Musings Archive December 2002
Tuesday, December 31, 2002 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF NEW YEAR'S?: A great essay and very timely. Have a great New Year from the entire Enter Stage Right staff!
By Scott A. McConnell
The meaning of most holidays is clear: Valentine's Day celebrates romance; July Fourth, independence; Thanksgiving, productivity; Christmas, good will toward men. The meaning of New Year's Day--the world's most celebrated holiday--is not so clear. On this day, many people remember last year's achievements and failures and look forward to the promise of a new year, of a new beginning. But this celebration and reflection is the result of more than an accident of the calendar. New Year's has a deeper significance. What is it?
[more]Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
Monday, December 30, 2002 I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T MENTION THIS EARLIER: I recently got an email from the Henry Hazlitt Foundation stating that they were shutting down operations due to a shortfall in fundraising. That means all the great web sites that the foundation operates like Free-Market.Net, ifeminists, Freedom News Daily, J.D. Tuccille's Spotlight, SchoolReformers.com, EnterpriseEconomy.com, Libertarian.org, among others, will likely disappear for good.
I know in these economic times that things aren't easy for anyone but if you can help them out in any way I'm sure they'd appreciate it.
Posted by steve @ 11:35 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMOTION ALERT: I have a post-Christmas piece up at Toogood Reports. It's a more traditional theistic, natural-law interpretation of individual rights, objectivist readers should feel free to give it a tweak.
Posted by antle @ 11:20 PM EST [Link]
~ AMERICANS WARY OF TAX CUTS: Look for many more news stories like this one. The Associated Press, via Yahoo!, is reporting that by a 2-to-1 margin Americans want to hold off on more tax cuts as the war approaches.
This is why it is critical that the Bush administration connect the dots between lower taxes and more rapid economic growth. Tax cuts are not a one-time quick fix, as one of the respondents suggested. They are a necessary clearing of disincentives to earn income, expand businesses, create wealth and otherwise engage in productive economic behavior. Properly formulated, with emphasis on lowering marginal rates, tax cuts can increase the value of work and investment. From the perspective of raising revenue, applying current marginal tax rates to a stagnant tax base is self-defeating. Lowering those rates convincingly will help stimulate new economic activity that will enlarge the tax base and in the long run recoup foregone revenue. Bush needs to make the case that only by reducing our outrageous tax take, higher than at any time since World World II, and lowering rates we can unleash a frenzy of free market activity needed to put people back to work and finance the war on terror.
America won the Cold War with a defense buildup that coincided with pro-growth tax cuts during the Reagan years. This is why national military spending amounted to about 6 percent of GDP during the 1980s compared to 9.5 percent during the 1950s. Only by making the serious argument for lower taxes, and constructing tax cuts that will conform to this argument by actually stimulating growth, can Bush turn public opinion. And even if public opinion remains unenthusiastic, he needs to remember that ultimately the American people will care most about where the economy ends up as a result of his policies. That's why Bush needs to focus like a laser beam (as Bill Clinton would say) on growth.
Posted by antle @ 05:14 PM EST [Link]
~ AND THE WINNER OF OUR THE GRAMSCI FACTOR CONTEST IS: Bill Dinges! Congratulations Bill! We'll have that out to you ASAP.
Posted by steve @ 03:35 PM EST [Link]
~ CONTACT THE FBI IF YOU SEE THESE GUYS: FBI warns of five Arab males who entered the U.S. illegally in the past week.
Posted by steve @ 01:39 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 29, 2002 THE INS AND OUTS OF THE LIFE OF AN INTERNET COLUMNIST: For those of you who are interested, Fred Reed offers a clever and perceptive take on being a web columnist. Fred's work has appeared at some of the same venues as mine, including Toogood Reports, and he has appeared in more than a few print publications too, such as National Review, Harper's, the Washington Times and The American Conservative.
The main thing that keeps us Internet columnists going is our loyal readers. Well, that and the fact we are so darned opinionated!
Posted by antle @ 09:52 PM EST [Link]
~ CONGRATULATIONS JOEL MOWBRAY: Michelle Malkin has named him the border security whistleblowewr of the year. Mowbray's journalism alerted people to the national security risks inherent in the Visa Express program. He also wrote the National Review cover story on the 9/11 terrorist visas, arguing that 15 of the 19 hijackers filed visa applications that should have been rejected on their face.
Let's hope that continued coverage leads to reform in the New Year.
Posted by antle @ 06:25 PM EST [Link]
~ INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS ON RACE, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS: Bruce Bartlett has an interesting column on the way various economic policies have impacted blacks, and how the perception of these policies has turned them from a constituency that voted upwards of 90 percent Republican before the Depression to one that votes upwards of 90 percent Democratic today.
Bartlett makes the important point that in a free market, discrimination doesn't pay. The reason racial discrimination was so pervasive prior to the civil rights movement's successes owes largely to the fact that government supported this discrimination, especially through the Jim Crow laws in the South. Readers who responded to my last two articles questioned whether the expansion of federal power occasioned by the 1960s civil rights laws were justified by the oppressive state laws they tore down. Leaving that aside, I think a key Republican - and to an even greater extent, conservative - failure during the 1950s and '60s was not explaining the extent to which bad government policies were the primary cause of problems faced by black Americans and other minorities. Certainly, these policies made it possible for them to suffer the amount of discrimination they did without businesses and individuals who chose to engage in discrimination having to face the full economic consequences. Perhaps if this had been made clear, we would not today evaluate officeholders' support for racial equality on the basis of their record of supporting big-government initiatives as we so often do.
Posted by antle @ 06:15 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 28, 2002 BUSH NEEDS TO GET THE MOST ECONOMIC BANG FOR THE TAX-CUT BUCK: This Washington Post story makes me wonder if some in President Bush's inner circle are missing the point on tax cuts. According to this report, unnamed political advisers are suggesting that the administration drop plans to accelerate the reduction in the top marginal income tax rate to focus on other tax cuts, such as lower taxes on dividends.
Now, I am all for cutting taxes on dividend income, but I think failing to cut the top income tax rate faster would be a mistake. Yes, it is more difficult to defend something that liberals can easily refer to as a tax cut for the wealthy. But instead of focusing on the short-term political ramifications of any specific tax-cut package, the Bush administration needs to concentrate on the long-term policy goals of stimulating economic growth and creating new jobs. Whatever mileage the Democrats will get out of ads attacking Bush for cutting millionares' tax bills will be more than compensated for if the economy and employment are growing briskly. On the other hand, a more restrained tax-cut package that doesn't lend itself as easily to Democratic cariacture but doesn't significantly enhance incentives or stimulate growth will be a political loser in the long run. The two issues that will ultimately make or break President Bush's reelection bid in 2004 are the multifaceted war on terror and the economy. If either are perceived as being in the toilet, Bush's high approval ratings today will not save his reelection from an astute Democratic campaign tomorrow.
I have repeatedly argued in the pages of ESR that the Bush tax cut was too small, takes too long to phase in and is effectively limited by its expiration date. Although it is politically the least popular aspect of his tax cut, the reduction in the top marginal rate is what will have the greatest economic benefit. The biggest incentive enhancement, and thus the most stimulative effect (to say nothing of "Laffer Curve effect"), takes place at the highest rate. Conversely, the most popular part of the tax cut, the rebates, offers the least economic benefit. Again, I do favor cutting taxes on dividends both from the perspective of political philosophy and economics (I think it's a pro-growth measure), but Bush is going to get the most bang for his buck with such "tax cuts for the wealthy" as a lower top marginal rate and a cut in the capital gains tax. These are tax cuts that will increase incentives to earn additional income, create wealth and expand employment opportunities.
Practically any meaningful income tax cut a Republican could offer is going to be pilloried as a giveway to the rich by Democrats and the left. Why not just deal with the inevitable criticism and work for the most pro-growth tax cut that is politically possible? Aside from making compromises necessary to make sure that whatever tax package the White House introduces can actually pass Congress, efforts to water down tax cuts should be avoided. The key political consideration is not what Democrats will say about a tax cut, but whether jobs and growth are in evidence in 2004. Maximizing both is also the right thing for the country.
