« March 2007 | Main | June 2007 »
May 24, 2007
Ian Fleming and the Litvinenko Affair
Yesterday, Britain charged this man (see picture) with using a radioactive isotope to poison KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
A closer look at the accused's neckware reveals that he is sporting the dreaded Full Winsor knot. The knot was first immortalized in the novel From Russia With Love, when James Bond identified it on a SPECTRE assassin posing as a British agent:
"He was wearing ... the dark blue and maroon zig-zagged tie of the Royal Artillery. It was tied with a Windsor knot. Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad. Bond decided to forget his prejudice."
Bond would later kick himself for failing to heed this telltale warning. In the film, our assassin makes another suspicious gaffe while ordering dinner.
Bond: “Red wine with fish. Well, that should have told me something.”
Good thing today's British investigators didn't make the same mistake.
UPDATE: A cad indeed.
Posted by Barron YoungSmith at 12:10 AM | TrackBack
May 21, 2007
Overthrowing Maliki is a Bad Idea
The administration is contemplating a leadership change in Iraq, hoping that dumping al-Maliki will appease a restful Congress.
I'm going to venture, based solely on the experiences of propping up the Shah in Iran and knocking off successive lame (and often bizzarre) leaders of South Vietnam, that this is a bad idea. I'll bet you that anyone palatable enough for the administration will be seen as isolated and illegitimate by both Shiites and Sunnis. Knocking off al-Maliki will allow a couple Republican congressmen to put a happy face on the occupation for about two minutes, but I think they know that a leadership change is unlikely to produce any real improvements by 2008. In fact, engineering a coup would completely undermine the perceived independence of the Iraqi government and likely make things a great deal worse.
Still, for giggles' sake, I'd like to see them try putting Ahmed Chalabi in charge. Then we could really start checking off all the "if only we had tried..."-s.
