Friday, July 22. 2005
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.
Thursday, July 21. 2005
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 It seems that in this day, when all Americans must put their national security concerns first, an article should not be published until after the problem has been addressed and rectified.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
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"
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."
Roberts is a shoe-in - just my opinion DO NOT MISS Iowahawk's piece on the Roberts nomination - hilarious And the NYT - almost as funny as Iowakawk - worries that Roberts will cause dirty air, child labor, restrictions on abortion and - God Forbid! - federalism. At least they didn't put the re-institution of slavery on the list, but it sounds as if they wanted to. This quote from Roberts says it all (via Michelle via Town Hall): My own judicial philosophy begins with an appreciation of the limited role of a judge in our system of divided powers. Judges are not to legislate and are not to execute the laws. . . . My judicial philosophy accordingly insists upon some rigor in ensuring that judges properly confine themselves to the adjudication of the case before them, and seek neither to legislate broadly not to administer the law generally in deciding that case. Deciding the case . . . . requires an essential humility grounded in the properly limited role of an undemocratic judiciary in a democratic republic, a humility reflected in doctrines of deference to legislative policy judgments and embodied in the often misunderstood term “judicial restraint.” That restraint does not mean that judges should not act against the popular will. . . .[T]he framers expected them to be discerning the law, not shaping policy. That means the judges should not look to their own personal views or preferences in deciding the cases before them. Their commission is no license to impose those preferences from the bench."
Monday, July 18. 2005
Internet Regulation and our New England Politicians The Meehan-Shays decision requires political speech regulation on blogs. They do it in China, but this is America, right? And can I get around this if Maggie's calls itself an "online magazine" " or an "online newspaper" and our contributors "reporters"? CaptainsQuarters does a good job with this: So we have a lawsuit to regulate the internet brought by a Democratic representative who is as liberal as it's possible to be, and by a Republican representative who is the most liberal Republican in either body of the Congress, decided by a liberal Democratic judge, and now affirmed by two liberal Democratic appellate-court judges (with a conservative Republican dissenting). So now we know who is trying to screw us. But what about who is trying to save us?
The rest of the country can blame New England reps for this crime against free speech. Full report here.
Saturday, July 16. 2005
A Splendid Rant From Ranting Right Wing Howler, with graphics too/ A funny smart guy.
Friday, July 15. 2005
Ed Koch speaks out I just happened to quote Ed last night: "If you agree with me on 12 out of 14 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 14 out of 14 issues, go see a psychiatrist." To him, as to many of us, Jihad is about a war of civilizations: The various terrorist organizations are overwhelmingly Muslim. I believe they are supported by millions of Muslims around the world who are bent on destroying both Western civilization and those Muslims, Christians and Jews who believe in the Western values of democracy and tolerance.
At RCP, read entire.
Thursday, July 14. 2005
Every American Every American citizen: 1. Should pay at least some federal taxes
2. Should serve at least two years in the military
3. Should take a loyalty oath at age 18 We are a country. That ought to mean something. That does mean something. It's not a free lunch, and freedom is not free.
There. That is off my chest, and I feel much better now.
Denial of Evil, Nihilism, and the Left, Part 1 We who try to be reasonable are befuddled by why the American and European Left have a reflex to defend the Jihadists, and to oppose combating them. The fact that they do so is amply demonstrated, endlessly, by the Great Horowitz, among others.
My theory is that the Left is nihilistic at heart. For whatever reasons, they have passed criticism and have come to hate their own civilization, which is admittedly imperfect but which, at the same time, cannot be matched anywhere, anytime, in history in its freedom, opportunity, safety, stability, and idealism. (Yale's famous rejection of the Bass donation was a high-water mark of this self-hating trend.) The consequence is an anti-Western bias, but they refuse to offer an alternative, either because they do not have one, or because any offered would be rejected by voters. My belief is that our civilization is a fragile sculpture, a rare and precious thing, and that our Western Civilization is one of the most amazing things that humans have created, with, at its core, the idea that every individual human matters, as a child of God. That’s the core of it all, and it is at the core of Western medical practice and medical ethics too, since Hippocrates. We care for their injured in our hospitals, and they behead their prisoners. That is a big difference, one which relegates them to the barbarian category. “All men are created equal…”
It is not my brief on Maggie’s to get into politics, but I cannot ignore this one. What is behind the Left’s apologizing for Jihadists? Why does England welcome them? Why does the US welcome them? Why France and Germany and Sweden? Why does Canada welcome them? Why welcome your destroyers into your home?
