Wednesday, September 13. 2006
Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Alice in Wonderland. (h/t, Tangled Web, for reminding us)
Tuesday, September 12. 2006
It is difficult not to dwell on the meaning of 9-11 this week. As a guy who works in NYC (but was in Maine on that date), it hit very close to home. Here are some of my current thoughts, in corporate, bullet-point form: 1. Islam is a dangerous religion to non-Moslems. Unlike Christianity, which is commanded to spread the good news via example and preaching, Islam is commanded to spread their word via submission or death. Westernized Moslems reject that notion, but many no more wish to be Westernized than I wish to be, or my nation to be, Moslemized. "Tolerance of differences" is not in their lexicon. 2. America is only one of many targets of world-wide jihad. When we try to understand it in terms of America and the West, we miss the point. That view is too self-centered. They have many other targets, all around the Moslem perimeter. 3. Traditional Islamic culture is not compatible with Western, democratic, Judeo-Christian culture. Oil and water. Either one, or the other, must compromise its culture to live in the same place. 4. The world bears the US little good will. Not because of what we do, but because of what we are. There is envy, condescension, schadenfreude, and some fear. But they are wrong about us. We are decent, and we will leave you alone if you leave us alone. We can't help it if we're lucky, ambitious, free-thinking, and hard-working, and we need not apologize for that. 5. The Moslem migrational invasion of Europe is a catastrophe for Europe, politically, demographically, and culturally. It seems that when they enter a nation in large enough numbers, they demand that their generous host adjust to them, rather than vice versa. There is no visible gratitude - only demands and threats. So why do they leave home? Why? 6. Traditional Islam feels threatened by Western ideas, ideals, behavior, and freedoms. The less isolated and insulated they are, the more they realize that they are a cultural island, stuck in an ancient past. The world is shrinking, and the more they encounter of the West, the more they freak out, and want to strike out. No doubt they love their traditions and their ways as much as we love ours. Fine, if you don't mind living in the 13th century. But you may not impose them on us. 7. The Bush administration over-estimates the dangerousness of Jihad. However, he, or any President, must do that, politically, because the next 200 or 3000 or 100,000 Americans who are killed by Jihadists will be the responsibility of whoever is in charge. Protection is the first job of the federal government, and bringing the fight to our attackers is not a bad plan. 8. The Left wishes to minimize the danger. Not all of us Dems, but some Dems, and the Lefty fringe. Why? Because they do not love their country and its traditions. Simple. 9. The anti-war folks are not anti-war. They do not mind others waging war, only the US. They are therefore simply part of #8, above: so secure in their comforts and safety that they refuse to take danger seriously - or maybe even welcome some, to mess things up. 10. Of course the Jihadists hate the Western liberation of Iraq from a barbaric tyranny. Political freedom poses a serious threat, and the collapse of Saddam was a humiliating blow. Political freedom in the heart of the middle-east is probably something even the Saudis find discouraging. It is alien, and threatening to the old ways. Another intrusion of "modern" ideas, just like all of the satellite dishes in Iran that Ahmadinejad has been destroying. I suspect that the people of such nations as Iraq and Iran are far ahead of their "leaders." 11. Israel is a scapegoat. Islamist politicians and mullahs get some mileage out of being anti-semitic, but the problem is that tiny Israel with its tiny population is an affront to them - economically, religiously, and politically. However, if you gave Israel to the Palestinians today, in six months it would be a dump like they made of Gaza.
