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 Saturday, February 2
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BATTERING AND BEER [Kathryn J. Lopez]
Well, we are only hours away from Super Bowl Sunday and I have not yet seen a major news story on the supposed rise in domestic-violence incidents during the game. For years, it’s been reported, despite being fiction. I did find one nugget from the Anchorage Daily News about a ski tournament set for tomorrow--"the day with historically high numbers of reported domestic violence incidents"--to raise money for a domestic-violence charity. A silly op-ed mentioned it in the St. Petersburg Times in December. But, unless I missed a Dateline Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. special on it--please tell me if I did--we may have reached a milestone.
Posted
8:52 PM | [Link]
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INDIAN MASSACRE: [Kathryn J. Lopez] The numbers of infant girls being born in India continues to decline. Ultrasound, which often saves lives that might have otherwise been victims of "choice" in the U.S., tragically, may be aiding the rise in girls who are never allowed to be born.
Posted
8:23 PM | [Link]
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LET'S NOT [Kathryn Jean Lopez]There is a battle brewing over trademarking United Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer's last known words, "Let's roll."
Posted
8:01 PM | [Link]
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MAIL BAG IV: [Jonah Goldberg]
A reader of "Mail Bag III" writes:
"Your response to your "Jonah-is-a-racist" critics omits the most obvious
point: there is no parallel between Black History Month and the kinds of
ethnic pride celebrations your quoted critic refers to. Or have I just not
noticed the national celebration of Irish, Italian, Polish, Catholic, and
Jewish History Months? Neighborhood parades are hardly comparable to
national indoctrination programs implemented in the public schools upon our
impressionable youth."
I thought I was saying the same thing in the second and third points of Mail Bag III, but just in case I wasn't, let me say I agree with this guy.
Posted
7:21 PM | [Link]
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MAIL BAG III: The second, and much angrier, group tend to be black. They think I'm racist in one way or another. Here's an excerpt from one:
"Plenty of other groups in this country have celebrations of their own cultures and histories. Hispanics have theirs. The Irish, the Italians, and the Polish have theirs. So do southern whites. Catholic have theirs. And yes, the Jews (meaning YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE) have plenty. Yet out of all these groups who gather to study and celebrate their culture, it is only a problem when BLACKS do it, as far as conservatives are concerned, despite the fact that NONE of these observances (including your Jewish holidays and menorahs) originated in America or celebrate anything at all to do with America. Unlike black history month! "
This common assault misses the point, I think on several levels. First, despite what you may have heard, being black is not a religion. There are plenty of black Jews, for example. And while I have plenty of problems with Kwanzaa -- which does try to make a religion out of race -- Black History Month is not Kwanzaa. Second, I do think these various Irish or Italian pride days are silly when taken out of the private, community-oriented sphere and thrust into the public. Third, Black History Month is in no way a private affair for black Americans. The Media, the government, schools both public and private go way, way overboard trying to celebrate black achievements. Indeed the defense of black history month mentioned below -- that it educates ignorant whites -- illustrates how unprivate an event BHM is.
Posted
5:47 PM | [Link]
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MAIL BAG II [Jonah Goldberg]
As expected, lots of angry email from black and white liberals about my Black History Month column. I'm getting more positive feedback than negative, but more negative than usual. The criticisms tend to fall into two categories. One group thinks I really don't understand why we have black history month:
"Mr. Goldberg...you need to comprehend...white America is deeply ignorant about black America. Black history month is intended to remedy this fact."
My general response to these is a categorical "duh." Of course, that's what it's intended to do. But the result is something very different.
Posted
5:42 PM | [Link]
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MAIL BAG I: [Jonah Goldberg]
A movie-buff reader writes:
"You MUST see KUNG PAO: ENTER THE FIST. Three conditions I'm confident you
meet (I confess I dunno about the middle one): 1) A sense of humor with a
high taste for the shamelessly stupid; 2) familiarity with the Bruce
Lee/Chop Socky Movies it's parodying; and 3) an overwhelming desire to see
France as the Evil Empire."
Hmm...I still have my doubts.
Posted
5:31 PM | [Link]
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WESTERN CIV HATERS [Jonah Goldberg]
Theodore Dalrymple has an excellent piece on where British Muslims get the idea to hate the West.
Posted
3:16 PM | [Link]
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NO MORE EMAIL! [Jonah Goldberg]
Ok, I get it. People read the corner on weekends. Please no more email to votegfile@aol.com. Thanks.
Posted
3:12 PM | [Link]
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ONE MORE THING [Kathryn J. Lopez] This breast-cancer thing reminds me of the great work of Dave Murray at STATS. He actually talked to me a little bit about the media’s misinformation campaign on this and many other things last year. Here’s the link if you’re interested. His book is definitely worth reading, especially if you’re attracted to the likes of Bernie Goldberg. (Michael Fumento, too, by the way, has also done excellent work along similar lines.
Posted
12:53 PM | [Link]
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UP NEXT? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
In Australia recently, a women received the first-known settlement of its kind, from an abortionist when suing him after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. There have been numerous studies linking abortion and breast cancer. There’s still more to be done, but you’d think women who go in for abortions would at least be warned…maybe a pamphlet or two explaining that there could possibly be--that there is decent evidence to suggest--a link between abortion and breast cancer. No way. In Fargo, North Dakota, a sidewalk counselor got hold of a pamphlet an abortion clinic was distributing that said there was NO link at all between the two. When NOW was invited to join the subsequent lawsuit, they, of course, declined, instead waging a campaign of their own to discredit any suggestion of a link.
Still, given the second-looks at mammograms, maybe anything’s possible.
