The Dish

“‘We’re watching you,’ said one [activist] voicemail message saved by Jeff Sheehy, a press officer for the AIDS Research Institute at UC San Francisco. ‘Your name is on the list of enemies of the homosexual community. We’re out here on the streets and we’re going to make sure that you don’t open your mouth again to demonize us.’ ‘I don’t know what to do,’ Sheehy said. ‘I’m afraid to go to work.'” – from the Los Angeles Times today.

OK, OK, no more emails, please. I’m defecting to Apple this weekend. And to all of you geek snobs: you’re right. I’m a total techie loser. Like most bewildered and abandoned consumers of Microsoft’s horrible products. (I guess that’s one corporate sponsor I can wave goodbye to.)

Yes, I’m having the proverbial root canal thing this afternoon. Beats Windows XP.

Hilarious misplaced caption from the Washington Post online yesterday, sent to me by an amused reader. Check it out.

The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s biggest gay rights group, condemned the usQueers.com site today. Congrats to them. Here’s the quote: “‘Calling for the death of people is reprehensible and in no way, shape or form should be condoned by anybody,’ David Smith, an HRC spokesman, said after viewing the contents of usQueers.com. ‘These types of sites, on either side of any debate, should be condemned in the strongest possible way,’ Smith said.” Amen, David. And thanks.

Tell me if I’m wrong but doesn’t this remark from Arabnews.com sound awfully like Crown Prince Abdullah calling for the U.S. to be defeated? Here’s the quote: “On Monday, Prince Abdullah charged that the Kingdom was targeted because it is the only country in the world that applies Islamic law. He reiterated that such campaigns are from states ‘you know very well … But, God willing, they will be defeated, and Islam will remain strong, by the grace of God, and the help of dedicated Muslims.'” Let’s get that Russian and Alaskan oil flowing, please.

That’s the tilt among Americans toward extending the war to Iraq, according to the new Washington Post/ABC News poll. I think that officially makes the intervention more popular than Colin Powell.

I’m not persuaded by the Wall Street Journal’s editorial today on why all of Attorney General Ashcroft’s anti-terrorism measures are necessary. The case for military tribunals seems to me to be an easy one – it’s well precedented, better than the alternatives, and effective in dealing with terrorists caught red-handed at home or abroad. But I see no strong reason for the government to be able to eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations with terrorist suspects, even if the eavesdropping is announced in advance. The notion that this invasion of privacy is to prevent lawyers from communicating terrorist messages to others in al Qaeda seems a bit of a stretch – and too much of one to justify this infraction on a central part of our sense of justice. I also see no reason why the names and immigration infractions of over 500 detainees shouldn’t be made public. The government need not, so far as I can see, reveal which ones it truly suspects of terrorist activity, but a public accounting of these detentions seems to me to be perfectly fair and, in fact, important. I don’t buy the notion that Ashcroft is engaging in some kind of unprecedented witch-hunt. But it’s also a part of this war to affirm the clear superiority of the West’s system of justice to the lawless terrorism of the enemy. There’s no need to muddy this distinction unless we’re really risking mortal danger by maintaining these important restraints on government power. Neither Ashcroft nor Bush has yet made persuasive enough a case. It’s time for them to do so – or retreat.

XP HELL: A wonderful geek friend of mine helped me sort it all out. You may not be so lucky.

SAFIRE ON FIRE: Wise piece from Safire today warning against cosying up to Iran’s current leadership. Better to follow Michael Ledeen’s suggestion and foment a revolution.

MORE GAY EXTREMISM: James Taranto conceded yesterday he’d been too hasty in dismissing my worry about usQueers.com. In fact, the problem of some gay extremists violating basic norms of propriety in civil discourse is finally getting some attention. Two such activists were arrested today in San Francisco for “allegedly stalking and threatening newspaper reporters and Public Health Department workers.” I feel bad because one of them, Michael Petrelis, has done good work in the past, but appears to have gone completely off the edge in the past couple of months. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Newspaper employees said the men made dozens of obscene and threatening phone calls earlier this month to their homes and at work. A bomb threat also was made to the San Francisco Chronicle’s offices.” This isn’t new. Until you’ve been targeted by these extremists, you don’t know how vicious they can be: phone calls at all hours of the day and night, threats of violence, intimidating relatives and ex-boyfriends. They have no sense of decency. ACT-UP did many good things, but it also tolerated and fomented a fascistic approach to civil politics that has metastasized since. I’m glad this has come to a head. And I hope the mainstream gay groups like the Human Rights Campaign will finally denounce the tactics of violating privacy, threatening violence and general puerility that sadly infects much gay extreme left activism. So far, such mainstream groups have simply been silent or craven, terrified that they might be next on the list. It’s time for them to speak up in defense of privacy, decency and civility in the gay rights movement, and condemn thuggery in all its forms.

Just a quick word to urge y’all not to buy Microsoft’s new Windows XP. I’ve just wasted half the day trying to install it, and it’s just wiped out my DSL connection as a reward. It’s incompatible with loads of things that work perfectly well without it, and is also loaded up with all those creepy Microsoft gimmicks to make you buy more from the evil monopolist. God, I hate Microsoft. And don’t try calling support. The phone line is backed up for hours. A friend was basically screwed for three days trying to get it to work with his existing programs … but of course it’s designed to screw with those products and get you to buy more Microsoft ones. Sorry for venting, but is there anything more irritating than computer screw-ups? OK, ok, there’s the Boston Globe, but this stuff is up there.

Check out a superb and judicious piece by Ron Bailey on the ad hominem trashing of Bjorn Lomberg, the author of the riveting book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist.” It’s almost a case-study in how the left is often way too defensive and hostile about critiques of liberal orthodoxy. Real liberals welcome criticism. Phony ones want to shut it down. The piece is on TechCentralStation.com, a great site for those interested, as I am, in the interaction of politics and technology – perhaps the cutting edge of the next generation’s cultural and political debate.

SCIENCE AGAIN: Speaking of science, I’m really proud to have been included in this year’s “Best American Science Writing 2001,” edited by Timothy Ferris. My piece on testosterone – hammered but not disproven by hard-left feminists – is included. But there are some other great pieces in there – from Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Hall and Joel Achenbach – and even a poem from john Updike. A great Christmas gift (and I get no royalties from recommending it.)

ANTI-ASHCROFT SPIN: Typically sharp item by Mickey Kaus on the Washington Post’s front-page piece, citing old FBI hands’ trashing of Ashcroft’s detention of terrorist suspects. When Mickey’s on, he’s on.