I wrote a piece on Evil several months ago, but it had no political content. Hatred and destructiveness can derive from hundreds of sources, but most of the time social norms and rules prevent us from acting on such impulses. They are very human evils, or sins, if you will. If you live in a culture, or subculture, which endorses them, many will be pleased to follow – see Nazi Germany, the Mafia, the Weathermen, or any number of murderous, sadistic civilizations and cultures and subcultures throughout history - and relieved to be given a sanctioned outlet for such emotions. Humans are natural-born killers, after all, just like chimps, and it takes a heck of a lot of civilization to keep us on the right side of the road.
It’s clear to me from all that I have read that the Jihadists have long identified Jews and Christians as the “other” – sub-humans occupying potentially Islamic space. We do not do the same to them – on the contrary, we in the West bend over backwards to make them welcome and to accommodate their ways. Their denial of our humanity is their evil, even if it is endorsed by their culture and their religion, and their using our generosity and tolerance for their own purposes is evil as well, though they see it as justified by Mohammed. Fooling an Infidel is not a sin, and we "nice" infidels are too eager to be fooled.
So we quickly arrive at the religious core of morals and ethics, from whence they derive. The Jihadist believes that war on the West is demanded of him by God. I refuse to get morally relativistic and multicultural about that about that - leave that to the anthropologists. To me that is evil. Why does the Western Left like to ally themselves with this? One might imagine that woman-hating, fascistic, anti-human rights, primitively-capitalistic, oil and opium-dependent, hyper-religious movements would be anathema to them.
Continue reading "The Analyst Speaks: Terrorism and the Left, Part 1"
Monday, July 11. 2005
About Che Che Guevara, the glorified Communist, the man who thought he was the next liberator of Latin America was a cut-throat murdering pig. Alvaro Vargas Llosa from the New Republic writes the true story behind a man who has been memorialized for all the wrong reasons. Murder is murder no matter how you look at it. The below from Click here: Caracas Chronicles "Che Guevara, who did so much (or was it so little?) to destroy capitalism, is now a quintessential capitalist brand. His likeness adorns mugs, hoodies, lighters, key chains, wallets, baseball caps, toques, bandannas, tank tops, club shirts, couture bags, denim jeans, herbal tea, and of course those omnipresent T-shirts with the photograph, taken by Alberto Korda, of the socialist heartthrob in his beret during the early years of the revolution, as Che happened to walk into the photographer's viewfinder--and into the image that, thirty-eight years after his death, is still the logo of revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic. Sean O'Hagan claimed in The Observer that there is even a soap powder with the slogan "Che washes whiter." In a recent review in The New York Times of George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Manohla Dargis noted that "the greatest shock here may be the transformation of a black zombie into a righteous revolutionary leader," and added, "I guess Che really does live, after all." The soccer hero Maradona showed off the emblematic Che tattoo on his right arm during a trip where he met Hugo Chávez in Venezuela."
