Saturday, July 30. 2005
Bush is a genius, says Dick Morris. Bush is a genius, says Powerline. Van Gogh's son has been beaten up. Nice country ya got there, Holland. I was going to write a few sentences about the NYT calling people "un-American' re the 9-11 Memorial, but Moran did it better, here. The Grievance Collector femi-Nazis go over the top, (thanks, View from 1776), from John Stossel Air America caught stealing from orphans and widows. Jeez. Using our hard-earned money to buy votes: Ankle-Biter on the Highway Bill. Disgusting. And since when do we need more highways anyway? Frist has a poll for us to take, on immigration and other subjects, here New biography of Georges Braque. The review is interesting Are we cyber-sluts here at Maggie's? Maybe kinda sorta. We love new readers, and we love getting linked. We do believe we offer interesting stuff. And we, like many bloggers, have tried to get the great Glenn Reynold's attention with some of our stuff, but at some point you feel like a hopeful young actress who can't get onto Darryl Zanuck's casting couch. It's lousy for your pride and your dignity. Enough self-pity - we are doing fine and our readers are discriminating folk with wit, curiosity, and brains. Abe Lincoln famously said, "Maggie's Farm is my favorite blog, after Powerline," and Teddy Roosevelt said "The most influential and eclectic blog in America" but he may have been referring to another blog. American Digest has a humorous inside look at the mega-blog "gatekeepers".
One Single Rose
A single flow'r he sent me, since we met. All tenderly his messenger he chose; Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet - One perfect rose.
I knew the language of the floweret; "My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose." Love long has taken for his amulet One perfect rose.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet One perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah no, it's always just my luck to get One perfect rose.
For a little summary of the life of Dorothy Parker, the founder of the Algonquin Round Table, click here. And does the Algonquin remain a NYC legend? Yes. Even if you don't work at The New Yorker, you can stop by anytime and have a drink on the sofas in the old-timey, England-feeling, not-fancy front room.
Friday, July 29. 2005
Hail, Britannia Photo from Free Market Fairy Tales (UK) I like her steady, watchful gaze. God Save the Queen. Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
the bobbies are rounding
up the bad guys. BBC.
Taking Back the Universities Horowitz is making progress with his Academic Bill of Rights in Congress, and McDonald warns naive donors and timid trustees to wake up. The serious backlash has begun. The Summers debacle was the turning point, and the Dartmouth trustee election this spring was a ray of hope for a return to sanity.
Abortion: One Doctor's View I have participated in my share of D&Cs, many years ago, and maybe some elective ones that I cannot or do not want to recall. I am no politican, and no lawyer, but I can read the Constitution which is deliberately written in plain English so as to be understandable to the average farmer or country doctor like me, and I think it's fairly clear that the Federal Govt has no business getting into such matters - these seem like 10th Amendment matters, to be left either to the states or to the people - ie freedom. Wasn't the whole point of the Constitution to limit the power of the Feds so as not to recreate a distant tyranny like the one we had just driven away? As for the morality, it seems to me to pit two moral ideas against one-another: the value of human life vs. the value of personal freedom and self-determination. I tend towards the life end of that argument, and find the latter a bit new-age and narcissitic (there is no Commandment: Thou Shalt fully realize and fullfill thyself in a convenient and consequence-free manner), but things can get tough in real life and I am capable of sympathy. Anyway, overturning Roe v. Wade is not on my personal agenda, but it would not be a catastrophe, and would let the unfortunate, miserable battle be fought where it probably belongs, among the people, through politics. The Supreme Court is not the Sanhedrin. In the end, though, if you don't use birth control and don't want a baby, as the Dylanologist would quote, "My advice is to not let the boys in." If you haven't figured it out yet, gals and ladies - boys have very little brains when it comes to a pretty girl and no court will ever be able to change that. It's called "biology." In the 70s they used to talk about "empowerment": control and master your own emotions and your own bodies, ladies, where the rubber meets the road, as it were. That is true empowerment - self-mastery.
