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Saturday, April 13, 2002
After this, watch oil prices ping-pong again tomorrow.
I expect that in Europe this will be regarded as just more examples of American cowboy madness. It looks pretty good to me, though. From The Economist: Pinkos and pistols
THINK of gun enthusiasts and you don't immediately think of the "polyamorous" and BDSM communities. (For the uninitiated, DSM stands for "bondage, domination and sado-masochism".) But that may be because you are the victim of outmoded rejudices--about gun ownership, that is, not about BDSM.
The Pink Pistols, an organisation of homosexual gun enthusiasts, boasts some 2,000 members, with chapters across the country. The group introduces new shooters to the sport and endorses candidates who support both the Second Amendment and "the rights of consenting adults to love each other how they wish however they wish". Its slogans include "armed gays don't get bashed" and "pick on someone your own calibre".
This is only one example of the gun culture's onward march into liberal (in the American sense of the word) territory. The trailblazer was arguably Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which was founded in 1989 to promote gun-ownership among one of the most leftish ethnic groups: it now has about 8,000 members. The Tenth Cavalry Gun Club, named after a black regiment, tries to "increase the numbers of people of colour in the firearms world".
The Harvard Law School is arguably the command centre of American liberalism. But the school's gun club boasts some 120 members, 5% of the student body. Alexander Volokh, who founded the club late last year, takes members shooting on a range in New Hampshire. Guns are banned on the Harvard campus; the New Hampshire range displays a sign saying "Children under 13 shoot for free."
Mount Holyoke, an all-women's college more readily associated with Betty Friedan than with Charlton Heston, has now formed the first college chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters, a national organisation of pro-gun women. About 50 women have signed up. There is even a gun club in an art school, the Maryland Institute College of Art. Justin Sirois, the club's founder, describes it as a "work of art" and argues that it disproves the "sissy" stereotype of art students.
Groups like the Pink Pistols and the Second Amendment Sisters also emphasise something else--empowerment. Guns are making it easier for women (most of whom are physically weaker than men) and for homosexuals (who are often the victims of unprovoked assaults) to defend themselves. John Lott, of the American Enterprise Institute, points out that women are more likely to escape unharmed from an assault if they have a gun. Doug Krick, the founder of the Pink Pistols' Boston chapter, says he knows of several homosexuals and trans-sexuals who have saved themselves from attack by showing guns.
The idea that empowerment grows from the barrel of a gun is a commonplace in the American heartland. Now it is starting to be heard in the other America.
The fact that this idea wasn't heard more loudly by the left has always struck me as strange. Lefty divinity Mao knew that power came from the barrel of a gun, and when the Black Panthers reached for Black Power, they reached for rifles and shotguns first.
Coupled with the recent Fifth Circuit Emerson decision, I am, for the first time in forty years, beginning to think I may yet see a functioning Second Amendment in my lifetime.
There is a difference between festooning religious symbols on public buildings, and letting a five year old - or even a fifteen year old - voluntarily pray in school (or elsewhere). As long, of course, as those praying don't attempt to force others to join them, or impose their religious beliefs in any other way.
One Israeli journalist offered this explanation: "By Middle East standards, this action makes Sharon look like a Boy Scout. The most relevant example was in September 1970, when Arafat and the Palestinians revolted against King Hussein of Jordan. He bombarded Palestinian refugee camps in Amman and slaughtered 20,000 so that Arafat fled to Beirut."
That entire action was enshrined in Palestinian history as Black September. And then, of course, there was this:
Reports from human rights monitors detail an ongoing Kuwaiti campaign to punish and expel the 350,000 Palestinians living in Kuwait before the war. Today, all but 60,000 Palestinians have been driven out by a combination of summary executions, torture, detention, forced expulsions, and a variety of other pressures. And according to human rights workers, Kuwait is trying to squeeze those last few out quickly.
The history of the Palestinians in the middle east - duped, manipulated, abused, and even slaughtered by their Arab "brothers" is curiously ignored in the West. This is a curious form of racism, actually. Apparently the West regards Israel as civilized, and therefore culpable for any excesses in the process of self-defense, but the Arabs are simple savages who simply aren't capable of restraining their murderous instincts, even when the result is the outright slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
This isn't moral equivalence. It is moral imbecility, and it needs to be pointed out more often.
The Saudi ambassador to Britain, a renowned poet, praised Palestinian suicide bombers and criticized the United States in a poem published Saturday in a pan-Arab daily.
Haven't these medieval idiots figured out that between satellite television and the Internet, they can't hide their cockroach droppings in the Arabian dark any more?