Posted by antle @ 09:23 PM EST [Link]
~ THE DEMOCRATS' SUBVERSIVE STRATEGY: Ever since the Trent Lott debacle, liberals have gleefully been pointing to Kevin Phillips' "Southern Strategy" as evidence that the Republican Party has benefitted politically from playing to voters' racial prejudices and resentments. In particular, they argue that the GOP's rebirth in the South since the 1960s is primarily because they absorbed the old Dixiecrat vote after President Johnson permanently alienated them from the national Democratic Party by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the "open-housing" Civil Rights Act of 1968. While neither major U.S. party can claim to be pure on racial issues, our friend Lawrence Henry recently argued in The American Prowler that the nation, including the South, turned to increasingly toward the GOP after the 1960s because liberalism and the modern Democratic Party liberals dominate went mad. A piece too good to be lost in the Christmas shuffle.
Posted by antle @ 08:20 PM EST [Link]
~ OH WAIT, IT'S ONLY US THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE TOLERANT: A Toronto area mosque sent out an email recently stating that it was wrong to wish Christians a Merry Christmas.
Doing so "is like congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone or having illicit sexual relations and so on." Makes me warm inside.
The Muslim Canadian Congress reacted angrily and called it hate-mongering.
Posted by steve @ 04:47 PM EST [Link]
Friday, December 27, 2002 MOST ADMIRED MAN IN AMERICA?: George W. Bush of course! Not bad for someone who is supposed to be an idiot.
Posted by steve @ 02:58 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 26, 2002 EVERYBODY LOVES CARTOONS!: Although some are less lovable then others. MEMRI now has a section with anti-Semitic cartoons published in the Middle East. Some are indistinguishable from German cartoons from the 1930s...
Posted by steve @ 01:26 AM EST [Link]
~ HELP VIRGINIA OUT: Virginia Postrel is casting about for recommendations for the picture of herself that she'll use for the cover of her new book. Here are your choices and write in and tell her (virginia@dynamist.com) which one you like. I picked number five.
Posted by steve @ 01:19 AM EST [Link]
~ TIGER WOODS VOTED FOR HARRY BROWNE?: Well, probably not but Radley Balko thinks the world's best golfer -- who happens to be dating Swedish model Elin Nordegren -- might be a libertarian. I wouldn't mind that either...
For some reason the code for the pop up picture of Ms. Nordegren runs up until the link to Balko's article...just click on the word libertarian to see his essay.
Posted by steve @ 12:54 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 25, 2002 SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T LIKE NIGELLA LAWSON: Frequent readers will note that I made a barely restrained reference to my being hot on recipe writer Nigella Lawson and a fan of her books, we reviewed Nigella Bites a couple of weeks back, and television shows. Many people do not, however, like her. It's easy to see why really. Although she's presented as the girl next door just pottering around the kitchen, Lawson is far from it (unless sexy women with little training in their chosen fields and dating men worth $300 million is the definition of average). Sara Dickerman is one of those people.
In a Slate piece published earlier this week that I missed, Dickerman has few kind things to say about the Brit food critic.
"Too often, Lawson's English charm masks lazy, banal thinking and her effervescent Times columns boil down to food clichés: Tuscan food is amazing in its simplicity; British food gets a bad rap but boasts some comforting classics; and Thanksgiving means great leftover dishes."
I have to admit that a few things about Nigella Bites did irk me that I perhaps should have expanded on, simple cooking does not include ingredients I have never heard of for example, but I think Dickerman is being a little harsh on Lawson.
First long post I make this week and it's about a British food critic...
Posted by steve @ 11:39 PM EST [Link]
~ TIME TO ADD ANOTHER MEMBER TO THAT AXIS OF EVIL: Israeli PM Ariel Sharon says that Iraq has hidden some of the bad boy toys the UN's weapons inspectors are currently looking for in Syria.
"We are in the process of verification of these reports. What we assume -- and again I say, we have not yet finalized the reports -- is that weapons that he (Saddam) wanted to hide -- chemical weapons, biological weapons -- were indeed transferred to Syria," he said.
Posted by steve @ 10:20 PM EST [Link]
~ Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers - Saw this film Christmas day. I started reading Tolkien at the age of fourteen and am now in my fifties. You can imagine how thoroughly I know Tolkien's work, after reading, re-reading, and in recent years reading aloud to a child the entire opus, starting from The Hobbit and finishing with The Silmarillion.
I think the LOTR films are great! Both have been meticulous interpretations of the greatest fantasy ever written in the English language. Visually and emotionally the work is literal Tolkien. Has any work of fiction ever received the benefits of a cinematic treatment this faithful to the original author's vision?
There is *one* aspect of Jackson's rendering, though, that is profoundly unsatisfactory. As loving and painstaking as is his crew's attention to authenticity and detail, he seems to have missed the moral point Tolkien made with the Ring.
Jackson has accurately reproduced many of the important speeches about the Ring. However, where he improvises dialog about the Ring, characters tend to insist, as Frodo does to Faramir in Two Towers, that the Ring can only be used for evil. This is not what Tolkien wrote or intended.
The Ring is used by Tolkien to demostrate that seeking unrestrained power to do good is in itself evil. An important lesson always, and one which, in post-9/11 America, it would be good to hear enunciated more clearly.
Posted by jwoehr @ 08:14 PM EST [Link]
~ MERRY CHRISTMAS!: To echo what James said, Merry Christmas ESR readers! Thank you for all your support during 2002 and we look to serving you even better in 2003!
Posted by steve @ 12:51 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 HAPPY HOLIDAYS READERS OF ESR: And thanks to all of you for your feedback and support this year!
Posted by antle @ 11:41 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY THEY'LL DESTROY THE U.S.: Because it seems to be the quickest way to get yourself destroyed. North Korea says they'll inflict "merciless punishment" in the advent of a nuclear war with the United States.
"If they, ignorant of their rival, dare provoke a nuclear war, the army and people of the DPRK led by Kim Jong Il, the invincible commander, will rise up to mete out determined and merciless punishment to the U.S. imperialist aggressors with the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than A-bomb," said a North Korean newspaper.
I know I'm worried.
Posted by steve @ 01:58 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 22, 2002 Steve, et. al. "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart." To my fellow bloggers and to our fearless editor for all your hard work during 2002 - Muchas Gracias. P.S. Nigella sends you her love, Martinovich.
Posted by izzy @ 11:48 PM EST [Link]
~ A POTENTIAL BUSH JUDICIAL NOMINEE STRIKES BACK AT THE LIBERAL SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS: The New York Times reported that Douglas Kmiec was under consideration for a federal judgeship, and at least one liberal group pounced. Kmiec is an outspoken judicial conservative whose writings take the idea of natural law, as found in the Declaration of Independence, seriously. Worse, he is a pro-life Roman Catholic.
Kmiec wonders if this criticism is an attempt to disqualify people of certain religious and moral beliefs from the federal judiciary. As he points out in an Opinion Journal piece, this would be precisely the sort of religious test the authors of the First Amendment would have opposed. Link found via Toogood Reports.
Posted by antle @ 01:56 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 21, 2002 THANKS FOR MAKING A BUSH VICTORY IN 2004 A LOCK!: A CNN/Time poll released today says registered Democrats want Sen. Hillary Clinton to be the party's candidate in 2004. What a beautiful Christmas present for Americans...
Posted by steve @ 06:52 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY THEY ARE A PART OF THE AXIS OF EVIL: "North Korea has cut most of the seals placed on a deactivated nuclear reactor by international inspectors and has blocked monitoring equipment at the reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:30 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S TOO MUCH!: The one thing I was worried about with Mark Steyn's new book, The Face of the Tiger, has come to pass. It's too much! I'm overdosing each time I pick up the book and I mean that in a good way. When you get a chance to read Mark's columns one after another so you can see how he tackles an issue over a period of time you truly begin to appreciate how good he really is.
Go and buy his book, it's well worth it.