Posted
12:51 PM | [Link]
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BREAST FACTS [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The debate brewing over mammograms is a bit of a miracle. For years, using the words "breast cancer" has been enough to win a debate. It’s a "women’s issue" so men, in general, go right along with funding additions, studies, and wild-goose chases for corporate/environmental causes. (And you’d be hard-pressed to find female pols who’ll think twice either.) And, so, like other p.c. diseases (take, AIDS), the money spent is dramatically disproportionate to the numbers (tragically) effected. It’s a first for the media to be covering the second-guessing of the mammography message (much like "safe sex" in the Eighties). Stay tuned.
Posted
12:47 PM | [Link]
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JIHAD, THE DECADENT PHASE: [Rod Dreher] For some reason, I can't make the link work, but take it from me, Matt Labash's postcard in the Weekly Standard from his recent trip to Camp X-Ray is worth reading. In it we learn that the al-Qaeda prisoners have apparently been working up an application for a National Endowment for the Arts grant. They've been refusing to use toilet paper, for one, and the hairy-palmed holy warriors have been busily -- how shall I put this -- plucking the Pashtun in public. The Prophet -- to say nothing of Dr. Joycelyn Elders -- must be so proud.
Posted
12:19 PM | [Link]
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DOES ANYONE READ THE CORNER ON SATURDAYS? [Jonah Goldberg]
If you do, please send an email to Votegfile@aol.com with a YES! in the Subject header. Only do it if you actually saw this item today. Thanks. [that address has an empty mailbox, so it can withstand what I hope will be a deluge]
Posted
11:58 AM | [Link]
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH CONT'D [Jonah Goldberg]
Just as it did last year, my black history month column has inspired dozens of nervous parents and grandparents to search through the course catalogs of their college-bound or college-attending loved-ones. One reader sent me this description of the course on the American Revolution at Kansas University:
"HIST 410 The American Revolution (3).This course will focus on the meaning the American Revolution had for different groups of Americans. Particular
emphasis will be on the relationship between ideology and experience, and
the impact of the Revolution on such groups as women, slaves, Indians,
African-Americans, the poor, merchants, and loyalists."
Posted
11:53 AM | [Link]
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THE SPECTER OF McDONALD'S: [Jonah Goldberg]
For my own take on Mickey D's from the magazine, click here.
Posted
10:27 AM | [Link]
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McDONALD'S STRIKES BACK:
Serge Schmemann has a fun piece about a panel on globalization at the World Economic Forum in NYC yesterday. One of the panelists was McDonald's CEO Jack Greenberg and he didn't take the anti-American guff without a fight. He pointed out, among other things, that discussion of the anti-McDonald's "backlash" often concentrates on the tail not the dog. He said, "oftentimes the perception about global anger is somewhat different from the reality." For example, he pointed to 1999 WTO protesters who vented their antiglobalization anger on a McDonald's. In the time it took 2,000 vandals to make a mess in Seattle, 175 million customers were served at Mickey D's around the world.
Posted
10:26 AM | [Link]
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WHEN THE GRAY LADY IS KING, er, QUEEN; [Jonah Goldberg]
I know the Sunday New York Times is supposed to be the big newspaper-event of the week, but I've got to say I think the Saturday Times beats it hands down (except for the book review, of course). No one can read the whole Sunday Times and anyone who says he actually does either is a fibber or spends their whole Sunday and some of Monday doing nothing else. Meanwhile the Saturday Times often seems to have stuff in it that would be booed of the page by the fashion-moguls and real estate junkies who seem to determine the content of the Sunday Times.
Posted
10:24 AM | [Link]
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TODAY IS SATURDAY, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CHANGE THE HEADER AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE: [Jonah Goldberg]
Posted
10:20 AM | [Link]
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Friday, February 1
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THE GAO RESPONDS [Byron York]
Responding to an article on National Review Online, General Accounting Office chief David Walker said late Friday that he does not believe Vice President Dick Cheney has lied about the GAO's demands in the energy-task-force case.
In a story posted Friday morning, Walker said that "there have been material misrepresentations of facts coming out of the White House in recent weeks" about the GAO's demands for information about outsiders who were consulted by Cheney's energy task force. Specifically, Walker referred to the issue of whether the GAO is demanding notes and minutes of task-force meetings. While the GAO had asked for notes and minutes in a demand letter sent to Cheney last July, the office quickly backed off and sent another letter to Cheney in August which specifically withdrew the request for notes and minutes. Last Sunday, however, appearing on Fox News, Cheney said flatly that the GAO was demanding notes and minutes of energy-task-force meetings. Walker called that statement "a very critical and highly material misrepresentation."
In an interview Friday evening, Walker asked to clarify his remarks. "I do not believe that Dick Cheney would knowingly lie," Walker says. "I feel very strongly about that. He is a man of great integrity. I believe he was poorly briefed by his staff." Walker says he believes Cheney's "lawyers and staff are telling him we're asking for what was in the July demand letter and they are ignoring the communications I had with his personal counsel and they are ignoring the written confirmation of what we are asking for."
Nevertheless, Walker is not changing his overall assessment of statements that have come from others in the White House. "I did say 'material misrepresentations' and I stand by that," Walker says. But he described the current atmosphere between the GAO and the White House as "supercharged" and wanted to emphasize that he does not believe Cheney has lied.
Posted
8:01 PM | [Link]
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I'M BAAACK: [Jonah Goldberg]
What's going on? I leave for one afternoon and people stop posting at 2:41 in the afternoon? Jeez, slackers.