Why you can't count on moderate reason in the Middle East (as if that were hot news): Many Egyptian Moslems believe Israel did the bombing to frame Muslims! Here (thanks, View from the Right). There is no reasoning with the paranoid and ignorant. It's like a debate with a Hollywood airhead: "Well, it could be Bush and the CIA were behind 9-11 for an excuse to go to Iraq to get the oil...well, it's possible, right? With the Israeli Air Force and Haliiburton. As a favor to Cheney and his friends? Anything's possible, right? We'll never know for sure, right?" Al Quaida attracts rich kids, mostly. Gee, like the Weathermen here used to be? Mixed-up young pampered nuts looking for meaning? Austin Bay. The Truth about teen-rebel hero Che Guevara, the James Dean of the 70s: a re-posting here King Arthur and the Round Table: (really)...A good website for fans of Arthur Right Wing Nation picked this up from GOP Bloggers: Here’s an issue that deserves prominent play in the public discussion of what makes a good Supreme Court justice: In recent years, six justices of the Supreme Court have relied on foreign and international legal decisions and other legal materials to construe the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. It should be no surprise that these are the same six justices who have endorsed the vacuous New Age declaration that “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
His comment: "‘Scuse me? What kind of drugs are these morons on, anyway? I mean, can anybody doubt that these people need to be institutionalized after they spout silly tofu-brained nonsense like this?" My comment: Ditto about the tofu. The heart of liberty is political freedom and the right to vote. I never want to hear any branch of government dare talk about the meaning of life. It's way out of their league, plus it ain't their job.
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less. Robert E. Lee
Thursday, July 28. 2005
 Avian Flu
Bird Dog forwarded me a piece by Rick Moran about the spread of avian flu, and the possibility that China could be concealing its true impact, including human-to-human transmission, which would be something new for this virus. I agree with Rick - let's follow this scary story, and let's get some reporters off their duffs and into China to see what is really going on over there. The CDC reports that the virus is becoming more pathogenic to mammals, and that such viruses mutate faster than had been thought. Human-to-human transmission of a virus which is resistant to ordinary anti-virals, and which seems to have about a 50% mortality rate, would result in a modern-day plague. The key issue is whether it has mutated so as to permit inter-human transmission. I must admit I hate to contemplate that, especially having read The Black Death last month. (Photo is a nesting Common Tern, one of my favorite birds here in Narragansett Bay.)
Immigration Update This site has a useful overview of three of the so-called "immigration reform" bills currently floating around Capitol Hill. Two of them, as can be seen through taking even the briefest glance at their provisions, are little more than blanket amnesties that contain clauses which would also vastly increase our rate of legal immigration, already the highest in the world by a wide margin. Read the rest of the review of the bills - click on continuation page below
Continue reading "The Three Immigration Bills in Congress"
CAFTA Adds six more nations to the free trade zone, a good deal for them and for us, and a legislative success for Bush. Right Thinking explains why, in his usual direct manner. Willisms (thanks, Instap) tries to understand why the Dems are abandoning free trade, here.
A Very Good Thing - The London Review of Books - the best book review periodical in the world. You have to subscribe, but its price is fair - $42/yr. Here.
Two excellent pieces on poverty and the black family Hymowitz in the new City Journal ("40 Years of Lies") describes the catastrophic effect of political correctness, which has frightened people, including the not-easily-frightened Lyndon Johnson - from telling the truth about poverty in the American ghettoes. She is one more voice in a rising chorus saying "Moynihan was right." Families are the core socializing institution and no fantasy "village" can compensate for its absence. (Look at what happened to kibbutzes - noone wants to live on them.) Very important article here. Booker Rising blog considers the new "Cosby Republicans," and explains why blacks have good reason to leave the victim plantation and return to the party of Lincoln and the party of the Civil Rights Act. Here.
Tort Reform and Guns The trial lawyers always seem to be hunting for their next target for rape and pillage, and in the past few years they have had the gun industry in their sights. Their pattern is to destroy a business, line their pockets, and move on, regardless of the justice in it - as happened with the silicone implant issue. Heck, even if the trial lawyers lose, they can leave a business staggering or bankrupt from the legal bills, which can run into the many millions. However, gun ownership is a venerable and important American tradition with more ardent friends in congress than breast implants had. The Senate has a bill to provide immunity to the gun industry, especially the gun manufacturers, against liability for illegal use of guns by gun-possessors. This makes tons of sense to me. After all, if you kill someone with a Home Depot axe, can the victim sue Home Depot and the axe manufacturer? (Remember, if you ban guns - which you won't- you will have lots more murders with axes and knives - as in England.) Story in Opinion Journal.