Hey, moron jackhole! There are even people who can translate Arabic into English. And they do!
Four-times Masters winner Arnold Palmer completed his final competitive round at Augusta with a 13-over-par 85 in front of packed galleries.
The 72-year-old, who won the Masters in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964, ended up at 30 over par, following his opening 89 on Thursday.
I'll miss Arnold. I'm glad we've got Tiger to watch, though. And did you notice one thing? Arnold made damned sure that he played his last competitive round at the Masters after Nicklaus retired from the big show.
"I've had it," Gore told a roaring crowd of 2,500 activists at the Florida party convention. "America's economy is suffering unnecessarily. Important American values are being trampled. Special interests are calling the shots.
"If you agree with me, then stand up with conviction for what we believe in and fight for it," he told the activists, many of whom sported signs and stickers proclaiming "Still Gore Country."
If I were a paranoid, I'd wonder if Cynthia McKinney's recent ejaculations were uttered solely to make Al Gore's attacks on the President look good by comparison.
Maybe not. Either way, I don't think the "stand up and fight" class warfare approach is going to work. Sure, it will energize the base, but that wasn't enough last time, and it's going to fall pathetically short this time around.
The High Court of Justice issued an interim order Friday blocking the IDF from moving out the bodies of dead Palestinians from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
A panel of three justices will hold a full discussion on the matter this morning, following a petition by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.
This is what happens in a democratic society governed by the rule of law. If there were "crimes against humanity" committed by members of the IDF, Israel itself will get to the bottom of it, just as they punished Ariel Sharon for allowing Christian Arabs to attack Muslim Arabs in the Sabra and Shatila camps twenty years ago. And this reaction is exactly why I believe the florid Palestinian claims of a massacre will turn out to be so much propaganda, and nothing more.
It's a mystery to me why American news outlets insist on calling ousted Venezuelan Hugo Chavez a "populist."
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran, which had built up friendly ties with deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Saturday the fiery populist's ouster by the military was in part hatched by the United States.
He isn't. He's a communist. How do I know? He said so himself:
Visiting Beijing, Venezuela¹s President Hugo Chavez stated, ³I have always been very Maoist,² the Associated Press reports.
Unless Mao was pursuing some faith other than Communism, (and he wasn't) I'd say that makes Chavez's politics clear enough - although evidently not sufficiently clear for ABCNBCCBSCNNLAATNYTWP to call him what he is.
Editor -- Apparently President Bush doesn't care about saving Palestinian and Israeli lives. His goal is to invade Iraq just before the November election so that he can appeal to patriotism to win the House and Senate for the Republicans. Because there's no evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Bush is one of the most dangerous demagogues we've never elected. GEORGE Z. BANKS Oakland
Something in the air over there in Oakland, George Z. Banks? Something like, oh, I dunno, loony dust?
Two incidents this week illustrate the biggest problem with the Permanent Congress: it is far too easy for these endlessly elected officials to come to believe they are above the law, or immune to challenge. These people are elected to serve, not appointed to rule. It would be good for them to keep it in mind.
If now is not the time to do away with Yasser Arafat (and there is only one way to do away with Arafat) when will be a good time? What more justification do we need? How much more justification can Israel endure?
Don McArthur links to Grouchy Dude, who may be an acquired taste, but is definitely a taste. Of something. Sample:
So with no further blathering, here are ten un-broken-up shitwad bands who currently suck the bag. Hard.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young No joke, they're gonna wheel Graham Nash out in a wheelchair. Hang it up, great grandpas.
The Who Special distinction for passing the 25th anniversary of the year they should have broken up permanently. Wish you'd died before you got old.
The Sex Pistols Post-modernly admitting you're in it for the money doesn't save you from the bag. Ooh, how rebellious!
The Scorpions In addition to touring with Ronnie James Dio (who I believe fought in the Boer War), they are doing a heavy-metal musical at the Metropol Theater in Berlin. Gott im himmel, ist der real-life Spinal Tap!
Bon Jovi Apparently, Richie Sambora's solo career was a little sluggish in taking off. Now they dress up in suits and are "edgy." Parachute pants don't fit any more, fellas?
The Eagles They suck the bag extra hard because they never should have formed in the first place.
Styx Holy fuck, did they blow when they were young! Still, their reunion tour will bring opaque classics like "Snow Blind" and "Miss America" and jesus help us "Come Sail Away" to a whole new generation of glittery idiots.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Man, I cringe when I hear they're in town. Stop living in the past, guys! You should have released an album called Most of Us Are Dead and gone back to cleaning pools!
