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August 31, 2005
What matters
Michelle Malkin has the skinny on how to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. More here. Tomorrow the blogosphere will do its part - as part of the effort CJ will ask for donations to Catholic Charities.
I've read quite a bit from the left and their opportunistic political attacks and snickering, and I'm tired of it. There will be a time to respond to the left's response, but for the forseeable future I won't partake. Right now it would be almost senseless to do so, and I hope everyone - politics aside - can focus on organizing and contributing to the relief effort.
Posted by bill at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Express train to insanity
In New York City, running a subway line efficiently violates a labor agreement. Reports the NY Post:
A plan to run no-conductor trains on the L line was derailed yesterday when a state arbitrator ruled that it violates the transit workers' contract.
New York City Transit implemented the measure in June, saying the move to cut conductors along the Canarsie line would save the agency $4.2 million a year.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 had argued that a two-person train crew is essential in the event of an emergency.
Yesterday, arbitrator Richard Adelman said that eliminating two-person crews "violated the agreement" between NYC Transit and TWU workers and that the agency must "cease and decease" the practice.
Next stop: more fare hikes.
Posted by bill at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Wednesday, August 31, 2005
What if Syria is Guilty? - Michael Young, TCS
Iraq's Achievement - WSJ
The Quagmire Quagmire - P. Klein, American Spectator
The War Among the Democrats - M. Continetti, Daily Standard
GOP, Dems in Synchronized Funk - Tony Blankley, Wash Times
Gender Bias in Domestic Violence Treatment - W. McElroy, Fox News
Acts of God We Can Handle... - Mark Steyn, Telegraph (UK)
The Terror That Dare Not Speak Its Name - J. Goldberg
Greenspan's Humility - David Ignatius, Wash Post
Posted by bill at 07:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 30, 2005
Spot the Anti-Americanism and other thoughts
As anarchy endangers thousands and our countrymen perish:
Socialist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. :
Now we are all learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and--now--Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.
Germany's "Green" Environmental Minister and socialist Jürgen Trittin:
The Bush government rejects international climate protection goals by insisting that imposing them would negatively impact the American economy. The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies.
Reality check: this. For God's sake, even the NY Times offers skepticism.
Michelle Malkin has the latest.
Meantime, Cindy Sheehan is looking like an ass, now admitting her nonesense isn't about her son at all, but "galvanizing the peace movement," although I'd hesistate to ask what she means by that.
Posted by bill at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Help the victims
Hundreds are feared dead in Mississippi; and New Orleans is turning into a lake:
(via Eastern US Weather Forums.)
Want to help? Call one of these numbers
American Red Cross (800) HELP NOW (435-7669) English; (800) 257-7575 Spanish
Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348
America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070
To donate cash or volunteer:
Adventist Community Services (800) 381-7171
Catholic Charities, USA (703) 549-1390
Christian Disaster Response (941) 956-5183 or (941) 551-9554
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (800) 848-5818
Church World Service (800) 297-1516
Convoy of Hope (417) 823-8998
Lutheran Disaster Response (800) 638-3522
Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210
Nazarene Disaster Response (888) 256-5886
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (800) 872-3283
Salvation Army (800) SAL-ARMY (725-2769)
Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief (800) 462-8657, ext. 6440
United Methodist Committee on Relief (800) 554-8583
Posted by bill at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
States of Emergency, States of Denial
A state of emergency now exists along hundreds of miles of southern border: in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Bush has canceled his vacation to address the emergency brought on by nature, but the man-made disaster taking place west of Crawford--spreading as far afield as Van Nuys, California and Vienna, Virginia--receives only scant and glancing attention from the President. Bush's weak and inexcusable holding pattern on immigration--forced upon Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff--seems based upon the idea that Republicans are doomed to lose in 2008 without the decisive support of a monolithic Hispanic Vote, which they must now stroke and coddle at every opportunity.
An alternate explanation has not been put forth. But the fear and paranoia would be unjustified in their surrender of power even if the political calculus were right. In fact it isn't: legal immigrants have a vested interest in keeping their status--and its benefits--legitimate, and even illegals presently here shouldn't axiomatically appreciate the continual expansion of the labor pool they must compete from for jobs. The logic does not follow. The rationale is unsound. There is no ethnic electoral monolith. There is no Hispanic Vote.
Not only is paralysis on illegal immigration bad policy, it's political cowardice, a daft, mortifying sop to a demographical bogeyman that doesn't even exist--and won't, until 2008, when three more years of an administration that "feels our pain" from the Mexican refugee invasion will have birthed the very monster that stalks it in its sleep.
