Michael Pfleger's priestly faculties have been suspended. The weak, fearful, politically-correct hierarchy has had a great hand in creating the decades-old scandal that is Pfleger. But better late than never, I guess.

Don't call them "critters," "beasts," or even "pets" -- it's "derogatory." And if you'll pardon the insensitive metaphor, they're nuts:

It goes on: “We invite authors to use the words ‘free-living’, ‘free-ranging’ or ‘free-roaming’ rather than ‘wild animals’

“For most, ‘wildness’ is synonymous with uncivilised, unrestrained, barbarous existence.

“There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.”

Prof Linzey and his co-editor Professor Priscilla Cohn, of Penn State University in the US, also hope to see some of the more colourful terms in the English language stamped out.

Phrases such as “sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk” are all unfair to animals, they claim.

“We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves to use less than partial adjectives in our exploration of animals and our moral relations with them," they say. 

If this is an example of "thinking clearly" I'll stick to my judgmental metaphors. Read the whole thing. It could've been lifted straight out of the Onion.

Also nuts, but a handy tool for eco-freaks: legal property rights for animals:

Australian research lecturer Dr John Hadley from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) said under his proposal, particular animals would be given legal property rights, and human guardians would be appointed to represent them in court.

Wesley Smith:

I know it is tempting to say, “This will never happen,” and move on.  But five years ago, would not the same thing have been said about “nature rights,” now legal in two countries and heading for a UN debate?  Wouldn’t it also have been said about granting intrinsic dignity to individual plants, now embodied in the Swiss Constitution?  Wouldn’t it have been said about the Great Ape Project that seeks to create a “community of equals” among humans and gorillas, chimps, orangutans, etc., which is now the public policy of Spain? In fact the best way to make sure these things do happen, is to assume they never will.

We're living in the age of anything goes and we should all understand that by now.

One more thing: Don't miss Mark Steyn as he fills in for Rush today and tomorrow. You can listen live here.

Most recent posts here. Twitter feed here. Amazon store here.