"Hey, lets leak another secret document!"

"Exclusive: A classified document suggests the Administration is considering a plan to fund political opposition to the Damascus government. Some critics say it would be an unwarranted covert action"

Anybody remember a time when covert actions -- warranted or unwarranted -- were... um, COVERT?

When a stroke is not a stroke: Sen. Tim Johnson, (D-SD)

This post will probably have a very limited shelf-life, but my speculative interpretation of the confusion surrounding the Senator is 1.) he had a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, 2.) as part of the work-up he had carotid duplex imaging that demonstrated narrowing of his carotid artery, 3.) he underwent a carotid endarterectomy, and will be fine.

So when his spokesperson states that "he had suffered neither a stroke nor a heart-attack she is correct, as a TIA is not a stroke. It is just a temporary and reversible deprivation of oxygen-carrying blood to a region of the brain. However, it can be a prelude to a stroke, and atherosclerosis of the carotids can further put you at risk. High-grade narrowing calls for surgery.

In all likelihood he will resume his duties within a week or so. I'm sure all of this will come out before the end of the week. My left-leaning reader(s) can breathe easy.

UPDATE: Now it's being called brain surgery, which would imply he had an aneurysm clipping. "Critical condition" is not a strictly medical term, it could just mean he is in the neurosurgical intensive care unit following surgery, which is pretty routine. His spokesperson had said earlier they "got it early" so I doubt he had a subarachnoid hemorrhage (which more likely present with intense headache rather than aphasia).

UPDATE 2 (20:18 EST 12.14.06): Okay, so it was an AVM. These are a tangle of direct vascular connections between arteries and veins, resembling bloody bloated spiders. Some of them can get quite large. Most bleed very slowly. My money is still on Sen. Johnson resuming his duties this spring.

Blog Silence.

An old saw has it that if you want to boil a frog, put it in the pot before the water boils. He'll jump out immediately if you try to throw him into actively boiling water, and you'll have to chase your amphibious entree all over the kitchen.

In intellectual circles where the downfall of western civilization is planned (Tehran, Waziristan, etc.), this old saw is intimately known and admired, and has been chosen as the modus operandi for the establishment of the universal caliphate. The ingenuity of this strategy exploits the follwing: 1.) liberal intellectuals can be relied upon not to recognize that our Qutbist and Twelver enemies are extremely clever and capable of sustained strategy, 2.) liberal intellectuals are incapable of recognizing when they have been spun, viewing themselves as far too clever themselves to ever fall for enemy propaganda, 3.) liberal intellectuals are only too happy to champion any group they've been convinced is oppressed, preferably if in so doing it is to the liberal intellectuals' detriment (thus perversely demonstrating their integrity), 4.) partisan considerations are paramount in U.S. politics, therefore anyone with a clear idea of the nature of the threat (usually someone on the right) is automatically, vehemently, and brainlessly contradicted by left wing pols and pundits, 5.) liberal intellectuals have a disdain for the armed forces, who are really the only entities capable of defeating the subjugation of the West, 6.) the election cycles of western democracies preclude the consistent pursuit of any defensive strategies to counter the efforts of the Islamist enterprise, and 7.) liberal intellectuals are clueless about the consequences of international failure, detached from how it will very personally affect them and their offspring for generations.

The intellectual tools of the Enlightenment -- scientific method, universal suffrage, the doctrine of natural law -- are not necessary pre-conditions for formulating and pursuing a clever plan to forcefully impose a theocracy "from China to Spain". However, a pre-condition to defeating your enemy is to understand him. And the abject failure of our civilization to understand this threat and how to counter it have led me to Relative Blog Silence. Oh sure, I may pipe up for the occasional tactical observation, but all I can do at this point is wait for The Hardship. I think only the forthcoming years of Hardship will drive the evolution of our society towards a unified and effective response to armed expansionist Islamic fundamentalism. I hope we aren't good and boiled before that happens.

Paging Dr. David Kay...

... we may have found those pesky WMD's you missed. Please call your office.