85011417 | 04.16.2002 | 12:46 pm | Juan Gato | gato@juangato.com | http://juangato.blogspot.com | Looks like it\'s working rather well.
85011417 | 04.16.2002 | 2:46 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Yeah, it actually seems pretty slick. It\'s got some other features I haven\'t tried to implement yet, (I don\'t want to fix anything that ain\'t broken) but I do like that my comments run off my own server now, and aren\'t at the mercy of YACCS, which has gotten pretty iffy of late. (And when YACCS goes down, it usually slows the loading of everything else to a molasses crawl...)
85011417 | 04.16.2002 | 3:06 am | Ben | | http://www.bendomenech.com | Cool.
85011769 | 04.16.2002 | 3:28 am | Juan Gato | gato@juangato.com | http://juangato.blogspot.com | Hell, it\'s ~$10 (12 Euro) at www.gandi.net
That\'s why I own so many domains that are funny when you\'re drunk.
85011769 | 04.16.2002 | 6:57 am | fred | | | Mm, what sort of domains are funny when you\'re drunk?
85012755 | 04.17.2002 | 6:17 am | Quana | qxjones@yahoo.com | http:// | Did you use that insidious, vile, Jewish graphics program to creat that?
CAIR really shot itself in the foot on this one (as predicted). I\'m hoping no one forgets that for a LONG time.
85012755 | 04.17.2002 | 7:25 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Paint Shop Pro. Everything you always wanted Adobe Photoshop to be, at one tenth the price. (Does that make it Jewish?)
85013818 | 04.17.2002 | 8:45 am | Chris \\\"Spoons\\\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Arab\'s comments weren\'t directed at other Arab leaders. The intended audience was... say it with me... The Arab Street.
The Arab leaders have been tremendously successful over the last 50 years at whipping up The Arab Street into an anti-Jew/pro-Palestinian frenzy in order to divert attention from their own corruption and incompetence. Now, they have ignorant populaces that don\'t know anything except that the Palestinians are victims.
By whining about lack of support from other Arab states, Arafat\'s goal is not to get such support -- which a) he knows will never come; and b) isn\'t really in Arafat\'s interests, as he sees them, anyway. However, to the extent that Arafat succeeds in inflaming The Arab Street, he paralyzes other Arab leaders and makes it impossible for them to put any pressure on him.
85013833 | 04.17.2002 | 2:01 am | Ray Eckhart | vista@innernet.net | http:// | Street\'s spokesman asked people to consider the forum.
\"People need to understand that this man is extremely passionate. He takes on an evangelical fervor at times, especially when talking to his base,\" he said.
Reminiscent of the \"excuses\" and \"apologies\" given by Jerry Falwell for his comments back in September:
\"I sincerely regret that comments I made during a theological
discussion on a Christian television program were taken out of their
context and reported, and that my thoughts - reduced to sound bites
- have detracted from the spirit of this time of mourning.\"
Imagine the reaction if a spokesman for Falwell \"...asked people to consider the forum.\"
85014239 | 04.17.2002 | 3:24 am | Old Grouch | invalid@example.com | | An article in one of P.J. O\'Rourke\'s books (No, I don\'t know which one, they\'re all at home and I\'m at work, but it might be Holidays in Hell, I\'m sure some pedant out there will tell us, meanwhile go away!) includes examples of how the Russian people (not government) and Americans always seem to get along well. This story is one sign of the emerging cooperation between these countries, and won\'t THAT put the Euros\' knickers in a twist!
85014239 | 04.17.2002 | 3:36 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | One thing the Euros should take into account, but probably don\'t, is the American propensity for making friends with enemies once we\'ve whipped the crap out of them. Oddly enough, they have Germany staring them right in the face, and they still don\'t get it. Russian/American interests have a hell of a lot of intersecting points both now and in the future - probably at this point more than we and the grumpy Euros do.
85014652 | 04.17.2002 | 4:23 am | don | donmcarthur@nc.rr.com | http://home.nc.rr.com/dwmhome/ | I think American kids should get to carry our traditional weapons to school, too; Colt Model 1911A .45 caliber pistols and Remington Model 870 12 gauge pump shotguns.
Fair is fair. ;^)
85014363 | 04.17.2002 | 4:26 am | don | donmcarthur@nc.rr.com | http://home.nc.rr.com/dwmhome/ | Truly good news. What would you say about an Attorney General who pushes his personal religious ideology as Federal policy and questions the decisions of the Supreme Court? A very bad choice by Bush for such a critical position. This is an Attorney General for one half the country.
85012623 | 04.17.2002 | 4:27 am | Old Grouch | invalid@example.com | | I find it amusing that when it comes time to recommend a few blogs, stories like this one (and the guide associated with the Business 2.0 story linked below) frequently stick to blogs created by \"recognized\" professional journalists (Andrew Sullivan, Dan Gillmor, and the like) or \"semicommercial\" ones (Scripting News, Virginia Postrel, etc.)(though the Business 2.0 guide does mention Bjørn Staerk). It does appear that most of these writers are still parachuting in, and thus missing much of the excitement.
85014652 | 04.17.2002 | 4:35 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Naw, the 1911 is too big for those little hands. The 870 might be nice, though, although I\'d recommend something more traditional in the .410 line for the younger grades.
85014190 | 04.17.2002 | 6:37 am | Rand Simberg | | http:// | That picture\'s pretty mild compared to some you could have put up...
85014190 | 04.17.2002 | 7:28 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Yup. But I hate for people to get vomit on their screens and keyboards.
85015514 | 04.17.2002 | 10:27 am | lakefxdan | | http:// | I noted last fall that the Independent in particular has a problem with this. In reporting on the Mazar-i-Sharif uprising, the headline and the opening paragraph were written with the Shock setting turned up to 11. The remainder of the article was mostly sober and factual, and did not support the terms used (like \'massacre\').
85012015 | 04.17.2002 | 11:16 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | I happen to like Barnes & Nobles stores. I never did pick up a fondness for Oprah\'s book club. So: contraire Vincent. But, what the heck, I\'m also a blogger who isn\'t \"conservative,\" so I live afoul of her world evaluation yet twice, and I suspect yet quite more. Life is so complex.
85011897 | 04.17.2002 | 11:31 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | Although I\'d note that attributing this to \"Evidently BBC doesn\'t want\" is not clearly warranted, I congratulate you on a clear catch.
best,
gf
85015196 | 04.18.2002 | 2:00 am | Mike | coldfury@bellsouth.net | http://www.coldfury.com | In light of that fact, I\'ve always wondered why liberalism is the philosophy of choice, and the Soc/Dems are the political party of choice, for so many American Jews. Somewhat strange, innit?
85013833 | 04.18.2002 | 4:40 am | Jack Tanner | | http:// | I was unaware that speaking to your base mitigated making exclusionary statements.
85015563 | 04.18.2002 | 7:51 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | So, the national NIMBY movement continues. It\'s OK to drill in Araby, Mexico, Venezuela, or Russia, but damn you if you think drilling on our own soil is OK. It might ruin the neighborhood.
85015563 | 04.18.2002 | 8:49 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Heck, Craig, this stuff is barely \"our own soil.\" More like \"our own frozen mud.\" Those bozos who babble on about its \"pristine beauty\" should be forced to go live there. After a month of mud and mosquitos, they\'d be begging for the oil rigs to come in.
85015196 | 04.18.2002 | 8:51 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I think it\'s because Jews only really notice Rep/conservative support for Israel when they perceive Israel to be in danger. Other times, different issues are in the forefront, and those issues tend to be Democratic ones.
Because of the prominence of Israel, I think the Jewish vote will not be quite so monolithic in the fall elections, and maybe not even in the 2004 elections.
85014363 | 04.18.2002 | 9:18 am | Will Vehrs | willv@comcast.net | http://www.quasipundit.com | If we think a law is right, we should welcome challenges to it. The more the law withstands these challenges, the stronger it will be.
Whatever one thinks of the law, euthanasia is hardly a slam dunk. This is one of the first laws on the subject in the land--it will always be a precedent, so it\'s important to get it right.
85015563 | 04.18.2002 | 10:00 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | Yes, I agree with you. The \"pristine beauty\" argument is ludicrous. Besides, the amount of land that would actually be used is about the size of Dulles airport, in a reserve that is about the size of a New England state.
85015611 | 04.18.2002 | 10:18 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Where\'s the analysis? You\'ve got a \"mailto:\" link there.
I can guess where he\'s coming from, and if I may predict without reading, it\'s a great point.
Of course, it\'s all a moot point since the Bush Doctrine was repealed a month ago.
85015611 | 04.18.2002 | 11:20 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Link is now fixed, praise de lawd.
85017456 | 04.18.2002 | 11:37 am | Christopher Johnson | websterglobe@juno.com | http://Quantrill.tripod.com/MCJ.html | Or a Midwestern bureau chief...
85017447 | 04.18.2002 | 12:14 pm | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | It\'s a Black Thing. Just one more conspiracy among whites they can bitch about. No proof needed or wanted.
85017456 | 04.18.2002 | 12:42 pm | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Or Chicago\'s answer to Andy Rooney...
85015196 | 04.18.2002 | 2:49 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Mike,
I had a long e-conversation with a Jewish-liberal friend of mine on that very topic abut 6 months ago. I\'ve considered posting it on my site, but I\'m not sure it really sheds much light on the subject.
The one thing I have noticed, though, is American liberal Jews (at least those of my acquaintance) do not seem to be overly supportive of Israel. Actually, I (a recovering Catholic) am far more supportive of Israel\'s right to defend itself than any of my Jewish friends. That\'s why I always get such a laugh whenever I hear Muslim apologists for terrorism claiming that the American media is biased in favor of Israel because it\'s controlled by Jews. I only wish that were the case!
I don\'t get it, but that\'s the way it is.
Regards,
85017704 | 04.19.2002 | 2:36 am | Mike | coldfury@bellsouth.net | http://www.coldfury.com | It IS looking more and more like a \"strategery,\" ain\'t it? I must say, though, that I still really wish he\'d just come out and express support for Israel\'s anti-terrorist efforts and clealry and unequivocally denounce Arafat as a terrorist, no ifs ands or buts. If the newsies and our Arab \"friends\" don\'t like it, let \'em go suck eggs. But in the end there\'s really no quibbling with success.
85017493 | 04.19.2002 | 9:31 am | Fred | fred@rantburg.com | http://www.rantburg.com | Times of India quotes La Repubblica as saying the guy was suicidal.
85017493 | 04.19.2002 | 10:36 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Thanks, Fred. Of course, isn\'t suicide a terrorist tactic? (Yeah, I know what you mean.)
85019762 | 04.19.2002 | 11:31 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Bill, I had actually resolved NOT to see the next movie after the debacle that was \"The Phantom Menace\", but I thought the same thing when I saw that Portman article this morning.
85015611 | 04.19.2002 | 12:31 pm | Sean Kirby | Krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | Chris is, of course, correct – but there’s a difference between “repealed” and “redefined to the point of absurdity.”
85019762 | 04.19.2002 | 2:57 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Yeah, pretty much ditto. If it\'s as bad as the Phantom Stinkeroonie, I may have to go, buy my ticket, and give it to some street urchin for the second time around.
85015604 | 04.19.2002 | 3:36 am | Alex Bensky | alexbensky@aol.com | http:// | And you will not see anywhere in the western media any note taken of the fact that in the middle of a war for which it did not ask, the Israeli army is compelled to change its policies by a court decision.
85015196 | 04.19.2002 | 3:49 am | Alex Bensky | alexbensky@aol.com | http:// | I think one of the reasons for American Jewry\'s support of the Democrats historically has been the idea that the Democratic Party is more sympathetic to minorities who want to be treated equally. This is especially so given the perception, by no means always inaccurate, that historically the Republican party is not so interested in maintaining the rights and opportunities of minorities.
Of course, what has happened is that the Democrats have in effect abandoned the policies that made them so attractive to Jews. One can only imagine how Henry Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, Paul Douglas, or John Kennedy would have reacted if anyone had told them what the party\'s racial policies would be today.
In addition, I should think that in many cases liberal Jews\' identification is as much with their class interests--the new class, call it what you will--than with Judaism and Israel.
This has proved a dilemma for Jews like me. I oppose the Democrats racialist apporach. On the other hand, I do think the Republican Party thinks it is in the country\'s best interests to hand it over to corporate interests.
I voted for Gore last time. I really have no idea what I\'m going to do in 2004. The party of Joe Lieberman, who is the last remnant of the Scoop Jackson wing, is also, and perhaps more so, the party of Maxine Waters, the party that shows every sign of giving respectful treatment to Al Sharpton.
85015530 | 04.19.2002 | 7:23 am | Annoying Old Guy | annoying@oldguy.com | http:// | Why? It\'s not like they spent the last bunch o\' cash particularly well.
85019762 | 04.19.2002 | 9:21 am | Andrea Harris | webmistress@spleenville.com | http://www.spleenville.com/blog/ | The thing is, Ms. Portman wasn\'t half bad in Phantom. But she wasn\'t given much to do except stand around, and they gave her the most awful lines. That speech she gave the mean old council of whatever they were (the evil Traders weren\'t they?), about \"the oppressed and the poor\" (exact words mercifully wiped from my mind) was incredibly painful to endure. But there was a three-year old in the house who was Star Wars obsessed (we were watching on videotape) and we were not allowed to fast forward through anything, even Jar Jar Binks.