Posted by steve @ 03:53 PM EST [Link]
Friday, December 20, 2002 FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS FROM CANADA'S SUPREME COURT: Canadians do not have a constitutional right to guaranteed state welfare support, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.
By a 5-4 decision, the judges rejected the argument of welfare-rights activists who argued the constitutional protection for "security of the person" under the Charter of Rights included a guaranteed standard of living.
Posted by steve @ 01:24 PM EST [Link]
~ I ONLY BUY IT FOR NORMAN MAILER'S INSIGHTFUL ARTICLES: A study released today shows that Playboy's models are becoming less shapely and more androgynous.
A spokesman for Playboy responded, "I would think that no one with eyes to see would consider playmates to be androgynous."
I have to agree.
Posted by steve @ 01:22 PM EST [Link]
~ OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: Trent Lott has just announced that he is stepping down as Senate Majority Leader but will stay in the Senate.
Posted by steve @ 11:16 AM EST [Link]
~ COURAGE
This short piece is from cnsnews.com.
"Pro-Abortion Governor Barred from Catholic Property
(CNSNews.com) - A Catholic home for troubled children refused to let the governor of California onto its premises because he supports abortion. "We don't let any pro-abortion people in our grounds here," Monsignor Edward Kavanagh was quoted as saying. Kavanagh, the director of St. Patrick's Home for Children in Sacramento, said Gov. Gray Davis "should get his life together and he should change his whole philosophy on the unborn." Gov. Davis planned to visit the home dressed up as Santa Claus to hand out presents to the kids - a tradition carried on by previous governors. Instead, Davis invited the children to come to the state Capitol to pick up their gifts. Wire reports quoted Gov. Davis as saying that the home's director is entitled to his point of view, just as Davis is entitled to his. "I'm unapologetically pro-choice and I'm not changing my position," Davis said. "Having said this, the tradition is about children, not grown-ups. I didn't want the kids to be disappointed." "
Bravo, Monsignor.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 10:26 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 19, 2002 BIZARRE STORY FOR THE DAY: Democratic analyst James Carville has written Sen. Trent Lott and told him that he forgives him for his laudatory statements towards Strom Thurmond.
"If, as you have claimed, your recent troubles have truly spurred you to seek redemption and find ways to improve race relations in this country, I applaud you," Carville wrote.
Huh? Since when did Carville become arbitrator of who's sorry and who isn't? And if Carville has forgiven Lott, does that mean everything is okay?
Posted by steve @ 07:09 PM EST [Link]
~ NEW GOP: Although I think Noemie Emery concedes too much - the GOP's Southern strategy actually purged the Thurmond-Wallace vote of its racism and as Ann Coulter pointed out in her column today, Southern conservatives have also come to reject racism, the Democrats don't have a perfect racial history either - in this piece she makes some of the points I attempted to make in my ESR article this week.
Posted by antle @ 05:04 PM EST [Link]
~ ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION IS ANTI-FREEDOM: You can't even say that these days without being Trent Lott'ed but the lads over at Light of Reason make the case that anti-gay bias legislation signed in New York is anti-freedom.
Being discriminatory, good and bad, is a constitutional right. Well, it used to be.
Posted by steve @ 02:54 PM EST [Link]
~ HE DOOMED CANADA BASED ON A 'GUT FEELING'?: The Ottawa Citizen, rapidly becoming my favourite Canadian newspaper based on the number of my pieces they run (another in the next day or so), has an interview with Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson.
So why did Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien sign the Kyoto Accord? Intensive research which combed mountains of data, theories and predictions? Nope. A gut feeling.
"His critics, who frequently denounce this, fail to realize it is one of the signs of his genius that he doesn't want to know too much about certain things. He gets the right gut feeling. And he's got the antenna, which very few people have, the political antenna. He's right on this," said Anderson.
I'm flabbergasted. The leader of my country signed an accord which will have a significant economic impact -- to the point that businesses will close and many will lose their jobs -- on a gut feeling?
Chretien is right, the Kyoto Accord is the way of the future...but who's future?
Posted by steve @ 02:10 PM EST [Link]
~ GRINCHES TRYING TO STEAL CHRISTMAS: And they're Canadians to boot! James Lileks has a masterful screed about two Canadians determined to ruin Christmas for everyone else.
I'd quote from it but it's too good not to read in its whole. I'll say this about his take on Women's Studies majors though...he's 100 per cent right.
Posted by steve @ 11:08 AM EST [Link]
~ JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THERE WAS NOTHING WORTHWHILE TO BE SAID ABOUT THE LOTT CONTROVERSY: Shelby Steele weighs in with a great op-ed piece on race. If you're tired of hearing about Trent Lott, I suggest you just ignore those parts and read the rest of the article because so much of what he has to say is valuable. It originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, but only in the subscriber section on the web. You can read it for free and without registration in FrontPage Magazine.
Posted by antle @ 10:46 AM EST [Link]
~ LIBERAL DUPLICITY
Ann Coulter (my favorite Telebimbo Infobabe) exposes the mainstream press's duplicity in its coverage of the Lott debacle, and explains who the real racist party is.
Check it out here.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 09:15 AM EST [Link]
~ DOUBLE STANDARD
I have been trying to ignore the whole Lott debacle, but it's hard when the story has grown more legs than a centipede. I have never been a big fan of Trent Lott, but I am incensed at the disgusting attack on his stupid remarks.
It would be too much to expect for the left-wing liberal numbskulls in the "main-stream" media to provide a fair and balanced perspective on this story. So it is left to intelligent conservatives to relate this whole mess to the bigger picture.
Walter Williams, one of my favorite philosophers, exposes the truth in this piece at World Net Daily.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 09:11 AM EST [Link]
~ REPUBLICANS ALSO WANT TO STARVE BLACK BABIES: It's true! Bill Clinton said so! The disgraced former ex-president, the very same that no one refers to reverentially unless they are Sean Penn or Barbra Streisand, said yesterday that Republicans were hypocrites for attacking Trent Lott.
"How do they think they got a majority in the South anyway? I think what they are really upset about is that he made public their strategy. They try to suppress black voting, they ran on the Confederate flag in Georgia and South Carolina, and from top to bottom the Republicans supported it."
I'm not going to say anything that might get an FBI or RCMP visit to my door...
Posted by steve @ 07:16 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 18, 2002 I MUST HAVE BEEN SLEEPING!: Can you imagine that I forgot to open the call for our 2002 Person of the Year? How embarassing. Help us out by nominating your Person of the Year here.
Posted by steve @ 07:03 PM EST [Link]
~ TRULY I AM LUCKY: Just got my review copy of Mark Steyn's new book and open it to discover that the man actually autographed it. Now how cool is that?
Posted by steve @ 06:11 PM EST [Link]
~ I DON'T MIND VIGILANTISM SOMETIMES BUT...: Sometimes it screws up legitimate law enforcement work.
"In a case that shows both the risks and rewards of vigilante tactics, an American man has hijacked two Web addresses apparently used by al-Qaida to laud terrorist attacks.
"The domains, jehad.net and jehadonline.org, are now in the control of a manager for a large Minnesota financial services firm. The man said he wrested control of the domains from their owners after reading on Dec. 8 that al-Qaida used jehad.net to claim responsibility for recent attacks on an Israeli airliner and a hotel in Kenya."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:16 PM EST [Link]
~ THEY'RE TOUGHER THAN YOUR DAD AND YOU COMBINED: Despite the fact that I carried a rifle and wore the green suit for my country I claim to be no military expert unlike many others who because they learned how to tiger crawl suddenly became Napoleon. That said, I've long studied all aspects of military matters because I'm interested in them.
One thing that irks me is people who have no comprehension how powerful the U.S. military is today. You'd be surprised, but there are some nations, pound for pound, which theoretically could give the U.S. problems in a war. If the UK were as large as the US in terms of manpower and other related variables, you could well see a stalemate between them. The English seriously punch well above their weight because like the Americans they are very technologically advanced and go in for heavy training. That said, no one on the planet poses any real danger to the Americans. Not the Russians, not the Chinese and not the British.