Posted
6:15 PM | [Link]
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SECRETARY OF STATE OF CONCERN: [John J. Miller]
Of course Madeleine Albright (called "Half-bright" by her critics) doesn't like the "axis of evil" rhetoric. This is the person who defined deviancy down when she decided to re-label "rogue states" as "states of concern."
Posted
2:41 PM | [Link]
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ANGERED BY SNUBBING, LIBYA, CHINA, SYRIA FORM AXIS OF JUST AS EVIL: [Rich Lowry]
Here an amusing item from something called SatireWire.com: “Dateline Beijing--Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil," Libya, China, and Syria today announced they had formed the "Axis of Just as Evil," which they said would be way eviler than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of his State of the Union address….”
Posted
2:30 PM | [Link]
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GOOD IDEA: [NRO Advertisement]
Get 4 risk-free trial issues of National Review. Click here.
Posted
2:05 PM | [Link]
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THE FEMALE ROD MCKUEN: [Rod Dreher]
NRO den mother Kathryn "K-Lo" Lopez is always complaining about the frat house atmosphere around here. So I decided to girly it up a bit today by stopping at a Hallmark shop to purchase a $4.99 packet of "Squares to Share" from the new Maya Angelou Life Mosaic collection. The squares are Post-It-size pieces of paper embossed with the shlock poet's inspirational sayings (e.g. "If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?" -- Maya Angelou"). I bypassed the lavender-scented "Maya Angelou Courage Sachet," which, no kidding, sells for $10. K-Lo is unimpressed. Maybe she'd like better my idea for other poet-oriented tchotchkes, such as the "Philip Larkin Misery Sachet," which smells of must and stale cigarette smoke, or the "Dylan Thomas Drunkenness Sachet," impregnated with the aroma of whisky and barf. Coming next year, no doubt, from the evil geniuses at www.despair.com.
Posted
1:48 PM | [Link]
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END OF THE LINE [Kathryn J. Lopez] I hate flying, and so love Amtrak--or trains at least, and Amtrak, of course, is the only game in town. But, give me a break. Amtrak's head is threatening Congress, saying he'll cut service if they don't get more money. To which the yeomen who have been railing against the Amtrak boondoggle for years are now saying, "Go right ahead."
Posted
1:36 PM | [Link]
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WHY ALBRIGHT?: [Kathryn J. Lopez] This morning on The Today Show, Madeleine Albright criticized the Bush war effort. Among other things, she doesn't like the "axis" branding. Why exactly does anyone care what Albright thinks? Jim Robbins reminds me that The Washingtonian, no right-wing rag, actually named her the "20th century's worst Secretary of State." In grading Clinton's Cabinet, The Washingtonian said, "Her meddling caused embarrassment in North Korea and a fiasco in Yugoslavia, and she deserves much of the "credit" for dimming prospects for peace in the Middle East." We can certainly add to the list. Enough with Albright already.
Posted
1:25 PM | [Link]
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MORE ON HOLLYWOOD [Kathryn J. Lopez] Jonah, Rod: Actually, Hollywood has already gone PC on Arabs as bad guys. The upcoming movie version of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears will have neo-Nazis as the terrorists who attack on Super Bowl Sunday (sorry to bring up). They are Arabs in the novel.
Posted
12:13 PM | [Link]
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STOP THE PRESSES, GET THE MOOSE: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich: I have to split for a while (which is why G-File will be from my best-of file). But I wanted you to know I will be tracking down a major story. It turns out Mother Theresa took donations from some of the world's most notorious multinational corporations and international money men. This "corruption" could go all the way up to the Pope.
Posted
11:19 AM | [Link]
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I LIKE THIS LINE OF THOUGHT: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod: Hold on a minute with this Arab-Hollywood thing. This could be an intriguing new mode of analysis. For example, maybe the Germans didn't do anything wrong in WWII, they were just portrayed in a negative light in such films as The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape and A Bridge Too Far.
Posted
11:12 AM | [Link]
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IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT: [Rich Lowry]
Boy, can Joe Conason not write. Check out this opening sentence from his latest: “Like an earthquake or explosion that tears away the façade of man-made structures, the fall of Enron has peeled off cosmetic surfaces to expose what is rotten within certain privileged professions that are supposed to protect the public.” Maybe he was writing under a very tight deadline…
Posted
11:08 AM | [Link]
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MOOSE REFORM: [Rich Lowry]
Jonah: You’re right—no word yet from the so-called Project for Conservative Reform on the corporate “pay-offs” to John McCain and Bill Kristol. I can only reluctantly conclude that the Moose has been corrupted by Washington, and now puts cronyism above anti-corporate principle. What we need is legislation to keep the Moose from posting 60 days before an election. That should clean things up.
Posted
11:03 AM | [Link]
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WHEN DO THEY HAVE TIME FOR THE HIGH JUMP?: [Rich Lowry]
From NYTimes report today on condom giveaway at Olympics: At “the Summer Games of 2000 in Sydney, Australia . . . more than 70,000 condoms were distributed to athletes. Some countries exhausted their supply.”
Posted
11:02 AM | [Link]
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COVERING YOUR BETS: [Jonah Goldberg]
For some reason, a reader has been scouring my speakers bureau website. He found this item in NBC anchor Soledad O'Brien's bio:
"O’Brien was named to Irish American Magazine’s 1998 "Top 100 Irish Americans" list and in 1997, she was awarded the Hispanic Achievement Award in Communications. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She graduated from Harvard University."
How many more ingredients can a rich ethnic cocktail have before she has to stop accepting laurels from different identity groups? And, by the way, doesn't the fact she went to Harvard suggest that maybe, just maybe, we should abandon these professional minority group associations entirely?