85019936 | 04.20.2002 | 8:00 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | As a full time denizen of the evil state of California, let me put this into perspective. The ORIGINAL so-called de-regulation of energy passed our Legislature 99-0. Like all Soviet style votes, this shut out win should have been the tip off regarding the ineptitude of the legislation, a gem of newspaper backed law which actually re-regulated energy supplies.
Any subsequent double dealing, theft, or whatever happened later. Yes, Enron probably manipulated prices; yes, there were probably some conflicts of interest; yes, yes, yes.
But if I buy a car that I claim I paid too much for from a company that had a crook on the board of directors am I supposed to be able to sue to get every dime back?
No, it\'s our fault. We voted for every single person in government. The corruption starts there. But we should all remember \"Whoosh\" up in Washington where the state was allowed to stiff the entitre country because they didn\'t like the deal. And rich Orange County was allowed to stiff all their creditors because they had a bum in their ELECETED government.
Wnat to bet California won\'t stiff every single company they want to stiff?
85019762 | 04.20.2002 | 8:08 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | What is interesting is the so-called rebuttal. The original author doesn\'t dispute her facts he claims she would never have been allwed a forum if she hadn\'t been a movie star.
Says as much about Harvard as it does about the original argument.
85021439 | 04.20.2002 | 10:27 am | Dave | dave@greeblie.com | http://www.greeblie.com | I caught that too. Why, I wonder did it take almost a year and a half to \"investigate\" it. Ain\'t Bureacracy grand?
85022182 | 04.20.2002 | 10:52 am | Quana | qxjones@yahoo.com | http:// | Right you are. Nanny ninnies. And now, it\'s YOUNG people in their target sights. Geez, at no other time in life can one so freely and uninhibitedly consume such things as candy bars and soda pop (ok, in Texas it\'s a \'coke\' doesn\'t matter if it\'s a Dr. Pepper, its still a \'coke\') and these busybodies want to put an end to that? Sometimes, I think that charging people for entering these wacko ideas into the legislature might slow it down. You know, a \'good idea\' tax or a \'social engineering tax\'. Tax THEM for wasting the legislature\'s time. I haven\'t completely worked this out.
What\'s next after the schools? Will you have to step on the scale at the grocery store before you can buy a candy bar? Aren\'t we taxed enough? Isn\'t the government in our business enough already? Doesn\'t this violate the \'pursuit of happiness\'? Fat tax rebate on the federal income tax sounds good on the surface but look for the government to start calling this a \'governmental issue\' so they can control it with some \"gen-u-wine govthink social engineering\".
85021439 | 04.20.2002 | 11:20 am | Mike | coldfury@bellsouth.net | http://www.coldfury.com | Nope. Not in the least surprised. Funny how the story ain\'t getting a lot of play, isn\'t it?
85022182 | 04.20.2002 | 11:35 am | tom scott | scott@therighttrack.org | http://www.therighttrack.org | Alaska is debating new taxes. Income vs sales, alcohol, etc. On my website I have collected articles from around the nation on various tax proposals. This one--also California--wants to pay for emergency room costs by taxing bullets. Sure, like taxing tobacco to educate and reduce smoking has really worked. Settlement money from the tobacco companies has mostly gone into the general funds to be spent as politicians build their constituencies.
Here is the link to the bullets tax article.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49575,00.html
85022604 | 04.20.2002 | 1:32 am | don | donmcarthur@nc.rr.com | http://home.nc.rr.com/dwmhome/ | And the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is what?
\"...The Bush administration is poised to complete the biggest increase in government spending since the 1960s\' \"Great Society.\"
85022064 | 04.20.2002 | 3:02 am | Derrick Watts | themaestro72@hotmail.com | http:// | For Andrea Koppel, when she heard of Israeli atrocities from Palestinians it had to be true. When WE heard of her anti-Israeli comments from Israeli and American sources it had to be a fabrication. As illustrated in the case of Al Gore -- defeated and accused of trying to steal the election after using dirty tactics and lies to slander his opponent -- if you live by the sword, you will surely die by it as well. Suck it up, Andrea.
85022604 | 04.20.2002 | 5:11 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Well, for starters, Don, a huge chunk of that increase is for military/security items. Further down in the article you cite you\'ll find this:The White House says that if homeland security and Sept. 11 emergency spending is excluded, nondefense spending rose by 3.3 percent in 2002 and is slated to decline by 0.4 percent in 2003. In a meeting with congressional leaders last week, Bush vowed to veto spending bills that exceeded his spending targets, a White House official said.
Unfortunately, continuing programs have taken a big jump as well - probably part of the tradeoff in getting this budget through the narrowly divided Congress.
Republicans tend to spend money on guns, especially now. The stuff I\'m talking about is butter - or lard.
85022533 | 04.20.2002 | 8:13 am | Juan Gato | gato@juangato.com | http://juangato.blogspot.com | Of course my paranoia asks just why the hell so many generals chose to travel together like this.
If I\'m a plotter, to do this is either idiocy or contrivance.
85022620 | 04.21.2002 | 6:33 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | D.C. cops estimate crowd at near 75,000. No violence, no arrests.
85022533 | 04.21.2002 | 6:34 am | Jeffrey Collins | jeffreykcollins@aol.com | http://joyfulchristian.blogspot.com | I agree that this was almost certainly not an accident. What I don\'t understand is why crash was put in quotes. It was a crash, just not an \"accident.\"
85022143 | 04.21.2002 | 6:41 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | When a family operated company with no stockholders or board of directors has management fossilization it collapses. Nobody with power is around to stop the process. This is now true of the Church. Like employees in the collapsing company, the Catholics who make up the Church membership have no voice at all in running the \"company\" so the incompetents in management keep on \"keeping on\".
I did the \"altar boy\" thing, the Catechism thing, the communion and confirmation thing. I know the talk.
The priest from Notre Dame who has been doing the talk show circuit is a symbol of the \"do nothingness\" of the Catholic Clergy. If he had any balls he\'d be part of a reformation. But not to worry, he will continue to appear on talk shows babbling cliches while being head of a \"great university\".
The Church as we know it is toast. The American bishops are clods with no ideas and no guts to follow corrective ideas if somebody came up with same. The priesthood is similarly castrated. There is no Martin Luther among them to \"reform\" the Church. The Head of Notre Dame is a pansy.
To those of us with a Catholic upbringing of any type, this is a moral \"no brainer\". We all know what we have been taught to do under such circumstances. We have been taught \"right\" and \"wrong\" and how to differentiate between the two. I have no idea what kind of Catholicsm has gripped the clergy, but it wasn\'t in Catechism Class and it wasn\'t in the \"soldiers of Christ\" confirmation classes.
American Catholicism is all over now.
85022620 | 04.21.2002 | 7:35 am | t nicholson | twnicholson@mindspring.com | http:// | There were arrests earlier in the day, about 40 bicycle-protesters.
Also, eventually all the various mini-protests converged into one undifferentiated and unfocused lump, so the specifically mid-east oriented protesters were a fraction of those estimated 75,000 protesters, whatever the general sentiment of the anti-globos.
I still think the pro-Israel demo was more impressive, given the spontaneity of its organization & general demeanor. . . .
85022533 | 04.21.2002 | 9:34 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Jeffrey, it\'s an interesting quibble, but I think your interpretation is something like telling a man who\'s been shot in the heart that he had a \"heart attack.\" Indeed, his heart did stop. And indeed, the chopper did hit the dirt - probably after it was either shot down, or a bomb exploded in it.
85023815 | 04.21.2002 | 12:00 pm | tom scott | scott@therighttrack.org | http://www.therighttrack.org | Wow Bill, such righteous indignation. If ever it was warranted this is certainly one. Too bad she and others of her ilk will probably never see it.
It seems a rather lengthy letter. In the Anchorage Daily News they will print lengthy letters that agree with their editorial stance but refuse others that differ because they exceed the 350 word limit. That is why I started my site. Is it the same in SF?
85023815 | 04.21.2002 | 12:38 pm | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | You know what, Tom? I hadn\'t really noticed. I\'ll start keeping track, though. Given some of the other nasty bits of slanting the Chron has been exposed doing, it wouldn\'t surprise me. But we\'ll see.
85022620 | 04.21.2002 | 7:22 am | lakefxdan | | http:// | The article isn\'t clear, but yes, the pro-Palestine demonstration at the White House ellipse was just one of many mini-demos scattered throughout the larger gathering. If the police say 35,000 on the Mall I believe it, but the 2,000 figure sounds about right for this one in particular.
85024787 | 04.21.2002 | 9:36 am | Brian Knapp | bknapp2000@yahoo.com | http://libertylungs.blogspot.com | I guess that propaganda just isn\'t as effective when the truth is involved.
85021439 | 04.21.2002 | 9:43 am | TVH | TVsHenry@aol.com | http://tvh.blogspot.com | I\'m sure this will be featured at Buzzflash.com any day now...
85026189 | 04.22.2002 | 9:22 am | AndrewIanDodgeblog | | http:// | Yes this also the same left that has not bothered to listen to Jews. Some are so worried they are backing the so-called Nazi Le Pen! They feel he is the only one who will do something about the teeming hordes of Arabs in France that are hostile to Jews.
85026376 | 04.22.2002 | 10:26 am | John Thacker | | http:// | Absolutely right. I\'m just begging for the WTO to rule against the tariffs. Perhaps then they won\'t be resubmitted... (I know that many on the policy side in the Bush administration oppose them.)
85026376 | 04.22.2002 | 11:13 am | Annoying Old Guy | annoying@oldguy.com | http:// | Not to be too snide (although it\'s difficult), but that was on par with predicting the Cubs won\'t win the pennant this year. Didn\'t even the Bushies admit (off the record) that it was a bad idea but they wanted the votes? (Of course, they won\'t get the votes, but that\'s another issue). Is there anyone who thought the tariffs were not stupid?
85026376 | 04.22.2002 | 12:17 pm | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | AOG, sure there were. The anti-globalists, for one. (Next question: is there anybody who thinks the anti-globalists aren\'t stupid?)
85026438 | 04.22.2002 | 1:00 am | TVH | TVsHenry@aol.com | http://tvh.blogspot.com | The reason given for this if confronted is the usual cop-out about how Chomsky, et al. \"have no control over Hussein\" since they don\'t live in Iraq. I didn\'t realize they were all Israeli citizens.
85026287 | 04.22.2002 | 1:07 am | Anthony | blogger@danceslut.net | http://rant+rave.blogspot.com | If some random DA tried to hold a priest in contempt for not violating the sanctity of the confessional, and the Church retaliated by placing Oregon under inderdict (where the random DA was), the Church would probably win. The sanctity of the confessional is pretty inmportant, and attacking a priest to get a criminal other than the priest isn\'t going to be very popular.
However, in the circumstances surrounding the child-abuse scandals, the preists are the perpetrators, and the Church has been offering up some of those priests to the secular arm; the larger issue is a coverup which will remind parishioners of the Mafia or Nixon. I suspect that if the Church placed an interdict on Massachusets, that many priests would refuse to comply, and that many Catholics would flock to Episcopalian and Eastern Orthodox churches, and may not return after the Church caves.
85026363 | 04.22.2002 | 1:43 am | Jeanne Posner | JeanneProf@aol.com | http://members.aol.com/JeanneProf/index.html | Regarding even Democratic voters not \"liking\" Al Gore, I may be in the minority (I\'ve spent my life there, so no problem), but I do like him. He can be irritating, and he did not wage the best campaign I\'ve ever seen. I was disappointed in that, but on the other hand he spoke of issues with substance and intelligence, in my opinion. I\'d vote for him again, even though the Democratic Party as a whole has been a grave disappointment. Thanks for reading.
85026334 | 04.22.2002 | 2:19 am | Bill Woods | wwoods@ix.netcom.com | http:// | Back when he had \'a beautiful mind\', Paul Krugman wrote a good column on this (free registration required):
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/krugman/060700krug.html
\" On the other side, consider an article that appeared in yesterday\'s New York Times, \"In San Francisco, Renters Are Supplicants.\" It was an interesting piece, with its tales of would-be renters spending months pounding the pavements, of dozens of desperate applicants arriving at a newly offered apartment, trying to impress the landlord with their credentials. And yet there was something crucial missing -- specifically, two words I knew had to be part of the story.\"
85025165 | 04.22.2002 | 3:00 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | As long as Colin Powell remains Secretary of State, there will never be peace in the Middle East.
85024213 | 04.22.2002 | 3:08 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience@earthlink.net | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | When he figures it out, he should tell me, too, because I\'ve recently noticed that my pemanent links don\'t seem to work!
85026363 | 04.22.2002 | 4:34 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Certainly, Jeanne. And that\'s what makes the United States great, isn\'t it? That we can disagree on issues, yet we settle them peacefully, at the ballot box? All we need do is look at much of the rest of the world to know how lucky we are.