Conservative Food - yum yum - pretty funny - from Right Wing Nation More on food: Nutritional supplements not demonstrably important, says Tufts (but they might be if you live on that Conservative diet above) Bush's Oil Policy: Defeat the Arabs and Take their Oil. Great idea...hey, why didn't I think of that? Scrappledude. Orwell on Pacifism: MassRight The Kyl-Cornyn Immigration Bill - discussed here on NRO, and Tancredo's here Palestinians believe their terrorism drove Israel to withdraw from West Bank: JihadWatch Why I have stopped arguing with Liberals: A great piece by Pat Sajak which all Liberals shoud read, but won't. All of us reasonable folks have been through this and finally have given up. It's like a discussion with Palestinians. His story here. Sample: When Liberals want to legislate what you’re allowed to drive or what you should eat or how much support you can give to a political candidate or what you can or can’t say, they are doing it for altruistic reasons. The excesses of the Left are to be excused because these folks operate from the higher moral ground and the benefit of the greater wisdom and intelligence gained from that perspective.
 Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press.
Whoever it is they better cut it out, but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Grey and took his wife to Italy.
She inherited a million bucks, and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
Dylan, from Idiot Wind, on Blood on the Tracks
Wednesday, July 27. 2005
Blog Power - Caught a murderer: Who Killed Theresa? , via Instapundit Romney, on abortion, The Globe A cool game - Geography - I know a winner for this game, via Chrenkoff
The Unions Disintegrate Like most CEOs, I do not hate unions. I do hate the idea of govt employee unions, because they play games with the taxpayer's money - their neighbors - which is a disgrace, but unions have been a good thing over history, and brought blue-collar folks into the middle class. That is a very good thing. America needs a strong, blue-collar population, but globalization threatens that. And nothing can be done about it - it's a done deal via the power of history. Despite all of the hoopla about college education, etc., America needs people who want to work, and who are not scholars. And we have enough scholars - and more than enough 100 IQ citizens going to college who do not belong there in the first place, who are there to buy a piece of paper and do not care if they are scammed in doing so by getting a high-school education for $100,000. I see these people every day - they know nothing. Watch the labor "movement" blow itself up - Why? Because many or most do not really approve of the political direction of the AFL-CIO as compared with their desire for growth - as if a business. We are in the post-industrial, post-union era, obviously. Everything in industry becomes obsolete over time, and now, at Walmart, you have more opportunity for advancement to the top than you will ever have in the average union job, because you are "a union worker" - ie a person looking for blackmailed hand-outs - and not an entrepreneurial "person" who wants more difficult challenges and opportunities. Just the identity of being a "union worker" almost eliminates you from consideration for management, no matter how talented you may be. Times change. Unions are out: opportunity is in. For me, even though I can and do work with unions, that is still a good thing, because there is tons of talent and energy among those guys and gals, and I do not care whether they have read Virgil. (But I want my friends to have read Virgil, so we have something to talk about besides fly-fishing.) If anything is needed, it is unionization in the Third World, including China and India. That would shake things up...but would supposedly commie China allow unions? Doubt it. It's a quasi-socialist Police State terrified of the potential power of its "subjects".
Pain Control and the Law It can be easy for modern folks to forget how recently medicine has been able to provide relief for serious pain. Yes, the ancient Greeks had aspirin - willow bark - but until narcotics, derived from the poppy, arrived, and ether, for surgical procedures, physicians could not offer much for pain, which may be the most common complaint of patients. A nice summary of the history of pain treatment here. We distinquish chronic from acute pain. With acute pain, of course, we try to identify the cause and to fix it. For chronic pain, where we know the cause, for example, cancer, arthritis, back problems, and a vast variety of others, narcotics often end up being the only thing we have to offer. Sure, we send patients to pain clinics, neurologists, acupuncturists, etc., but narcotics are what we use when all else fails. They work, they are not evil, and they are a blessing to mankind. And yes, they are addictive or at least habit-forming, but with chronic pain or terminal cancer pain, you don't worry about that. Why would it matter? What bothers me is when law-enforcement begins to worry about doctor prescribing, but I always figure it's a lot easier for them to go after docs than after drug dealers with 9 mm handguns, vast networks, street smarts, secrecy, etc. With docs, you just walk into their office with pharmacy records. Easy, but accomplishes nothing worthwhile. There may actually be MDs out there who prescribe narcotics in a criminal fashion, but they are so few as to be of no significance, while illegal drug-dealing is a billions-of-dollars business in the US. Not to excuse them, but it isn't exactly a major American crisis. All docs get pretty good, but never perfect, at discriminating drug-seekers from pain patients. When, as is known to happen, patients with narcotics prescriptions sell or otherwise distribute their pills to others, it's not the doc's responsibility and it's not his doing. John Tierney in the NYT has an excellent piece on how legal intimidation can interfere with humane treatment of patients in pain, and his piece also shows how the "War on Drugs" has been totally ineffective. And when you read a case like this one featured in the current Time magazine, it breaks your heart. Any DA who thinks he's a hero for prosecuting a pain specialist is lower than whale poop. But it's much easier than going after the bad guys. About twenty years ago, we went through one of these phases, when docs were fearful of making patients, even terminal patients, addicted. It was a silly medico-cultural fad, but it passed, and physicians resumed treating pain patients adequately. And the invention of the morphine pump has been, in recent years, a God-send. I would hate to see medicine forced back to the 1970s and 80s when docs were looking over their shoulders, worrying more about anything other than their patients' pain. And if you are a patient with pain, you will agree with that.