Posted
9:50 AM | [Link]
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SAME PLANET, DIFFERENT WORLDS: [Rod Dreher] An Arab-American professor complains that Hollywood portrays Arabs in a bad light, "and that the overall image of Arabs has only worsened since September 11." Oh, gee professor, why do you think that is? Could it have something to do with the fact that Arabs throughout the Middle East took to the streets on 9/11 to celebrate the mass murder of Americans by Arabs? You watch: if anything, a post-9/11 Hollywood will go squishy-soft on Arab Muslim villainy, distorting the truth for fear of causing offense. I bet the Russians wish they could've gotten this treatment from Hollywood during the Cold War.
Posted
9:42 AM | [Link]
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BIN LADEN PUBLICIST CHASTISES CNN: [Jonah Goldberg]
Very interesting story about how the Arab anti-American network Al Jazeera has "severed ties" with CNN and wants to see them "punished." CNN ran an interview with Bin Laden which Al Jazeera didn't want aired. This story doesn't say it outright, but my guess is Al Jazeera's pissed because it makes Bin Laden look bad, i.e. like the terrorist he is.
Posted
9:20 AM | [Link]
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LAW VS. LAW: [Rod Dreher] A Catholic reader writes this morning to say the Boston archdiocese officials involved in abetting John Geoghan's serial pederasty should face criminal charges for their negligence. It's an idea that has occurred to at least one Boston-area district attorney, who is quoted in today's Globe saying she won't rule out prosecuting Church officials, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, as accessories to sexual abuse and obstruction of justice.
Posted
9:05 AM | [Link]
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BELLESILES CATCHES ON: [Stanley Kurtz]
Check out the new piece by Ronald Radosh, "The Triumph of Ideological History," at frontpagemag. It's another in the growing chorus of attacks on Michael Bellesiles for his apparent invention of fraudulent evidence in Arming America. Unlike some recent writing on this subject, Radosh gives due credit to NR's Melissa Seckora, who's played a major role in exposing Bellesiles.
Posted
9:04 AM | [Link]
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DON’T FEED THE PALEOS: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod: Admitting that you once had a problem with Ronald Reagan will only reinforce the views among the conspiratorial Paleocon crowd who think NR's been taken over by Neocons and Bilderbergers. Then again, I’m still at a loss to understand why the ex-Commies on NR’s early mastheads (revered nostalgically by the paleos – and by me) don’t count as neocons too. Maybe this is too inside baseball to discuss here. I’ll get Ramesh to explain it to me.
Posted
9:02 AM | [Link]
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REALITY BIT: [Rod Dreher] The single event that started my migration to the right was the murder of Leon Klinghoffer. I remember showing up to work the Progressive Student Network literature table on the morning news came out that Palestinian terrorists had shot the passenger aboard the hijacked Achille Lauro , and dumped his body overboard. Stunned by the violence, I took my place at the table and told my colleagues how vile I thought the act was. One of the PSN stalwarts said, "Well, you always hear about Palestinian terrorism, but the corporate media never reports about Israeli terrorism." Another of them, a skinny Puerto Rican guy with bottle-thick glasses, said calmly, "If Klinghoffer was rich enough to take the cruise, maybe he deserved to die." The life of this innocent old Jew in a wheelchair meant nothing to these leftists. He was an abstraction. An enemy of the people. A gusano. I walked away from the PSN table and have been walking rightward ever since.
Posted
8:47 AM | [Link]
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SIGH, SO WENT I ONCE: [Rod Dreher]
Jonah, your blog about the Nation thinking of itself as tribune of the common man reminded me of my lefty college days at LSU. I remember being in the habit of waking up and thinking Ronald Reagan was responsible for every bad thing that happened, from the misery of the poor to my hangover. Like my politically aware pals, I considered myself strongly on the side of the People. Slight problem: all the non-university People I knew, including my own working-class family, loved Reagan and voted conservative. I never could square that circle.
Posted
8:38 AM | [Link]
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NOPE, NOPE: [Kathryn J. Lopez]
Jonah: Yeah, Peeps keep saying, "gotta go to CPAC tomorrow." CPAC? CPAC? I forgot there was such a thing. But you know, my thought is: the CPAC organizers know we are needed where we are. There is a war on; who could survive without the Corner? It's a compliment.
Okay, or maybe your theory works.
Posted
8:32 AM | [Link]
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MOOSE HELD HOSTAGE, DAY 8: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich: Still no word from the Project For Conservative Reform on how we're going to clean the allegedly corrupting money of corporate interests from the stables of conservatism. I know Enron's offices were on I street and not K Street, but still... Where is the Moose? Where is the Moose? [everyone start clapping in unison] Where is the Moose?
Posted
8:25 AM | [Link]
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NO RESPECT: [Jonah Goldberg]
Hey, how come no one invited me to speak at C-Pac this year? I just found out it's going on right now. Are any of you jokers speaking at it?
Posted
8:14 AM | [Link]
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SIGH, SO GOES THE NATION: [Jonah Goldberg]
Another lefty who doesn't get it. Eric Alterman condescends (and I do mean condescends) to discuss Bernie Goldberg's new book, Bias. He treats the whole notion of media bias as a giant myth -- of course. You'd think a magazine so dedicated to the common man (assuming common men still belong in the coalition of oppressed cherished in the Nation's worldview) would at least pay a bit more lip service to the views of the common man. After all, Bias is a best seller, polls reveal that most Americans, including most liberals, think the press is biased, and, hell, most reporters will admit it away from a camera. Alterman snipes at "young" me for calling the networks biased even though CNN just hired me. Eric, this is not a difficult concept: commentators are not producers. Tucker Carlson, Bob Novak and I do not get to decide how the news is covered. Once you grasp that, we can move on to the difficult concepts.