85025165 | 04.22.2002 | 4:49 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Chris, in order for that to be true, Powell would have to be calling the shots instead of the President. Is that what you think is going on?
85024213 | 04.22.2002 | 4:50 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | If you\'re on blogger, it\'s not you, it\'s everybody. Mine aren\'t working either. But Martin doesn\'t have anything that even looks like a link, let alone a non-working one.
85026334 | 04.22.2002 | 6:53 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Back when Santa Monica California had rent control there was a study done about the income of renters. The average income of renters in rent controlled property by the beach was in excess of $50,000 per person. Today that would translate to around $65,000.
There is no evidence that rent control benifits anyone but renters in the high middle class who get to rent desireable housing for less than market value.
I now live in West Hollywood that has a type of rent control and I can assure you from the cars I see around here, BMW, SUV\'S, VERY LATE MODEL CARS, that the renters ain\'t poor.
85026189 | 04.22.2002 | 9:23 am | Rand Simberg | | http:// | Actually, that\'s not the best analogy. I\'d say that Le Pen lies about midway between Pat Buchanan and David Duke...
85026189 | 04.22.2002 | 9:23 am | Rand Simberg | | http:// | Actually, that\'s not the best analogy. I\'d say that Le Pen lies about midway between Pat Buchanan and David Duke...
85026189 | 04.22.2002 | 9:40 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Gimme some cites, Rand. I\'ve been trying to run this guy down, but it\'s difficult, having to try to translate everything through the Euro-filter that says anybody more conservative than Al Gore is a fascist. Anybody got a lead to the National Front\'s platform? Anybody got some real Nazi quotes from Le Pen? Let me know.
85028191 | 04.22.2002 | 10:02 am | Andrea Harris | webmistress@spleenville.com | http://www.spleenville.com/blog/ | Lots of people say what\'s on their mind. I say what\'s on my mind. I assure you I occupy no governmental positions (not even the Clintonian kind, mwahaha). Those guys on the streets in the raggedy clothes that mumble to themselves say what\'s on their minds. I don\'t see Hank the Homeless Schizophrenic being offered a cabinet position.
Then again -- that could explain so many things...
85024213 | 04.22.2002 | 10:59 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | I got so frustrated at seeing some links work, while mine didn\'t, that I went and did a little research.
There\'s a whole big complicated explanation here.
Basically, it involved adding a the code /?/ to my permalink code. I don\'t fully understand why it works, but it does.
85024213 | 04.22.2002 | 11:00 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Oops, sorry for the bad HTML in the post above. Try this.
I got so frustrated at seeing some links work, while mine didn\'t, that I went and did a little research.
There\'s a whole big complicated explanation here.
Basically, it involved adding a the code /?/ to my permalink code. I don\'t fully understand why it works, but it does.
85028191 | 04.22.2002 | 11:03 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | I\'ll take that bet about McKinney being back. She\'s no crazier than many of her contituents. She\'s got a safe seat as long as she chooses to occupy it.
85027892 | 04.22.2002 | 11:08 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | You goin soft on us, Quick? Don\'t make me tell Sarge.
85026287 | 04.23.2002 | 12:24 pm | Jack Tanner | | http:// | Maybe some jail time for Cardinal Law for aiding and abetting known criminals would add a little humility to their pronouncements?
85022604 | 04.23.2002 | 12:35 pm | Jack Tanner | | http:// | The underserved part means being represented by the likes of Rangel, McKinney, Waters, et al.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 1:23 am | Mike | coldfury@bellsouth.net | http://www.coldfury.com | I\'m afraid Spoons just might be right there. I lived in Atlanta up until about a year and a half ago, the city that elected one of the biggest flat-out crooks in the country, Bill Campbell, mayor and has one of the godawfulest left-liberal rags anywhere (the Journal-Constitution) for a daily newspaper. A lot of really fine folks in and around Atlanta, but they also have Terrible Ted Turner, who should not in any way be considered a Southerner by anybody. Those three facts don\'t bode particularly well. On the other hand, Kennesaw is close by - the town where every household is required by city ordinance to have a gun, if anyone remembers that little brouhaha from a few years back. Maybe they\'ll balance each other out. Then again, Athens is close by too, which would tend to cancel out Kennesaw....
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 5:15 am | Alex Bensky | alexbensky@aol.com | http:// | Regretfully, there\'s every chance that McKinney\'s lunatic ramblings will boost her popularity among her constituents.
Here in Detroit, not too many years ago, a congressman named Diggs ran for his former seat after being convicted and (I think) serving time for it. He swept through the primary and won eighty percent of the vote.
In our last municipal election a former school board member and a former congresswoman, both proved to be corrupt, won election.
This isn\'t just a black problem, of course. Youngstown seems to love James Traficant the more venal he is shown to be.
But a group that badly needs leadership of enlightenment and integrity rejects such candidates in favor of the ones who can make public postures of telling it as it is.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 9:09 am | dan | dan_dressel | prosamdan.blogspot.comq | Her comments are not going to get her removed because she continues to work hard for her consituents, and a good portion of her district agrees with her - even the conspiracy theory.
A representative is a just that - she represents her constituents, in this case pointing out that idiotic rantings and shameless begging for attention and dollars are considered a normal part of her community. More often than not, those that disagree with her in that district leave, as they are a minority and their views are not accepted or respected.
85027934 | 04.23.2002 | 9:41 am | mike runnels | mrda@zianet.com | http:// | We (Americans) know too little and see less when it comes to Zimbabwe in particular and Africa generally. We tend to be blinded by a kind of corrective bias as regards things African. Zimbabwe is a basket case. Zambia is not far behind. South Africa is tottering on the edge. It\'s a damn close run thing for any democratic urges to coexist with the rampant corruption, hunger and disease. We need to open our eye and our resouces to progressives in Africa or tyrants like Mugabe will infect more of the continent. They are as much terrorists as any.
85029634 | 04.23.2002 | 11:59 am | Fred | fred@rantburg.com | www.rantburg.com | Hey, that\'s pretty fair. I\'m ashamed he\'s an American, too.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 12:05 pm | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Marion Barry.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 12:14 pm | Fred | fred@rantburg.com | www.rantburg.com | I agree that we shouldn\'t be waving bye-bye to her. She apparently represents one of those Maxine Waters-type districts where the average IQ is in the room temperature range. How long was Dellums in office? And his successor is his femclone. We\'re always going to have a certain proportion of lunatic fringers trying for positions of power and achieving them.
85029634 | 04.23.2002 | 12:16 pm | Bugs Bunny | bugs@bunny.net | http:// | Hey Osama,
go find your namesake and give him this flashing pen for me as a token of my appreciation and my shared hatred of America. What\'s in it? Oh nothing... Radio signals??? Must just be some wonky circuitry. I assure you it is not a radio transmitter. So just make sure to press this button twice before you give it to Osama to urn it on. But only do it once... it will wear out the battery!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA
85027934 | 04.23.2002 | 12:19 pm | Fred | fred@rantburg.com | www.rantburg.com | It\'s sad to see the former breadbasket of Africa become a basket case even by African standards. It was also sad to see Idi Amin take Uganda apart, sad to see Emperor Freddy push his country a little further into ruin, sad to see what happened in Angola, Congo, Ruanda... It\'s so sad that I just can\'t care anymore. We\'ve been watching this nonsense over and over again since 1960, and the spring\'s worn out in my sympathy meter.
85029610 | 04.23.2002 | 12:58 pm | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | She is indeed amazingly talented. Mind bogglingly so.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 1:14 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | McKinney is being challenged from the Demo side this time around. A black woman judge named Denise Majette. I note there seems to be a unanimity of opinion that I\'m nuts here. I like those odds. Chris, you\'re on. What are we betting?
85027892 | 04.23.2002 | 1:44 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Remember, in my other life (yes, I do have another life besides blogging) I\'m a writer. Tales like this fascinate me.
85028191 | 04.23.2002 | 3:43 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | McKinney is the tip of the Congressional Black Caucus exgtreme left wing menace if the Dems win the House in November. Many of them will chair committees. They hate white America, will not support the war on terror, and might even leak our security information. Check out the membership. Many of them are Hate America lefties and outright criminals; just look them up on Google.
85029634 | 04.23.2002 | 4:23 am | Annoying Old Guy | annoying@oldguy.com | http:// | Did you notice that he claimed that Palestine existed before the Israelis invaded? Can anyone tell me what planet that was?
Of course he also made the delusion claims of hundreds of civilians killed in Jenin. I try to be sympathetic but it\'s hard when buzzers keep going off in my head.
85029634 | 04.23.2002 | 10:50 am | Randall Parker | rgparker@west.net | http:// | I am very worried for Osama. I do not want him to feel shame. For his sake, to lift this horrible horrible burden of US citizenship from his shoulders, shouldn\'t he go as quickly as possible to a different country? Perhaps Iraq. Or perhaps Libya. Or Algeria. Let him hold his head high - somewhere else.
85031620 | 04.24.2002 | 5:43 am | Jack Tanner | | http:// | Like many Dems apparently this writer feels that when the opposing party wins the election they still get to pick the attorney general and the \'entourage\'?
85032420 | 04.24.2002 | 9:47 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | It\'s the kind of government most blacks want. Everybody better wake up and smell the hate.
85032348 | 04.24.2002 | 12:01 pm | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | It\'s gotta be George Will. He\'s wasted on This Week.
85032354 | 04.24.2002 | 2:42 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | Dogs are great. I miss mine. I can\'t think about this story without welling up. And you know of course that Sirius is the brightest star in the northern sky. I hope I always remember this dog when I see the Dog Star following Orion at night.
85032420 | 04.24.2002 | 3:09 am | don | donmcarthur@nc.rr.com | http://home.nc.rr.com/dwmhome/ | Please, there\'s little need to raise racial concerns. America operates a \"market political system\". In the simplest terms, what works, sells. McKinney has divined what her constituents are in the market for, and she sells it to them, in retun for their votes. She\'d be a fool (and unelected) to do anything else. Its no different in the case of George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich or Bill Clinton.
85032374 | 04.24.2002 | 3:12 am | don | donmcarthur@nc.rr.com | http://home.nc.rr.com/dwmhome/ | \"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.\" George Orwell
85032348 | 04.24.2002 | 6:24 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | Naw. Will\'s too intellectual and well-mannered for that. Jonah would be good. Or David Horowitz maybe?
85032420 | 04.24.2002 | 7:44 am | Michael | lucmic1000@yahoo.com | http:// | Cindy\'s dad was a popular racialist in Atlanta.She\'s quite beloved in her district.Her supporters lap this sort of stuff up.In fact, the loonier the better.
85034219 | 04.24.2002 | 10:27 am | TVH | TVsHenry@aol.com | http://tvh.blogspot.com | There is far too little Melissa Seckora for my taste. Hey, Fox News, Politically Incorrect, whoever, put her on teevee more often.
85034257 | 04.24.2002 | 11:06 am | Brian Knapp | bknapp2000@yahoo.com | http://libertylungs.blogspot.com | One hundred billion dollars! It\'s 1969, there\'s not even that much money in the world! That\'s like asking for a ka-jillion billion dollars...(I couldn\'t resist)
85032420 | 04.25.2002 | 4:44 am | Jack Tanner | | http:// | It\'s not loony it\'s a tried and true tactic used by many in politics. Any accusations you can make for which there are no consequences you make. Call the GOP racists and murderers and there are no consequences amongst the Dem constituency. Look at Bill Clinton\'s burning churches, Alcee Hasting\'s disenfranchisement, Donna Brazile\'s dogs and guns, Al Sharpton\'s Tawana Brawley rape. You make baseless claims of racism and violence against the other side and you get rewarded for it.
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 6:34 am | Rick | surfadelic23@aol.com | http://shortattention.blogspot.com/ | Come off it, when has history ever been written without some sort of bias? Objectivity? I\'ve read some of your posts and am pretty sure you\'re not that naive. My only hope is that you\'re speaking completely tongue in cheek. Hell, half the advantage of being dominant is that you get to WRITE history.
Do you really believe the historians of yore were completely objective?
Here\'s hoping I get labelled as some sort of radical liberal. That would be fun.
Have a nice day.
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 8:07 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Well, Rick, I\'d never call you a liberal radical. Porkmeister, maybe...
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 8:21 am | Rand Simberg | | http:// | To be fair, I wasn\'t sure how to interpret his comments. A charitable way would be as the cause of credible history, and integrity which should (at least in theory) be important to historians.
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 8:47 am | Jan Yarnot | fossilfreak.geo@yahoo.com | http:// | Yeah, I understood it the same way as Rand did, as the cause of truth.
85035207 | 04.25.2002 | 10:58 am | Tony Woodlief | tonywoodlief@hotmail.com | http://tonywoodlief.blogspot.com | Only an ideological nut or an idiot would run to the left when facing someone perceived to be on the far right. I suppose, in Davis\' case, those aren\'t mutually exclusive possibilities.
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 11:26 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Bill. I am floored. Why is it that all the Bush-defenders assume that whenever anything good happens, it\'s because Bush wanted it that way? Poppycock, I say. The Israeli offensive is succeeding despite Bush\'s actions, not because of them.