Why you have to shoot to kill, and why not to run from cops: Confed. Yank Thornton at VDH slams multiculturalism The "Constitution in Exile" fantasy....but I wish it were real. Hinderaker covers it thoroughly. Click here: False Exile A bare-faced lie from Dean (really bad): Irish Pennants Moslem arrests in Newark: JihadWatch An expensive eminent domain catastrophe in Boston: LA Times An opinion poll with Brit Moslems: Chrenkoff Steyn on "Mugged by Reality" : Bomb us, and we agonise over the "root causes" (that is, what we did wrong). Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that "Islam is a religion of peace". Issue bloodcurdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush, Blair and Howard. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the "vast majority" of Muslims "jihad" is a harmless concept meaning "decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles". Read entire here: Click here: The Australian: Mark Steyn: Mugged by reality? [July 25, 2005]
We made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers. Robert E. Lee
Tuesday, July 26. 2005
O Canada You could be next in line to suffer for your naive and innocent "niceness." LGF
 Vacations
Opie, our reporter on misc. topics plus The Latin Beat, is on Nantucket. Gwynnie is at the family's ancestral mountain retreat (photo to right), trout fishing, dodging (mountain) lions and wasting time. So I will not expect to see much from them for a few weeks, except for this emailed photo, taken from the back porch of Gwynnie's 120 year-old stone main house. (Can you find the bear in the photo?)
Revaluation of the Yuan is a Very Big Deal: Austin Bay explains why. Don't worry, terrorists. We don't profile. From Michelle Krugman and Monty Python: Ex-Donkey nails Krugman. Gotta wonder - Does the NYT take him seriously? Do they actually pay him $? And Atlantic Blog piles on to point out the basic errors in his understanding of economics. Tolkien and the Crisis of the West: View from the Right The Media's War on Iraq: Small Dead Animals has a good letter from a serviceman Roberts is imperfect - he gave a dumb and wrong answer, and he'd better think through the relationship between his faith and his official role. Story in LA Times A Blogger I haven't encountered before emailed us - James Baxter. And read his profile - a heck of a guy. The Blogworld is full of interesting people. Protests against terror in Egypt. Gateway Why the EU will never work: "That's Brussels for you - out of touch, out of control, and in charge." At No Oil...
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend, or to keep one. Robert E. Lee
Monday, July 25. 2005
The name Bob Dylan would hardly have been a familiar one to anyone outside the Greenwich Village scene before 1963, even with the earlier release of a very first album containing blues and folk covers and a couple short, original compositions. The appearance less than a year later of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” an album of astonishing originality and creativity, would firmly establish Dylan as one of the foremost songwriters of his time at a mere 22 years old. Though his sound and style would continually change over the years, “Freewheelin’” contains many of the themes Dylan would later revisit: the social conscience and angry protest of “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “Masters of War;” absurdity and sly humor on “Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “Bob Dylan’s Dream;” the surrealist imagery and apocalyptic prophesying on “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall;” expressions of love and affection in “Girl From The North Country;” and the ever-present theme of the need to change and move on, rather than linger in past relationships and experiences, on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
The structure of the songs is largely constructed from a folk foundation, the musical form that dominated the coffee houses and cafes of Greenwich Village and which Dylan had listened to assiduously since his arrival in the city and before. In particular, the influence of Woody Guthrie – Dylan’s undisputed icon – shines through, as Dylan virtually channels Guthrie’s spirit on “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” Dylan, who may have traveled to New York in large part to seek out the dying Guthrie, was also inspired by
Continue reading "Album Review: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"
Donald Trump may be a slippery self-promoting egomaniac, or he may be an inspired, self-made franchise (but not a self-made man, since his dad had a real estate empire too). Whatever Trump is or isn't, he knows real estate, and he can be articulate. So when he says the proposed UN renovation is a boondoggle, I would tend to believe him. (No offense to CT's Chris Burnham, a good fellow but not a real estate guy.) Story in NY Sun.