The devil can quote scripture for his purpose. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
Thursday, July 7. 2005
 Fidel
After 46 years, Castro seems to have the staying power that the exiles didn't give him credit for but then he is over 70 and so is his brother Raul the man slated to take over. Who knows what will happen next? Read more on this never-ending story here: New York Times: This city where raucous demonstrations by exiles were once as regular as summer storms has seen few lately. One theory is that the people whose life's mission was to defeat Mr. Castro and return to the island one day - those who fled here in the early years of his taking power - have grown old and weary."We are all exhausted from so much struggle," said Ramón Saul Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an exile organization that once ran flotillas to the waters off Cuba to protest human-rights abuses. Mr. Sánchez, 50, also belonged to Alpha 66, an exile paramilitary group that trained in the Everglades, mostly in the 1960's and 70's, for an armed invasion of Cuba, and later protested around the clock outside Elián González's house. Now, he said, he prefers less attention-grabbing tactics, quietly supporting dissidents on the island from an office above a LaundromatClick here: Florida's Zeal Against Castro Is Losing Heat - New York Times
The Court Top Contenders: RWN From 2002, Anderson in City Journal: Click here: City Journal Summer 2002 | Why the Battle for the Court Will Be Nasty by Brian C. Anderson :questions of sex have tempted the Court to bend and twist the Constitution almost as energetically as questions of race. Roe v. Wade (1973) is the most famous case in point. Whatever your views about abortion, it is hard to deny that, as jurisprudence, Roe is embarrassingly shoddy. In a 51-page majority opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun that lacked any discernible legal reasoning, the Court based itself on the “privacy” right of married couples to use contraceptives that it had found in the “penumbras, formed by emanations” of the Bill of Rights in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case. It asserted that this new guarantee of privacy, conjured up like a will-o’-the-wisp rising out of swamp gas, included an absolute right, protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, for all women to terminate pregnancy up until the third trimester—a penumbra formed by emanations indeed. Q
Tuesday, July 5. 2005
Wow. I think Blair gets it. "Some have suggested I want to abandon Europe's social model," Blair told the European Parliament last month. "But tell me: what type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe, productivity rates falling behind those of the United States; that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe; and that, on any relative index of a modern economy -- skills, R&D, patents, IT -- is going down not up." Funny that he didn't also mention that their politics is being taken over by Islamicists. Powerline.
Thursday, June 30. 2005
 The Court and Politics
Posted at 8 AM: I am heading down to Maine in about an hour, but I wanted to register one thought first: This Supreme Court has handed the Repubs more ammunition than they want or need to correct the course of the Court, or for the 2006 elections, for that matter. McCreary County, and Kelo, have given regular people fits. Respect for religion, and Right to Property - what could be more basic to the lives of Americans? The lefty-elitist hubris of this Court will lead to its correction, in good time. The fight to protect our freedom from government power is endless, as is the fight to protect freedom from external powers. It's a damn shame that we ever have to think about the former, but we do. Show me a government, and I'll show you a sponge for money and power over the individual, and it will mainly be run by phonies who couldn't do much in real life, except schmooze and BS. Comment from Editor Some relevant links from New England Repub, and Scott at Powerline, and NH Insider, and Intell. Conservative. Second comment from Editor Why does a Texan, even though he lives in CT now, say he's going "down" to Maine? Also known as "down east"? First correct email answer gets a Maggie's Farm t-shirt. Congrats One XL Maggie's Farm t-shirt to RT of Portland, Maine: You go "down east" because the prevailing winds carry your sailing ship northeast along the Atlantic coast easily, especially on the Boston to Maine stretch. If not downwind, at least on a reach. Sailing from Maine to Boston or New York usually involves much more tacking and is a more arduous, upwind trip. Thus, in Maine, the older generation still goes "up to Boston."
Steyn Views Europe's Decay Steyn on the world economies and demographics: "... the GDP per capita Top Five are, in order, America, Canada, Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom. And if you make it territories with over 20 million, the Top Four is an Anglosphere sweep. In other words, the ability to generate wealth among large populations does indeed seem to be an "Anglo-Saxon" thing. That being so, which is more likely? That Blair will transform a Europe antipathetic to Anglo-Saxon ways? Or that Europe will drag its Anglo-Saxons down with it? A political entity hostile to the three principal building blocks of functioning societies - religion, family and wealth creation - was never a likely bet for the long term." Read entire excellent piece at Steyn Online.
Blogs,  Free Speech and the FEC The Fox News lede: "WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission says Web logs just might be a threat to democracy and it's considering whether to police them." Sens. McCain and Feingold should feel life-destroying remorse over what they have done to Free Speech in the name of goo-goo-ism. Hey - this isn't China. Read entire.
Cuban Vacations The time has come to take a stand. Do we allow travel to Cuba or continue to live as if the Bay of Pigs was yesterday? From CubaCentral :: CUBA TRAVEL CALLS ARE URGENT: Part 1: This is THE TIME of the summer for you to take action on easing the embargo on travel to Cuba. If you can take just ONE action this summer, NOW is the time. We anticipate that several amendments easing and/or ending the travel ban will be offered on the floor of the House NEXT WEEK, probably Wednesday or Thursday. Here’s what we expect and what we’re asking you to do. We emphasize its urgency!