The Bush administration did everything in its power (which is not much, practically speaking) to stop the Israeli War on Terror. Fortunately, Israel has a wiser leader than we do, and Sharon told Bush (you should pardon the expression) to go piss up a rope.
This is not part of some grand Machiavellian design. It\'s a part of Bush\'s mindless adherence to Colin \"Neville\" Powell\'s policies of appeasement.
85035284 | 04.25.2002 | 11:27 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | \"It hasn\'t quite sunk in yet in the Arabian middle east that the Bush administration won\'t buckle to pressure - especially from those who finance and otherwise support terrorism. Ask Yasser Arafat - if his cell phone batteries haven\'t run down today.\"
What on earth are you basing this on Bill? What would you like to bet that Bush completely rolls over? Bush isn\'t Sharon (unfortunately).
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 11:55 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Chris, I generally respect your opinions, but you are so far off base here as to render your entire viewpoint suspect. If you actually believe that the US couldn\'t tell Israel what to do, and have its orders obeyed *instantly*, you are living on a different planet than I am. As for your other comment, you persist in labeling any good outcome as an accident, achieved despite Bush bumbling. Your call, but I predicted from the very beginning a successful outcome, you didn\'t, and we have what looks more and more like a successful outcome. Occam\'s Razor, and shrug.
85035284 | 04.25.2002 | 11:58 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | You can beat this anti-Bush drum of yours forever, Chris, but the actual results - which is what I look at - belie your doomsaying. Where are the disasters you keep predicting?
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 12:28 pm | Jeff G. | jegoldst@creatical.com | http://www.creatical.com/weblog | I went back and forth for a while on this whole rope-a-dope thing -- but I think it became fairly obvious there toward the end of Powell\'s visit that it was the Bush team\'s plan to let Israel finish up its operations in the West Bank.
Whether or not that was the Bush plan from the outset...well, who knows? Perhaps some of the documents Sharon showed Powell changed Foggy Bottoms\' tune. Or maybe it was the cache of bromine. Either way...
85035482 | 04.25.2002 | 12:33 pm | bwolfe | palper@excite.com | http:// | Bill, maybe you can help me out here. A little off the topic but everytime I try to go to Strategypage it will not open for me. No matter if it\'s from a link, I manually type it in, put in a search engine then go to it, nothing. Is there some sort of special browser setting I need to do? Just wondering because it seems like it would be a site I really want to see. Thanks
85035482 | 04.25.2002 | 12:39 pm | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I\'m not doing anything special, and it seems to open okay for me. So: What browser? What error message are you getting? What link are you typing in? What are your browser\'s security settings?
That\'s about all I can think of off the top of my head...
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 12:43 pm | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Bill, you\'re missing a crucial distinction. The U.S. might be able to \"tell Israel what to do, and have its orders obeyed *instantly*\", but Bush is not the U.S. (and actually, I\'m not sure that even the entire weight of the U.S. could stop Sharon from responding to the kind of terrorism that Israel went through immediately preceding the current incursions, but that\'s a closer call).
The thing is, Bush doesn\'t really have any cards that he can play against Sharon at this point, and Sharon knows it. He can\'t cut off their aid. Even if Congress would go along (and it wouldn\'t), Bush\'s own base would desert him. From the neocons to the fundamentalist Christians, the GOP base is 100% behind Israel. To the extent that Bush\'s approval ratings are beginning to come down (although they\'re still stratospherically high), a lot of the loss is coming from the right (like me and Bill Kristol on even-numbered days). Even much of the conservative base that still supports Bush does so out of conviction that his apparent crackdown on Israel is all part of a \"Master Plan\" (this is you, and Bill Kristol on odd-numbered days). But, if Bush really came down on Israel, so as to destroy the illusion of rope-a-dope once and for all, who on the right would be left supporting him?
What if, for example, Bush demanded that Israel immediately pull out of the West Bank entirely, release Arafat, and stop killing terrorists? What would happen if Sharon refused, and Bush were somehow able to cut off aid to Israel? Would you still support him? Would the GOP base? Or would you and they finally decide that the Bush Doctrine had been a joke all along and that the President was ill-equipped to fight the War on Terror. Daschle, for example, is already starting to position himself to the right of Bush on the Israel issue. Wanna lay odds about whether that would be a successful political tack for him to take? Daschle would still get the Democrat base, and he\'d pick up a good 25% minimum of the Republicans. That\'s pretty much a slam-dunk way to become the nation\'s shortest President in history.
Sharon knows all this. So when Bush says to Israel \"Withdraw without delay,\" and the next day wags his finger saying, \"I did not have sex with...\" -- oh wait, wrong President -- when he wags his finger saying, \"I meant what I said\", Bush doesn\'t have anything to back it up with. Sharon knows that, and also recognized that his first duty is to secure the safety of his people, not to please the Europeasers, or the New York Times, or even the almighty President Bush.
I also dispute your contention that the facts have shown a successful outcome -- which you predicted, and I did not. (For the record, my predictions can be found here and here, for example). In what sense do you think we have a good outcome? Arafat is still in place, he has been reaffirmed as the \'legitimate\' leader of the Palestinians by U.S. action, and he will soon be sprung from Ramallah. Arafat gets all this without even having made a meaningful denunciation of terrorism. Israel, meanwhile, is being savaged in the world press, including (to a somewhat lesser extent) on the editorial pages of the New York Times and Washington Post. The U.N. Human Rights counsel has passed a resolution endorsing Palestinian terrorism, and got most of Europe to vote for it. The Arab world, meanwhile, is more committed than ever to terrorism (we got pissed that Iraq was paying suicide bombers, but shut up damn quick when we figured out that the Arabians were doing it too), is firmly in opposition to any move against Iraq, and is lecturing the U.S. that if it doesn\'t \'reign in Israeli terrorism\', then the consequences for the U.S.\'s relationship with Arab countries will be disastrous.
If this is a good outcome, Bill, I\'d hate to see what you\'re version of a bad one would be.
Finally, I have a vague recollection of your mention of Occam\'s Razor from a while back, but I can\'t recall how you think it supports your view. I see two basic possibilities (with infinite variations, naturally):
1. The administration is pursuing a complicated strategy comrpised of: involves saying that there are no good terrorists but that Arafat is not a terrorist; saying that the War on Terrorism must be won but then telling the world\'s greatest (per capita) victim of Terrorism that they\'re not allowed to participate; and treating the world\'s longest-working and most notorious terrorist, Arafat, like a legitimate head of state. According to this option, the Bush administration has cannily calculated that this can and will work to trick the Arabs into suddenly realizing that the Americans are on their side, maybe the Jews aren\'t so bad after all, and maybe they should cooperate in taking out Saddam\'s regime and replacing it with a democratic one, even though that will ultimately and inevitably lead to revolotuion in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Arabia.
or...
2. The administration doesn\'t really know what it\'s doing, because it\'s got a President who\'s desperately afraid of starting a war that might not go well, and who is listening to a SecState who has demonstrated time and again that he desires nothing more than to avoid conflict at any cost.
Which of those explanations is simpler? Seems pretty obvious to me. Of course, the simplest explanation isn\'t always right, but you\'re the one who brought up Occam.
85035284 | 04.25.2002 | 1:04 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | \"Where are the disasters you keep predicting?\"
Arafat is still in place, reaffirmed as the \'legitimate\' leader of the Palestinians by U.S.\'s action. He\'s now more popular among the Palestinians -- indeed, the entire Arab world -- than ever. He\'ll also soon be sprung from Ramallah. All this without even having made a meaningful denunciation of terrorism. Israel, meanwhile, is being savaged in the world press, and investigated for war crimes. The U.N. Human Rights counsel has passed a resolution endorsing Palestinian terrorism. The Arab world is more committed than ever to terrorism, and remeains firmly opposed to any move against Iraq.
How\'s that for a disaster?
I view any outcome that leaves Arafat in place as a disaster -- even if it gets us to Iraq. It\'d be like destroying the Taliban but having Osama bin Laden installed as King of Arabia. The reason that this is such a disaster is that it means that we\'ve lost the War on Terrorism. Now, some have argued that it was wrong to declare war on \"an abstraction\" in the first place, and that \"one man\'s terrorist... yada yada yada.\" I never belived that. When the President gave his speech on September 20, and again at the State of the Union, I believed. He had me. The U.S. was committed to doing what it took to root out terrorism and I was behind the President 100%. Unfortunately, he doesn\'t seem to mean it anymore (if he ever did). Now we negotiate with terrorists. (We even pay some of them ransom -- apparently unconcerned with what they\'ll do with the money -- although we\'re told that a high-school kid who smokes a joint is guilty of killing a judge). We now insist that Palestinian terrorism is different somehow, because the Palestinians have \"legitimate national aspirations.\" As soon as we said that, we stopped being at war against terrorism, and started just being at war against particular regimes we didn\'t like. With that action, terrorism was reaffirmed as just another political tool, not materially worse than any other. Worst of all, we sent a message to Osama, and Arafat, and all the little Osamas and Arafats growing up all around the world that terrorism works. Really, terrorism always has worked. It\'s just that the President promised us that he was going to change that. Looks like he\'s changed his mind.
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 1:47 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Arafat is still alive, still trapped in Ramallah, and rules over a shattered organization whose leaders and secrets are being hoovered even as we speak. Chris, take a look at the number of terror bombings the Palestinians have managed since the IDF reaction, versus before. That\'s *success*.
As for Occam, we can frame that argument any way we like. Here\'s mine\"
Which is simpler?
Bush planned to destroy Arafat\'s terror organization all along, and provided cover for the IDF to do so.
Or, \"The administration doesn\'t really know what it\'s doing, because it\'s got a President who\'s desperately afraid of starting a war that might not go well, and who is listening to a SecState who has demonstrated time and again that he desires nothing more than to avoid conflict at any cost,\" to which I would have to add for this scenario to make sense, \"and is *not* listening to his vice president, his secretary of defense, his security advisor, all of whom have much deeper and much longer-lasting relationships with him than Powell does...\"
So, which does seem simpler?
85035482 | 04.25.2002 | 2:12 am | John Stryker | sarge@sgtstryker.com | http://www.sgtstryker.com | No worries. Dunnigan\'s book smart, but like most wargamers, he just doesn\'t have any practical experience married to his intellect. They are very good at breaking down and explaining past battles and wars, but I rarely trust them when they try their hand at prognostication. I leave that to people who actually have to plan these things out *and* deal with the consequences.
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 2:27 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Well, I\'m not saying that the administration is shedding any tears for Arafat\'s terror organization, but it does seem that they\'re pretty determined to leave him as head of the Palestinian authority, doesn\'t it? After all, if we wanted rid of him, this was certainly the time to do it. Instead, we\'ve pretty much come down on the side of \"we\'ve got to negotate with him\".
Do you disagree?
Actually, maybe that\'s why we disagree. I\'m convinced that leaving Arafat in power is a catastrophic mistake. I take it that you do not?
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 5:00 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I\'ve been advocating killing the sonofabitch since day one, and I\'m sort of disappointed that we didn\'t. But I\'m not at all convinced he\'s still \"in power.\" Let\'s see what happens when they let him out of his rabbit hutch - if they ever do.
85035482 | 04.25.2002 | 5:07 am | rncarpio | | http:// | Did Dunnigan actually write that article?
It says \"Tom Holsinger\" at the end.
85035307 | 04.25.2002 | 5:46 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | The \"Warnings\" are now a result of Congresswoman McKinney and her charge against Bush that is believed by 75% of the blacks in her district.
If a Mall had been bombed and the FBI had received a warning and not passed it on, the Black Caucus would have had a field day.
The war is politicized and the Blacks in this country are responsible.
85035207 | 04.25.2002 | 5:51 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | A SoCal resident.
Davis is making sure that he gets 100% of the free loading Black vote here. His energy policy is most hurtful to poor people and he needs to shore up the one block of poor people who vote. Notice that he included Chinese and Mexicans in the reparations.
Guilt ridden white libs in Frisco, Marin, and Malibu will vote for him no matter what.
It\'s a cynical but smart political play for California. He\'s a cinch to win.
85036865 | 04.25.2002 | 7:58 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | I agree that it\'s almost certain that this meeting -- I have difficulty bringing myself to dignify it with the term \"summit,\" even in quotes -- will come to little more than a press release.
As for the magic wand list, well, we\'d all like to see these regimes replaced by improvements. That it will happen in even most before Bush leaves office, I\'m not at all confident. That they\'d like it, too, in the Administration, sure, mostly yes. Can and will they make it happen? Standard journalism cliche about time telling goes here.
\"Saudi can make threatening moves at Israel, by mobilizing their military at the border....\" You puzzle me a bit here, though, Bill. Which border do you have in mind?
Assuming you have in mind some sort of long drive though other Arab states, I wouldn\'t worry a lot. Such a thing would be easily interceptable by IDF air power; such a scenario, of course, posits a fairly all-out Arab-Israeli War again, of the like not really seen since \'58 (recall who actually did and did not have significant Arab troops fighting in \'56 and \'67: it sure weren\'t the Saudis), which would be more than worrisome, mostly on the classic weapons-of-mass-destruction front: that\'s where my fears lie.