Brewton on Islam and the First Amendment One of Tom's best essays, which precisely captures the dilemma of liberal democracies when facing a threat which is both internal and external. Samples: This inherent conflict between sharia and the Constitution is compounded with resentment against the porosity of our borders that both floods us with illegal immigrants who impose huge welfare-state burdens upon tax-paying citizens, and provides undetected entrance for terrorists.
Liberal-socialists cling to what amounts to a suicide pact. They assert the illogicality of multi-cultural education, that the cultures of Muslims and other immigrants, are as good as, or probably better than, our 1776 Judeo-Christian traditions. Without those 1776 traditions, however, the Constitution is mere words without meaning.
Liberals focus upon tolerance, meaning the absence of standards of right or wrong, which leads them to believe that Muslim jihadists hate us simply because we have hurt their feelings and failed to share our wealth equally with them.
Read the whole thing in Intell. Conservative: Click here: Islam and the First Amendment
"We are taking over." Surely this sort of statement presents a challenge to British PC "tolerance": "We don't need to fight. We are taking over!" ["Abdullah," a Muslim watch-mender and evangelist] said. "We are here to bring civilization to the West. England does not belong to the English people, it belongs to God."
Read entire by Cella at TCS.
New York, Bloomberg, and A Play Spent the past two days banging around NYC, like a tourist, with visitors from California (who headed off last night to Brazil to tour that famous tourist trap, the Amazon River). All I can do is to offer kudos to Mayor Bloomberg. His polls indicate plenty of people agree (although his assertion that NY will not profile for terrorists is either ridiculous or disingenuous - I hope the latter). I thought Guiliani had done a good job with my favorite American city, but NY now looks and feels as wonderful as it did when I was a kid. NYC requires a world-class manager - not a politician - and that is what it has. There are millions of people on the streets til late at night, happy-looking cops walking their beats instead of prowling in cars, young familes and packed open-air restaurants everywhere, and a feeling of safety and festivity which is pure delight in a place that saw some bad times in recent history. The parks, large, medium, and small - are the most striking change. Rather than being filled with dog and human feces, drug addicts, criminals, winos, and the occasional dead person, with dead plantings and menacing vibes, they all look immaculate, with healthy lawns, musicians, tasteful plantings, great looking people, and a welcoming and civilized atmosphere. My poor shot of the eastern edge of Union Square Park here reminds me of what that park was like in the 1970s when I lived nearby on University Place, when you would cross the street to avoid getting near it. Now it is everything - and more - than Olmstead could have imagined. Interestingly, four of New York's ten most popular restaurants are now in the recently-abandoned Union Square area. Union Square is just a block from the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, where on Sat night we saw the world premiere of Patrick Feigelson's one-act play "World Premiere." Patrick is pals with our California friends, and now Patrick and the French playwright David Valayre have just completed translating their "Edellstein" into English, a dark drama set in German-occupied Paris. We wish them good luck with that play.