The Go-Gos We got the beat! We got the beat! We got the beat! We got the beat! We got the beat! We got the beat! We got the beat! Just shut the fuck up!
Asia Are you kidding me? Stop fucking around and put those Taco Bell uniforms back on.
I hate to do this, but you gotta do what you gotta do. More McKinney:
"What is undeniable is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th," McKinney charged. "America's credibility, both with the world and with her own people, rests upon securing credible answers to these questions."
Two can play at this. According to opensecrets.org, McKinney has been accepting contributions from the likes of Archer Daniels Midland, Lockheed Martin, and the Machinist and Aerospace Workers, all of whom are likely to benefit financially from increased government defense spending in the wake of 9/11. So it is undeniable that corporations and unions close to McKinney have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th, and that Mckinney's credibility, both with the world and with her own people, rests upon securing credible answers to these questions.
Of course the entire notion is ridiculous. But what do I know? I'm not a lunatic.
I usually don't bother to link to Jonah Goldberg - he gets a bazillion links as a matter of course, and hardly needs DailyPundit's help - but every once in a while he's just too juicy to pass on. As today, on the despicable Congressloon Cynthia McKinney (D-AirheadNation):
I see. Well, just let me just say that I am not aware of any evidence that Ms. McKinney has murdered several children or that she personally profited from sleeping with the entire defensive squad of the Atlanta Falcons. However, a complete investigation might reveal that to be the case.
Meanwhile, while we await the findings of that long-overdue investigation, I can add that there is ample evidence that Ms. McKinney is dumber than rock salt and more repugnant than Yasser Arafat's three-week-old underwear.
He continues to boil the Harpy of Haplessness in another thousand words of this thick and molten goodness. Don't miss it.
Evidently as long as you keep it to yourself, it's not illegal in Norway to plan or prepare to slaughter innocent men, women, and children in terrorist acts. Seems it would interfere with Norwegians's freedom of expression rights. (Link courtesy Fredrik Norman).
Eugene Volokh skips lightly along one of the many third rails of American politics. His thoughts mirror my own. I really need to get around to writing my own essay on the subject one of these days.
The excellent Dr. Andrew Cline of the Rhetorica Network has a blog up now. There's not much to it yet, but if it's as good as the rest of Rhetorica, it will be a keeper.
Rand Simberg links to an on-line petition that encourages "Kathy Kinsley's proposal that the Afghan scientists who hid the radioactive material from Al Qaeda deserve a Peace Prize."
It's a worthwhile cause, not that those Peace Prize Arafat suck-ups would recognize such if it punched them in the face. Go check it out, though. You never know. It might even do some good.
What the hell do I have to do or say to get on the Warblogger Watch List? I am at least as blood thirsty as Jeff Jarvis....
To which I reply, "Chicken kibble. DailyPundit isn't on the list either. We got a bigger award - our own personal appellation. So nyah to all you wannabe listees. We've got the logo.
Fine new addition to the permalinks: CWPostings, otherwise known as ClayWaters.com. Here's a taste:
The Axis Of Naughtiness
Occasional Time magazine essayist Barbara Ehrenreich solves the terror problem while waiting to be searched at the airport (but not before wondering why her 'skin privilege' didn't prevent her from being searched). Her advice to Bush:
He might, for example, stop calling other nations "evil." The word is a conversation-stopper, implying incomprehensible malice. Why not say "wrongheaded" or even "naughty," and leave open the possibility of reform?
A leading pilots' union launched a petition drive Thursday aimed at pressuring Congress and President Bush to allow pilots to carry guns aboard commercial aircraft. The Allied Pilots Association, which represents more than 13,000 pilots at American Airlines and the former TWA, posted the petition on its Web site. The association said the federal government is relying too heavily on airport screening, federal air marshals and stronger cockpit doors to stop terrorists -- and not heavily enough on flight crews. "Common sense and logic dictate that the men and women we trust each day with our lives when we board an airliner can and should be trusted with firearms in order to provide the critical last line of defense," the petition said.
This is the single most important practical measure that can be taken to immediately (and inexpensively) safeguard American fliers. For some reason Norman Mineta and Tom Ridge don't agree. Tell them that you do. Sign this petition here. You'll be glad you did.
Right. But just when you thought the Donkeys were starting to get over their urge to political suicide, you have to look at their second choice in this poll behind the failing Gore.
That's right. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has, within the sample's margin of error, pulled into a dead heat with the former Vice President.