Otherwise, Israel destroys Saudi and most other force from the air before it gets to where it endangers Israel. And Saudi training is not, last I looked, terribly impressive, and training with that great military equipment we sell them is more important than how great it is, when up against a more or less equally well-equipped force, such as the IDF. Mind, I surely don\'t want to see any of these notions put to the test.
85036865 | 04.25.2002 | 8:04 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Gary, that bit about Saudi mobilization is linked to lower down, here.
85029634 | 04.25.2002 | 8:22 am | Steve | | http:// | Well, if he is ashamed to be an American he can fix that quite quickly. He can renounce American citizenship so we can kick his sorry butt out of here.
By the way. This isn\'t his first article. A few years ago he wrote something for the Seattle Times
The fallacy of peace in the Middle East
A portrait of a local Muslim family
85035482 | 04.25.2002 | 8:33 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Yes, but I don\'t think stuff goes up on Dunnigan\'s site without Dunnigan at least reading it once beforehand. It\'s his rep at stake, after all.
85037139 | 04.25.2002 | 9:51 am | Sean Kirby | krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | \"And we saw I wild Turkey\"
Yes, we certainly did.
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 9:57 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | \"But I\'m not at all convinced he\'s still \'in power.\' Let\'s see what happens when they let him out of his rabbit hutch - if they ever do.\"
I\'m not following your logic on this: if not him -- to the moderate amount he is in control of the many factions that is, about which it would pay to run through the list, but I\'m not going to go to the trouble -- than who? And as I\'ve said all along, if a bullet is put in Arafat, I\'ll applaud, but it\'s not as if we get an improvement from that. We just wind up increasing the strength of Hamas, the al Aksa Brigade, and the other young militants, for the most part. It\'s not as if the slightly better tempered Saeb Erkat, or the actually somewhat reasonable, uh, wossname, the guy they have as their man in Jerusalem, would take charge effectively. Kill Arafat, and aside from a moment of glee, what is accomplished? How does it lead to improvement? Under present circumstances -- and do mind that I fully support the IDF operation -- how is even lessening Arafat\'s power accomplishing anything useful? It\'s not as if there are a team of reasonable democrats who can parachute in to take charge. Or will sue for surrender and peace. Therefore?
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 10:16 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | I don\'t know anything about this Lane: do you have some information about him to give reason to assume he didn\'t mean the most obvious interpretation: the \"cause of truth,\" \"the cause of honesty in writing history\"?
I assume you do, in suggesting a rather otherwise outre interpretation.
Besides, while I couldn\'t agree more that historians should be truth-seekers, suggesting that they could be objective, well, that\'s not possible, is it?
85037167 | 04.25.2002 | 10:32 am | Brian Knapp | bknapp2000@yahoo.com | http://libertylungs.blogspot.com | Right again, Will. And anybody who\'s seen \"Evita\" knows the problems with Argentina: it\'s love affair with socialism.
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 10:52 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | With Arafat dead, the world, and Palestine, will have to face what Israel has known for some time: there is *nobody* who can negotiate for Palestine (including Arafat), and without that, any sort of meaningful negotiations are impossible. That fact *must* be understood on the international level before some sort of rational formulation toward handling the Palestinian problem can proceed. But the only for for that to come to pass is for the chimera that Arafat can negotiate for Palestine to pass permanently off the stage.
Then we can perhaps begin to address questions like why is it Israel\'s responsibilty to lift up Palestine? Why aren\'t the Palestinians the Arab world\'s responsibility?
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 11:07 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Objectivity is impossible for historians? Why on earth would you think something like that, Gary? As for your other objection, yes, I do have reasons for my interpretation, the main one being, obviously, that he didn\'t say \"the cause of truth; the cause of honesty.\" And he could have. I\'ve been looking for Seckora\'s source, and haven\'t found it yet. But does anybody but me see the oddity in a man who applauded Bellesiles\'s work expressing his outraged over betrayal to the Gun Owners of America?
85034219 | 04.25.2002 | 11:14 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | And yes, I believe that at least one major aspect of history can be objective, in the sense that objective means \"having actual existence or reality.\" And this is the sense I\'m using when I would, for instance, blast Bellesiles for lack of same, because he *fabricated* work he then displayed as facts, as things that had actual existence or reality.
Just as Nobel laureate Rigoberto Menchu fabricated her own personal history. And just as many other historians with strong agendas to push may have created their own facts as well. We can argue about how to interpret the facts, the realities, the things that exist, or did exist. But first, let\'s make sure those things aren\'t lies in the first place.
That kind of objectivity.
85035307 | 04.25.2002 | 11:14 am | Brian Knapp | bknapp2000@yahoo.com | http://libertylungs.blogspot.com | Howard, maybe you need to define \"Blacks\" because I do believe that you\'re talking out of your ass. If I\'m, wrong, then please, qualify your commentary with intellectual argumentation and not bigotry. Will, thing is, I think that after the failures of the intelligence and law enforcement communities to give proper information regarding terrorism in the past, people are not depending on them for protection. Ultimately, I think that it\'s a good thing. We\'ve turned off the highway to dependency and got on the road to self-reliance. In an attack as described, I know no better protection than a Glock in my belt.
85036865 | 04.25.2002 | 11:45 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Wait a minute, wait a minute.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict doesn\'t matter?
What do you mean by that? That dead Israelis don\'t matter? I don\'t think you\'re saying that, are you?
85036865 | 04.25.2002 | 11:47 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Gary, the Saudi mobilization was supposedly taking place in the northwest. How far is the Saudi border from Eliat? Fifteen miles?
85035303 | 04.25.2002 | 11:52 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Bill, I agree 100% with your last post here, which is why I\'m so confused about your position on Bush. Clearly, we\'re not going to get anywhere until Arafat is gone. It doesn\'t matter who follows him. No one said in 1945, \"Sure, we could kill Hitler, but who would come next?\" Or if that analogy is too tenuous, no one\'s saying that we shouldn\'t kill Osama because some other al-Qaeda guy will be just as bad.
If the guy who follows Arafat is just as bad, kill him too. And the guy after that, and the guy after that. The point is, no good can come of having Arafat in power, and things can\'t get worse with him gone. Arafat will never crack down on terror, will never be a plausible peace partner, and will never live up to his promises. That\'s why the Bush policy, which I think even you would agree is premised on keeping Arafat in charge of the PA, seems so misguided to me.
85037167 | 04.26.2002 | 4:14 am | Perry de Havilland | PdeH@libertarian-samizdata.net | http://samizdata.blogspot.com | Peronism *is* fascism... as Hayek pointed out in the 1940\'s in \'The Road to Serfdom\', fascism is just mutant socialism.
85035207 | 04.26.2002 | 6:20 am | Jack Tanner | | http:// | What a prideful man Mr. Davis must be. Appearing with Jesse Jackson to promise more handouts. Maybe he can run as Al Sharpton\'s VP.
85037167 | 04.26.2002 | 8:21 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | True, Perry, as I also point out in the article above.
85036865 | 04.26.2002 | 8:25 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | The deaths of our friends - of all innocents - matter, Chris. But the goal of the war on terror is to protect the United States, and within that context, Iraq is by far the most dangerous player at this moment. If the choice is preventing an Iraqi nuke or smallpox attack on the continental US, or spending time trying to solve the problem of suicide bombers in Israel (which is exactly what Saudi, Iraq, Iran, and all the rest would *like* us to do) then I\'m going to vote for Iraq - because I think that is the situation we are in.
85038211 | 04.26.2002 | 10:25 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Wow, Bill, great find. I always just assumed Peres was an idiot -- I had no idea he was a crook.
Unfortunately, I\'m not sure it\'s safe to assume that Peres will go. It\'s in Sharon\'s interest to keep him. If Peres went and took Labor with him, there\'s be new elections and the Israeli people would probably pick Netanyahu.
85038255 | 04.26.2002 | 10:46 am | John Thacker | | http:// | I have to say it\'s somewhat hilarious that France is essentially stealing from that most Gallic of US states, Louisiana. Remember the Edwin Edwards/David Duke gubernatorial race? \"Vote for the crook; it\'s important,\" was the slogan then.
As I recall, there was actually a study showing that countries based on French law have significantly more corruption than countries based on English or Scandanavian common law. (Louisiana\'s last 3 or 4 insurance comissioners are all in jail.)
85038205 | 04.26.2002 | 11:00 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | That\'s gratifying.
I\'d be curious to see how Bibi\'s doing?
85036865 | 04.26.2002 | 11:13 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | So Sharon was right all along. Israel is Chechoslovakia.
85035482 | 04.26.2002 | 12:26 pm | John S Allison | johnalli@swbell.net | http:// | I was one of those lucky folk in the sunny kleptoc...kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the janitor...err, custodian of the two holy mosques and didn\'t feel at the time that the fighting was going to be anything like the \'quagmire\' posited by the pollyannas of the chattering classes... Only a moron of Saddam\'s caliber (definetly a .22 short) would have expected us to go headon into his forces in Kuwait. As a lowly platoon sergeant it was obvious to me that a left hook into the desert and around to Basra was the way to go as far back as September \'90, although I would\'ve included a branch headed for Baghdad but that\'s just me.
Anywho, does anyone in here remember the blatherings of a certain retired infantry colonel by the name of Hackworth, iirc. He was the one that reared up on his hind legs repeatedly on CNN claiming that this was a job for the infantry, that tanks would be worse than useless, that the M1 specifically would be a failure, yatta yatta yatta, sis boom bah? My co-workers collapsed in gales of laughter at that \'informed opinion\' (at Ft. Knox, the home of armor ;)
Anywho now that I\'ve digressed irremediably...
jsa
85036865 | 04.26.2002 | 12:50 pm | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Remarkably cheap shot, Chris. No, Israel isn\'t Czechoslovakia, and nobody, not even Sharon, thinks it is. But Arafat has not sent out suicide bombers to blow up our buildings and kill more than three thousand of our citizens, and Iraq may very well have at least contributed to that. Israel\'s survival is not threatened. Neither is ours, of course. But just as we permitted Sharon to deal with his problem in his way, we must deal with ours - which is emphatically *not* Yasser Arafat - in our own way.
85038325 | 04.26.2002 | 2:08 am | bob | bob@rsballarda.com | http://www.rsballard.com/weblog | They may have officially outlawed slavery in 1962 but it continues in the migrant house servant and stoop labor they use today. There is little actual difference between that and real slavery. Many are not paid, are kept in the house/compound, cannot practice their religion if not muslim and cannot even leave when they would wish to. I know many who have lived in Saudi and have observed this slavery.
85038325 | 04.26.2002 | 2:32 am | Steve | steve@happyfunpundit.com | http://www.happyfunpundit.com | ...and be sure to check out Happy Fun Pundit\'s redaction of this fine, fine speech:
http://happyfunpundit.blogspot.com/?/2002_04_21_happyfunpundit_archive.html#75855671
85039021 | 04.26.2002 | 2:59 am | Steven Den Beste | sdenbes1@san.rr.com | http://denbeste.nu | It doesn\'t really make any difference to me what the Europeans think of this. These acts took place in the United States, and US law has jurisdiction. We\'re not making war on the Catholic Church; we\'re enforcing laws against felons. The Church is not above the law.
85038705 | 04.26.2002 | 4:30 am | TVH | TVsHenry@aol.com | http://tvh.blogspot.com | He has a hilarious running sketch on Craig Kilborn now, \"The Steins,\" a takeoff on \"The Osbornes.\"
85038754 | 04.26.2002 | 5:24 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | For a second there, I thought this was a quote from Chris himself, and not from the President. But I should have known better. There are very few people who can make mincemeat of English the way Bush does. Quite a disappointment.
85039021 | 04.26.2002 | 5:43 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Well, I\'ll tell you, Steven, the US thinks we\'ve got legal jurisdiction over some other folks currently in Europem, but it doesn\'t look like the Europeans are all that impressed with our arguments.
What happens if the Church ships some of its people off to countries where what they are charged with in the US isn\'t against the law? Think we\'ll get them back?
85038211 | 04.26.2002 | 5:43 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | My guess is that Sharon would not worry about losing to Netanyahu. Sharon is getting old. I\'ll bet he stood for the office he\'s got only because there were no other conservatives to do so. Netanyahu was out of favor at the time because of a purported campaign finance issue, if I recall correctly. Netanyahu\'s problems have been resolved without evidence of wrongdoing, and I wouldn\'t be surprised if Sharon were to step aside for him in the next election.
85035482 | 04.26.2002 | 5:52 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Right, John. And that Col. Hackwort has the \"practical experience\" of twenty dozen of you. He\'s one of the more decorated around as well. He says he called Desert Storm right. You say he didn\'t. I say there\'s nothing especially superior about practical knowledge over book knowledge either way.
85039733 | 04.26.2002 | 10:06 am | Old Grouch | invalid@example.com | | I\'m equally amazed.
(1) Surely there\'s somebody at Fox (even if not the assignment editors) who is a regular blog follower. Why didn\'t this person give them a heads-up? The story\'s been all over the place.
(2) Given Fox\'s awareness of the blogosphere, is it possible that they haven\'t yet assigned somebody to read the major blogs each day?