It's summer up here, so I'm a bit behind on my job. If you've seen all of this, please forgive me: Gimme a break. NYC won't use racial profiling to check subways. Huh? Right Thinking. That is the stupidest thng I have ever heard. And now there is an anti-search movement in NYC: Confed. Yankee. What jerks. So walk. Guantanamo soliders complain to Ted about his comments. No comment from Ted. Excellent point from Sean Hannity: Whatever "fight" there will be over Roberts will be the purposes of fund-raising for the Dems and Dem-allies, not substance. So true. Robert's humor in most recent decision, upholding a car search, in NYT: "Sometimes," Judge Roberts wrote in yesterday's dissent, "a car being driven by an unlicensed driver, with no registration and stolen tags, really does belong to the driver's friend, and sometimes dogs do eat homework, but in neither case is it reasonable to insist on checking out the story before taking other appropriate action." A legal take on how Roberts will effect the court. From Damnum. Infantile - but a principal orders removal of Bush portrait from classroom in NY. What a nut. Hey, Long Island, wake up! Inside North Korea: Stories from those who have escaped, in Open Democracy: Click here: A gulag with nukes: inside North Korea Jasper Becker - openDemocracy An interesting take on L'affaire Rove, with comments on the flaws of syllogistic logic, at Libertarian Leanings Bloggers, be careful, if your employer doesn't like what you have to open your oatmeal-hole about. Daily Bus. Review - woops - gotta re-find that link. Steyn on the supreme court: "The Democrats drew exactly the wrong lesson from their chad fever. If the case teaches anything, it's the importance of winning at the ballot box, which you do by promoting clear ideas confidently stated. The Dems prefer to leave it to the Divine Right of Judges. You might too if you believed in gay marriage and partial-birth abortion, but, simply as a matter of practical politics, it's disastrous for the party. Poor sad Richard Cohen, unabletomoveon.org after five years, is a fine emblem for the Democrats: Ask not for whom the chad hangs, it hangs for thee." Whole thing is amusing - read entire. Free Market Fairy Tales on a non-PC roll in the UK: I suppose that you, like me, have spent the last week being nice to Muslims. It must be a bit unsettling for the poor buggers – dozens of middle-class white people grinning inanely at them instead of completely ignoring them as usual. But you do feel the need to make some effort, if only to mentally project the message that “It’s OK, we understand that you’re not all fanatical suicide bombers … although actually that bloke over there does look a bit iffy”.
Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it. G.K. Chesterton
Sunday, July 24. 2005
Be merciful to me, O God,
Be merciful to me,
for in Thee my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of thy wings I shall take refuge,
til the storms of destruction pass by. from Psalm 57
Saturday, July 23. 2005
The three most enraging news items of today (thus far) 1. Big Pharoah has more details on the Egypt terrorism. Thanks, Instapundit. Our condolences to the Egyptian victims of the latest madness. But, to add to the tragedy is this comment: Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as reported on Al Jazeera:
“The approach of the United States in the war on terror has made the world a less safe place. Every day we are seeing attacks around the world... it’s because of the incorrect and childish approach of the United States. “The United States must change its policy in the war against terror, give up its double standards and extend its hand to the international community, as the sole means of combating terrorism is through international cooperation.”
That is pure apologizing for terror, and the purest Grade A BS too. Surely he is well aware that he is spouting the latest Al Quaida talking-points - the latest propaganda excuse for the current Jihad, which he doubtless knows preceded the Iraq war.
2. Terrorists aimed shoulder-fired rocket at US military aircraft one month ago - in Oklahoma. Details as released by military in NIN. 3. 9-11 was intended to be much bigger, including the UK too. Jihad Watch
From Samuel Pepys IX July 21, 2005
Up early to-day, and straightaway to the office. All the
morning about a great deal of business, my wits being in a state
of disorder by midday. Dined with my protegee Miss G. at Mackay's, but two
blocks distant, a fine array of fowl and greens as I have ever
seen. She being much vexed by her compensation of late, and I
beseeching her to plead her case to her Company, that she might
entreat upon them to make some increase in her salary. Then she
went away, and I to the office, and endeavour to get a collection
of music which I have had a mind to. From thence at the close of
business to the alehouse, where I met Mr. Smith. We staid long,
but drank little, my stomach being ill-tempered on the evening.
So home and to supper, and afterwards a pleasant discourse with
Mr. Bates, who of late is hard at his studies in the south of our
country, but afeard of the weather in that land. So to my book
again, and to bed.
Friday, July 22. 2005
Judge Roberts attacked for wardrobe And his family, too. I guess it's hard to find fault with this ultimate serious, un-hip, straight-arrow guy. Of course, if he wore black t-shirts and were a party animal, his wife dressed like John Dean's wife, and his kids wore ghetto garb, that would be a problem too. Moral of the story: You can never win when someone is determined to find fault. Michelle has the story. And Captain Ed has the sarcasm.