My theory has always been that because Americans were among the first to effectively employ combined arms attacks (which, by the way, will become even more deadly in less than a decade's time thanks to new American innovations), they had a head start on the progressively more difficult challenge of effectively employing high-tech tools and weapons. A lot of people seem to think that just because you have high-tech weapons, your job as a military leader is much easier. I would argue that while they give you more options, they can also make your job more difficult because you have to use each tool effectively, something that can be problematic.
Look at it this way. If you had Chinese and American military forces of equivalent size and both equipped with current American weaponry, the Yanks would win every time. They have had five decades practice in effectively employing technology, something that only the British and a few other countries can say. And what makes them even deadlier is the constant improvement in technology.
Witness a recent story in the Independent that states a war in Iraq could last as long as one week because of the new weapons the Americans could use, weapons that weren't ready for prime time just 12 short months ago. In fact, the lightning victory the American led coalition enjoyed in 1991 will seem like a Second World War-esque battle compared to this new war.
"The first Gulf War was fought like the Second World War, with air dominance – pounding their defences, softening up the forces and then going in," said Daniel Gouré, a military analyst with the Washington-based Lexington Institute think tank. "This will be speedier, more precise – an effects-based operation. It will be much more surgical, both in the use of explosive force and in the overall operation."
What's scary, at least for the West's enemies, is that America's military technological lead continues to grow every day creating a distance between it and the second most powerful nation militarily (I'll let you argue who that is) that may never be bridged.
Babbling...I am at work and bored so forgive this nonsensical post...
Posted by steve @ 02:38 PM EST [Link]
~ 43,000 PER CENT?
According to an article in today's Washington Times (in the sports section, no less), the cost overruns in Canada's gun registration program stands at 43,000%! Forty-three thousand percent! I'm flabbergasted!
I just never realized that gun control could be so expensive.
Read it for yourself here.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 02:31 PM EST [Link]
~ NEW WTC PROPOSALS RELEASED: I'm automatically predisposed to going with the one that's even taller than the 110 story buildings they would replace just as an extended middle finger to America's enemies, but that's just me. Story and pics here.
Posted by steve @ 02:05 PM EST [Link]
~ A LIBERAL BITES THE DUST
There just might be justice in the world, after all. The following is from Inside Politics in the December 17, 2002 Washington Times.
Biting the bullet
"Columbia University has rescinded Michael Bellesiles' Bancroft Prize," James Taranto notes in his Best of the Web Today column at www.opinionjournal.com.
"Bellesiles won the award last year for his book, 'Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture,' which claims privately owned guns were rare at the time of America's founding. The Columbia board of trustees 'concluded that he had violated basic norms of scholarship and the high standards expected of Bancroft Prize winners,' says a Columbia statement released Friday. Bellesiles earlier lost his job at Emory University after an investigative panel there found 'evidence of falsification' and 'serious failures of and carelessness in the gathering and presentation of archival records and the use of quantitative analysis.'
"Columbia made the announcement on Friday — the usual day for embarrassing news — and the New York Times buried its coverage on page four of the Saturday business section."As a right-wing wacko gun nut, I'm glad to see that at least one liberal fraud (is that redundant?) got what he deserved.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 02:03 PM EST [Link]
~ FAIR IS FAIR: In a recent post, I took the more liberal Republicans - specifically including Sen. Lincoln Chafee - to task for defending Trent Lott while many conservatives have criticized him. Therefore, it is only fair of me to note that Chafee today came out and called for a leadership change.
If Chafee is on board, this should embolden wavering Republicans to do the right thing even if Lott threatens to resign his Senate seat, thereby giving it to a Democrat.
Posted by antle @ 01:54 PM EST [Link]
~ PICTURES OF SANTA RELEASED BY NORAD: NORAD announced yesterday that they have been tracking and photographing Santa Claus for about 45 years and have even snapped pictures of him at work over the decades.
"The photographs also include a grainy black-and-white image taken in 1959 of Santa on a rooftop."
"A news release yesterday on the NORAD site, www.noradsanta.org, also announced that Santa had agreed to a 'full-blown test flight' to be held today.
"The test will follow Santa for 30 minutes over the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska, escorted by Canadian and U.S. fighter jets.
"'Two CF-18s from Canada's Air Force will intercept and escort Santa to Alaska, where they will hand off to two American F-15s,' says the news release, which explains the exercise is to test tracking equipment in advance of Christmas."
Posted by steve @ 10:26 AM EST [Link]
~ IT DOESN'T MEAN A WAR THOUGH: U.S. President George W. Bush will declare that Iraq has fallen short of its requirement to provide a complete and accurate accounting of its weapons programs to the United Nations.
They obviously have the information necessary to make that declaration.
Posted by steve @ 09:50 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 THINK YOU'RE TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT TRENT LOTT?: You're not nearly as tired as Jeremy Lott is.
Posted by antle @ 09:23 PM EST [Link]
~ REPUBLICANS PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY ON LOTT: Republican senators who would like to oust Trent Lott from the leadership are facing a delicate balance: On the one hand, since he isn't going to step down and go quietly, he will need to be voted out. On the other hand, they don't want to push him so hard that he resigns his Senate seat and allows Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to replace him with a Democrat. That would reduce the GOP to relying on Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote once again to barely hold onto the majority, except this time they would negotiate the power-sharing and reorganization from disadvantage. It could also cost Republicans the majority if Democrats are able to entice liberal Republican Sen Lincoln Chafee to swtich parties.
This is the point David Pyne raises in his ESR piece this week. Pyne is correct that the only way to do this successfully is to engineer some kind of "soft landing" by giving Lott another influential position outside of Majority Leader. (I disagree with him on whether now is the time to take swipes at John McCain, but that's another story.) If Republicans can't find a way to do this, look for Lott to remain at the helm of a GOP Senate, to the party's shame.
Posted by antle @ 09:22 PM EST [Link]
~ JUST A REMINDER: You readers can vote and comment on the relative merits of the posts contributed by our hard-working bloggers. To vote, just click the plus or minus at the end of a post or click on the comment link to leave a message excoriating us for our immense stupidity or congratulating us for our insightful thoughts. We don't get paid so feedback is cool...
Posted by steve @ 03:47 PM EST [Link]
~ TIME FOR A CUTE NIECE PICTURE: It's been awhile since I posted a picture of my favourite female in the world, my niece Alex, so here's one that was taken recently (pop-up window, 37K). She is now 1 year and four months old and I truly do treasure each moment with her.
Posted by steve @ 03:19 PM EST [Link]
~ FOOTBALL, POLITICS AND BABES: Not only did New England fail to cover the spread but they lost to Tennessee and likely played themselves out of the playoffs. Bah. Another Tuesday, another Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Posted by steve @ 01:22 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIAN NATIVE LEADER DOES TRENT LOTT IMPERSONATION: Native leader David Ahenakew, who last Friday described Jews as a "disease" and thought it was right that Adolph Hitler "fried" six million of them, today tearfully apologized for his comments.
"Words cannot describe how sorry I am for the hurt that I have caused . . . such comments have no excuse."
That's all well and good, but why make the comments in the first place if you didn't believe them?
Posted by steve @ 01:06 PM EST [Link]
~ THE DANGER OF NORTH KOREA: Steve over at U.S.S. Clueless has a good post on what dangers North Korea poses to the civilized world.
Posted by steve @ 12:15 PM EST [Link]
~ AL-QAIDA CELLS IN CANADA: The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service says that al-Qaida is operating in Canada and has the ability to support terrorist activities across North America.
Posted by steve @ 10:25 AM EST [Link]
~ FOR GOD'S SAKE TRENT, SHUT UP: Sen Trent Lott took his self-flagellation tour to Black Entertainment Television last night to apologize for his recent remarks marking Strom Thurmond's birthday and used the words "insensitive," "repugnant" and "inexcusable."
I don't like his remarks anymore than anyone else does and I hope he does step down but this continual apologizing has now reached a truly sickening level. There is such a thing as apologizing too much.