Posted by James G. Poulos at 03:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Valuing Freedom - John Podhoretz, NY Post
The Krugman Korrection, Take 2 - Scott Johnson, Powerline
See No Evil, Hear No Evil - Stephen F. Hayes, Daily Standard
We Could Lose Everything - Jonathan David Carson, AT
Road to Hell Clogged with Righteous Hybrids - J. Tierney, NYT
Roberts Can Expect Difficult Confirmation Process - J. Lott, Fox News
Bolton's Mischief - LAT
The Other Russian Revolution - Edvard Radzinsky, WSJ
Posted by bill at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Beyond the Taboo
Yesterday I had a chance to read "The Inequality Taboo" in the September issue of Commentary Magazine. In this essay, Charles Murray revisits the question of intelligence among groups, and strongly urges us to remove the blinders of political correctness and begin to view things as they are, not as we would have them be. Murray has a good point, and I sincerely hope his well-reasoned essay sparks debate on this topic.
As a bi-racial man who has always been considered intelligent, I found Murray's discussion of the persistent gap in raw intelligence between blacks and whites in this country to be utterly fascinating. However, concepts with enormous policy implications such as those addressed in this essay ought to be presented carefully. The tone-deaf delivery of his concepts in this essay serves as proof that Charles Murray has not learned much about how to influence people in the 11 years since the merits of his book, The Bell Curve, were drowned out by vicious public outcry over some of the findings in that work. It is somewhat ironic to reflect on the fact that while Murray has a demonstrable aptitude for developing complex ideas, he clearly has no aptitude for convincing the public of the value of those ideas.
But there is value in Murray's concepts, and if this society can overcome the ingrained though absurd belief that individuals are all equal, we would stand to gain much. The taboo is strong, though; as I learned when I discussed this essay with my mother, who is white. She had nothing but hostility for any theory suggesting that blacks in this country are less skilled than whites. But the suggestion that blacks are in some ways more skilled than whites or that woman are in some ways more skilled than men met with no argument. This is political correctness short-circuiting logic, and a clear sign that the voice of Charles Murray should be amplified by supporters, not drowned out by critics uncomfortable with following the data wherever it may lead.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at 12:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 29, 2005
Just a day in the life...
...of Al Sharpton: after canoodling with the left's plaything, Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, he hops in a Lincoln that recklessly speeds at 2x the posted limit and evades police in a several-minute chase en route to the airport, and then hitch-hikes to the airport, hops in his waiting first-class seat, flies home and excuses himself by accusing the police of lying.
And they say Al Sharpton isn't a serious Presidential candidate. Ha-rumph. Must be racism.
Posted by bill at 07:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Europe's Trap Doors
Abkhazia. Transnistria. Nagorno-Karabakh. Unknown names of anonymous places, but close enough to enter--or exit--Europe with a minimum of detection. The frontier of Europe, which is the gateway to a West where inter-democracy travel is still incredibly quick and easy, features among its trap doors the better-known Kosovo. Tiny Kosovo--on the path toward full independence--sits at the center of a remote patch of the Balkans where Islam is prevalent and control is decentralized. And the rump state that surrounds it--Serbia-Montenegro--is a natural destination, as well, for those seeking to sabotage, skirt, or slip away from the law.
Case in point: Spain has announced its intention to formally extradite Abdelmajid Bouchar, a twenty-two-year-old suspect in the Madrid bombing case. As reported by the Southeastern European Times, Bouchar was "arrested in Serbia after apparently entering the country on false papers."
The Abkhazia opportunity is perhaps the most glaring, but expect this pattern to repeat itself--only without the guaranteed arrest--along the long, porous border of the rule of law that reach from St. Petersburg to Belgrade and beyond. And expect the protection--either juridical or otherwise--of Europe's semisovereign ministates to figure unsettlingly in the criminal and terrorist evasion of punishment and prevention.
Posted by James G. Poulos at 02:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Monday, August 29, 2005
Revoke Professor Krugman's Tenure - Noel Sheppard, American Thinker
Primum Non Nocere - Manuel Miranda, WSJ
The Best of Cindy Sheehan - Mark Goldblatt, American Spectator
I am an American - Armstrong Williams (syndicated)
The Media Quagmire - Scott Johnson, Weekly Standard
Just the Verdict, Please - Peter Schuck, LAT
Dems Can't Take Labor for Granted - Martin Frost, Fox News
Why real estate agents aren't getting rich - Austan Goolsbee, Slate
Posted by bill at 08:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2005
Sickening
I don't usually buy into media hype over hurricanes and such but stories like this are simply nauseating:
"We need to recognize we may be about to experience our equivalent of the Asian tsunami, in terms of the damage and the numbers of people that can be killed," said Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Public Health Research Center in Baton Rouge.