Hey, you Anti-War, 
Pro-Jihad Lefties These two boys being hung, for homosexuality, in Iran. One under 18 - not that age matters. Is that a "civilization" anyone wants to respect? Sorry for the graphic reality, but real is real. Let's find a limit to "multiculturalism", OK? Let's start having the self-respect to make some moral judgements, and quit with the anthropology. Relativism isn't cool anymore. Maybe it was hip in the 60s, but now it's a discarded old intellectual fashion. Never forget that only Christianity-based, individual-respecting Western Civilization could have invented Anthropology in the first place, not to mention free-thinking, not to mention relativism. This is Barbarism, and Evil too. Photo from Gay and Right, via Sullivan.
 The Met's Own Mona Lisa
Recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for about 45 million, this 11"X8" Duccio, c. 1300, Madonna and Child, is one of the most dramatic and important acquisitions by the Met in decades. Calvin Tompkins explains why, in The New Yorker. A sample: "We are at the beginning of what we think of as Western art; elements of the Byzantine style still linger—in the gold background, the Virgin’s boneless and elongated fingers, and the child’s unchildlike features—but the colors of their clothing are so miraculously preserved, and the sense of human interaction is so convincing, that the two figures seem to exist in a real space, and in real time." And he covers the interesting provenance of the painting. (Sorry - you cannot go and see it - it's undergoing minor renovations right now but will be back on display "soon".) Note the ancient candle burn-marks on the frame - they will remain.
Two from Chrenkoff: Terrorists target gays, and Miss Universe is in trouble with her feminine wardrobe, in Canada (piece below the above) Sowell notes the abuse of words emerging in the anti-Roberts trumped-up silliness, at Town Hall. The Canada-Washington State bad-guy tunnel, with photos, here ACLU wins another one, against the EVIL EVIL Boy Scouts. This is not your father's ACLU - this is an ACLU which hates American tradition - a destroyer of culture and cultural traditions. It has been co-opted by the Left for years. Here is the Stop the ACLU website: Click here: Stop the ACLU - Beating the ACLU With Their Own Sickle and Hammer American Thinker notes one more reason Dems can't hit Roberts too hard - he is Catholic, and the RC vote matters to them. So Chuckie and Ted will just make enough fuss to throw some meat to the Daily Kos readers, and it will be over. The always interesting Bradley writes about "The Hip Hop Sellout" at Acton Inst.
"Pain is just the feeling of weakness leaving your body." A USMC expression
Thursday, July 21. 2005
 Again
In London - here. Of course, in London you cannot call them "terrorists", which is insensitive and prejudicial to our Jihadist brethren. (Laura I. had great fun with that last nite on the radio.) Here's their strategy: Force Britain to clamp down on Moslems, thus further radicalizing the Moslems towards the goal of the British - or European - Caliphate. Simple, and straight out of the playbook of the 1960s American Left - force the cops and the govt to deal with you, and then complain about oppression. It's like a cancer that feeds on chemotherapy. Thus the only treatment is the scalpel. Interesting that these four didn't feel in the mood for death - too bad they didn't. This kind of warrior does not deserve British justice, which is not designed for the likes of them. Brit justice is designed for wayward Brits, not for alien soldiers bent on destroying the country, including its judicial system. What did the Brits do with Nazi spies and infiltrators? I am fairly sure they were a bit rough on them. So... let's not worry about whether crackdowns radicalize Moslems - let's just hope England and Europe wake up. No more of this return to "business as usual." This is not about criminal justice. It used to be called "war."
Thanks to Morning Coffee blog - it is Dunkin Donuts around here. Rarely Starbucks.
But their House Blend, black, no sugar, is real coffee, I hate to admit. The Dylanologist: Our own Samuel Pepys: July 20, 2005: Up by 7, washed, and to the office by 9, and there commenced blogging on the breach with the Mohammedans. At my office until departing for for supper at 1 with Mr. Smith, and discuss the late announcement of Mr. Roberts’ appointment to the high court. Then to the office again, and dispatch much business, though not nearly as much as I should have intended. That done, at the blog once more, until the necessity of settling our accounts with a client compelled me to attend to the matter. Then home, an unpleasant walk through great heat, and to dinner. Then to my book for a good hour’s time, and so to bed.
The Anti-Jihad Left Their numbers are growing, but not fast enough. Are they possibly realizing that a successful Jihad will get the Left nowhere? Fascinating set of statements at "Unite Against Terror," including Hitchins, Iraq The Model, and other notable "progressives."