Posted by steve @ 09:31 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 16, 2002 "SO LONG THEN, LOSER"- The man whom the London Times sent out to cover former Vice President Al Gore's failed 2000 Presidential campaign, evidently did not have a very good time:
So, farewell then, Albert Gore Jr, the Prince of Tennessee. You made us laugh (mostly at you), you made us cry (heavy tears of boredom). But now you have made us smile. For at last, after a lifetime’s quest for the most powerful job on earth, you have decided to give up. This decision, which saves your country from future misery untold, is the bravest you have ever made and demonstrates that you finally know who you are. So long, loser. But, Jeepers! it took you soooooooooo long to see it...Travelling with Gore during the campaign, on behalf of The Times, was often an excruciating experience — and not just because by the end he was dragging us across the country for 20 manic hours a day, fuelling himself with gallons of Diet Coke. At public events it was hard to find the genuine passion of voters for his candidacy that Clinton had enjoyed. In private, on the rare occasions he came back on the plane, he would be over-anxious to make self-deprecating jokes. Remember, this was the man who dressed as a werewolf and a mummy at Hallowe’en parties, to try to belie his image as a dullard.
I carry no water for Al Gore, but after reading this, you realize that people such as Andrew Sullivan have a point when they claim that journalists, liberal as they are in general, simply loathe Al Gore (found via Lucianne.com).
Posted by Barton @ 10:10 PM EST [Link]
~ SEX, OR A DESIRE FOR IT, IS INEVITABLE: Non-political post this time because frankly I'm more than a little tired of Trent Lott, Al Gore and all that other stuff dominating today's headlines.
Babe blogger Sarah Hatter recently made an interesting post on her web site about men and women who are friends and how inevitably they are eventually drawn to each other.
"The human animal has an appetite for low rise jeans and men's cologne and the twain meet in platonic social gatherings where everyone is assumed to be 'just friends.' This works for some time, people gather and are social and impress each other with how beautiful and charming and witty they all are. Thongs stick out of low rise jeans, men's cologne is prevelant at gatherings after 8pm and everyone is impressed by everyone. But those two people who spend an awful lot of time together, who call each other on the phone and exchange all that email, who seem to be exceptionally impressed by each other, those two people aren't just friends. They will never admit this to you, but in secret late night conversations after everyone else has gone home, they will flirt incessantly by telling each other they're such good friends."
This has happened to me twice, though in different ways. Back in university, I was friends with a woman who was remarkable looking in that patrician way, kind and happened to share four out of the five classes I was enrolled in that year. We literally became inseparable and even used to call each other in the mornings to wake each other up, car pool to school, and then go to class together. I have to admit that it was sometimes difficult, when hearing her "I just woke up" voice, not to imagine I wasn't beside her doing the waking. Proximity eventually results in feelings and I developed powerful feelings for her though I never let on so much as a hint of them, though women being what they are she may have suspected. She happened to be engaged (though that later ended badly) and frankly I could have never asked her out even if she wasn't attached. I still remember the last time I saw her...
The second time was with a woman who is still my friend. We spent (and continue to) a lot of time together and we like each other a lot as friends. Often, after a weekend night of drinking and having (clean) fun, we'd end up back at her house and just sit on the couch and talk for hours, watch TV or listen to music before I stumbled home at 6am. Well, it didn't take long for us to be considered more than friends and stories -- some serious, others less so -- circulated that we had, as the kids would say, hooked up. I guess kissing each other when one leaves to go to another bar might promote that sort of belief. Feelings? Well, we are still friends. Somethings are better left unexplored.
I wonder if Sarah is right and men and women today have to work overtime to make sure that they don't begin falling for each other.
Posted by steve @ 02:57 PM EST [Link]
~ STICKS AND STONES: Steve Sailer (another veteran of the Vdare crowd) opens fire on right-wing bloggers attacking Trent Lott from his own right-wing blog while he talks about the media coverage of the whole affair here:
Kurtz points to three rightwing bloggers (along with a few Democrat activists like Marshall and Edsall) for blowing this up into the biggest whoop-de-doo since Anita Hill: Instapundit, David Frum, and Andrew Sullivan. Look, I know that it is mandatory to suck up to Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) due to his power, but let's be frank: he's a lightweight whose main talents are that he can type fast and that's he's utterly shameless about building an empire built on hothouse back-scratching. Frum, well, I can't tell him apart from every other neocon, so I can't think of anything to say about him, other than that the notion of an establishment mouthpiece like him him replacing the iconoclastic Florence King on the back page of NR is depressing. And Andrew is -- as he has explained at length in the NYT and has demonstrated repeatedly -- highly emotionally unstable due to his prescription testosterone cycle. Besides all the drugs, these hysterical moralistic/ideological crusades of his probably also serve as a psychological defense mechanism for the deep guilt.
And then Sigmund Sailer goes on for a paragraph analyzing Mr. Sullivan's mixture of testoterone-fueled self-righteousness and Catholic guilt. But there's more. Scroll down a bit and you find this:
Do you think Andrew Sullivan, for example, likes anything at all about black people? I've never noticed anything in his writings except a generalized distaste for blacks, much like what some people feel for homosexuals. He seems to have permanently ensconced himself on the tip of Cape Cod, as far from blacks as you can in the lower 48. One day, he's going to accidentally give himself a double dose of testosterone and post what he really feels, and then we'll see if his HIV+ status saves him from the Lott-treatment.
Hmmm, let me see? Instapundit is a "lightweight" whose main virtues appear to be quick fingers and an ability to turn the blogosphere into one giant Mutual Appreciation Society, Frum is an "Establishment" hack, and Sullivan is simply messed-up: a hysterical, drug-addled, guilt-ridden Catholic who does not really like black people in his heart of hearts. Something tells me that Mr. Sailer was quite the intimidating personage back in his schoolyard days. Or maybe he's just currently suffering from what they on The Simpsons call, "the green-eyed gazungas." (I should note in passing that the foundations about my speculating about Mr. Sailer's troubled childhood or his present jealousy of his fellow conservative bloggers are as solidly grounded in empirical evidence as his seeming ability to psychoanalyze Andrew Sullivan's mind.)
Posted by Barton @ 01:53 PM EST [Link]
~ HE SEEMS TO HAVE HAD PLANS TO DONE EVERYTHING AT SOME POINT: If Bill Clinton had done some of the things during his two administrations that he keeps telling everyone these days that he had plans to do, even conservatives would have grudgingly admired the man.
Yesterday, Clinton told a conference that he had a plan to attack a North Korean nuclear facility over fears that the communist nation would sell nuclear weapons to the highest bidder.
"We actually drew up plans to attack North Korea and to destroy their reactors and we told them we would attack unless they ended their nuclear program," Clinton told a security forum in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam Sunday.
In view of recent news that North Korea is once again ramping up its nuclear industry, this is yet another big failure of the Clinton administration. This is the case, of course, if you believed Clinton would have actually had the guts to pull the trigger on the plan. Given all he managed to do during his administration was bomb tents in Afghanistan and a Sudanese plant, you have to take anything he says with a family sized box of salt.
Posted by steve @ 12:13 PM EST [Link]
~ JEWS ARE A "DISEASE" SAYS CANADIAN NATIVE LEADER: A member of the Order of Canada and a native leader said Friday that Jews are a "disease" and the Nazis were right to "fry them."
"''How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going to take over, that's going to dominate?" David Ahenakew, the former chief of the Assembly of First Nations and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations told Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
Ahenakew said he gleaned his insights after serving in the Canadian Armed Forces back in the 1950s and 60s.
"All I know is what the Germans told me. I believe them. I saw the Jews kill people in Egypt when I was there. The Palestinians, Arabs. I saw them [Israel] f---ing dominate everything."
Why do I think nothing will happen to this piece of trash because he's a minority in this country. Just expressing cultural differences is all he's doing...
Posted by steve @ 10:04 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 15, 2002 NO GORE IN 2004: It's official. In an interview on "60 Minutes," former Vice President Al Gore confirmed that he would not seek the presidency in 2004 and acknowledged that he may never have the opportunity to do so again.
