In their statement about a possible war with Iraq, the Bishops say:

"We have no illusions about the behavior or intentions of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi leadership must cease its internal repression, end its threats to its neighbors, stop any support for terrorism, abandon its efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and destroy all such existing weapons."

Now, I don't want to pick on the Bishops, but I cannot stand this boilerplate -- which we hear from liberals of all denominations. Whenever I debate an anti-war or pro-UN-sanctions liberal, they say "nobody thinks Saddam is a good guy" or, like the Bishops, "I'm under no illusions about Saddam."

But the fact is, they are enthralled to some illusions about Saddam. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, about Saddam which says that inspections and sanctions will stop him from pursuing nuclear weapons. And, once he has them, there's no reason whatsoever to think that he won't invade his neighbors and we will be powerless to stop him for fear of nuclear reprisal (the specter of nuclear attack on the US -- while serious and possible -- has been overplayed while the near certainty of an irreversible Kuwait invasion has been underplayed). In short, if you think we were right for reversing his invasion of Kuwait in 1991, you should be in favor of toppling him now to prevent it from happening again. If you think there's another way, you do harbor illusions about Saddam and his regime.

Yes, not only does coffee taste better in that NRO mug, but the new NRO gear serves a higher purpose than the gastronomic. It also serves as an identifier for members of the small and oppressed conservative subculture that struggles to exist here in Georgetown. Since outright displays of conservative thought are vigorously persecuted here in the gulag, we must turn to more subtle ways to identify ourselves to our cohorts. NRO gear does exactly that.
Plus the fleece pullover helps one pick up extremely attractive members of the opposite sex.

I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter," said Thomas, who is now a columnist for Hearst News Service. "Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'" Her short list of answers seems not to vary from war, President Bush, timid office-holders, a muffled press and cowed citizens, pretty much in that order.

You guys on NRO have become such an important part of my day--being a lawyer in a large NYC law firm, I don't have many sympathetic ears--that I felt I could be a "free-rider" no more. After reading the Times on my train ride into the city, I eagerly look to your web site for a dose of reality (after reading the Times on Iran and certain pieces by Mr. Ledeen, I truly become frightened at what our paper of record is telling the public).
You may be happy to know that I used one of the links you post in the Corner, to order my NRODT. They may be annoying, but they work.
Thanks and keep it up.

From The Hill(thanks to the Hotline):

"After the GOP victories, many Dem lawmakers and consultants "are calling for stronger liberal think tanks" in order to find a "counterweight to what they call the vast and well-funded infrastructure of conservative ideology." Party allies "even entertained the possibility of a liberal television network to offset Fox News."

I assume they mean in addition to ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN.

IRAQ, IN LETTER TO UN, ACCEPTS NEW SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON WEAPONS INSPECTIONS New York, Nov 13 2002 1:00PM In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraq today indicated its willingness to accept the return of weapons inspectors to the country under the terms of a new Security Council resolution - a move immediately welcomed by the President of the 15-member body.
The Council President received copies of the letter through Mr. Annan, according to a UN spokesman.
Baghdad will accept Security Council resolution 1441 "despite its bad contents," said Iraqi Ambassador Mohammad Al-Douri, quoting from the letter.
"We are prepared to receive the inspectors within the assigned timetable," he told reporters in New York. "We are eager to see them perform their duties in accordance with international law as soon as possible."
Iraq has nothing to fear from the arms inspectors because the country "has not and will not have" any weapons of mass destruction, the Ambassador said.
"We are always opting for the path of peace," he added. "We choose always the peaceful ways and means, and this is part of our policy, that is to protect our country, to protect our nation, to protect the region also from the threat of war, which is real."
The Council President, Ambassador Zhang Yishan of China, said he had been contacted by Mr. Al-Douri with the news.
"I informed the other members of the Security Council of the message coming from the Ambassador of Iraq, Ambassador Zhang said, adding that they welcomed the "correct" decision by the Iraqi Government and that they would like to see that resolution 1441 be implemented "fully and very effectively."

There is no consensus on how to interpret certain key language in the U.N. resolution on Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday. In particular, he singled out the potential trigger for war -- an Iraqi "material breach" of the resolution.
"What are we going to designate as material breach? For some it will have to be substantial," Annan said, referring to the Vienna Treaty of Laws.
He acknowledged that the United States is "seen to have a lower threshold," something which he warned could be interpreted as "a flimsy or hasty attempt to go to war." Concern that the United States would be quick to attack was among the reasons it took so long to get a resolution approved by the council, he said.
Annan, who is to meet with President Bush Wednesday afternoon, said his message to the Bush administration is of the need to be "patient and give inspectors time to do their work."

The thing you're missing, possibly, is that Canada is growing ever more virulently antisemitic (or Jew-hating, to be precise). Synagogue burnings and cemetary desecrations have to date occurred in 4 of the 10 provinces. That jab at Asper is the Canadian version of the "Zionist conspiracy"; the only possible reason for a newspaper supporting Israel's right to exist is of course if it belongs to the worldwide conspiracy of evil plotting Jews who are simultaneously controlling the banks and sponsoring the evils of Communism.

And the reason why so many Americans have favourable opinions about Canada? They don't know how hostile, mediocre and irritating we are. You're helping to change that, and it is my fond hope that this will eventually change us. Keep it up.

Helps explain this interesting email (titled "Why the Israelis are always crying"):

You people have the knack of pissing off the rest of the world without even trying. Maybe you should take a good look at yourselves and see why they predicted that Jews would be persecuted for 2000 years. It's what you guys do. I bought a house from one and understand it fully. You can't help it, you just are a bunch of unlikable people who try to screw everyone with whom you come in contact. Well, that's fine, keep saying "we're offended" which is what the rest of the world has been saying about your for centuries. Thank your God for the American armament!

Though, to be fair, I've found little evidence of anti-Semitism among the Canadian hate-mailers except of the variety usually found in some of our own lefty anti-war quarters.

ZOGBY: Or more -- I think more to the point, the kind of anti- nativist hysteria that took place after World War I when we had, you know, people being pummeled to death and the very similar kind of hysteria that time against all things foreign. This time it's more directed specifically at Arabs and Muslims. I think that's the period but we'll end up feeling bad. We'll be embarrassed and we'll take a look at ourselves and we'll say why did we do it? The point is that we have time for self reflection today and I think the fact that we're even having the conversation, you and I, and there are many others having the conversation, is a good thing, but Governor Pataki ought not to be doing what he's doing in New York.

Khalid Qazi, president of the Western New York chapter of the American Muslim Council, said the arrests were shocking and painful. He said he knew three of the men, whom he described as good citizens.
"I can never suspect them doing anything anti-American," he said. "We need to know more before we make up our minds on this."
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, warned against rushing to judgment.
“I don't know if these men are innocent. For the first 24 hours, everyone is hysterical," Zogby said. "A month later, after the case falls off the front page, we discover there was nothing there at all."

Bin Laden may be alive. This is how Reuters describes him:

As a "Saudi-born dissident".

(Via Juan Gato's blog)