…We’d all swim in the sea. Tom Friedman of the Times has the courage to wish he were swimming back in the sea before it became a sea of troubles on 9/11/01. From his bullying pulpit on the Times op-ed page, he holds forth on what presidential candidate he will, and will not [...]
Archive for September, 2007
If wishes were fishes…
Posted in Terrorism, War and Peace on September 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
What to expect from Hillary
Posted in Politics on September 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Here it comes, and she hasn’t even clinched the Donk nomination. The Hillary is talking about socialized medicine (again), and, in what seems to be a knee-jerk response of Democrats who are close to being in power, a costly and foolish giveaway. This time it’s “Baby Bonds.”
No, sounds like but is not the [...]
The fog of war
Posted in Iraq, War and Peace on September 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
First, from the author of the much-used term, “the fog of war,” the Prussian Carl von Clausewitz (from Wikipedia):
The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently — like the effect [...]
Idolatry in the end zone
Posted in Culture, Sports on September 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Herb Lusk, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s, has been credited, in the Washington Post story as being “the first NFL player to kneel in the end zone and pray” after scoring a touchdown. Mr. Lusk did this quietly, and, it would appear, solely for the purpose of thanking God for providing [...]
Impeach Bush?
Posted in Iran, War and Peace on September 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The fever swamps of the Left, led by miscreants from MoveOn.org and A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism; get yer Red-hot Che T-shirts here…), have been calling for the president’s impeachment for allegedly lying and getting us into a hopeless morass in Iraq.
A morass that has cost the lives of thousands [...]
Jena nonsense
Posted in America, Racism on September 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Heather Mac Donald has a fact-filled article at City Journal that puts to rest the notion that the United States still looks like Little Rock Arkansas, circa 1957.
Titled “The Jena Dodge,” its theme can be expressed in this single sentence: “It is not racism that is putting black men in jail; it’s their own [...]
“fairness of the death penalty”
Posted in Law and order on September 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I’m not a big fan of the death penalty. With rare exception, I’d much prefer to keep convicted murderers in prison for the rest of their lives. True life sentences, with no possibility of parole for all first-degree murderers or those who murder police or children. But my standard of [...]
Compare and contrast
Posted in Idiotarians, Iran on September 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
An exercise in morality, and whether we can recognize the man of honor as compared and contrasted with the man of dishonor. This posting by GOP Vixen is worthy of your time.
Two excerpts. First, some pithy (not a typo…) sayings from Mad Mo:
We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to [...]
What passes for punditry
Posted in Media, Politics on September 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Jim Hoagland is one of those eminences in the world of big journalism who has, apparently, been elevated to the point where his columns are no longer fact-checked. Or, in the parlance of those of us who blog on current events, fisked.
In his rush to judgment in today’s column on the what presidential candidates [...]
Rebuild New Orleans?
Posted in America on September 23, 2007 | 1 Comment »
I lived for a time in New Orleans, and, I’d have to say, it shouldn’t be rebuilt. NOLA lost its original rationale for being built in the first place a long time ago — as a major port at the mouth of the Mississippi.
It had become, and remains today, merely a place where one may [...]
Muhammed Cat
Posted in Islam on September 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In the “this isn’t really news” news, some Muslims are rioting over perceived (or real; I don’t particularly care) insults to the Religion of Peace. There are the usual requests that various people be murdered. This particular Islamic display of tolerance took place in Bangladesh.
You may, if you’re old enough, remember how the [...]
Islamophobophobia
Posted in Islam on September 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Every once and again one may read an essay that can cause a sudden “Stop!” to your notions, preconceived and otherwise. John Derbyshire has such an essay up at NRO. Derb, an agnostic himself, makes several key points about religion in general.
One is that Islam, whatever else it may be, provides comfort for [...]
Mad Mo’ part two
Posted in Iran, anti-Semitism on September 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
To anyone who thinks I’m a tad unfair to Mad Mo’, consider a sample from Mad Mo’s repertoire:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map — AlJazeera
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the Holocaust as “a myth” — CNN
Ahmadinejad: Be assured that the US and Israel [...]
What if…
Posted in Iran, Terrorism on September 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
…we let Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visit the site of the 9/11 atrocity? According to news reports, the Holocaust-denying, Israel-threatening moke who is the president of Iran, wants to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site. In memory of those taken down by Islamic terrorists.
Just a New York minute, here. [...]
Sally World
Posted in Culture, Idiotarians on September 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sally World is the make-believe world of some Hollywood celebrities, named for Sally Field by Michelle Malkin in honor of Field’s lefty tirade at the recent Emmy Awards.
Sally World is an imagined world in which good conquers evil by thinking kindly thoughts and never fighting back. A world in which mothers, by the act [...]