Not long ago, President Bush signed a policy that would allow ransom to be paid for kidnapped Americans. I said at the time it was a lousy idea. Here's why.
If you need any further reason for the United States to have nothing whatsoever to do with this latest international travesty, here it is: Calls begin for war crimes trial for Israelis
Palestinian sympathizers in Europe and the Arab world called yesterday for the Israeli government to be investigated for war crimes, raising the prospect that leaders of the Jewish state could be among the first targets of the new International Criminal Court.
Anybody want to give this pack of lunatics a crack at American citizens or leaders? President Bill Clinton signed the treaty, but Congress refused to ratify it. Maybe the Big He could be the first American test case - for firing missiles at aspirin factores and Afghanistani training camps. Probably Iran would be happy to bring charges. Or Iraq, for those human rights violations with the embargo.
UPDATE: According to this analysis, thanks to President Clinton's signature, U.S. citizens will be subject to the International Criminal Court. It should be interesting to see what happens the first time the ICC clashes with the U.S. Constitution. Stephen den Beste has a few words on the subject, too, and startlingly prescient they are.
The Israeli police said Thursday that they had found a belt with explosives in a Palestinian ambulance during a check at a roadblock inside the West Bank. The ambulance was headed toward Israel with the body of a Palestinian man, the police said, and alongside him, they found the device. It was the second time in two weeks that Israel had reported finding explosives in an ambulance.
Just before 9 pm IT, two hours before the US Secretary arrived, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was stopped by a hidden Israeli security patrol near the gas station on the Modi’in-Jerusalem Highway 443. The driver and his mate had all the necessary permits for transporting a dead Palestinian policeman to the Gaza Strip. However, since Yasser Arafat’s confinement in Ramallah, security has been intensified on all traffic coming from the direction of the Palestinian town, in case of an attempt to smuggle him out. In any case, in a war situation, in which passage from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip has been suspended, all permits are checked for forgeries. The ambulance was therefore opened up and searched carefully. Hidden under the corpse was a large supply of explosives and a suicider’s bomb belt. According to some of DEBKAfile’s sources, the two Palestinians admitted under questioning that they had planned to pull the ambulance up on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv expressway, the route taken later by the Powell motorcade. One of the men was to stay in the vehicle, while the other strapped on the bomb belt and hid in some roadside bushes. When the secretary’s car drove by, the ambulance was rigged to explode. The second bomber was then supposed to leap into the milling crowd of officials and security men and blow himself up.
Admitted, Debka's record for accuracy isn't one hundred percent (though it is much higher than the zero percent its detractors claim), so you have to salt this item to taste for yourself. However, if true, it does add a bit of interesting detail, doesn't it? One might even say significant detail.
Target: Bethlehem This line, buried at the end of the article, says it all:
Mr. Katsav might have also mentioned that the Vatican's solution would have turned sacred religious sites into sure-fire escape hatches, all but guaranteeing future seizures.
Abolutely correct. If you want to guarantee that everytime a Palestinian gunny is close to being captured he'll run for the nearest church, allowing the thugs inside the church at Bethlehem to escape scot-free is definitely the way to go.
One of the more compelling arguments against unrestricted democracy would have to be this. Sure, you can vote for anybody you want, but why would you want to vote for this anybody?
In a recent interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, McKinney said: "We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th. . . . What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? . . . What do they have to hide?" McKinney declined to be interviewed yesterday, but she issued a statement saying: "I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case."
I'm sorry. Words fail. "Despicable" comes to mind, and "ludicrous," and "calculated lies." But none of them do justice. Cynthia McKinney, you are a disgrace to your office, your state, and your nation. From now on, honorable men and women should show you only their backs.
And before you begin to squawk about how the inevitable backlash to your loathesome speech is trespassing on your First Amendment rights, you have every right to say whatever you would like to say in this country. And the rest of us have every right to despise you utterly for saying it.
Thanks to reader jacques, I offer proof that San Francisco does not have a corner on idiotic Letters To The Editor: Israel's iron grip
Letters Guardian Friday April 5, 2002 Imagine that on Wednesday, when parliament had been recalled, a bomb from a splinter group of (say) the IRA had gone off in Westminster Square. Would the UK government's response have been to send tanks into Belfast and roll over the whole community? Yet that is what has happened all over Palestine (Israel tightens its iron grip, April 4). The outrages, especially in Bethlehem, pit Israelis against Christians and we do nothing. Meanwhile, innocent men and women, some allegedly British, are denied access to hospitals. On the FCO's website for Israel and the Palestine Authority, www.britemb.org.il, there is virtually nothing about Palestine, and where there is, the website link is down. Never mind, on the Israel bit it says: "Israel has been nominated as a target market for British businessmen" (but not businesswomen): so that's all right then. Why is UK foreign policy so tied to the coat-tails of President Bush? Have we given up thinking for ourselves? Derek Wyatt MP Lab, Sittingbourne and Sheppey wyattd@parliament.uk
Or imagine that a hundred bombs, two or three each day, had gone off all over England, killing hundreds and injuring thousands, with no end in sight, Derek Wyatt MP. How long would any English government survive if it did nothing in response?