Part 2: EXPECTED VOTES:
Flake Amendment on cutting off funding for enforcement of the full travel ban; Davis Amendment on cutting off funding for enforcement of the restrictions on Cuban-American travel; Lee Amendment on cutting off funding for enforcement of the restrictions on educational travel and exchanges; Rangel Amendment on cutting off funding for enforcement of the full embargo. Find out who received what from whom. This Cuba embargo has to change if for no other reason than the Cubans suffering have nothing to do with Fidel's insanity. They just want a Band-Aid to cover their cut, or toilet paper instead of newspaper print and toothpaste instead of water. read more here: Click here: Political Action Committees
Tuesday, June 28. 2005
 The Latin Beat: Travel
Spots worth a visit. Some legal and others not so easy to visit. Latin America has a lot to offer other than corrupt politicians, poverty, and plain old chaos. Some of the most beautiful sights and beaches and architecture in the world. And of course, the food, music and beautiful women are great too. Belize and the fishing is easy Old Belize offers an unforgettable experience that will surely provide an excellent orientation and appreciation for the country and people of Belize. The 45-minute tour begins inside a rainforest exhibit that showcases giant tropical trees that tower the path you walk. Inside this display a waterfall and limestone cave depicts the magnificent stalactite and stalagmite formations that scientist say grows about an inch every 100 years! Click here: Old Belize Cultural and Historical Center Ecological greatness right next door and the water rafting is a blast. San Jose City, known simply as San Jose, was designated as the capital of Costa Rica in 1835. The sprawling capital is nestled in the fertile “Valle Central” (Central Valley) and surrounded on all sides by large forested mountain ranges, some of which include active volcanoes, perennially green savannahs and working coffee plantations.Costa Rica - San Jose Bossa Nova In Brazil For hundreds of years, Brazil has symbolized the great escape into a primordial, tropical paradise, igniting the Western imagination like no other South American country. From the mad passion of Carnaval to the immensity of the dark Amazon, it is a country of mythic proportions.Perhaps it's not quite the Eden of popular imagination, but it's still a land of staggering beauty. There are stretches of unexplored rainforest, islands with pristine tropical beaches, and endless rivers. And there are the people themselves, who delight the visitor with their energy and joy.Lonely Planet's Guide to Brazil Cuba: it is illegal to visit but there is always a way. If you should be so lucky. Fly in through Cancun or Lyford Cay as the Cubans love dollars and no passport is needed. The scariest part of the trip will be flying in on the YAK planes from Russia. Hot flying in and freezing on the way back, but don't be afraid when you board as the seats are collapsed but they bounce back up when you sit. Upon arrival, you will feel like you have stepped back in time as the island hasn't changed much since 1959. Che is everywhere and the old Presidential Palace still has the bullets in the walls from the revolutionary days and Fidel's trinkets and garbage like the boots he wore in the mountains. Hemingway's house is worth the trip and so is the Nacional Hotel and the Havana Yacht Club is completely dilapidated and the opera house has pigeons nesting where the sconces use to be. There is an old lady guarding the door and kids dancing ballet as an eighty year old man plays piano on a Steinway that has seen better days. Eating out is best done in private homes where jam jars serve as the glasses and no tow dishes are alike but the food is good. It is quite sad to see the city in ruins but if you close your eyes sometimes you can imagine Havana as it once must have been. An old girl in need of some TLC, Cuba will rise up again. For more help with your trip to Cuba, continue below the fold:
Continue reading ""
Monday, June 27. 2005
Rove's Speech Ex-Donkey has more of the text. Not bad.
Friday, June 24. 2005
McCain: "A (media) whore desperate for attention", plus sodomy Sounds about right. In New England Repub. And NE Repub again, on "where will we commit sodomy if the govt takes our houses?" What fine bloggers those guys are.
"Dylan Republicans" A perfect piece - custom-made for Maggie's Farm - by Hynes in American Spectator.
|