Some 25 feet of standing water is expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, he said.
Floodwaters from the east will carry toxic waste from the "Industrial Canal" area, nicknamed after the chemical plants there. From the west, floodwaters would flow through the Norco Destrehan Industrial Complex, which includes refineries and chemical plants, said van Heerden, who has studied computer models about the impact of a strong hurricane for four years.
"These chemical plants are going to start flying apart, just as the other buildings do," he predicted. "So, we have the potential for release of benzene, hydrochloric acid, chlorine and so on."
That could result in severe air and water pollution, he said.
In New Orleans, which lies below sea level, gas and diesel tanks are all located above ground for the same reason that bodies are buried above ground. In the event of a flood, "those tanks will start to float, shear their couplings, and we'll have the release of these rather volatile compounds," van Heerden added.
Because gasoline floats on water, "we could end up with some pretty severe and large -- area-wise --fires."
"So, we're looking at a bowl full of highly contaminated water with contaminated air flowing around and, literally, very few places for anybody to go where they'll be safe."
(H/T: Michelle Malkin. Michelle also has links to relief efforts, and Catholic Charities has posted donation info.)
Posted by bill at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"A War to be Proud Of"
A must-read: Christopher Hitchens offers a "positive accounting" of "A War to be Proud of."
Posted by bill at 08:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"Preserve as many dems as we can."
I've always thought hurricanes like Katrina must be welcome developments to CNN and Fox News during slow late-August news cycles. They offer a pre-packaged sort of drama only Mother Nature can generate and only news producers can love. Drudge is often the worst offender - his fascination with hurricanes seems almost unhealthy. Despite this, I get the sense that Katrina is the real McCoy (note this National Weather Service release - which I got at Drudge), and that we should offer our prayers and later this weeks, some American charity to the people of New Orleans.
We can also eagerly await the inevitable: an attempt to blame President Bush (probably by reference to Kyoto, etc.) for Katrina. Liberal myopia is always on the menu, but natural disasters expose it. With this in mind I popped over to Kos, at which the site's users are, sensibly enough, offering shelter for Katrina's refugees, but also hint at what soon will be explicit: we can thank global warming and President Bush for the death and destruction Katrina will bring. Then there's this gem (first comment in the former thread), from one of the Kos Kidz: "kick ass idea and not only very generous of you, it makes sense politically to preserve as many dems as we can. And I don't mean that lightheartedly, this could be that serious."
For those of you who'd like to help out the liberal and conservatives victims, here's a link to the American Red Cross.
UPDATE [11:07 pm]- look here - it didn't take long for someone to blame Bush.
Posted by bill at 04:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Another angle on SCOTUS
Writing for the Atlantic Monthly, Stuart Taylor Jr. argues that while partisans focus on SCOTUS' political makeup, the country has largely ignored, and suffers from, the Court's "homogenization by professional background":
Now that Sandra Day O'Connor has announced her retirement, how many remaining justices have ever held elected office? How many have previously served at the highest levels of the executive branch of government? How many have argued big-time commercial lawsuits within the past thirty-five years? How many have ever been either criminal defense lawyers or trial prosecutors? How many have presided over even a single criminal or civil trial? The answers are zero, zero, zero, one, and one, respectively.
He continues:
Should we be concerned? After all, the Supreme Court is supposed to sit above politics and apart from popular whims. But when a large majority of the Court's justices have never cross-examined a lying cop or a slippery CEO, never faced a jury, never slogged through the swamps of the modern discovery process, something has gone wrong. As the Court has lost touch with the real-world ramifications of its decisions, our judicial system has clearly suffered.
Read the whole thing; this is an even-handed look at the issue Taylor identifies, although it's hard to discount that a judge's political leanings are the root of intellectual laziness or worse, dishonesty.
Posted by bill at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 26, 2005
Oil, Oil, Oil...Oy....