You ask, "Have we given up thinking for ourselves?" I don't know about "we," but in your case, apparently you've given up thinking entirely. Have you considered emigrating to Australia, where Tim Blair will await your arrival with great glee?
Editor -- I attended the demonstration at Berkeley as an Israeli American law student. I was there to commemorate the most disastrous event in Jewish history. Despite my discomfort with the appropriation of the Holocaust as a symbol for Palestinian self-determination, I also went to show my solidarity with Arabs, Jews and anyone else in hoping for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What I witnessed was an organized desecration of tragedy and a declaration of war against the meaning of suffering. In the sea of signs and wave of words equating Jews with Nazis and Israel with terrorism, there was no mention of the innocent Israeli lives taken by suicide bombers. I implore leaders of the Palestinian cause at Berkeley to focus on the important plight of Palestinians rather than subvert the language of painful history. Our mutual struggle for peace is at stake. We must not root it in hatred and disrespect. EDDAN KATZ Berkeley
Eddan Katz, I wish I could say I sympathize with your startlement. But you went to show "solidarity" with those who support a gangster regime that sends deluded human sacrifices out to murder innocent Jewish men, women, and children. You knew this. So when you went to sing kumbayah with those who excuse and even advocate such tactics, what the hell did you expect?
that he's labeling the network "America's Newschannel" and that it will be characterized by lively, non-partisan discussion.
If so, it's going to be fairly hard to explain where Sorenson's recent hire, seventies flab-lefty Phil Donahue fits into the "non-partisan" sobriquet. Don't get me wrong. As a libertarian, I can deal just fine with many of Donahue's opinions, especially those in the area of civil liberties. But "non-partisan," they - and he - ain't.
You know what an "earworm" is, don't you? It's when you hear - or even think of - one of those dreadful, but terminally catchy tunes like "Up, up and away," and some miserable shred of it keeps playing and replaying in your inner ear. McDonald's "You Deserve A Break Today." Earworm.
Dianne E. at Letter From Gotham has created a particularly horrifying, but curously attractive brainworm involving Idi Amin and Yasser Arafat. Scroll down to the last graf.
I hope that Bibi Netanyahu, former and future Prime Minister of Israel, has a very good set of bodyguards. He is one of the most potent weapons in the entire Israeli arsenal.
The one thing Israel must have to assure its long-term survival is the support of the United States, and so it is no accident they sent Bibi over to make sure U.S. sentiment remains strongly channeled into the proper direction. He's perfect for the role, you see.
What do you think when you listen to most other representatives of the Israeli government? They sound funny to the American ear, don't they? Those accents...different...strange...you can hardly understand what half of them are saying. Even the most determinedly multicultural among us cannot help but feel at least a slight whiff of such feelings.
But not Bibi. He sounds as if he grew up in California. You never have to pause to explain some peculiar American idiom to Netanyahu - he uses most of them himself, naturally, in the course of whatever he is saying. It doesn't hurt that he's a handsome man, either. In a different world - say one ruled by minions of the National Organization of Women, perhaps - masculine attractiveness would have no effect on female demographics. But we don't live in that world, and the fact that Bibi could carve out a career on any of the afternoon soaps is a plus, not a minus.
He's both smart and glib. He can more than hold his own with the shouting, spit-spraying, eternally long-winded representatives of Palestine he is usually paired with on the exploding-head talk shows.
Finally, everybody in Washington knows he's going to be the next leader of Israel. And so he exudes that most tantalizing of D.C. fragrances, the scent of power, to which politicos respond as male dogs around a bitch in season.
The Palestinians have nothing to match him. The Arabs have Prince bin Sultan, the "ultimate insider," but the largest part of Sultan's attraction is his endless well of cash, and that is becoming too hot for the pols to snuffle around these days. Nobody wants contributions from the same wallet that may have provided funds for the Taliban, Yasser Arafat, or bin Laden himself.