(3) Is this just a case of \"not reported here?\"
(4) They say they\'ve seen documents. Perhaps that\'s what they were waiting for.
85039736 | 04.26.2002 | 10:17 am | Quana | qxjones@yahoo.com | http:// | Wow...great point. I will try to find some information on that. (Of course, I\'m laughing really hard, too.)
85039738 | 04.27.2002 | 7:58 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, other than this jerk Webster will tell you that sodium etc. works at all. What it will do is put you almost to sleep so that you will spout your dreams, fantasies, and so forth, but you will NOT tell the truth UNLESS YOU WANT TO.
That is FACT. I mean if it worked as a \"truth serum\" there would be no torture chambers anywhere in the world. No interrogators. Webster is out of the FBI and we can all thank God that an out of date ignoramous like him is history.
85039021 | 04.27.2002 | 8:07 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | What a bunch of EuroTrash has to say means nothing. What it means to we who are American Catholics is that we have been entrusting our kids to the care and guidance of people we felt were beyond moral reproach. We never dreamed that our kids, were they weak, would be taken advantage of. We felt the weak would be made strong through the additional guidance of the Church. Through the MORAL STRENGTH of the priesthood.
Age of consent???? What the hell does that mean? These bastards have taken a VOW (whatever that means these days) of celibacy (oral sex, a la Clinton, isn\'t sex at all???)and they violate that vow like it is just another legal dodge.
We American Catholics are really sick about this.
85038754 | 04.27.2002 | 8:10 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Clinton has taken a stand and as always he has his feet firmly planted in the air.
85036950 | 04.27.2002 | 8:45 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Hope the new paper is Hot Shit, as you say because I stopped reading the PC Times years ago. HOWEVER the Times is loaded with money, experience, trendy reporters, money, a long tradition, the money of the Chcago congolomerate that now owns it, and they are joined at the hip with the local PBS station. They have reporters everywhere, are joined with News Day, and are the propaganda wing of the Hollywood Left and the studios. A very tough nut to crack.
I see their only real hope is Murdoch. Only he can supply them instantly with reportage from outside LA that has some meaning. If this happens then the LA Times will have plenty to fear. If not then it will just lose money and close up.
85040369 | 04.27.2002 | 8:54 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Actually, Bill, I\'ve got a great idea for an energy plan that will finally solve this problem once and for all....
Magnets.
That\'s right. I propose that Congress pass a law that says 90% of all energy produced in the United States by 2004 come from magnets.
Of course, the oil lobby will oppose this, because if everyone has magnets, they\'ll stop buying gasoline. Magnets are cheap, they last almost forever, and they don\'t produce any waste. If we could get all of our power from magnets, then we could tell Saudi Arabia that we don\'t need them anymore.
Mark my words, Bill. Magnets.
85040369 | 04.27.2002 | 9:52 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Magnets. Hmm. It does have a catchy sound to it, doesn\'t it?
85039021 | 04.27.2002 | 10:00 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Catholic vows have nothing to do with national laws.
My point is simple: the Church may well not regard itself as being subject to US laws - especially if it feels those laws violate the church\'s higher duties to god - to practice forgiveness, for instance.
My mention of Europe is simple: it does matter, especially if the Church, in service of what it perceives as divine duty, physically moves those of its priests who don\'t meet the qualification \"notorious serial violator\" to new posts in Europe - especially posts in countries where the acts they are accused of in the United States would not be considered crimes - or crimes subject to extradition. (Which is why I mention the age of consent laws in Europe).
I\'m an atheist. I\'ve got no particular dog in this hunt, except that I am not a reflexive believer in every single sexual practice law the US and its localities hands out. This is a country that permits states to outlaw homosexuals by outlawing the acts that make them homosexuals. I\'m a libertarian, and I think that\'s ridiculous. So when you tell me the Church is not above the law, I tell you that, objectively, that is merely one viewpoint. It means nothing if the Church feels it is above national law, and can effectively evade such law.
Clear yet?
85038754 | 04.27.2002 | 10:02 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | That was Bush talking. Clinton was a lying fool, but he could speak well.
85039738 | 04.27.2002 | 12:37 pm | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I suspect Webster is as well aware as I am that there are more effective drug interrogation techniques than sodium pentothal. As for torture chambers, ever hear of \"corroboration,\" or \"horrible alternative if the drugs don\'t work?\" (Knowledge of which might give the interrogatee some motivation to want to babble under the needle...)
85040443 | 04.27.2002 | 1:17 am | Quana | qxjones@yahoo.com | http:// | This \'slant\' thing just gets scarier and scarier. Damn fine job there with the questions.
85040443 | 04.27.2002 | 2:07 am | tom scott | scott@therighttrack.org | http://www.therighttrack.org | I hope that you forwarded that to the NYT letters page.
Excellent questions.
85040425 | 04.27.2002 | 2:09 am | tom scott | scott@therighttrack.org | http://www.therighttrack.org | I think the response should be: \"We do not intend to raid social security but believe that at some point in the future it could happen. That is why we support privitization.\"
85040369 | 04.27.2002 | 3:49 am | Ray Eckhart | vista@innernet.net | http:// | It\'s an attractive idea. Think it\'ll stick?
85040369 | 04.27.2002 | 4:50 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Ouch! Something did.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 6:32 am | Sean Kirby | krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | Don\'t forget the Klingons.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 7:54 am | Mike Niemann | miken@swancreekcandle.com | http:// | Great article, even if a bit too pessimisstic.
For a similar but more complex view of the same, try \"What Went Wrong\" by Bernard Lewis.
85039738 | 04.27.2002 | 8:02 am | Hale Adams | ahadams1@ix.netcom.com | http:// | Bill,
About the Constitution not being a suicide pact: Like it or not, it IS the supreme law of the land, and federal officials take an oath to obey it.
And the Constitution does have something called the Fifth Amendment, which in practical terms means than any information the government obtains through the use of coercion or drugging is inadmissible in a court of law. In short, the information can\'t be used to hang these guys, however much they deserve it.
Now, if the authorities are simply trolling for information in the knowledge that it can\'t be used in a trial, why not play with their minds a little bit? All I ask is that the Constitution be obeyed.
Hale
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 8:03 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Sometimes, just looking at the general myopia and wishful thinking on this subject makes me pessimistic.
85040369 | 04.27.2002 | 8:12 am | Hale Adams | ahadams1@ix.netcom.com | http:// | ....never mind that meeting 20% of California\'s energy needs in 2010 with, say, solar power would require paving the state with solar cells......
There\'s a word for these people: innumerate.
Hale
85041251 | 04.27.2002 | 8:44 am | Andrea Harris | webmistress@spleenville.com | http://www.spleenville.com/blog/ | I would have used the handy markings to know which products to buy. If I was in Norway now, I\'d buy everything with that sticker on it that I could.
Idiots.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 9:00 am | Andrea Harris | webmistress@spleenville.com | http://www.spleenville.com/blog/ | Great article, William.
This is why I get so frustrated with lefty, antiwar, Blame-America idiots. They refuse to understand that none of their \'solutions\' -- end Middle East poverty, face your inner Orientalist, keep having peace conferences, stop supporting Israel, etc. -- will solve the problem. What the Islamofascists want the West to do is impossible -- basically, they want us to destroy ourselves or better, let them destroy us.
I have the feeling, also, that this \"shame\" culture is quite attractive to the peacenuts, most of whom have cultivated an outsider attitude, and have a general it\'s-not-fair viewpoint towards mainstream society. Most of the \'accusations\' that have been aimed at me by these people, for example, are all based in a \"Don\'t you want me to think better of you?\" mentality. They have a \"shame\" culture of their own: fear of being labeled selfish.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 9:02 am | Mark Rosenbaum | markjrosenbaum@attbi.com | http:// | You make a great deal of sense in your analysis of the Islamic cultures and I think you are essentially correct. This is unfortunate because it means a great deal of strife in the years to come.
85040409 | 04.27.2002 | 9:03 am | Andrea Harris | webmistress@spleenville.com | http://www.spleenville.com/blog/ | Oh god, and I thought that Gumbel leaving was a good thing.
Incidentally, isn\'t Clinton always losing his voice? I remember him as always having some sort of hoarseness problem, back when he was prez -- probably because he never shut up. (Not that that\'s changed.)
85040449 | 04.27.2002 | 9:28 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | It\'s SOP, but there\'s no reason to exclude it from stories; it\'s not as if it was the headline or lede. It\'s worth the mention in passing it\'s given; it\'s not as if everyone knows how stuff works, or why; that\'s what news stories, after all, are for.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 9:30 am | Melissa | melmalko@netscape.net | http:// | I love Turkey, but if you\'ve ever used a toilet there (outside of Istanbul & Ankara), you know that it is, indeed, a third world country.
85040443 | 04.27.2002 | 9:38 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | I don\'t exactly think I\'m blind to anti-Israeli slant, but I think finding it here is just going way overboard. They were gunmen -- obviously they were Bad. Adding \"terrorists\" is redundant: why would it *matter*? Is someone going to read the story and confuse them with \"good\" \"gunmen\"?
Obviously, they were disguised as Israeli soldiers: that\'s completely obvious; one might as well complain that they weren\'t described as \"human,\" thus raising the possibility that maybe they were \"horse gunmen.\" The story also didn\'t say they walked on their legs, not their hands. Etc. Ditto the killing being murder.
I mean, this story doesn\'t obscure anything, and I think that\'s plain, though apparently we may disagree.
It\'s also not the job of Times reporters to make suggestions as to what Israeli strategy should or should not be, even more obviously.
85040425 | 04.27.2002 | 9:49 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | I\'m genuinely ignorant: what should be done about extremely poor old people forced to choose between spending their few dollars on shelter and food, or drugs they need for serious, perhaps life-threatening, or certainly quality-of-life-threatening, illness? That doesn\'t involve government money, that is?
85040409 | 04.27.2002 | 9:56 am | Brian Knapp | bknapp2000@yahoo.com | http://libertylungs.blogspot.com | I can see it now, Clinton recording every episode so that he could watch himself over and over again.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 10:10 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | For those who are interested, Bernard Lewis\'s fine article What Went Wrong is here.
85040443 | 04.27.2002 | 10:13 am | Sean Kirby | krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | Lets call them \"impeders to the peace process\"
85040425 | 04.27.2002 | 10:47 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Gary, I suspect you can use a search engine as well as I can, but if not, start here. The Demo plan is simply a blanket addition to Medicare that gives everybody, rich or poor, the same benefit. Typical, and typically wasteful and spendthrift - but Demos like it because one of their constituencies benefits. Of course, I don\'t, since as a self-employed person, I get to pay double.
85041502 | 04.27.2002 | 10:47 am | Jason Rubenstein | | http://tonecluster.blogspot.com | Er, and is it any wonder that even after Afghanistan the Arab world see us as weak? The administration seems to have a backbone made of wet vermicelli.
The noodle, not the worm.
85041013 | 04.27.2002 | 10:48 am | Craig Schamp | cschamp@craigschamp.org | http://www.craigschamp.org/ | Finely stated, Bill. The next unknown number of years are going to be hell while the current mess is fought out. We must prevail.
85040449 | 04.27.2002 | 11:15 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Nah. They\'re just grumping because they weren\'t allowed to blab whatever they felt like blabbing. Most of the media believe they should be the sole arbiters of what gets reported, and any limits placed on them are seen as sources either of irritation or of \"repression.\"
85040443 | 04.27.2002 | 11:22 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Gunmen are men with guns. The IDF are gunmen. Terrorists attack innocents, sometimes with guns, sometimes with bombs, sometimes with airplanes. These weren\'t gunment. They were terrorists. Earlier, Gary, you were excusing another slab of sloppy NYT reporting by saying that \"not everybody knows how these things work, it\'s part of the story.\" Well, not everybody knows that the Palestinian terrorists are dressing up like IDF soldiers (a violation of many international accords, by the way) to carry out there terror (not \"gunman\") missions. The way this graf is written, one could even think they were dressed in some sort of PA military uniform. As for NYT reporters making suggestions about proper Israeli strategy, I fully agree - which makes me wonder why they do so much of it, even in their \"news\" reports. (Use your own search engine, damnit. I can\'t do all your research for you.)
But you knew that.
85039733 | 04.27.2002 | 11:52 am | jms | | http:// | (5) Is this $5,000 over and above the $25,000 from Iraq, or is it PART of the $25,000 from Iraq.
It makes a huge difference. If the $5,000 is over and above the $25,000 payment from Iraq, then the Sauds can make a slightly plausible explanation that since their payments to the families of suicide bombers were independent of Iraq\'s, they are still our allies, and merely supporting those whom they feel are \"freedom fighters.\"
If the $5,000 is actually part of the $25,000 payment from Iraq, that would be far more damning to the Sauds in an entirely different way. It would strongly suggest that an explicit terrorism alliance between Iraq and Saudi Arabia exists.
Showing that Saudi Arabia is giving money to Iraq to pay off the families of suicide bombers would immediately answer the question of which side Saudi Arabia is REALLY on, the U.S. or the \"Axis of Evil\"?