It's a simple argument: America's addiction to foreign oil is funding anti-American extremists and tying our hands behind out backs when it comes to dealing with Islamic Petrocrats (and Hugo Chavez). Just like a song with a simple refrain, everyone's singing along: Tom Friedman has been beating this particular drum since 9/11 - maybe before. Fareed Zakaria, who I generally like, sang his part in an editorial a week or so ago (methinks because he couldn't think of anything too original in time for his deadline). It went like this:
"If I could change one thing about U.S. foreign policy, what would it be? The answer is easy, but it's not something most of us think of as foreign policy. I would adopt a serious national program geared toward energy efficiency and independence. Reducing our dependence on oil would be the single greatest multiplier of U.S. power in the world."
"Everything we're trying to do in the world is made much more difficult in the current environment of rising oil prices," says Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas that Conquered the World." Consider terror. Over the last three decades, Islamic extremism and violence have been funded from two countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran -- not coincidentally the world's first- and second-largest oil exporters. Both countries are now awash in money and, no matter what the controls, some of this cash is surely getting to unsavory groups and individuals.”
The thing about Fareed and Tom and Bill Maher, et. Al is that they have a point. It’s hard to push the Saudis and Iranians and Venezuelans when oil is almost $70 a barrel. If we could treat them as they need to be treated, we could advance the game-winning goal of democracy. Again, right on the money.
The problem is – perhaps because the idea of the Western world kicking oil is so inconceivable – they’ve never really thought what would happen if the day after oil.
The mullahs may be breaking into check-cashing places in Tehran when we’re zipping around in our 100 mile-per-gallon SUVs; and don’t get me wrong, I’d take great personal pleasure in watching the auction where Wahabi yachts go for pennies on the dollar.
This would, in all likelihood, spell the end of regimes that have stood the last fifty years on anti-American stilts. But how would they end? With a rousing ‘Goombayah’?
Governments that run out of money go into death spirals; and not peaceful ones. When oil-revenue governments can’t pay their workers salaries, or for healthcare or education or whatnot, and their economies subsequently tank, their situation that comes about would look a like Weimar Germany’s. And Afghans have been so kind to show us, you don’t need a lot of money to cause a lot of problems..
And even though we may not need the oil that’s sitting uselessly under Arab dunes, I have a feeling America won’t be able to walk away from whatever problems a broke House of Saud generates.
Similarly, the less marketable Middle Eastern oil is to the world at large, the less would be democrats in the Arab world have to work with. Oil money has done a lot of good for Norwegians, and Alaskans. As dreamy as it seems, an elected Saudi president or prime minister could do more to reaffirm the faith of Arabs in democracy as a hundred Hamid Karzais. That much money, spent right, could provide the sorts of services – healthcare, higher education, roads, etc. – the lack of which causes Palestinians and Iraqis to grumble that it’s all just a Yankee scam.
Perhaps buying $5 a gallon gas is the most patriotic thing you could do.
Posted by Louis at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
A Constitutional Convention's Unconventional Intervention
Iraq watch: federalism issues have produced such an impasse that Bush himself picks up the telephone and suggests Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim partake of a little consensus-building.
Why are we here? The bogus colonial boundary-lines of modern-day Iraq. What do they contain? Three distinct groups with little in common and a tarnished and exhausted national identity.
Who can help Iraq toward a functional nationalism? The answer might surprise. Moqtada al-Sadr, he of the once-infamous Mahdi Army, is the only Shi'ite of any real power who supports unitary nationalism. Is the United States willing to reach out again to a man they once clobbered, a young firebrand willing to segue insurgency into politics? As time ticks down, it will also tell.
Posted by James G. Poulos at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Time for GWB Fireside Chats?...and stuff
This is why I was happy to see Michael Barone had forrayed into the blogosphere. (H/T: Punditreview.com.)
If you're more interested in baseball, whether MLB is still riddled with steroid abuse and whether Rafael Palmeiro should take a lie detector test, you might opt for this story, in which Red Sax underperformer David Wells tells it like it is; or this one, marveling at 47 year-old Julio Franco, the oldest position player in MLB history.
Posted by bill at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Friday, August 26, 2005
Not a Children's Union - Ryan Sager, NYP
Summer of our Discontent - Paul Krugman, NYT
Google's Wake-up Call - Financial Times
Loose lips, tin pots and loud mouths - Wes Pruden, Wash Times
Saddam has only got one ball - Ben Macintyre, Times Online (UK)
How CAIR Works - Scott Hinderaker, Powerline
Michael Yon's Must-Read - Captain Ed
The U.N.'s latest - NY Sun
Carter, Weld, Hussein and Churchill - Daniel Akst, WSJ
Posted by bill at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2005
Global Cop? Global War? Try Military Police
Kerry was ridiculed for suggesting in debate that our national security imperatives could (and should) be handled with a low-intensity constabulary approach. Contrasting the prosecution of war with the booking of hoods were Bush and Cheney, who portrayed our mission abroad as less a game of global policeman than a matter of doing battle.