In the end, a major part of Israel's campaign involves the IDF in the territories. But that's only a part. The rest is the Bibi Show, coming constantly to a television near you.
The not-nearly-well-enough-known James D. Miller of The Conservative Economist [sure. he's not even in your permalinks-ed. Shaddup. He is now] has an interesting take on the announcement of the existence of the dreaded Internet Addiction.
I figure I should be good for a lifetime pension of, oh, ten grand a week.
"The withdrawal the president called for is continuing," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday, "and now is the time for the Arab nations and the Palestinians to act on the president's call to denounce terrorism, to stop financing terrorism, to stop incitement in state-owned media and to support and work for the Tenet plan and the Mitchell accords."
What an interesting thing to say. The Israelis are "withdrawing" (just as the President demanded - [snork]:"Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel late Thursday, hours after Israeli forces entered two more West Bank towns..."), and "now is the time for the Arab nations and the Palestinians to act on the president's call to denounce terrorism, to stop financing terrorism, to stop incitement in state-owned media."
Hokay, you Arabs - the Israelis are doing what they're told, now it's time for you guys to start denouncing terror in Arabic, on your own tv and news outlets, and stop offering bounties for human sacrifices. Remember, you're either with us, or against us.
This shell game is becoming so obvious even some of the more hysterical conservatives are beginning to see through it.
Ever wondered what sort of test they give those wonderful folks eager to legally obtain United States citizenship? Well, now you know. I was particularly pleased to see how sophisiticated some of the questions were, in particular numbers 76 and 87, which distinguish between guaranteed and granted rights. If the immigrants who take this test do understand the difference, they are well ahead of the vast majority of native-born American citizens. Unfortunately.
Also: 97% say quality reporting and understanding the lives and values of ordinary people will attract a bigger audience.
It would never occur to mediacrats that they, themselves, are ordinary people, would it? No, no, they are our betters, and must learn how to "understand" the rest of us.
Of course no mention will be made of why the Bethlehem church is under siege: the dozens of bloodthirsty terrorists who have hijacked the place and are holding priests and nuns hostage inside. If Ariel Sharon had had Yasser Arafat's chutzpah, Arafat would have been rotting in an Israeli prison for the last twenty years. Instead, he gets to listen to Arafat launch a new Jewish libel that really is no different from an ancient Jewish libel: "Those damned Jews. Now they're attacking Christian churches."
Would that be before, or after, they sprinkle gentile blood on their bread, I wonder?
This will cause a flap, not just among the Communist Chinese gerontocracy, but among their supporters in other parts of the world. The same drearily familiar charges (from the same drearily familiar claques) will be leveled: "Bush is a yahoo, a cowboy, a unilateralist idiot."
Yet in places where freedom is valued, and the strength to confront evil is admired, and especially in Taiwan itself, this message will be greeted with approbation and even joy. Amidst what will no doubt be a chorus of thunderous harrumphing dismay from those who never met a bloody tyranny they didn't wish to kneel before and service, it would be calming to remember these words from a man of a time when the term liberal was not automatically one of derision:
"...let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty."
Editor -- Who does President Bush think he is fooling with the so-called demands he delivers -- with a wink -- to Israel? In response, perhaps Hamas ought to admonish its suicide bombers to "begin" to cease their explosions "as soon as possible." JOE BLAKELY Oakland
Which would be quite a switch, Joe Blakely, given that Yasser Arafat, let alone Hamas leaders, have never even once spoken out in Arabic to their people against violence. Instead, they have only praised it, and called for more of it.
Democrats who have been griping for months about Tom Ridge's refusal to testify before Congress finally got what they wanted when
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge tried to smooth relations with Congress yesterday by making his first appearance before a House panel, meeting lawmakers for about 90 minutes in an informal session held behind closed doors.
so everybody should be happy, right? Of course not.
Described as a productive session, the meeting nevertheless did not halt calls by Democratic leaders for Ridge to formally testify in public about the Bush administration's homeland defense strategy.
So why aren't the Donkeys happy, given that they did get Ridge to testify? Because they really didn't give a damn about whatever Ridge might tell them. All they wanted was a public venue where they could posture and preen at the expense of the Bush administration, and private testimony didn't give them that. Washington hasn't changed, and the Clinton/Carville "Big Me" attitude still rules the Democratic party with an iron fist.
Okay, maybe the blogosphere can't air-drop satellite dishes and production teams complete with blow-driers for the on-air "talent" into Inner Bumfuckistan, but in terms of some kinds of reporting, we're not exactly helpless. For instance, I challenge you to compare mainstream reports of Bibi Netanyahu's talk at the American Enterprise Institute with Howard Feinberg's meticulous account posted at Kesher Talk. Then tell me who you think did a better job: The blogosphere, or the blathersphere?