Carrying this one step further, is the $25,000 really all from Iraq? Or is it a combination of smaller contributions from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and WHAT other countries?
Can anyone shed light on this question?
85039021 | 04.28.2002 | 3:34 am | Cecil Turner | turnercg1@mindspring.com | http:// | The Church cannot afford to start a war with the US government--merely revoking its US tax-exempt status would produce unbearable financial pressure on the Vatican. And the Church\'s moral authority has already been irreparably damaged by the perception it\'s shielding child molesters. They can\'t afford a second round, and must know it.
85040425 | 04.28.2002 | 6:57 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Fact: the huge baby boom generation is about to hit old age. This generation has a history of taking, starting with the Berkeley \"Free Speech\" movement, the anti-War (some say draft dodging) movement, and carrying through to the stock market boom-bust. They are adept at cadging every freebie, every tax cheating possibility, and pressuring the government.
They will now demand that the rest of the country take care of them. Their numbers are huge and you can bet that the rest of us will be forced to take care of them, like it or not. Even if their real estate bounces back, their stock options come in, or their tax havens turn out to be legit.
The costs? God only knows, but it will be huge and there will be nothing the rest of us can do about it.
Get ready to become poor.
85039021 | 04.28.2002 | 7:31 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Atheists do have dogs in this hunt. Most are in the business of getting all religion out of the public discourse altogether. This scandal is tailor made for their agenda. Many target the Church as their main enemy.
It is a fact that sex between adults and minors is by statute, rape; it is called statutory rape, meaning that there can be no consent by the minor. These crimes can and should be prosecuted. This criminal activity is the business of everyone.
What we Catholics focus on is the trust that has been violated when we have entrusted the clergy with certain functions with our children; this trust has been violated. Within the Church faithful we demand action inside the priesthood. This action is none of anybody\'s business who is not a Catholic.
The trust issue is so central to us it is hard to describe. It is like we have all been sexually abused by our parents. The people we trust the most have abused us. I don\'t need some athiest telling me what my spiritual responsibilities SHOULD be, since being an athiest is by definition a person who denies the existance of the Holy Spirit.
So if athiests have no dog in this hunt why comment at all? I suggest that atheists have several dogs in this hunt and the commentary proves it.
85035307 | 04.28.2002 | 7:47 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Oh la dee da, now I have to define \"Blacks\" and if I say that McKinney has the support of Blacks in her district I\'m a bigot. Her district is 73 point something African American, Black, Negro, people of color, or whatever PC term you want to use. They support her charge. Blacks nation wide support her charge by a large margin.
AND if you will check, our intelligence services did indeed warn us. The terrorists themselves warned us with the first WTC bombing, then the Embassy bomgings, and the Cole bombings. We had plenty of warnings, we ALL decided not to inconvenience ourselves with adequate airport security. We\'ve had a politicized INS which has been instructed to allow Mexicans into the country in order for the Dems to get the Hispanic vote, Hatians in order to get the \"Black vote (oh God what a bigot I am to say that), and Irish fund raisers for terrorists in Ireland and England in order for Ted Kennedy and the rest to get the Irish vote.
I\'ll say it again: if the FBI doesn\'t warn us about any threat and this threat became a reality, McKinney and her crowd will be on the war path claiming a cover up by the Bush administration. Period.
85041251 | 04.28.2002 | 8:07 am | Nick M. | nmarsala@cryhavic.com | http://arrogantrants.blogspot.com/ | I just talked to my friend in Norway. He told me they do that with all imported products, its mandatory that they put the originating country on it. Maybe this is just alarmist stuff.
85041251 | 04.28.2002 | 9:08 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I doubt it. Standard stickers wouldn\'t have been newsworthy. And I\'m sure your friend in Norway has no agenda on this issue.
85040443 | 04.28.2002 | 9:09 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I\'ve just posted an example of the proper way to report this.
85042118 | 04.28.2002 | 9:16 am | Jason Rubenstein | | http://tonecluster.blogspot.com | Hmm. Unequivocal evidence of war crimes (see Geneva convention, etc etc).
Where, oh where is the UN and demands for \"fact finding\"? Any condemnations, Kofi, anyone? Hello?
I\'d better stop here before I start using language not appropriate forfamily hour.
85039021 | 04.28.2002 | 10:02 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | And what might those dogs be, Mr. de Champion?
85041056 | 04.28.2002 | 11:49 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | Been in the financial markets for quite a while. This 5.4% uptick is loaded with some concerning news and the Times liberals are delighted in it. First, the uptick is largely due to businesses liquidating inventory at a slower rate. The consumer is still driving the economy. We really need business to spend on capital equipment and this has not happened to a meaningful degree; capital spending is still negative. This is why Bush wants the tax cut made permanent, he needs the consumer to keep spending til capital spending kicks in. The figures also show large government spending. Defense spending grew 19%. It doesn\'t take a great brain to figure that government spending did a great deal to fuel the economy.
The Democrats are in desperate need of a recession: misery, unemployment, and hunger. They want the tax rate to rise so that consumer demand is cut off. Their demands for a balanced budget are bogus but they can\'t come out and cut defense spending; a balanced budget is the next best thing.
So the news is largely good with some very worrisome news under the surface.
This election year the Dems need a recession and they will do whatever it takes to create one.
85039021 | 04.28.2002 | 12:12 pm | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | The dogs atheists have in this hunt are the denigration of all religion, the ridicule of spirituality and those people who have a spiritual side to their lives, and the complete eradication of any display of religion anywhere in public that might cause your Godless world into question.
To you this \"scandal\" proves that the Catholic clergy is dishonest, when in fact a very small percentage is dishonest; proves that God didn\'t help the victims, just like God didn\'t help the Jews in concentration camps (this is a discussion of long standing), and by leaps and bounds of reasoning proves there is no God at all, nothing but the here and now and whatever it is people want to do to satisfy themselves.
We who are Catholic, and by extension Christian and Jew, know the agenda. We see materialism at work in every part of our country and every part of the world. We also see the prostitution of spiritual teachings in all parts of the world, and sad to say many priests have been guilty of this.
It doesn\'t mean there is no God, that all religion and the expression of religion is bad for the soul, it just means that there is evil. Evil exists.
Athiests only think there are shades of some color or other, resent any interference into their so-called private behavior, always being very careful to attack others by defining what the public and private are.
Your agenda is to attack the Church, and the crimes of some members of the priesthood has given you ample opportunity. The real fact of your existance is that you are afraid of God. You are afraid of the existance of God, because if there really is a God you are fucked. Your best play is to announce your atheism, conduct yourself by your own private morality, and hope like hell you\'re right.
Your Big Dog in the hunt is to prove you are right; that there is no God. You are glad about this scandal because it makes you more comfortable; it seems to make you right.
85041215 | 04.28.2002 | 1:07 am | jeanne a e devoto | jaed@jaedworks.com | http://bittersanity.blogspot.com | Actually, while that was rousing, Charles didn\'t write it (unless he\'s been posting to his comments section under a pseudonym). It was posted in the comments to an earlier story, by someone known only as Enough.
85042505 | 04.28.2002 | 1:28 am | Christopher Johnson | websterglobe@juno.com | http://Quantrill.tripod.com/MCJ.html | Which is why this unintended consequence:
http://www.meforum.org/meq/article.php?id=104
may assume greater and greater importance.
85041013 | 04.28.2002 | 1:32 am | David Wilson | dlwilson@echonyc.com | http:// | Very good analysis of the underpinnings of the Mid-east conflict.
There is a concept that comes from anthropologists that should be include with the analysis of honor/shame. It is the principle of \"limited good.\" The worldview of such people posits that there is only so much good in the world. It is a zero-sum game. If something \"good\" happens to you, then it must be at my expense. The Arabs subscribe to this worldview and their policies reflect this.
85042505 | 04.28.2002 | 2:24 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | From the item Charles cites:
\"The Islamist campaign of violence in Algeria has turned some Muslims, especially Berbers, away from Islam and toward Christianity, reports the Algiers daily Al-Yawm in late December 2000....\"
85040369 | 04.28.2002 | 3:03 am | Allen S. Thorpe | athorpe@etv.net | | Is it an expression of contempt for private enterprise that such people think that such laws will really work? Or is it just a superstitious faith? Considering the popularity of junk science, I vote for the latter.
85041056 | 04.28.2002 | 3:12 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Impossible to have a recession in the near future, give the hundreds of billions pumped into the economy lately. Prediction: next quarter is even bigger.
85041013 | 04.28.2002 | 3:13 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Would that be anything like \"zero sum\" is in other approaches?
85041013 | 04.28.2002 | 3:34 am | Allen S. Thorpe | thorpe@co.emery.ut.us | http:// | I think the problem is more accurately ascribed to the Arabic tribal culture.
It has resulting in continuing strife among Arabs, even when other Islamic governments (the Ottoman empire) was able to sustain itself.
In the latest Atlantic Monthly, Mark Bowden has a profile of Saddam Hussein which includes an explanation by Saad Al-Bazzaz who defected in 1992 from Iraq. He describes the culture of the villages, whence Saddam arose, and how it differs from that of the cities. The big difference is that in the villages, the tribe, kinship, is everything. Another good article discussing this is in Stanley Kurtz\'s review of Lewis\' \"What Went Wrong?\" at
http://www.policyreview.org/APR02/kurtz.html
Kurtz has some quibbles with Lewis, but I favor Lewis\' views. Kurtz also has some comments about Edward Said and the leftist view of the Middle East based on \"post-colonialism-guilt.\"
85042531 | 04.28.2002 | 3:54 am | John Thacker | | http:// | Wow, did you catch this part:
\"Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino suggested in a radio interview Monday that the country\'s gun laws should be loosened. Martino cited the U.S. Bill of Rights\' 2nd Amendment, protecting the right of citizens to bear arms, as a model.\"
I like the Berlusconi\'s government even more now.
85042531 | 04.28.2002 | 4:34 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Yeah, I did. It would have convulsed the Eurocracy, had it not already been in a hopless frenzy over Le Pen.
85042017 | 04.28.2002 | 6:40 am | Randall Parker | rgparker@west.net | http:// | William, Egypt didn\'t just threaten the blockade. It announced it as being in effect. See various articles here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Strait+Tiran+1967&sourceid=mozilla-search
and for example:
http://www.yahoodi.com/peace/sixdaywar.html
After the blockage the Arabs mobilzed and Israel responded by mobilizing. When Israel mobilizes it either has to fight or demobilize since its military is such a large fraction of its total population. So Arab mobilization puts Israel into an untenable position.
85041215 | 04.28.2002 | 6:43 am | Michael Lonie | loniem@dnc.net | http:// | What a pity. It seems the last American diplomat with cojones was John Scalia, who publically rebuked anti-American speeches about Puerto Rico at the UN in the early 1970s. If we had more competent diplomats with stiffer backbones we might have less need of sending soldiers all over the world. Look at April Glaspie\'s doings in Iraq for an example of failing to make US interests clear enough to prevent a war.
85039021 | 04.28.2002 | 7:24 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | I have no dog in the hunt. I don\'t care one way or the other about the survival or non-survival of the Catholic church, or any other church, for that matter. The only thing I, as a libertarian and atheist, want, is to make damned sure religion leaves me well alone. My comments on this matter are not so much comments on Catholicism, but on the weird thinking being done around this issue - the flat assertion that American law trumps Catholic doctrine, when history shows that, in general, the opposite has been the case. Or the notion that the international church will take no steps to protect what it regards as its own.
That said, Howard, it\'s nice you are so certain of my agenda, you racist, anti-semitic little prick. Which happens to be *your* agenda, and you know damned well I have the email to prove it, Mister \"de Champion.\"
85040443 | 04.28.2002 | 7:29 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | \"The IDF are gunmen.\" Technically so, you know that this is not common usage. Soldiers, as you know, are *not* referred to in common usage as \"gunmen.\" \"Gunmen\" is a term reserved for either outright criminals or for any sort of highly questionable, at best, people on a mission with guns. At least, that\'s how it\'s used in common usage as I\'m familiar with it. And, apparently, as the NY Times is familiar with it.
\"The way this graf is written, one could even think they were dressed in some sort of PA military uniform.\" We\'ll have to agree to disagree on that; do you really think Israeli settlers would have been fine with \"Palestinian soldiers\" running about the settlement shooting settlers? You think that that would have calmed them, and made a difference? No? Who do you think would believe that? The story repeated many times that the settlers thought that they were Israeli soldiers. \"Don\'t shoot, we\'re Jews!\" Your interpretation would require that we believe that some readers believe that would cause Palestinian \"soldiers\" (whomever that might be, given there is no formal Palestinian soldiery, of course, and such uniform) to cease fire. This suggests the Times is being read on Alpha Centurai.
Incidentally, when I read it, the sentence you point to read, precisely, \"disguised as Israeli soldiers.\" I take your word that you saw an earlier version without the word \"Israeli,\" of course. In any case, apparently it was only a temporary glitch.
