I'm sorry ... you call THAT a "retraction?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Document the ferocious. buck-passing, over-generalizing, weaselly, not-my-fault, back-pedaling.


THE HIGHS (OR LOWS, AS IT WERE): There are just so many brilliant examples of wankery in that piece, where does one even start?

On the other hand, Amir Taheri’s story in the Post this morning (which accompanied the main article that everyone’s linking to) is awfully detailed to have been made up out of whole cloth.

Yeah ... kind of like how that story of Iraq's ominous nuclear weapons program and yellowcake from Niger story was, gosh darn it, awfully detailed to have been made up out of whole cloth. Refresh my memory ... how did that end again?

Could it be that the Post’s sources were guessing what’s likely to happen under the new dress code (based on their knowledge of Iranian history) rather than stating what the statute explicitly provides?

Why sure, and that's just how responsible journalism works -- take a small amount of fact and, from that, indulge in wild conjecture and unfounded speculation. Hey, that's how I like to get my news.

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has issued a statement expressing concern — but they can’t confirm the story either.

But they'd better issue a statement of concern, just to be on the safe side.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has written a letter to Kofi Annan demanding that the United Nations investigate.

And suddenly, the Jewish community trusts the U.N.'s investigative abilities? When the fuck did that start?

Well, well. We can confirm at least one Islamist proponent of yellow badges for religious minorities. You don’t have to go far to find him. Unfortunately.

Whoo hoo! A data point of one! Vindication, god damn it! Take that, muthafucka! Yeah!

CBS is holding off for now.

And why might that be? Oh, right ... they're not morons.

Reader Muslihoon points me to Debka, which says it’s obtained a copy of the Iranian statute and that it contains no special provisions regarding minorities — yet.

I've just obtained a draft of Stephen Harper's new national energy policy and it doesn't say anything -- not a word -- about incinerating aboriginals and atheists to generate electricity. Yet. But I'll be keeping my eyes peeled, yes sir. You just never know ...

A bad day for journalists all the way around.

Not all of them. Remember CBS? Hmmmmm?

I was hoping lefties would stick to gloating about the story being wrong and not use it as an opportunity to minimize Ahmadinejad’s other Nazi-esque inclinations. But that was naive of me, wasn’t it?

Yeah. What can you say? We lefties are just plain obsessed with addressing the actual facts. Is that irritating or what? I just don't know how you put up with us.