UPDATE: Here's a link to the Reuters report on Bibi's speech. You be the judge, but based on this, I have to say the advantage goes to Kesher Talk and the blogosphere.
Signaling a difficult trip ahead for Powell, other government officials today were taking a similar tough line on President Bush's demand for an immediate Israeli pullback. The Justice Minister, Meir Sheetrit, a member of Sharon's rightwing Likud party, said, "With all due respect to the Americans – and I don't want to break with them or have a fight with them – but we here are defending our homes."
I may be indulging in wishful thinking here, but I've been giving more and more consideration to a certain interpretation of what is going on here - and if it's what I think it is, it's brilliant.
President Bush fulminates and roars and demands and orders and says over and over again, "I really, really, really mean it now, you hear me?"
And Ariel Sharon and the Knesset reply, essentially, "Bugger off." And proceed about their business.
What, exactly, is President Bush supposed to do? All he can do in the short term is turn to his European and Arab "partners," shrug his shoulders, and say, "Hey. I did my damndest. What else do you expect me to do? Bomb Israel?"
Even the most fanatic Arab leaders will have to understand that is an impossibility for any American president. Some may even believe this dumb show - if not privately, at least in public.
In the meantime, Israel will continue doing what is necessary, cheerfully shouldering the blame: They've handled several Arab invasions - they can survive a severe frowning from European pantywaists. And two weeks from now, either after Arafat's departure for exile in Morocco, or after the passage of his no-doubt spectacular funeral cortege - Israel will be a safer place to live, because most of the infrastructure set up to destroy their citizens will have itself been destroyed. And then the weakened gang leaders who remain can begin the war of all against all that will follow the customary Arab method of determing Arafat's successor, providing a further distraction from human sacrificial murder.
The Tres Producers guys post a musing reminiscence (in part) about Idi Amin. They make him sound sort of...dead:
Uganda will celebrate the deposal of the deranged Idi Amin 23 years ago tomorrow.
The leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Burundi are expected to attend a commemoration of Amin's overthrow on April 11, 1979, at the closure of a three-day symposium on central Africa's Great Lakes region in Kampala.
Amin, a former boxing champion who once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, ordered the massacre of tens of thousands of people -- with some estimates putting the figure at more than 100,000.
I haven’t thought of Idi much in recent years - we have our own generation of mass-murdering “leaders”...
But Idi, the old cannibal, isn't dead. He's been living peacefully and quietly in - wait for it! - Saudi Arabia for the past twenty-three years.
About one in five citizens of Israel are of Arab extraction. Has anybody wondered what might happen to them if the Arafat-led Palestinian Authority were ever to realize its fondest desire and take full control of Israeli territory?
I've known of Patrick Nielsen Hayden for a long time, as a TOR editor, as an occasional Usenet correspondent and more often, poster on RASFW, and lately as proprietor of his blog, Electrolite (which is listed in my permalinks to the left). I've even met the guy on a couple of occasions at SF cons, most recently in Long Beach aboard the Queen Mary, of all places. By all accounts he is very well thought of in the NYC publishing community, extremely bright, and a nice guy to boot. Yet he can post something like this:
We recognize the capability of the modern technology and its precision of enabling unlimited control, but simultaneously we notice that the individuals and the small groups are developing amazing parallel capability of confronting such attempts of control, registering remarkable achievements, aren’t the 11th of September considered as a blow to the technological advance?
Murdering thousands of my neighbors: "a remarkable achievement." Funny, the sympathy I had for the Palestinian cause--and there was some, as recently as five minutes ago--just came to an abrupt end.
Posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden at 04:17 PM
And I have to ask, "Why? Not just to Patrick, (because he is surely but one of very many) but to all of those who "had sympathy for the Palestinian cause." Why end it now? Why not ten minutes ago, before you read this snippet? Why not at any of the innumerable previous instances of murderous acts and attitudes? Why not when Arafat was ordering hijackings, slaughtering the Israeli Olympic team, or commanding other intifadas? The goals of the Palestinians have been there in plain sight since before Israel was officially established - it was the Palestinians themselves who initiated hostilities. It was the Palestians who continued hostilities. And it has always been the Palestinians who never, ever made any real secret of their ultimate "cause"- a Second Holocaust wreaked upon the Jews in Palestine in order to regain "their" land. Why were so many always ready with explanations, justifications, apologies, sympathy, instead of, "Your methods are evil. Try Gandhi instead of guns?"