Possibly one of our differences is that I read the Times as a New Yorker, a city where some Jewish residents barely realize that there are non-Jews there, the city with the largest Jewish population on the planet, and where there is scarcely a shortage of millions of Jews to call up the Times to complain about bias against Israel, recognizing that, of course, the Times is run by, yes, Jews. Of all the papers in the US that need complaining about, about anti-Israel bias, the Times is one of the very last. Yeah, there\'s always some way to find something to look cross-eyed at, but one has to quite work one\'s eye-muscles. (Please don\'t cite Ira Stoll to me; I don\'t believe he has more experience reading the Times than I do, or looking for bias.) I\'m still suspecting that you\'re reading the paper as a non-New Yorker, thinking stuff needs to be explained the way it has to for non-Jews and non-New Yorkers, and I\'m reading it the way most New Yorkers and Jews, and, yup, Times reporters do, never imagining that one has to explain that, no, Israeli settlers won\'t find the idea of a \"Palestinian soldier\" somehow more reassuring than a \"Palestinian terrorist\" or that a \"Palestinian terrorist\" is somehow more threatening than a \"Palestinian gunman.\" If we disagree on this, we disagree. Oh, well.
85041532 | 04.28.2002 | 7:39 am | Gary Farber | gfarber@savvy.com | http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com | Yes and no. Yes, I agree with your general point, which I\'ve made as well many times.
No, in that one can also reject stuff simply because one is mad, and the Palestinians are hardly wrong or unfair to note that the US stands by Israel.
After all, look to the multi-million dollar donation that Guiliani turned back to the Saudi prince: but you won\'t call NYC or the US a particularly shame-based culture.
So, yeah, I agree with your general point, but as you imply, it\'s not really necessary to apply that in this case particularly.
85043137 | 04.28.2002 | 8:55 am | jlichty | jdl6@georgetown.edu | http:// | I never believed that this admisitration was sophistocated enough to pull off a \"rope-a-dope.\" I think that Bush starts to go in the right direction, and then someone gets his ear and he changes his mind. I also think that he likes the feeling of having the world agree with him when he criticizes Israel, so he gets on a roll. Then someone like Rice has to remind him about the Bush Doctrine so he backs off and praises Israel.
If Bush truly wants to show that he supports Israel, the place is in the UN. The US must veto all of these lopsided condemnation of Israel. If he does that he can play his public diplomacy all he wants. The real damage has been done by not stopping the UN\'s pogroms, not by making these equivocal statements.
85043137 | 04.28.2002 | 10:45 am | Jason Rubenstein | | http://tonecluster.blogspot.com | George W. Bush, if he keeps this up, will be a one-term president. And the Rat of Ramallah will laugh, laugh, laugh.....
(As will every leader across \'Dar al Islam\').
85043137 | 04.28.2002 | 11:19 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Classy post, Bill. You know, the Real Media can say what they like about the blogicenti (doesn\'t quite trip off the tongue like blogosphere, though, does it?), but we all do a much better job of owning up to errors or predictions that fall through.
I take no pleasure in being right on this one, though.
85043432 | 04.29.2002 | 4:45 am | Howard Veit | veit2@adelphia.net | http:// | I agree completely with the Union representing these people. They aren\'t on welfare, they contribute to society, and will do anything to stay in this country, just like my ancestors did.
I don\'t want terrorists here either, BUT my son has been trying to get his Mexican girl friend a visa for almost a year. The roadblocks to legal entry into this country are silly. THAT is the main reason you have people sneaking in.
85040425 | 04.29.2002 | 5:31 am | Jack Tanner | | http:// | The last commenter is correct. This is the group inspired by JFK\'s \'Ask not...\'
except they got a little confused along the way. It\'s now \'Ask for cradle to grave socialist benefits from the gov\'t and anyone who says no is a mean spirited fascist.\'
85043034 | 04.29.2002 | 7:01 am | David | | | It\'s tough to hear the words \"this won\'t happen,\" using the past as prologue. Fifteen years ago, did anyone expect South Africa to be ruled by an imprisoned ANC activist? One year ago, did anyone expect Pakistan to be ruled by a supporter of US policy and military activities? What Mr. Braue is arguing against has been floated for so long it\'s part of the Middle East troposphere and given the proper preparation and incentives by the right coalition, could be a solution to the Palestinian statehood problem. The obstacle is less the reluctance of Jordan\'s ruling family than the failure of the coalition: to form and once formed to present a package which includes elements agreed to in private with King Abdullah that would salve the historical issues and no doubt include external financing and security and exclude the authority and probably the presence of Mr. Arafat.
85041013 | 04.29.2002 | 8:23 am | Michael Gilligan | michaelgilligan(at)hotmail.com | http:// | There was a book published by Syracuse Univ.ago titled: \"Cultural Schizophrenia: Islamic Societies Confronting the West\" which makes connections between Japan and Islam. The book has weaknesses but it was the first I had noticed to cover this area.
Here\'s the links to Amazon:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B269126C
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0815605072/qid=1020093151/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9598804-0026461
85044332 | 04.29.2002 | 9:00 am | Sean Kirby | krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | Forget fairness, how about a desire to understand? Investigating an unban battle against terrorists without experts on urban battles or terrorism is just a waste of everyones time. Even if the UN did genuinly want to find out what happened, the existing team would lack the ability to understand the information they gathered.
Finding out what happened in a fog-of-war type event, months after it happened, in which everyone involved is lying, is a difficult task for even the most expert investigators, let alone the Scooby-Doo quality team the UN is proposing.
Even in a best case senario, one in which the UN isn\'t hopelessly anti-Israel, they would likely form the wrong conclusions without these experts on-board. One can only imagine what insane theory they would create with their current bias. 5 bucks says it ends with one of the UN \"fact-finders\" yanking a mask off some old Israeli man who wasn\'t a ghost after all, but was just trying to scare those lousy Arabs out of the west bank.
\"You meddling international investigators! You\'ve foiled my plan for the last time!\"
Then they all have a scooby-snack and go home.
85043137 | 04.29.2002 | 9:00 am | John | jgooderh@gpjco.com | http://spocksbrain.blogspot.com | Yep Bill, I reckon that this war on terror is over too. I had recognized the Prez\'s weakness in how he handled the recon plan incident with China last year. He first spoke like an average american, very blunt and refreshingly direct. Then his handlers and business leaders remind him to screw the U.S. public and cave. We are talking about business here so money talks and you know what everything else does. Let\'s face it, the Saudi\'s are controlling the Administration\'s ME policy. They are confounding plans for Iraq, and they are leaning on the very-malleable Bush on behalf of Arafat and terror. 15 of the 19. The war is lost.
85043137 | 04.29.2002 | 9:34 am | Chris \"Spoons\" Kanis | spoonsexperience.blogspot.com | http://www.thespoonsexperience.blogspot.com | Good point, John. I had not been thinking about the China incident, myself, but looking back, I think that was the first moment I began to get uneasy about the Prez.
By the way, John, I just saw on your site that you\'re planning to e-mail the Prez. Do one better. Call him. I do it fairly regularly. Pols always take more seriously the comments of those who pick \'harder\' ways to reach \'em. Hell, you could send him an actual letter or even a telegram (although I consider the last a little theatrical). For me, though, I think calling strikes the right balance.
The number is 202-456-1111.
85044424 | 04.29.2002 | 10:24 am | Robert Crawford | crawford@kloognome.com | http://www.kloognome.com/ | If the waffling continues, Bush will face a primary challenge from a hawk. It might be a moderate-Republican hawk (McCain), but it might also be a more conservative Republican. This won\'t bode well the entire party.
85040443 | 04.29.2002 | 11:36 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | So the gist of your claim, Gary, is that NYT is non-biased when it comes to Israel, and does not favor either Israel or Palestine? Or does it favor Israel? Or does it favor Palestine?
I wouldn\'t dream of citing Ira Stoll to you. But I think that you read the NYT from an hermetic viewpoint on the NY left that absoluletly blinds you to any charges of liberal bias in the pages of your gray bible.
And thanks a bunch for, \"I take your word that you saw an earlier version without the word \'Israeli,\' of course.\" My quote was a direct cut and paste, for the simple reason that online sources (mine included) have a funny way of changing at the source. But thanks again for mentioning that you (implicitly) support my credibility one thousand percent.
Go read the article I cited from a place that has even more Jewish readers than NYC for an example of how to properly report this item - either in Jerusalem, NYC, or Fiji.
85044631 | 04.29.2002 | 1:32 am | Steve Furlong | | http:// | The Iranian rescue mission was hampered by the storm, but it was brought down by a cowardly, micromanaging President. The men in Iran were confident they could complete the rescue, but they were overruled from Washington.
85044631 | 04.29.2002 | 1:58 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | There would have been no question for Washington, cowardly or otherwise, to decide had that storm not occurred.
85044631 | 04.29.2002 | 4:42 am | dan | dan_dressel | prosamdan.blogspot.comq | I agree with the last part especially. As was demonstrated in WWII, only via total defeat and reemergence as a global partner can this threat truly be extinguished.
Part of me thinks that the natural rebellion of children against their parents explains why so many (especially in political and academic circles) leaders today ignore that fundamental lesson that was proven in Japan and Germany.
On the same note, France has taught us that being saved by your neighbors (and even longtime foes)TWICE leads to becoming a cowardly, opinionated, foul-smelling, jew-hating asshole.* Something to keep in mind with Saudi Arabia, methinks.
*stolen from the SNL satire ad.
85045397 | 04.29.2002 | 4:48 am | Sean Kirby | krypto246@yahoo.ca | http://punditexmachina.blogspot.com | Nothing like trying to explain the neuances of fecund neoligismes and a Japanese newspaper.
Points for finally noticing the Ender\'s Game connection though. Locke and Demosthanese were my inspiriation for sarting blogging. I expect the same is true of many others.
85045397 | 04.29.2002 | 4:53 am | William T. Quick | dailypundit@iw3p.com | http://www.dailypundit.com | Someday I\'ll tell you the story about how Scott Card (who was wearing a green suit at the time) was the inspiration for my career as a SF novelist.
85041013 | 04.29.2002 | 6:03 am | Peter Caress | | http:// | Various quibbles:
(1) Claiming that \"Turkey is always one successful revolution away from becoming another Iran, and that revolution is always bubbling just beneath the surface,\" is strange. It\'s as weird as writing that Christian Evangelicals are only one election away from taking over America. Islamists have an influence on Turkey, but there\'s not going to be Iranian style revolution.
(2) As for Japan before WWII, I\'d say the problem was not an \"honor-shame culture\" but a \"militarist-imperialist\" culture. The Japanese rightly considered themselves a great power and wanted to establish colonies in Asia just like the Western great powers.
(3) Speaking of Japan, if envy is such a powerful determinant of Arab nations\' behavior, then why don\'t Arabs complain about Japan? Japan is a powerful and rich democracy but no Arab calls Japan the Great Satan.
(4) \"God promised Islam that all other nations and faiths would submit to it; the continued existence of any non-submissive states or religions is not just a humiliation, it is a humiliation in the eyes of God - and it cannot be borne.\" It\'s not clear whether Muhammad envisioned Islam as a universal religion, though Muslims now claim that he did. But in any event, only the most fanatical Muslims have considered Jihad to be a pillar of the faith.
The simplest explanations for Arab anger towards Israel and America are the most persuasive: Arabs resent Israel because (in their view) it was unfairly hacked out of Arab land by foreign imperialists. They resent America for abetting this theft. Some Arabs also resent the way American pop culture bombards them with attitudes regarding women and sex they find offensive. And many Arabs resent what in their view is America\'s domineering attitude towards the Arabian states - propping up governments they dislike, and using trickery and occasionally military force to get what America wants.
85041251 | 04.29.2002 | 7:41 am | Mark Gisleson | oslo@gisleson.com | http:// | I\'d like to point out that Norway has less anti-Semitism in its history than most of Europe, and that Norwegians risked their lives to save Jews during World War II.
These recent actions can be interpreted in one of two ways:
1) Norway is an anti-Semitic nation.
2) Israel\'s actions have isolated it from the people of Norway.
Regarding #1, there is no evidence -- other than these recent events -- to suggest virulent anti-Semitism on the part of Norwegians. It should also be noted that Norway is one of the most generous nations on earth in terms of foreign aid to GNP ratios. There is a very wide range of political beliefs in Norway and isolated examples shouldn\'t be used to tar and feather an entire nation, especially one that has voted to share their North Sea wealth with Third World nations.
Regarding #2, I think a very fair case can be made that worldwide opinion of Israel has been dropping ever since Sharon was elected. It is painful to be told you are wrong by other nations, but this is a trend that will not go away until Israel begins to behave with some restraint.
You can curse Norway, or you can stop, think, and consider whether or not you have the courage to rethink your beliefs regarding this current round of Israeli militarism.
I\'m not offering an opinion so much as reacting, as others have reacted here, to the slander of my homeland without any serious effort to ascertain the facts. I strongly suspect that I know 100x more about Israel than any of the other posters or the host knows about Norway.
85045568 | 04.29.2002 | 8:07 am | Allen S. Thorpe | athorpe@etv.net | http:// | The problem is having to deal with a Senate leadership who want to use advice and consent as a sideshow. If the Senate leadership changed, Bush might be more open to the idea, but probably not even then.
85045215 | 04.29.2002 | 10:15 am | Steve | | http:// | Actually, t