Posted
8:03 AM | [Link]
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KICK THE FEMINISTS OUT OF THE PENTAGON [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The wonderful Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, held a press conference yesterday calling on the elimination the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS)--on which she once served. The advisory board, created in 1951, is made up of civilians who advise the defense department on "women's issues." Its charter is up next month; the president can refuse to renew it. Donnelly argues that besides the all-important fact that the feminist stronghold argues for things completely counter to the needs of America's military--softening standards and the like--nixing the department would demonstrate that women have "truly arrived" as valuable members of America's defense and it would also be a positive statement to the women who do admirably serve in the military, the women who "understand the realities of war"--the women who don't want politically correct civilian feminists to dictate what their--and America's--issues are. After Don Rumsfeld's speech at the National Defense University on reforming the Pentagon yesterday, this seems like just the kind of thing the Pentagon should do.
Posted
7:23 AM | [Link]
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SHIFLETT READING & MORE: Rod, about the Dave Shiflett/Vince Carroll Christianity on Trial book you plugged last night. You're right, it's terrific. And it reminds me we should really plug Encounter Books in general. New on the scene, they've put out some great books recently--including the Shiflett/Carroll one, Bill McGowan's Coloring the News, our own Michael Novak's On Two Wings (on religion and the American Founding), Andrew Peyton Thomas on Clarence Thomas (no relation), and Thomas Reeves on Archbishop Fulton Sheen (for those of us with our inclinations, Rod). Jonah's better half has a book coming out later this year on Title IX and sports. McGowan's book is a great companion to the Bernie Goldberg blockbuster. Anyway, if readers are looking for good conservative reads--these books that haven't hit the bestseller list yet and have longer sentences than Bill O'Reilly's, check out the Encounter list.
Posted
6:12 AM | [Link]
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FENCE MENDING: [John J. Miller]
In his concession speech following the Supreme Court's election ruling, Al Gore promised that he would "spend some time in Tennessee and mend some fences, literally and figuratively." Does anybody suppose he's really done any literal fence mending? Would be nifty if a local reporter tried to check this out.
Posted
5:55 AM | [Link]
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STEM CELL PRAYER: [John J. Miller]
It is one of my fondest hopes that the debate over harvesting stem cells from embryos will be rendered irrelevent through advances in science. It's possible to believe that using adult stem cells--which doesn't kill human life--may eventually provide most or all of the medical breakthroughs now promised by the advocates of embryo destruction. There's a story in today's New York Times that may also let us leap over this whole controversy: What if scientists "trick" unfertilized eggs into thinking they've been fertilized, watch them start to split and develop stem cells, and then harvest these? The concept is so cutting edge that pro-lifers, most notably the indispensable Richard Doerflinger, haven't yet decided whether this is morally acceptable. I'm not sure what the answer is either, but this development, and others like it, may make us soon wonder what all the fuss about stem cells was about.
Posted
5:48 AM | [Link]
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MY HYPOCRISY:[Kathryn J. Lopez] YUP, YUP, YUP Robert. You're right, which is why I didn't put up the equivalent of the flashing light Drudge does when he has "breaking news" he's all excited about. I'm not crazy about the whole program--we could help low-income women and their children--born and unborn--more efficiently other ways--and should. So, no, I'm not jumping up and down that our dear Secretary of Health and Human Services is proposing expansion of an entitlement program. Still, you gotta smile a little when the administration--and the crusty HHS--admits helping kids be born, and healthy, is a worthwhile concern for Americans. And, specifically when they mention "unborn children." And, you have to be amazed when the big-government types HATE it cause they think it's part of the VRWC to overturn Roe v. Wade (yes, I'm a card-carrying member).
Posted
5:45 AM | [Link]
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BIGGER GOV'T [Robert A. George] Not to be difficult, Kathryn, but must conservatives rush to endorse the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) -- an entitlement program (no WONDER Tommy Thompson is supportive of it). I respect the rhetorical implicit nudge to the pro-life position, but isn't something being given up in the process. Or am I wrong?
Posted
5:38 AM | [Link]
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Thursday, January 31
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TRUE COLORS: [Rod Dreher] Just saw Kate Michelman and the usual pro-abort spokeswomyn on the news bewailing Tommy Thompson's proposal as -- you knew this was coming -- a back-door strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade. These cold-hearted harridans would sooner poor women go without prenatal care than the government do anything feinting in a pro-life direction. Behold the compassion of the feminist left. One thing this measure would do is help women who believe they have to have an abortion because they can't afford prenatal care to choose life instead. I thought the left was in favor of making abortions safe, legal and rare. Hypocrites.
Posted
11:58 PM | [Link]
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NOT A DIME: [Kathryn Lopez] So earlier today, as has been mentioned already, Tommy Thompson announced a proposal to allow states to choose to cover low-income pregnant women—and their "unborn children"—under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Currently, prenatal care is not covered under the federal program. The March of Dimes didn’t take long to oppose the move, arguing that it “will complicate the debate and thereby unnecessarily delay coverage for this vulnerable population of women.” What about the vulnerable unborn kids?
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6:36 PM | [Link]
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BACK IN THE REAL WORLD: [Rod Dreher] Um, hey Green Lantern groupies, if I can move the thread back to grown-up publications, I wanted to put a word in for a new book by NRO's own Dave Shiflett, the pride of Midlothian, Va. It's called "Christianity on Trial", and it's a highly readable, historically well-grounded defense of Christendom against trendy slander and lefty harangue holding Christianity responsible for all the world's ills. Shiflett and co-author Vince Carroll demonstrate that the complete opposite is true, though they are not blind to the Church's failings throughout the centuries. It's a wonderful book, and more people should know about it. And buy it.