I wish I could say to all of you, "Welcome to reality," and just be glad you finally made the trip. But all I can say is, "Where were you when your conversion might have helped to force the Palestinians away from terror and saved thousands of lives, not least, Palestinian lives? What was it that prevented you for so long from seeing the truth that stared you plain in the face for decades?
And for those of you who have not yet experienced Patrick's epiphany, what will it take?
This is pretty funny. Evidently that Warbabblewitch kid has posted some more stuff about DailyPundit, aka "The Killblogger" (snork), and is driving a fair amount of traffic in my direction. Unfortunately, I can't return the favor, as I don't approve of adults linking to teen sites (it's too embarassing for the kids), but there's always the chance a bit of enlightenment might stick to the half-formed psyches of those of his "readers" he sends to visit. (It's the mostly red-and-yellow square picture thingy about ten items down that he sent you over to look at, kids...)
The indispensible TalG in Jerusalem has a sharp take on the fighting in Jenin, in which several IDF soldiers recently died:
If the IDF really wanted to eliminate the terrorists from the Jenin casbah, they could just blow it up (after warning non-fighters to leave). By conducting operations building-to-building and house-to-house, the IDF chose a mode of operation which increased the risk to its soldiers in order to reduce risk to Palestinians. [Update: see this same point made much better here]
I'm fairly certain this perspective won't see much play in western media, and none at all in Islamic/Arabic outlets. [really?-ed.]
If there is anyone out there (and this includes inside the White House as well) who still thinks that forcing Israel into a "land for peace" deal is a viable solution, they need to read this Krauthammer column immediately:
Yet for two decades, Israel was hectored to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding Israel's withdrawal. In May 2000, it complied. To ensure that there could be no possible residual territorial dispute, Israel asked the United Nations to draw the line demarcating the true Israeli-Lebanese border--the so-called Blue Line--then pulled back behind it.
Israel's reward?
Hezbollah was not mollified. While its ostensible mission was the liberation of Lebanese territory, it did not disband. On the contrary. It occupied south Lebanon, imported huge new supplies of weapons from Iran, and began sporadic cross-border attacks on Israel.
Can it be any plainer? Israel was not in the so-called "Palestinian Territories" of the West Bank or Gaza prior to 1967, and yet the Arabs attacked. Israel pulled out of Lebanon to behind a UN-drawn border, and yet the Arabs attacked. Israel offered the Palestinians 95 percent of their goals, including a true Palestinian state, and the Arabs (in this case, Palestinian Arabs) turned them down and attacked. I don't know what it will take to get folks in the West - including those in the State Department and the White House - to understand that the only peace the Arabs want with Israel is the peace of the graveyard. But I can tell you this: if allowing the Arabs to turn Israel into a cemetery is what it will take for this truth to sink in, it won't be just Israel that becomes a land empty of everything but tombstones.
Do you hear, President Bush? Do you?
UPDATE: Tony Blankley say President Bush does hear - loud and clear. I hope he's right. The stakes are way too high - yes, even for the Palestinians and the Arabs themselves - for it to be otherwise.
CINCINNATI- A state appeals court on Wednesday declared Ohio's decades-old ban on carrying concealed weapons unconstitutional because it violates the right to self defense.
The framers of the Ohio constitution "put the citizens' rights up front," said Mark Painter, presiding judge of the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals. "We believe they meant what they said."
An appeal is likely.
Yes, of course it is. The thought of an armed citizenry capable of assuming responsibility for its own defense against thugs, predators, and predatory states is profoundly unsettling to the "monopoly on violence" statist mindset.
Richard Bennet gently speaks his mind about Rebecca Blood's and my pal John Scalzi's understanding of IP reality on the Net:
These people are lame beyond measure, and they're writing books about the frickin' web? Jesus H. Christ - it's probably all about Goth grrrls and raving. Gag me with a spoon.
There's more. You've heard the term "tongue-lashing?" Richard's moved on. It's "pixel pummeling" now.
Hearty DailyPundit congratulations to NRO scribbler/blogger Ben Domenech on getting a summer job working for the White House Speechwriting Office. The blogosphere's tentacles stretch ever wider. Tomorrow, the world! (DailyPundit is in awe: His summer jobs used to be delivering newspapers, not writing for them...)
Eristic offers a thunderous takedown of the "conversation" between Secretary Colin Powell and head Saudi Putrid Prince Abdullah. More bracing than the gallon of coffee I'm in the process of slurping down.
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