VDH likes Hillsdale College. Buddhist schoolteachers in Thailand arming themselves against Moslem assaults. Ace Gates of Vienna recalls the heroism of Jan Sobieski, who drove the Moslem army from Vienna 323 years ago. The Examiner takes a look at Mitt Romney as presidential candidate. Translations of two of Pope Benedict's recent homilies. Anchoress Head of Brit Moslem group threatens Britain with two million terrorists. Why I am so hard on Massachusetts. Jay Tea at Wizbang
Monday, September 11. 2006
Every psychiatrist has had this experience with a patient, if not with themselves: someone feels down and despondent for a week and doesn't know what they might be reacting to until reminded, or until they remember, that it's the anniversary of a death, a loss, or anything emotionally painful or damaging. We call these "anniversary reactions." (Sometimes I joke that the true "anniversary reaction" is how a wife responds when hubbie forgets their wedding anniversary.) The human mind has a lousy sense of time (or we wouldn't be checking our sundials and calendars all day long,) and the human unconscious has none-to-little. The past always is part of the present, and vice versa. Time, psychologically, is a sort-of higher-level cortical illusion...or something. My smartest supervisor in analytic school would say, of patients in psychoanalysis (as opposed to psychotherapy), "When they talk about the past, they are talking about the present. When they talk about the present, they are talking about the past. And they are always talking about the transference." Thus the usefulness of anniversaries is to highlight, and bring into the sunlight, things that have been lurking beneath our attention - whether fine things or awful things. In the case of 9-11, we hardly need a reminder, since the war of fundamentalist, militant Islam against the infidel continues across the globe, with daily reminders in the news. Still, it is a good idea to mark it because so many of us experienced 9-11 as personal, and as an unwelcome reminder, to us self-involved, semi-decadent, material-worshipping, and complacent Americans, of the existence of evil in the world, on a large scale. It is a good refresher course in Evil: people who do not know you, and to whom you have done nothing, desperately want to kill you, even if they die in the process. It isn't sick - it's plain old ordinary evil which destroys innocence, crushes good intentions and good cheer, and pursues the death of innocent strangers in the name of a prophet and a god. So, like Pearl Harbor Day for another generation, we will all remember our 9-11s today, whether we want to or not. It's a scar that will never, and should never, fully heal. With some things, this "healing" thing is over-rated, and only means pushing things into a past which, for the human mind, does not really exist. It is psycho-utopianism to imagine that pains entirely go away. Humans do not work that way, and it is for the best that we do not, or we could not really learn, or grow with experience. Often, the tough lessons of life have to hurt, and life is not all about "happiness," except for the most superficial and foolish. There are deeper wells... Our pains and sorrows and angers and memories are a big part of what and who we are: in this case, the horror of what man is capable of doing to his human brothers and sisters. Since Eden, every generation, and every person, loses their innocence.
Wizbang has a fine extraordinary 9-11 summary of pieces and reminiscences. Favorite quote from it, from Dave Barry: “The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people.”
Sturgeon returning to North American waters. This is good. Good meat, good eggs, big fish, and remarkable critters. But Blue Crab Blvd. seems a bit afraid of them. Sen. Rockefeller wants Saddam back. Well, Saddam is still alive. LGF It is the most shameless hypocrisy and distortion on Rockefeller's part, as Captain Ed reviews Rockefeller's track record on the war. A chef complains about those stickers on fruit. I agree. Why the heck do they do that? Does a machine put them on? Bananas are ok, but everything else? Chef Mojo at Daily Pundit China expanding censorship of news. Calif. Yank I missed Part 1 of the miniseries. I see Rick liked it. If interested enough, Allah has pre and post-edit comparisons. When people do something like that, you can see that the blogs truly are an "army of Davids." Ned Lamont was against Clinton's sexual escapades before he was for them. Guess he's learning how to become a politician.
Sunday, September 10. 2006
Quotes from a definitional piece by Rick Moran, via American Thinker: Tomorrow, while much of the country pauses to remember the victims of 9/11 on the five year anniversary of that horrible day, it will occur to many of us what those attacks signified: the day that the United States awoke from its decades-long slumber and finally faced up to the fact that we were at war with a grimly determined, fanatical enemy hell bent on destroying us. For others, especially for those on the left, 9/11 will be remembered as a tragedy, a day when our “chickens came home to roost” and nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens paid the price for our folly. In this historical construct, rather than remembering 9/11 as a wake up call, the left sees the anniversary as a day of atonement, a day to make amends for our past sins.