Posted
6:32 PM | [Link]
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TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF GEEKDOM (Part 2): [Robert A. George] Jonah, IV is the current issue which can definitely still be gotten for cover price. You may also be able to find Issue III at cover as well. Number One is obscenely expensive (like $30 or $40 bucks), but if you're primarily interested in the story, you can get an inexpensive reprint compilation called Marvel Must-Haves (or something like that) for the rather affordable price of $3.95. It contains Origin Number One, plus a couple of other recent hard-to-find Marvels.
But the really important question is: Why haven't you gotten Dark Knight 2 yet? The second issue of the ultimate Batman sequel came out yesterday!!! As most true comic book aficionados will attest, true conservatives are DC fans, while Marvel Zombies tend to become closet squishes.
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5:58 PM | [Link]
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GILLIAMISHLY: [Rod Dreher] Jonah: One of these days, I'm going to come into the office here at NRO World HQ and call out: "Low-ry? Has anybody seen Rich Low-ry?" Those who respond properly will receive from me a gift certificate for a free treatment from Dr. Jaffee. By the way, fellow "Brazil" nuts among the VRWC might be excited to learn that Spiro, the officious maitre d', subs for Plender around here on his day off.
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5:52 PM | [Link]
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TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF GEEKDOM: [Jonah Goldberg]
It's bad enough it took me 6 weeks to get a copy of Sam Huntington's legendary 1957 essay, "Conservatism as an Ideology," from Amazon.com (which I will read tonight). But, I still can't get my hands on the just released Wolverine "Origin" series from Marvel Comics. Anyone out there with an inside connection should let me know.
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5:33 PM | [Link]
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YES, IT'S FROM "TIME BANDITS" [Jonah Goldberg]
Mom! Dad! It's evil! Don't touch it! That's what I was alluding to this morning. Congrats to all those who got it. There are too many of you to list. And speaking of "Time Bandits," did you know Dick Cheney was overheard saying this when they were cleaning out the Clinton White House:
"Do be careful! Don't lose any of that stuff. That's concentrated evil. One drop of that could turn you all into hermit crabs."
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5:26 PM | [Link]
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FOR THE RECORD (HERBLOCK) [Robert A. George] Rod, to be exact, Herblock only died last year. It just seemed like he had been dead much longer.
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5:22 PM | [Link]
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HERBLOCK'S WORLD: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod: Interesting news about Herblock. The Post story says his foundation will be dedicated to education and other such things. You'd think he'd dedicate his money to making the world more like he saw it. I’m thinking he could’ve left instructions to subsidize Republicans to grow five-o'clock shadow, for instance. Also, he could foot the bill for thousands of real-world signs that point to things with pedantic, tendentiously un-clever descriptions. School lunches could come compete with a big cardboard arrow saying "heartless GOP cuts," "Ketchup is a vegetable?" and so on. Remember that Steve Martin fake arrow-through-the-head apparatus? We conservatives could all be outfitted with a similar set-up with cartoonish "thought bubbles" over our heads saying things like "I miss Jim Crow" or "Glad the E.R.A. Never Passed."
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5:18 PM | [Link]
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WOOLSEY RULES: [Rich Lowry]
Just got off the phone with Jim Woolsey for a piece I’m working on. He emphasizes just how important it is to topple Saddam, not just for our own security, but for the sake of the region: a Western-installed functioning, decent government in Iraq could become a model for the Middle East, and make all the tyrannies in the area—Iran, Saudi Arabia—look even worse, more backwards, and less viable than they do now.
HERBLOCK’S 401(k): [Rich Lowry]
The Corzine bill, for what it’s worth, might have made Herblock’s fortune impossible.
Posted
4:59 PM | [Link]
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BUT HE COULDN'T BUY A FRESH IDEA: [Rod Dreher] The WashPost's Lloyd Grove reports today that a colleague is leaving to run the foundation the paper's longtime editorial cartoonist, Herblock, set up with the money left in his estate. When the unmarried, modest-living Herblock died a couple of years ago, at age 91, he left behind $50 million, most of it in Post Co. stock. Good for him, but his cartoons still stunk up the place.
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4:20 PM | [Link]
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AXIS? WHAT AXIS?: [Rich Lowry]
Mark Halperin of ABC News writes a terrific daily political round-up. Today’s covers the nascent effort to “walk-back” the “axis of evil” line from SOTU: “First, in order to keep it from leaking, very little consultation was done, or heads-ups issued outside or even inside the Administration, and that appears to have caused all sorts of ruffled feathers. Second, those not consulted inside the government and who think that the rhetoric, particularly regarding Iran and North Korea, was a bad idea, spent a lot of time yesterday trying to convince reporters that the President hadn't really dramatically changed the dynamics.”
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4:06 PM | [Link]
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63 PERCENT[Ramesh Ponnuru] As I note in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, that’s the percentage of Americans who, according to a Gallup poll taken this week, favor private-investment options in Social Security. Note that this finding comes after a recession, bear market, Enron scandal, and alleged resurgence of faith in the federal government were all supposed to cause support for Social Security reform to decline.
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3:54 PM | [Link]
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IDIOCY WATCH [Ramesh Ponnuru] “It is premature to say that President Bush’s global crusading is so intense because he means to distract the country’s attention from any new reformist crusade in Washington.” -- Kevin Phillips in an op-ed in today’s New York Times. Right. Bush’s polls are much too high to say that just yet.