The gift that keeps on giving
Posted in Idiotarians, Politics on September 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s some political support for Rudy from an unlikely source: MoveOn.org. The idiotarian, left-wing, anti-American group has issued an anti-Rudy hit piece to run in Iowa. From the Boston Globe, the basics:
Its political action committee bought an ad that attacks the former New York mayor for skipping out on meetings of the [...]
“Pastors for Peace”
Posted in Christianity, Idiotarians on September 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Where to begin? The image shows someone blithely pedaling along at last Saturday’s anti-war rally, wearing a shirt whose sponsor is “Pastors for Peace” and whose message is “Regime Change in the U.S. Not in Cuba.”
Pastors for Peace is, apparently, what might charitably be called a communist fellow-traveler organization, along the lines of the “Fair [...]
No laughing matter
Posted in Terrorism, War and Peace, clarity on September 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Good column by Mark Steyn (is there any other kind?) up on NRO this morning. The theme, or one of them? How very misguided some of our “leaders” have become in describing evil. Yeah, there goes that Manichean Jack again, but consider this quotation attributed by Steyn to Gov. Deval Patrick [...]
Mormons and Catholics and Evangelicals, oh my
Posted in Christianity, Politics on September 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
There’s an interesting article on Mitt Romney’s campaign in today’s WaPo Outlook section. Titled, “For Romney, It’s Not His Father’s Campaign” it compares and contrasts the failed candidacy of George Romney in the late 1960s. Other than being father and son, the salient feature in common? The Mormon faith.
There’s some discussion of religion, qua religion, [...]
Winston Churchill on Islam
Posted in Islam on September 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
With a tip o’ the fedora to Vik Rubenfeld’s Big Picture, a useful quotation from one of the greats, Sir Winston:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects [...]
“real but reversible military gains”
Posted in Iraq on September 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In the credit given where it’s due department, the single most important phrase about the current improvements in Iraq is the title here, and is detailed in today’s WaPo editorial, “The Least Bad Plan.” From the editorial, the lead paragraph is all one needs to read:
President Bush’s explanation of his latest plans for [...]
“our side”
Posted in Media on September 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Speaking of the Gray Lady, caught this little bit of the liberalati down among the primitives via Max Boot at Contentions. The primitives in question are from the Hudson Valley town of Cornwall-on-Hudson, very close to West Point. Seems that General Patraeus grew up there, and the Times article about the general and [...]
Times and MoveOn
Posted in Media, Politics, War and Peace on September 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A marriage made in Hell? It’s just too easy, and sweet. According to Fox News this morning, the “General Betray Us” full page ad in the New York Times was placed by MoveOn.org for $100,000 less than the published rate. The furies on the right have been roused, not just because [...]
Too much order, not enough law?
Posted in Law and order on September 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes my law and order friends go a wee bit too far. Or do they? Thomas Sowell, as per usual, has written a useful and thought-provoking article at NRO. The topic is the White Bronco of the murdering O.J. Simpson. Well, in a way.
The subject is high-speed police chases, and [...]
Honor and its antithesis
Posted in Idiotarians, War and Peace on September 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
“Duty, Honor, Country” is the West Point motto, and it becomes the personal creed for Army officers who joint the thousands who have, throughout our history, joined the Long Gray Line. It is also a simple description for the vast majority of Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps officers I’ve known and worked [...]
Never forget, never surrender
Posted in Terrorism, War and Peace on September 11, 2007 | 2 Comments »
9/11/01 was not the start of the war against us, but it was the point in history when many of us took notice. A wake-up call, if you will.
9/11 did not, however, “change everything.” From the very start of our recovery from those cowardly attacks, we were told to simply resume our lives, go [...]
Diana, JFK, and all that
Posted in Terrorism, War and Peace on September 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Pathos, Bathos, and Public Grief. The new Three Musketeers of our age; the wall-to-wall sob-story coverage of the deaths of people more famous than good, or elevated in the public eye well beyond the merely human. The ghastly shrines to Diana, now mimicked wherever a tragedy has taken place; the stupid because it [...]
“Pro-War Is Anti-Christ”
Posted in Hypocrites, War and Peace on September 9, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This is quite the bumper sticker slogan. It’s found on the sign of one Elliott Nesch, who has walked more than 1,600 miles in protest of the Iraq war. Well, good for you, Elliott; you’ve got the gumption to get out and get moving in support of your beliefs.
According to the article in the WaPo, [...]
The rabid pollster
Posted in Terrorism on September 8, 2007 | 1 Comment »
In a recent Zogby poll, the following question was put to respondents: Are pigs able to fly but choose not to; are pigs able to fly and do, but only out of sight of humans; are pigs merely farm animals and a wonderful source of bacon and pork chops? Just kidding, but this [...]
Honor
Posted in Politics, War and Peace on September 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The exchange, at the latest Republican candidates’ debate, between Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee raises only one question for me: why do they allow Ron Paul on the stage?
Ron Paul is, shall we say, out to lunch on the issue of national security generally, and specifically Iraq. His foreign policy smacks [...]