Although I still believe he and his aides must have concluded that they could not defeat President Bush, he is correct to say that a rematch between the two of them would have ended up focusing on the past rather than the future.
Posted by antle @ 09:13 PM EST [Link]
~ WHICH IS WORSE - SEGREGATION OR TAX CUTS?: That is what the left wing of the Republican Party needs to decide. Conservative Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) has called on the Senate GOP conference to hold a referendum on Trent Lott's continued leadership. Many of those who are resisting this are moderate to liberal Republicans. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) affirmed his support for Lott and announced it was time to "move on." Ex-GOPer Jim Jeffords has released a statement of support. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), considered the most liberal Republican in the Senate and the one most likely to bolt the party if the circumstances were right, told the Providence Journal that he thought Lott's comments, which appeared to be nostalgic for Jim Crow, were "stupid" but he was supporting him because he was afraid he would be replaced by someone more conservative.
Presumably, that means Nickles, the number-two Senate Republican until January when he hands over the Whip position to conservative Lott backer Mitch McConnell (R-KY) due to term limits. So Chafee, a northeastern progressive Republican, would rather be led by someone with a tin ear on race than someone who will push for deeper tax cuts and spending restraint? He is less concerned about statements that appear to condone segregation than he is about smaller government?
Despite bipartisan criticism of Lott that extends across the political spectrum, there are three obstacles to removing him from the leadership position: The friendship and personal loyalty of many GOP senators, the fear that he will leave the Senate entirely and be replaced by a Democrat (resulting in a 50-50 split that places the GOP majority at serious risk in the event of a defection), and now the resistance of moderate and liberal Republicans who would rather be led by someone lacking credibility on racially tinged issues than by a movement conservative. Given the long history of support for civil rights in the Rockefeller wing of the party, they should be ashamed to be one of these obstacles.
Posted by antle @ 08:54 PM EST [Link]
~ REPORT - GORE WILL NOT RUN IN 2004: The Associated Press is reporting Al Gore will not run for president again in 2004. A senior aide states that while the former vice president felt differently about running on different days and has reemerged in recent months to test the political waters, he has decided not to challenge President Bush for reelection. Gore had planned to announce his intentions after the holidays, but this AP report implies that he will make an announcement sooner.
Gore clearly wanted to run again - you can see it in him when he talks about his narrow 2000 defeat, Bush administration policies and even the possibility of another campaign. My guess is that this means he concluded he could not beat Bush in 2004. Another former vice president, Richard Nixon, came close in 1960 but decided not to run in 1964 because he did not believe he would win. Nixon ran again in 1968 and won, and if this report turns out to be true I would not count Gore out for 2008. Many Democratic leaders had privately opposed another Gore candidacy and his recent books on family life in America - which were about as liberal as Earth in the Balance - have not exactly taken the country by storm.
Before we get too euphoric about this, and I do think it is important if Gore and his operatives believe Bush will be reelected in 2004, many leading Democrats made the same judgement about the first President Bush in 1992. As a result, Mario Cuomo, Lloyd Bentsten, Dick Gephardt, Bill Bradley, George Mitchell and others sat out the race that year. The leading second-tier candidate, Bill Clinton, ended up the front-runner by default when the entire top tier didn't run. Although initial polls showed him running third and trailing both President Bush and Ross Perot so badly that the Democrats feared they would lose federal matching funds for 1996, we all remember that Clinton prevailed on Election Day.
I'm only bringing this up to add perspective, not to dampen the moment or predict that the GOP is going to lose the White House in 2004. If this report proves accurate, look for it to really shake up the Democratic field.
Posted by antle @ 05:19 PM EST [Link]
~ LET'S EAT DIRT AND WILD BERRIES: Ken Layne says those who oppose genetically modified foods are nothing but idiots. A bit harsh, but I agree. His main point? Every domesticated plant or animal consumed by humans has been modified genetically over the millenia.
That's a point I remember making in an article a couple of years ago for some damned newspaper or another. Cross breeding is genetic manipulation. It is a cruder and less refined manipulation -- millions of wheat cross breedings take place before a commercial product is turned out -- but it is genetic manipulation nonetheless. If you protest GMOs, you essentially protest everything humans have ever done agriculturally.
Posted by steve @ 02:31 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 14, 2002 IT'S SO FASHIONABLE TO HATE JEWS!: People are saying things publicly today that they would have been ashamed to say privately only ten years ago. One of those things is their anti-Semitism.
I was never convinced that the left wasn't anti-Semitic. After all, Nazis are leftists (it was called National Socialism, you can call neo-Nazis "members of the far right" all you want but the program instituted by Adolph Hitler was nothing but leftist) and given the social conservatism that Judiasm espouses, I never thought that Jews and the left were a particularly good fit.
Well, the old friend of the Jews, the academics, have finally cast-off their cloak of tolerance. Israeli academics are finding it increasingly difficult to have their papers published in international journals, no where more than in England as this story shows.
The world is rapidly dividing into two camps my friends, those who want to see Israel humbled or even destroyed and those who wish to protect her. There is no in between.
Posted by steve @ 04:45 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS THAT SEALS IT: "Amid a row over its nuclear weapons program, North Korea has fired a barb at Washington, saying it is ready to deliver 'bitter defeat and death'
to a threatening United States."By nature I'm not a warmonger, but every now and then I get one of those urges to see someone's butt get kicked badly. This morning I propose North Korea.
Posted by steve @ 05:00 AM EST [Link]
Friday, December 13, 2002 TODAY IS RESIGNATION DAY: Henry Kissinger has resigned from the 9/11 commission chairmanship. Cardinal Law, Kissinger... Why must Trent Lott buck the trend?
Posted by antle @ 06:51 PM EST [Link]
~ LOTT IMPACTING WHOLE GOP'S RACIAL IMAGE: This is the kind of garbage we can look forward to if Trent Lott doesn't step down as Senate Majority Leader or Senate Republicans don't summon the courage to throw him out. And this isn't even a Democract ad, even though an article by major-league you-know-what Adam Clymer can get pretty close.
Posted by antle @ 03:32 PM EST [Link]
~ SHUT UP ALREADY: Trent Lott has yet another apology, his third, for his remarks made last week at a birthday party for retiring Senator Strom Thurmond.
Seriously Trent, just shut up already. Either step down as majority leader (preferred) or shut up...two apologies are enough.
Posted by steve @ 02:35 PM EST [Link]
~ SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN- Some time ago, I mentioned that Toronto was about to become the hub of the Canadian political universe in 2003, what with the mayoral election, a probable provincial election, the NDP convention in January, and the PC convention in May. Well, we've now scored the big one: the high-flying, the high-spending Liberals have decided to close out the year with their convention here to pick the next PM from November 12 to 15 at the Air Canada Centre. This will be good for our political junkies and hospitality industry, bad for Canada. Don't expect anything historically significent or even remotely exciting to come out of it: it'll simply be Paul Martin's coronation and the status quo (just read his new weblog (!) in all its eye-glazing glory, found by Colby Cosh, and you'll see what I mean). This won't be like Chicago in 1968 with the riots which both marked a climax and an end to the anti-war movement or San Francisco in 1964 with Goldwater which signaled a hard, permanent turn to the Right for the Republicans, it'll be Toronto 2003: The Liberal Hegemony Continues. That's going to be just too bad.
Posted by Barton @ 02:18 PM EST [Link]
~ SOON YOUR TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY: Mark Steyn had a good piece yesterday on Canada's Liberals, governance and "sending the right message."
No matter how much you Yanks think Bill Clinton screwed things up down there, he was a pale imitation of Jean Chretien.