and ...for the majority of the left, it is the yearning for a return to a 9/10 fantasy world that occupies their thoughts this weekend. These thoughts include a determined effort to carefully construct a historical narrative that proves that 9/11 was a gigantic mistake and that rather than moving on to face the assault on the West by radical Islamists, it would be better if we learned from our errors and repaired to the safety and security we believed were ours on 9/10. There is obvious comfort in this historical fallacy. And there is political gain as well. For this reason, the left has built a storyline about 9/11 that takes the form of both a Chaucer-like cautionary tale and Hollywood conspiracy fable, all the better to appeal to the confusion many Americans are feeling about the aftermath of 9/11 and our response to terrorism in general.
Read the whole thing (link above).
 Clips from the upcoming mini-series "docudrama", The Path to 9-11.
Dhimmis and Democrats should not watch these clips at Redstate - the Clintons and Harry Reid don't want you to have the right to see this (though even the NYT calls the film "evenhanded"). But this is America, not Iran, and the airwaves belong to the public - not to the politicians. Truth is, I wouldn't have been interested had not people gotten so upset about it. Too late - there are many original advance copies of the film around. (h/t, My Vast RW Consp.)
We have commented on American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk in the past, and termed him the first American rock star. Terry Teachout has a piece on Gottschalk in Commentary. Trollope, the Gardener. South African Colin Bower profiles his excellent gardener in The New English Review. Watch the women's finals last night? Is it true that Maria is 6'3"? Once she loosened up, she was darn impressive. Nice tennis dress, too. She makes 20 million/yr on endorsements. Deserves every penny.
Saturday, September 9. 2006
If you compete, you lose. Ironman Rev. Tod at It takes a church Bill Clinton: "I just want them to tell the truth." Good grief. Hewitt Do Americans play top level college tennis? Not very many. VDARE
The tourist map of literature. You type in an author, and they'll tell you who else you are likely to enjoy. Give it a try. (How does Uncle Norm find this stuff?)
This from Patterico the other day: Yesterday I asked people who support jury nullification what they would do if they perceived a conflict between the rule of law and the dictates of their own conscience. I asked: if the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of a breaking a valid law, but convicting the defendant appeared to be an unjust result, would you: a) follow the law and convict;
b) follow your conscience and acquit; or
c) ask to get off the jury?
His comments here.
Friday, September 8. 2006
 Heading to the beach tonight, probably for the last time this year, looking for the gal on the right. Is she in Newport? No plastic, guaranteed?
Dylan's new record is #1. How nice for the old guy. Zit myths cleared up. Sex medicine. The new meds are great, but a new one for premature you-know-what is a good deal. A good thing for over-excited fellows. Perfect example of the AP making up a non-existent story. Dino "Alternative medicine" is an oxymoron. Duh. DB Where are the Lamborghini's of the trial lawyer's clients? Overlawyered In praise of Enoch Powell. He got it, but he was before his time. Scruton Is life fair? Stumbling, on Hayek: [The function of the price system] is not so much to reward people for what they have done as to tell them what in their own as well as in general interest they ought to do. …To hold out a sufficient incentive for those movements which are required to maintain a market order, it will often be necessary that the return to people’s efforts do not correspond to recognizable merit...
Ethanol starves people of cheap food. The Commons
A gentleman is never unintentionally rude. Anon.
I love those old sword and sandal movies. They show huge swaths of the majestic deserts of the Middle East, and take in huge swaths of the media and the public. Look on the bright side; perhaps Fitzgerald will become the spokesman for the NRA someday. Armitage? I'm afraid he's gone and got himself thrown under the chariot.
 Yup, there they go controlling and manipulating prices again.