But as the Pentagon peers in its crystal ball the picture clouds. With the War on Terror as catchphrase caught in official limbo and the possibilities of life after Iraq and Afghanistan coming alive in the imagination of policy planners, the future prerogative of force looks like a combination of crime-busting for supercops and expeditionary thrusts by small-scale forces.
What we're facing is a world's-policeman role more musclebound and aggressive than anything Kerry could have imagined, and a granular, fine-focus network approach to combat far more latticed and finessed than what the Administration made it out to be by contrast. The line between Police Captain and Army Captain will continue to blur--not just overseas, but in America, too. Indeed, as border control cross-pollenates homeland security, the line between local and federal enforcement will shift in some places and merge in others (unless, of course, the Federal government continues to fight illegal immigration with poses and postures).
Posted by James G. Poulos at 03:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A very, very, very fine house
I never imagined anyone'd care about my personal life but a few readers were actually kind enough to email recently about our search for a house near NYC, and I'm pleased to report we've submitted an offer. I'm not pleased to report, however, that we're competing, it seems, with a cash offer, above asking price, from, one imagines, a developer pouncing on an undervalued property that, oh by the way, is an estate sale. Double, triple crikey.
Posted by bill at 01:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Thursday, August 25, 2004
Divided They Stand - David Brooks, NYT
Tales out of School - Naomi Schaefer Riley, WSJ
Shilling for a nuclear Iran - Douglas Hanson, AT
Spending Like Drunken Sailors - Radley Balko, Fox News
Does Pat Robertson Matter? - Byron York, NRO
Saving the Great Raid - Hugh Hewitt, Daily Standard
Tone-Deafness Among Democrats - George Will, WP
Put a little faith in Roberts - Mario M. Cuomo, LAT
Clinton's the Man! - Russ Smith, NY Press
Posted by bill at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
It's a mad mad mad mad world
Note to Pat Robertson: Instead, perhaps the first thing we should do is to assassinate American plaintiffs attorneys. Or some of them. 10 bucks all involved, except possibly the defendant doctor, are democrats. Just a hunch. (H/T: Jules from down the hall.)
Posted by bill at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Department of nonsensical political grandstanding and CYA-ism
DHS Chief Michael Chertoff is an idiot. At he least he sounded like one yesterday, as reported here. Addressing border control issues that have concerned Americans for years, especially the last four, Chertoff proclaimed:
"We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the problem and solve it once and for all," Mr. Chertoff said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. "The American public is rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel we do not have the proper control over our borders."
"We are moving forward quickly and aggressively to fashion a comprehensive plan with real solutions," Chertoff reportedly wrote to Arizona's Governor.
Why the sudden interest? (Psst: political ass-covering.) What a laugh. DHS wants to "fashion" a plan (when?) before it actually does anything (when?)? Now that's the federal government we know and love. How about this plan, Mr. Chertok: Stop the jib-jab, stop worrying about Hispanic Republicans and enforce the law.
Posted by bill at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Silly or Prophetic?
Parachutes signal the beginning of World War III in the "teen classic" film, RED DAWN (1984,PG-13.)Soviet and Cuban forces are invading an unidentified U.S. town and it is up to a bunch of high school kids to repel them, initiating an insurgency--named for the school mascot, the Wolverines--and bedeviling the invaders. These teens are an amazing bunch as they quickly learn what it takes the military months to teach recruits--rifle and sniper skills, using machine guns and RPG's, even anti-tank tactics. They put our Rangers and Special Forces units to shame with their military acumen and I was surprised they didn't learn to fly Hueys and to man Soviet versions of the Abrams tank! So, ok, it's a silly film but also, perhaps, prophetic.
The band of teenies wreak havoc on the brutal Soviet-Cuban occupational forces but, of course, there's no Soviet Union today and Castro can barely feed his people. But, a few references in the film make the viewer think a bit. It's revealed that "six hundred million screaming Chinamen" are supporting us (a population 40% decimated by nuclear attacks) as is England, which will be "gone soon." What of the rest of Europe? Nope. Having had two wars (in the twentieth century) "they're sitting this one out." Though the film is filled with improbables and unlikelies, the thought of Western Europe "sitting out" the next conflict--if it only involved the United States--is very probable and likely. After all, prior to 1989 and the U.S.S.R. collapse, they needed us; now they don't and in fact seem to detest us--since they don't need us. The other scenario in RED DAWN that's chilling is that the invasion initially comes from the south, as Cuba, "the army of Nicaragua," and other forces--Mexican, perhaps?--infiltrate untold thousands of forces and seize much of the country.