Three Excellent Bits 1. Steyn: "...you can't assimilate with a nullity - which is what multiculturalism is.So, if Islamist extremism is the genie you're trying to put back in the bottle, it doesn't help to have smashed the bottle." 2. Goldberg at Town Hall: "Britishness, for all its faults, was once seen around the world as a distinctly valuable and admirable quality. Decency, respect for law, intelligence without so much bloody abstraction, propriety, manners: These were the attributes invariably attributed to the Brits. Since Powell's speech, however, the British have turned their backs on all of that. Their popular culture is vastly more coarse than America's. Worse, they have seized the kingdom's leading institutions and scraped out the best traditions and customs like so many tumors." 3. Thompson Redux: Life After the Left, on FrontPage: I realized there was nothing at all “amazing” about the Left’s non-chalance toward the Iraqi vote. It was way too late for astonishment.These were the same people who scorned Ronald Reagan for daring to call the totalitarian gulag state of Lenin and Stalin an evil empire.
I FEEL SO MUCH SAFER NOW IN NY Why is it the NYT always feels a need to point out to every terrorist living here and abroad where they could strike next? It seems that in this day, when all Americans must put their national security concerns first, an article should not be published until after the problem has been addressed and rectified. But then, I am just a suburbanite watching the world blow itself up from afar. Another discovery I have made about myself and I am sure I will get a lot of grief for it but I don't really care is that I am guilty of racial profiling; I would rather be wrong about thinking someone looks like they could blow up a bus and have to apologize than having to pray for their victims. In this century, the rules are changing the way the game of life is played. From the NYT: While there have been no intruders found in the underwater tunnels, homeless people and others have been found wandering onto the tracks and into regular subway tunnels underneath the streets and have been arrested or ejected from the system. Experts said that a constant police presence around the tunnels may be necessary, no matter the expense. "At its root, while the immediate purpose of terrorism is to kill or harm people, its ultimate purpose is to frighten or demoralize," said Arnold M. Howitt, the executive director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard, who has written extensively about domestic preparedness. "Having people die in a tunnel, particularly if it were flooded, would be a dramatic statement and a propaganda victory for terrorists." Click here: Who's Watching the Underwater Tunnels? - New York Times
How the media helped Kerry lose - by mistake - Opinion JOurnal Feds encourage illegals to get mortgages...huh? Newsmax
The Latin Beat - More Chavez It has been some time since we last posted on the Venezuelan crisis but Chavez is such a clown that it takes time to sieve through his messes. From Venezuela News and Views: CARACAS, Venezuela -- After the rumble of tanks died down and the last soldier high-stepped past the spectators' pavilion, President Hugo Chavez told the thousands attending Venezuela's Independence Day parade July 5 that no invading army could match the fighting force that had just marched by, "armed to the teeth." The hypothetical invasion he invoked was patently clear: Two days before, Chavez announced the discovery of evidence that the United States had drawn up blueprints to invade Venezuela, a plan he said was code-named "Operation Bilbo." American officials dismissed the claim as fiction, just as they have denied Shave's repeated assertions that the CIA is trying to assassinate him, or that the Bush administration was behind the military coup that briefly toppled his government in April 2002. In the The Devil's Excrement Read about Chavez's continued barrage against everyone not on his bandwagon... These metropolitan police cars with Chavez' image are illegal, immoral and unethical. Hey! Did I just describe the revolution? 
Continue reading "Latin Beat: Chavez, Rome and Carthage"
Good piece on multiculturalism and cultural assimilation in the US - Bainbridge And Steyn - Our multiculturalism is the true suicide bomb
 The V1
An excellent review of the history of the V1 buzz-bombs of WW2, with schematics, defensive strategies, and good detailed history of the V1 attacks on Britain.
When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
And it's Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs
When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you Now if you see Saint Annie
Please tell her thanks alot
I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor,
Won't even say what it is I've got from Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb Blues, on Highway 61 Revisited
Wednesday, July 20. 2005
Post-SCOTUS Syndrome: A Little Quiet on the Blog FrontEither the conservative bloggers are nursing celebratory hangovers, or they are just having the joyful feeling of hope. And there's more - American Spectator: WHITE HOUSE STAFF AND INSIDERS at the Department of Justice insist that they continue to expect as many as two additional vacancies on the Supreme Court. "We've operated from that assumption that once the Chief Justice saw where this was headed, he would be comfortable in stepping aside on his own timetable," says a White House staffer. "We think he'll be happy with Roberts, and will want to at least work with him a bit, but that his retirement will come."
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