How dare they lower gas prices? The country was just beginning to move toward alternative, green fuels, and suddenly they cheapen oil again. They cruelly squeezed us for a while, got rich on our poor backs, and now they give us a break, just when we all sold our Suburbans and bought these lame Priussies, sold our furnaces and replaced them with wood-burning stoves, and quit eating corn so they could make ethanol out of it. But did they really give us a break? Naw. Now they will get rich on volume, instead of high prices. Crafty SOBs, aren't they? Almost like capitalists. Who gave them the right to control prices? The government should make sure we have cheap expensive no lots of oil...oh heck, I don't know what. But the government should do it. Surely they know what is best, but it had better be cheap gas for my F150 - I need something to show for the taxes I pay. Al Gore and the Dems, and the Greenies, have been arguing for higher gas prices, and higher gas taxes, for twenty years. They do not like oil. I do not know what they do like, but it isn't oil - unless it is in their own SUVs and their own furnaces. Lowering oil prices is a crime against the environment and a crime against humanity. Big Oil needs to be investigated for this senseless, evil, greedy act of lowering oil prices. Image: Edward Hopper's "Gas."
Now Harry Reid has joined the Clinton forces to frighten ABC. Will they be frightened? If so, it will be to the country's shame. This is not Iran, Harry. Jee whiz, even the left-wing NYT calls the film "evenhanded." To me, this smells of totalitarianism, and is extremely creepy. Contact ABC and tell them to tell the truth without fear or favor. NBC proves here that the Clintons dropped the ball with Osama. How, besides declining opportunities to kill Bin Laden? Well, these things could have caused some concern.
I was wrong. ABC submits to Clinton pressure on the Path to 9-11. What a world! Our courageous, truth-telling media. The Anchoress is on the story. Who are the super-rich? You and me. From a piece by Boudreaux at TCS: When I lecture to teenagers and twentysomethings here in the United States, I often ask members of the audience to "raise your hand if you're wealthy." Except for the young woman years ago who announced that her father owned a string of 7-11s, no one ever raises a hand. "Oh but you are wealthy!" I insist. "Each of us is among the wealthiest people ever to breathe."
The Tragedy of Conrad Black, in The New English review. It begins: The last three years have not been kind to Conrad Black: his media empire and his reputation are in a shambles, his various properties are being auctioned off by court-order, and his assets and family jewelry are being confiscated – all this, and Black has yet to be convicted of a single crime.
Thursday, September 7. 2006
Crickets are chirpin', the water is high,
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry,
Windows wide open, African trees
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze.
Not a word of goodbye, note even a note,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.
Somebody seen him hanging around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town,
He looked into her eyes when she stopped to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask.
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote
There was dust on the man
In the long black coat.
Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied.
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat,
She gave her heart to the man
In the long black coat.
There are no mistakes in life some people say
It is true sometimes you can see it that way.
People don't live or die, people just float.
She went with the man
In the long black coat.
There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June,
Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse.
She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.
"Man In The Long Black Coat," from 1989's Oh Mercy, hailed as a comeback album at the time. If you listen closely to the live version available here, you can make out that Dylan sings "now the beach is deserted" in place of "there's smoke on the water" in the final verse - the new words coming directly from "Sara," a plea to his wife from the 1976 album Desire and a song which he hadn't sung in concert since that year.
The mini-series The Path to 9-11 will be aired on Sept 10 and 11 on ABC. We do not ordinarily recommend anything on TV, but this sounds good. The AP review here.
 Newt's ideas on how to win elections. He is usually correct, and he is right this time. Daily Pundit
Will ABC collapse under Clinton pressure? Doubt it. How would they look? Wizbang/ Clearly some people like to try to suppress speech... Singleton The old racial stereotyping theory gets an updated spin. LaShawn The Bush economy sucks. Unemployment 4.7%. ("full employment" = 5%) Pardon my English 62% of Brits think they should try to make the Moslems happy. Pathetic. View from the Right More on the UN's opposition to the concept of self-defence, this time from Willisms. Edubabble, interpreted. (h/t, Right Wing Nation) Image: another photo of Villa Balze in Fiesole
Cranes and barges salvage boats in CT ripped from their moorings during last week's storm. (Thanks for photo, Chris) 
The Atlantic summarizes a number of comments by presenters at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival this summer, here. (expires in 3 days)
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