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3:53 PM | [Link]
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LIMITS TALK [Stanley Kurtz] It’s true, Jonah, many would say the same thing about the veil that Ataturk said about the fez. But it’s interesting and important that even Ataturk did not ban the veil. Even he understood that there were limits to what he could do through strictly legal intervention. And some of his other reforms were repealed when they went too far. Now Ataturk’s successors have got themselves in a bit of a box through their unwillingness to compromise with the traditional system. But at least we need to see that, even for Ataturk, and no less for us, there are limits to what can be done, and thought that must be given to the order in which changes are made. This is not a message that has gotten through to people of late--for understandable reasons--but I think the point needs to be made. And the Turkish government, backed by Turkish feminists, is in fact attempting to ban veils at universities, so the issue of the veil is very much alive.
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3:52 PM | [Link]
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MEANWHILE, ON THE LEFT COAST: [Rod Dreher] Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, has just settled his third high-profile priestly pederasty case in as many years. Once again, a settlement was made on the eve of the cardinal's having to answer questions under oath. Hmm. Here's a must-read view of the sordid matter by an L.A. Times columnist. While the cardinal busies himself constructing his $200 million white-elephant cathedral (called the "Taj Mahony" by local wags), several well-connected Catholic lay sources of mine share deep concern that the Los Angeles archdiocese is going to blow up like Boston has.
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3:02 PM | [Link]
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HEAD(WEAR) GAMES [Jonah Goldberg]
Stanley: All good points. But aren't you setting up a bit of a strawman? Who's advocating a sweeping, US-imposed abolition of the veil? Not me? Not even Paul Wolfowitz or, I think, Gloria Steinem.
Second, as a voluptuary of Burke, I'm not about to argue that sudden, dramatic, society-wide change is ever a purely good thing.
But, I think you're wrong when you say it can't happen. You shouldn't necessarily look to Turkey's experience with the veil, so much as it's experience with men's hats. In traditional Muslim society, the kind of hat you wore defined your station (and occupation) in life. Tombstones in Ottoman cemeteries depicted the kind of hat the deceased wore to signify who he was. The Turkish phrase "to put on a hat," Bernard Lewis tells us, long had the same significance for Turks that "turncoat" had for English society; To change your hat meant you changed your loyalties.
Sultan Mahmud II abolished this system early in the 19th century and mandated the wearing of the Fez (AKA The Shriner Hat). At first the Fez was fiercely resisted, but eventually it became symbolic of Muslim pride. By 1925, when Kemal Attaturk banned the Fez and encouraged Western headwear as an indispensable step toward modernization, he also met with fierce resistance.
Here's how Ataturk defended the Fez ban:
"It was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on the heads of our nation as an emblem of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism, and hatred of progress and civilization, to accept in its place the hat, the headgear used by the whole civilized world, and in this way to demonstrate that the Turkish nation, in its mentality as in other respects, in no way diverges from civilized social life."
Seems to me you could say the same thing about the veil.
Posted
2:56 PM | [Link]
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DIFFERENT WORLDS: [Stanley Kurtz] I agree, Jonah, the Islamic world is in many respects a mess right now. But the point is, total rejection of the entire system just won't work, and will only backfire. Japan is a real success story. They've been eager to learn from the West and have changed tremendously with the times. But even there, our attempts to make deeper reforms in the family system fell flat. So how can we expect to turn the Muslim world upside down with any success? Turkey's Kemalists are basically trying to do exactly what Jonah is asking for. They had a different cultural starting point, and that's part of why they've got so far. But even in Turkey, the secularists have run into a brick wall. (For more on this, see Stephen Kinzer's new book, Crescent & Star.) I'm not against intelligently designed pressure on Islamic countries to move toward democracy. But an across the board demand for destruction of the old social system just won't work. Japan shows that not everything has to change at once, or at the same rate, for things to succeed. I'm a hawk. I want to go after Iraq, and I'm happy for the warnings to Iran and North Korea as well. But the hard part will come after we've won this war and we're left with de facto control of much of the Muslim world. At that point, things get messy, and bombs alone won't suffice to bring the necessary changes. We'll need an intelligent plan, and we'd best know what we're dealing with.
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1:40 PM | [Link]
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MY WIFE'S BEEN PROFILED! [Jonah Goldberg]
Just got off the phone with the missus (who works for the Attorney General as his Chief Speechwriter). Apparently she keeps getting calls from the White House wanting to schedule her Hispanic employee orientation. I guess they think her name -- Gavora -- makes her as a Latina and not a Slovakian-American. Just one more reason she should have taken the trusty, ethnicity-telegraphing moniker "Goldberg." Anyway, I told her to go. Being an official Latina probably gets you on a better mailing list.
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12:59 PM | [Link]
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IS THE MOOSE A CHICKEN? [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich: Shocking! Outrageous! Get me to my fainting couch! Frankly, I cannot believe that a straight talker like John McCain could be involved in such a thing. Where is the Moose to dispell these ominous portents? Could it be that Moose don't low, bellow, bark or bleat? Could it be that the Moose clucks? Say it ain't so.
Posted
12:30 PM | [Link]
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WHERE’S THE MOOSE? PART II: [Rich Lowry]
Jonah: According to The Los Angeles Times, Global Crossing became a huge political contributor in Washington: “The top recipient was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecom industry. McCain received $31,000 in 1999, according to the study. He was followed by Sen. Conrad R. Burns (R-Mont.), another member of the Commerce Committee who received $30,750.” Hmmm, I wonder if the unstoppably straight-talking, fearlessly truth-telling Project for Conservative Reform will be silent on this one as well. Oh, Moose, where is thy reformist bleat, bark, bellow, whatever?