The film ends indecisively with a standoff, and the United States still occupied. An impossible scenario for our future? Of course.
But not all of it, if we just change some of the invaders nationalities and alliances. As for the entry point at the Rio Grande, no problemo!
Posted by Gene Blogger at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Democrats and Deep Vote Fraud - Selwyn Duke, American Thinker
The U.N.-Touchables - Claudia Rosett, WSJ
Looking for wisdom in the wrong places - Pat Morrisson, LAT
Enter Camp Reality - Eric Pfeiffer, NRO
Goodbye Gaza, Hello Hamas - John Perazzo, FPM
Rethinking Prague - Ed Morrissey, WS
Some thoughts on casualties... - J. Hinderaker, Powerline
The war, the Dems and Hillary - Pat Buchanan (Syndicated)
Turning Point for School Choice - Matthew Ladner, NYP
John Roberts and his attitude - K. Parker, Manchester Union Leader
Posted by bill at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Anti-American internationalism at Ground Zero
Today the NYDN reports "Another Insult to America's Heritage at the Freedom Center" and exposes the anti-American filth that is consuming the World Trade Center memorial:
A global network of human rights museums is urging the International Freedom Center to downplay America in its exhibits and programs at Ground Zero, the Daily News has learned.
The outrageous request is the latest controversy to torment the Freedom Center, whose leaders have tried to dispel the perception that it would be a home for America bashers.
"Don't feature America first," the IFC has been advised by the consortium of 14 "museums of conscience" that quietly has been consulting with the Freedom Center for the past two years over plans for the hallowed site. "Think internationally, where America is one of the many nations of the world."
Angry? It gets worse -- more below the fold.
The NYDN story continues:
Philip Kunhardt, the Freedom Center's editorial director, was in attendance at a session called Bringing Conscience to Ground Zero and was given this advice:
- "Help distinguish between American people and the U.S. government in exhibits ..."
- "Use reports from human rights organizations to examine contemporary abuse of rights."
- "Involve the United Nations, UNESCO and other international bodies."
- "Use the museum as a venue for international meetings, where all views are welcomed and considered."
At the conference, the coalition also leveled barbs at the IFC: "The Freedom Center is a caricature of the typical American response to everything [telling every story from an American viewpoint]."
Members of the coalition also expressed these concerns:
- "It seems that whatever Americans want, Americans get!" the conference report states. "Is the definition of the 'struggle for freedom' simply defined by the victors, or also by those engaged in ongoing struggles? Will Americans really create a balanced vision of freedom?"
- "The WTC was attacked because it was a symbol of power and influence. In building the Freedom Tower, the U.S. reasserts its power in an arrogant way: Does this mean the U.S. will not only build the biggest building, but also define freedom for the world?"
- "Many nonsecular Muslims may be very skeptical about the intent of this museum (e.g. the average Bangladeshi condemns the Sept. 11 attacks, yet at the same time feels his/her human rights have been violated by the U.S.)."
Takebackthememorial.org sets the record straight.
Posted by bill at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iraq Constitution
Fred Kaplan misses some points in his column "Philadelphia 1787 vs. Baghdad 2005" (among which is to underestimate the havoc of America's first constitutional convention - read more here) but Kaplan's column is worth a read; many on the left, emboldended with barren hearts and vapid intellects, are left to little more than ridicule.
Posted by bill at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Monday, August 22, 2005
Money Pit - B. Maloney & M. Malkin, NYP
Help! I'm a Hollywood Republican - Robert J. Avrech, FPM
Animal Terrorism - Doug Bandow, Wash Times
Iran and Diplomacy - WSJ
Pakistanophobia Grips France - Scott Norvell, Fox News
Why Profiling Won't Work - William Raspberry, Wash Post
Blame Bush for for Merck's Vioxx - Noel Sheppard, AT
With the Minutemen on the Mexican Border - Matt Labash, WS
Slate's Iraqi Constitution Contest
Posted by bill at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 20, 2005
Weekend edition
No soup for you, sorry. Will resume posting tomorrow night. Next week, too, I'll be introducing a new blogger or two to add to our roster. In the meantime (and a little more on this later), check out CJ contributor (and American Spectator conributor - see his latest here) James Poulos and his new blog, Postmodern Conservative. James is a brilliant writer and we like him even though he's an attorney.