Posted by steve @ 02:03 PM EST [Link]
~ FEAR NOT, SAM FRANCIS COMES TO THE RESCUE- Finally, a right-wing columnist has the nerve (or is just about stupid enough) to say that Trent Lott was right: America would have been better off, if Strom Thurmond had been elected President in 1948. You can read the whole screed while still available, from (surprise, surprise!) our friends at the anti-immigrant website, Vdare.com. Actually, poor Mr. Francis does not so much defend Lott as spend half of his article wandering around the historical context and then...well, read for yourself:
In the first place, had Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, such paragons of legal reasoning as Earl Warren and William Brennan would never have seen the inside of the Supreme Court. Not only Brown v. Board but also the Miranda, Escobedo, and several other major decisions that revolutionized American government and tossed much of the Constitution in the office shredder would never have soiled the law books. Judicial precedents that consolidated the Court's immense power today would never have been established...Would racial segregation have survived? De jure segregation was eroding in the southern states anyway. De facto, most sociologists will tell you the nation's schools today are at least as segregated as they were in the 1950s. So are housing patterns. So what? People of the same race tend to prefer each other's company.
But what we almost certainly would not have enjoyed had Mr. Thurmond become president are the fruits of forced racial integration as it was imposed in later decades: the tidal wave of black crime against whites that is now commonplace; black race riots from Detroit and Watts to Los Angeles in 1992; the virtual destruction of American cities as a black underclass, protected by the federal government, pushed out whites terrified for their own lives and those of their families; the destruction of American education and the transformation of the schools into day-time prison camps for hoodlums. No forced busing; no affirmative action; no "hate crime" hypocrisy; no "Afrocentric" or "multiculturalist" garbage poured into our children's heads. Probably no mass immigration. No self-hate for whites. No guilt. No fear.
This just about speaks for itself. I'll only say that the entire last paragraph is completely idiotic, since even if Thurmond, by some miracle, had been elected to two terms as President from 1948 to 1956, it wouldn't have mattered, since all the bad things he rants against in the last paragraph (the rise of a dependent black underclass, etc.) took place during the Johnson administration and afterwords, which if I recall correctly, was in the 1960s. Just don't ever forget anytime you read Francis, his infamous words from at a white power conference in May of 1994, which got him fired as a columnist at the Washington Times:
The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people, nor is there any reason to believe that the civilization can be successfully transmitted to a different people.
Ah, that puts everything in perspective.
Posted by Barton @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ MALKIN ON LOTT: Conservo-babe Michelle Malkin positively hammers Trent Lott over his recent comments in one of the most sharply written editorials I've read in months.
"My fellow conservatives, if you weren't already convinced that the Mississippi senator was a gutless, ineffective, self-preservationist sap before his remarks at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party last week, this pandering to the race Mafiosi in the aftermath of his comments seals the deal."
I agree...
Posted by steve @ 01:13 PM EST [Link]
~ TIME FOR SOMEONE TO WACK THIS GUY: Zimbabwian dictator Robert Mugabe threatened whites in that country that his government would become "ruthless" in dealing with them after accusing them of working with Britain to sabotage his government.
"The more they work against us, the more they express hostility against us, the more negative we shall become to their kith and kin here," Mugabe said today.
Exactly how much more ruthless, short of Holocaust-style murder could Mugabe get? His thugs are already forcing whites off their lands and murdering those who refuse to leave.
Posted by steve @ 10:32 AM EST [Link]
~ GOOD BYE, GOOD RIDDANCE: As rumoured, the Vatican today confirmed that it has accepted Cardinal Bernard law's resignation.
Posted by steve @ 07:14 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 12, 2002 HOW AL-QAIDA PLANS TO BEAT THE WEST: (Spotted at Little Green Footballs) "Experts and evidence confirm that the al-Qaeda terrorist organization has borrowed both doctrine and strategy from an American military initiative to fight the terror war against the United States. Called the 'Fourth Generation Warfare' doctrine, it was laid out and codified in 1989 by a handful of American military officers and a civilian military adviser to a U.S. senator. But while the Department of Defense (DoD) ignored it, al-Qaeda's battle planners claim they have used it so successfully that, 'in many instances, nation-states have been defeated by stateless nations.'"
The bad news? The DoD doesn't seem to care they are fighting a different kind of enemy.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 PM EST [Link]
~ NOW WE'VE GONE AND DONE IT: Terrorist group Hezbollah is angry at Canada for declaring it a terrorist group.
"Describing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization is a false and void description that is entirely untrue," Hezbollah said. "Canadian authorities have committed a grave mistake that will undoubtedly have a negative effect on (Canada's) relationship with the peoples and countries of our Arab and Islamic nation and increase enmity and hate toward it."
Posted by steve @ 03:09 PM EST [Link]
~ SURE SURE, WE BELIEVE YOU: A senior Iraqi general today dismissed reports that Iraq had provided nerve gas to Islamic extremists affiliated with al-Qaida.
"This is really a ridiculous assumption from the American administration," Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin told a news conference. "They know very well we have no prohibited substances."
Wait, that's already one lie!
Posted by steve @ 02:01 PM EST [Link]
~ THE LIFE OF A FREELANCE WRITER IS BRUTAL: No really, it is. Without the umbrella of a regular gig, freelance writers essentially operate in the world of "on spec" which means you write something, send it to your regular list of editors and publications and hope for the best. For most, it means that it and many other later pieces will never be published. Let me repeat that for you in case you missed its significance. Outside of your local paper, which likes to run local voices, most newspapers will never publish anything you submit. That happens for a variety of reasons. The authors might be crackpots, they might be writing unpopular things or they might just plain suck. Reality is a real bitch.
I've been very lucky. I started freelance writing in late 1999 and I have to say that 2002 has been extraordinarily good to me -- the best year in terms of both money and pieces placed. I've built a rapport with a number of editors, received some assignments and may be moving on to something bigger soon. I've managed to avoid the brutal process of editing "suggestions" for the most part because I know what editors are looking for (formwise, that is, I don't ever edit what I believe) and I don't waste their time.
Others aren't so lucky and if you want to be a writer, you'd better be prepared for the awful world your entering. Jeffrey A. Tucker unveils it for you in a recent LewRockwell.com piece.
Don't let it dissuade you. If you think you have it, then go for it. If you fail, just remember, the world of writing is callous and the best don't always rise to the top. Howell Raines wouldn't have a job if the best always succeeded.
Posted by steve @ 10:36 AM EST [Link]
~ HOW DOES A FOOT TASTE IN THE MOUTH: Incoming Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott apologized once again for comments made at a birthday celebration for Strom Thurmond but also said he isn't going to step down.
"Look, you put your foot in your mouth, you're getting carried away at a ceremony honoring a guy like this, you go too far," Lott said in an interview that aired last night on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Posted by steve @ 08:37 AM EST [Link]
~ JIMMY CARTER'S REAL LEGACY: Isn't one of peace I'm afraid. North Korea has announced that it is reactivating its nuclear program in the wake of the decision to suspend oil shipments. Why were the shipments suspended? Because North Korea promised in 1994 -- in a deal negotiated by Carter -- not to reactivate its program, a promise broken recently by the Koreans.
Thanks Jimmy!
Posted by steve @ 08:35 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 11, 2002 THIS RANT that I wrote is not making me any new liberal friends.
(Yeah, I know the black outfit in the photo makes me lot like a Fonz - of Happy Days fame - groupie.)
Posted by izzy @ 09:40 PM EST [Link]
~ WHEW, ALL IN ONE BREATH: Sorry for such a long posting. I guess I had "Musings withdrawal!"
Posted by antle @ 08:07 PM EST [Link]
~ A LOTT OF CONTROVERSY: I have mixed feelings about the whole Trent Lott fiasco, which began when the Senate Republican leader (who is scheduled to graduate from minority leader to majority leader in January) said during a 100th birthday tribute to retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond that a lot of problems could have been avoided if Thurmond had won when he ran for president on a segregationist platform in 1948. Many people heard it as an endorsement of Jim Crow, or at least a suggestion that integration and the civil rights movement are a cause of many of America's problems today.