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12:12 PM | [Link]
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LITTLE HELP? [Jonah Goldberg]
Writer's block and the corner prevented me from coming up with topic for my syndicated column until now. Gonna write about globalization. Anybody read anything funny/interesting/outrageous recently on the topic? Email me at JonahEmail@aol.com (please do not email me if you're reading this after 4:00 PM today). Corner denizens feel free to post responses directly.
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11:56 AM | [Link]
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OKAY, OKAY, OKAY [Kathryn J. Lopez] We hear you. Jonah called it—computers are DANGEROUS territory. And you’re telling us loud and clear. We hear you--and if Rod or anyone else brings the Mac vs. PC war again...well, believe me, we won't!
Posted
11:29 AM | [Link]
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WOW: [Rich Lowry]
Larry Elder was guest-hosting on CNN last night and seemed to force Al Sharpton to repeat a shameless lie several times. Sharpton is now representing the cause of wronged Enron employees. So Elder asked Sharpton what credibility he has to complain about Enron failing its obligations when he never himself paid Steve Pagones the money he owed him for smearing him in the Tawana Brawley case. Sharpton instead had rich buddies pony up the dough. But last night Sharpton had to insist over and over again that he had paid Pagones himself. Elder nailed Sharpton, in a way almost no one is willing to. Give that man a program!
Posted
11:26 AM | [Link]
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HERE’S ONE FOR THE “CIVIL LIBERTARIANS”: [Rich Lowry]
The FBI “had too little evidence” to search Zacarias Moussauoi’s lap-top prior to Sept. 11, according to The Washington Post today, so it planned to deport him and his computer to France—where they aren’t so respectful of suspected terrorists’ privacy. Before the FBI could implement this plan, however, the Sept. 11 attacks happened, and we finally decided to do our investigate work ourselves.
Posted
11:24 AM | [Link]
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KURTZ ON THE VEIL: [Jonah Goldberg]
Stanley Kurtz has a very good follow-up on NRO to his defense of the Muslim veil in the mag. Stanley's a brilliant guy and he makes many good points (which is why he writes for us). And while I'm hardly an anti-veil zealot, my general problem with Stanley's approach relates to my problem with all sociologists and anthropologists. He seems to confuse an explanation with an excuse. I don't dispute that the veil plays a very important role in the Islamic world. But, the Islamic world is a mess. So why the deference for one of the institutions keeping it a mess?
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11:02 AM | [Link]
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I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING: [Jonah Goldberg]
Sorry, sometimes I just like stirring up trouble to see if anyone's paying attention. Please stop sending me email about Macs Vs. PC's. This reader has brought me to my senses:
"Jonah - flame wars have been raging over the Mac vs. PC world ever since
they were in competition - I beg of you, please stop this little tassle now,
before you have a swarm of us angry nerds descending on your offices to
replace all with Linux. No one will solve anything, and no one will win.
There are more important matters to discuss, like how PETA is nothing but
wannabe hippies with too money and too much time."
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10:50 AM | [Link]
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SEVENTY!: [Rod Dreher] Can the pederasty cover-up scandal get any worse in the Archdiocese of Boston? Reading today's Globe lead, one has the sick feeling that we're only just getting started. The Globe finds that in the last 10 years, Cardinal Law has quietly settled at least 70 sex-abuse civil suits against his priests. The Catholic laity in Boston had no idea how bad the problem was. Now they're finding out. Are we now expected to believe that Boston is an isolated case?
Posted
10:50 AM | [Link]
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PROTESTANTS FOR PCs, PAPISTS FOR MACS? [Jonah Goldberg]
Umberto Eco's take on the issue.
Posted
10:46 AM | [Link]
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KLINGHOFFER'S WRONG: [Jonah Goldberg]
PCs are for Mama's boys because they give the impression of power, which some people need to compensate for other deficiencies. Business types always ridiculed Macs because they "look like toys." Macs are for confident people who'd rather have a powerful -- and usable -- tool than worry about what others think.
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10:12 AM | [Link]
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MAMA'S BOYZ: [Kathryn J. Lopez, MAC user] "A Windows machine is a nerd's dream: powerful, ugly, always a puzzle. The Mac was designed for mama's boys. It is an object to contemplate rather than a mystery to solve, and, like Mom, supremely dependable." That's David Klinghoffer in an ode to the Mac a few years ago for NR.
Posted
9:59 AM | [Link]
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FOLLOW-UP ON KARZAI'S HAT: [Jonah Goldberg]
A reader notes about Karzai's cruel chapeau:
"The humor is that most of these PETAs are militantly pro-choice. I guess if we pull out the baby lambs, but sew up the mom, it'll be ok to used the wool (a la 'stem cells')…BTW, these are the same people who have a [expletive deleted]-fit over pregnant cats getting spayed, thus aborting the cute little kittens....oh the humanity!"
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9:55 AM | [Link]
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ROD! DON'T TOUCH IT! IT'S EEEEEEEEVIL! [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod, if you thought the email over Walmart was bad, you have no idea what you're in for. One of the first rules of the web: don't mock PCs. Of course, they're clunky, slow, inefficient, ugly machines based upon a mass-marketed con job which leaves cider in the ears of millions of consumers. But you cannot mention this on the web. The PC people are zealots. We Mac people will (and do) view you with contempt for having left us. And you will hear from everyone. Also, beware the Microsoft cops. BTW, do you know what the above headline is from?
Posted
9:46 AM | [Link]
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