Also, I'm aware of the comment issue over on the articles pages. A weird issue, we'll fix that right up.
Posted by bill at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
this is a test
Some Major league tech issues this afternoon, folks.
"We ask that you please bear with us."
Posted by bill at 02:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It's the anger, stupid
David Ignatius wonders why Democrats can't get it together:
This should be the Democrats' moment: The Bush administration is caught in an increasingly unpopular war; its plan to revamp Social Security is fading into oblivion; its deputy chief of staff is facing a grand jury probe. Though the Republicans control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, they seem to be suffering from political and intellectual exhaustion. They are better at slash-and-burn campaigning than governing.
So where are the Democrats amid this GOP disarray? Frankly, they are nowhere. They are failing utterly in the role of an opposition party, which is to provide a coherent alternative account of how the nation might solve its problems. Rather than lead a responsible examination of America's strategy for Iraq, they have handed off the debate to a distraught mother who is grieving for her lost son. Rather than address the nation's long-term fiscal problems, they have decided to play politics and let President Bush squirm on the hook of his unpopular plan to create private Social Security accounts.
Because they lack coherent plans for how to govern the country, the Democrats have become captive of the most shrill voices in the party, who seem motivated these days mainly by visceral dislike of George W. Bush. Sorry, folks, but loathing is not a strategy -- especially when much of the country finds the object of your loathing a likable guy.
Ignatius has a point, but it's hardly an original one: see this, this and this.
Posted by bill at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - August 19, 2005
Who speaks for Casey Sheehan? - D. Gelernter, LAT
Progress in the Middle East - Steven A Cook, Wash Times
Managing the News for Hillary's Sake - Noel Sheppard, AT
Inside Air America: An Investigative Blog Report - Part I and II
Bolton's Back - NY Sun
What Democrats Should be Saying - David Ignatius, Wash Post
Justice, No Peace - Manuel Miranda, WSJ
Why Roberts' Views Matter - Ready Teddy Kennedy, Wash Post
What They Did Last Fall - Paul Krugman, NYT
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August 18, 2005
Blogging and the future of politics
I realize not everyone cares what papers are in those tacky bins on the city sidewalks, and to people who don't, I'll apologize for my last post. Who cares what New Yorkers are reading, aye? For those people I offer Hugh Hewitt's piece today for the Weekly Standard talking about the blogosphere's effect on political debate and such. Among the thought-provoking comments:
As the daily information avalanche keeps getting bigger and bigger, and the data mountains higher and higher, the need for sherpas increases. No one person can keep on top of it all, but the technology Power Line News harnesses puts the new media's best content in a compact and easy-to-use display--basically mirroring the function RealClearPolitics performs for old media. Reliable aggregation of content is a huge development, one which further weakens the mainstream media.
Hewitt also says blogging has pulled Democrats leftward, which is probably a more significant point, and I'd guess he's right. It's exposed much of the un-intellectual left as a fraud and in the process, I think, fed that Deaniac anger. In terms of reasoned debate, there's simply no comparison between the most popular lefty blogs (Kos, Crooks & Liars and Kos alum Atrios with their conservative counterparts: Instapundit, Michelle Malkin and Powerline)(traffic stats here). I realize I'm making generalizations but this is only the beginning. Others - for example, Markos is incredibly popular but also incredibly immature, and one can't dismiss this altogether. Also compare comments at Free Republic with those at the Democratic Undergound. Every side has its shills and maniacs, but the left certainly seems to be tipping the scales.
Posted by bill at 01:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Media Watch
I just wrote a witty and insightful diddy on the forthcoming makeover at the NYC alt-weekly NY Press, and my desktop went kaput for a moment, pissing all of my work away. So read about it here and here and form your own damn opinions.
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Morning Blend - Thursday, August 18, 2004
She Does Not Speak for Me - Ronald R. Griffin, WSJ
Son of Liberty - Anne Morse, NRO
Conservative Lament - Andrew Sumereau, AT
The Omission Commission - Ed Morrissey, WS (8/17)
An Air-Security Scam - Joel Mowbray, NYP
Powerless at the Pump - Andres Martinez, LAT
Podcasting and the New Media - Glenn Reynolds, TCS
Minor Leagues, Major Dreams - George Will, Wash Post
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August 17, 2005
Brantley Smith - on Cindy Sheehan
I don't usually make much reference here to CJ articles but this one is worth an exception.