Robert George made an impassioned case for the position that Lott is a racial bonehead with no business leading the Republican Party - the party that abolished slavery and a hundred years later supported civil rights legislation in higher percentages than the Democrats - in the U.S. Senate. What has been remarkable about this controversy is that as outraged as liberals and civil rights leaders have been, conservatives have been equally vocal in calling for Lott to step down. David Frum, Andrew Sullivan, James Taranto, Ken Connors of the Family Research Council and much of the blogosphere have condemned his comments.
I am by no means convinced that this comment, or any of the others that have been dredged up in the aftermath thus far, proves Lott is actually a racist. In my opinion, it was just a dumb comment that was made in a poor attempt to praise Thurmond, no different than the condescending comments one tends to hear about a male candidate's wife at political rallies ("Imagine if his better half ran the campaign," etc.). The senator from Mississippi has a tin ear on race and did not even pause to consider how his ill-advised remarks would be interpreted by a national audience. This itself reflects poorly on a man who wishes to lead a major political party in the body that governs a multiracial republic, but it is different from and more morally defensible than being a racist or a segregationist.
But I don't think that everyone who speaks proudly of their Southern heritage or supports public displays of the Confederate battle flag is a racist who would like to restore slavery. I think there is a good chance that Lott is telling the truth when he said that he did not know the Council of Conservative Citizens' racial views (other Southern conservative politicians made the same mistake, unless we are to automatically assume that they were all in fact closet racists). Some people may say, "Well that's all well and good, but this wasn't just an innocent off-the-cuff remark. He said this before." And it is apparently true. The Clarion Ledger reported that when Lott followed Thurmond at a rally for Ronald Reagan in 1980 - a Reagan rally, mind you, not a Klan rally - he said basically the same thing about how we would have avoided problems if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. But context is important - Thurmond had been speaking about federal preemption of state laws and how Reagan would stand up for limited government. When Lott praised Thurmond that day, the conversation was not about race or racial issues, it was about state's rights - and although it may have been a cover for white racism, Strom was the presidential nominee of the States' Rights Democrats.
Nevertheless, I am still inclined to think that Lott should step down from his leadership position. Even if he can be exonerated of racism - and I am not dogmatically asserting that he can be, I am simply arguing that the allegation is not as conclusive as some make it out to be - his comments were incredibly stupid and follow in a long line of dumb moves. Although conservatives were initially very enthusiastic about Lott, one of the right's rising congressional stars during the 1980s, he has been a disappointment to say the least. There is nothing in his past tenure as majority or minority leader that should inspire confidence in his ability to advance the agenda of the Bush administration or the GOP at large. Bob Dole was a compromiser and not my ideal conservative, but in retrospect he was a much more skilled legislator and effective leader. Now on top of everything else, Lott has shown that he does not have a clue about the sensibilities of millions of Americans.
Lott's continued leadership can only reinforce the false impression many people of all races have of Republicans generally and conservatives particularly of being racially insensitive at best and bigoted at worst. This cannot help the party reach out to minorities and other voters who have not traditionally supported Republican candidates. Nor will it help conservative Republicans support color-blind, non-divisive policies that are in our nation's best interest. As David Frum said today in his NRO blog, "Lott could hardly have chosen a more inopportune time to hand his opponents proof that the Republican party is an updated version of the Dixiecrats. The Supreme Court this term will take up the issue of racial preferences in education. Conservatives and Republicans have spent two decades denouncing preferences in the name of color-blindness and legal equality for all. Lott’s words will be used to question the sincerity of our commitment to this high principle. "
Trent Lott did such a poor job during his last stint majority leader that the party lost its majority not because of an election defeat but due to the defection of one of our own. Although his ineffectual record as minority leader didn't offer much reason for it, there was hope that he had learned from his mistakes and progressed in his judgement. This latest incident sadly proves that this is not the case.
Posted by antle @ 08:06 PM EST [Link]
~ CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ISRAELI COMMENTARY: Got a nice phone call from Mark Goldberg who runs Real Israel, a clearing house for commentary about the Jewish state. Good place to go when you need information. They did me a kindness by posting my Jerusalem Post article on Concordia University there. You can find it here.
Posted by steve @ 01:23 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE ON CONCORDIA AND HILLEL: If you read my article (free registration required) at the Jerusalem Post yesterday you'll know what this refers to. Glenn Reynolds has an update over Hillel's suspension and a planned lawsuit by the group against the Concordia Student Union.
Posted by steve @ 11:07 AM EST [Link]
~ USE WMDS? WE'LL RESPOND IN KIND: The U.S. announced yesterday that if any country uses weapons of mass destruction against it or an American ally that the response could involve nuclear weapons.
"In a new, six-page mission statement on countering weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, the U.S. administration underscored long-standing policy that the United States 'reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force - including through resort to all of our options - to the use of WMD against the United States, our forces abroad and friends and allies.'"
Funny little story that few people are aware of. Back in 1979 when the hostage crisis in Iran was underway, Jimmy Carter (yes, the man who received the peace prize just yesterday) asked his generals about using a nuclear weapon to level Tehran in response. The generals laid out the exceptional damage that such a weapon would have on Iran and the likelihood of a Soviet response. History records, of course, that the Carter administration really didn't do much in response to the hostage taking but I find it interesting to think that Carter could have been the second Democratic president to use nuclear weapons in less than four decades had he gone through with it.
Posted by steve @ 10:02 AM EST [Link]
~ ABOUT TIME: The Canadian government will announce today that terrorist group Hezbollah will be added to its list of terrorist groups. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a logical move. Pity that the Canadian government took so long to do it.
[Update - 1:12PM] - Arab groups complain that Hezbollah's charitable and military wings aren't the same.
Posted by steve @ 09:29 AM EST [Link]
~ AL-QAIDA'S NEXT PROJECT?: The United Nations says that al-Qaida may be trying to create a dirty bomb. The announcement came after Tanzanian police seized what is believed to be raw uranium last month.
Posted by steve @ 09:28 AM EST [Link]
~ NOT THE FIRST TIME?: The NY Times reports that Trent Lott's poor taste in praise for Strom Thurmond recently wasn't the first time he's done that sort of thing. Back in 1980, Lott said practically the same sort of things. (Free registration required)
"You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today," he said back in 1980 to a crowd in Jackson.
Resign Trent...do the right thing.
Posted by steve @ 09:10 AM EST [Link]
~ HEY, THOSE ARE OURS: Yemen said today that the Scuds captured yesterday are in fact theirs and they want them back.
"The shipment is part of contracts signed some time ago. It belongs to the Yemeni government and its army and meant for defensive purposes," the official news agency Saba quoted foreign minister Abubakr al-Qirbi as saying.
So one of America's partners against terrorism is dealing with the enemy? Interesting footnote: Also found on board were "unidentified chemical products."
[Update - 1:14pm] Yemen will receive their missiles. They also say that the U.S. knew about the shipment in advance but didn't explain why the missiles were hidden under bags of concrete. (pop-up window with picture)
Posted by steve @ 08:42 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 HAPPY WITHOUT CANADIAN HEALTH CARE?: It's true. A Gallup Poll shows that most Americans have health insurance and are content with it. Shush! No one tell Al Gore!
Posted by steve @ 09:48 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY NORTH KOREA IS A MEMBER OF THE AXIS OF EVIL: A ship that left North Korea a few days ago was stopped today carrying a load of Scud missiles. The destination? Yemen.
Posted by steve @ 09:34 PM EST [Link]
~ CARUBA ON BORING CELEBRITIES: Frequent ESR contributor Alan Caruba is scheduled to discuss a matter of national importance, the 19th annual list of "The Most Boring Celebrities of the Year", on Fox News (TV) Thursday, Dec 12 at 1:48PM EST.
"I may be cancelled if (1) we attack Iraq, (2) the Jihad crowd blows up something, (3) Al Gore suddenly declares he wants the Democrat nomination or (4) one of President Bush's dogs throws up on Airforce One," says Alan in an email.
You can find his Boring Institute here.
Posted by steve @ 09:19 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: Yours truly appeared in the Vancouver Province and the Jerusalem Post today.
Over at the Province you can read my attack on Canada's gun registry while over at the Post (free registration required) I blast Canada's Concordia University and universities in general for being