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Mexico's designs for a new map!
Aztlan, Raza, MEChA. Sound like a foreign language? Well, it is, but some people plan to incorporate it into ours, and to incoporate much of the southwest United States, as well!
Those of you in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas et al. had better learn Spanish soon!! Our Mexican neighbors have even re-drawn their and our map!
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Lies, damn lies, statistics...
..and Associated Press stories. Newsbusters catches them. (H/T: Rob from down the hall.)
Posted by bill at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ratings ratings ratings...
...still, why do we need to know this?
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Morning Blend - Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The Second White Memo - Captain Ed
NY's Cassandra - Deborah Orin, NYP
The Intellectual Bankruptcy of the Abortion Debate - W. McElroy, Fox News
The risk of running up the score on Roberts - Manuel Miranda, WSJ
Conservative Compassion - Edmund Morris, NYT
Hamastan? Gaza pullout is worth the risk - Max Boot, LAT
Terror on the Internet - Stephen Schwartz, TCS
'Hard Slog' for Bush - David Ignatius, Wash Post
No more self-flagellation on Hiroshima & Nagasaki - James Chen, AT
The Left's Extras - Mark Steyn, NRO
Posted by bill at 07:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
Que Pasa, Senior Presidente?
At what point do we start calling it a Mexican "invasion"? Over 20 million and counting, and the Bush administration's cynical pandering (h/t: Michelle Malkin) to the future GOP base: Hispanics. Democrats, sensing opportunity, are prepared to pounce, as they should be. And, lest we forget, would-be terrorists know fecklessness when they see it. Is this another August 6th 2001 memo in the making?
Posted by bill at 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Something stinks
Independent Sources has a fascinating post on monstrous corporate ambulance-chasing law firm Milberg Weiss, and their fondness for CA Senator Barbara Boxer:
Milberg Weiss and its affiliates have been Senator Boxer's largest contributors from the legal industry. They also gave Boxer $44k in her first term, the 1998 cycle. They are her #4 all-time contributor.
IS also gives a few reasons why Boxer won't be returning those funds, even despite MW's fraud-like stench. "We'll start the clock today," IS says. (H/T: Captain Ed.)
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Morning Blend - Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Fighting the Last Hijackers - John Tierney, NYT
Meet with her (again), Mr. President - Cal Thomas, Syndicated
Made for Air America - Rich Lowry, NRO
Unfree Under Islam - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, WSJ
The disintegration of Iraq - Allen Topol, Wash Times
Indian mascots and common courtesy - Matthew Miller, CSM
A Grim Necessity - John Podhoretz, NYP
More than Minority Blues - E.J. Dionne, Wash Post
The Forgotten Victims of Choice - Michelle Malkin
Schroeder: Another Try at Anti-Americanism - Captain Ed
Posted by bill at 07:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 15, 2005
Fall fodder
It's mid-August, and as a Penn State football and New York Yankee fan, I am anticipating another busy fall. As in the past many will be the bright, clear October afternoons during which I'll become something of an agorophobe, watching fall's sports bounty on the boob tube instead of enjoying the great outdoors. (My wife is patient about this, but it can be trying.) In any event, for a host of reasons Happy Valley anxiously awaits the 2005 campaign, and in order to avoid certain burnout I'm going to post here a bit about the Big Ten dark horse and their season, as it unfolds. As noted before, too, I sometimes post about baseball, and I'll probably do so as the Yankees head into October, hopefully without Kevin Brown.
I hope all of this doesn't annoy too many people but too much politics can be bad for the soul. The first installment: Coach Joe Paterno says the Lions need to open the offense up a bit. I think most PSU fans will agree with me: Good Lord, just score some points.
Posted by bill at 09:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MSM's Cindy Sheehan love affair
Powerline's John Hinderaker asks the right questions in this post on Cindy Sheehan. Noting Sheehan's kinship with the creepy (and proudly anti-Semitic) "Crawford Peace House" and her apparent anti-Americanism (which extends, by the way, well beyond the War in Iraq), Hinderaker is right to note that while truths may be elusive, a fair question - and the one the blogosphere is covering best, is whether there's "any reason why [Sheehan] should be glorified by virtually every American media outlet?"
Well, sure there is. No good reason of course, but this is a variation on a tired theme by MSM.
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